City Council - Regular Meeting

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I CAN.

CAN YOU HEAR ME OKAY?

I can. Thank you.

Just don't stir the boat. All right. Good evening. I would like to welcome lead pastor Billy Lowe with City Church who will lead us in tonight's invocation.

All right. Hey, thank you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love you so much. We're grateful for this beautiful day. We're grateful for this council. Lord, I pray like we always do, that you would give them wisdom as they lead our city, that you would protect our first responders, Lord, and you would continue to let our city prosper. We love you. We pray all this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. Thank you. I WOULD LIKE TO CALL THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE MILTON CITY COUNCIL FROM MONDAY, JULY 6, 2026 TO ORDER. WE ENCOURAGE ALL ATTENDEES TO REVIEW TONIGHT'S AGENDA. CITIZENS WISHING TO SPEAK DURING PUBLIC COMMENT MUST COMPLETE A COMMENT CARD AND SUBMIT IT TO THE CITY CLERK PRIOR TO THE AGENDA ITEM BEING CALLED. Public comment provides an opportunity for citizens to address the mayor and city council and offer input on agenda items. It is not a forum for dialogue or back and forth discussion. While Milton rules permit submission of comment cards up until the clerk calls the agenda item, no additional comment cards will be accepted once the agenda item has been called. Susan, will you please call the roll and make general announcements?

Good evening Marin Council. I will be happy to call roll for the July 6, 2026 regular city council meeting before we begin. I would like to remind everyone in attendance to please silence all cell phones at this time as the mayor noted citizens wishing to speak during public comment must have submitted a public comment card prior to the agenda item being called. individuals representing an organization must also provide a notarized affidavit confirming they are authorized to speak on behalf of that organization if you have not submitted your comment card yet please bring it to me at this time demonstrations of any kind within the council chambers are prohibited we ask that you refrain from applause cheering booing outbursts or dialogue with any person speaking before the council Anyone in violation may be asked to leave. Mayor and Council, as I call roll this evening, please confirm your attendance. Mayor Peyton Jameson.

Here.

Council Member Brian Dolan.

Here.

Council Member Juliet Johnson. Here. Council Member Jan Jacobus.

Present.

And Mayor, Council Member Doug Haney is joining us via Zoom. Council Member Haney, are you there?

I am. Thank you.

Thank you. For the record, Council Member Quickerly and Council Member Phil Cramer are absent. Mayor, you have a quorum. Would everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

And next is approval of the meeting agenda. Council, I would like to add an executive session to discuss personnel, land acquisition, and litigation. Do I have a motion on the agenda?

I'd like to make a motion to pass the agenda as read with the addition of executive session.

Second.

Okay. I have a motion from Councilor Jacobus and a second from Councilor Johnson to approve the meeting agenda with the addition of the executive session. We are going to do a voice vote. So all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That is unanimous. Next is general public comment. Do we have any general public comment?

Yes, Mayor, we have two general public comments.

Okay. General public comment provides citizens an opportunity to share information with the mayor and the city council and to offer input and opinions on any matter that is not scheduled for a separate public hearing during tonight's meeting. Please be advised this is not a time for dialogue or conversation with the mayor or members of the city council. When your name is called, please come forward and speak into the microphone stating your name and address for the record. If you will please call the first public speaker.

Thank you, Mayor. As a reminder, general public comment allots that members of the public may speak for five minutes. I will announce when one minute remains and will notify you when the time has expired. Mayor, I invite A.J. Bullock to the podium.

Council, thanks for taking my comments. 1, 1, 2, 5, Lee street just for full transparency. I sit on the city of mountain planning commission for district 1 post 1. I also sit on the city CPAC committee, and I'm also the president of the heritage crab apple homeowners association. Back here behind. AND CITY HALL. BUT THE COMMENTS I'M MAKING TONIGHT ARE PURELY ON BEHALF OF MYSELF AS AN INDIVIDUAL. NONE OF THOSE PARTIES THAT ARE REPRESENTED. AS THE COUNCIL MOVES FORWARD WITH PLANNING THE 2027 BUDGET, TWO ITEMS I KIND OF WANTED TO TOSS ON THE PLATE THAT HAVE BEEN GETTING A LOT OF ATTENTION LATELY. FIRST PRIORITY I WOULD SAY IS By whatever means necessary, the city commit to some form of public safety campaign regarding PTVs, golf carts, e-bikes, and scooters. It's something I hear about constantly in my daily travels. Homeowners coming up to us all the time talking about how dangerous things have gotten with their kids. I've had a near fatality, almost hitting a kid going through a traffic circle. We've had two accidents in my neighborhood alone that led to kids going to the hospital. So by whatever means necessary, I don't know if it needs to be through some sort of public safety campaign, social media, email, Milton PD, but just to kind of get the word out to parents about the requirements for operating a mechanized vehicle in the public right away in the street where they're going to be coming into contact with vehicles ptvs golf carts scooters anything mechanized just lend a little time effort and money to that another issue we're having in my neighborhood is with the curbside beauty strip trees that have been planted over the last probably decade that are typically required as a condition of zoning these trees have reached full mature height now the canopies are enormous the root balls are small because they're contained by the asphalt the curb together and the sidewalks they're starting to become a public hazard safety hazard we've had three of them go down in my neighborhood in the last two or three months these storms that have whipped through luckily all of them fell straight into the street not onto people's homes because these are 30 35 foot uh inner story trees They're also causing huge maintenance problems. They're buckling all the sidewalks. They're penetrating utility lines, water lines, sewer lines. Basically, it's becoming a massive expense for both homeowners and HOAs. In my neighborhood alone, we've spent $62,000 of homeowners money. repairing the beauty strips, the trees and the grass. As the canopies got bigger, all the grass dies because there's no, basically no sunlight. So just whatever the city can do to possibly have these trees inspected by an arborist or landscape architect and develop some kind of long-term plan, possibly requiring smaller trees in zoning approval and stuff like that. Just want to throw that out there. Thank you.

Thank you. Will you please call the next speaker?

I INVITE CHRISTIE HAYES TO THE PODIUM.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND COUNCIL. CHRISTIE HAYES, 13585 HOPEWELL ROAD. I'M HERE TONIGHT TO REITERATE WHAT I SPOKE TO THE CONSULTANTS ABOUT AT THE CPAC OPEN HOUSE LAST WEEK. DURING THE ONGOING CPAC MEETINGS, EVERYONE ALWAYS STATES HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO MAINTAIN MILTON'S RURAL VIEW SHED AND CHARACTER And then two breaths later, they talk about how great it is to hop on their golf cart and zip into downtown Crabapple and how we need to provide the ability to connect our high density areas and green spaces and athletic parks under the justification of connectivity. Everyone bobs their heads and the conversation moves along without anyone stopping the meeting to flesh out what that might look like in terms of the preservation of Milton's rural character. What I suggested to Mayor Jamison at a previous meeting and to the consultants at the open house is that we use the clearly defined character areas to designate the high density areas of Milton for these shared use paths. outside of those high density areas the rural areas specifically central milton birmingham and milton lakes must be protected from shared use paths not only are they an eyesore that will destroy the rural viewshed we are supposedly trying so hard to preserve they do not belong for safety reasons along our most beautiful streets and busiest corridors i say supposedly because the city itself with the updates to the udc code is actively incentivizing developers to build these 10 foot wide paths by lowering their impact fees if the development resides along an area that the MTAC committee has added to the trails map. Most people, me included, never paid much attention to the trails map or the committee meetings as I assumed trails meant inside our parks. A newer member of MTAC shared the same assumption at the December 2025 Joint Council MTAC meeting, so it's a fair assumption to make that most people in Milton are unaware of the import of that trails map. In addition, this committee has been told there are lots of people in Milton clamoring for sidewalks and better PTV access. And what you've not been told is that Public Works has at least in one instance made a concerted effort to reach out to neighborhood HOAs and solicit support for sidewalks and connectivity. common sense tells you that it being a numbers game if you have 80 houses in a neighborhood and you ask them if they want to be able to walk or ride their bikes or hop on their golf cart in order to get to parks and schools they're going to say yes i love sidewalks but those sidewalks are not going through their property or destroying their viewshed they're destroying the viewshed of other people those folks like me who live along the area where they're proposing to put 10 foot wide shared use path along my front pasture only six feet from speeding traffic and rendering my pasture unusable. Public Works was not soliciting my input or those of my neighbors along Hopewell about our thoughts on these shared use paths. For this reason, I think you need to be aware of the facts concerning the numbers and where they come from. Thank you for your time and attention. If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them now or in the future.

Thank you.

Mayor, that concludes general public comment.

Okay, I will close public comment and we will now move on to the consent agenda. Will you please sound those items?

The first item is approval of the June 15th, 2026 regular city council meeting minutes, agenda item number 26182. The next item is approval of the financial statements and investment report for the period ending March 31st, 2026, agenda item number 26183. Next is approval of a recreation provider agreement between the city of Milton and Basel Family Farm LLC to provide agriculture, farm education, gardening, and nature-based recreational programming. Agenda item number 26184. Next is approval of a resolution to adopt findings and authorize submission of proposed plumbing code amendment to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. Agenda item number 26185. next is approval of the professional services agreement between the city of milton georgia and transcendor's consulting group llc for hris implementation support services agenda item number 26186 the next item is approval of a facility event space rental agreement between the city of milton and pardue family foundation center for summer camp programming Agenda item number 26187. Next is approval of an intergovernmental agreement for use and distribution of proceeds generated by the 2026 Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax Referendum. Agenda item number 26188. The final consent agenda item is approval of change order number three between the City of Milton and Tyler Technologies, Inc. for the EERP and EPL software contract. Agenda item number 26189. Mayor Jamieson.

