City Council - Regular Meeting

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city council meeting that we do the second Tuesday of each month. Uh I do not have anyone to give the invocation tonight. So I'm going to point to my left and ask Mr. Dickson if he would jump on it. Okay, let us pray. God, as always, we give you thanks for another day of life. and those of us on the council give thanks for the privilege that we have to serve the good folks of our city. We ask that you would be with us this evening. Guide our deliberations. Give us discernment and wisdom to make the correct decisions that will benefit uh our people. We ask these things in your holy name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Let the record reflect, please, that all members of council are present. Um, I need an approval of the agenda, but prior to that, I do uh I would like to wave department reports from this one. Uh, since we went over everything in detail last week, would anybody make a motion? Move to wave the departmental reports for this month. Motion to wave by Miss Malcolm. Is there a second? Second by Miss Brown. Is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose like sign. Motion carries. Now I need a motion for the approval of the agenda of the agenda with uh the waving of the waving of the reports. Please move, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Malcolm. Is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose like sign. Motion carries. That passes. Now the consent agenda this month is planning commission meeting planning commission

minutes from January March DDA DDA executive session and CVB minutes along with HPC. April city council executive session uh DDA and CVB minutes. I need a motion for the approval of the consent agenda. Please motion to approve. Thank you, Miss Crawford. In a second. Thank you, Miss Sams. Is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. All oppose like sign. Motion carries. That passes. I have uh a few people for public comment tonight. First, we have Mr. Pierce Giles. Uh he was in here just a few months ago. Uh got to go see him at the Tuscan Lodge last week. Uh I believe they had 81 families. You can come on up uh when when I had come through the door. Um and he has put a letter or asked me to put a letter at each of your seats. Um Pierce, thank you. How are you? How are you all? Great. Thank you. Uh thank you all for allowing me to speak. Yes, sir. First of all, I want to say thank you, mayor coming out. I also like to say thank you to the police police chief of police. They both visited Pope at Hour Pantry last Wednesday. Um, I'm not going to take a lot of time. All of you board members, council members rather, have a letter in front of you. It is stating what we have done from January 1st to this date. And you will notice that we have done 1,994 families. It's a lot of families. We have a a lot of people as city and

county. That's a lot of people. That's approximately 24,58 pounds of food that we have put out here. That's a lot of food. That's a lot of food. We have done 72 families the week before and just last week I did 82 families which you can see is rising. It is rising. There is a need. So any help that we can get from the community, the city, anybody, we would appreciate it. Now you got the the refrigerator, right? And and the truck. Um to to be bringing those numbers in though, that's just amazing. And it's a machine that you have over there. I mean, and we don't have a truck. You don't have a truck? No. That's we are renting a truck each time. Okay. We go and pick up food. Okay. We did get a new refrigerator and a new freezer. Okay. But we don't have a truck. So each time we go pick up food, we have to run a truck. We don't have transportation. So that's money coming out that we have to a lot to rent trucks with. Right. So we don't have transportation. Well, it's amazing what you do and I and I really I appreciate it. and and anybody who wants to get involved with you. Um, we are a nonprofit and all of my information, contact information,

anything you need. And anybody that's sitting here now that would like a copy of this, I have copies of it. If you want copies of it to see the numbers, all you have to do is see me. I have copies of this and you can carry it and I'll keep and I'll keep one at my office if for anybody who may be watching online and would like to watch or would like to read it. Okay. Thank you for coming in Pierce. I really appreciate you. Samir, I'm just going to say Samir. Thank you for coming in. I have beer and wine license. Okay. 914 North Broad Street. Okay. And and you're for the beer and wine license. Do we have that on the list? That's not on the agenda, is it? I don't think we're we're on the agenda for that today. CT called me like come in council meeting. Um, no sir, not this week, but if you would reach out to me. There's my phone number. Um, you can just take the pen. Um, just give me a call and I'll make sure we we get you on the next one. Okay? Or at least I'll get you in touch with the right people. Make sure your application is in order with us. Is the application already been filed? But the application's in you. Yeah, that application has is in and has been reviewed. Okay. I'm not sure why it's not on this agenda, but it has been reviewed by our office. Okay. This is 914 Broad LLC. Yeah, it's been reviewed. So, I think that it could be easy to circle back up with Heather and see what the status is on it. Okay. Yeah. If you'll just reach out to me tomorrow,

