HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommission Meeting November 21, 2006
REGULAR MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER
NOVEMBER 21, 2006
Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 2:00 p.m., Tuesday, November 21,
2006, the Hon. Deke Copenhaver, Mayor, presiding.
PRESENT: Hons. Holland, Smith, Grantham, Harper, Hatney, Williams, Beard, Cheek,
Bowles and Brigham, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission.
Also Present: Fred Russell, Administrator; Steve Shepard, Attorney; Nancy Morawski,
Deputy Clerk of Commission.
The invocation was given by the Reverend Sharon Watkins, Pastor, Aldersgate United
Methodist Church.
The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America was recited.
Mr. Mayor: I’d like to call on Reverend Sharon Watkins, Pastor of Aldersgate United
Methodist Church for the invocation.
Pastor Watkins: Good Afternoon. Thank you for the invitation. This time of year we
have thanks and praise on our minds so let us go to God to prayer. Most gracious God, we’re
thankful for all the blessings you have poured out upon us as a community, as a City, as a State
and as a Nation. Today as we remember some of those blessings of family and freedom, we ask
oh Lord that we would have the nerve, the courage and the voice to bring freedom to the world,
to lift up oppression from those who are oppressed, to comfort those who are lonely and afraid
and without hope. To strengthen our community so that we would grow in grace to be the
people you have created us to be. All of us gathered here today bring with us concerns in our
hearts for family and friends and extended families all over this nation. Today we ask that you
would sort through those concerns and that you would help us to be your hands and feet and
voice to those persons who are in need. Be with us Lord in these proceedings, guide us, bless us
with your wisdom that we might cooperate and learn to serve you so that the lives of the citizens
of this area would be better. We ask these things in the Holy name of Jesus. Amen.
Mr. Mayor: Reverend Watkins we have something for you. Office of the Mayor. By
these presents be it known that Reverend Sharon Watkins, Pastor of Aldersgate United Methodist
Church is Chaplain of the Day for her --- and spiritual guidance to be spread though out the
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community services as an example for all us in this --- community, given unto my hand this 21
day of November 2006.
(APPLAUSE)
Mr. Mayor: Alrighty, Madame Clerk, I think we have some proposed additions to the
agenda?
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ADDENDUM
37. Presentation to Interim Commissioner Calvin Stevenson, Sr.
The Clerk: Yes sir. Um, our first additional presentation is a presentation to Interim
Commissioner Calvin Stevenson, Sr.
Mr. Mayor: Is Interim Commissioner, former Commissioner Stevenson here? Okay.
Augusta Georgia salutes and sincerely thanks Calvin Stevenson, Sr., Interim Commissioner
District IV, for his outstanding dedication and service on the Augusta Commission, October 3,
2006 through November 16, 2006. Presented by the Augusta Commission November 21, 2006.
Congratulations.
(APPLAUSE)
44. Presentation of a Certificate of Recognition to Vaughn Taylor for his participation in
the 2006 Ryder Cup.
Mr. Mayor: I just want to welcome Vaughn and his family, as soon as they can get by
there. We’re here today, and I know Commissioner Grantham wants to say a little something to
you too, but before I present this, Vaughn, I just want to tell you, you have really been an
inspiration to this community and continue to be, and one of the things that’s always impressed
me about me about Vaughn, he’s achieved a huge level of success on the PGA Tour, but he has
stayed local, he is still an Augusta resident and for that I think he deserves a big round of
applause. (APPLAUSE) With that I will present him with the Certificate of Recognition.
Certificate of Recognition given to Vaughn Taylor for your outstanding contribution and
participation in the 2006 Ryder Cup. This City of Augusta recognizes and applauds your
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endeavors and wishes you your continued success. Given unto my hand this 21 day of
November 2006. Congratulation and well deserved.
(APPLAUSE)
Mr. Grantham: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And, I’ll just speak from here I think everyone
can hear me, and Vaughn, you especially. I want to congratulate you and tell you how proud we
all are of you, and what you have done and how you have accomplished it. I want these people
to know that Vaughn is a real dedicated individual as far as a golfer goes and as far as a person
goes, not only the Forest Hills Golf Club, but also the people he represents out at Goshen. And
on behalf of all the citizens of Augusta, we thank you very much for what you have done in
helping put us on the map as a place to come to and be a part of, and Vaughn we want to say
thanks to you and congratulations.
(APPLAUSE)
Mr. Vaughn: I’d just like to thank everyone today. This is my home, I grew up here, I
like it here, I love it here and um, you know I’m gonna be around for a while and uh, you know
looking forward to competing in the Masters um, in the years ahead and um, just want to thank
my family for everything they’ve done for me and for being here for me today. Mayor, I want to
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thank you guys and um, just everyone uh, involved in Augusta and uh, it’s a great town and um,
I’d love to see it grow and prosper and um, and uh, just want to thank y’all.
(APPLAUSE)
Mr. Mayor: At some point I’ll hit you up for a free golf lesson. But, thank y’all so much.
Mr. Holland: He can help Don with his golf game.
Mr. Grantham: I need it.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, now the additions to the agenda?
The Clerk:
We have a request for four additions to the agenda.
ADDENDUM
Additions to the agenda:
Addendum Item 3. Authorize the Mayor or Mayor Pro Tem to execute the 1945 County,
1949 City and 1977 County Pension Plans Final Compliance Statements and file same with
the IRS along with drafts of the amended and restated pension plans. (Requested by the
Attorney)
Addendum Item 4. Approve tasking the Administrator to work with the Mayor’s
Brownsfield Commission to develop a path forward for the redevelopment of the Hyde
Park community.
Addendum Item 5. Approve a Resolution of Condolence for Judge Herbert Kernaghan.
Addendum Item 6. Approve a Resolution authorizing the application for a grant under the
Georgia Recreational Trails Program for the purpose of constructing trails on property
purchased for the Augusta Richmond County Greenspace Program. (Requested by Mayor
Copenhaver)
I make a motion we add.
Mr. Brigham:
Mr. Cheek: Second.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion?
Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign.
Motion carries 10-0.
Mr. Mayor: Now I believe on to more presentations.
The Clerk:
PRESENTATION(S)
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A. Board of Trustees Augusta-Richmond County Public Library. RE:
Presentation/Update on new headquarters with design plan.
Mr. Speaker: Good Afternoon. I’d like to thank the Mayor and the Commissioners for
allowing us a few minutes to bring you up to date on our plans for the new headquarters library.
We’re hoping to build here in downtown Augusta. I’d like to introduce our architectural team
which is David Moore from Craig Gaulden and Davis in Greenville and D. Beard from Studio 3
Design Group here in Augusta.
Mr. Beard: Good Afternoon. We’re happy to present to you today the status of the new
downtown library for Augusta Georgia. Currently we are in design development and uh, are
getting close to, I think we’re in two weeks we’re going to be making our design development
submittal then we’ll have about three months to complete the construction drawings before the
project’s put out for bid. Right now, what David Moore is going to present to you is floor plans,
elevations and some 3-D images of the new library just for your information.
Mr. Moore: Uh, to let you know the status of the library design, it’s a, it’s currently a
90,000 square foot building, comprises primarily, can everyone hear me, comprises primarily of
three stories, as you know, as you’re probably familiar it’s surrounded by Greene Street, James
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Brown Boulevard on 9 Street and Telfair Street. It’s actually across James Brown Boulevard
from the existing current library. The floor plan that I’ll show you uh, so that everyone can be
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oriented, this is Telfair, this is 9 Street, James Brown Boulevard and this is Green Street. And,
the program as presented to us by the Board, as I said is 90,000 square feet, we have divided that
up into three stories. The first floor that you see, um, is primarily the noisy, the more active
spaces within the library, and by that, that would include a 250-350-seat meeting room which
would be off the lobby. The entrance is actually at the corner of James Brown and Telfair Street,
and you would enter here, and you’ll see a circulation desk, you have the meeting room
component. And on the main floor at this end opening up onto Greene Street is the children’s
area, and then you’ll also have computer area, new books and audio-visual collection on the first
floor. On the second floor you will find more quieter spaces if you will, spaces that are more
conducive for studying. You’ll see there’s a non-fiction collection, a reference section, reference
computers, more Internet computers, and then over here, again on the Telfair Street, you’ll see
the fiction area and the young adult area. Again the public area is around the perimeter of the
building as on the lower level and then the staff area you’ll see is in the core of the design. On
the third floor, the third floor is actually smaller than the bottom two floors and we did that so
that the extent of the third floor stops before it comes up to Greene Street. We thought it was
important that the design of the building not carry the three-story façade out to Greene Street.
We felt like it was important that the façade of the library be more in scale and more in line with
the context of the two-story Antebellum homes on Greene Street so we felt like coming up with a
three story façade on Greene Street would be out of scale and not good neighbors to those
homes. So we actually held the third floor back from Green Street, you’ll see here. On the upper
level you’ll see there’s library administration, there’s the Georgia room with Georgia archival
collection as well as the talking book center and again the libraries computer area. The elevation
of the building that you see here, this is the view of the outside of the building along James
Brown Boulevard and this area here is the elevation of the building the fronts Greene Street.
And I’m going to skip through these very quickly because, uh, the 3-D images that D. referenced
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actually depicts the building a little more clearly. Again you have the façade of the building the
faces Telfair, this is where that 300 seat meeting room is. This is the entry element on the corner
and the windows that you see here, for instance are up in the Georgia Room. This is a three
dimensional model. An aerial view from the library, or of the library rather, looking toward the
entrance at the corner of James Brown Boulevard. Telfair over here, you’ll see there’s a drop off
for school buses and other drop off concerns. This is James Brown Boulevard, up here is Greene
Street, you can see the entry element which receives people from both areas, there’s parking for
the public along Telfair Street, there’s also parking for the public over here and we felt that the
entry on this corner receives people as um, and sort of denotes the entry of the building as you
come down, and you come into the downtown area along James Brown Boulevard or along
Telfair. But we also felt that it was important that this building express a sense of openness and
um, conveys a sense of welcoming if you will to the downtown area and to Broad Street and we
felt it was important that, that we reinforce the urban fabric of the downtown from Broad Street
as you come down towards the entrance, you can see we have a good amount of streetscaping
and trees and pedestrian access along James Brown Boulevard to make that connection. Again
this is a view from that same corner closer to street level, similar view. And this is a view of the
façade, the corner at Greene Street and James Brown Boulevard. You can see that’s the scale.
The massing of those antebellum homes that will remain. Again we felt like keeping the library
at the height of those buildings would reinforce the urban fabric of Green Street in a more
positive way and we picked up bay window elements that again are in keeping with a more
residential scale. We thought that would be better neighbors for the properties there on Greene
Street. And that’s a view along James Brown Boulevard. You’ll see we have canopies so that
you have covered pedestrian access along James Brown Boulevard but it also provides sunshade
for the western sun as it comes in that façade. And that’s a view from the park across the street
of Telfair looking toward the library. Again that’s the meeting room complex here, that’s the
fiction, young adult area and there’s the entry on the corner. And in the center, in the lobby area,
you’ll see there’s a multi-storage space that contributes to the sense of a civic building and the
civic importance as you walk into that lobby. And that concludes our brief presentation but
we’re certainly glad to entertain any questions that you may have.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, thank y’all so much. We very much appreciate that. It looks great.
Mr. Moore: Thank you very much.
Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Next presentation.
B. Mr. Steve Abbott, Georgia Forestry Commission. RE: Annual report FY2005/2006.
Mr. Abbott: I want to thank you for this opportunity uh, for me to be here. I would like
to make this short and brief as possible. The purpose of our annual report is not only to report
our budgets, numbers and statistics for the previous year but, to brag on my staff and employees
for the job they’ve done. I would like to read the mission statement to the public. Our mission
statement for the Georgia Forestry is to supply leadership, services and education in the
protection and conservation of Georgia’s Forests resources. The mission statement is to be
helpful, a sustainable force to providing clean air, clean water and an abundant product for future
generations. I’d like to talk about the forest protection part of the forestry and that’s pretty much
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the reason we’re here. The GFC is the lead agency for all open, marsh, and wild end fires. The
leading cause of wild end fires in Georgia is debris burning. And that’s what we’re trying to
help reduce those numbers by education and stuff like that through kids and adults alike. But in
Richmond County we have a pretty good fire that incinerates areas. We had a total of 39 fires
with plowing and suppression actions, but we’re on back up for many, many, more hundreds of
fires with the Richmond County Fire Department. And I would really like to thank Chief Willis
and his employees and staff for the great job they do to help protect our resources and
improvements. Just to give you some numbers real quick. The national average, the average
size fire is probably a little under fifty acres. Southeastern and thirteen southern compact states,
the average fire is probably ten acres. In Georgia, the state average is almost four acres. But in
Richmond County our average fire size is only 2.7 acres per fire, which is really good. And that
response time is real critical. Fire prevention is uh, is a year round project uh, education for the
kids, we work closely with the schools and daycares. This year we had 104 school programs and
we’ve touched about 17,000 students and teachers. We continue to have good cooperation with
radio, TV and news media on fire prevention. We assist landowners and give them advice for
safe, legal burning, brochures, weather and fire danger radius. Forest management is very
important too. We had four good programs; uh four good management plans this year. One of
them is 570 acres, two of them were Federal programs that enhanced cost share of $1,200 for
strife burning, tree planting and wild life food plots. Insects and disease, you always got to think
about that too. The dry weather last year had a, took a pretty good toll on some of our area oaks
causing some decline. The pine needles were not that bad this year, but we did have some, a few
outbreaks. The Spirit Creek Educational Forest is a working forest of about 570 acres, located
20 minutes from downtown Augusta, in south Richmond County. It’s gold if you take what the
students learn in the classroom and apply it in the natural world, the hands on activity. These
activities help students understand their role in nature. I encourage anyone and everyone present,
to go down to the Spirit Creek Education Forest and look at that. We touched about 6600 folks
there also, students and teachers alike and gave them that outdoor experience. The next thing,
we have some good numbers, we have some literature that was distributed, promotional items
that we distributed with, 7,000 literature, distributed 5,000 pieces of promotional items, rulers,
pencils for the kids and some informational phone calls. We had 13 special projects, as from the
Richmond County 911 day with Smokey Bear, the Hephzibah Fire Fest, the Christmas Parade,
the Fire Prevention Day in Blythe, Arbor Day celebrations, the Junior Fire Savers Program and
the YMCA. You challenge kids. --- Fort Gordon, they have to do community service and they
also have to do job shadowing. We work with those kids real close. We get a lot of good
feedback from those kids. They didn’t know that the Forest Industry even exits and we get them
excited about it. And I’m glad to get these kids excited because that’s some of our leaders in the
future. So if we expose them to the forest resources. I would still like to, I would like to thank
Augusta Richmond County for being a Tree City USA. That’s a great honor, take that with pride
and the National Arbor Day Foundation recognizes you and it’s something that means a lot.
New business is coming in your community, your constituents and citizens, it’s something to be
proud of to have, to be a Tree City USA. Reforestation. We sold we had 19 seedling
applications. That don’t seem like a lot but it was about 35,000 seedlings and that equates to
about 49 acres put back in forests and that’s pretty good. Because you know, we need the trees.