Thank you. Do I have a motion on the consent agenda?

Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda as read.

Second. Okay, I have a motion from Council Member Dolan and a second from Council Member Jacobus to approve the consent agenda as read. All in favor? Aye. Say aye. Aye.

Aye.

Okay, any opposed? That is unanimous. Okay, we'll now move on to reports and presentations. Will the City Clerk please say on the first item.

The first item is a proclamation recognizing Parks and Recreation Month and celebrating Milton's outstanding facilities, programs, and teams. Agenda item number 26190. Mayor Jamison.

Thank you. Each July, the city celebrates Parks and Recreation Month, and it is my pleasure to read this proclamation to recognize the exceptional facilities, programs, and the dedicated team whose commitment enhances the quality of life for Milton's residents. Whereas Milton's quality of life is significantly enhanced by active parks, passive green spaces, and other special places where people can enjoy the outdoors. And whereas people also have access to a growing number of valuable programs, activities, and events that further good health, foster connections, and enrich lives in countless ways. AND WHEREAS THIS IS ALL POSSIBLE THANKS TO THE DILIGENCE, EXPERTISE, AND CARE OF THE CITY'S OUTSTANDING PARKS AND RECREATION TEAM, AND WHEREAS THIS HARD WORKING, HARD PLAYING GROUP SUPPORTED BY ITS PARTNERS AT TRISCAPES PUTS THE COMMUNITY'S BEST INTEREST FIRST and foremost in everything it does. And whereas they constantly look for ways to improve parks and nature trails, forge worthwhile relationships with citizens and program partners, and serve our community in ways big and small. And whereas in July, we officially celebrate these sincere relentless efforts during National Parks and Recreation Month. And whereas the 2026 theme is the power of parks and recreation, with Milton Parks and Rec every day succeeding and empowering people to connect with nature, health, and one another. Now, therefore, we, the mayor and the city council of the city of Milton, officially recognize July as Parks and Recreation Month in Milton and salute our own parks team for their immense contributions to our community. And this is given under my hand and seal, the city of Milton, Georgia, on this sixth day, July of 2026. So I'm going to invite our entire parks team and partners to come on up and we'll take a group photo.

KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK.

KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK.

KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COMING, I THINK. KEEP ON COM Three, two, one.

Great, thank you. Thanks, y'all.

Thank you.

Hey, Susan, if you can please stay on the next item.

THE NEXT ITEM IS THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE PRESENTATION, AGENDA ITEM NUMBER 26191, PRINCIPAL PLANNER SHUBA JANGIM.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm Shubha Jangam, Principal Planner. Tonight, I'm joined by our consulting partner from Kimley Hall, and we are here to provide a status update on a comprehensive plan update project. Since kicking off this project in January, we have had five CPAC meetings and one well-attended open house. We have reached a significant milestone of completing the public engagement phase, and tonight we are excited to share with you what we heard from Melton residents, CPAC members, and business owners, and also want to let you know where does this plan move from here. So with that, I would like to invite John Hooley from Kimley-Hunt to walk you through all the insights.

Thanks, Shubha. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Good to be with you all again. Just as a note on the calendar, last time I was with you all, we were getting ready for the ice storm that was maybe going to happen earlier this year. So that shows you how quickly the year moves on. Here we are in some of the hottest days of the summer now. I'm going to walk through. I have some slides prepared. Now, as usual, I've got a little bit more in there. then I'm going to necessarily cover, but want that in there so you all can reference later as you have your own time to review it. Also want to commend you all and commend the members of the CPAC group for their time and their efforts and their energy. I said this to staff earlier. I mean, you all put a good group of folks together. They really dug in on the issue. Really good conversation every meeting. Several members should be committed. They had perfect attendance through the whole time. But that's a great group. What we find is in communities where they have citizen members that step up and serve on groups like that repeatedly over time, they often have better outcomes from their planning processes. And then you have folks, as you move into implementation, that are ready to support you all on that as well. So, again, commend you all for having a group like that and for the committee members' dedication. So I'm going to walk through again, focus of this plan update. I gave that to you all several months ago, but want to update on that. The process overall and where we are, what we've heard. So a little bit of a summary of what we've heard thus far and then next steps. One thing that's a little different about this plan update as opposed to others, not always on a 10-year cycle, but sometimes closer to a 10-year cycle, cities will do a major update, communities will do a major update to their comprehensive plan. Really kind of open everything up, see where we've been over the past 10 years and figure out what are the major things we're focused on now. This plan is really meant to build on the plan that was updated just five years ago. A bit of a temperature check, status check. How are we doing on implementation? Has anything happened in and around the community that we need to address as we move forward? Are there any new issues that we need to take advantage of or prepare for? affirm the priorities and identify new priorities at this point. That was a major focus of it as a starting point. And then again, based on all of that, refine the policy and the recommendations and the actions. And one of the key items will be the update to the short-term work program, which again is a list of action items over the next five years, not meant to be an exhaustive list, but really kind of a refined list that's obviously subject to funding and priorities and other timing of the council and of the city. This graphic shows you all as we kick things off. So we've actually moved well through it. We're now in July, so moving toward the end of the process. We're in the process of drafting the plan, reviewing that with the staff at this point, and then preparing that for sharing with you all in the public here, and then ultimately adoption later in October by the deadline. SHUBA PREVIEWED A LITTLE BIT OF THE ENGAGEMENT. AGAIN, SO WE HAD A PROJECT WEBSITE. WE COULD FIND MEETING MATERIALS, MEETING SUMMARIES, RECORDINGS OF THE PREVIOUS MEETINGS. SO IF SOMEBODY COULDN'T MAKE IT TO THE MEETING, ONE OF THE CPAC MEETINGS THEY COULD ACTUALLY CATCH UP THERE AS WELL. ALREADY MENTIONED THE CPAC GROUP ITSELF THAT WAS CONVENED FOR THIS. THERE WERE FIVE MEETINGS. That were open to the public, live streamed, and the recordings were put online, summaries were put online after this. Well, we've listed off the meetings there on the screen. You can see each meeting focused on a different topic, from land use to economic development, placemaking, transportation. I'm going to go through some of those items and what we heard as we go through that, culminating with the open house that we had just last week. which was in this room and really well attended. We had around 50 people sign in, but as y'all can imagine, several folks weren't interested in signing in or just kind of snuck in. But as we were trying to head count as we went through, we think we had at least another 10 or so folks. And then the good thing was folks stuck with us for a long time. So I think we had a crowd in here for at least an hour, hour and a half. And then it started to kind of lighten up toward the end. Actually, some folks come in right at five minutes till we stayed open, kept all the boards up and they they had their chance to to leave their thoughts as well. So I'm going to go through, I'm not going to hit everything on all these slides. I want to hit a couple of highlights of what we heard. Again, each meeting of CPAC covered some of these topics. And then as the plan is coming together, you'll see these items being addressed in the plan as well. One of the main things we heard was building on the success the city's already had specifically in Crabapple. This is one of the things that I shared with staff and with the committee. Milton's well known for a lot of things, right? I mean, the horse farms, the large homes, the quality of life. I'd say that as a planner, Crabapple, as that really has come to fruition over the past 10 years or so, really is the thing that started to put Milton on the map as a place to go, place to hang out, place to go take your family, go get something to eat, and really a chance to interact with the community. And so really building on the successes and the lessons learned continue to be successful there. But looking forward to Deerfield, Arnold Mill, and as well as the Mayfield area and seeing how do we begin to implement some of those areas as well. Thinking about additional walkability within each of the nodes and identifying one thing we heard often was identifying more opportunity for public space, open space gathering places where the community can come together. This will be the first time you hear this last bullet, and you're going to hear it on almost every slide, but there's this push-pull, this healthy tension between progress and wanting to provide the amenities that our residents want, providing the type of quality of life that we want, but maintaining our unique character, our rural heritage, and making sure that those things stay in balance and play off each other, as opposed to feeling like they're competing with each other. Again, you're going to hear that idea repeated several times. Economic development. So this was an interesting conversation because you all actually have full time staff on economic development. I think staff is actually with us here tonight. And so there's someone now that gets up every day and this is their focus. And so thinking about how Crabapple continues to be successful from a commercial development standpoint, from a business standpoint, thinking about Deerfield, how that area begins to thrive and find its legs moving forward. What types of community do we want to be? What type of businesses do we want to attract here? We had an interesting conversation. We don't necessarily want everything that every other community has. Maybe it's okay if we got to drive a little bit for some things and be a little bit choosier about the things we want in this community and how we're serving our residences. Again, you go back down to the very bottom and how do we offer more of those amenities, more of those services without potentially compromising our character that we've spent a long time developing here in this area?

Excuse me, can you go back please. Steve and Tracy on that. Excuse me. Fourth bullet point. Would it be advantageous for us to have some sort of development team that just concentrated only on Deerfield.

