HomeMy WebLinkAboutRegular Commission Meeting February 19, 2019
REGULAR MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER
FEBRUARY 19, 2019
Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 2:00 p.m., February 19, 2019, the
Hon. Hardie Davis Jr., Mayor, presiding.
PRESENT: Hons. Few, Garrett, Sias, Fennoy, Frantom, M. Williams, Davis, D. Williams,
Hasan and Clarke, members of the Augusta Richmond County Commission.
Mr. Mayor: Good Afternoon. Welcome to the people’s chamber. We’re here to do the
people’s business and as we prepare to get started this morning there is some exciting things that
are happening here in our community. But before we dive right into those things I do want to take
a brief moment to once again acknowledge the life and the legacy of one Ms. Betty Jones. Her
homegoing celebration took place today at 11:00 and it was certainly well attended. It spoke to
her resourcefulness, her passion and her dedication for not only young people but for this
community as well and I believe her life truly will testimony an example of what it is to be an
Augustan who cares deeply about the community and all those who make up this great community.
And so she will certainly be missed. Most recently most of us know her from her time as the
Executive Director of MACH Academy but she did a whole lot more than just work with MACH
Academy teaching children about tennis but also about life and life in its best. So I would
encourage everyone to again keep that family in your prayers beyond today as well. We also have
again an item, we won’t go through the process of necessarily having to add it to the agenda but
we’re going to recognize our 911 Team for their amazing work that they’ve done. But before we
do that, I’m just kind of setting the stage we’re going to go ahead and do our prayer, our invocation
and our Pledge. The Chair recognizes Madam Clerk.
The Clerk: Yes, sir. I call your attention to the invocation portion of our agenda which will
be delivered by Pastor Mike Hearon of the First Presbyterian Church after which we’d have our
Pledge of Allegiance. Would you please stand.
The invocation was given by Pastor Mike Hearon, First Presbyterian Church.
The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America was recited.
The Clerk: Office of Mayor Hardie Davis Jr., by these presence be it known that Pastor
Mike Hearon, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church is Chaplain of the Day his spiritual guidance
and civic leadership serves as an example for all citizens of Augusta. Given under my hand this
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19 Day of February 2019 Hardie Davis Jr., Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: Would you join me in thanking Pastor Hearon for his work in our community.
(APPLAUSE) Madam Clerk, at this time I’m going to recognize Administrator Jackson to speak
to the Augusta 911 Center for receiving the 2019 Outstanding 911 Call Center Award.
Ms. Jackson: Thank you. I would like to invite Mr. Dunlap and all of the team from 911
everybody’s who’s present. If ya’ll can come up and stand in front for us. We’ve got several staff
members here.
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Mr. Mayor: We’re also asking our Chair of Public Safety Committee to please come down
as well.
Ms. Jackson: I want to say in the middle that’d be great for our Public Safety Chair. When
I came into the organization a few years ago I came in one evening because I had heard that at 911
there was some concerns about operations and things and how it was going and they just had some
things they wanted to bring to my attention. They brought those things to my attention, we worked
with them a little bit. We realized the best thing we could do was to bring in a highly qualified
director to work with them. We found Mr. Dunlap and later on several of them remarked to me
that they were really happy about having Mr. Dunlap because he had sat where they were sitting.
They wanted to have someone that had sat at a console that had to take calls like they were doing
so they would understand the challenges and everything associated with what it takes to be a good
communications officer, understand the stress they were under and understand what it would take
to create a good environment in that department. So here we are a few years later and they are the
Outstanding 911 Call Center of the Year named by the NG 911 Institute. This department I always
refer to as the hidden part of the public safety system. Everybody thinks about who’s going to
show up at your house. A lot of times they don’t think about who it is that gets them to your house
and these are the folks that get them to your house or your place of business or that accident on the
side of the road wherever it may be. So I just want to congratulate everyone that’s up here. You
all have done a fantastic job and I’m extremely proud of you, thank you. (APPLAUSE)
Mr. Dunlap: Thank you, Ms. Jackson. You know this was a real team effort. There’s a
team in front of you, there’s a team actually back at the 911 Center right now. There’s a team
that’s sleeping because they have to come in tonight. This is very unexpected, very overwhelming
but I can’t tell you a better team that deserves this accomplishment. And it’s actually a bigger
team so it’s the team from you know, Ms. Jackson, your office, the Commission you assisted us,
the Mayor as far as approving items that we’ve come and requested. It’s all the I won’t say little
people but folks from H.R., Procurement, Finance I’m going to forget a few some I’m just not
going to list every department. But we really do appreciate everyone’s efforts. Again this is a
great team and we appreciate it. (APPLAUSE)
Mr. D. Williams: I’d just like to take this opportunity for the good work that you’re doing
in our community and making Augusta a very fine and safe city to live in. Thank you once again.
(APPLAUSE)
Mr. Mayor: I’m going to ask the members of the Commission if they’ll come in close as
we get prepared to take a group photo, if they’ll just come in close. I want to one echo the
sentiments that you’ve already heard but I think that what we do not want to be lost in this moment
is that this is a national recognition. This is not a local championship; this is a national
championship. And so kudos to our team. You make us proud every single day. You represent
the best of what Augusta is in terms of not only your customer service but your concern and care
for the people who make up this community. Even though you may not know who’s on the other
end of that line when they call you make sure that they get the aid that they need to live life to the
full until it overflows. Thank you so much. (APPLAUSE) I hope everybody’s smiling. I do want
to take another moment we recognized Ms. Betty Jones but as we share just a minute with what’s
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happening and what’s going on in our city I want to mention just a few things. City department
leaders are coming together in a collaborative effort to work on eliminating blight in our city
known as the Joint Collaborative Committee. There’s a great deal of work; many of you may see
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them along 15 Street between 15 Street, MLK and Poplar. They have done an amazing job just
in a short period of time of assessing properties. And to those members who are part of the team
to include our Marshal’s Department and staff who are working on that effort to put together a
clear and strategic laser focus approach towards eliminating blight. If you’re in here today, would
you please stand. Those folks who are a part of that effort. (APPLAUSE) I don’t want you to
shy away from these moments because you’re going to transform what Augusta looks like and
you’re doing some fantastic work in putting those assessments together and the story that the
members of the Commission, some who are aware of what’s going on, but the rest will get an
opportunity to fully see what that looks like and how it’s going to transform our city so you should
be proud of the work that you’re doing because we are. I also make mention of the Corp of
Engineers as everyone is fully aware of what’s going on our river. Over the last week we’ve seen
a “simulation” a drawdown that’s resulted in what the Corp has told us will look like at the point
in time there’s this proposed installation of a rock weir. I will tell you that as a community, as a
city, as a government along with North Augusta, Aiken County and our other stakeholders we are
adamantly and fundamentally opposed to this notion of Item 26D that will install a rock weir. That
is not the highest and best opportunity for our communities of interest and partnership to continue
to succeed. When we talk about the health, welfare and safety of all of our citizens, it will be
impaired if the Corp of Engineers would move forward with that. The comment period has begun
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as of February the 15 The Chamber, members of the Commission our neighboring Mayors,
Congressman Allen and others have fully engaged in support of Option 1-1 which this Commission
in unanimity supported telling the Corp and our partners in Washington that this is in fact the
preferred alternative of which they gave us the alternatives. The community didn’t come up with
this on our own and we will fight vehemently for that option and we will use every tool available
in our toolbox to make sure that our voices are heard, our voice and that is a single voice that
Option 1-1 is the preferred option here in our community. I would encourage all of our citizens
who support keeping the river at full pool 114 feet and in support of Option 1-1 to make your
voices heard on the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers website with the draft report that they placed
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out there. I also want to make mention on Sunday March the 3 2019 Augusta Regional Airport
will have its inaugural direct flight to Dallas/Fort Worth. To all of the Cowboy fans and Cowboy
haters you will have a direct flight from Augusta, Georgia to Dallas, Texas where things are bigger
and we have five rings, that’s for the Falcons. And there will be a big community event for this
inaugural flight hosted by the Augusta Aviation Commission and our airport director Herbert
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Judon that starts at 3:15 p.m. on March the 3 at the Augusta Regional Airport. This is something
that we should be extremely proud of and excited about. Anytime you have an opportunity to have
a direct flight from Augusta to Atlanta or from Augusta to Dallas you now have access to the
gateways to the world. Both of those airports are international in nature and you can get from
whether it’s Dallas or even Atlanta to any other destination quite frankly in the world whether it
be American Airlines or Delta and that’s something we should be extremely proud of and that’s
an opportunity for us to clap and thank the airport community for the good work that they’ve done.
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(APPLAUSE) My final two things that I make mention of today is that on March the 29 to all of
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our veterans that are here and in particular on March the 29 we will be dedicating the Vietnam
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War Memorial. That will take place at 4 and Broad Street at 1:00 p.m. to 2:30. The memorial
will unveil and dedicate the Augusta CSRA Vietnam War Veterans Memorial. That is an
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outstanding thing for this city to be a part of and participate in. Would all of our veterans please
stand and in particular any of our Vietnam veterans please stand at this time. (APPLAUSE) I’m
excited about that; that is extremely important. And then my final one. February is a month where
we celebrate Heart Health Month but February is also Black History Month and today I want to
take an opportunity to recognize in Augusta on Black History Month. Verdery Robinson was the
first African American Eagle Scout in the State of Georgia. He earned his award on October the
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9 1944 right here in Augusta, Georgia and that’s our Black History moment for the City of
Augusta today, Verdery Robinson. All right, Madam Clerk.
The Clerk:
RECOGNITION(S)
2018 Employee of the Year
A. Congratulations! Ms. Kaycee N. Braswell, Central Services Department, Fleet
Management Division.
The Clerk: At this time Mr. Mayor and members of the Commission, we would like to
acknowledge and offer our congratulations to Ms. Kaycee N. Braswell, would you please come
forward along with Ms. Takeya Douse, Central Services Mr. Ron Crowden I think he’s with the
Fleet Management Division, Kaycee, do you have family with you today tell her to come up too,
Mom. The Employee Recognition Committee has selected Kaycee N. Braswell as Augusta
Georgia’s Employee of the Year for 2018. Kaycee has been serving in the capacity of Fleet
Administrative Coordinator since August of 2015. She has consistently demonstrated a strong
work ethic by effectively and efficiently focusing on the myriad of tasks that are presented to her.
She displays a positive and enthusiastic attitude in her daily activities while supporting many
department employees of Augusta. In October 2017 she identified a potential problem with the
expiration of all 1,515 fuel cards used by employees. She then coordinated with the card provider
and within 20 workdays of receiving the cards she had distributed the cards to the 53 organizations
that needed them. Upon the retirement of Fleet Management Officer, Ms. Braswell in addition to
her regular duties took it upon herself to learn the requirements for obtaining tag title registration
for a fleet vehicle. She also took the impressive initiative of shouldering the responsibility for the
acquisition of small equipment. Also, she recently began writing specifications for light vehicles,
public safety vehicles and drafting agendas for Commission approval. Kaycee was instrumental
in the sale of over 390 auction lots in 2017 which resulted in the appropriate fund distribution of
revenue in the amount of $531,378.07. This required that she research various items, inventory
and document each item and list items on GOVDEAL auction site. She then completed the sale
once payment was made, her accountability was flawless. Kaycee is a highly valued employee
her performance brings a great deal of credit to the Augusta Commission, Central Services
Department and Fleet Management. Based on this nomination Kaycee’s outstanding contribution
to Central Services and her service to Augusta, Georgia the Employee Recognition Committee
would appreciate you in joining us in recognizing Kaycee as the 2018 Employee of the Year.
(APPLAUSE)
Ms. Braswell: I just want to say I’m really honored and blessed to be nominated for this
and to be chosen. I want to thank Ms. Douse, Mr. Crowden and all of Central Services people
here. It’s great to actually love what you do and come to work every day and work with various
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departments and all kinds of people. And I appreciate all the emails all the phone calls over the
last few days. I’ve been really thankful, thank ya’ll.
Ms. Douse: So the Central Services Department’s mission is to provide Red Carpet Service
and Kaycee is definitely the epitome of Red Carpet Service. As I am sure for each of you that
have to go to the gas station to fill up a vehicle or fire truck or whatever the case may be if your
gas card had not worked that day you would’ve called Kaycee, thanks. (APPLAUSE)
Mr. Mayor: Congratulations.
The Clerk:
RECOGNITION(S)
January 2019 Employee of the Month.
B. Congratulations! Mr. Erik Engle, Augusta Planning & Development Department.
The Clerk: At this time we would like to offer our congratulations to our Employee of the
Month Mr. Erik Engle from the Augusta Planning and Development Department. Would you
please come forward, Mr. Engle? Mr. Sherman, Planning and Development staffers can join Erik.
Mayor Davis, the Employee Recognition Committee has selected Erik Engle as Augusta,
Georgia’s Employee of the Month for January 2019. Erik works in Planning and Development
and is an outstanding example of Augusta, Georgia’s best employee. He’s always willing to go
above and beyond his assigned tasks his finished products are creative and innovative even while
accomplishing the goal of imparting the pertinent information. Specifically, Mr. Engle was tasked
with completing the comprehensive plan for Augusta, Georgia. Under a very short time constraint
Mr. Engle completed the task in six months along with continuing his other duties. Due in large
part to his efforts the comprehensive plan was adopted by Augusta, Georgia and approved by the
Department of Community Affairs thus allowing Augusta, Georgia to maintain their local qualified
government status. Mr. Engle’s positive attitude toward every aspect of his position makes him a
valued team member and a pleasure to work with. The Planning and Development Department
and Augusta, Georgia are lucky to count Mr. Engle as one of their own. Based on this nomination,
Mr. Erik Engle’s outstanding contribution to Planning and Development and his service to
Augusta, Georgia, the Employee Recognition Committee would appreciate you joining us in
recognizing Mr. Engle as the January 2019 Employee of the Month, Congratulations.
(APPLAUSE)
Ms. Burgess: I’m Mary Elizabeth Burgess, Development Services Manager. I nominated
Erik and it’s, Planning and Zoning is not a page turner. It’s not the most exciting job in the world
but to meet a planner like Erik who has the enthusiasm as I do is a rarity and it’s always such a
pleasure to work with him. He never says no and I can give him anything on the fly and he gets it
done so I really, really appreciate his work.
Mr. Engle: Just to follow up on that I just want to thank Planning in general for all the
support. I know it’s been kind of hectic the past year to say the least so I just thank you all for
being the best so thanks again. (APPLAUSE)
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Mr. Sherman: I can’t add anything to what’s been said. I just want to tell Erik thank you
for everything that you do from all of us in the Planning Department.
Mr. Mayor: I’m going to ask him one question. Where’s my document, that’s an inside
joke. Congratulations, Erik, thank you so much.
Mr. Engle: I appreciate it.
The Clerk:
DELEGATIONS
C. Ms. Brenda Durant for Anthony “SleepyEyez” Carter – presentation of a poem.
Ms. Durant: Mayor Hardie Davis, Commissioners and our loving community. I am Brenda
Durant with the Great Augusta Arts Council and over a year ago I attended a writer’s workshop at
Augusta University and sat in on a panel of poets. And one of the poets was the Poet Laureate
from Charleston and the other poet was the Poet Laureate from Augusta. And I promised myself
that I would bring a poem to the Commissioner. I didn’t put a timeline on it so a little bit of a delay
but I’d like to introduce you to Augusta’s Poet Laureate Anthony “SleepyEyez” Carter who today
has brought you a poem.
