Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Ladies and gentlemen, it is 4 o'clock, so we're going to get the meeting called to order and get things kicked off. I know that we're all trying to learn the new system of having work session, executive session, and board meetings all on the same day, so we're going to try to stick to a good schedule to make sure we keep that moving in the right direction. As we call the meeting to order, I will lead us in the prayer and invocation, and then following that, Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the opportunity to live in such an incredible community. We pray for your wisdom, for your guidance, and all that we do. We lift up not only our community, our state, our nation, but we just lift up... the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god individual with liberty and justice for all thank you so as we go into the agenda for the approval of the agenda i will make a note before everybody thinks oh my gosh this is about to be the agenda, there were six ordinances that were included in the discontinuance of the Marshal's Office, but we found that there are six other ordinances that have references to functions of the Marshal's Office, so we've got to make sure that we include all those. So in the agenda, it's to add the following items under number six, public hearings related to the discontinuance of the Marshal's Office, and under item number 12 on new business that relate to the repeal of chapters 42 and Public hearing chapter 4, public hearing chapter 16, public hearing chapter 18, public hearing chapter 58. So when we get through those public hearings, which we're about to do in just a couple of minutes, we'll go through those as one big public hearing, but we'll give opportunities for any comments that anyone may have as we get through. It's in order to discontinue that and move those services over to the sheriffs. THAT EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS WHAT THOSE LOOK LIKE. SO WITH THAT ONE AMENDMENT IN SIX PARTS, I WOULD ASK FOR AN APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA BEFORE YOU. MOTION TO APPROVE.

I'LL SECOND THE MOTION, THANK YOU. I'LL SECOND. ANY DISCUSSION OR ANY OTHER ITEMS? AS A POINT OF WORK, WHEN WE COME TO THE ACTUAL VOTING MEETING, IS IT POSSIBLE TO CONSOLIDATE ITEM C WITH L? into one motion, and then if that motion fails, break down each one individually to vote on second.

Yes, we can do that. So when we get to those items, C through L, we will do that as one motion. And if for some reason that motion fails or during discussion after the motion, we'll then break those apart into the items that need to be broken apart. Okay. So with that one adjustment, do we have any other discussion or Questions related to the agenda?

No.

With that, do I call in favor of approving the agenda as presented in a minute? Aye. Aye. None opposed? Motion carries. We will move into the agenda. First is our work session items. We're going to go through our director's report. Westbrook is going to fill in for him. But we'll start with internal operations. Let Miranda give us some updates on the internal operations side. So Ms. McDowell, I'll turn it over to you.

All right. So number one, IT this year, or this month, at the end of the month, we'll be transitioning from Eclipse over to Clearlink. That transition's already started. Brian's been working with both companies. to ensure that we have a smooth transition. And then risk management, we had no insurance claims this mid-June. That's big. HR, we had eight new hires, four resignations, one retirement, and also the workers' comp audit was completed. The annual periods for the CDL drivers for the drug and alcohol cleared house, those have been completed. And the first two quarters, safety sensitive drugs have been completed. Buildings. Buildings has been busy. Buildings, fire station per part, seems like the ditching and the utilities will be completed pretty soon, pretty quick. And then all of the plumbing on the interior, Buildings also has been working on group sanding and painting and doing all the handrails around the admin building and 8911. And they've also started the replacement of the audience up front. One has been replaced. The other one is in the process of being replaced. So it's going to look great. And then, of course, it's air conditioning season. So everybody's been calling for help because they need their air conditioners to work. Finance. We are beginning the process of the budget planning process for fiscal year 2027. So that is kicked off, and we'll see how that all goes. And then as far as finance, we're also just taking the time to kind of do post-audit stuff and gear up for the end of the year. That's all I've got.

Any questions for him, sir? No questions. Thank you very much. All right, so at this time, what's broken? All of this.

