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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCalled Commission Meeting January 7, 2014 CALLED MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER January 7, 2014 Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 1:15 p.m., Tuesday, January 7, 2014, the Honorable Deke Copenhaver, Mayor, presiding. PRESENT: Hons. Lockett, Guilfoyle, Mason, Williams, Fennoy, Johnson, Jackson, Davis and G. Smith, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission. ABSENT: Hon. D. Smith, member of Augusta Richmond County Commission. Mr. Mayor: In the interest of time and seeing we’ve got a Commission meeting coming up after this, if we can get everybody to take their places. Okay, I will go ahead and call the special called meeting to order and turn it over to Mr. MacKenzie. 1.LEGAL MEETING A.Pending and potential litigation B.Real estate C.Personnel Mr. MacKenzie: I would entertain a motion to go into a closed legal meeting to discuss real estate, pending and potential litigation and personnel. Mr. G. Smith: So move. Mr. Johnson: Second. Mr. Mayor: We have a motion that’s been properly seconded. Mr. Williams: Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams. Mr. Williams: I’ve got no problem going into personnel but I’ve got some personnel issues that I think we could address with the absence of some of the personnel that’s going to be in there. I’d like to have some dialogue (inaudible) Ms. Smitherman and Mr. MacKenzie so we need another lawyer (inaudible) to facilitate (inaudible). Mr. Mayor: Mr. MacKenzie, I believe we had this issue the last week. Mr. MacKenzie: If it’s the will of the Commission to do that, then that can be arranged. We have Wayne Brown who’s available to sit in the meeting or we can get other counsel. Mr. Mayor: Would the maker of the motion like to amend your motion to reflect that? Mr. G. Smith: (inaudible). 1 Mr. Mayor: Okay, we have a motion that’s been made and properly seconded. Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign. Mr. Guilfoyle votes No. Ms. Davis out. Motion carries 7-1. Mr. Mayor: We are in legal. [LEGAL MEETING] Mr. Mayor: I’ll go ahead and call the meeting back to order. Mr. MacKenzie. 2.Motion to authorize execution by the Mayor of the affidavit of compliance with Georgia’s Open Meeting Act. Mr. MacKenzie: I would entertain a motion to execute the closed meeting affidavit. Mr. Fennoy: So move. Mr. Mason: Second. Mr. Mayor: We have a motion that’s been properly seconded. Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign. Motion carries 9-0. Mr. Mayor: Mr. MacKenzie. Mr. MacKenzie: It’s my understanding that there’s a motion regarding a personnel matter. Mr. Mayor: Mr. Mason. Mr. Mason: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. At this time I’d like to make a motion to appoint Tameka Allen as the Interim Administrator effective immediately and task the Mayor, the Mayor Pro Tem and the Acting Administrator to bring back candidates to fill the Acting or Interim Deputy Administrator and the Interim Director of IT at the next Commission meeting, to be brought forth to the next Commission meeting. Mr. Lockett: Second. Mr. Mayor: We have a motion that’s been made and properly seconded. Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign. Motion carries 9-0. 2 Mr. Williams: Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams. Mr. Williams: A point of personal privilege if I can, please. Mr. Mayor: I’ll give you two minutes. Mr. Williams: It shouldn’t take two minutes. After appointing the Interim Administrator, I’d like to get a copy of the hard drive of the previous commission to be brought forth so we can look at that (inaudible) in its entirety except for those pertinent information numbers, health benefits or whatever for the previous Administrator. I’d like to have a copy of that hard drive. Mr. Mayor: Are you putting that in the form of a motion? Mr. Williams: Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor: What’s the – Mr. Williams: I don’t know if I need a motion. I guess the attorney, I’m requesting that so I don’t know whether I need a motion but I want to listen to it. Mr. Mayor: Mr. MacKenzie. Mr. MacKenzie: I mean, you can make the request in the form of an open records. We could try to process the request that way. I could check with IT and see what they could do. Mr. Williams: I mean there’s no checking with IT. IT can do that so I’m asking a question so I’m asking a question as to having a copy of the previous Administrator’s hard drive except for those pertinent information, those whether it be health issues or social security stuff that we cannot see. I don’t need that anyway. I’m just talking about the stuff that’s related to this government that’s on that drive that should be previously. It’s not just me but anybody on this board that wants a copy of it. Mr. Mayor: Okay. Mr. MacKenzie. Mr. MacKenzie: The next item we have is a motion to task the staff with continuing to pursue the Richmond County EMS zone and to authorize the Mayor to issue a letter of support to the Georgia Department of Health regarding the Richmond County EMS zone. Mr. Mayor: Do I hear a motion on that? Mr. Mason: So move. Mr. Johnson: Second. 