HomeMy WebLinkAboutRegular Commission Meeting January 3, 2012
REGULAR MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER
JANUARY 3, 2012
Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 5:00 p.m., January 3, 2012, the
Hon. Deke Copenhaver, Mayor, presiding.
PRESENT: Hons. Lockett, Guilfoyle, Mason, Smith, Hatney, Aitken, Johnson, Bowles
and Brigham, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission.
Absent: Hon. Jackson, member of Augusta Richmond County Commission.
Mr. Mayor: I’ll call the meeting to order. And I’d first like to open the meeting with a
moment of silence for Joe Jackson’s father-in-law who passed this past Sunday. Thank you so
much and now I’d like to call on Commissioner Matt Aitken in the absence of Jim McCollough
to give our invocation. Please stand.
The invocation was given by Commissioner Matt Aitken.
The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America was recited.
Mr. Mayor: Thank you for pinch-hitting there, Commissioner Aitken. Madam Clerk, on
to the delegations.
The Clerk
DELEGATIONS
A. Mr. Joey Hadden
RE: Relocation of the U.S. Postal Service Mail Sorting Department to Macon.
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Hadden?
Mr. Hadden: Good afternoon, Commissioners. Mr. Mayor, thank you for letting me
have a few minutes to talk here. I don’t know if everybody’s aware but they’re looking at
closing down the sorting, the mail sorting facility here in Augusta and moving it to Macon. That
would be a huge mistake for the city. If you’ll look at the sheet that I’ve passed out to you look
on the second, starting with the second sheet first. You’re going to see that Augusta is going to
lose 110 postal workers, that’s 110 jobs that are going to be gone, houses, families moving out of
the area probably. Not a whole lot of jobs here to replace those 110 jobs. Those wages lost will
exceed $2.5 million dollars. We’re going to go to a first class mail service which will be two to
three days instead of one day. Columbia and Macon will still have the same one day local
service like we’re used to and the economic advantages of those cities are great compared to us
losing that facility. The second sheet here just talks about you know what we do through our
sorting and the money that our business makes by sorting, four cents per piece for standard mail.
And if they do shut down the Augusta processing facility we’re probably going to have to
combine our location in Charleston, Augusta and Columbia and move them all into Columbia.
That would be another 30 jobs lost out of Augusta and downtown Augusta. So I just wanted to
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bring it, you know make everybody, bring it to y’alls attention and make everybody aware of it
and if there’s any possible way that you can get to your local, local people, state people and
federal legislation to get somebody to look at this we would really appreciate it. Thank you all
very much.
Mr. Mayor: Thank you, sir. Do we have any questions? Okay, thank you so much for
the presentation, my friend.
Mr. Hadden: I appreciate your time.
Mr. Mayor: Madam Clerk, on to the consent agenda.
The Clerk: Our consent agenda consists of items one and two. Mr. Wheeler, I don’t
think there were any comments. Fred, were there any comments on the 30-day comment period
on item one?
Mr. Russell: Chester, were there any comments on the item (inaudible)?
The Clerk: No, okay. There were no comments listed on the 30-day comment period for
item one. Our consent agenda consists of items one and two.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, do we have any items to be added to the consent agenda? Do we have
any items to be pulled for discussion?
CONSENT AGENDA
FINANCE
1. Motion to approve the re-programming of $503,000.00 of Community Development
Block Grant (CDBG) funds to the Dyess Park project and transfer $503,000.00 of Dyess
Park Project SPLOST funds to an Acquisition/Demolition project to eliminate slum and
blight in Laney Walker/Bethlehem Area. (Approved by Finance and Administrative
Services Committees November 28, 2011 subject to 30-day comment period)
PETITIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS
2. Motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of the Commission held December
20, 2011.
