Commission - Regular Meeting

Good to have you here tonight. It is Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026. And we have two sessions this evening. And I will describe public input on both of those. We have a special called session for our state required taxpayer Bill of Rights hearing number two. And then we have our regular voting meeting as well. Public input. on the Taxpayer Bill of Rights hearing, on the Consent Agenda, on old and new business, on our zoning items, and then at the conclusion of the evening, all effectively follow the same format. There will be an opportunity each time public input is called for, for a three-minute opp

All right. Thank you, ma'am. Clerk. All right. I'll read our civility pledge provided to us by the Georgia Municipal Association, which indicates that the way we govern ourselves is often as important as the positions we take, that our collective decisions will be better when differing views have had the opportunity to be fully vetted and considered. that all people have the right to be treated with respect, courtesy, and openness, that we value all input, and we commit to conduct ourselves at all times with civility and courtesy to each other. So with that said, the proposed budget for FY27 h

Thank you, Ms. Loza. Thank you. Good evening. Good evening.

Thank you, Mr. Bushway. Good evening. Good evening.

Thank you, Ms. Danier. Ms. Stevens? Good evening. Good evening.

All right, everybody. Thank you for speaking to the budget this evening. We have our third budget hearing that'll just be two days from tonight, June 4th, right here at 6 p.m. in City Hall, when the plan is for the commission to finalize any modifications to the budget. And then a week from tonight, the 9th at 6 p.m., will be the date for approval of that budget. So I'd entertain a motion to adjourn at this point. All right, got a motion from Commissioner Thornton, second from Commissioner Wright. All in favor, please say aye. All right, thank you all. All right, so we're gonna move on to our regularly scheduled voting session and we'll have the roll call from the clerk.

All right, thank you, Madam Clerk. First order of business is to approve the minutes of meetings of Tuesday, May 5th, Wednesday, May 20th, and non-voting meetings of Tuesday, May 12th, Thursday, May 14th, Wednesday, May 20th, and Thursday, May 21st. Do I hear such a motion?

All right, I've got a motion for approval of those minutes from Commissioner Wright and a second from Commissioner Link. All in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. Madam Clerk, are there any written communications this evening? Thank you much. All right. First opportunity for public input is on the consent agenda. The consent agenda was previously agreed upon for a single vote, and those are Items 1 through 16. If anybody would like to speak now to Items 1 through 16, now is that time. Give you a moment to look at your agenda in front of you. 1 through 16. Seeing none, I'm going to ask Attorney Drake to read the ordinances.

Thank you, Attorney Drake. Do I hear a motion for approval of the consent agenda?

Second, ma'am. All right. I've got a motion from Commissioner Rudd. I have a second from Commissioner Fischer. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. All right. We're going to move forward to public hearing and recommendations regarding the planning and zoning items heard previously by the Planning Commission. two of those items regarding 145 Hayward Allen Parkway and 735 South Milledge Avenue. Go ahead and hear any public input on item 17 first regarding Hayward Allen Parkway. Is there anyone here to speak to that item?

Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Waters. Is there anyone else here to speak to 145 Hayward Island Parkway? All right. Seeing none, I'm going to go ahead and begin just by asking Attorney Drake to read the ordinance associated with this.

Commissioner Fisher, this is in your district. Would you like to place a motion on the floor?

Yes, sir. First of all, I just want to thank you. the building and contractor for reaching out to me and asking a few of the questions that I had, and they answered those. And I'm glad it's gonna be for senior housing, which much needed in this community. So I'd like to put a motion on the floor to approve this item.

Do I hear a second? Second. All right, got a second from Commissioner Link. Anything further on this? Anything further, Commissioner Link?

I'm sorry. With the four variances as recommended. Anything else from the body? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. All right. Is there anyone here from the public to speak to 735 South Millage?

Thank you, Mr. Davis. Thank you. Appreciate it very much. Is there anyone else here to speak to South Millage? Seeing none, we'll come for commission action. Begin by having Attorney Drake read the ordinance.

Commissioner Hamby, would you like to make a motion? Sure, I'll make a motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. All right. Got a motion from Commissioner Hamby and a second from Commissioner Culpepper. Commissioner Hamby, any remarks? Commissioner Culpepper? No. Anything else from members of the body? Hearing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. We are moving on to a public hearing on the resolution to amend the Urban Redevelopment Plan and establish the Urban Redevelopment Agency. This, as previously discussed, is for the purpose of moving f

Thank you, Judge Haslander. Is there anyone else here to speak to the urban redevelopment plan? Good evening.

Thank you, Judge Lott. All right, we'll come for commission deliberation. All right, we have an agenda item in front of you, and so I'll entertain a motion regarding the updated project concept site selection and funding mechanism. Do I hear such a motion?

