Board of Mayor & Commissioners - Regular Meeting

All right, everybody ready? Patrick? Yeah. Okay. All right. Uh, this is the city of Aendale Estates, Georgia. Board of Mayor Commissioner's regular meeting is February 24th, 2026. It's now 5:30. I'd like to call the meeting to order. Um, we have an agenda before us. Do I have a motion to adopt? That was Laida. Second. Gran second. All in favor say I. I. And um Commissioner Smith is joining us via Zoom. He was not able to be here in time. This is a odd night for us, so he couldn't change his schedule. Anyway, Commissioner comments, we'll start down there with Commissioner Steman.

Thank you. Um thank you all for being here tonight. Kind of a little bit low, but we appreciate you coming on an odd night. Um, one of the first things I wanted to do is thank um, Lori and Shannon. Um, they took me on a a walking tour of the new plantings on 278 and uh, gave me some information about the trees and that were planted in the mix and um, I'm just thinking everything's looking great and I really appreciate y'all taking the time with me and I'm really excited when everything starts blooming. Um, I think we're going to have a pretty spring in Aenddale Estates. Um the other thing was I was uh glad to be a part of our Arbor Day celebration. Um the uh 44th year of being a tree city um we planted a hornbeam tree uh with in memory of Miss Sheila Biggs uh and her family was able to be present and uh the hornbeam if you didn't know is about a 20 to 40 foot it'll grow about 20 to 40 feet and it's deciduous. It's native and it's known for its attractive foliage and ecological diversity. Okay, that's all I have at the back.

They're good. Thank you, Louis. I mean, Commissioner Swan. Oh, I like them both. Sorry.

I prefer the first. I um I'm reminded since we're off a day. We're not on our normal schedule. um that it's a good time to remind folks that now in addition to being uh a available to listen to these recordings on the city's website, these are now being recorded and are on YouTube. Sometimes when I open up my YouTube app, I see my face in my vest here at my seat. And um the YouTube ones are very easy to to digest. And so for the folks who couldn't make it tonight and realize oops uh it's it's not so terrible to listen to these uh recorded uh meetings. Okay, cool.

Uh not much for me tonight. Thank you guys for being here. I just wanted to say the um I walked past the lake the other night and it looks so much better where they cleaned out in the corners. Um and let's see. and I was happy to see the uh delivery of the chairs out on the new plaza and I really love the way that's uh coming together. So, thank you guys. Yep, that's it. Um Mike, do you have any comments online? Commissioner Smith?

No, I don't. But I did want to echo Louis the um the audio is is fantastic. I can hear everything loud and clear. So, uh thank you everybody for uh bearing with me on the Zoom um Zoom in. So, um, happy Tuesday.

Well, thank you, Mike, and sorry you couldn't be here, but appreciate you joining in. Um, I want to start out by saying, you know, in the last couple weeks, a couple of my favorite people in Aenddale passed away unfortunately. Um Randy BBE uh who was a commissioner when I first was elected and just a just a great guy. always had something really wise to say. uh well considered uh but uh that gonna miss Randy and uh Paul Varian who was an Emmy award-winning journalist in the neighborhood CNN writer producer uh passed away as well and and I always enjoyed talking to Paul because as a journalist he would always ask you a question you could not possibly have expected but was was but made you think you know and and I always enjoyed talking to Paul uh just really neat by um but unfortunately lost both of them but I'm glad to have known them. Uh about the lake uh you know I've heard a little bit about well we're we're we're dumping you know the the sort of I don't know what you call it debris over u where we you know collect Christmas trees and stuff and grind those up and and all that's temporary. We're trying to clean up the lake. It's an adjacent area that the city owns. It's convenient. It makes sense. But, uh, we're we're about to, uh, show the lake and the surrounds around the lake a lot of love. And so, this is just phase one. Uh, we have some good news coming up later in the meeting, and I hope some of that pertains to the lake. But, uh, bear with us. you know, uh we we did uh finish the well the cab finished that uh sewer project and got that looking good, but you know, we do need to use that space as a temporary sort of space for getting rid of that that organic debris out of the lake and letting that dry out and do its thing, but it's all

temporary. Uh there's there's big plans for the lake, so stick with us. Um that's all Can I just make one more comment I forgot to make? I also want to thank the public works guys for all the work that they did along 278 and helping prep it and and mulch it and trim it and um thank you very much. Yes. Okay. Uh Mr. Manager. Yes. Can I have a brief aside with you for a second? Sure. Okay. baby limits. But um he was a nice man. I used to see him walk in a lot. All right. Yes. Ready? Uh yes. Are you

okay? Okay.

Uh the city and its partners Rootstown and Georgia Tech student researchers are launching a new community climate and land stewardship workshop series this week. The first of three events occurs this Thursday, February 26 at 5:30 p.m. at the Northwoods Rain Gardens on the topic of storm water, green infrastructure, and rain gardens. The team will share easy to understand sciencebacked insights on how rain gardens and other nature-based solutions help reduce flooding, improve water quality, and protect our local waterways while easing long-term strain on city infrastructure. Attendees will leave with practical tools and ideas they can apply to both public and private spaces. The next workshop will occur the following week on March 4th at 5:30 p.m. at the town green and the topic will be urban soil health and climate resistance.

