City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you for joining us live for the city of South Fortune city council meeting. We are proud to introduce the leadership entrusted with guiding our city forward. Mayor Carmelita Gunns District 1 Councilwoman Dr. Catherine Ralph, District 2 Councilman Aaron V. Johnson, District 4, Councilman JC Sebastian, Mayor Pro Tim Kiosha B. Bell, District 6, Councilwoman Natasha Williams Brown, District 7 Councilwoman Linda Becker Kitchen. Supporting the work of this body in the operations of our city are city clerk Corey Adams, city manager Sharon D. Subed, and interim city attorney Sarah Kelly. Thank you for being the best part of the city of South Florida, a city on the rise. All right. Good afternoon and welcome to our city council work session for March the 24th, 2006. And we will officially call this meeting to order. Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the role?

Yes, ma'am. Good afternoon to Madame Mayor and members of council and the general public. this roll call for today's work session. The Honorable Katherine Efral, District 1, present. The Honorable Aaron V. Johnson, District 2, present. The Honorable JC Sebastian, District 4. Here. The Honorable Kosha B. Bell, District 5, present. The Honorable Natasha Williams Brown, District 6. Present. The Honorable Linda B. Pritchette, District 7. Here. And the honorable mayor Carmelita Gums here. Madame Mayor, you have a quorum. All right. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Can you please sound the next item?

First item on tonight's agenda is a presentation by our city manager, Sharon D. Suban, introduction of new employees. Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Clerk, Mayor, and Council. We only have one introduction tonight. It is our interim HR director, Tanya Morris. Tanya, some of you have already met her. Please welcome her to the city of South Fulton. Welcome. Welcome. Do you want to come to the front so everybody can see you? And she wore purple. Yes. Yes. I'm in comp.

Well, thank you very much for being here and helping us along this journey. So, thank you. Thank you. Would you like to take a picture or good? Okay. All right. Thank you. Have a great day. Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item?

Yes. The next item is presentation. Our first one this afternoon is impact fees update by Paige Hadley with Rosson Associates. Introduced by our director of community development regulatory affairs, Mr. Dr. McClinton. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Uh, good afternoon everyone. Reggie McClendon, managing director of community development and regulatory affairs. Uh, today we're going to have a uh council briefing for our impact fee study, but I did want to give a quick introduction. Um, one for our our viewing audience as well as um um we do have a new honorable member of council who was not here for the majority of this um journey. So, I want to make sure that we uh are all up to speed um as I'm sure that he is. But, um we started this journey um with our impact fee study back in September of 2024 um by bringing on uh our consultant Rosson Associates. And I'm going to bring up uh Paige Hatley from Rosson Associates um to give the briefing, but they are the preeminent for firm in the state of Georgia who does this type of work. Um it this impact fee study was designed to run concurrently with our comprehensive development plan update. Um, and we have um sent our update off to our comprehensive plan update to the Atlanta Regional Commission in the Department of Community Affairs and they are currently reviewing it and we hope to hear back from them in the next uh 3 to four weeks so we can move forward with um adopting our new comprehensive plan. this uh this impact fee work will be a big part of that plan and uh Miss Hatley is going to explain to you exactly how those two two different things kind of talk to each other and and work together. Um we had a public hearing in January of 2025 um explaining

to the community and getting their feedback um about the impact fee study. We you all have appointed an impact fee advisory committee and that committee is still intact and still uh doing work to help us to formulate our impact fee program. Um and we have gone through a rather massive effort of collecting information from our department heads about their capital projects um that we look to move forward uh in specifically in the next 5 years but um also beyond that if if we have anything with a longer runway. Uh and so um that brings us here today. our comprehensive plan uh adoption was pushed back a little bit by you all because we wanted to go out and get a little bit more public engagement um which is always advisable. Um but because of that we've also um had to push back the potential adoption of these of our impact fee program. And so um now that we're further further along in the comprehensive plan process, we're also trying to make sure that we push forward our impact fees as well. So, with that being said, um we'll bring up Paige Hatley.

Thank you. And good afternoon, Mayor and Council. I just have a uh a brief presentation. Let's see. Okay, there we go. Uh because it has been a while since I've been before you, as uh Mr. Mr. McClendon mentioned the last time would have been last year uh when we had a preliminary uh kickoff public hearing to introduce the process um of undertaking an impact fee study which would lead to the potential for the city to begin a development impact fee program. and impact fees in the state of Georgia is a one-time fee collected from new development uh to help pay for future capital costs to expand city services that are going to be needed to serve growth and development. Um I've got a brief presentation to bring us back up to speed as to where we are as we follow on the heels of the comprehensive plan. As mentioned, um, an impact fee program, uh, is, uh, technically a component of a comprehensive plan. And so, um, the capital improvements element or CIE that we've been, uh, working on upon adoption would be part of the comprehensive plan as a standalone, uh, appendix. And so, uh, again, want to bring us back up to speed uh, what we've been working on in conjunction with the comprehensive plan. uh and then what our next steps are to keep moving forward. Um as mentioned, we're we're looking at the potential to collect a one-time fee from new development to help pay for the cost of expanding public services that are going to be needed to serve future growth and development. Uh like the comprehensive plan, we have a long range horizon. We're looking out 20 years. Um and then we have a near-term lens like the comprehensive plan to look at projects expected to be implemented in the next five years. Uh specifically, we're

looking at what we call public facility categories of parks, police, and fire. Road improvements had originally been part of the study. Um but it's become apparent that the Teslas program is adequately funding the type of projects that otherwise would be eligible for impact fee funds. Um and so we can't charge new development twice for the same project. Um however uh when the transportation plan is updated um there's certainly an opportunity to amend the impact fee program to accommodate roads but at this point in time the emphasis is back to public safety and parks and recreation. Everything that we do in developing um an impact fee study and a potential program for adoption is guided by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs guidelines um as well as the 1990 Georgia Development Impact Feact or DEFA. Uh just to give some context as to um who else has impact fees, who has who charges to help pay for expansion of capital facilities. Um in the county, it's primarily the northern cities. Uh Fairburn recently adopted an impact fee program. East Point is also conducting a study as of course uh South Fulton is. And then you can see um on the south side uh Clayton County just adopted a program for the unincorporated area and there are some other communities around um to the north and to um the south. Uh not so much on the east and west uh but these are fairly longstanding impact fee communities in the metro region. So what we do then uh sort of the crux of an impact fee study is we're looking at um a long-term lens. So what are going to be the needed additions to

capital services and facilities to serve future development coming in. So we look at when we're talking about parks, police, and fire, what are going to be additional recreation amenities? How many more playgrounds? How many additional miles of multi-use trail? how many additional uh satellite uh police precincts or expansion of fire stations, fire trucks. Um all of these things are eligible for impact fee funds. Um but we have to determine the extent to which uh we can charge new development these for these things that are going to be needed to serve them. So we call these capacity adding projects. We're not looking at anything that um is serving folks now or is meeting deficiencies that exist. Everything has to be done in the lens of expanding the city's ability to serve new growth and development over the coming decades. And we call these system improvements. Um so expanding the parks and recreation system and your public safety services. Uh so we're looking at project needs as exemplified here. uh park and recreation amenities, building area in terms of square footage and heavy vehicles. And then ultimately we're going to be calculating the maximum fees that could be charged to help fa pay for these additional capital projects. That ultimately would be the potential impact fee that would be charged a new development at the time that building permits are issued. Just as a reminder, um, by state law, we can't use impact fees for things that are certainly important, but these don't qualify. Um, so project improvements, um, if you require, u recreation amenities to be built within a neighborhood to serve that neighborhood, that's specific to that area, not the

city. That's not eligible. Staffing, routine maintenance, repairs, um, anything that doesn't have a service life of at least 10 years. So computers, um furniture, those things don't qualify. Uh and as mentioned, we we can't address deficiencies or existing issues now. Everything is looking ahead to try to find an additional funding source to expand future needs as the area continue to continues to grow. Um and then coming back around to the CIE or the capital improvements element, that is a standalone. Um it ultimately would be an appendix to the comprehensive plan. The Georgia Department of Community Affairs requires this piece called a CIE be developed um for it to be focused on the capital needs. And so it just goes into much more detail than the overall body of the comprehensive plan. Um but it would be an appendix to it upon uh appendix to the comp plan upon its adoption. Um so we have two formal components that constitute an impact fee program as mentioned. the CIE which is would be an appendix to your comprehensive plan. It's your projectbased document. What's needed 20 years from now and what do we think is going to be done in the near term in the next 5 years as far as helping to pay for those identified project needs. That's where a fee schedule is developed. The fees that could be charged um each time a building permit is issued for a new house, additional apartments, a new gas station, a new office building, etc. um that would fall within the development impact fee ordinance. Um the ordinance ultimately is about 25 pages. Everything um is that it contains comes from the state law um and provides sufficient detail to administer and maintain an impact fee program. And at the end of that would be the actual

two-page fee schedule for variety of uses of what could be charged in impact fees. the CIE and ordinance together, adoption of both that constitutes an impact fee program. Key inputs into the CIE, the projectbased document, uh we've looked at population, housing, and employment forecasts, building off of those that were done for the comprehensive plan. We we just looked a little bit farther into the horizon than the comp plan. um any adopted plans we have referenced um and incorporated such as the parks and recreation concepts and plans and then staff input um the department heads and helping us understand what near-term project needs are uh what's coming out of the ground um and they can see on a day-to-day basis um what additional needs are in the community. the ordinance. Then as far as uh helping to shape what the fee schedule would look like, uh we have an advisory committee that was appointed um by state law. It is it's comprised uh 50% of it is comprised of um folks from the building development and real estate community and their charge is to provide guidance to mayor and council as to what the perspective or a potential fee schedule could look like. They are only advisory in nature. Um but they uh their focus is really to talk about the fees, what could be charged and to pass through to you all um their recommendation when we get to the fee setting discussion stage. Um and again adoption of these two pieces uh by council means that you would be in the impact fee collecting business. So where we are coming back around to the CIE, we are working to finalize this again as a as a component an ultimate appendix to the comprehensive plan. Uh

it's the projectbased document. It has nothing to do with the fees themselves. That's handled separately. Um but the Georgia Department of Community Affairs has review criteria just as they do for your comprehensive plan. Um and so they have to review and approve the CIE before it can be considered for adoption uh by mayor and counsel. Um and then upon the uh ultimate adoption of the CIE, if the city wants to move forward with an impact fee program, that'll automatically amend your comprehensive plan to include this. This is the guide. If a project isn't in an adopted CIE, impact fees cannot be used to fund it. So finally then um where we are uh in the near term we're looking to come back before you uh with a formal public hearing as required by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to consider transmitting the draft CIE or projectbased document that would list the impact fee eligible projects. That would be late in April. Um, just like with the comprehensive plan, there's a review process almost about two months that DCA has to complete their review. And while it's under review, we want to reconvene the advisory committee to begin talking about the fees that could be charged to help pay for the projects in the CIE and then have fee setting discussions with you all on the heels of that. Ultimately, if um the decision is made to move forward with adopting an impact fee program, um their state law mandates uh the ordinance that includes uh would include a fee schedule. There have to be two public hearings and then the CIE and the ordinance would be adopted at the same meeting. Um, and that would be followed by staff training uh so that the city could begin collecting impact fees again with uh building permits being the trigger for

that. Um, so that's where we are right now and uh look to be back in front of you in a month uh in the formal setting with the public hearing and for mayor and council uh to consider transmitting the draft CIE uh to the Atlanta Regional Commission to initiate the statemandated review process. But wanted to just come back let you know where we are. Um, now that the comp plan is out the door, we are following on the heels of that with this specific component of the comp plan that focuses on capital project needs for parks, fire, and police and that is all I have. All right. Thank you so much for your presentation. We will have uh questions from our council. And the first person I see in the queue is Councilman Sebastian.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh just one question for me. Um is there a review period and a process to assess the impact if we do adapt a program like this and what would that look like? Well, um there so for procedurally DCA has a review process for just the capital improvements element and then the ordinance uh in the fee schedule doesn't go anywhere else other than before council for consideration. So, it's up to you all to decide um if and when um how long deliberations may be needed or discussion prior to moving forward with adopting the uh program in full, but I apologize. I might I I might be missing your point.