we'll handle it. Yes, sir. Thank you. Uh, Billy Mitchell. Hey, Billy. Thank you for coming in. Mr. Mayor and members of the council for having us, having me. Um, I'm here speaking on behalf of Miss Mary Rice. She owns two lots uh at 1362 and 1350 Waverly Way in Monroe. These lots are directly behind her house that she used to reside in on Highway 11. Um, she's 91 years young now and she's needing some extra money to take care of her as we probably all will at some point at that stage of our life. She wanted to sell these lots and I came to the city and asked them about uh sewer access and was told that that wouldn't be available because of a moratorum that was implemented. So I went to the county and asked the county if they would allow the lots. They said, "Sure, but the health department has to approve septic systems." Well, that's where we kind of hit a a wall. The health department says that can't have septic systems where sewer is available. Well, sewer's available, but it's not available because of the moratorum. So, they did budge and said that we could have one lot with su u septic if you know it perks, which we think it will. But Miss Rice is 91 years old now. She needs to sell two lots. Obviously, two lots are going to sell for more than one. And we're going to ask for an appeal that on that moratorium on those two lots based on the fact these lots were uh recorded in 1960 when that subdivision was was put together and it was based on the fact that the city would provide uh sewer as all the other houses in Green

Acres are on city sewer. So, that's where we're at. And, uh, I know y'all can't really give us a decision tonight, but I wanted you to know where we were on this. And, and if we could, it would sure help Miss Rice out to be able to sell two versus one. And I'll be glad to answer any questions if I Thank you, Billy. And, and he had sent a letter to me last week, and it's also in process of coming all out to you. So, and I knew you were coming tonight. So, I'm glad glad you talked and I'm sure we'll discuss it. I can't say what's going to happen. I understand. Um but but that'll be a point of discussion. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you, Vincent Gwen. Did I pronounce right? All right. Thank you for coming in. I'm here for the new business. I'm restaurant downtown. I'm not sure if I'm jumping the gun here. Wait. And you're here for what? Restaurant. I'm opening a hostility to come here. Okay. Um Oh. Do we have that on the agenda? Was it another alcohol license? Um, yeah. Well, I I did apply for that, but they told me to come here for new business. I think we I think we missed both of our beer and wine licenses. What's is yours a Wayne Street Wayne Street parcel? No, it's a 209 Wayne Street. Yeah. Yeah, that one also has been reviewed, but I know that that one was uh uh set for the June council meeting. Yeah, that one's been reviewed by our office as well. All right. Thank you for coming in. We'll see you again next month. I hope I don't have any more uh public comments. Uh moving to the city administrator update, Mr. Propes. Uh

again, I'll dispense with updates. got four hours of it last week. Do you do you want nothing new there? Nothing else for Chris either. Uh no, sir. Okay. Uh moving to department request, Mr. Still 2025 local road assistance administration funds. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is uh the request that I mentioned last month about a program the state introduced last year. Um, so local road assistance administration funds uh tallying $253,61.76 and I'm asking approval to spend on Breedlove Drive and Davis Street. Breed Love Drive will be the the entirety of it from Alcoi down to West Spring with uh Deep Patch and Overlay. Um Davis Street will be from South Madison um to the dead end and that would be deep patch and milling and overlay as well. Uh totaling roughly 2.1 miles. Um this um money does not require a match so it's they going to get us at some point but I guess it was technically free money. Um just seeking your approval on that. These streets were um were were derived at through using our new software, our street logic software. Um they fell into the categories that we needed to that we put in to see how to best spend the money and this is the product of it. Just seeking your approval on that tonight. Sounds perfect. Thank you, Jeremiah. Are there any questions? I'll entertain a motion. Move to approve. Thank you, Mr. Dickson. Is there a second? Second with Miss Sams. Is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose like sign. Motion carries. That passes. Moving to the tap grant award PI 0016630. Mr. Probes. Thank you, Mayor.

Anyway, we had the um tap grant which we applied for back in 2018 run from North Broad Street um at Marble all the way down to East Highland then down to North Lumpin. Um it's going to be a major streetscape overhaul that's going to kind of tie in um various elements of the streetscaping that we already have that we did with the LCI project way down south broad put that all together and uh just kind of enhance beautifification downtown and the walkability of downtown. So we had to put that out for bid finally after we got dot approval and move through the entire process. bid came back right there in estimates. Um we had a delta of about $200,000 between all the biders. That was good. Um a lot of biders and the low bid was with Shiv Construction LLC $3,879,11925. Um, this will come from Splast, but the best news is we are only responsible for 20% of it because it is a G dot administered federal grant. So that 20% take will be $775,823. So we are uh asking for your approval of this contract with ship construction. Thank you. Are there any questions for Logan? I'll entertain a motion. Move to approve. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Dickson, is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Gregory. Is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose, like sign. Motion carries. That passes. Moving to the AT&T Mobility Corporation lease agreement. Mr. Croy. Thank you, Mayor. Uh before you is a lease agreement