Actually, Council Member Jacobus, that's a great idea. You will remember we put the moratorium in place for Destination Deerfield, right, because we wanted to pause and look at that entire area. It was important, and we realized early on that the vision that we had for Deerfield would be successful only if all of the parcels would be activated relatively about the same time. From community development standpoint, we have seen a little bit of a stall in some of that. We are getting the individual parcels to meet the requirements and the regulations and the codes from a zoning perspective, but they're not coming at the same time. So that effort that we made early on with the moratorium, I don't want to lose momentum. So if there's something like that that would help keep that momentum and that trajectory, Absolutely, I think that's something that if we could focus on that would be great.

What do we need to do to do that? I mean, how do we get that started?

I think we have a couple of opportunities. The first is looking at that area potentially a little bit more holistically.

That's right. So if you remember, when we looked at during the public meetings during that moratorium, we not only looked at Deerfield, South Deerfield, which was the area that we approved the Deerfield Corporate Center, that area there behind Home Depot, that area. But we also looked up the entire corridor. How could we look at the entire Deerfield area holistically from north to south, connecting those parcels? Certainly in Deerfield, there are office complexes that are partially filled. They are in desperate need of reactivation. Believe it or not, last Monday night at CPAC's update, I stood at the board for land use and housing, and I was really surprised at how many visitors that came that night just expressed their excitement about Deerfield. And we had such a good success during that moratorium of engaging Deerfield. all of Milton, but specifically those residents that lived in Deerfield. So we have to look at it holistically. Individually, it takes a collective effort for all of these parcels to truly make that vision of Destination Deerfield happen.

I would think it would be pretty difficult, for example, the one we approved, for them to get or attract a lot of retail, which is what helps drive that along with everything else that was in that project without knowing what else is going up. And if, to me, it seems like we're missing that approach of this is what we want the deer field area to look like. And this is what we're proposing so that people can buy into that and then be a little more aggressive because it doesn't seem like we're getting much,

happening you know to your point counselor jacobus and crab apple we were fortunate to have one developer that basically went in and just did it himself which really helped spark this right yeah so we don't have a different dynamic there we also had a a plan um yeah for for the do field area um there were

done in like 2013 or 14. And it was basically a small area plan for how deer fields should, I'm sorry, how crabapples should build out. And I mean, in a lot of ways, it looks a lot like that plan did. And what it did is it brought all the different elements together. So you had um a healthy uh system built not one here one here and one here i think a small area plan with looking at that larger that larger area make sure you create that that healthy ecosystem of office residential and retail we spent all that time doing the rezoning but we didn't

come up with a total, this is what Deerfield in 10 years should look like. We just now know what the zoning says it can or cannot look like in 10 years.

You're exactly right. I mean, the moratorium, we did the heavy lifting. We focused primarily on the awareness of looking at that area holistically. But to your point, the parcel that we approved earlier this year, if they themselves knew that there was other activity in that area, would they have done things a little differently? Would they change a few things? Would they wish they would have done something different because the other parcels that are adjacent to them are activating at the same time? So that's correct.

So what are some next steps for us that could help move that forward? Because I'm concerned about the fact that we've got these great ideas and we've got the zoning change, but we're kind of stalled.

To the mayor's point earlier, one of the benefits we had here was mostly a single developer in Crabapple. It didn't start that way. So that actually, you know, You mentioned kind of a development group didn't necessarily need that because we had the one developer who was also very astute, knew exactly how to create a very healthy ecosystem and has done exactly that here.

Um, but he also owned all of it too, correct?

Or not initially. Um, over time, um, he amassed those properties and, and in effect created that, you know, that, that plan, um, he was the development group for that and was able to identify where the retail should go, how you best activate spaces to make sure you're, you're supporting the, the very, the retail. I mean, the office over here is thriving. It's, um, By having those one-offs in Deerfield, and I say one-offs in each of the different sites, it lacks that cohesiveness. And so I think there are opportunities for bringing in various expertise that could help us get there, whether it's through a small area plan, which we've done them before, or various development entities that could work with us in Deerfield.

If I can take just a moment, because there's all sorts of ways to skin the cat you're talking about. The city manager just mentioned entities and things. Yeah, it's sort of two paradigms. One is that a government can set the table for what it wants a particular area to look like. All good. That's master planning, zoning, etc. But then you're still subject to sort of the vagaries of the free market deciding that it wants to jump in and a private retailer or private developer come in. And that's always a little more difficult to anticipate. When is that going to occur? When does the pro forma match such that they can get the financing to do that? Then you think, okay, well, then what tools are in the toolkit for the city or a county? What form of government it is to make? One of them, of course, one of the big attributes for developers is time. And so I've seen some governments that have set up sort of almost a forward-looking concierge. In other words, if you want to do this in Deerfield and you want to do it consistent to what we want you to do, you're literally going to get sort of a concierge treatment we're going to walk you through permitting and we're going to shave months off your planning and permitting and get you digging dirt and for a lot of folk a lot of developers that is music to their ears done i just saved time and we all know that in the development community time is money the other thing is is to making sure that you have the right tools with respect to the flexibility with respect to economic development Local government, cities and counties, they do okay at economic development and visioning, but they sometimes don't have the pure flexibility at other entities that in fact have been sanctioned by the state. For instance, and again, this is just me just sort of reforming it here. So if I say something... but like a development authority. Just for instance, do you know that in every city and every county in the state of Georgia, there is already a created development authority? Now, that's created under state law. Now, it does have to be activated, but it already exists. And those entities, candidly, just having been through this, are a little better economic development because they have flexibilities with respect to land transactions and other forms of economic activity that are just economic development activity. that are a little better than your typical local governments. They're not quite as regimented. Now, they have a very narrow focus, and that's why I think they're giving that additional flexibility. City governments have a wide focus. Development authorities have a very narrow focus, but they do have flexibility in ways they can maneuver in the market. that local governments like a traditional city or traditional county don't have. So I guess what I'm trying to say is the sweet spot from a legal perspective is there are some things the government can do to set the table and, in fact, even juice the table, time, streamlining that concierge service. And then there are some actual entities that Milton has never really taken advantage of, That could also be used to even make that a more attractive place with a lot of flexibility built in. I hope I'm not speaking in a way that's nonsensical.

No, that makes great sense. But one of my questions would be. Can you control their authority to just say, well, we just want you to just stick to Deerfield. We don't want you wandering over here or over there. We want your concentration to be just the Deerfield area.

Right. And so the answer is, is both a strong yes. And a very modest no. And typically, particularly with respect to entities that have what I would consider to be fledgling, not robust development authorities in anything, and Milton would be most assuredly fledgling because it's never existed before. The key indicator of available to get out beyond your skis is money. There's no funding for that. And so you, Milton, would truly have sort of all of the control because it would be totally symbiotically dependent upon Milton for its money. You would fund what you wanted. You would not fund what you don't. how you would do it. And still have council oversight. Development authority is going to be created with independent individuals. Now in a lot of governments, they are typically alter egos of the entity that nominates the personnel, hopefully sharing a common vision But again, unless they have significant holdings, which a new one would not, there's no money. There's no money to do anything other than what the governing authority wants.

I think the question that I want to go back to Councilman Jacob's point, but can you put a geographic boundary on it?

You really that's not contemplated in the state law, at least of putting it, you know, you can only do work here. So I think it would have a city of Milton reach because that's what the state law contemplates. But again, hear me when I tell you that an entity that does not have an independent source of funding is going to be beholding to the entity that does have that funding and tell it what to do.

I get it. It may not currently contemplate that, but can we not put that perimeter or stipulation on it ourselves?

What you would probably want to do is do an intergovernmental agreement that would tie all of its funding availability and flexibility to a particular area and let that be sort of its governing documents. I think that would work, again, because it wouldn't have the legal ability to do anything else. It wouldn't have any money to do that.

Which would then kind of force the comprehensive plan that we've already been developing to be sort of enforced. Right.

Okay. Would it be possible for you to investigate some of that and get back to us with some ideas and some plans? Absolutely. I think we need to be more proactive than we've been. maybe something like this would be helpful.

Absolutely.

Hey, just one more quick question. How would this differ from when the district at Mayfield was kind of put together and the city put its fingerprints all over what that was going to look like going forward? How would what we're talking about now differ from that?

Geographically, it's far smaller. It is primarily owned by one individual. And because it's so centrally located in the same place, there's just so much you're going to be able to do with it. Whereas in the Deerfield area, you are scattered over hundreds of acres and you already have existing roads and other amenities and homes and things like that. I think just by sheer size, it's significantly different.

And Council Member Henning, we did do a plan, a concept plan. We had an ex-consultant help us with that. So we at least have a programming, if you will, for that area from a concept plan perspective. In Deerfield, we don't, other than just identifying the parcels that we would like to reactivate. But we don't have a concept plan per se for that area like we do for Mayfield.

Right. Now, I understand the scale, the scope is much larger over in the field, for sure. But the general principle, the practice has kind of already been put in place before where the city has said, hey, we want to make sure that this area is going to have a certain look and feel. And let's put some parameters around that. Right.

Correct.

I think your point's a good one, and all I will say, just kind of finishing up legal's thoughts are, though, is the trick is that public-private symbiotic relationship. And so I think the point that Councilmember Jacobus was making was how do we set up in a proactive way that public-private relationship on a bigger scale? And that may take a little bit of creativity and it may take a little more flexibility than we necessarily have, but it is certainly available in the legal framework of Georgia. Good. Thank you.

Thank you.