All right. I've got a motion from Commissioner Davenport and a second from Commissioner Link. Thank you both very much. This has been long in the works, and I appreciate your work on this. Commissioner Davenport also worked on site selection previously, so I appreciate your long tenure there. Commissioner Davenport, any remarks?

We started this discussion two decades ago for a new courthouse, and they have outlived their – where the courthouse is outlived its purpose, and it's time for a new one. Commissioner Link.

Yeah, I mean, there's no doubt that we need a new judicial center, and our judges have suffered immensely from the condition of the current building, and we're a growing community. It's long outgrown, that facility. i'm grateful that we've chosen a downtown location like judge lot said i also believe that you know our civic infrastructure should be located in the center of our town and so i'm grateful for that location i want to reiterate a concern that i brought up during our work session a couple weeks ago and i'm grateful for the work session i feel like it was very thorough and i hope that

Thank you, Commissioner Lincoln. Of course, those who've looked at the agenda report know construction wouldn't start until roughly 2028, so we know we've got quite a plan ahead of us. We've got Commissioner Fischer, Commissioner Culpepper, and Commissioner Myers.

Thank you, Mayor. Again, we appreciate it. Let me preface this. I think we do need a new courthouse, and it probably should well overdue for the years that that courthouse has been there in this community and something new and when we approved it back in 2018. So, of course, and I talked about this at our agenda setting, the price tag. We talked about $200 million and how we gonna fund that and I think that's gotta be a big consideration moving forward when we talk about that. And one of the things, was on my mind when we first started to design and we had a team come in and did a great job. I

Yes, I'd like to thank the county manager and his staff. That was one of his priorities when we hired him, is to get this ball moving forward. He's done a great job getting this moving forward. It's a long time coming. There's other buildings in downtown Athens that have been built that we've had bonds on. We should have done this before we did these others. And so thank you, Bob and staff, for doing that. I think there's opportunities for us to do public-private partnerships for parking and other scenarios where we can generate revenue to help pay for this if need be. But thank you all for ge

Yeah, I'd like to express my support for this but also reiterate that right now we're not talking about the payment and that's important for me because I have more questions like some of us do on this. I was reviewing the history and I guess it was a good, when it was, it was back last September actually, it wasn't that long ago, that we generally expressed a clear desire that the new judicial center not wait any longer and be built downtown and move forward, and so like Commissioner Culpepper, I'm really glad what our new manager has done in moving that forward. I am concerned, and we'll keep

Yes, it's been long overdue. And if we're going to move forward, I think I asked at the very beginning of this process when we knew it was going to be the planning department redevelop. And when we say urban renewal, it has a, for some of us, it has a... or has a negative thought sometimes. I asked at the very beginning, and I don't think it was done, that First AME be included in these conversations. They are gonna be impacted no matter what, and that is, I wanna say it's the oldest African American church downtown, and I don't want 20 years from now we equate it to a linen town. Now I don't

Manager Cowell, I know just because we work together every day that you've had some engagement with the church, and so I just want to give you an opportunity to describe that.

Thank you. Thank you, Manager Cowell. I appreciate that. All right. I have a motion and a second on the floor. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. All right, friends. We're moving on to our next opportunity for public input, and that is on old and new business, which are items 20 through 30 tonight. So if anybody would like to speak to any of those items, 20 through 30, now is that time. You can line up at the podium. Again, same rules of public input, three-minute opportunity. Provide your name and place of residence.

Thank you, Ms. Friedlander. Good evening.

Thank you, Mr. Fortier. All right, thank you for everybody who provided public input. So we'll begin our old and new business segment with number 20, 4190 Lexington Road. Of course, this is in Commissioner Davenport's district, so I'll ask you, sir, to make a motion tonight.

Motion to approve. Second. With the conditions.

All right, got a motion to approve with the conditions as proper, and I have a second from Commissioner Culpepper. Any remarks, Commissioner Davenport?

Yeah, this was an interesting one that, and I do wanna thank the resident as well as Mr. Carter for working with the community and understanding their community needs. and working with staff, I encourage other developers to do the same. We want to develop for the existing community that is here, that are here, and not just to be intrusive, but I do want to thank Mr. Carter for that. And the conditions, the residents of City Creek seem to be amenable to the conditions, and our party seems to be happy and that's why i believe in mo and also if we deny it um the applicant will have to wait anothe

Thank you, Commissioner Davenport. Commissioner Culpepper, any follow-up? Yeah, I want to say thank you to Carter Engineering and their staff and meeting with the residents and coming up with something that, as one of the residents says, is a win-win for both.

I think that's great. If there's an ordinance associated with this, this was a planning and zoning item.