They do make life better. One of the new things with the program, with the Forestry, I’d like to
share with you. We’ve got this thing called 25/25. By the year 2025, our fleet should be using a
new energy fuel, bio-energy from BIOMASS. Now what is BIOMASS? BIOMASS is a plant
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matter that can be converted into an energy source. It includes agricultural material, tree residue
from managed forests and wood waste from urban areas. So that I think we’re going to have to
first plan in Augusta that’s going to have to be trying to develop this bio-energy from
BIOMASS, so we’re excited about that in the Forestry Commission. In my closing, I’d like to
mention one more thing though, that the economy, the economics of forestry. The forestry
represents the largest manufacturing industry in Georgia. It’s a twenty-three billion dollar
economic value. It supports about a 115,000 jobs in the state of Georgia and Augusta does have
a lot of those jobs. I’m real proud of that and I think that you guys should be too. In closing, I
stated in our mission statement and vision statement, the purpose is not only to report our
numbers and statistics for the previous year, but to do all we can to make Augusta Richmond
County a better place to live. We greatly appreciate the assistance from our Board of
Commissioners, our City Mayor, and our Administrator in helping us obtain this goal. We work
here, we raise our families and we believe that we can make a difference for generations to
come. To see more about the organization, please give us a call or visit our web site and I would
be glad to answer any questions at this time about the forestry and any improvements if I can do
that.
Mr. Mayor: Thank you, Steve. We appreciate your presentation.
Mr. Abbott: You’re very welcome. You all have nice day. Happy Thanksgiving, guys.
Mr. Mayor: Same to you. Madame Clerk I think we have a couple more recognitions?
The Clerk:
RECOGNITION(S)
ARC RETIREES:
C. Mr. Ronnie Joyner, Richmond County Sheriffs Office, 1982-2001; Mr. Jimmy
Whitaker, Public Services Department, 1990-2006; Mr. David Pugh, Augusta Utilities
Department, 1969-2006.
Mr. Mayor: Certificate of Retirement given to David Pugh for 32 years of dedication,
loyalty and service to the City of Augusta, in the Augusta Utilities Department. Congratulations
to you on this milestone this year of retirement. We extend to you our deepest appreciation for
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your devoted service and best wishes for an enjoyable retirement, given unto my hand this 21
day of November 2006.
(APPLAUSE)
Mr. Williams: Mr. Mayor? His family’s here.
Mr. Pugh: That’s my sister Cathy, (APPLAUSE) baby brother Mark, brother Melvin, my
sister Rosa, I don’t have but nine sisters. (LAUGHTER)
Mr. Mayor: Congratulations.
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Mr. Pugh: Thank you.
Mr. Mayor: Certificate of Retirement to Jimmy Whitaker for sixteen years of dedication,
loyalty and service to the City of Augusta, the Augusta Public Services Department.
Congratulations on this milestone to your retirement
(APPLAUSE)
Mr. Mayor: Madame Clerk:
The Clerk:
Augusta Convention & Visitors Bureau
D. Augusta Champions for their efforts to bring visitors to Augusta through a convention,
family reunion or sporting event and for working with the ACVB; Presentation of the
Direct Visitor Spending generated by the visitors.
Mr. Mayor: Mr. White.
Mr. White: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you members of the Commission for
allowing us to be in front of you today and present what we think is some very exciting news.
And, it looks like today is the day of the Champions, Vaughn Taylor, retiree’s and you’ll notice
in a minute a large group of people sitting around us here who are Augusta Champions. We
have almost ninety-four people who are recognized as Augusta Champions that, that, I think
have about twenty-five that are here who have generated a lot of money for our economy. Most
of them are volunteers, they’ve hosted events, they’ve hosted meetings, they’ve hosted reunions.
They’ve worked. If you’ve ever planned anything whether it’s for ten people or one hundred and
ten people, that’s the same amount of work and it’s a lot of work. When these people come, and
I’m getting (LAUGHTER) and I’m getting some big yeses, um, when people come to town
they’re spending money in our hotels, in our restaurants, gas stations and I’m sure these people
could tell you things they had to spend money on while they were working on their groups that
we would never even think of. Overall they spent millions and what I’d like to do is ask that we
have two members of the Commission who are on the Board of Directors of the Convention and
Visitors Bureau, Commissioner Holland if you could come down. Commissioner Bowles and
Mr. Mayor if I could ask you to come back down we have a symbolic check we’d like to present
to the City which represents the amount of money that is generated by these Augusta Champions.
Ms. Bowen: Mayor and Commissioners if after Barry presents the check to you, if you
will stay standing in place, we are going to take just a minute to recognize each of the
Champions that could be with us today and so, Augusta Champions what we’ll ask you to do is
stand in just a minute and you will be called alphabetically and you’ll be allowed to go through
this group and if you’ll pause on the other side, we’ll take a group picture when it’s all over.
Presentation of the check please, Barry.
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Mr. White: And we worked with a lot, with lot of event planners and people throughout
the year but the ones that are near and dear to our hearts are the ones that are right here, and
together they’ve generated more than $26M.
(APPLAUSE)
Mr. Russell: Mr. Mayor, I don’t see anything on the check that says it’s symbolic, I think
we ought to cash it.
Ms. Bowen: And just to reiterate, that is in this year, that amount of money was
generated by events held in the year 2006. So if you’ll bear with us for just a minute, again
Augusta Champions if you’ll all stand now, I think it’ll make it easier for you to get out as you’re
called alphabetically. And again, please pause at the other side. Ms. Jessie Atkinson from the
Broadway Baptist Church, The Uniting Folds Conference, $303,240.00, Christopher Baniky,
American Chemical Society, The Surmax Meeting, $277,970.00, Kathy Baird, The CSAR
College Night, $151,620.00, Lynne Bennett Thigpen, The Medical College of Georgia for
Continuing Education Programs, $116,242.00, Rebecca Blocker for the Hughes-Travis Family
Reunion, $75,810.00, Vicky Browning with the USA DENTAC and various endodontic courses,
$126,350.00, Genie Buttram for the Georgia Department of Economic Development Meeting
and Celebrating World Georgia Conference, $808,640.00, Lillian Clayton with the Georgia
Association of Minister’s Wives and Minister’s Widows International, $151,620.00, Kim Crafts
with the American Chemical Society and the SURMAX Meeting, $277,970.00, May DeVoe with
the Moses, Moes, Carry Foreman, Oliver Family Reunion, $90,972.00, Brenda Durant with the
Greater Augusta Arts Council, $50,540.00, Al Ferguson with the United House of Prayer for All
People, Fall Conference, $202.160.00, Elizabeth Flynn, the Kaddyshack Kats, $37,905.00, the
Gloria Fortson and Larry Stevens for the most Worshipable Smooth, Ashlar, Grand Lodge
Jurisdiction of Georgia annual convention, $429,590.00, Lida Gregg with the Augusta
Recreation and Parks Department, The Masters Classic Senior Softball Tournament,
$209,741.00, Kathy Hamm for the Sons of the Desert Convention, $399,266.00, Don Harris with
the Shriners, The South Augusta Shriner’s Conference, $202,160.00, Dick Hatfield with
Newman Tennis Center and various tennis tournaments, $2,372,853.00 (APPLAUSE), Josephine
Jones with Beulah Grove Baptist Church, 2006 Vision Builders National Conference,
$189,525.00, Buck Salter with the Augusta Parks and Recreation Department, various softball
tournaments, $450,311.00, Kathy Shoat from Augusta State University the Georgia Education
Advancement Council, $25,270.00, Diane Sherman from the Georgia Association of Pay
Anesthetists Nurses and Derek Vanover from Augusta Trees and Landscape Department, the
2006 Ornamental Tree and Turf Seminar, $55,594.00, Mary Williams with the Evans Family
Reunion and the Hughes-Travis Family Reunion, $118,263.00, George Williams from the
Georgia State Postal Workers Union Convention, $338,112.00, and Mattie Lowery with Hughes-
Travis Family Reunion also. Were there any other Augusta Champions, Josephine Jones, did we
get you? Okay, if there are, those are all of the Champions that were able to be with us today,
again there were ninety-four local people that we recognized that together helped us to generate
more than $26M in direct visitor spending. (APPLAUSE) Okay, that concludes our portion of
the presentation and thank you all Augusta Champions, Mayor and Commissioners, for all of
your efforts and everything that you do. Thank you so much.
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Mr. Mayor: Okay, Madame Clerk, let’s move on to the consent agenda.
The Clerk: We have one more recognition.
Mr. Mayor: Excuse me.
Employee of the Month Award
E. Mr. Glenn Dukes, Augusta Public Services Department.
The Clerk: The Employee Recognition Committee have selected Glenn Dukes and the
October 2006 Employee of the Month for the City of Augusta. Mr. Dukes has been an employee
with the City for twelve years. He is currently an electrician in the Public Services Division.
Mr. Dukes was nominated by his supervisor, Steven Fowler who is the Operations Manager. In
his recommendation, Mr. Fowler states that Glenn was very instrumental in several major
projects including a new facility for the Recreation Department, street, wall and ground lighting
at Barrett Plaza and upgrading power service to the security gate at the levee for utilizes. Mr.
Fowler states that Glenn’s quality of work in the electrical field is unsurpassed. Glenn is very
dependable and can be fully relied upon to complete projects on time or ahead of given due
dates. Mr. Fowler’s letter of recommendation was enthusiastically endorsed by Judge Dudley H.
Bowen, Jr. In his letter, Judge Bowen states, Mr. Dukes’ work is exemplary, his attitude is
immensely positive, and his example to other men is admirable. The Committee felt that based
on these recommendations and Mr. Duke’s dedicated and loyal service to the City of Augusta,
we would appreciate you joining us in awarding Mr. Glenn Dukes employee of the moth for the
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month of October during the Commission Meeting on November 21, 2006.
(APPLAUSE)
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Cheek just reminded me that it’s gonna be wet out there
tonight. On to the consent agenda, please, ma’am.
The Clerk: Our consent agenda consists of Items 1-28. And under the Planning portion
of the agenda, I’ll read the petitions and for the benefit of any objectors, and if there are any
objectors if you would please signify your objection by raising your hand.
PLANNING
Item 3 is a request for concurrence with the Planning Commission to approve with a
condition a petition from Patrick J. Rice, Attorney on behalf of FTD, LLC, for an
elimination of three of the four condition placed on two earlier re-zonings to Zone R-3B
(Multiple Family Residential) and Zone P-1 (Professional) affecting property on property
that is part of tax map 018 Parcel 068-01)
Item 4 is a request for concurrence with the Planning Commission to approve with a
condition a petition by Tamiko Williams on behalf of Lynne Wisner for a change of zoning
from Zone R-1A (One-family Residential) to Zone P-1 (Professional) affecting property
located at 1903 Bungalow Road.
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Item 5 is a request for concurrence to a approve a petition by David Thompson for a
change of zoning from Zone A (Agriculture) to Zone B-2 (General Business) affecting
property located at 3874 Wrightsboro Road.
Item 6 is a request for concurrence with the Planning Commission to approve a petition for
a change of zoning from Zone R-1B (One-family Residential) to Zone R-1D (One-family
Residential) affecting property located at 1927 Maryland Avenue.
Item 12 is a request to approve with a condition a request for a special exception to
establish a telecommunication tower located on property near the intersection of Richmond
Hill Road and Bobby Jones Expressway.
Item 13 is a request for concurrence to approve a petition for a special exception to
establish public parking on property comprising three land tracts containing multiple tax
parcels. Tract A located on Berkman’s Road, Tract B near the intersection of Heath Drive
and Berkman’s Road and Tract C near the intersection of Stanley Drive and Heath Drive.
PUBLIC SERVICES
Item 14: A request for an extension of time to purchase an alcohol license for Southside
Restaurant & Lounge located at 2083 Old Savannah Road.
Item 15 is a request for a retail package Beer & Wine license to be used in connection with
C&J Co. located at 1377 Wrightsboro Road.
The Clerk: Are there any objectors to the Planning or Public Services items?
Mr. Grantham: None noted, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, Mr. Shepard did you ---
Mr. Shepard: No.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, do we have any further additions to the consent agenda?
Commissioner Cheek.
Mr. Cheek: Mr. Mayor if it pleases the body, on our Addendum Agenda, Items 3, 4, 5
and 6 to move those over to the consent agenda.
Mr. Mayor: Any --- Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: Mr. Mayor, I ain’t got no problem I just want some, I guess some
clarification on Item 4, I think it’s something we might need to, just get it on the table to talk
about it, to see what, which direction we’re heading in. I think it says uh, approve the task of the
Administrator to work with the Mayor on the Brownsfield Commission to build a pass forward
for the redevelopment but I think we’re already doing some things that, are we gonna wait, if we
approve this, I guess is, if I can get this cleared up now I don’t need to go any further. We
supposed to be looking at uh, doing something right away with the uh, the uh, Hyde Park area.
Is this gonna slow this process up I guess the simple way to ask this, are we gonna be able to
continue to, because I think, that, that’s the first thing we need to do is to find a way to get those
11
people out of that area. And I just didn’t want this to be a hindrance block, and if it’s not, I got
no problem with added it to like Mr. Cheek’s said, but I wanna be clear on it.
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Russell.
Mr. Russell: Mr. Mayor, if I can, I’ve got a brief time line and a recommendation that
would continue to move us forward with that. I’d be glad to share with you, if you want to leave
it on the regular agenda, it’d take about two minutes or I could do that right now, in which I
would suggest the first step we take is to do a health impact study as part as what we’ve done to
make sure that we’re moving forward. The last study was done about ten years ago. We got
some new data on the recent study and I think that would be important to continue to do that as
we look for funding mechanisms to uh, to continue to look at the other as far as movements goes.
And that would be the recommendation I would make it, given the opportunity that funding
study, the health study would cost about $50,000.00 and I have funded that in my budget
presentation.
Mr. Williams: And Mr. Mayor, that’s why my question was being raised because I don’t
want a study to slow this process down any more. People shouldn’t be there, even tonight, but
we know that’s impossible to move them. But if they have been dealing with it for some time
and the report came as negative as it was, there ought to be some way of fast tracking in seven
days, somebody ought to be able to tell us whether this is legitimate or it’s not. I mean, we know
that it is, but I don’t wanna wait uh, three to four months, if, and I didn’t want to open this can of
worms up here but I just wanna know before I sit here and let this go that we’re not gonna let this
impact us from going ahead and proceeding with what’s got to be done, what should’ve been
done twenty-five thirty years ago.
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Russell.
Mr. Russell: You know, I don’t think that would prohibit our continuing to move
forward, I think that would give us more ammunition to move forward with. My concern is the
amount of the funding for the whole project, and until we can specify where we need to move
people right away, and move out from that particular area, I do not have the funding available at
the moment to go in and start buying totally. I think this gets us a path forward that’s reasonable
and with the action that we would take would be as prudent as we could sir.
Mr. Williams: Mr. Mayor, I’m gonna let it go, I’m gonna go ahead and let it be
approved, I’m not gonna object to it. I think we ask Commissioners and the Mayor to make sure
that this path forward is continued at a rapid pace. I know if we accept this study and many,
many studies have been out and comes back whenever it does, but this is very important, I mean
you got young and old alike that’s in there, so I got no problem, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: Okay. Commissioner Smith, did you? Commissioner Smith.
Mr. Smith: (Unintelligible).
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Hatney.
12
Mr. Hatney: My only question is, how long do you anticipate the study to take? What
time frame are we talking about?
Mr. Russell: The initial time that I was given was approximately a year. We can fast
track that as quickly as we can and I don’t think we should wait for that to happen. I think we
need to look for funding sources. But I think we need to do it parallel. And, my concern is that
we need to look at the health impact before we spend $5M. But, I also realize that I need to start
looking for the $5M, give or take to move forward with that. So I think the parallel path would
be appropriate.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Smith:
Mr. Smith: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to add number 35, number 33 to the
consent agenda concerning the $500,000.00. It will be paid for by the City of Grovetown. And
we’d like to move that forward so the construction can continue.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: There’s some conversation that needs to held on that, too, Mr. Mayor. I
talked with someone from uh, the Utilities Department about it, and I thought it was gonna be an
add on but I see it’s in the book. We can handle it now, we can handle it later but I got some
questions about it. I just need some answers however y’all wanna do it.
