City Council - workshop

Request to add one item that is for discussion. The cooperation agreement with the slip see ID.

slip see ID, yes, I can't hear you say that one of the US stone press left on your industrial park see ID.

If that's the pleasure of the Council this added wherever it fits so you say make it D.

There's one additional item. The decision were the audit or decision on the audit contract auditor.

One, two, three, four items that have been added today at this moment. Is there any backup for anybody to review to be able to have a discussion or are we doing that blindly?

Okay. Who has these emails that you said were sent out? Can I have date and time, please, so I can go pull that?

That was sent out at least twice. But that's a crap agreement. The question be back.

The slip I have I'm talking about the other 3 items. the resolution, the two the attorney added and the one that District 5 added?

Okay. And so would you ask them, when you added them to the agenda, were you asking those for a discussion or a decision? They're for a decision. There are two items for a decision of which no one has seen yet? Yes. OK, and will you please send those now so that we can consider in their items B, C and D? Yes.

OK, I mean, still, you know, I'd like to be included in the reading of that. So if you'll send those. Thank you.

I put him out some internal move for approval of the gender with the state is adjustments. I can't.

Mayor Pro Tem. Just to get to something you've already given us, and I appreciate your putting it in writing, the anticipated completion of each audit, and I hope as we're getting out the gate, we're getting out to a good start, and we can hold to these dates. And let me understand that When the 2026, I'm sorry, when the 2025 audit is complete, June 2027, will that put us on schedule as to where audits should be?

Right. That would be your normal schedule. Correct. Okay. What we're dealing with now is the catch-up. So the first two on here are catch-up. Correct. And after that, we should be on schedule.

Okay, so first three catch ups, the last one is an own schedule.

And I want to keep up with this as well, because we've come down to the last five months. Is there anything threatening our spending of the ARPA funds that we need to deal with?

Thank you. It has a big impact on our overall budget. Tree Bank. It says remains financially stable. What does that mean for Tree Bank?

I mean, but that was an expectation that would have a certain amount. In the tree bank.

OK, is that in the package as to what the.

Okay. Okay. You report on SPLOST 2 funds. Are there any SPLOST 1 funds that are still not used that we have access to?

Well, I bring that up because I remember us approving something that had to do with the fire department, with the fire stations. With the Cab County and some of the SPLOST funds. I'm not totally sure, but I would like to understand.

What happened with those funds that we committed during Splash One? Are there some Splash One funds sitting, resting somewhere waiting on us to get the fire stations off the ground? And I know two of them that are in the city limits that we have not, well, we haven't completed them. I don't want to say we haven't started, but we haven't completed them. okay i would get that detailed information over the council okay and you also mentioned the development authority funds remain financially stable what is that budget i could look it up but if you have it handy uh you know what i'll just i'll jus

Now, I can get with you on it. I'm ready for that, as well as the mid-year budget amendment considerations.

It says mid-year budget amendment consideration on the financial monitoring items. You're monitoring the mid-year budget amendment consideration. Let me get with you on that. Okay. And we'll be ready because I know it is About that time, it is past that time to make that adjustment. If there's a necessity to make a mid year budget amendment, we had a preliminary list made.

Okay, very good. And I know that it's almost budget time. And usually there's a budget calendar. I know that the budget calendar already out. Will there be an adjustment in that calendar? So take a look at that. Okay, as well. July is almost gone.

Being the new kid on the block, I heard the question that Councilman Turner asked as it relates to, or his comments as it relates to mid-year budget amendments. We're past mid-year, so when does, what's the process and when does that typically happen?

Okay, so you guys will provide once you have that information, then you'll provide it to us. Okay. As it relates to the audits, I know that we have come up with a plan, an aggressive plan, but a plan, and you guys are going to work diligently towards that plan. The grants that are associated with us getting our audits or keeping our audits up to date, which they're behind, those are going to be released as we complete the year for which they are awarded. Is that correct?

