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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCalled Commission Meeting June 9, 2014 CALLED MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER June 9, 2014 Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 12:00 Noon, Monday, June 9, 2014, the Honorable Deke Copenhaver, Mayor, presiding. PRESENT: Hons. Deke Copenhaver, Mayor; Lockett, Guilfoyle, Mason, D. Smith, Williams, Fennoy, Johnson, Jackson, Davis and G. Smith, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission. Mr. Mayor: Now that we have a quorum, I’ll go ahead and call the legal meeting to order. 2.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 pending and potential litigation and real estate. Mr. Lockett: So move. Mr. Guilfoyle: Second. Mr. Mayor: I have a motion that’s been made and properly seconded. Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign. Mr. Mason, Ms. Davis and Mr. Fennoy out. Motion carries 7-0. Mr. Mayor: We are in legal. [LEGAL MEETING] Mr. Mayor: Okay, I will go ahead and call the meeting back to order. Mr. MacKenzie. 3.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 and also there was no real estate discussion. Mr. Lockett: So move. Mr. Mason: Second. 1 Mr. Mayor: We have a motion that’s been made and properly seconded. Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign. Mr. Jackson out. Motion carries 9-0. Mr. Mayor: Okay, Madam Clerk, is there anything more from you, Mr. MacKenzie? Mr. MacKenzie: I have nothing further, thank you. Mr. Mayor: Okay. Can we go to agenda item number one? 1.Recommendation from Interim Administrator regarding relocated office space for the Commission/Clerk of Commission’s Offices. (Referred from the June 3, 2014 Commission Meeting) Mr. Mayor: Ms. Allen. Ms. Allen: Mr. Mayor and members of the Commission, we were directed to have a meeting to discuss the Clerk of Commission’s space. That meeting was held on June 5 at 10:20 a.m. and the people in attendance was myself, Ms. Bonner, Mayor Pro Tem Corey Johnson, Commissioner Marion Williams, Tim Schroer from our Finance Department, Forrest White of Heery, Joe Gambill from Virgo Gambill and Butch Gallop from Gallop and Associates. What we did was have a discussion as to what we can look at as it relates to the various options. We also took a tour of the allocated law office, Law Department’s space that was allocated for the Law Department and what I’m going to do is ask Mr. Gambill to come up and present what was looked at and then we’ll go through what actually was recommended from that body. Mr. Mayor: Mr. Gambill. Mr. Joe Gambill: Thank you, Ms. Allen. My name is Joe Gambill. I’m with Virgo Gambill Architects. I’ve got three sheets that I’d like to talk about today. The sheet that is in front of you is the current scheme and let me just walk you through these spaces. This drawing shows the building as it will be finished, okay, so this is not modifying anything. This is as we have. What you’ll notice is the second floor and also the seventh floor and the ninth floor. These three floors are shown because they’ll have an impact later on in Options 1 and 2 as we move forward. I would call your attention to the second floor in the current scheme. You’ll notice that with each of the departments that are shown here, we’ve got the department name. We also then have three other numerical values that are associated with it that follow. Existing, there’s a square footage number, the existing number that says existing, this is the space that they’re in now or that they were in prior to having any renovation done on this building. Program. There’s a program value. This value was the square footage that was programmed in the Heery program document that was approved by this board in 2010. This scheme shows what this block of area, how many square feet it has in there, so moving through the second floor, if you look at the upper right hand portion of the sheet, you’ll see, it says Commissioners/Commission, it’s supposed to be Clerk of Commission. In this purple block this 2 particular scheme has 1289 square feet. The Clerk of Commission is currently in 1015 square feet and the Heery program document called for 823 square feet in that space. Moving to the left hand side again on the second floor you’ll see the Legal Department. The Legal Department in its current position has 3281 square feet. It has zero programmed. Originally it was not programmed to be in this building or this space and that’s why it shows zero and this colored block that you see here totals 4110 square feet. Directly below the Legal Department, you’ll find the Mayor’s Department. They are currently in 1366 square feet. The program value was 1675 square feet and the blue block that you see here is 1930 square feet. Directly to the right of the Mayor’s Department you’ll see a green block that is for the commissioners, commissioners’ offices. Commissioners I understand do not have space in this building right now so there’s a value of zero. They are programmed to receive 938 square feet. This scheme shows 610 square feet. Moving to the seventh floor there are several highlighted blocks. The one that’s of the most note in this particular is you’ll notice a purple block, it says Clerk of Commission’s vault. That’s on the right hand side of the seventh floor. The existing vault that the Clerk of Commission has is on the ninth floor right now. It has 388 square feet. There was no square footage programmed for this space and in this particular scheme they have 539 square feet. The ninth floor shows the Administrator’s Department, Risk Management on the right and some conference rooms on the left hand side. So is everybody with me in terms of what we have so far? The next sheet is Option 1. In