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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRegular Commission Meeting September 1, 2015 REGULAR MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER SEPTEMBER 1, 2015 Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 2:00 p.m., September 1, 2015, the Hon. Hardie Davis, Jr., Mayor, presiding. PRESENT: Hons. Guilfoyle, Sias, Frantom, M. Williams, Fennoy, D. Williams, Hasan, Davis and Smith, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission. Absent: Hon. Lockett, member of Augusta Richmond County Commission. The Clerk: At this time we’ll have our invocation offered by Rev. Mark Pierson, Pastor, Bethel AME Church. Will we please stand, please. Mr. Mayor: Followed by our Pledge. The invocation was given by Rev. Mark S. Pierson, Pastor, Bethel AME Church. The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America was recited. Mr. Mayor: Thank you. Rev. Pierson, we do want to recognize your efforts. We want to thank you for your spiritual guidance and your civic leadership as you serve as an example for all of the citizens of Augusta. And we want to recognize your efforts with a proclamation today. (APPLAUSE) Madam Clerk. The Clerk: At this time we’ll have our recognition of Years of Service. Ms. Michelle Elam, the Administrator, the Mayor, would you -- Ms. Elam: Good afternoon Mayor, Commission, my name is Michelle Elam, your Interim Human Resources Director. Today we’re happy to recognize our Years of Service recipients. For the month of August there are 21 5-20 year recipients and six 25-50 year recipients of which three are here this afternoon. With 25 years of service Christopher H. Josey, Public Works. (APPLAUSE) With 30 years of service Robert S. West, Sheriff’s Office. (APPLAUSE) Mr. Fennoy: He makes a mean gumbo too. Ms. Elam: With 35 years of service Joyce A. Washington, Accounting. (APPLAUSE) Once again, a big congratulations to our Years of Service recipients. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) DELEGATIONS A. Mr. Moses Todd RE: E911 Ambulance Service. The Clerk: Our next item on the agenda I call your attention to the delegation portion of the agenda Mr. Moses Todd regarding the Emergency 911 Ambulance Service. 1 Mr. Todd: Mr. Mayor and members of the Augusta Richmond County Commission I represent I Love Augusta, ILA. We have been dubbed the Axe the Tax folks but let me tell you we are much more than that. Mr. Mayor: Mr. Todd, can you suspend for a moment? And if you will begin again by stating your name and your address. Mr. Todd: Yes. Mr. Mayor: Thank you, sir. Mr. Todd: My name is Moses Todd. I reside at 2115 Nolan Connector, Augusta, Georgia. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor and members of the Augusta Richmond County Commission. I represent I Love Augusta, ILA. We have been dubbed the Axe the Tax folks but let me tell you we are much more than that. We are axe the corruption, axe the waste and axe the fraud and abuse. If not for those flaws in government, we would have a system that runs more efficient in that influence higher morality with its citizens and employees. This culture of political corruption and powers and unfair system, in a fair system everybody thrives. In Augusta most inch out a living and barely survive. ILA would like to thank Commissioner Sias, Sammy Sias and Commissioner Bill Lockett for their leadership on the E911 Ambulance Service issue. We know Commissioner Sias discussed this matter in 2013. ILA also addressed its th concerns in the August 13 issue of the Metro Courier. ILA questions the conflict of interests, the need for a million dollar subsidy and if there were kickbacks influencing decisions. Taxpayers should only pay for the indigent after all other sources of payments have been exhausted. I know that we, you know, we’re you’re going to discuss this issue today and the discussion is going to be whether to terminate the contract. I would like the discussion to center around whether there’s a true need for this subsidy, see the bills for those indigents and that we’re not going back to what we did 20 years ago or with another entity an ambulance service and pay for all non-collectibles whether they’re indigent or not. I think that if they are indigent billing and they can prove that then we should pay that but not for non-collectibles, not for individuals that’s capable of paying. With the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance I can’t see a million dollars subsidy and I would like to see those receipts. As stewards of the tax dollars in this community I feel that you have a responsibility also to look at those receipts and justify those receipts not just take an entity’s word for it. And thank you for your time and consideration. Mr. Mayor: Mr. Todd, I have a question. Mr. Todd: Yes, sir. st Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 1. Mr. Fennoy: Mr. Todd, in your statement you mentioned a culture of political corruption. I mean are you addressing that at anyone in particular and specifically what do you mean by culture of political corruption? 2 Mr. Todd: I think your dictionary will tell you what that is. I did not specifically address it to any one percipient; I addressed it to my government. Mr. Fennoy: Well, Mr. Todd, I kind of take that personally. I mean I kind of take that personable and I think if you have facts to support any political corruption that’s taken place then I would like to hear what it is and hear who it is. But to come before the Commission and talk about us being politically correct, I mean corrupt, and ain’t nobody gave me no money so I mean I just need to know what you’re talking about. I think that you shouldn’t put stuff out there unless you’re able to back it up. Mr. Todd: When I need to or Mr. Mayor and the Commission when I need to I will. Mr. Mayor: Thank you Mr. Todd, thank you, Mr. Todd, for your presentation. All right, Madam Clerk. The Clerk: Our next item is our consent agenda which consists of items 1-8. For the benefit of any objectors to our alcohol petition would you please signify your objections by raising your hand once the petition is read. I call your attention to: Item 1: Is a request for an on premise consumption Liquor, Beet & Wine License and retail package Beer & Wine License to be used in connection with the location at 353 Highland Avenue. The Clerk: Are there any objectors to that alcohol petition? Mr. Mayor, members of the Commission, our consent agenda consists of items 1-8 with no objectors to our alcohol petition. Mr. Mayor: All right I appreciate that, Madam Clerk. At this time I’ll entertain any motions to add or pull items from the consent agenda. All right, add or pull. Mr. Guilfoyle: Mr. Mayor, can I add item number 12 if to make sure nobody has a problem with that please? Mr. Mayor: Commissioner, can you repeat that because we can’t hear you, sir. Mr. Guilfoyle: Agenda item number 12, I’d like to put that on the consent agenda. Mr. Sias: Item 12? Mr. Mayor: Okay item 12, all right. Ms. Davis: Mr. Mayor? rd Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 3. Ms. Davis: Mr. Mayor, I’d like to add 14 please to the consent agenda. 