No, I mean post implementation if we decide to move on and and adapt the program, is there a process in which we can assess how it's working? Oh, certainly. Would that take?

Yeah. No. Um, so if you decide to move forward with collecting fees, um, there is on an annual basis, there's a reporting requirement um, that has to go before the states that sort of helps you take stock of what collections have looked like, what has been collected, what is expected to be spent, what are priority project needs. Um and so that's done on a recurring basis in order to maintain a program. Um and technically at any time um you know the the fees themselves I'm sort of getting a little bit into the weeds but um you can assess the fees that are being collected. If you move forward and adopt a fee schedule that's different than the maximum that could be collected. You could suspend collecting fees. It's basically um up to council as to how you want to progress uh if and when the uh program is actually instituted.

Thank you. Next, uh C uh Counciloman Ral, sorry. Thank you. Um you've mentioned um parks and recreations. Would cultural facilities fall in this category? Can you give me an example? Like a art center.

Sure. You know, that's something that I'm glad you mentioned that because we typically look at more um sort of the traditional like a community center or rec center, senior centers. Um but anything that would fall under, you know, would be could be perceived or is um offer something in the way of recreation as an amenity. Um that's certainly something that we could look at. I would just need to make sure that in our calculations that um we've correctly accounted for that. So um I'm glad you mentioned that. But if if the if the umbrella of parks and recreation includes that, then certainly we don't want to be remiss and forgetting that.

Yes, I definitely think we need to make sure that's calculated. We only have one center in the city and we definitely need to be thinking about that in the future. one the replacement of Cliftonale and then we need one on old national corridor as well. And what is the actual name? Did you say it's arts? Arts center. So they do arts classes in there. Dance, performance, all of that. Okay. I'll go back and I'll double check the the file and the massive Excel spreadsheets to make sure we've got that already covered. Thank you.

Are there any additional questions? I don't see anyone else in the queue. Um I do have a question. So it looks like based off of the timeline that we will be fully ready to launch in the summer if we follow this tight.

That is a a great question. Uh because that also it depends what you want the effective date to be. There needs to be time to make sure that the systems are in place. Meaning uh typically that's the building permit software expanding that capability which usually is already embedded. um but it needs to be brought to life if you will to um collect assess and collect impact fees and then staff training and that would be Reggie's department as well as finance. Um there's a handbook that's associated with that. Um but uh it that depends on what you all and what staff would feel comfortable as far as actually being in the business of collecting impact fees. Um, but this summer is what we're we feel comfortable saying getting through the DCA review process of the CIE, the adoption process and staff training that it could be um as early as that.

Okay. Um, thank you. This has meant a lot to our community. We've been hearing impact fees ever since we became a city in 2017. So, um, I'm excited to see the progress. But ma city manager um realistically can you give us a kind of anticipated timeline? I know summer may be tight but just so we can you know manage the expectations of the residents.

Sure. I think once we go through the adoption process and fee fee setting schedule. So that that part I think will be the part that is um will take the longest to get to um we'll get recommendations from the consultants and then you have to as a body adopt what you feel is appropriate for our community. And so realistically, I would love to for it to be a part of our fiscal 27 budget, which gets adopted in September, which makes the timeline tight. But, you know, if not, if it's adopted later, then I would come back and ask you for a budget amendment to be able to um receive the additional funds in calendar year 2027.

Okay. All right. Thank you very much. I don't see any other speakers in the queue. So, thank you for your presentation. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Can you sound the next item? Yes. That brings us item B, solid waste update, which will be introduced by Dr. Cooper, Citin City Manager, and Gordon Briquette, solid waste manager.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Dr. Dr. Mark Anthony Cooper, assistant city manager, city of South Fulton. Um, some of these items you have heard um at our retreat. However, we will be going over them quickly and um offering some other information on our solid waste uh proposal feed proposal. So this is what we our agenda what we will be going over the proposal the consumer price index and uh Mr. Berquette, our solid waste manager, will speak more on Merk Mile. So FY26 solid waste fee increase we're proposing um it's from 23316 which it currently is and has been for the last 3 years to 275 um even. That would take us a $349 49 increase per month uh effective June 26. Um there is an alternative uh price that I brought in because of course um we've had a number of questions regarding recycling and that would have actually taken the price up to 37556 uh for FY26. So what is our justification? Our current rate is set um was set in June of 23. Um it continues to provide high quality service and residential collection bulk Merk Mile shredding and recycling events that we have. Um we have a lot of safety improvements that need to happen at Merk Mile that uh Mr. Berquette will speak on as far as well as following the council's directive of maintaining a reserve requirement for the solid waste enterprise fund. Um and part of this is based on the fact that

the contract that we do have with our vendor provides that we do have the consumer pricing index based on water trash and uh solid waste uh that's presented annually. So we talk about our curbside recycling. There were three options that we looked at. Uh we had our weekly recycling as well as our bi-weekly and a subscriptionbased uh recycling uh program. However, if you look at all three increased the price significantly to the residents of the city of South Fulton, uh the subscription base would be based on a number of homes that would have to sign up and pay for the entire year uh in advance. Um and that contract would renew annually with uh our vendor uh to continue to provide that service. Moving on, looking at our consumer price index based on our adjustment as it was determined again as the water, sewer, and trash uh which resets every June. Um if you look at our CPI as it went for the last two years, we're looking at a 4.7% CPI as well as a 5.2% CPI. that actually took us well above um what we could sustain with our current rate. Um that took our that added an impact on our first year of crash service of 336,000 uh 428 to a compounded rate of last year of 77,429 which we did and were able to absorb for the last 3 years into the uh current price. What we did is we actually came up with a average um because the consumer pricing index for uh FY26 is not available until May of 26. But if you look at the average of

what we normally uh have been dealing with, we're guesstimating about a 4.9% consumer pricing index would again take our the impact to our fund would be about 401,000 which would take our compounding in effect over the last couple of years um to 1.1 million dollars over the next couple of years. our solid race our solid race fee rate uh comparison as you see even with the increase um we're still much lower than some of the surrounding cities um and if you take out uh the city of Atlanta and you average all the cities we're still lower than the average of all the cities that uh we would be compared with looking at our FY26 solid waste revenues we just wanted to give you an overview of basically what we be looking at is approximately about 9.3 million um in revenue. About 9,30,000 is raised directly from our fees and we have some one-time grants that were that were accepted in. But if you look at our expenses for FY26, we're looking at expenses totaling roughly a little bit over $11 million. So the fund would not be able to sustain currently with our current pricing model. to educate our public on the solid waste fee. We did we are developing a comprehensive education and our community outreach uh program where we will be looking at with our public affairs department um information on our campaign um being presented uh before the bills are mailed in June. Um, we want to try to remove the ambiguity, uh, prevent surprises and establish a clear

and clear concise message across leadership. So, we did provide that information to all of council where we all have talking points where we'll all be speaking on the same information and that information will also be shared um, pending approval tonight. Um, ready to go. Oh, sorry. Skipped all over the place, huh? Okay. Solid waste feed communications. These are the things we have. We have our outreach, public information, our website is ready. Uh we do have a press release, news release ready. Um executive talking points ready. Our residential fact sheet, everything is ready to go upon approval tonight. Now I will turn it over to Mr. Burquette to speak on a little bit about our Merk Mile Convenience Center and some of the improvements we have made and what we will be making under our new pricing proposal.

Good evening, mayor and council. Again, I'm Gordon Bettton, the city uh city's solid waste coordinator. Uh going to talk a little bit about Merk Miles. Uh I'm sure most of you are familiar with it. It's been around over 50 years. Uh it's had one major renovation that happened in 2009. That's when we added the compactors at that location. Uh in 2019, the city assumed daily operations of that facility. Uh we established the pricing that we have right now in November of 2023 uh with our current vendor uh that is uh Laam Sanitation. We have uh Rick Jarvis here with us this evening as well as uh Bob Woke and Keegan Duckett from uh Waste Pro. Um our facility is a great cost-effective alternative to transfer stations. Um our most of our customers are pretty small uh less than 150 pounds. Uh so mostly residents that use our facility on a regular basis. We have about 5,000 customers per month at that facility. Um and most importantly diverts material from the landfills. So we recycle a lot of material there every month. Uh the completed task at Merk Miles um as it relates to the convenience center uh we're um developing the concept and designs and drawings for that. That process is just about completed. Um we had to do some assessments on where the water manes are so we can do some relocations of the fire hydrants and also um ensure safety at the facility. Um we've also made some improvements on our operations building which is where um our operations center is for delivery and maintenance of containers. Um but our upcoming improvements is what we're looking forward to most. um a lot of safety environment items uh including

the retaining wall. We're going to replace it uh and hydrant relocation. So, it's not in the middle of the center, it's going to be on the side. Uh and consolidating our recycling uh for which we did receive a grant this year to help us with that process. Uh storm water management. Uh we'll be covering our containers and also making sure that the rain goes to the appropriate place and is treated appropriately. Wayfinding signage and traffic flow through the facility is also very important uh to improve the environment there experience and the amount of time that you're spending at the facility. Last but not least uh we're going to cashless transaction process as well. Um as in addition to that uh we proposed to change our pricing slightly. Uh the the top line there is our current pricing by by weight. So currently you can take up to 150 pounds for $10 to this facility. Our proposal is to uh change that price to 12 and and raise that amount to 360. Uh again, most of our customers are on that lower tier. So this will be a benefit and provide competitive pricing for our smaller customers. And now we'll take any questions. Okay. All right, Mr. Clerk. Thank you all for your presentation. Um, I will recognize Councilwoman uh Linda Pritchette.

Thank you, mayor, for recognizing me. So, my question is um not going to be the popular thing to say. However, um for the edification of the people listening, the uh citizens and this question um either of you can answer, but I think Mr. Berquette might be better suited to answer this. So when it comes to recycling, um my understanding of how recycling started had to do with China having an overabundance of um trash and creating fuel pellets and all this creative stuff that at this point has like stopped to an extent. And so when people think that recycling is, you know, doing something really meaningful for the uh environment, I'm not disputing that fact. But um residents have brought to my attention that when they have seen recycling that they'll see the recycling tub, say it's let's just say yellow cuz ours are green or blue. And so they see the recycling thing go the same. So, it goes in the trash, too.