We will keep rolling here. Placemaking and branding. So a couple of key things. Again, this is a little bit of a repeat from a few slides you heard earlier. So again, focus a lot on Deerfield. There were a couple of things we asked CPAC and others, kind of what's most important for us to think about as we get that area moving. Thinking about how we can introduce that new green space, gathering space that the new development can focus around. Creating a more connected area that's more walkable, more inviting. Wayfinding and branding. Really, again, A lot of the same stuff that happened right here in the Crab Apple area, as you all just discussed, obviously a different scale than here. Thinking about other places throughout the city that are inviting safe, accessible, functional public spaces, recreational spaces. And so you see there's some repeat between these things because whether it's economic development, land use, or placemaking, a lot of these really are overlapping and really checking several boxes together. as far as goals for us as a community. Again, down toward the bottom, you all as a community have spent a lot of time thinking about architectural design, design of the places and the buildings and the spaces that we have. And so continuing that and making sure that we have a cohesive architectural identity, there's the space, there's the intensity of the development in the space, there's the way things are spread out, but there's also the design and the look and the feel that's just as important as well. And then again, thinking how we can continue to celebrate our rural identity. Transportation was an interesting one, only I said that because there are a lot of things that the city's already been doing from a transportation standpoint. There are plans underway with your partners up here in North Fulton, as well as other city plans coming up. And so a lot of what we're doing again was taking stock of what we've accomplished, what's happening around us, we need to keep track of and be aware of. And then identifying any of the new areas or issues that are kind of coming up. And so there are a couple of key projects that came up. One was thinking about how we strategically invest for infrastructure resilience, thinking about the bridges and other things around here that are aging. Y'all are not the only community dealing with that. All of the communities in Metro Atlanta are dealing with that. Your neighbors in North Fulton are dealing with that. We have a lot of places that were built, a lot of roadways and bridges that were built. many decades ago and so keeping up with that and thinking through that we had a comment earlier tonight about the ptvs from a safety and education standpoint that came up time and time again during the cpac meetings and during the open house again same thing you all aren't the only ones talking about that actually on my drive up here there was a sidewalk in roswell that a Golf cart was driving down. I thought to myself, they're not supposed to be on the sidewalk. And so this is an issue that a lot of communities are dealing with. I'll say this too. One thing we talked about with staff is y'all aren't the first ones to try to tackle this. There are other communities that have started to think around this. And so there may be some lessons learned and a little bit of a learning curve that we can bend there a little bit. A lot about how do we continue to improve the roadways, improve access, you know, deal with congestion, what have you, while maintaining that rural landscape. So not every road cross section, not every road design fits in all corners of the community. And so how do we have context sensitive design? I think this is something you all have already been working at, as you heard tonight again, and as we heard in multiple meetings, how do we continue to lean into that? What are some of the interesting solutions that really are more appropriate, make more sense in a rural area, and then what makes more sense in or immediately adjacent to our activity centers? And so getting that fine-grained design is important. Sustainability also on this slide as well. So kudos to a lot of things you all have done since the last plan. The last plan actually identified leaning into this, identifying a sustainability committee, and then pulling together a lot of action items. You all were checking off a lot of those things. as we began this process really what we talked about was how do we think about partnering with our neighbors and other communities that are providing more services whether it be recycling whether it be hard to recycle materials or other things uh and instead of just trying to do it on our own there was a conversation about working with our hoa some of our hoas actually have recycling days or uh clean out days or other things how can we kind of coordinate and cooperate with some of our our neighborhoods to do that not make it feel like everything has to be central uh here or somewhere else like deerfield And the just same thing as before, curbside collection, but meeting the diverse needs of our community. Again, trash pickup here behind City Hall is very different than as you head north from this area into some of the lower density areas. And so just continuing to have that diverse response to the needs of our residents. And as I mentioned, we had the open house last week. We're still analyzing the results and looking at what we heard from folks. But just a couple of quick highlights. Again, we put it first on purpose. How do we continue to emphasize and maintain that rural character? It's preserving what makes Milton what it is. A lot of folks were excited about it. I think Tracy just shared this. A lot of folks were excited about Destination Deerfield and the opportunity there. That's something very different than we did here in Crabapple. That's different than Arnold Mill. It's a different type of thing. And maybe it's the only place we can do some of those things within the city. So a lot of excitement about the next chapter there. A desire to continue to attract local businesses that serve the needs of our community. There again, we wanted to make sure to make the point that we did hear about design of trails and transportation infrastructure, special consideration for rural areas. Again, one size does not fit all. A little bit of a cliche term, but it applies here for sure. And so are there places where maybe a trail connection isn't appropriate or the design of that trail and we're replacing it needs to be looked at in a more sensitive, context sensitive way. Historic preservation stewardship. So we've begun to acquire some historic properties over time within the community. But now what do we do with them? How do we maintain them? How do we make sure that the preservation doesn't just stop at the acquisition, but at the preservation, the maintaining, and the education of that? And then finally, just hitting on the last point, expanding the recycling services programs, as I mentioned on the previous slide. So I didn't want to spend too much time going through everything. You'll see in a few weeks, the plan will begin to come together and we'll have some additional materials on that. You also have more detail in the slides than I covered specifically here in front with you all. Next step, so we are set to have the second of the two required public hearings by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs in August. Around that exact same time, the draft document will be posted online. ARC, the Atlanta Regional Commission and Department of Community Affairs will both do their cursory kind of state and regional review. I say this all the time. They don't necessarily care about the specific policies that are y'all's decision. They want to make sure that the requirements that they have in there have been met, that the plan meets the general guidelines that they've set out. So that's usually a pretty quick review from them. Coming back in early September with comments from them and document revisions and ultimately adoption before you all in October. So sounds pretty quick. We've got a couple of months. So this is the time where we kind of say as the plan comes together, this is a chance for you all to get comfortable with the plan, for the community to get comfortable with it before adoption later in October. I put the project website there up again just for folks that may be joining in the room or otherwise to go visit. We do have summaries, again, of all the meetings. Draft information, as it's available, will be online as well. And appreciate your time tonight. Any questions, Mayor?

got one question steve um when you mentioned the short-term work short-term work program so this gets adopted in october and a part of that are we going to have our short-term council priorities on things to get done or it will come to you before the before it comes back to you in october um or about when do they see the short-term work program first before we transmit do you want to

We will have a version for council and mayor to look at on August 3rd.

Yeah, perfect. All right, perfect. Any other questions for council?

No.

Okay, thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, please say on the next item, Susan.

The final reports and presentations item is fiscal year 2027, budget discussion and feedback. Agenda item number 26192, DEPUTY CITY MANAGER BERNADETTE HARVILL.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND COUNCIL. Our internal budget process officially kicked off earlier this year, and staff has been working with the city manager to prepare forecasts for continuing operations, as well as detailed recommendations for new initiatives. Over the past three years, council has provided prioritization timelines and feedback on topics including sustainability, public art, land use, transportation and mobility, and parks and recreation, as well as existing major capital projects. This feedback has been incorporated into our budget forecast work. And tonight we are here to kick off meeting number one, the budget process input meetings to ensure recommendations are in full alignment with council feedback and to provide council with the opportunity to see the budget in preparation for the military process that will take place in our upcoming meetings. Here you can see our agenda for tonight's meeting. We will go over the main objectives for the budget discussion meetings, as well as a timeline for the budget process. We will then go over some considerations that have been taken into account by staff when drafting the five-year operating and seven-year capital forecasts. Staff members will then present their new initiatives for operating and capital. These are programs or projects that are new to Milton or those that will increase the current level of service provided. We will then present a general overview of Milton's pay-as-you-go program and discuss any changes made to the funding projection for existing projects. We will also have time for any feedback Council would like to provide on these topics. The overall objective of these budget discussion meetings is to connect with council on the budget forecast that our team has put together with our city manager. These meetings allow us to break up the conversation into smaller segments and receive council and public feedback as we approach the military hearings and the budget workshop where we will present the proposed budget in its entirety. On this slide, you can see the anticipated timeline for additional budget meetings. Dates related to the millage rate hearings will be determined once the preliminary digest is received from Fulton County. Tonight, we will discuss new initiatives and the PAYGO program updates. On July 20th, staff will present an overview of the five-year forecast for revenues and expenditures. At the August 3rd meeting, we'll present the draft budget in its entirety. Historically, this presentation has been presented at the work session, but having it earlier will allow council and the public additional review time prior to the adoption of the 2026 millage rate, which will fund fiscal year 2027 activity. IN SEPTEMBER WE WILL HOLD OUR TWO PUBLIC HEARINGS ON THE PROPOSED BUDGET AND A FINAL ADOPTION WILL TAKE PLACE ON SEPTEMBER 21, 2026. STAFF ALWAYS TAKES A HOLISTIC AND CONSERVATIVE APPROACH TO THE BUDGET PROCESS. THIS YEAR CERTAIN NOTABLE CONSIDERATIONS WERE ADDRESSED WHEN PREPARING RECOMMENDATIONS. SOME OF THE KEY CONSIDERATIONS INCLUDE SIGNIFICANT CITY PLANS WHICH ARE CURRENTLY BEING UPDATED OR COMING TO THE END OF THEIR LIFE CYCLE. These include the comprehensive plan update and the five-year short-term work program that is currently underway, the five-year strategic plan update, which will follow the comp plan update, and the Parks and Recreation Master Plan, which was projected through 2027. Parks and Recreation Director Tom McElveen will discuss this plan in detail later this evening as part of the capital request overview. This plan also takes into consideration prioritization feedback our boards and council provided during the fiscal year 2024, 25, and 26 budget feedback meetings. We held 14 council meetings plus additional board meetings gathering feedback on those topics we discussed earlier, including sustainability, public art, land use, transportation, and mobility, and parks and recreation, as well as the feedback on those major CAPA projects. We will also highlight some of those considerations from those discussions as we discuss the PAYGO program this evening and the five-year forecast at the next meeting on July 20th. TEAS PLUS 3 WILL BE ON THE BALLOT THIS NOVEMBER. THE LAST TWO ROUNDS OF TEAS PLUS HAVE PASSED SO WE DID PROCEED WITH AN ANTICIPATION THAT THIS WILL CONTINUE IN THE RECOMMENDATIONS THAT WILL BE DISCUSSED THIS EVENING. SHOULD THIS INITIATIVE NOT PASS, STAFF WILL RETURN TO COUNCIL FOR DISCUSSIONS ON REVENUE FORECASTS RELATED TO CATEGORIES LIKE PROPERTY TAX AS WELL AS POTENTIAL REPRIORITIZATION OF PAY GO PROJECTS AND OTHER DISCRETIONARY SPENDING CATEGORIES IN THE BUDGET. PLEASE KEEP IN MIND FISCAL YEAR 2027'S PLANS WERE MADE WITH THE CONSIDERATION OF THE FINAL TS PLUS 2 REVENUES AND ANY CONTEMPLATION OF RECEIVING TS PLUS 3 FUNDING WILL ONLY IMPACT THE FY28 TO FY2033 FORECAST, NOT THE ACTUAL BUDGET RECOMMENDATIONS BEING RECOMMENDED FOR ADOPTION. Finally, an item that will impact both the five-year operating and seven-year capital plans is the market study which is underway for employee salaries and wages. Milton currently conducts a market study related to compensation every other year. Preliminary data shared by our third-party consultant conducting the study and recent vacancies in public safety will be taken into consideration when making final recommendations. Data is showing that comparative jurisdictions are leading Milton with a high impact in the areas of police and fire pay. We will discuss this further on the 20th when we present the five-year operating expenditure forecast, but for tonight's meeting, these considerations will affect the available fund balance beyond required reserves in fiscal year 26 that will be available to allocate towards one-time capital projects next fiscal year. That has impacted some of the CIP PAYGO requests that we'll discuss later tonight. Here you can see the new operating initiatives by department, including the impact over the five-year period. This year we have one recommendation for a full-time GIS technician in information services. This recommendation contemplates a reduction in third-party services currently provided under our managed service agreement. Our information services director, Ashley Smith, will present the details of this recommendation and answer any questions you may have.

