City Commission - Regular Meeting

We'll see the commission meeting. As we get started here, we begin every meeting with an invitation and a pledge to our flag. And Commissioner Joe Fisher has got that honor tonight.

Walking into the room tonight to see such strong faith leadership in here, I'm so excited. And I want to yield my prayer time to Pastor Miller from New Victory Ministries.

Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll? Mayor Bojo.

I'm sorry, I should have announced earlier Commissioner Brock will not be with us tonight. He's on vacation.

Everyone got a copy of the minutes and they stand to be approved. Any corrections or additions need to be made? Then we will approve them as they are written. We have no proclamations. Tonight, we do have some special recognitions. I'm going to turn that over to Commissioner McDaniel.

When I call your name, if you will, come forward. The first one is a certificate of appreciation presented to Paula Blaylock for dedicated and outstanding service to the Rome Historic Preservation Commission, July 14th, 2020 to June 30, 2026. The next one is a certificate of appreciation presented to Taisha Lytle for dedicated and outstanding service to the Rome Historic Preservation Commission, November 13th, 2023 to June 30, 2026. Is Taisha here? Taisha? Okay, we'll get that one to her. And the next one. Certificate of appreciation presented to Susie Twyman for dedicated and outstanding serv

For those of you that came tonight to watch these people get these recognitions, we appreciate it very, very much. And if you would like to leave at this time, we will give you a few minutes to slip out. And if you want to stay, the more the merrier.

We have no public comments regarding agenda items tonight. We have no resolutions, nothing on first reading, nothing on second reading, nothing continued on first reading, nothing or no, excuse me, no public hearings. Mr. Clerk.

Mr. Manager. No report, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Attorney. Under my time, I've got a couple of things here. First of all, the Rome City Commission will hold called meetings here right here in the commission chambers on Monday August the 3rd which is next Monday at 6 30 p.m and on Monday August the 10th at 10 a.m for the purpose of conducting the 2026 tax increase public hearings. A final hearing will take place during the regular meeting on Monday August the 10th right here at 6 30. Also joint service committee will meet on Tuesday August 4th 9 a.m. in the Sam King Room. Water and Sewer Committee will m

Mr. Mayor, I only have one thing to report from the Finance Committee. In caucus, we heard from Mr. Will Derzis. Thank you. From Malden and Jenkins, he did the presentation on our audit, our 2025 audit, and I think you're going to speak on that now if you'd like. Thank you.

Thank you, Will. Appreciate your time. Mr. Durst, we do appreciate your time. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Yeah, that's all I have, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Speaking for Commissioner Brock, he had no committee announcements. Commissioner Cox? No committees. Thank you.

I would say to you that, and I know Sammy can follow up, I had a question for the chief. At one point in time, our department was about 15 officers down, And it was due to the fact that our surrounding counties were paying a lot more money than we were for hiring them, et cetera. And this commission addressed that in a big way. And so we got our funds up. And that's not the problem anymore. We still are short on officers. We find ourselves short on officers again. I said to the chief, well, at that point in time, we had a two where we could come back up to standards and get our officers back,

If I could just chip in, I serve on the Public Safety Committee, and while those numbers are down, the command staff and the chief were there, and the The crime numbers are down. They're really doing a good job. Our law enforcement, city law enforcement, are doing a good job in some areas, and they work well, I think, with their other agencies. We ask questions about, do you have the right equipment? Do you have everything you need? Money is not the issue right now. We address the money. It's just, as Commissioner Collins said, it's hard to get young people to go to law enforcement and put you

But I can tell you, Commissioner Beaman, we left there feeling really good about from the chief and what we heard, and that was the fact that even though we downed officers, now the shift that goes by is lacking the necessary manpower that it needs to to work that area. They do the overtime and whatever it takes them is allow these officers and the management team to do exactly what they're supposed to do, and that's keeping you guys a nice environment to work, play, and raise your family.

