Remarks by Bob Ellis
208 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 5 of 9
- Play at 2:26:01
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Board of Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 2:29:41
“Okay, just two or three quick questions. Okay. And just sort of points of emphasis. All right, so if you go back to page three, all of this, the schedule of this outline really is predicated on this balancing thing to happen, right? Correct. All right, and so for us to be able to be sitting here on September 16th approving a proposed millage rate, when does our staff need that information by to make that part work?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 2:30:37
“Okay, so that means we got a week, is that what that means?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 2:30:59
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Board of Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 2:31:20
“Okay, all right. Thank you for that. And then in terms of for our staff and everything, we've got obviously dates on here that we're gonna have to meet. So we're just all queued up for that. We've got all the folks that need to be queued up in terms of the advertisement. And the clerk notes here that we're gonna have to have To stay on the schedule, we're gonna have to have a special called meeting in September, correct? For the public hearings, yes, sir. Okay. There's no way to accelerate this schedule the way it's laid out.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 2:33:44
“Okay. All right, so absent. The key data I heard from you on that is unless the September 16th piece moves, the rest of it is fixed. Is that a fair statement?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 2:34:08
“Okay, all right. Well, I would just say this, just to close this out. Obviously, the critical nature of this cannot be understated. We got a timeline now that's on record. We had one one before, we missed it. We cannot afford to miss this again. And just whatever, for all parties involved in it, we've got to prioritize getting all of that stuff done and over to our staff. by the 15th and all the other local governments as well because we're gonna need them to do all the same work that we have to do, right? So hopefully when we come back on the 15th or 16th, whatever day that is, that this is…”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:33:53
“Yeah. It's August 19th, so I guess it's good that we finally got started. We're only at 26% of our goal for this year, so that is still a failure on something we called out as a high degree of importance, but it's good we're making progress, but significant amount of progress additionally needs to be made. And people have the tools to do it, and we just don't need any other excuses. We need to see the action occur and the hires to get made. So thanks for the report. Hopefully we'll continue to see that move in that direction.”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 1:47:34
“Commissioner Ellis. It's kind of interesting that our population went up, sort of coincide with the World Cup, just observation. Streets look different, too, during that period of time, too. I know different points we've had, probably go back and look at patterns. Sometimes there's a correlation with that. And also, we had... courts shut down for portions of that period of time or lessened during that period of time as well?”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 1:48:14
“Well, I mean, I think therein lies part of the thing is like, you got this going on over there, there's no reason for us to slow down stuff. Really, and it shouldn't take us to go sit over there with a group of elected officials to say, this is an issue, we need to drive behavior and change it and move cases through the system faster. A couple quick follow-through questions on here, which will speak to some of the comments I just made. So on this automated text, it says anticipated launch. We had anticipated launch last time too. Maybe I misheard you. Is this taking place or not taking place?…”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 1:49:08
“Okay. So a day that keeps moving. I mean, just sort of speaks to a sense of urgency and movement. Bond review calendar. Is this to be interpreted that there were 80 to 130 that were reviewed in this first batch and then they held those calendars with 21 people or was this more like this target population impact was we thought it would be higher in terms of the number of people that were gonna be reviewed?”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 1:50:31
“Yeah, I mean, I realize it's the first time they've done it, and I think it's important to learn from it, and you'd expect either sort of one or two things to happen. Slow, because we got fewer things coming through, or within the first couple months, see a larger amount, because you picked off more low-hanging fruit, if you will, kind of things, cases that would probably tend to be obvious. So are there, is this a, are these like specific judges that are running these calendars or is it a rotation?”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 1:51:15
“So there's, How are the Superior Court judges involved in this? Well, they're not hearing these cases. It's the magistrate judge. Right, I know, but in terms of just identification, I mean, they've got their own caseloads and stuff. Are they recommending, you know, are they doing their own sort of review of their case logs to say, hey, you know, these are candidates for the review calendar?”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 1:51:46
“I just think that there, at some point in here too, you would expect that there are learnings that should help inform some of this stuff, how bonds are getting set on the front end. Right.”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 1:52:30
“And I thought we had, we were, when we had initially, I thought they had proposed, they being the Superior Court judges, had proposed back the concept of their own, running their own separate calendar on that indicted bucket.”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 1:53:02
“Okay. Because that's obviously a larger portion of the population, right, in terms of that. And the people that are aging cases and so forth and all that sort of stuff. And it would be opportunities for intersection with the ankle monitor piece as well as just... lowering bonds, et cetera. On the consolidated trial and motions calendar, so this, I just want to make sure, this is not, okay, it hasn't started yet, or it has started yet, I'm just trying to square up the piece about the grant.”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 1:54:07
“So it doesn't, that doesn't get you any further than where you are, that just gets you to where you were. Am I misinterpreting that? No, that's correct. Okay. So we should have those numbers quantified. Is there any ability to not tread in water? Is there any discussion about a framework for... And when this was started, I guess that was the thing too, right? When they got the grant, it was to move cases faster. Did that actually happen? I mean, what sort of data do we have to show that it actually did happen? Because that should naturally be the question before we go and fund it. that this…”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 2:25:18
“I don't know if it might be appropriate, Mr. Chair, to let them just to wrap the rest of the presentation up. You had a couple, because there was like one or two more slides, right?”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 2:27:00
“Okay, Commissioner Ellis. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the report. And I want to thank the staff, too, for all the work on this. And is Fulton County a transit agency? No, right? But with your assessment and looking at this, you would say that we have probably the most extensive senior transportation program that you've seen within comparable counties in the state.”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 2:27:38
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 2:29:11
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 2:34:57
“Okay. I'm not gonna belabor this particular point, because I think it's just, a lot of the stuff is sort of self-evident, and the stuff out in front of us, you know, we'd be, foolish not to take the next steps on it. Mr. Chair, just to memorialize this, I'm gonna certainly make a motion to accept this report, but also to, so that we provide a little bit of direction back to our staff, that we initiate discussions, we direct the county manager and county attorney to initiate discussions with MARTA regarding an IGA under which Marta could participate in the funding and potentially the operation…”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 2:35:54
“Okay. Annette, the exploration of that, sort of contemplate the following things, MARTA engaging in funding responsibility for portions or all of the program indexed to kind of where we are right now and some sort of potentially growth escalators on that based upon sales tax growth, that we would retain kind of the authority to establish design of the program and determine the manner in which it's operated, whether directly like we're doing it now or through MARTA or through some sort of combination. And then if there were some funding agreement that would reach that it would sort of line up,…”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 2:37:47
“Now, to actually explore an IGA with them, with Maura, I mean, that we roll up our sleeves and jointly start talking, I mean, and I'm not repeating the motion, I'm just summarizing it, that we get together collectively with Maura, have our staff to sit down and engage in terms of a potential IGA framework in which it could be a participatory arrangement, both, both funding and operations, or some combination thereof. We'll see kind of where it emerges out and shakes out. But it's a directive not to study it, but to actually explore it and sit down and engage in conversations around it.…”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 2:38:34
“Yeah, no, there's no financial obligation on either party in this. It's just that we're acknowledging and providing the direction that, like, We need to start it and start a serious dialogue around it and get going on it. I see this no different than different matters of scale and all that, but I don't see any different than any other things that have started, like the stuff that led us down the path of T-Splice or the stuff that led us down the path with you know, Grady and the hospital that we'll be moving forward with in Union City, right? It started with that direction from our board to…”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 19, 2026