All right. Any further remarks before we vote on the future land use? All right, we've got a motion from Commissioner Davenport, second from Commissioner Culpepper. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, hearing none, motion carries. We'll move on to the ordinance associated with the rezoning.

All right. Is there a motion regarding the resending? Mr. Davenport? Motion to approve with condition. Second. All right. I've got a motion and a second. Any further remarks? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Please note opposition from Commissioner Taylor. All right, we're moving on to item 22. This is the ACC Affordable Housing Fund Administrative Structure Recommendations. I entertain a motion at this point.

Leisure Services Master Plan. Golly, just leaving them out and they're in the room. All right, 21 is the Leisure Services Comprehensive Master Plan accepted. So I hear a motion. So moved. All right, motion to accept from Commissioner Wright. Is there a second? All right, I've got a second from Commissioner Link. Commissioner Wright, any remarks?

No, I appreciate the hard work that was done.

All right. You know, we do have our newly minted Leisure Services Director in the room. Would you like Assistant Director to introduce your new partner? Come on down.

See, I just didn't want to make this a lonely evening in your life.

Kimberly, thanks for being with us. Two weeks in and you're still here. So this bodes well.

And thanks for everybody who worked on this. I mean, just particularly given the sort of geographic analysis that's part of this plan, I'm very much looking forward to some of the facilities coming out of the ground that are suggested in it. So thanks to all of you. Item 22, again, is our Affordable Housing Fund administrative structure recommendations. And I will entertain a motion. Did we vote on? No. All right, so we had a motion. We have a second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? Hearing none, motion carried. There we go. All right, thank you all. Jeez Louise. All right, 22,

All right, got a motion from Commissioner Taylor, second from Commissioner Thornton to hold for option two, an RFP. All right, Commissioner Taylor, remarks?

Yeah, I just think for, I think that we all can agree that we get a pretty bad rap when it comes to transparency, and this is a way for us to I guess open the door for other organizations who feel that they are also ready, and if not, we can come back to awarding it to Envision Athens, but I think for a more open process, yeah.

My comments are very similar to Commissioner Taylor. I do know that during the work session, there was a suggestion or remarks that Envision Athens was going to revise their mission statement. I would like to see that as we move forward, what that actually looks like. The other thing that Envision Athens provided so much technical assistance to community nonprofits, I would like to know where and how are these non-profits to function if we do move to Envision Athens, becoming a housing, focusing only on housing.

Yes, so this is a parliamentarian question. If we hold, assuming it will come back to us in August, are we holding to delay our debt? Yes.

So the motion is to pursue an RFP process, as I understand it. I'm going to ask Manager Cowell to talk a little bit about the timeline associated with that.

Yeah, I'm in support of this option as well, mostly because I think the transparency on this issue that has to do with affordable housing and those who are most eligible and in need of it, it's very important that we have a trust factor going into this and going through the RFP process will make that more clear for everyone across the community.

Yeah. Also, wasn't there, if I remember, wasn't there a CDO attached to the money that's going to be going to the housing trust fund, though? Was that part of the $7.9 million, Mayor?

So I just wanted to keep that in mind because, you know, I think people might have forgot about that. Well, the CDO, Commissioner Hammond, has attached to that to make sure that those dollars do get spent in that census tract. So I just want to make sure that we did not lose fact of those funds for that particular project and the money that's going to be coming forward. So I think if and when we do the RFP, that piece needs to be in there somewhere.

Well, any administrator of those funds would certainly have to pursue the dictates of that earlier commission action. But again, as Manager Cowell noted, those funds, unless utilized by the Housing Authority, wouldn't be available until subsequent to fall of 2027.

Well, I would rather... know the money be used for the intended place instead of rushing and the money be used for what is not intended for which in the last four years i've seen that to happen commissioner link yeah so the rfp will we be seeing that for approval typically

So, my concern is, you know, during the work session, we did have some discussion about assuring that I mean, it was obvious that if Envision Athens were to lead this process, they would have to undergo some restructuring and form a board that was conducive to affordable housing and representative of the community. And that was a concern that I brought up. So I'd like to ask that in the construction of that RFP that that concern be kind of emphasized that, you know, to the community that, you know, that be a main consideration.

Well, and also just members of the community that have lived in affordable housing or know of the need for it.

Commissioner Hamby and then I'll return to Commissioner Thorpe. Sure. Thank you, Mayor.

Commissioner Wright had her hand up. I'm sorry.

Commissioner Wright, Commissioner Hamby, Commissioner Thorpe.