All righty then. So that's that's it. That is it. Oh stuff. No, it's all good. But thank you. All right. All good up here. All good. All right. Um, actually, one thing for the city manager. Am I correct that those um uh those presentations are going to be recorded by Georgia Tech? Yes. Yes, they will. Good. Okay. All right. First item, uh, we have before us the meeting minutes of the February 11th, 2026 regular meeting and the February 11th, 2026 work session. Do I have a motion to engross the minutes?

So moved. That was Laida. Do I have a second? Second. That was Louie. All in favor say I. I.

Okay. All right. You know, massive meeting tonight. Public comment. Yes, Tony. Wilch um where apparently in part of the project it was Georgia Power burying the lines and I was wondering how if at all the city is involved in Georgia Power on this project because as as the neighbors around us we're getting a lot of different stories about who's getting paid what. Where are they going to put it if you say no? They're still going to put the boxes on the right of way. Um, and they say, "We don't want to use the rightway because the city might come in one day and put sidewalks in," which we say, "No, that's probably never going to happen, but they could still put it on the right of way." So, the other day when we had another beating of Georgia Power, the um engineer told us that they would like to put another pole on the corner on our corner of Wilchshire's museum. And there's a poll. There's a pole across the street. There's another pole. They're not taking the poles down yet, but so they want to add a pole and then they want to put a giant box, you know, one of those big ones on our so they're trying to get our, you know, consent to put it on our property. But as I'm standing there with the engineer and we're looking at where they're thinking about putting the pole, there's a stop sign right there. So I said, you know, the stop sign is a thought for people coming through on Noddingham, but at least they stop. So how would that be okay? Who would And he wasn't sure if that was actually going to happen, but I I would love to see like the city maybe get in touch with somebody from Georgia Power and we could have maybe Q&A what's really going to happen because they're thinking about

doing this in the spring. Mhm. So, I don't know what you all have heard or or how involved you are with VA, but it's it's happening over in our neighborhood. Well, I don't entirely know how to address that, but has has the city put out anything about that.

It is not a city project. Um it is completely driven by utility basic Georgia power um with within within um you know uh both areas of existing easement and uh with in conversations with property owners to obtain easements to uh locate new infrastructure. Um we have met with Georgia Power. we understand what they what they are trying to accomplish. Uh what they're trying to accomplish is to strengthen the power grid within the city of Nevada. Um our especially the grid Iving um the area across 278 so the south side of the city most commonly known as the residential area. Um there is a uh you know a weaker than necessary uh power grid to serve the community and so they are trying to um install new infrastructure to um provide for a stronger grid to uh hedge against future outages and flickers um especially in uh storms and or windy conditions. uh that is being handled by them solely. We do not have any um influence or uh I guess for lack of yeah for lack of a better term authority to dictate any of their activity. However, um we we have been in discussions with them about uh an opportunity for them to hold uh a kind of a community Q&A workshop. We've encouraged that before. Um and we can try and reinforce that encouragement uh so that at least uh they have some sort

of spokesperson uh speaking with one voice to the community. uh because I can I understand the frustration of having uh potentially involvement with multiple different representatives of Georgia Power who were saying slightly different things. Absolutely.

Uh and that's confusing. Uh it also has the propensity to create a telephone game because the recipient of of that information is going to hear it slightly different than their neighbors. Um so uh I think that would be um you know the the and it's something that we will continue to encourage Georgia power to pursue um so that you know at least our residents are able to hear uh the message from a singular perspective um so I will I will commit to to asking them once again to to do that. Cool. Uh each street has a different bread.

Yeah, I think that would be wonderful if the city could facilitate that because I think from what I've seen post on social media that um there is a lot of confusion. There are a lot of people hearing different things and anything the city could do to help facilitate the residents kind of getting one clear message would be wonderful. Although I will say any effort to strengthen our power grid will be great because uh seems like every couple of months you you hear that familiar explosion in the background and you know your lights are going to go off in about a minute because it's going to overload another transformer and it's going to blow and then once that third one goes well you're out for a while. And it seems to happen an awful lot. And we get flickers a lot. We get it seems to be more frequent. I don't know about you guys, but um yeah. So, but yes, thank you. All right. Other comments? Anyone online? Any out there? Other

Okay. All good. Yes. If there's nobody um I was wonder if I could ask a question that I saw come up on uh online. Um that some people were talking about the no parking signs on Chadzsworth. They wanted to know if they were permanent um or uh or um I think wanted Huh. They're just cones. No, no, these are actual no parking signs. They look permanent type structures to me. I drove by there today. Um, so so we we we posted on on we actually used the city's account to post on that to respond to

Oh, you did? Okay. Post. It was a It was a mistake by by Stafford put those signs up. So if we're actually going to remedy that. Okay. Thanks. Okay. All right. All good up here. All good. Okay. All right. Uh, do I have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. That was Graham. Do I have a second? That's light. All in favor say I. Hi. Hi. All right. Anybody need a break? Nope. All right. All good. All good. Okay. All right. This is City of Aendale States Board of Mayor Commissioners work session. It's February 24th, 2026. It is now 5:46. I would like to call the meeting to order. Uh we have uh an agenda before us. Do I have a motion to adopt?

