Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Good evening. Good to see a house full sometime. Welcome to the Liberty County Board of Commissioners first Tuesday meeting. Yes, for your information, we also meet on third Thursday at 5 o'clock. And of course, all of our meetings are live streamed. We certainly invite the public to either watch us live stream or to come sit in. and just kind of get a view of what's going on from this side. There's nothing better than being close to it so you have a better understanding of how county works. I spoke with a group on, I believe it was Monday, leadership group, and in fact, the feedback from them was they were not aware at all of our processes. People think you can just jump and do things you can't do. They were just in government anyway. And they learned too, the government doesn't move fast. It takes time to get things done, but it does move. It does move, like a Model T. It does move, so it's good to have you all here. Mr. President, has the meeting been properly advertised? Yes, sir. All right. Bishop Page, will you please come? Mr. Kittener Page? Madam Christian Senator, will you please come and lead us on the invocation? We will stand, please, for the invocation and the pledge.

Let us pray. Most holy righteous God, we come to you today. Thank you for this day. We thank you for the county commissioners and all the assistance to the board. We pray for their families. We ask you for the wisdom and guidance as they conduct this meeting. Give them a clear mind and sound judgment on the community issues. We pray that the commissioners act as good shepherds who protect and care for the residents with equality. We ask for peaceful communities and support for their families of all our public servants. We even, God, pray for our students as they begin the school year. It's in Jesus' name we do pray and give you praise. Amen.

I held it down by myself.

Thank you, Mr. Page. Good to have you, sir. Thank you for being committed to doing that for us. And thank you for the prayers to cover us. And, of course, our school children who started back today. I went to one of the day ones, and it's interesting. But we pray for them all. All right. Commissioners. Let's see. I do know that Commissioner Gillard said he may be on the way. I haven't heard from Commissioner Walters. Sometimes he calls him, but I haven't heard from him today. We're still praying for his recovery. July 26th meeting. Minutes need to be approved by you, Commissioners. I'll move, Mr. Chairman. Second. Motion to second. We approve the minutes for July 7th. That's why we only had one meeting. Did y'all miss it? The one meeting? We didn't have a mid month last night. No, we did not.

I missed y'all.

A motion and a second to approve the July 7th meeting. Any further discussion? All in favor, show of hands, please. Those minutes are approved. Thank you, commissioners. Proclamation for Dr. Mary W. Murray. She's in the house. Good to see you. Normally he reads it, but somebody generally comes and gives us a little... A little lead into it. Is that you, Dr. White? Are you the leading man?

Good afternoon, commissioners and those that are present. We are here to honor Dr. Mary W. Mary for 44 years of active educational services to our students on Fort Stewart and beyond. She has been a blessing not only to the student body at Fort Stewart, but she's also been a blessing to this community. Because one thing about it, those students that are over on Fort Stewart, when they graduate out of middle school, they're coming over to our community, either Bradwell or they're coming over to Liberty County High School. So it is an honor that she has just recently retired from 44 years and we just That's a double four? Yeah, double four. As we prepare to really honor her in a celebration on this coming Saturday, her retirement ceremony. So that's why we are here on this afternoon to have a proclamation from the Board of Commissioners in order to be able to present that to her on Saturday.

Thank you. All right, stay right there, Mr. Mosley. Dr. Murray, will you please come stand next to Mr. White? Come on.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Come on. These kind of things only happen once in a lifetime sometimes. It's a little bit tough. All right.

Proclamation. A proclamation honoring Dr. Mary W. Murray for extraordinary contributions to education, leadership, and youth empowerment. Whereas Dr. Mary W. Murray has devoted her professional life to advancing education, developing future leaders, and empowering students through teaching, mentorship, scholarship, and service. And whereas Dr. Murray faithfully served as the official an academic dean of the National Collegiate Music Conference, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, providing academic leadership and guidance to more than 1,000 high school and college students nationwide each year, inspiring academic excellence and personal achievement. whereas Dr. Murray has demonstrated exceptional leadership in higher education, serving as adjunct dean at Jacksonville Theological Seminary from 1998 through 2008, where she authored and developed the course Effective Communication, which continues to prepare students with the communication skills essential for leadership and professional success. And whereas Dr. Murray has further distinguished herself as a proctor for Liberty University, an adjunct professor for Union Institute University, and an accounting instructor at Savannah Technical College, sharing her knowledge and expertise with students pursuing higher education and career advancement. And whereas Dr. Murray has further Distinguished career education spans more than four decades, including 37 years as a teacher with Department of Defense Education Activity Schools, four years in public school system, and three years as Director of Child Development Services in Mahan, Germany, positively impacting thousands of students, families, and educators around the world, and... Whereas, in recognition of her exceptional leadership, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to academic excellence, Dr. Murray was honored as the 2013-2014 Teacher of the Year at Diamond Elementary School, Fort Stewart, by the Department of Defense Schools and Now therefore be it proclaimed that the Liberty County Board of Commissioners hereby recognize and honor Dr. Mary W. Murray for her extraordinary lifetime of service to education, an unwavering commitment to youth development, her leadership in higher education, and her tireless efforts to proclaim scholastic opportunities and empower young women to achieve their academic dreams. Be it further resolved that the Liberty County Board of Commissioners extend its sincerest gratitude and appreciation to Dr. Mary W. Murray for her remarkable contributions to the citizens of Liberty County, the state of Georgia, and communities throughout the nation, and wish her continued health, success, and many more years of impactful service. And witness thereof, I here to have set my hand and cause the city of Liberty County, Georgia, to be affixed this fourth day of August in the year 2026. Donald L. Lovett, Chairman.

We'll do a photo op, Dr. Murray, but first you greet us in your own way.

Y'all making me talk. It's all good. I want to say thank you so much for the opportunity to serve Liberty County. I do consider Fort Stewart Liberty County, and I also have taught in Liberty County as well. This is my son, Larry. It's been a privilege and it's been an honor to serve and to educate children and students that are now professionals in their own right, some principals, some doctors, some are lawyers, some are nurses, some are police officers. And one pulled me over, and they're like, that's you, Dr. Murray? Yes, it's me. But never mind. Y'all figure out how that is. But I want to say thank you so much for this opportunity because it's my service after moving back here from Germany with my husband and I, serving in Mannheim, Germany for six years, still educating and directing other people to do what is necessary to do to make sure that they're getting the skills that they need. I want to say thank you to the commissioners for this opportunity. Thank you.

Commissioners, I want to say thank you. I tell everyone, not only did you all make Liberty County a home, but you've been involved, giving back, so we appreciate that. You all make Liberty County a better place. Now, Junior, you got to come around. Come around, Junior. Yeah, y'all come on up to the podium.

Come on, Junior.

Thank you so much. How you doing, sir? I appreciate it. Dr. Murray, your place is right here.

Yes, sir. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Hold on to that with me. And look at those. Can we see everybody, guys? Yes. Everybody good? Give her another hand.

Long life of good health and prosperity. Thank you so much. 44 years. You better look 44.

All right. We have an exciting project happening in Liberty County in the Walthausville area. Some of us are witnessing the progress of it. So the city of Walthausville had a, I would say, not an in-service, but a briefing did. So I said, well... It's a county project. Bring them to the county so we can hear about the progress on Independence Parkway. So Mr. Tim McCauley and Roger Dewar are coming to present on Independence Parkway Phase 1.

I can't follow that. How about 30 years? Projects going great. On schedule. Way over budget, like everything in government nowadays. They'll anticipate completion now December of 27 instead of October, end of October. So had a few changes. Building through a swamp is an experience. Job looks great. Very proud of it. Department of Transportation seems to be, they told me it's a poster project for erosion control with prevention and construction progress. As project manager for Atlas, I take that as an honor. As long as I keep my bosses happy, I'm doing good. The project's going great. I brought you a set of the final marking and signing plans, if it would be something any of your constituents had any questions for y'all that maybe you could have something to refer to.

If you'd be so kind as to send this to that gentleman electronically. Send this to that gentleman electronically. Email it to him so we'll have a digital copy. Tell me about Griffin Road. I read that.

Does anybody have any questions they'd like to know or can I answer?

You had to close off Griffin Road. Tell us about that. You had to close off Griffin Road.

Griffin Road, okay. That's part of the construction that was in the original plans where cul-de-sacs on each side, which is going to limit, you know, no through crossing over the new roadway. Everybody will have to go down to Carter Road to access, which isn't that far out of the way. We had to utilize Griffin to close Carter here. a month and a half ago. We've got Carter. Everything's done on it except final surfacing, curb and gutters in. Utilities have been a challenge, but I'm part of the business. And Trent Long has been a blessing to our project on what he contributes, his knowledge and his team coming out and helping and providing us information on locations of plans of locations where they think that everything's supposed to be, but we've had some issues with utilities, but overcame them so far. Bridge is, we should pour our first deck mid-August, so that's progressing nicely. Had a lot of changes and a lot of money spent on foundations changes because of building through a swamp. I have a great contractor, Reeves Construction. DOTs gave me a good team to do the inspection work. One of my young guys lives here in Liberty County, so

Mr. Long. When you say you ran into the issues with the foundation, Trent told us it's going to be the longest bridge in Lurie County that you're building. My point is, is there something from this project that we can learn so we don't have the same problem with Phase 2? It's going to be even more wetlands. Yes and no.

The harsh part with the wetlands where they are now is there was really no access. There was no way to get any kind of boring equipment or any kind of equipment to test. before they got clearing and before they did something they could stand on to get to the next one. So it's very difficult to get any of that stuff designed by us. It's very difficult to do. Now, in this next phase, depending on how the scoping goes and where the route ends up, we may or may not have the same scenario. We'll definitely have a bridge. But I'm not very sure if we're going to have a bridge quite this long because this bridge is over The issue with utilities is just location, location, location.

Location, location, location.

Yeah. And, you know, a lot of the stuff that was put in was put in 20 plus years ago or 30 plus years ago and The records are not there or the institutional knowledge of the people not knowing where things are or not knowing what sizes things are. It's really difficult, especially when you don't have record drawings or anything to fall back on. The guys that installed it all are retired or gone or moved on. It's a challenge, a real challenge.

Trent, while you're standing there, you probably heard this before coming from me, you were working with them on 119 all the way throughout, right? Yes, sir. And, you know, have we not seeked any additional way of widening 119?

What we've been doing is consistently requesting from DOT, board members, actually we've been requesting every public policy we can. When we have our books of projects, we'd like one of those to add some passing lanes on 119, especially between these crossroads in this project. Right now, there's... It's really getting crowded, and you really can't get around anybody if somebody's going slow.

Because actually, they will get out there and run past a school bus that stopped, and that's making it real dangerous.

Chief Hagan told me they're going to install cameras on the school buses, so it will take your picture of you. Okay. So December of 27. Okay. All right.

One other question for him. Chairman, explain Tibbett Road to me. When you come off of Dunleavy and you go in front of Bakerton Church, when you get up there, how is that going?

Coming off Dunleavy, you'll still be able to go across Tibbett in front of Bakerton Church and continue.

So there will be a stop sign now.

Now there's a portion of 119 that's going to be totally removed past the housing development. Everything coming up from Riceboro is going to come down the new roadway to Tibba Road and have to make a left or a right. Now to get to Riceboro off of Dunleavy you'll have to go through the four-way, and then make a left onto Tibbitt. I think some of those final marking and sign plans will clarify a lot of that.

All right.

All right. Thank you for riding. Let's see it all.

Okay.

Okay.

I'm going to take you up on that. Any other questions for these gentlemen? This project is very special to us. Our first bypass.

Yes.

And, of course, with the traffic that we have now going through our community, we're looking for anything to help to relieve that because that's just a part of it. Phase one is what you're all doing. We've got to work toward getting phase two done so it's a complete bypass for some of the traffic going through here. All right. All right. I wish you all good.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. All right. Okay. Thank you, gentlemen. All right. Some of you, Mr. Murray.

Good evening, Board of Commissioners. Good evening, everyone. Larry Murray here, youth coordinator for Liberty County. Under the leadership of Mr. Joseph Mosley for seven years. I've been doing this for eight years now under the leadership of Mr. Joseph Mosley for seven years and Ms. Lamisha Hunter for year one. I mean, it's her first year. So we've been working well together. She's been pushing me as well, too. to take this thing to another level. And so really quick, I just want to thank y'all for acknowledging my mom, giving her proclamation. I didn't realize that we were going to be in the same building today. We were having breakfast today talking about it, but I didn't realize we were going to be here together. So we walked up here today. So I thought it was pretty cool. So shout out to my mom, 44 years of education.

