Commission - Regular Meeting

Ladies and gentlemen, we apologize for our tardiness. We'll be prepared to get started here in just a minute. As soon as we get our quorum satisfied. Thank you for your patience.

All right. Ladies and gentlemen. Madam Clerk. Yes, sir. It appears we have a quorum. We're prepared to call this meeting to order. We'll take a brief moment of personal privilege to announce that this week we will be celebrating America's 250th on July 4th. And Augusta, the city of Augusta, in conjunction with the city of North Augusta, is holding an event called Meet Us at the River. Both communities will be celebrating the 4th. North Augusta on their side over at their beautiful amphitheater. Augusta on our side along the beautiful Savannah River. I have been told that we will have the best

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for a point of personal and privilege. I'd like to take an opportunity to recognize Commissioner-elect Yvette Williams and State Representative Elsie Miles, who's joining us today in the chambers.

Thank you guys for being here. I'm sorry I did not see you back there. All right. Madam Clerk, call this meeting to order. Yes, sir.

garnett l johnson mayor thank you both minister norman thank you so much for being willing to stand in pastor armstrong thank you so much for making it your duty to come here and do this today it means a lot thank you for all the great work that you do throughout the community thank you All right, Madam Clerk, I think that takes us to delegation. We got some Girl Scouts in the house.

Ma'am, if you will, for the record, please state your name and where you reside. That would be awesome.

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you for being here. You have the floor.

Well, you know, this is special, I keep harping on public services specialists, we celebrate this country's 250th. Having great organizations like the Girl Scouts of America, where since 1912, they have been about public service. And here we are today, earning your government badge. This is a day that you will always remember. We ask that you continue to be about service, in my opinion, the greatest city on the planet. Continue to give back, continue to sell those delicious Girl Scout cookies. That's probably too many of them, but most importantly, thank you guys for doing what you do. And I a

All right, ladies and gentlemen, another round of applause for the Girl Scouts. 20724 from the Mount Calvary Baptist Church.

Thank you for being here. For the record, please state your name and your place of residence, please.

Thank you, Ms. Jeter. And also to pivot back to you, thank you for your advocacy for West Augusta and your district. You've been a true champion to making sure that this project is brought to fruition. And as you know, your voice was loud and it was heard during discussions regarding SPLOST 9. And I see our Recreations Director sitting back there, and I'm going to ask her to come up because she may be able to add some more to this conversation regarding the Recreation Center. But as the Parks and Rec Director comes forth, I'm going to wait for her because there was someone in the queue, but th

Thank you. Just sit tight because Commissioner Clark is in the queue. Chair recognizes Commissioner from the 5th, Commissioner Don Clark.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ms. Jeter, thank you. Obviously, we've had conversations about this, and you've been very passionate about ensuring that this benefits not just District 5, but of course District 3 as well for that corridor of the county. So I think this is a good point of kind of clarity for everyone. SPLOST 9 is essential in many ways. We have some very essential items in there. the dollar allocation like miss williams said was included in that for a new community center but like we all know the way sploss works those dollars are going to have to be collected and generated and then um d

ITEMS TO MOVE FORWARD AND OTHERWISE, CORRECT?

right thank you mr plunkett and again mr thank you for the consistent advocacy again um if there is a new one um it's to benefit district five in that area of the district and of course district three as well um with uh catherine smith rice thank you mr mayor thank you commissioner clark mr cheater thank you so much for being here continue the great advocacy that you do

Mrs. Cherry, thank you for being here and welcome back. Hi. If you will, for record, please state your name and residency, please.

You got it, ma'am. You have the floor in five minutes if you're prepared. Do we need to give you a few minutes to get set up? Thanks.

Wait just a minute. Just a second. We're gonna get you some IT help here.

All right, Mrs. Cherry, you now have the floor in five minutes.

again thank you so much for your time your leadership and your consideration god bless and thank you again mrs cherry thank you so much for being here i don't see any colleagues in the cuba discussion thank you as always okay all right madam clerk next delegation item item d

Girl Scout troop, this is your government in action. Thank y'all for being here and being attentive. Mrs. Mabry, if you will, for the record, please state your name and residency, please.

You got it. You have the floor and you have five minutes, ma'am.

Madam, I don't see any colleagues in the queue that has shown an interest in answering that question. You could continue with your presentation if you'd like.

Thank you, Miss Mary. Thank you for always being here. Seeing no colleagues in the queue, Madam Clerk, let's move on to the next delegation, please. Okay.

If you will, for a record, please state your name and residency, please.

Thank you, Dr. Casey. I don't see any colleagues in the queue. Thank you so much for being here. Madam Clerk, I think that ends our delegation portion of this meeting. Yes, sir. It takes us to the consent agenda portion.

All right. Do you have any additions or deletions or any addendum items to today's agenda? No, sir. All right. Do you have any public notices, alcohol petitions that need to be read in for the record? No, sir. None at all. All right. If that's the case, the chair recognizes Mayor Pro Tem Wayne Guilford.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to add agenda item number 16 to the consent agenda.

I'm going to be a question we had a number 16 to the consent agenda.

All right, so we're gonna take, we're gonna remove it from consent. All right. Chair recognizes... All right. Don't have anybody else in the queue. So you may make this simple. Can I receive a motion, please, to proceed?