Mr. Mayor. Okay. Commissioner Grantham.
Mr. Grantham: Uh, Mr. Mayor, when we’re discussing this particular subject, we have in
the presence today the Mayor of Grovetown as well and I’d like the Chair to recognize him if
you would please.
Mr. Mayor: Absolutely, Mayor Dennis Trudeau of Grovetown, please stand up. Thank
you for being here with us today. (APPLAUSE). Okay, do we have any further additions to the
consent agenda? Do we have any items to be pulled for discussion? Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: Mr. Mayor, I’d like to pull Item 14 and get some clarity on that, and uh,
Item 25. Item 33’s gonna remain on the regular agenda, is that right?
Mr. Mayor: Mm-mm. Are there any further items to be pulled for discussion? If there
are none, I would look for a motion to approve the consent agenda.
Mr. Grantham: So moved.
Mr. Holland: Second.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Commissioners
will now vote by the usual sign.
13
CONSENT AGENDA
PLANNING
1. FINAL PLAT-POWELL RUN - S-753 - A request for concurrence with the Augusta-
Richmond County Planning Commission to APPROVE a petition by H. Lawson Graham
and Associates, on behalf of Oscar Hugh Barrow, requesting final plat for Powell Run
Subdivision. This residential subdivision is located on Lewis Road, west of Powell Road
and contains 16 lots. (Reviewing agency approval 10-27-06)
2. FINAL PLAT-WEST WHEELER TOWNHONES, SECTION V - S-726-V - A request
for concurrence with the Augusta-Richmond County Planning Commission to APPROVE
a petition by Southern Partners Inc., on behalf of ATC Development Co., requesting final
plat approval for West Wheeler Townhomes, Section V. This residential subdivision is
located on West Wheeler Parkway, south of the right-of-way of Dorado Drive and contains
28 lots.
3. Z-06-117 - A request for concurrence with the Augusta-Richmond County Planning
Commission to APPROVE with the condition that 1 through 3 of the 4 zoning conditions
placed on the property in 1989 zoning case be eliminated; a petition Patrick J. Rice,
Attorney, on behalf of FTD, LLC, requesting and elimination of three of the four
conditions placed on two earlier re-zonings to Zone R-3B (Multiple-family Residential)
which was Z-89-136 and Zone P-1 (Professional) which was Z-89-137 affecting property on
property that is part of Tax Map 018 Parcel 068.01. The P-1 portion of the property is
located approximately 190 feet west of Stanley Drive and being 1,020 feet, more or less,
south of Washington Road. The R-3B portion of the property is located approximately 400
feet west of Stanley Drive and being 1,370 feet, more or less, south of Washington Road.
(Part of Tax Map 018 Parcel 068-01) DISTRICT 7
4. Z-06-118 - A request for concurrence with the Augusta-Richmond County Planning
Commission to APPROVE with the condition that the petitioner/owner does not seek any
variances from the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance for Augusta-Richmond County; a
petition by Tamiko Williams, on behalf of Lynne Wisner, Requesting a change of zoning
from Zone R-1A (One-family Residential) to Zone P-1 (Professional) affecting property
that contains .61 acres and is known under the present numbering system as 1903
Bungalow Road. (Tax Map 086-3 Parcel 042) DISTRICT 2
5. Z-06-121 - A request for concurrence with the Augusta-Richmond County Planning
Commission to APPROVE a petition by David Thompson requesting a change of zoning
from Zone A (Agriculture) to Zone B-2 (General Business) affecting property that contains
approximately 1.29 acres and is known under the present numbering system as 3874
Wrightsboro Road (Tax Map 039 Parcel 076) DISTRICT 3
6. Z-06-122 - A request for concurrence with the Augusta-Richmond County Planning
Commission to APPROVE a petition by Jonathan Marshall, on behalf of Marshall and
Turner Properties LLC, requesting a change of zoning from Zone R-1B (One-family
Residential) to Zone R-1D (One-family Residential) affecting property that contains .20
acres and is known under the present numbering system as 1927 Maryland Avenue. (Tax
Map 056-2 Parcel 048) DISTRICT 2
7. FINAL PLAT-AYLESBURY COMMONS, PHASE I - S-710 - A request for
concurrence with the Augusta-Richmond County Planning Commission to APPROVE a
petition by George L. Godman and Associates, on behalf of LPB Properties, Inc.,
14
requesting final plat approval for Aylesbury Commons, Phase I. This residential
subdivision is located off Belair Road at Burdette Drive and containing 52 lots.
8. FINAL PLAT-CREEKSIDE AT THE RESERVES - S-727 - A request for concurrence
with the Augusta-Richmond County Planning Commission to APPROVE a petition by
James G. Swift and Associates, on behalf of Peter Budwick & William A. Eisele, requesting
final plat approval for Creekside at the Reserves. This residential subdivision is located on
Reserve Lane, adjacent to the Reserves at Stevens Creek.
9. FINAL PLAT-MAGNOLIA VILLAS, PHASE I - S-694-I - A request for concurrence
with the Augusta-Richmond County Planning Commission to APPROVE a petition by
Southern Land Surveyors, on behalf of Paul McElmurray, requesting final plat approval
for Magnolia Villas, Phase I. This residential subdivision is located Roy Road at the
terminus and containing 32 lots.
10. FINAL PLAT-MAYO TOWNHOMES, PHASE I - S-708-I - A request for concurrence
with the Augusta-Richmond County Planning Commission to APPROVE a petition by H.
Lawson Graham and Associates, Inc., on behalf of Gene Vintson, requesting final plat
approval for Mayo Townhomes, Phase I. This residential subdivision is located on Dennis
Road, north of Stevens Creek Road and contains 10 lots.
11. FINAL PLAT - Request for concurrence with the Augusta-Richmond County Planning
Commission to APPROVE pursuant to Section 202 (D), a petition by Lucien Williams
requesting approval to subdivide 3.51 acres into a total of five (5) lots at 606 Milledge Road.
(Tax Map 034-2 Parcel 048)
12. Z-06-115 - A request for concurrence with the Augusta-Richmond County Planning
Commission to APPROVE with the condition that the tower be a 150 foot monopole; a
petition by T Mobile South LLC, on behalf of Concord Hill Investments, requesting a
Special Exception to establish a Telecommunication Tower per Section 28-A of the
Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance for Augusta-Richmond County affecting property that
contains approximately .23 acres and is located approximately 1.5 miles west of Richmond
Hill Road and approximately 1,500 feet south of Bobby Jones Expressway. (Part of Tax
Map 108 Parcel 058) DISTRICT 5
13. Z-06-116 - A request for concurrence with the Augusta-Richmond County Planning
Commission to APPROVE a petition by Patrick J. Rice, Attorney, on behalf of Berckman
Residential Properties LLC; FTD, LLC; Berckman Corner, LLC; Whiddon Family
Properties, LLC, et al, requesting a Special Exception to establish public parking per
Section 8-2 (b), Section 17-2 (a) and Section 20-1 (j) of the Comprehensive Zoning
Ordinance for Augusta-Richmond County affecting property comprising three land tracts
containing multiple tax parcels as described below: Tract A is located on the northwest
right-of-way line of Berckmans Road, 200 feet, more or less, west of Washington Road;
Tract B is located where the south right-of-way line of Heath Drive intersects with the
northwest right-of-way line of Berckmans Road; Tract C is located where the southwest
right-of-way line of Stanley Drive intersects the northwest right-of-way line of Heath Drive.
(Tax Maps 013, 018, and 019, Multiple Parcels) ALL PARCELS ARE LOCATED IN
DISTRICT 7
15
PUBLIC SERVICES
15. Motion to approve a request by Chong Ae Park for a retail package Beer & Wine
license to be used in connection with C & J Co., located at 1377 Wrightsboro Road. District
1. Super District 9. (Approved by Public Services Committee November 13, 2006)
16. Motion to approve a request by Susan Lee for a Therapeutic Massage License to be
used on an Outcall basis. This Outcall license will be used in connection with Touch
Communication Therapeutic Massage located at 4361 Quail Creek Road, Martinez, GA.
Districts 1 thru 8. Super District 9 & 10. (Approved by Public Services Committee
November 13, 2006)
PUBLIC SAFETY
17. Motion to approve transfer of funds from Wireless Fund Reserve to E911 Regular
Fund. (Approved by Public Safety Committee November 13, 2006)
FINANCE
18. Motion to approve the abatement of tax accounts on City property. (Approved by
Finance Committee November 13, 2006)
19. Motion to approve a request to have tax accounts in the name of the Land Bank abated.
(Approved by Finance Committee November 13, 2006)
20. Motion to approve a request to abate balance of 2006 taxes on Map 179, Parcel 3.10.
(Approved by Finance Committee November 13, 2006)
21. Motion to approve a request that the Committee abate taxes due on Map 42.-4, Parcel
2, now in the name of Augusta. (Approved by Finance Committee November 13, 2006)
22. Motion to approve additional funding for December 5, 2006 Run-Off Election in the
amount of $80,100. (Approved by Finance Committee November 13, 2006)
ENGINEERING SERVICES
23. Motion to approve the transfer of 214 Magnolia Avenue to Land Bank Authority.
(Approved by Engineering Services Committee November 13, 2006)
24. Motion to approve an Application for Service from the New Savannah Bluff Lock and
Dam Management Fund and authorization of payment to that fund in the amount of
$100,000.00 per year for 2007, 2008 and 2009. (Approved by Engineering Services
Committee November 13, 2006)
26. Motion to approve a request from the Engineering Department to award bid item #06-
173 to GE Supply in the amount of $97,299-02 for street light poles and fixtures
replacements/repairs in the urban areas of Augusta for a period of one year. This is
contingent upon adoption of the item. Funds are available in the street light budget
account number 276-04-1610-5414410. (Approved by Engineering Services Committee
November 13, 2006)
PETITIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS
27. Motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of the Commission held
November 9, 2006.
16
APPOINTMENTS
28. Motion to approve the appointment of Mr. David Penix to the ARC Riverfront
Development Board representing District 8.
ADDENDUM ITEMS:
Addendum Item 3. Authorize the Mayor or Mayor Pro Tem to execute the 1945 County,
1949 City and 1977 County Pension Plans Final Compliance Statements and file same with
the IRS along with drafts of the amended and restated pension plans. (Requested by the
Attorney)
Addendum Item 4. Approve tasking the Administrator to work with the Mayor’s
Brownsfield Commission to develop a path forward for the redevelopment of the Hyde
Park community.
Addendum Item 5. Approve a Resolution of Condolence for Judge Herbert Kernaghan.
Addendum Item 6. Approve a Resolution authorizing the application for a grant under the
Georgia Recreational Trails Program for the purpose of constructing trails on property
purchased for the Augusta Richmond County Greenspace Program. (Requested by Mayor
Copenhaver)
Motion carries 10-0. [Items 1-13, 15-24 26-28, Addendum Items 3-6]
The Mayor: Madame Clerk, let’s move to the agenda items that were pulled for
discussion first.
The Clerk:
PUBLIC SERVICES
14. Motion to approve a request by William Jenkins for an extension of time to purchase
the Alcohol license for Southside Restaurant & Lounge located at 2083 Old Savannah
Road. There will be Dance. District 2. Super District 9. (Approved by Public Services
Committee November 13, 2006)
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams I believe ---
Mr. Williams: Yes sir Mr. Mayor. I’m in support. This young man came before us
before and I have two questions Rob, first is this the same initial uh, request before, because I
thought it was gonna be just a restaurant type situation that was able to serve alcohol. Now it
says lounge and, and dance, so I’m just trying to figure out. Is that the original application?
Mr. Sherman: (Unintelligible).
Mr. Mayor: Please state your name and address for the record please?
Mr. Jenkins: My name is William Jenkins. My address is 1211 Fuller Street. In answer
to that question, it is the original application.
17
Mr. Williams: Okay, I was under the impression that it was going to be um, a restaurant
situation versus a lounge situation. The other question is uh, how much time are we uh, allowing
now before the license. I think this was done back in October, when?
Mr. Jenkins: Ninety days, sir.
Mr. Williams: Okay, so you’re asking for another ninety days, is that what you’re asking
for?
Mr. Jenkins: Yes, sir.
Mr. Williams: Okay, Mr. Mayor I was a little, little confused on the lounge and the
dance part. We talked about a restaurant situation and I thought that’s what it was gonna be, a
fifty percent of food sales still got to account for it, is that right Rob?
Mr. Sherman: If he’s going to have Sunday sales, he would be required to have fifty
percent of his gross sales from the sale of food. Um, you’re not asking for Sunday sales.
Mr. Jenkins: No, I’m not.
Mr. Sherman: He’s not asking for Sunday sales.
Mr. Jenkins: Not at all.
Mr. Williams: Okay, alright, I’m gonna make a motion to approve, uh, with the
additional, ninety days is a long time but I’m gonna go ahead a motion to approve the ninety
days, hopefully the business will be up and open by then. Um, with that reason that we, we came
so early, or we wasn’t ready, something happened construction wise?
Mr. Jenkins: Yes sir. I’m basically uh, the building was not up to par. I wanted to do
some things, um, to the building and the property was not mine. I’m trying to acquire the
property. I want to make it a lot nicer than what it was. I just couldn’t tie my money up into
someone else’s building. So, I’m trying to purchase the building.
Mr. Williams: Okay, well ---
Mr. Mayor: Is that a motion to approve?
Mr. Williams: That’s a motion, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Cheek: Second.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion?
Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign.
Mr. Williams votes No.
18
Dr. Hatney abstains.
Mr. Williams: Nancy, you need to change that vote of mine. I’m sorry, I thought I was
voting for it. I support him. You need to change that to a yes.
Motion carries 9-1.
Mr. Mayor: Next agenda item?
The Clerk:
ENGINEERING SERVICES
25. Motion to direct the Traffic Engineering Section of the Engineering Department to
remove the temporary speed humps and associated signage along Crane Ferry road.
(Approved by Engineering Services Committee November 13, 2006)
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: Mr. Mayor, we talked with the Traffic Engineering person in Committee
and uh, I brought this to the Committee and I’m going to bring the same issue up now. We’re
looking at closing uh, what’s the road, Wilkinson Circle, where there’s a cut through from
Gordon Highway over to, to uh, Milledgeville Road I believe, and I was wondering can this
material we take up, and I know it needs some repairs or some things to go with it. We might
not be able to use it. But if possible, rather than closing that road, I think the problems arise
when there’s been some speeders going through. If this can stop that without closing the road,
when you talking about emergency vehicles coming in, it’s better to have two ways in that have
one way in, even though it may be feasible to have it one way. But if we can keep it two-way I
think it’ll be a lot better. I talked to Commissioner Holland about it, I talked about it in
Engineering Services Committee, but if we can uh, use this equipment, with a little repairs to it,
to stop it cause I think we put these over on Crane Ferry because we had a traffic problem come
through there with a lot of traffic and every kind of speeding. But uh, if we can do that in the
form of a motion, Mr. Mayor, I would. If it can’t be used, than it can’t be used. But if it can I
think it would be a feasible thing to do.