3 Mr. Mayor: I’d ask you to refrain from that at this time. Ms. Davis: Okay. Mr. Mayor: We’ll come back to it, Commissioner, I promise you we’re waiting on some additional information. All right I want to make sure everybody’s on the same page. There are a couple of things that have to happen and we’re waiting on a couple of triggers but we anticipate getting that before the meeting is over okay, Commissioner Davis. I appreciate that and at that time I’ll recognize you for a motion, how about that? All right very good. All right is your hand up, sir? Mr. Fennoy: Yes, I would like --- st Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 1. Mr. Fennoy: --- I would like item number 13 pulled from the --- Mr. Mayor: It’s on the regular agenda. All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner th from the 4. Mr. Sias: Motion to approve. Ms. Davis: Second. CONSENT AGENDA PUBLIC SERVICES 1. Motion to approve New Application: A.N. 15-48 request by Kevin Goldsmith for an on premise consumption Liquor, Beer & Wine License and a retail package Beer & Wine License to be used in connection with Bodega Ultima LLC located at 353 Highland Ave. There will be Sunday Sales. District 7. Super District 10. (Approved by Public Services Committee August 25, 2015) 2. Motion to approve Change Order #1 for the new Diamond Lakes Campground construction project for the amount of $99,915.20 to C&H Paving, Inc. (Approved by Public Services Committee August 25, 2015) ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES 3. Motion to approve resolution (with proposed changes reestablishing a Downtown Advisory Panel (DAP). (Approved by Administrative Services Committee August 25, 2015) FINANCE 4. Motion to approve a request for the waiver of the cleanup/usage fees for a Jazz Festival for Paine College to be held at the Jessye Norman Amphitheater on September 13, 2015. (Approved by Finance Committee August 25, 2015) ENGINEERING SERVICES 4 5. Motion to authorize condemnation to acquire title of a portion of property for right of way (Parcel 150-0-012-02-0) 3055 Willis Foreman Road. (Approved by Engineering Services Committee August 25, 2015) 6. Motion to award Design Consultant Services Agreement, RFQ 14-243, to Cooper Carry in the amount of $1,201,330 for the Augusta Downtown Concept Plan, to be funded from the Transportation Investment Act (TIA) as requested by AED.(Approved by Engineering Services Committee August 25, 2015) 7. Motion to approve Emergency Procurement of Replacement Parts for Hypochlorite Generation Equipment. (Approved by Engineering Services Committee August 25, 2015) PETITIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS 8. Motion to approve the minutes of the regular commission meeting held on August 18, 2015 and the special called commission meeting held on August 25, 2015. FINANCE 12. Approve Augusta Regional Airport Revenue Bonds Series 2015 bond resolutions and authorize the Mayor and Clerk to sign all necessary documents. Mr. Lockett out. Motion Passes 9-0. [Items 1-8, 12] Mr. Mayor: Okay, hold on. All right I’ve got a couple of things I want to make mention of before we proceed to the regular agenda --- The Clerk: Okay. Mr. Mayor: --- Madam Clerk. I do want to mention a few things as we move forward. You’ve seen the communications but I want to mention them from the dais today. We are partnering and asking all the members of the Commission and the city employees and our broader community particularly those of you that are in the audience. Many times in our community we’re passionate about education, passionate about the things that affect our young people. And so I’m asking each of you to join us in the Power Lunch Initiative and serve as reading mentors for students at Copeland Elementary School and in Wilkinson Gardens Elementary School. The Power Lunch pairs community leaders and people who want to make a difference with the Richmond County Elementary School students as reading mentors. The Power Lunch is a program that has been implemented in schools throughout the country and we have a unique opportunity as a city and certainly as elected officials to engage in that process as well by helping our students reading at grade level by the third grade. We’ve partnered with Dr. Pringle and the Richmond County School System to effect this and I’m asking each of you in the audience and those of you that are listening by way of the internet to take an opportunity to partner with our schools and to make a difference in our young people’s lives. It’s a commitment of 45 minutes one day per week and I’m asking you to join not only me but my wife the first lady of this city Yvette Davis in making this a commitment to our children. There are an opportunity for you to sign up by going to AugustaGA.gov/powerlunch. And so this is an opportunity to make a difference in our generation and I look forward to us all getting together st supporting that. The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 1. 5 Mr. Fennoy: Yes, Mr. Mayor, I applaud your efforts in what ya’ll are doing to improve the quality of education for our students in Richmond County but I just want to make the citizens aware of a program in our school system that’s sponsored by the NAACP and Cracker Barrel and it’s called the Rocking Reading Program. And Cracker Barrel donates about 40 books to elementary schools and we have volunteers from the NAACP and the community to go to the various schools and read those books. And they the double benches that you may have seen out in front of Cracker Barrel they also donate a book so you could go read to the students from the bench. So that’s another effort that’s out there to improve the quality of education for our kids. Mr. Mayor: Fantastic for those to put those projects together and make a difference in our community. All right, fantastic. Madam Clerk? The Clerk: Yes, sir, I call your attention to the Augusta regular agenda the Administrative Services portion item number nine. ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES 9. 2015 Statistical Update of Non-Emergency Request for Service. (Requested by Mayor Hardie Davis, Jr.) Mr. Mayor: I’m looking for, I’m looking for Ms. Kelli Walker, Kelli Walker. The Clerk: She should be in shortly. Mr. Mayor: Fantastic. While Ms. Walker’s approaching Commissioners I had asked Ms. Walker to take an opportunity to share with us what’s been going on in 311. Constituent response and services is integral to us as elected officials and certainly to an effective operation of our local government. It’s so important for those of you who serve as elected officials how our local government is meeting the needs all right so as Ms. Walker’s coming she’s going to share with us some metrics that I think you’ll find fascinating of what’s going on in our local government especially in your individual districts how their meeting the needs as constituents call with problems and concerns. We’ve got two extra copies here. All right, Ms. Walker, the floor is yours. Ms. Walker: Thank you, Mayor. I would like to bring greetings from the Augusta 311 Department. And as the Mayor’s already stated I will be giving a statistical review of our 2015 numbers and our requests that we receive from our constituents. Now in 2015 the office has received over 56,000 calls and we’ve been able to answer over 48,000 of those calls so we’re averaging about 87% answer rate. Now we do acknowledge that there are a 13% of those calls that we are not able to answer so we’re actively working with the IT Department and we’re going to make use of our IVR System that will allow customers to be placed in a queue and they can hang up and then once the line frees up it will automatically call them back and that should be implemented very shortly. Now if you look here at the next slide this is a graphical presentation of our 2015 numbers. They are somewhat down from last year showing the end of August we received over 7,000 calls and we were able to answer 5,900 of those calls. We have experienced recently some turnover so that played a large part of that decline. The next slide 6 here shows you 2014 