PLANNING
3. Z-11-47 – A request for concurrence with the Augusta Planning Commission to approve
with the following stipulations 1) the following definition of the permitted uses in the
Overlay District described in this petition shall be listed at 25-A-7 and read: a) residential,
including single family and low density multi-family, provided the density shall be
approved by the Planning Commission, b) professional offices, including former residences
that can be converted into professional office space, c) institutional uses, including schools,
churches, and other religious institutions, d) neighborhood retail, including, apparel and
accessory stores, florist and gift shops, newsstands and bookstores, beauty and barber
ships, furniture and/or home furnishing stores, antique shops, drug stores and pharmacies,
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sporting goods stores, hobby, toy and game stores, camera and photographic supply shops,
tobacco shops, office supplies/print shops sandwich shops, coffee shops, and sit-down eating
establishments, dry cleaners, grocery stores, youth recreational facilities (i.e. UMCA,
skating rinks), movie theaters. *Permitted uses that are not specified in the above
Neighborhood Retail list must be approved by the Planning Commission and 2) that the
petitioner shall meet with representatives of the Neighborhood Association to attempt to
resolve any remaining differences; a petition by APD, on behalf of the Augusta Land Bank
et al, requesting an Overlay District designation as permitted in Section 25-E of the
Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance for Augusta, Georgia to affect multiple properties
beginning at a point located on Wrightsboro Road extending from Augusta Avenue west to
R.A. Dent Boulevard and including multiple properties along Holly Street, Kingston Street
and Brown Street north of Wrightsboro Road; south of Wrightsboro Road includes
properties located on Augusta Avenue, Roulette Lane, McCauley Street, Railroad Avenue
and Poplar Street. A complete address list is available in the Planning Commission office at
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525 Telfair Street, Augusta, Georgia. DISTRICT 1 (Deferred from the November 15
Commission Meeting)
The Clerk: We have a request to delete item three by the Planning Commission from the
regular agenda. I’m sorry, yes, to be considered with the consent. Is that okay?
Mr. Guilfoyle: I would like to make a motion to withdraw without prejudice on
that.
The Clerk: So we can add that to the consent agenda to delete it?
Mr. Guilfoyle: Yes, ma’am, to be withdrawn without prejudice.
The Clerk: Right. Okay.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Item number three, that Laney Walker overlay ---
Mr. Mayor: Okay, and would you like to add to that motion to approve the rest of
the consent agenda as well?
Mr. Guilfoyle: I will.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, do we have a second on that? Commissioner Lockett.
Mr. Lockett: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Is Mr. Patty in the house?
The Clerk: Yes, sir.
Mr. Mayor: He is.
Mr. Lockett: If this is approved without prejudice, what is that going to mean to us?
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Mr. Guilfoyle: Withdraw without prejudice.
Mr. Lockett: Withdraw without prejudice.
Mr. Patty: There were some very minor procedural issues with the application as
submitted. It’s on your agenda today. I met with some of the objectors and after hearing what
their reservations were, I don’t totally agree with them, but thought the prudent thing to do was
to ask to withdraw this one, start over so we don’t end up spending more money than we would
if we just re-advertised it and gave you a perfect application which if you approve this
withdrawal without prejudice we’ll go to the Planning Commission tomorrow and come back to
you at the next meeting. There won’t be any questions about procedural issues, about the
wording of the application and that sort of thing.
Mr. Lockett: I asked you that question because I also have some constituents concerns
that we might be establishing a precedent here. There have been similar incidents is where they
had to sit out one year as opposed to being it right and putting it on the table again.
Mr. Patty: That’s why I’m asking you to do it without prejudice. If you turn it down
then there’s a one year waiting period. That’s in the Georgia Zoning Procedures Law. It’s also
in your ordinance. If you don’t turn it down then that law doesn’t apply.
Mr. Lockett: Okay. And last time we talked about this there were heated debates that
quite a few people in the community had questions that have not been answered. Have those
questions been answered? Do you anticipate that they will be answered at the next planned
committee meeting?
Mr. Patty: We had a number of folks from the neighborhood that supported what we
want to do. We also had some folks a couple of them in the neighborhood and a lot of them
outside the area that were opposed to it. And the only thing that we could find that was
problematic were some very minor procedural things in the handout that was provided by the
consultants which in order to present an overview in addition to the specifics of what they
wanted to do it was a little bit misleading. And also the name on the application was shown as
the Laney Walker/Bethlehem District as opposed to this specific area district. Because of that
we decided to re-advertise it. The folks that I met with after the Planning Commission before
your last meeting in November were happy with it. If there are others that aren’t, we’ll do what
we can.
Mr. Lockett: I have one other question for you. Some of my constituents had concerns
about us only dealing with I think no W-4. And they had an interest as to what about the
surrounding areas. Do we have a master plan that shows what we plan on doing with those areas
outside of the W-4?
Mr. Patty: I’m going to defer to Mr. Wheeler on that. That’s his department and I’m
going to ask him to answer that.
