City Council - Regular Meeting

not Monday, Tuesday afternoon. I'm still wonky with my my days of the week since the uh Christmas and New Year's holiday. It's good to see all of you. I do want to remind you that we have um agendas back here on the podium if you'd like to grab one and kind of follow along with everything that's going on that we'll be talking about tonight. Also want to remind people, I always like to do this uh for anybody who might be watching us on YouTube. You probably won't hear a whole lot of discussion tonight as we vote on items because we discussed these items at our workshop which was the week prior. So the discussion's really pretty much been had and uh so tonight we'll actually be voting on those items that we discussed at that workshop. So um we are called to order. I have asked um our council members to um uh Lester Chromemer, our um council member to offer our prayer and vice mayor Josh Reynolds will offer the pledge following that prayer. So Lester, if you don't mind, please

let's bow ahead. Uh Lord, thank you for bringing us together today. Help us to lead with wisdom, speak with kindness, and make choices that truly serve our community. Give us patience, clarity, and a heart for the people we represent. Give our words and actions tonight. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Everybody, please rise. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate you volunteering to uh to take on those roles this evening. All right. Uh we have the agenda before you. Jessica sends that out to us in plenty of time. also sends that to all of our local media contacts so they're aware of what we'll be discussing. So, uh, the agenda is presented for you. I'll take a motion concerning the approval or any changes. Move to approve. Second. Okay. So, we have a motion in second. Any further discussion? All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? And that does carry. Also in our packet is uh there are sets of minutes from our December 15th meeting and our January the 13th uh workshop meeting. So, you've had a chance to review those. So, I'll take a motion concerning those those both sets of those minutes. Move to approve. Okay. Second.

So, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? And those that does carry. Jessica, do we have anyone that wants to make public comments this evening? Nobody signed up. Okay, good. Well, not good that they didn't come make comments. Good we don't have anybody, I guess. Anyway. All right. So, we do have a couple of presentations. Uh, we have a guest with us this evening. Um, I'm going to call on Kathy Trimble. She is the community development block grant disaster recovery program director. That's a mouthful of information. Uh she's with DCA and she's going to cover the homeowner rehab and reconstruction program. So Kathy, if you don't mind if you'll just come up to the podium and the floor is yours. We appreciate you being with us this evening.

Hi. Thank you. You're absolutely correct. That is a mouthful. It is. We actually just go by disaster recovery at DCA, so makes it easier for everybody. There you go. Um, so again, my name is Kathy Trembley and I appreciate you inviting me to speak here today. I am also also joined by Joshua Norris from our vendor, um, the Workforce Group, a Le Moine company, and we're here to tell you a little bit about the homeowner rehabilitation and reconstruction program, what we affectionately call HRRP at DCA. Got to have an acronym for everything. That's right.

Yes. Yes, we do. Absolutely. But what's funny about acronyms is that they mean something different everywhere you go. So, um, so the homeowner rehabilitation and reconstruction program, HRRP, is a single family rehabilitation and reconstruction and replacement program for homes that are damaged during natural disasters. The first iteration of our program began in 2017, just after Hurricane Irma devastated the southwest area, um, as well as some of the tornadoes um, that occurred earlier in 2017. The most recent iteration is our 2023 2024 hurricane program and that's the program that those living in municipalities and within the county of Tiffan. So city of Tiffan, other municipalities and the county are eligible for is because of hurricanes Idelia, tropical storm Debbie and hurricane Helen, the most recent disaster. The DCA has allocated almost $104 million to this program to repair, rehabilitate, reconstruct, or replace homes. Um, some unique features of the HRRP is that we are focused on the low to moderate income households in your community. However, we do have an option to go from that 80% area median income that we're most familiar with all the way up to 120% of that area median income, which allows us to hit that almost forgotten segment of the population who don't have quite enough to recover from a natural disaster, but don't necessarily meet that low income. But another thing that we do is we'll offer replacement of manufactured housing units. So, if we have mobile homes that were damaged in the storm, if they were 5 years old or older at the