So moved. Lida. Do I have a second? Second. That's Louie. All in favor say I. I.

All right. So the first item up for discussion is uh continued discussion introduction of a resolution detailing BOMC public meeting process and public comment policy. Uh Mr. Manager, would you kind of tee this up for us? directing that staff received um at the at the previous work session. Um we uh assigned uh attorney Quinn to produce the draft resolution that included all of the provisions that you guys had uh tentatively agreed upon. Uh so uh that draft resolution has been provided to you in your packet uh and will be the document from which we work moving forward. Um any changes to that that draft that that the board would like to make we you can do the same thing provide us with direction and we make them otherwise that draft would be brought forth here at the next regular meeting for consideration.

All right. Um, I like the resolution. Uh, like the the structure of it and and what we're proposing to do. Um, I said really what I needed to say last time, but you know. Yeah, me too. I said what I need to say last time. It it uh the resolution looks good to me. It's got our public comment policy for the regular meeting. our 10-minute break follow 10 minutes uh work session begins 10 minutes after the adjournment of the regular meeting and then work session policy. I don't guess we need to codify where we're going to sit though. I know we talked about move but that's like a that's our choice.

That was my thought when I was drafting it. That was maybe a little more you don't have to say you're going to sit right here. Okay. Yeah. Exactly. Okay. That sounds fine. Yeah, it looks good to me. Okay, Lilo, you got something? Go ahead. Oh, go ahead. Okay, I have a uh basically I'm looking at item D and E uh under the uh public

comment u like public comment period is not a time for dialogue. If a speaker has a question for the board or staff, it should be addressed to the appropriate party in writing to facilitate a well-considered response. So I think we I thought we had kind of softened that a little bit by saying that you know we would that basically what I was thinking um is is instead of that it should be addressed say and it could not be answer and the question cannot be answered at the meeting then the speaker will fill out a question card and response will be received um and the appropriate staff and uh board would be copied Um because I really feel like you know like I said gave an example of the situation where you know we have talked discuss something and somebody's merely wanting to clarify something we said in a question. So that would be something we could answer and I I think it would be kind of rude not to um uh you know obviously there's going to be questions sometimes that we can't answer and I don't think that's a problem. I just think, you know, as long as we uh say we will get back with them on something and and we follow through, then I think everybody's happy. Um

but that was kind of my main thing. And then the one other thing was I was kind of wondering about this u e at regular meetings. I don't remember us discussing this about they cannot make uh comments about something coming up in a public hearing. Um, I just kind of didn't know where I didn't remember talking about that and I don't know why that's important. That's happened quite a few times. It almost happens every time that someone jumps ahead and um either addresses something in the meeting that should be in the hearing or vice versa or just makes the same comment at both. Yeah.

Um, so I believe that's why that's there and I agree with this. Uh, as to the first comment, I think really we either as a board agree to not answer or answer because if if the if there's this sort of if the door is open for well maybe we answer well then that that's just going to get us back where we started. It's like so if one of us addresses a question that kind of starts up this whole thing that we're trying to I wouldn't say avoid but handle better. Um so I think we either need to I mean I that's the gist of it for me right is that we either we speak as one or none. How would you resolve that? And this is not necessarily something you would put into the policy or the legislation here for you to consider, but that it you if you need an answer from us, y'all can choose to ask us a question. We're just not taking questions from the public.

So, you're referring to staff, correct? Okay. Well, it says though for the board or city staff. Well, can we change that to staff? I don't want No, I don't want to answer questions. I mean, I think that's the problem is we're like, oh, well, that's that's a softball. It's like, well, then well, lock us into a dialogue and a bunch of questions and well, you answered the first three. Why don't you go ahead and answer this one? It's like I think we either need to say yes or no to I don't think all questions are the same and I think that you know it's our job to kind of control it be becoming dialogue. I think you know I think that that's doable and um I don't

I just feel strange sitting up here when somebody answers a qu ask a question and just looking at them.

Well miss you know let me just say Miss Zakola's question earlier about Georgia Power is a good example because she said you know we don't know what's going on. We don't The answer came we from staff that the the important answer said we're going to keep we don't have any uh control over this project. We will ask Georgia Power to do the thing. I mean I've talked to Georgia Power reps. I could have given her my two cents. You give her your two cents and I mean then it would just snowball. Instead, the way that I would approach it when we're enacting this policy is I could, you know, if I want to, if I feel like I need to say something, I could say, "See me at the break, send me an email," you know, and then we could follow up that way instead of having that dialogue back and forth because then, you know, I may say something in my experience that she has another question about and then, you know, then it snowballs. And so to, you know, keep it from doing that, I'm with you. I would rather not answer a question. But we but Mr. Mayor could look over to or could look to city staff and say, "Do you guys talk to George Power?" And then you could give them that answer. Or we could, you know, just have, you know, we it's almost like we need to set the stage that this is a comment period. You give a comment and we will take your comment and that's that's it.