I jumped ahead there. I'm not supportive of this option, but I can tell the majority is as this conversation is moving forward. And my main goal was to... move as swiftly as possible, and I felt that the guardrails for the choice that were presented in the work session were good and are good for what's in the packet, which would be allowing us to access the multiple times and ways that funding has made it into the affordable housing fund. which we have yet to be able to move out of there we've been putting in with different parameters and details so I'm more for the expeditious use of those fu

Not everyone has spoken. Commissioner Hamming. Sure. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate that. And I agree with Commissioner Wright on this one. I mean, it seems as though we, you know, we have this. It's a one-time, one-year allocation to this group who will help us get set up and get the ball rolling for how we're going to do the expenditures on the affordable housing fund. I don't think we have, you know. I've been hearing the campaigns. I've been hearing the talk. We don't, you know, let's just get moving. We don't have time to waste. So, and if it doesn't work, here's the beauty of this. It's

All right, got a motion from Commissioner Hamby, and I've got a second from Commissioner Wright. I'll turn to Commissioner Thornton.

Kind of got lost up here now. I'm still going to stick with my motion, I mean my support for RFP. I think that One of the Commissioner Handbeats said about he's hearing stuff on the campaign, and transparency is one of the key things that is on the campaign. I do not think this move was transparent. I do not think that the people who have called me to support this it was unusual calls, I'll put it that way, unusual calls. I don't, when I look at who are on these boards, everybody intersects. And I'm just, and I had to make it clear with one person, it is not personal, God knows it's not person

I just want to note kind of very clearly that this has been for many years sort of a path underway. The attorney's office made a great deal of effort by reaching out to peer communities like Macon and Augusta to find out what the most both expeditious and legally sound structure is for this process. I think like at least some of the folks in the room tonight, I get a little hot under the collar when I see us kicking the can down the road when we have the opportunity to act and act quickly and act swiftly and act in the public interest. We certainly are talking here about really a functionary p

Yeah, we are being transparent now. We're having a discussion about something difficult and I appreciate that. We're not all in agreement. We're airing our differences here. So that is part of the process here. I do wanna say that we're really not having a year delay. It's more like a six month delay. So if we envision Athens wouldn't be getting it. And again, I'd say it wasn't personal at all here. This is really going through this process. And I think it's not, hopefully, it's not a one-year thing. This is a loan program that is continuous and is supposed to continue going and going. So I wa

Commissioner Thornton, final opportunity.

Final opportunity. If we're going to do this, if we're going to be transparent, the bank that has been named also should be open to be part of a RFP process. In all fairness, the bank is my bank that I've banked in since the 80s when I moved here. But I do think if we don't have nothing to hide or if we're not cooking up something in the background, let's open it up for the RFP to be for the bank that has been identified and the whole program if we're going to put it out there like that.

I know that there are some contours around designations of banks as community development finance institutes, and I do understand that that was the reason that Athens First Bank was chosen.

But if you put it open, there might be some you didn't know. It doesn't have to be right here in the neighborhood. Mayor, if you want to call for the vote, let's call for the vote, but I'm not going to sit here and debate this with you.

Any further public input from the body before we move to a vote? All right, I've got a vote beginning with Commissioner Hamby.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. I appreciate that. That is settled. All right, moving on to item 23. 23 is the 2025 update to the public utilities department service delivery infrastructure element and capital improvement element. I'll entertain a motion from the body. All right, I've got a motion from Commissioner Wright. Is there a second? All right, I've got a second from Commissioner Myers. All right, Commissioner Wright.

Ready to vote. Oh, thank you for all the hard work. How about that, too? It was a long process, and I've been through several cycles of this, and I really appreciate and understand how much work is involved. Thank you.

similar thanks as well and also to you know repeat that our discussion of the Sandy Creek Basin is not included in this public utility delivery plan and that is something for the future since there's a discussion of that out in the community I just wanted to clarify that but that was not incorporated into this plan

Yeah, I want to reiterate that also, that the Sandy Creek Bay, because I was looking through the plan, looking for it, saying you'd be good. I was just going through all those pages. But I do think now that we have become educated, I want to thank Public Utilities again for the awesome presentation they did with me working with JJ Harris. It was very educational. and I do think it gives us some education. I hope that as we move forward, I do not have to keep reminding staff in this body that we are sitting on a time limit. Bomb with these septic tanks and just because the state doesn't regulat

Thank you, Commissioner. Anything further? I've got a motion from Commissioner Wright and a second from Commissioner Myers. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Thank you all. All right. Item 24 gladly is returned to us, given that we thought it might have been at least partly lost, and that is our North Avenue Corridor Raise Grant Project. I'll entertain a motion at this time.

And I'll second. Alright, I've got a motion from Commissioner Link and a second from Commissioner Myers. Commissioner Link?