Not necessarily a question, but a comment. And that is that according to the charter, we should also get a financial report from our city manager on the 15th of the month for the previous month. So I know that you'll be involved with making, help to make that happen initially. So I'm not sure about the month of July, because you were not here during all of the month of June. But if you check the, it's a charter requirement, and there was some difficulty with making it happen. So we'll see if we encounter that same difficulty. Okay. Just wanted to make that comment.

Who will be the signatories on the bank account? Can you refresh us on who's going to be left?

I know we want to get things done as quickly as we can and in order, but is there any reason for any urgency to make this happen within the next 30 days. That's why the you are for the city attorney.

Okay. Just curious. Mayor Pro Tem. I have a question.

Those that are listed in this, I guess, in this resolution and in this ordinance seems to be all the positions above and below the deputy city manager. I mean, all the way down to the deputy finance director, whose pay grade is, I don't know, two to four pay grades below the deputy. So I'm just curious on why Why are we removing the deputy city manager who is technically by pay grade the second highest pay grade in the city?

Your charter does not have the deputy finance director even listed in it as a position.

Any other you're saying yeah if you'd let me finish. The Charter also does not give the mayor pro tem the bank signing authority either. So if we're going by the charter positions that have any financial or banking responsibilities within it, it would only be the mayor and the city manager. In all technicalities, the finance director's position listed in the charter also does not indicate any banking responsibilities or signatory responsibility.

No, no. The mayor pro tem said that we're modifying the code of ordinances to reflect the roles in the charter. Right. And so because I asked, why do we not have the deputy city manager who is the second pay grade highest pay grade in the city her response was we're going by the positions listed in the charter so i said well the deputy finance director is not in the charter right and then by technicality the finance director position also does not it is listed in the charter yes but it does not indicate a signatory responsibility so i was just trying to follow the rationale that if we're using

Right, because the ordinance that you're looking at was not written to mimic the charter. You said you're making changes to mimic the charter. The ordinance that was written here was to make operations more succinct. So your rationale was charter, not operational efficiency.

Correct. So I'm just trying to get clarity on why the deputy city manager is being removed. Are you saying because you want to go back to the original code of ordinances?

Correct. Okay. So we're going back to the original code of ordinances, which did not include the deputy finance director.

action tonight and um as it has done before will give those individuals that you all name that power so if yeah i didn't want it to be i didn't say yeah i the charter was not my rationale so maybe that would have been directed at mayor pro tem i didn't say that i i asked for the rationale why the deputy city manager was being removed and the answer was because we're mimicking the charter So I fully understand that an ordinance can be written to put any names in there that the council believes is proper in order for operation. That's not the rationale that was spoken. Um, so I understand, thank

OK, I should wait until you discuss that for my next question.

Well, OK, your first response was we're going back to the charter.

I'll yield to see if you have a discussion about the deputy finance director now that we're not going by the charter roles.

You said you're going to discuss the deputy finance director.

I'm going to wait until you ask the city attorney.

Okay, my question again is if you're going back to the original ordinance prior to the state of emergency, why is the deputy finance director listed in the ordinance, which is not going back to the original ordinance.

job description of the deputy finance director it still has no signatory responsibilities within it today in our in our deputy role nor is there even a person in that role today and hasn't been for quite some time so I understand the legend and again attorney Thompson you do not have to keep explaining to me and you you know it better than most that I understand the legislative authority and what can be literally written or literally removed again i was simply asking for the rationale behind it it changed a few times and now the discussion went from we're going back to the original to back to

Since there is no deputy finance director and the parties that will be on the bank signatory are going to have to sign, I do believe, so that person couldn't sign anyway, which means you're going to have to revisit this. If we move forward without the deputy finance director and revisit it once there is a Deputy finance director in place, they will equal the same thing you're going to have to revisit regardless. So to go without it. And we visited once the deputy finance director was in place. Would that allow us to move forward.

They may have put him if need be once we come to consideration of the vote. I would offer that as an amendment.

I said once it comes down to a vote, I would offer that as an amendment to consider approval without the deputy finance director as a part of the signatory group. I'm not going to leave my department until one is hired, but just leave it out.

Once the resolution has been read, did I miss it?

Move for approval of the resolution removing, after removing, the position of deputy finance director as a signatory.