Option 1 the Clerk of Commission has been moved to the left hand side of the sheet in a space that would be vacated by the Legal Department. The 4100 square feet of space shown on the previous, the current option where the Legal Department is now, would actually be split into two. This sheet shows the space being split by the Clerk of Commission with a combined vault in this area and the Mayor’s Department. Again you can see the existing and this scheme program values that are associated with the square footage there. Going south you’ll see a green space. The Administrator’s Department, the Administrator would be moved from the ninth into the space that would be vacated by the Mayor and the Commissioners’ suite. Moving to the right hand side of the sheet you’re going to see a green block and that is the space that the Clerk of Commission would be vacating and we’ve got a to be determined block we’re holding as a to be determined space. So what else does this relate to as we move to the other floors in the building? On the seventh floor the only change would be that the Clerk of Commission vault would be removed from this space so it’s going to leave us an open space of about 500 plus square feet. On the ninth floor is a change. The space that was occupied currently by the Administrator and two conference rooms would now be occupied by the Legal Department and you see square footage values for these areas as well. Anybody have any questions on this particular scheme? Okay, Option 2. In this scheme the Legal Department would not go into the 4100 square feet that they had originally been highlighted to go in. The Clerk of Commission and the vault would go into that total area, the total 4100 square feet. The Mayor and the Commissioners’ suite would stay as they are as drawn and constructed. The space vacated by the Clerk of Commission will be vacant and used in an area to be determined. What that does is then changes more things on the upper floors. On the seventh floor the existing floor would really need to be completely redesigned to include the Marshal’s Office on half of the floor and the Administrator’s Department on the other half of the floor. Moving to the ninth floor the Legal Department would be installed in the area vacated by the Administrator’s suite and the two conference rooms that are adjacent to that. So these are the two schemes that were discussed in our meeting Friday. 3 Ms. Allen: And there was one more scheme and that would be pretty much what Option 2 is as far as the Clerk of Commission’s office actually relocating to the entire law area and everything else pretty much staying as is. The Law Department staying where they’re currently located and the remaining offices staying where they’re currently allocated to go. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Guilfoyle. Mr. Guilfoyle: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Option 1 that was presented, one thing I did notice that we did have the Mayor, the Clerk, the Administration and the Commission all on one floor which naturally puts the attorney, displace him from which his room is already built up to the ninth floor but Option 1 from my point of view looks the best so far. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams then Commissioner Lockett. Mr. Williams: I want to hear from Ms. Allen what was the committee recommendation. We’ve got several options and I thought we was bringing back what was recommended not give us an option. We looked at it and I thought we was going to decide on which option that the committee and the Clerk who we walked down and went through the facility that you’re going to recommend. Now it sounds like you’re asking us for an opinion or a recommendation, is that right? Ms. Allen: Yes, sir, because when we left that meeting Option 3 was the option that the commissioners as well as Ms. Bonner wanted which was to move them, move the Clerk of Commission into the space allocated for the Law Department and everything else stay as is. Mr. Williams: So is that your recommendation I guess what I’m asking you. Ms. Allen: That is probably the least cost. No, that’s not my recommendation. Mr. Williams: Okay, the committee met. I was a part of that. Ms. Allen: Yes, sir, you were. Mr. Williams: And I thought that the recommendation was to use, to put the Clerk with the vault off of the seventh floor in that space on the second floor I think where Purchasing is now that the Law Department had planned to go in. I thought that was the option. Ms. Allen: That was the option that we decided to present to the Commission, yes, sir. Mr. Williams: I thought you just said different, Ms. Allen. Ms. Allen: You said was it Tameka’s recommendation. Mr. Williams: No, no, no. You don’t have a recommendation. Ms. Allen: That’s exactly right, that’s okay, that’s what I wanted to make sure. 4 Mr. Williams: Okay, I’m just making sure that – Ms. Allen: Yes, sir, you’re exactly right. The committee did state to come back and present Option 3, yes, sir. Mr. Williams: That’s what I wanted the committee and you were the one supposed to make a recommendation. Ms. Allen: I was supposed to present the recommendation, yes, sir, you’re absolutely correct. