Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good morning. Welcome to our Board of Commissioners meeting. It's good to see everybody here today. It is Tuesday, March 24. And at this time we'll call the meeting to order. We will start with the invocation and pledge from my very own Doctor. Billy Moss, our senior pastor at Rockdale Baptist. We're glad to have you today.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

It's good to be here. Let's pray. Heavenly father, thank you so much for this beautiful day, Lord. Spring has certainly sprung. And Lord, we just thank you for all of your blessings upon us. We thank for you your blessings on our community. Lord, you tell us in your word to pray for those that are in authority over us. And so, Lord, we ask for wisdom for our leaders. Lord, we ask for protection and peace and grace and mercy for everyone that really serves people, is really serving you with your hands and your feet. So Lord, we thank you, we bless you, and we praise you.

We invite you into this meeting, and may good things come and good things happen because we were here and because you let us and you had your hands on us. And we ask all of these things in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Amen. If everyone will stand, we'll say the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Thank

you. And now we have a special recognition and presentations for our Citizens Academy graduates, Deputy Director Mike White to present.

Thank you Madam Chair. Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning Commissioner Smith, Commissioner Williams. Good to see you. So I'd like to take a moment to highlight a program that's been incredibly meaningful for our community, and that's the Citizens Government Academy. Over the past nine weeks, I've had the privilege of hosting a group of dedicated residents, most of which are with us today, who committed out of their time each week to learn more about how Rockdale County operates. Each session was led by a different county department, giving participants a behind the scenes look at the services we provide, the challenges we face, and the impact of local government on everyday life.

I want to extend a sincere thank you to all of those department heads who are here today, who them and their teams gave time, effort, and passion that they all put into the presentations each week. So for all the department heads, I thank you all for that. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah.

Your willingness to open your doors, share your expertise, engage with our residents, that's what made this program truly special. We got to see numerous facilities, tours, lectures. It was wonderful. I also wanna thank this board of commissioners for your support, for allowing me the opportunity to bring this program together. Your commitment to transparency, education, and community engagement is what made this initiative possible. So thank you to the three of you. I do appreciate it.

Yes.

And last but not least, I wanna recognize the graduates who are with us today. Your dedication to showing up week after week, your thoughtful questions, your genuine enthusiasm made this experience worthwhile. You didn't just attend, you engaged, you learned, and you became ambassadors for our community. So we're proud of each of you, and we hope this is just the beginning of your continued involvement in Rockdale County. Thank you very much.

And before we hand out the diplomas, I do have a video that we're gonna put up on the monitors. And while that's playing, I would like to ask I'm gonna turn this podium around if the three commissioners would stand up on this side of the podium, please. Thank you.

Academy not knowing what to expect, but just knowing that I wanted to get involved, but I need to know the ins and outs. And I'm glad I joined. I've learned so much about the judicial system, resources for all types of people and all types of people going through different things. And I'm I I recommend this program to everybody. Everybody in my business should go to it. Like, I can't I can't I wish it was long. You know? I've been I learned so much and I'm sad. It's my last day, this is awesome. And, shout out to Rockdale for making this possible.

Okay. So graduates, when I call your name, just come forward. I'll hand you your diploma. You can shake the hands of the commissioners, and then just line up over here to my right, we'll form a line. So we'll queue up the pomp and circumstance, and we'll start with Donna Davis.

Mary Torres. Reverend Warren Potter. Stephanie Thomas. Congratulations. Cedric McCray.

Monty Telford. Adele Telford. Angela DePortich. Connie Lasenby. Congratulations. Isabelle Wagner.

You're welcome.

Melcoma Brown. Luis Caldera. Melissa Pugh. Philip

Thomas.

Mikayla Schultz. She's not the first. She's not the first. The rest of the graduates were not able to attend today, but I would still like to oh, you are here. Okay. You are here. Okay. Well, it's okay because I got the certificate. So when you hear your name, just come up. Veronica De Antak.

De Somda. Chandler Richberg. Dee Reese. Samuel Jamieson. Tony Hughes.