To me, little questions are just big questions in disguise. Yeah. And I've been to meetings at the capital at at other at county meetings at city of Atlanta meetings and they tell you we're not answering questions and you can ask a question and they do they sit there and look at you and I know it seems silly like you know what's three times four? Well, we all know the answer but it's like well no we're not because I'm telling you the little questions cascade into big questions and then it becomes a thing and then if we're engaging with this person and then he asks a question and we just sit here and stonewall him well he feels ripped off and that's not fair. And the whole point of this thing is equity is that we treat everyone the same. And I I'm to me that's a line in the sand. It's like nope. And I know it may seem silly and it may seem rude, but I'm telling you it it will cascade quickly. And I've seen people that will abuse it. They're like, "Well, is it Tuesday or Wednesday?" Okay. Well, then who's throwing it? What time is it? Well, who's paying for it? Or, you know, blah blah blah. And then it just turns into this thing. And it's like, well, no. As soon as the foot's in the door, it's becomes a different thing. And and again, it you're not treating people fairly because if the next person askked a question and you say, "Nope, can't answer that." Well, you answered her question. Well, that was a simple queue. Well, it doesn't matter. It's a question. It's like we're either going to answer them or we're not. And so, for me, no, that's a no. That's a no hard no.

Well, I'd like to follow up on that, please. Um, I I feel like people do understand the difference in a question, you know, that is not answerable, that we don't have the information before us and and a question that has to do with something that's been going on in the meeting that they're trying to get, you know, clarification on. Um, I I I think another thing is we we on in most meetings that we have, we do not have a huge amount of people in the audience to begin with. And I understand about the dialogue. I agree that the board should not get into dialogue, you know, but I think they should be responded to always and you know um it just uh I I just you know like I think the other thing is you know asking somebody outside the meeting well then only the that person gets the benefit of that. The rest of the board doesn't know what was answered. It's not an official answer. Um, and so those, you know, that's kind of the whole purpose of these meetings is for to do business for the benefit of the public, to understand the business. And so that's kind of where I'm coming from.

I don't think it's necessarily for the public. I mean, it is for the public. No, no, it is for the public, but but we're not in public. We're not here to teach or to try to help people understand like I can't, you know, we're here to do the business of the city. Not necessarily to teach people what the business of the city is. I mean, teaching. I'm just saying. No, I know. But it's like to help people learn and understand. For me, if I'm trying to help someone learn and understand, that's teaching. Not teaching, but

conduct business in public for the benefit of the public to see our work in action and to be able to understand it. And that's why, you know, we have uh we have the opportunity for them to comment and and I think seek additional information at times. And I don't I mean there there are occasions where it has gotten out of hand. I agree, but I don't think they're m you know, I think they're in the minority and not the the the the more common. Um so I don't know. That's just how I feel. Okay. Louis thoughts. put a little time into creating a little diagram, a visual aid, you arth.

And it was for me it was in the spared you guys from this of the youth, right? In the spirit of um of sort of equity because I heard that discussed before in amount of time and number of times. And so if you look on here, the blue represents the public comment part. The top is the way it is now and the bottom is a sort of a flow diagram of the way we're proposing it. And I looked at it to see is the blue the same. Is there same amount of blue on the top as on the bottom? And so if you look on the upper left there's, you know, sort of this is great.

A certain amount of blue and and then the in the middle of the bottom which is that sort of 10-minute break for informal discussion. you know, it's still blue. It's still a a time for public and board interaction. It's just not the same. Um, so I this is for me this helps me feel like, you know, it was sort of complicated on the if you look at the upper left, the three opportunities for public comment after as opposed to these kind of big blocks. Mhm.

Um, but the other thing is there's this purple line around each one dash purple line and that shows the kind of life cycle. It's like if you could took this and you wrapped it around a a chalk full of nuts coffee can, it shows that it's a cyclical thing, right? It starts really it starts with the working meeting. That's where new information or a new idea or a new concept is is brought up and there's public comment available after it. And then the following week it comes up maybe for vote and there's public comment before the vote and you know there's this and then afterwards in the casual inter in the u informal part there's an opportunity to say hey I think you made a mistake or I think you did a good thing. So this made me feel better about the sort of the um the the format. I don't feel like it's taking anything away. Um and I'm talking about the sort of sequence of events,

right? Um, I think you did a great job here. Thank you for doing that. But I'll have to say that what sticks out to me the most here is we have completely eliminated this right here. We've completely eliminated that. But it's up front now. Well, we know we've always had public comments after each item and then a comment at the end. So, what we're doing is we're moving the comment till the beginning and then we're eliminating this public comment on the different items. Well, we're moving it up actually, but I think and well, we're combining these two into the beginning.