Mr. Carter: Let me say thank you for the opportunity. This is a great honor to be able to
stand before the Commissioner and the Mayor to be able to present something, I’m a little nervous
so ya’ll can bear with me a little ---
Mr. Mayor: Tough ground, tough ground.
Mr. Carter: --- no (inaudible). If I could please speak to the trees and their beautiful leaves
see some of you might think that these trees it’s like summer and spring, not me ya’ll I love the
leaves of fall. It’s just something about the beautiful colors that mesh in for us all it’s a replication
and a representation of you, you skin tones blended together to let us know that we should be
always together. It’s something about fall I know it hurts to see them fall to the ground and you
wonder what will happen now but new seasons bring new leaves. See we have old we have young
we have some who just begun like the tree limbs it’s the birth canal give me some roots to bring
in something better because I’m telling you right now agree don’t disagree because that’s how we
get fruit. See this is something beautiful and we can sit as a group a tree and its leaves connected
together ain’t it beautiful how brothers and sisters in Augusta can dwell blendedly together, thank
you. (APPLAUSE)
The Clerk: I’ll take a Personal Privilege, Mr. Mayor? I just want to acknowledge Anthony.
I had the pleasure of attending church with Anthony when he was a young boy at Mt. Cavalry
Baptist Church. In fact his mother and his brothers are still members there and I saw Anthony
grow up he was always creative he was always doing something and I’m really proud of you, son,
for where you are and what you’re doing so God Bless You.
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Mr. Mayor: I echo those same sentiments, Ms. Bonner. I’ve watched this young man grow
up here in the community. We have been in many circles together and it’s exciting to see the
transformation take place. But more than anything it’s exciting to see the community embrace
your gift, thank you so much, thank you.
The Clerk: I call your attention to the Consent Agenda which consists of Items 1 through
19, Items 1 through 19. For the benefit of any objectors to our Planning petition would you please
signify your objection by raising your hand once the petition is read. I call your attention to:
Item 2: Requesting a Special Exception to establish a Multiple-Family Residential use in
a P-1 (Professional) Zone on property known as 401 Greene Street and part of 405 Greene Street.
The Clerk: Are there any objectors to this Planning petition? Mr. Mayor and members of
the Commission, our Consent Agenda consists of Items 1 through 19 with no objection to our
Planning petition.
Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair will entertain any motions to add or remove from the
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Consent Agenda the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 6.
Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, I’d like to pull Item number 6 please.
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Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9.
Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I’ve got some questions on a couple of items 7,
8, 10 and 11 and number 13 the last one I think, Ms. Bonner, is 18.
Mr. Mayor: All right, we’ll repeat those in just a second. Okay, all right, the Chair
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recognizes the Commissioner from the 4.
Mr. Sias: Thank you, sir ---
Mr. Mayor: Would you speak into the microphone please?
Mr. Sias: --- I’d like to add Items 21 through 28.
The Clerk: To the what, Consent Agenda?
Mr. Sias: Yes.
Mr. Mayor: I’m going to object on 21.
Mr. Sias: All right.
Mr. M. Williams: I’ve got some issues with 28 I’d like to talk about, Mr. Mayor, so I’m
going to approve that one.
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The Clerk: You’re objecting to 28, sir?
Mr. M. Williams: Yes, ma’am. The other one I think ---
Mr. Mayor: I’d also like to add Number 29 to the Consent Agenda and Number 30 and
Number 35 please.
Mr. M. Williams: I’ve got some issues with Number 30, Mr. Mayor. I need to talk about
it. You said 30 and what else?
Ms. Jackson: 35.
Mr. M. Williams: I’ve got no problem with 35. Travis is ready to get out of here, I’m sure.
Mr. Mayor: You object to 30?
Mr. M. Williams: No, not 30 I just want to have a little dialogue. I want to ask a couple of
questions about 30.
Mr. Mayor: Okay Item Number 33. Oh I’m sorry let me recognize the Finance Committee
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Chairman the Commissioner from the 1.
Mr. Fennoy: Well I was, you were on a roll.
Mr. Mayor: Oh, okay, yeah.
Mr. Fennoy: (Unintelligible) ---
The Clerk: 34?
Mr. Mayor: Yes.
The Clerk: Okay.
Mr. Fennoy: --- and 36 ---
The Clerk: 36 ---
Mr. Fennoy: --- we already have 35?
The Clerk: --- yes, sir.
Mr. Mayor: On Item 36 was there any data provided on Item Number 36?
Ms. Jackson: Yes, there’s an agenda item ---
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Mr. Mayor: There is a list?
Ms. Jackson: --- yes, in the agenda item there’s a listing and an explanation of that item.
Mr. M. Williams: I’d like to talk about it, Mr. Mayor. We didn’t discuss this in committee
because there was another meeting going on I believe. Now we got to the full Commission and
we still don’t have time to discuss them ---
Mr. Mayor: Okay.
Mr. M. Williams: --- I don’t know why Travis let us run for this position if we ain’t going
to take time to do work.
Mr. Mayor: All right well let’s talk about Number 36 if you don’t mind, okay.
Mr. Fennoy: Mr. Mayor ---
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Mr. Mayor: Yes sir, all right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 1.
Mr. Fennoy: --- do you want to, since we didn’t have a chance to talk about this in
committee and if there’s not a big rush could we refer Number 36 back to committee?
Mr. Mayor: I think that’s an excellent idea. I think that’s an excellent idea.
Mr. Fennoy: All right.
Mr. Mayor: Along those same lines given our current posture with regards to the issue of
the Lock and Dam, I would like to refer Item 38 back to committee as well.
Mr. Sias: Can we send 37 back to committee?
The Clerk: 37, sir?
Mr. Mayor: Okay.
Mr. M. Williams: Number 37 needs to be discussed, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: Okay.
Mr. M. Williams: We had it in committee and we brought it to the full Commission so
we’re going to discuss that one today here.
Mr. Mayor: We’ll talk about it that’s no problem, we’ll talk about it.
Mr. M. Williams: Okay.
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Mr. Mayor: All right.
Mr. Frantom: Motion to approve as stated on screen.
Ms. Davis: Second.
CONSENT AGENDA
PLANNING
1. FINAL PLAT – VILLAGE AT GOSHEN PHASE 2 – S-876 – A request for concurrence
with the Augusta Georgia Planning Commission to approve a petition by Southern Partners
Inc., on behalf of The Gordon Group, LLC requesting final plat approval for the Village at
Goshen, Ph. 2. This residential townhome development is located of Valencia Lane and
contains 69 lots on 5.46 acres. Tax Map part of 199-0-088-00-0 DISTRICT 8
2. Z-19-07 – A request for concurrence with the Augusta Georgia Planning Commission to
approve a petition by Silver Street LLC, on behalf of John P. Jo, requesting a Special
Exception to establish Multiple-Family Residential use in a P-1 (Professional) Zone per
Section 20-2-b of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance for Augusta, Georgia affecting
property containing 0.31 acres and known as 401 Greene Street and part of 405 Greene
Street. Tax Map 047-2-256-00-0 and part of 047-2-255-00-0 DISTRICT 1
PUBLIC SERVICES
3. Motion to approve a contract amendment with Reeves Young, LLC for Construction
Services for Augusta’s Transit Operation and Maintenance Facility project. (Approved by
Public Services Committee February 12, 2019)
4. Motion to approve GAMPO Application for Central Martinez Corridor Study for
Columbia County through ARTS/MPO. (Approved by Public Services Committee February
12, 2019)
5. Motion to approve ARTS as the MPO applying for GAMPO funding of MTP 2045.
(Approved by Public Services Committee February 12, 2019)
ENGINEERING SERVICES
9. Motion to approve to Supplement Construction Contract to Blair Construction in the
amount of $455, 560.92 for completing needed supplemental Improvements for Belair Road
Roadway and Drainage Improvements Project (Jimmie Dyess Parkway to Wrightsboro
Road) as requested by AED. Bid Item 15-196 (Approved by Engineering Services Committee
February 12, 2019)
12. Motion to approve the deeds of dedication, maintenance agreements and road resolutions
submitted by the Engineering and Augusta Utilities Departments for Manchester
Subdivision, Section Eight-A. (Approved by Engineering Services Committee February 12,
2019)
14. Motion to approve easement with A&D Land Preserve on 3.22 Acres in Edgefield County,
SC. (Approved by Engineering Services Committee February 12, 2019)
15. Motion to approve Bid Item 19-129 – Landscape Maintenance Services to Davis
Landscape for the Environmental Services Department. (Approved by Engineering Services
Committee February 12, 2019)
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16. Motion to approve Roadway Lighting Agreement with the Georgia Department of
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Transportation in conjunction with TIA funded SR4/15 Street Improvements Project
(Milledgeville Rd. to Government Rd.) as requested by AED. (Approved by Engineering
Services Committee February 12, 2019)
17. Motion to approve Supplement funding (SA1) for Engineering Concept Phase (Design
phase 1) of the Design Consultant Services Agreement to Wolverton & Associates, Inc. in the
amount of $174,899.00 for the Willis Foreman Improvement Project as requested by the
AED. RFQ 17-265 (Approved by Engineering Services Committee February 12, 2019)
PETITIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS
19. Motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of the Augusta Commission held
February 5, 2019 and Special Called meeting held February 12, 2019)
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
22. Motion to approve bid award of the contract to furnish and install furnishings for the
Maxwell Library Renovation project to the low bidder, PMC Commercial Interiors Inc. of
Greenville, SC, in the amount of $124,802.36. (ITB 18-275) (Requested by Commissioner
Sammie Sias)
23. Motion to approve request from Utilities Department – Gordon Division to purchase of
one new Trailer Hydro Excavator from Jet-Vac Equipment. (ITB 18-307) (Requested by
Commissioner Sammie Sias)
24. Motion to provide the Mayor authorization to sign the CHIP Grant Homeowner Rehab
Conflict of Interest Certifications (4). (Requested by Commissioner Sammie Sias)
25. Motion to approve Housing and Community Development Department’s (HCD’s)
request to provide HOME funding to assist two (2) low to moderate income homebuyers with
gap financing, down-payment and closing costs to purchase homes. (Requested by
Commissioner Sammie Sias)
26. Motion to approve Housing and Community Development Department’s (HCD’s)
request to provide funding to assist one (1) low to moderate income homebuyer with down-
payment assistance to purchase a home. (Requested by Commissioner Sammie Sias)
27. Motion to approve bid to award the contract for Webster Detention Center Building
Automation System Upgrades to Trane of Augusta, GA in the amount of $228,395.00. Bid
Item 18-316. (Requested by Commissioner Sammie Sias)
PUBLIC SAFETY
29. Motion to approve Contract with Motorola Solutions, Inc. to upgrade PremierOne CSR
for the 311 Department.
FINANCE
33. Motion to affirm current authorized bank signatories and authorize the Mayor and Clerk
to execute documents as required by financial institutions. (No recommendation from
Finance Committee February 12, 2019)
34. Motion to approve Augusta Commercial Property Insurance coverage for 2019 offered
through Affiliated FM, current carrier, for a premium of $434,000 for full blanker coverage
and limited flood coverage in flood prone areas. (No recommendation from Finance
Committee February 12, 2019)
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35. Motion to approve funding for March 19, 2019 Special Election in Commission District
5. (No recommendation from Finance Committee February 12, 2019)
36. Request to expand pool of banks as approved depositories. (No recommendation from
Finance Committee February 12, 2019)
38. Motion to approve additional services with Merrick & Company (McLaughlin
Whitewater Design Group) in the amount of $75,000. (No recommendation from
Engineering Services Committee February 12, 2019)
ADDENDUM
39. Recognize the Augusta 911 Center for receiving the Outstanding 911 Call Center of the
Year award from the NG911 Institute. The Augusta 911 Center was presented this award on
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February 13, 2019 at the 16 Annual 911 Honor Awards in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Mayor: Voting.
Motion Passes 10-0. \[Items 1-5, 9, 12, 14-17, 19, 22-27, 29, 33-36, 38, 39\]
The Clerk:
PUBLIC SERVICES
6. Motion to approve establishing a dedicated account for the Annual Senor Holiday Dinner
in the amount of $13,000. (Approved by Public Services Committee February 12, 2019.
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Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 6.
Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, I met with Ms. Jackson and she has added
this to the committee, to the agenda. I’d like to just establish some clarity on exactly what she has
posted here.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, Madam Administrator, if you’ll speak to the matter.
Ms. Jackson: Uh yes, what we did in follow up to that meeting was to look at the cost of
putting on this, the entire cost of putting on this event. The event has grown pretty substantially
over the years as it increases in popularity which has resulted in a need for more funding for it.
There never was a dedicated line item specifically for this event so this establishes a line item that
should be appropriately funded to do this. The past couple of years we looked at the expenses for
it and I believe $13,000 dollars will be sufficient to cover the entire cost of the event. Also staff
has been successful in previous years in securing donations such as to the extent that donations
can offset this amount, that’s more savings for us but I think the $13,000 should be enough to do
it.
Mr. Mayor: The Chair will entertain a motion.
Mr. M. Williams: I have a question.
Mr. Hasan: Mr. Mayor, I need a follow up on that.
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Mr. Mayor: Okay, all right.
Mr. Hasan: I just want to make sure Ms. Jackson is this going to be in the budget from
now on the $13,000 put in the budget moving forward because based on what you have here $9,000
came out of the Administrator’s budget. But moving forward will this be a line item for the Senior
Party that cannot be used for any other purpose?
Ms. Jackson: Yes, this will be a dedicated account for that purpose.
Mr. Hasan: Okay all right, thank you.
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Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9.
Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I too had a question about the amount funded
and I’m hoping that the $13,000 will be enough. I think Ms. Jackson said she talked with staff
about the, I guess the amount needed to put this event on.
Ms. Jackson: Yes.
Mr. M. Williams: This is I agree a growing event that more people will be coming I believe
the way things have been going but I wanted to make sure that that figure was the exact figure. I
didn’t know how we arrived at thirteen, Rob, which is an odd number but I thought we would’ve
rounded them off to something different. I mean I’ve got no problem if thirteen is going to do it
but I don’t want to get to the point where when in the last couple of years thirteen is not enough
and we should have done it when we was doing it to make it be able to work. But if staff is
supportive of the thirteen and thirteen can do it, I’ve got no problem but I don’t want this horse to
get out of the barn then we say well we should’ve done something different.
Ms. Jackson: Based upon our experience the last two years which specifically after we
went to the James Brown Arena and had to pay the additional rental cost associated with that,
$13,000 dollars would’ve covered the last couple of years functions as well as for 750 to 800
participants which is about what we had. So I think this will get us through ’19. Now if we wind
up with a huge crowd this year we may need to add more in ’20 but I think this is enough to based
upon the last two years to get us through ’19 as well as enhance our entertainment budget which
is one of the concerns that you had.
Mr. Mayor: Madam Administrator, you say we’re renting the James Brown Arena?
Ms. Jackson: Uh-um.