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Smith. Mr. D. Smith: Thank you. I don’t know whether to ask Heery or whether to ask Mr. Gambill this question but I’ll ask it and one of ya’ll can decide how to answer it. Under Option 1 what would it cost us, what’s going to be the cost if we were to go with Option 1? Mr. White: I don’t have a hard figure on that but just looking at this, I’d say it would get into the hundreds of thousands to do this, probably in the neighborhood of $400,000 to $500,000 just looking at this. Once I do have a direction on which way you would like to go forward, I will go out and get pricing on it. Mr. D. Smith: Well it would be incumbent on this commission to be able to know how much each option was going to cost us before we would decide on that particular option. Mr. White: I can tell you the ones I think would have the least, have the least impact on the construction schedule and on the cost. Mr. D. Smith: Okay, let’s hear it. Mr. White: Okay. Mr. Lockett: Mr. Chairman. Mr. Mayor: Mr. Lockett. Mr. Lockett: Would they please put on the screen the one they’re talking about because I don’t know what we’re talking about. The option that you’re talking about. Show up here, please. Mr. White: The least costly would be to leave legal where they’re at and then move the Clerk of Commission into the legal space. The next option which would be Option number 1 would probably be the next one that would have the least impact. Mr. Lockett: Hold on. We’ve got a problem here. You’re talking about Option number 1. I’m trying to listen to what you’re talking about but Option number 2 is up here. 5 Mr. Mayor: Okay, Option number 3 we don’t have a schematic for. Mr. White: We don’t have a schematic. Ms. Allen: Option 3 is the least cost effective because it only entails taking the Clerk of Commission from her current location and moving her to the allocated Law Department space without any modifications to the current Law Department other than moving the vaulted area that’s on the seventh floor, the materials which it’s not going to cost us because they’ve already been, you know, purchased. Move them down to the second floor where she’ll be relocated and everything else will stay the same. Mr. Mayor: Okay, Commissioner Mason then Commissioner Smith. Mr. Mason: All right. This is just for clarity, Mr. Mayor. Hopefully it won’t last long. Okay, so you don’t have a schematic for Option 3 that you just discussed. Ms. Allen: I’m sorry. I would only move part one of what is in Option 2. It would just move the Clerk’s – Mr. Mason: What are you calling part 1? Ms. Allen: -- over to, the Clerk of Commission going over to the left, you see where it says Clerk of Commission – Mr. Mason: So combining Clerk of Commission – Ms. Allen: Yes, sir. Mr. Mason: So that’s – Ms. Allen: So that’s the only thing that would happen that would be changed. Everything else will stay consistent with what was in the plan. Mr. Mayor: And the Law Department would stay where they are now. Ms. Allen: Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Smith. Mr. D. Smith: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. How does this affect the entire campus strategy if we are going to not relocate legal because the campus strategy involved us using that space over there for IT if I’m not mistaken. Ms. Allen: You’re talking about for the Law Department? 6 Mr. D. Smith: Correct. If we leave the Law Department in that brick building next door, how does that affect the entire campus plan that is part of this project? Ms. Allen: The original plan was for the Engineering Department to move over into where the current Law Department is. Mr. D. Smith: So does that have any impact upon the entire campus plan? Ms. Allen: Yes, sir, it does. Mr. D. Smith: Would you explain that? Ms. Allen: What it’s going to cause is the Engineering staff will continue to utilize the space, you know, that’s not feasible for them to utilize based on what their operations are currently. But that’s the only thing that would be actually affected, you know, the Administrator’s Office will remain on the ninth floor where it’s allocated and the other offices will remain on the floor in which they’re allocated. So the major thing that would be affected is the Law Department would not be relocated into this building and Engineering Department would not have any space to move into. Mr. D. Smith: How does that affect the parking because wasn’t Engineering going to be used for parking over there? What are we going to do with the Engineering building? Ms. Allen: Long term? Mr. D. Smith: Long term. Ms. Allen: There is no actual documentation for long term. It was looked at to be additional parking in that area once the SPLOST gets approved for the Engineering Department to get their own facility built. Mr. D. Smith: Okay, my last question, Mr. Mayor. I’m trying to figure out how that is going to impact the IT, the building of the IT building over there. Ms. Allen: That will not impact the Information Technology building. That is going in the current space between the Law Department and the Municipal Building. Mr. D. Smith: Okay, thank you for your time. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Davis, Commissioner Fennoy then Commissioner Williams. Ms. Davis: Commissioner Smith asked my question also about the Law Department but I wanted to make sure so Option 3 you’re saying is the least expensive as far as the changes. Ms. Allen: Yes, ma’am, it is. 7 Ms. Davis: Option 2 is the one that Forrest said was $400,000 to $500,000. I know you’re giving estimates. Is that correct? Ms. Allen: Option 1 would probably be the next because it’s, Option 2 would involve three different floors being redesigned and looked at. Option 1 would not. Ms. Davis: So Option 2 would probably be the most costly, the most expensive. Thank you. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Fennoy, then come back to this side. Mr. Fennoy: Ms. Allen, would all of these options provide the necessary storage space for the records? Ms. Allen: I would have to defer that to the Clerk. The Clerk: Option 3 would be the most cost effective and productive space for us. It will allow us opportunity to future growth. The same experience apparently Engineering was having. They’ve outgrown their space and they need additional space. Option 3 will give us the necessary room for future growth. Keep in mind again, and I can’t express this any more, this government is only 18 years old. Where are we going to go? Where are we going to put the records? With additional SPLOST projects, multimillion dollar expansion in Augusta Utilities, these are records being created daily and by state law we do have to keep them. They’re th permanent. I had already outgrown the space on the 8 floor so putting us in that space we will be thinking about future growth and give us an opportunity to be there. You wouldn’t have to worry about us for a while so I think that’s the better space and the better option for us. Mr. Fennoy: On one of the options there was vault space on the, I think it was 530 something square feet of vault space – Ms. Allen: Yes, sir, that was on the seventh floor. Mr. Fennoy: Even if we decide to go with Option 3 can that vault space still be used for storage of something else? Ms. Allen: It could still be used for storage. Right now – The Clerk: You mean on the seventh floor, Commissioner Fennoy? Mr. Fennoy: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: No, sir. That space, the program will allow for that space to be reallocated to the space Option 3. The vault will be located in that space now which will free up that space for whatever use that the Program Manager deems necessary so we wouldn’t be utilizing both spaces. 8 Mr. Mayor: Okay, Commissioner Williams then Commissioner Lockett then Commissioner Guilfoyle. Mr. Williams: I say again I don’t think ya’ll are fooling me because that’s not a big task. I’m looking at Option 2. I don’t see Option 3 anywhere. I see two and seven and nine so I don’t know what three is so somebody needs to first of all share with me, I mean, Option 2 – Mr. Mayor: Can I bring some clarity to that? Mr. Williams: Please. Mr. Mayor: Option 3 is Option 2 just as it impacts the second floor. There would be no changes to the seventh and the ninth. Mr. Williams: So 2 and 3 are the same. Mr. Mayor: No. 3 the law office is staying where they are now, where they’re currently located so you would have no need to make adjustments to the seventh and ninth floors. Mr. Williams: But, Mr. Mayor, the law office is not on here. It’s behind us over there in the same old place that we bought a building for lawyers that was set up for lawyers and that’s where they are. But I’m looking at what I’m seeing here. Intentional space that was supposed to have been for the law office where the Clerk’s going to go. Is that right? That’s where the lawyer was slated to go but we’re going to use that for the Clerk. Okay. That’s option 2 in my mind and the other thing I want to ask is if that’s the case, this is the less costly or the more effective area is to just move the Clerk from where she is now over to there and bring the vaults down from the seventh floor or eighth floor wherever the vault is and put it and I was told at the meeting that we don’t a concrete block type vault but secure the records. We wouldn’t have to worry about building a cement wall but we would make it fire rated so it would protect the records there. Is that right? The Clerk: That was my understanding. Mr. Williams: That was my understanding so as long as okay, that makes it better. Who put Option 3? Ms. Allen: I did. Mr. Williams: That helps me out a lot, Ms. Allen. Thank you so much. They kept talking about Option 3 and I kept looking at Option 2 and I’m lost. I thought ya’ll had done something. That is the most effective. We walked through that area and we did decide that even the commission space could be moved over there. I see a lot of wasted space anyway but we could use this and I heard something about the Administrator office staying on the ninth floor. I don’t know who approved that. I hadn’t had an opportunity to speak on that so I think we need to leave that out of this equation today. I think we need to be talking about the space just for the 9 Clerk and if nobody have any questions, Mr. Mayor, I’m ready to go ahead and take a vote to make that happen or not make it happen, whatever way my colleagues want to do it. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Lockett then Commissioner Guilfoyle. Mr. Lockett: Mr. Mayor, I think my questions have pretty much been answered. Primarily I wanted to get some input from the Clerk of Commission. She’s indicated that Option 3 is what’s best for her and I’m very supportive of Option 3. Thank you. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Guilfoyle. Mr. Guilfoyle: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Tameka, as far as the, we’re worrying about cost and we should always be worrying about cost, for us to do this 4100 square foot already completed finished product that we had set aside for the attorney and his staff and now you’re talking about displacing them, leaving them where they are, what are we going to do with that building? Leave it as is and they go about their daily business as usual? Ms. Allen: You’re talking about the Law Department staying where they are now. Are they needing any changes in order for them to function? I’d have to defer that to attorney, the general counsel to address if that space will accommodate them for growth. Mr. MacKenzie: Sure, I’d be glad to speak to that. You can see from the diagram shown on Option 3 there was a slight increase of approximately 1,000 feet in the new program space which will allow us to have room for growth. We do currently have a vacant position that we don’t have space to fill in our existing space so it would not give us the option to have room for growth unless there were some changes made with respect to the current scheme and the amount of space allocated to the Engineering Division that