Mayor and council, good evening.

I'd like to go over the request for GIS technician position in the 2027 budget. First, I want to go to the why of the position. We were looking at adding it because we have had an increase of support requests for GIS services from internal staff of about 40%, which is tracking about 40% for this year from last year. We have a growing number of GIS projects across multiple city departments. Right now, our total count for GIS, which is for one employee in the GIS group, is about 11 projects right now. About four or five of those are considered major projects, which takes substantial time. There is also a need for a dedicated GIS resource with capacity for simple requests. These are your basic mapping requests, data updates, cleanup work that needs to happen, data analysis that departments are using. As GIS is getting way more integrated into departments, we're seeing more of a need, which is a good thing, a very good thing. People wanting to use the mapping, people wanting to use the data that we have. So that's great. It just increases the workload of our current staff members that we have. We want to reduce the backlog and improve response times of the current requests that we are getting in to make sure that we are providing a high level of service to our internal staff and also to the residents. OF THE CITY AS WELL BECAUSE WE DO HAVE A LOT OF PUBLIC FACING GIS RESOURCES AND WE ALSO WANT TO IMPROVE THOSE PUBLIC FACING GIS RESOURCES AS WELL. THIS WILL ALLOW OUR GIS ANALYSTS WHO WILL BE IN THE HIGHER LEVEL POSITION OVER THIS ONE TO FOCUS ON HIGHER LEVEL WORK, PRIMARILY PROJECTS, GETTING THESE PROJECTS OUT THE DOOR. SOME OF THESE PROJECTS ARE TIME SENSITIVE. SOME OF THE REQUESTS ARE VERY TIME SENSITIVE. THINGS LIKE GRANT APPLICATIONS AND SUCH ARE NEEDED. WE ARE NOW GETTING SOME THINGS FROM FIRE DEPARTMENT AND POLICE THAT HAVE TO BE DONE ON A CADENCE and updated regularly. And we want to make sure we're hitting those marks and not having any delays in that stuff getting completed. We're also looking to expand the GIS use across departments. We've already done some of that. One of the big things that we did was a GIS power user group training. It was an academy for, I think, about six to eight months. And we really want to get integrated more with departments, get more use, getting more public facing for residents to be able to find things a lot easier on the website for that. But it takes time. times very limited. And also maintain service continuity during projects. While we're taking on these big projects, we want to make sure that the day-to-day things do not fail, do not get left behind, and we're still able to address the needs of all staff. So what will the GIS technician do? Day-to-day, handle routine GIS tickets and department requests. These are things that are pretty interesting, things that just come up. You need something on the fly. You need a map done. You have a meeting, which we do get a lot. People need to have a meeting coming up in about an hour, and they need a quick map, and they can't make it themselves. Can you please get it done by then? And things of that nature. Maintain the GIS data. This is actually a really big thing for us right now. Cleaning up data and making sure that what we have is complete is a major initiative that we have. So maintaining that data once we have it in, updating layers and map updates are essential. Perform quality control and basic analysis. The quality control is big because as soon as you get the data into the systems, You have to make sure that it's clean. You don't want to sit there and push bad data out. As well as making sure, as we put more tools into the hands of the employees here at Milton, that they are using the tools correctly and we can go behind them and make sure that what they're doing is following best practices so we don't have any system deviations in what we have going on. And also free the JS analysts up to focus on strategic projects, integrations, really start continuing to meet with the departments and getting integrated with them to see what their needs are. alternatives. So we did look at what could we do besides this. Currently right now we do have services outsourced in part for GIS, and this would be replacing some of those services. One, we could outsource a dedicated GIS technician. However, It costs more to do that than to bring the position in-house. There's always a premium on that. And then also, one of the big reasons why we brought some positions in-house, me being one of those positions, is that staff turnover. People leave. I work for a consultant, I know, in and out the door, and that's one of the things we actually had with the GIS positions previously. So we want to avoid that. Use as needed GIS professional services. This does provide flexibility and specialized support, but it's less efficient for routine tasks. And that's really what we're talking about is the day in and day out smaller level things that just need somebody to handle them. Map updates and recurring departmental needs. It's very hard to schedule a remote group to do those type of things and get it done efficiently. development, develop the departmental GIS power users. So we went through the GIS power users academy. And one of the big things we got back from people was it was intensive. It took a lot of their time up. We had some people not be able to complete the academy because it took so much time. And once people did complete it, they realized, man, for what I want to do and what I could do with the systems, I don't have the time to do it and do my regular job. And we want firemen to be firemen. We don't want to be a GIS analyst and a fireman. Same thing with police officers and such. But they need to have access to the tools and we need to work with them. it's a good idea but it's going to ultimately impact other employees time and ability to do their work reprioritize yes services and defer low level requests avoids immediate staff costs but it would likely increase backlog slow response times and service levels somebody's going to pay the price when we push some other things down and we just don't want to have to play fake when it comes to that And aside GIS duty to existing staff, that's the same thing as the power users kind of in a way. This would be more of the data cleanup and some of those lower level like maintenance things we could ask staff to do. But then you're also taking away from their time and doing things that really is going to heavily affect community development and public works most. So I do want to just throw out two other things. Strategic alignment. This position does hit two goals. One goal for the department to be a provider of reliable and progressive IT services. That's one of our three major goals. This will help us fulfill all the requirements for that. And then the last one is actually a city goal and city strategic plan is to improve IT effectiveness for efficient operations and customer-oriented service delivery. We think it hits the efficient operations and definitely hits the custom-oriented service delivery. So with that, if you have any questions, I'd like to answer.

So we still need some outsourced GIS responsibilities.

So what we think is, is that starting this upcoming year, we're going to greatly reduce what that contract was. And then the following year, we're going to be looking at ways to do things like our powerful fabric maintenance and some other things to actually reduce it even further and go along that. That's requires staff to get training. But our JS analyst is already going through some of that training now. And the more it goes through it, the more him and the new person we would bring in go through it, the more we can actually be self-sustainable and do some of those things and have to do very little outsourcing of anything.

Yeah, look, I love the fact we keep institutional knowledge here, right, versus a consultant that you fly helicopter in, helicopter out, but keeping it homegrown as well as what you're saying. I think we have a fair amount of maybe technical debt that may be sitting in our systems that has to be cleaned up. So if we want to go forward, we've got to go backwards to clean up to go forward. So I think there's a responsibility there for us to get on a good footing. Do we have somebody identified for the role? No.

Okay. We have staff that have recommendations, but nobody. All right.

Good, thank you.

