Commission - Special Meeting

Madam Clerk, it appears we have a quorum. The time is now 11 a.m. Call this meeting order. Attorney Man.

I heard a motion first by the Mayor Pro Tem Wayne Guilfoyle and second by the Commissioner from the 7th, Commissioner Tina Slendak. Madam Clerk, there are no colleagues in the queue for discussion. We're voting.

We're now suspended to executive session. Yes, sir. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The time is now 1.03 p.m. Madam Clerk, I call this session back to order. Attorney Madden.

There's a motion by the mayor. Tim, is there a second? There's a second by the commissioner from the fourth. Madam Clerk, seeing no colleagues in the queue for discussion, we're prepared to vote.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Attorney Matten, are there any motions as a result of our executive session?

Second. There's a motion to approve and a second. Motion was made by Commissioner from the seventh, second by the Mayor Pro Tem. It was made by Mr. Garrett and seconded by Mr. Guilfoyle. Seconded by Mr. Guilfoyle. Yes, sir. All right. Madam Clerk, see no calls in the queue, we're voting.

Is there a motion to approve, please? There's a motion to approve by Commissioner from the 7th, Commissioner Garrett. I'm sorry, Commissioner from the 8th. 8th, 8th, 8th. Commissioner from the 8th. The mighty 8th. That's right, the mighty 8th. Yeah. And I heard a second from Commissioner from the 7th. All right, yes, sir. Commissioner Tina Slendek. Yes, sir. All right. Seeing no colleagues in the queue for discussion, Madam Clerk, we're voting.

Thank you, sir. Is there a motion, please? There's a motion by Commissioner Tini Slendak from the 7th, seconded by Commissioner Catherine Smith-Rice from the 3rd. No colleagues are in the queue for discussion. Madam Clerk, we're voting.

Madam Clerk, we have a motion by Commissioner Brandon Garrett from the 8th, seconded by Commissioner Tina Slendak from the 7th. No colleagues in the queue for discussion. We're voting.

There's a motion by Commissioner Tina Slendak and a second by the Mayor Pro Tem Wayne Guilfoyle. No colleagues in the queue for discussion. Madam Clerk, we're prepared to vote.

There's a motion by Commissioner Brandon Garrett from the eighth, seconded by Commissioner Tina Slendak from the seventh. No colleagues in the queue for discussion. Madam Clerk, we're voting.

There's a motion by Commissioner Brandon Garrett, seconded by Commissioner Tina Slindak. No colleagues in the queue for discussion. Madam Clerk, we're prepared to vote.

Thank you. There is a motion by Commissioner Tina Slendak From the seventh, seconded by Commissioner Brandon Garrett from the eighth. No colleagues are in the queue for discussion. We're prepared to vote, Madam Clerk.

Motion to approve. There's a motion to approve by Commissioner from the third, Catherine Smith-Rice, seconded by the Mayor Pro Tem. Madam Clerk, no colleagues in the queue for discussion. We're prepared to vote.

I turn to Matt, and does that conclude your motions for today?

Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, we appreciate you being here. We're going to turn it over to the committees in just a second, but I want to acknowledge that due to a lack of quorum, the Engineering Services Committee will not be meeting today in all of those, and finance. So if you're here for... Well, I think we have a finance. Finance is good. So it's just engineering services. If you're here for any agenda item on engineering services, those items will be moved to next week's commission meeting and certainly appreciate you being here. And before I turn it over to public services, I

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And Madam Clerk, do we have any additions or deletions? Okay. Thank you all for being here today and welcome to Public Services Committee.

Okay, and Madam Clerk, while we're at it, may we delete item number 12? That item is also on Finance Committee, so we can discuss on Finance Committee. So we will delete item number seven, 12, and 15.

Madam Clerk, with that, if my colleagues do not object, I would like to consent items number one, two, three, and 16. Motion, support? Okay, got a motion. Do I have a second? Got a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, we're voting.

I'm going to start from top to bottom. Okay. That way we can take care of these licenses.

Got a motion and we got a second. We're voting.

Next item, Madam Clerk, let's see. That takes us to item number eight.

Yes, thank you. I'm going to go to Mr. Jackson.

Okay, thank you for that. Director Cameron, do you have anything you want to continue?