Hey, be on your best behavior.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm always on my best behavior. She had no issues at me. She never had any issues at me. Yeah. But yeah, she's the reason why I'm even doing these things today. I thank her for the push, and I just thank the community for backing it up. All right, so I'm here today to present some certificates for our summer youth employment program from this year. And we just want to thank everybody that participated this year in helping out and taking an intern, because that means a lot. They were able to grow. They enjoyed themselves. And they're looking to come back next year. All of them want to come back. But I know that means we've got to try to figure out some way to make it happen. All right, so first, we've got tax commissioner's office right here. Tax commissioners, y'all here today. We want to present you with the certificate. Y'all come on. Y'all take the certificate. We have elections and voters registration. They're here as well, too. Thank y'all again. Thank y'all so much.

EMA. Mr. Murray, let them all stand. And then we'll come down after y'all. Everybody gets their certificate. I'll just make a, there you go. Look at the camera.

Assessor's office? Assessor's not here. IT?

Oh, yeah, he's ready. Look at him. Look at him. Look at him. He's ready today. I was wondering why he had on that tie. Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm.

Recreation Department. I think I'm about to say I saw him.

Come on.

Finance Department.

Ah.

Magistrate Court.

No. Chamber of Commerce. Chamber of Commerce.

Probably have some other meetings.

Y'all feed office? Paro? Paro Communications? Y'all, this just shows that we have a lot of support here, y'all. They're not here, but it's okay. DA office? District Attorney? Diversity Health Center? No, she's not here. Highsville Housing Authority?

No.

UGA Extension's office, 4H? No, she's not.

I don't think so.

Child Support Services? No, we had a lot of health issues. City of Clemson? No.

Mm-hmm.

City of Midway. City of Midway. City of Wild Cardville.

Yay.

All right. Had two.

They all enjoyed themselves.

Mm-hmm. Yes, ma'am. They're winding down to turn it down.

Yeah, right there. Right there.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. She said that that's the best intern that she's ever had. So that was amazing to hear. All right. All right, so that's all the recognitions for our mentor, for our summer employment program. So I guess we're going to take a picture right now.

Let's come down, commissioners, and join this auspicious group.

Thank you.

Everybody pull one of these, like, on the side.

There we go. There we go.

And then I look at this way. One, two.

You want me to start off with you? Okay.

We thank all of them for making an investment in our young people. Look for the fruit thereof. Youth services update, Ms. Hunter?

Yes, sir. Yeah, there he is. Chairman, commissioners, we would like to do our annual youth services update for Liberty County Youth Commission and the Summer Youth Enrichment Employment Program. And I just want to say, as my first year working with the program, I think it has been a huge success. One thing that we need to mention about the summer employment program, we had more mentors than we had students this year. And so that is a win. And so we're excited about more participation. We could not even place the number of students that some of the mentors wanted. Some asked for as many as four. And so we were able to do three for some, but numerous. And so if you were able to attend the graduation, you saw that they did real work. They put in real work this summer. And so I just wanted to, again, thank everyone for their support. Thank everyone for their participation. And we look forward to kicking off a brand new year. And I turn the presentation over to Mr. Murray. And I just wanted to acknowledge him for all the hard work that he has been putting in and efforts made to take the program to the next level.

Summer Employment Program, we'll go ahead and go through. We got a clicker? Okay, I got a clicker.

There we go.

All right, so our Summer Employment Program overview. All right, so our mission is to provide summer employment opportunities for local youth ages 14 to 18. All right, so our goals include skill development, workforce experience, and community engagement. Annually, each summer since 2016. Partnered with multiple county departments. Again, we thank y'all. We appreciate y'all for supporting us this year. All right, so our 2024 season. So we were able to come up with some data that we can present to you all from 2024 to 2026. All right, so 2024, we launched and expanded partnerships with county departments that serve 23 students and participants across 12 work sites. All right, so that's when we started off. I mean, that's back in 2024. We introduced structured workshops on workplace etiquette and professional development. And in 2025, we grew enrollment by 27 participants. We added smart goals and envisioning workshops, team-building activities, and enhanced facilitator training. So we invited more facilitators to come and help us out when they come in on Mondays for their training. And we strengthened community engagement through guest speakers. So we're bringing guest speakers such as 4-H and different people, finance, to come teach us different things like that to help them grow. And then jumping to 2026, this year right here, we were able to serve 29 youth. And we had new initiatives. So we included leadership cohorts, project-based learning, and expanding partnerships with local businesses and non-profits. So we were able to have more support. Like Ms. Hunter said, we were able to have more support this year. Well, we had more mentors than students this year. So that was amazing. I thought that was pretty cool. All right, so here's the data right here. Applications have grown steadily. So everybody's hearing about it. And when we started off in 20, well, not when we started off, but in 2024, we were at, we grew by 23 applications. So we had 35 applications, and we grew that by 23. Let me make sure I said that right. Yeah, we had 35 in 2024 to 74. Yeah, so we grew into 74 applications in 2026. So from 2024 to 2026, we went from 35 to 74. And that shows that you need something to do. They need training. They actually, in the interview process, they wanted to get a job. They wanted to get out of the house. Some of them, they said their parents made them. But they got something from it. They really did. They came in here, and they were excited about each thing that we had for them each day. All right, so interns by age. All right, so age 15 is the largest at 26%. And then while ages 14 and 17 are equal, represented at 23% each, age 16 accounts for 20%, and age 18 is the smallest group at 8%. All right, so that's reflecting diverse participation across all eligible ages. So again, like we said, from 14 to 17. I believe, yeah, we went from 14 to 18. So we even had an 18-year-old. We had two 18-year-olds that participated in the program as well, too. So they were able to come in. Matter of fact, we had a guy that he participated for five years with. So, yeah, so he wanted to come each year. So even though he had other jobs, he was still coming in here getting that training from us as well, too. So he still deemed his as very important to him. All right. Now interns by gender. Now female interns represent 65 program participants while males interns make up 35%. So this highlights strong female participation and that reflects the program's inclusive outreach across Liberty County. All right, so some key program insights. So we had a steady increase, like Michael mentioned before, we had a steady increase in applicant interest from 2024 to 2026. We had a consistent hiring aligned with program capacity, balanced age distribution, insurers wide youth engagement, strong female representation, reflecting inclusive outreach, and then growing community support for youth development. So these are our key program insights right here for our summer employment program. And then now we're gonna jump into our Liberty County Youth Commission. All right, so this is our impact and growth report right here from 2024 to 2026. All right, so with our Liberty County Youth Commission, in 2024, we had 12 participants. So that was eight, we had eight young ladies and four young men. That group, as you can see by the chart right here, so in 2025, we went up by four participants. So we had 16 participants, 14 young ladies in the group. They just started coming in. You know, the word started getting out. We started doing a little bit more outreach, and we had 14 young ladies and two young men. And then in 2026, we grew a little bit more. As you guys can see right here, in 2025, we grew by 33%. And then in 2026, we had 17 participants, 15 young ladies, and then two young men. So we're trying to get the young men up in here. We're trying to get them enrolled in here. And so this shows that participation grew by 41% since 2024. So that shows that we have extended retention and growing engagement, reflecting a strong foundation and expanding impact across Liberty County. All right, so our demographic breakdown by grade level. So in 2024, we had two ninth graders, four 10th graders, three juniors, and three seniors. So we had a total of 12 participants in 2024. In 2025, we didn't have any ninth graders, but we had six 10th graders, five 11th graders, and five seniors. And so we had 60 participants. And then in 2026, we didn't have any more ninth graders again, like I said. And then five 10th graders and five juniors and seven seniors. All right, so this report right here shows that juniors and seniors represent 71% of 2026 in commission. highlighting strong upperclassmen participation and leadership. So our upperclassmen, they were taking charge the whole way. They were excited about coming in. And they were coming in consistently. I mean, I think it was because of the food. So we had food. We provided food from each time here, jobs to the board of commissioners. And I believe that food piece right there So the key takeaway right here, IU Commission is engaging students across multiple grade levels with steady growth and strong senior participation driving leadership and impact. All right, so community partnerships and local impact. So in 2024 through 2026, we were able to organize blanket drives and jacket drives for community members experiencing homelessness and serve as active volunteers during the annual Walk for the Homeless events in both 2024 and 2025 with Another Chance Outreach Ministries. The CEO is right here. This is Irving White. So we were able to coordinate that with him and do those drives for the homeless. And then in 2024, 2026, our youth commissioners were able to partner with the Light Side Empowerment to serve as academic mentors, assisting youth with homework and educational support. And in 2024 to 2026, they volunteered on site to prepare and serve hot meals to local families for the men in the house. So they've been very active. And this is just a portion of what they did, but they did a lot more than this. All right, so civic engagement is state-level advocacy. All right, so we take annual trips to the state capitol in 2024. And then in 2025, we were able to collaborate and join with the City of Highsville Youth Commission and collaborate, you know, collaborating, networking with the Fulton County Youth Commission and Commissioner Frazier for setting that up for us. We were able to, you know, get them engaged and, you know, get them networking with different youth. So I think that's very important. All right. And in 2026, we continue regional partnership with Joint Capital Business alongside Fulton County Youth Commission. All right. So the youth, they look forward to the same capital trip every year. We take the charter bus. We go up here, like I said, again. I mean, we travel in luxury. They enjoy the experience. They even talked about spending the night, but we was like, yeah, we're going to be here. We're going to be here.

All right.

So we're empowering youth right here, direct engagement with state leaders and legislative processes. Thank you. All right. So we want to thank you for your support. I'm serious. We want to thank you for your support. Board of Commissioners for allowing us to be able to have these programs right here with our solar and plumbing program and our Liberty County Commission. I believe we're going to grow it each year. I mean, you see the steady increase every single year. So thank you all again.

I would like us, Ms. Hunter, to investigate this whole male versus female thing. Is it the same with the city of Hinesville and Riceboro? Let's look at that. Let's look at that.

They have more men in Hinesville than in Riceboro.

All the population of Hinesville had? And then secondly, I was thinking, maybe, is there some opportunity for synergy with Liberty County working with Wrightsboro, working with Hinesville, the three groups working, doing some kind of...

Yes, sir. Just so you know, we have discussed that with the two of them, and they're open to that in terms of us. We said the first thing we'd do would be have a meeting, regroup, and see what our opportunities are. And then the other thing is, even with Chatham County, we have a long-established youth commission right there in Chatham County. And when you ask the youth what they desire, what they want, they will tell you. Be prepared. And so that's one thing they said is that we would like to see what other youth commissioners are doing. So they're looking for that engagement also. And so one thing about the trip to the Capitol, it wasn't just a visit. We want everyone to know that they toured the Capitol. They engaged with legislators. And they went over to Fulton Youth Commission. And they had a debate. They had to prepare, and they experienced a debate on certain issues that were set up with them. So it was work put into it. But I would be remiss not recognizing the entire team that helps all of this flow. And so we have Ms. Larry Murphy, who is the youth services coordinator. But then in terms of the applications, the help with the calendar, institutional knowledge, we have Ms. Laura Wilbur. She would please stand with HR. on the team and doing work, stand up. And I want to say the backbone that holds it all together, the students, the meals, the paperwork, telling us what we're supposed to do and when we're supposed to do it, is Ms. Monica Ratcliffe. Thank you for the support because we talk about infrastructure, and you know your people are your greatest asset, but when you invest in youth, that is also development and your infrastructure in the future. Thank you.

Thank you all. I didn't know a few of the kids were kept on by their respective agencies for employment. Yeah, I heard that.

Validatorian and salutatorian. Salutatorian, both.

You've commissioned. And Liberty, both of them. Oh, shucks now.

Right now we have a couple of applications in, but I do have the ones that participated in the previous years. I haven't engaged already, so they're already, they haven't got their applications in, but I'll totally get in. So we already have about a hub of like 12 already that's ready to come in. And then I even got an email yesterday about a parent wanting to get their child here. So, I mean, they're hearing about it. They want to get in. They want to be a part of it.

Let's work on that young men thing. I'm kind of concerned about that. We need to get more, at least 50-50. Just a goal. A goal. Mr.

