City Council - Regular Meeting

I'll now call the order of the August 6th, 2026 Council Meeting of Mayor for Mayor and Council. I'm gonna call on Councilman Nick Hardin in honor of his honorary doctorate in leadership to lead us in prayer and congratulations. Please remain standing for the pledge.

Lord, we thank you for allowing us to come together again, and we ask that you grant us the wisdom, the patience, and understanding as we begin this meeting. God, our discussions and our decisions as we serve the common good and strengthen our community. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen.

indivisible, with liberty and justice for

All right, before we get started on the agenda items, I'm gonna take a little moment of personal privilege, an acknowledgement of somebody that we have all fallen in love with. Kai Kemp, if you don't mind standing.

He knew he was coming.

Kai Kemp has taken on an internship over the summer. This will be his last council meeting, but this has not been any level of dog and pony show. He has taken a deep dive into every single department we had. He has watched them operate, how and why they do what they do. And that young man, by the end of the summer, by the end of the summer, has made an 18-page organizational chart for the city of Valdosta. Please give Kai a big round of applause. There's a nice article in the Spectator, Valdosta State University's newspaper, correct? Gotcha, VSU's official communication page. They did a nice write-up on his internship. You can read that. And then, Kai, we look forward to having a send-off for you. He's also student government president out at Valdosta State University as well. So the young man's the can't-miss kid. All right, first item up tonight, Employee of the Month. We'd like to recognize our Employee of the Month. I'd like to call on our Fire Department Battalion Chief. Who's coming up? No, come on, come on up, Chief. To recognize Corporal Jared Guest, I'll meet them up front while the Chief brags on him.

Good evening, mayor, council, city manager, everybody here in your respect. Thank you on this evening to be able to recognize one of our very own local. There it gets. Like I need. Purple gas. He's been in full with the office. I'm a little over three and a half. During his stint at the city of the hospital department, he hasn't been part of one part to have an awareness. and his emergency medical technician certification. It's because of that certification because on June 12, 2026, he experienced something that no parent wanted to experience. That is the end of the funeral, is that correct? Not the funeral, they all went to a friend's house. And family and friends, many family and friends were there at the friend's house, and when they got ready to disperse, they noticed that one of the children was missing, a two-year-old child. But they began to start scouting in the house and looking for the child, couldn't find the child anywhere, so they went outside and found the two-year-old child lying in the bottom of the boat. At that time, where the child was retrieved out, Corporal Jared Guest began CPR on this child. And not only would he do that, he also orchestrated getting EMS en route. And when EMS got en route, ALS care, he was able to have positive resuscitation efforts and be able to transport patient care to ALS. The child was transported to hospital, hospital, hospital, to stay there and be able to walk out of the hospital just like any other time. With that said, Corporal Guest, we say thank you. We honor you today as June 2026, employee of the month. Job well done.

Jared, for you to get put on this plaque,

move on to item three we do have a public hearing item council i put this public hearing item before you both in consideration to rezone and in consideration to annex you need a motion mayor i'll take a motion make a motion to table until our

August 20th, my birthday, these two items until such time.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor of that move? Signal by saying aye. Thank you very much. And just as an explanation, we're giving more time for response. Instead of a 30-day window, we're giving a 45-day window just to make sure everybody is rowing the boat in the same direction. Item four, item one's resolution of support for downtown development revolving loan fund application. It's submitted by Charlie Hose for the purpose of renovating 201 South Lee Street. Patrick Pearson, our main street director to present. Patrick, how you doing? Doing well. Good evening, Mayor.

Good evening, Council. Stand before you with a request for a resolution to support a downtown development revolving loan fund. This is the program that's administered by the Department of Community Affairs. It's relative to a building at 201 South Lee Street that's owned by Charlie Hose. He has applied for this low interest loan, and this is a document that's needed for his closing documents. The work on the building has already been completed. He's had his final inspection with Department of Community Affairs, so this is the last piece of paperwork needed, and that is a resolution from you all in support of this loan.

Any questions for Patrick? Seeing none, Council, cheers for action. Thank you, Patrick.

Mayor, make a motion to approve the resolution as presented.