So we can move forward. I would like to be able to approve it, but as a chair, I've got, do I have Commissioner Guilfoyle in the queue? Do you want to speak before we put a vote?

Thank you. Deputy Administrator Jackson, thank you for answering that question. That was one of my questions. My second question is, in your August 2026 community workshop, your two-day session, I would reach out to the home builders of Augusta, Aiken, Augusta area. Yes, sir. And I would actually lean on the procurement list of their contractors, which... would actually, it would affect them as well. So between the residential home builders and your commercial builders, as well as the developers that would fall underneath Aiken Home Builders, please have them at the table because I don't think

Thank you. Do I have a motion? Okay. Oh, sorry about that. We've got Commissioner Lewis in the queue.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Director Cameron, I have a couple of questions. this is an additional $68,000. What was the initial amount that we paid this consultant firm to help with this ordinance?

So when you say we have some left, you're saying we have some monies left from that initial and we're looking to give an additional $68,000 for some additional performance measures that probably could have been implemented in the original. So why do we feel like we need to pay $68,000 to have, I'm looking at this right here, two additional public engagement meeting workshop. I know you mentioned that there was some stakeholders left out of the initial being some being the commissioners we didn't have some input and maybe perhaps some public input but you did mention that there was a public mee

So when you say rewrite something new, what did they give us? What did they give the city for what we paid for? And now you're saying they're going to rewrite something new. What's old?

So when we realized we didn't have what we needed, And we went back to the consultant and say, what would it take for you to give us this additional information? And that's when they responded that they can do it for said price. They didn't say that there was room enough for... us to be able to do this with what we've already paid?

So I did hear my colleague from the temp made mention about the Builders Association being an integral part of what's going to be developed now. What about the subcommittees that were a part of the original plan? What was their input?

Okay, will this encompass What's the hot ticket item right now for not just the Augusta area, but for communities throughout the United States? Will this have some measures for how we're going to deal with our data centers and things of that nature?

We're looking at, we're talking about two months, how long?

Okay, thank you. Real quick, I just wanted to ask a quick question. What, again, was the feedback from the subcommittee?

Okay. Yeah, I was just making sure that I just wanted to see if the subcommittee was able to, you know.

Okay, thank you. Do we have a motion? Got a motion, do I have a second? No, ma'am. We're not allowed to do this, Mayor.

Ma'am, we're not. You are not a designated delegate to speak on this matter and the public will not be speaking regarding this matter today. It may, but right now you are not signed up as a speaking delegate regarding this matter, unfortunately, today. Okay. All right. Well, thank you. You could reach out to the clerk of commission and she can certainly assign you a time to come and speak before this body.

All right. Thank you for being here. The clerk of commission, clerk Lena Bonner will certainly. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Okay. Sure. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm going to, we're going to vote on this item and then we're going to move on. Who second that?

Thank you, Madam Clerk. I wanted to ask you if we could please, I'd like to go ahead and let item number 10, item number 11, and item number 14 to allot them the five minutes and no more than five minutes to speak before we go to item number nine.

I usually see her. I don't see her in the audience unless she's not here, okay?

Thank you. Okay, thank you for your claps. I'm gonna go to Commissioner Wimberly from the 4th.

Ms. Mabry. just for a little help. Number one, we don't wanna cut you down or cut anybody off. I believe the ordinance that you're talking about is gonna come before this body next week. That is the data center ordinance. This ordinance that was being discussed now is our current set of ordinance that are outdated. The funds for that has no impact on what we come up with. for the ordinance of the data center. So stay engaged, but just make sure those two, so number eight does not connect to the data center for which you're talking about, okay? So stay tuned, thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Wimberly. Madam Clark, we'll move to the next item.

The ordinance also does not- 20 seconds, Ms. Dr. Keese.

I don't see anybody in the queue. Madam Clerk, we will continue. to the next item.

Okay, so that's something we can make a motion on here, and I can't make a motion as a chair.

Do I have a second? Got a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, we're going to vote.

Okay, Madam Clerk, that takes us back to, we allowed our speakers, we had speakers speak, so now we're going to go back to item number nine.

Okay, thank you for that. I've got a question, but I'm gonna go to my colleagues. Commissioner, Mayor Pro Tem Gilfoyle.

