Mayor and Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you, sir. Sure, sir. We uh this is about my third or fourth time to do this and you you have you have been traveling a lot. I think the pro Tim has been taking your place, but it it it's usually a crowd like this.

Okay. Just just my last one wasn't I guess it was good to check I'd go back to Panama City.

Hallelujah.

[laughter]

All right, we'll go ahead and get started uh for the May 4th meeting of the mayor and council. We have with us tonight um Pastor Richard Walker with Hurt Road Baptist Church, 17 Hurt Road. If you'll come up and lead us in the invocation and pledge, and we're glad to have you. Everybody, please rise.

Thank you, sir. Well, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for your blessing and I'm thankful for this city council and the mayor. And Lord, I'm thankful that they give of their time and give of their wisdom that I think you've given them to help lead our city. So, Lord, just give them that wisdom and blessing tonight. Help all the decisions that are made be done uh rightly and in order. And and Lord, just just may your hand of blessing be upon this place. Lord, we know that your holy word has said, "Righteousness exalts a nation." And I also think it does a state and a city. And that's what we're praying for as we just turn to you for all the help that we need and to follow you and the dictates of your holy word. So Lord, bless us tonight in Jesus's name. Amen. If we'll pledge. 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, sir.

Pastor, thank you for being with us tonight. Appreciate you. We don't have any agenda changes tonight. Uh, next item is the mayoral report. and we were talking upstairs about all the the things that have happened since the last time we met and I could probably give about an hour long mayoral report tonight. Uh I don't want to keep all the the huge crowd that we have tonight um away from their families. So I'll just go over some of this stuff. Um we had the Jon festival which was one of the most successful ones we've ever had uh despite a little bit of rain this weekend. I think everybody had a great time. On Saturday morning, we had the uh Jon jog, which raises money for uh support Smyrna and the Campbell High School Education Foundation. We had over 750 runners, which was our biggest in several years. Um so appreciate everybody that came out for that. And I want to mention uh Nick Connor, a special runner this year, 91 years old uh from uh from here in Smyrna. And uh if you might you you might already have guessed he won his age division. Uh we had uh mayor's education awards a week ago Thursday uh where we honored our best and brightest uh students here in Smyrna at the community center with a dinner for them and their families rolled out the red carpet and really celebrated uh those students who have overachieved and we're glad to do that. We had a dedication um week ago Sunday for Dr. David Martin, the linear park over by uh Zoya um off Concord Road. We It was a nice tribute to Dr. David Martin. Had a great crowd. Um and it is now the David Martin uh park. So glad glad to do that and that was a brainchild of Travis Lindley. Uh so I thank him for that. Uh the handmade market started this weekend. Um we had last Friday opened up

the splash pad at Riverline Park. Uh that's been a long time in the making. Uh Lewis Wheaten, former councilman, uh got that started. Ricky Oglesby shephered that through. Appreciate your efforts there. And that is now up and running and going to be used uh by I wish it was a little bit warmer out when we did it. It was a little chilly, but all those kids didn't care. They just ran right out into the water like it was nothing. Um that's over at Riverline Park. Um, the Garden Club of Smyrna had their garden tour, annual garden tour uh since we last met. And also a note, the garden club is going to be beautifying the area of the Veterans Memorial out here under the Blue Star Plaque. So, if you see them out there working, thank them for what they're doing. They're going to make that look uh do with some landscape and make that look awfully nice. We had a rebuilding together Atlanta day of service where we uh met with first responders. Some of the council members were there and some staff to uh clean up um the grounds of this woman's home who's here in Smyrna. Glenn Pickkins put that together uh with Rebuilding Together Atlanta. This was the 40th site that we've worked with them on. These are um folks who can't keep up with their properties themselves, have you know medical issues or or other circumstances. It makes it difficult. So, it's another uh instance of our uh community helping those in need. So, uh thank you Glenn for putting that together. That was a good that was a good thing and the the the transformative nature of it. I mean, if you'd seen that property when we got there and then when everybody left, it really was remarkable what was uh done in one morning for that uh for that Smyrna residence for Smyrna resident. And then the only other thing I have is uh food truck Tuesdays start tomorrow. So, we're looking forward to seeing everybody out at Bronner. That concludes my mayoral report. I hope

I got through all those things uh quickly enough. I I just want to say that just is a example of how many great things we have going on in the city. That was from the last council. That was from two weeks ago. That's everything that's happened. Uh and I'm sure there's more that we're not mentioning. So, uh pretty awesome stuff. We have uh one proclamation this evening. I'm glad to have our guest with us here tonight. Uh we have a proclamation in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month 2026. U this is um was this was to be jointly presented by Councilman Lindley and Councilwoman Hines. U I should note that Councilman Welch, Councilman Lindley are are traveling this evening, not with us. So I will turn it over to Councilwoman Hines.