Chair, I don't know if y'all were taking questions or not, but. You ready, Mr. Murray? How you doing, sir? First and foremost, I guess Ms. Hunter, she said the protocol. Not just you, but the entire team. I appreciate y'all taking on this heavy task and delicate task, which is our youth. Yeah, man, y'all have been doing an awesome job. And this program has been growing ever since we have implemented. And I guess that was just a small snippet of the statistics. That was just from 2024. But it just shows the engagement between us from the county, and I appreciate my fellow commissioners supporting this. Y'all know how dear this is to my heart. But also with the community. once they really found out about the program and the different parts, not just the youth commission, but the summer internship program. And like you said, some of them have been able to stay on with the county from being initiated in this particular program. So it's not like they are, especially now, definitely now, it's not like they're putting the youth in the corner and just telling them to just do some busy work. They really are being engaged. And just like you said, Justin, he graduated and still stayed on to be a part of this program this year, which is phenomenal. But then also, I guess the question that I have, whenever you're looking at these numbers from the applicants versus hires, And I know the chairman asked that question as well about doing more of a collaboration, you know, to make sure that because from 2024, whenever, you know, we had 35 applicants and we hired 23. But in 2025, if y'all notice the increase in applicants, was much greater. It was 62 applicants, but we were only able to hire 27. And then, of course, this year we had even more. We had 74, and we hired 29. So I guess the question I have for you all in the future, how do we narrow that gap? Because, of course, we all have different programs. I don't know how many. I don't know the statistics with the city of Riceboro. about how many applicants they have, with how many they're hiring, and vice versa with the city of Hinesville. But I know, I think the city of Riceboro this year, they had, what, 30 from what I'm thinking? And Hinesville had, do you remember the number? They had like 47, right? So I guess what I'm getting at is if we do more of a collaboration to make sure that some of these kids And we don't know. Some of these kids might apply for here and also, you know, the city of Hinesville. We don't know that. But the point is, you know, giving our youth the opportunity, you know, because – and I'm glad this was done because, you know, a lot of times we hear all the negative about our youth in this community. But just know that we do have a lot who are stepping up and – and because of you all in the team with Liberty County. So I appreciate that. But if we can look at like what the chairman said, you know, what you've commissioned, you know, to try to balance the, you know, the diversity with that, but more importantly, to just make sure that, that, you know, we're able to, to hire more kids, especially if we were saying that we have more mentors who were asking for positions. So I guess what, what do y'all need from us? Money?

That's the only way we're going to be able to hire, right?

That's absolutely right, because we do pay the internship. So I guess if we could look at, in the future, narrow that gap, I guess the only way we could do it is with financial support from the county and the county commissioners. So thank you all again for everything y'all do. Thank you, Mr. Howard.

All right, financial support. Speaking of money.

Larry, I'll see you in the morning, first day.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, Commissioner.

Good evening.

I'm here this evening to present the May 2026 financial statement. Starting with the general fund through the end of May, we have collected already 100% of our projected revenue. And we have spent approximately 86% of our total expenditures for the year. We currently have 6.6 months in our unreserved fund balance compared to a year ago we had right at six months. So it's an increase from last year. Turning over to the departmental. report for budget to actual. We have a few that are still showing over budget through May. Elections has a small variance. However, this was covered by the revenues received for our municipal elections. So it pretty much is a wash. Actually, it's more revenue than it is a loss. Superior Court, we always pay those law, library, and other operating expenses in July up front. So that's gonna show up our budget every single month until we get through June. The road department, we mentioned previously for some equipment repairs. and recreation for part-time and seasonal employees. Turn the page to solid waste. Through the end of May, we have approximately 1.1 million of revenues over expenditures. We have collected 93% of our total revenues for the year and spent right around 71% of our total expenditures. There are currently no departments showing over budget for solid waste.

Mr. Chair, I just have one question about the solid waste. I know we reset the fees, and we said it was going to be a few years before it balances out, correct?

Correct, yes.

But this is not a year, though, is it?

I mean, we're collecting more for sure. Right. The increase in the assessments and the rates that are charged by solid waste. We haven't fully recovered from our previous, you know, where the general fund had to support solid waste.

Right.

Years ago.

What year are we in the best years? We're anticipating.

What year should we turn it around? I'm not sure we're going to turn it around. I don't think fully in this rate study that we've done, I don't think we fully get back to zero. It just subtly increases each year so we can pay the general fund back.

To follow up on that question, how do we, what's the word? How do we compensate for that or how do we?

Difficult.

When it comes to accounting, what did we do? Because you're right, it was years of... Years, right. And we were told then that we probably...

I really think it's prevalent for a lot of different counties that have solid waste collection and are in a similar boat than we are. If we feel that we can't pay back the general fund, then we might just have to do a transfer just to get rid of the debt if there's no way possible to repay it, even though the solid waste fund intends to and fully intends to. If it's just not possible, then We might have to do a write-off of summer. Write it off. Summer all of it, yes, sir.

That's what we did years ago, Chairman. So we're looking for like a timeline of when, if that happens, can we look in the crystal ball and say it could probably happen in year five, year six, anything like that?

Um, I think we should start looking into writing a little bit off every year. Um, we were sitting currently, I think at 3.9 million that they owe back to the general fund. Um, when I first started almost four years ago, it was right at 3 million. So it's not hugely more, um, but it's, it's not going down for sure. And I mean, another thing that we can't predict is the repairs to his, uh, Clinton's equipment and things that go down that are unanticipated. Um, also, to increase expenses each year.

Mr. Chairman, is that where you see the most expenses at, is on the equipment, or is it the amount of trash that's being dumped at these convenience centers?

I'd say our largest is salaries, but I think, what is that vendor?

When we did the fee recalculation, did we allow for the increase he's talking about also? We did.

Is it more than what we budgeted for?

Well, we never, when the solid waste assessment was done, I don't think there was enough money ever figured into it to pay the county back.

I understand.

Figured enough in there so we could chip away at it. But if you wanted to pay back that money, it's going to hurt. Yeah. and do what we would have to charge people and all that good stuff. County run for a long time without the assessments and just trying to fund it through general fund and that's how we got to where we're at. Come out and everything, we tried to make all that work and trying to chip some of it down.

Why are you standing, sir? How's your equipment?

It's good. That's why I'm here tonight to replace one. We're trying to keep it up, keep everything replaced, and keep it going on the sanitation side.

Are you able to keep up with the mowing?

No, I'll be back next, mid-month.

Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. Mr. Mosley. Yes, sir. Do you care to elaborate on the status of the limerick?

Landfill? Can I do it on my report? I do have it in here.

Frank, I'm glad you kind of mentioned that, because what I'm saying is, I know we did the new assessment, but prior to us having a transfer station, we had a landfill, which obviously we don't have that anymore. Right, yeah, right, exactly. It's just not active or whatever you want to say.

Right. After 30 years, they release you. They don't release you.

Right, yeah. Yeah, but I guess I'm... But you were saying a couple years ago we were at 3, and now we're at 3.9. So we're going the opposite way. I know we looked at even with the fees with the... You know, the big hauling bins. The dumpsters.

Did we increase all that? The problem with the assessment there for a while is we didn't increase it. There was no money to say every year we're going to go up to 3% or 4% or whatever the public charges us. It was never stuck in there. Now, the last time we've done it, we made it every year. It's an increase to try to keep up. Okay.

So you improve your processes. Okay.

When we first had the assessment, it wasn't built in there.

Yeah.

You know, we didn't change it, but every five, six years, whatever commission decided to hire Cogerson to redo the study, they got to put us five years back behind.

So, Senator, I think you're coming in about... doing the graduate right officers in order. Another organization had to do that same kind of thing for that reason. Otherwise, they're just gonna keep showing up. Right.

Yep, and I believe that really goes back to when Ms. McLaughlin was here. We had that. It's always been there. It's always been there.

Good idea to try to pay back, but...

Yeah.

But in the meantime, let's just make sure that our fees are where they need to be so that we don't get behind when it comes to it.

When we done the last study, it was put in there with yearly increases.

Okay.

I remember that. Right. Right. The only thing I would say, Mr. Chair, you know, at the end of the day, that's an enterprise fund. So that's supposed to be separate and be able to maintain by itself. And if that's not being the case, we... It's okay for us to reevaluate and see which way we need to go.

All right. I guess that's enough trash talk. Thank you, Mr. Williams. All right.

Moving on to the sales tax reports. For sales tax seven, in the month of May, we collected $1.2 million. We have spent 30.8 million in SPLOST expenditures of our total 42.8 million that we've collected. The next report included.

When is it time for the next SPLOST reporting to the public kind of report? How often is that required to be done here? Just one time a year or? The one time a year by state law. Have we done it for 2026?

It's by December 31st. Okay.

Okay. Let's just make sure we announce that when it's done so the public can know they're getting access to it.

Yes, sir. Once we get a little further in the audit and concrete numbers. Thank you. The next report is the T-SPOS report. And this is just being included for project tracking purposes. And the report subsequent to that is our T-SPOS 2 report. We received our first distribution from the state in the month of May. It was just shy of $1.1 million, and we're off to a pretty good start. We will continue to collect this tax through March of 2032. The last page of your packet, I've included a summary of loft, that the county has collected and distributed through, through May. And the county's share of collection through May is 2.8 million of the total 4.6 million collected. And that concludes my presentation for May, unless you have questions.

You may want to educate some members of the audience about what FLOS is.

PLOST is a sales tax that was approved on the November 2025 referendum that is strictly to be used to apply directly to the general fund's operating budget in lieu of property taxes. So it has to 100% be applied to offset property taxes. So the state originally told us we had to collect it for a year before we were able to use it and distribute it. But they recently have changed the law to allow us to recognize anything we've collected through June into our current upcoming millage. and digest calculations. So it will have five months of help, this digest, and then next year we'll have the full 12 months.

Make sure everybody clear on that?

Mm-hmm.

Okay. All right. We look forward to that. I think everyone in Liberty County are looking forward to it.

Right. I just have a quick question to Mr. Lone. I can't see. Oh, okay. Oh, since we're talking about SWAS projects.

He's next on the agenda.

Yeah, I know, but okay. Let him come on and do it all. There you go.

Thank you, Mr. Mathis.

All right.

Yes, sir.

You want to get your question in, but there we go. When are they going to start?

Okay. Sales tax is not on any one of my agenda items, so if you want to go ahead and answer that question, kind of as a tail end to hers, I'll be able to. So ask me the question again. I want to make sure I understand.

The live vote.

Yes, sir. We have a contract executed with the contractor. We had anticipated that he was going to be here last month. When we were delayed and executed and contracted with him, he took a couple of school projects. finishing those school projects up so the school could get started, and so I'm hoping in the next couple weeks he should be there. But we are constantly calling him and in contact with him to make sure he's getting going.

All right. On a contrary, do we have an end date, right? Yes. That he's supposed to? That's right. And I don't remember what the start date is.

Okay.

I do have it written down, but I just don't have it stored up here.

That's fine. It was just on my mind when she started talking about it.

No, I'm glad you asked. I'll make sure that when I'm back up here on the 20th, we have all that data together.

All right, sir. Yeah.

OK, so I have two items on the agenda tonight. First one is deed of dedication of the roadways in Habersham development, which is roadway subdivision that was built a couple of years ago. The warranty periods have expired. We've taken them over for maintenance and accepted them. So the only thing that we haven't done is accepted a deed of dedication. In your packet, everybody should have a copy of the deed of dedication, which describes the roadways that gives us We've already accepted them as far as the final plot goes and just need your action to go ahead and accept the deed of dedication.

Commissioner Blunt, this is the new year. You want to take the lead on that, sir? Did the writer wait for a half percent plantation?

Motion to move forward. Second.

Second, we move forward as presented. I heard you. Any further discussion? All in favor, show of hands, please. I do. Yes. All right, Mr. Long. Thank you very much.

The second item I have on the agenda is applying for a grant for the water infrastructure planning program. I'm going to give you a little bit of background to make sure that everybody understands what we're looking for and what we're trying to do. You know, for the last several years we have really looked hard as a county as to how we're going to provide water and sewer to the county. Not just our service delivery area that Liberty County has in the middle of the county, but the other cities and municipalities within the county. We've had a planning group that we've met for the last couple of years trying to figure out how to do that. We've got some technical ideas of how to do it. We have the technical expertise around here to try to make it happen. But one thing we've found is we don't know the model that it really needs to look like. Are we a bunch of individual water and sewer systems going head first? Are we a community pulling together with some sort of authority? And I use that term lightly. Where do we fall? And we've been unable to put our hands on that process. And we've had several meetings to discuss it. We've actually gone out and got some proposals from some kind of, they're engineering firms, but they're more planning firms that have knowledge in this business on how do you get from a bunch of individuals water sewer systems to providing water and sewer to our communities and to our citizens in the area because we're really strapped with water and sewer availability. We're really strapped with the amount of water we can withdraw out of the aquifer. We have a lot of permitting things that are fluid. So the Water and Sewer Planning Commission, the Water and Sewer Technical Committee, or the Water Council. Sorry, I'm struggling to say the right words. What we recommended doing was hiring a consulting firm that can help us walk through that process. Meet with us and help us decide what's going to be best for us. Because it's not going to be just Liberty County deciding it's going to be the City of Hinesville, the City of Riceboro, the City of Walterville, City of Midway, City of Flemington, City of Gum Branch. We all need to kind of come together on how we're going to handle water and sewer for our community. So we have the opportunity with a very well qualified firm. We also have a new program that GFA has put out. It's called the Water Infrastructure Planning Program. It's a grant up to $250,000 with two or more communities in it, 150 for one community. In this case, we're looking at multiple communities going after it. It is due at the end of this month. And what we would like to do is apply for this grant. county would be the lead on it since we're kind of the seat, the county seat, and we have all the cities underneath us. There is a 10% match and we're also applying for maybe some seed grants. We're looking at other options to try to fill that gap with that 10% that we have to have, which would be $250,000, not $200,000, $250,000 total $25,000 match. Justin, you're gonna have to catch me if I say the wrong thing again, I apologize.