And people want to really believe that recycling is a whole separate process. And I'm not disputing that it isn't. But what I'm really saying is that the the focus of recycling and what it w when it was meaningful and when it really did result to something. I think those are times past. And so where people really want us to provide this service, what people see, believe what you see, it goes in the trash too, you know. And recycling, I think, um, from what I understand, it's really complicated. So, like if I wanted to recycle this bottle, um the plastic of the bottle can be used, but then it it's like you can't cap this, you can't have cardboards, you can't have it's just such a it's it's such an expensive process because it involves a whole lot and people are really serious about it. but from a um efficiency standpoint or a fiscally responsible standpoint, it might not even achieve what they really wholeheartedly believe. And so um I'm in a leadership class at GMA and there is um a sanitation D department director that's in the class with me and I asked him the question, do they throw the recycling into the thing? And he said, yeah. So, I'm not trying to bust anybody's bubble, but I think that that's the truth. And when you're looking at spending thousands of dollars um to do something that makes us feel better, I just want to do something or make sure people know that it really might not be doing what you think it does, even though it makes you feel like you did something really nice. Can you speak to that, Mr. Perquette?

I know you got in trouble the last time what you said. Did I? But I got you back.

Okay. Well, I I appreciate the question honestly. Um I actually have been in the recycling business for probably 15 years now and um a lot of what you are saying there there is some truth to that definitely. Okay. But I want to tell you what we're doing here in South Fulton. Okay. So we operate what's called we don't operate uh what's called curbside collections. Okay. We have uh a collection facility at uh Merk Miles. Uh we do operate a what's called a single stream recycling program there. That means all the materials can go into one container with the exception of glass. Okay. Uh and our partner where we take that material uh every week is Pratt Industries which is uh I think I think they're the largest recycler in the country at this point if not the the world. Okay. They have their uh recycling facility is in actually in conjurs and uh it's actually available for tours and I'd love for us to take a tour over there at some point um where they actually separate these materials and they sell them on the spot market. So actually Georgia is one of the biggest consumers of recycled materials. So that that bottle that you have there is what they use carp they use to make carpet. Um they also operate a uh it's a uh paper mill actually in in conany and the materials that they collect from our program go to that facility to become cardboard and their um partners are uh Amazon I'm sure a few of us have used their boxes as well as Home Depot and other large um makers of cardboard. So there is some recycling. It is not u ideal necessarily for everything. Um especially metals. Those are the easiest materials to recycle at this point. Um but we're definitely doing our part um to have that material reused.

Thank you. That's interesting. I want to take that tour. Okay. I thank you for your comments. Uh, Councilwoman Bridgetette, Councilman Sebastian, just one question of clarification on the um the comparison of different cities and the cost. Uh, what's in those costs exactly the same or that's just what residents pay but different services are included across different cities?

Well, it it's a lot of the same costs. I mean, we we're all paying for the same things as far as disposal, as far as um any um illegal dumping, all of these items. These are all including those costs. You do have some cities such as Atlanta that has the curbside recycling. So, that's one of the reasons why when we did the average, we pulled them out to show the difference with non-curbside recycling and curbside recycling. So, it's basically a lot of the same cost that they're paying for. Okay. Okay. So, none of the other cities do curbside recycling. I'm just trying to see if I can. Most of them do not. Yeah, most of them do not. Okay. All right. That's

All right. Thank you, Councilman Sebastian. I have Councilwoman uh Natasha Williams and then I have you. Thank you, Mayor. Um, could you go can we go back to the slide that showed the proposed rate increases? Yes, ma'am.

Uhuh. The the the one right before questions with the Merk Miles with the Merc Miles. Okay. So for 150 151 to 360 we are proposing to reduce that rate by $18. Yes ma'am.

How many resident Well, first of all, what does 151 to 360 tons look like? And how many residents do we have bringing that much to Merk Miles on a regular basis?

Okay, so in that that that group there 151 to 360 and that's in pounds that represents less than 10% of our customers that we get currently. So again, so most of our customers are are on the on the less than $150 uh dollar amount there. So um that that groups is about 70%. So with those two groups together that's about 80% of our customers. And so give me a visual on what 151 to 360 tons looks like

in pounds. Yeah. So for example um let let's go um a mattress is typically 50 to 60 pounds by itself. If you have a 50-in uh flat screen TV like one of these here, that's usually around 50 pounds. Uh couch is a little over 150 pounds. Okay. Mhm. And how many c how many So this represents about 10%. How many customers are we getting on an annual basis?

So we get about 5,000 a month. So that's about 60,000 customers a year. 60,000 customers a year and 10% of that would be 6,000 people. That sounds roughly that would be in that category. She's asking about the 153. Oh, you're talking about the specific category. That's why I'm talking about the specific category. So 5,000 customers a month, 10% of that is 500. So that's about 7,000 customers a year. So Mhm. Well, no. S 6,000. I was right. 6,000.

6,000. Okay. So, okay. Hold on. Cuz I'm

I don't have a spreadsheet I plug I can plug it into. So, let me do some quick math here. So, we're talking about about 6,000 customers paying $30 is $180,000. Somebody hold that number for me. And then we got 6,000 people paying $18 is $108,000. So, we're talking about about 72,000 roughly that we would be losing out on by reducing this in that category. That sounds about right.

Mhm. while we're at the same time saying that we need to and go back to the slide with the improvements that we need to make. So, okay. So, we have this list of improvements to the convenience center which will cost roughly what? Our

1.2 Yeah, our current estimate is $1.2 million. Can I weigh in?

So, I think there are two things we're looking at. One of them is in that category, we want to encourage people not to illegally dump. And as a council, we had the discussion um and the consensus was go back, do more research, come back with a proposal. Um quick math, currently it will be 180,000. Um reduced will be 72,000. So we'll be giving up 108,000. If it encourages people to bring it as opposed to leaving it on the side of the road when we have to go and pick it up on the side of the road, that's exponentially more expensive.

Because now we have to deploy a a team out of um public works with a vehicle to go pick it up, still take it to Mark Mile after you do that 10 times. Yeah. And thank you for that, you know, because I just I want to make sure that if we are reducing that if we're going to reduce it and we're going to take the hit on the fees coming in, then on the back end, right, this is going to be something that is going to be sustainable by reducing that dam because I have I have a photo I need to send public works. I need to send you now about some stuff dumped on Montilly. Um, do we have a way of tracking besides us sending things sending the pictures to public works? Are we tracking the um impact of the illegal dumping on the public works department?

Actually, yes. There's a an annual report that we do uh in public works that includes that amount that we collect uh on the sides of the road and and place in a a rolloff container at public works. Can we can you pull that out of that report and at least I know I would like to take a look at that.

Yes, ma'am. so I can see what type of of impact the illegal dumping is having and if there's a way to break that out by district. Um so that like if we can identify who's h where's the where where in the city the illegal dumping is happening. Okay. and we can try to like think of some solutions to how we can microtarget those areas to get them to come to Merk Miles and not throw it on Montelli Place. Thank you. I yield.

All right. Thank you, Councilwoman Williams Brown. Uh Councilwoman Ralph, I believe you were next in the queue. Thank you very much. I had a a couple questions. I know we're going to a contactless payment system. Will we be able to get more data in terms of tracking what we're doing in recycling at Merk Miles? And can you talk a little bit about that contactless system? Cashless. Yeah, it's actually cashless.

Okay. um our system actually we're um IT our IT department is actually developing a software that we will be using at the scale house and anytime a customer comes through it will assist them in calculating the fee and the amount of material and then that information actually will be uh rolled up and being able to be input into Tyler for us to do some more sophisticated tracking with it. So that that's something that's supposed to come online in the next three to six months.

We're we're we're um we're innovating here in South Foot in the IT department. We haven't bought something off the shelf. We actually have and looking at what our unique needs are. Right. So actually uh council asked us to do that last year. You did. Um so that is something we'll be able to track um by individual customer how frequent uh customers come to our facility and the materials that we're collecting on a regular basis and we'll be able to do some more um you know breaking down of that data to give us some better information on on what's going on in our communities.

And then the following question you talked about uh Pratt Industries using our materials for carpets. I know it's glass recycling. Do we get reports from those vendors about how much we are recite we're recycling with them? So eventually we can do some kind of reporting. So actually in our monthly report we do include that. Um we get um a dollar we get a weight every time uh that we go to Pratt. Okay. Um we also do recycle uh glass at um at Merk Miles as well and uh we get reports on that as well. So, we're happy to provide that to you. Okay. Mhm.

I I think that would be amazing for us to have some kind of annual report so that um residents kind of know how we're recycling in the city since it's available even if it's in the monthly some kind of roadup document. I think that would be great. Absolutely. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Johnson.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um two quick things. The first one uh back to uh Councilwoman Williams Brown question about the decrease from the the $108,000. How much would we pick up through the other categories or has that been calculated? Cuz I think if I'm not mistaken, we only looked at those first two categories or was that inclusive of all the categories across the board? We do have a breakdown of of all the categories, but again, those first two categories consist of 80% of our customers, right, each month. So, everybody else is pretty small. Uh, we'd be happy to provide that as well.

I was just wondering how much of that that we're missing would be made up in those other categories. Uh, well, probably not much because we lost money. Yeah, we actually to be very honest, we it won't be a lot. We Yes. And we we lose money on every transaction there to be very honest. Okay. All right. We wanted we wanted to councilman we wanted to make sure we tried to benefit the smaller customers which is basically our residents and try to like the city manager said encourage more people to come to Merk Miles as stop on every other corner picking up where they have dumped. Yes.

Right. Okay. Um, another thing you put in the fee increase that it'll go from 233 to 23316 to 275 and you have an alternative for weekly curbside recycling as 37556. What would that look like or how would that work as an alternative? Well, it would just be an alternative cost. So it would be an annual cost for all residents of $37556 which would add another $4 million to our annual fee. So this would be something that we would implement all over not just for people. That would be all over. Yes sir.

It would have to be blanket as opposed to I want to do recycling but my neighbor doesn't so doing it at my house and not Yes, sir. It would be everyone. Okay. All right. Well, that answers my other question then. So, that's it for me. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Johnson. Um, all right. I have a few questions. So, certainly I sent out the information just to kind of get a pulse on um what residents were looking for and I got a few questions back. Um, I do want to agree with Councilwoman Ralph that I think an annual report would be very helpful um not just for the council but for also the community as well. Um, so one question came about was about the spring and fall bulk trash days. We used to do those um annually. I know now we do them uh for each district um once is that once a year or can you elaborate a little bit on that?