Thank you so much, Mayor. Um yes, uh Council Member um Lindley and I were sponsoring this and we're thankful to you for agreeing to do this. Um uh as a person who's been in uh the uh government sector and public safety sector for 20some years um I've just seen the fact that we need to have more mental health awareness and um that's one of the reasons why I wanted to help sponsor this. So we have a proclamation. May is uh the month for purposes of mental health awareness and green is also the color for it. So thank you for the green. A proclamation by the mayor of the city of Smyrna in recognition of mental health awareness month 2026. Whereas May was first recognized in 1949 is mental health awareness month to educate, raise awareness, and recognize the importance of mental health and behavioral health. And whereas mental and behavioral health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being, it affects how we think, feel, and act. It also affects how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. And whereas, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five Americans will experience a mental illness in a given year, impacting individuals, families, and communities in profound ways. And whereas every person shares the responsibility to promote mental wellness, support prevention efforts, and foster a culture of care and understanding. And whereas the need for comprehensive coordinated mental and behavioral health service is critical to the strength and future of our community. And whereas the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020 established 988 as the nationwide three-digit number for mental health crisis provided AC uh access to trained counselors for immediate support. And

whereas mental health awareness month continues to emphasize community stigma reduction and importance of supporting one another so that all individuals can experience more good days. And whereas every resident and community can help end the silence and stigma surrounding mental illness and encourage those in need to seek help. And now therefore, I, Derek Norton, mayor of the city of Smyrna, Georgia, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as mental health awareness month and call upon our citizens, government agencies, public and private institutions, businesses, law enforcement, and schools to recommmit to increasing awareness and understanding of mental and behavioral health, promoting resilience, and ensuring access to appropriate and accessible services for all. And that would be today, the fourth day of 2026. And uh mayor, today we have with us um uh Bisa Erbina who is the uh chief executive director of Surf Familia. And just to tell you a little bit about Berisa, Bisa has been a leader in the community locally and nationally. She's a member of prevent child abuse uh Georgia advisory board in Georgia and Georgia's child protective services and is a former uh chairperson of Kennstone Hospital's regional board of directors. And she can tell you a little bit more about um Sir Familia, which uh serves to um provide mental health resources and other resources in the Latino community. Bisa is uh way way there's so many things I can say about her and her accomplishments a couple years ago. Um first lady uh um Norton and uh Kathy Young and I were able to um acknowledge her during Women's History Month. So um without further ado, I'd like to see if Felicia could come up and tell us a little bit about Sir Familia and I think

she has some board members here.

Y'all can all come up if you want to. Thank you for being here. Thank you so much for having me and for honoring this important month uh especially in this time that we are seeing so many issues related to mental health especially among our youth. Uh so familia provides services not only to Latinos to the community at large. We have been in the Smyrna community for over 14 years and we are ready to expand our footprint by opening a community clinic in the upcoming months that is going to serve uh no cost and lowcost uh provide no cost and low cost services to uninsured uh residents of the city of Smyrna and you know adjacent areas. Um, Samilia has been serving um the community in Georgia in five offices for the last 25 years. We two years ago we also open an office in Puerto Rico to expand our uh footprint there. What we do is support families um you know parenting classes, couples programs, programs for youth, um obviously mental health services from the spectrum from psychiatric services on the deeper end to counseling and group therapy. So, it is my honor to be part of the Smyrna community and for Sir Familia to be part of this beautiful city and to be able to uh serve the residents of the city of Smeirna. And I appreciate you being always our cheerleader and helping us and looking out for us. And mayor, you and I have known each other for a while. So, it's always my pleasure to see you.

Nice to see you, too. and thank you for all you do and for all all y'all do for uh for those inspir who need it. Thank you. I'm joined here by part of our board members. So very happy that we're here tonight. Can we get a photo with you with the Okay,

100%. Why don't we stand right in the middle? Appreciate y'all again.

No, thank you so much for having us.

