Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

All right, good morning everyone and welcome to the second regular meeting of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. Today is August 19th, 2026, it is 10.03 AM. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Please rise for the invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Now one more time, people always ask, why do you go so fast? There's no comma after under God. Continue, Madam Clerk.

Yes, I'd like to remove. Mr. Van. Thank you. I'd like to remove 26-0471. It is on page three, top of page three, 26-0471 for separate consideration.

Okay, anything else? I entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended.

Our motion to approve the consent agenda as amended by Vice Chair Abdur-Rahman, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

Commissioners, any items? If not, I'll entertain a motion to adopt the agenda as amended. Motion to do so by Commissioner Thorne, seconded by Vice Chair Abdur Rahman.

All right, motion to approve by Vice Chair, Dr. Rockman, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

Hey there. Chairman Pitts would like me to read it. I guess he doesn't want to talk about national breastfeeding. Yes, yes, so come on down, come on down here. Thank you. Whereas every year August is recognized nationwide as National Breastfeeding Month, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, WIC, uses this time to raise awareness about the benefits of human milk and increase support for nursing mothers. And whereas the goal of the Fulton County Board of Health's WIPP program is to protect the health of families by providing wholesome, nourishing food, hea

And I just want to give a shout out to the work you do. We recently opened 4700 North Point Parkway Health and Human Services Building. So I get a chance up north to walk by almost every day your office and see the people that you serve and all the people that you serve in the community, especially up in North Fulton. So thank you for the work that you guys do.

It's me again. Hi again. Good to see you again. I am delighted to be here today to present a proclamation honoring our emergency management staff and leadership. Last week I had the pleasure of paying them a visit and going on a tour of the emergency management headquarters right here in this building, alongside with a bipartisan group of legislators. And we were deeply impressed with what we saw. While their work may not be visible, we actually hide them in the depths of this building with no windows and everything. And they're not as visible as our police department and the other public safe

I want to thank you for all the work. I'm sorry that we don't recognize you more often, but it gives me great pleasure to present this proclamation. Whereas the Atlanta Fulton County Emergency Management Agency, AFCEMA, is the lead county organization responsible for providing coordination and management of preparedness, response, recovery, prevention, and mitigation activities within Fulton County. And whereas local emergency managers, Across all sectors, community leaders, state governments, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, dedicate countless hours to developing preparednes

This is the... signing of our T-SPOS agreement. This is the third of a five-year agreement, and this one will amount to some right under $700 million to be used for transportation purposes for our 15 cities.

France efforts such as Convoy of Care across Georgia and Stuff the Bus throughout the metro area have dynamically rallied Georgians to deliver disaster relief and school supplies to children and families in desperate need, strengthening WSB-TV's mission to make a meaningful difference across the region it serves. Now, therefore, be resolved that the Fulton County Board of Commissioners recognize the 40th anniversary of WSB TV's family to family program for 40 years of extraordinary community leadership, dedicated public service, and strengthening the fabric of families across Georgia. And does

You've got to say family to family. Come on. You've got to say that. Come on.

Okay. Can y'all come down from the right, please, if possible? Oh, I'm sorry. Leaving off, leaving off. Come on, come on, come on. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. The Chairman threw me off. My sisters in my chapter, please join me. Today is a great day in Fulton County. The co-sponsor of this, Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr., unfortunately couldn't be here today. We're going to lift him up in prayer. He had surgery, and we're praying that that goes well for him. But other than that, he would have been here. These beautiful, beautiful ladies with the black and the purple flower are all my sisters from

He didn't pay for them, he just wanted me to put my name on them. I want to give you your flowers, and you have a great team, Madam President, but I only had so much money, y'all. Don't start. But I do have something for everybody else. The National Council of Negro Women Incorporated, NCNW, was founded in 1935 by Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune and is comprised of over 350 members. campus and community-based sections, and 37 national women's organizations that enlightens, inspires, and connects more than two million women. I will say that again, connects more than two million women and men with a mis

Come on, brother. Madam Clerk, continue please.

Thank you. All right, continue, Madam Clerk.

All right, Madam County Manager, what do we have?

As we go to the slide, and I will- Just a minute, Mr. Herbert. Do you have your comments in writing, or could you? Because I've been trying to follow what you've been saying, and I cannot follow you.

All right, again, I'd like that first part of your presentation in writing so that I can follow it.

Thank you. So you're saying that he all of a sudden hired 24 in the past couple weeks?

And what was the impetus to all of a sudden, because I see, you know, 0100310613, and then 24. So all of a sudden he's hiring, what changed?

Okay, I'm also aware that the monitors report is coming out at the end of the month that will highlight some of the deficiencies in the sheriff's office. He just sent over, I haven't had a chance to read it, but a lengthy letter disputing the monitors report that's coming out soon. Thank you.