Thank you. Ms. Cameron, thank you for coming before us. Yes, sir. When this was originally adopted back in 2022, nobody knew what a data center was. They didn't know until most people wasn't aware of it till last year. But since it's come to light, it has gotten a lot of people's attention, including ours. It got attention to where a lot of us was at both data centers' meetings. The second one to me was the most informative. because it was a question and then you had the experts. We are no experts by any means. We are policy makers and we enforce the policy that we set forth. That's the reason

Right. It would be nice to... reflect back on the questions and answers from the experts from the meet at the elementary school three weeks back, because that was very informative. They had video showing about the decibels, et cetera. You know, I just got, I was in light of somebody wanted the directors to inform me today, McDuffie County ordinance is eight pages long. Columbia County's three. How many pages is Augusta-Richmond County?

But they don't address the other issues beyond just the ordinance, is that correct?

Right. But you went into depth on this in case. Absolutely. Especially on emergencies. But we actually looked at it from, I don't ever want to see a Haines station happen again. It was before my time and before a lot of our times up here. Who would ever thought of that a data center be? But then again, the data center and the Haines station was being built at the same time or being evolved at the same time.

but they still building houses in Haynes Station. They still selling houses in Hayes Stations, I believe. But with that being said, You cover every issue from noise, buffer, cooling system, electrical, even the things that I had put in there, that the data center's gonna be responsible for the infrastructure, that it shouldn't cost any taxpayer any kind of dollars whatsoever. We shouldn't give abatements, et cetera. But we also got a invite to see a data center coming up August 3rd.

I believe it would be good for the commission to attend to at least we get to see firsthand. Instead of hearing about the stories of other cities, et cetera, that's like the water. I got an email yesterday about noon in Georgia about the wells running dry. These data centers this day and age has a closed loop system, 18,000 gallons of water and that's it. Everybody thinks that the power bill is going to go up. Georgia Power has addressed that issue at three different public meetings. One was with the Chamber of Commerce, which I had attended that as well. I did listen to the planning and zonin

I'm extending it until August 18th. Well, I'm just saying that last thing we need to do is do something in haste and then regret it because I don't like egg in my face whatsoever. So Madam Chair, I'm not on your committee, but if the committee be kind enough to do that till the August 18th, bring it back before the August 18th meeting, that'll give us time to look at the data center, walk around it, hear it, walk away from it, listen to it, et cetera. And that way we could bring back true experience back to the table.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. We've got a few others in the queue, so I would like to listen to what they have to say, and then we can come back to your suggestion. Commissioner Slendak is in the queue.

Thank you, Commissioner Rice. I was going to... suggest extending the moratorium 30 days. So that would put it in line to what Commissioner Guilfoyle also was requesting.

We want to, okay. I'm going to go to the, excuse me, Commissioner Slindak, I appreciate your 30 days. I'm gonna go to the attorney, Attorney Manton.

So from this body, well, from this committee, which it'll go to next week's meeting, Agenda, commission. Yes, ma'am, you're just recommending to the commission approval. Approval of 30 days. Okay, all right. I'm gonna go to Commissioner Wimbley. Commissioner Slindak, are you good? Okay, I got the 30 days. Commissioner Wimbley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. For the director. This document I'm looking at here, this is only asking about the extension of the moratorium. It has nothing to do with the ordinance that's going to come before us at the next meeting.

Oh, this is just a moratorium on building centers. Okay, data centers. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. Now I'm one, I have enough understanding of data centers. but I do not believe we're gonna get a good ordinance in six pages. So if we were gonna extend our time to make sure we get it right, my statement would be not less than 60 days, okay? Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Wembley. Commissioner Pulliam.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. In addition to extending the moratorium, I echo the same sentiments as my colleague, Commissioner Wimberly, that we do need to look at the 60 days. But I also implore my colleagues to review the planning commission meeting. And the notes from the planning commission meeting, it is on YouTube. Oftentimes I'll tune in via watching it on YouTube, but that way you can actually hear what the commissioners, you know, what their quorums were. As far as why we need to put a hold on this, I know that some of it did have to do with the decibels being too high, as well as tha

Thank you, Commissioner Pulliam. Commissioner Lewis from the 6th.