Second. Motion and a second. All in favor, show of hands. Council, thank you. Patrick, again, thank you. By the item 551, consideration to purchase an armored rescue vehicle for the Valdosta Police Department, our city manager Jennifer Wheeler will present.

The Valdosta Police Department is looking to purchase an armored rescue vehicle. This rescue vehicle will enhance our capabilities to serve our frontline and protect our citizens. Right now, we don't have the capability with this four-wheel drive vehicle for rescue operations. Looking at the equipment needed, it would be a sole source from Linco Industries. Our purchasing agent did complete the state of Georgia sole source intent to award justification form that did sit out for 15 days the result is linco industries inc for a total of 433 239 dollars and do want to point out that the funding is sufficient 350 000 will be coming from budget splost eight and the other 83 239 will be coming from user fees and looking that we would like to uh move forward with this purchase being the sole source

Council, any questions for our city manager? None? Okay. Council, cheers for action.

Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to approve this request as stated.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, show of hands. Council, thank you. City manager, thank you. Chief, thank you. She presented well on Tuesday. All right, we now move on to item two, consideration of request to approve the purchase of a new 30-ton HVAC unit for our utilities department. Jason Barnes, our utilities director, to present. Jason, hi.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Good evening. So this air conditioning system is approximately 16 years old. It's reached and exceeded its typical service life. Due to its age, condition replacement is recommended rather than repair. The unit has started failing. We've spent money just trying to keep the air conditioning going. has failed several times this season. We actually had an electrical problem that we cannot, so it would be cost more effective to replace the unit rather than trying to chase a problem that we might not be able to find. So the staff recommends approving the purchase that was provided by ThermoServe. ThermoServe is actually the city's current contract for HVAC. This quote also includes a temporary cooling, during replacement, and the quote for labor for installation. So the staff recommends approving this purchase provided by ThermoServe, the amount of $155,935.24. Length of warranty? Warranty is one year warranty on labor and parts, Ms. Cody.

I'm just kidding. Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to approve this request as stated.

Second.

Motion to second. All in favor, show of hands. Council, thank you. Jason, also consideration or request to approve the purchase of a new insertion valve system for your utilities department.

Yes, sir, Mayor. The utilities department currently will utilize a hydrostop insertion valve system to install valves on existing water mains without interrupting water service to customers. This existing equipment has been outdated for many years, and it's, you know, you can hardly get parts. So as we continue to, the city continues to expand for water distribution services, Proposed insertion valve system will allow utilities personnel to install permanent resilient wedge insertion valves directly into live pressure water mains, and that will allow us not to interrupt water services. This significantly and reduces customer service interruptions, minimizes the need for emergency water outages, improves employee safety, and also lowers the cost associated with repairs and future maintenance. So instead of us contracting utility contractor to come and do insertion valves, we'll be able to do it ourselves within our own department. This will range from insertion tools and seals that are designed for ductile iron, cast iron, PVC, and a vessel cement pipe, and it ranges from four inch all the way to 12 inch. We had three quotes, core main was a little over $88,000, Ferguson was a little over $92,000, and Fortline come in under $86,914.07. and these will actually rate it for working pressures up to 350 psi and you can see the balance search machine there so the staff recommends approving the purchase of new insertion valve system for from fortline waterworks in the amount of eighty six thousand nine hundred and fourteen dollars and seven cent and this also has a one year labor and warranty i'll be glad to answer any questions council any other questions You excited about this toy? I am excited, very excited, as much as my guys are. I'm excited for you to be saving us money.

Exactly.

Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to approve the request, sir.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, show of hands. Council, thank you. Jason, thank you. We'll now move on to item four, discussion of conflict of interest regarding community development block grants, their disaster relief for the Browns Canal project. Ben O'Dowd, our city engineer, to present.

He's going to show us Browns Canal.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. All right, so as we went over on Tuesday, we've got three items here in a row, an intentional order. These are related to and in support of the city's application for CDBG disaster relief grant funding, which has been made available to counties within Georgia which have been affected by recent natural disasters. our first agenda item here is simply a discussion of conflict of interest during the Tuesday night discussion there was some concern and some interest in knowing exactly what the actual work area as well as benefit area specifically was and so for the record I have distributed a map to City Council which depicts the benefit area for the particular project, as well as the parcels which would be benefited by the project. This same map has been distributed digitally via email. And so, This is, again, just kind of a general discussion of conflict of interest. We went over this in detail on Tuesday. I trust that you all have had opportunity to meet with city council, city legal council, and discuss what might be in cities as well as your individual best interests. I'm here to answer any questions. And if there are no questions, then I believe that concludes our public discussion of conflict of interest.

