City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you for joining us live for the city of South Bulton city council meeting. We are proud to introduce the leadership entrusted with guiding our city forward. Mayor Carmelita Gums, District 1 Councilwoman Dr. Katherine R, District 2 Councilman Aaron V. Johnson, District 3 Councilwoman Helen Zenobia Willis, District 4 Councilman JC Sebastian, Mayor Pro Tim Piosha B. Dale, District 6, Councilwoman Natasha Williams Brown, District 7 Councilwoman Linda Becker Pritchette. Supporting the work of this body in the operations of our city are City Clerk Corey Adams, city manager Sharon D. Subed, and interim city attorney Sarah Kelly. Thank you for being the best part of the city of South Bton, a city on the rise.

All right. Good afternoon and I will call the meeting the city council work session for February 24th, 2025 at 400 pm uh to order. Mr. Clerk, can you please sign a roll? Yes. Good afternoon. This is a roll call for today's work session. The Honorable Katherine F. Raal, District 1, present. The Honorable Aaron V. Johnson, District 2. The Honorable Helen Z. Willis, District 3, present. The Honorable JC Sebastian, District 4, here. The Honorable Kosha Bale, District 5.

Present. The Honorable Natasha Williams Brown, District 6, here. The Honorable Linda B. Preett, District 7, here. And the Honorable Mayor Carmelita Gums, here. Madame Mayor, you have a quum. All right, Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item? First item on tonight's agenda, it's the Roosevelt Livable Centers Initiative LCI plan presentation be presented by Brian Durillis with Vice President Aeratropolis Atlanta. All right, welcome.

Thank you and good afternoon everyone. Um I just want to start by saying first thank you for having us today and thank you to mayor and council for participating in our South Folks and Brooks reception. Well, uh, because of your guys's effort, we able to move a lot of the Cal sites, not only in this community, but in all the communities around South Fton. So, just want to say thank you before we begin. I'm going to go through this presentation fairly quickly. Um, I imagine most, if not everyone in this room have a good foundation knowledge of Aeratropolis and Alliance and the work we do. Um but for this presentation I'm just going to give a very high level overview talk about the LCIs that we've done in the past and for the really the the reason to ask today is for the Roosevelt highway LCI. So our team uh we're a small but mighty team. Shannon James is our president CEO former banker. Valencia White who managed our LHTO center for uh learning workforce and entrepreneurship and then Shante Foster our marketing and communications manager. So what is Aerotropolis Alliance? We are regional planning uh and economic development entity here to support communities south of I20. uh supporting the community of city of South Fulton um to bring community development, economic development and workforce development strategies that you guys can implement um in partnership with all the other communities surrounding the South Fton area. So here are some of our cities. Uh we really comprise of all the cities in South Fton and then all the cities in Clayton County except the city of Marorrow. So 15 cities, two counties. Uh this is just a high level infographic of what you will see in our aerotropolis but in different aerotropi if you will across the world. Um so while our ecosystem is very unique um we're using a playbook that is being applied in other communities around the world.

Uh this is just a quick snapshot of all of our investors. So we are treat we're a true P3 public private partnership. So of course all of the cities are member cities and then we have our private partners. So you see Delta, Chick-fil-A, Truis, um so on so forth who are members to support regional competitiveness uh around the airport. And so for our three uh strategic initiatives is economic development, workforce development, but what I'll spend mostly this time is community development, right? Improving the quality of life for our residents. So this is where we focus on transportation, housing, sustainability, and walkability and creative placemaking. So going on to our first real major LCI study was the aerrow greenway plan uh conducted in 2018. And the idea for this was to create a multimodal trail network that connects all of the regional trails and existing parks um into an interlock system. And so as you can see by this picture here is kind of very reminiscent of what you see in Atlanta belt line. And so how do we uh think strategically on improving connectivity, walkability, improving the quality of life for our residents around the community through the LCI that was done through the greenway plan really kind of now identifying key corridors. Uh so this was one of our first key corridors uh with multi with multi-jurisdiction. So East Point, College Park, and Havville participate in a William Drive corridor study. And this really kind of allow us to really not not only identify key Calg nodes but really address some of the challenges in this key corridor um but help create a kind of cultural node and district uh for this. So, as you guys could see during the presentation, uh we were able to def identify key areas of opportunities um for development that we are able now to solicit to the real estate community for the type of development that we want to see in the

community and kind of define this district um by some of the key features. And so, one of the key features on this William Drive corridor that was really actually identified during the LCI was the Flint River. And so, may many of you guys are probably familiar with the Flint River. It's the second largest river stream that started underneath the airport. It provides about 60% of the water for South South Georgia farms and it provides actually a lot of the flooding down in Clayton County. So, how do we now activate this li this river stream for our community residents use this environmental um as a catalyst for future developments um but protect it and making sure that there is a walkable pathway for it. And then the kind of the LA the largest LCI that we have done was Terara Boulevard down in Clayton County. So as you guys can see we've kind of start small and moved on to Terara Boulevard uh which is 11 miles going across the county. Um really we work with not only Clayton County but of course those jurisdictions that the county across and identify three different nodes. So if you look at the top portion is the terra gateway node really that entry entryway into the top portion or the northern part of Clayton County right by the airport. Um really gone into that middle piece with Jonesboro now thinking how we can leverage uh creative placemaking to really activate that kind of centerpiece and now think about downtown developments. And the last is that love joy node in the bottom now the the ex the exit way to Clayton County but this is where we're seeing the highest residential growth. It was through this extra LCI that we have the one of the highest things that was identified is that uh we need to do a housing study. So we actually was awarded uh through another community development assistance program through the Atlanta regional commission a housing assessment and strategy that's going to be implemented actually next month. And so Terara Boulevard working with multiple

jurisdictions um for about a year-long process to figure out how do we improve connectivity um pedestrian access making sure that there is the type of density and the type of housing product that we want across this corridor and then how does it fit through other communities and the work that we've done uh through Terra Boulevard. We're excited to say that we've actually won two awards for this, right? The not only our region um recognized bringing all those key stakeholders and partners um to create the ter boulevard task force for activation um but the kind of dedication working regionalism. So we won two awards. The first is the ASL uh landscape architecture award that was nationally acclaimed and the second was the regional excellence award through the ARC. Uh the last really kind of key thing that I want to touch upon is this trail network that the ARC. And so all these trails and studies that we've done in the past really culminated to this large massive grant that we won through the federal administration um last year. Unfortunately, that grant was rescended through the new administration. Uh it was the largest grant that the ARC has ever was awarded, so about $64 million. But the Atlanta Regional Commission really saw the the the effort that we have done putting all the regional partners together. Um, and they've committed about $3.5 million to continue the good work really identifying trail networks not only around South Metro uh but through the Aatropolis in particular uh but throughout 19 counties and so it'll be three kind of smaller scales really combined to one. First is that Flint River that I mentioned earlier in the presentation that we were one of the key founding members of founding. Uh the second is this trail network, right? Contin continuing that extension of the bell line south. And then the large the last one is just a larger trail network. But there's one key thing that I want you guys to see as you look at this presentation. If you look at that orange

line um after the belt line, it stops right on Main Street. And so currently as this plan as it stands right now, the trail network is supposed to stop right kind of in front of Tyler Per Studios. And so this is what actually brings us here today. What we are proposing and what we want to ask mayor and council is a letter of support for the Roosevelt highway livable centers initiative. This LCI study will be a transportation grant working with all of the jurisdictions that uh intersect with Roosevelt Highway to make sure not only this trail network is connected but we are improving pedestrian access um connectivity multimodal transportation solutions across the corridor. Um so this is kind of to propose areas of focus that we have identified through the application. We have met with city staff um roughly now about four or five months just to make sure we are tailoring our application to fits the needs of this community and all the other communities. Um so some these are just some of the areas that were mentioned um through our conversations with not only the economic development directors of this team and the community development directors but also the economic and community development directors of all six jurisdictions that Roosevelt Highway uh interact with. And so making sure that we create a buffer between commercial and industrial development was one of those key things. How do we increase walkability, right? Uh how do we make sure that pedestrians feel um safe as they're conversing traversing this uh key corridor? How do we make sure there's foot traffic to support the small businesses that's on here? And so for just some of the timeline logistics for this grant application before I yield my presentation for further questions and comments from the uh mayor and council. Uh the city of Fairburn where we serve as our lead applicant. The reason why we chose the city of Fairburn uh is because they've actually recently just completed the LCI last year that is on Roosevelt Highway. One of their key catalog sites on our

blueprint 2.0 which identifies key strategic Cadillac sites is also on Roosevelt Highway. So there's a lot of uh good synergies. Aeratropolis, of course, we have written the application. We sent it out to all the jurisdictions to review, make sure we gather feedback. Um application is due this Friday. Uh so hopefully this is not being recorded, but this is the last city, but this is the best for last. Um and then so we're here to ask for a letter of support for uh the 25% that Roosevelt Highway goes, which is roughly about $40,000. And so this is a pretty large application. I would imagine this is one of the largest applications is because how long this corridor cross. So we're asking for the max about 800,000, but we're not sure that we'll attain it. So while we're asking for 40,000 as for a letter of commitment, that number might change depending on how much the ARC will grant us uh if we win the award. And so the Atlanta Regional Commission, they contribute about 80% of the for the grants and then all the communities will contribute uh the remaining portion of 20%. And so we broke it down based off a percentage of how much of the Roosevelt Highway is in each jurisdiction and Aerotropolis is willing to commit about 70 7500 uh for this application. That concludes my presentation. Now you have comments or questions. All right. Well, thank you for your presentation. Um, we will entertain comments and questions from the council. I see Councilwoman Willis in the queue.

Thank you for your presentation. The part of Roosevelt Highway, um, half of it is in three, half of it is in five. Um, so you said this is due by Friday and and so this is the first time you've talked to us about it. Yes, ma'am. So this uh we've been communicating with staff uh to make sure that we are uh able to present to mayor and council today. Um just through coordination with all the other uh jurisdictions uh we're trying to make sure we get this signed today.

Okay. So is staff, this is the first time you all are hearing about it or did were you all aware of this LCI and us being a part of it?