You're welcome. Vice Chair Abdur-Rahman.

I'm glad that he's hired some more people. So, Kenneth Herman, thank you for whatever you did with your wonderful charm that you have, and hopefully you can continue to use that wonderful charm that you have, and by the next time you give us a meeting, he will have even more. Thank you, Sheriff. Please continue to hire.

Yeah. It's August 19th, so I guess it's good that we finally got started. We're only at 26% of our goal for this year, so that is still a failure on something we called out as a high degree of importance, but it's good we're making progress, but significant amount of progress additionally needs to be made. And people have the tools to do it, and we just don't need any other excuses. We need to see the action occur and the hires to get made. So thanks for the report. Hopefully we'll continue to see that move in that direction.

Other questions or comments? All right, continue.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of questions. On the bond review calendar item, you mentioned eight bonds reduced and three cases dismissed. On the bonds that were reduced, do we know if they were reduced enough that the individuals were actually able to post bond and leave the jail?

know 2 500 or a thousand is a lot more attainable to postpone thank you i think it would be useful to track um the folks that are um impacted positively by the bond review calendar and follow it through so that we know how how it really is impacting i mean these are jail population reduction initiatives so it would be worthwhile i think to know how they actually reduce

Arrest and Warrant Review Hub, when is that? I know you said great progress and that's good to hear, but when do we expect that to be up and running?

Okay, and we have the APD is aware and going to use the trailer and all of that?

Yeah, it'd be good to kind of hear what their take is and if they're amenable.

Okay, great, and one last thing. Though we didn't go through the rest of the slides, we have our meeting with the sheriff's office that they offer before every board meeting, and this week they made us aware that the overall jail population is at 3,000 at this point, and the Rice Street, I think, population is about 1,999.

Yeah, so my question is, I mean, it seems like we've had a major uptick, and I certainly don't expect you to know, you know, to expound on why that has happened, but more what are we doing about it? Because they did mention that they were working with, I believe it was Walton County, for some outsourcing, and then I forget the name of the other county. Do you remember what it was? Scriven, which is, and how much further away is that?

Okay. And so I was just wondering on those options for outsourcing, you know, sort of what kind of agreements we're getting into, what kind of pricing, for how long, where that's coming out of the budget, because it certainly wasn't something that was, you know, planned for in this year's budget. So I'm just curious kind of what the status is on all of that, how quickly we'll have those options. And secondarily, and I can repeat the second part if you like later, but they also mentioned that they felt like there was a need for the entire sort of justice system to get together and sort of work

Has there been any outreach to APD? Because apparently we get more people because they're making more arrests. And in particular, they mentioned that there was a much heavier population of women. So I'm just wondering if we have had contact with them on... Not on this specifically, no.

uh right now and so in terms of getting everyone together to try to um work together on this where i would be more than happy to help facilitate that participate and lend any support on behalf of county administration okay and madam cfo before i give up the mic do we have enough money in our outsourcing budget to accommodate this additional need

Commissioner Ellis. It's kind of interesting that our population went up, sort of coincide with the World Cup, just observation. Streets look different, too, during that period of time, too. I know different points we've had, probably go back and look at patterns. Sometimes there's a correlation with that. And also, we had... courts shut down for portions of that period of time or lessened during that period of time as well?

Well, I mean, I think therein lies part of the thing is like, you got this going on over there, there's no reason for us to slow down stuff. Really, and it shouldn't take us to go sit over there with a group of elected officials to say, this is an issue, we need to drive behavior and change it and move cases through the system faster. A couple quick follow-through questions on here, which will speak to some of the comments I just made. So on this automated text, it says anticipated launch. We had anticipated launch last time too. Maybe I misheard you. Is this taking place or not taking place?

Okay. So a day that keeps moving. I mean, just sort of speaks to a sense of urgency and movement. Bond review calendar. Is this to be interpreted that there were 80 to 130 that were reviewed in this first batch and then they held those calendars with 21 people or was this more like this target population impact was we thought it would be higher in terms of the number of people that were gonna be reviewed?

Yeah, I mean, I realize it's the first time they've done it, and I think it's important to learn from it, and you'd expect either sort of one or two things to happen. Slow, because we got fewer things coming through, or within the first couple months, see a larger amount, because you picked off more low-hanging fruit, if you will, kind of things, cases that would probably tend to be obvious. So are there, is this a, are these like specific judges that are running these calendars or is it a rotation?

So there's, How are the Superior Court judges involved in this? Well, they're not hearing these cases. It's the magistrate judge. Right, I know, but in terms of just identification, I mean, they've got their own caseloads and stuff. Are they recommending, you know, are they doing their own sort of review of their case logs to say, hey, you know, these are candidates for the review calendar?

I just think that there, at some point in here too, you would expect that there are learnings that should help inform some of this stuff, how bonds are getting set on the front end. Right.