time, we'll replace them. A unique feature of this replacement is that if they are located on private land that is owned by the homeowner, we will offer a stick built in replacement of an MHU. Um, so that is one of the many interesting features about our program. Um, our current limits are we do have a cap of $100,000 per repair or rehabilitation and $280,000 for a reconstruction or a replacement. Um, those numbers are always subject to change based upon the fluctuations. Um, we have ways that we can go back to HUD and ask for permission to make that higher if need be. But thus far, what we're finding is that 280,000 should get us through the majority of homes that need to be repaired. Our current goal in our action plan, if you're ever looking for some light reading, it's a good thing place to start, um, is that we will rehabilitate or replace 400 homes. That's a very low estimate. We are hoping to be able to do considerably more, but that is where we're starting. Um, currently for your county, there are 61 pre-application surveys in our queue and of those 15 have already begun the full application process. So, the word is out there, but maybe not as much as we want it to be. So, I believe that you all have been provided the flyer um with the QR code that we are still accepting those pre-application surveys. So, as your constituents are calling in, please direct them to that or even the phone number because we do have a call center live that can provide assistance and as Josh told me, they actually do their

satellite office right here. Um, so we are still accepting those applications. We are available for questions. The Workforce Group is an excellent vendor. We've been partnering with them since 2021 and we appreciate everything they do. But we also have a housing team at DCA that is available specifically for the HRRP program as well. The um the 400 homes that you mentioned, is that statewide or for just Tiff County?

That is for the 44 eligible counties in our catchment areas. So, one of the things about the disaster recovery funds that come from HUD is that HUD tells us where we can spend them. Okay? And so although across those three disasters that I named, there were 94 affected counties, HUD looks at a special formula calculation when they're doing their math and they tell us there are x number of counties that you can help there um based upon unmet need. And so thankfully TIFF is one of those counties that's on that list of 44, but that 400 homes is across those 44.

Gotcha. Okay, that's good. That's good information. Yeah, it's very good. Any questions, gentlemen, that um for this program? Jeff, I just had a question with real estate market people buying homes, do they have to be the owner of record as of the date of damage or if somebody buys the home, does that wipe the slate out? They're not no longer eligible.

They're no longer eligible. They do have to be the owner. Now, there are some case byase exceptions for that. things where it might have been mom or dad, grandma or granddad that owned the home at the time of the storm and an heir inherited the property or it got probated through um then we would definitely look at things like that. But for someone coming in and just purchasing up the property afterwards, no, they would not be eligible. Now, it is important to note, I do want to just quickly say that we do have some other housing programs that are in the process of being implemented. And one of them might be of interest to those here in the community, which is our affordable rental rehabilitation program, expected to start in June of this year. It will be for landlords. So the landlord at the time of the storm, if they agree to make their property affordable rent for a certain period of time, depending upon how much money is put into the property, can have up to four units rehabilitated by that program. And that program has just over $65 million dedicated to it as well.

Jeff, can you make sure that our folks at community development have these flyers? And then Caroline, can we put these on our social media so that everyone has access to the QR code? And yeah, we have a social media um specific that has the QR code uh I guess optimized for social media post that I can absolutely make sure is sent over. Yeah, that would be great. So we Yeah. So we can be sure and share that. We have a lot of social media followers and like to use that to get that information out.

Yeah. And the last affordable rental program that we're going to be operating is um going to be coming out in the form of a NOFO from our um low-income housing tax credit folks. We're partnering with them to give low interest CDBGDR loans to developers that are coming into communities to develop new housing. Okay, that's important. We need to share that with our URA. Yep. So, uh that would be good. So, we're going to be talking to y'all a lot.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I am happy to provide my contact information um as well as that of my team and we can absolutely get together and have a conversation about what the community needs because we do have other programs um you know public infrastructure we are offering a hazard mitigation grant program match program um so if you have the community has applications into GEMA for that HMGP we are offering um a match program that's going to be implemented soon as well as public infrastructure

wonderful well we have a long wonderful relationship with Department of Community Affairs and very appreciative of that partnership and and the work that's been done in our community through DCA. So, thank you for being here and and sharing this wonderful information that we'll get out to the public and uh make sure that everyone has that. Gentlemen, any comments or questions that you have? Well, thank you very much for all the information. Yeah, thank you for having me. As soon as she said landlord and rental rehabilitation, the first thing popped into my head was code