Mr. Mayor: Even though we gave them $6 million dollars?
Ms. Jackson: I understand there’s been some degree of a discount they’ve cut but yes
we’ve had to pay and that’s the primary reason that the cost has gone up.
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Mr. Mayor: Even though we gave them $6 million dollars?
Ms. Jackson: Yes, they have charged us in previous years. Per what I believe your
suggestion certainly we can go back to them to request a better or more, a full discount for that
facility but this amount, this budget would allow us to pay the rental fee that we had to pay last
year.
Mr. Mayor: Even though we gave them $6 million dollars?
Ms. Jackson: We can certainly ask them to discount that further.
Mr. M. Williams: I mean I didn’t realize that. I mean I would’ve brought this issue up a
lot sooner. But there’s another issue with the James Brown Arena that I plan to bring up very
shortly, but I didn’t realize that, Mr. Mayor, that did give me another twist to this thing. Why is it
that we’re doing that I mean for the senior event either way? I just went to The Miller on Saturday
night and I thought I was at the James Brown Arena as nice as it is so can somebody tell me why
we’re doing that and for this event we’ve got to pay, anybody, Mr. Mayor? This government’s
been doing it for a long time wrong and I mean we’ve got to keep doing it wrong. That’s something
we need to talk about Ms. Jackson.
Ms. Jackson: Yes, we can certainly ask them if they’d be willing to extend a larger
discount.
Mr. M. Williams: No, ma’am. I think we need to tell them we need to tell them we’re
requesting a larger discount I mean the dog shouldn’t be wagging the tail or the tail shouldn’t be
wagging the dog however that goes.
Mr. Mayor: The Chair will entertain a motion.
Mr. Sias: So moved for approval.
Ms. Davis: Second.
Mr. Mayor: Voting.
Mr. M. Williams: Ms. Bonner, remind me I’ve got a couple of issues I need to put on the
agenda.
Mr. Garrett votes No.
Motion Passes 9-1.
The Clerk:
ENGINEERING SERVICES
7. Motion to approve funding for Design Consultant Services Supplemental Agreement
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Three to Wolverton & Associates, Inc. in the amount of $93,480.00 for the 15 Street
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Pedestrian Improvement Project as requested by the AED. RFQ 16-246. (Approved by
Engineering Services Committee February 12, 2019)
Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor, can we take 7 and 8 together? My issue with that the reason
I pulled these is when I saw the supplement for consultant services and for the funding. My
question is on both of those supplemental approval for the design construction who’s going to
address this?
Mr. Mayor: Madam Clerk, we’ll take 7 and 8 as companion items and we’ll let our
Engineering Services Director Dr. Malik speak to this matter.
ENGINEERING SERVICES
8. Motion to approve supplemental funding for Engineering Phases of Design Consultant
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Agreement to Civil Services, Inc. in the amount of $75,775.00 for 5 Street Bridge over the
Savannah River (Bridge Repair and Restoration) as requested by AED. RFQ 16-247.
(Approved by Engineering Services Committee February 12, 2019)
Mr. M. Williams: I guess my question is Mr. Malik is the supplements costs, was there
another cost in this and we’ve got to add to this what the supplement is why is that different, for
the two of them now we’ve got both of them so which.
Dr. Malik: The way design services work or the way at least Engineering Department is
requesting we’re doing completing design in phases so we did first phase, second phase to get to
the final design. So Agenda 7 is those services are needed during the construction time. Design
has already been completed but during construction when they go construct the roadway or utilities
there may be some conflict or there may be some issues so we have to go back to the design
engineers to provide consultation and change the design so this service is a TIA project so the
funds are there in the project. The 7 is the same thing we have to do some additional work under
the bridge do some (unintelligible) analysis and all that so again that work is also being done in
phases like phase one phase two. We generate more information, we build the design so that way
we are better designed.
Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor, if I can I understand that you know that things change but
when I hear supplemental monies are added I’m thinking to the same project that means, and you
just explained to me that they I guess ran into something else. But when we go out for these bids
if we’re going to have these supplemental increases then shouldn’t they bid the unknown as well
because if we come back again with a supplement again with a supplement to me that’s another
change order just different words.
Dr. Malik: Yes, that supplement for example the concept phase of the design will lead us
to the design and the concept of it tells us two lanes, three lanes we can have a turn lane or we can
turn lane signal and all that so that’s the most cost effective way. I know it takes some steps
otherwise just going full blown and then come in with all the changes (unintelligible).
Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor, this kind of caught my attention but I’m going to make a
motion to approve, I don’t know what else to do with it. I mean we’ve been, we’re at this junction
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we’ve got to go forward but it looks like Rick Acree taught me a long time ago to put it all in at
one time you know and that way you don’t have to come back. It scares me when it comes back
like that.
Mr. Hasan: Second.
Mr. Mayor: I think what you’re suggesting is that maybe we need to do a better job of
scoping the project before it comes before the full Commission.
Mr. M. Williams: I would think we would.
Mr. Mayor: During our design during our design phase we’d probably want to look at it a
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little detail so, do you want to be recognized? All right, the Commissioner from the 10 had his
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hand up first, I’m coming to you. All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 10.
Mr. Clarke: Dr. Malik, I know it’s not very often you get a thank you but I’d like to thank
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you for all of us that do travel back and forth over the 5 Street Bridge, thank you for fixing that
hump there on the Georgia side. And the reason why I love to travel that bridge is even if I go
across the bridge and turn around and come back to see the skyline of Augusta and the riverfront
and how beautiful it is. And to see the changes from when I was growing up in Augusta to what
it is now has just been marvelous. And it’s just it’s just a great thing that we’re going to try to
restore that bridge but I just want to say thank you for all of us that do love to go back and forth
across that bridge so we can see the view from the other side, thank you.
Mr. Mayor: A Point of Personal Privilege, Madam Clerk. I think what the Commissioner
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from the 10 is referring to is the beauty of the Augusta skyline transposed against the glassy, full
pool river, that’s what he’s suggesting.
The Clerk: You were inspired by Sleepy Carter?
Mr. Mayor: Inspired by him.
The Clerk: (unintelligible).
Mr. Clarke: Absolutely, Mr. Mayor.
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Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 4.
Mr. Sias: Thank you, sir. Just want to go back to the comment you made, sir, in looking
at these two items it just seems that they are in line with the comment you made of how we should
do it. So I’m just concerned are we saying it’s a good process and then criticizing at the same time
or because based on your comment it appears to me they did exactly what you said it should be
the process. Correct me if I’m way out in left field.
Mr. Mayor: I think we’ve got a motion and a proper second, voting.
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Motion Passes 10-0.
The Clerk: Items number 10 and 11, sir, are they companion or do you want to do those
separately?
Mr. M. Williams: No we can. Tom can come up one time.
The Clerk:
ENGINEERING SERVICES
10. Motion to approve award of Bid #18-239 for the Construction of Rocky Creek Pump
Station Project to BRW Construction Group, LLC. in the amount of $4,269,000.00.
(Approved by Engineering Services Committee February 12, 2019)
11. Motion to approve award of Bid #18-308 for the Construction of Boykin Road Water and
Sewer Project to Blair Construction, Inc. in the amount of $2,382,955.00. (Approved by
Engineering Services Committee February 12, 2019)
Mr. Mayor: I don’t remember who pulled these two.
The Clerk: Mr. Williams.
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Mr. Mayor: Okay, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9.
Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Tom, Rocky Creek first of all is pumping station,
we’ve done a lot of work over there. My problem with this is, is this going to do what we need to
do at Rocky Creek or this is just a continuation of stuff at Rocky Creek? I mean we’ve been talking
about that and the people in that area still haven’t got the relief yet. I don’t want Finance, I don’t
see Donna but I want Finance to tell me how many dollars we done put over there but what’s the
pumping station going to do?
Mr. Wiedmeier: This project will, Rocky Creek is the last trunk sewer that has yet to be
replaced or rebuilt. This project will prevent the problem that we had two years ago at Chester
and Virginia Avenues. And there’s a second part to this project which is the construction of the
force main. It was bid, the prices came in way high so that’s being rebid but these two projects
together will solve the overflow issue that we had a couple of years ago.
Mr. M. Williams: When you say overflow, can I follow up, Mr. Mayor?
Mr. Mayor: You may.
Mr. M. Williams: When you saying an overflow issue we had, Tom, explain that to me,
tell me what.
Mr. Wiedmeier: So in January of 2017 we had sanitary sewer overflows that impacted
some residents in that area. This is our solution to that problem.
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Mr. M. Williams: Okay and I’m going to agree I’m going to make a motion to
approve ---
Mr. Hasan: Second.
Mr. M. Williams: --- but I hadn’t made the motion yet I’m going to make a motion.
The Clerk: He’s going to second if you make it.
Mr. M. Williams: Oh, he’s going to second when I make it well while I finish I mean ---
Mr. Mayor: Come on.
Mr. M. Williams: --- okay well, I’m explaining to Tom sitting here as long as I’ve been
here we done work at Rocky Creek for a long time. We’ve been doing some other stuff over there
and I’m still hearing him say he’s got another issue coming up which was high coming in they got
to go back out and try to get a better price on. But all the money we’re spending, I’m trying to
make sure the money we’re spending is being is doing what we say it’s going to do. So it’s the
same Tom day I mean this is another Tuesday but it just happens to be on the agenda. I need to
know that I ain’t just voting on some stuff that we’ve been voting on. We done spent taxpayer’s
money not just ---
Mr. Mayor: Yeah.
Mr. Wiedmeier: Utilities has not done a great deal of work this is our big project for the,
I’m sure there’s been stormwater work that’s gone on in Rocky Creek but this is strictly sanitary
sewer.
Mr. M. Williams: --- okay I understand that. So my question is though this project and
other projects you’ve got coming should’ve solved that problem over there though.
Mr. Wiedmeier: Yes.
Mr. M. Williams: Okay all right write that down Mary Davis, he said yes.
Mr. Mayor: Yeah, let me echo this and I fully support this. Back in January 2017 it was
certainly a media, a frenzied moment where they came out. I remember the Commissioner from
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the 4 he came out. I was out there as well where the residents were just up in arms because this
has happened on multiple occasions.
Mr. M. Williams: That’s right.
Mr. Mayor: Rocky Creek is a large or should I say is a long creek and so it not only travels
along the Regency Mall corridor but it goes back all the way over to Chester Avenue so this is a
very significant issue. Again, I think you made a motion?
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Mr. M. Williams: That’s right.
Mr. Mayor: All right and we’ve got a proper second?
Mr. M. Williams: He seconded before I made it but we’ve got a second.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, all right, let’s vote on this.
Motion Passes 10-0.
The Clerk:
ENGINEERING SERVICES
13. Motion to approve the continued funding of the current On-Call Field and Laboratory
Testing for Soil and Construction Material, and Geotechnical Inspection and Investigation
(CMT_Geotech) Services contract in the amount of $900,000. Funding is available in
Projects Funds and TIA Discretionary Funds. RFP: 14-140 (Approved by Engineering
Services Committee February 12, 2019)
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Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9.
Mr. M. Williams: Yes, sir, Mr. Mayor, who’s going to address this though?
Mr. Mayor: Dr. Malik.
Mr. M. Williams: Doc, this $900,000 dollars is the funding for this. This is another project
that can come back for a change order or this is something that we’ve been doing in phases that
you talked about.
Dr. Malik: This is support services to maintain the quality assurance of the project and the
testing of the materials performance of the TIA project (unintelligible) funding is coming from the
TIA. We’ve been through the bid process and we have several firms selected and prices have
already been set through the Commission so each time the projects come out we add money to that
contract.
Mr. M. Williams: So this is TIA Discretionary money coming out.
Dr. Malik: It’s (unintelligible) two of the projects are funded through their construction
funds. There is a fund and the TIA Discretionary. This Commission previous approved up to a
million-dollars for this type of services.
Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor, I ain’t got no more questions.
Mr. Hasan: Motion to approve.
Mr. Sias: Second.
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Mr. Mayor: Voting.
Motion Passes 10-0.
The Clerk:
ENGINEERING SERVICES
18. Motion to approve to Supplement Construction Contract to Beam’s Contracting, Inc. in
the amount of $688,684.00 for completing needed supplemental Improvements for
Wrightsboro Road Widening Improvements Project (Marks Church Rd to Augusta West
Pkwy) as requested by AED. Bid Item 18-137. (Approved by Engineering Services
Committee February 12, 2019)
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Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9.
Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Dr. Malik, again today I was on Wrightsboro
Road and I just left that area up there and I see all of this stuff going on. When I saw this
Wrightsboro Road widening the thought that came to my mind is what are we going to do or when
are we going to proceed down Wrightsboro Road. For an old road who’s been really in bad shape
for a long, long time, are we going to be able to extend anything from that, this new area that we’re
working on coming down Wrightsboro Road into Highland in that vicinity?
Dr. Malik: Yes, sir, that’s part of the plan we’re going to be sending for professional
services RFP out this year because that road is in bad shape. The subbase is failing so we can’t
just go back and resurface it. It needs to be reconstructed. So some time the later part of next year
I will come back and do the bid to reconstruct from that intersection of Jackson, North Leg all the
way to Highland Avenue.
Mr. M. Williams: Just today, Mr. Mayor, traveling down that road in the rain and the roads
have gotten in such a bad shape there’s just created its own rut for the traffic to go in. I mean if
you get out of your lane you’re going to be over in the next lane because they’ve got a hill side in
the middle of the road on both lanes. But I just wanted to since this widening was on the agenda
I thought it would be a good opportunity to ask about that end of Wrightsboro Road from North
Leg all the way down to at least to Highland if not all the way down.
Dr. Malik: Yes, sir. I mean there’s a way that’s the way to escalate the process you know
so somebody can really add on to the existing contract we have and then we can bring it back that
recommendation too.
Mr. M. Williams: Well, we do a lot of that, Malik, we do a lot of adding and subtracting
so I mean it just depends on what day it is so you just have to bring it and see.
Mr. Hasan: Motion to approve.
Mr. D. Williams: Second.
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Mr. Mayor: I’ve got a motion and a second, voting.
Motion Passes 10-0.
The Clerk:
PUBLIC SERVICES
20. Report from staff regarding an easement of the bus shelters currently in inventory, how
many will be needed, where the locations are and a cost estimate for the new bus top signage.
(No recommendation from Public Services Committee February 12, 2019)
Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes Ms. Dottery.
Ms. Dottery: Afternoon Mr. Mayor, Commissioners. You should have before you in your
packet the shelter locations. There was approximately 18 shelters and I highlighted in yellow the
first ten that I want to get started with. Some of those need shelters and some don’t. They already
have a shelter but, it needs upgrading so my goal is to upgrade where needed and assess where we
need a shelter if we do put one there, some of those areas are not large enough to place a shelter
so they will not get one.
Mr. M. Williams: Can I follow up, Mr. Mayor?
Mr. Mayor: All right, I want to make sure everybody points to the information that, okay
it’s not in there ---
The Clerk: Uh-mm not yet ---
Mr. Mayor: --- under their notebooks, all right hold on, everybody.
The Clerk: --- she distributed that information during committee and we just didn’t, then
we didn’t have a recommendation.