I'm tracking.

So we're looking at trying to get funding for all of this. But the county needs to be the lead agency in the application for the project. So what I need is the county's permission for us to move forward as the lead for this application to GFA for the grant funds, $250,000.

Questions for Mr. Long?

I have one question. You may have mentioned it. This would be a countywide. Your technical group and you're looking countywide, not just in a certain area.

Yes, ma'am. We're looking countywide.

Okay. That's what I thought.

We're trying to make sure it's a holistic of how are we going to serve our citizens.

Okay.

As community leaders, The time has come in our county for us to work as a collective body when it comes to water and sewer. We can no longer continue to plan long-term to be individual providers. Long-term, it needs to be a joint venture, county-wide. So it's maybe a slow trip getting there, but if we never start, we'll never get there. So... The $25,000 match, I mean, I would think that we could all get together and do that. We could. But you need permission to go ahead and apply for the grant with the county's lead agent. That's what we need.

We have several of us cities and counties that are moving 90 miles an hour down the wrong path and trying to get something. So we need to make sure everybody's working together for the same good.

And you're right, that's something that the experts do not, we may have our idea, but that's not in our pay grade.

We have the technical ability to do the work with the engineers that are here, but we need somebody to kind of help us pull it together.

Commissioner, what's your pleasure?

Mr. Chair, again, I'm in support of it, but we've had this conversation about Like I said, you know, we have the technical committee, and I think Mr. Odom remembers as well, when we used to meet with the Water Resource Council, and I remember we suspended our meetings years ago because, you know, other municipalities were kind of doing their own thing. And again, I don't, are we back together? Y'all back? Y'all are? I'm just not a part of it. It's fine. I just want to make sure that y'all are doing it.

No, no, no. There's a policy and a technical.

Commissioner Frazier, you're right. The committee went defunct and was reset.

Listen, I'm used to not being on policies. You're on it. I'm on it? Yes. Okay.

I would ask the same with the chairman. But I tell you what, I can be term limited.

Well, originally, whenever you became chair, that was one of the... I handed it off. And you handed it off to me. And I held the torch until the torch went out. But I guess y'all lit the match back up. But either way, again, whenever we discuss in water, and I know you didn't want to use that word authority, but that's what most... I know in the state of Georgia, that's where a lot of people are going. And more importantly, it's more of a regional concept with that, too.

And there are more models out there under the authority that we need help to figure out what fits for us. Because we need to find what fits for us. We don't need to find what fits for everybody else. What needs to fit for us.

And I'll say this, and I heard some of the smaller cities that have taken on a lot of debt are concerned about What happens if we all come together as one big, do we pay each other's bills or how does that part happen? So we got a lot of working to get through. I remember that was. Difficulties. That was one of the.

Complexities. That was one of the issues. Yeah. With policy.

Remember this is, this issue kind of woke itself back up at the planning retreat last year.

Right. Right. Good. All right. Commissioner, chair, take a, request a motion. Do we serve as the lead agent for the funding?

I'll make that motion, Chair.

Is there a second? Second. Commissioner Blount's made the second. Any further discussion? Looking forward to it. All in favor, show of hands, please. Should we get the grant? Any idea with the timeline? I know it's probably too early to ask you that.

Yes, sir. They won't announce them for a couple months. Okay. No, it's August. It's due at the end of this month. Yeah. It probably won't be until November, December.

You think we look good for?

I think so. When I look at the criteria, and we're looking at multi-cities doing it, getting together for it, and we don't agree with the quality-based selection for solar. And I think we'll be a step ahead by having some of these tasks accomplished.

Thank you for your leadership in that, sir.

Thank you.

Y'all see our new holiday extravaganza presentation? Samantha, Mr. Steven, Rachel Smith, I see.

Got some young folks.

Y'all ganging up on us tonight. Hello. Hey. Hi.

We got some more. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the Liberty County Board of Commissioners. My name is Samantha. I am here with the whole team. And then we also have here our director, Raymond Gross, and Mr. Ricky Gillard. So we are looking to host a holiday extravaganza for not just Liberty County, but also some of the surrounding counties around us. This will take place on December 12th from five to nine in the evening. at the James Brown soccer fields. We are just looking to do something big for the community, include the kids, include sports, include the chorus, just have a whole extravaganza, as we're calling it. The way that we anticipate getting funds for this is that we're going to be selling booth spots. Now, this is a change on the handout that you all have. We did lower the price, and we do have options. So for $25 that will cover a blue spot for nonprofits, $45 for profit and county and city departments, they are free. We just ask that they either provide a holiday activity or a holiday style, um, what is Or a giveaway, yes. We also are going to look to have sponsors. We have four different tiers between the prices of $250 up to $1,000. Our sponsors, we have a list of them already, but we are looking at the big companies here in Liberty County and the surrounding counties, small businesses, but also anyone that's looking to give to the community in some way for a holiday extravaganza. We will be reaching out to you all as well. So if you do see one of our smiling faces, please do give us the time. Our activities that we look to have are pictures with Santa, the chorus or chorus performances. We're going to reach out to two or three different schools to see if they can provide our chorus to sing at least two or three different songs with holiday themes. We also are going to have a live DJ and a snow party. We are going to have an outdoor movie, and then our biggest one that we're going to have is our fireworks show. We did meet with the fire marshal to get approval for this, which he said that was okay, but we do still have to submit our plans for it. We will have food trucks and also a free beverage concession. The food trucks, we're only looking to have five spots, and they will pay $80 to be a part of our extravaganza. That is all that I have.

That's a lot.

That's a lot.

Question for this ambitious group. You think the parking is going to be sufficient?

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Although we will have to block some parking off, we can use some of our grass space. There is a map that is attached on the back here that shows where we will be roping off some area, but the rest of it is open for the public to park in.

I'm just thinking about parking assistance. Thank you. Everybody's going to behave in part where they need to park or you're going to have to have some parking marshals kind of people out there?

We will have security and we are going to reach out to the Hinesville Police Department to assist us with that.

Mrs. Gillard, you want to add something?

We will provide at LIT and then we can transfer over to the event.

How are you going to market this? Marketing plan.

Besides for our beautiful committee doing word of mouth marketing, we are going to push it hopefully through the newspaper as well so people can see it and on our social media. We feel as if all of us do have some sort of presence on social media to where we can get this out for free.

Are you planning to work with the chamber at all?

Yes, yes, we do. Ms. Chantel was just telling me we also are going to work with the radio station to put this out.

Okay. And the chamber has, people go to look at the chamber's calendar a lot of times for events, so make sure it's on.

Yes, sir.

So what you need from us to bless it? Yes. Any questions before we bless it? Obviously, they appreciate y'all being innovative. Looking forward to December the 12th? The 12th, yes, sir.

The firework show will start at 8.

And it already seems like, well, we haven't voted yet, but I'm assuming they support it. But just for FYI, they did run it by the rec board as well, and it was a unanimous support, just to let y'all know. Good to hear that.

I'm not sure we need to vote. Is it just?

I think it'd be a good idea.

You think it'd be a good idea? Chair, I take a motion to approve the presentation from the LCRD subcommittee of the Committee on Holiday Extravaganza. So moved, Mr. Chair.

Second. First annual.

Any further discussion? All in favor, show of hands, please. All right. Thank you so much. We look forward to it. You as well. Have a good evening. Rezoning. Looks good to you, all you guys being together. Looks good, looks good. We need to go to the public hearing, Ms. Marty. The chair will take a motion to go to the public hearing for rezoning.

So moved. Second.

Phrase your moves. All in favor show your hands, please. All right. Okay. You may proceed.

Good evening, Commissioners. Chairman, I'm here to present two petitions, one for rezoning and one for conditional use. They are number 2026-25LC and 2026-26LC. The zoning request was submitted by Zachary Gilstrat to rezone 5.29 acres from A1 and AR1 to C3, which is highway commercial, for a contractor's yard for moving, transport, and hauling services. A conditional use request has also been submitted for the contractor's yard. The property is located on Leroy Cooper Highway in unincorporated Liberty County and it is in District 4. The public notification, what was in the paper and posted on the sign. And the vicinity map. So this is not too far from the intersection with Coastal Highway and it's not too far just north of Fleming Loop. A little closer. This is the property here. A couple years ago this parcel and the one next to it were cleared. The zoning map. So this parcel right here is also zoned C3 and it is a fencing contractor's yard. Not too long ago the county rezoned this parcel here to industrial one for a concrete plant. And so we are then looking to rezone this to the same as this one as C3. Currently the front part of it is the AR1 and the back part is A1. The future land use map does show the front. There's a mixed-use urban corridor, I'm sorry, mixed-use rural corridor along both sides of Leroy Cofer Highway, and then beyond that is agricultural forestry as a future land use for this area. There are no wetlands on the property, nor are there any flood zone hazards. The tract that we're talking about, the 5.29 acres, is part of a subdivision along Leroy Cofer Highway. This is the last one, tract 3A in subdivision. The narrative submitted with the rezoning application is proposed use for all 5.29 acres would be to store commercial vehicles, containers, and equipment for moving, transport, and hauling services. The equipment would look like some of the following. So you have a moving van here. You have another piece of equipment here. Quite honestly, I'm not sure what that is. You have a storage container, some excavation equipment. All the vehicles on the property would be operable and would have a dumpster on site for trash collection.

Right on the slides. Oh, there you go. Can he drive it?

I can work off of this, it's just not as large. So the concept plan, sorry I won't fill the whole screen. So Leroy Cofer is right here. They will pretty much be using the entire limits within some boundaries with buffers around the outside. There is an existing culvert here that they'll be utilizing and then pulling in a gravel road off of that. The front part will be where a dumpster will be kept for the trash and in this area will be parking for the other equipment associated with the business. Roy Cofer looking up towards, I'd say it's about a mile from Coastal Highway, looking north. And this is a close-up of the property as it looked last month. They have recently, I notice I drive by there every day, they did have some equipment in here doing a little bit of clearing, but that's how it looks today from the other side of the road. So going through the zoning analysis, does this property have reasonable economic value as currently zoned? Yes, it does. The proposed use conforms to the Fort Stewart Joint Land Use Study. Does the proposed use conform to the Liberty County Comprehensive Plan? Yes, it does. The Comprehensive Plan identifies a future land use as mixed-use rural corridor and ag forestry in which C3 is a compatible zoning district. Will there be an adverse effect on the value and usability of nearby properties? No, there will not. Is the proposed use suitable in view of nearby uses? Yes. As I pointed out, there is another contractor's yard very close by and then that future concrete plant just up the road. Will the zoning proposal create an undue burden on transportation and on schools, utilities, or the provision of public safety? This won't be a site, really. Customers come to it'll just be employees of the business and GDOT will have to approve the entrance for the site. Will this allow a short-term gain at the expense of our local long-term goals? No, it will not. Would this cause a domino effect? Yes, very likely. In fact, this is probably one of the dominoes that has already been started by other rezonings in the vicinity. Are the unique historical sites which may be adversely impacted? There are none noted. Is this parcel in a flood hazard area? No, it is not. Is it spot zoning and unrelated to the existing pattern of development? No, it is not. And there are no unique conditions which support approval or denial. That takes us through our rezoning analysis, and now I'm going to move on to the conditional use criteria for the contractor's yard. You shall not adversely affect the economic values or physical appearance of the neighborhood or areas surrounding the site or lot in question. No, it will not have an adverse effect. The use shall be consistent with the comp plan and with the purpose intent of the land use district. Yes, as is mentioned in the rezoning analysis, the comp plan identifies this property as mixed use rural quarter and ag forestry in which the zoning is a compatible zoning district and this use is allowed in that district. The establishment maintenance or operation of the use shall not be detrimental to or endanger the public health, safety, or general welfare. No, it will not be detrimental. Will not create an undue burden on transportation, schools, utilities, or provisions of public safety. This was also addressed in the zoning analysis. No, it would not create an undue burden. The design shall minimize adverse physical and environmental effects on adjacent properties, including adverse visual effects. Buffer zones where necessary to shield any adverse factors shall be considered. This was one of the main ones that was up for discussion when it was before the planning commission was the adverse visual effects. And so to minimize these adverse effects, the property shall have a 20 foot vegetative buffer and six foot high opaque fence along property lines. Additional space for parking, landscaping, and adequate measures for ingress and egress shall be considered if necessary to protect adjacent structures or lots from any adverse impact. No additional space is needed for those items. This was before the Planning Commission last month. There are two separate motions that are needed. The rezoning needs to be... Action on the rezoning needs to be taken first because without the proper rezoning, the condition used becomes moot. So the planning commission did recommend approval of rezoning petition 2026 dash 25 dash healthy with standard and special conditions. The special condition is a 20 foot vegetative buffer is six foot high opaque then shall be required along the side and rear property lines. The planning commission also did recommend approval of the conditional use 2026 dash 26 dash LC with standard and special conditions and the special condition here is a 20 foot vegetated buffer and six foot high opaque fence shall be required along all property lines. Now there's a slight distinction between the special conditions on the rezoning and the conditional use. The feeling was, the logic was that for rezoning, should this use go away or never happen, it still would be zoned C3 and C3 does allow other uses that might want some visibility from Leroy Cofer. So that's why the rezoning special condition is that that buffer and fence have to be maintained only along the sides and rear. However, for the conditional use, they felt this specific use should be screened from Leroy Cofer as well. So that's why the special condition would be applied only to this conditional use and require that screening and buffer along all sides. All right.