numbers. You can definitely see there that January that’s usually our, the least calls that we’re receiving as we roll into those summer months the overgrown vegetation gets a lot of calls from citizens that are wanting those requests completed. Now this here is really a report card of local government when it comes to 311 and I’d like to bring your attention to some things on this document here. Environmental Services as well as our Maintenance and Engineering Department those are the two areas that we handle 100% of their calls so you will notice that there’s a huge increase in the number of calls that we take for those two areas. Of that on this report card I will be focusing on those departments that scored below 75% and I’ll be giving you a breakdown by district as well as the type of requests that we handle for those departments. So if you’ll notice all the way at the bottom the total requests were over 23,000 which overall it looks like we’re doing pretty good with 85%. But I went a step further and I said well let’s look at it and let’s break this information down a little bit and let’s look at it by department and how they’re functioning in this local government. And if you look there at the percent closed we’re actually closer to 66% as an entity. Now a breakdown of the type of requests that we receive from Environmental Services with carts being the most of what we do that’s the deliveries, removals and repairs. Billing issues, administrative reviews, service requests if they have trash services that were missed we do get a large call volume for those. Vacant lots and all the way down to our property damage which was only 84 which is a good thing. Our Engineering Department our Maintenance Division it actually makes up most of what 311 does when it comes to environmental, excuse me, engineering. Second is our Traffic Engineering and then lastly is our trees. Regarding Planning and Development our international property maintenance our nuisances and a large quantity of those actually falls into miscellaneous and we’re working with code enforcement to actually identify exactly what those are and at the end of the presentation it’ll break it down into more detail for you. Our Utilities Department that miscellaneous really covers billing issues which 311 does not really get involved in. We will wrap that call to Utilities but we’re definitely involved on the sewer and the water side and we talk to the dispatchers on a daily basis with their metering issues, sinkholes all the way down to dirty water and sewer issues. Our Marshal’s Office, our abandoned vehicles and those are the vehicles that have been on privately owned property for a long period of time and as well as the illegal dumping that appears on a privately owned property. And that’s the breakdown of Animal Services our strays, dead animals, investigations as well as our rescues. The Sheriff’s Office, we do abandoned vehicles as well, those vehicles that remain on the streets request from citizens that we actually need more coverage throughout Augusta. Noise violations and the latter is speeding. And this here we have we do handle Transit as well as Risk Management and Recreation but at a much smaller scale keeping in mind that the only two departments that actually send all of their numbers to our office are Environmental Services and Maintenance/Engineering so these departments are handling their own calls but when their constituents call our office this is the actual number that we’ve taken in 2015. So there are five key departments that I identified as falling below 75%, our Engineering Department, Marshal’s Office, Code Enforcement, Transit and Recreation. Again Transit and Recreation and the Marshal’s Office are very small numbers but they did fall below that 75% so they were included on the report. Now we’re getting to the meat and potatoes. This is the time to close. It actually breaks down from the Marshal’s Code Enforcement, Transit, Recreation and Engineering how it’s taking to close out these requests. So these are calls from our citizens 30 days for a total of 583. Let’s look at the folks that have called us 90 days ago or longer, over 1,100 requests that have went unanswered. This next slide here is a breakdown of our, by district which I’m sure 7 you’ll be interested to see and the same information has been provided in the document so you can follow along or if you need to refer to any of those numbers feel free to do so. And this here is just another glance of a breakdown by district. It actually shows these are our open requests that gone unanswered and it goes by through district, District 3, District 4. Here again these are the five departments that met that were under 75%. District 7 and 8 and now we’re at Super Districts. Now a closer look as I bring this presentation to an end our Engineering Department. Looking at Traffic Engineering and I know a moment ago I did talk about Engineering but I just didn’t want to pick on them, I wanted to break it down a little bit. Traffic Engineering is actually at a 77% closure rate which is a lot higher if you look at that division by itself. And that is your street lights, your low hanging limbs, your trees, potholes, traffic signals. Let’s look at Maintenance your overgrown vegetation, your sinkholes, your clogged ditches, 32% closure rate of 2015. Also Code Enforcement and I actually had to reach out to code because I wanted to make sure that I had a better understanding of how this actually worked. The two most requests that 311 enters is on the International Property Maintenance and nuisances so they’re right at about 50% closure rate with the International Property maintenance you have the maintenance of the structures your fences, retaining walls, exterior and interior on the premises, the tenant complaints and then your nuisances. Odors, overgrowth and anything that’s a nuisance in the neighborhood it kind of just is lumped into that one area. So pretty much in summary what I have for you is Augusta 311, we strive to be the central point of contact for non-emergencies requests for services. And I do want to add that a centralized request management system it helps to identify many things and I’ve listed four things here. Your business processes. What used to work 20 years ago it doesn’t work now so there may be a need to identify those things. The areas of concern throughout Augusta that need to addressed. That’s what a centralized management system does. Department Accountability. That’s probably one of the biggest ones is what are we doing for our citizens. Are we answering their calls and I’m sure that the Commissioners will agree that some of these numbers probably are from the cell phone calls that you receive on a continuous basis from the citizens that call us and also it helps identify future opportunities for growth. Thank you. Mr. Mayor: All right fantastic, Ms. Walker, thank you so much. It’s a lot of information. st The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 1. Mr. Fennoy: Ms. Walker, how are you doing? Ms. Walker: Good how are you, sir? Mr. Fennoy: I think I get more phone calls than you do but would you explain once a resident calls 311 and say there’s a pothole in the street what happens. Would you explain that process how what do ya’ll do with the information? Ms. Walker: Sure well and my staff one we actually have to dissect is if you just say it’s a pothole but what caused the pothole? Sometimes it falls on the Utility side and other times it’s on the Traffic Engineering side so what we do is we sift through that information, we identify the true nature of the problem, we enter that request in. If