Sorry. No. All the disciplines under the public safety department are moving forward with all the projects they have ongoing. No big issues. Again, I've been around building things for a while in public safety. Nothing ever goes as fast as you want it to. And we appreciate Kirk working so hard to get us squared up up there where we can get that finished up. All of our departments are working hard on budget right now. in establishing, we're trying to do some more strategic-like work, developing goals and objectives, that sort of thing, for the next year, and working our budget toward making sure that we can complete those. But outside of that, no major issues that I'm aware of this afternoon. All the fires are out, as far as I know. i will say i know that budgets

Selected officials have been providing their requested budget items for each department. The directors are then meeting to try to kind of narrow those down into three pools so that we can all know exactly where we're standing there. We are awaiting, I know that the Tax Assessor's Office has sent out the assessment notices. There's a 45-day appeal period that they're in the middle of that going on. Once that's finished, We don't have those numbers yet, have no even preliminary indication as to what those look like. So I'm not going to speak ahead and say where it looks exactly. What will work as soon as those numbers start to come in, if we get any preliminary, I'll make sure finance shares that with both of you so that you're in the loop as soon as we start getting anything to be in the loop. So those two kind of go hand in hand as we get through the budget process. So I'm

Well, just to follow up on what you said, all of the departments in external are in the budget process. We're having second meetings beginning tomorrow in advance of the initial submission on Friday. So the other part in terms of sharing information, we thought we'd focus on the paving situation since we're in the middle of paving season. We're dealing with just short of 16 miles in total. And Henderson, which is over 4 miles, Hood, 1.2 miles, Camp Road Eastern, 1.3.4 miles, and Jeanette Court, short, almost two-tenths of a mile have all been completed. And Henderson Mountain, excuse me, Big Ridge will be started, I think it started today, expected to be finished by the end of the week or beginning of next week. And then the last, the camp road, each part is being delayed because of some utility line situations that have to be worked with. But things are going pretty well. And it's cold. It's just doing this coldest truck for us.

I drove across Anderson Mountain this weekend, and it was much, much better.

working closely with them to get it. And they seem to be on track with the original anticipated amounts. No major surprises at this point. We did extend.

That intersection is the only thing that should be a little bit extra.

Yeah. Any other questions for Exterm? Anything you guys have got? from that into our public hearings. And as I stated at the first, I'm going to go through, there's two screens worth of the agenda items for the public hearings. So there you've got A, B, and C, which is the repeal of Chapter 2, Article 5. The repeal of Chapter 42, those are the two that dealt specifically with marshals. There's a public hearing on Chapters 1, 4, 13, 16, 18, 21, 38, 54, 58, and 59. There's there's someone that has something very specific that we need to as we call the Public hearing to order will go straight through all the chapters. I know there's a break smoother and faster, but I've asked Director Wood if he would to go through and do the public hearing portion. So at this time, can I have a motion to go to open the public hearing related to the discontinuance of the Marshal's Office? So moved. I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Director Wood, the floor is yours.

