Boma - workshop

Thank you, Joey, and good evening, everybody. This is the work session for the Board of Mayor and Alderman for Tuesday, July the 14th. We're going to call the roll. Alderman Barnhill? Present. Alderman Blanton? Apparently he's going to be absent tonight. Alderman Caesar? Present. Alderman Peterson?

Here.

Alderman Berger? I understand it's going to be late. Alderman Brown. Present. Alderman Potts. Present. And Vice Mayor Baggett. Present. And the mayor is here. So next is citizen comments for items that are not on the agenda. I have speaker cards, but they all have items that are on the agenda, so we'll keep moving forward. We've got two event permits tonight. We're going to consider Centennial High School Homecoming Parade and the Franklin Classic sponsored by Mercy Community Health Care. Is there any questions about those? Seeing none, we'll keep moving along. We'll go to item number three, which is ordinance 2026-14 to reappoint Jessica Bourne as city judge for the city of for the City Court of Franklin, Tennessee. Mr. Stuckey?

We have Jessica here as well. Judge Bourne, it's hard to believe. It's been four years. It has been four years. It's a four-year term. It's time to look at that again. She's done an outstanding job as our City Court judge, and it is staff's recommendation that she be reappointed for another four-year term. Jessica works with her very, very closely, so I'll give her a chance to chime in as well.

Sure. Thank you, Eric, and good evening, Alderman. So I am here tonight in my capacity as City Court clerk to recommend approval of this ordinance to reappoint Judge Bourne for another four-year term. Her term is set to expire on September 1st, and staff has thoroughly enjoyed working with her these last four years. She receives a lot of compliments from the defendants that appear before her, which is not necessarily always the case for someone coming to city court, but they find her calm demeanor and her educational approach to city court to make it a pleasant experience. And she has expressed a desire to continue serving. So staff is recommending approval of this ordinance.

Okay. Any questions or comments? Thank you. Next, we'll go to item number four, which is ordinance 2026-19, an ordinance amending certain sections of the Franklin Municipal Code relative to e-bikes and play vehicles. I do have two speakers, but I'll turn it over to Mr. Stuckey, and then I'll recognize the speakers after that.

And Shauna will carry the bulk of this presentation. But we've spoken with you a couple meetings back and gotten some initial guidance and worked with a group of citizens to get some feedback to help kind of work through some of the different topics. And what we have before you tonight is a working set of recommendations from that dialogue. And we'd love your feedback on where to go next with this. And Shauna, we'll walk you through it.

OK, so yeah, we had a great conversation. As it is in the summer, we had some people that couldn't make it, unfortunately. But from that conversation, I think we came up with a pretty good working start for an ordinance. This is, again, up for discussion and comment. Again, the purpose of us looking at our municipal code now is to establish some clear regulations on e-bicycles. We now have the authority by state law to be able to do that. We talked before that scooters and some play vehicles actually aren't even allowed, and I know that's not the intent of the city or why we're building multi-use paths. And then obviously as we're thinking through this, trying to make sure that we have public safety as we've thought through where they can be, who's riding them, and what they're riding. So again, these are the three classifications of e-bikes. This is the description of how fast they can go. And these are the locations that we propose them to be. So class one and class two can be on streets, roadways, and sign multi-use paths. And then class three would only be allowed on streets and roadways, but never sidewalks, but also not on multi-use paths. I don't think we actually said that, but we'll make sure that that's clear. And then, of course, age 16 and under, you have to wear a helmet for all classes. And then helmets are always required for class three. E-scooters and motorcycles, we kind of talked a little bit about defining those as well. So e-scooters would also be allowed on streets, roadways, sign multi-use pass, prohibited on sidewalks, but that's something I want you guys to think about if you want e-scooters on sidewalks. I think when we talked internally, we thought that there was a safety aspect to how fast they can go because people who might be on a sidewalk might be walking leisurely or having a stroller and motorized. vehicles could be dangerous on a sidewalk. Not a multi-use path, just a sidewalk. And then e-scooters would be equipped with reflectors, which they already have when they are purchased, so it's just keeping them on there. Motorcycles and e-motorcycles, the way we're addressing this, the state law already provides for motorcycles and e-motorcycles, so we're saying we just follow the law. Again, operators must be 16 or older to ride. They do require a license. Helmets are always required, and any violations would be subject to state law citations. The others might be municipal court, but motorcycles are a state law issue. Again, play vehicles were not really allowed in the city, so what we propose is to allow all play vehicles on public streets, roadways, and sidewalks, and prohibiting them still in public buildings, public places, and our garages. So you can't roller skate in the garage, you know, down, if someone might want to do that. And I'm sure they would. This is very specific to non-motorized play vehicles. So if you have the one thing that we didn't talk about, and it was brought to my attention by one of the police officers, are segways. And I think a segway is probably more akin to a scooter. So we might want to put that in with the scooter regulations. And we hadn't talked about that. I didn't really think about segways, but we probably should do that.

It is motorized, so treat it like the other motorized. Okay.

And so safety requirements that are in the code, again, follow all state rules, regulations, city traffic ordinances, the helmet issue, proper seating. So a lot of this is already in state law, but you can only have riders that are allowed for...