it is on the maintenance side of the house or it’s on the Traffic Engineering side we’re sending that information in including the commission district the exact location. My staff uses the GIS application on a daily basis to 8 make sure that we pinpointing exactly where those technicians need to go. Once that information is sent over to the department it remains in that area until it’s closed. Once it is closed out my office receives notification and depending on how that citizen contacted our office if they’ve requested that we email them back that’s automatically generated. If they want a phone call we pick up the phone and let them know that your request has been completed and if they want a letter we send them a letter as well. So we actually handle the customer from the time they call our office until the request is completed. Mr. Fennoy: All right, thank you. Ms. Walker: You’re welcome. Mr. M. Williams: Ms. Walker, since the Mayor’s coming back if I can, Mr. Mayor, I want to ask Ms. Walker one question. When you get a complaint about the overgrown vegetation that’s been put out to be picked up and it’s out of compliance for instance, is there a charge? This is a question I get all the time is there an additional charge to the charge we’re paying for services now when they got to come back after you put in compliance? Ms. Walker: The answer to that is if they’re able to get it into compliance before Environmental Services sends a crew out to get it there will not be a charge. If the hauler is able to remove the debris there is no fee and Mr. Johnson is here so he can piggyback off of that if he needs too. But if there is a crew that’s sent out that is not a hauler and if it is out of compliance the citizen will incur a fee. Mr. M. Williams: I guess my question is when it gets into compliance because a constituent will put something out and it’s too long and they get tagged. And once they put it back into compliance will they come back and cut it to the right size. You’re saying there is a --- Ms. Walker: There should not be a fee. Mr. M. Williams: --- should not be. Ms. Walker: If it is in compliance, there should not be a fee. Mr. M. Williams: Well, I didn’t think so. I think the services as we went to a different service that when you get into compliance it may not be able to pick it all up at one time but they’re supposed to remove anything that you cut that you put in your yard. But I had several calls several conversations and several questions about they had been told from 311 that there would be an additional charge on their taxes. And I said to them that’s not true I said because we got a service and we agreed to the price and at one point we said anything you put on the street. Now that may have changed when the new contract came in but at one point we said that anything you put on the street and people were dragging car engines, they were dragging transmissions, they brought it all out there and the haulers moved it because that was the agreement. But now the agreement I think is supposed to be that it’s got to be within the guidelines of the length, the thickness of it and the height I think it is. But when someone said there’s going to be an additional fee on their taxes that alarms people that really alarms me. But 9 if there’s not going to be a fee and like you said Mr. Johnson he handles that I know you’re answer the telephone most of the time so I understand. But I was told that 311 had gave this information to some constituents that there will be an additional fee because they had to come back and do it. Ms. Walker: I do apologize if that information was given out or if it was misinterpreted. My staff should definitely be very familiar with the processes. We do actually look on, we have access to Environmental Services systems we’re able to do the picture so a lot of times a constituent may call you and you don’t technically know exactly what’s out there. But when we see the picture and then also too it depends on the timeframe. So some people may think they have several weeks to remove it but probably within a two or three week turnaround time Environmental Services is going to come out there and they’re going to remove it and that fee will be applied. Mr. M. Williams: Okay, but if it’s in compliance now my question is if it’s out of compliance and I know people pay people to do different work and they think because they pay them they can put it out there. That’s not true. If you pay somebody to limb up your trees you need to pay them to haul it off. But if you yourself if a constituency cuts his limbs or puts her limbs out on the street and they’re within the guidelines then they should be picked up by our services. If they’re out of the guidelines, that should be tagged. Now I like Commissioner Smith got a District on one side and I got the other side. I see stuff that’s been out there for months that’s done turned brown that’s within the guidelines that we hadn’t picked up. And I really got tired of calling in because I was taking your job really I’m riding around trying to do what 311 does because I see it had not been picked up yet. But as long as you were not giving the information that people will be billed on their taxes if they had to come back and get something where we can prove they did or not that’s one thing but I just wanted to make sure that information is not going out wrong. Ms. Walker: Yes, sir and if you would continue to encourage them to call our office and we definitely look at that account. I’ve also provided my business card for each one of you if you have any other questions or would like me to speak to any of the constituents in detail about the services that 311 offers or look into any issues I’m definitely willing to do that. Mr. Mayor: Are you finished, Commissioner? All right, Ms. Walker, thank you so much for the presentation, I appreciate that. Commissioners in your folders that Ms. Walker’s provided you some additional information I would encourage each of you to just take a few minutes of your time to look at it. We’ve got a great staff of people here working for the City of Augusta. They make us proud every single day and solve problems. I’m excited about that. Madam Clerk. Mr. M. Williams: Motion to receive as information, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Hasan: Second. Mr. Mayor: All right, we’ve got a motion and a second to receive as information. 10 Mr. Lockett out. Motion Passes 9-0. The Clerk: ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES 10. Update from the DBE Coordinator regarding the Disparity Study. (No recommendation from Administrative Services Committee August 25, 2015) Mr. Mayor: All right the Chair’s going to recognize the distinguished Chair of Administrative Services. Ms. Gentry, you’re on deck if you’ll come forward and I’ll recognize the Chairman of Administrative Services Commissioner Williams. Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This has been an ongoing process for quite some time and I asked Ms. Gentry on the last committee meeting to be here but she was out of pocket I think. But I’m very disappointed in the first place for how long it’s been taking us to get it. We’ve been trying to get an update. I asked Ms. Gentry the last conversation I had with her on this dais to fast track to get ahold of Ms. Holt and to do whatever is necessary so we can move this situation forward. It’s not happened even to this day. Now I know some of my colleagues got some information about the update even some of the state reps got some information but I have not got any information yet. Now I’ve been hearing this on the attorney’s side and from the attorney I’m hearing from Ms. Gentry’s side but this too serious, we’ve spent too much of the taxpayers’ money to be going over and over and over with this. And I need to know today what it’s going to take for us to get off center. I said that before but it didn’t get me anywhere. I need to know what it’s going to take to move this situation out of limbo where it’s been for the last five or six years after spending $500,000 dollars of the taxpayers’ money and it still hadn’t moved anywhere. Ms. Gentry, can you give us an update can you tell us something that you had not told us before? Ms. Gentry: Yes, I can. Mr. Mayor, members of the Commission, thank you very much for this opportunity. And you’re absolutely correct the DBE Department has worked diligently to insure that the Draft Minority Program was placed on the department’s fast track since January 2014. I would like to provide you with this timeline as requested by the Commission and General Counsel emailed the draft document to Collette Holt on February 2015. Several conferences were held between Ms. Holt and the Law Department as well as myself. We th received the official document back from Ms. Holt back in June 17 which the document immediately was emailed to General Counsel, the City Administrator, the Mayor, the Deputy Administrator and the Mayor’s Chief of Staff as instructed by General Counsel as well as the th Mayor. On June 30 all parties was emailed again to identity if there are any questions that I can address is there anything that we can questions or comments that need to be addressed by Ms. thth Holt. I received no comments. On July 8 as well as 10 emails went out again I received no th comment no response from General Counsel. On July 17 I did receive a document that had 65 questions. Of those 65 questions 55 of them were really relevant to our current Local Small Business Ordinance that we have in place so basically what I did was I answered those questions, I referenced out Local Small Business document and provided that information to General th Counsel. The last attempt was on July 29 I emailed again to say you know we are we would 11 like to provide the document to the Administrative Services Committee so that we can move forward. I received no response. As you can see I have repeatedly contacted General Counsel as well as Attorney Bray not only via emails but also via telephone. I received no return calls, no th response from the emails. I was prepared to provide you this information on July 7, you’re absolutely correct, Commissioner, you requested an update at that time and a motion was made to refer this to Legal. This never came up in Legal. So as the DBE Department we worked diligently to accomplish the task to establish that was established by the Commission. The DBE Department is seeking your advice as Commissioners how do we move forward when I can’t get General Counsel to review the document and allow me to present to this Commission. Mr. M. Williams: First thing, Ms. Gentry, you are right back in July I asked for in committee to fast track this thing to get with Ms. Holt to get something done because we’ve been sitting around acting as if it’s not a real issue. Commissioner I think Dennis Williams received a copy I think Representative Frasier and Representative Howell received a copy. I have not yet. And I don’t know about the rest of this board received anything. And if what you’re saying is true if the Attorney had not responded to you, why hadn’t you came to this body and requested from us to get the Attorney to do what needs to be done if that was the case. Now I am very upset about that because I think we’ve been playing around for too long with too much taxpayers’ money and people are making a salary and not getting the work done. I don’t think there’s any excuse if and I’m hearing you saying that you requested from the Attorney and the Attorney didn’t respond to you but you have not yet contacted this body to say that we needed to get the information back. We talked seriously about fast tracking about trying to do whatever you needed to do. In fact the Attorney said, Mr. Mayor, that if the Commission had got serious we didn’t have to violate any court order or anything else we could’ve done this. So I asked the question what is it going to take to get us off center. Now I’m hearing everybody with all these excuses but everybody’s still getting paid, everybody’s still getting a paycheck but the people the taxpayers’ money is being spent and people are being discriminated against even to this day and that’s what the study said but we don’t have anything to go on. Now I’m hearing from you the same thing I’ve been hearing for the last two years if not longer I don’t have anything different. I don’t know where Ms. Holt is; I asked you to contact her. I know this body approved, Mr. Mayor, some arrangement to go ahead and get her, her staff or whoever needed to be addressed to get us the information so we can move forward. So my question is simple. What is wrong what is the holdup today to keep us from moving forward where we need to move forward with? Ms. Gentry: Commissioner, there is no holdup. Mr. M. Williams: Wait now there is not holdup then why aren’t we moving forward. What’s it going to take to move forward with this? Ms. Gentry: It is my understanding and I have been advised by General Counsel that I could not present anything to this body to approve (inaudible). Mr. M. Williams: You don’t work for General Counsel, I’m not going to buy that now. Ms. Gentry: I understand that. 12 Mr. M. Williams: If General Counsel who works for this body as well you should have came to either one of these committees or the Mayor or one of these Commissioners and at least requested that you’re not getting the cooperation that you need to have from any department. We’ve been talking about this and talking about this and spent all of this money and we hadn’t got anywhere and I’m really disappointed, I am very disappointed. Maybe another Commissioner has got a comment, Mr. Mayor, but I don’t know what else to do. We ask professionally that we pay to do some things and they had not done that. Ms. Gentry: The document is complete. It has been completed and submitted to General Counsel --- Mr. M. Williams: So, so --- Ms. Gentry: --- General Counsel has reviewed it --- Mr. M. Williams: --- Ms. Gentry, why --- Ms. Gentry: --- I have documentation that --- Mr. M. Williams: --- didn’t you bring an agenda item to this body and explain that the document had been completed, we’re waiting on General Counsel. Ms. Gentry: We received the document in June, you placed it on the agenda in July. You placed it on the agenda in July. It was a motion was made by you to remove it and discuss it in Legal. I showed up for Legal no one called me. I came to Legal on several occasions sitting out there waiting --- Mr. M. Williams: So you’ve been waiting on us then. All these years we’ve been working on this now it’s turning back to be waiting on the Commissioners. We’ve been asking for this over and over. In fact I was really upset I didn’t want to discuss it and the Mayor said let’s discuss it in Legal. But because the information went out prior to that meeting Commissioner Dennis Williams, Representative Frasier and Representative Howard had a copy and I was very disappointed as to we asked about it but they got a copy. So I’m really very disappointed and I’m trying to figure out a way to address this, Mr. Mayor, because I think we’ve been spending taxpayers’ money. We talked about something a while ago about wasting taxpayer’s money, I think we done wasted some in the last few years we’ve