Ms. Dottery: I’m sorry I just brought mine because I thought you already had the twenty
so I said I thought you already had the twenty that I had distributed so I didn’t bring more and I
apologize for that.
Ms. Jackson: We can put it on the overhead projector.
Mr. Sias: Let’s do that, sir.
Mr. Mayor: All right, everybody just suspend for a moment. We’re going to give Madam
Clerk and Ms. Dottery and opportunity to get it (unintelligible) by, everybody just pause. Okay
all right so, Ms. Dottery, you just take your time, okay, just take your time. All right, the Chair
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recognizes the Commissioner from the 9 you have a question.
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Mr. M. Williams: Yes thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ms. Dottery, I understand those areas that
can’t have a shelter well I say can’t have don’t have the room for a shelter, all of them need
something. But those areas that can’t have a shelter what I’m mostly worried about is those areas
that could have but still don’t have. Not the old shelter not the shelter that was transported from
Florida to Augusta but where are the shelters or the lack of shelters now in those south areas? Now
took one trip on the bus and I’ve been trying to get back on it but Mary Davis won’t ride with me
and I don’t want to go by myself, you will? But when I rode that ---
Ms. Speaker: (Inaudible).
Mr. M. Williams: --- that’s right but I’m trying to figure out now what are we going to do
to get those shelters get something started somewhere. Now we went to Florida and got some
stuff. We know that. We talked about patching them up. I don’t want to patch nothing up. I don’t
want to put something in the south of Augusta saying no these were something we got out of
Florida but we made them work and then they end up getting destroyed to whatever it is because
lack of support or whatever they may have. But do we have I guess the best question do we have
any funding for shelters at all?
Ms. Dottery: Yes, sir, we do.
Mr. M. Williams: Okay, we’ve got funding ---
Ms. Dottery: Yes, sir, we have $630,000 dollars in SPLOST funds.
Mr. M. Williams: --- $630,000 thousand, right?
Ms. Dottery: Yes, sir.
Mr. M. Williams: Okay, how much will ten shelters cost roughly? I mean it’s just you and
me talking everybody’s gone how much would ten shelters cost roughly?
Ms. Dottery: Well, if we went on the high end you’re talking $100,000 dollars.
Mr. M. Williams: Okay, $100,000 dollars. Now we’ve got $630 something right ---
Ms. Dottery: Yes.
Mr. M. Williams: --- so why don’t we have at least ten brand new shelters from somebody,
somewhere?
Ms. Dottery: And that is my goal, sir. I have reached out to a company and asked for a
quote so I can have a definite cost of the shelter because there’s a specific shelter after
conversations with you about having a shelter where people are protected from the rain. Currently
the shelters we have you’re not. You can sit there under a little awning over your head but you’re
really not covered if it’s raining. And I’ve seen people myself standing there with the rain coming
down and they’re putting umbrellas over themselves to try to block the rain. So I’ve looked at a
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shelter that is totally encased except for the entrance. It will be able to fit a wheelchair and it will
also have a bench so the customers can go in and sit down and wait for the bus. And it is encased
in glass so they can clearly see, the operators can clearly see the person sitting there waiting for
that bus to come.
Mr. M. Williams: Can I follow up, Mr. Mayor?
Mr. Mayor: Absolutely.
Mr. M. Williams: Okay, I’m only trying to go through the Chair. There was a company
who was doing some advertising and using shelters. In fact one said my favorite restaurant right
in front of the door S & S Cafeteria there’s one right there and it had the business name on it.
Those types shelters were something. It wasn’t probably the most elaborate type shelter but it was
something to keep you out of the elements even if you had to stand up. There was a bench there.
Why can’t we continue that kind of, I mean something for because we hadn’t got a huge number
of riders now. It’s not like you say where it’s going to be overcrowded. It’s not like you say well
you know we ain’t got no room for everybody so we’ll let nobody, if we had any type of shelters
for the bus route we’re trying to build something, we’re trying to build. So I’m worried about now
why we hadn’t gotten some company who we’re paying to fast track some shelters for a $100,000
dollars and we’ve got $600,000 dollars to put aside for that.
Ms. Dottery: Well, as I stated I have requested a quote and I should have that quote by
tomorrow so that I can move forward with getting the shelters in place. And the plan is to look at
a 90-day plan for starting to get the shelters done.
Mr. M. Williams: Ms. Dottery, let me tell you I understand what you just stated but I’m
worried about when we’re going to get the shelters not the quote I’m talking about the shelters. I
know you’ve got to go through a process. I mean we’ve got too many hoops to jump but we’ve
been talking about this for a long time. This ain’t something new this, we’ve been talking about
how we want to enhance the bus ridership and how we want to, we bought new buses and
everything else and we, people are talking about the buses. We’re doing all that but we hadn’t got
at least ten new shelters to put up. One side of town’s got shelters now. You get on Washington
Road you get on Broad and go Washington Road you’re going to find some shelters out there but
you go to the south side of this town you ain’t going to find, people are on benches that’s about to
break in two with a board up under the middle of it. I’m embarrassed to tell somebody that’s one
of our shelters over there. We’ve got bus signs or supposed to be signs around the telephone pole
who’s almost decayed from rot it’s been sitting there for years. I’ve seen this myself, I’m not telling
you what somebody told me, I’ve seen it. So my question is today would somebody need to do
something through the Administrator, your office, the Mayor’s Office. I don’t have one but if I
had an office you can go through mine but somebody needs to get a fast track to get something for
these shelters here. Have we started a pad or something already are we going to wait until we get
the shelters then say well we need to get a pad because we’ve got to have something to put them
on.
Ms. Dottery: Right.
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Mr. Mayor: So let’s do this can I jump in ---
Mr. Mr. Williams: Yes, sir.
Mr. Mayor: --- okay. All right, let’s just suspend for a moment. I know there’s several
other questions. Madam Administrator, is it not true that Maurice McDowell is our Capital
Projects Coordinator?
Ms. Jackson: Capital Project Manager, correct.
Mr. Mayor: All right, fantastic. All right, so here’s what I’d like to see happen. We have
Ms. Dottery who’s trying to do everything she can with limited staff, limited resources. My Mayor
Pro Tem’s going to ask a question of the Administrator in just a moment but what I’d like to see
happen is that we get our Capital Projects Manager on this to help make this happen because we’ve
been talking about it for almost two years ---
Mr. M. Williams: That’s right.
Mr. Mayor: --- we’ve been talking about it for almost two years. And there’s a level of
complexity tied to this one, making sure that it’s ADA Compliant. Two, the pads have to be poured
before you even put these things in. And so let’s get the right help and the right team members on
this because this is again an opportunity for us to help effect change in Augusta in a way that needs
to happen and it’s long overdue. So that’s going to be in the form of our motion that’s going to
happen in just a second. All right, Mayor Pro Tem.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, I totally agree. Ms. Jackson, a question for
you. We’ve been collecting SPLOST VII funds for three years now. When we put the SPLOST
list together where on the priority list was these shelters, number one. And number two how much
money has been collected of that $630 to where we can fast track this?
Ms. Jackson: I don’t have that figure available with me now. I’d have to research that but
I don’t think there’ll be an issue with fast tracking this. The $100,000 dollars is a very small
expenditure for what we’re dealing with now so I don’t think there’s any issue with fast tracking
it.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Do you have any idea or does Donna have any idea ---
Ms. Jackson: Of course, I don’t have that information with me. We will research that and
get it to you.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: --- can you email it out to the Commissioners?
Ms. Jackson: We can.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
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Mr. Mayor: Okay, that’ll be fantastic. All right, I’m going to go, the Chair recognizes the
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Commissioner from the 1.
Mr. Fennoy: Ms. Dottery ---
Ms. Dottery: Yes, sir.
Mr. Fennoy: --- is it possible where we don’t have shelters and have those benches that
Commissioner Williams is talking about that we could replace those benches because I mean
they’re awful.
Ms. Dottery: Yes, sir, that is one of the goals as well. And one of the other ideas that I
had in some areas where we cannot place a bench but at least some seating for someone you could
also do something called Semi-Seating where at least they would have a place to sit down
comfortably while they were waiting for the bus to come.
Mr. Fennoy: Okay, thank you.
Mr. Mayor: All right, okay so do we have any cost estimates, Ms. Dottery, with regards to
the benches as well?
Ms. Dottery: I do not.
Mr. Mayor: Okay all right, so I know we want something to happen fast but I’d to make
a, I’d like for us to consolidate what this motion is about to do and it needs to include not only
making sure that we have the appropriations for the ten shelters that she’d like to move forward
with now but it should also include additional resources that are going to be required for the
benches to be installed. And I see a lot of folks nodding their heads but the pad must be poured
and I think that’s included in your $100,453 ---
Ms. Dottery: It is.
Mr. Mayor: --- it’s included in that and then we also need to make sure that we get our
Capital Projects Manager involved in that, all right?
Ms. Davis: Mr. Mayor, if we could also make sure that signage is included in this entire
project.
Mr. Mayor: All right, so we’ve got all of those, signage, pads, benches, shelters and Capital
Projects Manager Maurice McDowell. And let’s put 45 days on getting back with a comprehensive
plan and approach to this so we can so that we can again take any necessary steps to approve any
funding that’s required to make this happen okay in 45 days. All right, that’s our motion.
Mr. Frantom: Motion to approve as stated by the Mayor.
Ms. Davis: Second.
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Mr. Sias: You might want to make sure Madam Clerk got that.
Mr. Mayor: All right, I’m confident of that most amazing Clerk in the U.S. so don’t try
that.
Mr. Sias: Blame it on the Clerk when the shelters come back upside down.
Mr. Mayor: I think we’re going to be fine if you don’t put your hand on it. All right, we’ve
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got a motion and a proper second. The Commissioner from the 4 knows I love him. All right,
voting.
Motion Passes 10-0.
The Clerk:
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
21. Motion to approve an annual bid for Environmental Services Department and Recreation
and Parks Department. The items require Commission approval due to the fact that
purchases on the individual purchase orders will exceed $25,000.00 per order. (Requested
by Commissioner Sammie Sias)
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Mr. Mayor: Okay all right, I’ll recognize the Commissioner from the 4 I had a series of
questions but I’ll let you go first.
Mr. Sias: All right no problem, thank you. Can we get somebody from Procurement to
come up as part of that process or even Environmental Services?
Mr. Mayor: So let me state my question. My concern about it was that we’ve bundled
multiple departments in this and there’s no caption as to what this annual bid, what are we
purchasing, what are we doing, there’s no caption to it whatsoever. We need an explanation on
what we’re adopting an annual bid for.
Mr. Sias: Okay, we’ve got somebody so can we recognize Ms. Videtto?
Mr. Mayor: Yeah I will. All right, Madam Administrator, the Chair recognizes Madam
Administrator.
Ms. Jackson: I think I should start. Some of it is for Environmental Services, some for
Utilities and some for Recreation and Parks. If you look at the first page of the agenda item, it
does spell out in some detail what those items are. Various sizes of rocks, rock hauling, vacant lot
cleaning services, lights, parts, tire repair and servicing, various pipe couplings and end sections,
tires, fiber option network supplies, red hot sewer solvent, fiber optic supplies, chemical,
warehouse supplies and athletic clothing so it’s a variety of items for several, for three different
departments.
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Mr. Mayor: Okay, so I’m going to ask another question. I understood that, Madam
Administrator, thus the three departments but the key piece here is that the individual purchases
exceed $25,000. We still don’t have any sense of what we’re buying. I heard the list you know
from one department but what’s the total, what is the total of this because it’s clearly more than
$25,000. So if the Commissioners are voting on this item, are we voting on spending $125,000
are we voting on $75,000 in total or what. We don’t know.
Ms. Jackson: I think those are purchases as needed and Ms. Williams can explain a little
bit further, Ms. Sams is out sick today. But I think we did this to have those items available to us
to purchase as those departments need those items, correct?
Ms. Williams: That’s correct. According to the code for annual bid it allows the
Commission to, if items if the Procurement total is going to be greater than $25,000, we have to
have approval from the Commission to allow that throughout the year and it would be on an as
needed basis.
Mr. Sias: Have we done it before?
Mr. M. Williams: (unintelligible) Mr. Mayor.
Ms. Williams: And that is the way it is set up in the code is that for all of our annual bids
if it is less than $25,000 for a total of a purchase order, the Administrator is able to approve those
items. Anything greater than $25,000 has to come to the Commission for that approval if they’re
going to have a purchase order that will exceed $25,000 throughout the year.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, so I appreciate that but I think the Commission fully understood that
which is why we have it in front of us. But again the larger issue is are we approving something
that the Environmental Services Department is going to spend $95,000 on because they are annual
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purchases? The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9.
Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I’m a little bit confused well not really confused
but I’m a little bit concerned I guess is the word. I mean government has always worked this way
and if there was an emergency situation so we’re talking about may be one thing but to approve
this saying and there’s no sense bringing it to the Commission. I mean now if we don’t want to
take the time to disagree about it or agree about it, then that’s stops up here but I don’t think we
ought to open that door to say Environment and Recreation can spend $25,000 dollars anytime
they think that’s something that’s necessary and it may be necessary but it ought to go through the
other government channels because this is government. I don’t know how you do it at home but
you have to answer for everything you spend whether we agree about it or not. I totally disagree
with that. I don’t think we can support that. Now if it was there for emergency type situations
where something came up as an emergency at midnight whatever I’ve got no problem but just to
say if it’s over $25,000 dollars it don’t come back here, I can’t agree, Mr. Mayor.
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Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 4.
Mr. Sias: Thank you, ma’am. What’s your name from Procurement?
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Ms. Williams: Nancy Williams.
Mr. Sias: Ms. Williams, I just have a question a couple of them really. This process here
that was submitted for these items for the various departments has this been done been done
before?
Ms. Williams: Yes, sir and it has been and we do this every year and every year for the
annual bid items. The departments advise us on the bids that will have purchase orders that will
exceed $25,000. And according to the code in Section 1-10-48 it does state that we have to have
Commission approval for those items and we have done that every year.
Mr. Sias: And the reason why I asked you that question I’ve seen that process before and
in this particular agenda item I wasn’t alarmed by it but I know we because I know we had done it
before. Now the question is if we can clearly articulate or explain why are we doing it this way?
I know you brought the code and everything but has this been a process so I as we go as ya’ll go
through the year, what is the purpose of putting it in this bid fashion here, in this approval fashion
here?
Ms. Williams: Well, the annual bids are those items that the departments will have a
continual need for throughout the year and it alleviates the process of them having to go out for
individual bids throughout the year for these services such as uniforms, tires and the case of the
items that are under Environmental Services. These are actual items that they’ll use throughout
the year and it keeps them from having to come back and get a bid every time that they’re going
to make these purchases because they will be using those throughout the year.
Mr. Sias: Okay and that is in all these different departments Utilities or Environmental
Services and so forth.
Ms. Williams: Yes, sir.
Mr. Sias: All right.
Ms. Williams: And the ones that actually were less than $25,000 the Administrator actually
approves those items.
Mr. Sias: And I’ll wrap up with this comment. When I saw this it wasn’t new. It was a
process that we had used and I know this year after year so it’s unfortunate that Ms. Sams wasn’t
here to explain today. She had a I think a dental appointment or something. But the bottom line
is this is something that we’ve done on a continual regular basis each year, thank you, sir.
