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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRegular Commission Meeting January 8, 2020 REGULAR MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER January 8, 2020 Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 2:00 p.m., January 8, 2020, the Hon. Hardie Davis, Jr., Mayor, presiding. PRESENT: Hons. B. Williams, Garrett, Sias, Frantom, M. Williams, Davis, D. Williams, Hasan and Clarke, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission. Absent: Hon. Fennoy, member of Augusta Richmond County Commission. th, Mr. Mayor: All right, outstanding. Today’s January the 8 is that right, Commissioner? Mr. Speaker: (Inaudible). Mr. Mayor: All right, outstanding. I feel the love. Madam Clerk. The Clerk: I call your attention to the invocation portion of our agenda which will be delivered today by Reverend Anthony Booker, Pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church after which we’d ask our Interim Administrator to please lead us unto the Pledge of Allegiance, thank you. Please stand. The invocation was given by Reverend Anthony Booker, Pastor, New Hope Baptist Church. The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America was recited. The Clerk: Office of Hardie Davis, Jr., by these presence be it known that Reverend Anthony Booker, Pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church is Chaplain of the Day his spiritual guidance and civic leadership serves as an example for all citizens of Augusta. Given under my th hand this 8 Day of January 2020, Hardie Davis Jr., Mayor. Thank you, Reverend Booker. Mr. Mayor: Would you join me in congratulating Reverend Booker for being our Chaplain of the Day, thank you. (APPLAUSE) Thank you so much, Pastor. All right, we have one Addendum Item and we’d like to add that to the agenda without objection. HCD’s HOME assistance, all right, without objection. All right, Madam Clerk. RECOGNITION(S) Years of Service A. Congratulations! December Years of Service Recipients. The Clerk: I call your attention to the Recognition portion of our agenda. The Mayor and members of the Commission offer their congratulations to our December Years of Service recipients which will be acknowledged today by Pamela Griffin from our Human Resources Department. Ms. Griffin. 1 Ms. Griffin: Good afternoon Mayor Davis, Commissioners, Administrator, Madam Clerk, Directors, special guests and citizens of Augusta Georgia. My name is Pamela Griffin, H.R. Department’s Team Lead for Augusta Georgia. Today it is my esteemed pleasure to recognize the December Years of Service Recipients. For the Month of December 2019 we have 34 employees celebrating 5 to 20-years of service with Augusta Georgia. This afternoon we would like to recognize our 25 to 50-years of service recipients for the Month of December. The total years of service in institutional knowledge being celebrated today is 490 years. When I call your name please come forward. Mark Larmer, Central Services Department 25 years. (APPLAUSE) Andrew Florida, Augusta Utilities 30 years. (APPLAUSE) Gregory Wales, Engineering Department 35 years. (APPLAUSE) If you are here and I did not call your name please come forward at this time. Congratulations to all of our Years of Service Recipients. Please join me in a round of applause as we thank these employees for their loyal service to Augusta Georgia. (APPLAUSE) Mr. Mayor: Madam Clerk. The Clerk: DELEGATIONS th B. Ms. Zelina WaDutumi regarding hosting a “Hiring Event” in Augusta on January 16 for Department of Juvenile Justice at the May Park Community Center. Ms. WaDutumi: Hello, everyone. My name is Zelina WaDutumi. I’m new to the Department of Juvenile Justice. I am the overseer of the facilities located here in Augusta. And I wanted to come here to inform you that we are hosting a Hiring Event at the May Park Community Center. We have 88 vacanies available collectively coming from both the YDC and the RYDC -- - Mr. Mayor: Ms. WaDutumi --- Ms. WaDutumi: Yes, sir --- Mr. Mayor: --- would you turn and face us? Ms. WaDutumi: --- oh, yes, sir, sorry about that. We have 88 vacanies available. We will be doing the entire hiring process, we’ll be screening for backgrounds, we will be doing our (unintelligible) screening. We will be also conducting the physicals and we also will be hiring for other events as well. The time for this event is from 10:00 to 2:00 p.m. We encourage all to come out and to apply for these positions. These are entry level positions. These are not dead end positions. These are career building positions and I just came out to just encourage you all to if you know anyone that’s looking to start a career, if they can reach out to us and it’s, the event is pretty much open to anyone. If they have backgrounds we do not discourage anyone. We ask that they all come. The background will screen them out but we definitely don’t want to discourage anyone. For those that are not interested in the security which are our Juvenile Correctional Officer positions we do have other positions available for them. 2 Mr. Mayor: Ms. WaDutumi --- Ms. WaDutumi: Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor: --- I know that there are going to be a series of questions. It looks like we may have an answer to one of them. You have a flyer that you’ve got --- Ms. WaDutumi: Yes, sir --- Mr. Mayor: --- that you want to make available to us. Ms. WaDutumi: --- yes. Mr. Mayor: Okay, all right. Secondly, is there a website that individuals can be pointed to as well that we can make available --- Ms. WaDutumi: Absolutely --- Mr. Mayor: --- for positions that are currently the ADA vacancies that are there? Ms. WaDutumi: --- yes, well actually the ADA positions, they don’t have to go online to apply. We will be having physical applications for them to just fill out. But for those that are applying for other positions outside of our security positions we do have a website and that website is WWW.TEAM.GEORGIA.GOV/CAREERS. th Mr. Mayor: Okay, the Commissioner from the 9. Mr. M. Williams: I didn’t hear the starting salaries and I was trying to figure out. You know most people want to know what’s the starting salary and that’s for sure. So can you give us a number that these positions the starting salary would be? Ms. WaDutumi: Absolutely. The starting salary for entry level JCO positions Juvenile Correctional Officer positions start at $27,923.45. We do have some civil service positions and that is determined based off experience. There is a new benchmark for that but I’ll send that information over for you. And then the other positions outside of our security positions they’re all posted on our website. Mr. M. Williams: Okay. th Mr. Mayor: The Commissioner from the 4. Mr. Sias: Thank you, sir. Ma’am, just for one quick thing for folks since this is kind of a come out of your pocket type of event show up, what basic type of personal information for folks to bring such as Social Security card, any of these kinds of things like that so you can conduct your background checks? 3 Ms. WaDutumi: Absolutely. Everything is listed on the flyer however we do ask that you bring your two forms of valid identification. That could be a passport, that could be a Georgia’s driver’s license. Even if it’s not a Georgia driver’s license as long as it’s valid, your Social Security card, your birth certificate. If you’re military I believe it’s a DD214 and there’s also military incentives as well depending on the years that the individual has been in the, in any military range. th Mr. Mayor: The Commissioner from the 6. Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ms. can you help me again, ma’am? Ms. WaDutumi: Yes, WaDutumi. Mr. Hasan: Ms. ‘Y’ is that fine, okay thank you, ma’am. And I apologize because you might have said this and I might not have recognized the words that you used and that was are these certain for security, are these certified police officers? Ms. WaDutumi: No, they don’t have to be certified. It could be someone that’s coming, they’ll get their certification once they come on, once we hire them. Mr. Hasan: So certified peace officers? Ms. WaDutimi: Yes, sir. Mr. Hasan: Okay, so would they be impacted by what Governor Deal done several years ago in terms of giving peace officers was associated with the state he gave them a significant amount of money and that happened to have an impact on Peace Officers across the state. I know it’s mostly for the State Troopers and what have you but I thought it was all state peace officers at the end of the day even though I know they’re not coming in as peace officers but once they get a certification will they be impacted by the legislation that Governor Deal passed? Ms. WaDutumi: I am not aware of that but what I can do I can get some clarity on that and I can send the information to whomever and I don’t know if they’re in the works of doing that. Mr. Hasan: Okay all right, thank you. Ms. WaDutumi: Yes, sir. Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: Yes sir, all right, Ms. WaDutumi, thank you so much. We have the flyer and we’ll have that disseminated to the members of the Commission. Ms. WaDutumi: Thank you very much --- Mr. Mayor: Thank you so much --- 4 Ms. WaDutumi: --- yes, have a good day. Mr. Mayor: --- thank you. The Clerk: DELEGATIONS C. Mr. Moses Todd – address MOU and/or contracts with Augusta Savannah River Keepers relative to storm water, sanitary sewer, and drinking water. Mr. Mayor: Mr. Todd. Mr. Todd: I’m Moses Todd. I reside at 2115 Nolan Connector, Augusta, Georgia and I think it’s necessary to say that I’m a union certified industrial plumber, 40 years. And basically what I want to talk to the Mayor and the Commission about is communication or a lack thereof and whether in the Memorandum of Understanding that the Augusta government has with the River Keepers that with that NGO or whether they have an agreement that the River Keeper or spokesperson be the spokesperson for the city when we have flood situations or sanitary sewer breaches et cetera, and that’s a question for the Mayor. And the other concerns I have is that I go back in this city since 1978 so in 1994 I went down to Plant Vogtle to work and was working a th weekend shift and had some days and they needed some help on a 12 Street separation of sanitary sewer and storm water. And from 1984 to today it’s my understanding that we have a 99.9% separation of storm water and sewer. So the issue then is how are we getting storm water in our sanitary sewer line that’s supposed to run about a quarter of the capacity unless you’re overloaded then you would run somewhat different. Why we’re still with the stormwater fee we’re collected that’s my understanding approximately $65 million dollars while we’re still having citizens in Virginia Avenue area etc., are being flooded and have stormwater getting into the sanitary sewer. I think I know part of this because approximately a year and a half ago or better or maybe a couple of times I’ve walked that neighborhood and looked at it and some of it may be I hate to say this the citizens fault in the sense that on your outside cleanouts individuals are going to get rid of their water so they’re removing the covers or they’re removing manhole covers that’s on sanitary sewer to drain water off of properties. And I think that the Utility Department can do a better job as far as that goes. Communication. I want to get back to that I had a conversation with the Fire Chief. The Emergency Management Department should be who’s communicating to this city that the taxpayers of this city when we have a situation with flooding or if there’s sanitary sewer flooding out my home versus a NGO person unless there’s an agreement, a Memorandum of Understanding with this government for that entity to do that. We’re in March going to the citizens and this is not on my list but I think it’s important. We’re going to the citizens in March to pass the TIA. I support the TIA and I think we should pass it. We’re going back to the citizens in November to pass the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax I also support that but I think that if we’re going to the citizens this year two times we need some serious answers to the citizens for the citizens on why the money that’s spent is not doing the job as far as the stormwater and the sanitary sewer system. You’re increasing sanitary sewer system operations water sewer by 3% you know maybe you need to do that because of the bond covenants. I don’t know, maybe we need to do it to have funding to make sure these situations don’t happen but we need better communication, Mr. Mayor, with the citizens of this community. The concern I had at Christmas time when we was going to give or 5 possibly give the extra day off was like who was going to be on deck in case we had a flood situation. We should be good enough in Emergency Management Department to look at the weather system to see what we have coming and if we have breaches in the sewer system like we th may have had at 13 and Broad Street or any other situations where stormwater could get in sanitary sewer is to make sure that we correct those situations and safeguard them so we don’t have a repeat or reoccurrence of what happened here around the Christmas season. The last thing the citizens want at Christmas time is a flood and especially if there’s sanitary in that flooding. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: Mr. Todd, thank you. I think there may be a couple of questions that come back to you but let me say in my short time here and you’ve certainly got more tenure here than I do I’m not aware of any MOU to have the Savannah River Keeper speaking on behalf of the City of Augusta. I think that’s been a constant refrain on a number of matters but I’m not aware of any th MOU with regards to that matter. All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 6. Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Todd I’d just like to kind of respond to a couple of the statements that you made if you don’t mind. Mr. Todd: Sure. Mr. Hasan: You made mention about sanitary sewer and stormwater being separated on th 12 Street I think you said something along those lines, correct? Mr. Todd: Yes, 1984. th Mr. Hasan: 1984. Well I don’t know how far you sent down 12 Street but just recently about a month ago right now and I can tell you the exact location I don’t know the address. I think th you can get the address from the gentleman behind you (Mr. J.R. Ross Building) on 12 right in front of him is a big slab there, a metal slab, because between Miller Street and D’Antignac Street there’s going to be a half-million dollars-worth of work that’s going to be done in that general area th on 12 Street and they’re specifically getting ready to separate stormwater and sewer. It’s not separated there. And so I don’t know how many other places in the City of Augusta that fits the bill on that. That’s why they put that plate there I was coming through there one day and seen the street was you know cresting or whatever they do. May be another appropriate term, I’m sure you know what it is. I called Engineering Services. They came out that day and then they came out all that next day and they’ve done the scoping and all that kind of thing, and that’s what they’re about to do. So possibly in a lot of places that we assumed it’s done at is not there and they’re getting ready to do like I say within I think by the end of this month or the first of February. Streets are blocked off now to separate that and so a lot of places you assume it was done, it wasn’t done and that’s one of the things they’re getting to do right now. Another thing I think in being fairness in this stormwater like’s anything else there’s room for criticism for all of us but just remember stormwater’s only been in place for five years and Augusta’s a much older city and so just keep that in mind. And another thing I’d like to say one of the things that some of my colleagues and the Mayor and some of those colleagues that we were concerned about coming on board was the 3% every year of annual increase in your water bill. And we got with Mr. Wiedmeier and immediately Mr. Wiedmeier brought the bonding folks in and the things who were impacted by 6 that who make the decisions around the nation to try to tell what your quality water would look like and with that I don’t believe that we’re not any longer on the 3% annual increase. Mr. Wiedmeier has created another program that I think was implemented just this year, right, Mr. Wiedmeier? Mr. Wiedmeier: We’re still doing the 3%. Mr. Hasan: You’re still doing the 3% as well but he’s done some other adjustments that he lowered some fees you know he went from a top fee to a lower fee but lowered some gallons and things like that so that a lot of people who use the minimum amount of water because you used have I think it started about 3,000 gallons I think he lowered it down to a 1,000 gallons that’s what it was, I apologize, and that’s what it was. So we found try to find other ways but those things in particular because we would’ve removed the 3% if we felt that we were not impact the quality of the water in the City of Augusta because we did not want to become a Detroit. My concern is like your concern and we looked at that and we felt this was a resolution but your concerns are legitimate. I want to say that for the record. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. th Mr. Mayor: Thank you, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 4. Mr. Sias: Thank you, sir. I just want to say to the public when we enacted the Stormwater Program and most folks keep referring to it as the Stormwater Fee. It’s a Stormwater Program. And when we had this very historic rainfall a couple of weeks ago there was some areas in spots in Augusta that we did have a problem with but there seems one very important point that had been neglected. We had hundreds of spots in areas in Augusta where we would’ve had flooding that we did not and I particularly picked out one of those spots yesterday and went and visited the property owners and asked them how did their business fair in this historic rain. I know how it faired in the past in a hard rain it will flood and that rain was nothing like this but we did some serious stormwater improvements out in that area and that’s just one example. I can get a lot of them. The gentleman told me he had very, very little water just come up on his grass where in the past it had been coming in his building. He runs a warehouse. And so we’re neglecting the great things and good things that occur with the program and we’re pointing and picking at the ones or two’s. We’re going to get to those just like my colleague just mentioned and there are several other spots that we’re working on. And we will, we will, we are succeeding with this program and we’ll continue to do that but just look at all the good things that’s happening with the program and sure there’s going to be one or two areas that still needs work absolutely but I can tell you this we’re making great progress. Thank you, sir. th Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9. Mr. M. Williams: (Unintelligible) Mr. Mayor but you know let me do it I believe. To Mr. Todd I believe with a lot of what he said and I agree with my colleagues we are working on it but we have to understand that every taxpayer wants the same quality of life whether we’re working on it and hadn’t got to them yet still remains. We have a lot of construction going on, we have a lot of grass cutting. People are blowing leaves and trash into the stormwater system. We’ve got to address that in some kind of way. This is causing some serious problems. My good friend at the animal shelter talked to me a little while ago and told him I took a ride in my neighborhood 7 looking for another German Shepherd, Mr. Mayor, that I saw some stuff that I’m really surprised to be among our city that in looking for this dog I was looking in folks back yards, front yards and everywhere else but there’s some situations that we have not addressed yet. There’s still some old wooden pipes in the City of Augusta. They’re not metal pipes, these are wooden pipes that were put down probably when Tom was born 75/80-years ago but there’s still some of them out there. And I agree we’ve got to work on it, we got to get there but let’s not get it twisted when water’s coming in your yard when you look at your neighbor’s yard. Where I live the water has to run from my neighbor’s yard to the next yard to the next yard to the next yard until it finally reaches some pavement somewhere to get on the street then it may go a little bit further so everybody ain’t convenient. Now I heard people talking about the new construction that’s going on in the south of this county and nice the area is but what about the folks who’ve been here all the time. What about the folks who have been who had to be forced to live with this because they couldn’t do nothing else. When you build a new structure you put curves and all this other stuff but folks in the heart of this community at Wilkinson Gardens right now don’t have no sidewalks. You know I used to complain about the children walking in the streets but when they don’t have nowhere else to walk they’re going to think it’s their territory. They think they’re supposed to do that. So there’s a lot of issues Mr. Todd brought to the table and I think you’re good to bring them. We need to keep it in our heads and in our minds that everything ain’t well yet. There’s still some things we got to do, Mr. Mayor. So we won’t solve it today I plan to put it on the agenda to talk about the contractor we’ve got blowing leaves and trash in the streets that people pass by, don’t stop them, don’t write them a citation, don’t do nothing. I called them in, Ms. Bonner called somebody else and they call somebody else about that time they’re gone but we’ve got to put some stuff in place so we won’t be throwing good money after bad money. But I thank you Mr. Todd for bringing it to our attention and keeping it in our forefront because we don’t need to forget about those on the back streets. Thank you, sir. th Mr. Mayor: Our final respondent the Commissioner from the 10. Mr. Clarke: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and thank you, Mr. Todd, for coming before us with this issue. It is an issue and I think everybody up here shares an opinion about it and as you can tell we’re varied on it. And, Mr. Mayor, if I may at this time I had this on the agenda for today but our Engineering Director called and is going to be unavailable today and he has asked that we th move this item to the 14 Engineering Committee, so that’s what I would like to do at this time. Mr. Mayor: I appreciate that but at the appropriate time we’ll do that. All right, thank you, Mr. Todd. Mr. Todd: Sure and thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: Thank you. As we get ready to go to the next item I want to make everyone aware, in your notebooks left tab tonight we will be hosting the graduation ceremony for our next wave of First Responders from the Fire Department ISO Class 1. That event will take place this evening at 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 at the Augusta Technical College Main Campus at the Jack B. Patrick Center Auditorium that’s Building 1000. Again we’re excited to have the new recruits fully indoctrinated, trained and ready to go. Fire Chief James, the EMA Director, thank you for the 8 work that you and your team are doing and we’ll look forward to them joining the ranks. Thank you. Mr. Speaker: (Inaudible). Mr. Mayor: That’s based on how long you talk, Madam Clerk? The Clerk: DELEGATIONS D. Mr. Jeff C. Coffey regarding extending current lease agreement with the CSRA Humane Society, Inc. of the old City Stockade. The Clerk: Mr. Coffey? It appears Mr. Coffey is not in the Chamber. We’ll proceed to Item 3. th E. Presentation by Trey Allen, 12 Congressional Rep. of GA State Board of Education. He will speak on the Georgia Film Academy, tasked with creating a workforce for the film industry in Georgia and the opportunities (JLEC, 401 Walton