One says along some of the property. The other one says around the entire property.

Yes, the rezoning would be a special condition that anything that's on that property has to be at least screened on three sides. Okay. For this particular use, it would have to be screened on all sides.

For this particular use?

Yes, for this particular use. It goes with the conditional use, not with any use of the property.

If they were to sell it off, it would go by the three sides.

Is the petitioner here?

Yes, sir.

Will that person please come and give us a two-minute overview of your... Hello, sir.

My name is Zachary Gilstrap. I'm the owner of College Hunks Hauling, Junk, and Moving. That truck you saw is actually what we call a junk truck. It holds about 440 cubic feet of residential trash. We're kind of the middle man in between what something like an Atlantic waste won't pick up and what someone won't want to take to the actual dump. I'll go back on about myself. I was with UPS for about 15 years, retired from there. And there was an owner for College Hunks in Savannah that wasn't really taking care of the business. I went ahead and purchased that a couple of years ago. Um, we don't consider ourselves just a moving company. Uh, hunks actually stands for honest, uniform, nice, knowledgeable service. Our core values include always a branding and building leaders, creating fun, safe winning teams, and to listen to fulfill and delight our communities. Uh, we don't just talk that talk. Um, we're on the board for safe shelter in Savannah. We use our assets for a good, uh, we're going to continue to operate our full operation in Chatham County right, right now. Uh, we can't afford to do much with this property aside from turn it into a contractor's yard. and use it to stage some of our assets. Eventually, we would seek to move into Liberty County. Our long-term plan is to service the whole entire coastline, and eventually, at a separate date, probably put a metal structure on the building, but I'm happy to answer any of your questions.

What about storage of combustible material?

Yeah, we will not have anything combustible, anything hazmat, anything that can contribute, especially when it would seep down into the water systems or soil and stuff like that. We're not permitted and don't plan to store or have anything hazmat on site.

What about tires?

Tires, no tires, sir.

So in the event, okay, tell me about your water supply out there.

We don't have a plan for water supply right now. It's just going to be a contractor's yard. It's probably going to be between, you know, five and 10 pieces of equipment. I wouldn't picture this as, you know, five acres of a hundred vehicles parked out there. I don't picture this as an area where we're going to go abandon equipment where it's going to kind of get ugly, you know, to say the least. Eventually, I was very particular when Trent was speaking, kind of hearing about the plan for the county to eventually have a joint water commission, kind of really lending an ear toward that. Eventually, we would probably install a sewer system there. That's probably three to five years down the line. But right now, it's just going to be to park assets. If we have to go have a move team, that's going to go start from that point, have an established move captain park his personal vehicle there. and take that vehicle south to Brunswick or somewhere further down the coast instead of Hilton Head. It's going to be more of a drop-off point now that eventually we would seek to probably build something on there and make our permanent home in Liberty County.

And you're going to stand by your word.

Yes, sir.

So you're going to have portalettes? I'm sorry? You're going to have portalettes out there?

Absolutely, absolutely. Got to have somewhere to go to the bathroom. But right now we don't have the money to put in a full sewer system, a water system. But this time, probably three to five years, just a contractor yard, very basic operation, and then full plans would come later once the business has enough money to do something.

How did you identify Liberty County? I'll bring you in. Go ahead. How did you identify Liberty County?

I was at Angie's Diner with a pastor, and we were kind of sitting down and going back and forth between what's going to help grow the business, what's going to help build leaders, and looking at really the best geographical point. We were far away from 95, or too close to 95 is going to be expensive for the company, and Leroy-Coffer Highway just proved to be a nice pivotal point with a cost-effective solution, so it really is going to help us serve between the Florida-Georgia line and Hilt Head, which is our territory, and it's a perfect middle ground to grow into Liberty County and also grow north and grow south. Where's your Savannah location? It's in Garden City. It's 810 Talmadge Avenue, right by Pooler.

How long have you been there?

We've been in that warehouse now for two months, and we've been in Pooler before that for a year and a half.

You're expanding rapidly.

We are. Every dollar that we've made, I've invested in new trucks, new equipment, and it's been a great experience.

What's your employment size? What's your employment size?

Right now, we're at 16 employees. Eventually, when we come here, when we expand to coastal Georgia, we'd probably seek to hire, again, this is early, at least 10 to 15 people when we move into the county.

So when you collect at this site in Liberty County on 196th, and it gets piled up, where would you take it then?

We're not going to have any kind of trash storage. Okay, I just want to make sure. This is just for truck storage right now. We don't tend to keep, just to expand on that, even in Garden City, we don't tend to keep lots of trash on site. Stuff comes back, we back two trucks up, we separate metal, we separate plastics, we separate usable furniture, store that stuff for free for different people in the community. How many people have seen college honks hauling our trucks? Green and orange trucks, anyone seen them?

I don't remember. Probably have, but I don't remember. But it was good to have you indicate that we bring you in. We look for people to come to be community partners, so I kind of heard that from you, so we look forward to that, too.

Thank you.

Enjoying that shame, all those kind of things. Retired? You said you retired?

Retired from UPS, also retired full-time police officer, Central Illinois.

Where's your driver's license? Where's your ID? Chris Blutt.

I got a couple of questions. If you were to look at your concept plan, you've got to show a gravel road coming in, an area for parking, your dumpster and stuff. In this 5.29 acres, we just call it five acres, I know that area very well. When you put in this gravel road, you're going to create water that's going to have to go somewhere. I don't see no design here for any retention ponds or anything like that to control your water. Where do you think your water is going to go?

That gravel road shouldn't be raised too much. That property is already above all the other properties around it. So right now, I think water already trickles off that property to my understanding.

Yeah, well, I mean, according to a person that had some opposition against you, whoever cut the timber off of it many years ago before you owned it, he's complaining about water coming on his property, and there's some neighbors that are saying a few things. But, I mean, when you go in, like you just said, the place is a little bit higher than existing properties. So when you start putting in gravel, that dirt's not going to soak up nothing, so you're still going to have water that's going to run somewhere.

I'm sorry.

So, I mean, it's going to go to somebody's property. I know they're going to have a vegetated buffer around it. You're going to have a privacy fence or something around it. I'm just curious. Maybe you think about this in the future. You got to do something with this water. You probably have to put in a retention pond or something and probably carry it at least until everything is basically flat. I mean, you talk a little bit higher, but it's basically flat. That water's got to go somewhere. I'm going to recommend it. You need to take it out to State Highway to the ditches where it can get out of there and not put it on someone else.

that will probably come into phase when we could attempt to, you know, submit construction plans and stuff like that. It'll have to be a retention pond right now. We're not seeking to raise that at all. Um, the gravel road is, is something that, so when we, when we pull in their vehicles, don't, don't get stuck. Right. Um, but we don't seek to raise, we're not seeking to bring, bring dirt in and fill it up. Like if it was a Mars or if it was lower. So we're really not seeking to raise that property at all right now.

So in that parking area, any of that gonna be gravel or that's just gonna be dirt?

That's just gonna be dirt right now. Again, we're not gonna put 50 to 100 vehicles out there. This is probably gonna be between 10 to 20 vehicles.

You've been paying attention to that? how wet it gets at times and everything, how soft that ground gets?

It's hard to see all the way in the back. As someone alluded earlier, we've even had contractors come and bid out clearing that actual property, and some of them wanted to drive him back just to see how the property fluctuates. I've been told from the previous owner that that property, when it does flood, is above the rest. The plans that I've seen show that it is above the rest and it does not flood, but I can't say that with complete confidence.

Let's change our words a little bit. Instead of flood, it's going to pond water at some given point. You say you're not going to haul in dirt, but I mean, I know the area well enough that if you don't do anything other than just go in and grub it and clear it and kind of level it up, it's going to be some ponding water in that area right there.

I can't speak to specifics on that right now because I just haven't looked that far into it. Right now we're in the phase of just purchasing it, rezoning it. I'm happy to bring that back to the commission after I do further research on that, sir.

Okay, just wanted to bring them concerns out. On the zoning analysis, I see where you're going to have to follow GDOT approval and all for the entrance and stuff, whatever they recommend with probably X-cell and D-cell lanes or the width of the driveway, whatever they're going to require. That little driveway that they're out now is probably just a residential driveway. Correct. Yeah. So we got everything laid out pretty good. I'm still concerned about this water.

Mr. Phil Odom, come to the microphone, please, sir. I had to go through your agency with you, Chair, first.

That's going to be a charge, Jim.

You here, Commissioner? Commissioners, thank you. Did that come up for discussion at your meeting?

A question on drainage. Yes, sir. That is an engineering question. We're in a zoning question. You can't do your engineering until you do your zoning. I understand. I hear Commissioner Blount's concerns. That was concerns we had at the Planning Commission.

Okay.

and there to be addressed at the time when engineering, when he goes and gets his G dot approval, then something simple is cutting a tail ditch across the property to drain into the state. The right of way would solve the issue until he begins construction. And at that time when he puts buildings there, he would have to have a full set and meet the storm water requirements. Sure. That's the best I can tell you, Commissioner. That's the best we need to hear. All right. Anything else, Commissioner Blount?

I'm good, I'm good. We're here for the zone and I got it.

What it does, sir, it helps you going forward that you'll know what might be required.

I may have over-explained our future plans, but I don't mind doing that. Some people come up and they want to... That's our future plan is to grow in Liberty County. And at that time, when we go through building and development, we will seek those plans in the appropriate manner.

This will require two separate motions.

And just real quick, first of all, I appreciate your transparency. But again, just like Ms. Odom said, I think we're here for the zoning. I understand the fallout issues, but between GDOT and hopefully our inspection department, they'll make sure that that is all taken care of. My question or my, I guess... Not necessarily concerned with this particular project, but in the future. You know, we've talked, you know, from here and also from a county-wide perspective about our gateway to our county. And the only thing I'm saying is what type of identity are we looking for during Leroy-Culver Highway coming into this community? I mean, are we looking for... future economic commercial-type growth, or are we going to continue to have different projects like this going on at Leroy Crawford? Because, I mean, that's what she was just saying about the domino effect. You know, we have started approving particular projects like this. And I'm an entrepreneur. I get it. Get it where you fit in. But what I'm saying is our future, what are we talking about? Our gateways coming into Liberty County. How do we want them to look? And I understand the buffers. But, again, I just look at Leroy Coffer. You know, being from here, I remember how it used to look. And now... You know, there's still a lot of trees out there. But also, that's a blank canvas that we as commission and also the planning commission, we have a true opportunity to create something. And I think Commissioner Gillick said this a long time ago. One day, you're not going to be able to tell the difference in the Liberty County line, the Bryan County line, and Chatham County line. So the only thing I'm saying is, are we looking at for now? Are we looking at? you know, 30 or 40 years from now, which hopefully I'm still here. But, you know, and not just me, you know, our kids. What identity are we looking? And I just want my fellow commissioners to think about that whenever we doing all these rezonings. Because one thing about rezoning is, you know, we come up with these comprehensive plans. And when we say this is where we're going with this particular area, but then, you know, we come for rezoning and I've been there, I've had to get properties rezoned. So I understand, but also I just want us to be aware and keep a few things in perspective. You know, again, our identity, what are we looking for? You know, I know the chairman have talked about our gateways and gateways and gateways, And it's more than just a sign at Liberty County line. I mean, we could put a, a $10 million sign out there and make it look like Vegas. But if, if you, soon as you walk in, it looks like old Vegas instead of new Vegas is a problem. So I'm, I'm just saying as, as a whole, and we just need to make sure that these particular properties is the highest, best use. And also, um, We need to be aware of that question about the domino effect. So what do we decide? You know, dominoes lay down, and they keep going. As long as you have another domino there, it's going to keep going. That's the only thing.