And I thought we had, we were, when we had initially, I thought they had proposed, they being the Superior Court judges, had proposed back the concept of their own, running their own separate calendar on that indicted bucket.

Okay. Because that's obviously a larger portion of the population, right, in terms of that. And the people that are aging cases and so forth and all that sort of stuff. And it would be opportunities for intersection with the ankle monitor piece as well as just... lowering bonds, et cetera. On the consolidated trial and motions calendar, so this, I just want to make sure, this is not, okay, it hasn't started yet, or it has started yet, I'm just trying to square up the piece about the grant.

So it doesn't, that doesn't get you any further than where you are, that just gets you to where you were. Am I misinterpreting that? No, that's correct. Okay. So we should have those numbers quantified. Is there any ability to not tread in water? Is there any discussion about a framework for... And when this was started, I guess that was the thing too, right? When they got the grant, it was to move cases faster. Did that actually happen? I mean, what sort of data do we have to show that it actually did happen? Because that should naturally be the question before we go and fund it. that this is

Could you explain the grant that they lost?

Okay. And then also, expanding on Commissioner Barrett, the sheriff mentioned that there was an uptick in women's arrest and we don't know why it's all of a sudden women that are being arrested, but don't we house women at ACDC?

And we have 236 beds available at ACDC according to the chart, so. I don't understand why there's an issue with overcrowding if we have 236 beds available there. Is it a staffing issue? I think it's staffing at this point, right. We cannot staff ACDC to accommodate more women? Correct. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Also in the meeting, he mentioned that the magistrate court was not doing first appearances. They were only doing it three days a week. but I reached out to the magistrate court and they said they're still doing six days a week and the state court has their accusation calendar three days a week

Okay, yeah, and again, I'd like to learn more about this consolidated trial calendar and about funding that more fully at our next meeting if possible.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I had the same question as Commissioner Thorne about the magistrate court, because that is what Attorney Joyner told us, that they were not doing first appearance as frequently. Sounds like you got an answer. But it brought me to this other question, too. The bond review calendar is run by the magistrate court. Did we allot extra resources to them to accommodate these extra days of court calendars?

Okay, so prior to this, this was not happening, and he was just sitting there with nothing to do? What are we saying?

Okay, that's great. I just want to make sure that if we're expecting them to do more, that they have the resources to do it. Sounds like for now, we're good.

All right, other questions? Krista Thorne.

There was a public comment about the jail, the inmate that escaped. Do you have information on that?

I'm sorry, just a quick question on the last item before we get into this. Yes, ma'am. I don't want to forget. We were also told in the call with the sheriff that the... that part of the reason we were not able to use all the beds at ACDC was because of maintenance issues on that there was a couple of pods or at least a pod that was out of service at ACDC. If that's the case, I think it would be good to have that update as well. So we're aware of whatever the issues are, not just staffing, but if there are maintenance issues over there that are keeping us from using beds as well. So I just I w

Okay. Also, anything else on animal control?

So just a minute. May we ask you some questions? Okay, I just have one just to clarify. On page 11, how Fulton compares to his peers, why isn't Cobb, Gwinnett, and Clayton included?

Okay, I'm just curious as to where we would rank with respect to.

Right, I'm assuming we're at the top. You're at the top. But specifically Cobb, Clayton, and Gwinnett. The cab is in, as I see.

Okay, if you could share that with us, I'd appreciate it. Okay. All right, Commissioner Ellis, followed by Commissioner Thorne.

I don't know if it might be appropriate, Mr. Chair, to let them just to wrap the rest of the presentation up. You had a couple, because there was like one or two more slides, right?

Okay, Commissioner Ellis. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the report. And I want to thank the staff, too, for all the work on this. And is Fulton County a transit agency? No, right? But with your assessment and looking at this, you would say that we have probably the most extensive senior transportation program that you've seen within comparable counties in the state.

Yeah, yeah. And I would just sort of highlight that as like, that's not our core competency, but under the leadership of Dr. Rochelle and then all of our staff, you know, this is a phenomenal program. But, you know, as you brought to us, there's some things in there that we've got to wrestle with. I just wanted to make sure, I heard a couple of pieces here, right, that demand's gonna grow, right? We've got pretty much the trends there on that. We've got this sort of bifurcated operation of demand and TNC. The cost and sort of the challenges on one, on the demand side with aging fleet and so fo

Right. So back in 2016, there were a group of seniors at the Friends of Benson Mr. Gregory Wright, and they wanted to run a little pilot to see how we could shuttle seniors to the advancement center using Uber. And we ran that. It looked good, they were in constant communication with me about it, and I'm like, okay, this is pretty cool. And I don't even think I was using Uber at that point in time. And so we did, we passed something in June of 2016 authorizing up to 10,000 bucks for a pilot using Uber to transport seniors to our multipurpose facilities. And here we are today. How many riders?