Yeah, I want to first of all thank staff for their persistence in seeing to it that we had a second chance with this grant. This is 25 million federal dollars coming into this community. That's huge. And I want to thank Mr. Redman for the statistics and pointing out the real tragic fatalities that happen along this corridor regularly. I mean, you know, we get a death a year at least on North Avenue and every time I cross through that MLK intersection or travel up or down North Avenue, I see close calls and I see those pedestrians trying to cross and you know, the guys on the scooters in the gu

Yeah. When we voted as a body for the CDO, I guess it was two and a half years ago, in December or something, 2024, the last point in that CDO was staff will report back no later than May 225, which was last year, and its determination related to the implementation of the modifications that were in the CDO. And having read through the agenda report, the analysis shows that like one, that the timeline, which is extended because of the increased right of way, that the costs are higher with the five lane because of the right of way, which would be the responsibility. Manager, please correct me if

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Thornton. I'm actually going to make a substitute motion for number one. I really think that it probably should have been two motions, one to accept the grant money and separate on the concept. But since they're both there together, I will make that substitute motion. I've been on the phone with Commissioner Myers half this day talking about this.

Oh, yeah, we talked about other high rights. We had our own commission meeting. But I do think that I think there were speakers talking about all the people that were interviewed. And I guess that's relative, who you ask. That depends on where you get your information from. But I am going to go ahead on. I'm not going to make no debate. This is not one I'm going to fall on the sword on. I have some personal issues, and this ain't the place. But my substitute is one.

All right, motion done for lack of a second. All right, we're going to return to the original motion. Is there any further input?

I just have a question for option one. And it's just done. I mean, sorry. Right-of-way acquisition for four to five parcels. That would be accounting and negotiating with property owners for land acquisition.

As we've experienced with some other projects in recent years.

Thank you. All right. I've got a motion and a second. We'll do a roll call. Yes. Question. Oh, question from Commissioner Culpepper. before did we approve option one we approved analysis of kind of that that version and so this gives us that analysis that we asked for now we approved the CDO that was it wasn't analysis it was the concept

So we've approved option one before, now we're going back on that, is that right?

There's some nuance to this. I'll ask Deputy Manager Andrew Saunders to.

I'm going to step out on a limb here because I feel as though, well, I know how this vote is going to go. There is a meeting with Ronnie, who's here, and the meeting was before the vote, and the question was asked, if we get an extension, can we reconsider another option? Ronnie said no. So you can't tell me this stuff isn't already in line and played out enough. I don't want anybody to think I'm having conspiracy issues. I'm just telling you what goes on that my community does not benefit from. So I'm, again, like I said before, Mayor, I'm ready to vote.

Commissioner Culpepper. I'll second Commissioner Thornton's substitute motion. Is it too late to do that? It might be too late. So I want to declare that we've already approved this once.

So we've got a substitute and a second for that substitute. All right. Other input? I will note, appreciate very much the work of Transportation Public Works and AECOM, the consultant. The very good thing about doing this work in this era of time is that we've got science that allows us to understand very clearly what is safe for all users. I think it was earlier noted probably by Commissioner Link, when you have a very wide roadway, that inherently is a more dangerous phenomenon than you have a somewhat narrower roadway. And so for all of the tens of thousands of folks on this corridor, we kn

All right, now we'll return to the original motion from Commissioner Link.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. All right. We are moving to Item 25, and I think there was an interest in holding this until the August voting meeting. Is that the case? Do I hear a motion to that effect?

Yes, yes. Yes, there's a motion to that effect.

All right, hold till August from Commissioner Myers. All right, is there a second? All right, I've got a second from Commissioner Wright. Any remarks, Commissioner Myers?

No, we, University of Georgia has worked with us here and is going to be, and has worked with Transportation and Public Works to get the name of all the property owners on Bailey Street and its neighboring street. And they're going to be sending something out to all of those people to let them know what's going on in this case. And so it seemed appropriate to do the vote after that. And so I'm appreciative of UGA and the Manager's Office of Transportation and Public Works sort of working to use this new schedule here. All right.

I want to say the visuals that have come out from this is really, you know, I love the visual. Well done on the map. I had missed the part that it was going to have a 12-foot multi-use trail with the road. Another bonus there. And so I look forward to this when we see it again.

Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. All right. Item 26, another collaborative with our friends across the street. This is the FY2728 UGA-ACC Transportation Agreement. Do I hear a motion for approval? So moved. All right. I've got a motion from Commissioner Fischer. I've got a second from Commissioner Wright. Commissioner Fischer? Ready to vote. Commissioner Wright?

Any other input? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. Option 27 is a lovely opportunity that we have. I want to thank very much the Koonin family who are going to help us celebrate the great work of local artist Harold Rittenberry with a sculpture for placement in College Square. And also the Costa Park College Square is proceeding expeditiously. If you've been down there this week, you can actually see the lovely herringbone brick pattern on the ground in front of some of our local businesses. So I'll entertain a motion here.