Erica Hawthorne. And Sherry Blake. So ladies and gentlemen, our Citizens Academy graduates. And now who wants a group picture? Very welcome. Squeeze in here. There we go. Sorry. We may have to do one of those pans. I'm definitely tall, so I should be tall.

Sure. Yeah. Tall people bang. Yeah. Congratulations, buddy.

Oh, yeah. We could. If anyone wants to stand back there, you can. Thank you, guys. Thank you very much.

Whoever whoever has the responsibility of naming the director of public relations, Mike did a great job. So I don't know

who that

is. Thank you. Deputy Director White, can you come back to the podium for a minute, please?

Yes, ma'am.

I just wanted to publicly thank you for all of your hard work that you and your team put into this whole program. It's exactly what we envisioned, and we love to hear the good feedback when people learn more about our county and are able to dive a little bit deeper into information and understand the complexity of operations at the county as well as the hard work that goes into making it all come together. So tell our directors, deputy directors, and staff members that interacted with the Citizens Academy, kudos to every single person, but thank you for your leadership.

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you very much. And thank you, commissioners. Thank you.

Alright. At this time, we have public comment. Do we have any that would like to speak today?

I have not received any cards.

Okay. It

looks like we do have one person. Okay. Yes.

Okay. Thank you. If you'd like to come to the podium. Thank you, chief. Alright. Miss Sutherland? Yes. Okay. Very good. And if you wanna pull the microphone down so we can hear you a little bit better for those listening at home.

Okay. Can y'all hear me?

We can. Okay. Thank you.

No problem. My name is Keani Sutherland. I'm one of the homeowners at Callaway Crossings. And I just wanted to come and ask a couple of questions about what's going on in our neighborhood. I think everyone should be aware of it if y'all are not.

Oh, we're we are aware, but let me tell you upfront that that our customer for the Rockdale Water Resources is the HOA. And we've been working with Carl Rogers and, there's another lady, Kelly, that's also been emailing that we've

been responding to.

Kelly Griffin?

Kelly Griffin. Yes. Mhmm. So we've been responding to them, trying

to work.

Well, we have not heard from anyone on the board. Roger, from my understanding, was out of the country. Palestine is the vice president. She has not said anything. And Carl, we have different issues about Carl being on the border. So yeah. So my main question was I know okay. So you're saying that you have been in communication with them. So we wanna know directly if you do know if the water would actually be cut off tomorrow. We have not heard anything from anyone.

So we do have further conversation by twelve today with them. Okay. And so director Kimberly Peek is also here and he's been working and this has been an ongoing matter for many months that we've been trying to resolve. And I'm not sure if you were on the online Zoom that was offered a couple of months ago.

I was.

But the intent was really to make sure residents were aware of the concerns. Right. So that it wouldn't be a surprise and so we hope that those communications were continued on the HOA's behalf.

They were not and we were aware once that meeting would happen but we wasn't aware of how bad it was and we now have some proof of the inconsistent payments and the non communication that's been going on.

Right.

So, we have held a petition. Well, yeah. I've held a meeting to do a petition so that we can hold a new, vote because we did not have one in February to change the board.

I see. I will tell you that the members that we met with were very helpful at the beginning and so I think that they understand that Rockdale County is serious about making sure that accounts are current. Mhmm. So I know that we will continue to work on the best and in the best interest for Rockdale County citizens.

Well, we appreciate y'all but the board has to go. Are there any other protections that can be in place for their homeowners that that we're not responsible for because of the HOA's debt?

Not that we're aware of.

Okay. And is there any other immediate steps that the county can take to prevent this from the families losing their water?

Right and that's certainly our goal. I will say that in communication with Carl just yesterday that additional payments have been made and so we are working closer to hopefully finding a resolution. That's our ultimate goal. I will say that I personally reached out to Partnership for Community Action because we weren't aware that there were some delinquent accounts. Those delinquent accounts could actually apply through Partnership for Community Action for some relief Mhmm. But we're not sure what that would look like. Again, it depends on their funding. They're a separate nonprofit.

Okay. And you said they were who?

Partnership for Community Action. They're open 7AM to I believe 4PM. And they're located at 1400 Parker Road. They do prefer that calls are made instead of walk ins is what their website said.

I do not have a pen. Is there any way you can give me that information?