OK, moving into our capital improvement program. A capital improvement plan is a comprehensive tool that assists with the planning, acquisition, and financing of capital projects. Milton prepares a seven-year capital plan that is updated annually. As we know, things change from time to time, including priorities, funding sources, and resource availability. Here you can see the new capital requests that staff have proposed for fiscal year 2027. It also shows the impact over the seven-year plan and any impact to the operating budget. We have Deputy Chief Fortner here to discuss the building improvements initiative from FIRE, and we have Parks and Recreation Director Tom McElveen to discuss the Parks and Recreation Master Plan update initiative. Over to Deputy Chief Fortner.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. On behalf of Milton Fire Rescue and for your consideration, I would like to present our building improvement plans for FY27. The Fire Station 41 and Fire Station 43 building improvement project is a strategic investment in the safety, reliability, and long-term sustainability of two critical public safety facilities. This project will replace the original overhead apparatus bay doors at both stations with modern high-speed roll-up doors and install industrial ceiling mounted ventilation fans at Fire Station 43. This is Fire Station 41, has two bay doors in the front, two bay doors in the rear. These are original apparatus bay doors to this fire station, so they're over 35 years old. The four new high-speed apparatus bay doors will improve response times, will have less maintenance. These new high-speed bay doors have no springs and will have reduced downtime. The estimated 10-year repair costs on the existing sectional doors is over $63,500. This building improvement cost came in at $159,000. This is Fire Station 43 on Hickory Flat. This will have six new high-speed apparatus bay doors, three in the front, three in the rear. These are original apparatus bay doors, which are almost 25 years old. Again, approved response times, less maintenance, no springs, reduced downtime. Estimated 10-year repair costs with the existing sectional doors, $122,500. The building improvement cost for this project, $245,000. The picture on your left here is an example of what these high-speed apparatus bay doors will look like. They have a glass front. The picture on your right is of the ceiling-mounted ventilation fans at Fire Station 42 and Fire Station 44. We're asking to install these at Fire Station 43, which does not currently have fans. It's for improved firefighter safety and health with an improvement cost of $21,000. Get direct strategic alignment with public safety through improved emergency response. Infrastructure stewardship with replacing aging critical infrastructure, financial sustainability by reducing recurring maintenance, operational excellence with improving station efficiency, risk management with reduced operational disruption. So in summary, apparatus bay doors are critical to fire station operations. Door failures can delay apparatus deployment, slow emergency response. In the past five years alone, the city has incurred more than $35,000 in documented repair costs and over 300 cumulative days of reduced operational capability due to door failures. Door end of life depends on use, but conservatively estimated between 30 and 35 years. And again, fire station 41 is 35 years, and fire station 43 is 25 years. Of most importance, these high speed doors open in four seconds versus the current sectional doors at 22 seconds. Of course, the ventilation fans will improve the current work environment and directly relates to firefighters' safety and health. We've got a total project cost for all building improvements at $425,000. By reducing maintenance costs, increasing reliability, improving air circulation, and minimizing downtime through readily available replacement parts, this project represents a cost-effective investment that protects city assets and strengthens Milton Fire Rescue's ability to provide safe, efficient, and reliable emergency services to the community. Any questions?

Any questions? Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it.

All right, good evening Mayor and Council. Parks and Recreation has one new initiative request for this budget cycle. We're requesting funding to complete a new updated Parks and Recreation comprehensive master plan. The anticipated cost of this plan is $120,000. And just for your reference, the image on the right here is the cover of our 2017 to 2027 master plan. Our current 10-year master plan has served the city well, but is already ready for a refresh. Since it was developed, we've added new parks, expanded programming, and as the department has grown, so have our community's priorities, expectations, and needs. Updating this plan ensures we are working from the most current information as we make long-term decisions about our parks and recreation system. Ultimately, this master plan will provide staff, council, and the community a roadmap for the next 10 years. The timing of this update is important as well. With the Deerfield Active Park coming online in the next couple of years, we'll be adding a significant new asset to that side of the city that helps address the remainder of our known outdoor athletic field needs. While we don't expect the Deerfield itself to be re-evaluated or redesigned through this process, the park program, meaning its amenities and the additional capacity it provides, will incorporate into the master plan so we have an accurate and current understanding of our park system moving forward. But I also want to emphasize that this is a true comprehensive master plan. While athletic fields have understandably been a major focus over the past several years, this effort looks at our entire park system and recreation system. Based on community and stakeholder input, the consultant will evaluate the full spectrum of our parks and recreation system, That includes everything from future park and trail needs to recreation programming, indoor facilities, aquatics, staffing, senior services, special events, and parks-specific recommendations. The goal is to ensure we're planning for the full spectrum of parks and recreation services our community expects over the next decade, not just one area of the system. In addition, this plan will help inform our capital improvement element moving forward, ensuring that our parks and recreation priorities are aligned, not just operationally, but also in our long-range capital planning and funding strategy. WE EXPECT THIS PROCESS WILL INCLUDE ROBUST PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT, INCLUDING OPEN HOUSES, A STATISTICALLY VALID COMMUNITY SURVEY, AND SEVERAL KEY STAKEHOLDER MEETINGS WITH GROUPS SUCH AS PARKS AND REC ADVISORY BOARD, COUNCIL, PROGRAM PROVIDERS, MAINTENANCE, AND CITY STAFF. THE CONSULTANT WILL ALSO COMPLETE AN UPDATED EXISTING CONDITIONS ANALYSIS, A LEVEL OF SERVICE ASSESSMENT, AND ULTIMATELY PROVIDE PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS IN A TEN-YEAR IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY. This gives us clear data-driven approach to programming, staffing, and capital investments. Just as importantly, it positions us well for grant opportunities and continues to prepare the department for national accreditation and best practices in parks and recreation. At the end of the day, this isn't a plan that sits on a shelf. It becomes the framework that guides us how we invest in our parks and recreation system and ensures we're aligning resources with what our community tells us they value most. Again, this is a $120,000 request, and it's an estimated cost based on the anticipated scope of work that we anticipate. That concludes my presentation. Happy to take any questions.

When would this be kicked off, are you thinking? End of the year or beginning of next year?

Probably beginning of next year. Okay. Any questions?

Good. All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Milton's capital improvement plan contemplates all funding sources, including pay-as-you-go, TSPLOST, impact fees, grants, bonds, debt, et cetera. Milton primarily utilizes the pay-as-you-go approach outside of programs like TSPLOST and grants. Pay-as-you-go, or PAYGO, is an operating transfer from the general fund, which is funded with property taxes, lost, and other general fund revenues. UTILIZING THIS APPROACH KEEPS THE CITY OUT OF LONG-TERM DEBT. YOU CAN THINK OF IT AS SAVING UP TO PURCHASE YOUR VEHICLE WITH CASH RATHER THAN TAKING OUT A LOAN. THE TABLE SCENE HERE OUTLINES ALL PROJECTS THAT HAVE A PAY AS YOU GO ALLOCATION REQUEST IN THE UPCOMING SEVEN-YEAR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN. TONIGHT STAFF WANTED TO GO OVER ANY PROGRAM OR PROJECT UPDATES THAT WILL REQUIRE A CHANGE IN THE FUNDING REQUEST FROM WHAT WAS PRESENTED IN LAST YEAR'S BUDGET MEETINGS. As fiscal year 2033 is a newly added in this plan and all those figures are technically new, so we will be focusing on the changes made to years 27 through 32 tonight. The first project we would like to point out is the server and storage hardware refresh. This includes server and storage citywide as well as other hardware components throughout the facilities. I can make this bigger, sorry. Is that a little better? Yeah. I saw you, Mayor.

I'm a couple years away.