been doing this. Mr. Mayor: All right I appreciate that Commissioner and I know you’ve got a great passion for this matter. I do believe that there’s some actions that are being taken to bring remedy to this very quickly. All right --- Mr. M. Williams: Can I ask what those actions, what those things are? Mr. Mayor: You absolutely can and I will be happy to answer them. Ms. Gentry, I thank you for your time. All right this body we have met we are moving forward with as you well understand the discussion about our directive compliance position. And again I think that’s part 13 of the action that we need in order to be able to help get us to a place as it relates to the Disparity Study. I know that there’s more conversation that needs to happen where that’s concerned but I promise we’re going to do more than talk in this administration. Mr. M. Williams: So, Mr. Mayor, we did not need to spend the $500,000 we spent on the study. All we needed to do was to hire a director a Compliance Officer. Is that what you’re saying because it sounds like you’re saying a Compliance Officer is going to solve our problem. We’ve got staff in place now that’s supposed to be handling this and have not got that done. Mr. Mayor: I understand and I know you’ve got a great passion for this but we’re going to bring remedy to this situation. Okay? All right we’ve received this, I’d like to have a, it’s not even required to have a motion to receive as information because all we did was get an update. But I know we have a penchant for doing that so if you’d like to make a motion to receive as information I’m okay with that at this time. Mr. Fennoy: So moved. Mr. D. Williams: Second. Mr. Mayor: All right, we have a motion and a second to receive as information. Voting. Mr. Guilfoyle votes No. Mr. M. Williams abstains. Mr. Lockett out. Motion Passes 7-1-1. The Clerk: PUBLIC SAFETY 11. Motion to terminate the contract “Agreement for 911 Ambulance Response and Emergency Medical Services with Gold Cross EMS Inc.” in accordance with Article VI of said contract. (No recommendation from Public Safety Committee August 25, 2015) Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair’s going to go in this order. I’m going to start on my left th and I’m going to make my way to the right. The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 4 to speak on the motion. Mr. Sias: Thank you, Mayor. I know this issue’s not going to get resolved today but also I know it’s not going away. This issue’s on the table because this is an issue that we as a commission must address. It is not a matter of I don’t like this company or somebody don’t like that company it has nothing to do with that at all. It is about how this government is going to conduct business, how we’re going to be related to the people that contract with this government. One of the greatest tools that a government has to provide the best service at the most economical rate to its citizens is the ability to contract these services but there’s an issue with contracting, you have to own the service that you are contracting. As of now this government do not own the EMS Service, that is owned by a private company and there’s nothing we can do 14 about that. It is the option of this government to have a contract with that particular company as it had before that company was given that service as of 1 June 2014 this government no longer owns that responsibility. It no longer owns that service. According to the Department of Public Health that private company owns that service because of three factors: economy, efficiency and public welfare. The idea was that this company could do it better than the government even at the time the government was contracting with this company. Now the word is this company cannot do it without a subsidy. The subsidy was not part of the discussion of economy, efficiency and public welfare. It has been portrayed by some that I have an angst with the company and that company being Gold Cross. I have sat down with the executives of Gold Cross and some of their other members and explained to them in no uncertain terms it’s nothing personal, never has been, never will be. My activism as a citizen prior to becoming a Commissioner was in fact down the same road; it is always been my position to be as good and as best as we can for the citizens our county whether I was an elected official or an advocating person or a local citizen walking the street picking up trash, herding dogs back in essence to get out of the street is always been an advocation for our city. And no acts of intimidation, dirt hunting is going to deter me from doing that. I will be doing that as long as I’m standing straight up. As a government it’s our responsibility to be good stewards of the taxpayer’s money. We asked our taxpaying citizens to trust us. When you look through the media that trust is sometimes not that well but also I would suggest each one of those citizens to get the inside story as well. As a Commissioner I’m going to honor my responsibility for looking for the best deal and the best dime for our citizens. So as we move forward through this year and on to next year this issue is going to come back and we need to be prepared that we sit down and deal with this. But if it’s not known, it’s not heard of, it’s not discussed and it’s hiding in the corner it will move right on in doing what it’s been doing. And I as an elected official will do my utmost to insure that that’s not the case. And so as we do our due diligence on this issue as it comes forward I’ll be very proud to see our commission get the best deal for our citizens. And in closing let me make sure one thing is understood. After 28 years in the United States Army I can take some heat. That’s not my concern. My concern is the citizens of Augusta Richmond County providing excellent outstanding service to them in all facets of what this government provides and at the best cost that we can provide it. And I’ll say sometimes technically right is also functionally right morally right and economically right and I’ll stand on that forever. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: Thank you, Commissioner. All right I think on based on what I heard you say and what’s before us as it’s been written it’s a motion to terminate. I think you want to make a substitute motion is that not true? Mr. Sias: Mr. Mayor, I move that we take this as information. Mr. D. Williams: Second. Mr. Mayor: Thank you. I’ve got a motion to receive as information and a second. All those in doing so vote yea and all those opposed will vote no. Mr. Hasan abstains. Motion Passes 8-0-1. 