Bulk trash pickup is actually monthly. So that's at your residence. So you can put out your bulk trash monthly. you just have to schedule a pickup

um at your resident. Um and that's one reason why it changed from doing the big bulk to doing the recycling and shredding because we weren't doing more recycling and shredding. So, we changed the bulk. So, the bulk is actually weekly at your home. You can just schedule it and they'll pick it up to what we're doing now currently, our recycling and shredding events. are are those calendars published on um the website just so I guess the edification because usually we see them when you know the council member is um either advertising but are those dates actually published um on the website

or when they're doing their trash what is it your public shredding and trash days recycling days those days yes so those are published on the website yes yes but maybe I don't know if you guys are familiar I I know some of us up here, they used to have a spring b is it spring bulk trash day and then they had a fall bulk trash day and the residents really look forward to that. It's kind of similar what we're doing now, but I didn't know if we could add two extra ones in there. I don't know, but that's what they asked for. Okay.

Um, and you answered the question, I believe, about whether or not recycling can be optional because based off of the numbers, you're pretty much are saying that the 375 would have to be if we did add recycling in there, that would be what it would be across the city. So, it's not optional like a pick and choose. Yes, ma'am. It's not. Okay. Tree trimming, debris, and um curb pickup. I did have a few residents that reached out. Um, we don't pick up tree trimmings. No, that that's correct. Is there any particular reason why could we add that in?

That is something we could consider. Uh, I I just how we got to this original rate was to make sure that we had a a product that we could apply against the the various uh type of living situations that we have in the city. uh from condos to the people who live on on farms. So we came up with the most common items that those folks had and and that's how we came up with a single container with weekly garbage service.

So for tree trimmings um what what would be their option to get rid of the tree trim is because I see all of these bags that sometimes are lined on side of the road with tree trimmers in it. So we if it can go in the container, they can actually put it in their existing container. Okay. Um we also um offer a second garbage can for $12 a month. Um and that you could put either, you know, switching it up depending on what's going on in your household. You can put tree trimmings in there. So as long as it fits in the trash can. As long as it fits in the trash can. Yes.

All right. Um cashless. um process that you are moving to and is that a weighted system? You're saying that that if people are coming up to um go to Merk Miles and to dump their debris, that is a weighted system. Yes, ma'am. We have one scale now and our proposal includes a second scale to make that process faster. So you would weigh when you come in on one scale and then on your way out you would go across the second scale and we calculate your fee based on the difference between those two weights.

Okay. And my last question there are is are there any plans to change the vendor um that will be providing this service? That was a question I received from a resident. Not at this not at this point.

Okay. All right. That concludes my questions. I don't see any other questions in the queue. Council is good. If there are no objections, um I want to take a moment of personal privilege. I do see that former council woman Helen Willis is here. Um if we all uh can do her proclamation at this time, I would appreciate it. Can we do All right, let's simple to do her proclamation. glasses on. Okay. Thank you all. Thank you all for being here. Councilwoman Willis, can you stop talking? See, nothing has changed, y'all. All right. So, where do you want me to start? Let me get over here.

That's her way of saying she missed y'all. So, as you all know, uh, Councilwoman Willis has resigned from district three uh to run for a higher office in Fulton County. And we are honorary honoring her exemplary service to the city. Uh, and I'm going to start reading and I will pass it around. Hela Zenobia Willis has served with distinction as an inaugural council member for the city of South Fulton representing district 3 since the city's founding in 2017. And

whereas Helen's leadership has championed the welcome all red oak and clifton their communities embodying a steadfast commitment to reducing the pipeline to prison enhancing parks and recreation increasing financial transparency and improving public safety. And whereas her advocacy and service extend beyond her council seat as evidenced by her years as a parent liaison and financial board member with Hateville Charter Career Academy, her involvement in civic volunteer organizations, and her unwavering belief that education is the bedrock of a thriving economically stable community. And where she has demonstrated exceptional dedication to public safety, notably authoring and passing the hang the sign ordinance to combat human trafficking and serving as vice chair of the National League of Cities Public Safety and Crime Prevention Federal Advocacy Committee. And

which one? Right here. All right. Right here. Yes. And whereas she has demonstrated exceptional dedication to public safety, notably authoring and passing the hang the sign ordinance to combat human trafficking and serving as vice chair. I already read it. Helen has supported countless state and local campaigns as a proud Democrat, serving as a Georgia state community committee member, Fullton County Post seat holder, and an active participant in the Georgia Municipal Black Caucus. And

whereas whereas beyond her public service, she is a proud graduate of Savannah State University and Keller Graduate School of Management and a dedicated professional who has contributed her talents to the Georgia Department of Labor and leading private sector organizations. And whereas Helen has balanced her demanding career with commitment to family as a devoted wife to Assistant Chief Deputy Vincent Willis, Senior and loving mother and grandmother. And now therefore, it be proclaimed that the mayor and the city council of the city of South Fulton, Georgia, hereby extends his deepest gratitude and heartfelt congratulations to former council member Helen Zenobia Willis for her nine years of dedicated service, visionary leadership, and unwavering commitment to the betterment of our city and its citizens. Thank you very much for your service, ma'am.

Thank you. Are you up? Um, I want to thank my colleagues and mayor for recognizing me, my nine years of service. Um, you know, I wish I can say that my love for the community started when I became a council member or fighting for the city, but it actually started at the young age of 13 when I became a candy striper. That's when I learned to really care um for my community and care for people. Um, so going from a candy striper to a bank teller to a council person has been an amazing career. Um, I know the city is on the right track now um with the leadership of Mayor Gums and I'm not going anywhere. I'm actually working harder than I was when I was a council member because people are still calling me and I told them to call me and so um thank you mayor for working with me during this transition and I look forward to serving you all again in a bigger capacity. Thank you.

All right. It's only been what a few weeks a a week maybe. All right. Can we take this picture? Okay.

Okay. Thank you for that. Um so if there is no further object objection we will be going into executive session for litigation personnel um cyber security and and real estate if there's no objection. All right the next meeting will start at 6:00. So we'll see you there. Um it was advertised for 6 o'clock. We'll be back. Thank you. We're recessed at 5:06

We have a quorum. Mr. Clerk, was there any action that was taken in executive session? There is no action taken in executive session that requires a public vote. All right. At this time, if there is no further business, we will go ahead and adjourn our um work session and we will open up the next meeting. Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item? That that brings us to the 6:00 alcohol license zoning public hearing meeting. And I'll proceed with the roll call for the meeting. Your honorable Captain F. Ra, District 1, present.

The Honorable Aaron V. Johnson, District 2, present. The Honorable JC Sebastian, District 4, here. The Honorable Kosha Bale, District 5. It's probably coming through the door. The Honorable Natasha Williams Brown, District 6, here. And the Honorable Linda B. Pritchette, District 7, here. And the honorable mayor Katha Gums here. Madame Mayor, you have a quorum. All right, Mr. Clerk, we officially call the alcohol license and zoning public hearing for March 24th to order. Uh, can you please sound the next item?

Yes, ma'am. This is the alcohol license resoning variance modification cases for presentation and public hearing only. Z26-008, an ordinance to reszone 191.20 20 plus or minus acres of land located at 555 and zero Spence Road, zero Old Sonoya Road, 0 Irwin Road, zero Fagville Road from the AG1 zoning district to M1 Light Industrial Zoning District to develop a 1.54 million square foot of warehouse space for light industrial uses. It's located in district 7. Staff applicant.

All right. Is the applicant present?

All right. Please indulge me for a minute. At this time, I'm opening up the public hearing for item 3A on the agenda. Sir, you have a total of 10 minutes to give your presentation. You do not have to use all of your time. You may want to reserve some of that time for rebuttal. Also, please keep in mind that the time that is allowed includes public comments for any any of the citizens who are also in favor of your application. The same time granted for those in favor of the application must be given to the opposition and you may now proceed with your presentation.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Uh good evening. My name is Henry Bailey, council for the applicant. Address is 3630 Peach Street Road Northeast Sweet 7000, the Clark Hill PLC. Um, you all have heard of this project before. This is a resounding request submitted by applicant KMT Partners for approximately 190 uh acres along Spence Road and I 85. Uh, the application is um is located in in City of South District 7. Uh the existing zoning is agricultural and suburban residential with the light at the proposed zoning um is light industrial facility size. We're proposing approximately three excuse me a total of three buildings with approximately 1.6 million square ft. Um and so some of the benefits of this project we have a a estimated capital of capital investment at roughly 230 million. That's increased from the last time we presented from you as we have a proposed tenant. um that is in place that will bring that number up significantly. A job creation of roughly a,000 to 2,000 jobs with a thousand being created by the proposed tenant which is a cold storage food user. Um the net profitable tax revenue on this site increases to 74x which is roughly $3.4 million annually and there's a number of different traffic safety workforce and beautifification improvements uh that's going to take place as a part of this project. Um primarily there is a huge G dot project under construction uh at the interchain interchange of Spence and I 85 uh roughly a $81 million improvement uh that's that's projected to be completed around uh 2027. There are additional uh improvements as well. Uh I'll save you from me reading them all word for word. Um there's also a significant amount of mitigated environmental impacts. Um, we have reduced the originally uh submitted facility down to uh roughly 15% of what was originally submitted to mitigate the impacts on nearby green space and streams. Um, the project will be

constructed with lead certified construction for sustainability and our closest uh residential property from the facility is more than the length of a football field away uh that includes existing and very heavily vegetated uh buffer. So, we believe this zoning of this property represents the highest and best use for this site. Um, it's aligned with the future land use map that designates the property as industrial. Uh, city staff recommended this property uh for as for recommendation of approval to staff. Um, it's currently misaligned with market demand. The current zoning is for agricultural uses inclusive of farming and residential on large acre parcels. Um the the demand for this location is evident today as we have a cold storage food user ready to commence development uh provided the zoning is approved. Uh it's located along three major industrial corridors inclusive of Oakley Industrial uh Roosevelt Fairburn Industrial including the second largest CSX Inter not being far away. Uh there are several mixeduse developments nearby at uh state route 92 in South Parkway, Trillup Studios, Fya Pavilion, and Shannon Mall redevelopment. So the industrial infrastructure that comes along with a project like this serves as a catalyst for more retail, hospitality, multif family within this immediate area, which is something we've heard time and time again from residents in this area when we've had conversations with them throughout this process. So here's an aerial of the of the site. As you can see, the site plan is kind of small here, but I wanted to show it to you in this way so you can get a sense of what we're talking about to the extent anyone on on the council that's not familiar. Um, this is at the intersection of 85 and uh Spence Road. You see it straddles both sides. This is the current existing zoning in the city of South Fulton. Showing it again um as AG1 as mentioned earlier. And for context, uh the property is located very close to and adjacent to the city of Fairburn, uh where there's a

significant amount of commercial, uh zoning, uh along Osenoya Road and Senoya Road and industrial across Oakley Industrial Boulevard. And so the current site conditions look like this. Um the the road you see here, Osenoya Road, is currently unpaved and wooded. And with this project, we will be paving this street to make it a full of actually paved up to city standards road uh that will allow for access to the property. And so, as I mentioned earlier about the the proposed or the under ongoing construction at Interstate 85, um it is extremely significant. We're talking about a cost of $81.1 million that started roughly in December of 2024. That's scheduled to be completed in fall of 2027. They're widening the lanes, fixing the interchanges, um doing a number of things that will improve the traffic conditions, the existing traffic conditions in that area right now. And here's the current site plan. Um also, we talked about this very briefly early on is that we originally submitted this site plan. We originally submitted this application, the building sizes were larger. We reduced them to to try to stay away from the streams and environmental features as much as possible and reduce that by nearly 15%. U and again the nearest residential is nearly 150 to 300 yards away with additional residential parcels between the development and the residentially developed parcels to add to the existing vegetative buffer. Again, we're paving old soya road with the turn lane offya road. Adding turn lanes on on Spence. We're adding no trucks beyond this point signage to deter traffic from going up Spence. No truck access on the Fedville road. And at the end of this development, there'll be a class A quality institutional-grade property management and landscaping company to keep up uh the aesthetics of the property that will be maintained on an ongoing basis. So site access uh as you can see the red line is where you will enter the property. The blue line is where you exit the property. You will