Okay. THE REQUEST IN FY27 HAS AN INCREASE BY $6,000 BASED ON PRICING INCREASES AND ENSURING ALL END OF LIFE COMPONENTS HAVE BEEN ADDRESSED. THIS PROJECT INCLUDES A 5% INCREASE ANNUALLY. SIMILARLY THE PC LIFE CYCLE REPLACEMENT PROJECTS INCLUDE AN ANNUAL 5% INCREASE AND FISCAL YEAR 2032 WAS UPDATED TO INCLUDE THAT CONSIDERATION. I'LL GO BACK ONE IF THAT'S OKAY WITH EVERYBODY. Moving down to the fire department. These other departments in general, government buildings, police department have had no changes since last year's plan. In the fire department, Staff has identified some high-cost equipment that would be beneficial to begin a recurring capital project for. This will allow us to set aside funds little by little each year being prepared for when those higher cost items reach end of life. The added equipment includes fire hose and self-contained breathing apparatus as $15,000 and $32,188 annually respectively. Moving on to public works, staff has proposed changes to three projects. The first is gravel roads. Funding in this account has been set aside to address annual maintenance as well as larger scale drainage repairs. Staff believe there is adequate funding available to reduce the annual recommendation to $100,000 from 321,786 in FY27. The overall reduction over the six years shown will be approximately $1.5 million as this updated $100,000 per year contribution. For the pavement management and bridge infrastructure projects, staff has left FY27 as planned, which includes the projections for last year's collection, the last year of collections on TSPLOS II. FY28 to FY33 have been programmed with anticipation of TSPLOS III passing. Again, if the referendum does not pass, staff will be back with options to alter the seven-year plan, which will be guided by the updated short-term work program and strategic plans which are underway. And that is a significant change from typically about $2.7 million into $1 million on pavement management and from $300,000 annually to no funding from the operating transfer for bridges. Apologies. In Parks and Recreation, the vehicle replacement reserve has been increased by $5,000 annually, which will now include the department's all-terrain vehicles, maintenance vehicles, and golf carts. The request for the indoor community center has been reduced. Staff recommended a transfer of $3.8 million to this project in the FY26 budget amendment that will be voted on later this evening. As plans for this facility, including potential partnerships, are still underway, staff have updated their recommendation to reduce the fiscal year 27 through fiscal year 32 allocations by about approximately $3.9 million. STAFF HAVE ALSO REQUESTED $80,000 IN PARKS AND RECREATIONS PROJECT FOR SECURITY CAMERAS. THIS REQUEST WILL ALLOW FOR THE NEXT STAGES OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PARKS SECURITY PLAN. IN THE PASSIVE PARKS AND GREEN SPACE DEPARTMENT, STAFF IS RECOMMENDING A REDUCTION TO THE PROVIDENCE PARK FUNDING REQUEST. ITEMS THAT REMAIN IN THE PROVIDENCE PARK MASTER PLAN INCLUDE STREAM REALIGNMENT, NATURAL SURFACE TRAILS, WETLAND IMPROVEMENTS, PARKING LOT UPGRADES, A PERFORMANCE GREEN, NATURE CENTER AND QUARRY IMPROVEMENTS. IN PRIOR BUDGET FEEDBACK MEETINGS THE TIMELINES FOR THESE PROJECTS HAVE BEEN REPRIORITIZED AND CONSIDERATIONS FOR OPPORTUNITIES THAT CAME ABOUT AFTER THE CREATION OF THIS PLAN HAVE BEEN TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT. THIS MAY BE AN AREA THAT WILL BENEFIT FROM RESPONSES COMING OUT OF THE UPDATED MASTER PLAN TOM SPOKE ABOUT EARLIER. Additionally, funding for the Milton City Park and Preserve passive improvements has been included in other council budget amendments as the project timeline allowed for, and the funding initially anticipated for FY27-29 will no longer be required as it has already been transferred. So this is a reduction of $465,212 over the three years of this plan, but did not reduce the overall cost of that project. Finally, in community development, we have an increase from $25,000 to $40,000 to the gateway wayfinding signage and historic markers account. This $15,000 will go towards the design work to update signage specs in preparation for future bids on equipment production. Additionally, $15,000 has been requested as part of the economic development strategy and action plan, bringing funding for this project to $75,000 to address items discussed earlier in the comprehensive plan update. And this request will also pair with some of the additional items we'll discuss on the July 20th meeting in the general fund. Overall, the FY27 PAYGO requests are $1.7 million less than initially anticipated this time last year, primarily being reduced by those changes to requests for the indoor community center in Providence Park. That is the end of tonight's piece of the budget feedback. I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. And just as a reminder, we'll be back on July 20th to discuss the five-year operating and revenues and expenditures.

Steve, this is the earliest we've seen these, correct? This is like, is this new? I mean, it seems pretty early.

Well, we've had the feedback meetings. I think we're like a meeting ahead of time right now.

It feels like it's earlier, which is good because it helps us for military.

Yes, we're building as much time as we can to be before you.

We will be one meeting ahead than we have been in the past with regard to that that relates to the military. Yeah, that helps. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for it. Okay, there are no first presentation items. We'll now move on to the public hearing. Susan, please say on the first item.

The first public hearing item is consideration of the issuance of an alcohol beverage license to Pete's Meats LLC doing business as the New York Butcher Shop and Wine Bar, 12635 Crabapple Road, Suite 120, Milton, Georgia, 30004. Agenda item number 26193 is Bernadette Harville.

one second technical okay okay mayor council we have two alcohol beverage license applications for consideration this evening both are due to a change in ownership the first is pete's meets llc doing business as new york butcher shop and wine bar located at 12 635 crabapple road suite 120 here in downtown milton They are applying for retail package wine and malt beverages and the add-on of craft beer and wine market license with Sunday sales for off-premises and on-premises sales. The public hearing notice was posted on the property and published in the Milton Herald on June 25th and July 2nd. The craft beer and wine add-on license requires the establishment's primary purpose be the sale of craft beer and or wine for off-premises consumption along with the sale of prepared food and or groceries. The interior floor space must have 60% or more devoted to the retail sale of those craft beers and or wines for off-premises consumption, food preparation, or grocery sales, including shelving and displays. And additionally, 60% of gross sales must be derived from the retail sale of craft beer and or wine for off-premises consumption, sales of prepared food and meals, groceries, or any combination of those three. The location must adhere to state and city distance requirements, and the hours of sales are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., with the approved Sunday sales license. The application shows compliance with all of these requirements. Here is a map showing the location on Crabapple Road, including nearby establishments. And again, this application is due to a change in ownership, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Okay. Any questions for Ms. Bernadette? Do we have any public comment on this?

No, sir, we do not.

Okay, I'll open it for a motion.

Make a motion we approve agenda item number 26193. Second.

Okay, I have a motion from Council Member Jacobus and a second from Council Member Johnson to approve agenda item number 26-193. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? That's unanimous. Thank you. Okay, please say on the next item.

The final public hearing item is consideration of the issuance of an alcohol beverage license to Milton Chevron, Inc., doing business as Extra Mile Chevron 13625 Arnold Mill Road, Roswell, Georgia 30075, located within Milton City limits. Agenda item number 26194, Ms. Bernadette Harville.

Mayor and Council, this is our second alcohol beverage license for consideration this evening, again, due to change in ownership. This is for Milton Chevron, Inc., doing business as Extra Mile Chevron, located at 13625 Arnold Mill Road. They are applying for retail package wine and malt beverages, including Sunday sales for off-premise consumption. The notice was posted in front of the building, and the advertisement was placed in the Milton Herald on June 25th and July 2nd. Here's a map showing the location on Arnold Mill Road. And I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Any questions for Bernadette? No. All right. Any public comment? No, sir. Okay. With that, I'll open it for a motion.

Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve agenda item number 26-194. Second.

Okay. I have a motion from Council Member Dolan, a second from Council Member Jacobus to approve agenda item number 26-194. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Thank you. Okay, there are no zoning agenda items. We will now move on to unfinished business. Susan, please say on the item.

That item is consideration of an ordinance of the Mayor and Council of the City of Milton, Georgia, to adopt amendments to the fiscal year 2026 budget for each fund of the City of Milton, Georgia, amending the amounts shown in each budget as expenditures, amending several items, of revenue anticipations, prohibiting expenditures to exceed appropriations, and prohibiting expenditures to exceed actual funding available. It's agenda item number 26176. Once again, Deputy City Manager Bernadette Harville.

Ken, are we good if Juliet's gone, if Doug's on? Wait. Okay, all right. I'll wait. That's all right.

Mr. Mayor, just while we're waiting, just purposes of perfecting the record, what I can tell you is the state law, the Open Meetings Act contemplates that an individual member of the council can phone in if they're out of the jurisdiction, which I understand Council Member Haney is, fully participate just as if they're here. But the only trick is, is that the individual phoning in cannot make the quorum. The quorum has to actually be physically in attendance. And then that additional member could phone in. So good catch on your part. And that's why we're being active. All right. Thank you.

Yeah. Good to know.

All right, Mayor and Council, tonight we have the second reading of our budget ordinance to amend the fiscal year 2026 budget. We presented a detailed overview of the requested amendments during a public hearing at the meeting on June 15th. Tonight we'll just do a high-level overview and answer any questions you may have. The budget for this fiscal year is approved on September 15th, 2025 after a series of public meetings as well as a budget workshop in August and two public hearings that were held in September. On this page, you can see the summary for the general fund with the initial adopted budget on the left with revenues for fiscal year 2026 at $49.8 million and the proposed amendments at $21,002 resulting in amended revenue anticipations remaining at $49.8 million for FY2026. Some of the more significant changes in revenue anticipations were related to the collections for current year real property taxes, building permits and title ad valorem taxes coming in lower than anticipated, and investment earnings and local option sales taxes coming in higher than anticipated. Moving down to the expenditure section. You can see the current budget at $49.6 million with the total proposed amendments in the amount of $4,397,046 resulting in the final budget expenditures of $54 million for fiscal year 2026. These requests include an operating transfer out of $4.2 million towards the city's pay as you go program in the capital projects fund. In fiscal year 2026, the fund balance is currently projected to be $13,049,762, which exceeds the required reserve of 25% of the subsequent year's fund revenues as based on projections for fiscal year 2027. Does anyone have any questions about the general fund before we move on to special revenue funds? Here we have the special revenue fund summaries. You can see the original adopted budget on the left with the requested amendments in gray and the total amended budget if all amendments are approved on the right. In the City Events Fund, we are recognizing event sponsorships across multiple events. In the amount of $30,000 in a reduction in the operating transfers in from the general fund and hotel motel tax fund in the amounts of $34,064 and $5,000 respectively, resulting in that net $9,064 reduction. Again, you can see here in the hotel motel tax fund that same $5,000 adjustment to the revenues and the expenditures out to that fund. The E911 fund revenues and the corresponding expenditure account for the IGA payments to the city of Alpharetta have been reduced by $20,000 based on current collection data. In the American Rescue Plan Act Fund, final authorized spending is being recognized along with final recognition of revenues received for this program. All invoices for the hydrology work at Milton City Park and Preserve have been received and once paid, the ARPA funding will be complete and this fund will be closed. Does anyone have any questions about the special revenue funds before we move on to capital projects funds? THE MAIN CAPITAL PROJECTS FUND HAS A REQUEST FOR CHANGES IN REVENUE RECOGNITION RELATED TO LOCAL FUNDING FOR THE HIGHWAY 9 WIDENING IN THE AMOUNT OF $1,282,184, $45,015 RELATED TO PROCEEDS FROM THE SALE OF ASSETS AND THE PAY GOAT TRANSFER IN FROM THE GENERAL FUND IN THE AMOUNT OF $4.2 MILLION AND THE FINAL TRANSFER IN FROM THE ARPA FUND IN THE AMOUNT OF $548,742. Corresponding expenditure requests have been made along with the allocation of revenues received in fiscal year 2025 that exceeded budgetary expectations for collections on infrastructure maintenance fees and investment income which have been transferred to the pavement management program. Additionally, $306,070 is being transferred from the capital projects fund to the capital grant fund as part of the city match on the passive park improvements at Milton City Park and Preserve.