Well, someone did say and I think it's, you know, not unfair is, you know, well, we comment after you've already made the motion and discussed it. So, by then it's a done deal. Now, public comments up front. Oh, I support that completely

to me. But I mean I I'm I mean we used to have comment after everything and it it just it it was not conducive to getting things done to me in an efficient way. So but I do appreciate the diagram and I think it's really good. But um as I said I'm I'm good with the the resolution as is. Um I think it's in step in the right direction and um yeah mayor. Yes. Uh is it okay if uh Attorney Quinn addresses uh Commissioner Steedman's question about the uh public hearing? Yes, please.

Sure. Uh the reason I included that what made me think of it is that I've seen it in other systems policies and the basic um intention is to prevent duplication of the same topic by the same person within the same meeting. When there is a contentious zoning matter. So all zoning matters tri uh trigger our separate policy for public hearing. Uh and because we have no limit on the number of speakers that can make a regular public comment, there are certain times and it may only be once a year or every year or two where you may have, you know, 75 people in the community that want to count that on a particular zoning site. So they have a right to do that within the framework of that public hearing and that's the purpose of this. If you don't include subsection E then they would have the right to do it all twice. That could really make for a very long meeting when you have this general public comment duplicated by the public here

and we saw that recently. Yeah. with the the ABA variant stuff and uh was that when the U meetings were conducted on the same night or or just close together? Oh, I just I think you're referring to a public hearing within the the bounds of a reg regular meeting. So, like let's say we had a regular meeting two two weeks before the public hearing. Would that be an issue? No. Okay. No, we're talking about item, right? We're talking about Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. Thanks.

Same night. Um, Mike, did you have a comment or question?

I I'm in favor and I I I like how it's laid out. Um, Louie did a great job of of uh diagramming and and there's there's really no lost areas for public comment. Um, I do um I do like the uh the public comment card idea. I think that would be under the I guess the subset where it says uh you know put it in writing. So, I do think, you know, some sort of standardized public comment card would be very helpful and and and basically give an avenue um for the public to to have that um you know, any concerns addressed and then maybe a checkbox to to signify they would like a like a response and and I don't know if it would be helpful to um to include responses by the city, you know, in in some sort part of of the following, you know, meeting just so um you know, like as Lida said that if if it's important to the public, you know, discourse, it could be, you know, addressed, you know, at some point in the following meetings so people are more aware of what was asked. I don't know if that's something we could include or if it's if it's helpful or relevant, but that might be something to consider. Well, the um item one, you know, part D, it should be addressed to the appropriate party in writing. I mean is did

yeah that that allows for uh what we discussed last time uh for for persons to uh email you directly or uh write a a question uh down on a card or a whatever we want to call it that's available at the meeting that then would be scanned and circulated back to the board the following morning. So was that intentional to give it some flexibility or Okay. Yeah, because we don't want to mandate how people interact with you guys necessarily. So if persons are more comfortable writing to you individually, they you know

Okay. So if we left the language as is, we could put out cards, we could not put out cards, we could So does putting in the stipulation for cards, is that necessary? I don't think so. It's just an option because if you put it in there, you got to do it. If you don't put it in there, it's optional. Correct. Because it may work, it may not. Got it. So, okay. That was the intention. All right. Yep. All right.

It Okay. So, um, are we saying they can't ask the question in public even though they know they're not going to get an answer that they can only ask it in writing? They can ask it. It's just we're not going to respond. Okay. Well, I think maybe we need a little clarification on that last part to to to make it I think feel like it sounds like it. No, it just says if a speaker has a question, okay, it should be addressed. We're not saying you can't have a question. We're just saying if you do, put it in writing. Um Okay. Well, I Anyway, all right. Um

if we use tonight as an example question was form of a question about a topic of Georgia power you asked the city manager to make a statement and then he made a clarifying statement back to us back to the board. Um I don't in other words whether the person presents it in the form of a question or not. It doesn't doesn't change anything. Um the city manager may make a declarative statement later that answers that question or may it in other words if it comes from here and goes towards the staff there might be an organic answer

and I think this does allow for that sort of discretion. Nothing's ever stopping any member of the board from asking the staff a question during the meeting. It I think it's proper I mean proper I think it's good that it is made clear upfront you know and and if if the if the question is simple is it Tuesday or Wednesday you know it's I guess it would be my discretion but say okay Mr. manager, can you can you answer that, please? Okay, it's going to be on Wednesday. And then that's the end of that. But and if and if it is a more complex question and I didn't realize that, he can say, "Well, I'm not prepared to answer that at this moment, but I will get back to you."

But it's just, you know, just I think it's just not allowing the door to open. Because I'm telling you, if if the foot gets in the door, the whole thing is moot. It just And I've seen it happen a hundred times. it just, you know, the little baby question becomes like a whole blown up thing that no one's prepared to to answer and then it just changes the whole track of the meeting and I think that's what we're trying to avoid is just getting off the rails and you know, as I said before, not answering correctly or, you know, it just we're not here for that. Um, so

and we've got that clarifying statement or or informative statement at the beginning of the meeting that we need to craft, right? And I think that's very important that on the if it's a one-page agenda or whatever that on the back side of that page is there it is. And that's what I've seen everywhere. Um, you know, you flip that agenda over and there it is. It tells you plain as day like and our intent our intent was to to do that was to provide instruction about comment on the agendas as they are published. Yeah.