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Mr. Mayor: Thank you. The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 6.
Mr. Hasan: Mr. Mayor, when looking at the item we can based on the discussion that we’re
currently having and I’d like to make either a motion that you think is appropriate and that is to
send it back to committee or a motion to deny which ever one you think is appropriate.
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Mr. Mayor: All right, I want you to hold that. That’s good and we’re getting there. The
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Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 5, from the 5.
Mr. Few: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ma’am, these parts that you are replacing that you’ve
used before.
Ms. Williams: Yes, sir.
Mr. Few: In other words, you’re just replacing the stock.
Ms. Williams: Well, the annual bids are those items like I’ve stated that they’re small
quantity, are small items that the department will utilize throughout the year. Any major purchases
of course require them to go through the process to ask you for that approval.
Mr. Few: Yes, ma’am, I understand that part but you use some of those, some of these
materials all year long ---
Ms. Williams: Yes, sir.
Mr. Few: --- and you have to replace them.
Ms. Williams: That’s correct.
Mr. Few: Okay.
Mr. Hasan: Mr. Mayor, I’d like to finish if ---
Mr. Mayor: Hold on ---
Mr. Hasan: --- okay.
Mr. Mayor: --- hold on, I want to make sure he’s finished.
Mr. Few: I’m through, thank you.
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Mr. Mayor: Okay all right, the Commissioner from the 4 has indicated that this is an
annual process and I want to add some brevity to that. We do go through the annual bid process
every year, that is absolutely true. In 2018 the annual bid process happened in January and in
January we had a single item that said motion to approve annual bids for five items, five items. It
did not bundle five departments or in this case three departments’ items, five items and it listed or
enumerated those items. In the caption you’re effectively doing that as well. I think the larger
concern here is who has opportunity to compete in these spaces? Who has opportunity to bid for
this work and yes you do have a recommended list of vendors and a list of local vendors. That’s
on your sheet, that’s information your Procurement has provided, I fully understand all of that.
The debate is not whether or not the Administrator has the authority to approve items that are less
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than twenty-five. We fully support that, fully support that that’s not the question that’s before us
today. The question that’s before us is will this Commission approve purchase of these “annual
items”. Let me also add that in 2018 just as it is listed today in 2018 this same Commission was
asked to approve fiber optic supplies that were purchased last year.
Ms. Williams: May I add some impression to that to make sure that you totally understand.
Each one of these items has been out for bid. We sent them out for bid through the regular process.
And what the vendors do with them, each of the vendors responded to the individual items that the
departments were requesting so they have been through the process. We’re just asking you to
review them and approve those purchases for those individual items. So they have been through
the process. It’s not that you’re approving for us to acquire the bids; it’s already been through the
bid process. Each one of the items and you have that information for each one of the items you
have the tab sheet, you have the number of vendors we send them to; they have gone through the
process.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, very well. So a simple question is the following. What is the total
approval amount that you’re requesting today of these items that you have? What is the total
amount?
Ms. Williams: Okay according to the code we don’t list a price because it is as Ms. Jackson
stated it is on an as-needed basis. We have the individual items for each of the individual bid items
that has the individual items that they’re needing and the prices for these individual items on the
tab sheet. And we do this like you say last year there were only four bids. Our bids stand for an
additional year so this is a different set of bids this year than the ones you received last year in
which there were only four that required ---
Mr. Mayor: Five ---
Ms. Williams: --- level of (unintelligible).
Mr. Mayor: --- I fully understood that ---
Ms. Williams: Okay.
Mr. Mayor: --- so can you tell me how much we spent in 2018?
Ms. Williams: I would have to get that information for you.
Mr. Mayor: I mean we’re having a conversation because the total expenditures exceed
$25,000.
Ms. Williams: Yes, sir.
Mr. Mayor: We’re having this conversation that if I took a single item it would exceed
$25,000 that’s probably the case. And so to suggest that no one can tell me how much we’re going
to spend, then I’m not buying that.
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Ms. Williams: We are able to run a report that shows you the amount of purchases for
prior years. I do not have that information with me right now.
Mr. Sias: Why don’t we send it back to committee?
Mr. Mayor: Yeah, why don’t we do that.
Mr. Frantom: Second.
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Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9.
Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. For transparency though ---
Mr. Mayor: That is an outstanding word.
Mr. M. Williams: --- well, the man knows from which he speaks.
Mr. Sias: We know what that means.
Mr. M. Williams: I know exactly what that means.
Mr. Mayor: I know what it means.
Mr. M. Williams: But and I think Ms. Williams is doing her job so this is trust me you’ve
been in here before. This ain’t your first rodeo, this is what we do. My problem with that is though
when these departments is able to go and spend $25,000 dollars because they think or believe or
need one of these or ten of these items at the end of the year we’ve done spent $500,000 dollars
through the $25,000 dollars for each bid so I’ve got some issues with that, I have. Under $25,000
the Administrator can approve it so ya’ll go $24,999 I mean and do it that way but because there’s
always a way to get around it. But for us to approve that and to transparency, we’ve been talking
about that there’s stuff going on and I don’t want to get off base, Donna, I’m trying to stay focused
now but there’s some stuff going on right now that’s able to be bid on and we see it and don’t
know nothing about it. As an elected official I can’t answer those questions. When I, I’m going
to do like Willie Mays, Ms. Bonner, I don’t go to Walmart at 2:00 o’clock in the morning no more.
I’ll go at 12:00 because I’m not afraid to tell them I don’t know and if you don’t know they done
spent money on a situation that you’re not even aware of. So it’s a process because it’s government
we got to go through that process and I want to continue to go through the process. We can send
it back to committee and talk about it all day long but I’m still going to feel the same way when
we come out of committee that I can’t support giving three different entities just take one of them
Environment may need something in four or five different ways. Recreation may need something
a thousand different ways and because it’s $25,000 dollars we wouldn’t have this problem, Ms.
Jackson, with the Senior Dance if Recreation could’ve spent $25,000 dollars like this they could’ve
needed it then so.
Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes Madam Administrator.
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Ms. Jackson: For the sake of clarity, I just need to make sure we can bring back everything
you need to discuss this in committee. The only thing you need is what we spent for these specific
items in 2018. Is that what the request is?
Mr. Mayor: I think part of that request is what’s the dollar amount of this expenditure.
Again you know what I heard is that well we can tell you what we spent in 2018 because we have
that data but you likely have so maybe here’s the better question. Bring back to this body what
the projected expenditure will be for the items that you have on this list.
Mr. M. Williams: Or the limit thereof, how much you’re going to go up to ---
Mr. Mayor: That’s right.
Mr. M. Williams: --- if you ain’t got no limit you might end up, ain’t no telling what we’re
spending, Ms. Jackson.
Ms. Jackson: Okay, I think I can give you two numbers – one, actual expenditures as we
know them for 2018 unaudited numbers obviously but I can give you those actual expenditures
and I can tell you what is budgeted in ’19.
Mr. Mayor: Yeah and you know I’m just going to take one out of thin air here if we’re
purchased fiber optic equipment last year cable okay I’d like to know where we’re laying that
cable. I’m mean if we’re going to be in the communication business, let’s monetize it and talk
about how we can deliver that to these underserved areas that don’t have the infrastructure in place
so that they can get Comcast and AT&T and WOW and Knology and everybody else to the
neighborhoods where folks are going to school and they don’t have access to the internet so we
can bridge this digital divide because if we’re going to do that, then let’s make it work.
Mr. M. Williams: What’s the motion, Mr. Mayor?
Mr. Sias: To send it back to committee, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: We’ve got a motion and a second. I want to reecho what the Commissioner
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from the 9 said. Ms. Williams, you’ve done your job, you haven’t done anything. We’ve got
you’ve got a body that’s interested in what’s going on and how we’re spending taxpayer resources.
Ms. Williams: Yes, sir.
Mr. Mayor: Thank you, voting.
Motion Passes 10-0.
The Clerk: I believe we’re at Item 28.
Mr. Mayor: Yes, ma’am, we are.
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The Clerk:
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
28. Motion to approve Amendment to the Probation Services Order so as to allow for the
Commission to enter into a private probation services contract for misdemeanor probation
causes. (Requested by Commissioner Sammie Sias.
Mr. Hasan: Who pulled it?
Mr. Sias: No, no, it wasn’t pulled in my ---
Mr. Mayor: Oh I’m sorry, okay all right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the
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4.
Mr. Sias: Thank you, sir.
Mr. Mayor: Oh, I thought he pulled it.
The Clerk: Yeah, you had asked for it to go to Consent and he pulled it off.
Mr. Sias: No, it didn’t go so it’s still mine.
The Clerk: It is.
Mr. Sias: Okay, all right it wasn’t pulled, it just wasn’t added.
Mr. Mayor: Hold on, hold on, all right, so we have Item number 28 that Madam Clerk has
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read the Commissioner from the 9 had a series of questions about it and so I’ll recognize you first
if you’d like to be.
Mr. Sias: Thank you ---
Mr. Mayor: Sure.
Mr. Sias: --- all right at this point, I would ask the Administrator to talk to us about the
Probation Services request order for here.
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Mr. Mayor: Okay all right, I’m going to let the Commissioner from the 9 ask his questions
first.
Mr. M. Williams: My question, Mr. Mayor, about Probation Services where are we now?
I guess similar to what Ms. Jackson may bring to us we’ve been through this for quite some time
now. If I’m not mistaken the Judge decided to step away from this is that right, Ms. Jackson?
Ms. Jackson: Yes and this order provides for that ---
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Mr. M. Williams: Okay, so ---
Ms. Jackson: --- this is a revised order providing for that. During the budget process back
in October and November of last year, we discussed the large subsidies that the General Fund was
having to provide for Probation. And the Commission at that time authorized us to seek proposals
from private vendors to determine if that places us in a more advantageous financial situation to
contract those services out. However in order to do that there would have to be a revision to the
Probation Order allowing the Commission to enter into an agreement with private vendors and this
revised agreement reflects that change.
Mr. M. Williams: Can I respond, Mr. Mayor? To make a decision to go to a private vendor
already tells me that some minds came together and said that, I mean I thought we would at least
discuss whether or not that would be the best scenario. We had an in-house situation at one point
that we was told and we saw that the change was doing good. That didn’t work out, the person
ended up not still being in that position. But we’ve got to have the Probation Services; I mean it’s
something we can’t get away from. This body who now should be the founding or the official I
guess for Probation Services should have been able to come together and discuss what options
could we have versus going to private. Now when we had private we had a lot of problems with
that so having a lot of problems and being sued, people were not coming in, they were not paying
the probation. We had a situation that was working and we even got letters sent to us to that effect.
But going back was I won’t say backward going back to a private Probation Services in my mind
is not a good step to be taking at this junction. I think there ought to be some conversation held
either in Legal or somewhere we can discuss and talk about some other issues or some other way
of doing it. That’s my comment, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: Okay all right, we’re going to let Administrator Jackson (inaudible).
Ms. Jackson: As I recall our discussion during the budget process back in October and
November was that we would seek proposals to determine if that would be advantageous to us.
Our Procurement Department has issued an RFP. When we get those proposals back in at that
point the Commission can make a decision as to whether you want to go with one of those
proposals or if you would like to continue with the in-house operation. So I see this as an
information gathering process to determine what our options are and what is best for us. There is
certainly opportunity for further discussion from the Commission when those proposals are
submitted and we have the chance to review them with you.
Mr. M. Williams: Can I follow up, Mr. Mayor? So Ms. Jackson Item 20 is just to get the
RFP sent out or are you saying it’s already ---
Ms. Jackson: The RFP is out but you cannot enter into contract, the Commission cannot
enter into contract unless the Probation Order says that you can so this would allow you to do that.
Mr. M. Williams: --- is that necessary? We made that decision so do we need that now? I
mean I’m just asking the question. What this is saying to me is that this is the direction we’re
going in. Now if we needed that after we got the proposal back or the RFP back we’re saying we
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need to put this Item 28 back on the agenda so they would allow us to do it. What comes first the
chicken or the egg?
Ms. Jackson: Given the situation we felt like we needed to move with some speed to get
this done. Typically given the situation with the loss of staff currently at the office we’re trying to
move as expeditiously as possible and this allows us to keep moving. But certainly if this
Commission were to decide to hold this off and do this vote at the same time you choose a vendor
if you are going in that direction you could. It just needs to be done prior to signing off on any
contract with a vendor.
Mr. Mayor: Okay all right, I’m going to try to navigate through this. All right so previously
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as you’ll hear from the Commissioner from the 4 as well this body made a decision that we would
expedite trying to procure services for a private probationer. We did in fact agree to that; that
expedition was trying to get us around that 45 days. Pursuant to that there was also a request by
this body for the Judge to relinquish his role and/or authority in that which has subsequently
happened as well. Now that that has taken place and to your concern this while it doesn’t have to
happen today, it certainly needs to happen prior to us securing private Probation Services from any
vendor of record. That’s why I’m assuming why it’s on the agenda today. So again it can happen
today, it can happen a couple of days from now, but most importantly it must happen before we
enter into a contract with a private probationer. I think that’s where we are right now. My larger
concern is that I would direct everybody’s attention to Tab 28 in your notebooks. There should be
three versions of the document: the previous order, the redline version that proposes the changes
and then the document that ultimately will have our signature on it so it may be two but probably,
okay so it’s just two, again the redline shows the changes that are in here.
Mr. M. Williams: Point of Order, Mr. Mayor?
Mr. Mayor: Okay all right, I’m going to come to you but I want to make sure everybody’s
tracking with what we have in here. One of the chief concerns is that the staff there many of them
were seeking other career opportunities and this was an effort to try to bring some stability to that.
It’s my understanding that the organization that you had reached out to has since backed away
from being able to provide those services so we’re still then in a state of flux as I understand it.
Ms. Jackson: We’re trying to begin negotiation with another firm ---
Mr. Mayor: Okay ---
Ms. Jackson: --- so we’re fast tracking that process as well but we don’t have anything for
you to consider at this point.
Mr. Mayor: --- okay, do we know who that other vendor is? Have we shared that with the
Commission?
Ms. Jackson: I have not.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, can you share that with the Commission? That’d be helpful.
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Ms. Jackson: There were two vendors who attended our pre-bid meeting. One of them is
CSRA Probation. I’m sorry, I don’t have the name of the other firm.
Mr. M. Williams: Point of Order, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes (inaudible).
Mr. M. Williams: I thought we voted, I thought we voted in an emergency situation wait
now I thought an emergency situation was because of the vendor that was fixing to agree to come
in and we voted. I remember refusing to having it allowed on the Commission and I gave in so we
can vote on that. But now I’m hearing that we voted to change I thought an emergency situation
made those changes because we had to do it, we needed to do it and that company was going to
come in. Since then that company is turned away so that whole vote changed into Item 28?