Seeing no questions, that discussion is concluded. We'll move on to item five, consideration of professional design service agreement for the Browns Canal Stormwater Improvement Project. Yes, sir.

No, I was just saying that obviously nobody lives in that service area or that area or has property on it. That would benefit.

Did nobody live there?

Or property ownership.

Good.

Okay.

So in accordance with CDBG requirements, the city underwent a quality-based selection process for selection of a design professional for the project. In support of the grant application, the city were required to develop a preliminary engineering report. These reports are generally developed at risk by design professionals in hopes of their eventual receipt of design services if the grant is awarded. And so the city went through quality-based selection and interviewed eight engineering firms and their statements of qualifications using a multidisciplinary review team. Innovate Engineering from Valdosta scored highest on the QBS selection grid. City staff are recommending that we utilize a 25% design contingency in case there are any unknown field conditions which affect pricing. The proposal is an 8% cost of construction design proposal, which is industry standard. Staff are recommending approval of a total design services contract agreement contingent upon receipt of grant funds in the amount of $200,000. Any questions on this one?

Council, any questions for Ben? All right, this one does require action. Council, it's yours for action.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve this request as presented.

Motion and a second. All in favor, show of hands. Council, thank you. Ben, thank you. Item six, consideration of a resolution to submit the application for the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Relief.

That is grant. This is simply a resolution in support of staff's application for CDBG-DR grant funding. Any questions?

Council, yours for action.

May I like to make a motion to approve this request? Second.

All in favor, show of hands. Council, thank you. Ben, thank you.

item seven consideration of a proposal from temple incorporated for enhanced data support service for the city's traffic monitoring camera system ben yes sir as you're well aware the city of adasta operates a transportation network with over 120 traffic signals throughout the city we have traffic cameras which monitor the flow of traffic at each of these intersections for many of these intersections these Cameras historically have been operated and have communicated the video transmission data by way of hardline connection by our fiber network, fiber communication network. Fiber communication network is at the end of its useful life, and staff, in an effort to explore more cost-effective solutions, are recommending that we engage with Temple and utilize a cell service video transmission system for a period of one year to assess its effectiveness. services to see if they're satisfactory for the city's purposes any questions on this one council any questions I have one question just gonna ask now this is for the transportation those are the ones that we already have that's not some of the new cameras that we have no ma'am these are existing cameras stationed at signalized intersection any further questions

Your expression. Oh, you got a question?

No, no, no, I do have a question. So, Ben, if we do like this after the one-year trial. Yes, sir. Do we pay this full amount? I mean, would this be a yearly cost, or do we just add on to this? Tell me.

So what's before you, that's a good question. So what's before you this evening is a one year period agreement. So this is not a recurring agreement. This is not like a subscription service that we're, that the city's encumbered with and has to pay every single year. Just for your situational awareness, I mean, all of our transportation signals, the actual cabinets which control the function of the signal, all of those already communicate with the TMC by cell service. This is simply an enhancement of that existing service to allow us to transmit video data by way of that same connection. We want to explore this as an alternative for a period of one year. If the service is determined to be satisfactory and meet the city's needs, then we have a variety of different options. I know that there's single year renewals that we can make. There's, I believe, one year renewals, five year renewals, and 10 year renewals. Generally speaking, the renewals become more cost-effective the higher the year number goes. So if you sign up for a 10-year program, then the cost per year per unit is less than it would be if you were just going year by year. What's interesting and really cool about this service is what we've encountered is the change in transmission bands. So like we've gone from cell service going from 3G to 4G and now we've got 5G and 5G LTE and 6G is on the horizon, et cetera. What's really cool about this is the entire time that we pay for this service, Temple changes. We've got warranty periods which overlap this service period, and if there's changes in band or transmission type, or I'm out of my depth on it, but if that bandwidth changes and has to be modified due to regulatory requirements, those things are upgraded with the system. But again, what's before you tonight is just the one year. We just want to test it. We're not sure if it's going to work. We just want to test it for one year. We're excited about it, but we do want to we don't want to go all in without knowing that it's going to meet our requirements.