Council member Tim, I have no discussion other than to say that we could amend it in the same fashion. And when we get a deputy finance director, we can revisit this item.

I'm sorry, did I hear you say this will be a first read?

Madam City Attorney, do we ever have to take action on the first read to say, well, we acknowledge the first read, just read it and we move on?

Yeah, I mean, other than it just being in the records that we officially say, we hereby acknowledge the first reading and waiting on the second read. I'll just like you said, just move on.

Mayor Pro Tem, what date was that contract emailed? I can't find it.

Are there any additional? We have the engagement. engagement letter. Are there any additional stipulations or duties or requirements that we are adding to what's outlined in this letter? Anything else we're asking of the auditors?

We had the auditors that come before us and they outline basically what they intend to do and their approach and I'm looking at the engagement letter and it appears to be consistent with what we had discussed. And I know there is some urgency to get this process started so we can reach our end on schedule. And if we find that there is something, and I know we don't want to keep on muddying the water back and forth, back and forth, but if there are some issues that we find as we go along, we can't always correct them. But again, I yield to the legal team to understand this 10-page legal documen

I'm sorry. Is everybody looking at the contract but me? Do you all have the contract?

Okay, well, can anybody one for the engagement letter? But two, it says, I know, I can't find it. Oh, okay. So if you'll just for me at least the engagement letter, but 713 at 659.

All right, I'll hit it again. Thank you.

The engagement letter is not a contract. And I thought I just heard Attorney Thompson say that there will be a few other items in the contract that is not listed in the engagement letter. The engagement letter is a letter from Mauldin and Jenkins to the city, which is not a contractual agreement. It's all of their requirements. It does not have your city identification in it. It doesn't have your standard contract language. The engagement letter should be an exhibit, an amendment addendum to your contract. So if you were to say you're going to approve a contract, but you're actually only looki

Mayor Pro Tem Housewoman Smith. So with the 27 being the last Monday of the month, how far back does this push you guys with your plan that you have in place?

And as it relates to the letter of engagement that we have the. You all don't have any concerns or any additions like I asked earlier to what they have put in their letter of engagement, what they're going to be providing us. You don't have any concerns or any additional requests of them? No. Okay. So at this point, what we're waiting for is the final contract to come from legal.

I would ask legal once you receive the letter of engagement wouldn't it be protocol that you would tax them for the contract to attach it to the letter of engagement. Legal a maximum legal, yes.

This court's legal. How long will it take to get this contract together? I'm willing to do a special call meeting.

You're saying that any preliminary work that they've done still counts. It's just that if there's a big problem with the contract, that's just too bad. They don't have a contract and it's over. But we approved it pending the contract being satisfactory by both parties. And there was no contract set to ink yet. For how long will it take to make that happen?

And if we wanted to call a special call meeting simply to approve this contract, it is that important. There's a lot of money hanging out based on these audits being done and done on time. What we brought up to date, not on time, but to be called up. So a special call meeting, I think, is warranted to get this moving, even if it just saves us a week. So that's just my two cents.

for clarity so um legal is going to prepare the contract and then the contract will be shared with us so we have an opportunity however um Is a special call meeting needed for us to come back and approve the contract once you have it drafted finalized and shared with us.

The city has never approved a contract that the council has not seen, nor that the vendor has seen, nor that the city attorneys have seen in a meeting in which it didn't exist. So with a motion to approve an appointment of the external auditors pending a contract, that is general motion terms, but how do you approve a contract that was not written nor reviewed and then say we don't have to do it again I mean I have I've never seen the city do that before and granted we you know are doing things different these days but never have it is significantly unheard of to approve a contract that has no

So that's my question. I mean, our, is the council, did the council direct the city attorney and that motion to deviate from the typical process of procurement and go right to the attorneys or is, or is this going through procurement? Was that in your motion?

No, apparently there was a motion for a non-existing contract the last time we met. I was just curious if that motion also included not going through procurement and going directly to the attorneys to draft.

That I cannot speak to right now without playing the tape back.