Mr. Mayor: No, no you actually have two things going on here. One, securing a private
probationer has to happen irregardless of the document but it can’t happen without the document,
okay? And so what we said we would go back to reaching out to the entity who helped stand up
the in-house probation services and that was JAG. I don’t know what the acronym would stand
for but it’s the company of record that helped us stand it up initially at the point of time that they
then hired individuals to include Marie Boulton who was in that role. Since that time this was
promulgated over to the judges. Judge Slaby was there first, now Judge Watkins. He has since
sent a letter to this body relinquishing their role in this. There’s no longer going to be a judiciary;
it is here in the Commission. To that end we have right in front of us this amendment that speaks
to that where it will now be back into the authority of the Commission who will be responsible for
providing probation services for the City of Augusta. That’s what you have in front of you. We
still need to resolve an interim vendor.
Ms. Jackson: In an interim situation and you did approve the interim situation at a Special
Called Meeting earlier. Unfortunately that vendor notified us a few days after that that they were
not going to be able to supply the number of personnel to satisfy that contract and they backed out.
Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes the Public Safety Chairman the Commissioner
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from the 2.
Mr. D. Williams: Mr. Mayor, I’d like to make a motion to approve Item 28.
Mr. Fennoy: Second.
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Mr. Mayor: Okay, the Chair recognizes the Commission from the 4.
Mr. Sias: Thank you, sir. I would just leave it, I’m going to say this.
Mr. Mayor: Are you going to yield?
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Mr. Sias: No, I’m going to say this. When we started this probation back a couple of years
ago I was a strong advent for having it in-house or at least under the control of this Commission.
We decided we would consent to giving it or releasing it to the Judiciary. That didn’t work and it
has not worked on several levels. And it’s time for this body who has accepted all of the heat for
the broke probation service that existed under the original private contractor that we had no control
over. It is time for us to take this and fix it. And this Item 28 today simply says to this body go
fix it and get the thing fixed. It doesn’t hire a fixer today. It simply gives the authority for us to
go ahead and get this done and I would appreciate it if we could get it done. Thank you.
Mr. Mayor: All right, we’ve got a motion and a second. I’m going to go to the
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Commissioner from the 6 for the closing argument.
Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Pretty much I agree with everything you said but I
need some clarity about doing this document today in terms of the judge, the Chief State Court
Judge being taken out of this Chief Judge. This document says this?
Mr. Mayor: All right, so that’s a perfect question. I’m looking at it now and, all right the
Chair’s going to recognize the Attorney to walk everyone through so please turn to Tab 28 in your
notebooks. All right, he’s going to walk you through the redline version which should be the first
document I believe behind the tab or one of the first documents.
Mr. MacKenzie: Yeah, they have to do that so this draft primarily does two things. It
authorizes the Commission to enter into a contract with a private probation company and also
transfers the authority to manage that agreement to the Commission.
Mr. Hasan: Where is that part at the second part if you don’t mind, Mr. Mayor?
Mr. MacKenzie: Hold on just a second I’ll find it for you.
Mr. Sias: On Page 1 of 22 next to the last paragraph.
Mr. Hasan: Read it if you don’t mind, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: I do mind.
Mr. Hasan: Commissioner, can you read that for me?
Mr. Sias: He said he minded.
Mr. Hasan: Oh you do mind, okay, where is that again then?
Mr. Mayor: I recognized the Attorney ---
Mr. Hasan: Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Mayor.
37
Mr. Mayor: --- (inaudible) to speak to this matter, all right let’s everybody yield and let
him speak to this matter. Attorney MacKenzie.
Mr. MacKenzie: Sure, it says the final contract negotiated by ---
Mr. Hasan: What page?
Mr. MacKenzie: --- Page 1 I guess the second full paragraph. The final contract negotiated
by Augusta with the private probation entity shall be attached to the approval by Augusta to
privatize probation services as in exhibit thereto. The termination of contract for probation
services is provided for in this subsection may be initiated by the Chief Judge of the Court which
is subject to such contract and shall be subject to approval by Augusta in accordance with the
agreed upon written provisions of such contract.
Mr. Hasan: Is that clear to you? Let me go to Page 3 then, Mr. Mayor, if you don’t mind.
When you go to when you talk, probably the third line of Page 3 or at the bottom, the Chief
Probation Officer and probation officers. It says the Chief Probation Officer shall be appointed by
a hiring panel and shall serve at the pleasure of the Chief Judge of State Court. The hiring panel
for Chief Probation Officer shall consist of Augusta Georgia Administrator, Augusta Georgia
Human Resources Director, the Court Administrator of the State Court. All those parties so the
State Court is still involved in it in that regard though and I think if we’re taking over they all
should be coming out of that.
Mr. MacKenzie: Yeah, you’re looking at the what’s called the earlier version. If you look
at the redline version on Page 3 it has the judicial language it says until such time as the probation
services office is abolished so this will remain the structure until you have the other contract in
place and that’s what triggers the current office to be abolished.
Mr. Hasan: So in others words in doing this document we are automatically assuming then
that a private probation is going to work because it may come back and we may not get a vendor
and then we still have this document. So we left ourselves no wiggle room if that’s the case
because if this document is because you’re only addressing in the event that a private probation
comes on board.
Mr. MacKenzie: Let me address that. This, if the Commission decides not to approve a
private probation contract then the public probation office that’s in place now would not be
abolished. Now I will say this. If it’s the intent of the Commission to take that function over on
an in-house basis, there would need to be additional modifications made to this order. This order’s
designed to do what was anticipated at the budget time which was to do two things: transfer the
supervision of probation services to the Commission and to authorize the Commission to go into
a private probation services contract. If that doesn’t happen you don’t do the private probation
services contract, then some of these provisions will not be triggered. The office will not be
abolished and I would suggest then you let us do some additional adjustments to make
modifications to be consistent with that course of action.
Mr. Hasan: Okay that’s a point well taken, Mr. Mayor, that’s what I was saying.
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Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor?
Mr. Mayor: Well, so are you making a recommendation that we suspend action on this
(inaudible).
Mr. Hasan: Well, I don’t think we can afford to because we need to move forward because
you know we’re in between we can’t somebody temporarily. Some of those vendors who wants
to potentially take it over are interested in doing both and we don’t think we’ll be able to that so
we need to move forward at this time.
Mr. Mayor: All right, so the Chair will entertain a motion.
Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor?
Mr. Mayor: We’ve got a motion and a second. All right, the Chair recognizes the
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Commissioner from the 9 for closing arguments.
Mr. M. Williams: Closing argument. The Attorney just stated that this is going to do two
things and now we find out it’s only doing one. So I mean I’m still confused on what I’m voting
on because I asked that question why would this document be necessary now. Why can’t we do
this later when the RFP comes back? He stated this is going to take care of two issues at one time
but that’s not true. It’s only going to take care of one and we still have the same situation unless
we go into a private situation and I asked that question in the beginning. So if it’s going to take
care of two things, it ought to clarify that it’s going to be taken care of once we approve this item
or not. Now we’ve got to do something totally different if we don’t go to a private service and
private service has got this government in several lawsuits, has got this government in several
court rooms about probation services because we had a private entity worring about the fees and
the fines and the penalty more so than the people that we were serving and I’m not going back to
that same route again when we can do better than that. That’s the point I’m trying to make, Mr.
Mayor. I’ve got no problem voting however you want to do it but I’m just telling you it ain’t
taking care of but one thing and he said two.
Mr. Mayor: All right, voting.
Mr. M. Williams abstains.
Motion Passes 9-0-1.
The Clerk:
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
30. Motion to approve the purchase of Fire Department uniforms through North America
Fire Equipment Company, Inc., (NAFECO) and authorize the Mayor to sign the contract
for the purchase Fire Department uniforms through America Fire Equipment Company,
Inc. (NAFECO).
39
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Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9 for a series of
questions then the Fire Chief.
Mr. M. Williams: Chief James, I’ve just got a couple of questions about the uniform issues
here. This is a local company?
Chief James: This particular company is comes from Alabama.
Mr. M. Williams: Okay, so it’s not a local company. We have been purchasing local
equipment uniforms here for quite some time. The prices from this organization was what
compared to local?
Chief James: They were lower than the local company.
Mr. M. Williams: Same uniforms, same issues, but just lower, the price is lower.
Chief James: Yes, sir. They both bid on the same items. The current company that we’re
using now is the same company that won the bid again this time. They were the most responsive
bidder and so it went through the complete procurement process.
Mr. M. Williams: That was my question, Mr. Mayor, about you know being the local
vendor. We had local companies here who have been supplying and I thought was competitive in
the pricing right here in Augusta for a long time and I had an issue taking it outside. I don’t have
a problem if you know that’s the best bidder and they won the bid fair and square, Mr. Mayor, so
I can make a motion to approve.
Mr. Sias: Second.
Mr. Mayor: Voting.
Ms. Davis out.
Motion Passes 9-0.
Mr. Mayor: Madam Clerk, I think we’ve got one, two what three items left?
The Clerk: 31, 32 ---
Mr. Mayor: And 36, oh and 37 okay fantastic, all right all right, let’s run the clock.
The Clerk:
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
31. Discuss inspection process and follow up procedure after inspection on Fire Department
facilities. (Requested by Commissioner Brandon Garrett)
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Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 8.
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Mr. Garrett: Thank you, Mayor. I brought this up to committee. Chief, it’s good to see you
today I missed you last week. But we’ve seen the news stories lately about the ongoing issues
with inspections and back hit inspections that were found. I know that you told me that quite a
few have been taken care of lately. I really wanted to just kind of see what the procedure is and
see if there’s a way that we can help that process and make sure that an inspection issue doesn’t
make the news again.
Mr. Fennoy: That ain’t going to happen.
Chief James: Commissioner, the inspection process is the Augusta Fire Department has
25 buildings throughout the Richmond County. There are two inspections done. Battalion Chiefs
are divided up and they inspect each facility monthly, all the stations and then the second
inspection around October this past year Risk Management started their inspection on October the
th.th
4 They finished those facilities on December 11. Within 60 days of them completing their
inspections we had completed all issues they had addressed except for about 13 issues which are
issues that either have P.O.’s on it. For instance one was the parking lot behind Station 4 which
we had already brought to Commission. And so either those issues have P.O.’s, they’re in the bid
process or they have actual bids, RFPs already conducted on those.
Mr. Garrett: What about the ones we were seeing from 2015, 2016, 2017 and then we saw
them pop up again on the 2018 inspections. Is there a reason why they weren’t addressed back in
those years or?
Chief James: Most of them were. Part of the things that have changed is a couple of things.
One, the inspection form that the Battalion Chiefs and others were using was different than the
inspection form that Risk Management was using and we were not notified that they were using a
different inspection form. So now we figured out that there were three inspection forms. One
inspection form is actually in the Risk Management I mean in the PPPM for all facilities. We had
added to that to meet our facilities then when Risk Management changed inspector they used a
different form, we didn’t know. Mr. Crozier and I have talked since then to correct that so what
we did is we have informed all of our Battalion Chiefs let’s not use the form that we were using
before. Let’s use the same form that Risk Management is using so everybody is playing on the
same field and we know what’s going on.
Mr. Garrett: Were, was not everybody involved able to read the forms? I mean I’m not
understanding why the forms being different is an issue.
Chief James: Because the different items on the forms, the different items on the forms.
This form had me looking at this thing, this other form had me looking at something different so
in the past prior to the change and even prior to me becoming the Chief the fact that you had a
firetruck and a station that had extinguishers and other things on the firetruck where the firefighters
could use those then you never had to have fire, additional fire extinguishers in the facility because
they were on the firetruck. So in the past that was okay but a new inspector came and that wasn’t
okay.
41
Mr. Garrett: I mean what happens if the firetruck’s gone and a fire breaks out in these
facilities.
Chief James: Nobody’s in the facility. The firefighters leave with the truck and that was
how, it was how (inaudible).
Mr. Garrett: But that doesn’t always happen either I mean ---
Chief James: True, but that’s how it was explained prior to and that was the reason they
never checked that off before. But we have since corrected that. There are fire extinguishers, we
went ahead purchased the additional fire extinguishers. There are fire extinguishers in every
station and the multiple types of fire extinguishers as they requested on the Risk Management’s
new inspection form.
Mr. Garrett: Looking at a few reports here it shows that there were some fire alarms or
fire, smoke detectors were non-operational. Don’t we give out free fire or smoke detectors
throughout the year to people that need them? I mean to me this is one of those issues that should
never come up in a fire station.
Chief James: It should never come up in a fire station completely agree and it will be my
full expectation that firefighters in the fire station would check the fire, the smoke alarms. If it is
not working, they will order batteries and get new batteries.
Mr. Garrett: But according to the Risk Management report that falls under Section 2 which
requires that Central Services handle it.
Chief James: Like I said again we do in our repair process we have 25 buildings. I have
four people, I have four people in Logistics and so things get repaired one or two ways. Either the
firefighters repair them themselves, Logistics fixes them, we get a work order number and get
Central Services to fix it or we get a private contractor to come in and fix it. Because people live
in the station we always don’t have time to wait for either Central Services or a private contractor.
We either get a private contractor or we fix it ourselves.
Mr. Garrett: So we are concerned about fire safety or the safety of our firefighters, right?
Chief James: Absolutely ---
Mr. Garrett: Okay.
Chief James: --- absolutely. There are some reports that I did take issue with. For instance
they reported that we had a fire station that we that asbestos was in the fire station. The research
we did even in 2016 when we had the study done through Risk Management the spray on insulation
fire protection stuff in that station EPA banned using asbestos for that particular use in 1973.
Station 14 that they were talking about according to all our records was built in 1980. It was
already banned. While that issue was still a concern in June of 2016, we got with Risk
Management, we had a private contractor come in, an environmental services company come in
42
took them to the station. They did their report and sent it back to Risk Management where they
took pieces of that off. They analyzed it and then sent us information that said there’s no asbestos.
So between it being banned in ’73, the station not being built until 1980 and then we followed up
with the test, we said that there was no asbestos in it.
Mr. Garrett: Okay, anybody else have any questions ---
Mr. Mayor: Well I have one ---
Mr. Garrett: --- well I’ve got a few more too.
Mr. Mayor: --- I have a question of you.
Mr. Garrett: Okay.
Mr. Mayor: You’re asking a lot of questions and one of the rules of engagement that we’ve
liked we’ve tried to impose is that we put both hands on the table and operate from what I call a
common set of facts.
Mr. Garrett: I’m glad you mentioned that because I do have the inspection reports here if
anybody who would like to see them.
Mr. Mayor: Okay well I’m going to just encourage you next time hand them out before
th,
we start this conversation that’d be helpful, to the Commissioner from the 8 that’d be helpful to
the rest of us so we know where we’re going. All right, I’m going to come down this way and I’ll
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come back to you. All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9.
Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor ---
Mr. Mayor: Common set of facts.
Mr. M. Williams: --- common set of facts. Chief, I just want to ask a couple of questions
about maintaining the fire station. You stated that asbestos was the rules had changed in 1978 I
think you said.
Chief James: For that particular use as fire retardant insulation. Now EPA we have the
paperwork the EPA banned that in 1973. Now for other uses like tile or whatever they phased the
stuff out over a few years but for insulation purposes they banned that in 1973.
Mr. M. Williams: Well, just because it was banned doesn’t mean that it wasn’t used. Now
I’m glad to hear you say you tested it because a lot of stuff has been banned and it sits on a shelf
and somebody else come gets it and uses it themselves in other ways and shouldn’t be using it but
they still use it. I’m worried about the safety issues that the fire department; there’s been a big
report on the news and a lot of complaints about the safety issues. We as a fire department we are
about life safety. We’re about saving lives and I would think that the fire department would be
the number one entity that’s trying to keep people safe either on or off the job so I’m sure that you
43
do that. I guess my question is when it comes to maintenance you said that ya’ll do some work at
the fire station?