Okay. I'm not gonna belabor this particular point, because I think it's just, a lot of the stuff is sort of self-evident, and the stuff out in front of us, you know, we'd be, foolish not to take the next steps on it. Mr. Chair, just to memorialize this, I'm gonna certainly make a motion to accept this report, but also to, so that we provide a little bit of direction back to our staff, that we initiate discussions, we direct the county manager and county attorney to initiate discussions with MARTA regarding an IGA under which Marta could participate in the funding and potentially the operation

Okay. Annette, the exploration of that, sort of contemplate the following things, MARTA engaging in funding responsibility for portions or all of the program indexed to kind of where we are right now and some sort of potentially growth escalators on that based upon sales tax growth, that we would retain kind of the authority to establish design of the program and determine the manner in which it's operated, whether directly like we're doing it now or through MARTA or through some sort of combination. And then if there were some funding agreement that would reach that it would sort of line up,

Okay, Commissioner Ellis has verbalized a motion which has been seconded by Commissioner Thorne. So I will properly before us. But I do have a, I understand Commissioner Ellis. why it's important and I understand why the consultant has made the statements that he has made basically in support of your motion. And it would be to study, to review would probably be two words, would that be accurate?

Now, to actually explore an IGA with them, with Maura, I mean, that we roll up our sleeves and jointly start talking, I mean, and I'm not repeating the motion, I'm just summarizing it, that we get together collectively with Maura, have our staff to sit down and engage in terms of a potential IGA framework in which it could be a participatory arrangement, both, both funding and operations, or some combination thereof. We'll see kind of where it emerges out and shakes out. But it's a directive not to study it, but to actually explore it and sit down and engage in conversations around it. Obvious

Yeah, no, there's no financial obligation on either party in this. It's just that we're acknowledging and providing the direction that, like, We need to start it and start a serious dialogue around it and get going on it. I see this no different than different matters of scale and all that, but I don't see any different than any other things that have started, like the stuff that led us down the path of T-Splice or the stuff that led us down the path with you know, Grady and the hospital that we'll be moving forward with in Union City, right? It started with that direction from our board to ou

Yeah, I would say that in theory, it probably makes sense as long as we're exploring, but this is a program And you would anticipate that this would take, what, 90 days for those exploratory phases?

within 90 days. Now I would also though, because I take a lot of pride in this program, personal pride, and I would think and hope that the board would have some parameters here. First and foremost, that $1 per ride would be non-negotiable as far as I'm concerned. The new fleet, all of those things, What is it, $8 million for a new fleet? I have no issue with that. There's probably a lot of merit to what you're saying, to explore and talk about it and see where we land. So I have some other thoughts, but let me, Commissioner Thorne on the motion on the floor, followed by Commissioner Barrett o

Okay, and I mean, I support the motion on the floor. I believe MARTA, our taxpayers, we pay a lot into MARTA, and there are experts in this area that they should take on a bit more responsibility. Did you look at other senior ride providers? I know our senior services, North Fulton Senior Services has their ride programs as well.

And South Fulton, okay. So they overlap with our programs there in addition to our program, correct? Yes, they do. I also, the 12.7% cancellation rate, you said to do a campaign. This is for the buses. And you said they had to book the buses how far out?

Is there any way of shortening that window?

Do they get a reminder of their upcoming ride that they've scheduled, a text message or some kind of, so they can go ahead and cancel in a timely fashion if need be?

Okay, but we still have that high cancellation rate.

Do they have an unlimited number of rides with the trans-dev system?

Yeah, is there any kind of penalty if you cancel?

Okay, and maybe with TransDev, when they give that reminder, if they could kind of put the campaign message in there of how detrimental it is and how costly it is to keep this program going and put some responsibility on the person that's scheduling that trip and failing to cancel.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just one clarification on the motion that you made, Commissioner Ellis. You said the first thing you said, I think, was you are making a motion to accept this report and IGA with MARTA, blah, blah. Is that right? Okay. So what do you mean by accept this report? I just want to know what I'm voting on.

we could remove that portion. That's fine. Yeah, I think we should take that out. Let's separate, yeah.

Not that I don't appreciate the report. I just don't. I feel like those are two separate things. And I do have some issues with the report. That said, I think the data's very helpful. I actually wish there was some more data here. There's some areas that weren't covered that I think would be helpful to us as we look at other options and understand what the cost is going towards and all of those kinds of things. First of all, on the aging population data, our program starts at 60, so on page.

Hold on one second. Are you now, because I agree with you, we need to separate the accepting the report from exploring. But the motion on the floor contains both. So what I'm going to recommend is that we that the seconder, that you withdraw your second and ask Mr. Ellis to withdraw his, and we deal with the acceptance of the report first, and then deal with the substance of his motion with Marta, because I happen to support his efforts to explore this. But I do think they're two separate issues.