Move to approve. Wait a minute. District 4. I'm just kidding.

Second. All right. I've got a motion from Commissioner Link. We've got Commissioner Wright, the other art lover in the room, as a seconder. Commissioner Link?

Yeah, this is really exciting. Harold Rittenberry is awesome. He was one of the first artists, the local artist whose work I got to know when I moved here 30 plus years ago. And I'm really excited to see his work take a center spot in our community. when College Square is up and ready. And that's an exciting project, too. And I want to give some acknowledgment to staff for their attention to the project as contractors were Seeing it through, we had our very educated staff save some trees thanks to our community forester, Mateo Fennell, and Andrew Saunders, our assistant manager, who also has q

Commissioner Wright. I want to just make sure it's option A, B, C, and District 4 is happy to accept this artwork in our two new parks and public gathering. What do we call them? Third spaces? Fourth spaces? Anyway, good space and a great draw. I'm sure there's going to be lots of people taking lots of pictures with them, as they should.

Anyone else? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. Looking forward to this quite a bit. All right, 28 is designation of downtown government property to park property. I know, Commissioner Hampton, you'd like to make a motion?

Sure, I sure would, Mayor. Thank you. I would, however, like to make a motion that we add something to the motion. that's here, if y'all will just consider this real quick, since we already have accepted a donation from Mr. Rittenberry and the Coonans for College Square. In order to go ahead and get this off our plate, I'd like for the motion to also include College Square as a park that extends from Broad Street to Clayton Street so that we don't have to worry about that come whenever it's finished in September or something. So go ahead and name it a park.

Substantial finish by Labor Day? Final finish?

The names of these parks can be determined later on, but for right now, just going ahead and identifying those parks.

All right, so this would establish the block that we are in now as a public park as well as College Square. Motion on the floor from Commissioner Hamby. Is there a second?

And District 4, where this is happening, gets the lowly second on this as well. Option 1.

I'll... Aren't we having a meeting on Friday?

Yeah, and that would be a broad application. Okay, okay. Yeah, there's a public right-of-way meeting Friday to consider some updated ordinance language, which would have countywide applicability.

Okay, all right, okay. Yes. I didn't know. I didn't want to coincide with what Commissioner Hammerhead put on the floor. Okay.

Play well with each other. All right. Anything else? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. All right, item 29 is adoption of the budget. Of course, folks have been working very hard on getting some final amendments in place. Any input from the body on this? Otherwise, I'll entertain a motion to consider the budget for a vote one week from tonight. Let's just say I have a question. So moved. Yeah, so moved. Second. I got a motion to consider the budget on June 9th, second from Commissioner Davenport. Question, Commissioner Davenport?

Yes, so the work that we're doing down there, going down the pipeline, we don't need a CDO, we just approve as is, or do we need to start working on that now?

I think Manager Cowell is working on an option for us.

Commissioners Wright, Thornton, and Fisher.

And so will we be seeing those details in Thursday's meeting, just to clarify it in public?

Okay, yeah, so everybody knows that that's... This agenda was big enough as it is. It's in the facts and issues currently. Yeah, it's in there. So that will be launched tomorrow.

Would y'all like me to put in a CDO for you? No. I'm just joking. I'm just joking. Okay. That helps. Commissioner Short?

Actually, I think Commissioner Wright answered my question because this is the first time we've ever done this like this, and I wanted to make sure that The issues, I don't want to think an issue is really important and nobody else does, and then you don't even consider it. So I think keeping up with what you're sending will be helpful.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. Of course, you know, you all, that was one of the things we talked about as we was leading this budget process, that we would go through the budget, get all our questions up front, make sure it was transparent to the public, everything, all the questions that we might have had as a commission, any feedback that we got back from the public. And then on Thursday, we'll go ahead and lead that process, talk about it, and to Manager Cowell's point, do an amendment instead of doing a CDO. So that was the thought process on the beginning when we first started looking at the bu

Yeah, those as our manager's office, Sarah, the two job titles pointing out, the items that are under discussion or have been generally expressed as interested in being added are in on page five of the agenda. salary adjustment to the unified plan, market increase, the additional funding for the fuel, the magistrate court, part-time judge, the funding for the tax commissioner request, increase to code enforcement, very small, the investigative position for public defender's office. So there were six with putting $574,000 back into the general fund, unrestricted fund. And so that's what would b

So back into those options, you'd just be taking this list and putting it in there as another option? Correct. Okay. But we'll see that on Thursday.

Commissioner Hamby. Sure. Thank you. And I'm just going to give some shout outs to staff for putting together and working on this. It's a long process for a budget and, of course, the mayor. And I'm also going to give a shout out to Commissioner Fisher. Commissioner Fisher called me during this process. Y'all know how it can be sometimes. So I think Commissioner Fischer helped walk me through some things, and that was very, very, very helpful. And so anyway, thank you. Thank you, Bob. Thank you, Kelly. Thank you. Thank you, Dexter.