Way) can help bring to our area. (Requested by Mayor Pro Tem Sean Frantom) Mr. Mayor: All right, Mr. Allen, welcome. Mr. Allen also happens to only serve on the Film Commission but he’s also our neighbor over in Columbia County Council Member over in Columbia County. Mr. Allen: Yes, sir, I appreciate your service. Mr. Mayor: Thank you, sir. I appreciate you (inaudible). Mr. Allen: I appreciate, Commissioners, thank you very much for allowing me to speak to you today briefly and address you I will try to keep you from missing any events later this afternoon. My primary purpose here today is to discuss the Georgia Film Academy what it is, what it does and the opportunities that it offers in our area. In that presentation I’d also like to touch upon the building at 401 Walton Way and how it can be used as a conduit for education as well as rehabilitation for the youth of our area. As representative for the State Board of Education I am a liaison with the Georgia Film Academy. The Georgia Film Academy is a collaboration of the university system of Georgia and the technical college systems of Georgia. It is an innovative higher education initiative intended to meet strategic workforce needs for high demand careers in the state’s film entertainment production industry. Classes are currently offered through 26- partner higher, as of today I believe it’s 26-partner higher education institutions with more onboarding in this coming year providing students with college credit course work, professional training, union covered film and television production craft internships and placement in creative industries, apprenticeships and jobs in the State of Georgia generating about 36,000 credit hours of instruction and contributing to a 60% increase in economic activity in the state’s film and entertainment sectors since classes began three years ago this month. That 60% represents $4 billion dollars in our economy. The State of Georgia’s Film Academy is widely recognized by the 9 Motion Picture Association of America, the vast number of labor unions involved in film industry and numerous competing states and countries as the gold standard in film and television production. Workforce Training. Let me, I actually have a presentation here that I will run through briefly, I’ll skim through it. When I’m finished there’s a couple of other remarks I’d like to make and then I’ll be happy to entertain any questions and then I’ll try to speak a little off the cuff so we can actually understand all this stuff that I just read to you. So the Georgia Film Academy. It is an unprecedented initiative brought on the State Legislature in January of 2016. Georgia is now the most, the number one leading state in the union beyond New York and California in film shots. There are more television and film production shot in Georgia than California at this point. What we don’t have is a workforce strong enough to support all that film industry therefore the legislature, the University System of Georgia, Technical College System of Georgia took the initiative to create the Georgia Film Academy to train that workforce. This is an unprecedented act that’s never been done by any other state. California, Louisiana, North Carolina none of them have tried to create their own homegrown workforce. Believe it or not this has never been done before but we’re doing it and we’re succeeding at a record rate. In 2015 there was no film school in Georgia, no faculty, no access and no models. SCAD a private institution out of Savannah did offer some classes in film, our university system offered film appreciation but nothing regarding the industry. Today we have 6,000 registrations of students in just three years, 36,000 credit hours, three and a half million increase as a stated earlier and we are the gold standard in the nation. How did we get here? Primarily through the Film Tax Credit. Some of you may have been reading some of the newspapers lately I’m happy to address that if you’d like to talk about that coming up before our legislation as well but there is no doubt that these 30% Film Tax Credit we offer as a state since 2008 has totally revitalized the film industry in the United States and certainly for the revenue prospects in Georgia. Our infrastructure that we’re creating with the Georgia Film Academy the various studios that have opened up in our state, one of the things that the Georgia Film Academy worked very closely on was advising a $24 million dollar New Market Tax Credit Arrangement with the Tyler Perry Studios development at Fort McPherson. We have several large studios. I just toured Eagle Rock Studios in Norcross myself and saw the new Avengers television show being made. Falcon and Winter Soldier I think it was. I’m not 100% sure but it was pretty impressive. Largest Blue Screen/Green Screen in the world. Leadership jobs and sustainability as assessed 2015 we announced the Film Academy the team started in late 2015 curriculum was developed immediately in the fall, instructors recruited in fall, classes began one year after the concept. When we first started we had three partner institutions Columbus State, Gwinnett and Clayton State University. We now have 25 active adopting partner institutions, universities, technical colleges all throughout the state offering these classes. In the spring of 2016 we had one instructional industry Pinewood Studios in Atlanta, the largest studio in America. We now have three instructional industry hubs and four additional teaching sites if you’ll see, that includes Clayton State University, Georgia College and State University Campus in Milledgeville and Savannah Technical College Campus. This is not all an Atlanta program. The reason I come before you today part of the reason I bring this to you it’s moving at such a fast pace it’s hard for me to keep track but just two hours ago Dr. Elna Green and Dr. Wes Kisting with the Augusta University were on a conference call with Aaron Levy of the Georgia Film Academy discussing how we can bring Augusta University and Augusta Technical College into this program. The problem we have is there is not a strong enough production count yet in our region. What they discussed is potentially sending some of our students to Georgia College and State University Campus to partake in some of their classes starting next spring as a toe in the water to see how that 10 works. I believe that through a partnership in our region with our governments, our economic development, CVB’s and our learning institutions we can grow the industry to the point where we’ll be self-sustaining for our youth. This is a list of several classes that we offer the various different courses, the academic advisory council that runs it. How do we build a permanent sustainable industry by developing the full ecosystem of the business? This is an example of a writing room. This particular one is for the comedy show Blackish. 