Yeah, I think we can just strike the word, the first part of it, and move forward, Mr. Chair.

All right, so how would it read? I just want to make sure that we're,

It would be everything I said except for the motion to accept the report. We would strike those three words. The motion to accept the report, be the motion to, and then the stuff that I just said. I'd be glad to repeat it at the end after we go through the discussion.

So, Mr. Chairman, just for clarification in terms of the way you want to run this conversation, I have questions about the report, and then we also have this motion that Commissioner Ellis put forward. I'm happy to just stick to the motion if that's what you prefer, but I do have questions about the report.

No, I want to hear what you have to say about the report, because I have some other questions about the report as well. But the motion, though, that's on the floor is exploring... OPTIONS WITH MARTA.

I GOT IT. AND I AM SUPPORTIVE OF THAT AS WELL FOR THE RECORD. IN A SHOCKING TURN OF EVENTS. ON THE REPORT ITSELF, ON SLIDE, ON PAGE 4, YOU HAVE AGING POPULATION DATA FOR 65 AND OLDER, BUT OUR PROGRAM STARTS AT 60. DO WE HAVE THE EXPECTED GROWTH OF THE POPULATION FROM 60 UP?

I mean, I get that most people don't really count 60 as senior, but we do, and so it would be good to know what the impact is there. And the other question I would have about the data in that regard is, It would be nice to see, I think, again, as we evaluate our needs and what we're spending money on and how we prioritize this spending along with the rest of the county spending or even the rest of the senior services spending, would be the usage of our program in terms of age in terms of geographic location you know so like a geographic map of how much usage we get in different parts of the co

Yeah, and it's something we've discussed but didn't implement, but it would be good to have some more information about how those work. If they're causing people not to ride, what is the cost of implementing something like that?

Can you speak to that, though? I think that's relevant.

So is that attached to the agenda item? I'm sorry, maybe I missed it.

Okay, thank you for that clarification. I would like to see the whole report if possible, yeah. On the survey, first of all, thank you guys for doing a survey of our seniors. I think that's important. It's something I've asked for in the past, and I'm glad that it happened. Although I am just curious, the total number of riders. What page are you on? I'm on page, looking at page five and six, what seniors and staff value, the surveys and the responses. But the, you... show on the first page, what, a total of 273,000 rides, and how many riders is that? That's how many rides, how many riders? Th

Okay, how many riders? I get registered, but...

Okay. And so my question just on the survey is, is 45, and maybe I'm missing that it was 45 plus the interviews, I'm not quite sure, but is that a good sample size to get a real take on how they feel? And I'm just asking, I'm not a survey expert, so this is not a criticism, just a question.

I'm sorry, what was the time constraint?

Okay, so maybe I'm gonna withdraw my congratulations on doing a survey, because it doesn't sound like we really did a, it sounds like we started and we did some and we pulled from other places, but I do think it would be good to just survey our active riders on the service and how they perceive it and the things that they would like to see changed and then to act on those results.

So where are the results of those surveys? Is that what I'm looking at?

Okay, that seems like a miss. If we're doing that, that seems like we should have that in the... you know, in the results. But it's good that we're doing it. So I just, it would be good to include that, I think, in our assessment of how we're doing. Because, you know, you've got two pages here based on what the seniors and staff value. And I guess my concern is, these are great, I mean, I'm glad to see some of these things. These are things we've talked about in the past and we've heard about in the past. The issue of the three, you know, you have to make your reservations for demand response

Okay, so what am I missing here? Why were they the only respondent?

So we're buying a service, I just wanna make sure I understand, we're buying a service from a company who isn't keeping their vehicles up to date and wants to charge us to replace their vehicles?

Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to suggest I would want them there to be a punitive approach at all, but if that's what you heard, that's not what I was implying. What I was saying is the reminders that we, you know, if we had a more robust system of reminders and requests to confirm, then maybe we wouldn't have so many cancellations. I was by no means suggesting that we have any kind of a punitive thing. I was just saying that there are, generally speaking, when you have a If you have an event as an example and you get a free ticket, you're much less likely to cancel than if you paid for your tick

Thank you, Dr. Rochelle. There was only one other thing I think that I'd like to see. I don't know if the rest of the board agrees or not, but I do think... potentially looking at investing in a reservation system for a demand response that allows people to call on any particular day or online reserve or something. I agree that training is needed, generally speaking. The age thing is such, so 60 to 65, I think, can use an app. But regardless, I think a reservation system that is a little bit more flexible, as the survey indicated, and I think, as we all know, might help with the productivity o

Okay, we're still discussing the contract. We have a motion on the floor. Vice Chair, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chairman. First of all, thank you all for the great work that you all do. Thank you, executive team and Dr. Rochelle and the consultant. Thank you. In some of the report, the water is still wet because it was information that we already knew. We had this discussion four years ago when we talked about how, as a county, we could start making people a little bit more savvy or finding alternative ways to make sure those that were not app savvy This is a conversation we already had that we were working on. Another conversation that we already had was the quality assurance, was to get the

Okay, any other comments on the report? All right, hearing none, we'll go to the motion on the floor. And let's restate the motion to the extent that you can, Commissioner Ellis, with the report due back within 90 days from today. All right.