Oh, yeah. As exciting as the agenda is, you don't have to stay. So, don't feel don't feel bad. All right, we're going to move on to the rest of the agenda. We don't have any community development items tonight or privilege license or show cause hearings. We have four items under formal business. Uh item A, authorization to reclassify that the fire hydrant inspector uh to an operation support program manager while maintaining the pay grade of government five. Is there anything to add,

Mr. Jones? Mr. Mr. Mayor, so the fire department is proposing to reclassify this particular existing position of fire hydrant inspector to operation support manager and it's a change in um the organizational knowledge, increased dependent judgment and regular coordination with different divisions. No impact to the budget. Staff recommends approval.

Any discussion? May I have a motion? Move approval by Miss Hines. Second by Miss Wilkinson. All those in favor, please vote. And that's approved. 50. Item B, authorization to approve the request to close King Street at Bank Street to Powder Spring Street from May 11th to May 22nd, 2026 for the installation of newly purchased traffic ballards around the green space at three locations and to authorize the mayor to sign and execute all related documents. This has been a long time in the making. you know, we've had to put those barricades out and back and it's a lot on our staff and these will be a lot safer for the folks who are using the green space. Mike, any background, please?

Uh, yes, sir. So, the the as you said is the these are more permanent sturdy safety control for in the for traffic in the village green space. Uh, so there'll be two locations along King Street and there'll be one located on village uh green circle. U the requested length from May 20 from May 11th to May 22nd is based on the required installation specifications from the manufacturer and staff is recommending closure as requested. I'll take a motion to approve item B please. So moved by Mr. Gold, second by Mr. Pickkins. Everyone please vote. That's approved. 5. Item C, authorization to approve contract modifications to RFQ26-014, previously awarded to CW Matthews Contracting Company in new amount not to exceed 5,61,2745 to be paid from Elme funds and 2022 Splast. This is a resurfacing line item for the milling overlay of city streets and authorized mayor to sign and execute all documents. Mr. Judge, if I remember right, this is uh we got a great deal on um we got Elme funds and a and a great rate and this adds over 900,000 uh to do four miles of roadway which which is going to do six of our worst uh roads in a worst shape.

Yes, sir. That is correct. And the funds dropped down from G DOT as part of their FY26 LMIG supplemental funding. Um, so we want to increase this contract by the amount that dropped down $966,769.78 to and add it to CW Matthews U existing contract. As you said, we receive very favorable pricing through a competitive bid process for their existing contract and recommend approval.

Members of the council, paving more roads at a good rate is what we need to be doing, I think. May I have a motion to approve item C? So moved by Mr. Mr. Osby, second by Mr. Pickkins. Everyone, please vote. And that's approved. 5-0. And our last item under formal business, authorization to approve city of Smyrna to quick claim deed a segment of land that parallels the rear of the property at 1565 Roswell Street Southeast. Parcel segment to be deed is that of an old alleyway based on the recorded subdivision plat. Mr. Jones, any additional background? Mayor, there was a this was from a citizen's request that that small strip of land behind their property at 1565 Rosal Street be deed to them. The city has no um recorded ownership of it. So, we're going to execute a quick claim deed to any such ownership that we may or may not have in it and have it added to that uh that that resident's property. Uh it was an old alleyway that was some based on an old recorded subdivision plan. We do this from time to time and u may I have a motion to approve item D?

So moved.

So moved by Mr. G. Do I have a second? Second by Miss Hines. Everyone please vote and that's approved. 50. Consent agenda is just minutes approving the minutes from April 20th pre-consel and uh and the mayor and council meeting minutes on the 20th. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda and a second? Second by Miss Hines. Everybody, please vote. That's approved. 5-0. We're now in the citizen participation portion. Uh we'll open it up to public comment. We don't have anybody signed up with this huge crowd. I'm surprised. Um but uh is there anybody who wishes to speak? Hearing none, we'll close the public comment, move on to ward and staff reports. Mr. Glenn Pickkins. Uh thanks, mayor. As the mayor mentioned earlier, uh we held a service day last or this past Friday with uh rebuilding together Atlanta and we worked on a house in Ward 7. Uh the owner had the owner's grandfather built the house in the 1930s and had been in their family since then. And we did a huge upgrade to the outside, cleaned up a lot of trash, did a lot of yard work, pruning, things like that. And made a huge difference to the neighborhood and the community. And people were very glad and I know the owner uh is very thankful for the work that we did. So,

very good. Thank you, Miss.