Cuz this is the first time I'm hearing about it and this is my district. Um I'm not I mean I'm supportive of it. The only thing I would say is that we have done studies previously. We have done the SEAP study. We have done the bike trail study when I first maybe a year um after I got elected we did the biking trail study and so um Aeratropolis did arc did the seed study but we keep doing these studies and nothing is being implemented. So, is the study going to be another study that we we do? And I guess how can we get some of these studies implemented? If I may, so one of the key things about this study, uh the reason why we're um pushing really aggressively is uh if you look at this this South Metro Trails uh leadership alliance, right? uh the ARC is is fully committed on pulling funds together for uh planning, engineering and construction of a trail network. And so two studies will really kind of be happening concurrently. Uh and then two different task force will be happening at the same time. So the leadership alliance will be working on how to implement uh this trail network throughout the region. So all of the elected offic elected officials uh community development directors and economic development directors for all self metro will be m we'll be working with the arc to make sure there's trails um throughout this area and then aerotropolis will be creating a task force um for implementation and so one of the key components of uh this study is an implementation matrix right and so it will give us kind of a blueprint on what are kind of lowhanging fruits for active innovation.

So my question is this is a study the implementation that's going to require funding. So do you all have or are you all recommending where we can get funding for the implementation? So that's one of the key objectives of the um the study actually after it's completed is not only an implementation for our team to figure out uh where kind of low hanging fruits that we can do but where areas and philanthropic partners um nonprofits community organizations um similar to like the conservation fund that's worked on the Flint River that will help bring funding for activation.

Okay. And then the um the C stops where on Roosevelt? Do you know? Are you aware there's a C? Do you know where it stops on Roosevelt? I know College Park is a part of it, right? Yes. There's two CDs that uh interact with Roosevelt. There's the airport C and there's the South Fulton C um that each have a component of Roosevelt Highway. We've actually obtained a letter of support from both CIDs. So they will be a part of the actual uh grant proc process if we are awarded. Um but for where exactly on the map of of the where their boundaries are in Rose Highway, I am not actually 100% sure.

My question is are they are they contributing in any way to the study? Um financially they are they have we have not asked them to contribute. Um but we are asking them to contribute with uh implementation after if we win the grant um and bringing their resources to the table once we created the task force. Okay, mayor, I yield in case if anyone has any other questions. I come back. All right. Thank you, Councilwoman. Uh Councilman Sebastian. Thank you, Mayor. Thanks again for the presentation. I was actually trying to see if I could Identify it. Don't know if you mentioned this. I don't think I saw it.

Which which cities? You mentioned Faburn. Yes. Which are all the cities that are involved here that you all spoke with before.

Very good question. So uh we've met with city of Fairburn, city of Palmetto, College Park, city of East Point, and Union City. Um each who have signed a letter of commitment for this project. Uh the only city that we have not met with who will be signing a letter of support, but it's not really within our territory or our jurisdiction is the city of Atlanta. Um so we support communities south of really I20 really the kind of that utmost part of Pittsburgh yards and so we're more focused on communities south of Atlanta. Um but we have sent a letter of support for them and they are fully uh aware of this project.

Okay. And so I am assuming that staff shared with you our redevelopment plans for the Red Oak district in the area over there. Yes. Okay. And um have you spoke to the folks down at the Oakley Industrial C? Uh we have not. Oakland is that part of the South Fulton? It it is it is a regional thing and I think they are thinking about expanding as well. Okay. and they part of their taxable area involves Highway 29, right? So, you may want to reach out to them as well. Thank you. For sure. We will.

Okay. Thank you, Councilman Vasher. Are there any other um comments in the queue? I don't see it, everybody. Councilwoman Willis. So how I just how do you know how long staff knew about this?

U so we've been engaging with staff at the top of the year. So we have uh economic development and community development uh meetings uh just to engage with all of the uh economic development, community development and city administrators uh for those smaller cities that don't actually have um an economic development person. I'm specifically talking about South Fton. Yes. Since before the beginning of this year, since the Since January? Yes. Okay. Have you met with the Red Oak?

Uh we have met with them just to talk of a high level of the of the application and what we're applying for for Roosevelt Highway. Uh they haven't seen the actual grant application. Um but we have met with them to kind of talk very high level of what are our future plans uh going for Rose Highway and and the intrinsic benefits.

Okay. Thank you. I do have a question. Um you mentioned in the presentation about the model mile and I'm glad you mentioned that because that has been one of the things that we've talked about for a number of years in South Fton. And uh I met with ARC last week and they said that they were partnering with you all on that because I'm always asked well what happened to the trail system or quote unquote the South Fulton belt line that was supposed to been happening. Um so I appreciate you giving that update, but what actually is the likelihood of that trail expansion um coming to fruition, I guess, with this new partnership with the ARC?

Yes, this is a very good question. So a consultant has been selected. they're kind of in the final steps of of uh receiving a contract and going back with ARC. Typically of a project of this scale and size um with all the jurisdictions um a a transportation project study is usually about 9 months. Um because we're now looking at multiple communities, it's going to be actually be extended for about 18 months. Um and so this is a very ambitious project, right? Um I think for us for actually construction of each of the phases will take would be a generational project. Um so there is a like a high likelihood of it being started and completed. I just think the time frame um estimated um has changed drastically because initially we won 64 million. Um now that that grant has been rescended uh now that time frame is going to be a lot longer. Thank you for that. And my last question, you mentioned the investment is based on the percentage of what um I guess the the cities that are being impacted or is it based on the size because you know of course South Fton is much bigger than those cities. So I want to make sure that you know the investment is equivalent.

Yes. So the investment is based off how much was Roosevelt highways within each jurisdiction. Okay. All right. Thank you. Are there any more questions? It doesn't look like it. Thank you for your presentation. Thank you. All right. Mr. Clerk, can you please sign the next item?

Yes. At the 7:00 meeting. Yep. Next item. Next item on the agenda is presentation. Animal control presentation. will be presented by Captain Nikki Dwire, Animal Services Division, Fulton County Police Department. Good afternoon, Captain Dwire with Fulton County Police Department. I'm over field services for animal control for Fulton County. This is Vernon Sawyer and he is over the shelter operations. We'll both be speaking on uh current updates first if you want to do it. So, as you can see now, we have been working with Lifeline to try to reduce the amount of animals in the shelter. We've actually come up with a guideline that's through the contract with them to try to maintain a humane level of animals in the shelter while increasing the adoptions rates. I'm proud to say that they have reached a 90 I think. 04 or.7 live release rate between the two shelters, US and Decap, with a 13% increase in animal intakes. And this is something the increase on the intakes is something that we're seeing throughout the United States. Every shelter is struggling with trying to find out creative ways to send animals out in a positive release manner, whether it's adoption,

um, foster, or even like weekend fosters. So, Lifeline's been doing a fairly good job, actually a real good job at sending animals out and fosters and increasing adoption events. So, as you can see, um the the numbers indicate that. And also um South Fulton should have access to our dashboard where you can look at the stats not just on the field side um but also on the shelter side of things. Next. And then just as I'm sorry, this indicates our um intakes and our adoptions and you can see the numbers. Next,

I think that's okay. And any questions on the shelter side of things? No, you can continue.

Okay. We may have some at the end. Took that off. All right. So, the first screen you're going to see here, this is field services updates. Uh the first numbers there, it's total number of calls uh this year. So, from January to now, we've had 1320 for calls. Um, last quarter of last year we had 4,120 calls for service and uh just last month it was 1,314. So you can see by the graph kind of the calls stay pretty steady as far as how many we are responding to. This is specific to city south Fulton. So total number of calls we've gone to so far this year is 246. Uh last quarter was 768 calls for service and then last month was 246. I know this is small but this is a breakdown of what kind of calls we're responding to. So mainly the blue you can see is a stray loose. So we respond to quite a few of those and it goes down from there. Uh vicious animals, investigations, injured animals and so on. So as Mr. Sawyer had mentioned you guys do have access to uh the page that is updated daily and it it shows what we're responding to, call response times, um call numbers, so you can access that at any time. All right, so December 17th of last year, field services transferred over to the Fulton County Police Department. So, back in July of 2024, I started working with Lifeline and their field operations,

uh, doing animal cruelty throughout the county. And once we started working cases, realized that we were just inundated by cases. And a lot of jurisdictions do not have the manpower to dedicate to investigating these cases. Uh with those investigations, we learned that animal cruelty is often associated with other serious crimes, domestic violence, um child abuse, gang activity, weapons charges. So in addition to animal cruelty cases, we were arresting people for those charges as well. In 2025, beginning of 2025, we added an additional investigator. So myself and Sergeant uh continued to investigate these cases. Last year, we worked 121 cases throughout Fulton County and executed 33 search warrants. Um, I'm sure you guys are familiar with uh the case that unfortunately happened last summer with Donna Win in Union City where she was viciously attacked by a pack of dogs and we were never able to identify what dogs actually attacked her, but she did die from her injuries. that case was mishandled by Lifeline and which has prompted us to go ahead and take over because we don't want that to happen again. Um the director for field operations and the manager were then terminated and in October of last year I took over as the director head of field operations. Also, uh, last fall, City South Fulton had a big case where a woman was mauled almost to death. And if a citizen hadn't seen her and come up and ran the dogs over, she probably would not be with us. But she was in the hospital for 2 months um, and lost body parts. It was a very severe case. So, uh, a lot of changes has come. Um, we have more officers. So, that means

there's going to be more coverage, more quicker response times. Also, with an uptick in bite cases, we now have a dedicated bite investigator where all they do is work byes. And also before, so bytes really weren't being communicated to management. So now we have it in policy where anything a level four and up bite is immediately um told to management and so we can handle it immediately then if we need to show up on scene and like we did with the South Fton case we work with South Fulton Police Department um to get a resolution whether we're going to take out the warrants. You know what happens with that. What else? Uh, so all evidence is now going to police department evidence lockers and so it is secure versus just being in a a closet somewhere at the shelter. Also, uh, we're pushing for an increase with communication with the cities via the dashboard so you guys have up-to-date information. Also, uh, direct access to myself and my staff. If you guys have any questions, if there's a complaint from a citizen, we're happy to listen and we're happy to, you know, fix whatever issues may be there. We're pushing for uh ownership, responsible ownership of pets cuz most of these bites, these incidents are coming from people not leashing their animals, uh having too many animals, having their kids walk dogs that, you know, weigh three times their weight, just irresponsible. So, we're pushing for that. Also for education, we don't always go out and site. Our first step is to educate. You know, maybe they didn't know they needed to have this special kind of dog house or the dogs need to be on leashes. So, as long as it's not something egregious, we're educating them and then if the issue continues, then we start to site or if need be, we'll take the dogs into custody.