Mr. Cassell: I spoke to my crew that’s been dealing with the speed humps and according
to them, the one’s that are out there are now warped, they likely couldn’t be reused when they,
likely wouldn’t last anymore than 2 ½ three years as the ones that are out there now. The way
they’re secured at the pavement, we would have to buy additional materials. It would probably
be best just to scrap the ones that are there. I don’t think that they are uh, to likely be reused.
: Well, I want to make a motion to approve this Mr. Mayor but I
Mr. Williams
wanted to bring that point out, if we could it. But if you can’t, I understand.
Mr. Cheek: Second.
19
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion?
Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign.
Motion carries 10-0.
Mr. Mayor: And Madame Clerk, as we move into the regular agenda, since we do have
the Mayor of Grovetown here, I would like to request that we get to Item 33 first.
The Clerk:
ENGINEERING SERVICES
33. Approve Change Order #1 for Eagle Utilities in the amount of approximately
$5000,000 to be paid by Grovetown for connections to the Upper Butler Sanitary Sewer
Project, AUD no. 50128. (Requested by Commissioner Jimmy Smith)
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Like I said I talked to someone on the utilities
about this on, yesterday I think it was, and uh, explained to me about the same firm continuing to
Grovetown. I don’t have an issue with that, I don’t have a problem at all, I’m just wondering
why the same firm can’t continue to do it without Augusta being uh, I guess the responsible party
for it. If they done a good job for us, they ought to be able to and do the same job for Grovetown
as well. Uh, but why is Augusta got to be, I guess, the Change Order for it to let Grovetown pay
Augusta, versus letting Grovetown pay the uh, ---
Mr. Byne: The consideration is that the contractor on- hand is doing a good job, is laying
the pipe according to Augusta standards and specifications and because I guess we’ll be
receiving the sewage from Grovetown through that line, we’d like it constructed in accordance
with our standards and specs and additions. Sort of just a continuation of the process, one of our
inspectors would watch it, would make sure that it is still constructed properly in accordance
with our specs and that we have line items already in the project that would just be extended to
accommodate this revised section of line. Because of that it would just facilitate the speedy
construction of the line also.
Mr. Williams: Okay Mr. Mayor I think that answered my question. I was wondering
why were we, were the ones to continue the contract when it ended with us. Looked like this
was a good company, a good firm, they ought to be able to just take from Grovetown and let
Grovetown handle it. So we’re gonna be responsible for the part that do the inspection and
anything else but Grovetown is going to pay the City of Augusta. Is that right?
Mr. Byne: Yes, sir. In particular in that, uh, the contractor’s already on sight so there is
some cost savings for mobilization of that type of thing that wouldn’t have to occur.
I’m gonna make a motion that we approve,
Mr. Williams: Okay, Mr. Mayor,
nobody’s got any comments.
20
Mr. Cheek: Second.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. Commissioner Holland.
Mr. Holland: Yes sir, I was listening to this is reference to the contract, to the contractors
already working. So how assured are we that we are going to get the $500,000.00 back to us?
Mr. Byne: The agenda item itself actually authorizes to finalize those numbers. One, the
contractor gets back what, there’s three line items that have to be added to the contract that aren’t
currently in it. Road construction, metering, sewer manhole construction and um, there’s one
line item that escapes me right now. But the Agenda Item would actually say, the approximate
amount is approximately $500,000.00 but that we would negotiate, based on the rates that are
present in the contract currently, but the quantities are negotiated as part of the new engineering
design.
Mr. Holland: So you gonna negotiate after the other line items have been added or
before?
Mr. Byne: The amount will be whatever the line items total to. The amount will be
approximately $500,000.00, (but it’ll be quantities) the quantities yes, I’m sorry quantity will be
negotiated, not the price in the contract. So the price is what the price is per unit quantity but the
quantities will be extended to cover the additional sewer line construction.
Mr. Holland: Okay, we are assured we will be receiving the $500,000.00. The Mayor
(LAUGHTER) just wanna make sure, don’t wanna cut us short here now. Thank you.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion?
Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign.
Motion carries 10-0.
The Clerk:
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
29. Motion to approve the Amendments to New Savannah Road Social Services, Inc.
Community Development Block Grant.
Mr. Shepard: Mr. Mayor?
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Shepard.
Mr. Shepard: I utilized the contract with this group and have a new draft to the contract
to deliver to the body at this time. And if you’ll just look at the scope, the Attachment A it
shows, and I’ll pass it out it shows where the funding was reviewed (unintelligible).
Mr. Mayor: Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
21
Mr. Shepard: Attachment A, your honor, members of the Commission, shows a current
budget of $25,000. Budget changes would be um, as summarized in the second column and the
uh, new budget for this grant would then be in the third column, $15,609.12 and there would be
$93,090.88 to apply to other authorized programs if the Commission sees fit to um, approve the
amendments.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Holland, does this come with and recommendation from
Administrative Services?
Mr. Holland: Not to my knowledge, sir. I think that during Administrative Services we
uh, we approved this. Is Ms Gentry here? Can you speak to this?
Mr. Shepard: And we also extended the contract time until December 31, 2006 and what
I did was just implement the five recommendations at the end of the background statement in this
agenda item.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Grantham.
Mr. Grantham: Mr. Mayor, this appears to be uh, a formal contract that was agreed upon
with the New Savannah Road Social Service and all it does is asking for an amendment to this
contract. They have not spent the funds from what I can see and so they’re saying they will
refund us, the 9000 ex amount of dollars based on their needs and their uses that they’ve already
. I make a
had. So based on that the reduced grant would be in the neighborhood of $15,600.00
motion we approve.
Mr. Holland: Mr. Mayor?
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Holland.
Mr. Holland: Ms. Rose White is here. Let’s hear from Ms. Rose White before we pass
the motion on this one.
Mr. Mayor: Ms. White.
Ms. White: Yes, the Mayor and the Commission. What this is uh, New Savannah Road
Social Services had a $25,000.00 CDG grant and it was supposed to, it is being used for services
for the youths and for seniors. They were unable to spend the money uh, within the time frame
and their agreement expired in July. What we’re asking for is to allow them to extend their
st
agreement until December the 31 and plus, allow them to move and forfeit $9,390.00. What we
will be coming back to you, and this is just added on to it, we’re doing the police substation over
there in Bethlehem and we are in need also for some additional money so this $9,300.00 that
they are forfeiting, we need more than that, but we will be coming back. So it’s not really that,
you know, this $9,300.00 is not going to be utilized for that area, we plan to utilize it. So
st
basically you extended this particular agreement to December the 31 and reducing it from
$25,000.00 to $15,000.00 and we’re going to use the $9,300.00 for another, uh, bring it back to
you at another time for the police substation.
22
Mr. Brigham: Mr. Mayor?
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Brigham.
Mr. Brigham: The way I read this, this is a Community Block, Department of
Community Affairs Grant from the State. Doesn’t the money go back to the Department of
Community Affairs?
Ms. White: This is uh, the local Federal CDBG Grant. This is not a Department of
Community Affairs Grant.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Grantham.
Mr. Grantham: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I gonna go back to a couple previous years ago.
These are grants that, once we receive those grants, we act as the agent for that money, to
disperse those funds as a request given to us. And that’s what Ms. White is alluding to that these
funds will come back, that $93,000.00 will come back to us and we would then disperse that out
to another agency as the new request comes in.
Mr. Mayor: Ms. Beard.
Ms. Beard: Uh, Mr. Mayor, I’d like to second Mr. Grantham’s motion.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: I just wish that, I mean to turn ahead Mr. Mayor, and I wish we had an
Administrative Services somewhere. Uh, we in support, we understand what Ms. White is
saying, uh, I think sometime we do Legal stuff before we vote on stuff and sometime it make it
illegal because, here we are now, we done, we done renegotiated and we hadn’t approved. And I
got a problem when someone hand me a document that’s been handled by the Attorney for me to
vote on and I don’t know what it is. And I heard Mr. Shepard who tried to explain it to us but
until you got here, Ms. White, I was totally confused, and it don’t take much to confuse me, I
understand that, but I was totally confused until you got up and now I understand what we’re
doing, we in support of Savannah Road, we know about the area that need the fire, I mean the
police substation. But I just think we get the horse sometimes behind the cart and heading the
wrong way or something. There’s been a motion made Mr. Mayor, we’ll go ahead and vote on
this and get this over. But I just wished it would’ve come through us. We are to direct the
Attorney to do whatever is necessary, not the Department or not a Agency, but this body ought to
be telling the Attorney what to put together and bring it back versus, and this is ain’t the only
one. There’s another one here, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: Okay. Mr. Shepard.
Mr. Shepard: Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem members of the Commission, the change
was in a, was already in your um, book so I was thinking that I could expedite it if you liked and
23
uh, that was the attempt to expedite this because I didn’t make up the Attachment A, it was
already in the material. So ---
Mr. Williams: I understand, Mr. Shepard. You work for this board so ---
Mr. Mayor: Okay, we have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion?
Mr. Holland: Uh, yes, sir, Mr. Mayor ---
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Holland.
Mr. Holland: --- I’m having to agree with Mr. Williams. When he hand me this, you
know, it kinda threw me off completely, and I was looking in the back for an attachment to read
this information. I’m so happy that Ms. White was here to explain this because sometimes, I
think, before we’ve talked about being handed information at the last minute. And this has been
mentioned several times by the Commissioners, and it throws us off completely when we get
information like this and it makes it appears as if we’re not familiar with what we’re doing. And
uh, that’s not professional and that’s not protocol, so I would appreciate it very much if we can
get this information before time, especially when we have to vote on it. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. If there’s no further discussion
Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign.
Motion carries 10-0.
The Clerk:
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
30. Motion to approve the recommendations from the Historic Preservation Commission
to designate Olde Town as a Local Historic District.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: Mr. Mayor, this is one that we’ve been going around with for quite some
time. I talked to Ms. Beard. I talked to the Historic Board. I support uh, uh, that area. If we take
Olde Town as a whole and do this, we gonna really, I think handicap some of the community uh,
down there. Some of those properties are in really bad, poor condition. The people that are there
can’t hardly afford to keep ‘em the way they are and they are in bad condition. If we put ‘em
under those guidelines, now I’ve got no problem with going from uh, Reynolds Street over to
Telfair, from East Boundary up to Fifth Street somewhere. But when you go to First and
Forsythe, and those streets over there, you got some properties over there that’s, that really need
to be torn down anyway. Now we stopped the demolishing. We said we not gonna have
anymore until we look at what we’re doing and, and I agree and we looked at that. But some of
those property owners, some of those are residents that live there, but they’re not going to be
able to withstand the guidelines of the whole Historic District if you do that. We had the same
problem with Bethlehem Community Center where this Body, and I wasn’t here that time, I
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don’t think nobody was here that time, uh, said that would be a historic area and now it’s on the
national register, but people were holding on to trash, trying to wait until somebody come along
to buy or to spend ex amount of dollars because of the historic designation. So, I think we need
to look at, I think we would be very careful, that we’re going from Reynolds over to Telfair
Street and from Fifth Street down to East Boundary and look at the really, really nice structures.
But that stuff on those side streets, First Avenue, Forsythe Street, it’s a really, really bad
situation. And you’re going, you’re going to really affect some of those people who can’t afford
to Mr. Mayor. I mean and if people, if everybody down there, if there was some money that was
coming through, and I hear people talking about the money, we get Federal dollars Ms. White
just talked about, but we ain’t able to spend it and we got neighborhoods we ain’t touched yet.
So the money’s here but the will to do it has not been here and you going to disenfranchise some
of those people who live in that area who wanna stay in that area but they’re not gonna be able to
fix their houses at all, --- by the rules, Mr. Mayor. So, I can’t support this at all unless we
designate a street from Reynolds over to maybe Telfair like I said from Fifth to East Boundary.
Mr. Mayor: Yes, sir, can we hear from you?
Mr. Moon: Okay, Good afternoon everybody. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My name is
Robert Moon and I’m the Chairman of the Historic Preservation Commission. Uh, Mr. Williams
I appreciate your concerns that you have about this nomination and I just, I just have a few
remarks I’d like to make, I understand five minutes is the rule so hopefully I’ll stay underneath
that. Um, to talk a little bit about what this designation means for the neighborhood and what it
would mean for the owners who are down there. Um, first and foremost I’d to thank y’all for
considering this Historic District nomination for Olde Town, for the Olde Town neighborhood.
It’s Augusta’s first neighborhood. I’m really only the latest in a long line of people who have
been involved with the creation of historic district for Olde Towne. This idea for the district
started well before I moved into Olde Town. I first learned about the neighborhood association’s
interest about four years ago when I bought my house down on Greene Street. As I understand
it, the idea for the Historic District nomination began many years ago with the National
Registered Designation of the Pinch Gut area. This was done to keep the Calhoun Expressway,
as I understand it, as it was explained to me recently, to keep the Calhoun Expressway from
extending all the way to Sand Bar Ferry. Thereby, basically bypassing all of downtown Augusta
and completely destroying the fabric of Olde Town and downtown. After the creation of
Summerville, in the downtown local districts, people began to think about America’s, I’m sorry,
about Augusta’s first neighborhood. A number of years ago the neighborhood association
formed a committee to explore the development and the guidelines to explore the development of
guidelines to help preserve the look and feel of our neighborhood. The committee looked at
guidelines in other districts in Augusta to see what they were like. Historic Augusta became
involved. By resurveying the district to identify contributing and non-contributing structures
they also secured a grant of $13,000.00 to develop the guidelines. A joint team involving
Historic Augusta, the neighborhood association and a firm called Edward Pittman’s
Environmental developed guidelines for our neighborhood. Edward Pittman’s brought with
them a wealth of knowledge to help design the guidelines specific for the problems that we have
in Olde Town. The guidelines were presented to the neighborhood association earlier this year
and they were adopted by that association. I just share this information with you because I want
to point out this is a grassroots effort. Okay, this is coming from the residents of Olde Towne.
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This isn’t Historic Augusta, this isn’t the City, okay. This is something that’s been going on for
a while. As representatives of the people of Augusta, you’re probably wondering what the
creation will mean, what it will mean for the residents in the neighborhood. And I know you’re
not supposed to start off with negative things but I’m going to start out with what it’s not going
to do, okay? First of all, it’s not going to force the residents to fix up their houses. It’s not going
to force the residents to alter their houses in any way. It’s not going to restrict people from
altering their houses on the inside. It’s not going to require that multi-family houses be returned
to a single-family house. It’s not going to require certain paint colors, okay, there’s to be nothing
about paint colors, what you can paint your house. It’s not going to affect the regular
maintenance and upkeep of a homeowners, of a home, of a home. It’s going to cost the residents
a dime to live in their homes and to maintain their homes. It’s not going to cost them any
money. It’s not going to stop the construction of anything in Olde Town. Any finally, and
maybe this is the most important thing, it is not going to cost the City a dime to implement these
regulations. If you pass this district nomination, it will require that people get a Certificate of
Appropriateness for some things. If an owner plans to make a material change to their house,
what that means is if they want to take off siding and put up stucco, that’s a material change. If
they want to tear off a metal roof and put on a shingle roof, that’s a material change. So that
going to require a Certificate of Appropriateness. If a homeowner wants to add a significant
addition to the visible area of their house, if they want to build additional structures on their
property, if they want to add a fence, if they do want to build new structures on lots, it is going to
require that the structures fit in with the overall look and feel of the neighborhood. And then
lastly yes, if you do want to demolish a structure you’re going to have to get a Certificate of
Appropriateness and this is just to ensure that suitable alternatives can first be reached before we
take that irreversible step of knocking down a historic structure. There’s been a lot of concern
expressed just now by Mr. Williams as this process has been going along on the impact this will
have on the lower income residents. I would point out first, like I was saying, my time up?