Mr. Wheeler: Good evening, afternoon. Commissioner we purposely did not ---
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The Clerk: Mr. Wheeler, can we get you to talk in the mike for us, please? Thank you.
Mr. Wheeler: --- we purposely did not address the entire area. We felt like it was, well
it’s a technical component because in order to do the overlay at least 10% you must own 10% of
the land. We don’t own 10% of the land throughout the whole Laney Walker/Bethlehem. We
do control 10% within the W-4 area. So that’s why we’re limited to just the W-4 for right now.
I cannot tell you when we may go and start recommending that we go other areas. We wanted to
start on this first because this component in W-4 has the most commercial and retail
development that we have on the table at this particular time. And the overlay addresses the
majority land use dealing with existing businesses as well as those that we plan to bring on. And
that’s why we stayed in the W-4 area.
Mr. Lockett: Thank you, Mr. Wheeler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Mayor: Okay. We have a motion. Do we have a second?
Mr. Johnson: Second.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. If there’s no further discussion
Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign of voting.
Mr. Jackson out.
Motion carries 9-0.
Mr. Mayor: Madam Clerk, next agenda item, please.
The Clerk:
PETITIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS
4. Motion to reapprove the Augusta Commission Code of Conduct. (Requested by Mayor
Copenhaver)
Mr. Mayor: Okay and, gentlemen, I requested that this go on here just to really last year
things got a little bit sideways on this. This is something that’s been approved I believed two
times in the past. It was developed out of our Commission retreat in 2006. And I would just
request that to sort of come together on the common ground to start the year that we reapprove
the Code of Conduct. Commissioner Lockett.
Mr. Lockett: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Many years ago a young man by the name of
Albert Einstein said that if you do the same thing over and over again and expect a different
result that equates to insanity. We tried this in 2006 and 2009 and now we contemplate doing it
again in 2012. And nothing has changed. Why don’t we take a look at what we presented and
passed on two previous occasions that has not worked and come up with something that will
work. And I think if this body decided that we wanted to be fair with everything that we do we
wanted to make sure that the entire citizenry is represented by us. I think that if we want to do
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the right thing and when I say the right thing we want to do those things that’s best for our
community, for our city. I think if we do those things as opposed to representing a select few,
some of you many disagree with that but I have quite a few people that I talk to on a regular
basis that think that that is what we are doing. I don’t think there’s anyone on this body that
wouldn’t love to have a great work relationship. But looking at this current Code of Conduct it’s
laughable what’s on there because what has been done over the past six, seven, eight years at
least has not been in compliance with this. If we are really serious about this let’s just don’t pass
this to pretend that we’re trying to do something to pretend that we’re working together so we
can have economic growth. Let’s do it from the heart. I was told one time that you can’t
legislate grown folks but most certainly we cannot legislate morality. Mr. Chairman, I cannot
and I will not support this.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, thank you, Commissioner. Just once again this is trying an effort to
bring us on the same page. I’d like to read what the Code of Conduct says into the record just to
make it a part of the record prior to voting it up or down. Number 1: We will represent the
government and the people in a positive manner at all times. Number 2: We will respect and
support the action of the Commission above our own views and lay aside our differences and
move forward. Number 3: We will respect each other as public servants selected by the people
and we will communicate honestly with each other in a professional and respectful manner
keeping in the public interests at all times. Next we will hold confidences with each other
followed by we will investigate, listen and debate prior to taking action or making decisions. We
will trust each other to speak and respect each other to listen. We will be respectful of each
other’s time. We will be prepared to discuss issues in an open, honest and professional manner
focusing on issues not personalities. We will stay focused on the long range direction of
Augusta. And that’s simply what it says. Commissioner Mason.
Mr. Mason: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think what you’re asking here is reasonable in
terms of having a Code of Conduct. But I also believe as I look at some of these bulleted items
that we have going on here I’m of the same opinion that we may need to look at this a little
closer. I’m not saying we don’t need to have a Code of Conduct but I think we ought to have a
Code of Conduct that meets the need and has merit. There’s a couple of things in here that
catches my eye right away in terms of when we talk about bullet Item #2, We will respect and
support the action of the Commission above our own views and lay aside our differences and
move forward. It’s awfully difficult at being elected officials to do a job for not only the city but
for your district in particular and the city all together. It’s awfully difficult for you to
immediately lay down your differences because we all have differences and differences is not a
bad thing. So to lay them down and move forward as many times especially if you’re not in
agreement you just can’t lay them down and move forward especially if you have some
legitimate reason in your mind and or some proof as to why you shouldn’t lay that down and
move forward. I do have a question of you though initially is I know this was done in 2006.