Uh also, uh training. So before officers were only getting 6 weeks of training and then being put out on the street. So we've changed that. Now they get 12 weeks. We want to make sure that they're educated. They're doing the job the way it's supposed to be doing. Um also we have updated their body cameras to Axon body cameras. So now they're on the same level as our police department. Easy access, easy evidence sharing with the district attorney's office and the solicitor general's office. Uh, same with like carrier vests, same with what police officers have now. They can get the tools off of their waist, have everything on their vest they need. Um, and then uh more professional, so updated dress code, upgraded updated appearance and professionalism. So, one issue we were running into when we started to uh look at these cases is that they're long delayed for being prosecuted. So we have there's over 500 cases waiting to be prosecuted, animal cases right now. So we have started tracking those cases and what judge they have been assigned to to start to try to put pressure to get these cases moved through cuz unfortunately a lot of these cases the dogs are just being held on a court hold in the shelter. Uh currently we have 78 dogs on a court hold. we've been up to 117. And so those are 78 spots that we could have other dogs waiting to be adopted in those. So it's important that we keep moving these dogs out and they're not held. Uh we currently have a dog that's been there three and a half years waiting to, you know, that's cruelty in itself. So we want to move forward and get those moved. So we're working with Judge Cassandra Kirk in magistrate court and she has done an excellent job. She's made uh special court dates for us to get live evidence cases heard quicker. Also working with the solicitor general.

We the county has paid for two additional uh positions with the solicitor general for investigations and so now they are just working on animal cases. So we're hoping to see those move through quicker as well. Okay, I think that's all I have. Are there any questions? All right. Well, thank you very much for your presentation. Much improved. Thank you. Um, I do see some questions in the queue. I will start with Councilwoman Pritchette from District 7.

Thank you for acknowledging me. Uh, thank you for your presentation. Uh, in the beginning, you talked about vicious animals. So on Oakley Industrial, the area that I represent, um I have seen K a big big coyote. I've actually seen across the street right in front of my house. Um and I have talked to our uh assistant city manager. We've been racking our brains on trying to figure out how to deal with this wild coyote because it was it's is as large as a German Shepherd. And then on the uh neighborhood app next door, people are saying that this coyote is walking down Oakley Industrial like he owns it. That coyote has been around since about November. And I think I've called you all and you all tell me to call Department of Natural Resources and they say um you're going to have to trap it yourself. But it it it's it's really dangerous because in my community there are a lot of little children that play in the street and um even behind my house we went to um walk one of my dogs and the coyote was just like right there by the car. So that it's just really dangerous. But what other recourse do we have or um you know that's a vicious animal I guess. So we only we only handle domesticated animals. A coyote is not considered domesticated. So anything that is wild would fall on Department of Natural Resources. So they would be the ones to trap it. We only do dogs, cats, you know, rabbits, things that people would own as a pet. So I would maybe try to speak to someone higher up at DNR. Um but they would be the ones to handle

that. Now, wouldn't you all be interested really in knowing when when these type of sightings happen? Because if you have a coyote roaming around and you have people walking dogs, coyotes go after dogs, too. And you would want to know when you go into an area because you'll be encountered with a coyote, too.

I mean, and that's something you guys could put out and say, "Hey, there's been a coyote in this area. Make sure you know you're protecting yourselves while out walking your dogs. I understand what you're saying that you know it is dangerous. You don't know they could have rabies. You never know. But I would talk to someone higher up in DNR so they can trap it because it sounds like that's probably going to be the only way to catch it. Thank you. Y good information to know. I didn't know that um about the coyotes because I always call animal control for the coyotes. Uh, Councilman Sebastian.

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you all for the presentation. Um, the question I have is about information flow because I know citizens complain at least in the past I've heard this that you know they call animal control, they don't get responses, they don't get timely responses. Sometimes it would go on for days, right? So what is the current flow of reporting to you guys and get it getting information and updates back to the citizens and to the city? So I'm glad you brought that up. So when someone calls in a complaint, much like law enforcement, we have priority levels for calls.

I'm sorry. Where do they call? Do they call you out directly or are this what's going to the city? They can they can either call 911 and it will be routed through 911 to animal services and be dispatched that way or they can call uh lifeline. They can call the shelter and make a complaint. Okay.

Um as far as the education piece of this, we get a lot of complaints cuz a lot of citizens don't understand priority levels. So we have one through nine priority one calls which we have to respond to within 45 minutes are going to be those injured animals bite calls. You know we may have people call and say there's a stray dog and they expect us to be there in 20 minutes because they called 911 but we have 24 hours to respond. So, um, it's important for citizens to understand the level of calls and that, you know, it's not like we're just you're calling the police and we show up at your door 10 minutes later. Um, if we have higher priority calls and we have to respond to those first.

Do you have something like a flyer? Absolutely. Yes. I can send that over to you guys so we can get it distributed. Yes. Thank you, Councilwoman. Uh, Williams Brown, I thought I saw you. That was my second question. Okay. All right. It doesn't look like we have any further questions in the queue. Thank you for your presentation. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Can you please sound the next item? Next item is executive session if necessary.

All right. What is your pleasure, council? um because our our five o'clock meeting is short. So if there's no objection, we can just adjourn this meeting and then we'll start back up at 5 or All right. If there's no further objection, we will adjourn this meeting. See you at the 5:00. We adjourned at 4:41 p.m. Thank you.

We're about to get ready to come back together. council. Make sure you switch over in the portal. All right, I will go ahead and call the meeting for alcohol license and zoning a public hearing for February 24th, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. to order. Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the role? It's

the roll call for today's alcohol license on public hearing. The honorable Captain F. Ra, District 1, present. The Honorable Aaron V. Johnson, District 2, present. The Honorable Helen Z. Willis, District 3. The Honorable JC Sebastian, District 4, present. The Honorable Kosha Belle, District 5. The Honorable Natasha Wis Brown, District 6, present. And the Honorable Linda B. Pritchette, District 7, is currently absent. And the honorable mayor Kalita Gums. Madame Mayor, you have a quorum.

All right, Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item? First item on the night's agenda, alcohol license resoning, variance, and modification cases for presentation and public hearing only. Letter A is public hearing. Alcohol beverage license application for NT Fuel and Food LLC doing business as Valero Food Mark has been submitted and is requesting approval for an alcohol license for the sale of wine and beer located at 4455 Fton Industrial Boulevard, South Fton, Georgia 30336. It's located in district 1.

All right. At this time, I am going to open the public hearing for this item. All right, ma'am or sir, you have the total of 10 minutes to give your presentation. You do not have to use all of your time. You may want to reserve that time for rebuttal, but also keep in mind that the time allowed includes public comments for any of the citizens who are in favor of your application. And the same time is granted for those who are in opposition. And again, you may proceed with your presentation.

All right. Good afternoon, mayor, council. My name is Lieutenant Block with the city of South Fson Police Department licenses and permits unit. Um, today I'm here to present the application submitted by Ent Fuel and Food LLC. It's currently doing business as Valero Valero Food Mart located at 4455 Fton Industrial Boulevard, Atlanta, Georgia 30336. It meets all requirements for an insurance of an alcohol license. This is an existing business within the city of South Fulton, District 1, and the application reflects a change in ownership and request to obtain a new alcohol license to sell beer, W and wine only at the established location. Um, the current owner has submitted a public safety plan, which has been reviewed and approved. Based on this information, staff recommends approval of the alcohol license application.

All right. Is the applicant here? Yes. you come up. And do you wish to speak? Yes sir. We have enhanced exterior bright lighting at the pumps and and parking lot and we have give camera access to cops and we have a ID scanner at the PO system for every purchases and we have a we are monitoring the solar trapping. If we suspect any third party purchases we refuse the sale. Okay, that's all I have. All right. Well, thank you very much. Uh Mr. Mr. Clerk, did you have any opposition?

Uh, actually no opposition. And can you just state your name and your address for the record? Yeah. Rabi Kumar Veri. Okay. 4455 full. All right. Okay. Thank you for your comments. And you said there is no opposition at this time. No, ma'am. No. No cards received. All right. At this time, I am going to close the public hearing and we will take questions uh from the council starting with the district representative. This would be district one. Dr. Ralph,

I really don't have any questions for the applicant um because you said this was a change in ownership, but I I do um want to ask the police department, have they had any issues recently? Um, no, they haven't had any. Um, since I think I sent the email out saying that they have offduty officers patrolling the area and we also have access to their camera system, the fusion system, so we can monitor it. Yeah, I just got gas there. Yes. Thanks.

All right. Thank you. Are there any other comments? Anyone can get into the queue. All right. Thank you. That concludes your uh comments. We Mr. Mr. Clerk, we'll be hearing this on the next agenda. Yes. March the 10th. All right. We'll see you March 10th. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item? Next item is a public hearing case TA26-001, an ordinance to repeal the city of South Fulton's ordinance number 2021-033 amending the regulations for convenience stores and gasoline stations to remove two provisions of SEC 302.15 to establish the use of gasoline stations within 7,920 ft of another gas station andor within 1,000 ft of a residential property to establish the allowable zoning district for said use and for other lawful purposes. The planning commission recommendation was denial. Staff.

All right. At this time, I am opening the public hearing for item TA26-01 that is on the agenda. There's a total of 10 minutes to give any presentation. You do not have to use all of that time. You may want to reserve any time for rebuttal. Uh, also keep in mind that this time is allowed. It includes public comments for any of the citizens who are also in favor and the same time is granted for those that are opposed. And uh, did I see director Mr. McClendon? Did you want to provide any commentary? You can go forward with your presentation. How about that?

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Reggie McClendon, managing director of the community development and regulatory affairs department. I just wanted to briefly add um some context to the text amendment itself. The text amendment is separate from the um amendment to the code of ordinances which will uh go into title 12 um the licenses, permits and business regulations section. Um what we're doing is removing um certain regulations that were included in the zoning ordinance. We're taking those regulations and placing them in title 12 um where of course they will still be applicable. The text amendment is a companion piece to that. Um and what we've attempted to do with the text amendment is to ensure that the language in the zoning code is consistent with the language um that will be going uh into title 12. if council approves it. Uh and ensuring that um the um correct zoning districts uh carry the correct designations for gas stations as far as whether or not they will be allowable by right or if they will be allowable via special use. Uh so just to break down that last piece, this text amendment will um currently gas stations are allowable in the C2, M1, and M2 zoning districts via special use permit. Uh if this text amendment is passed, it will allow for gas stations uh to be um licensed by right in the C2, M1, and M2 zoning districts. Uh and then certain gas stations um which will we've created a separate use for gas stations which which are within 1.5 mi of other gas

stations or 1,000 ft of residential uses. Um and if your if a gas station fits into that category, then um it will be allowable via a special use permit in the C2, M1, or M2 zoning districts. All right. Thank you. Um, Director McClendon, Mr. Clerk, do you have any um people that are in favor? No, ma'am. Not in favor. And do you have any that are in opposition?