enter the property through Old Samoa Road off the intersection with 85. You'll exit the property going down Spence Road down to Oakley Industrial and back to 85, keeping the traffic all go from going north on Spence Road. Again, just to show you the distance from the residential, roughly 322 yards of vegetative buffer. Um, and on this in this particular area, we're talking about a roughly 189 yards of vegetative buffer. And on building 200 is 181 yards of vegetative buffer. And one point one one thing that's important to note here is that the property line is roughly 10 feet higher than the home. So topographical changes in this area will impact the visibility. Um and that impacts the visibility in a good way in this sense. And these are the proposed elevations of the site. This is roughly what it will look like once developed. And we've heard um there's been a petition going around and we wanted to respond to that petition as a part of this presentation. Um, one of the things we heard is that there's a tax incentive uh claim that's that's going that's that's being stated that we're going to take away money from schools and things like that. Um, this applicant is only has only completed one step of that process, which is the standard preliminary presentation. The net gain to the city, county, and state increases and does not decrease as ao as a part of that application process if it were to be approved. Um, it does not grant more industrial space than what was originally denied or what was originally presented. We're still at roughly 1.6 6 million square f feet on this site plan in the same way we were on the first site plan. The notion that there are empty empty warehouses are going to be prevailing on this site because there's no demand because there's so many other industrial properties in area. That's not true as evidenced by the fact that we have a cold storage uh end user already in place ready to go on this site. Um and then one of the other things that's really important is the amount of investment that this brings to tangible investment that this brings to the community. again a th00and to 2,000 jobs with a thousand coming with the proposed tenant right now adding to adding to the commercial tax base which

will ultimately reduce the burden on residential property owners over time. And then this cold storage infrastructure that's proposed supports regional food distribution and supply chain resilience. So it's a public benefit and not a public harm by having this type of use in this area. Um, now one of the things that kind of kind of was off-putting to me a little bit was uh about this appeal process that we've gone through. And this is a part of the due process, right? This is a this is a part of any sort of any sort of developer, anybody in the state of Georgia is afforded the ability to file an appeal when they believe that their project should be approved or as appropriate. And that's the reason for the appeal. Um, that's the reason why we're here. Um and lastly, the pollution claims that we've heard about already in this in this petition are uns unsubstantiated. Um we've reduced the size of the buildings to limit the impact on the environmental in the area. Um to not encroach upon the environmental features including the streams. Uh we are we're proceeding with lead certified techniques to be to be employed under construction of the development and the light industrial zoning provides much less of an environmental impact that you would have in a heavy industrial zone because of the types of uses that are allowable in light industrial relative to what might be allowed in heavy industrial. In other words, you're not going to have the noxious uses. You're not going to have the noise, the odor, and the things like that that are that are often talked about when you're talking about industrial property. And at the in the end, the applicant is committed to meeting and exceeding all environmental all applicable environmental standards. And at this point, we'll we'll rest with the summary. again $230 million capital investment,000 2,000 jobs a substantial tax increase um extreme distance from residential to the actual building uh significant amount of traffic improvements based on the based

on what the DRRI requires and what's already happening with I 85. Uh it's compatible with the three major industrial corridors in the area. The building footprint has been reduced by roughly 15%. The building will be done with construction with lead certified techniques for sustainability incorporation of minority subcontractor and participation workforce development. Thank you. All right. Thank you. So you used up all your time. Um Mr. Clerk, are there any uh in opposition that would like to speak?

Yes, ma'am. We have uh six total cards. uh Rashard Snellings, Adena Muhamd, Glenda Collins, Alvin Reynolds, Michael Venbo, and Lee Walton. If those residents are here, can you please come to this podium?

Um, good afternoon. Um, good evening, mayor and council members. How are you all doing? I pray for the time that some of our uh members politicians would not be bought and paid for. I am so sick and tired of what we're doing as for Give me one second. Can you please state your name? Your name and your address.

My name is Adena Loftton Muhammed and I'm I don't live in District 7, but I live in the city of uh Southton. I'm on Stonewall Tail Road, 3793 Stonewall Tail Road, District 2, Aaron Johnson district. Again, I'm so We just fought the gas stations. How many times are citizen Can we rest sometimes? I mean, we're not fighting gas stations. We're fighting warehouses. We're fighting a bunch of foolishness. I mean, when are we going to start getting entertainment venues for families? When are we going to start getting nice restaurants? When are we going to start getting nice shops, boutiques, and stuff? Whereas families can go and hang out and not have to drive all the way on the other side of town to go shopping and spend their money elsewhere. We're talking about a 1 what 54 million square footage. That's a lot of trees going down. And you're talking about environmental. That's environmental right there with all those trees going down. So I respectfully ask because you all are not the only one can sue. Anybody can take a court the case. I mean take a uh case to the courts. So respect the citizen, respect the uh concerned con constituents where we live. We do not want a 1.5 mill 4 million square footage warehouse. Please take that in consideration or better yet take it to some town that don't have any residents that stay in it because we're sick or tired fighting big developers and we're sick and tired of some of these uh elected officials being bought and paid for. Thank you.

Next speaker, please that's here. Shard Stellings, Glenda Collins, Alvin Reynolds, Michael Venibal, Lee Walton. Please state your name and your address.

My name is Glenda Collins and I live on Morning Creek Drive in the city of South Fulton District 5. I appeared here the first warehouse that was projected and being built on Roosevelt Highway. There are some things that occurred such as covering the streams and I understand understood him to say that is not going to occur on this project. The blasting the blasting affects the foundation of our homes and buildings. And one other thing I would like to say, we need entertainment so we can carry our children and grandchildren to have parties in our city and we don't have that and it's never discussed. The problem is it's always these warehouses. So when we market the city of South Fulton, do you ever tell the people that we may be inundated with warehouses all around us? We need to sit down and look and get and think about the direction our city is going in so it can grow well for the future. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker. This Michael Van 5720 Montilly Circle consistency and stability. We always talked about this city with new people and administrations that we're turning corners. When this originally came up, there was a majority vote to deny this. And people up here gave explicit remarks as to why they thought it wasn't important. There has to be some sort of conviction. You have to say what you mean, mean what you say, and stick by it. It's the same thing that is happening with our zoning and these land use a amendments. Every single solitary meeting, there is a case that we want to change the land use plan to make something fit. And now with this money transfer that's going for it, that's I guess supposedly we're saying that this is a community benefit. It gives the total impression that this is a paytoplay situation. If we said it wasn't good and you can't tell what happened between the couple of months that we said it didn't and now that's a huge problem. We should deny this proposal. Lee Walton, Alvin Reynolds,

Lee Walton, 43 Green Street, Fairburn. Um, I was really surprised at the applicant's presentation. The reason that we're here is because a lawsuit was filed and that word lawsuit was never used and that was kind of striking to me. Um, we're here only a few months after the city council, as Mr. Venal cited, denied this exact reasonzoning. I've been an expert in multiple zoning lawsuits. They don't go that fast. They take years. So, I'm just really surprised at how quickly and why we're here so quickly. Um, we can only work with the information as citizens that's provided in city public documents. your first reading ordinance on March 10th cited 1.8 million square feet and cited a plan dated October 2024 which did not have expanded buffers. So if there's any question as to this citizens petition and the accuracy of it, it reflected what's in your March 10th um council agenda. Um so just generally you know think please very carefully why we are here um what is truly being proposed and about the importance not only of this case but of defending your right as a council to make zoning decisions. Thank you. Good evening. Alvin Reynolds, 585 Kings Place, Riverdale, District 7. Let me start by saying that the uh applicant presented a compelling argument, a

compelling case, almost had me convinced. But one thing he didn't say, still a warehouse, a warehouse that we when we became a city, we vividly talked about how warehouses was buted up against communities uh and how it was impacting uh other people's lives, livelihood. I'm sure that when we did the comprehensive land use plan and we went all about this city, I can assure you that the people in district 7 and other districts did not put on those little sticky notes to have this area zoned industrial. Now, the applicant states that this is going to be a cold food storage, a warehouse. Now, we all understand that moving forward in life that we're going automative. So, the 2,000 jobs, 1,000 jobs that has been uh stated here, I'm not sure that that's even an accurate count. So, again, he talks about um road improvement and so forth. That can happen with other development. We're not against development, just this development. This development doesn't fit in this area. And so again, he talked about is in line with the land use plan and we fought vividly about not having warehouses and other in other uh venues locking us in in our area and in our district.

He talked about how much it's going to bring other things, retail and all of this stuff. Where you going to put it? It's not going to be room for it. So, I don't understand that as well. And I'm sure Miss Lord, who have land that's going to be budded right up against this warehouse, is very unappreciative of that happening to her and her family. We can't do that to people. It was even stated back in October, if we didn't like it when it was done to us, how can we do it to somebody else? And that's where we are today. Again, I state not against development, just the right development. We understand that the city has to grow and we want it to grow, but it has to make sense. We just approved a warehouse on Stonewall Tale. Same developer and now we come here again with another one. Listen, the vote carried to deny in October. The vote should carry to deny today in March for the reason that my colleagues and I have stated. Again, we're not against development. We're not even against this developer, but to come and put a warehouse at this magnitude in that area, we think that that is not a good fit for this area. And these are the citizens and constituents speaking across this city, not just District 7, but one through seven. If you have noticed of late, we as citizens have come together and there are some things that must be changed and we're asking you hold to what you did in October. Fight for us like we're fighting for you. We're not worried about being sued. Take us to court. Let's figure it out. Though that is a process. He's right. They have the right to appeal and do the things that

they have to do. But again, please deny this petition. Thank you. All right. Thank you all for your your comments. Um there are no further comments. Uh at this time, I will be closing the public hearing and we will take questions for council. As of right now, I don't see anyone in the queue. With that being said, Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item?

Yes, madame mayor. We are at proclamation presentations and of course we've already um disposed of the proclamation honoring former council member Willis. Um the next one is proclamation honoring Camp Creek Middle School girls basketball team. I don't know if they are present yet or not. Oh, I'm sorry. They are here. All right. Thank you for coming uh early. So are the girls here or

not yet. I don't see one. All right. Well, we can uh delay just a little bit and um possibly if we have time, we'll be able to move forward. Okay. Um what time is it? Okay. Well, we can we'll uh suspend the meeting for about 15 minutes. Is that okay? And then we'll open back up with the proclamation and then we'll start at 7 o'clock. All right. At this time, we will recess for 15 minutes. Thank you.

council. We're getting ready to convene so we can recognize these young ladies. It's awesome that this is being done in Women's History Month. All right, so we're about to come back to order. All right. So, Mr. Clerk, can you properly sound the next item, please?