enforcement. Right. Exactly. So, yeah, we we need to make sure that uh that they've got that u got all that good information. So, all right. Uh the next item on our agenda is we have a new Tiffan tree board member to be sworn in. So, Shannon, if you don't mind meeting me here at the end of the table, I'll come down there and uh we will make sure that you are a cardboard. everything up on our YouTube channel, our sound. And if you'll come stand right here, the camera is right here, so we want everyone to see your smiling face. All right. So, um, and thank you for volunteering to serve on our Tiffan tree board. We really appreciate that and we really rely on, um, members of our community to help us with the boards and carry out the missions of the city of Tiffan. So the off the oath of office is very very simple. I'll read the oath and then if you agree, you just say, "I affirm or I pledge or I I promise to do these things." And I want to make sure I'm pronouncing your last name correctly. Is it Kadambo? Did I say that? Okay. Yay. All right. So the oath of office says that I, Shannon Kadambo, do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully and impartially perform the duties as a member of the Tiffan tree board of this city and that I will support and defend the charter of the city of Tiffan as well as the Constitution and laws of the state of Georgia and of the United States of America. That you shall attend all meetings of the body to which you're being appointed unless providentially hindered. that you will abide by the standards for conflicts of interests adopted by the city council and the rules of disclosure applicable thereto and that unless disqualified by the standards for conflicts of interest you shall actively participate in all decisions of the body to which you are being appointed and that you shall attend at city expense any training mandated by the state of Georgia and you shall also attend as scheduled any

special training arranged by the city of Tiffan do you affirm affirm yeah congratulations Thank you so much. All right, let me have you, if you don't mind, uh, let's Oh, you've already signed it. So, Jessica and I will sign this. And now you are officially a member. And again, thank you. We appreciate it. Look forward to working with you.

Okay. Thank you. We do have a number of boards uh that we appoint um volunteers to serve in. And if you're interested, just get with Jessica, our city clerk, and she can tell you what openings we have and what qualifications may exist. And uh we appreciate those that that volunteer to serve with us. All right, gentlemen. We have a consent agenda. Uh before us is our next item. There are four items there. uh the resurfacing to uh project being awarded to Scrugs, the water man improvements for KW uh being awarded to uh KW Underground LLC, the resolution for PAL holdings uh to allow them to u participate in the enterprise zone incentives and then designating Rhythm and Ribs as a festival. We can take those individually or collectively. So I'll leave that up to you on how you'd like to move forward with those four items.

May I like to make a motion to approve all these together? Okay, second. So we have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? And that does carry. All right. Under new business, our next item is the selection of our vice mayor to serve a two-year term. And as you know, per our city charter uh in every even numbered year, we do elect a vice mayor. And we have had the honor of having Josh Reynolds serve for the last two years. So Josh, I want to publicly thank you for serving in that role and and really thank you and appreciate the work that you've done there. But uh I'll open the floor up to you gentlemen to make a motion on how you'd like to proceed with the vice mayor.

Mayor, I'd like to make the motion uh for Councilman MJ Hall to serve as the vice mayor for these next two years. Okay. As you stated, um you know, every even year or every two years, you know, and I think it's right that we rotate that um that honor. And uh Councilman Hall's been on seventh year now. Um he hasn't been ready to throw his hat in yet. So, I think um I think I'd like to make the motion for MJ. And Patty, please forgive me. I know his phone rings a lot already. So, if it rings a little bit more, don't hold it against me. Second. Okay. Thank you. So, we have a motion and a second. And uh that's those are that's a great recommendation. So, I'm going to call for the vote. All those in favor of uh appointing MJ Hall as our new vice mayor, please say I.

I. Any opposed? Congratulations, MJ. It's all YOURS NOW, BUDDY. ALL RIGHT. WELL, I gotta go. I'll see you later. He's also going to have to take the oath as the vice mayor. So, yes. And Jay, if you want to step down here, please, sir. If you want Patty and and um Milo to join you. They certainly and and Larry, they certainly are welcome to do so. Although, we know Milo will steal the show.