I will. I'll be glad to do that for you. If you stay for the meeting, I'll give it to you after. I'll write it down for you. Okay? Alright. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Next, we have Ms. Simmons. Qualley Simmons?

Qualley.

Oh, Qualley. Thank you for the correction. Hello. My apologies. Good morning.

Where do I begin? I live off of Farmer Road where they're building a data center.

Which road? Farmer. Oh, Farmer. Okay.

And so, madam chair and I'm sorry to interrupt right when you get started. So just a a disclaimer that if you are talking about a specific item that is going through the public hearing process, we can't hear that, but you can talk about it in general terms.

Meaning?

Meaning, if there is a specific development that's going on, just don't reference the specific development because there is a public hearing scheduled for Thursday night, for some of these things.

I'll be at that one as well.

Right. That's what that's reserved for. However, you may talk about it in general terms, if there's something you want to address the board this morning. If not, Thursday night would be the appropriate venue. And we're gonna be the same people you said? Right. It's gonna be the same people.

Okay. So would you rather me wait Thursday?

If it's about a specific development, I would recommend that.

And I'll be here after the meeting. About taxes,

home taxes?

Sure. Go ahead.

Okay.

We're working really hard to reduce Yes. We can talk about that.

So my taxes doubled. I went from paying 2,400 a month for my mortgage to $4,600 a month for my mortgage. That's crazy.

Yeah, that sounds like something's wrong. I I called didn't set you up with all the right people.

I called them. They told me everything was correct.

Okay.

But because of the way you I guess my house went from being worth 500,000 to 900,000. Yeah. So my taxes blew up my mortgage. This is putting people out of their homes. Now what if I couldn't afford to pay

that? Right.

I'd be in the street.

Yeah. And we all understand the seriousness of that. And I will say, as a board, we've been committed to working on reducing the budget. All of our department heads and other offices have worked really hard to cut any wasteful spending. We're analyzing contracts, we've done a lot of things that I think are gonna yield very good results.

Last year we were able to roll back the millage rate, but that's not as much as I'd like to see it reduced and so we're continuing to look for those opportunities to save. But after the meeting I'd be glad to talk to you because those numbers do seem a little bit interesting but don't align with what we've seen as a trend in the community. So Thank you. I appreciate your time today. Alright. Our next item is approval of the agenda.

I move to approve the

agenda as published. Madam Chair, I second that motion.

I have a motion and a second all in favor say aye aye aye the motion carries the approval of the minutes from March 10

ma'am chair I move to approve the minutes as presented I second the motion

I have a motion and a second All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. The motion carries. Item number seven, we do not have any unfinished business at this time. So we'll move to item eight, which is new business.

Okay. Item one seventy three is with the Department of Community Affairs through Planning and development department. This is for the program participation agreement for the Georgia Housing and Finance Authority and the Department of Community Affairs. It's reimbursement to conduct the point in time count. It's eight hundred seventy nine dollars in reimbursements. The term was 01/01/2026 through 04/30/2026, and this is submitted for ratification.

Will you continue? I will. Thank you.

Alright. So item one seventy four is with PMA Management Corporation for the emergency management Agency for property damage release. The amount is $36,618.70. That's to be paid to Rockdale County. It's one time only and through the general fund. And to clarify,

that was for replacement of a sure's car? Yes. Correct. Okay. Insurance payment. Yes.

That's correct. Thank you. Item 175 is with D and S Doyle Electric for fire rescue. This is to purchase and install a 50,000 kilowatt fixed generator at Fire Station Number 4. The amount is $15,826 in CIP funds and 890 and $89,684 in grant funds. This must be completed within one hundred eighty days from the notice to proceed. This is a budgeted item. And CIP has capital improvement plan. Okay.

Thank

you. No acronyms. Right?

That's right. No acronyms.

We love them. Item one seventy six is with SHI International Corporation through the technology services department for email attack protection and support renewal. The amount is $36,036. The term is 03/25/2026 through March 24 2027. This is through the general fund and is a budgeted item.