Thank you, Madam Chair. In accordance with... my colleague from the second, I'm in agreement with her in relation to the 60 days, although we will be making that trip, that would be about, give us about, Two weeks, two weeks, a little more than two weeks before we make that trip. And I think it's still enough time for us to make some decisions, some educated decisions when we do come back with the information that we will garner from visiting that data center, along with the moratorium being 60 days. So I think 60 days will be in line with that. But I would ask you, Director Cameron, with this

make this public so they can see what we have here, what your department have here. And if they have any questions, when the time come and presents itself, they'll be able to ask those pertinent questions, even for those that might be coming back next month with any additional questions that they may have. So please allow the public to see what we have on the screen here, okay? Thank you so much.

Thank you, Commissioner Lewis. Commissioner Guilfoyle.

Thank you. As far as being plumbing knowledge, Madam Clerk, is it on our webpage?

Okay. It's under our commission meeting committee agenda, and then it's underneath the docs?

Okay, so, all right, thank you. One other thing, just for the Deputy Administrator, can you have your information officer put it on Plubbock, please? Thank you, Mr. Lewis.

Okay, with that, quickly, I'm gonna ask a quick question before we go make a decision on this. Director, since you are the director, do you support the 60 days or are you for the 30 days? Just wanted to see where you stand.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I was just, for the director. You're the one who made the recommendation for the timeframe that we're on right now, so you can make a recommendation for the 60 days?

Okay. So Commissioner Slindak and Mayor Pro Tem Guilfoyle both had mentioned making a motion since the moratorium is actually up next week. Are you still, Commissioner Slindak, do you want to restate, do you want to state your motion?

We could forward it to full commission without recommendation.

Okay, all right. So can we put that into a motion and have this committee go ahead and vote today to forward it to next commission? Okay. I can do it without objection if my colleagues... Okay.

Thank you, Director Cameron. And Madam Clerk, that concludes public services. Thank you.

Yes, sir. Am I not the, I thought I was vice chair of that. Maybe I'm, oh, I'm not? Okay. No, I forgot I was a couple of years ago.

I'd like to discuss items one through six.

Ms. Bonner, I'd like to call finance to order.

Are there any additions or deletions? No, ma'am.

I would like to consent items one and two, unless there is discussion that needs to be had. Mayor Pro Tem, I'd like to consent items one and two for finance. All right. Yes, sir. I have a motion and a second. We're voting.

Okay, and I believe we have a presentation from...

Okay, Ms. Stevens, what was the existing amount? I have the 450,000 for right-of-way plus the existing amount. What was the existing amount again?

I'd like to call Dr. Malika, please. Once he's available.

to Commissioner Lewis. Dr. Malik, can you come up please, sir?

Great afternoon, sir. So after hearing the numbers of 600, and make sure that I have this correct, 450,000 was used already and that was what was allocated in the environmental service fee, correct? Or that's what's left?

Okay. So my question is, what is our total shortfall? Because my understanding is what we have is not enough. to maintain, catch up, or any of the sorts. So Dr. Malik, with the numbers that I was just given, what are we short? to be able to and this is just right away and vacant lots so this is nothing extra this is right this is literally the right away and vacant lots these are the sidewalks i've been submitting pictures of that the city is supposed to be maintaining that look like jungles uh... this is and i'm not exaggerating i'm being completely honest and transparent uh... this is the as

Okay, so with those numbers, what I would like to see happen, what I would like to propose is finance, engineering, our administrator's office comes together because we're not at the end of the year. We are in July and these areas have to be taken care of. It's one thing when we're looking at code enforcement issues and it's, And I'm just using this as an example, Commissioner Rice, because I know your lawn is immaculate. So when we're looking at Commissioner Rice's lawn and it's her fault, that's code enforcement, right? But when we're looking at our right-of-ways, when we're looking at our s