And the first of this is an overview that's really outside of the public hearing. It's a cessation of the marshal's office. The records indicate that the marshal's office was established in January 2003. So it's been around for that many years, over two decades. We made an ordinance amendment to it in 22 that significantly increased the text of the ordinance. This all came about due to the resignation of the chief marshal. which really gave us an opportunity to think about concepts that we kept dealing with in terms of enforcement. There were law enforcement concepts involved, quasi-law enforcement concepts involved, and civilian enforcement concepts involved. Sometimes they were directly opposed to each other, sometimes they were balanced, sort of working together, integrated, and it was a versus and for part that we were dealing with all the time. So we basically just made the decision to handle this from the standpoint of inside this organization that reports directly to you to focusing on the civilian case and not the law enforcement piece and how the sheriff's office assists, which they graciously agreed to do on the law enforcement piece. So therefore, we've got repeals and we've got amendments. Repeals of two chapters are parts thereof that, as Kristen mentioned in amendments, 10 chapters. Those are the two chapters that are repealed. One's an article in Chapter 2, the county marshal's office. The other articles of Chapter 2 will remain. And then there's Chapter 42, offenses and miscellaneous provisions. Those will just go away. Then there are 10 chapters, as Chris mentioned, general provisions, admin and enforcement, advertising and signs, aviation, building and building regulation, businesses, fire prevention and protection, land development standards, roads and bridges, solid waste, and land use regulation and standards. And in each of these, what we chose to do here is to take the heading of the resolution that you'll be taking consideration of, and if you pass it, signing, that basically explains this. There are a lot of recitals in there, but it explains what it is, and each one of these are the same except for one. And that is an ordinance to amend chapter X entitled, whatever it's entitled, of the Code of Ordinances, Pickens County, Georgia, to address the cessation of the County Marshal's Office, to effectuate civilian code enforcement, and to effectuate related assistance from the Pickens County Sheriff's Office. This is what these things do, is to achieve these three things. And so every one of these, except for one, which is more than just a little bit differently, has this. There's three things that are going on. Deletions of purposes of the Marshal's Office, and the functions of the marshal's office in all of these chapters, added references to the civilian code enforcement office, which is in place now and is dealing with those and other authorized personnel that work within UL's span of control, and then referencing of assistance from the sheriff's office. And in each case, this is all that's going on, these three things. So public hearings, public hearing one. which is the repeal of Chapter 2, Article 5. Article 5 being the Marshal's Office, and this is the same that I just read to you, but it's focused specifically in this case on the Marshal's Office. That's why it's highlighted in yellow. And this would be to repeal Chapter 2, Article 5. That's all there is to that repeal. Public Period 2, repeal of Chapter 42, the entirety of Chapter 42. It mentions the marshal's office's offenses and miscellaneous provisions. It mentions the marshal's office, which is why we went to it. This is a chapter we've never really, at least since I've been here, we've never done anything with it. And it has to do with crimes against persons, which is really law enforcement, at least quasi-law enforcement. So really this means, and this is about assault and stuff like that. So it really needs to be dealt with by the sheriff's office anyway. And then truancy, which we've never really dealt with. So this will repeal that chapter, which deals with those two topics. Those are the two repeals. Public hearing three, amendment of chapter one. Chapter one is the general provisions, administration, and enforcement. It's the foundation of all of the enforcement of the entire code. And so all this does is those three things that we discussed earlier for amended Chapter 1, and particularly with regard to referencing the assistance from the Sheriff's Office. That's Chapter 1. Chapter 4 has to do with advertising and signs. And what it does here in amended Chapter 4, as we talked about earlier, is deletes the references, adds references to civilian code, and then references the assistance from the Sheriff's Office. That does it for Chapter 4. And if I'm doing this too fast, stop me. All right, Public Hearing 5, Chapter 13, which is aviation over at the airport, it does the same things as that. Public Hearing 6, Amendment of Chapter 16, this is buildings and building regulations, does the same thing here. Chapter 7, Amendment of 18, this is businesses, does the same thing here. Public hearing eight, amendment of chapter 21, this is fire prevention and protection. Does the same thing here. And then chapter, I mean, public hearing nine, 38, this is land development standards. Again, the same thing here. Public hearing 10, 54, roads and bridges. Does the same things here. And then public hearing 11, 58, which is solid waste. Again, does the same things here. And then 12 and finally 67, which is land use regulations and standards, and it does the same thing there. So like I said, there's a lot of redundancy and repetitiveness, but we want each of these chapters to be as strong as they can from an enforcement standpoint, so that takes care of everything.

with that I will first open it up to the public for any public comment It's a much cleaner solution. With that, do I have a motion to conclude our public hearing? Motion to conclude. Second motion. Motion and a second. Discussion, questions? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? We'll conclude the public hearing. Thank you very much, Bill. I appreciate you going through that. I know you guys can't see the number of slides, but when you look at it from the So at this time, it's 422, I would like to entertain a motion to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing property personnel and to consult with legal on existing or pending potential litigation.

Do I have a motion? So moved. I'll second.