Chief James: Yes, sir, the firefighters do some of the work.
Mr. M. Williams: Years ago, Mr. Mayor, the Commission approved the fire department to
have inmate services to come in and cut the grass. I was totally shocked and disappointed, Tom,
when I heard that the inmate was going to cut the grass for the fire department. There’s no station
in the City of Augusta that’s got so much grass that firemen can’t cut it. I mean firemen have
always cut their own grass, you know, it’s not like you’ve got five acres to cut very little grass.
But maintenance work around a fire station has always been done by the firemen. Is that still a
practice?
Chief James: Some of the things that they can handle they can still do, yes, sir.
Mr. M. Williams: Such as what, help me out, Chief.
Chief James: I mean the daily cleaning type of maintenance. When our Logistics folks go
around they help do some repairs. The firefighters help them do the repairs if it’s stopping a drain
from leaking, putting some tile down. Whatever type of things they can assist in doing the
firefighters always assist in getting those things done.
Mr. M. Williams: There’s a wealth of trades in the fire department ---
Chief James: Yes, sir.
Mr. M. Williams: --- from auto mechanics to roofers to everything else so there’s an expert
I will say in one of the fire stations can do anything that we need done. In old days, Mayor Davis,
there used to be a lot of painters in the fire department. They did more painting on their off time
than they did working fires on their on time. Do they do any paint work at the fire station now?
Chief James: The fire fighters can paint their own stations and inside of the stations. They
say, Chief, we want to paint this, they send it up through Logistics. It never makes it to me. And
then we go to the paint shop, buy the paint, buy the brushes, buy all of that, drop it off at the station
and let the firefighters paint the inside of the stations.
Mr. M. Williams: So all of the paint work is done by the local firemen.
Chief James: Not all of it. In other words Station 14 is being painted right now on the
outside and so we have a company that is doing scrapping, scrapping all of it off and sealing and
we’ll come back and paint the outside of that station.
Mr. M. Williams: I don’t want to date myself, Mr. Mayor, but I realize how firemen don’t
have a problem with ladders and I don’t see why we have somebody else on the outside be coming
in painting for us or scrapping a building. The tallest fire station we’ve got now is what number
what.
44
Chief James: We don’t have any that’s taller than two stories.
Mr. M. Williams: Okay, so then shouldn’t have been an issue. I mean there’s no wood
involved in any of the two-story buildings now, is there?
Chief James: No, sir.
Mr. M. Williams: Okay, one more question. The reason why these issues wasn’t
addressed, Chief James, was because the form was different, is that right? That’s why it’s written?
Chief James: No, the form in some cases was I think confusing folks but some times some
issues have been recurring where they have been addressed and now they’re back so there have
been some repairs made to buildings. You know I’ll be honest with you this week with all the rain
we’re waiting to see which roof may start back to leaking again this week because even if some of
the repairs have been done as of recent ---
Mr. Speaker: That would be Number 9 that’s going to leak.
Mr. M. Williams: I know we you know with our OSI rating and we’re building more fire
stations to get a better rating but why would we be building more fire stations if we’re not
maintaining the ones we’ve got if we hadn’t used those funds to keep the stations we got in good
tactics?
Chief James: We are maintaining and doing maintenance in the stations that we are in right
now. And also where we’re locating new stations is about citizen response. It’s about being able
to respond to citizens being located where we can respond to them to get to them quick enough to
handle their emergencies.
Mr. M. Williams: And that’s why you’re repairing the stations I get that ---
Chief James: Yes, sir.
Mr. M. Williams: --- but if we’re not maintaining what we’ve got, Chief, I don’t see we’re
spending resources to build another station if we can’t maintain the other ones we’ve got and we’re
building another one. We’ll be quicker in responding but we’re putting other people at risk I would
think. I just don’t get that. My last question is did you communicate with Risk Management?
Have ya’ll talked one on one through your Battalion Chief, through the Lieutenants or whoever it
is? I know you don’t personally handle that yourself, I get that, but if falls back on you because
you are the Chief. So has anybody had any one on one conversations with Risk Management to
help issues because Risk Management’s report says that certain things hadn’t been done.
Chief James: Joe Crozier and I who is our Risk Management manager has sit down face
to face on more than one occasion he has of recently and had phone conversations discussing these
identical things. But, yes, I have been in Joe Crozier’s office and sat down and had that
conversation face to face.
45
Mr. M. Williams: Okay, Mr. Mayor.
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Mr. Mayor: Okay, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 1.
Mr. Hasan: You backed up on me, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: I’ve got you, I’ve got everybody in.
Mr. Fennoy: Chief ---
Chief James: Yes, sir.
Mr. Fennoy: --- once you’ve got a copy of this right here, when did you start to address
the deficiencies that were listed on this form?
Chief James: Immediately.
Mr. Fennoy: Has any of your firemen been injured or hurt as a result of the deficiencies
that were listed on this form?
Chief James: No, sir, not to my knowledge.
Mr. Fennoy: The issues that have not been addressed, what’s the reason that you gave for
them not being addressed?
Chief James: Well, the issues that are on the form that came from Risk Management those
issues have been addressed. Some of the issues we’re talking about paving some of the fire stations
around some of the fire stations, we have had to try to go out for bid for that. But I’ve also had a
discussion with Ms. Sams who informed me that our Engineering Department has a paving
contractor on contract and we possibly will be piggy backing off of that. The parking lot at Number
4 we’ve been working on that over time. We came to Commission to ask for approval to tear down
that library, we sent out and RFP and we’re still in that we’ve got the RFP approved. They started
some of the construction work but that’s not completed but they’re working on paving it and doing
the project, I mean behind Station 4. Number 11 is a stucco station it has to be, and it’s over
$20,000 dollars. It has to go out by sealed bid so we’re putting those specifications together now
to send it to Procurement so that can go out by sealed bid. I just stated that Station 14 is being
painted as we speak. The Fire Station 12 needs to get some sealing after the roof got fixed by Penn
Roofing ---
Mr. Fennoy: Okay, that’s good enough.
Chief James: --- everyone one of them are being addressed.
Mr. Fennoy: Okay, Mr. Mayor, is anybody here from Risk Management?
46
Mr. Mayor: Well, Donna’s here. She’d have to represent Joe Crozier who works in her
department.
Mr. Fennoy: May I ask ---
Mr. Mayor: Sure.
Mr. Fennoy: --- okay. Donna, the inspection process that takes place at the fire stations,
is it any different than the inspection process that takes place at buildings that the city owns?
Ms. Williams: No, sir. There’s an annual inspection that is done at each one of those
facilities by Risk Management.
Mr. Fennoy: Okay were there any deficiencies found at the other buildings that Risk
Management inspected?
Ms. Williams: I don’t have those reports in front of me and nothing is coming to mind but
I’m sure as many buildings as we own that I can guarantee you that there are some deficiencies
listed on somebody’s report.
Mr. Fennoy: And I guess and I would imagine the same thing. And I guess my concern is
that the fire stations I believe should not be treated any differently than the other buildings that are
inspected by Risk Management. As a Commissioner, my concern is the safety and welfare of
everybody that goes into a building that the city owns. But my concern is that it seems to me that
the fire stations are being singled out and I would love to have a copy like this of the other, an
inspection report of the other buildings that the city owns that’s been inspected just to find out are
we doing anything different in other buildings that we don’t with the fire department.
Ms. Williams: You would like those for each building that is owned that has an inspection
report done by Risk Management for 2018?
Mr. Fennoy: Yes.
Ms. Williams: Okay ---
Mr. Fennoy: All right ---
Ms. Williams: --- we can get that for you.
Mr. Fennoy: --- okay, thank you.
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Mr. Mayor: You know I’m listening to the Commissioner from the 1 and he’s asking
some very germane questions. I think I want to I want to check your mate on this and I’d like to
see what the inspection reports look like for the old 401 Walton Way building we allow folks to
sit in until we finally built the new Ronny Strength Administration Building. And I don’t
remember reading about it almost everyday on social media and the newspaper and everything in
47
between but we let folks sit there in mold, I know it looks something about mold. I mean my wife
just was told by the doctor not to go back to work because it had mold in the building that she was
working in. And I don’t think I’ve seen anything in the dataset that I have in front of me right now
that rises to the level of health, welfare and safety long term. But I do want to encourage this body
st
to look at this in the context of what the Commissioner from the 1 has just asked and that is we
have a large inventory of buildings that we’re responsible for and to the degree that we have a
department that’s going and doing annual inspections, let’s look at them objectively and not
subjectively just because of the department because again I think our biggest test cases the old 401
Walton Building that where a lot of folks are sitting in forever and a day while they continue to
nd
deteriorate and they just sat there. The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 2 our Public
th
Safety Chairman and then the Commissioner from the 6 and we’re going to close with the Mayor
th
Pro Tem. All right, the Commissioner from the 8 wants to come back so we’ll give him a chance
to come back, absolutely.
Mr. D. Williams: Since we kind of drifted away from the inspection process and the follow
up procedures regarding your inspection was there any time that any fireman or any citizen was
ever in danger of based upon the few deficiencies that was not done like paving the parking lot?
Chief James: No, sir.
Mr. D. Williams: So nobody has gotten hurt or anything based on any of the deficiencies
(unintelligible).
Chief James: No, sir, not to my knowledge.
Mr. D. Williams: Thank you, thank you, Mr. Mayor.
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Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 6.
Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Chief, how are you doing, sir?
Chief James: Yes, sir.
Mr. Hasan: Chief, I’m going back to the mold issue 2016. What precipitated actually doing
this study? Why was the study actually done?
Chief James: In 2016 prior to that we had some fire personnel that looked at that and
thought that that may be asbestos at that station. And then so what we did was investigated it, and
immediately what did we do with this? We get with Risk Management Mr. Crozier and then from
there went and had an environmental company come out and do the testing and they came back
and reported to us and gave us a copy of the report and indicated that there was no mold, I mean
no asbestos.
Mr. Hasan: So do you have any idea why we are currently having that conversation that it
was cleared up in 2016, that particular issue itself?
48
Chief James: I think that there may be some people that didn’t get the message back then
and are still trying to figure out, you know, maybe have questions of what it is or use it for whatever
reason that um ---
Mr. Hasan: Okay next question. You just mentioned as a result of this come out you’ve
had several meetings with the head of Risk Management well Mr. Joe Crozier?
Chief James: Yes, sir, he’s the risk manager.
Mr. Hasan: Okay and in doing that you’re saying so how far are you apart, how far are
you on the same page, are you on the same page now at this point?
Chief James: We’re very much on the same page. So just another recent conversation
after I left his office and we talked again last week on the phone and we discussed that in the past
the inspector would just go to a station and we wouldn’t have anybody with him so they would
talk to a firefighter this or then when it came time to do the repair it was just these folks were
confused. What does he mean by this? What does he mean by that? So Mr. Crozier and I decided
last week that for sure that when they go do an inspection we can take a logistics person with them
so that we know exactly what he’s talking about when he says there’s an issue. There was an issue
with him talking about suppression systems. We view the suppression system as a hood
suppression system over the stove and in turn he was talking about a sprinkler system so some
people got confused in some of the wording. So what we decided to do was from now on when
we have those inspections he goes through, he can do his inspection however he wants but then
we’ll have a clear understanding of what he said a violation is so that we can move quickly to get
it repaired.
Mr. Hasan: In the process of all of the reports that for what’s been in the news lately and
many of those issues you identified that you’ve dealt with, some of them were misunderstanding,
what percentage of those do you think were just actually misunderstandings such as the example
you just gave about the word suppression system? What percentage was clearly
misunderstandings, terminology from a terminology perspective?
Chief James: Maybe 10 or 15% of it ---
Mr. Hasan: Okay ---
Chief James: --- was some terminology. Some of it was things that we needed to correct
that traditionally that we had not, meaning you had Windex Glass Cleaner in a clear bottle because
we buy it in bulk. Well for years in the fire station one of the things they wrote up is the guys need
to take a Sharpie and write Windex on them. That was, those are some of the that’s like. Or you
know we had a firefighter or someone left a gas can in a building at Station 11 so they had to pick
the gas can up and move it outside but when he came through it was there so he wrote that down.
I have last year we purchased and had tested over 83 fire extinguishers so when they checked the
fire extinguishers out, they’re not in code or they’re out, they’re taking them off and turning them
in but the firefighters aren’t writing on that tag the name and the date. So we’ve sent out some
more directives and other things to assure that they do those things. Some of the firefighters in
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hooking up their TV and other things they put together what they call a daisy chain so if you look
at that report you’ll see daisy chains and so we told them unplug all of those extension cords.
Mr. Hasan: Let me ask you this, Chief, because I’ve heard nothing that gives me any pause
but for one thing if I’m correct if I understood you correctly in having a fish market issue and
periodically you come through and you check the fire extinguishers and what have you I can’t say
the word (unintelligible) or whatever ---
Chief James: Yes, sir.
Mr. Hasan: --- and you’re going to date it and everything but you’re saying it wasn’t doing
that in the stations itself?
Chief James: Some of the violations that were written and he would have a picture of the
tag where the fire extinguisher was in a station and a brand new fire extinguisher but no one had
put their name on the tag so what we did we came out and put out some policies and said make
sure that you date the tag. And so the things that need to be addressed in the fire stations we make
sure that we put out directives and we have instructed our Battalion Chiefs that are doing their
inspections to look specifically for those things.
Mr. Hasan: Okay, Mr. Mayor, I’d like the Administrator if you don’t mind.
Mr. Mayor: Sure.
Mr. Hasan: Madam Administrator, in terms of Chief James and what he has said to us
early on a real serious cause of the heartburn that we’re hearing for the most part is documentation
not being in line in terms of a sheet you’re trying to gauge them by. Do we have that problem in
any other entities that the problem that when you come through my department and you’re looking
for certain things as Risk Management have you found it to be a consistent adjustment to the fire
department? Have we rectified that?
Ms. Jackson: I think that inconsistency listed in various departments. I have asked the Risk
Management Division of the Finance Department to give me a series of recommendations to
correct various problems related to our inspection and safety process and program and one of the
recommendations they highlighted was the need for an updated form that’s consistently used
across all departments.
Mr. Hasan: So wouldn’t that be their responsibility?
Ms. Jackson: Would that be ---
Mr. Hasan: Their, Risk Management’s responsibility.
Mr. Hasan: --- yes, yes, they’re acknowledging that yes and their recommendation is that
it is consistent across all the departments.
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Mr. Hasan: Okay, all right.
Ms. Jackson: And it provides better information, for instance one recommendation they
made was insuring that there is a work order number attached to each individual item so that we
know that it’s been called in to the appropriate place to get the repairs done expeditiously so there
are a number of improvements we can make with our documentation to his point.
Mr. Hasan: Yeah because and then like I said because when you say recommendation it
sounds like what Risk Management is recommending but really Risk Management needs to be
given some recommendations as opposed to giving recommendations. And I know that’s what
you mean but that’s what I’m saying because they’re providing, creating the documents and they’re
not giving them out pretty much to the necessary departments or entities that needs to have them.