Item one seventy seven is with Comcast Business through technology services department. This is for Comcast Network and cybersecurity Modernization, SD WAN SASE upgrade, and someone else will have to decipher those acronyms. Change order number three to contract twenty twenty one dash two twelve. The amount is $3,321,673.80. It's a savings of $298,193 per year through 2030. So the first five years is $1,000,490 $490,968 for five years. This is through the general fund and is a budgeted item. And can we

hear from the our department of technology services regarding that contract? Good morning.

Good morning.

How are you? Good

morning, madam commissioners. So what this represents is a in scope contract change order for Comcast. What it does it it increases our security posture. It also represents a saving of savings of about $1,500,000 over the five year life of the contract. So therefore benefiting the citizens of the county by reducing our overall spend for IT services from Comcast. Also bundled in that is additional security related to our network monitoring system, that's part of that. So we have twenty four seven three sixty five coverage network monitoring as part of that.

Do we know if in this con contract, can you clarify if they will pay fees and get permits for any cable being laid or fiber being run?

Normally they do ma'am and other instances where we have used Comcast and it was necessary for them to install WAN circuits at different locations they did have to pull the permits in order to do that.

Okay. Yeah. I just like to make sure that we're doing that because the change through the Department of Transportation in Rockdale has actually garnered a good revenue stream. I think we were at 45,000 last I heard for the year, so that's really good. But I know there was a question about Comcast. So thank you for making sure that that's clarified.

Yes, ma'am. Okay.

Any other questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.

Item $1.78 is a requisition through the water resources department for envelopes and forms doing business as SureBill. This is for the annual printing cost for the water bills and inserts. The amount is $305,120. This is through the water enterprise fund and is a budgeted item. Item one seventy nine is a requisition requisition through the water resources department for online information services for online utility exchange for water customer service in an amount not to exceed $22,000.

This is through the water Enterprise Fund and is a budgeted item. Item one eighty is a requisition to the technology services department for TSA for rubric software and support renewal. The amount is $69,855.24. This is through the general fund and is a budgeted item. Item one eighty one is a requisition to the general services department for Yancey Power Systems.

This is for repairs to selected site generators. The amount is $29,639.40. This is through the general fund and is a budgeted item. Item one eighty two is a list of surplus equipment, and you can find that list and those items at www.govdeals.com. We have parks and recreation through the senior services division, superior court, technology services, the transportation department, and water resources.

Item one eighty three is a volunteer appointment to the board of adjustment for Leslie Lambert. This is a reappointment. The term is 02/01/2026 through 02/01/2030. Item one eighty four is a resolution to modify certain job descriptions to designate critical infrastructure roles and responsibilities during county emergencies. Item one eighty five is a resolution to provide for the county supplement to the secretary slash treasurer of the board of trustees for the Rockdale County law law library. And one eighty six is the Rockdale County volunteer management plan through the emergency management agency

and director Webb can you tell us a little bit about that program and your plan

good morning madam chair commissioners so the volunteer management plan is a plan that we would utilize in a large scale disaster for the county it pretty much would set a place that all volunteers internally within the county or outside organizations would come in and we would account for those personnel make sure that they're trained and where we're going to send them out to, we would designate them go to certain areas of the county and do a job that they're specific and qualified to do, so it

just keeps our pretty much accountability, keeps everybody in house and make sure that we account for everyone that comes to the county and what they're doing for safety issues. And if citizens and businesses wanted to get involved they would send volunteers through the community emergency resource team training?

They could do that, yes, as a CERT, community emergency response team is basic training that you can utilize for yourself of how to protect yourself and react to disaster or after that initial training you can have part of our reaction team, but as far as volunteers, we're always taking volunteers in for any type of you know incident large scale small scale, considering warming centers or if we had a tornado for a debris management or damage assessment, so if anybody's in kind you know wants to be a volunteer in any type of sort just contact the Ruttle County Ritz Management Agency.

Okay and do you have a number for that? Or we can put it on the, filming if you would like.

Okay. But that number is (770) 278-8405.

Okay. Very good. And I know we're still looking for volunteers Always. Churches, nonprofits, citizens.

So, yep. There's there's

a place for everybody to serve, and we will help them and accommodate them to make sure that we can all respond together.

Okay. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Alright. Do you have a motion? So

I move that we approve items 173 to 186 as presented.