So I. I was here when the motion was made, and we did not make a motion for anything to go directly from directly to legal there was in the motion, however. At this point. Attorney Thompson, is there something that something additional that you need for the procurement to do in order for you to do what you need to do? Or are we at a point where it's in your hand so you can do what needs to be done? And we can come back together and approve this contract.

I mean the fruit of what. I put him. Yes, Councilman turn a move to defer approval of this matter to a special call meeting.

I'd just like to add that you mentioned a Thursday special call meeting. I just want to state for the record today that I will not be available for a Thursday special call meeting as I have a prior obligation already set.

I concur. This item has gone through public hearing, and we deferred it twice, I do believe. It wasn't very clear as to why it was being deferred, whether the applicant needed more time to give us something that I don't believe we asked for. I think they just wanted to volunteer additional information for which I never got. And I see no reason to defer it anymore. I see no reason to accept a withdrawal. This item is before us for a decision, and I think we need to make a decision.

Director Cue, I have a question on the process. So at this point, the applicant withdrawing How exactly does that work? Do they have an opportunity to go through this all over again?

Mayor Pro Tem? I have an additional question. So now that Councilman Turner has suggested that we make a decision and the application has been withdrawn at this point, are we able to make any type of decision since the applicant has requested or applicant has withdrawn the application at this point?

I would defer to legal once an applicant applies for a slip and we hear it. Does it still belong to the applicant or does it belong to us? We've gone through the public hearing on this stuff. And just logically speaking, without knowing all the legalese of it, it would appear to me that it's out of the applicant's hand once we hear it. And I'm not comfortable with them being able to withdraw their application after it's been heard and processed through the public hearing. Um, my logic tells me that it's up to us whether to accept the withdrawal or to act on this item.

And if we do not approve the withdrawal, then the applicant is forced to come back before us.

If we do not accept, there's a request for withdrawal.

So you just told us that we could not deny the request for a denial. That we had to act on a request for the denial either accepted it now, I mean i'm trying not to do now except the withdrawal or not accepted with tool, if we do not accept the withdrawal, then what.

And my question is still there. If we do not give the permission for the withdrawal, then what?

Still trying to get clarity here. So if we do not accept the withdrawal without prejudice, then the council has to make a motion to accept or deny or defer. OK, I'm clear. I was wrong.

I move for denial of this application for a special land use permit. 1695 Spring Hill Cove.

Just a quick, can you give us those dates for the election again? November 3rd of the 3rd of the election and runoff is summer 1st December 1st.

Move for approval of the ordinance appointing the camp kind of to conduct the city of stonecrest special election second read.

Allow me to open with mentioning the East Metro CID. And the East Metro CID was in place when we became a city. And they were active within our city limits in terms of planting flowers and doing other activities in the right of way, including installing flock cameras and so forth and so on. And come to find out they had no agreement with us to do such. So we had to put together an agreement with the East Metro CID to function within the boundaries of the city. Now we've established the I mean, Latonia, well, the Stonecrest Latonia Industrial Parks CID. And they have the same opportunities, and

Thank you very much. This CID is anxious to get to work. And this is one thing that we want to get done before they actually start that. I wanted to have this ready by the next council meeting for consideration. So between now and the 27th, we have time to consider this or we can discuss it tonight as to these proposed modification based on what we sent to you earlier as to within that cooperation agreement, shall they meet with tips on a, whether it's a monthly basis or just say a regular basis, or should they report to city council at a work session and the other one is they will report to u

I didn't have ample time to review this agreement today when I received it. However, I do see one thing where it talks about baseline of services, and I've kind of scrolled and did a search. I don't see what is the baseline. I don't see the services outlined here.

that list in the city's charter section 1.06 and I believe it's under H. Are we able to sign off and hand over some of these that we don't control ourselves like water and sewer? That's not controlled by the city of Stonecrest, right?

consent or something from the county since they control that piece or how does that work uh the cid cannot supersede any of the governmental services they cannot supersede the county services they will work with and cooperate with and that's one thing that we need here is a cooperation agreement they have access to improving those areas but with that access they must have permission they can't go in and just take down a traffic light and put up a different one a different color they have to uh have permission from the city uh when necessary from the county that will keep them in line with not

Understood. So we don't need to put anything in disagreement as it relates to any type of language as it relates to the county for the services that we don't control at this time.