Yes, we do have three uh comment cards. Uh, Deanna Respus, Penny Webster Lewis, and Barbara Baylor. And what would what do you need to do with that? They wish to speak and during public comment, public hearing. Are they here? All right, come on. Line up.

Deanna Respus, Penny Webster Lewis, and Barbara Baylor. Screen is on. All right. Uh, good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh, as you know, my name is Diana Respers and I live in District 3 on Butner Road. Uh, I'll start by thanking the members of council who have been willing to engage in a dialogue with me specifically around my concerns and desires to see improvement in this ordinance, although we do not necessarily agree on this ordinance before you. It is my sincerest hope that we that where we did find common ground, that we are able to move it forward. Uh, with that being said, I will say it took me a minute to get my hands on the legal notifications that were published in the city's legal organ. And to that end, the published legal advertisement lists the hearing dates as 2025. This hearing is in the year of 2026. The year is a part of the time. If the notice does not accurately state the time of the hearing, then the statutory requirement has not been satisfied. I understand that there may be an argument that there has been a scrivener's error and that the city's intent was clear. However, intent does not cure failure to comply with mandatory statutory procedures. In the case of Tilly Properties versus Barto County, the Supreme Court has ruled that compliance with the zoning procedures law is mandatory and zoning actions taken without proper compliance are void, not flawed, not risky, but void. Proceeding under a defective notice exposes this ordinance to procedural invalidation and creates a cloud over any future approvals that rely upon it.

Add and then I I just add that at a minimum every gas station application should require a special use permit. Um, I respectfully urge you to readvertise this in accordance to state law and if you take action tonight to please on behalf of the citizens of South Fulton preserve the special use permit review for all gas stations. While I recognize you do have a majority and a majority of you have made up your minds, I am very hopeful that you will listen to the majority of the citizens and the outcry that they've had. and I respectfully urge you again to readvertise and protect the integrity of the zoning process. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Penny Webster Lewis, 6312 Jasper Way, South Fulton, District 2. I'm not going to repeat what my uh predecessor said, but I do have a procedural question. This process has morphed every time it's been it's come before this body. Even at the very beginning at the CZIM meeting, it was an entirely different document with entirely different goals. It was not a repeal. We were told it was not a repeal of the ordinance which brought all this about which was 2021-033. Now, it's a move um a new text amendments to repeal that ordinance, change or remove some other portions of the zoning ordinance. And it seems like it's taking it out of the zoning process. So, it's very confusing for us lay people without communication or explanation of what's going on. It seems like it's bait and switch. Every time we've had an opportunity to speak on this matter, the document has changed. It's completely revised now and it's a whole new thing. It's not even under the uh se appendix C for zoning. It's now going to be under licenses and something else. It's a whole new ball game and we don't know what's going on. And maybe you don't think we should, but since we're concerned with it because it involves gas stations, which have environmental impact implications, we really want you just to pause, give us a chance to understand what it is the city's trying to do right now. To my understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, there are no petitions for zonings for gas stations right now. There are no applications in the queue for gas stations right now. So, it baffles me that we're rushing to get

this done because you'll vote on it today. And there's no reason to run when there's too many questions from the people. We've already said we're not against having um gas stations affiliated with um Costos or Kroger's, but we are concerned with just having them anywhere. And not having that special use permit provision for any gas station puts all of us at risk. So, we really urge you to think about what's the urgency. Think about the safety and well-being of all the residents. And none of our questions have been answered. We've been told we have we're given given misinformation, but what's the correct information? No one's I've emailed every one of you and no one has responded to me with the answers to my questions. No one. I respect all of you and I respect what your role is. You're supposed to legislate. We get it. But we're who you're legislating for. And our voices really should matter. And it doesn't have to come from a constituent in your district. Any of us who complain about this, it should make a difference to you because we all live in the city of South Fulton. We all deserve to be informed and included in decisions that infect affect the health and welfare of its residents. And I thank you for your time and attention. Yeah. Barbara Baylor, Loretta Williams, Cedric Williams. Good evening, Mayor Gums and members of the city council. I am Barbara Baylor. I am a retired public health professional and consultant and I live in district 1. I attended the meeting uh last week at

the decision point ministries regarding the proposed vote on an ordinance that would increase the number of gas stations allowed in the South Fulton area. As a public health professional, I am concerned about this audience. There is extensive research indicating potential public health risk associated with gas stations located too close to communities. As you are aware, the benzene and gasoline is a human carcinogen that poses particular risk to children. It has caused leukemia um and increased asthma and poses particular risk to adults and pregnant women and people that have upper respiratory conditions and heart disease. Protective measures such as safe mandatory distance between the gas station can help reduce these risks that are associated living near uh service stations. I implore you please today to protect the health and safety of the residents of South Fulton and to please repeal ordinance 20210033 and take some time to think about um the protections of the the innocent children and the adults that are around us that are vulnerable. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you. Good evening. I am Loretta Williams and I live at 7429 Jenny Drive in um South Fulton. Um I've been at several meetings, not in community I mean uh community concern meetings. I've been at city council meetings. I've been at city planning meetings. And again, like many of the previous speakers have said, the information is not clear or consistent or concise. And

in the beginning, I was very much um just not not opposed or for, but hearing so many different stories about it, I I really don't know what is going on. I I my concern is the word appeal. I mean, repeal. Why in the world would you repeal something that was put in place to protect homeowners in the city initially? Why not just make amendments or addendums or something like that to it in order to make way for growth within the city because we want growth and having something like um I spoke to um council person Willis the other day and she was saying not really disclosing that you all have a plan for a a Kroger coming or but just hypothetical that if we had a Kroger or a Costco that wanted to come. They want to bring their gas entity with them and I understand that. But my concern is repealing this is going to leave us open to so many other opportunities for us to be redlined by gas stations here, gas stations there. And I understand also what council person JC I love this guy JC Sebastian explained to me that you know all of those have to get a special permit. We'll have to get a and and that's great but there's nothing to say that they won't get it that you won't be here and the next set of council people won't say oh okay yeah you give it to them and so that's my concern. There was a purpose for this initially being put down put in place. It was to protect homeowners. And I I spoke before about the concern about the environmental um because I heard from

several homeowners in the city that I didn't know about who had well water. And I understand that technology has improved now and that new gas stations will have protections for that. I get it. I get it. But things can still happen. and just the other environmental things that it brings. Um, walking traffic with people hanging at gas stations. I mean, those are the things that concern me. So, thank you so much for listening. Byebye.

All right. Thank you so much um for all of your comments. At this time, I will be closing the public hearing and we will uh have any comments from our council. if you all want to make a comment in the queue. Um, but I also have our city attorney that would like to address um the residents. Attorney Kelly. Thank you, Mayor. Um, and thank you, Mayor and Council. I did want to address first and foremost the timing issue that was brought up. The case that was mentioned, um, Tilly Properties Incorporated versus Barto County. Um, it's actually 261 Georgia 183 or 153. Um, that case was decided in 1991. I'm not going to tell y'all how old I was in 1991, but let's just fair to say that I was not of the age of majority. Um, but OCGA 368029 subsection 6, which became effective July 1, 2023, allows for any additions or corrections to a publication to be added to that municipality's website. According to our website, the date, month, day, and year were correct. So, we are in compliance as far as continuing to move forward um with considering uh this action today. So, I wanted to make that abundantly clear on the record. Um the other concern regarding additional protections and the environmental impact, there's three parts to what's going on with this gas station ordinance. There's the repeal, there's the new ordinance, and there's also the text amendment to the zoning uh table, the use table. The reason why it is being repealed is because we are taking it completely out of the zoning portion of the code and putting it in its own section. In order to do that, we can't just move one ordinance out of the zoning to another place in the code. The proper vehicle to do that is to repeal

it. Now, we didn't want to just repeal it and not leave any protections out there, which is why we have the second portion, which is the new gas station ordinance. Now, I can tell you quite a bit of thought and conversation and just my own sweat equity for months has gone into this ordinance. And I can tell you nobody from the outside drafted this ordinance. It was purely in house in my office with the um cooperation of the elected council people. So, I did want to put that to bed. But with the new gas station ordinance, with it being a standalone ordinance outside of the zoning code, it allows us the flexibility that should we need to make additional changes according to the feedback from the residents, we can do that more easily. So this council is sensitive to what you all are saying and as a result that is why that vehicle is being used. Secondly, the new ordinance adds significant protections that the old ordinance did not, especially when it comes to the environmental impact. With the special use permit, there was an environmental impact that was required, but that was not independent. With this new ordinance, it requires an independent entity to determine the environmental impact specifically on surrounding residences. That was not done before. That has never been a part of our ordinance. The other part of the new ordinance is it requires a tree buffer. Um a light plan to make sure that any placement of lighting is in the least disrupted places as possible to surrounding residences that may be abuing that property as well as making sure they're coming into federal and state compliance with um their gas pumps locations and the mechanism they're using. The thing about South Fton is we are a city on the rise. We are growing. Um we are not, you know, just a homogeneous blend. We have everything from AG to heavy industrial. And so with this new ordinance, it gives us the flexibility to address all of those areas without creating an oversaturation of gas stations. Now, when the city

became a city, take for example Old National Corridor, we inherited a number of gas stations. With this new ordinance, the way that it is written right now, no more gas stations will be able to come on Old National by right. So, I want to make sure that that's understood by the residents. This is not a green light for gas stations to pop up on every corner. And I believe I discussed this with one of the council members just from the Shell station at Buffington. I'm sorry, the Shell gas station at 138 and all national just to Pleasant Hill. There's already two more than two gas stations in that one and 1.2 mile radius. So, no more gas stations will be able to come on that corridor by right. The same from Pleasant Hill all the way. I think I did it to Godby just to be safe. Even though we stop at Old Bill Cook Road, no more gas stations will be able to come in that corridor as a result of this new ordinance. Um, so I just wanted to give just a couple of those the rundowns to address some of those concerns by the residents. This is not something that was rushed. This was actually something that was overdue and that had been worked on for several months um with the staff. So, I did want to make sure that I made that abundantly clear. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Attorney Kelly. Uh, Councilman Sebastian.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, Madam City attorney, I have one clarification that I need because this question was asked in my town hall on Sunday evening. It's about if a gas station is proposed outside of those categories um C2, M1, and M2 which have the by right designation according to what we hopefully will be adopting tonight. If it's in any other category, does it still have to go through the resoning and the special use permit regardless of where in the code um whether it's in business license or it's in the zoning code?