Mr. Mayor: Yes, sir. Sorry about that but we do ---
Mr. Moon: No problem.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Hatney.
Mr. Smith: Can we extend his time? I’d like to finish hearing from him.
Mr. Mayor: Can we hear from Commissioner Hatney and then I’ll give him time.
You’re almost finished aren’t you?
Mr. Moon: Yeah I got about that much more.
Mr. Mayor: Okay. Commissioner Hatney.
Mr. Hatney: When you mention you, you, the Historic um, what you said, you kept
referring to it as Augusta’s first neighborhood and then you, but you continue saying the
neighborhood, but you’re extension here goes all the way to Laney Walker. Now in all these
decisions you’ve made, have all these folk been included?
26
Mr. Moon: Yes, sir. They have been, there was a mailing to all the residents ---
Mr. Hatney: Never mind about the mailing, I mean you got to do better than that with the
mailing. Have they been included in drawing up of all these papers you talking about?
Mr. Moon: Dr. Hatney, I personally did not go to their houses and invite them down.
We did our best to get people to come down. We held various meetings, we published our
meeting times and our meeting places, we put signs up in the neighborhood, we hand delivered
flyers to houses to include people. And I would point out that from Laney Walker, the only
reason it goes up to Laney Walker is to include Magnolia and Cedar Park Cemeteries, or Cedar
Grove, I’m sorry the cemeteries. It doesn’t include that extension, and this might be what you’re
thinking is that Laney Walker and East Boundary sort of up in the corner ---
Mr. Hatney: I’m not thinking that, I’m looking at the diagram you have here. My
concern is that uh, when these type of activities are implemented, you say it won’t handicap folk
but if, I’ve got a house and I decided I want to add a room to and I gotta get your approval.
That’s a critical situation right there. That’s real critical and, and, if these folk who have houses
all the way from, come from Walker Street, I mean the next street to that Walker Street and you
got all of those other streets all the way out to Laney Walker and full side streets and all the
streets in there, both sides you got Sibley and all the streets, cause all of them go into different
areas. There’s a lotta folk in those areas and um, and I personally don’t have no problem with
the historic nothing, but I do have a problem in posing this situation on me when I had not even,
nobody’s even talked to me about it. Because that’s what I still hear, that if we authorize this, we
have no knowledge what these other folk haven’t a clue of what you’re talking about.
Mr. Moon: Yes sir and I understand ---
Mr. Hatney: That to me is critical.
Mr. Moon: We, I, like I said, we’ve invited people. We have had actually very good
participation from folks on Walker and Watkins Street. We held a public meeting, the
neighborhood association held a public meeting, at Thankful Baptist Church on Walker Street
that was very well attended. So we have had participation from those neighborhoods.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Beard.
Ms. Beard: Mr. Mayor, uh, I have attended a number of their meetings uh, they worked
for months on this. They’ve really been very diligent. And another thing, it’s really a very
diverse group. And uh, along with Greene Street and the others, the back streets are historical
too. Now I brought that up. I saw problems there. But with all of it we need to try to maintain it
because that’s the fabric of our society. And I don’t know what else I can say, that I’ve listened
to them, I had input, and I feel at this time they should be given my support.
Mr. Mayor: Does anybody feel like making a motion on this?
27
Mr. Williams: I thought the young man was gonna be able to finish his ---
Mr. Mayor: Yes, sir. Go ahead.
Mr. Moon: Okay, I’ll just finish real quick. All I was going to wrap up with is just
saying that, as um, you’re concern the impact it would have on lower income residents, as long
as the resident is living in their home, and they just want to maintain their home, the designation
doesn’t impact them, okay, as long as they’re just doing regular basic maintenance. Second,
there is a hardship clause that is a part of the Historic Preservation Ordinance. That does talk
about, the HPC, the Historic Preservation Commission, needs to consider the impact that it has
on lower income people. I have to admit that, I’m fairly new to the Historic Preservation
Commission. In the past they haven’t done a really good job of implementing the hardship
clause of the Historic Preservation Ordinance. I actually want to try and change that. What I’m
going to do to try and change that is we’re going to change the application procedure so that
individuals, when they apply, there’s gonna be a box they can check that says, I would like to be
considered as a hardship. Okay? Right there what that does is that says, I know my proposal
doesn’t meet the guidelines but I want you to consider how this is going to impact me if I do, or
the financial impact this will have. Second of all, if the HPC decides to disapprove, does not
allow a COA, to deny a COA under a hardship clause, I would like for it to automatically, okay,
to come before the full Commission, to come before y’all, okay? That’s really, it’s y’all’s
business to decide about um, hardship and things like that. As a preservations Commission we
shouldn’t make those decisions. That should be for y’all to decide. Thank you.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: Mr. Mayor, I’m gonna try to be brief. I remember Glenn Avenue, I think
it is, and Mr. Sydney came down form the department store and the previous HPC, he wanted to
change the roofing on his house. Very nice homes in that area, this ain’t no low (unintelligible),
this ain’t no low income, these are people who got uh, uh, a substantial amount of money to, to,
sustain their homes and their families. But there was a hardship for the HPC then to let them
change shingles on their homes because they had these guidelines that they were going by. Well,
maybe things didn’t change, and me and the young man talked earlier, but I just know when you
look at the people on the other side of Telfair Street, beginning at Telfair Street, uh, Greater Zion
Baptist Church is right there, and right across through there, there’s some situations in there,
these people are not going to be able to, to, subdue to what’s being asked. They’re going to be in
front of this Commission every time they change anything on their home. Now maybe HPC has
got a different mind set now. But from what I understand and what I know, Mr. Mayor, uh, I
think they’d be putting a hardship on. I think those two-story, three-story buildings downtown,
anybody who can fit in this ought to be, I mean they ought to lock arms and do it. But I don’t
think it ought to be forced on those who can’t afford to. Now and some of those homes was uh,
was Ms. Beard brought it back a little while ago, that’s a five --- community. Some of the poor
people who have been there for two-thousand years Mr. Mayor, you can’t tell them that’s
historic now. Ain’t nothing historic about a shotgun house to me. Nothing at all and if you put a
million dollars in it, who gonna stay in it? You don’t have no room to park a car on that. You
got a house sitting there but you ain’t go no lot with it. --- had to be there, if they got guidelines
placed on them, to restrict them, they will never be able to do anything with it and the house is
28
either gonna get dilapidated and go down because nobody’s gonna do anything with it. But, I
don’t wanna, I wanna help it. I wanna, I wanna do what we can but I wanna make sure that we
don’t handicap people thinking that we’re gonna help them. That’s my comment.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Beard.
Ms. Beard: I just want to uh, remind you uh, the guidelines are not as stringent as they
have been for some of the other communities. That is correct, isn’t it?
Mr. Moon: Yes, ma’am.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Bowles.
Mr. Bowles: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would just like to add to Mrs. Beard’s comment
that, that the HPC over the last three years has changed dramatically. The Board that used to be
antagonistic has now become one that wants to work with the community and um, items that Mr.
Williams referred to is, you know, is a reality that years ago they would force people that had tile
roofs to replace a roof, but the Board has changed dramatically and I feel confident that this
would be something that would work well for the community.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Hatney.
Mr. Hatney: One question. You keep mentioning the document, and I know this is
gonna sound crazy, you say if and individual comes to you guys and asks to do a particular thing,
and the Board does not accept that, then they have to come down here and ask us to enforce,
override your document to allow these folk privileges. And my concern is, is, you have put this
Board in the position to have to override something that we ain’t never saw. Had not seen, had
not laid eyes on. It’s critical and it’s good. You mentioned the cemeteries, now. Help me with
the cemeteries. They’re called historical, they’ve been, definitely, you ride around, one of them
got ditches all around. They don’t even got a fence. So what are you gonna do for that? I don’t
understand what you mean. Historically, you had white folks in Magnolia and black folks in
Cedar Grove. You gonna still do that?
Mr. Moon: This will not affect who’s buried or ---
Mr. Hatney: I’m not trying to be funny sir ---
Mr. Moon: I know, I mean, ---
Mr. Hatney: --- historical ---
Mr. Moon: --- I’m not trying to be ---
Mr. Hatney: Okay.
29
Mr. Moon: --- be sarcastic or anything. It really has absolutely nothing to do with, with
who’s there. Um, and basically just has to do with maintaining the, maintaining the cemeteries.
I mean if you don’t like the cemeteries in there well then we can throw them out, there just an
important part---
Mr. Hatney: No, don’t go bothering the dead folk now; they’ve been there a long time.
I’m not trying to be funny. You mentioned historic preservations, okay. There’s a lot of history
in those cemeteries. You got to be careful talking about historic preservation when you talking
about cemeteries.
Mr. Moon: Right.
Mr. Hatney: That’s all I’m saying.
Mr. Moon: Yes, that’s very true and that’s what we want to make sure that those
cemeteries are maintained and that basically, and this may sound like I’m being sarcastic or
crazy, but this would prevent someone from going in and, and, building something huge in the
cemeteries. That would be out of place. This would prevent the City from going in and uh,
putting in, you know, a huge signs or something like that, and the things like that. That’s
basically, when we include the cemeteries. It’s kind of like landscaping. It’s about maintaining
those areas.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, the question has been called for by Mr. Williams and I believe the
issue has been adequately discussed. Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign.
The Deputy Clerk: Mr. Mayor, you don’t have a motion.
Mr. Grantham: You got to have a motion.
Mr. Mayor: Oh, excuse me.
So moved.
Ms. Beard:
Mr. Grantham: Second.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. Commissioners will now vote by the usual
sign.
Mr. Harper and Mr. Williams vote No.
Mr. Holland out.
Motion carries 7-2.
Mr. Moon: Thank you all very much.
Mr. Mayor: Thank you. Next agenda item.
30
The Clerk:
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
31. Motion to approve Retirement of Mr. William Manecke under the 1949 Pension Plan.
So moved.
Mr. Brigham:
Mr. Cheek: Second.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion?
Mr. Williams: Mr. Mayor why is this on the regular agenda and not the consent agenda?
Is there a reason why it’s on the regular agenda and not on the consent?
Mr. Grantham: It should have been put on the consent.
Mr. Williams: Yeah, I mean, is there a reason from HR or somebody?
Mr. Mayor: Okay. We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion?
Mr. Williams: None.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign.
Mr. Hatney and Mr. Holland out.
Motion carries 8-0.
The Clerk:
FINANCE
32. Consider a tax appeal from Jennifer Rucker regarding Peach Orchard Plaza, 2708
Peach Orchard Road. (Map 098-3-245-00-0) (No recommendation from Finance
Committee November 13, 2006.
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Shepard.
Mr. Shepard: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The group represented by Jennifer Rucker is now
represented by a local attorney, Mr. Pat Claiborne. He was asking that be continued to today. I
think he talked with Ms. Bonner as what we could tell and he asked that it be postponed until the
next time when he can be.
Mr. Mayor: Can we get a motion to that effect?
So moved.
Mr. Grantham:
Mr. Cheek: Second.
31
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Commissioners
will now vote by the usual sign.
Motion carries 10-0.
The Clerk:
SUBCOMMITTEE
EEOC appointment:
34. Motion to approve the recommendation of the EEOC Subcommittee relative to the
appointment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Coordinator.
Mr. Hatney: Uh, Mr. Mayor?
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Hatney.
Mr. Hatney: We and the other Commissioners over the last four months have been trying
to put an individual in place for this. We went through stacks of applications to initially end up
with three individuals are those persons above disclosure from on the 7th of November
qualifying them to be, --- recommendation be made today. The individuals are, Ms. Diane
Darris, Mr. William Blake and Mr. Cohen Dale Foster and the person we would like to
.
recommend is Ms. Diane Darris, who really is stronger than all of the other applicants were
We’d like to put that in the form of a motion that we accept Ms. Darris as being the
nominee.
Mr. Holland: Second.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion?
Mr. Grantham: Mr. Mayor?
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Grantham.
Mr. Grantham: Uh, thank you Mr. Mayor. I was at the, one of the interviews with Ms.
Darris and I certainly have no problem with your situation as far as her becoming the EEOC,
however I do have a um, a recommendation that I’d like to make and have our Administrator to
come back with some information in regards to this. And I don’t mind going ahead and
approving her situation today, but it looks, it appears to me that since we’ve talking about this,
that um, the, the duties that particular office will be handling is now somewhat under the Human
Relations Commission, and with that being the case, I think we’re duplicating some staff efforts
and with this Human Relations Commission, I’d like to, I’d like to have some consideration as to
what we are going to do with that particular Commission for the future. It would appear to me
that, I think we could either, either have that Commission abolished, done away with, whatever,
but I don’t see to where we need to duplicate these things and I think, uh, Mr. Williams had had
32
some conversations with me about that back some months ago and um, I don’t want to get into
names, and I don’t want to get into taking a job away from anyone, but if retirements in order for
some of the people I think we need to explore that particular avenue. So, that’s my comment,
I’m not in a motion uh, form right now but I do think serious consideration needs to be given to
those two particular positions.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: I agree with my colleague Mr. Grantham. We talked about and I think
that’s something we really need to look at. But this new person’s been nominated uh, Mr.
Mayor, uh before we approve uh, I don’t know what HR has contacted but I think that it ought to
be a caveat put in there where she’d be on a twelve month basis trial period and if she doesn’t
pan out, I mean we hire folks and pay ‘em and they do nothing and I’m not behind anybody to
put in a position that anybody that comes in ought to have a twelve month period and if they
can’t accept the job under those basis, Mr. Mayor, then evidently they not going to be able to do
the job or want to do the job. So we need to make sure that if this person coming in, if they can
accept that position with the understanding that they’re on a twelve month probation. That we
looking for uh, uh, productivity out of that person in, in, in, their job duties cause they’re
supposed to be coming with expertise. We paying real money, we look for real work. Now do I
need to make that in the form of a motion as we approve this person? How do we need to do
that?
Mr. Mayor: Well, we have a motion and a second to approve but, Mr. Russell?
Mr. Russell: Commissioner Williams, that person working for the Commission would be
at will, so you would have the ability to ---
Mr. Williams: Yes, sir, I understand that and I’m not cutting you short, Mr. Russell, but
what we need to get, the understanding is with that person. We know that but they need to know
that too before they accept this job. Not just at will but they got a twelve month probation period
and we ought to be uh, studious enough to keep up with what they’re doing and are they doing it.
So there won’t be no surprises at the end of twelve months.
Mr. Russell: I understand.
Mr. Williams: I mean so, I just think that ought to be something that’s clear to that
person, that we, we, want them to come in and be able to do the job.
Mr. Russell: And we could put that in the letter of offer when directed to do so.
Mr. Williams: I got no problem with that.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Beard.
33
Ms. Beard: Mr. Mayor, we’ve been waiting about ten years for this position to be filled
and I do think it’s something that is needed here. The employees need somewhere to go for
assistance. They need it.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion?
Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign.
Motion carries 10-0.
The Clerk:
ADMINISTRATOR
35. Motion to approve the proposed ARC 2007 Budget.
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Russell, I believe this would be your agenda item?