So is that one year testing? We have a warranty with that one year testing.

Yes, ma'am.

I just want to clear my mind up with something. You're going wireless with this. Did you know that over at the transportation center, the traffic center rather, where we have all the cameras and all and everything, we're gonna go wireless with that.

i don't know and i want to know would this be involved with any of those flock cameras no ma'am it will not no ma'am this is a completely separate system that's owned and monitored and maintained by the city of aldosta it has nothing to do with flock corporation or any other corporation of that type just one thank you yes ma'am thank you man any other questions thomas just one uh what type of failsafe option are we using failsafe system goes down we got a backup As far as operation of the traffic signals? Yes. So the actual signal cabinets themselves are like a brain. So the way that they communicate back to the TMC, they communicate status, they communicate error codes that might occur within the cabinet, but the actual function of the cabinet is contained within, the actual function of the intersection is contained within the traffic cabinet and it's not contingent upon or dependent upon this cell service in any way. If there was some kind of failure of a transmission system which transmitted video data, I would consider video data a non-emergent service. So it's a service which enhances our ability to serve the community of Valdosta, but if the 5G service does go down for some short period of time, it's not a critical imperative that it be operated all the time. In a similar way that the glance system, it's not imperative that glance is operational at all times. I will say that Temple has been incredibly responsive to downtime and issues within the cabinet that need to be rectified by way of warranty repair, things of that nature. Does that answer your question?

Yes, thank you.

Any other questions for me?

That was the best series of questions I've ever heard my seven years on here. You guys are on your game.

You guys are on your game. And answers.

All right, council, it's yours for action.

Mr. Mayor, I make motion to approve the request as stated.

Second. Motion to the second. All in favor, show of hands. Council, thank you. Ben, thank you. We'll now move on to the item six, the citizens to be heard. It's the portion of the meeting that we ask you to come forward and state your name and address so we can have it for the record. Our policy requires you stay under three minutes so that all have time to be heard. Please direct all comments to council as a whole. Do not attempt to engage individual members of council in debate. It is our policy to follow through with you and your concern. Additionally, we ask that any groups that want to address council also designate a spokesperson for that same reason. With that being said, are there any citizens wishing to be heard at this time?

How y'all doing today?

Very good. Lewis Gordon, 743 Law Sand Drive. I'm going to come a little bit lighthearted today, but it is a serious message, y'all. OK, so I start off my morning every morning at about 5 o'clock trying to get up for the gym, and it is a struggle. And I go over social media, and there is a thing that you hear on social media where we say, I built this algorithm brick by brick. So when you see some funny video and you're like, man, why is that popping up on my feed? Because of other stuff that I showed interest in, right? Why is that relevant to why I'm here today? I worked for a period of time during 2020 in the Ballast State prison system as a corrections officer. I've also been doing a lot of work in the community helping out folks who are experiencing homelessness, food insecurity, you name it. I'm there, I'm partnering with folks trying to help find solutions for folks in our community. I am concerned because I'm noticing a pattern across the country where Georgia is being exploited. Places like Georgia are being exploited. I'm looking at the distribution of data centers around the South. They're looking at our resources, our water, our land, our people. And there are hundreds of these things popping up in states all across the country, but specifically in the South and then on the East Coast. Right. I'm looking at the prevalence of the flock cameras. I'm looking at the way that we have. I think it's twenty nine cameras in Valdosta. Um, I'm looking at the cost for these things. I'm seeing that it costs us that it can cost about $2,500 per a year per camera for each flock camera and up to $300 for the installation of each camera. I'm thinking about what my community could do with about $80,000 a year to help out folks who are struggling. I'm going up and down troop streets, seeing abandoned buildings. We had a fire, uh, fire department. Wonderful job stopping that when that was a big blaze, right? That thing's been abandoned since I was in high school. The last time somebody was there, I was skipping school in freshman year. That's a problem, right? When we look at this city, I think we all love our community. I am not questioning that. But I want to caution you that when you walk around Valdosta and when you see what's going on, the rising homelessness, when you see a rising crime rate in the youth, when you see people checking out, remember, we're building this community brick by brick. We can't get anything out of it that we don't invest into it. I would caution us, instead of investing into more cameras, traffic cameras, eh, whatever, I'll slow down, but other cameras, right? Instead of investing in more cameras, let's invest in our community. Instead of investing in data centers, let's invest in our youth. Instead of investing in tactical vehicles, I heard y'all say on the front line. Y'all, I'm a United States Navy veteran of the United States Navy Hospital Corps, served with Marines over in artillery at Camp Pendleton. I can tell you about the front lines. We don't need that here. Thank y'all.