So, the short answer to that is yes, it still has to come before the council. the way that the new ordinance is written, even though it's no longer in the zoning code, it does use language um that is consistent with how those zones are described with mixed use and with residential and also having the within a 1000 ft residential also by application limits it to certain zonings as well. So although it doesn't use the same zoning language as C1, C2, um M2, the description that's used in the new ordinance by application has the same effect. All right. Thank you, Councilman Sebastian. Councilwoman Moral.

Yes. Um, thank you for that. Um, I have a question. Um, because this would change what's currently in place. Did you also look at food and industrial because I think we have like six on food and industrial. What did you did you look across the city to see how many or or how many could potentially come? I did not do like a full GIS um breakdown of every corridor within the city. Um but I did look specifically at Old National. I did not look at Fulton Industrial, but as I mentioned, we inherited from the county several corridors that are already um by nature of the 1.5 mile radius are already beyond that point. Um, so if FIB, if there are more than two gas stations within a mile and a half radius on Fton Industrial Boulevard, no more gas stations will be able to come within that mile and a half radius by rate. Um, is it possible before we get to the point where we decide relative to I actually like that we could not potentially have a oversaturation in there. But I'm I'm just trying to be clear that I understand because before it was no distance requirements in that on that corridor.

I'm sorry. Can you repeat that? I wasn't showing to the question. So, so it would require special use permit well to be allowed outright in M1 and M2 which is industrial area, right? So, they could potentially because there's no distance requirement with those in the industrial area. So, with the way that the new ordinance is written, period, regardless of the zoning, if there are more than two gas stations in a mile and a half radius, no more gas stations will be able to come in that radius, regardless of the zoning, without a special use permit.

Okay. Cuz I'm reading the gas station. There's a subsection under it that talks about proximity to residential and it says A, which is outright allowable. Correct. I just want to make sure I'm So it it says 447110110 gas stations. Then you have another category under it says A which is outright allowable. It does not require special use permit. So my understanding this was making it consistent with which is currently in place on foot and industrial. So it does not have it doesn't address distance at all.

No. But that's why we also have in addition that's why these three pieces of legislation have to be read together and that's also one of the reasons for the new ordinance is to bring all of these pieces that were kind of scattered throughout the code in one space. So although the zoning table doesn't address the distance requirements, this new ordinance is very specific in its application that regardless of in in applying the zoning table, you also have to read it in conjunction with this ordinance which does have this the distance requirements.

I just can uh intervene here for just a second. So I know we're only supposed to be having a public hearing about the repeal. So I think some of our other questions that we may have to ask um in reference to the other ordinance will have to go on to that to the next meeting. Am I correct in that? So there are two um that we're having the public comment on. It's the repeal the public hearing on the repeal and as well as the zoning table. So those are the two things that require a public hearing. The new ordinance does not.

Okay. All right. Um, so I just I want to be clear before I again I'm looking at this chart and it says what part to be you know what part is deleted and replaced and it says that it would be A which is outright allowable and it has gas stations which the previously the only area that had that was full and industrial. I just want to make sure it's under C2, M1 and M2 because I've seen a couple different versions of this document. I want to be clear. So, and then there's another line under it which speaks to gas stations located within 7,920 ft of existing gas station or located within 1,000 ft of a residential would require a special use permit. So again, I'm thinking if it's a gas station, it's an industrial area and if there are no residential or no other gas stations, the answer is yes. So I'm going to defer to Mr. McClendon and perhaps he can give a more concise explanation.

Thank you. Perhaps I can be helpful. The So the prior ordinance um required it it applied differently to the Fulton Industrial Corridor.

Um now gas stations which wanted to locate on Fulton Industrial Corridor still needed a special use permit but they were not subject to the distance requirement. the three mile distance requirement. So, um the new um ordinance will change that um not only on F and Industrial Boulevard but throughout the entire city um wherein um gas stations will be allowable without that special use permit uh as long as they're not within um the new 1.5 mile distance requirement or the 1,00 ft residential requirement. Okay. Are there any other speakers in the queue? All right. Since if there's no further objections, we can adjourn to executive session. Are there any objections? All right. We will adjourn to executive session for real estate personnel litigation and cyerspace.

Oh, security, not cyerspace. Security. All right, we'll see y'all very soon. Thank you. Journey at 5:34. We're recessed at 5:34 p.m.

I think we can go ahead and um return back to uh open session. The meeting will come back to order. The recess for executive session has ended and we are back into open session. So with that being said, Mr. Clerk, were there any um while in executive session, the council adopted the following motions. Um the council has voted to reappoint the city clerk to grade 20 paystep 10. The council has also voted to reappoint Judge Michael, chief municipal judge Michael Sheridan. The council has also voted to reappoint city attorney interim city attorney Sarah for an additional six months. And the council has also voted to reappoint the reappoint of city manager and approval of the contract. Is there any other items?

No, ma'am. Those were the only items I'm aware of. All right. At this time, we will need to take a vote within the system. Right. Am I correct in that? All right. Please uh make sure that you all have your um I believe that was the five o'clock meeting still up so we can go ahead and vote in this executive session. Yeah. I'm sorry. My apologies. Go back to the five or can do a hand vote.

Oh, you want to do a Well, we can do that. Let's do a hand vote. So, all those um can I get a motion? Well, I already did the motion. Can I get a show of hands? Second. All right. All those in favor? I. All those opposed. Mr. Clerk. I had six eyes and one nay. One day. Six to one. Six to one.

That motion was approved with those four employment actions. All right. Thank you. And if there is no further business, then I will call this meeting to be adjourned at 7:01 p.m. All right, Mr. Clerk, we will be calling the next meeting, our public meeting for February 24th, 2026 at 7 p.m. our city council regular meeting to order. Can you please sound the roll? Yeah, madame mayor, did you want them to run the video first or My apologies. We just ready to roll. Let's go.

Thank you for joining us live for the city of South Bton city council meeting. We are proud to introduce the leadership entrusted with guiding our city forward. Mayor Carmelita Gum, District 1 Councilwoman Dr. Katherine Ralph, District 2 Councilman Aaron B. Johnson, District 3, Councilwoman Helen Zenobia Willis, District 4, Councilman JC Sebastian, Mayor Pro Tim, Piosha B. District 6 Councilwoman Natasha Williams Brown, District 7 Councilwoman Linda Becker Pritchette. Supporting the work of this body in the operations of our city are city clerk Corey Adams, city manager Sharon D. Subed, and interim city attorney Sarah Kelly. Thank you for being the best part of the city of Southport, a city on the rise.

All right. Welcome again to our February 24th, 2026 city council regular meeting. Mr. Clerk, can you please stand the role? Roll call for tonight's regular meeting. The Honorable Katherine Efra, District 1, present. The Honorable Aaron V. Johnson, District 2, present. The Honorable Helen Z. Willis, District 3, present. The Honorable JC Sebastian, District 4. Present. The Honorable Kosha BB Bell, District 5. Present. The Honorable Natasha Williams Brown, District 6.

Present. And the honorable Linda Becker Pritchette, District 7, here. And the honorable mayor Carmelita Gums here. Madame Mayor, you have a quorum. All right, Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item? Next item is Roman numeral three, the invocation which will be provided by our city chaplain. Is it Sergeant Smith? N Smith, I'm sorry. N Smith. My apologies.

Good evening everyone. Let us pray. Most gracious and heavenly father, we come before you as humbly as we know how, giving you thanks and praise for the opportunities of life, health, and liberty. Heavenly Father, we ask you to bless all in attendance. We ask you to bless our mayor, city council, elected officials, and all others that are responsible for the development of the city of South Fton. And as always, we'll continue to give your name the glory, honor, and praise in Christ's name. Amen.

Amen. Pledge allegiance to the flag of United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item?

Yes, ma'am. That brings us to adoption of the council agenda. We do not have any proclamation presentations this evening. Jesus. You see, they excited about not having proclamations, right? All right. So, adoption of the council agenda. It has everyone switched over. All right. Can I entertain a motion? Second. It has moved and has been moved and properly second. Can I get this by a show of hands? Card. That motion approved unanimously. 70.

All right. Mr. Cler, can you sound the next item? Next item is Roman numeral 7. Approval of city council meeting minutes, regular meeting minutes, February 10th, 2026. Work session minutes February 10th, 2026. And alcohol zoning public hearing minutes, February 10th, 2026. Are there any objections to the minutes? All right, the uh minutes are approved. I don't see any objection.

Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item? That brings us to the consent agenda. Roman numeral 8, letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, and M. So, items A through M. If there is no objection to the consent agenda, no objection. All right. The consent agenda is adopted by unanimous consent. City clerk, please sound the next item.

That brings us to Roman Roman numeral 9, which is alcohol license resonings, variance, and modification cases for motion and vote. First case is letter A. request council consideration of an alcohol beverage license application for Applebee's restaurants Mid-Atlantic LLC doing business as Applebees and has submitted a requesting approval of a change of ownership for the consumption sale of wine, beer, and distilled beverages at 3690 Cascade Road, Southwest South Fulton, Georgia 30331. It's located in city council district 1.

All right. Um, council, I know you all have had an opportunity to review uh the agenda. If there are no objections to these items A through I believe it is E under alcohol, you have an objection. Okay. What item? All right. So if there is no objections to item A, B, D, and E, we can do that by unanimous consent. I believe there is one item that one council member would like to hear. Is there any objection? All right, those items are adopted. Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the item? The next item

item C, second read and request council approval of a zoning ordinance M26-001, an application by Omar Cooper, Carol Benny Bryant, requesting a modification to zoning condition 3A of zoning case 2005Z-0010 to remove the 20oot rear yard setback at 8373 Leardin Boulevard. It's located in city council district 4. Staff recommendation was denial. At this time, I'll entertain a motion. May I want to um approve a motion for denial going with staff recommendation? Second.