Moved and a second. All in favor? Aye. So we will go into executive session at this time. We will specifically reconvene the meeting at 530. We will recess from the time between anything with the executive session. Thank you all for speaking. All right, ladies and gentlemen, it's 5.30, so at this time I'll entertain a motion to adjourn executive session with no action taken. Do you need a second? So moved. Second. Moved and a second. Any discussion or questions? All in favor?

Aye.

Executive session is now adjourned. We'll come back in the regular meeting. Next item on our agenda is to get through the employee recognitions. I know we had two tonight. One is not able to be with us and will join us next month. 20 years has, I think, how many different public works directors you've actually had the opportunity to work with? A bunch of them. I'm sure that if you were to ask him right now, he would tell you that his favorite by far has been to work for . If you had talked to him six years ago, he would have gave you a different answer. And if you had talked to him a couple years before that, he might have given you a different answer. But tonight, we get to recognize Stanley Maltese. Stanley has been with the county for 20 years. I will speak just on a personal level. You will not find a finer man than Stanley, not just as an employee, but as a man of character, as a man that stands behind all of his employees, that will never say no when he's called on to do anything. I know Kirk's called him many times. I've seen him out on the road many nights, and if the road department, water department, or any other department needs his help, Stanley's the guy who's going to show up. He suffers from one of the same shortfalls that I suffer from, and that's proofreading. So when both of us want to try to go in and edit or make a post on Facebook, So I have to think on you just a little bit. A little bit. I sent a gentleman an email the other day, and when Stacy read it and said, did you actually read what you emailed him? I had about nine in one sentence. So I do understand sometimes my brain is working at a different pace than my ability to type. But I want to especially just say thank you. Thank you for what you do for Pickens County, what you've done for the last 20 years for Pickens County, but also what you do for everybody. makes you a special hero. So this time, just to embarrass you, I would like for you to come up. I'm going to have Kurt come up with you, and then that way y'all can stand in front of us. I'm going to present this with you. Let's pose for some pictures. You've got to break your camera. you to wear something that stood out a little bit.

I'm going to find new phones now.

Wait, hold on. Sorry. I couldn't see Josh. Tipping.

It's kind of funny. I was debating whether or not we were going to see him be here or not. He'll show up for anything else, but I think Kirk maybe will come. But at this time, we'll move on through our agenda. The next item is our consent agenda, which we have none for tonight. We do have one item of old business, and that's the resolution to appoint myself to serve on the Limestone Valley RC&D Board. One of the things that they've requested is it be a member of the Board of Commissioners. They meet during the week midday, so I'm willing to do so unless either of you have a preference, but I'll leave that up to you to make a motion for either myself or for one of the other board members. I would gladly make a motion that you serve on that board.

I would second the motion with exuberance. Thank you so much. In the discussion, I guess I can't resist, so

Next few items on the agenda, we've got the first two we'll go through as they're listed, and then during the work session portion or the public hearing portion of meeting prior to executive session, we're going to attempt to try to lump several of the items into one voting item. All of the next handful of items are specifically for the dissolving of the marshal's office. were conducted. you sign we'll pass it down the next item um is one that we discussed during the public hearing and that's the consideration and approval of the repeal of chapter 42 chapter 42 does include a couple of other items in addition to the marshal's office so at this time i would like to entertain a motion that we table uh that repeal of 42 so that we can review that a little bit more in depth

Next items on the agenda. If we look through the agenda, you can tell it goes from this page into the second page through L. That's C through L. And I'll list out what each of them are.

But C through L include chapters 1, amending chapter 1 to remove any records from the Marshal's office, chapter 4, and 67. Each of those items would be simply to review the removal of the Marshal's Office reference within those and replacing that with the practical function of civilian code enforcement and the Sheriff's Office partnership for any law enforcement related function that's needed on those. So I will ask first if we have each of those chapter amendments.

Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion that we group item C through L, consideration and approval of amendments to chapters 1, 4, 13, 16, 18, 21, 38, 54, 58, and 67 into one motion. In the event the motion fails, we will vote on

All right, so next item on our agenda is item M, that's Consideration and Approval of Aviation Hangar Leaks H18. We had gone out a couple months ago for an RFP process for proposals for four separate parcels. Two of those actually had applicants that applied for them. They were scored by our engineers that went through and reviewed each of the applicants. Any discussion or questions? No. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Next item on the agenda is the consideration and approval of aviation hangar lease H-19. This is one of the larger sections that On our agenda is a consideration and approval of a memorandum of understanding with North Georgia Community Action Agency. This is an MOU with North Georgia. This is for the the MOU. So at this time, I'll entertain a motion that we approve the MOU with North Georgia in the action to continue to provide this NAC service. Motion to approve. Second the motion. The motion is second. Discussion or questions? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Next item on our agenda is the consideration and approval of a memorandum school system motion to approve a second motion and a second any discussion or questions next item on our agenda is consideration and approval of programs that help fund the accountability courts. This is for fiscal year 27. The state operates on that fiscal year separate from our fiscal year, which is only the same as the calendar year. Drug court is in the is in the amount of $43,000 The next is the consideration and approval of amendments to the Georgia Opioid Crisis Abatement Trust. This is the funds that were provided to the state through the Georgia Opioid Crisis Abatement Trust. Those have been distributed. the ones that need approval tonight for And then the third is Ginger King, it's an individual contract

motion that we do approve all three contracts together.

All right. So we have a motion to approve all three together. Any discussion or questions? All in favor? I think they gave a deadline of today. All right, next item on our agenda is our quarterly finance report. We have Director Miranda McDowell here to present that. There you go.

All right, so quarter two fiscal year 2026 in June 30th of 2026 should be 50% or more on revenues or 50% less on expenditures. All right, so taxes, we're at $5,735,460, which is 18%. License and permits is $343,044. Intergovernmental is $1,375,070, that's 36%. Charges for services is $2,740,114, 59%. Fines and forfeitures is $92,986, that's 40%. Contributions and donations is $51,279, which is 130%. Interest income is $11,997, which is 48%. And miscellaneous is $557,233. That is a total of $4,101,233. Other fund revenues, E-Number 1s at 15%, that's $254,997. Water is at $1,883,886, which is 46%. And airport is at $447,405, which is 43%. All right, general fund expenditures. Commission in general is at 43%. I'm going to read you all these numbers, please. Elections is at 51%. Tax commissioners at 39%. Tax assessors at 44%. General government buildings is 57%. That's a total of $3,025,579 for 47%. Judicial expenditures, Superior Court, 50%. Clark Report, 53%. District Attorney is 40%. Magistrate is 43%. Probate, 49%. And juvenile courts, 47. Public defender is 38. That's a total of 3,321,963, which is 47%. Public safety, sheriffs at $6,417,400, which is 58%. Probation is 31%. Fire, 52%, coroner, 27%, animal shelter, 50%, EMAs, 35%, county marshals at 28%. 10,737,456, that's 52% overall for public safety. Public works, we got roads, it's at 49%, solid waste in the landfill, it's 48%, and Pete Pickens Beautiful is at 100%, that's $1,023,000. Health department is at 51%. Health department regulation is at 65%. Health department buildings 13%. Welfare is $4,490, which is 15%. Senior centers 39%. Maths is 49%. That's $124,798. That is 45%. Recreation and culture. Recreation center is Program scores, 56. The library is 50%. That's 890,228, which is 50% overall. Housing and development. County extensions at 58%. Planning and development is 44%. Development authority is zero. 360,486, which is 49%. E901 expenditures is at $992,931, which is 57%. Enterprise funds, water departments, $1,836,463, which is 45%. Airport is $447,405, 43%. And the total is $820,395.