All right. So the motion is to consider this next Tuesday. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right.

Hearing none. Mayor, just quick, and just reminding, Thursday night, Thursday at 6. Okay. So yeah, here in the city hall.

And I will not be here until high school graduation that I need to participate in.

Yeah, so we do need a quorum, but I wouldn't count it as a quorum because the mayor's not going to be present.

All right, I need a motion for suspension of rules for one item of new business. So moved. Got a motion from Commissioner Fisher, second for suspension of rules. Second. Second from Commissioner Davenport. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All right. Item 30 will again ask for a motion to have a vote on June 9th for a resolution calling for the imposition of a floating local option sales tax that would be agreement between ACCGov, the city of Winterville, and the town of Bogart. Of course, as we've discussed for quite some time, the state now has given us this opportunity to have a new penny

Yeah, I would like to make sure in the resolution, and it says this, but I want to make sure everybody understands, these proceeds have to be used exclusively to reduce property taxes. They cannot be used for anything else. That's right. I want to make sure we're clear on that.

Commissioner Fisher. Yeah, and, you know, and... I'm sort of on the fence on this one. And the only reason being, you know, we're raising the sale tax to 9%. I have a couple of things, and I appreciate Commissioner Hammond sort of educating me a little bit on it, but how it might affect, I'm sorry, Commissioner Myers.

Sort of educate me on that. The impact, especially on small businesses, and I know probably the majority of taxes will be coming from outside, possibly with all the events that we have, but then also about the people who are less vulnerable in this community that because our sales tax is going to go up, how it might impact them. A little bit of pause, but everybody wants their property tax lower, and I get that, but we need to take all those things into consideration when we start. And the last thing, I don't know whether or not we have really educated our public enough about this. I think we

I think you make a great point, Commissioner Fischer. So there'd be certainly a lot of work between a June vote a week from now and the November balloting. One of the things that I would certainly want to do myself is reach out to those 30 or so counties in the state that have already imposed this and find from them where some of the sweet spots were in the public communication. So Commissioner Davenport and then Commissioner Wright and Commissioner Meyers.

I like the ballot language because it does say exclusively to reduce property taxes. I'm a little curious as to why it's calling Athens-Clarke County a special district. Does that have to be included? That's okay. We'll just understand what the language is because we're busy educating the public right now on the budget that we're going to vote on. So then we can switch gears and focus on this, but since our T-SPLOS only passed by 53%, it is very important.

56. That was a final? Okay, good. Yeah, those numbers just... Anyway, but I think that's just a signal that we do need to communicate this, and it is unique in also a good way, as we heard people talking about the property taxes going up, and it'll... We just have to communicate it so that it, because there'll be a lot of voting on November 3rd and we want to make sure that our voters are educated on this topic.

Yeah, just to be clear, this is probably for Judd in there, that I read that, I mean, one of the reasons we're rushing to do this now is that it has to be published by August 4th, 2026. Is that to be in the, right, so I imagine you have to get it in before, like, to the publisher before that. So that's part of the rush of getting that there. I'd like perhaps staff to follow up next week and be able to tell us a little bit about how we plan on as a community, what the Clark County can do actually to educate the public on this. And because you know with TSPLOST, We we didn't really do that much

Yeah, well, not for my budget, right? Not for my, so more for the household. That's what I'm more interested in so that we're just there and we know what we're doing in terms of its effect on people and just have all of those, not just ignore that fact, So anyway, if we could just have some data about how we will address the education and then also consider the effect not just on homeowners, but on people who are living here, not just students, and we know that's great if we could just give it to all those people who are coming to visit, but the people who are living here and struggling and in

All right. Consider a motion to hold a vote on this one week from tonight.

Second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. All right. Now is that time when we do have public input on any item that was not on tonight's agenda. So if anybody would like to speak to any item not on tonight's agenda, now is that time. Good evening.

All right, everyone. I've got a couple things, then we'll receive a report from the manager, the auditor, the attorney, and commissioners, and then adjourn. All right, stemming both from our interest in seeing additional funds in our housing fund and also some of our experience with projects like North Downtown and the Arena District, about three assignments tonight to the Athens-Clarke County Planning Commission that work in conjunction. One is to update the inclusionary zoning code to include payment in lieu options for all multifamily and commercial zones with the full array of bedroom unit

Mayor, if you don't mind, I'd just like to make a point of order. And it's nothing, I just need to ask the attorney this question. It's not that I disagree with what you just wanted to assign to the Planning Commission, but shouldn't those things that he wants to assign the Planning Commission first go through this voting body and have us direct the Planning Commission?