It has been moved and properly second. Discussion. Discussion. if we have um staff member here who can explain to us the reason for their recommendation to remind us. I think I see director Mlendon just coming down the hallway. Is anyone else here from CDR that can remind us? All right, Director McClendon. He wore his best tie for you all today.

Director Mlennon, can you remind us about um item C under the alcohol and zoning and why staff recommendation was for denial.

That's the 20 footware setback removal.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Reggie McClendon, managing director of community development and regulatory affairs. The uh item CM26001. Um this was the application to remove the um tw the entire 20ft rear yard setback at 8373 Alia Jardine Boulevard. Staff's recommendation was denial. Uh as a reminder, modification cases do not go before planning commission. So there is no planning commission recommendation. Staff's recommendation of denial was based on the um structure that is already been built um actually being built within a drainage easement.

All right, there's a motion on the floor. We like to carry that vote. Y'all want to do it in the queue? All right, Mr. Clark, that was a motion to deny. And what? You don't want to do it again? Oh, okay. I'm sorry. And the vote is open.

Well, I can't vote. I got it. It's still showing that. The motion to deny was approved 70.

All right, Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item? Madame Mayor, members of council, that brings us to the public comments portion of the agenda. The public is reminded that comments regarding zoning cases will not be allowed. Speakers will be granted a total of two minutes each and public comments will not exceed 30 minutes. Speakers will not be allowed to yield or donate their time to other speakers. Speakers must identify themselves and their addresses prior to speaking. Speakers may only address the presiding officer. shall observe all rules of decorum. No debate, disrespect or obscinity shall be tolerated. The presiding officer shall rule any such individual out of order that fails to comply with the foregoing. With that said, madame mayor, um, per our custom, we do have a couple of elected officials that um I know the mayor and council typically hear from them first.

Yes. Um, I know we have Senator Ja Howard and Senator Rashan Kemp are present. All right. Well, senators, can you all please step to the podium? Whoever would like to go first and welcome to the city of South Fton. How are you?

I'm doing great. Hello. Hey, city of South Fton mayor, council persons. Yeah, I got to tell you, uh, we've been working hard at the capital. Excuse me. Ja Howard, a state senator, District 35, representing parts of Fulton County, including parts of South City of, um, South Fulton and parts of Cobb County. Uh, I got to tell you, we've been working hard at the state capital and um, we know that there's a lot of debate going on, but one thing that's for sure is that everyone's on notice that city of South Bolton is indefinitely on the rise. So, it's beautiful to be in the the grand halls of the state capital and folks know city of the city of South B is in a new era and on the move. So, thank you for all of your leadership. Thank you for just keeping an eye on the prize. Um, as you know uh we're there's major things going on internationally and nationally. Um, our US Senator uh Raphael Waro um has uh is promoting a resolution. We appreciate uh those sentiments being echoed by our congresswoman Lucy Mcbath and also those sentiments being um echoed here at the local level in the city of South Folton. So I came today just to say thank you for all the work that you're doing and please consider um this resolution to u stand up against the ICE detention centers. um because the federal government is is is moving and I understand it can be concerning um but it is going to take that leadership and that courage from each uh city each county or in our state to u go up against what we see here at the federal government. So there is a sense of urgency and thank you for your leadership in considering um this resolution. So again, thank you for the entire uh crowd who's here. You have active citizens who ask good questions and keep us all accountable. So again, just want to come and say thank you and also encourage you to support the resolution. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Howard. State Senator Rashan Kim, welcome. Well, I mean, you just live right around the corner, but

right down the street. Yeah. Well, good evening, uh, Mayor and Council. Thank y'all so much. I was riding in here from an event in the city of Atlanta. and I was listening to the uh news and one of the commentators said that we have to stand up for democracy and it starts in our cities and I think that's very timely for what I'm going to share today. Um, so thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight and I come before you not only as your state senator, but as a partner and as a resident of the city of South Fulton who believes that local leadership matters at a time when communities across Georgia are watching closely in light of recent ICE operations and the growing debate around detention center centers. Your agenda item sends a clear message. This is not what the city wants and it's not what we want to be told what to do. We know what our values are and you are defining them yourselves. I recently filed a Senate resolution uh supporting the federal efforts by Senator Raphael Waro and signed on to a bill that was sponsored by my colleague Senator Howard who just spoke to ensure transparency, accountability, and community voice when decisions are made that impact our neighborhoods. And tonight you have the opportunity to reinforce the same principle right here at home. The city of South Fton is known as a progressive city, a city that leads, a city that sets the standard for what residents across Georgia want to see from their leaders. By taking this proactive step, you are not just reacting to policy. You are showing where the community stands for transparency, for respect, and for thoughtful governance. This resolution is not about division. It's about clarity. It's about ensuring the decisions affecting our families, our infrastructure, and our future are made with the people, not around them. Mayor and council, I respectfully urge you to approve the risk this resolution and

continue setting the example for cities across our state. And I thank you all for the opportunity to serve you down at the gold dome. And thank you so much for your continued leadership uh here in the city of South. Thank you so much. All right, Mr. Clerk, can you remind our speakers and let's get ready.

Yes. So, we have approximately, I believe, about eight cards here and three people that wish to speak via Zoom. So, as I call your name, please approach the center microphone and state your name, address, your district, and you can discuss uh any item except any zoning cases. Um, those who submitted forms online, uh, Deanna Respris, Penny Webster Lewis, Cedric Williams, Loretta Williams, Deita Chapman, Ivonne Cole Boone, Mel Keaton, and Glenda Collins. If you're present and wish to speak, please approach the center microphone and come in that order. And please remind them that comments should not pertain to zoning.

Yes.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. And Penny Webster Lewis, 6312, Jasper Way, City of South Fulton, District 2. My comments are not regarding zoning. My comments are to thank Councilwoman um Aaron Johnson, Councilwoman Natasha Williams Brown, Councilwoman Katherine uh Foster Ralph who addressed my questions that I've been asking regarding a matter that we talked about in the zoning hearing. So, I think it's important since I made a comment saying no one's responding to my inquiries as well as someone from the uh Mr. McClendon's office talked with me as well. While I still may not agree, at least I have a better understanding of what's happening. And I appreciate the opportunity to be able to speak my my truth and ask for clarity so that I can get on board with council when they're making decisions that aren't clear to me. So, I want to say thank you to those council persons specifically and also Councilwoman uh Linda Pritchette who talked to me way prior to this event. But I do think it's important when you raise a concern that you come back and say thank you to the folks who do answer your questions. So, thank you to all of you and I yield. So Cedric Williams, Loretta Williams, Deita Chapman, Ivon Cole Boon, Mel Katon, Glenda Collins.

Hi, my name is Deita Chapman. I live at 7303 Simon Street. I live in the great district 2 where Councilman Johnson is my counsel. I know y'all probably think I'm coming here to blast y'all, but I'm not. Council, uh, I want to thank, uh, Mayor Gums. I've watched the last couple meetings that you presided and you're doing a wonderful job. What I'm going to ask the council is when residents come before you guys or say anything, we voted for you. We do want you to listen to us. I get plenty of calls and when I get the calls I tell the constituents that I would never tell who told me. But this is what I'm going to leave this with you with you guys because when we were fighting for this city, we fought for what we thought was right and it's going to be all right. I I I I believe that. But I'm going to say this. 2 Chronicles 7:14, "If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways," and I'm not saying your ways is wicked. I'm just saying what the words say. Then will I hear from heaven

and I will forgive their sin and I will heal the land.

I heard my c mayor said she want to bring the city together in unity and I believe that. But not only is going to take the mayor, it's going to take all seven of the council plus the residents. I'm willing to give y'all a fair shake. And if you don't want me at the table, I'mma bring my folding chair. But I love this city so well that I'm not going nowhere. And what I said at the town hall meeting, I love it and I love the people. Even when you upset me, I still love you. I'm going down to Mallerie and you'll see me over there. So, keep up the good work and we'll continue to do what we supposed to do.

Ivonne Cole Boone, Melton Mel Katon, Glenda Collins.

My name is uh Ivonne My address is 7312 Blue J Way, Union City, Georgia. I guess the city of South Fton 2 and I'm in district 7. Um, I wanted to speak about the comprehensive plan, but it's coming later. Um, and I don't know if I can talk about this, but I'm You just buzz me off when I'm I'm saying the wrong thing. Um the reason I'm concerned for about the plan is that um a certain area it's uh along in in district 7 and it's along Spence Road and uh earlier we had a development a developer come and want to reszone that area and the um the council made a motion to deny that reszoning. Uh the the area was suburban. Now, for the new plan, it is um industrial, light industrial, and I'm concerned that this planner is going to come back again and try to clearcut 188 acres of woodland to build three warehouses. Um, we had a petition. uh many people, the Fairburn people, people in South Folton, we all got together and we had a change.org petition. Over a thousand people signed that petition. And what really moves me is that this same developer has a warehouse. He got approved for a warehouse on Roosevelt. I think it's SOF they're referring to it as. And he has requested a 10year abatement, a tax abatement. So, I'm just concerned about this and and I wanted to put it out there. Um, thank you,

Mel Katon. Linda Collins Good evening, Mayor and Council. Glenda Collins, District 5. I'm here to discuss the tax abatement. Can we please get an ex explanation as to why a warehouse may be or will be approved for a tax abatement in operating this type of business for a profit? And if this abatement is approved, will it be the city of South Fulton of Fulton County? A tax abatement is being used to purchase land that operates as a profit. Since the warehouse will make a profit, the abatement will be given 10 years. Does a developer have the right to request a tax abatement at any time? I would think that an abatement would serve the city of South Fulton better if the tax abatement was applied to a hospital or entertainment area instead of a warehouse. Will this tax abatement affect our annual allocation of dispersement from Fulton County? reszone to build a warehouse when the property could have been developed to be more consistent and beneficial to the area. Thank you,

Miss Martha Sers. Is Martha Sers present? With that, mayor and council, we have three people who signed up via Zoom. Um, we do have Miss India Rice who is available online. Miss Rice, can you hear me? Hello. Okay. Please state your name, your address, and you may discuss your item, and you will have two minutes.

Hello, my name is India Rice. I'm a constituent in zone 7 and I would like to support the resolution to keep ice out of our city and I'm also still looking for more information on the Microsoft data center on Stonewel Road. We have not been provided environmental impact reports or any information regarding how we will be protected from the harmful impacts of this data center. I'm also asking for more transparency and support from our mayor and our city at this time because it's a very concerning issue to me as I witness other black communities around this country grow more disenfranchised by the data centers that are continuous continuously impacting our communities. Thank you and have a blessed night.