You burned out on the Highway 9? Yes. Do we get reimbursed for anything on the state, or is that what we're paying?

It's 100% reimbursed by GDOT, and it is the design phase, and you'll see one segment of it being requested here, and then you're going to see in the FY27 when we present that overall budget another segment of that funding coming through. It's a long-term design project that will not be funded by us, but will be ran by us.

Perfect. Thank you.

No problem. In the TSPLOS fund, staff is requesting an increase of $400,000 related to TSPLOS revenue coming in higher than anticipated, and these funds will be held in the infrastructure account for program management project and allocated towards eligible projects as council approves them. In the capital grant fund, we have the recognition of those city matching funds from the capital projects fund for the Milton City Park and Preserve passive improvements, as well as the allocation of investment earnings in the amount of $2,264. And finally, we have the impact fee funds. Similar to other funds we have discussed, staff is requesting the allocation of fund balance from revenues received in fiscal year 25, which exceeded budget projections. These funds will be allocated towards eligible projects across police, fire, public works, parks and recreation, and administration. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have or go over any details if you'd like. And we'll be back with another set of amendments in September to finalize the year and include them with the adoption of the 27th budget.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Do we have any public comment on this?

No, sir.

Okay. With that, I will open it for a motion.

Make a motion to approve agenda item number 26-176. I like it.

Okay, I have a motion from Council Member Jacobus and a second from Council Member Johnson to approve agenda item number 26-176. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, we will now move on to new business. Please say on the first item.

The first item is consideration of a conflict waiver with Girard and Davis LLP representing both Milton and Alpharetta in preparing an intergovernmental agreement regarding land acquisition for State Route 140 Arnold Mill Road at Green Road Intersection Improvement Project. Agenda item number 26195, City Attorney Ken Girard.

members of the council thank you very much the clerk accurately read really the the basis for the requested conflict waiver and that is city of milton has the state route 140 arnold mill road project what we've identified is that at least a small portion of the project will require actually land acquisition within the city of alpharetta because we also represent the city of alpharetta uh we're going to need to do an intergovernmental agreement anyway but because we would represent both sides of that iga we do need to identify this conflict, ask you for a waiver, and you all know my typical pattern on this. I think both governments get off better doing it this way. If there was a true conflict where there was truly numbers or financials that were needing to be negotiated and there was actual opposite sides, I would get out altogether, but that's not this case, Mr. Mayor. Okay, thank you.

Any questions to Ken? Okay, any public comment on this?

No, sir, there is not.

Okay, I'll move for motion.

Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve agenda item number 26-195. Second.

Okay, I have a motion from Council Member Dolan, a second from Council Member Jacobus to approve agenda item number 26-195. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That is unanimous. We will now move on to the next item. Will you please say on that?

THE FINAL NEW BUSINESS ITEM IS CONSIDERATION OF A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MILTON, GEORGIA EXTENDING UNTIL JULY 21, 2026 AN EXISTING MORATORIUM BARRING THE ACCEPTANCE OF APPLICATIONS FOR REZONING LAND DISTURBANCE PERMITS. building permits, special use or conditional use permits, business licenses, certificates of occupancy, or other permits for the placement, siting, construction, establishment, expansion, or operation of data centers, such as will allow the City to consider amendments to the City of Milton's Unified Development Code and for other lawful purposes. Agenda item number 26196, City Attorney Ken Girard.

Fair members of the Council, this is simply a housekeeping item. This is the data center moratorium that we put in place in Milton. We did this on June 15th. You know the drill. We typically try to do these for 30 days, get a legal ad, have a public hearing, and then elongate the moratorium. Unfortunately, because the legal ad timing just didn't match up, we needed an extra seven days. So this would add or elongate that moratorium, the initial one, the short-term one, from July 15th to July 21st. We'll then come to you on that date, have the public hearing, and make it longer to give staff time to work. Mr. Mayor.

Okay. Thank you. Any questions, Ken or staff? Any public comment?

Yes, sir. We have two.

Okay. Please sound the first one.

I invite Robin Frickton to the podium, please.

Good evening. My name is Robin Frickton. I live at 2970 Francis Road. I've been in the city, well, the county and the city for over 40 years. And I'm also an IT person. I was in that for about 35 years. So I understand about the computers and heat and whatnot. But the data centers are really something we don't want to get into. I was hoping the moratorium would be forever. The reason is, not only do they use up all the water, but I don't know if you remember, we've had water problems in the past where we had water hours. Now, if you get data centers in here, it's going to be a lot more than that. The other problem is with electricity. We, the taxpayers of Georgia, have been paying Georgia Power for their nuclear power plants for many years. Now these guys are coming in and our electric rates will go up. And the biggest problem is going to be if there's not enough power and if these companies don't use solar power, then Georgia Power may put in gas-powered generators in our city limits, around the horses, very noisy, a lot of environmental problems. So that could happen. The other deal would be if Georgia Power needed more, bringing more power lines. take over people's land, tear up the land and bring in these new power lines for everything. I don't see anything that's going to be any good for Milton, especially if you've got horses. The other problem is with the AC units and what you don't hear about is the noise. You got like 500 AC units going on all day. It's a very high humming noise. Not good for people or animals. So, you know, they don't say much about it, but there is noise, quite a bit of noise from these things. There is no, depending on how big the data center is, the employment's only probably anywhere from 50 to maybe 150 people, maybe. Okay? Because all of it is they're not developing anything. It's just maintenance people making sure the hard drives are operating properly. They replace them. No big deal. But that's basically all they do. They don't make anything.

The

The other thing is I'm not sure if we get any tax revenue. With all the money that they give these data centers, I'm not sure we're going to make any money if you have to have them in here. But the biggest problem, though, I think is just you've got this huge center making this noise, sitting out there. I mean, my concern is if a golf course goes under, and we've seen that happen two or three times already, that the data center people come in and buy that land and they'll pay astronomical prices for it. They don't care because they'll get their money back. But we will see our land prices go up, make it even harder to build anything around here. So my hope is this moratorium will go on for a lot longer than the end of July, that you make it a permanent thing. So thank you very much. Thank you. Please call the next speaker.

I invite Lindsay Dufrano to the podium.

Hi, everyone. I'm Lindsay DeFranco. Nice to meet you. I'm a Milton resident and a mom of two. I'm here tonight to speak on the record about the data center moratorium. First, I want to commend the council for using its local authority to hit pause on new data center applications. I appreciate that you're now considering a short extension so that there's enough time for proper public notice and a full public hearing on the matter. From what I understand, the initial moratorium was put in place so the city could take a step back and review whether our existing developmental rules are strong enough to handle large-scale data centers, given their impact on our power, our water, our peace and quiet, and the character of our town, and to consider amendments to Milton's Unified Development Code. My hope is that as you do this work, you focus not only on how data centers might fit into Milton, but whether or not they should even be built here and under what conditions. so that you can say no to projects that would place too much of a burden on our town. I'm asking that you use this pause as a chance to consider implementing real protections that reflect what residents value, peace and quiet, clean water, safe roads, and a landscape that still feels like Milton and not an industrial park. With that in mind, I'm hoping we could hear a brief summary or have it published online of what you've been looking into during this last month, specifically regarding how these data centers will impact the place we call home and what questions we need to study more. The resolution agenda report explained that this brief extension allows the city to publish the required legal notice and hold a properly advertised public hearing on a longer moratorium without any gap in protection. And I appreciate that proactive approach. At the same time, I humbly request on top of meeting those legal requirements that the city go a step further by clearly posting about the July 20th public hearing and any future data center discussions on social media and on the website and emails so that the people most affected by these decisions know when and how to speak up. I hope we can work together to make it easier for everyday people to have a voice in decisions like this because when big decisions are made behind the scenes, public trust is weakened. Thank you for your work on this issue and giving the moratorium and Milton's future the attention they deserve.

Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. Any other public comment?

No, sir. That concludes public comment.

Okay. With that, any council discussion? Okay. I'll open it for motion.

Make a motion to approve agenda item number 26-196. Second. Okay.

And Doug's just a little delayed there online. Got a motion from Council Member Jacobus and a second from Council Member Dolan to approve agenda item number 26-196. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? That is unanimous. Council, anything to report on? No, I will say we had a great July 4th parade. Thanks, Tom, Emily, and the entire team. Chief was the Grand Marshal. Great job. It was a wonderful community event. With that, we will now give a motion to adjourn in the executive session to discuss personnel and acquisition and litigation. Do I have a motion?

Motion to adjourn to executive session.

Second. Okay. Motion from Jacobus, second from Dolan. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? That's unanimous. to reconvene.

Motion to reconvene. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Can I get a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Good night.