I just remember some instances before, Mayor, if you recall. I'm just trying to follow procedures because, you know, once you step out of the line.

I have occasionally, as an opportunity, presented items to this body, but I believe the Charter asked that the Mayor assign committees tasks.

Well, not necessarily the Planning Commission tasks because we've had that issue before where where something was assigned and had to come back to us. I can't remember exactly what that issue was. It was when Brad was, Griffin was in the seat. Yeah, we can. Yeah, do it. We'll follow up. Put it on the June 9th. I'll vote for it. I just want to make sure we're following the right procedures.

Can we also get an email describing what you just wrote? I couldn't write it faster than that.

Anything from the auditor's office? Anything else from the attorney's office?

We'll begin with Commissioner Davenport and with Commissioner Hamby. All righty. Yeah, I was going to ask with this lovely lady sitting here, but welcome on. Anyway, OK, where is our east side library? It's getting there.

Send us emails. There are a lot of people, and I don't care if it's my district, who are beating down the door trying to figure out when we're going to do groundbreaking. Okay. Happy Pride. Happy Flag Day. Happy Father's Day. Juneteenth. Happy Hot Corner. Congrats to Andrew Saunders. I did not say her last name. Zygmunt. and the new warden, Mason. And thank you, staff, for making tonight, announcing tonight to be phenomenal. Thank you.

Yeah, I just want to thank staff for all their hard work on all those big things that the manager mentioned. It feels like we're finally making some progress on some stuff that we've been kicking around for as long as I've been behind this rail. So I'm looking forward to seeing those come to fruition and looking forward to getting this budget off smoothly. I'm hoping we'll have a fruitful discussion on Thursday and take care of some final loose ends. And make sure you vote. There's a runoff election on the 16th.

And to piggyback on that, this Friday the 5th is the last time you can do the paperwork to receive an absentee ballot. So for people who are going to be out of town and need the absentee ballot to cover their voting. And then early voting starts on Monday the 8th. So go to the Board of Elections or your Secretary of State log in to get the details because we need people to not, this is the beginning of a long election year and we need people to have the stamina to continue to be educated and involved and to vote. And I also wanted to share, The reason I was absent, I was at a very important co

That's right, she was voted in as president-elect with that, and so she'll start doing that, and next year's is in North Carolina, so I can drive to that and won't miss a meeting, so I appreciate y'all's patience with my absence, but the meeting is still, out early, Christine. Well, if I quit talking earlier.

Allison hogs that town and gown thing. She won't let any of us go to it.

Yeah, I've got it covered. Y'all don't have to see it.

Thank you, Mayor. I also want to thank staff, especially with the budget. Again, I really want our budget this year to really be pretty bland and not do all these CDOs that we've done in the past. I want to thank my colleagues. for sort of falling in line and trying to work together to make sure we make that happen. I do want to thank y'all for that. I do want to thank the staff, especially Sarah for keeping us on track and what we was doing and what she had put out for all of us to share. And again, trying to make sure that we keep our public and the people in this community informed about ou

First, I'd like to congratulate Ed Tolley, who won the seat replacing me. I decided not to run again. I have a great admiration for anybody that sits behind the rail, the amount of time that it takes to do this. People on the other side, they don't understand it. And I commend everybody. We might not all agree on everything, but we come to consensus. I commend all of y'all. I'm excited about Ed. I think he will represent the district very well. I was looking at what the millage rate was when I took office, and it was 13.1. And we have reduced the millage rate twice, and then we've kept it flat

On our end and I commend this group for doing that and in subsequent legislation this spring All cities counties and school districts will have to be forced under that same umbrella

I want to congratulate our new deputy manager, Andrew Saunders. You know, I was thinking about this, and it was prior to becoming committee commissioner, I remember watching him at the presentations for the SPLOST 2020 packages and thinking that that guy was really smart and a great communicator, so I'm really glad that he's now a permanent part of the manager's office leadership team. I want to congratulate, I promise the people, at Dudley Park back in May that I would congratulate them and praise them highly for the production of Midsummer Night's Dream last month in the Green Amphitheater t

Thank you, Mayor. And Attorney Drake, if you find out I was wrong about what I was saying earlier with the Planning Commission stuff, let me know, and I'll bring a hefty plate of crow to the next meeting and go from there.

And if we find out, I'll just put it on the agenda for you.

There you go. There you go. And I'll also respond to congratulations to Andrew and between you and uh and sarah and christine a lot of other folks we good things are happening within the government bob too but um you know i remember when andrew was just going around looking at trees remember he was a community forester when i first came on board so at any rate uh thank you all and i make a motion to adjourn second all in favor please say aye aye any opposed all right 8 30. thank you all