I don't see them online but I will just call their name. Uh, Bishop Greg Fan had signed up, but it looks like he has not joined, as well as Miss Tena Jones. So, since they're not present, that completes the public comment that I received uh for this evening. All right. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Can you please sound the next item? That brings us to well council comments Roman numeral 11. All right. So, we're going to switch it up a little bit. We're going to start in district 7. Come on. What's it?

I don't really think I have a lot to say, but um uh good evening everyone. Thank you for coming out this evening. Uh I want to make you aware of some legislation uh at the capital that right now is in the House. It's House Bill 1035 introduced by Representative Sandra Scott. And what it does, it would pro prohibit HOAs from being able to foreclose on people's property uh for any fees or outstanding fines or leans that are placed on their homes. Um this is really important because a lot of pe there has been a lot of issue with HOAs across the state of Georgia. um people on boards are not professionals um are not professional board members, do not have substantial training and uh in many of our communities in particular in my district many of the HOAs have been very predatory towards their own neighbors and people in the community by giving them excessive fines, being really petty, um very latigious, using their own dues against homeowners and hiring high-powered attorneys and engaging in complicated litigation that has wind up um making people feel like they shouldn't be part of HOA communities. Uh so this bill uh myself and I thank Patricia Wise um from district 7 and also Carell Driscoll from district 2, we went down to the capital and we gave some testimony and it looks like it was favorable and uh this is something that they look to be really interested in. So, it's really important sometimes when we advocate for issues that affect um people uh broadly throughout our city to support legislation that uh can help provide some relief to some real

complicated and terrible issues. And I think that's about it. Thank you. All right. Thank you, District 7. We're moving on to district six. Councilwoman Williams Brown,

the sensational six district. I always have a folder. Okay. So, um, of course, as always, I want I start by thanking um the residents that came out to our Q1 community conversation on last week. I appreciate everyone who came um to um engage in community and talk about the issues that were um on their minds um as it relates to District 6. Um of course I have to thank um our police officers, Dr. Alexander, Major English. Um on yesterday we had Jay Uso from WWE do a celebrity appearance at Qriket um wireless on Old National Highway um in conjunction with the WWE match at State Farm Arena last night. Um they did a phenomenal job of crowd management um ensuring that everybody was safe um ensuring that traffic along Old National was not impeded by the crowd um and that everyone had a good experience. And so I greatly appreciate all the hard work that they put in so that residents could have a good time um in the sensational six and meet one of the more preeminent, as I understand it, wrestlers in WWE today. It's not my thing. Um however, my husband will sit and watch it all day every day. Um announcements. The monthly food distribution is this coming Saturday at Krill Park at 10:00 a.m. Um until the food runs out. As always, please be reminded that people do start lining up

at 9:00. The food goes very quickly. So, if you know people who are experiencing food insecurity and are in need of fruits and vegetables to help supplement their food supply, please direct them to Krill Park as well. Um, Councilwoman Pritchette um is there. If we have um residents who are Spanish speaking, she is usually there at some point during the food giveaway to help serve residents in their language. Um, and so, you know, special thanks to her for coming out every month to ensure that the Hispanic community is able to receive services in their native tongue. Um, recycle and shred. Um, March 7th at Creel Park. Um, you know, we are gearing up to do our spring cleaning. And so those of you who need to bring your aluminum cans and your cardboard boxes out of your garage and all of the papers that you've got stuffed in your Kroger bag somewhere to take to a shredder, please bring those to Krill Park on March 7th so that we can dispose of those properly. And then on March 14th, it is time for the annual St. Patrick's Day bingo at Brett Park. For those of you who come out to the bingo, you know, we have a phenomenal time. Um, and line dancing and food and laughter and great prizes that are given out at the bingo. Um, typically I would look at the back and say, "Did I get it all?" But I don't see I don't see Merlin. So, we're going to hope that I got it all. These are your what?

Church announcements for the day. And we shall govern ourselves what? Accordingly. Did somebody say bingo? I love bingo. Y'all ready for some bingo? Come get your prize.

All right, moving on to district five. All right, thank you so much. And as always, we keep it live in district five. So, nevertheless, I want to thank those that came out. Rain all day last Saturday, but nevertheless, we had a great turnout for our residents for the recycle and shred event. And I was amazingly surprised because it was pouring down. But nevertheless, I want to thank our public works department, our public affairs department, and the one and only Dr. Cooper, infectiously known as Big Coupe. Um, nevertheless, I want to thank those that came out. We have just started our new our newest initiative in District 5 at Berdette Park, which is called Generations Read Together. And so, um, we are having a great time with that. our seniors or as I say season elite, we do encourage you to sign up. If you would like to take a moment of your day and come by and read to our babies, we encourage you to do so. So, you can definitely reach out to myself, my office, and or our parks and recreation department, but our new program is generations read together. And so, we're focusing on making sure we the quality of life means making sure our babies know how to read, write, and know how to do arithmetic. But nevertheless, if you are interested, we in we invite you participate. If you have a free afternoon, please come by Birdad Park. Please call our office and we will give you your own special day. Um our book for yesterday was the ABCs of black history. And so this was the longest 45 minutes to read this this little short book, but nevertheless, they have a lot of questions. They're super excited to have guests come in. So we encourage you please come on out. Um, next is our workforce academy. Many of you are are very aware of the workforce academy. I've had a lot of emails regarding our electrician program, our

roofing program. We are in the process as expanding. So, if you or anyone is interested in our programs, they are currently underway. So, our next programs will not begin again until the end of March, but we are adding 3D printing. again. So, I want to take this time out to give kudos to our very own resident, Mr. Mario Clark, um, for all of the work that he is helping to connect us with partners. And so, not in addition to 3D construction program, we will also be adding culinary arts, entrepreneurship, and HVAC and forklift. So, we are growing. And so if you or anyone is interested in free training opportunities for anyone, it doesn't have to be a specific age and it's not just for children. If you are an adult, you're looking to upskill or reskill, please contact our office. And as always, if you're not receiving our newsletter, please feel free to email myself or Philip Watley, my constituent services representative, or contact our office and be on the lookout for your D5, District 5 at a glance. It's a 12-page mailer, so be on the lookout in your mailboxes. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Moving on to District 4.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. And I would request sometimes you start from the middle so I don't have to follow all of that. But thank you all. If you have any doubts whether we are doing things here in the city of South and all we have to do is to listen to some of these announcements. Um first of all I want to just take this moment and send condolences from all of us to former Councilwoman Na McGillad who lost her son um last week. Um, I believe their funeral is this this week. And I want to thank our men and women of our fire department who did a really good job in trying to um save Eric's life on on that night. Um, they did all they could um but just couldn't keep him. And so, um, um, Miss Gilead, our council woman Gilliard has expressed her sincere thanks, um, to our men and women of our fire department.

And I think she has a GoFundMe out there someplace, um, as Councilwoman uh, Willis reminded me, um, just now, so you all can look for that and help with the arrangements. Um, I want to thank all those residents who came out last Sunday evening. Um, so I've been out with you all now two Sunday evenings. We're not going to make it three. Sunday is normally chair to the rest, but it was necessary to have the conversation around gas stations and the the ordinance. And so I want to thank those residents who packed the house at fire station six so that we could have um a discussion around around the ordinance. And I think we we made a lot of headway into people's understanding of what we're trying to do. And um and I think many of the residents who left there were actually pleased with the discussion that we have. Also um want to thank those who staff and others who assisted with our was what was supposed to be our Christmas time senior holiday event that turned into a Valentine's event and it was it was pretty awesome I got to tell you. So I may follow me and Dan every year I don't know but it was pretty awesome. You know the seniors really enjoyed themselves. Uh it was a small place but none nonetheless both staff and the contractors that we had did a really good job and um and everyone enjoyed themselves. Did get some emails and so on afterwards too um from some of the seniors expressing their appreciation because not a lot happened out by us. We're kind of quiet out there at times but that's one of the good events that we have had in the last few months. Um, we have our fifth annual autism sensory festival coming up in on April 4th. And so we're looking forward and we're preparing for that. And in

case you don't know, people come from three or four states I believe around us to attend that event and as well as um several counties around Georgia. I'm told it's it's typically the largest such event uh in metro Atlanta. So it happens at Wilkerson Park on April 5th. um starting from about 11 a.m. and I jumped over March, the best month of the year, because two things, Women's History Month and my birthday. So, I'm looking forward to um celebrating Women's History Month, and we have something that we're planning at the end of the um at the end of the month in March. So, look out for more to come with that. And that's all I have.

Well, thank you, Councilman. I think we will have to start in the middle next time. Moving on to district three.

Thank you for recognizing me, mayor. Um I want to thank my colleagues. Um I got a uh opportunity to participate in um Council Member Pritchette's town hall meeting. She did an amazing job and we got to talk about the gas station ordinance and she allowed me to explain to residents. Um, I got to participate in council member uh Sebastian's town hall on Sunday and it was a packed crowd standing room and and he allowed me to talk with residents about the gas station ordinance and um while I didn't get a chance to speak at um council member Williams Brown uh town hall, I did participate. I did go um and we had productive, respectful conversations with residents and I want to thank the residents um who were there to really um respectfully engage and listened and um we had great dialogue on this Saturday. We are going to uh have a produce and shredding event at uh Welcome Park from 9 to 12. It's just shredding. I want to thank Omega Sci-Fi. They will be out there to help me volunteer and help me pass out produce. And then on March 3rd, we will have a state of this district 3 um town hall. We will have the city manager and all department heads at Welcome Park at 6 pm to give you an update of the state of district 3 projects, public works projects, park and recreation projects. Uh also anything that's going on in district 3, we want to hear from you and we want to give you the state of district 3. Uh thank you for your engagement. I think

when we get to this gas station ordinance and the city attorney speaks, I think you will see that um the five sponsors of this ordinance listened and we came to some um happy medians and we um and compromise and while we're not going to make everybody happy, we have come to a point where I think um are some common grounds. Thank you and have a great day. Thank you for engaging. Thank you, Councilwoman Willis. District two, Councilman Erin Johnson.