And Chair, I second the motion.

I have a motion and a second. Any questions? No. All right. All in favor say aye. Aye. The motion carries. At this time we have board comments. And I'd be glad to start with Commissioner Okay.

Alright. So I am super excited about tonight because we have our The Arts Matter Program. It is going to be really phenomenal. It will be from six to eight at JP Carr. It will be an intellectual as well as an immersive experience in the arts.

We have I can't remember her last name, but Roshani, who is from the Atlanta Regional Commission, who will be our keynote speaker, and she'll be presenting information specific to Rockdale in terms of the arts. I'll be talking about a resolution that the legislature just passed regarding arts and mental health. We wanna we want people to leave having felt the arts and having learned something about how the arts impact mental health and physical health and how it's a big driver of economic development. So I invite everybody to come tonight, 06:00 at the JP Carr Center. We will have some food for you to eat, and there will be a collaborative art experience that everybody will get to participate in.

It's gonna be really cool. So I hope to see you there.

Alright. Just want to thank everyone for coming out, to our KCRB shredding event that was this past Saturday. It was a phenomenal success. Thank you to our volunteers and to the sponsors for our, event. We really appreciate it and we had a overwhelming we had overwhelming success with it and the people are already asking for our next one. So, we are in the works and planning our next one. And also, just a reminder that we have constituent services available at our library on Fridays from ten to twelve and that is through collaboration with Congressman David Scott's office those are my comments see you at 06:00 tonight yes because

we have partnered together and I forgot to say that I apologize.

Is okay.

Have worked together on this. No problem.

All right. Well thank you very much. I appreciate the event you're holding tonight and I'm gonna try and be there too because it sounds really fun. I did want to get an update from director Hammer from general services about 1400 Parker Road. I know that summer is coming. Spring's off to a great start. So can you give us an update on the skate park and all the other things we're

doing exciting things. I

like talking to He

was like,

oh. Yes.

I was a little

scared for

him. Yeah. Don't be too.

Good morning. Yes. The the Wheeler Park South, is the park. There's all kinds of things. If you remember a couple years ago, it was just a grassy spot with a backstop. And, since then, we've completed, an amphitheater, a fitness court, three pickleball courts, the playground, and the pavilion pavilion are completed. The restroom, was completed. They had some issues when they tied in the plumbing, so we had to close that down for a couple days as they tied, some of the items in for the splash park. The skate park concrete was just they finished their last pour. If you watched it go together, was really neat watching them piece it together and build it up and then pour concrete, put more pieces, and, it's really kinda cool how that came together.

And, it was neat too because the guys that put it together are skateboarders. So every morning and every evening, they get done and they have to skateboard for a

few weeks.

So that

was kinda neat. So they they finished the last pour. They're doing their the cleanup, the landscaping, everything around it. We'll install some signage soon, so that will be completed in a few weeks. And then the last element is the splash pad that's going in, and we expect that to be done. We're hoping that the schedule, if the weather permits, we'll have that done by Memorial Day, and we'll be able to open up the whole thing.

Okay. And can you talk about the garden?

Oh, yes. The the garden, we've also received a grant from the US Department of Agriculture. We're putting in a gazebo, a wellness deck that we can hold classes, and and programs out there, as well as sidewalks. We're changing the fencing a little bit, putting up some signage, and doing a lot of landscaping. There's several elements to the I'm I'm calling it landscaping, but it's really gardening. Medicinal herbs that they install in a certain section. And then there's two or three different plant beds that they can have programs to show people how to plant, what to plant, and and what the benefits are, the different herbs and and things that they plant out there.

Okay. And just for the public's knowledge that we call that the lawn. The lawn. So the right so if you're looking at 1400 Park Road, you'd notice that our tennis centers on the left with a playground for young children. And then on the right side of the building is what we call the lawn, and that's where the amphitheater and the skate park and water splash pad and all those things are.

Oh, and disc golf. I forgot to

mention disc golf

in the

back there.

Yes. My kids would be very angry if I forgot to mention that one.

Yes. So So

lots ding.

More difficult. Yep.

It's a very busy place these days. So we encourage people to get out and do more things like that.