I think it's healthy that I bring up kind of the future plans here. You know, we're a small business that's growing. We've already doubled in revenue, you know, the past couple years or so. Where my particular project is going well, it might be a contractor's yard for three to five years. I'd like you to think of the long-term vision of once that's paved over, there's a building there, there's maybe another space for a tenant to move in and grow their small business next to mine. So that's the kind of vision I want the board to see.

And I appreciate the LCPC for the buffer requirements. You got it. I'm not sure how much feel you all talked about what you don't want about major gateways, sir And we just try to ensure that I gave was attractive people coming in out of the county. Yeah All right So our judgment should come out of a no one no one signed up to come out of public hearing. I All right. Motion to come out? I'll move. Second? Second. All in favor? Motion to go back into regular session? I'll move. Second. Second. Monica, you got all that? Hold on, sir.

We haven't voted yet. Oh, he can sit down and watch the vote.

Yes, sir.

If you could, two separate conditions, decisions, actions. The first one rezoning and the second one conditional use, please.

Mr. Blunt, I yield. I make a motion. We accept LCP's recommendation for approval for the rezoning position.

Second. Motion is a second. Ms. Monica, do you have that? Any further discussion? I think we have plenty. All in favor, show of hands, please. In opposition? All right. Rezoning is approved. Now the conditional use for the special conditions. Standard and special conditions. Okay. Chair, you want a motion? Yes, sir.

I make a motion we approve the special conditions used for the LCPC recommendation and all.

Second. Motion to second, same to Ms. Monica. All right, any further discussion? All in favor, show of hands, please. All right. Now, sir.

Thank you. I look forward to seeing you in a few years for some work.

Yeah, we can't help but watch you go in and out that way. Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right. Rezoning. Where am I? Oh, I'm down there? Okay. Not the lot out. Removal of condition requests. 2026-23LC. Okay.

I'm sorry. It was tabled last time, and you need to remove it.

Right.

Please.

Don't move it, sir.

Back it. Back it. Yeah. I just need a little bit of a refresher.

I'm going to give you that refresher. On this application? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So this was presented last month.

I'm sorry, so now that we're, okay, all in favor of it coming out of being tabled, give me your hands. All right, all right, all right.

I jumped the gun.

Quite all right.

Okay, so this was, you held the public for this at your last meeting. In that time, we did meet with Commissioner Blunt and Commissioner Gileard with the applicant. And the result of that meeting is that they have submitted revised narrative and a concept plan that I would like to go over with you. So I'll refresh you on some of these slides. So this is a conditional use 2026-23 LC. It is submitted by Christian Edens and Lindsey Goff for an outdoor event center at 956 Freedman Grove. road in Fleming. The property, I think it's about a mile or so from the coastal highway Limerick intersection here. It's on the north side of the road. Close-up view. As you may recall, they were originally planning on having some parking in the field here and the outdoor events would be happening over here. There is a house in the middle here. Then, like I said, they have revised that narrative. It is zoned A1 and AR1. The big one is residential low density. So if I may, I'll read the revised narrative. The applicant is requesting approval for a low impact outdoor event venue to be operated on an existing privately owned parcel on 956 Friedman Road. It's approximately 20 acres zoned AR and AR1. The property is intended to be used as a small-scale outdoor event venue, primarily for weddings, private gatherings, photo shoots, and other special events. Most events will be intimate gatherings with a maximum guest capacity of up to 40 guests, and all events will take place outdoors, utilizing the property's natural landscape. Provision to this narrative... In particular, I'd like to point out is that originally they had said 150 guests, so they have narrowed the scope of the size of the gatherings that they will allow. The events will be scheduled by reservation only and will occur on a limited basis rather than daily commercial operations. We are proposing utilizing the existing asphalt driveway for access and one handicap accessible parking spot. Up to 10 additional parking spaces would be located in a centralized area on the property. Applicant is requesting a variance or a condition to allow the event parking to remain unpaid. Opposed use is expected to generate only moderate event-based noise typical of private outdoor gatherings. Events would be limited to designated hours with music ending at a reasonable evening cutoff in compliance with local ordinances. The intent is to provide a well-managed environment and minimize disruption to neighboring properties. All vendors providing services on the property must be properly licensed and insured. The venue will not sell or serve alcohol. However, clients may bring their own alcohol for private events. Portable restroom facilities will be provided for events as needed based on the anticipated attendance and length of the event. All events will include proper waste management and post-event cleanup. The client will be responsible for preserving portable restrooms for an approved vendor, ensuring they are delivered and moved in a timely manner. The rental contract will require compliance with this policy. The property layout allows for clear emergency vehicle access at all times. Proposed use is designated to be a low impact and compatible with the surrounding rural, agricultural, low density residential community. The property will offer a beautiful and convenient venue for family celebrations, small gatherings, weddings, photography sessions, and other special occasions. Part of our discussions we talked about some possible special conditions. They provided kind of how we, what the conclusions we came to might be reasonable special conditions. Conditional use permit would be specific to the current property owners, Lindsay Goff and Christian Edens, and will not automatically transfer with a change in ownership. This would mean that someone else couldn't decide they want an outdoor event as a conditional use and then expand it beyond what they have provided in their narrative and what their intent is. And another special condition was the proposed parking plan will utilize the existing asphalt driveway for primary access and the parking will be centralized on the property and kept unpaid in order to minimize services, reduce site disturbance, and maintain compatibility with the surrounding and residential uses. The revised contract plan, as you may recall, they were planning on having parking here. That's that field I mentioned. And here's the house. So they revised it to have the parking spaces up here. The UDO does require one space for every four guests. So that's 10 parking spaces that they have up to 40 guests. And then the vent would be back here in this area in the Oak Grove. This driveway is the existing driveway, asphalt driveway to the house. And these other accesses here are more like the residential dirt culverts that just allow what I call field access to the property. Oak Grove, this was the field they were gonna use for parking but won't. And this is looking towards Limerick. The house on the property would not be part of the event space. And we went through the conditional use. We did not modify these slides for the revised narrative because this is what we presented to the Planning Commission and didn't feel it was appropriate to present something different to you in that respect. Would you like me to go over these or should I just pass them by? You've heard it all before.

I think you can pass these by.

Okay. So this was before the Planning Commission last month, as you know, where they did recommend disapproval based on the narrative presented with their application, which was the 150 people and parking in the field. So this was their original recommendation. It did not go back before the Planning Commission, so you do not have an updated recommendation from them at this point.

Commissioner Blunt. Good evening.

Hello.

How you doing?

I know you met with some of the planning staff at LCPC, myself and Commissioner Gileard. We went over this. Everything seems like it's in order for you. One thing I wanted to say for people watching that might not quite understand that we're previously not for this. I'm in favor of it after talking to you, because if we did a lot of paving and different things, we're gonna start pushing water around. You got a beautiful piece of property. We looked at the conditional uses, I mean, the dents that you wanna do and things. So everything seems in order to you that we've agreed on? Okay. Mr. Kidd, you wanna add anything?

No. Good evening. We did, uh, commissioner Blunt and I did meet and, um, you know, our goal was to meet and hear, hear you out and, you know, hopefully to try to help you if, if we could. And, um, I think Jeff was there, uh, Marty and some of the other staff. And, you know, we, um, thank you scaled down from the previous, um, um, requests. And, um, you know, I, I do know, um, from the meeting that we had and the scaled down version, I think we agreed that it wouldn't create an issue. Now, I do know that over time, as people find out about it and if you get everything up and running and hope it don't turn into Saturday night fever and hope it don't be a version of Mardi Gras where there will be issues and people are complaining about parking and noise and this and that and other. If it is, we will. You don't have to revisit it based on our ordinances and everything. But I think it was two weeks ago we met. And I don't know if I know the event is not approved. I mean, the site is not approved. But I hadn't heard nothing, you know, that happened out there since then. Never heard of anything. So I just felt like if you just continue to do what you're doing and stick to the guidelines that we talked about at the planning office a couple of weeks ago. I think everything will be fine.

So the people that come are going to have to sign a contract with you for their event?

Yeah, it would be like renting the property. So we didn't have like a rental.

And it says that you will, the, your portals will be taken care of by the renters. How are you doing water out there?

We wouldn't need any for the restrooms if they're bringing in portable ones. Yeah.

But you could, like the port-a-pollock. They come with water. Yeah, you could get water with them. Not, you know, not regular running water, but a container with them. Right. But they could dispense water.

Just make that note. As your popularity grows, you may need a water resource. Well, I mean, okay.

It grows over 40. It's probably about to come back before us. Yeah. One thing I've seen that I like, in the event that you ever change hands with it, all this that we're doing right now is null and void, looks like. It's not transferable.

I think that was your recommendation. I mean, you know, happy to agree to that.

It's a beautiful place. I got one question, Chairman. So if somebody comes out there to use it, they will not have to get a permit? But get an okay from you.

Correct. If they're going to use any vendor, they would need to use a licensed and insured vendor. The vendors, they would only be permitted vendors that would be allowed.

What was that now?

They would only be permitted licensed insured vendors that would be allowed via the contract, the rental contract they signed with us. So it's not just like they can have anybody come in.

Some of our, we're going to move on, concern has been some other people like you have, Acquired spaces for events and then they rented out to people and it's not what they thought was going to happen there It's kind of gotten out of hand.

So that's why we have some concerns I don't see yours to be that kind of Issue, but I'm just sharing with you some of the sentiment that you hear it up here from the commission Because mr. Chairman like let's say if everything is approved and all and this weekend she wanted to have a wedding I don't think that we need to a permit if, um, next week someone wanted to take pictures out there, which is, you know, the beautiful, um, oak trees and everything. I don't think you would need a permit just, um, if it kind of got out of hand, you know, and, um, I don't think that we're going to require you to get permits for every time somebody, you know, wants to go out there and do something. I mean, go out there and take pictures. I don't think you would need a permit.

Wouldn't that fall under a business license? Yeah. Yeah, you'd have to get a business license. Yeah, we'd have to apply for a business license.

I think you already know that. But the events that she have there, she wouldn't have to be. It would fall under her. It would kind of be responsible as the owner. All right.

You ready to move forward?

Not one more concern. You touched on a little bit with the porter toilets and stuff. You're going to be left, you sign a contract with someone when they want to do this outdoor event and all. What I'm concerned about right there is someone says, well, it's just a small event. There's only going to be 15 of us. We don't need that. The way I read this, they got to have it.

Yeah, that would be in the contract. If there's a certain amount of people, they would be required to.

Yeah, so I just want to make sure we got to have all that in place. You ready?

Yes, sir, ready.

Yeah, all right. I'll make a motion we accept this, you know, to move forward with the special condition that's in place as we've talked about here.

So moved, Mr. Chair.

Second. Motion to second that we approve the recommendation. I knew where you were headed. It's late. I knew you were headed. Any further discussion? All in favor, show of hands, please. Thank the committee for vetting that for us. We appreciate it. Of course, we appreciate LCPC. Thank you, ma'am. Looking forward to it. Good luck. Beautiful property. MOU. Ms. Lara.

Hello again.

Hello.