Okay. Good. I'm still not happy about answering questions but okay otherwise. Okay. All right. Mike any closing comment or question or no nothing nothing further to ask um at this time. Okay. All right. So uh we will vote on this next meeting. Yes it will be presented for consideration and the next meeting is March 11th. March 11th.

Okay. So we will be voting on this March 11th. Okay. All right. Item number four, uh, recommendation of consulting team for downtown master plan update. I'm actually kind of excited about this. I'm glad you're excited. Got a lot of work.

I I'm coming to here because no nobody can hear me when I stand except for you guys. But they I've learned because I've been told too many times. So I walked up here. Um so amazing. So we got 11 proposals for the downtown master plan. And I'm telling you, I've been doing this a pretty long time now. I like to think I'm younger than I am, but you know, um I have never ever reviewed so many solid proposals. So kudos to you guys. I mean, that's actually says something about the quality of this board and the decisions that you've made to move things forward because consultants, they want to work with people that are going to do things. They don't want things that sit on a shelf. And so, I mean, we got the best of the best and it was a very, very difficult decision. Um, typically this is more or less a staff decision. You know, we review the the proposals. Um the grant that we've we're getting from ARC has a very rigid set of criteria that we go through. We rank and we I mean it it's a process. So we did this for all 11 proposals. We narrowed it down to four and made the decision to have a few other folks weigh into our selection. So we had a small selection committee representing you know uh the um the DDA uh representing a property owner um representing the planning and zoning board. So, um, the head of the planning and zoning board, Lisa Shortell, representing both the DDA and a residential perspective. Actually, Dan also represents both. And then, um, Fischer Pey stepped in from a property owner perspective. We went through that. Again, hard hard decision, but we landed on Lord Eken Sergeant and their team to lead this effort. They have a strong

public engagement perspective. They've got a um uh um KB or Ken Blakeley and Associates as you guys probably remember them are or their economic team. Um so tool design who's well known in the transportation world will be doing transportation planning. So it's a team of folks led by um Lord Eken Sergeant. I think you're going to be thrilled with um the results. Financially they all came in pretty much about the same. And the reason is because it's a public it's a grant. So all those are publicly you know they all knew how much money was in the grant. So um they all came in within you know $1,000 of each other basically. It's it was pretty much that was given. So we'll be um the process itself runs from April uh through Januaryish. So um we're going to be bringing back the contract for you guys. will be moving that forward in the process with the hope of having fully started by April. There's the the beginning process. We begin with kind of public engagement. There's some steps throughout the process. We'll have a lot more details as we get get to that. Um but yeah, it's it's it's we're starting. Remember, we also do the comprehensive development plan almost at the same time. So, we're looking at how we kind of integrate some of the public engagement process so we're not asking people over and over again the same questions. Uh, but that's kind of a on a different track and a different process. So, um, what else can I is there anything I didn't touch on that I should have? I I mean I uh you know I'm I'm I'm happy to hear that you know they're sort of energized by the fact that we actually used our

previous downtown master plan as a as a guide. Um I would love to go back through that document and go check check check. Oh, we do. We get to do that. remember there were 440 items in the back and I'd love to know I mean and some of them you know no longer applied for whatever reason or whatever but um you know I'm I'm real proud of that and I'm I'm happy to hear that they were sort of

energized by that and and u and I hope that you know uh future boards do the same. I mean, these are these are pros. These are well-considered recommendations. And um and I think also we have some momentum this time. We have some trajectory, right? And so they kind of know what we're wanting to do. And I think that helps shape, you know, or where we've been, you know, where we're going. So I think that help will help shape u the recommendations and so forth. But um I I'm genuinely excited to get this started because yeah, the last round was pretty helpful for me at least. So um I'm like just follow the plan. It's not that simple, but it's really not that complicated. It's uh so anyway. Yeah.

Good. Thank you. Good. Glad to hear we have Okay, so we'll be back next time. So this um we'll vote on this, right? The contract will be presented to you at the next. Okay. All right. So we will vote on this as well March 11th. Awesome. Thank you, Shannon. Thanks, Shan. Appreciate it. And thank you for everything you all the interviews and all the filtering you had to go through there. So um yes. What's that? Oh,

the Wizard of Oz comes out from behind the curtain. How's it going? Hey, man. Okay. All right. Big item number five. Yes. Yes.