487 scripted TV shows in 2018. That’s only growing with NETFLIX, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus all the various streaming agencies. There are six almost 6,000 WGA writers. Another 5,000 worked in TV or I’m sorry 5,000 of those 6,000 worked in television. We can teach screenwriting anywhere, we don’t have to have a production studio next to us. As a matter of fact Georgia Film Academy and that gentleman that they spoke with earlier Aaron Levy actually did come here to Augusta this summer I was part of the participation in that class where they talked at our local teachers in Richmond, Columbia, Burke County, Jefferson County had a representative there. Our English teachers on a th new 12 grade English program on screenwriting. It’s the first toe in the water that we put in the high school system. Being on the State Board of Education and being an overseer of K-12 education that is one of the things that we are working harder to implement as a pathway into the th high school sector. Kids will now be able to start taking screenwriting instead of 13 Century Western English Literature or whatever and get a full credit for it for writing classes (unintelligible), we’re expanding that program. Training, support, marketing the educational pipeline, the various degrees including a new Masters of Fine Arts we’re adding this year. Support. The Columbus Film Fund, this is an example of how we as communities can work together. The Columbus Film Fund is a public/private fund and an incentive program featuring $5 million dollars of capital providing recoupable grants to incentivize production to shoot in the Columbus, Georgia region that gives access to 80,000 square feet of sound stages and reduce shooting fees and housing costs. This is not a government funded institution. It is a public/private partnership through several local entrepreneurs that were willing to make philanthropic donations and what they’ve down with that $5 million dollars is grow an entire industry in Columbus and Muskogee County. One of the closest benchmarks I believe we have to our region Bruce Willis is going to open a production studio there this year because he filmed a movie there to take advantage of their additional credits. We’re not talking about millions of dollars out of their pocket. We’re talking about helping pay $100 bucks here and there for people to stay in hotels for setting staff. That’s the kind of $5 million dollar investment that is now going to bring entire industries to Columbus/Muskogee County. That’s the kind of thing we’re talking exciting. Writers are covered in that tax credits so those screenwriting programs we’ve got to convince production and people in California and New York to understand that it’s not just if you’re shooting tape or rolling film, anything done involving a movie in the State of Georgia qualifies for our 30% tax credits. From Soup to Nuts the problem we have is we’ve got almost $10 billion dollars in film industry income. It’s a $200 billion dollar industry. They’re doing six to seven months of prep work for a film in California, LA flying to Georgia shooting film for three to three weeks to a month and flying back and spending another six to seven months in post-production. We’ve got to get those people. We’ve got to get the screenwriters, we’ve got to get the story boarders, the artists. As a matter of fact there are 300 different types of jobs that we’ve identified for the film industry including accounting. My own son’s a junior at the University of Georgia. I just sent him packing yesterday. He’s going to be an accountant I hope and there’s nothing to stop him from being an accountant in the film industry. They need plumbers, they need secretaries, they need administrative. They need every type of job you can think of but it’s the film industry. 11 Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Allen --- Mr. Allen: Yes --- Mr. Mayor: --- your time is winding. Mr. Allen: --- let me just close by saying, sir, that I’d like to tie the mission of the Georgia Film Academy into this partnership. There are several ways that we can act as an opportunity for the youth of our area through the educational initiatives, through creating and fostering a film production industry here in Augusta that would not only act as a revenue source but as an opportunity for the youth of our area as well as, let me just touch briefly and then I will step down. The Juvenile System I know it may sound strange to say if you can tie film, youth, education and juvenile justice together but there’s several programs that already exist in California that do those very things that are very successful. And the reason that they’re a natural match it’s cool. Somebody with a second chance to prevent recidivism may think that their opportunities are limited. They have to be flipping burgers, they have to be working in catering, they have to be driving a hammer and nail. Well even if those are their opportunities if they’re doing that it’s part of the new next Avengers movie, that’s hope, that’s cool and it gives them an opportunity to move up through that industry. In closing I would like to say that the Georgia