shares the same building that we’re currently in and I’m not sure what the long term plans of that area, if it’s going to be turned into a parking lot in the future and obviously that’s something we’d have to cross at that time but we remain flexible and what the Commission deems is appropriate, we’ll make it work. Mr. Guilfoyle: Thank you, Mr. Attorney. Madam Clerk, last week was the first, well, two weeks when I spoke with you about having your area secured, I thought that was your focal point as far as people just coming in, coming and going through all these doors which I said something to Forrest White about and then last week I heard the whole matter about the square footage. Now you were in 1015 square feet on the eighth floor existing and they had you set aside for 1289 square feet. Then you spoke about the vaults which I wasn’t aware of that you’re responsible for. Can we digitize that and put it in a secured area? Does that fall within your guidelines and for easier access? Because I don’t know how much requests you would have for something that’s 200 years old, a hundred years old, 50 years old because we’ve only been consolidated for 17 years. The Clerk: But we’re still responsible for maintaining those records of 200 plus years old. Mr. Guilfoyle: Right, but can it be digitally – 10 The Clerk: Option 3 is sufficient, sir. Mr. Guilfoyle: Right, option 3 is sufficient when you’ve got, coming from a 1289 square feet that’s set aside for three to 4100 square feet. That’s where is it practical use of the space. I heard you talk about expanding in the future but I look at the budget of what the future’s going to hold for us. Where is this expansion going to come from as far as in the mindset – The Clerk: Yes, sir, and I can appreciate your thought process on that. When Commissioner Jackson made the motion on last Tuesday, he asked that the relocation of spaces be done at no cost to the city. That was the motion that this commission approved. In order to effect that particular motion, Option 3 will do that at the directive of this Commission. As it relates to the space for the Clerk’s office, the Clerk’s office had two vaults. We had one vaulted area on the ninth floor and one on the eighth floor. Neither one of those spaces was reprogrammed into the new space. Keep in mind I had already outgrown the space on the eighth floor so that miniscule 400 square feet to me and no disrespect to you, it was insulting to me. Mr. Guilfoyle: Okay, as far as the two vaults did we go to it quite often to pull records or was it just stayed locked and it was just – The Clerk: No, sir, we accessed those records constantly. The eighth floor vault housed records that we engaged with on a daily basis. The ninth floor area was for the older records but nevertheless, we had to retrieve those records. Keep in mind, Commissioner Guilfoyle, those records are often requested by citizens of this community. They come in and research those records. If we had Dr. Ed Cashin here today, he spent numerous hours in our office researching materials for the many books he did on the glorious history of Augusta. Former Mayor Bob Young just published a book that he got a lot of his research information from records we have in th the 9 floor vault. Those records are not just utilized by the Clerk’s Office but by the citizens. They’re in all the time wanting to research documents but to answer your question, I think Option 3 is the better suited area for us for numerous reasons. Mr. Guilfoyle: Madam Clerk, I appreciate you responding and my next question is for the – Mayor, you don’t mind if I continue. Mr. Mayor: No, go ahead. Mr. Guilfoyle: Did the architect and Heery proceed with any work that was not signed off on? Ms. Allen: I’ll let them address that. Mr. Guilfoyle: Because there is no way we could stop work per contract which the attorney will probably answer that because there is probably some verbiage that protects both Augusta Richmond County as well as the contractors. Mr. White: Everything that we did had been approved. We don’t do anything without getting prior approval from the county. 11 Mr. Guilfoyle: Okay, I needed that cleared up. Thank you. Mr. Mayor: Okay, Commissioner Davis then Commissioner Mason. Ms. Davis: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So there’s no additional cost with the Option 3, is that correct? Per instruction. No additional cost? Ms. Allen: No. No additional cost at this time. Ms. Davis: And since you’ve been Acting Interim Administrator, do you – Ms. Allen: I’m sorry, Commissioner Davis, let me go back and have Mr. Gambill speak to Option 3. Mr. Gambill: On the second floor right now where the Legal Department is scheduled to go, there is not a vault so if we need to construct a vault there will be a construction cost related to that. Also some of Ms. Bonner’s storage mechanisms are in high density file systems called Lektrievers. We need to structure, we need to add to the structure of the floor to support those Lektrievers. If we remove the vault, let me back up. Constructing a vault, modifying the existing building space in the Legal Department to create a vault won’t be that difficult. We will essentially make a fire rated vault using fire rated door frames, doors, we have to add some additional gyp board so we can make a fire rated, fireproof vault in that situation. Some of those materials were slated to be used on the seventh floor where that vault is. It may be that we can take some of the materials and move them down to the second floor and offset that cost but to say there won’t be a cost but I’m sure that there will be some costs. Ms. Davis: Will that be presented to us for approval? Okay, and Ms. Allen, and since you’ve been Acting Interim Administrator, looking at