Yeah. Well, I'm coming up here so the YouTubes can see my bald spot. I got to give the people what they want. Okay. Um I probably don't need this. Uh couple of things. Uh first of all, I am here before you uh happy to announce uh the city is in receipt of an extraordinary anonymous gift in the amount of $1 million. Uh the donors wanted to share that the gift was made possible thanks to Waffle House who has been serving Aendel Estates since 1955. Uh the city will have flexibility to direct the gift toward priorities that best serve the community, including infrastructure improvements, parks and public spaces, public safety, andor other initiatives that enhance quality of life for residents. Um on that topic, uh we have um some significant legislation uh working its way through the Georgia legislature as we speak that uh could potentially have um significant impacts uh to the ability of the city to generate revenue. Um that bill uh is House Bill 1114 uh which also has companion legislation require which would authorize uh the constitutional amendment process. Um, I say all that because

uh until we know the outcome of that legislation, which could happen very quickly, um I want to encourage the BOMC to refrain from any um substantive discussion about how to use the the funds. uh we are in receipt of via this uh incredibly generous anonymous donation. Um to that end given that the legislation is expected to uh move through the legislature quickly and and uh therefore knowledge of u whether that legislation will become law and the impact it may have upon the city of Aenddale Estates. I have asked city clerk uh um the city clerk to uh uh communicate with each of you about um moving the uh spring strategic work session up to early April. Um so that we can begin a hardcore deep dive substantive discussion on both the impact of this potential legislation, the impact uh that that legislation might have on our ability to carry out um future capital projects or execute future capital projects. Um because uh the decisions that the board will make about how to spend the resources of this gift will also have a substantial

impact on the capital program and the uh movement of resources that are previously dedicated to some projects contained therein to other projects. Um, so, uh, you know, our original intent was to provide you guys with some information about, uh, the potential effects on our capital program that that any, um, decisions on how to spend this donation. Uh, sorry I'm stumbling over that my words, but what I'm trying to say is um the the the uh I guess the um movement of of the legislation to a place that was previously unexpected. um has uh necessitated a little bit of a pause in the discussion of how to spend this money so that we can understand the impacts of that legislation on our ability to generate revenue and uh allocate or appropriate revenue to you know their eventual sources and and and projects. Does that make sense to everybody? Yes,

it does make sense. Okay. Uh and and just to bring you up to speed, we just received word from the capital uh that House Bill 114 uh did did uh uh pass through com the Ways and Means Committee and is available to be considered on the House floor as early as tomorrow. Oh, well soon. That's the one that eliminates residential property tax. that eliminates homesteaded property tax uh by the year 2032.

Uh until until 2032 um if enacted, there would be a graduated uh mandatory homestead exemption. uh and the uh possibility of each county to levy a um equalizing or offsetting uh sales tax uh in response to the reduction in revenues that could be generated from property tax. Uh so um kind of like our previous taxation legislation that we had to work through two years ago, uh this is even more complex.

Yeah. And will have even more nuanced impacts onto our coffers. Um so we want to deliver to you guys the best information possible so that we can begin a discussion on um what resources we will have available for future projects and even current projects um you know in a in a Right. Yeah. Um

so are you saying that um they would be eliminating just residential property taxes homesteaded residentials? So, if if if this legislation and and I I I'll be I'm going to try and be uh as specific as I can, but uh if this legislation were to become law from properties that are also homesteaded, meaning that um the the the owner of the property lives lives in the Yeah. resides on the property. Um yeah, the the collection of of property taxes from those properties would would cease in their entirety, but commercial would continue. Correct. Or or nonhomesteaded residential.

Okay. Correct. And uh any any first first blush analysis? Um I you know, sure. Uh

there's no sales taxes. It it's it's difficult to really give you a pinpointed analysis because I can't work in 2032 because I don't know what they'll be. But let's work in 2025, uh, which is the last tax year for which we have, you know, good information. Um, we generate about $3.3 million in annual revenue from homesteaded properties. Um, if we no if we no longer were able to do that and we would rely upon the uh LHost as they're calling it uh sales tax to equalize or make up for the loss of revenue generated from those properties. Um and the distribution of those collections followed the same model that all of the municipalities within Dicab County and Dicap County has have agreed to which is actually again required by this legislation to agree to a distribution form. But if we kept the same distribution formula um our receipts from the sales tax would be about $2.1 million annually. So, we would uh have a a significant revenue gap of about $1.3 million right off the bat.

That's not so bad, is it? It would that's 20% of our budget. Yeah. It would effectively um um you know cause us to um I'd like to point out this thing to pass. It requires a super majority in the House and the Senate, which means that a lot of Democrats would need to vote for this. Um, maybe I shouldn't say that from up here, but that would be really disappointing. Um, but anyway, I'll stop right there. And I, you know, I I uh Yes, I don't know. This is going to kill a majority is able to be achieved.

Uh, if that if it is not and that legislation dies, right? Uh I think it is worth bringing to your attention that there's other legislation that was introduced by the Senate uh which would require all of the municipalities who opted out of HB581 to opt into HB581. So if this legislation dies, most likely that legislation would would um become law,

right? Well, so it would also have impacts on on our revenue collection that we would have to get into, you know, in detail. Well, first of all, thank you. Thank you. Thank you to the donor. Uh that's that's a big deal for us. Huge.

Um and you know, you'd have to ask the person where did this you know, why? But, you know, I I would I would like to think that it's because we're a city that's actually doing something, that we're actually trying to make ourselves better, you know, and we're trying to create a place that future generations are proud of, and that we're taking care of our city. Um, but I don't know where that's coming from. I mean, but I I just want to say thank you on behalf of the city, the board, and everybody. It's like that's huge. Um, I do agree that given current conditions, uh, you know, we need to take a take a pause and, you know, and figure out what's next. And, uh, how far are they in at this point? How many days

the legislature? Yeah. Oh, I I don't I sorry, I didn't come equipped with how many days are remaining in the legislative calendar, but Well, they got 40 to meet. Yeah. So I don't I my understanding is that um the consideration of this legislation will happen well within the um the time frame that the legislature has to. But I'm just saying when I'm just projecting because in Georgia we don't have a a drop dead day. It's just on your 40th day you're done. So but you don't know when. It could be July theoretically. Um but typically they're done by end of March.