Film Industry is flourishing and it’s more than Atlanta can handle. Atlanta can no longer keep up with the amount of filming shot in Georgia. They’ve got to look elsewhere. This gives us and our region a great opportunity. Both Film Augusta and Film Columbia County are already working in partnership. They’ll actually be hosting several productions engineers together on a tour in just a couple of weeks. Commissioners, let’s work together not only to drive the film industry in our region but to potentially to turn a former symbol of incarceration and regretful decisions into a symbol of opportunity and hope. I’m happy to answer any questions now or later. You can all reach me at any time. Thank you for the opportunity to address you today. Mr. Mayor: All right, thank you. Mr. Allen: Thank you. Mr. Mayor: I think that’s our last delegation. All right move on to the Consent and Regular Agenda. The Clerk: Our consent agenda consists of Item 1. Our Regular Agenda, we’ll ask Ms. Walton if she would please come forward to address Item 2. Ms. Walton: Good afternoon. We have a New Ownership, it’s Alcohol Number 20-01. It’s a request by Sung Kim for an on-premise consumption Beer & Wine License to be used in connection with Harbor Inn Seafood located at 3404 Wrightsboro Road. There will be Sunday Sales. Do we have any objectors to this alcohol petition? This alcohol license has been approved by the Sheriff’s Department and Planning and Development. State your full name and home address. 12 Mr. Kim: My first name is Sung, s-u-n-g last name is Kim. I live at 1021 Elder Way Road, Evans, Georgia 30809. The Clerk: Our Consent Agenda Item 1 the Mayor would like for you to consider adding to the Consent Agenda Item #2, Item #4 to be referred to the Engineering Services Committee on th January 14 and Item #5. Mr. Frantom: So moved. Mr. Garrett: Second. CONSENT AGENDA PETITIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS 1. Motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting and the special called meeting of the Augusta Commission held on December 17, 2019. PUBLIC SERVICES 2. New Ownership: A.N. 20-01: A request by Sung Kim for an on premise consumption Beer & Wine License to be used in connection with Harbor Inn Seafood located at 3404 Wrightsboro Rd. There will be Sunday Sales. District 5. Super District 9. ENGINEERING SERVICES 4. Discuss storm water and flooding issues. (Requested by Commissioner John Clarke) 5. Approve and authorize the Engineering Department (AED) to purchase 30.55 Wetland mitigation credits at a total cost of $442,975.00 ($14,500 per mitigation credit) from the Merry Land Properties, LLC (Phinizy Swamp Mitigation Bank) to mitigate wetland impacts as determined necessary by the US Army Corps of Engineers in regards to the Lake Olmstead/Warren Dredging Project. Requested by AED. ADDENDUM 7. Motion to approve Housing and Community Development Department’s (HCD’s) to provide HOME funding to assist one (1) low to moderate income homebuyer with gap financing, down payment and closing cost to purchase home. (Requested by Commissioner Sammie Sias) Mr. Mayor: All right, absolutely and we’re going to include the Addendum item, Madam Clerk, to Consent Agenda. The Clerk: Mr. Frantom and Mr. Garrett was that, okay. Mr. Mayor: All right, Madam Clerk. The Clerk: I have a motion and a second. Mr. Mayor: All right, Mayor Pro Tem? Okay, we’ve got a motion and a second, all right voting. 13 Mr. Fennoy out. Motion Passes 9-0. \[Items 1, 2, 4, 5, 7\] The Clerk: ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES 3. Motion to approve postponing the demolition of this building (former JLEC, 401 Walton Way) for one year and revisit the issue at the end of each year with an update from the CVB and Juvenile Court in their continued partnership for use of the building. (Approved by Administrative Services Committee December 10, 2019, no action taken by the Commission on December 17, 2019; requested by Commissioner Brandon Garrett) th Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 8. Mr. Garrett: Mr. Mayor, as we just heard from Mr. Trey Allen I think that postponing the demolition of this building is important to the film industry here. I do agree that we need to find a way to house the Juvenile Court but I don’t think that housing it at 401 is the correct way to do it. So I make a motion that we approve postponing the demolition of this building. Mr. Frantom: Second. Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. All right, the Chair recognizes the th Commissioner from the 5. Mr. B. Williams: To make it clear just the filming. We’re not doing anything with Juvenile with it. Mr. Garrett: Correct. Mr. B. Williams: Okay. th Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9. Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I’m in agreement to not continue the demolition but speaking with Judge Brown and talking to several others the film industry has been partnershipping. Judge Brown talked about the partnershipping with the training he wants to do. So I think if we’re willing to try to build another facility if that partnership can be worked out, I think we can change the face of the building but still use that same building to do two ventures not just one. Now from what the Judge says I don’t see any reason when the filming’s not going to be every day the Judge had no problem and I don’t want to speak for him but I don’t mind speaking with him. As I addressed this before he said he had no problem partnershipping in using that facility. There may be some altering schedules maybe but other than that, Mr. Mayor, I think we can make that. And I ain’t got no problem waiting until next year to redo it look at it again but if the partnership can work why not let it work? I think the Commissioner just explained to us that this has been happening all over the country. We wouldn’t be unique in doing this. 14 Mr. Mayor: Okay. Mr. M. Williams: I just don’t want to, I mean I’m in support of not demolishing it but at the same time let’s keep the conversation open to