That's right. All right. Do you MJ Hall as a citizen of the city of Typton, Georgia, and being a public official in the city of Tiffan and the recipient of public funds for service rendered, do you hereby solemnly swear and affirm that you will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of Georgia, and the charter of the city of Tiffan, that you will faithfully perform your duties as vice mayor of this Georgia represent state. few years. You've done a wonderful job and MJ looking forward to you stepping into that role and um serving this community uh as the vice mayor. All right, gentlemen. Our next item under new business is the ordinance amending amending the city's land development code for the supplemental standards for car washes. and that was presented to us at the uh at the workshop. I don't know if anyone has any questions, but I will um open the floor for either a motion or if you'd like to have any discussion first.

Make a motion for the approval. Okay, thank you. Do we have a second? Second. All right, so we have a motion and a second on that amendment. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor, please say I. Any opposed? And that does carry. Also in your packet, we have the 2026 meeting calendar. Um, and there it's a color-coded calendar that show when city holidays take place. And so, as a result, we may have to move a meeting a day or so, something like that. But you do have that in your calendar. Do we need to approve that schedule, Jessica, or is it just forformational purposes? Yeah, unless approve it. We have to approve it. Okay. So, I'll take a motion concerning that approve. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say I.

Any opposed? All right. So, you have that. All right. Moving on, uh, other business, our city manager report. Jeff, what you got for us?

Yes. Uh, mayor, members of the council, you have my written report. In addition, I would just simply like, uh, identify we've got tomorrow. We do have the tourism board. I'm scheduled to meet with uh, go to the Rotary meeting tomorrow at noon. I and I have a meeting scheduled with Chris Dorman at the hospital next Wednesday to see how we can work collaboratively with the hospital with various things going on here in the city. Uh been a great Martin Luther King weekend. Uh just you know uh a lot of heartfelt celebrations, memorial ceremonies, a lot going on there. Um, and unfortunately, I wish I had one piece of better news. I was ready to offer our economic development position, but the selected candidate withdrew and had selected another position.

Oh, shucks. Okay. So, we are continuing our search, okay, on that on that avenue. Uh, again, we have Cities United uh coming up at the end of this week. And for the members that may not have seen their emails yet, the weather in Atlanta is there. GMA is keeping a surprise of the weather and what's going on with that uh moving forward. And if you have any other questions, I am available. All right. Uh one other thing, uh the stage out of Fwood Park, yes.

Uh the lighting and sound bar mounts are being manufactured as we speak. The AC has already signed off on the order for those and the lift for the back of the stage is here and ESG is working at converting the motor for that stage to match the electrical that we have on site. Perfect. So, we are on schedule to be ready for Rhythm and Ribs in March. Good deal.

Outstanding. That's wonderful. Very, very good. All right. I'm going to call on our financial officer, Mr. Larry Lawrence, for our financial report. the December's financials in front of you. There's a detail and a summary. I'll go over the summary unless you have any questions on the detail financial report. But, uh, we're halfway through the year and, uh, as you're aware, we've been in the red for five months and we finally got to December where property tax revenue starts coming in and uh, our property tax levy this year was 3,962 and in December we got in a little over 3 million of that. So, uh, I think combining the little bit that come in in November with December's, we've got in 3.3 million of the 3.9 that was, uh, levied, the tax levy. Uh, I talked with Chad Alexander and there's about 600,000 still outstanding,