Mr. Russell: Uh, yes, sir, Mr. Mayor. It gives me a great deal of pleasure to come before
th
you today and uh, talk about the 2007 budget. Um, on October the 17, I presented a balanced
budget that consisted of a combination of reduction of services, a small increase of the millage
rate and no use of fund balance. This is a product of many hours of conversation with members
of the Commission, members of the public, members of the staff in putting together a budget that
uh, I thought accomplished the goals of that you had established several months ago as we first
talked about where we wanted to be in our budget process. We are continuing to review our
expenses, our personnel costs and services. But we are still are experiencing better and
anticipated revenue projections. Those revenue projections have made the budget process a little
bit easier. And just as a note, today you approved in the Planning portion of our meeting, 143
lots to be developed in the City of Augusta. In addition to that, $75,000.00 a piece a house on
that lot would give us approximately $10,725,000.00 of additional taxable real estate over the
next year, just in the action taken today. As I said regularly, we’ve got lots of good things going
on, lots of things happening in our community, lots of things that are going to impact on our
budget over the next several years. And what I’ve done today is ask you to take those things into
consideration as we continue to move forward. We’ve had discussions about cutting services.
We’ve had discussions about raising taxes. We’ve had discussions about the best way to do this
and that and the best way to make widgets or the best way to drive buses or the best way to do
whatever. Those discussions have been very informative but unfortunately we haven’t come to a
lot of conclusion based on a lot of those discussions. I still face a Commission that, portions of
which want no tax increase what so ever, and others want to fund the programs that they feel
necessary to continue the progress in our City. The recommendations I gave you on October
th
17, and the recommendations that I add to those today give us a budget I think that could help
us live to the end of the tunnel where we see the light. It’s not a perfect budget, it’s one we’ll
probably come back to and want to change over the next years as we do regularly. It’s a
blueprint. It’s a guess, an educated guess on how things are going to be. And that’s exactly what
it is. That guess gets better as time goes by. We can argue for the next several weeks on
whether or not we increase the millage. And in fact we make that decision next July, not this
week, not next week or whatever. It’s a decision you vote on in July. Next July I’ll be able to
give you a better guess and a better projection on where we’re at. We will begin to see some of
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the impact of the thousand jobs that have been introduced to Augusta in the last several weeks.
The four hundred other jobs that are being impacted across the river. The $100M shopping
center, the $70M shopping center, the $93M of hospital improvements and growth and various
other things including the $10M of residential property you approved to be developed today. I
will be back. Whatever we do today, either we pass this and we move forward, or not and we
th
continue it until December 5 as we continue to argue and refine. My suggestion and my
recommendation would be that you pass the budget as presented with the following changes: No
increase in the bus fare until mandated public hearings and a recommendation from the Transit
Department in January of 2007. I’m not ready to do that yet. I’m not ready to increase those
fares. We are mandated to have public hearing about that and while we’ve heard from the public
on several occasions, we need to give them another opportunity and I would ask you not to do
that until we make a further recommendation in January. I would like to fund, based on what
we’ve heard in the community, $100,000.00 to the Neighborhood Enhancement Program. That’s
one that the people feel strongly about on both sides and um, what I’ve heard most is people say
we need to do that. I think we need to refine that, that funding is down a little bit, we can
remodel that a little bit, we need to find a better home for it as far as an organization study, an
organizational structure, but I firmly believe that that provides a service that’s necessary for that
community and am willing to fund that at $100,000.00. In addition to that, we’ve heard from the
Arts Council and the Arts Groups, over and over and over again, they’ve told us about the Arts in
our community. And what those communities bring to us, not only enriched lives, but increased
funding through retail sales and sales at our restaurants and whatever. What I propose as an
Addendum to the regular budget was an additional $50,000.00 to the Arts Council and an
additional $50,000.00 for re-granting to the other arts groups. That would give each a total of
$100,000.00 and I think that was more than appropriate given the bright light at the end of the
tunnel that we see right now. I would like to continue the hiring freeze but all but essential
positions as you know my budget requires that we gain $1.6M by not filling positions and I think
that’s appropriate and I think we’ll continue to do that. To do that I would not fill anything but
essential positions and I will give you in January a list of those positions to be deleted from our
books. They would have to be re-applied and re-approved by this Commission once deleted and
we will provide that to you in January. It’s a moving target at the moment, I think we could do
that without the loss of any employees, I’m not sure. In January I might have to tell you
something different. But right now I think we can do that and I think the prospect is good to
maintain a level of employment. It also gives me the opportunity to move some of our current
employees to positions that are being funded in some of the other areas such as utilities and stuff.
So that’s the goal that we set for ourselves and one that I hoped you would approve. Um, an
additional $500,000.00 in revenue that we project. Shortly you will hear me talk about the sale
of property that is going to be a plus for us. Not only the property on the riverfront but
additional property will bring in approximately $600,000.00 this year and we’re looking at a
$500,000.00 growth next year in those property sales. A program that the Mayor has pushed so
hard for and that we’re starting to get off the dime and moving forward with that. That
$500,000.00 gives us the revenue to fund the Neighborhood Enhancement Program, $100,000.00
to the Arts Council, fifty of which would be re-granted. Fifty to the medical impact study of
Hyde Park, there’s a typo there and I apologize for that, that should be $50,000.00 to cover the
medical impact study of Hyde Park. An additional $250.00, $250,000.00 for a contingency fund
that you all know is appropriate because of the unexpected costs that we face every year with
elections and various other assorted things. That would give us approximately $750,000.00 in
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the contingency fund. In addition to that, I heard several Commissioners over the past several
weeks talk about the Downtown Development Authority and what I’ve done there is reduce their
funding from what they’ve asked for to their current funding level which is similar to what we’ve
done. In the initial budget there was some additional funds in there for some enhanced
programming and I’ve reduced that so they face the same struggle that each of our other
departments face um, living on what they’ve lived on before basically.
Mr. Cheek: But performing one-half of the work that ---
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Cheek.
Mr. Cheek: I want to bring this point up Mr. Mayor, is they’ve done away with Main
Street, which is one-half of the function of the DDA. The director of DDA served part time, fifty
percent for DDA in that directorial position and fifty percent for Main Street Augusta. They are
now getting the same level of funding they got last year but one-half the rolls and responsibilities
as in the past. Um, I for one know that we’d get a bigger bang for our buck if we turned that
money over, reduce that figure by one-half, um, I guess more in line with their true rolls and
responsibilities and productivity and take that additional fifty or so thousand dollars and give it
to the Arts Council. They have a proven track record of bringing people to the City, um,
growing, um, visitorship to downtown Augusta and other areas whereas DDA has not and has
continued to back off of doing additional work, so I’m going to stick to my guns in that position.
I may not win today on the vote but I would like to see that number reduced by about $50,000.00
and that money given to the Arts Council.
Mr. Mayor: Continue on, Mr. Russell.
Mr. Russell: In addition to that um, I would like to be, through the budget document, the
power to bring back to you additional public/private partnership opportunities for the running of
some of our recreational facilities and other facilities we have in front of us, that seems to be
working well. We have, I was in a meeting yesterday in which we talked about one particular
facility that we have a group that interested in meeting us half way with their, excuse me in
providing volunteers and assistance in help in doing that. To several areas that we have now that
work wonderfully and the motto we would use would be the Eastview Recreation Center. That’s
a wonderful opportunity, not only for us but the citizens there in the community that’s run by the
community. And the continue to build on that model, we think that we’ve got several other
opportunities there that aren’t ready to be released yet but are in negotiation with several of those
people and I think we can bring that forward. The budget itself, um, does include a 2% increase
for our employees, I did that and I will fight for that, effective in July of next year. Part of the
reason we gave such a large raise several years ago was because of the um, lack of continual
raises throughout the line. General fund of the raise is about $600,000.00, the impact of that.
Now I think that’s appropriate and I think that’s necessary and I think that continues to get us out
of the box that we get in when we don’t give raises over a period of time. Um, that’s pretty
much the summation of what recommendations I am making, in addition to what we’ve talked
th
about, the budget document that you’ve had in front of you since October 17. It is appropriate
to listen to comments from the public at this particular point in time and I would suggest that you
36
go into a brief public hearing to determine if anybody from the public would like to make
comments then I’d be more than happy to answer any questions proposed by the Commission.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, Fred for you, for now I’ll like go back two
issues. I was in the Neighborhood Enhancement which what we’ll have to wait and see. Is that
right?
Mr. Russell: Yes, sir.
Mr. Williams: And uh, that’s I say that’s left in the year. The other aspect, about the
transportation, um, you said you wasn’t looking at raising any fees for transportation but are we
cutting out any, any services at all with the transit?
Mr. Russell: What I said, sir, was that at this point I’m not in a position to recommend an
increase in the fees because we need to have a public hearing in the public. You might come
back, and you might hear me say that, but that would be an up or down vote that you would get
to take in January. So you’re not approving that one way or the other right now. You’re
basically putting that off until we have a public hearing, sir.
Mr. Williams: Okay and I ---
Mr. Russell: The reductions that we plan on taking I think will be mainly in personnel.
We’ve got some opportunities there that we’ll be able to move some people around. I plan on
limiting the number of customer impact moves that we would make at all possible. I can tell you
at this point we would not be reducing some of the service on routes that would be justified to
have that reduced but the main thing in my mind to do with our transportation system is to make
sure we move the people that need to get moved in the manner that’s most convenient for them.
As I’ve said on a regular basis, the people that ride the buses in Augusta don’t ride it for
convenience, they ride it because that’s their only form of transportation and I’m very, very
cognizant of the need to continue to move forward with that.
Mr. Williams: Well, Mr. Russell, and I appreciate that, but let me tell you that as a
shortage comes on, talk about fear factor, well than that fear factor than hit this City and a lot of
people are fearful and I wanted to be plain and up front as to what we’re doing so I’ll know for
myself when the lifts went out, it went out as –-- the cut everybody on the lower side, I guess that
would be the best way to put that. And I’m just trying to get clear, I understand about July and
what we’re looking at doing but I want the people who are here, and the people who came to
speak or to address an issue, they don’t know what we’re doing and cause I really don’t know
what we’re doing ourselves. So they don’t know what we’re doing, they can’t address it. And I
think we ought to be as plain as Jane when it comes to letting people know, uh, where we are and
what we gotta do. Something things we just got to do. And there’s some things that the law
requires us to do. I look at Mr. Jones and I think about the handicapped and those that are
disadvantaged, I think the law specifies we got to have some transportation for them. We got to
be able to get them from point A to point B. So I said that just to get some clarity out there so,
37
uh, how’ll I know when people call me and ask me Mr. Mayor, uh, as to what exactly are we
cutting.
Mr. Mayor: What the impacts are. Commissioner Smith.
Mr. Smith: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to ask Mr. Russell a question.
(Unintelligible).
Mr. Russell: The goal, and I just wanted to make sure that I was correct in what I was
saying, is not to reduce the routes. We might reduce the frequency on the route to some degree.
But the goal is not, if we get picked up on the corner of Fifth and Broad, you will continue to get
picked up on the corner of Fifth and Broad. You might not get picked up every fifteen minutes
or every twenty-seven minutes but it might be every thirty-two minutes and that would be the
way that we attempt to make those cuts, sir.
Mr. Mayor: Okay. Commissioner Smith.
Mr. Smith: Fred, have you considered early retirement for some of these employees or
the ones that have been here a long time?
Mr. Russell: Early retirement is a topic that comes up on a regular basis with um,
particularly with the employees that have been here for a long time. They bring it up fairly
regularly. Um, part of the issue that I have with that is that um, in a lot of cases, the benefit from
early retirement is not replacing those positions. Without the benefit of having sufficient staff to
do that we lose some of the goal there. Um, I think that that’s a continued option to look at, I
think you’ll be hearing in the near future about a retirement plan that I think we can move into,
or at least put on the table that might have some help with that. But I’ve never seen that as a
panacea in a way to help balance a budget. That’s just my feelings on that.
Mr. Smith: We’ve heard a lot on --- an increase in taxes. It’s gonna be tough to sell
cause we can do it and do the budget that you have here but I really feel we need to do some real
scrutiny on what we can do without an increase in tax.
Mr. Russell: I hear you say that and I hear other members of the Commission say that.
In addition to that I also look at the numbers in which we have some of the lowest taxes in the
State. The increase I propose is $11.90 on $100,000.00, which is less than a dollar a month. Uh,
we cannot continue to operate our Government without the growth that we benefit from in our
community. Several years ago when we rolled back our taxes we took a $4M hit. That’s
something we did and that’s something we live with. In addition to that I think most people that
complain about taxes know that unfortunately there is a cost to doing business. Nobody sells the
same thing today that they sold it for two years ago or three years ago and neither can
Government hardly do that I think. That’s just the reality of what we deal with sir, and we kept
that raise to a minimum. In July we might come back and say we’ve done real good and might
not need that. I would not be that optimistic.
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Mr. Smith: Right now with the increase in the garbage, and an increase in taxes it’s a lot
of ---
Mr. Russell: And I understand that and I get those same calls.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Brigham.
Mr. Brigham: Mr. Russell, I got a couple of them I got concerns about. One is Project
Access. They didn’t make it down here. They are scheduled to be on our Commission agenda
next month asking for additional funds. They’ve been in sync for four or five years at the same
funding level. They provide medical care to the indigent of this community. They’ve never had
an increase and they want an increase also. So I got to pitch that cause I’m on, I’m our
representative to their board. And I’m doing that now but I, there’s not funding in there for that,
I think we ought to hear from that group. They have a very worthwhile argument to be made that
affects the poorest of the poor of this community, where they’re black, white, Asian or whatever,
they provide those services and they, that is the only program that has ever come back from a
national convention that worked in Augusta-Richmond County, and that’s Project Access. And
it is working. It is saved us millions of dollars in funds that we’ve spent for a taxpayer providing
indigent care. And I think they have a very worthwhile program and we need to hear from them
so we need to honor their request when we see them. The other concern I have is the fact that we
promised, when we put in the ’98 pension plan, the Defined Contribution Plan, that we would
match or attempt to match the employee’s compensation dollar for dollar. As it is now we put in
2%, the employee puts in 4%. I would like to rather than see a 2% raise, I would very much like
to see a 1% raise for the employee, and a 1% increase into the match of that contribution to that
retirement plan. I think one of the problems we have in this government was we have a number
of employees that are not covered by any kind of pension plan. And this was an attempt to make
it both feasible to cover the employees with providing a plan and also saving the City some
money and not having the costs of the defined contribution, defined benefits plans that runs years
upon years. And I’d like for that to have some consideration by the Administrator and by this
body before we go much further.
Mr. Russell: I can fund that with no problem, sir, with another half a mill increase. We
could take care of all those issues.
Mr. Brigham: I didn’t say I wanted to change the 2% raise to a 1% raise. I wasn’t
talking about an additional ---
Mr. Russell: And that’s the dilemma that I’ve got is that I’ve got people that keep
coming and saying they have worthwhile causes, which I don’t agree with. Cause I think Project
Access is that. I think what you said on the other is a good deal too. My concern is that there’s a
limited amount of dollars to go about and the only way that I see at this point that I can continue
to increase the growth is by tapping into the resources we have available to us. I don’t benefit at
all, I don’t disagree at all with moving forward with that. And I think our growth is going to give
us some opportunities to do that with minimizing the tax increase that we do have to have at
some point. And I agree with you fully.
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Mr. Mayor: Okay, we see a lot of hands up. I’m going to take them in order. First,
Commissioner Harper, then we’ll go to Commissioner Grantham, then Commissioner Beard and
then Commissioner Bowles. Commissioner Harper.
Mr. Harper: Mr. Russell, that additional $100,000.00 for the Neighborhood
Enhancement. That is the Weed and Seed Program?
Mr. Russell: Yes, sir, it is.
Mr. Harper: Is that with any cuts in service?