Thank you. I drove past there last night. I mean, it was dusk. The parking lot was full.

Mhmm. Mhmm.

There was all kinds of people there. Now when I came back and it was dark, it was empty.

Mhmm.

But it was still I mean, it was after 08:00 when I drove past and it was crowded. It was

Well used. Yes, ma'am. Yeah.

We're excited about Okay. Did wanna say that we are going to start a farmer's market in the community. And so tentatively, that's scheduled Sunday, April 19, just right before Earth Day. So we like the tie in for that month. It will be one to four on that Sunday, and we are looking for vendors. So if anybody knows anyone that not only does farming, but may make, you know, butters, cheeses, floral arrangements, any of those things, artisans are welcome. So please reach out to us. We would love to hear from you. At, 1400 Park Road at the lawn, which should be the right side of the park. So, you can exercise and then come eat at the farmer's market.

So, additionally, I wanted to mention, I did go to the Cherry Blossom Festival this weekend, and it had to be the most well attended Cherry Blossom Festival that I've seen ever. It was the forty fifth anniversary of the Cherry Blossom Festival because for those of you that remember, it used to be at 1400 Parker Road. And those cherry trees were actually planted at 1400 Parker Road by Maxell, which is the corporation that, built that building originally. So, I will say the Cherry Blossom Festival is great to see so many neighbors out there and people from outside of the county that just enjoyed spending their money right here in Rockdale. So we always are grateful for that.

And then I did want to mention that we did receive approval for a $1,900,000 grant from the Senator John Ossoff and Senator Raphael Warnock's office announced that we received that and that will be for our senior center and it will be on the South Side somewhere. We have not picked a spot yet but we're looking forward to that as well. And then last, I just wanted to ask Chief Jimmy Robinson if you'd give us an update on your great recruit class and lateral transfers, how that's working.

The current one or the one coming up?

Whatever is best news. It's good.

Thank you, and good morning. So we have a recruit class that's, about to finish up. They'll be done, April 21, I believe it is, that Friday, and they'll be coming out. So eight new staff members that will, be on fire trucks. They'll be, fully certified as EMT, EMT basics, firefighter one, firefighter two, and hazmat operations and awareness. So that's they've been through a lot of school, they've learned a lot of things. You imagine some of them just come out of high school last year, and now they've learned all these new these new things. So we're excited to have them. We already had two come out of this class that were already EMTs. They already had training, so we didn't have to go back through that training again with them.

So they're already on shift. We'll be having a graduation soon for all of them. Of course, we invite you guys to be there again. So we also just brought on three laterals, which a lateral firefighter is is great to us because they're already trained. They got training somewhere else. We bring them in for a couple of weeks, vet them, make sure that they can do what they say they do. So they we brought three in last week, and by Friday, they'll be done. And Saturday they'll start on trucks. So anytime we can bring that in, that's that's a lot of training that they don't have to go through with us. So we have another recruit class coming up.

We were able to fill all the slots. So we will actually they'll have to go through their training. But if if we keep on track the way we're going now, we'll actually be full and have no vacancies towards the end of this year. So that's That's commendable. That's that's certain certainly something that we're we're we're looking forward to. So we've we've we've been very busy. So we're also doing captain, lieutenant, and sergeant promotions right now to to fill slots so that we make room for those those positions positions coming up. So

And one of the good things about lateral transfers is not only do they bring experience, but it is a cost savings because typically they have to go through twenty four weeks of training.

So it's it's about thirty six. Okay. It is. Between EMT and fire. And one of them is actually a rehire. He he worked here before and left here about four or five years ago. So he already knows the county. One of them lives here in the county, and the other one had twenty three years with Gwinnett. So it's it's he's got a lot of experience.

So Wonderful. So Well, thank you for your leadership and that of your leadership team.

Okay. Thank you.

Alright. You.

So let me just say, I'm excited about to hear about those lateral moves in because we've heard a lot about moves out to other agencies so that that really makes me happy.

Thank you, ma'am.

All right. Madam Clerk, do we have a need for executive session today no madam chair okay at this time I'll call the meeting adjourned thank you for coming to visit with us today and learn more about our county