No report for Public Works, Traffic, Transit, or Trails Committee, but for Solid Waste Commission, we do have a meeting tomorrow at 8.30 in the Sam King Room. I suggested about a month ago that we arrange a time for city and county commissioners to do a tour of our recycling center. It's something we talk a lot about at Solid Waste Commission, so I still would like to find a time to do that. As a new commissioner, I think just important just have your eyes on the important topics but this one especially would be nice to tour so I'm hoping to get that on the calendar soon mr. Hickson yeah under

and one for a convenience store on in North Rome and one was postponed. Um, the planning commission will plan to meet this Thursday, August 6th here in the commission chambers at two 30. Um, I also, while I got time, um, want to speak about, you know, this summer and wrapping up this summer and getting, uh, kids ready to go back to school. Um, there were a few, um, events that I took part in over the past couple of weeks. One was height for site, um, Terrence height and his organization. They partnered with the Boys and Girls Club and provided clinical eyesight and had a back-to-school badge,

Let's see here, here. Good report. Land Bank is asking for approval for a piece of land that's on Hardy Avenue. To be taken off the, I don't know how the city of Rome came about that land. We tried to research that, et cetera. But anyway, it's been a request to remove it and put it back to the land bank. So the land bank has a process for someone that's actually, the signs will go up that it can be bidded on and become property that will go back on the tax road. And I'm putting that in the form of a motion to see if that might could happen. I'll second.

All right, we've got a motion and a second. Any discussion? To my left. How about this one? To my right. Mr. Clerk, call the roll.

Also, during the time on community development, there was a, Jeremy Gray, a consultant with Mossau Community Planning, presented the Burwell Creek area to serve as framework for the opportunity for improvement in the northeast rung. His client, Mr. Stovall, owns that property in that area. and is looking to possibly create senior housing. And this is a tight process they go through that helps get comments from people that live in those areas. And I think it also lends opportunity for tax credits and things of that nature to be used to develop these type projects. Meredith, while you was gone,

But anyway, it's over near the Bray Stadium out in that area, coming all the way around on Loop 1. Would you like to comment, Meredith?

Oh, thank you. That is my report, Mr. Mayor, and thank you.

Commissioner McDaniel. I have no report. We have three people who would like to speak on non-agenda items. Ronnie Baker. All right. Ron Swinford. Please state your name and address. You have three minutes.

Mr. Swanson, please give us your name, address, and you also have three minutes, sir.

I have one more reminder for this for the commission for this week, Saturday, August 1st, there will be what is being called a college send-off. It will be held at the Forum on Saturday from 10.30 to 2 o'clock, and this is involving Rome City Schools, Floyd County Schools, and our two private high schools here in Rome, and what they are doing is they've invited everyone that graduated last year from any of the high schools, local high schools, to come back and meet who may be going to the same schools that they're going to. And that's a great idea. And again, that will be, it's called College

Mayor, you had a... It's opening this morning. You want to tell us a little bit about what happened in the auditorium this morning? The auditorium this morning. Can you tell us a little bit about how that went? Rome City School.

Oh, the auditorium? Yeah. We had, they had a pep rally down there for all the teachers that were coming back in the Rome City Schools and if the kids act that way this year in school, we got a real problem. But they did, the teachers were excited and they asked me to say a few words and I just told the teachers I hope they were this excited the middle of May as they are today and I don't think that'll happen and

Yeah, those kids was great. They had a good speaker.

I was going to say the speaker, Willie Spears. He's out of Panama City, Florida. You need to look him up. The guy's phenomenal. And the way he – one thing he did, and I thought this was kind of ingenious, he had a pack of seeds. I don't know what they were, the flower seeds. And he used those as illustrations that those seeds were the kids. And you plant them.

you nurture them and you water them and you grow them and that's what he challenged the teachers in rome city schools to do and i thought that was that was really really good but i also added uh he asked it once it had been in the wrong system teaching for over 20 years and you would not have believed how many students there's a lot of great number and we also had a great number of teachers to come from outside our community to come to Rome to teach this year. I mean, a great number. It was well over 100. We miss you this morning, Sammy. But it was a great morning for Rome City School.

There were 66 new teachers in the Rome City School system this year. Now, how many did we decide? There were almost 700 teachers. And the 66, I think, included administrative, and everybody's just not teachers. But... But I liked it when the speaker told him, he said, I got good news and bad news. He said, the good news is you got kids coming on Friday, and the bad news is you got kids coming on Friday. So he was really good.

Mr. Mayor, also one thing he spoke about was how his teachers poured into him. That's right. as a kid and there is one who is sitting here who poured into me as a kid and probably taught over 30 years herself. Ms. Hilda Curtis, could you please stand up please? That's part of that watering experience, and one of the things that we need to continue to do to our youth, and that'll help contribute to minimizing a lot of crime. Thank you, Ms. Curtis.

If there's nothing else for the commission, we are adjourned.