All right. Thank you, Madame Mayor. The first thing I want to do um since our last meeting, we lost um I think a giant in our civil rights uh history when with uh the Reverend Jesse Jackson. So, I just want to take a moment to acknowledge uh his passing and recognizing the fact that our giants and our the people who got us to the point a lot of the people who got us to the point or have gotten us to the point that we are today are starting to slip away and we need to take time to sit down, sit back and recognize that. We had a great conversation at one of the schools today with Andrew Young and it was amazing. At 93 years old, he was telling us about what he did in high school and he talked to the kids and it was supposed to uh last about an hour and a half, but the kids kept asking questions and the kids were just amazed at this giant sitting there. And sometimes we lose the fact that we live around uh so much history. So, we always need to pay attention to that. Um, so on to lighter things. I'm very excited. As you know, I'm still the new guy here. Uh, the Southton Fire recruit graduation was last week, and to some people that may not be too much of a deal, but it was my first one. So, I was excited to uh see the graduates for our fire department and see them starting off with the city of South Fulton and getting ready to do some amazing things. Um, in my second month, we have been going around trying to hit all the HOAs and community meetings and things of that nature. So, uh, if I haven't been to your HOA yet, I promise you I'm trying to set up a meeting to get to you as soon as I can. Uh, we've done about five in these, uh, 46 days that I've been on the council. Uh, but we're

moving through pretty well. Um, which also leads me to announce that we are getting ready to have our first town hall. We're going to do a first quarter town hall on March the 26th at uh 6:30 p.m. at Westlake High School. I'm very excited about that because we get an opportunity to hear from the community and talk to the community about what's going on in District 2 and what's going on in the city. And not only that, but to hear from our res residents about how they're feeling and what they're looking forward to and some of the things that we can do to work together to continue to move our city forward. Um, speaking of district 2, it's high school basketball playoff time. So, right now, the girls of Langston Hughes High School, they're in their game there. They should be at halftime by now, but I'm gonna go find out in a few. Uh the girls of Langston Hughes are is right now the boys play tomorrow at Langston Hughes uh at 6 uh Westlake High School. The girls play at 6 and the boys play at 7:30. So good luck to our all of our students who are student athletes and have high school basketball games in the playoffs and we need to bring home a championship. So all right, that's it for me, Madame Mayor.

I love it. Another championship.

Absolutely. I'm so proud of District two right now. I love all y'all, but I like this new one. All right, District One, thank you for recognizing me, mayor. A couple updates. Um, I want to encourage you to join me on February 24th at T at 10:00 a.m. for the District 1 and Cascade Business Merchants Association community cleanup. U, we're about 10 years in with this. Um, but I want to encourage you to come out and help us make sure we keep our business corridor clean. um gloves, vest, trash bags, and all the pickers are provided. So, all ages are welcome. On Saturday, March 21st, in partnership with Future Seekers, we are hosting a free SAT boot camp from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Santtown Rec Center. This is a wonderful opportunity for uh students in grades 10 through 12 to join us for intensive high impact prep session. We want to make sure um our young people are prepared to go to college. And so part of that is making sure they do well on those standardized tests. So um you can uh sign up via QR code um through my newsletter or on my Facebook page. You can see that flyer. Uh the what comes to mind um exhibit is at the Southwest Art Center, our very own Lloyd Herald. Um it's his various paintings and drawings and illustrations. He has an upcoming artist talk and reception on Saturday, February 28th from 5 to 8 uh p.m. So come out and join us. And SWAG spring class registration is currently open through March 5th. Classes filled up quickly, so um go online and make sure they're still available, but we have everything from West African dance to drawing to teen improv and more. Um classes for residents that are 55 and older are

free. Summer uh summer camp registration is already open and you know our our camps fill up very fast. So this is for ages 5 to 12 and the teen intensive is for uh teenagers ages 13 to 17. So um registration is limited. Make sure you go online and register. Uh what else? Spring League registration is currently open uh for Sant Town Park. Um it it's available through March 20th. We also have a volleyball clinic in partnership with the Police Athletic League. Um and so that's for girls ages 9 to 17 and it's on Saturdays from 2 to 4:00 p.m. And last but not least, um I want to encourage you to take advantage of the curbside bulk trash pickup days. you have until Wednesday, tomorrow, to sign up for um this month. And so we want to make sure that you do that. You can do that via the website, but for those who get my newsletter, the link is included. And last but not least, I want to congratulate um Councilwoman um Bale on your upcoming demolitions. I know you've been uh working on that for a while um as it relates to uh Camelot. So congratulations. And that concludes my announcements. Oh, let me I'd be remiss if I did not thank Councilwoman Natasha Williams Brown, um, Council Member Aaron Johnson, and Council Me um, Sebastian for engaging in the conversation as it relates around the gas station. Um, the modifications I think are a reasonable compromise. So, thank you for the dialogue. All right. Well, the great thing about sitting in this spot is that I get to go

to everybody's stuff. Um, and most of them have talked about the majority of what has been happening in the city and it's been quite busy. Last week uh was definitely um exciting. So, first we did have a federal visit from uh Congresswoman Lucy McBth. She met with both myself and the council. We had great dialogue. We talked about a lot of great things happening in the city as well as her uh continuing to be supportive around infrastructure and public safety as well as economic development. So, uh we really want to thank her for her level of engagement. So, that was exciting. Also, as um Council Member Johnson mentioned, attending the South Folsen Fire Rescue um graduation, of course, as you all know, public safety is top of mind for our city and um that was an exciting young group of new firefighters that are coming on board. I think most of them had to go to work right after that. So, that was exciting as well. I also want you all to know that we are not just dressed up uh in our African Guard, but it is Black History Month and uh this is our last council meeting for Black History Month. And I'm sorry that the gentleman did not get the memo, but you know, as women, we like to dress up for anything and um I think we look absolutely amazing. So um they didn't pay attention. That's what I heard. They didn't understand the assignment. Um, also I wanted to mention that uh there is a senior women's basketball team that is out recruiting. Um, the ages I think it starts at about 55. I think it's also a spin-off from um the senior workout class. So, if any of you

would love to participate in the senior women's basketball team, they are planning to uh compete in the senior Olympics which will also be held there's one that's held in Georgia. There's one that's held in how do you pronounce it? Opaikica, Alabama, as well as Fulton County Senior Olympics. I think they their name is Thundercats.

Okay, Thundercats. or it might be I think I added the cats on it but it's something senior thunder. Um but please um if you are interested in joining I I would love for you all to do that. I do want to many of you may have me uh missed it but giving congratulations to our reappoints of our city manager uh Sharon Suban as well as our city clerk who is absolutely amazing Corey Adams, our city attorney Sarah Kelly and our chief municipal judge Michael Sheridan. We are looking forward to doing more great things in the city of South Fton under this administration. So, thank you all for your hard work. And again, I know we're a tough council, but hey, y'all going to manage. Y'all will be fine. And lastly, I do want to share that um of course I'm proud to release my first 100 days um building a strong foundation for South Fulton. The plan outlines our priorities um around public safety and emergency readiness, economic development and smart growth, as well as workforce stability and throughout making sure that we're providing excellent service as a city. So, I do encourage residents to go out and take a look at that as well. And again, congratulations on making some changes and movement in Camelot. Again, with the demolition, it took us a long time to get here. Um, of course, you know, Councilwoman Bell has been doing great things, but we've been waiting eight years as a city, so we are ready to start moving forward. Um, so again, thank you all. I ask you all to continue to stay engaged and um hopefully we'll be done very soon. All right, Mr. Clerk, please tell the next item.

That brings us to Roman number 12, agenda items, letter A on an administration. First item is second read and request council approval of an ordinance to create chapter 7 gas station and convenience store ordinance of title 12 licenses permits and business regulations of the code of ordinances city of south Georgia to modify provisions affecting the location and operation of gas stations and convenience stores. This item is sponsored by council members Willis Johnson Sebastian Pritchette and Williams Brown. All right.

All right, council. Um I know that we can take these um in order, but if there's um opposition to um a few of them, please let me know at this time. Is there any opposition um on any of these items? All right. Are you sure? All right. So if there's no number four,

you have one opposition. Which item? Okay. All right. So if there's um no oppositions for items one, two, three, and five, we will move forward with unanimous consent. Madame Mayor, I'm sorry. I wanted to I wanted to ask if we could make a modification to item number five. Sure. Instead of the $10,000 in arars, I'm asking that we amend the or wave the penalties from 2023 and beyond. All right.

Or before rather before. Mr. Clark, do you have that

for 2023 and 2020? All right. All right. If there is no further discussion, then we can move forward with items one, two, three, and five as amended for unanimous consent. All right, Mr. Clerk, can you please sound number four? Number four, request council approval of a resolution affirming the city of South Fulton's opposition to the acquisition, renovation, expansion, and operation of warehouses or other facilities within the city for immigration and customs and enforcement detention facilities. This is sponsored by council member Willis.

I'll entertain a motion. I would like to mo uh I move to approve this measure. Second. It has been moved and probably second. I believe we have discussion. All right. We have discussion. No discussion. Just opposition. All right. All right. Can I get um y'all want to take this vote in the queue? All right. Let's take this vote in the queue. Mr. Clerk,

vote is open. Is that not the right one? It should be number four.

It should be number four. Okay, the vote is open that item. was approved. Five yays, two nays.

All right, Mr. Clerk, please sound the next item.

That brings us to letter B, procurement and contracts. Number one is the procurement department is requesting council to award a contract to atrium health to provide annual physical exams for firefighters of the city of South Fire Department. Solicitation RFP25-17 annual physical exams received five proposals. The fire department evaluators determine atrium health to be the most qualified, responsive, and responsible proposer. The agreement is administered on an annual basis, a one-year initial term with three successive one-year renewal terms. Renewal each year contingent on performance, continued need, and budget availability. The annual amount not to exceed $120,000 and 0 per fiscal year with funding available within the approved fire department budget. All right, council. You all have had the opportunity again to read the agenda. Uh if there is no um objection to items 1, two, and three, four, and five, we can use this and move forward with unanimous consent. Is there any objection? Y'all make me smile.

All right, that motion passes. Mr. Clerk, please sound the next item. Madame Mayor, I don't have any walk-on items. So, that brings us to executive session if necessary. I don't believe we need executive session, but council, please give me your pleasure. Motion to app adjourn. Now, y'all have to vote. So, now that y'all there is a motion on the floor and a second record that motion approved unanimously. We are journed at 8:04 p.m. We got it done, y'all. By 8:00.