Make people listen here a little again. All right. Hopefully this reads very similar to what I read before. So the motion would be to... direct the county manager and county attorney to initiate discussions with MARTA regarding an IGA under which MARTA would participate in the funding of and potentially the operation of Fulton County Senior Transportation Program and to report back to the board within 90 days. And that the general principles of that IGA would follow, seeking that agreement would In pursuing the discussions, county staff should seek an agreement that reflects the following gene

And that's it. All right. Thank you, Commissioner. You've heard the restatement of the motion. The motion is properly before us. Motion by Commissioner Ellis, seconded by Commissioner Bridget Thorne. Let's vote.

Okay. Let's proceed with the, before we recess for lunch, the animal services update.

Okay, just a couple of quick things. Number one, has there been a problem with the air conditioning and so has that been fixed?

There was a problem or still is a problem? Three or four days is what I'm told. Is that accurate or inaccurate? So no air conditioning for three or four days? In that certain area, yes. But they can provide the more detail for you.

So, well, nothing we can do until the park comes in, I suppose.

Okay, I guess the real question is, is it a problem for the animals or not?

I'm just asking, I don't know where this is going.

Okay, next quick one is a note that you say that someone said that 67% of the intakes are from inside the city of Atlanta boundaries. How do you measure that? I'm just curious.

I have to believe, it doesn't make any sense to me, but anyway, I'm a little slow. And then lastly, on the events that are held in the various commission districts, There's supposed to be six. We're in August now. How many have been held?

Thank you. Yes, we had several public comments today about the cost of care petitions. One example was the dog Libra $20,000 we incurred in caring for that dog only to have it euthanized in the end. And it's just heartbreaking that these dogs are in our shelters in the first place. So with that being said, legally we can have a cost of care petition. to avoid the financial obligation of us caring for the dog and put that on the owners instead. So I'd like to make a motion to direct the county attorney's office to work with Lifeline to set up a process or procedure to submit those cost of care

All right, I'll second for discussion. Madam County Attorney, is that, did you hear the motion? Is that something that we can do consistent with the motion?

Could we have some overseeing of using a combination, having staff that oversees volunteers, or pay a nominal stipend to resolve a case so then that there's some kind of contract between us and the volunteer attorneys?

Well, looking at the cost, it seems like outside council would be.

So the motion's still on the floor. All right, Kristen Barrett, you have a motion on the floor to approve. Kristen Barrett.

Yeah, thank you. On that, it's a cost of care petition, do I have that right? Didn't you just say that Lifeline was volunteering to do those?

So why would we not take that up? That seems like a good deal. Free is good.

So is that aligned with your motion? Okay. Okay.

If not, then work within her office or outside council.

Okay, perfect. Just wanted to make sure I was on the same page as everybody else. I'm getting hungry. What can I tell you? On the commissioner events, I think there's a disconnect from a communications perspective. I actually, we're in the process of scheduling ours now, except we did one last year of our own accord and we just decided to repeat it again this year. No one reached out to us from external affairs or anyone else. telling us that this was something that we could coordinate through External Affairs or Lifeline. No one told us that there was a budget or that there was any help. So w

Yeah, I think that's good. And maybe that could get included in the report periodically, just because I do think for the general public who's not engaged in this on the regular basis, it seems like the numbers are really high. And the first question might be, what are we doing wrong in Fulton that our numbers are so high? But that's just not the reality of it. That's what's going on nationwide in these kinds of areas. So I just wanted to sort of, I thought I knew the answer, but I just wanted to make it sort of known that we are, there's not something that we're doing wrong in terms of our rul

Thank you, Chairman. I've just been made aware by my colleague, Commissioner Thorne, that this is more of an urging, asking you to basically take the action. I just want to make sure, because I have been getting some of the calls, and just like with anything else, I have to decipher what is true for what is fiction. And so for me, even though I just had a conversation with her, which... we should do more. And she explained to me, because I was going to ask for it to be put on hold, but when she explained to me, Chairman, that it's really an urging, then it's not something that can really be he

I just want to be quick and give a plug that the month of August is Clear the Shelters Month. So anybody can go down and adopt a dog for $25. And there's free adoptions August 27th through the 31st. And those adoptions include spay, neuter, vaccines, and microchip and more. So if you're spurred on to go down by our conversation to go visit our shelter, I encourage you to go this month.

because you can get a really good deal on a dog commissioner ellis yeah and i just want to thank commissioner thorne for putting the motion on the floor and urging or not i just i do want to say at least for myself that what i want to be taken away from that is i think if we're voting to pass this This is more than urgent. We're making a statement that this is a priority that we get this addressed, right? We've heard about it. We're kinda all tired of hearing about it and wanna see a plan put together, developed, and put in place and acted upon. Is that a fair statement? Okay, so.