I have a motion by Mayor Pro Tem. I heard a second by Commissioner Catherine Smith-Rice. Seeing no colleagues in the queue, Madam Clerk. Okay. That's items 1 through 15. Items 1 through 15, we have discussed item mr mayor will be addressed standalone yep as a standalone item chair recognizes commissioner from the first commissioner johnson thank you sir i want to pull number eight for a question number eight yes all right that's number eight thank you you got it so recognize the commission from the fifth commissioner don clark

Hey, Mr. Mayor. I know Commissioner from the first asked to pull number eight. Deputy Jackson, are you prepared to speak towards this in the absence of the administrator? I know she's been leading the effort.

All right. Now, seeing no colleagues in the queue, Madam Clerk, we're prepared to vote. We're going to pull item eight. 16 is on the agenda.

Commissioner Guilfoyle, you? No, I'll follow. Okay, all right. Madam Clerk, we're prepared to vote. Okay.

Girl Scout troop 20724, thank you all for being here. Congratulations again on your government, Pam.

I think we have some guests in town for presentation

Thank you so much. All right, sir, if you will, for the record, please state your name, who you represent.

Don't see any colleagues in queue, but certainly thank you for your partnership. You guys were here very early on to kind of help us at one of our most direst times and certainly appreciate all that you continue to do and keep up the great work.

I do have one question, Mr. Mayor. All right.

The chair recognizes Mayor Pro Tem Wayne Guilford.

Well, I appreciate your presentation and giving it to us and bringing us up to speed. I appreciate all your hard work making sure that we received the money that we were entitled to, number one. Is there anything that we could do to help the utilities department along the canal where the trees is a big issue? It's going to cost millions and millions of dollars, and that was caused by the storm.

Okay, is that, could be captured by FEMA money or? That would be a Tech2Tech question.

All right, of the 75.9 obligated by FEMA and GEMA, are any of those dollars still, have any of those dollars been moved from FEMA to GEMA and we're waiting for reimbursement? Or is that obligation to FEMA and we're just waiting on them to submit

Thank you, sir. All right. Director, is that it?

Don't have any additional questions that I'm seeing here on the screen. Thank you so much and welcome back. All right. All right, there's a motion by the Mayor Pro Tem. Madam Clerk, and I heard a second by Commissioner from the Fifth. We're prepared to vote.

Approved by Engineering Services, June 23rd. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Commissioner from the First, request this item be pulled. Sir, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My questions are for the Engineering Department, for Dr. Malik and the Administrator's Office. Dr. Malik. Thank you. And I'm going to just ask the questions, but whoever can answer them between legal, administration, and Dr. Malik, just feel free to tee up. So I know we've had conversations about parking in downtown and having a parking management plan in place. But I wanted to just kind of get an understanding from you being over traffic. Have we considered the pros and cons of having a procured firm versus managing this in-house as far as cost and ability? What is your

What is the anticipated cost? Do you have an idea just based off of research and market about what the anticipated cost for a downtown parking management system to be?

You said they've generated 15 to 16 million? Well, I guess my question is, is there any anticipated cost on the city side to stand this up?

What's the anticipated timeline for this? How soon are we looking to have this selection procured? And then... I guess after it's procured, what's the timeline for it to be implemented? Are we talking about having this installed at the, you know, in conjunction with this tier project or we're talking about after tier?

Stakeholders meaning the downtown business owners? What business owners have been involved in this process?

Can I ask, Mr. Jackson, how did the stakeholders come to the table? How were they chosen to come to the table?

just so that we make sure that the voices that are helping us make this decision is truly representative of what downtown Augusta is. So I'd love to get that information.

THE EXTERNAL GROUP OF PEOPLE. LAST COUPLE QUESTIONS JUST SO I MAKE SURE I'M CLEAR ON WHERE WE'RE GOING WITH THIS. The agenda item also says that we're going to be approving to start drafting the codes, the changes to the ordinance. What anticipated changes are we talking about? Is this just language to include parking times, restricted times, fees, and things of that nature?

And also from a budget perspective, if there's going to be some type of cost for enforcement, whether that's through the courts or through the sheriff's office or however, even internal, I don't know. I would just like to make sure that we have an idea of what that cost could potentially be. I like that we're doing the front work on this, but if it comes to the point where we can't afford something, then we've somewhat wasted our time. I'm not suggesting that's what's going to happen, but I would like to understand that. And then lastly, my last question is, have we gotten any input from the p

you know no secret i live on broad and if i wake up to a boot on my tire because i didn't pay in a meter overnight like we're gonna have a problem so i think we need to have the conversation again about how does paid parking look for residents how does paid parking look for employees the whole nine yards and so let's make sure that that's also a part of the conversation with the codes and ordinances too okay all right that's all my questions mr mayor i uh i'll move to approve all right there's a motion is there a second i heard a circuit by commissioner from the third

Madam Clerk, I don't see any colleagues in the queue for discussion. We're prepared to vote. That motion carries. It's unanimous. Thank you, Madam Clerk. I think that concludes our business on the day's regularly scheduled agenda.

Attorney Plunkett, I will turn it over to you, sir. I think there's some additional business that we need to take care of.

Motion to approve. There's a motion to approve by Commissioner from the 3rd and a second by Commissioner Don Clark from the 5th.

Madam Clerk, are you going to publish the vote? It's unanimous. Thank you, Madam Clerk. We're now suspended to executive session.

Madam Clerk, we have a quorum. I call the session back to order a turning point.

There's a motion by Commissioner Don Clark from the 5th, seconded by Commissioner Jordan Johnson from the 1st. Seeing no colleagues in the queue for discussion. Madam Clerk, we're voting.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Attorney Plunkett, are there any motions as a result of our executive session? There are none. This session is hereby adjourned. Have a great day. Have a happy, safe 4th of July.