Yes, ma'am. We are reconvened at 6:46 p.m. The next item on the agenda is proclamation presentation uh honoring the Camp Creek Middle School Championship girls basketball team. All right, please come to the front and if my colleagues can join us,

I got two coaches. Oh, this was supposed to have the whole mayor and council on it. Can you change it? Okay. I'm not reading the whole thing. Congratulations. Happy Women's History Month. Y'all heard stories. Y'all got to come up front a little bit so people can see you.

All right. So, this is a proclamation recognizing these young amazing scholars who are also champions uh at Camp Creek Middle School. Right. and we're going to recognize them today. This is a proclamation that was supposed to be signed by the whole mayor and council. So, you'll get another one very shortly. Okay. So, I'm going to start here and I'm ask my colleagues to uh read in. So, this is a proclamation recognizing the Cam Creek Middle School girls basketball team. Whereas, the Cam Creek Middle School girls basketball team has achieved an extraordinary and historic milestone by completing an undefeated basketball season, marking the first undefeated season in the history of girls basketball programs and securing the inaugural Fulton County Middle School Championship. And

oh, sorry. Whereas under the outstanding leadership and guidance of head coach Rashad Thomas and assistant coach Victor Brown, give it up for them. They did a little work, too. The team demonstrated exceptional teamwork, discip discipline, perseverance, and sportsmanship throughout the season, reflecting their unwavering commitment to excellence both on and off the court. And whereas just come on around. I think I could have could have um stayed back there. Okay. Right. Y'all can see me, right?

Yeah. Whereas the achievements of these dedicated student athletes have brought great pride and distinction to Camp Creek Middle School and the surrounding community, serving as a shining example of what can be accomplished through hard work, unity, and determination. And whereas the members of this outstanding team include Navia Anderson, Eva Braet. These names y'all. Oh, I'mma try. Praise the Lord.

Zarya Campbell, Miley Kaufman, Milton Fletcher, Eden Hicks, Jamaiah Langford, Abby Nelson, Aaliyah Weathers, and Cassidy Madison Williams. and wears the team success and further supported by dedicated team managers London White, Mariah Hobbs, and Sayia Reid, as well as the leadership of principal Leah McDaniel and athletic director Gregory Stevens, whose collective contributions have played a vital role in fostering a culture of excellence, discipline, and achievement at Camp Creek Middle School. And praise the Lord.

And whereas the accomplishments of these student athletes, coaches, and team managers set a standard of excellence that will inspire future generations of student athletes at Camp Creek Middle School. Now, therefore, it be resolved. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the mayor and the city council recognize and honor the Camp Creek Middle School girls basketball team for their undefeated season and championship victory and commend them for their remarkable achievement and outstanding representation of their school and community. and on behalf of the over 115,000 residents that call the city of South Fulton home, hereby proclaim Tuesday, March 24th, 2026 as Camp Creek Middle School girls basketball team day and encourage all residents to join in celebrating their historic accomplishment and continued success.

Congratulations, man. I just enjoy season, man. I mean, I enjoyed this season. I appreciate my parents. I appreciate these players. And we appreciate the South Fen. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, let's get together and take a picture. What did you just thought we were going to have one more proclamation, but they're not here yet, which was the beta club. Um, however, we will go ahead and um if there is no further business, we will adjourn this meeting at at what time? What time is it?

653. So, there's no if there's no further, we will adjourn at 6:53 and we will open up the next meeting at 7:00. So, hang tight. Thank you. No, they not mine. Those are mine.

Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item? So, roll call for tonight's meeting. The Honorable Captain Efale, District 1, present. The Honorable Aaron V. Johnson, District 2, present. The Honorable JC Sebastian, District 4, here. The Honorable Kiosa Bale, District 5, present. The Honorable Natasha Williams Brown, District 6, present. The Honorable Lindy B Pritchette, District 7, here. And the Honorable Mayor, Carmelita Gums, here.

Madame Mayor, you have a quorum. And the next item on the agenda is invocation by our city chaplain. And it looks like Chaplain Armster will be delivering that. Good afternoon. Let us look to the Lord in prayer. Eternal God, most gracious heavenly father, we thank you Lord. We thank you for this day. Thank you for your keeping power. Lord, thank you that you let nothing come near us. Thank you, Lord, that you kept us safe from hurt, harm, and danger. Father, we need your help now. Father, we're on a new path, Jesus. Bind the people together, Lord, that they will make a difference in the city. Continue to watch over the mayor. Lead her and guide her and strengthen her. Help her not to make no decisions unless she confront you first. Lord, she can't do it alone. You need the Lord in every step of the way because there are going to be some good decisions. There are going to be some bad and never they're never going to be happy whatever decision that you make. But if you confront the Lord, I guarantee you, he'll lead you and he'll guide you and he'll strengthen you in those areas where you may be weak or you may be torn down. God, we'll give you glory. We'll give you honor and we'll give you praise. And Lord, help us to keep our mind stayed on you because you said you'll keep us in perfect peace if we keep our mind stayed on you. No matter what's going on in the world today, Father, it doesn't matter because I have a king that's still sitting on the throne and he's looking low and he see all things and he knows all things and he promised to keep us safe from hurt, harm, and any danger. We'll give him glory, honor, and praise in Jesus' name. Continue to watch over our police department, our fire department, our citizens. Continue to watch over everybody, Lord. We thank you now and we count it done in Jesus' name. Amen. Let us go to the pledge of allegiance. I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you for that message. I definitely appreciate that and I think this whole entire council does. Um I do want to take a moment of personal privilege. Um this week was actually it's been a week. Um we lost two lives in our community. Um and I want to take a moment of silence um to reflect on those lives. Thank you. All right, Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item?

Next item on the agenda, it's Roman numeral five, which is adoption of the council agenda. As previously uh discussed, there is an item um being presented by the city manager, a resolution regarding HB116 and SB 382, the impact on local government finances, credit ratings, and tax equity, and urging members of the Georgia General Assembly to amend or oppose the legislation for other lawful purposes. That's the only item that I'm aware of for addition to tonight's agenda. Thank you. Um, madame mayor. Yes.

Um, I did catch a typo on an item and would ask that the um item referencing the reasonzoning the page item number five on the document where it says funding to be paid at issuance. It should have said of LDP, the land development permit um for building one and the same language on the second bullet. All right, city clerk, you have that council, are there any more amendments? If there's no further objection, we will adopt the agenda as amended. All right, Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item?

That item was adopted by unanimous consent. And so, Roman number six, approval of city council meeting minutes, regular meeting minutes, March 10th, 2026. Work session minutes March 10th, 2026, and alcohol zoning public hearing minutes March 10th, 2026. All right. Are there any corrections to the minutes? Being that there are none, we will adopt the uh consent agenda. Excuse me. Uh we will adopt the minutes as approved and sounded. Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item?

That brings us to the consent agenda, which is items A through F. Council, if there's no objections to the consent agenda as presented, we will adopt this with the unanimous consent. Mr. Clerk, please stand on the next item.

That brings us to Roman numeral 8, alcohol license resoning variance and modification cases for motion and vote. First item on the docket this evening's letter A request council approval of a zoning resolution U26-001 located at zero Cochran Road. Uh application by tower company care of Baker Donaldson Law Firm. We question a special use permit to allow a telecommunication support structure in AG1 Cliftonale Overlay District. It's located in council district 4. Staff and the planning commission recommended approval conditional. Council, if there's no objections to item, is this A? Items A through C, we can adopt this with unanimous consent. There's no objection. The motion has sounded. Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item?

That brings us to public comment. Speakers will be granted a total of two minutes each and public comments will not exceed 30 minutes. Speakers will not be allowed to yield or donate their time to other speakers. Speakers must identify themselves and their addresses prior to speaking. Speakers may only address the presiding officer shall observe all rules of the quorum. No debate, disrespect or obscinity shall be tolerated. The presiding officer shall rule any such individual out of order that fails to comply with the foregoing. With that being said, we did receive a number of public comment cards. Uh we have Rashard Nellings, Tony Griffin, Jill Lindsay, and Mike Johnson. If you would come in that order, you have two minutes. Please state your name, address, and your district, please.

All right. Rishard Snellings, uh, district 1. address is 1980 Loman Trail. So, here we are with a Your mic is not on. We can't hear you. All right. It's green.

All right. What about now? All right. So, I'm going to start over. Rashard Snellings, 1980 Lock Loman Trail, uh, District 1. So, here we are again with a 16% increase in our annual sanitation costs that were forced upon us. an increase that comes with no additional public benefit and a cost that homeowners are unable to shop around for because this body decided they knew what was best for us. I know the general idea from from those in front of me is that the public should trust that we are that you are being good stewards of our public funds. Members of the public performed a limited PECAR audit using a random sampling. It was of no surprise to anyone to see that the officials who made the the most noise about the former mayor spending had an indecent amount of questionable transactions. I Googled one of the companies and I saw that I saw what appeared on uh these two PE cards and the website says we win campaigns by moving the voters that matter most. But my favorite line was where they said, "We are a full-ervice voter contact firm that helps Democrats win tough races." When I reviewed their client list, it was nothing but political campaigns. No cities or other municipalities on there, but the charges appeared on the former District 2 and the former District 3 PE cards. And this is this really what we should be spending district funds on? I am very well aware of how this game works. You purchase a voter you purchase a voter list with city funds and then pay for it with a PC card. Then you call it community outreach to disguise the scheme to avoid detection and then get and then and then this uh then this gets funneled to your per to I'm sorry the voters's personal information gets funneled to your reelection campaign at

the expense of taxpayers. Now, last year, Councilwoman, I think it was last year, Councilwoman Bell sponsored an ordinance that required that these type of lists become the property of the city, which was passed. So, any candidates who want to receive those lists, you should be able to do an open records request to give it. Thank you. Uh, Tony Griffin, Joe Lindseay, Mike Johnson.

Hello, I'm Tony Griffin. Let me know when I can start, please. Okay. Hi, my name is Tony Griffin and I'm 2530 Ravencliff Road in District 6. Hello, Natasha Williams. Um, I just wanted to bring to you all attention. I um conducted a survey about athletic programs for the adults. When I looked at our website, the city of South Fton website, I noticed that we have programs for the youth and programs for the elderly, but nothing between ages 18 through 55. So, I did a survey over the weekend and 95% believe that we should have athletic programs here in the city of South Fulton. And they also gave us some ideas of what those programs could be. Softball, football, flag football, pickle ball is a thing now, a walking club. And I know that we're bringing in um walking paths here in the city of South Fton, running clubs, line dancings, and etc. So I just wanted to just bring to all attention that the adults here in the city of South Fton feels neglected because we have stuff for the adults. I mean stuff for the youth and stuff for the elderly but nothing for the adults and we are the ones who are working. We are the ones who are going out spending our money but we feel like we're being neglected in that area. And I did a little bit of research and I found out that those who exercise or who have a community that exercise and come together does have a crime that is reduced. So I know we're here trying to reduce crime as well. And also exercise reduces stress, it reduces u mental illnesses. So I believe that if we can bring Yeah. If we can bring in athletic programs that will help out the things that we all want less crime, health and etc. So, I just want to just bring that to all attention and I'm looking forward to have further discussions with you and with the rec and re wreck and recreational programs. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. My name is Jill Lindsay. I reside at 748 Woodban Court District 7. I want to address the item on the agenda regarding solid waste tax increase. We are asking that you focus on solutions and financial responsibilities. Do not raise our taxes. Explore alternatives, approaches, reassess vendors, open open the contract to competitive effective options and bidding and identify more cost-effective opt options. We need a better discussion from the from We need a better answer than increasing fees with no discussion from the taxpayers. Do not seek council approval to adjust solid waste fees until every other valuable option has been fully explored and exhausted. We are requesting a town hall meeting regarding this item. This feels like a rushed solution regarding the general public tax dollars and we are paying for everything in the city and it is time for you all to find other avenues to generate funding to relieve taxpayers. You can't tax people to death and expect the city to be on the rise. It sounds more like taxes are on the rise. Thank you for the time. Thank you for this time in this matter. And also I want to address the fact that we had three deaths this month in district 7 on Old National and West Road and his name was Kevin. Thank you.