I don't believe so. Because like I said, they cannot supersede any of those jurisdictions. It's a matter of cooperating with and making improvements to the district. Okay.

I have an additional question. The duration, 50 years is what it says. The agreement shall expire in 50 years. None of us sitting here will probably be here when this agreement expires. You speak for yourself.

However, that seems like a long duration. I would hope that we would consider to allow for others who come after us an opportunity to weigh in on this. consider reducing that duration with the opportunity to renew and all that great stuff less than 50 years. What typically happens with these CIDs? Are all CIDs typically a 50-year duration?

And I'm no expert in this area, but I do know that some of the CIDs do have bonding capabilities. And when you do bonding, it could last 30, 40 years for certain bonds. So you have to know that they're going to be around more than four or five years if you got a 30 or 40 year bonding agreement. I would suspect it's common language. Between now and the time we consider approving this, we can find out if that's common. But I would suspect many of them might be longer than that. I remember setting up a trust for a trust from the family. We're looking at 150 years. So I'll be there to manage that,

okay um and the other thing just we quick glance of course um as councilman Turner said we'll get an opportunity I'll get an opportunity to kind of deep dive in this and ask whatever additional questions I have um but is there a review process or anything that we will go through to ensure that whatever is happening with the CID we we're giving them five stars in that area like is there some type of review process that typically happens with CIDs performance reviews

And if I can add, annually, we should get a state as a city address. And within that state as a city address, we should talk about those things that make the city great, or those things that make the city function. How is economic development doing? How is community planning and zoning doing? How is the CID doing? Are they adding value? bringing us down so you know those are things that we will have to evaluate on a regular basis as to what's adding value to the city and if they're not adding value to the city and we need to reconsider and it's not just the cid it's all elements of what makes

Mayor Pro Tem, one more thing. I agree with you, Councilman Turner. It's important to know what it looks like. It's important to have criteria in place in order to determine If it's good or not so that that was my my primary question if we're going to put in that can be established, you know put some criteria in place, but you have to know what you're looking at and what criteria in order to judge whether it's good or not. um. So that's the whole purpose behind the question as it relates to performance. And it sounds like it's something that we can work with them on coming up with some criteri

That was for discussion only so no discussion only will move it to the Council meeting for decision unless there's some serious reservations and.

I'm hoping those are some things we can talk about as we go along because January is a loaded month. It's going to be hard to get a lot of things set up for January because we bring on new council members, new committees, and a bunch of other initiatives in January. Personally, I'd like to see it pushed to February at least. That'll give us time to get the train moving, so to speak. and to schedule them to meet with tips or with the city council that's something we have got to discuss whether or not we want that to be one or both probably best report into council would be my personal preferenc

And I think one additional thing is to kind of get the city manager and staff sway in media once a month is that going to put some type of stress or strain on the staff as well, so we have to kind of figure that piece out and get that that feedback from staff.

And we'll try to get it to you at least five days and how much time do you need to work up to detail a week days.

OK. Well, the agenda is put together on Friday of this week for the council meeting. So we've got to act in a hurry to get our questions answered and circulate it and get it back to you and ready for the agenda on Friday, no later than Monday. OK. Got it. I got my orders.

Councilman Turner, you want us to meet on Thursday and then get this to you by Friday. Oh, you're the worst. You sign up for this.

Yes, there is. I'm sorry, what was that? Yes.

Move to suspend our work session and adjourn to special call meeting for litigation, personnel, cybersecurity, and litigation.

You know I want to leave, don't you? Mayor Pro Tem.

Move to adjourn to executive session of personnel, litigation, cybersecurity, and real estate. Second.

Move for approval of the minutes from the second session. Second.

Before we leave, I want to remind all of the residents of Stonecrest to get your garbage out tonight because the collectors are coming an hour earlier than normal on tomorrow. So what, starting at 6 o'clock? Yes. So go home and put your garbage out. Mayor Pro Tem.