but there was 200 additional appeals on property

assessments this year. So, he's he doesn't think we'll realize that full 600,000. So, the rest of that will trickle in in January and February as they resolve those those appeals. So, but uh we we're looking good through December. We did get back in the black with that 3 million boost that we received from property taxes in December. And that put the total revenues through December at 10,580 229 with the total expenditures of 9,ion4721 with net revenues over expenditures of 1,ion16308. And also the expenditures and departments are all in line. We're right where we expected to be. So there's there's two departments that are a little out of kilter, but they I think they'll resolve theirel as we go forward on these final six months. But everything looks good as far as revenues and expenditures in the general fund. And it's, you know, we do have a good reserve in the general fund that helps us get through those slow five months getting to December. So, uh, but everything's looking good in the general fund. On the enterprise funds, all those all those funds are uh carrying their own. On the water fund, the total revenues are 2,45360. Total expenditures is 1,833 336. Net revenues over expenditures of 619,824 excuse me. Uh sewer fund total revenues 2,926 947 total expenditures 2,234 751 net revenues over expenditures 6921 195. Gas fund total revenues 2 million427600 and total expenditures 2,040736 net revenues over expenditures of 386,863

and then the solid waste fund total revenues 2,4294 total expenditures 1,910 927 net revenues over expenditures $492,67. So, so all those funds are uh looking good also. Excellent. Okay, gentlemen. Any questions on the financial report for the city? That's good. Thank you, Larry. Yeah, thank you, Larry. We appreciate you keeping a close eye on that and always providing a very detailed report. So, thank you very much for that. And when will you start with um actually budget meetings? When will that start, Jeff? Um sometime in the next month or two. Budget meetings for the with the different departments.

When will that start?

March. Okay. Okay. Very good. All right. All right. Gentlemen, in your packet as well, we have our board report and uh we do have um several terms of for different boards that are expiring. You can see they're on our downtown development authority. There are three terms that are that actually expired on December 31st, 2025. They are seeking reappoint. Uh that's Margaret Nixon, Jared Ross, and Mary Glenn Hendris. And then we do also have an application on file for Carla Harget. Um the recommendation from the downtown development authority is reappointing Dr. Nixon Jared Ross and Mary Glenn. Um as you remember you know we usually go back to the board and ask their recommendation since they know the the participation and they work with these folks. So they are recommending reappointment there. Also on our airport authority and we just had an airport authority meeting this afternoon. Dr. Dr. Greg Anderson is the city's appointee uh for the airport authority and um his term has expired as of December 31st and he's actually the chairman and uh Tiff County Airport Authority has recommended reappointing Dr. Anderson. So um let's if you want to go ahead and we can approve these tonight or take a vote on these tonight. We can start with the downtown development authority on those that are seeking reappointment.

Mayor, go ahead. Mayor F. I'd like to go ahead and make a motion uh for Dr. Nixon, Jared Ross, and Mary Glenn Hendricks reappoint for the downtown development authority. Okay. Okay. So, we have a motion and second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? And that's is that a four-year term, Jessica? Is that correct? Okay. All right. And then on our airport authority again with Dr. Anderson, um I'll take a motion concerning Dr. Anderson's reappoint. I guess I'll make the motion. You'll make the motion. He was very complimentary of you today. So, we have a motion. Is there a second? Second.

All right. So, we have a motion and two seconds. Um, is there any further discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? And that does carry. All right. Uh, gentlemen, we do need to go into a short executive session for legal purposes. But before we do that, we'll have mayor and council comments. Does anyone have anything they'd like to add to uh share with everybody? Um, I'd just like to say uh thank you everyone. I really enjoyed serving the last two years as your vice mayor. I know MJ's going to do a great phenomenal job. Yep. And I'm happy to turn over those reigns to him and uh I don't mind switching computers with you, but I got I got to take the seat. Congratulations.

Yeah, exactly. I I completely agree. I'd like to just offer um a word of appreciation to the plight organization. They hosted the MLK breakfast yesterday at the um recck department and it was an incredible program. uh the pastor at Allen Temple AM was our keynote speaker and she just she did an amazing job. It was really good. So just hats off to that organization for the work that they do in Tiffan and um not only with our youth and everything but also in keeping that particular holiday um in the forefront. Um so Lester attended that. I know Fran was there um and Larry was there were you were not there. You had Milo's birthday. Anyway, there was a good representation from the city. So, uh it was it was nice to attend that. All right. Anything else, gentlemen? All right. I will need a motion to go into executive session for legal purposes.

I make a motion. And we have a second. Any further discussion? All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? And that carries. We'll take about a one minute break and then we'll get to