Lewis, thank you. Are there any other citizens wishing to be heard? I won't bang a gavel on that one. Well said. Are there any other citizens wishing to be heard at this time? A little young lady.

Good afternoon, my name is Kelly Saxon, eight ball, one place. And I come this afternoon just to really, to put something before us and to make it awareness in our community. We pause to really remember one of the people in our community who was a part of our street feed family. This individual was one of the victims who succumbed to his death from being burnt out. pretty badly in the incident that happened in the homeless camp. And his name was Josh. He has a name. His name was Josh, and I met Josh when we were doing the homeless count back in January. And I will say during that count, we literally counted almost 130 people literally on the street that night. And Josh was one who we met, and everybody told me, you need to meet Josh, you need to meet Josh. And I finally met him, and I said, everybody said I should meet you. And he just laughed, and we talked. And I saw he had a really cool bicycle, and he was very good with putting bicycles together. And he was with one of our local repair shops that did odds and ends jobs. And he had struggles, of course, like all of us do. We have certain things we struggle with. But I just wanted to take a moment to really just bring it forth that we really need to see what we can do to handle these issues with housing insecurity. What if Josh had a place to stay? Could he have gotten the treatment that he needs? It's hard for people to get treatment when they're not housed. There are so many people out in our community, and I'm thinking it's more than 130 now who are literally on the streets homeless. So thinking about those and those individuals who are in our hotel rooms paying over $1,000 a month to be in a hotel room, and we're talking about families, children, bus stops at these hotel rooms. So really looking to see how we can address these housing and security issues, looking at grant funding, different opportunities so we can make a difference and make it happen. Who knows, he may have not had anything happen or could have still had the end result even if he was housed but we don't know until we try and so i just want to take this moment to really um highlight the situation and really just say his name josh thank you thank you kelly are there any other citizens wishing to be heard at this time seeing none we'll close out that portion and move on to the city manager's report

I have three quick items to go through. The first is the City of Valdosta is still seeking a call for Santa Claus applicants. This will be for the Christmas Parade and Jingle Bells Festival. The casting call will be held on Monday, August 17th at 4 p.m. at the Valdosta City Hall Annex. I do want to note this is a paid position with the selected individuals serving during the Christmas Parade and Jingle Bells Festival over a three-day period. The second item is the Jeanette Newbern Cudi Shelter Ribbon Cutting. We want to invite the public to this. It'll be on Friday, August 14th, 2026 at 10 a.m. It's formerly known as the Craig Center. The shelter is located at 1104 West Gordon Street. The facility's been renamed in honor of Jeanette Newbern Cudi, recognizing her decades of leadership, service, and lasting contributions to the Valdosta community. and then the final event very important event we have the valdosta fire department 9 11 memorial 5k this will invite the community to commemorate the 25th anniversary of september 11 2001 by honoring the lives lost recognizing the courage of our nation's first responders and supporting an important cause this event will be on saturday september 5th beginning at 8 a.m in downtown valdosta registration is 30 and includes an event t-shirt first responders and military personnel wearing their uniforms may participate for ten dollars a limited edition 25th anniversary hooded sweatshirt will also be available for thirty dollars proceeds from the event will benefit valor service dogs helping to provide life-changing service dogs to veterans and first responders jennifer thank you very much

We'll now move on to council comments. Thomas, you want to lead us off? You good? Ms. Tooley?

I'm good, thank you.

Good, I'm excellent. All the way down the line. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to adjourn.