And so that definitely is a viable solution. We can definitely adopt some of these areas. We see it when we go to other major cities. So that is something that we can do. But I can't wait till January of 2027. I can't. And my constituents can't either. So we are going to do something about this. Mayor Pro Tem Guilfoyle, you have the floor, sir.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate you taking on this task after four years, and you got to realize one thing. Augusta has all eight districts in it. When somebody calls me, it's just it's not my district, it's Augusta, and that's something I wish that District 2 would understand, that Augusta, if we're going to look out for one, let's look out for all. But I grew up in a time where before stormwater was implemented, we cut the grass all the way to the road. To today, I don't have anybody cut my grass in front of my house for a reason. I don't want all that trash bahia in my yard. But when w

Thank you so much, Mayor Pro Tem Guilfoyle. I do have two of my other colleagues in the queue. Before I go to you, I would like to address a few things that Mayor Pro Tem brought up, some very valid, great points. I am so glad to hear that you are on board with incentives. We all know that our Augusta Land Bank Authority, it's state-owned. ordain and so that is why we have it because the state knew that we needed land bank authorities to be able to work certain real estate transactions that our local municipal bodies could not necessarily do without having to procure real estate professionals

Okay. And I do that because I am trying to save our government money. So it is very imperative to me that we not only go back and clear up the right-of-ways, but we also get them sprayed. That way we'll keep those grounds at bay for three to four months. I would love if we could work that into the budget to make sure when we are doing right-of-ways across Augusta, Richmond County, that we can also spray because I believe doing that would help us with our budget shortfalls. I believe that addresses everything that you said, but again, I am for the entire county. I did some videos, and in those

I do want to say that I'm late coming to the table here. I'm listening to everything and I hear what my colleagues are saying. We do have this new department that we've hired. Is that not correct, Mr. Mayor? The department, the cleanup, the environmental grounds and- And maintenance.

Yeah. Okay, all right, when that department does get going, this should be part of everything that they should be doing. Is that not correct? And what I'm saying is we've got a new department coming underway and they should be taking care of all of this from what, vacant lot, clean up right away. That's why we got a new department coming. Should they not? I'm just asking, I'm sitting here, I'm thinking of this new department we're paying for. They should be in charge of taking care of all the right-of-ways and the vacant lot cleanup. So we gotta see what, make sure that they do what they're su

Every time, I do wanna say this. When I reach out to you, I appreciate your Department of Environmental Services getting to a lot of what, and it isn't always in District 3, it's in other districts too as well, but you do, you always make sure 99% of the time that you get somebody on. It might not be that day or next week, but you get somebody on it, and I do wanna give you a big thank you for that. Thank you. Sir.

Thank you, Commissioner Rice. Mayor Pro Tem Guilfoyle.

Yes, ma'am. Madam Chair, I know that you're the finance chairlady, and I know that we got budget session starting. Before we commit to any one item, we're gonna have to address the needs of the, we're gonna have every department come in before us as well, so we need to, I know you had said that you're gonna, dive deep into the budget this year. Hopefully you'll be able to find the money there as well, but we're gonna have a lot of wants and needs, so we gotta get ready for that as well. Thank you.

Yes, sir. Mayor Pro Tem Guilfoyle. And I respect that. I do. And that is why I would like for all of us to come to the table so that we can discuss what's going on right now at this present time. But yes, sir. Commissioner Wimberly, you have the floor, sir.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Senator, is it on now? Yes, sir. Hi. Yes, sir. I'll start over here. I've been affiliated with Augusta quite some time, actually more than 30 years. And I've been a part of the government also for more than 20 years of being totally involved. I have not seen funding at a level to take care of the issues that we're discussing now. I do not, a matter of fact, I had a conversation with the administrator last week in reference to what this maintenance team is gonna be doing. And to my colleague from three I hope you're not disappointed, but it's not gonna do the

Thank you, Commissioner Wimberly. I can't make the motion, but I would like if my colleagues are obliged to, I would like for someone to give the direction for the Administrator's Office, Finance, Engineering. I would like myself and Commissioner Guilfoyle, Commissioner Guilfoyle, Mayor Pro Tem Guilfoyle, I would like for you to be at the table, sir. If we could sit and we could look through things, if you don't want to, not a problem. We can just have another commissioner at the table as well once we're sitting down and we're reviewing everything. But I would like for someone to make that mot

My time is, I'm trying to focus on my job right now.

Okay, that's fine. He told me he declined the invitation, so it can be Commissioner Wimberley.

Thank you. That brings, that adjourns financing. Thank you so much.