talk and see whether or not the Juvenile Judges is thinking they can co-partnership with that. Mr. Mayor: I think Administrator Sims is going to have additional conversations with Judge Brown and talk about long term planning for Juvenile Justice because it is an important issue what that looks like. I think there needs to be some conversation with him about that so you can th anticipate that. The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 4. Mr. Sias: Thank you, sir. I can support the delaying of the demolition of the building for a year but I’m also very much concerned because when we start talking about including the Juvenile Court part in that because number one the film industry said that they were going to build on that basically at their own risk. I don’t see that same scenario playing out for Juvenile Court and we all know the history of that particular building. So and also the original motion said we’d do it year after year I was glad to see my colleague say one year and then we look at that and see where we want to go with that. But I absolutely can’t support putting the juvenile folks in there because that building has not, that building is still unsafe. So I support that and I thank you for the opportunity to speak. rd Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 3. Ms. Davis: Mr. Mayor, when we approved this before the last time it’s been on the commission agenda three times but we did approve it before and the CVB was here and they said that they would continue conversations though with the Judge. So let’s remember that was a positive from both sides that they were going to continue conversations to see what the best use of that building is so I think that will continue to happen. Mr. M. Williams: I don’t think they’re going to arrest anybody --- Ms. Davis: No. Mr. M. Williams: --- and put them in that facility I think that facility’s going to be using. The film industry is probably going to be in there more than the youth would. Mr. Mayor: All right, we have a motion and a proper second to postpone the demolition of the building for one year and further discussion will continue regarding long-term Juvenile Justice location, voting. Mr. Fennoy out. Motion Passes 9-0. The Clerk: 15 ENGINEERING SERVICES 6. Community update on the 2020 Transportation Investment Act (TIA) (Requested by Commissioner Sammie Sias – referred from the December 17 Commission meeting) th Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 4. Mr. Sias: Thank you, sir. We’re going to put one of these flyers up on the board. But as the Mayor and myself were part of this TIA process and I would ask that the Mayor speak first and then I’ll follow up with some detailed information on this, if you so desire. If not, I’ll rock and roll. Mr. Mayor: I’ll let you rock and roll. Mr. Sias: All right. One of the things about TIA, we had a TIA that was approved in 2010 which is called the Transportation Investment Act and that was the first time that had been done in Georgia. And so there were great benefits throughout particularly the 13-county regions in Georgia that approved this as an adjunct project for everyone so I want to, and we’re up now again to renew the Transportation and Investment Act called TIA. And first I want all the public to th understand is that the vote on this is the 24 of March this year and we need to get the word out that we can support this particular program. And up on your screen you have the approximate money that will be generated through this program both through tax and money added to the program from GDOT so I would encourage you to look at that slot to see if Richmond County. If you go all the way across to the right hand side and you go to the bottom there’s going to be about one billion 29-million dollars that will come out of this program. That’s quite a bit of money. If you go up to Richmond County line $374,780,000 is designated for Richmond County projected. That gives Richmond County a 43.87% total of all funds generated by this program and additional funds that were donated by GDOT or contributed by GDOT. So if you look at that column where it says Potential Percent of Total TIA Funds you can see where Richmond County is the lion’s share of this particular program. This is not a new tax. This is a continuation of the tax that we presently have and it is a tax, it's a sales tax which means that a lot of those smaller counties you see who are getting a small percentage they actually come to Richmond County to do a lot of shopping. So we’re not paying that by ourselves the amount that we end up paying through the sales tax. So I just want to encourage the public to be aware and for this body to understand that we are in a very good position with TIA and we’ve got some great plans. Now we’ll be making this available to the public. My colleagues have one but this is a sheet that I’m going to just reference. This is the project list sheet and this project list sheet for Richmond County has 32 projects on it I believe it’s 32, 33, I’m sorry. Out of those 33 projects they are spread very much around Richmond County. We hear that thing out in South Augusta everything goes to downtown I don’t know which end of downtown way it goes but there’s a very good division of properties in this thing of projects. Half of those projects are in South Augusta and the other half are throughout Augusta-Richmond County so this is a plan that can help in satisfying everybody. So that concludes my brief there and we’ll be holding town hall meetings and everything to educate the public and encourage the public to support this next round of TIA and I’ll be doing that this coming Saturday at my breakfast event. Thank you, sir. 16 Mr. Mayor: Thank you. Madam Clerk, I don’t believe there’s any additional business before us. The Clerk: No, sir. Mr. Mayor: All right, this meeting is adjourned. \[MEETING ADJOURNED\] Lena Bonner Clerk of Commission 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 January 8, 2020. ______________________________ Clerk of Commission 17