All right, the motion on the floor is to approve. Appreciate your favorable vote.

All right, 132, I entertain a motion to recess for lunch, items in the executive session to include real estate, litigation, and personnel. Motion to do so, my Vice Chair of DuRoch Mons, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

Without objection, we will resume the regular order of business. Madam County Attorney, items from executive session.

All right, motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdur-Rahman, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

All right, motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdur Rahman, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

All right, several personnel items from executive session. We'll need to approve a motion to reappoint Tanya Greer as clerk to the commission at an annual salary of $155,175 per the employment agreement. A motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdur-Rahman, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

All right, motion to reappoint Anthony Nix as County Auditor at an annual salary of $232,452 per the employment agreement. Motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdul-Rahman, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

Motion to reappoint Richard Anderson as County Manager at an annual salary of $383,800 per the employment agreement. Motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdul-Rahman, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

Motion to reappoint Sue Jo as county attorney at an annual salary of $383,800 per the employment agreement. Motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdirahman, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

A motion to approve by Commissioner Barrett, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

Motion to approve by Commissioner Thorne, seconded by Vice Chair Abdur Rahman.

Motion to approve by Commissioner Barrett, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

Motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdul-Rahman, seconded by Commissioner Barrett.

Motion to approve by Commissioner Thorne, seconded by Vice Chair Abdur Rahman.

Motion to approve by Commissioner Thorne, seconded by Vice Chair Abdur Rahman.

All right, motion to approve by Vice, strike that by Commissioner Thorne, seconded by Vice Chair Abdur-Rahman.

Motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdur Rahman, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

Motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdurakhman, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

All right, we have a favorable motion by Vice Chair Abdur-Rahman, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

All right. Favorable motion by Vice Chair, Dr. Rockman, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

MOTION TO APPROVE BY VICE CHAIR ABDUR-RAHMAN SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER THORN.

Motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdur Rahman, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

Motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdulrahman, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

Motion to approve by Commissioner Thorne, seconded by Vice Chair Abdur-Rahman.

All right, we have a favorable motion by Commissioner Thorne, seconded by Vice Chair Abdur-Rahman.

Motion to approve by Commissioner Thorne, seconded by Vice Chair Abdur Rahman. And the vote is open.

All right, motion to approve by Commissioner Barrett. Is there a second? Is there a second? All right, I'll second it for discussion. Commissioner Barrett, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is another request to release some of our Westside Tad funds that are being held for those purposes. And this particular project is the St. Mark's AME Church, which is a historical church that has seen extensive damage and is essentially a shell that which is also a bit unstable. So they've gotten some grants to stabilize the property. And, you know, without this, if the property remains blighted and the work doesn't get done, then, you know, it increases the... has a negative impact on public safety and of course getting it done and revitalizing the space and hav

All right, motion on the floor, excuse me, is to approve, let's vote.

Is there a motion? Motion to approve by Commissioner Ellis, seconded by Commissioner Thorne. Commissioner Ellis, you have the floor.

unless folks have questions, I'll be just real brief on it. Special appropriation fund is just a fund where funds from a particular revenue source get restricted for a particular purpose. These two things were a product of our own creation, our being Board of Commissioners creation, so we created it so we also have the ability to abolish it. Special appropriation funds in general from a financial control standpoint are not recommended by, The GFOA, which is the Government Finance Officers Association, there's a host of reasons for that, but they're generally to, they encourage local government

All right, motion on the floor is to approve. Commissioner Barrett, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I certainly think there are some valid concerns raised by this resolution that if we are not addressing, we should. As an example, I would certainly agree that we experienced a cybersecurity event and that we should be we should have policies in place that are as preventative as possible of a future event. Just because I want to make sure I understand, Mr. Kerrigan, do we currently have policies in place that prevent technology from being introduced into our networks without approval?

I would assume, and maybe correct me if I'm wrong here, but I would assume that there's a certain amount of control that we have legally to make sure that nothing is introduced that is unsafe. But at the same time, there's a little bit of a... inability to force certain things on, in particular, constitutional officers who have sort of the right to make some decisions for themselves. That said, again, with the safety precautions that we have a right to in place, correct?

Okay, and so would you agree that those kinds of policies are needed across the board, not just abolishing these?