Mr. Moseley asked me to come before you tonight to talk a little bit more about compensation and pay studies as we look ahead and hope to do another pay study with Dr. Condrey and Associates. So I'm going to just go through a few slides very quickly. So compensation, it's one of the largest investments we make as a county government. It's easily 90% of our budgets is paying for people. It directly impacts recruitment, retention, morale, and fiscal responsibility. You know, we're all competing for talent. So we're competing across the region, especially for things like public safety workers and fire, 911, EMS, law enforcement, and specialized positions like IT and finance. And modern employees expect to be paid fairly and have a transparent pay that reflects local market rates, cost of living, and their skills and experience level. And of course, we want to have public trust. So when we have a clear, visible pay plan, then taxpayers can see how we are paying for salaries. And that helps our integrity as well. I brought some data with me too, like Mr. Murray. These are some snapshots from our Paylocity platform, showing you some of the demographics of our current workforce. This is showing our full-time people. The number in the center of the ring chart represents our current headcount of active employees, which we sit at 514 today. For fiscal year 27, our authorized strength is 560. So we've got about 46 vacancies, mainly those are in public safety. We also have some in public works, along with some administrative positions like appraisers or deputy clerks. You wanted 50-50, we got 50-50 for gender. We're pretty equally split, male and female, in our workforce. And then I thought it was interesting to look at the breakdown of the different generations that we employ, most of which are millennials, it looks like. Like other employers, Liberty County must contend with staff turnover. So this slide shows you over the last 12 months we have had 127 full-time separations. More than three-quarters of those were resignations, so people voluntarily leaving or retiring. This is similar to the 12-month period prior to the past 12 months. And just keep in mind, according to SHRM, which is the Society for HR Management, replacing an employee typically costs 30% to 200% of their annual salary, depending on the role's seniority and complexity. So I think about some of our departments where when we bring somebody in, it could take upwards of a year to get them fully trained to serve the public, whether that's a firefighter or a field appraiser. This slide shows the average length of service across the organization. So that is trending slightly downward, which I think is typical of what the market is becoming. About 20% of our employees have been here at least 10 years, which is great. Our average tenure right now is 6.8, down from 7.1 a year ago. So that's how many years we've had. This is in line with the public sector, but just something to keep an eye on as long-timers retire. They take with them a lot of institutional knowledge, and succession planning is already a top priority for us. So why do we want to conduct a compensation study? So Liberty County's always relied on formal compensation studies to update its pay structure. And so there's many reasons for doing so, such as being competitive in the market, maintaining internal equity, which means paying employees fairly and consistently for similar roles, responsibilities, and experience levels. And very importantly, creating a defensible pay structure using methodology that can stand up in court. So signs it's time for a pay study. When you see several of these indicators at once, it's likely time to reassess your pay structure. So some of these do apply to us right now. Our recruitment challenges, our current pay study, the age of that, competitors raising salaries or benefits. So as soon as another sheriff's office, not to pick on you chief, wants to offer a special benefit, it's got the sheriff looking, oh, do we need to do that too because they have such a challenge recruiting deputies. Significant organizational growth, of course we know that is true. So this, over the last 25 years, is our timeline of the various pay studies we have implemented starting in 2001. That was when I was first hired in the EMA office. And I came in right after one was conducted, as a matter of fact. Then we did one in 2006. So every four to five years we've done one, except you can see that gap. That was the Great Recession. And so we were not able to, as a county, fund any pay studies during that time. And then we did one in 2019. We did some mini studies when we took on fire and EMS, and also when you asked us to look at the living wage to ensure that every employee made at least $15 an hour. And then the most recent pay study was put into place July 2023. And it starts a year in advance of implementation when they do this study. And we use an outside firm. We've used UGA, Carl Vinson Institute of Government, of which Dr. Condrey is an alumni. And as you can see, all the reasons here why it's so advantageous to use that from providing impartial evidence-based recommendations. We don't want people thinking that if I made the decision that I'm biased, right? So we have... independent consultant doing that. They have the specialized knowledge to do compensation studies. They've got labor market insights and advanced methodology to develop these PACE structures. They're very efficient. They can accomplish these PACE studies with their team because of their years of experience in a very short time frame and not while they don't disrupt our HR flow. And then of course defensibility, which I think is so important because we've got a legally sound plan that withstands the scrutiny from employees to elected officials to auditors to taxpayers. versus if we tried to do it ourselves, there's some risks to doing so. A comprehensive study can take hundreds of hours, which, if I'm being honest, and Jessica's here in the audience, we're already managing a lot of things, recruiting, onboarding, benefits, employee relations, payroll coordination, compliance, performance management, all the things we're doing on a daily basis. I don't know where we would find the time to do that. It would just take more than a year to do. Also, internal bias or perceived favoritism. So when you have people in-house doing it, they may be perceived as having favoritism towards some departments or roles where when an external consultant can not have these pressures. I have a lot of HR expertise, but compensation studies is not one of them, so I'm going to admit that. An independent third-party study often carries greater credibility because, like I said, they're more impartial. So the project roadmap... generally outlined here in eight steps. The first is planning but Condrey and Associates are very familiar with us after working with us for so many years that they're already familiar with our structure, our current plan, our policies, our budget. They would meet with leadership and HR to look at our current goals and priorities. Step two would be analyzing the jobs, what are our current job descriptions, what's changed, they'd talk to department heads. Then they would collect data. So they would collect salary data from a wide range of sources, some that we wouldn't have access to easily because that's their business. Other local governments published surveys, state associations, databases, et cetera. We'd also want to do market benchmarking. So how do we compare in this region similar, of other people with similar population, budget size, the services, so generally we'd look at other city and county governments, and then who are we competing with in the region, like Fort Stewart, people like that. We'd also look at certain internal jobs and compare them with industry standards, such as public safety, public works, administrative type positions, finance, IT. So those would be job benchmarks. Step five, this is very key part of their analysis, is maintaining the internal equity of our plan, pay plan, because it makes sure that everybody is judged on the same criteria as far as their jobs. They break it down into 10 components. and they use the factor evaluation system. So that's a quantitative point factor method used to grade and classify positions. It assigns numerical points to 10 specific components, and then those components are weighted. So something like the knowledge required by the position would count more than the physical demands. And then the sum of all those points, it pinpoint where it should go on the pay plan. So it helps ensure everything is rated fairly and consistently throughout all the departments. And if you're interested, the 10 components are the required knowledge and skills, supervisory controls, guidelines, complexity, scope and effect of their work, personal contacts, purpose of contacts, physical demands, work environment, and supervisory responsibility.

You said contacts.

Who do they come in contact with in the course of their day? Step six is developing the actual pay structure. So given all that previous work, they would come up with your salary grades, pay ranges, min, max, et cetera. Then they would come back to you in step seven with a cost analysis. Like here are several different scenarios. If you remember with the last pay study, they said, okay, do you want to be at...

At market.

Yeah, at market, slightly ahead of market. Where do you want to be with that? Do you want to do it in phases? They could come up with multiple scenarios and costs for you as the board to decide.

Mr. Chair, Ms. Mosley, one of y'all are fellow commissioners. Do y'all remember what we decided last time? Didn't we decide to be a little bit aggressive? Aggressive. Aggressive. I tell you, a duck will pull a truck. Yeah, so, and I guess that's where I'm getting at, because we did this, what, three years ago, right?

2023, right, 2022. So four years ago, we started the plan and implemented it.

Right, right. So we're doing it now again. And basically in a nutshell, he's gonna come back and tell us where we are with market. And I'm not trying to cut you off, I just had a few questions and my list was getting a little long. Another thing is, whenever you're talking about the data collection portion, is he comparing us, and I heard you say to other government entities, is it, are you comparing us with another community like ours? Do you know? Because what I'm saying is you can't compare us with Fulton County. Correct.

And so at the kickoff of the plan, we would sit down with them, with leadership, Mr. Mosley, Ms. Hunter, myself, Samantha. and we would outline what are our goals and priorities, and we would also tell them who we want. They would recommend who to use as comparison, and then we can also say, well, we don't want them, but we definitely want them in the mix when we're collecting the data.

Right, but I guess to make sure that the data that's being collected is the most efficient data, it has to be a mirror of Me personally, I mean for 35,000, I think we should look at it from where we are. And whenever we talk about workforce and future workforce, is this the same identity that we're looking for? Because of course, you know, Mr. Chair, here in Liberty County, we're being strongly focusing right now on education and literacy. So what I'm saying is, are we looking to expand the workforce to that type of level. You picking up what I'm putting out? You understand? No, you lost? Okay, cool. Let me break it down. All right. When are we looking at data collection? When are we looking at workforce? We're looking at what workforce we have now, but also in the future workforce, are we looking at a different education level? Are we looking at a younger level? What type of workforce are we trying to attract? I think if we implement that, that'll make what we're doing a little bit more mainstream. Follow me now. No, still. Okay. If, if I'm, if I'm trying to, the other day we were talking about, uh, healthcare in, in Georgia and how, and, and I know you serve on a lot of the health boards, so you understand. And Ms. Chair, you worked in the health field for a long time. The issue we have in Georgia when we're dealing with healthcare, sometimes it's the providers. Because a doctor here makes 100,000, I'm just throwing out a number, but then you go over the line and make 150. Where are you gonna go? You're gonna go over the line. So what I'm saying is, when we're looking at the data collection, what are we comparing? And what type of workforce are we looking at for the future?

So it sounds to me like you're speaking more on the recruiting end.

On both ends, right.

Okay.

Right.

Well, having a strong pay structure helps with recruiting.

It's more than just money, especially now with that millennial. Trust me. It's money, yes, it tracks, but also.

Work-life balance. Right, but I'm only speaking in that specific area of compensation, which I agree is only one factor of recruitment and retention. I agree with you there. But that's not what Dr. Condrey is going to come in and do.

Okay.

That's something.

Commissioner Gillard, you were right. No, what I'm saying is we keep doing this, but we understand that we have to increase. And I feel like this board, we've always, every year with budget, what we make sure is that we take care of our workforce. Like I said, the only time we didn't was when I first got on, and we was going through the struggles. And I remember that vividly. But since we've had that opportunity, we have. So... What I'm saying is, whenever we're looking at these pay scale studies, what's the bigger picture? I mean, with all due respect, you could put these numbers in and get on ChatGDT in 2026, and it would give you everything you need. So what I'm saying is, I think the biggest part, when we're looking at a pay structure, what are we looking at for the future growth? And you pulled the data. You know, with the different with the millennials and the baby boomers, I think the baby boomers is seven, almost 8%. And again, the difference in without respect, the baby boomers, y'all stayed on jobs for 40, 50 years. Millennials not doing it. So what I'm saying is, and even when you show the difference in how many people left the county, Some people don't leave just to leave. I promise you that. And I think you in HR, you know that like the people, this new generation is different. And I think what I'm saying is I'm not saying that we don't need to pay for this, but we need to make sure that what we're looking for. I mean, just looking at it from the money, I mean, we could scale that. That's scalable.

Well, let me mention this to you, is one of the things Mr. Mosley and I have talked about bringing into this project, which we haven't before, are specific career progression pathways. Because nowadays, I mean, people want measured Target growth, like here, give me a way to get there and move up in the organization instead of, well, I'm going to wait 20 years until my boss retires. And Ms. Hunter agrees with this too. I mean, there's studies about that. That's what keeps people at jobs. You give them a pathway to move up and grow. Opportunities, by far. Right. And we don't have our pension anymore. We have the 401A. which it's a great retirement plan and it's portable and it's got advantages to that and it's more with the modern way of people spending five to seven years if you're lucky at your organization before moving on. That's why I mentioned succession planning is important to us because we're losing You know, when somebody walks out after 30 years, have you captured what they know? So that is one of the things we're going to bring to Dr. Condrey is having the career ladders. So when you come in, you know you need to get this certification and work this number of years, and you're going to be a senior clerk or a clerk two. three, four, whatever it is that we decide to do.

Mr. Chair, that's the only thing I was saying. I just, you know, if we just getting strictly numbers for, okay, for your position or, you know, the different departments then, I mean.

I see what you mean now. And that is something that we're going to.

Right. How detailed, like you said.

Leverage in this study, yes.

Absolutely. All right. Thank you.

Laura, whenever he looks at this, I assume that he does look at the job description and if education requires a degree and that type of thing. He looks at that also?

He does, and he'll work with the department heads on that. to determine what level of education is needed for if it's an entry level position or something more specialized. Or do they need to get it within six months or a year? Works with the department heads on that. And we did a lot of that work on job descriptions with the 2023 paper. And now we've gotten into much better practice as we post jobs. We're looking at them for updates. So.

Laura. How many job descriptions roughly off the top of your head you think have changed since the last study?

I have about 350. They continually get minor tweaks. The only ones I would see changing is if we, with the career ladders, we would have to make some intermediate, new job descriptions.

Well, I just hope that we don't run into the same problem that we did with the last one. Remember with the, uh, one of our departments, Mr. Moses, probably he was, he was just coming in during that time.