All right. Mike Johnson uh District 4 Cameron and Fabin Road. I'd like to address this professional service agreement, this PSA between the city of South Fton, Rick Bllelock, also known as Snag Enterprises. How ethical, reasonable, or even sensible is it for our city to enter into multiple service agreements and award multiple PSAs contracts for over $22,000 each to Rick Bllelock, Snag, that's SN AG Enterprises LLC to support JC Sebastian and Aaron Johnson and all their endeavors in district 2 and 4. These PSAs were signed by our city manager without being voted on or shopped out for bids. Our current mayor comes and former city council lady Helen Willis also use these services at taxpayers's expense. Where do we dare to draw the line? These professional service agreement contracts appears to be above and beyond and outside of their allotted budgets for their districts. There is no way this can be legal or fair. In section one, it speaks about and states that Rick Block, Snag Enterprise, is now the chief communication strategist for District 2, Aaron Johnson, and District 4, JC Sebastian, covering multimedia production, speech writing, brochure designs, just to name a few of the responsibilities. In my if my memory served me correct, this exact council, with the exception of Aaron Johnson, because he was not a member at the time, severely restricted and prohibited the former mayor from venturing outside of the city's public affairs department for these same services. Now basically this amounts to my tax dollar and every citizen in here of this city tax dollar being spent by incumbent that's current elected official to promote their own campaign

and their personal agenda. Section two speaks about purchasing and procuring equipment. Section three speaks about Rick Blelock having office space access ID badge, city email and mobile devices paid for by us. Now I want to ask uh I want to ask madam city manager is this fair? Is this being a good steward of our money? Your time has expired. Thank you. No problem. I want to say one more thing. Thank you. South for your time has expired. Hey. Hey. Be easy with me though. Thank you. Don't handle me like that. Time is up. Do we have any more speakers? No ma'am.

All right. Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item? brings us to council comments.

All right, council. We will start with district one. I want to encourage people to join me on this Saturday, March 28th at 10:00 a.m. for the District 1 Cascade Business Merchants Association comm community cleanup. As you know, we do that once a month. We're encouraging you to come out. We provide all the supplies for you. Gloves, vest, trash bags, all ages are welcome. And so for those young people who may need community service hours, we can also provide that documentation for you. In honor of Women's History Month, Big Peach Running Company is hosting a celebration on March 25th, which is tomorrow at 6 p.m. Come celebrate the strength and impact of women in our community. It's one of our uh newer businesses, been around a couple years. So if you get opportunity, stop by Sandtown Crossing. um at 6 PM tomorrow. Also, we have um a volleyball clinic. Um this is the City of South Police Athletic Leagues Girl Volleyball Club. Um it's for girls ages 9 to 17 to join. It's based out of Sandtown Park and it's available on Saturdays from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. We want to make sure that we are providing um opportunities for physical fitness for our young people. So, sign your young people up. Um, the district going on bulk trash curbside trash days are the first Monday of the month. You can schedule your pickup by the Wednesday before your Monday service by calling 770-5540455 or complete the online uh request form which you can find on the public works page. And last but not least, the spring break camp for um April 6th through 10th at Sandtown Tennis Center is open for registration. There will be allstar training and coaching for ages 4 through

16. I also want to um thank the parents and the young people who participated in my free SAT boot camp this Saturday. We had some amazing young people engaged. We want to make sure they're equipped and ready to take those tests to pursue postsecary educations. Um they spent six hours and they asked for a part two. So um stay tuned. We're going to continue to provide those resources um for our young people and um again kudos to the parents and the young people who stayed all day. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. All right, Councilman Johnson, District 2.

All right. Thank you, Madam Mayor. She took my Big Peach one, too, because we kind of share Big Peach. The the owner of the facility is a District 2 resident, and he has to drive all the way through District 2 to get to District 1. Uh, but as she mentioned, that is going to be a great event, and I need to get all the healthy walking in that I can. Uh so for the sake of brevity, the only thing that I'm going to mention uh once again is uh the district 2 town hall meeting is going to be Thursday night 6:30 to 8:30 at Westlake High School. Um Thursday, March 26. Uh we will have some uh great information for our residents. It's an opportunity for our residents to hear about great things that are happening in the city of South Fulton as well as some other departments within Fulton County. We'll have elections there. We'll have probate uh probate judge there as well as our solicitor with some fabulous information for everyone, but it's also a chance for us to hear from you and uh talk about some things that are going on in the city of South Fulton and the area around in which you live. So that again that is Thursday night 6:30 Westlake High School. Thank you.

Thank you. It's going to be a packed house. All right, moving on to District 4. Councilman Sebastian.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, everyone. Um, first of all, happy happy Women's History Month to all the ladies in the house and up the city of South Fton and beyond. We're looking forward to the rest event this weekend. Uh, we we're going to be honoring women from all across our fantastic city. And so, if you're here in the audience and you have not yet signed up yet, registration is closing. You can go onto our social media or go on the website and you'll be able to sign up for the newsletter. It's also all over social media. Follow the city and you can sign up. Uh Friday evening and also Saturday from about 10 till 2:30 in the afternoon. Uh also coming up in um April as we're ending the fabulous women's history month. Um April 1st tax exemption filing deadline. If you don't have if you don't have homestead exemption, I know we're the government. We like to get money to spend, but if you don't have homestead exemption, you're giving us a little too much. So file file your homestead exemption and keep a little bit of money in your pocket to spend in other places in the city. On April 4th is our fifth annual autism sensory festival at Wilkerson Park. It starts at 10:00 in the morning and it goes to about 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. We create a safe space. It is the largest event in metro Atlanta. So come out and um we have we have vendors, we have activities for kids and also we um we try and make sure the you know kids and adults have a very safe space for at least one day out of the year. Um fire and ice, one of my favorite events is coming up in April 11th where we teach kids and adult fire safety. If you haven't seen yet our fire department fire simulator, you should

come out and see that and learn what to do if there's a fire. You know, sometimes it does happen and it has happened to people before who are come to find ice and they've known what to do to prevent catastrophic damage to their properties and to save lives. So again, uh, April 11th, that will be held at fire station 6 from 2 until 5:00 p.m. uh, fire and ice. And that's all for me. Thank you all. Thank you, Councilman Sebastian. Moving on to district 5 where they keep it live. Mayor Pro Tim Kio.

Thank you, Mayor. And and again, happy International Women's Month to all the beautiful ladies that are here and watching. Um, as we gear up for April, I would like to invite you all out, bring the kids to uh the annual Easter egg extravaganza and community resource fair. Heavy on the community resources, but we want to make sure that we provide a nice familyfriendly and fun afternoon at Birdat Park on April the 4th. April the 4th. The event is from 12 noon to 4:00 p.m. and it is in collaboration with our amazing City of South Fton Police Department. If you would like to donate any eggs or candy, please feel free to reach out to our office or our police department. In addition to that, if you are interested in being a community resource vendor, meaning you have information that you want to share to our community, please be sure to see Philip Watley. He is somewhere in here and he will give you the information or feel free to contact our office to register. Friday is the last day to register for any community vendors that have resources and information to share with our community. Um, moving forward in April, April the 18th, mark your calendars. Everybody should take out your phone, mark your calendars. If you have ever considered purchasing your own home, this is a great opportunity for you to come out at Berdet Park on April the 18th from 900 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. If you come out and join us for the home buying seminar, it is sponsored by Huntington Bank and Cadence Bank. If you come and attend from 9:00 to 5:00, you will leave with a down payment assistance voucher. So it is important that if you have ever considered or interested in purchasing your own home that you come out. There are very few opportunities that organizations and companies will do this. Normally you

have a 2hour um home buying seminar but this is a full day and you will leave with a down payment assistance voucher with you to help with the down payment for your new home. So that is um April the 18th and again it's from 9 to 5:00 p.m. All of the information will be shared in our newsletters. So, if you have any questions regarding any of the information provided, you can see Philip Watley. If everybody turns to the back, he's going to wave his hands to you. He can get you that information or you can also reach out to our office directly for more information and to sign up. Um, many of you heard the expansion of our workforce academy with the existing electrician program, but we moving on up to the east side of South Fton. So, we are extremely excited to um let people know that we have expanded Workforce Academy. Today is the first day for Georgia Raisins Roofs. That's the newest um roofing program that is available. It's free training opportunities for the entire community. Don't worry if you are interested in that program and you are not able to attend tonight, you have another opportunity to start on next Tuesday. All the classes are at Beret Park. They start promptly at 6:00 p.m. So, if you are interested in raising Georgia's roofs roofing program, Tuesday night will be the time that you will need to be there on time at 6:00 p.m. Um, we also have our entrepreneurship program that is starting on April the 1st. In addition to that, the 3D printing construction, as many of you saw the 11 Alive news, we were there promoting our new 3D printing construction ready program that will begin shortly. So, in addition to our electrician program, if you're interested in any of those programs, they are free to our community. We do encourage you to either contact Bird at Park directly or contact my office if you are interested in signing up for any

of the 8week programs. Um you will receive a certificate or and a certification upon completion. Um in addition to that, March the 30th at our parks and recreations will is the first day to begin registering and signing up for summer camp. So, be sure if you are interested in any of our parks that you go ahead and sign up in person at your local parks and recreation facility. Um, as mayor mentioned, definitely keeping the families that not only lost their lives, but even the the teenagers that were involved in the incident right here in our city, please keep them in our prayers. Specifically, Riggins Ridge. um a lot of those um young teenagers were a part of the D5 community in Riggins Ridge. So, please keep them covered in prayer as well as Banaker High School. And as always, if you're not receiving our newsletters, please feel free to reach out to our office. We're on social media. Councilwoman Kioshi Bale. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim. We're moving on to District 6. Councilwoman Natasha Williams Brown. Thank you, Madame Mayor, and greetings and salutations from the sensational sixth district. As always, I like start with a thank you to all of the residents who uh came to our luck luck of the Irish St. Patrick's Day bingo at Berdet Park. It was a packed house and I understand that everybody that came had a fabulous time and as always I'm appreciative of our parks and recck staff for all the work that they do in putting these bingos together. Um, we continue to bust out at the seams and you will get if you did not get the chance to come for Luck of the Irish then you are going to have another opportunity in May for Cinco de Mayo um at Berdette Park. So please be on the lookout for that announcement to be released soon um for the date and the time um but please do save the date and keep in mind that the next one will be um in May for Cinco de Mayo. Um the next monthly food distribution on March 28th, that is going to be Saturday beginning at 10:00 a.m. in Creole Park. Um as always, I like to remind everybody that people start lining up at 9:00 a.m. Um we will be there until the food runs out and it has started to run out about 12:30. Um, I expect there to be um an even bigger crowd now that things are going the way that they are with gas prices. Um, and so if you or anybody that you know is experiencing food insecurity and would like to come and collect some free fruits and vegetables

from District 6, we will be at Krill Park Saturday at 10. Um, and finally, we are delighted. I am particularly delighted um and have sent the announcement out to invite everybody to join us on April the 3 at 10:00 a.m. for the ribbon cutting for the sidewalks on Old National Highway. I would especially like to thank Yes, that deserves a round of applause. I would especially like to thank our city manager for all of her hard work in getting this across the finish line. Many of you will remember that last May she came to a town hall and outlined the timeline for when the sidewalks would be ready. And she has delivered those sidewalks exactly as she said she would last year. Um, and so on April the 3 at 10:00 a.m. we will break ground on the sidewalks and throw dirt and move on into the next phase of construction on that. Um, this is the part where I look in the back at Merlin and ask him, "Did I get it all?"