That's awesome. I heard a lot about that project. Um I I was able to be here for the jungle jog and uh um luckily uh Council Member Pickkins was our tribute and and ran it for us. Um but it was amazing and just I want to just give a a shout out to all the work. People don't know how much work it takes to to put on a race like that and um beforehand and the people who are here at 5:00 in the morning and everything. So, shout out to First Lady uh Laura Norton and Stacy Scott and Jennifer Bennett um and Patrick Deshi who were here uh getting everything done. Everybody had a great time. It was a great atmosphere.

We had the Campbell ROC and Campbell football team, too. Campbell football team was hilarious and they were at the finish line kind of hyping everybody up as everybody came in. It was fun. Really good. That helped you finish the race, right, Mr. Jones? Yeah, Miss Wilkinson. Yes. Um, I just want to give a shout out to the Smurland Garden Tour and all the volunteers that participated in that event. It's one of my favorite events. And um, also thank all the homeowners that um that were willing to do the work to show their uh, gardens and um, and and hope everyone was uh, able to get out and enjoy that event. Thanks. With that, I yield.

Mr. Gold. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just two quick things to add on to the list of the amazing number of activities around the city. Uh two weekends ago, the Georgia Preservation Foundation held the Georgia Ramble and it's about every 10 years comes back to Smyrna and Marietta and it was a tour of historic homes and in our in our area. So we appreciate them uh making the effort to to tour Smyrna. And then also uh we had our education town hall with our two Cobb County School District board members, Michelle Davis and Becky Sailor. spoke to a crowd of uh of interested parents and residents uh about this current uh happenings with the Cobb County School District. So, we appreciate them making time to do that for us. And that is it. Mr. Mayor,

Mr. Oglesby, I know you had a couple maybe a council related items and then if you'd invite you I'd invite you to go make comments from from down at the microphone down there if you had other additional comments that you wanted to make. Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh mark your calendars. Junth festival is coming. Mark your calendars. Junth Festival is coming. It's the second annual Junth Festival in the city of Smyrna. What day is Junth Festival?

On June 19th, Junth starting at 6 PM right here on the green. We're so excited to be a city is so excited to bring this to our citizens once again. It's going to be even more fest festive. So, we look forward to seeing you all there on June 19th. Also, I will be uh visiting Woodland Brook subdivision, my subdivision on Wednesday at the pool area at 6 PM. So, meet me there for a Q&A uh about the happenings there are potentially happening there in the near future. Um, also those W seven citizens, please I encourage you all to go ahead and take advantage of voting early. Uh, we all know that our voting precinct has been moved temporarily, so vote now to uh uh uh really minimize the long waits. Okay, vote now. There's short lines right now. Take advantage of it. And mayor, if I could, I'd like to step out of my seat to the podium to talk as a citizen. Please do.

Thank you. Mike, anything you have for the good of the order? Nothing to add, sir. Mr. Cochran, Miss Heather, anything before just a reminder about voting very quickly that it is going on downtown at uh Smyrna First um Baptist Church and it is being held Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. This is the last Saturday for voting here at the church. So please join us. Mr. Elg.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is quite a difference in view here. Uh I am speaking as a citizen for the record. Uh we have some exciting things happening in the city of Smyrna on next week. Okay. And I want to be sure that everyone knows about this. uh the vice president of the Grammys. That's right. The Academy Award will be here in the city of Smyrna doing a Q&A at the Indigo Room Fullervice Jazz restaurant that is owned by myself right here on Concord Road. Uh that will start at 6 PM. Of course, dinner will be served during that time, too. Uh so I encourage anyone that's interested in music and the music industry obviously um that'll be a good time to come and figure out what's going on right now in that industry. There'll also be some Trump administration votes there too. So that'll be really interesting and exciting. Also really happy to announce that pretty sure for the first time in Cobb County that there will be a restaurant or a venue that will be part of the 31 days of jazz, the Atlanta Jazz Festival. And yes, that's Indigo Room uh right here in the city of Smyrna. So we have two shows that is on the official calendar. And the first show starts two I'm sorry, three shows. The first show is tomorrow at Indigo Room starting at 6 PM. So if you love jazz and you love salsa, that'll be a great place to enjoy both. U then we have two more shows that'll be part of the 31 days of jazz, too. Uh on this upcoming Saturday evening at 8:00 p.m. and next Tuesday at 7 p.m. That's all I have. M

remind everybody where that is. Yes. 821 Concord Road Southeast Smyrna, Georgia. That's sweet C. Uh, big sign out there says indigo room. All right. Very good. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your time. If there is no other business be brought before this body, we will say good evening from the Jonqual City and adjourn at 7:25.