Next is our action items. We will start off with approval I will second that because you were not heard at that meeting. So we'll move in a second. Any discussion or questions? None. All in favor? Aye. Commissioner Tatum is abstaining. Due to his absence. How is this? The next agenda item following that meeting from the clerk. So at this time, I'll entertain a motion to approve the executive session minutes for June 23rd. Motion to approve. Second. is at Clinton. It's at 740 Eagle Perch Road in Redtail Hall Drive. That's a request to move from a paddock to a state residential and rural residential. Seven and a half acres of a 19.26 acre tract. The applicant provided their information to the planning office where they stated that the intended purpose of the of June regarding the application where the Planning Commission voted 5-0 no to follow staff's recommendation for approval and have submitted over their recommendation for approval of the rezoning request. With that, I would like to entertain a motion from the floor as to whether or not to approve the recommendation from staff and the Planning Commission. Motion to approve. Second the motion. Next application is from Tiana Law on behalf of Renee Bastidas.

It's RZ191152 Little Fisher Creek Road.

Request to move 3.64 acres of a 34.46 acre tract from ag to a state residential. The application was received and the intended purpose of the rezone request the staff's recommendation to approve. With that, I'll open up the floor to a motion for the board. Motion to approve. Second motion. Motion and a second. Any discussion or questions? All in favor? The third is RZ191161.

Goodwin at 14 Gateway Drive, LLC.

This is a request for moving 1.04-acre track from rural residential to highway business at 5051 Highway 136 West. Application was received and it stated the intended purpose of the regional request, if approved, was to establish a Christian daycare. Public hearing was held on June the 8th. next item on the agenda is rezone request from dan greenberg rz191162 254 biggins boulevard and zero biggins boulevard is a request to move a three acre tract and an 8.56 acre track from our residential to highway business for the intended purpose according to the application received if approved was to establish campground site chair of their board, the DFACS board, has sent over a recommendation for Ms. Phyllis Poole has expressed an interest in serving and continuing that legacy. The term would begin immediately and would have a term As we approve Ms. Phillips to serve on there, we'd love to commend Ms. Martha for all the years that she has served and all that she's done for D-Facts over these years. meeting for public comments. I'm not trying to look like I'm staring at my phone. I'm just trying to open up the time around my phone. Our public comment section You can stand where you are. You can approach if you feel better. Good choice. All right.

And two minutes won't be enough to address the severity of this, but I'll do the best to cut to the chase, so to speak. My name is James Timothy Brooks. I'm a resident of the Tate community, 172 Ray Road, with a Jasper address, but I am a member of the Tate community. The property that I own has been in the same two or three families since before Pickens County was a county. And as such, my family has an extreme vested interest in maintaining that family property in a manner to avoid further development in that area. In 2025, because of two or three pieces of property that had sold, increased dramatically. I appealed that to the county assessor's office and began the appeal process. I did a lot of research, I gained a lot of information, a lot of it extremely disappointing. Through that appeal process, first being rejected by the tax assessors, then appealing to the Board of Equalization, being rejected by the Board of Equalization, then appealed to the grand jury, as is their duty and obligation to review the Board of Equalization, where I unfortunately had to raise some very, very serious questions about their conduct. The grand jury shrugged off their duties and responsibilities, refused to hear the case. I don't know if they were even instructed properly, but they refused to do their duty. My county commissioner solicited his aid in my attempts. We had a couple of conversations, but then when I asked for a meeting, he didn't respond anymore. I contacted my state representative and made the state aware that there are serious problems in the county, that the assessor's office is not following state law. That was a ludicrous response that I got back. If it weren't so serious, it would have been extremely funny to hear the feeble excuses that came back from the state. So now I'm at the point where I'm out of options, and I have to make this poet. Believe me when I say this is the last thing I want to do.

You need to extend you about 30 more seconds.

But I have to inform the commissioners that as of now, there is no legal, legitimate way to appeal property taxes in Pickett's County. They are, the assessor's office is illegal and illegitimate. And as such, I have nowhere to appeal my 2026 property assessment because I haven't even settled 2025. And if things stand the way they are, I'll never get it.