It all. I got it all. All right. These have been your what? Church announcements for the week. And we are going to all do what? govern ourselves accordingly. I yel I love it that y'all are learning that chant pop quiz afterwards. You you you can tell the people who have church in them and don't just go to a building. All right, moving on to district seven. Councilwoman Pritchette.

Thank you so much, Mayor. Um thanks everyone that's come out tonight. Um, okay. On a somber note, um, on April the 20, April the 16th at 6:30 p.m., we will be having a candle light vigil to honor the memory of Captain Elio A. Garcia III. He's our first fallen officer. And this will be at Southwest Arts um at the Southwest Arts Center for anyone who knew him or anyone who would want to show their respect for him um and his memory. If you would come out um myself and the mayor and um everyone in this city uh deeply recognizes this loss as we're approaching a year that he was killed. Um and we want to honor his me memory by doing this. on Saturday. I want to give a shout out to um Mother Belinda Boyin. She's a resident of District 7 and she is hosting the month Mother's Ministry Tea Party at Christian Ministry Baptist Church at 5714 Old National Highway. So for anyone who knows that church, wants to stop in, wants to be a part of this, I welcome you to come. Um they're it's a tea party and they're having all kind of delicious um pastries and uh desserts and they have me being a judge. So it's going to be fun. Also, thanks to everyone who came out last Saturday for our uh community centered health initiative uh where Dr. Lovey and um a few other physicians came to talk talk to us about the importance of African-Americans and minorities participating in clinical trials because

um sometimes when they look at the demographics for a lot of the medication that we receive, it doesn't match the demographics that actually take the medications. So um that was a really interesting and a very enlightening uh program where I learned a few things about blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease, how things are preventable and um also how they'd like to know more about our physiology and our reactions to different medications. So thanks to everyone who came out for that and I'm sure that other council members will have this same program as well in their districts. I also even though this is um a little ways off it'll be a month from now we district 7 um in collaboration with the pangia garden collective will be hosting the plant play and prosper and this is uh we have a local farmer a young farmer in district 7 she's here wave your hand and so she has received um gr a grant um to teach people how to grow um things at home. Uh micro greens, that's my new thing that I want to learn. And so she wants to teach anybody who registers how to grow things at home. She will be giving out supplies and we'll also be having lunch. So, uh it'll be a fun project like when we did our juicing. Those type of interactive uh projects are the type of programming that a young lady earlier spoke about things for people ages 20 18 to 55 to do. These are the kind of projects and uh you know partnerships that we want to have in our city. So that will be on April the 25th and it will be at Krill Park and I will be posting the registration on all

social media and the city will be posting as well but you have to register so that you can participate. And the last thing that I will say is I know that our city recently received a grant related to pedestrian safety and our police department has worked extremely hard to make sure that there is pedestrian safety and what that means is when people cross the street they have the expectation to make it to the other side. Um as uh Miss Lindsay spoke earlier about a gentleman who died that weekend within 24 hours, two pedest pedestrians were struck by a vehicle and both of them died and this was in district 7. So I do want to say to everyone and I always say this, you know, be mindful of people. Slow down. You see the police, they are everywhere. Everywhere that you are, they are too. and they're trying their best to keep the road safe. But it really isn't fair for people just trying to cross the street that they get struck, especially with so many of the enhancements and the investments that we make to pedestrian safety. But I want to give this warning and you're hearing this directly from me. If you are panhandling, that means you're trying to sell newspapers, you're trying to take up donations, whatever you're doing at the corner of Old National Highway and Jonesboro Road, you are going to have a problem with me and the police cuz panhandling is prohibited in this city. Don't do it. Now, here's why it's such a problem. Walking in and out of traffic creates a dangerous situation for drivers and for yourself. You're not going to get hit by a car and then sue the people that hit you because you decided to panhandle. There are no sidewalks on that corner. There is no

reason why you should be walking in and out of that traffic. And I encourage any citizen that sees this, just keep on driving. Do not buy that newspaper. Do not buy that fruit. Do not buy that flower. do not engage in this because it is dangerous. That corner itself has its own traffic issues. And so when you see people doing this, shame on them. It's the wrong thing to do. But anyway, um, thanks again for listening and uh, I yield. Well, thank you, District 7. All right. Um, wrapping this up. So, um, one of the things I guess the great thing about being in the middle is that I get to go to everything. And, um, last week this council has been working very diligently. We were in Washington DC, um, as a council lobbying to get us more funding for a lot of our key priorities in the city. Um, we are doing the good work of the people. So, I do want you to understand that. Um, we've had the opportunity in district five to bring Congresswoman Lucy McBath here to actually uh view and tour O National as well as Camelot. So, we've been doing that as well. We got to meet with Senator Waro um and his staff and also had the opportunity to bend the ear of uh Congress Senator um OSAF as well and we're hoping that we can host them here in our city. We also had the opportunity to hold uh South the city of South Fton Day at the Capitol. Um again, we are really pushing South Fulton out there. Um letting them know that we have I guess something to say really. Um being the second largest city in Fulton County and almost I think we're moving up to be the fourth in the state of Georgia. So

that's a big deal. Um so we are doing the work. I had also the opportunity to go to the Martyr headquarters um to take a tour where we had the opportunity to speak with their leadership uh see how they're actually being getting ready for the FIFA the World Cup that's coming here as well as talking about future planning the transportation plan that should be uh extended to the city of South Fton. And I want residents to understand that we do hear you. We hear a lot of um concerns and we want to make sure that we continue to have open dialogue with Martyr. Um I do want to let you all know that this week has been extremely it's been bad. It's been bad for our community anytime we lose young people. And I did hear you, Miss Lindsay, when you mentioned about another team. We have lost three teens um within the past 30 days. Something has to be done. As parents, as community leaders, we have to take a stance. It is that it takes a village. It's no longer one person. It takes a village. And we all need to be mindful of our young people. We need to know where they are at all times. And I know that's hard, but you got to make sure that if you love these kids in our community, we want to preserve their life's lives. So, please um we're going to be launching a campaign. We want to know where your children are. The city of South Fulton is going to be very aggressive in making sure that we present programs. And there was a young lady that mentioned about programs. We do have programs in the city of South Fulton. Um maybe we need to do a better job of amplifying them. Um but we do have programs. We do have a parks website that has a whole document of programs that are available not just for

youth, not just for seniors, but all of those in between. So, I do encourage you to take a look at that as well and invite your ideas. If there's something that you think would be a really good idea for our residents, please let us know. I know pickle ball kind of fits right in the middle. I think 30 and up is pickle ball. So, um it's fun. I think it's it's a great idea. I think it's a lot of cute outfits as well with pickle ball,

but again, I think that's something that we can uh address and I hear you. Um lastly, I want to talk about two things. Um we are having uh well, congratulations to the South Filton Lady Thundercats. that is a senior basketball team that has started out of Sand Town Rec Center. Um, but it is women that are going to compete. They will be competing in the National Senior Olympics. Um, and they play basketball and I came out there on uh Saturday and I shot my first shot. Now, I was very close, but I did make my first shot. Um, it wasn't what

my technique wasn't good. I was doing it in heels. But at the end of the day, um that is exciting and those type of things are happening. But on March the 30th, there will be a prescription kickoff again, keeping uh people moving at Welcome All at 8:00 a.m. You starting off, there will be actually um people working out as well as bringing prescriptions and having their talks if they're trying to get rid of their prescriptions. Um we want to make sure that you dispose of them appropriately. And on March 31st, we will be having an economic development tour. We will be showcasing the city of South Fulton. Um, I'm excited about that because there is a peak of interest of what we have going on in our area. So, we will be hosting a economic development tour in our city. And as I conclude, uh, again, it is my honor, no offense to the men up here, um, but it is my honor to work with these wonderful women every day. And as you can see, we have on purple. Um, we're signifying that women, it is women's history month, and I'm pretty sure you all have recognized that we like to color coordinate, but um, at the end of the day, it is my honor to serve and to work with you all ladies, and I'm looking forward to good work. And even the men wore purple ties. Well, Councilman Sebastian is is pink.

Um, but at the end of the day, we want to continue to thank the city of South Fton. God bless you all and we will sound the next item. Clerk. Yes, ma'am. That brings us to Roman numeral 11, agenda items under letter A, administration. Request council approval of a resolution proclaiming the month of March as women's history month in the city of South Fulton. This is sponsored by Mayor Gums and the full city council.

How appropriate. Uh council, if there is no objections to agenda items 11 A 1- 4, we will adopt that with gross unanimous consent. No objections. All right, Mr. Clerk, please sound the next item.

That brings us to our walk-on items. We had one item which was sounded earlier. It's a resolution regarding HB116 and SB 382, the impact on local government finances, credit ratings, and tax equity, and urging members of the Georgia General Assembly to amend or oppose the legislation and for other lawful purposes. City manager, did you want to chime in?

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, as shared in the resolution, our concerns are um a strong push by the Georgia legislature to um make changes to the homestead tax, to add an additional sales tax, which I think is very detrimental, and to change the formula as it relates to um LOST relief for um for homesteaded and business properties. All right. Thank you, council. If there is no objection to this walk-on item, we will go ahead and approve that with the unanimous consent.

All right, Mr. Clerk, please tell the next item. Brings us to executive session if necessary. I don't believe it's necessary. If there is no further objections, I would love to go ahead and uh close out this meeting. I move to second. Y'all didn't even have to do that. But while we have a motion and a second on the floor, please can I get this by a show of hands? Court, that motion approved unanimously. We are adjourned at 7:49 p.m. Have a good evening. All right, we're getting more efficient as we go. Thank you. Have a good evening.