between the city of Monroe and New Singular Wireless or AT&T Mobility Corporation. Um, basically we're seeking your approval to lease out a part of the water tank that sits at Washington and Wayne Street for them to put some equipment up there to increase the um signal here in Monroe. This uh lease agreement term is for 10 years and uh it has an annual rent of 35,000. Just looking for your approval. Thank you. Are there any questions? Mr. Croy, any idea when they would be able to get started? Soon as this signed, we're going to start working on the schedule. Count it. Um I need a Uh, entertain a motion, please. Make a motion, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Malcolm. Is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose like sign. Motion carries. That passes. Thank you, Chris, for working on that. U moving to new business language language access plan resolution. Um, Beth Logan. All right. Thank you, Mayor. Um, this is a language access plan resolution that goes in uh conjunction with HUD funding and or CDB CDBG uh redevelopment fund program with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. So, basically it names Beth Thompson as the coordinator for this LAP language access program for the city of Monroe. And basically what we'll have to do is once we get awarded our um redevelopment uh loan from DCA, we have to put into to place a specialty language access plan those um with limited English that may need access various federal grants and such. Let's see. Any questions for Logan? I'll entertain a motion, please. Motion by Mr. Gregory. Is there a second? Second by Miss Malcolm. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor

signify by saying I. All oppose like sign. Motion carries. That passes. Moving to the appointment of the personal hearing officer. Uh Mr. Probes. Is it personal or personnel? Whatever you want. So uh once again we're going to reappoint or we're requesting to reappoint Mr. Roy E. Manel third with Bentley and Griffin to be our uh contracted personnel hearing officer as part of our personel polic. procedures and as you know uh he hears the eventual appeals um and adjudicates that for us. Okay. Any questions for Logan? Hearing none. I'll entertain a motion. Motion to approve by Miss Sams. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Dickinson. Is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. All oppose like sign. Motion carries. That passes. Moving to the resolution to appoint me as the MIAG voting delegate and Logan as alternate alternate voting delegate. Mr. Propes. Yeah, that's it. That's the resolution. Is there any discussion? Move to approve. Thank you, Mr. Gregory. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose, like sign. Motion carries. That passes. Uh moving to historic preservation member appointment. Mr. Calendarer. Thank you. Uh there are two appointments currently uh that expired actually on May 1st for the historic preservation commission. Those positions are currently held by Jane Camp and Laura Powell. There were only uh one applicants for those two seats to be reappointed were uh by Laura Powell herself for her seat to be reappointed. Uh there was no applicant for the Jane Camp seat. And according to

your code of ordinances, Jane Camp will continue to sit in that seat until there is a appointee designated in the future. So, uh, tonight the recommendation to the city council is to reappoint Laura Powell to a term of three years that will end on May 1st, 2028. And then, as I've stated, Jane Kemp will remain seated until her successor is duly appointed according to the code of ordinances. Thank you, Mr. Calendar. Are there any questions for Brad? I'll entertain a motion. Move to approve. Miss Laura Powell. Thank you, Mr. Gregory. Is there a second? Thank you, Miss Sams. Is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose like sign. Motion carries. That passes. U moving to district items, please. Uh Lee Malcolm. Well, the rain did not hold down the crowds on Saturday. It was a wonderful event, not only in downtown, but even at the McDaniel Tushner House to end up the night 3 to 5, I think, for um the flower flower festival or garden party. So, I'm I'm thankful that people came out and enjoyed themselves. I want to see those numbers. It was it was packed all day in the rain. Uh Miss Crawford, well, it's not necessarily in my my district, but the way we do the parks when they use the parks first come first serve. We need to do something better than that. Actually, we need to do some reserving because issues have come up with that. Chris uh was putting something together and he talked about it the other night. Yeah. So, we don't necessarily have a full reservation system in place for our parks right now. That's going to be a decision. We have one for we created a policy for things like fairgrounds that we have to administer uh in an extracurricular manner, but things that

are park related. For instance, if you wanted to go to a pavilion, it's always been a first come, first serve mantra. So, if that's something this council wishes to change, we're going to have to major internal amendments to how we do things, probably It needs to be done. At least reserve the pavilion that you want to use. Because if you say first come, first serve. I've been here hours and someone else come up say they've been here, it's going to be a problem. So if you reserve it, it wouldn't be much of an issue. I agree. Um let's talk more about how we can do that and add that person. That requires staff to be present that day to manage that. the right person. So, I mean, yeah, you're you're you're creating a whole ripple effect. Right now, we're just managing the parks in terms of making sure that they're ready for whomever wants to enjoy the day. But when we start getting into facility rentals, we're going to have to have Saturday. That's just something we're going to have to look at as far as what that's going to take to make all that. Yeah. Thank you, my um anything else. Mr. Boyce. Good. Miss Sams, wait. Masters in kinesiology. Congratulations. graduated on Saturday. Uh, Miss Sams,