3 Mr. Mayor: We have a motion that’s been made and properly seconded. Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign. Mr. Jackson votes No. Motion carries 8-1. Mr. Mayor: Mr. MacKenzie, next item. Mr. MacKenzie: The next item we have is a motion to authorize the initial emergency cleanup and remediation costs associated with the recent sewer backup on the following addresses on Wylds Road: 1601, 1610, 1612 and 1614 and to transfer such funds from the Utilities Department enterprise fund to Risk Management and to bring back any recommendations regarding any specific settlement of claims regarding the sewer backup. Mr. Lockett: So move. Mr. Mason: Second. Mr. Mayor: We have a motion that’s been made and properly seconded. Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign. Mr. Williams: Mr. Mayor, before we vote – Mr. Mayor: I’ve called for the vote, I’m sorry, Commissioner. Mr. Williams: But, Mr. Mayor, I can’t talk at the same time Mr. Lockett was talking, I mean if I could do it as fast as I can, if I need a racehorse I can do that too, but I need to make a comment. I need to make sure that what we talked about will be brought back to this body and we’ll know the beginning and ending date and the amount of what we’ll have to pay out, all those coming through the Utilities Department. I don’t want it to be an ongoing situation where we’re paying and don’t know when the end comes. I just want to make sure that’s in the records. Mr. Mayor: And that is correct, Mr. MacKenzie? Mr. MacKenzie: The motion is for initial emergency cleanup and remediation costs only and for any recommendation to be brought back regarding the settlement of specific claims. Mr. Williams: In legal, Mr. Mayor, we talked about making sure that those things that – Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams, what we discussed in legal is – Mr. Williams: I’m not discussing what we discussed in legal but I’m reminding you, Mr. Mayor, we talked in legal and those things that we’re asking for is just for accountability, that’s all I’m asking for. I’m not asking to give any information. I’m not asking to call any names. I just want to make sure that that information comes back to this body so we’ll know the beginning time and cost and ending time and cost. 4 Mr. Mayor: That is part of the motion that it will have to come back to this body. Mr. Williams: Mr. MacKenzie, is that right? Is that what your motion states? Mr. MacKenzie: I mean I can restate the motion if that will help. It’s a motion to authorize the initial emergency cleanup and remediation costs associated with the recent sewer backup on the following addresses on Wylds Road: 1601, 1610, 1612 and 1614 and to transfer funds from the Utilities Department enterprise fund to Risk Management and to bring back any recommendations regarding the specific settlement of claims. Mr. Williams: And (inaudible) Mr. Mayor: Okay, Mr. Williams, but the vote has been called for. Mr. Williams votes No. Motion carries 8-1. Mr. Mayor: Mr. MacKenzie. Mr. MacKenzie: That’s all we have from the legal. It’s my understanding there’s one additional item from the special called agenda. 2.Motion to approve contract between Augusta, Georgia and Gold Cross EMS for EMS services in Augusta, Georgia. Mr. Guilfoyle: So move. Mr. Jackson: Second. Mr. Mayor: We have a motion that’s been made and properly seconded. Commissioner Williams. Mr. Williams: This special called meeting was called I guess for legal and for this one item. I need for somebody to tell me why this item was not on the regular agenda on last year at the last meeting nor this year at the beginning and I’m (inaudible) why did I have to come down to hold a special meeting because of somebody getting paid to do a job that didn’t do their job. Can somebody address that? Mr. Mayor: Mr. MacKenzie. Mr. MacKenzie: I’ll be happy to speak to my understanding of why this wasn’t on the last meeting of the year. There were some additional items of negotiation that were done between the parties after the deadline to get it on the last agenda item of the year. There wasn’t unanimous consent to add that item to that agenda. It was put in the Muni Agenda system to be placed on the regular agenda today but for whatever reason all those approvals did not go 5 through in time to get it on the regular agenda so at your request, the Mayor did place it on the special called agenda which had already been set. Mr. Williams: Mr. Mayor, I don’t accept that. I hear that but I don’t accept that. The last agenda last year was, could have been what happened, but my question is between last year and today why didn’t it get on the regular agenda between last year and today? I understand things happen and a lot