Mr. Russell: Uh, yes, it is, sir. We initially funded it at $125,000.00 the Director’s out.
We feel that we can combine the services of the interim individual there and save approximately
$25,000.00 in additional salaries.
Mr. Harper: You say combine the services?
Mr. Russell: Combine the duties there as we’ve done in other places. Uh, we had a
Director, some part-time assistant’s and stuff like that. It’s my recommendation that we combine
that into one individual or one position basically. We’d end up saving about $25,000.00.
Mr. Harper: That would be an elimination of uh, a position.
Mr. Russell: Yes, sir. Similar to what we’ve done in other departments across the board.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Grantham.
Mr. Grantham: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I’ve got a few questions. It’s gonna take me just
a minute or two if you don’t mind. But, it’s gonna be difficult for me to vote to approve this, this
budget recommendation today, since we were given a budget uh, book in regards to the
department’s request here back about two months ago and were asked to review this request and
see what we felt like might be in order and to bring back recommendations to the Administrator
for him to be able to work it into his recommendation. I personally have not had that opportunity
to do that. And I have talked with the Administrator and I’ve shared some thoughts with him
and I’ve shared thoughts with the other Commissioners in regards to some of these. Some of the
questions that I have is, is when we talk about eliminating positions, uh, this same discussion
was held a little over a year ago when we passed the 2006 budget. And we told that there would
be thirty-six positions eliminated at the first of the year. That has not taken place as of this date.
In addition to that, in my investigation, in looking at some of the areas where I think we’re
spending excessive amount of money is in overtime. And the overtime that we’re paying
throughout these various departments has been close to $3M a year for the last three years. And
that’s a lot of money ladies and gentlemen. It’s a lot of time involved and it’s my understanding
that there’s overtime being calculated uh, for working on Saturdays as well as other days that I
don’t think should be work days to start with. We feel like, I feel like we’re over staffed in some
of these areas where overtime is being excessively charge. And I think we should be able to look
into that and find out what we can do uh, to, if not eliminate a large portion of it but to cut back
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on a lot of it. Understanding that the safety is a area where overtime is necessary and no one can
plan or call on when a fire is going to happen or when a policeman is needed out in the service of
this area. But what I, also would like to know is it when, when we mentioned these particular
suggestions, and we’re talking about the hiring freeze and the elimination of positions, I’d like to
know what unfilled positions we have that’s going to be eliminated or deleted from the budget
because we’ve been using those figures in the past as budget adjustments. So, from that
standpoint, I’m not satisfied with the uh, with the way that this has been presented today and I’m
not ready to pass on a budget until I get some more answers or until this Commission gets some
more answers in regards to some of these areas that we need to cut what I consider to be
excessive staff. If we are every going to have an opportunity to reduce the work force of this
Government it’s going to be now. This has been talked about now for three years since I’ve been
involved. That we’re going to reduce, we’re going to eliminate, we’re going to consolidate,
we’re going to put people working together and making something happen that we haven’t in the
past. I’ve not seen that take place. Therefore I cannot vote today in favor of approving the
budget. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Russell.
Mr. Russell: In response to several of his questions. Obviously the number that we’re
projecting is a $1.6M savings in reduction, which we’ve done in the past. Part of what we’ve
done in the past Commissioner Grantham is actually absolutely right. We have not eliminated
specific positions but have gained money through not filling those positions in the form of
lapped salaries. In addition to that we’ve been able to pick up positions and not fill them
immediately simply because of a timing issue there, and picked up dollars there. We anticipate
being able to do that again. This time, because I’ve heard you, I’m going to give you a list of
positions that we will no longer fill. But once again, as you look at that, I’ve got to save about
$3.6M in that area basically. Some of that’s why you have overtime because those positions,
some times a job needs to be done and we’ve made a decision not to fill that particular position.
So it’s a catch as catch can kind of issue there. $2M of that rests in the fifty positions that are
currently unfilled in the Sheriff’s office. That’s about $2M right there. If he maintains that level
of unfilled positions as you go forward with that not counting any other positions that we have.
We’ve been able to successfully do that, it’s somewhat smoking here, as is budgets are on
occasion and I understand his position on that but the savings is there, the savings have been
reflected. Um, as far as the over staffing in the areas, you know we’ve been looking at that. I’ve
been looking at that for three years just like each and every one of us, and I don’t see the same
level of overstaffing that Commissioner Grantham sees. I see people that are working. I see
people that are doing things. I see growth in some areas. We’ve got more employees now than
what we’ve had. A lot of that’s based on the fact we had to pick our programs that we’ve never
had before. We now have sixty something people in our Indigent Defense area, where when I
got here we only had six. Because of a federal mandate and a federal court order, not with a, but
a Supreme Court decision, that required us to provide that, and we do that. And it’s costs us lots
of money. And we’ve been able to absorb that. Over and over and over again we absorbed
increased costs with little impact on how we raise taxes. We done that over and over and over
again over the past few years and we can’t continue to do that. The savings that people look for
or whatever, you know uh, it’s not magic. We, you got to work. If you work over forty hours a
week, if you’re not exempt, you get overtime if you’re doing those kinds of things that need to be
41
done. So I think that’s something we continue to work with, I don’t think I’ll have a magic
answer today, I’m not to sure I’ll have an answer in two weeks. But it’s a continuing process
that we need to continue to work on.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Beard, I believe you were next up in line?
Ms. Beard: Well, I’d just to say that uh, I guess there’s no such thing as a perfect budget.
But uh, as I’ve gone through everything, and as we have talked together, uh, I just, I feel pretty
good about where we are at this point. It could be much worse than it is. But we’re actually at a
point when things are beginning to turn around. We have more funds coming in than we have
had in the past. And that’s the only reason we’re able to accomplish uh, where we are right now.
I don’t know a rock he has not turned and uh, overall I really, I feel good about it and I really
want to commend him for all the time and effort that’s been put into this.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Bowles, you were next up?
Mr. Bowles: Yeah, I agree with Mrs. Beard but, I’ve got a few issues.
Mr. Russell: Can we go ahead and skip the but? We’ll just move right along there. I
liked the first part pretty good.
Mr. Bowles: I saw where we had budgeted a $120,000.00 for DFACS rental income and
my question is have we received the $840,000.00 that’s owed to us currently?
Mr. Russell: No, we have not.
Mr. Shepard: We have not.
Mr. Bowles: All right, so is it realistic to expect that they’re gonna pay us $120,00.00
next year when they haven’t paid us almost a million dollars to date?
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Shepard.
Mr. Shepard: I have found a witness in that case, Mr. Bowles, and I can, I think it is
more realistic we’ll get a rental out of that. But that person just came to light in the last week or
so.
Mr. Russell: Commissioner Bowles, I’m not too sure where you’re looking at but I
instructed and thought that we did not budget that, just being conservative. And I don’t know,
we need to talk about that individually. I don’t remember that line item, sir.
Mr. Bowles: Okay, then the second question is. Do we have any idea how much we are
paying for office rentals throughout the city?
Mr. Russell: I do not know that number off the top of my head, no.
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Mr. Bowles: Okay, my guess would be somewhere in the neighborhood of a half million
dollars, at least, maybe a million?
Mr. Russell: I don’t think it approaches a million. I’d be surprised if it approached a half
a million, sir, but I don’t know for sure.
Mr. Bowles: I think we need to seriously look into that and make a decision whether
we’re going to continue to put taxpayers money into real estate office building owners here in
Augusta or we’re going to buy our own property and save the taxpayers some money.
Mr. Russell: You know I actually have a recommendation that I’d like to talk to you
about in reference once again about the building next door.
Mr. Bowles: Yes, sir, I know what you’re talking about. And the last one is, I see that
we have a repair service, maintenance service for our Transit Department, the buses. Would we
not save money buy having Fleet Management do these services for us?
Mr. Russell: Actually, that’s one of the issues that was brought to my attention. We’re
looking at that. In addition to that there’s another opportunity that we have, partnering with
another government that might be able to provide some assistance there, and that’s something we
have not flushed out yet, but as I’ve suggested all along, we are continually looking for savings
as we go forward. And that would be something that we would consider and move forward with
because one of your colleagues on the Commission gave me a wonderful wide view of the
possibility I’m stealing fairly quickly and looking at another agency that might help with that
maintenance and thank you Commissioner Brigham.
Mr. Bowles: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Mr. Russell. That’s all.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Hatney.
Mr. Hatney: Uh, Mr. Bowles I think, Commissioner Bowles mentioned that Fleet
Management, and I don’t have no problem with them necessarily but I hope that they happen to
be ones that service our buses, that they do a better job with the buses than they did with that van
that we rode to Atlanta on. It shook and jumped the whole time we were up there and, you all
remember that? I mean it just, all the way up there. I’m talking about a van now.
Mr. Russell: That’s part of our recreational physical fitness program sir. (LAUGHTER)
We couldn’t afford, we couldn’t afford one of those vibrator things.
Mr. Mayor: I know we can make a little extra money by charging kids to ride on that
van.
Mr. Hatney: Let me ask you one question, please, sir.
Mr. Russell: Yes, sir.
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Mr. Hatney: You mentioned earlier that uh, you were planning on, I think, giving a list
of discontinued jobs at the first of the year. Is there any way you can do that earlier? That’s the
question.
Mr. Russell: Yes, sir, I can. What I’m attempting to do is that’s a moving target
depending on who’s not here, who leaves and who’s there basically. And that’s why I’ve sort of
put that off as best I can. But I can give you one as of, as of the first of the week and move from
there but ---
Mr. Hatney: This coming week?
Mr. Russell: Yes, sir.
Mr. Hatney: Okay, one other question. We’re talking about being, difficulty I think it is
in uh, you mentioned about the transportation and then you talked about safety, you mentioned
about the fifty some officers I believe that the Sheriff’s office has not filled and probably
thinking about maybe not filling, is that what you’re saying?
Mr. Russell: No, sir. Those positions are available. We have fully funded those
positions and would expect him to fill them if he can. The problem is he’s having trouble filling
them.
Mr. Hatney: Okay, the reason I mentioned that is that if you were thinking about not
doing that, services have not been the best in certain communities anyway, and they’ve gotten
even worse.
Mr. Russell: Initially I had suggested ---
Mr. Hatney: I misunderstood you, that’s all.
Mr. Russell: Initially I had suggested we reduce that by fifty, by twenty-five people.
That was quickly taken off the table and that, those positions have been fully funded.
Mr. Mayor: I would just make a comment. I sense a general unreadiness to vote today. I
think that we’re getting close. I’ve heard some very valid questions. What I would like to
recommend is potentially having a special called meeting next week on which we could vote on
the budget. I think that um, a meeting devoted to the budget itself. But I’m, that’s just a general
feeling that I have as I sense some unreadiness by some Commissioners to vote on it.
Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: I’d hear from the Attorney. I’ll hear him and I’ll ---
Mr. Shepard: Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem.
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Shepard.
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Mr. Shepard: Mr. Mayor, I think if you were not able to reach consensus on this item, it
is supposed to be adopted at the second meeting in November, you’ll recess this meeting, in
effect give the opportunity for the Commission to caucus and come up with a plan. But we have
it written so that it is adopted at the second meeting so ---
Mr. Mayor: Thank you for that clarification.
Mr. Russell: Mr. Mayor, it is, I’m sorry.
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Russell. No go ahead. Mr. Williams.
Mr. Williams: We know we’ve been talking and I think this is, this is good. But we
talked about Fleet Management and uh, everybody said it won’t work but we went to Savannah,
Georgia, we paying $3M a year to take care of our fleet of cars and vans and whatever and I
think they’re doing a good job. But Savannah went in house and cut their fleet costs in half. A
million and a half dollars. We went down, we brought information back but we have not
stretched out. If we’re in such a tight, if got to sell a little land and we got to mortgage the bond,
we got to do all that stuff, it look like we’d do those things first and have somebody in that area
that can do those things and pay that person to over see it. Cause that’s all the company does,
they get a general foreman and pay him a good salary and he is able to keep those people, or hire
those people to do a quality work. So, I think that’s something we need to really look at. If
we’re going to recess this meeting I think that’s something that ought to be thought about and
that if we gonna do that we ought to at least try and recoup whatever money we can rather than
just paying out what we’ve been paying out.
Mr. Russell: Mr. Mayor, this is advertised as a public hearing and you need to give the
opportunity for the public to speak. At our normal public hearings we allow three minutes for
each presentator, presentator? Presenter.
Mr. Mayor: Presenter.
Mr. Russell: Yeah, sorry about that. I was doing pretty good, too, hadn’t messed up any
words until just then. But um, we do not have a sign up list but I know there are people in the
audience that would like to speak.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Cheek and then we’ll move into the public input portion.
Mr. Mayor, just as a kind of a baseline to figure out where we’re at,
Mr. Cheek:
who’s satisfied and who’s not, I’m going to go ahead and make a motion to approve the
budget as submitted. Just to see where the votes fall and ---
Ms. Beard: Second.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve the budget as submitted.
Mr. Russell: We do need to have the public hearing though.
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Mr. Mayor: Okay, but we need to get the public input first. Um, any members of the
public who would like to speak to the budget? Yes sir. Please, three minutes and state your
name and address for the record.
Mr. Mason: Thank you Mr. Mayor, Commissioners, and I certainly appreciate the
opportunity. My name is Al Mason, and I’m going to speak very briefly on behalf of the Barton
Village Weed and Seed Program. And, we’re certainly very grateful to see that monies have
been placed back in for this program. But one of the things that we want to make sure that we’re
thinking outside of the box on this program, the position of the Director is extremely critical, to
the whole process of this Barton Village Weed and Seed Program. One of the things that we’d
like to see is not to be dependent upon this City for funds or having to go through the same thing
next year. And in order to do that, a Director has to be in place if we’re going to apply for
federal funds under the Barton Village Weed and Seed Program. That requires a Director’s
position to be in place. In addition, as competent and as willing as Ms. B.J, as Ms. Betty Jones is
in this particular position as Coordinator, the skills for a Director uh, as she will readily admit are
not necessarily there. So in order for you to see the results that you need to see in this program,
it’s important for us to have a position available for a Director to step in and do those types of
things such as grant writing and other supporting programs that can come with that. And so I
would just ask the Commissioners, and yourself Mr. Mayor, to really look at this program and
see that in this particular district, of District IV, the boundaries, Barton Village is the most social
and economically deprived area in the district. So it would seem logical to me that we’d want to
place monies where we can be effective in this particular district. So I’m asking the
Commissioners to really take a look at that Director’s position, and we have to think outside the
box on this thing, because that’s going to give us the ability to run this program for years down
the road without having to count on the City for funds. So I would really uh, appreciate uh, that
you would look at that very extensively and I would be happy to give any additional information
or studies that I’ve done through my needs assessments of this program that perhaps might help
you to make a more uh, uh, credible decision in terms of the Director’s position of the program.
At the same time, we are certainly appreciative of having the monies there to continue the
program. But we have to do it in the manner where we can be affective with the personnel that
are there, and what their abilities are, and what their will are, might be two different things.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Mayor: Thank you. Are there any other folks who would like to speak to the
budget? Mr. Russell, I see no further hands.
Mr. Russell: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I’m through with my presentation.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve the budget as submitted. If
there’s no further discussion, Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign.
Mr. Russell: Mr. Mayor, with the vote in line I would suggest that you all caucus and
determine what you want me to do because I have done the best I can do with what you’ve given
me to work with at this particular point in time. The savings that we’ve generated, the position
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that we are in, is where we are. Um, we need, I need some help and direction to move forward
from this particular position and thank you for your input.