Miss Brown, um, have an event coming up July 26. It is the community impact day. So, every year we do something with Gwyn at Walton Habitat and the city has partnered again and actually Tuscin Community Services um, Giles is here. They are partnering with us this year to do a book bag giveaway. So that's going to be on Saturday, July 26 from 10:00 am to 2. There will be someone there to talk about estate planning, wills, powers of attorney, and heirs property along with the health fair and screenings and the book bag giveaway. That's fantastic. Thank you for doing that. Diamond Ministries, right? Well, Tuskin Community Services. Okay. Okay. All right. Um, Mr. Gregory. Uh I would like to say thanks to electric fire uh anybody else who was involved. That's all that I saw down there. But uh on Sunday, Mother's Day on Fifth Street, a tree fell, took down some uh power lines, blew up a transformer, did some damage to I think some vehicles, but other than that, everybody was okay. And then of course, everybody was out there on the spot taking care of everything. Got power stored. And just want to say thanks to them, and we appreciate how fast they got on it. got everything repaired, had to go out there, say hey to everybody. So, it was a just a great example of how well our city takes care of it citizens. Perfect. Thank you. And there's something else I sent over to you. Did you want to Oh, sure. Sure. So, yeah, I just didn't I was like I know it's great. Um, so, uh, some good news. Um, the city of Monroe partnering with Habitat for Humanity got its chip grant for 13.8 8 million in 2025, which will help us build homes for the next two to three homes for the next uh few years. So, we're pretty excited about that. And uh

I think so, thank the city very much for partnering with Habitat for Humanity to help alleviate some of our affordable housing situations. They they are good folks and do a good job. And if you haven't seen a Habitat house, you should go check one out. I bet you won't know that it's a Habitat house. No kidding. And thank you, Tyler. Mr. Thompson District 7 is all well. I do want to touch on a little MAG thing since uh it's going to affect the city possibly and all 49 cities and counties in MAK. It's a member of MAG. Uh two weeks ago, governmental affairs committee went up and visited Georgia delegation in Washington DC. Just trying to remind them as they go through the budget not to pick the lowhanging fruit as far as tax tax exempt bonds for building power plants and roads and schools and anything else that's government related. Uh and also our build America bonds that we're heavily invested in for building plant boal three and four that if they take that off the table that could end up costing everybody in their utility bills because it will be a pass through. So we got good support from the Georgia delegation. The problem is the Georgia delegation does not have anybody on Ways and Means Committee which will make the final decision or what they will cut out of the $4 trillion cut that they're looking to cut. So we just keep an eye on that and we're politicking it pretty heavy and folks up in Washington they get it. They they know the tax exempt bond should should be okay, which uh you know in in in MAG's uh effect would be $1.3 billion over the next 30 years.

Um and the uh Build America bonds are about $60 million a year that we get a tax credit back from the federal government. So that's kind of what's going on in the power world versus the federal government while they're looking through this budget cycle. So just kind of wanted to keep you advised on what's going on. MAG is working very hard with the lobbyists to make sure that these are not touched. And that's all I have. Thank you, Greg. And thank you for doing that. That that entire MIA Egg team is really really impressive. So got to have cheap power. Well, and we are. Yeah, we've got a very good rate on power. Thank you so much. Uh Mr. Dickinson, nothing additional. Okay, mayoral update. I just put a an article uh from the AJ from this weekend that says Republicans and local government are making life better for residents. really forget Republicans, just put local officials because once you go through and read the article, clearly it was it was written from the standpoint of, hey, the Republicans somewhere did something good. But this talks about every single one of us in this room, every single one of you. Um, and it's it's a real real good read. So that's it for me. Um, I do need uh we do have an executive session, so I just need to adjourn to that. Um, I need a motion, please. Thank you, Mr. Crawford. There's a second. Thank you, Miss Malcolm. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose, like sign. Motion carries. That passes adjourn to executive session. Give us about five minutes.