Yeah, that's what I thought. So I I agree that the the having the strategic planning session in April is apppropo. So uh good news possibly bad news. Um if this thing if the Senate if the House bill passes cities are gonna small cities are going to disappear in Georgia. I mean no doubt in my mind they're just going to disappear. So, um yeah, great idea. Um okay, so what's next? Uh nothing. Oh, I mean,

um there is nothing you were required to do to accept the donation,

right? I do want to say that though the donors would desire to remain anonymous, I have spoken with them and uh I want to personally extend uh my sincere gratitude. Um and I am super thankful as as um you just expressed uh to the donor's confidence in the city uh and their enduring love for our community. um ba from the conversations that I've had the the sentiment that they are um very happy about the work that's been performed in the city uh the health of the city moving forward the vibrance of the city are uh one of the considerations that they took in order to determine whether they wanted to to make this donation. So, my congratulations to the board um and my deepest and sincerest gratitude to the donors. Um this is a tremendous gift and um I I know we'll all look forward to um expending those resources in the the best way uh that we we know how.

Yes. Suddenly hungry for a Waffle House. Very. Oh man. Well, it is very poignant and it's just so appropriate that it in which is uh uh because of Waffle House and their generosity and uh it's just that's really special and I absolutely am going to go get something to eat today. No, it's awesome. I too appreciate I think it's wonderful. Very excited. Yes. So, thank you. Okay. All right. Fantastic.

Is that it? That one? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Manager. All right. Uh, any additional comments on that one? All right. Public comment. Yes. You look like you want to say something. Headed to Waffle House. Yes. Yes. Bob,

uh, if you could please. Thank you. Bob Rosen for Exiter. Um, just watching last week and this week, I really appreciate the struggle yall are facing with this public comment. And I think the answer is to find a balancing point where you listen to people because this is a small community and you want to invite people in and participate. We could use more people in the seats. But I also recognize that it can get out of hand and get in the way of the city of the business. So it reminds me of parenting. You give your kids some slack. You answer their questions, but at a certain point, there's five of you up there, six, someone has to say, "Okay, we're good." And you know, if the question's being directed at Lida, Miss Steman, and it's getting out of hand, you all can jump in and help bring it back. So, I think it's important to have people here and engaged and feeling heard. As much as some of these comments are ridiculous to me and I wouldn't have the patience to sit there and listen, that's what you're there for. So, continue to listen and cut it off when it's appropriate. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Uh, who? Oh, Bill. Wolver. Hey, Bill. Or Shan. Yes. Hello. Hey, Bill.

Bill. Uh, Bill Hoverver, 89 Berkeley Road. Uh, and Jan, uh, uh, my comment is with regards to the, um, comment cards, uh, or the the the written requests for comment or, uh, responses. Uh, how that information will be disseminated to the public. Because while some of it might be um very much, you know, maybe for me uh as a personal question that I might get in a 10-minute break or maybe at a a commissioner chat, I think there are others uh other things that uh are important that the the general public have. And I think uh Commissioner Smith alluded to this somewhat in his uh comments on it. And so I would like to see something in the in the policy that establishes how that uh those those answers are actually going to get out to the public. And I'm not I mean it could be part of the next meeting's um you know commissioner comments or a separate you know uh agenda item or it could be something that's that's published under you know answers to comments uh on the on the city website. But I would like to see something like that uh uh included in this in this uh policy. Uh, and also, uh, G, thanks for, uh, a really nice, uh, gift that we can use to, uh, further improve our city. Thank you. Thank you, Bill. Okay. Any others? Okay. Any closing comments? Okay. All right. Seeing none, I'd like to bring it back up here. Uh, anything closing up here? No, I didn't mention how much I

love Wealthful House. I will say I It's really neat that we have something so special and ingrained in our our social our country's fabric. It's just it's neat. I go to places and I talk about where I'm from and usually one of the first things out of my mouth is like, you know, the first Waffle House was there was there and and it's a museum and and and and it's just it's it's just really neat to call uh them part of our our home and and and and it's amazing that they're giving back. So, so it's a it's it's a wonderful thing. Thank you to everyone involved. So,

I'll add to that. My brother's family, whenever they come into town, they have to go to the Waffle House. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Never disappoints. No, it's it's kind of our go-to on the road because you know what you're going to get, you know? It's like same thing. So, um yeah, it's um it's awesome. So, thank you once again. Uh I'll get up here. Okay. All right. So, do I have a motion to adjurnn? So, moved. That was Mike. Do I have a second? Second. That's LA. All in favor say I. Hi. All right. Thanks, guys. Thanks everybody for being here. Thank you online.