I don't want to go into detail, but like a better word appeals. Remember that?

Right. We did offer some appeals, but, um, Yes, but we have to remind everybody that we're looking at a large county, and there is something called internal equity. So when you state your major duties and all of those components on the job description, that's what they're measuring.

All right, question since you said that. Let's say you come in, he comes in, and he selects who he wants to sit down with. and that person puts down their job description, where does it go from there? Straight back to him or does it come back to admin and then go to Dr. Condrey?

Is the person sitting down with them the department head?

Is that the only person he sits down with, the department head?

This last time, yes.

Okay. So let's say you are my department head You put down something concerning me, but I don't know what you put down. How does that go?

You talking about like job description? Yeah.

When we finalized all the job descriptions, we sent them to all the departments to review.

And that's what you used your desk information provided to the?

Right, we provided them to the departments. They provided them to the employees, and then that's when we offered the 90-day appeal period. And the employees got a chance to see the finalized version of their job description and the pay, and then come and ask any questions.

At Liberty Region, we had to sign hours saying this is what we do every day.

Right, and now with Paylocity, we're able to build the job descriptions in to... the system and associate them with each employee. So I don't think the visibility is turned on there yet, but we could do that. Or make it part of the, basically we take the job posting and base it on the job description. So when they apply for a job, they're getting all the information.

All right.

Go ahead. But I understand what Commissioner Stevens is saying about that. That's why, again, I think this is needed. I think us as a county, we've always tried to make sure and strive that the foundation, which is you all are, you know, taking care of it to our best ability. I just want to make sure that it's not just a regular old study that don't come back and just say, okay, well, this is what we need. Like promise Apple and commissioner thrift just said it as well. Like, you know, if say for instance, a baby boomer is retiring. Right. And then a millennial comes with, Whenever that job description first was initiated, you might have only needed a high school diploma. But then a millennial comes in with maybe three or four years worth of experience, but with a bachelor's and master's, where do you start them at whenever they have the education? which whoever gets education, you wanna be compensated for your education. Where do you go? Because I know for a fact, we have some positions right now where somebody was replaced and they're making less than the other person, their predecessor. And I think you know that as well, because you are in HR. So what I'm saying is, is that something that we're gonna consider as well?

We could ask Dr. Condrey to come up with a system such as that where they get extra steps for education experience, but that's going to come down to the budget and what they would project that would cost to implement.

And I agree 100%. But the reason why we're doing this, which you said earlier, is retention. Retention. And recruitment. There you go. So what I'm saying is those are questions that I know that if you're 45 and younger and you – those are things that matters, you know, because, again, 401Ks and all, you know, that – Either a transfer or you start another one. Keep it going.

Mr. Chair, to answer Commissioner Stevens' question, the department head would have to sign off on that particular job description. You could have cases where there is some bias in that process, but What's good about Dr. Condrey is they've worked with enough job description over the years, they can tell pretty much how jobs, what the duties of a particular position are. That's where their wisdom, institutional knowledge come into play.

And one other question for you, Ms. Law. Is there any other company around in the area that could do this same study?

UGA has a group.

So Dr. Condrey pull out from UGA.

He retired a few decades ago. He retired. 20 years.

So he retired with the information of Liberty County.

With his education, I guess.

One thing I wanted to say is I'm hearing a lot about job descriptions and different things in doing this study. Everything ain't isolated just to a job description. A lot of people are doing way more than just their job description. or they're getting compensated like they should.

Tell me what you found out about other companies that do this.

One of the things, I'm glad that question was asked, there are a bunch of companies that do that. A lot of companies, they start in prices in the $100,000s. And it's ironic, when we were doing this, a question came across the listserv, and people were asking, OK, who are somebody good that you recommend to do a job description. UGA and Conjuring Associates were the two that was consistent that the people were responding to. Statesboro, not Statesboro, but Bullitt County just paid Arch and Associates, and I guarantee it was over $100,000. It's very lucrative to do these types of studies.

Chairman, so this study would include rewriting job descriptions? Yes, sir.

If needed. I don't know.

I see old Clinton sitting out there. I mean, I can't imagine his job description changing. I mean, he does everything. It's not on there. When you sit down with Dr. Condren, make sure you update him. No, Mr. Chairman, I got, I got to run in a minute, but I do want to say, I think we did talk about this. Well, I just wanted to say this. We, it was one of those slides in there. Back up, Laura. Right there where you had one, two, three, four, and one, two, three, four on both sides. And you referred to the right side as five, six, seven.

That's not how it was on my copy.

My question was, was the three on the right the same as seven? But that's a joke. No, my question, when we talked about this last month, and I think the question was, We've done these studies before. Dr. Connery or somebody has done them before. And I guess, and I'm just imagining this, it may not be the case, that once he gets finished, he gives us a report. Right. Yes. And which is kind of like a recipe. And then one of those slides say that we do them every three to five years. And if someone did, and I was just thinking if you, if someone did a study three years ago and then in 2019, what's the 26th, 2029, it's time to do another study. You have that recipe. And, you know, so you go back to that and you kind of do the same thing. That was just my thought. But then you had a list, I mean, a laundry list. of reasons why it need to be done by somebody else and reasons why we can't do it. And I just thought that, you know, we've been through this process several times, probably, and I've been here probably three or four times since I was up here. And I guess what we're saying is that each time it's done, it's different. It's not the... same report that you got from him three years ago. He's going to give you a whole other report from a salary study, a different report?

The outline of the report would be the same, but he's going through a whole new process of collecting the most current salary data from all the different sources that we outlined.

That's what he's going to tell you. That's what he's doing, but how does he do that? I mean, with magic?

No. They reach out to all those organizations personally.

Same as he reached out to three years ago, wouldn't he?

Right. That's why he has all those relationships with all these different communities. He does this across the country.

I guess there's a big change in three years. So when he does it today, and in 2029 when he does it again, there's something totally different. So he's going to do that in three years.

It's the same methodology that he's used. It's really updating the numbers. And we don't really delve into all the background data. That's not in his report. It's basically a summary report with the different options and costs for the board.

And I think we all want the best for our employees. So if a study done by whoever, including us, could make things better for our employees, then I think we're all for that. But I just didn't think that having Dr. Conde or Steve here to do a study that he's done time and time and time again to tell us what we probably, could be able to refer to or that we should probably already know. But maybe there's more to it than that. If we get him, and if y'all don't mind, I'd like to come in and see how he make the sausage.

I was going to say, we don't know how the sausage is made.

That's his secret. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

He's not the only sausage maker. I mean, it's like KFC chicken, man.

You don't know how many spices, but... I thought you would say, Mr. Mosley, the study done three years ago, from that data, things could even have changed. When Statesboro paid in 2023, they could be paying something different now. Then we'll know, okay, we're getting out of kilts because Statesboro, Willow County, Wayne County, now they're paying this.

That is correct, sir. They've been through studies, and they've increased it to meet their market. So everybody has done it. That's a good point, and the one I was thinking of.

We're all trying to stay slightly ahead of each other.

And that's how the market keeps moving. All right.

Okay.

Okay. Any other questions?

Thank you. Wait a minute. So behind this study, If you are still here at the next go-round, you should be able to do it yourself, right? No. No, it's going to be different. It's going to be fine.

It's going to be different. Unless you want to send me to become an expert.

And what was the price three years ago for this thing?

$32,000.

$32,000.

$32,000.

And that's different.

Oh, yeah. So, yeah. The scale moves.

I'm betting in three years it's going to be 40. All right.

We've been here a long time. Chair, turn to motion.

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion. We approve DMOU with Steve Condrey and Associates.

Second. With all the details. All in favor?

With all the details. Thank you, sir. All right.

Mr. Wells.

He didn't hear you.

Mr. Wells. Hey, Gary.

She's still in here. Mr. Wells. Evening, Chairman. Yes, sir.

We sent out silver bids for the replacement of our front load garbage trucks. We got some prices back from two different vendors. The only one we got. The low bid was Samsung equipment out of Statesboro. $394,950. That was a low bid. It is in the CIP, a budgeted item, and come in under budget. You check the other budgets. Samsung is SWAT. They brought out SWAT. I know. We're familiar with that vendor, obviously.

We're familiar with that vendor, obviously.

Yes, we use them all the time. Thank you.

I second it. Further discussion? All in favor of your hands, please. All right, sir. Let's turn around time on the delivery.

He's actually got it on the yard. He's got the body painted blue to match the rest of ours. Ready to go.

And I'm assuming we have the money. I guess it's too late to ask that question. He answered that. I know. I can't hear it over my stomach right now.

Wait a minute now. All right. Mr. Mosley, your report.

No, we got, no. Man, we on the second page now. Wait a minute.

We took that.

It's still people in the audience, so I know.

Yeah, I see that. You know what? Somebody didn't give me the second page.

Okay. Yeah. Chief Deputy Hagan. Come on, Chief. Mr. Chair, I was going to say. He about to go to sleep.

But I was going to invite him up.

Here he goes, right here. The MOU.

We work a night shift, Chief. Good evening, Chief. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. Okay. I just want to clear one thing real quick. Since it was mentioned, and we are live here, that the Sheriff's Department look at giving pay raises The ones that we do give, we do it within, we find creative ways within our budget. We have not come to the commission to ask for monies, to the sheriff, do everything he can to work within his budget, because that's part of retention. We're, the market is constantly changing, but thank you for allowing me to make that quick.

Absolutely.

Thank you, sir. Clarification. That's not just you, that's other departments too. But I'm here tonight to come before you all to bring the 2026-2027 MOU between the school board and the county commissioners for the SRO program. The contract didn't change much from last year's contract. We did up to... SROs, we have two supervisors, a lieutenant and a sergeant, then seven deputies in the schools. We have two in each high school. And then what we did was looked at the plan to use dual resources like at the middle schools, have that officer cover the elementary schools that are attached as well. I'm the sheriff and I firmly believed in combined resources. And from that, we were able to save the board from the last budget approximately $900,000. And so they were able to cut that from the SRO board as a result of us shifting and cutting some of the positions.

So... You said save $900,000? Yes, sir. Nice.

So you just need approval for this year? Ma'am. You just need approval for this year. That's correct.

The school board has gone before the board and it's been approved by them. But it needs approval. And as you know, for those who don't know, only thing that cost the county um, commissioners or the county taxpayers is from the, um, you all basically pay out the salaries to the officers and re fully reimbursed by the school board.

Chief, does that, does, That includes a benefit for them too, right?

Okay, okay, that's what I thought. Okay, okay.

Now, and how many, what's your total overall bill out for all of your SROs? What is it?

Total cost.

No, per person.

Per personnel.

How many? How many?

Like 16, 17, 11, nine.

Nine now.

Nine with two supervisors, seven daily operations. Your supervisors roam the different schools, but also maintain all the documentation. If you see any full implementation, how many will it be? When y'all got full implementation?

What's your expectation to get everybody?

Of course, we looked at 15 in total, and that's what was funded. And then instead of funding that full 15, we said, let's go with, Now we cut back to instead of having that money sitting out there. that was able to go back to the board.

And that's the $900,000 that you just stated that is safe, right? Which is a win-win on both sides and more importantly for the taxpayer. But we appreciate you. I think we already made a motion in a second already. We really did. But more importantly, just being out there today at the schools, just seeing the safety that I felt You know, even, you know, over at Bradwell, they had the metal detectors. The deputies were out there. And, again, for someone who has kids in the school system, you know, it made me feel safe where I know when my kids walk out the door, of course I pray. But, hey, that's only a little bit, you know. But just to make sure. You know, the Bible says, you know, about works. Yeah. Yeah, you got to work it. Let's have a little Baptist over here.

Yeah, you said you wanted to go home, too.

Amen.

Guaranteed a motion. Have we had a motion? Who made the motion?

Timmy made a motion. I made a second.

All in favor then? Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Commissioner. Absolutely. We appreciate them. For them approving that because it helps to keep our kids safe. Thank you so much. Thank you for hanging there with us.

I love y'all uniforms, man. Pretty spiffy.

Oh, this chair and members of the board. Uh, this is a house cleaning item. Uh, as you know, it's very important for us to have people to sign off on ordinances. Uh, when things go, uh, when Steve goes to, when, um, uh, um, Mr. Marrero goes to court, he has to have somebody to sign off on the, um, on the codes. And right now Maria is the only one that's authorized and what this, What we're requesting is to authorize the individual's name, namely me, Ms. Hunter, and also Ms. Radcliffe to be able to sign codes for staff as they go to court.

Sounds good.

Okay. You need a motion on that?

Yes, sir. Okay.

Okay, I'll make that motion.