15 The Clerk: FINANCE 13. Presentation by Mr. Rob Dennis of the NSC Discovery, Inc. regarding the tax exempt status of the property at 1930 North Leg Road. (No recommendation from Finance Committee August 25, 2015) Mr. Mayor: All right the Chair recognizes Rob Dennis. Mr. Dennis: My name’s Rob Dennis. I live 2515 Walton Way Augusta, Georgia 30904. I want to thank the Mayor and the Commission for the time today and suppose first start off by saying that I applaud ya’ll’s efforts to advance education, reading STEM and other to the children of the county. The purpose of this briefing is to request consideration for the subject property 1930 North Leg Road. It is a parcel located behind Vintage Creek Apartments land lot. There is a permanent easement through the apartments to this 13.5 acres. In 2008 we incorporated this land into a program called NSC Discovery Wetlands. We had paid taxes from the time it was contributed to the Science Center as part of a capital campaign in 1997 through 2013 when I met with Donna Murray. At the time I met with her we filled out the application and submitted. It was brought to our attention that we were two tax years in arrears. This was at the time we sold Fort Discovery and did not know that we had tax bills outstanding on the property as it had been part of our mission and our outreach as the wetlands program it should’ve been exempt from 2008. We now want to sell that property. We feel there’s a potential to sell that property, we’ve had entertained an offer and accepted a contract for that property and when we learned it was encumbered by liens we were not able to close. And although the assessed value is $202,000 the offer was for less than 10% of that we went ahead and moved forward again at that time not realizing it was encumbered with liens. The total amount of the tax with penalties, interest and fees is $7,741.00 dollars and I suppose one of the reasons we wound up in this situation is at the time we sold Fort Discovery we did maintain some office space at River Place Condominiums. The post office had returned those bills thinking that the National Science Center no longer occupied the space in any capacity. When we filled out the application for tax exemption we understood that 2011, 2012 were included in the exemption. That wasn’t the case and so again when we discovered this through the title work that was done on the property subsequent to an offer to sell we decided to pursue what relief may exist through this body. I contacted Mr. Kendrick’s office he suggested that he can’t make up a unilateral decision. I spoke with the Assessor’s Office they encouraged me to get in touch with the Finance Committee and I spoke with the Finance Committee on, my days are running together but last week and so that’s how I happen to be here today. Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Dennis, you stated you met with Donna Murray and you applied for the exemption. Mr. Dennis: Yes, sir, in 2013. Mr. M. Williams: In 2013. 16 Mr. Dennis: We haven’t paid taxes on that property in ’13 or ’14. We won’t pay them in ’15. We are looking to sell the property so it’s ’11 and ’12 where we had an outstanding bill. Arguably we could the exemption should’ve been applied for in 2008. The science center was due to the state defunding Fort Discovery was going through a considerable amount of consternation at the time and it had just fallen through the cracks and so that exemption status had not been applied for. Mr. M. Williams: And I guess my question would be when you applied for the exemption that was effective you’re saying that you did get the exemption for that time when you --- Mr. Dennis: We received it for 2013, correct. We applied for it in June of 2013 and received it. It was our understanding that it would be I don’t know if retroactive is the right language or not but that it would include ’11 and ’12. Mr. Mayor: Continue, Commissioner. Mr. M. Williams: Well, I’d like to hear from Mr. Kendrick or someone to help me understand a little bit better as to what we’re able to do versus. Mr. Mayor: All right the Chair recognizes the Tax Commissioner Mr. Kendrick. Mr. Kendrick: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Commissioners. As far as I’ve heard the request today oh I did hear a little of the request today but I’ll give you historically how things are done between the Assessor’s Office and the Tax Commissioner’s Office as it deals with exemptions. Typically on a residential exemption which most of you are quite familiar with, on homestead exemptions if a resident comes in and they apply for an exemption for this year, say they’re 68 years old and come in and say well I was entitled to an exemption when I was 65 because over 65 you receive that they are not entitled to retroactively get an exemption. The exemption is available to you the year in which you apply unless there was a mistake made by our office. So if they come in and say I applied three years somehow you guys didn’t do it correctly and we could substantiate that we do that. On commercial exemptions the ones that we’re dealing with here from non-profits and things like that culturally the same thing applies. Those exemptions would be applied for in the Assessor’s Office, they’re not done through you Tax Commissioner’s Office, however we are responsible for making sure on our side that they are honored. In 2013 this exemption was given to this organization and from that point forth they received it however the two years prior to that they had not paid those two years taxes. Now often on the residential side if you apply for an exemption in our office you won’t actually we ask that you pay your back taxes before you get your new exemption because we don’t control that it’s in the Assessor’s Office with the non-profits that avenue probably is not done however the same thing probably should apply. The taxes due of $7,400 dollars would include penalties and interest I think it’s about $5,000 dollars without penalties and interest. It’s not really something that I can tell you if you get into retroactively honoring exemptions is something that a lot of people are going to call you and ask you to do because we deny them every single day. We deny residentially for people every single day and ones in which we often times wish we could do because we just don’t have any way of distinguishing between 17 somebody who actually made an application today and whether or not they forgot how far do you go back five years, ten years. We’ve had people come in 85 years old and said I could’ve gotten this since I was 65 but we don’t have the authority in order to change that and offer that to them alone. So again it’s two offices dealing with this Assessor’s Office and our office. We will be able today to do one of two things. First of all there are taxes that are still due and the lien that is on the books that prevents them from doing it is in the Tax Commissioner’s name. And so at this time while those taxes are still due that lien stays there. He would have to pay the taxes and once the taxes are paid we can cancel the lien that comes out of our name. He also at that time you have the ability as you well know to offer a refund to them of those taxes but there is no process as we’ve learned before for this body to waive those taxes. Somebody will have to pay them first and then you’ll have to decide to give them back to them. th Mr. Mayor: All right the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 8. Mr. Guilfoyle: Mr. Kendrick --- Mr. Kendrick: Yes, sir. Mr. Guilfoyle: --- as far a lien on a piece of property as Mr. Dennis was talking about that he does have a contract on it 10% of the face value what the Tax Assessor’s Department valued it at. He did apply for the non-profit in 2013 I believe it was 2014. At that time why was he not presented with the previous year’s taxes that was due on it? Mr. Kendrick: Well, as I just mentioned before a, when a non-profit applies for an exemption first of all they don’t apply for it in the Tax Commissioner’s office. Non-profits do that through the Assessor’s Office. And as a little tidbit at the risk of opening a little bit of a can of worms if you check throughout the state there are a lot of places, a lot of counties where non- profits 501(c)(3)’s are not just given an exemption because they are a non-profit. That is kind of unique to Augusta. There are lots of places that 501(c)(3)’s do not receive exemptions for that. That is something that we do here and we’ve done here for a long time but it is not something, if you check with your colleagues in the Assessor’s Office it’s not something that is routinely done everywhere. And