this design on the ninth floor for the Administrator, do you feel that that’s a good option for the Administrator’s Department seeing how when you work with the Mayor’s office or the Clerk’s office, just from your day-to-day dealings with them? Ms. Allen: Day-to-day dealings and probably personal perspective I would prefer that it be located on the second floor with the Mayor’s Office and I guess that’s because that’s what I’ve been accustomed to for the past eight to ten years working there in the Administrator’s office. However the space that is currently allocated on the ninth floor would be sufficient for the administrative operations. Ms. Davis: Okay and last, Mr. Mayor, real quick. Mr. MacKenzie, I know you said you would go with whatever, you know, the plan we decide on but is that office workable for ya’ll? I don’t know how updated it is or I know you said the space you will work with but you were going into a new space. Mr. MacKenzie: The construction grade is certainly sufficient where we are. Obviously it’s not newly updated as the new space would be. The only concern I would have with it it has no room for any programmed growth as the other space did. That could probably be addressed 12 with respect to, I don’t know what the Engineering Department is going to be doing in the future since they would no longer be taking over our space, but if we could pick up a little bit of space that’s currently in the Engineering Department then we could deal with the growth that we’ll need at least in the near future. Obviously the new space had growth built into the design plans so that it would accommodate for at least the next twenty years. We’d have to make due to be able to do that for the existing space we have as we currently do not have enough space in our existing space. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Mason then Commissioner Jackson then Commissioner Smith. Mr. Mason: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to make a motion that we go with Option 3 as recommended. Mr. Fennoy: Second. Mr. Mayor: We have a motion that’s been made and properly seconded. Commissioner Jackson then Commissioner Smith. Mr. Jackson: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ms. Bonner, can we put that document you just showed me back up on the overhead projector please? And once again it’s the motion that I made is I think Lena was in my personal opinion left out of this equation due to her illness for, when she was out, and I think that when I said no additional expense and there’s a document here saying that it needs a vault, why should the taxpayers spend any more money when this was truly identified. Mr. Mayor: Okay, Commissioner Smith. Does anybody – Mr. White: Some of this was done before I got here but my understanding back when the program was done back in ’08, that the girl that was doing it, Lucy Williams, was directed to talk to Fred Russell as far as the Commission space, the Clerk of Commission, and the Mayor’s space to do the program. In talking to her she was told that the plan was to try to put some of the storage down in the basement and she was directed by Fred Russell not to program this space in and that was the program going forward and it hasn’t changed since ’08. Mr. Mayor: Okay, Commissioner Smith then Commissioner Lockett then Commissioner Williams. Mr. D. Smith: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Can ya’ll put one of those maps back up there? I want to ask a question. Would it feasible at this point, because the Mayor’s office has got a welcoming area or whatever that we don’t have a person to staff as the Mayor pointed out to me and so when people come by it’s dark in there and it looks like they’re closed for the day, could that space be reprogrammed along with the commissioners’ suites which I doubt very seriously that we will use very much and put the Administrator staff in that space which would then allow that space upstairs on the ninth floor to go to the lawyer. Is that something that’s workable because that seems like that Mayor’s office and I’m not saying anything bad about you, Mr. 13 Mayor, we just don’t have somebody that’s going to sit out there in the front and that room is empty and those commissioner suites, the truth of the matter is I don’t know how many of the rest of you are going to come down here and use them, but I probably won’t. Alvin says he won’t. Could we retrofit those, Mr. Gambill, and make that enough space for the Administrator’s office? Mr. Gambill: Sir, I’m looking at the program square footages for these areas and if you discount the commissioners’ suite we have 1675 square feet programmed for the Mayor. We have 1650 square feet programmed for the Administrator. This goes to Heery’s building program of 2010. So we combine those together and we’re 3300 or 3400 square feet. There is about 2500 square feet in the space that you’re describing so we’re 1000 square feet short. Mr. D. Smith: So the commissioners’ suites are programmed at, I’m seeing, that scheme says 610, is that right? Mr. Gambill: The green space is 610 square feet, yes, sir. Mr. D. Smith: And then I don’t know what that outer office thing is there. That looks like it’s probably 400 square feet so you’re saying that’s probably 1000 square feet between those two. Mr. Gambill: No, what I’m saying, well, let me back up and say it this way. To move the Administrator’s Department down to the second floor we need at least 1650 square feet. I’m not quite sure we’re getting that and when I do the simple math it looks maybe not workable. Mr. D. Smith: I think Mr. Guilfoyle’s got something that he could follow up that would clarify what I’m trying to say. Mr. Mayor: Let me come in the order I recognized. So Commissioner Lockett, Commissioner