of things shouldn’t happen but they did. But nobody has addressed, we talk about what happened last year but why didn’t it get on this agenda because I’m tired of the tail wagging the dog, Mr. Mayor, and I want to understand why we pay people to do a job – Mr. Mayor: Mr. Williams, we’re starting to get into personal issues – Mr. Williams: No, no. Mr. Mayor: I would say that I requested this meeting so I will take full responsibility. I can’t say why it didn’t get on the regular agenda but I requested this special called meeting so it’s on me. Mr. Williams: Okay, Mr. Mayor, and I understand you have the authority to request a meeting, I’ve got no problem with that. But if this body have to come every time you think there should be a meeting and when people’s business is handled with the regular stuff that we get, don’t you think that somebody ought to be reminded of the timeline we’ve got to work with and what we’ve got to do? I didn’t (inaudible) any time you want to with your called meeting. Mr. Mayor: That’s at the discretion of the Mayor. The Mayor has the authority to do that. The commissioners have the ability to show up or not show up. Mr. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We can go ahead and take a vote. Mr. Mayor: Okay. We have a motion that’s been made and properly seconded. Commissioner Lockett. Mr. Lockett: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We’ve never really had any discussion on the changes they contemplate making to the contract and I’ve read it and researched but I still don’t fully understand what we are in as to (inaudible). There are four different things that weren’t a part of the original contract but at the last minute they were put before us I think on December 17 and I don’t know if any of my colleagues know, maybe I’m the only one that don’t know, but I really don’t know what this entails. I would like for someone to explain to me what it is that you expect us to vote on today. Mr. Mayor: Mr. MacKenzie. Mr. MacKenzie: If you have any specific questions, I’m sure the departments will probably be able to answer those if it relates – 6 Mr. Lockett: My questions are, Mr. General Counsel, all four items. What necessitates these particular changes? Why wasn’t it a part of the original contract? Mr. MacKenzie: It’s my understanding that the negotiation with the former Administrator and the provider ended before these items were completely addressed and there were some additional changes that needed to be made late in the process and that’s why they could not be included before the end of last year. Mr. Lockett: My last thing is this. The basic contract was brought before this body with an explanation but all of a sudden you want to make these changes and present it to the body without an explanation. This is my concern. Mr. MacKenzie: I can understand your concern. I can appreciate that. These were made as a result of the final negotiations between the former Administrator and the contractor. Mr. Lockett: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Fennoy. Mr. Fennoy: Yes, I have a question about one of the changes that was made on the contract and one about the Gold Cross reporting quarterly as opposed to monthly. Is anybody here that I can ask a question, anybody from Gold Cross? Mr. Mayor: Do we have anybody from Gold Cross here to speak? Yes, sir. Mr. Vince Brogdon: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the Commission. I’m Vince Brogdon, CEO of Gold Cross. Mr. Fennoy: I have a question about one of the changes. Mr. Brogdon: Okay. Mr. Fennoy: You want the reports to be quarterly rather than monthly. Mr. Brogdon: Yes, sir. Mr. Fennoy: Approximately how many calls per month does Gold Cross answer? Mr. Brogdon: In 2013 we did about 36,000 so divide that by 12 is what we do monthly. It is just easier with our computer system. If we do it every month, it takes four or five days for somebody to sit down and actually go through it with the computer system in the program that we have. It’s a lot easier on us if we can do it quarterly. That way we can have monthly meetings in-house to make sure that we’re compliant and then we can submit a report. That’s how we do it with the other county and we can merge the two systems and make it easier. Mr. Fennoy: What does this report (inaudible)? 7 Mr. Brogdon: This report will be to the Administrator. Mr. Fennoy: Okay. Mr. Brogdon: And, I’m sorry, will be presented to the EMS Board from my understanding. Mr. Fennoy: And we’re talking about (inaudible) three times. Mr. Brogdon: The response times? Mr. Fennoy: No, I’m talking about how many reports will they get quarterly as opposed to monthly. Mr. Brogdon: It would just be combined into the quarter so the three months combined into one report. Mr. Fennoy: And my only concern is would be it easier for whoever gets that report to look at it 3,000 calls as opposed to 9,000 calls. That’s my concern. Mr. Brogdon: The reason we kind of came up with that is because we’re going to meet quarterly and if we did it that way, we probably, and did everybody’s schedule meeting every month wouldn’t be very conducive to everyone’s schedule from my understanding. So that was sort of the reason why we would present the quarterly report and then we would meet before the EMS Board and go over those reports. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams. Commissioner Mason. Mr. Williams: This is the same reporting process that you use for the surrounding counties, you said? Mr. Brogdon: Yes. Mr. Williams: So adjacent counties to us have the same situation? Mr. Brogdon: Correct. Mr. Williams: That’s all. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Mason. Mr. Mason: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Brogdon, we currently have a contract in place with Gold Cross. Mr. Brogdon: It expires tonight at midnight, the seven-day extension. 8 Mr. Mason: Okay, that’s important. I’ve got a couple of other questions for you. As far as in this contract I was looking at the mutual aid agreements. Mr. Brogdon: Yes. Mr. Mason: I didn’t see anything specific in terms of your course of action or what your plan of action is as far as a mutual aid agreement in case of overload of calls or priority calls or what have you. Can you speak to that to some degree? Mr. Brogdon: Yes. We have signed with another local provider and several other providers. We have a call list, a distribution plan that if we run out of ambulances, we’ll go to a service and call in to ask if they have any units available for the next service. I believe the way we have it now is priority care is the first on the list. Fire Department and I think it’s Southstar and Capital City so we continue down. If none of those units are available, we’ll call mutual aid from one of our other counties to come in and assist. Mr. Mason: Okay, good. Now just on that note is there something in place to assure those that you might have agreements with that they’ll get the lesser of the calls, if you know what I’m referring to – Mr. Brogdon: Right. This is only if we’re status zero to where we don’t have any ambulances available. It’s the reason why we use mutual aid. Mr. Mason: So any additional expense that your partners or joint partners, any additional expense for having, say for instance additional ambulances or vans or that sort of thing, how would you work that? Mr. Brogdon: Well, the individual service would be able to bill for the call themselves. We had talked to one vendor that we do agree that we would give them a subsidies, per se, per call. Kind of help them out to where if they go and they don’t pick up on the call, at least they get some bit of a subsidy. Mr. Mason: Okay, great. I didn’t see any of that in there and that kind of helps my thought process. The last thing that I would say, it’s not necessarily you, Mr. Brogdon, but here previously in our contract we’ve had the Fire Chief as the administrator of the contract. Recently here in the recent past we’ve tasked the Administrator to be the administrator of the contract. Short of the fact that we do have an Interim Administrator now, certainly her plate is full, I’m wondering now would it be appropriate to go back to the Fire Chief as the administrator of this contract. Is that an issue for you, Mr. Brogdon? Mr. Brogdon: Yes, it would be. Mr. Mason: Any particular reason? 9 Mr. Brogdon: Because in the agreements that we had with the previous Administrator in this contract that the contracts, the Administrator of the county would be the contract Administrator. So it would be kind of breaking the agreement that we already had in place. Mr. Mayor: Mr. Lockett. Mr. Lockett: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Since we have the CEO here, I can go ahead and ask a different question. I know I’m supposed to be at this hearing in Atlanta I think on January 13. One of the changes that ya’ll submitted I have a concern with. Automatic termination of the contract in the event that Augusta, not Gold Cross, are designated Richmond County’s own provider. Now this appeal, what entities are going to be considered in this appeal besides Gold Cross and Augusta Richmond County? Is there a third party? Mr. Brogdon: No. Mr. Lockett: Well then why is it necessary for this to be a part of the contract? Mr. Brogdon: Well, zoning is separate from contracts as far as county. The zoning is done by the state; the contract is done by the county. Mr. Lockett: Well, this is reference done by the state or this is the reference to the county? Mr. Brogdon: Zoning is by state. Mr. Lockett: No, but this particular thing I just read here about the (inaudible) about Augusta or Richmond County designated sole provider. This is done by the state, right? Mr. Brogdon: No. The contract is done by the county. I know it’s sort of complicated but that’s what we agreed to with the previous Administrator that that’s what we wanted into the contract and I’ll just have to wait and see what the hearing says next week. Mr. Lockett: Okay, so in other words if neither Augusta became sole provide nor Gold Cross but they chose some company out of Macon, Georgia this is why you want to have an opportunity to walk away, is that what you’re saying? Mr. Brogdon: I’m not sure if I understand. Mr. Lockett: That’s all right. If I ask any more questions, I’m going to confuse both of us. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Guilfoyle. Mr. Guilfoyle: Yes, sir. Vince, thank you for being here to answer the questions. (inaudible) When you were talking about the mutual aid agreement, (inaudible) Is Gold Cross going to give Augusta Richmond County any subsidies? 10 Mr. Brogdon: That has not been brought to my attention that they want any type of subsidy back. Only one other vendor has requested that and we agreed to that. Mr. Guilfoyle: If Augusta Richmond County requested – Mr. Brogdon: My understanding is that they run only one ambulance and since it’s the governing body, I don’t know if that’s considered a kickback of some sort. It would be a legal question. I’m not really sure if that’s legal. Mr. Mayor: We have a motion that’s been made and properly seconded. Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign. Excuse me, Commissioner Fennoy. Mr. Fennoy: Were there any instances last year where we had used an ambulance service (inaudible) Fire Department because there wasn’t an ambulance available from Gold Cross? Mr. Brogdon: Yes. Mr. Fennoy: Do you know approximately how many times that actually took place? Mr. Brogdon: From my understanding from what was reported to the state about 40 or 50 times from my understanding that was reported to the state. I don’t have the exact figure. Mr. Fennoy: Is there any particular reason why ambulances were not available from Gold Cross and I guess my concern is if there had been 40 or 50 instances where we would rely on you for ambulance service and we had to call the Fire Department for backup, what risk does this put the citizens of Richmond County in? Mr. Brogdon: Well, it’s no different than the Sheriff’s Department or the Fire Department when they busy and they run out of cars and the Fire Department runs out of trucks to respond to calls. You just do the best you can as far as calling the next available person that could help. In Richmond County I can have 12 to 15 ambulances on duty and I’ve had at times run 19 ambulance calls at one time within one hour in Richmond County. The next day in that same time frame in that same hour I might get five. It just depends. In Columbia County it’s the same way. Maybe once or twice a year, four or five times a year, it just depends that time to where I run out of ambulances. And remember this. It’s coming to the issue with the local hospitals too and I’m not saying it’s any fault of theirs, when we get to some hospitals we’re stuck there. We can’t leave. They don’t have a room for us because of the high volume of calls that were coming in. So we’re stuck. We’ve got a patient on the stretcher and we can’t leave that patient until we turn it over to the hospital. Sometimes we’re an hour, an hour and a half trying to turn, we’re working with the local hospitals and they’ve done a better job at trying to help us get back in service to answer that next call. Mr. Fennoy: Since you mentioned Columbia County, does Columbia County require that you have so many ambulances available at any given time? 11 Mr. Brogdon: Yes. They have a set number of five ambulances however we provide them an extra ambulance at no charge Monday through Friday. Mr. Fennoy: Okay. In Richmond County is there a set number of ambulances that ya’ll make available to Richmond County at all times? Mr. Brogdon: There will be a minimum number of ambulances available during peak and non-peak times. Peak times means 8A to 8P which is the high call volume time so we’ll put, depending on what we need, probably at least 12 ambulances, maybe more, and then you don’t run the same amount of calls you do at six in the evening as you do at four in the morning. It’s just that we’ll staff it at whatever level it needs to be to be able to run the calls. But at times you’re still going to need to call mutual aid. You could have 20 ambulances in the street and that st 21 call would come in and what do you do? You call for help to help answer that call. Mr. Fennoy: Thank you, sir. Mr. Brogdon: Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor: Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign. Mr. Lockett and Mr. Fennoy vote No. Motion carries 7-2. Mr. Mayor: With no further business to come before the body, we stand adjourned. [MEETING ADJOURNED] Nancy W. Morawski Deputy Clerk of Commission CERTIFICATION: I, Lena J. Bonner, Clerk of Commission, hereby certify that the above is a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Called Meeting of the Augusta Richmond County Commission held on January 7, 2014. ______________________________ Clerk of Commission 12 13