The Clerk: Mr. Mayor, did you want me to announce the vote?
Mr. Mayor: Ma’am?
The Clerk: Did you want me to announce the vote?
Mr. Mayor: Yes, please.
Mr. Brigham, Mr. Smith, Mr. Bowles, Mr. Grantham, Mr. Harper and Mr. Cheek vote No.
Mr. Williams abstains.
Motion fails 3-6-1.
Mr. Mayor: Okay. Mr. Russell any ---
Mr. Russell: I --- your decision on willingness. You obviously have a better sense than I
do ---
Mr. Mayor: Next agenda item.
The Clerk:
ATTORNEY
36. Resolution to designate Augusta as redevelopment agency under the Redevelopment
Powers Law. (Requested by Commissioner Jerry Brigham)
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Shepard.
Mr. Shepard: Yes, sir, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and members of the Commission.
The law that has recently been passed by the voters uh, gives Augusta the uh, optional power to
designate itself as the Redevelopment Agency and utilize these powers as distinguished from
another agency that we might later see in competition with this body, so, therefore, my
recommendation would be to you today to designate yourself as the redevelopment agency.
So moved.
Mr. Brigham:
Mr. Williams: Second.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion?
Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign.
Mr. Holland: What we voting on? I couldn’t hardly hear what you were saying.
Mr. Mayor: Agenda Item #36.
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Mr. Holland: I have that. What was, what, how are we voting?
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Shepard.
Mr. Shepard: Commissioner Holland, I said that this motion designates Augusta as the
redevelopment agency in this jurisdiction as opposed to having a Augusta designate another
body that might come into competition with us.
Mr. Mayor: It designates this governmental entity rather than having an authority, have
the power to do it. We’re the ones that make the designation.
Mr. Harper votes No.
Mr. Holland abstains.
Motion carries 8-1-1.
LEGAL MEETING
A.Pending and Potential Litigation.
B.Real Estate.
C.Personnel.
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Shepard.
Mr. Shepard: Mr. Mayor, I would request a Legal Meeting for the purposes of the
discussion of Personnel and Pending and Potential Litigation.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, can we get a motion to that effect.
So moved.
Ms. Beard:
Mr. Smith: Second.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Commissioners
will now vote by the usual sign. And we are now in Legal.
Motion carries 10-1.
[LEGAL MEETING]
At the close of the legal meeting, the meeting was reopened to the public.
Mr. Shepard: I would ask for a motion to add and approve the settlement of the
James M. Rowland, III case.
Mr. Hatney: I so move.
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Mr. Bowles: Second.
Mr. Grantham, Mr. Smith and Mr. Williams out.
Ms. Beard not voting.
Motion carries 6-0.
[MEETING RECESSED]
[MEETING RECONVENED – NOVEMBER 30, 2006 – 2:15 P.M.]
PRESENT: Hons. Deke Copenhaver, Mayor; Holland, Smith, Harper, Grantham,
Hatney, Williams, Beard, Cheek, Bowles and Brigham, members of Augusta Richmond County
Commission.
Also Present: Steve Shepard, Attorney; Fred Russell, Administrator; Lena Bonner, Clerk
of Commission.
LEGAL
44. Motion to authorize the Mayor to execute the affidavit of compliance with Georgia’s
Open Meeting Act.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, I’m gonna go ahead and call the meeting back to order. First up I’d
like to call on Mr. Shepard.
Mr. Shepard: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, members of the Commission.
Prior to the recess we had not uh, authorized the Mayor to execute the closed meetings affidavit
and I would ask for a motion to that effect at this time.
So moved.
Mr. Williams:
Mr. Cheek: Second.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. If there’s no further discussion
Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign.
Motion carries 10-0.
Mr. Shepard: Thank you.
Mr. Mayor: Next I’d like to call on Mr. Russell.
Mr. Russell: Mr. Mayor, members of the Commission. You have before you a document
th,
dated November 30 which is my continuing adjustment to the budget that was presented on
th
October 17. As we discussed at the last meeting, and under that document you have a
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document dated November 21 which makes some adjustments in the original budget uh, that
we’ve discussed at some length and I’d be happy to go over those with you at some point but I
think we’ve had sufficient conversation about that unless you have any additional questions.
What I have done though is take um, the works of the last several weeks and continued to,
continued to move forward with that. Um, as I mentioned at the last presentation we needed to
have a budget workshop with the Department of Transportation, a public hearing, we did that.
We had approximately 100 people there of which most spoke. In addition to that we had several
petitions that ended up with uh, with almost 200 names total between people attending and
whatever. The gist of the conversation was a need for increased plus service not decrease plus
service, uh, and a continuation of the concern about the escalating costs and the impact that it
would have on the people that ride our buses. Uh, and um, that generally covers the um, the
feeling that was expressed there I think. Uh, based on that I have made another change in my
recommendation, and that would be to delete to mid-management, two additional mid-
management positions from the Department of Transportation, the bus service and to also delete
the fare increase so we would maintain the fares at their current level. We do still some have
impact on the bus service itself. We will be eliminating the downtown shuttle, which is a
remnant of the old city. Those routes are covered regularly by buses in and out any way so it’s
not a major impact. We are reducing some of the hours and some of the others in which at least
two buses will be running an hour apart as opposed to 30 minutes apart based on the numbers of
riders at this particular point in time. Not the best of all worlds but a, what I think a reasonable
accommodation given our need to, to reduce the amount of funding from the general fund. In
addition to that um, upon re-looking at the Neighborhood Enhancement Department, an
additional $50,000.00 to bring it up to full funding. That was initially left out or, actually
removed from the budget, brought back to $100,000.00 and then full funding it to $150,000.00.
In addition to that we are adding $50,000.00 to Project Access, both those amounts are taken
from the increased contingency amount that I presented, which leaves us with a contingency of
$650,000.00 as opposed to the $750,000.00 that I had initially proposed in my second
recommendation. This is still $250,000.00 greater than the contingency we had beginning this
year with. Project Access, as some of you know and most of you know, is a project we work
with, with the medical society of Georgia, uh of Augusta in which they, I almost said Medical
Society of Virginia again, but now, we’re getting there. Richmond County Medical Society, I
get scared, I always keep saying Virginia whenever I get nervous. But it’s the uh, Richmond
County Medical Society in which they provide free doctor service and we actually pay for the
medicine that’s there. They have not had an increase in several years and we thought it was
appropriate based on that to move forward with that. This is a program that has saved us
millions of dollars over the year, over the past years, I think, and a very good program and I’m
fully supportive of that increase for that area there. So what you now have in front of you is a
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budget document that builds on the original budget of October 17, it continues to move forward
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with the changes that were given to you on November 21, I believe and the additional changes
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that are, that are presented on November 30. It provides a balanced budget. All funds are
balanced. There is a tax increase. There’s an increase in some of our, in our liquor license fees,
and a minor increase in some of the recreational fees. And I would urge your consideration.
Move to approve
Mr. Cheek: .
Mr. Hatney: Second.
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Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second and I’m sure there’s some Commissioners
that would like to speak to this issue and what I’m going to do is I’m going to stick to the rules,
recognize everybody that wants to speak, twice and allow them to say their piece at two minute,
at three minute recognition a piece. Commissioner Grantham.
Mr. Grantham: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and yes, I do want to speak to this and I also
applaud Mr. Russell for his work and what he’s done in presenting us with a budget, but with
exceptions of just a few minor adjustments and changes. In what’s being presented today, this is
the same budget that was turned down last week. And uh, in looking at that, when that was
refused, Mr. Russell requested from the Commissioners to give him some recommendations and
ideas that might be usable and certainly some that could be um, made in an adjustment to keep,
to keep our budget in line. That was done, it was done in writing and um, and I don’t see many
of these, or any of these recommendations or even discussed whether they were listed or not. I
don’t see where they’ve been discussed. And uh, one of the issues we talked about in particular,
Mr. Mayor, was the overtime issue and I feel like the best one that we needed to take a strong
grasp on in particular since, in the last three years we’ve been paying in excess of $3M a year in
overtime and I felt like that was one of the areas that we needed to be looking at. In addition to
that, there’s been some serious conversation in regards to the Transit and I’m glad to see that he
has addressed that issue with two positions to be deleted from that department, however I think
in, in the positions that are being deleted, that’s not a problem but, when we start deleting the
service we have a problem and I would like to think that we could continue the service of the bus
lines as well as maintain the drivers and the people that are there to do the work but the
administration of that department is extremely heavy uh, from what I can see and what others
have indicated here in the past. So, just along these lines, and I won’t go into detail the list that
was submitted to him, however he has that and I would like to see not only that but the other um,
recommendations as far as the elimination of positions and what we plan to do and when those
plans to go into effect. I don’t see anything to that nature. So right now, since this particular
budget was refused at our last meeting, I cannot today vote in favor of it with these various small
and minor adjustments have been made.
Mr. Mayor: Thank you, Mr. Grantham. Commissioner Bowles.
Mr. Bowles: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I’d just like to know, did you say Mr. Russell,
there are increases for the uh, Recreation Department, for the fees that they charge?
Mr. Russell: Uh, yes, sir.
Mr. Bowles: Do we know if that’s gonna get it in line with the fair market value or is it
just a minor percentage of an increase.
Mr. Russell: The increases are, are, I wanna say minor. They probably don’t get us the
fair market value, but they move towards that.
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Mr. Bowles: Okay, and Mr. Mayor, just one more question. I noticed on the overtime
listing that there are many managers that are being paid overtime, with a salary up around $38-
42,000.00 a year. Is there a specific reason why these managers aren’t exempt employees?
Mr. Russell: Each one of our positions is uh, evaluated through FLSA. Those people
that do receive overtime, while they might have a manager title are actually more in tune of
working supervisors. The one particular that I looked at today is called a manager but is in fact,
after evaluation, a working supervisor. We’ve got several issues like that that probably need to
be corrected more so in our terminology than the payment to these individuals and I’m not
uncomfortable saying that uh, to my knowledge at this point, we’re pretty close to accurate with
that and if there’s specific individuals or specific positions we need to look at I’d be more than
happy to do that.
Mr. Bowles: Do I have any seconds left, Mr. Mayor?
Mr. Mayor: Uh, you’ve got a minute and a half.
Mr. Bowles: Just one last question is, the positions that are available for elimination, are
we going to permanently delete those from the organizational chart and have the department
heads come back to us with recommendations to rehire those personnel?
Mr. Russell: It would be my suggestion that while we do not permanently delete them
from the chart that we would allow the department heads to. We do not fund those positions and
we would not fill those unless. We will give you a list of those positions and I will not fill those
positions uh, unless they are approved by the Commission, if that’s your will.
Mr. Bowles: Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Brigham.
Mr. Brigham: Mr. Russell, to follow up on Mr. Bowles question on the chart. If we
don’t delete them, then are we going, and we’re not going to fund them, why not delete them?
Mr. Russell: Uh, because it’s our process that if it’s a brand new position it goes through
about fourteen, uh not fourteen, it goes through several review situations and whatever. I think I
would like to be able to have the option of coming back and saying we need this position again
as opposed to having to go back through that whole process again. Uh, and that’s just my desire
at that particular point in time. I think the accomplishment is the same. We do not have to fund
those positions, and the Commission actually has the authority, after review, not to do that. Six
and one-half dozen of the other, if you’re more comfortable deleting the positions, and that’s the
will of the body, um, I don’t have any heartburn either way, but it would just seem to me that
that would be the most appropriate and easiest way to do it.
Mr. Brigham: It’s been my experience as a Commissioner that we tend to fund all
charted positions and if we’re going to continue to do that it would be advantageous for us to
delete these positions in my opinion.
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Mr. Russell: It’s my experience that in the past they’ve done that, but given the new
marching directions that I’ve been given by yourself and by the other members of the
Commission, that will not be occurring, sir.
Mr. Brigham: I’m still of the opinion that we are not likely to follow these marching
orders even though we give them. I think that we have a tendency to go back and revert back to
our old ways and the only way to insure that we don’t fund future unnecessary expenditures that,
because we’re not, we don’t have people in these positions. While we budget, we don’t need to
be budgeting for them, we need to be eliminating positions and I’m going to speak firm on that.
Mr. Russell: And I think ---
Mr. Brigham: But I’m gonna give you a compliment. I think you did a good job at
trying to balance the budget, but you still haven’t won my vote.
Mr. Russell: Thank you for your compliments, sir, and I’d rather have your vote.
(LAUGHTER)
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Cheek.
Mr. Cheek: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. While this budget document is not perfect I think all
of us have expressed at one time or another the desire to see certain things implemented over the
course of several years, reevaluation of properties, overtime, elimination of positions and
different things. Again this is not a perfect budget document; it is a good job on the part of our
Administrator and staff, a good start. What I’d like to see us do is pass this today and then begin
a budgetary review process by which we assure that these steps, these things that we are looking
forward to are, have been promised in the past years be implemented, not promised every budget
season and then we come back the next year and have the same situation arise. I think all of you
have heard my concerns about certain boards and authorities and their behavior and deliberately
misleading this Commission but I will not bring that up at this point in time in favor of working
to address that during this coming budgetary year of ’07 in an effort to resolve it once and for all.
I think we should all take note of the changes that we want to see and have implemented as
permanent changes to this government and work towards having those implemented this coming
year rather than trying to fight this out between now and um, January one. And so I just urge
passage for today with the caveat that we will be working with the Administrator to make the
changes that we’ve been promised uh, in the structure of this government year after year.
Mr. Mayor: Do we have any further discussion? Commissioners will now vote by the
usual sign.
Mr. Russell: Mr. Mayor if I can, I’d like to read or Steve read into the record prior to the
vote, uh the, um, budget amendment, just for the record, sir.
Mr. Mayor: Okay. Mr. Shepard.
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Mr. Shepard: As I understand it Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem and members of the
Commission the budget consists of the basic document which was produced on the date ---
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Mr. Russell: October 17.
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Mr. Shepard: --- October 17 that would be incorporated as Exhibit A into the budget
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resolution and the further amendments of um, that were distributed on July 21, uh excuse me,
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November 21 and today would be Exhibit B. And then there are two floor amendments, as I
understand it, or then maybe just one. The vacant positions are not deleted but are not to be
filled without Commission approval and then Andy, you discussed the beginning of a budgetary
review process um, is that to be incorporated by unanimous consent into ---
Mr. Cheek: If it be the will of the body, that we need to go through as the federal and
state government does, an annual continuous review process of the elements of the budget and
the budgeted amounts for each department and revise those as necessary to meet the desire of the
elected body.
Mr. Shepard: Is that the conception by the body and that ---
Mr. Cheek: It’s on the floor.
Mr. Williams: There are no opposers so I guess they accepted it.
Mr. Cheek: I just, I don’t ---
Mr. Mayor: Do we have any opposers?
Mr. Shepard: I think the seconder should accept it.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, seconder should accept it. Commissioner Hatney.
Mr. Hatney: He said what?
Mr. Shepard: Mr. Cheek began a budgetary review process.
Mr. Hatney: Okay, thank you.
Mr. Mayor: Okay. Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign.
Mr. Brigham, Mr. Bowles, Mr. Grantham and Mr. Smith vote No.
Motion carries 6-4.
Mr. Mayor: With no further business to come before the body --- Is there any further
business? We stand adjourned.
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[MEETING ADJOURNED]
Nancy W. Morawski
Deputy Clerk of Commission
CERTIFICATION:
I, Nancy W. Morawski, Deputy 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 November 21, 2006.
____________________________
DeputyClerk of Commission
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