Thank you, ma’am. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: All right, thank you. Okay, the Chair recognizes the Mayor Pro Tem.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I do think it’s important we have this
conversation after the many stories that we’ve read over the past few months. I know there’s a
meeting between some Augusta Fire Department individuals and the Administrator in early
December and then lots of things got cleaned up and happened. And you know if the media’s
going to be out there telling a story of what’s going on in the fire stations then we need to either
talk about it and fix it or help Chief James if needed with these things. So my question is around
the asbestos, when you have those inspections done did you have the entire building done or just
a certain area done?
Chief James: The asbestos, well the insulation at Station 14 is only in the bay, it’s only in
the bay only. And so when we got with Risk Management they got with the company and went
out and they did not pull every piece of insulation off the ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: So they only did a section.
Chief James: --- and that’s how they do it wherever they go. They won’t they don’t pull
off every spec of insulation on the ceiling of the bay.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Mr. Mayor, can I ask Donna to come forward or ---
Mr. Mayor: Yeah.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: --- speak to this? Ms. Donna, are all the fire stations, are any of them
fully asbestos form required or have we done full inspections of asbestos in old fire stations or any
of the fire stations for that matter?
Ms. Williams: I do not think we have checked every single fire station for asbestos. Some,
most of our newer fire stations have been built well since, you typically find asbestos in older
facilities.
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Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Absolutely. Do you know if our any Parks and Rec’s buildings or
any buildings that would this apply asbestos have reports done on them?
Ms. Williams: I’m sure we have some. They are typically done at the time that you go to
do new construction when you go to disturb materials you have to do an asbestos evaluation and
I’m going to defer to Lori if she’s still here because she is much more knowledgeable about
asbestos testing than I am.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Is it true that any buildings with asbestos are OSHA required to have
those reports?
Ms. Williams: As a government, I don’t believe that we fall completely under all the
OSHA standards.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay.
Ms. Williams: Obviously, we want to make sure that all of our facilities are as safe as they
can possibly be.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: And Mr. Mayor and colleagues, I just think this is a big issue that
we need to get to the bottom of because I’ve been told that it’s OSHA required to have these in all
our facilities and we need to get to the bottom of it and just not fire departments let’s do it
holistically in the near future, thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: All right thank you. All right, we’re going to close out with the Commissioner
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from the 8.
Mr. Garrett: Chief, I appreciate all the information that you provided and I appreciate the
recent attention to getting a lot of these places or the facilities straightened out. And you know
one of the things that still bothers me is the amount of time that it’s taken some of this to take place
you know just from looking at the history of the inspections. But it looks like we’re heading in
the right direction and I make a motion that we receive this as information.
Mr. Hasan: Second.
Mr. Mayor: Okay all right, we’re just going to receive it as information. We’re not going
to vote on it, going to receive it as information.
Mr. Mayor: All right, Madam Clerk, we’re going to get to Item 32. I’m going to limit
debate on Item 32 to ten minutes.
The Clerk:
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
32. Discuss the procurement process for work being done on Fire Stations. (Requested by
Commissioner Brandon Garrett)
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Mr. Garrett: The Chief and I ---
Mr. Mayor: All right, hold on limit debate to ten minutes the Chair recognizes the
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Commissioner from the 8.
Mr. Garrett: The Chief and I actually had a discussion about this and he filled me in on
some of the I guess the dollar amounts where procurement is required and where the administrative
steps in, that was pretty helpful. You mentioned Station 14 a few times about the painting that is
being done there ---
Chief James: Yes, sir.
Mr. Garrett: --- was that a situation where Procurement had to step in and get bids for?
Chief James: Yes, sir. The job of painting that station is below $10,000 dollars so we have
to get three bids. You get the three bids and then you submit the requisition to Procurement then
they validate the bid, they validate all three bids or whatever and then they hand out the PO from
the Procurement Department.
Mr. Garrett: And was the low bid on that taken?
Chief James: Yes, sir.
Mr. Garrett: Station 14 is the one in Blythe, is that correct?
Chief James: Yes, sir.
Mr. Garrett: Okay, sometimes it’s hard to keep up with ya’ll’s numbers. So when that bid
came in and the work started did we have a timeline on that and will we get an update on when
that is done?
Chief James: I have no problem giving an update I do know that the work started but it
has to be a certain temperature before you seal the building. So they have went out pressure wash
it, done some scraping on the building and they’re waiting for the weather, no rain, temperature
get up ---
Mr. Garrett: Not this week?
Chief James: --- not this week, not this week.
Mr. Garrett: Is anyone in Fire Administration benefiting financially from any of the work
that’s being done?
Chief James: I’m not benefiting from any of the work.
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Mr. Garrett: (Unintelligible) wanted to ask a question, anybody else?
Mr. M. Williams: I’ve got a question anyone you said, right?
th,
Mr. Mayor: Hold on, hold on, Commissioner from the 8 are you yielding?
Mr. Garrett: Yes, sir.
Mr. Mayor: All right, thank you. All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from
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the 9.
Mr. M. Williams: Chief, he asked the question is anyone you said you wasn’t but he asked
was anyone.
Chief James: No one in Fire Administration that I know.
Mr. M. Williams: Okay, that’s the answer I wanted to hear but about the maintenance work
and stuff that’s done you said under $10,000 dollars it goes through Procurement?
Chief James: Under $10,000 dollars, sir, then the department gets three bids and so you
go to get, the department gets three bids and those three bids have to be a vendor that is already in
Procurement’s system.
Mr. M. Williams: I’m normally hearing $10,000, not $10,000 I’m normally hearing above
a certain amount but you’re saying under $10,000 it goes to Procurement so over $10,000 goes
where?
Chief James: It goes out by sealed bid.
Mr. M. Williams: By sealed bid.
Chief James: It goes out by sealed bid and once it hits ---
Mr. M. Williams: Under $10,000 to what to any amount?
Chief James: --- under $10,000 to from $2,000 to $1,000 you have to get three bids of a
company or a vendor that is in our system.
Mr. M. Williams: It goes through the Administrator or through ---
Chief James: It goes to Procurement.
Mr. M. Williams: --- under, okay, I’m understanding a little bit better. Under $10,000
goes to Procurement but it don’t have to be a sealed bid over $10,000 it’s got to be a sealed bid.
Chief James: Yes, sir, over $10,000 has to be a sealed bid.
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Mr. M. Williams: Okay.
Mr. Hasan: Motion to receive as information.
Mr. D. Williams: Second.
Mr. Mayor: All right, very good. All right, we’ll receive this as information as well.
I believe we’re reaching our final item.
The Clerk:
ENGINEERING SERVICES
37. Update from Augusta Engineering Department regarding the city’s goat program.
(Requested by Commissioner Marion Williams)
Mr. Mayor: All right, we’ll limited debate to ten minutes on this matter. The Chair
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recognizes the Commissioner from the 9.
Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor, this is another issue that we’ve been talking about for quite
some time. I don’t know if ten minutes is going to do it. If ten minutes can do it, I’ve got no
problem. This is a ongoing process that we tried three, four years ago had not got off the ground.
I can’t for life of me understand why it has not. I talked to Dr. Malik and I understand that he he’s
not a professional farmer or anything else and I don’t think you have to be. We have never gotten
serious about this issue. We took these goats out and put them an area and they went to work just
like they was lawnmowers and they got off the trailer. They started to eat in the small area; they
took care of it. We thought sure that the program would take off. We had other, we had other
cities calling us wanting to duplicate the program in what we’re doing. Now I’m hearing we’ve
got to buy, we need to get goat herders. That’s another business for somebody else to come in
here and to me that don’t make good sense when you can take an animal like a goat put him in a
fenced in area, supply shelter for him and water. They eat up all the vegetation around there,
they’ll clean it up. In fact, grass if you’re standing back waiting on grass to grow just to jump on
it but we’re saying now that they won’t eat the vegetation. The last meeting I had with the Animal
Shelter saying we’ve been buying feed for them. How do we expect any animal to eat up the
vegetation if we’re feeding them something else? I mean that’s defeating the purpose. So I’m an
animal lover. I’m not trying to be cruel to animals. This is what they, this is what goats does.
They eat the vegetation leaves, paper whatever’s on the ground they’re going to clean it up. So
I’d like to hear from Dr. Malik, his thoughts and I know he’s already mentioned to me about goat
herding and I’m not in support of that, not one bit. We need to find a way to have the resources
put with this to get the inmate laborers or whoever we can get to make these areas are fenced off
and put these animals in an area that’s confined. Now we’ve got 700 retention ponds in this City
of Augusta. Some of them we’ve never been in, never been in but these animals don’t mind going
in. They don’t worry about snakes, they don’t worry about any other critters that may be out there.
They’ll clean it up for us. At least they’ll make it visible for us to know what’s there. So, Dr.
Malik, if you can give me a better answer than goat herders I’ve got no problem, but goat herders
ain’t going to do it for me.
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Dr. Malik: That’s the summary of finding. I’ve been in communication with all sources
and that’s what you know the conclusion is at the bottom of the summary. And also I
(unintelligible) the Chief and two industry experts in two different areas. Their recommendation,
one is in the commercial business. She is a goat herder and has been doing a lot of work. And
another is experts specialists in the livestock industry and that’s more or less in line with
Engineering Department observation. We have the goats that work but it has to be managed
properly that’s, however, with trained herders with that. All that’s based on that you know with
one of the recommendations that’s at the bottom of the sheet with pictures. Either way we can
contract it or ask (unintelligible) in-house goat herder program. Some rough numbers really,
there’s not a whole lot of difference creating another program using on-call services using vending
or renting the goat herder. On an average you’re going to get around ten ponds a year with the
goat herder of the goats and the cost is going to be $14 to $15,000 dollars and that’s the average
cost (unintelligible).
Mr. M. Williams: Question, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: Sure.
Mr. M. Williams: Hameed, maybe you don’t know but Animal Services may know how
many goats do we retain, how many goats do we have there?
Dr. Malik: Twenty-two.
Mr. M. Williams: Twenty-two goats, we’ve got how many?
The Clerk: Seventeen.
Mr. M. Williams: Seventeen ---
Dr. Malik: We may have lost a few.
Mr. M. Williams: --- okay, we’re down to 17. Out of 17 goats with 700 acres, I’m sorry
700 ponds not acres, 700 ponds, do we think that could be sufficient to help us to do what we need
to do?
Mr. Mayor: All right, who’s asking the question.
Mr. M. Williams: I was just asking the question of anybody to the Animal Shelter Director
or Dr. Malik either one. I just need to know.
Dr. Malik: No, sir ---
Mr. M. Williams: Okay.
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Dr. Malik: --- we need around that number of goats about 20/30 is good for one-acre pond
---
Mr. M. Williams: Okay.
Dr. Malik: --- it’ll probably take about a month to do what they need to do. It’s the cost
wise.
Mr. M. Williams: Okay, now I’m not a goat herder either. I raise German Shepherds.
They’re almost like goats, they’re all over the place but I want to know if we take 30 goats and put
them in what size area you said?
Dr. Malik: An acre.
Mr. M. Williams: An acre. How long do you think it would take 30 goats to clean up an
acre, just roughly? I mean you’re not an expert. We don’t need it, just what do you think.
Dr. Malik: A month.
Mr. M. Williams: A month. So we did that and not counting the winter months we could
really clean up some stuff in a year’s time that we had 30 animals in a confined area, is that right?
Dr. Malik: Well, I mean it’s going to take an average it’s going to be ten ponds a year and
then you look at the cost you know rough number is $13,000 dollars it’ll be higher with the trained
skills ---
Mr. M. Williams: Okay ---
Dr. Malik: --- a name I’m going to give it a trained goat herder you know. I did some
search. There are a few cities they have and they’re paying around $80,000 dollars to that person.
Mr. M. Williams: --- okay and if we went into that business and decided to go that route,
it’s probably going to cost us the same way but I’m just trying to on a small scale we took six and
eight and put in one now we’ve got 17 I think it’s that 17 you said? Seventeen, okay 17 now but
if you put enough animals in an area to clean it up and they’ll do that. We talked about a transport
area like a cage or I guess a cage is a good word that they could be put into it at night or go into at
night. We could close them off, let them back out in the day, put them in an area that was fenced
in. From my understanding maybe I’m wrong but you can correct me on this we had a fence
company walking around looking at the area that we wanted to fence in which would be at a higher
rate of pay if the fence company did it versus getting some laborers to do it from somewhere just
to keep the goats in. I mean goats are not like a lot of animals. I mean I guess they’ll get out if
they can but normally they don’t they don’t force their way. They don’t try to, they’ve got enough
feed they’re there they’ll stay confined, they do that pretty good. But I’m just troubled because
we don’t have but 17 over a two/two and a half year period of time. We don’t have but 17. We
lost two or three I think to an attack by a dog or some dogs. We spayed and neutered two or three
when we first got them.
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Ms. Eskola: We’ve had 42 killed by dogs and water moccasins and other various reasons
we have had them just die so.
Mr. M. Williams: Okay well and I get that I don’t plan to put a facility together knowing
that that those things happen but we’re letting what happened I guess deter us from trying to keep
moving with this project. Because if the goat herder had goats, they’re going to be the same goat,
they’re going to have to deal with the same thing if we pay them. They’re going to have to deal
with the snakes or they’ll have to deal with the dogs or whatever reason. I’m hearing that we could
spend taxpayers’ money to do it but we can’t do it ourselves. If the wheel’s already been invented,
let’s roll that wheel around Augusta especially around these retention ponds. We hadn’t had
nothing done to them since we’ve been had them so I can’t buy that. I can’t buy the situation saying
that we can’t do it or we shouldn’t do it because of this. Now if we come up with some money,
we can find a way to do it. We can get somebody to come in from somewhere else and we’ll spend
that money but we ain’t smart enough to see what they’re doing and do the same thing. That gives
me heartburn. It really gives me some issues to thing about. If somebody else can do it with goats
we ought to be able to do it with goats unless they’ve got a machine now, Mr. Mayor, unless they
come in with a drone that will watch over the goats at night or something and keep them safe but
if somebody else is doing it we can do it. We’ve got 700 retention ponds.
Mr. Mayor: I understand. Your time has expired.
Mr. M. Williams: Put this back on the agenda, Madam Clerk, because we’re going to talk
about this. I mean we can talk about it in 10 minutes or 10 days, it don’t matter. I just think that
we need to understand that this is not going away. This is something that’s environment friendly,
Mr. Mayor. There ought to be a reasonable cost. We don’t have anybody that’s driving this train
enough to stop at the station to load up the goats and put them in a retention pond. That’s all
you’ve got to do.
Mr. Mayor: I understand. Madam Clerk, is there any other business before us today?
The Clerk: No, sir, that’s it.
Mr. Mayor: All right, we stand adjourned.
\[MEETING ADJOURNED\]
Lena Bonner
Clerk of Commission
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CERTIFICATION:
I, Lena J. Bonner, Clerk of Commission, hereby certify that the above is a true and correct copy
of the minutes of the Regular Meeting of The Augusta Richmond County Commission held on
February 19, 2019.
______________________________
Clerk of Commission
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