What was the purpose of this in 2006? Why did this come up?
Mr. Mayor: It was when there was a lot of tension on the Commission. It was developed
out of retreat in an effort to really keep us all to the high ground in moving forward to address
how we interact with each other.
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Mr. Mason: And what I have to say to that is in 2012 we have the same thing six years
later. So in order you know for it to, and I’m not saying we shouldn’t have one, but in order to
have one we’ve got to understand or realize that we’ve got all these bulleted items. There’s
several items we can sit here and talk about that have not gone on by anyone or everyone up
here. So I’m not pointing out anybody in particular. So the only thing I would say if we’re
going to put a Code of Conduct together let’s come, I think we might need to come back together
and talk about you know what’s working and what’s not. And then what we do need to have
because I do agree we need to have a Code of Conduct but if we’re just going to have one just to
have it and from 2006 and 2009 there was not change. And then from 2009 to 2012 there was
not change well then what makes anybody think there’s going to be any change from 2012 until
we look at it again. So you know we’re all reasonably intelligent up here and I think if we could
come together and decide on those things that are important that we need to be looking at that
we’re actually not doing and that we’re committed to doing I think we would have a better
success then just passing something arbitrarily just to say we have a Code of Conduct.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, thank you. Commissioner Johnson.
Mr. Johnson: Thank you. In think in essence to what Commissioner Mason and also
Commissioner Lockett said I think it would be proper that we probably discuss this in I don’t
know when we plan to do another retreat but maybe have a discussion and probably go with
some of these bulletins and see exactly some of the things that we maybe would like to add and
maybe take away. But I think they both make some good points and not only that I think it does
start within. So I think it would be within our best interests to look at that together as a group
and then come back and maybe adopt a new Code of Conduct with some changes made. And
maybe we can all understand thoroughly what those changes are and exercise those as we move
So if we could I would like to put in the form of a motion
forward. to do that. But I guess we
need to get a date in particular when we can I guess all get together and talk about this and then
adopt a new Code of Conduct.
to schedule a
Mr. Mayor: Would it be appropriate for you to put in the form of a motion
retreat at which a new Code of Conduct will be developed?
Mr. Johnson: That would be wise, yes.
Mr. Mayor: Okay.
Mr. Mason: I’ll second that motion.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. And really gentlemen once again this is
trying just to bring us together. I’m fine with that. I think and that was part of my point as well
is that there a lot of people that are on the Commission now that were not here when it was
originally developed, might not have known that it existed and weren’t here when it was
reapproved. So I’m perfectly fine with that and I would support the motion. We have a motion
and a second. If there’s no further discussion Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign of
voting.
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Motion carries 9-0.
Mr. Mayor: Madam Clerk, on to the final agenda item please.
The Clerk:
APPOINTMENTS
5. Consider the following recommendations of the Richmond County Hospital Authority
for appointment to four-year terms: (a) For the member of the Catholic faith position,
Eugene F. McManus, William P. Fair, and Richard Cundey; (b) For the member of the
Medical Staff position James C. Sherman, M.D., Vendie H. Hooks, III, M.D., M. Nesbit
Dasher, M.D.; (c) For the Member-at-Large John P. Rhodes, Sanford Loyd, Randolph R.
Smith.
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Brigham.
Mr. Brigham: Mr. Mayor, I’d like to nominate Mr. McManus, Dr. Sherman and
Mr. Rhodes.
Mr. Mayor: Do we have a second?
Mr. Smith: Second.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, we have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion?
Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign of voting.
Mr. Lockett votes No.
Mr. Jackson out.
Motion carries 8-1.
Mr. Mayor: And, Mr. MacKenzie, I don’t believe we have a need for a Legal meeting
today?
Mr. MacKenzie: That’s right, there’s no need.
Mr. Mayor: With no further business to come before the body we stand adjourned. And,
gentlemen, thank you for a good first meeting of the year.
[MEETING ADJOURNED]
Lena Bonner
Clerk of Commission
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CERTIFICATION:
I, Lena J. Bonner, Clerk of Commission, hereby certify that the above is a rue and correct copy
of the minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Augusta Richmond County commission held on
January 3, 2012.
________________________
Clerk of Commission
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