Williams and Commissioner Guilfoyle. Mr. Lockett: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ms. Allen, would you put that document back on the projector? Forrest, I want to believe I misunderstood what you said when they were talking about the vault. I’m looking at a December 5, 2012 document where a meeting was held at 1 p.m. and they said the Clerk of Court and that’s the Clerk of Commission, am I correct? Needs vault space similar to what currently have on the ninth floor. Must be rated and constructed the same size. Make room for vault on the second floor for a vault. So that’s got to be the Clerk of Commission and I understood you to say you weren’t there and they show attendees Forrest White, Heery, Jennifer Henderson, Turner. It goes on Deke Copenhaver, Mayor; Lena Bonner, Clerk and Jacques Ware, Heery and others. You didn’t say you weren’t there, did you? Mr. White: No, I didn’t say I wasn’t there. I was saying when the original program was done back in 2008 and 2009 I wasn’t here for that. At that meeting when it came to our attention about the vault, we didn’t know about the vault up until that point because it wasn’t in the original program. 14 Mr. Lockett: Excuse me for interrupting. But you knew about the vault on December 5, 2012. Mr. White: That’s when we added it on the seventh floor. Mr. Lockett: But this specifically indicates that the vault goes on the second floor for the Clerk of Commission. Mr. White: We physically didn’t and don’t have any room. If you do it the way we were directed to do it with the legal on this floor there is physically no room to put that vault on the second floor. Mr. Lockett: Well, is there any documentation to show that the Clerk of Commission or the Commission was notified that we don’t have the space for the vault on the second floor? Mr. White: This was all discussed with – Mr. Lockett: Is there anything in writing? Mr. White: We have where the County Administrator signed off on this. Mr. Lockett: That it’s okay. Mr. White: Yes. Mr. Lockett: Is this where the Administrator signed off for the Clerk of Commission? Is that the document you’re talking about? Mr. White: He signed off for the second floor. Mr. Lockett: For the Clerk of Commission? Mr. White: Yes. Mr. Lockett: Did you question that? Mr. White: Yes, I did question but I was overruled. Mr. Lockett: By who? Mr. White: By the Administrator. I don’t make any policies or decisions. I work with you. I give you my best recommendations and if you decide you don’t want to follow the recommendations, that’s all I can do. I can’t – Mr. Lockett: I don’t fault you, Forrest, for what you did but if something like this should come up again, and you’re talking about the Clerk of Commission, okay. She’s our person that, 15 don’t go to the Administrator, come to this governing body because she’s the one that takes care of us and we in turn are going to take care of her. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams and then Commissioner Guilfoyle. Mr. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Forrest, while you’re up there – I asked Ms. Allen for all of the emails from Fred Russell to you and vice versa just to do some backtracking to see how this thing got off center. I thought we were going to go ahead and vote on the option but since this keg of worms opened up, we might as well let them crawl all out on the floor and everywhere else. So I couldn’t find any, first of all I got very few emails back and Ms. Allen said she’s still working and trying to retrieve some of those but I want to know what was said and what was not said and she said that ya’ll had a lot of personal meetings versus doing a lot of emails back and forth. Well, that’s the record I thought people ought to be keeping when you email that that’s documents that show what we did and what we didn’t do. This conversation, I can say you did and you can say you didn’t and we’ll be here all day long. But I didn’t find an email and I didn’t bring them with me today because it’s a committee meeting but I can bring them next commission meeting and you can take the ones I’ve got and maybe you can show me that email that you’ve got where Fred signed off or whatever. What bothers me is that certain things we didn’t program in like the big opening for the Mayor’s office and you’ve got all that space but other things we were short on and we didn’t have enough room for that. I’m trying to figure out who was the brain behind this. Who signed off? I don’t want to hear Fred because Fred’s gone. I told Ms. Allen anything he did, you’ve got the authority to say now it’s not right and we need to come back and look at it. Because it looks like we’re fixing to go into another situation, I’m dealing with the second floor right now and I’m not dealing with the whole building but if you look at the ninth floor and what everybody else is getting, I’m sure there are going to be some more issues that come up but I’ve got some issues when you say that you communicated with Mr. Russell and he signed off but we don’t have no documents and I can’t see that. That really bothers me for us to pay or even pull the records. I asked Finance to get me the dollar amount that we had paid your company, paid Heery from the time ya’ll was hired in here. Over $12 million, almost $13 million we have paid. I got some issues when we spend that kind of money from the taxpayers and then we get what we got today. We’re asking the lawyer, we’re asking everybody, is that going to suit you. We asked Engineering is that going to work. We’re asking Ms. Allen and what about IT but nobody asked the Clerk. Nobody sat down with her like we talked, we’re asking the lawyer. We bought a building that a law firm had strictly for lawyers that was designed for lawyers to put him in now we’re going to move him, not just him but the Law Department over to another part of the building. Something don’t add up. Something don’t make sense, Forrest. If you like I can bring those emails and we can go over them together and look at them and maybe we can find the one that would help me understand a little bit better. Mr. Lockett: Mr. Mayor, I call for the question. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Guilfoyle, I did – and then I will ask if there is an unreadiness to end debate. 16 Mr. Guilfoyle: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Gambill, I’m just following up on what Mr. Smith said, was asking if we were able to put the Administration Department on this level here. The print’s no longer up but the Clerk’s office where she is at now but most likely she is fixing to move into another office, that was 1289 square feet finished. The 1800 square foot that you thth spoke about on the 8 and 9 floor where Tameka’s administration office is going to be, did that include a conference room? Mr. Gambill: Yes, sir, it did. Mr. Guilfoyle: How much square footage is in the conference room if you don’t mind me asking? Mr. Gambill: I’m guessing at 250, 300 something like that. Mr. Guilfoyle: So with the 1289 square feet, say 1300 square feet that we’ve got right here, right next to it we’ve got the legal that could be universal use as far as between the commission and the administration, that will get you your 1800 square feet easily. That depends on this body if they want to move forward with that but I just feel if you have your Administrator and it was probably programmed where the Administration office is six floors up from us for a reason but the Clerk needs to be on this level, the Mayor needs to be on this level as well as the Commission body and that way that will make room for legal to be up there on the floor. Mr. Gambill: The math as you describe it works. Mr. Guilfoyle: But it takes this body to make it work. Mr. Mayor: And I’m just going to chime in there and the question has been called for but I agree with Ms. Allen that it just and the Clerk, maybe it’s because I’ve been used to it for 8 and a half years now but it seems like those three offices work so much together that it just makes sense to have them co-located. Okay, would the maker of the motion like to amend his motion? Mr. Mason: Well, there’s a lot going on in my ear here, maybe I won’t do that. When I stop and think about how we got to where we are, maybe having all of us in the same spot is not a good thing because that’s why we’re here so no, I’m not sure that that works for me. We just might want to do a substitute. Mr. Mayor: Okay, the question has been called for. Is there a ungeneral unreadiness to end debate? Okay. We will now have a vote with regards to ending debate on this issue. Mr. D. Smith: I’ve got a substitute. Mr. Mayor: Okay, Mr. Smith. Mr. D. Smith: My substitute motion is that we task Mr. Gambill and our Administrator to come back and tell us, bring us a plan to move the Administrator’s office from the ninth floor into the current space that the Mayor uses and the commission offices and put the legal 17 department up there in their space on the ninth floor and tell us what it will cost, please, sir. That’s my motion. Mr. G. Smith: Second. Mr. Mayor: So you’re saying the Administrator move into the Mayor’s space? Mr. D. Smith: I’m saying that that office out there that you don’t use along with the two conference, the little rooms that they built for the commission that we don’t use, see if he can come back with a plan to do that, to use that space, put Ms. Bonner in the legal department and the legal department go into the Administrator’s office on the ninth floor. Mr. Mayor: Okay and let me just try and get my head around this. But Commissioner Guilfoyle, your proposal was to have the Administrator in the space here, the Clerk’s space, correct? Mr. D. Smith: Is that what it was? Then you make the substitute motion. I’ll withdraw mine. You make it. Mr. Mayor: Okay, Mr. Guilfoyle, would you like to make a substitute motion, which I believe, I’m just trying to get us to where would be the approval of Option 3 with the addition of plans to move the Administrator’s office to the current Clerk of Commission space and the Legal Department to the current dedicated Administrator’s space? Mr. Lockett: Mr. Chairman, point of personal privilege. Mr. Mayor: Yes, sir, Commissioner Lockett, I’m just trying – Mr. Lockett: You know, I think it would really simplify things if we kept these two things separate. Mr. Mayor: I would tend to agree with you. Okay, we have a motion that’s, yes, sir. Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Mr. Johnson: I was just going to add for the record that I think that’s the best way to go because we still haven’t addressed the court, the judges’ issue yet. We don’t want to make a hasty decision on that. Mr. Mayor: Let’s eat the elephant one bite at a time. Mr. Johnson: Let’s just move with the Clerk at this point. Mr. Mayor: We have a motion that’s been made and properly seconded. If there’s no further discussion, Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign. Mr. Speaker: What’s the motion? 18 The Clerk: To relocate the Clerk’s office to the designated space for legal. Option 3, yes sir. Mr. D. Smith and Mr. Guilfoyle vote No. Motion carries 8-2. Mr. Mayor: With no further business to come before the body, we stand adjourned. Lena J. Bonner Clerk of Commission CERTIFICATION: I, Lena J. Bonner, Clerk of Commission, hereby certify that the above is a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Called Meeting of the Augusta Richmond County Commission held on June 9, 2014. ________________________ Clerk of Commission 19 20