Thank you. So I guess my point in asking those questions and bringing that up is I think it's valid. We need those things. I look forward to seeing the policies you come up with. I don't think that it's specific to these two funds. So as a... or what problem are we solving with the abolishment of these two funds and the additional, therefore, be it resolves on this resolution that we should probably, if we need a resolution to assist you in any way with that, Mr. Kerrigan, it feels to me like that should be a separate resolution that is focused on technology and cybersecurity and not really ai

Yeah, so, I mean, the wording in this resolution says that the financial reporting responsibility falls with whoever is making the decisions for that fund, but the reporting process belongs to the CFO, so that's not quite right either. So I would want to see all of these pieces corrected before I was willing to sign on to this. Not that you need my vote, but... YOU KNOW I THINK THERE'S ANOTHER REALLY GOOD POINT IN HERE THAT WE HAVE NOT HAD SUFFICIENT AUDITING OF THESE FUNDS IN GENERAL. OR NECESSARILY SUFFICIENT FINANCIAL REPORTING TO GET A CLEAR UPDATE ON HOW THEY ARE GOING WHAT THEY ARE BEING

Again, just would ask for everybody's support on this. Obviously, the reasons in there are multifold. They're not just cybersecurity. They're not just control-oriented. They're just the whole nature of how you go about and approach stuff. It's just... This particular one is growing in nature. Some of these things that are out there, yes, we have too many of them, but some of them, quite frankly, are immaterial, and many of them are restricted by law in terms of the way that they were structured and they were put forth. This one is not. This was a function of our own creation. It's not needed.

Yes, I met with the clerk and kind of went over her initiatives because I really do appreciate what she's doing with AI as far as e-filing and the technology she's using. But with that being said, I also understand as being someone who's involved in software development, how technology has changed a lot since 2018, and most recently with our cybersecurity attack that we had from an international operative, and how important it is to have our systems closely aligned, interconnected, and how there needs to be a general oversight with everybody in the county, including our justice partners, that

Commissioner Thornt, strike that. Commissioner Barrett?

With all due respect, this board will never have oversight over the individual expenditures made by the clerk and she's a constitutional officer. And so that's not gonna happen regardless of whether it's in her general fund budget or these fund budgets, she has the right to sign a contract and that contract does not have to come before us for approval. So that doesn't change. And to your other point about wanting the fund to go to the other parts of the justice department, this resolution abolishes the fund. There is no fund anymore, it's just general fund. So there would be no consolidated ju

I would say it's revenue coming in to the county to our general fund that I'm hoping our CIO here will be implementing software and have some control. Obviously, we're not gonna have oversight over the clerk's budget, the entire budget, but when it comes to technology, it's important that we have a plan, that our systems are integrated, that our systems are all protected, It's crucial, it's a crucial element. We live in a different world right now than we did in 2018 and it's important that software systems, especially those dealing with AI that can pull from who knows where and pull things in

All right, any other questions, comments, thoughts? Motion on the floor is to approve, please vote.

Yeah, I'll be real brief on this. Tend to be real brief on it. So we've got some people, you know, just to refresh, right, we've got this... pay for performance, KPI-type structure that we've had in place for a number of years, and that runs generally every two of each of the three years. It's not an insignificant program, the cost of our performance payments in 2024, 15.3 million, and 15.5 million in 2025. I think in many ways this has been a good program, but one of the things I do think is important for us is that ensure that as we've got these things structured that we're actually incentin

All right, is there a motion? Motion to approve by Vice Chair, Dr. Rachman. Is there a second? Seconded by Commissioner Ellis. All right, Commissioner Barrett, you had this one removed for further discussion.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am not convinced that there's any real discussion that's going to occur amongst my colleagues. You all voted to support this at the last board meeting that we have this budget commission that I think is, you know, not designed right well, not designed well. And I think more importantly, the eligibility requirements for the First of all, I think it should be more than two commissioners on there. A quorum is four, so three people could certainly serve. So I think there should be three if we're gonna have it at all. I don't think people should be restricted based on whe

Well, my position on this whole budget commission has been clear from day one. We had a budget commission for many, many years. I thought it was useless at the time and I was on it as a matter of fact. And I feel that even then, we changed it at my urging, but it's back to where it was. So be it. Vice Chair Abdurakhman, you have the floor.

Yes, Chairman. I believe all the commissioners here are working, not just you and Commissioner Arrington and Commissioner Barrett. So let me be crystal clear. I believe... in respect to my colleagues, that all my colleagues are working. We may disagree from time to time. I hope we can disagree respectfully, but all of us are working, for one. For two, I want to stand again on what I said before. The county manager, CFO, all of the county executive team, We watched how individuals played politics. If you wanna talk about a farce, then let's go there since you brought it up. County manager, with

Thank you. All right, any other comments? The motion on the floor is to approve.

No further items to come before us. We are adjourned.