so to answer your question as to why they were not given told of the taxes they weren’t doing it in our office they went to the Assessor’s Office and the Assessor’s Office grants them through the Board of Assessors that exemption. I’m not sure they have anything in place that looks at whether or not taxes are due when they do that but residentially we do. Mr. Guilfoyle: All right and as far as I know in the past years since I’ve been on the floor I probably can count on one finger who I actually gave property taxes to. I know that this body has waived penalties and interest which is common but as far as property taxes. Mr. Kendrick: Ya’ll have been very disciplined as it relates the amount of refunds that you have given back through my office. In the last two years there’s been a lot of discipline there, there’s not been many that you’ve actually done where you’ve asked us to give back a refund. Certainly with penalties and interest we’ve done some things and you’ve offered some relief to organizations for different reasons based on your discretion that you certainly have. But it’s not like the previous four or five years where it was you were doing pretty good with it. 18 Mr. Guilfoyle: Mr. Mayor, may I continue, sir? Mr. Mayor: You may. Mr. Guilfoyle: Mr. Dennis --- Mr. Dennis: Yes, sir. Mr. Guilfoyle: --- you heard the correspondence between Steven Kendrick as well as myself as far as previous experience with either homeowners or commercial non-profits etcetera. I know that there is a lien on that property you’ve got a contract on that property. The lien will be satisfied before at the time of the closing is that correct? Mr. Dennis: We’re going to have to come up with additional money. There are actually, there’s more than these two liens of the property and we’re negotiating with the state on that. Mr. Guilfoyle: You know it kills me to say this but I’d be willing to pay, waive the interest and penalty and I think that’s above and beyond what most governments should do for anybody. But if it helps your conditions as far as being a non-profit being with the Fort Discovery and somebody gave you sometimes you’ve got to look a gift horse in the mouth and this just happens to be one on that piece of property. I don’t know if somebody will second me or what. Mr. M. Williams: I’ll second it. Mr. Mayor: Can we hold on before we get that? I’ve got a little bit more inquiry. The th Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 6. Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Dennis --- Mr. Dennis: Yes, sir. Mr. Hasan: --- I think the other day you also mentioned about your resources that you have to be able to pay these taxes, is that correct? Mr. Dennis: Yes. Mr. Hasan: You have resources to pay it? Mr. Dennis: No, they’re very limited. Mr. Hasan: Okay, Mr. Kendrick, to this body is it a back to Mr. Dennis for a minute. You say you have a particular pending sale? 19 Mr. Dennis: We have a contract that we didn’t close on. We would’ve closed on it at the end of last month but due to the liens the purchase price wasn’t going to come close to covering the liens and so we just weren’t in a position to where we could offset the cost for the purchase of paying the difference in liens. Mr. Hasan: So well my suggestion may not even be worth it coming out of my mouth, Mr. Mayor, but I was going to suggest that we put a lien on it and we get paid at the closing you know allow them to sell it and we get paid at the closing at the table. Like you say you don’t have the resources to do that but what he’s saying now that if we was to sell it tomorrow based on the offering price it still wouldn’t take care of the business if we put that stipulation on it. So maybe somebody else has another suggestion as a result of that but, you know, that’s what I was going to suggest but he says they’re not offering that kind of money. Mr. Mayor: Appreciate that. I’m going to go back down here to the Commissioner from thth the 8. In light of what the Commissioner from the 6 has just indicated I don’t know what that does in terms of your narrative but I want to come back to you as I told you I would the th Commissioner from the 8. Mr. Guilfoyle: Mr. Dennis, as far as the other liens I’m not I don’t care who are the liens are with but as far as the value you said you only had 10% of what the face value of the property is and it’s currently at $200,000 dollars. So that tells me exactly what number you’re at. But as far as liens and besides what Augusta Richmond County has and the other people it exceeds that amount that you’re selling it for? Mr. Dennis: Yes, we didn’t realize those liens were on the property was encumbered until the title work was done. Mr. Kendrick: Mr. Mayor, can I speak to that? Mr. Mayor: Yes, you may. Mr. Kendrick: One of the concerns it is not uncommon I’m sorry. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner? Mr. Guilfoyle: I’ll wait until Mr. Kendrick. Mr. Kendrick: And just to speak to that issue it’s not uncommon for us to run into situations like that where a taxpayer has the proceeds that they can deliver at closing. What we ask in those situations that I send one of my officers to the closing with the understanding that we’ll pick up a check at that time. Well because although the organization never approached our office directly so this is the first conversation I’ve actually had on it. I did hear about it from the Assessor’s Office we did a little research and we found out about their accompanying needs as well. So we certainly wouldn’t be comfortable at this time giving him, well by the way and at the closing our Tax Commissioner would have to write a letter allowing them to do that close in order for them to do it and net us out the cash. But knowing that money would not be there it 20 wouldn’t make any sense for us to do that because there won’t be enough money to collect because of the outstanding liens. As you mentioned it’s far above what they owe us, far above. So there’s nothing there for us to get because we did look into doing that for them just, we were going to offer that ourselves but when we looked at it we saw that the offer price based on what we heard was not nearly what the amount was so there was no money there for us to collect at closing. th Mr. Mayor: All right, I’m going the Commissioner from the 8 still has the floor. Mr. Guilfoyle: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Dennis, as far as your other board members --- Mr. Dennis: Yes. Mr. Guilfoyle: --- I think maybe we need to table this until next week that way you’ll have some correspondence with your other board members. The burden should not fall on us. Mr. Dennis: Yes, sir. Mr. Guilfoyle: I mean the motion I had made is a very good offering. Mr. Dennis: I don’t dispute that at all and we have a offering compromise with the state with the proviso that that’s approved. They, when I asked them for a timetable they said it could be 30, 60 or 90 days so we’re still waiting to hear back from the state. Those were certified funds that were delivered to the state for that offering compromise and so if it is accepted what you proposed goes a long way in helping us liquidate this property getting it back on the tax rolls and most importantly for me getting it off our books. Mr. Guilfoyle: I understand. Mr. Mayor: All right, so here’s what I’ve heard. I’ve heard the Commissioner from the th 8 suggest a substitute motion to table this matter. It was for presentation purposes only so I’m not sure it that’s necessary but again I just think he just came to express your concerns to us --- Mr. Dennis: Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor: --- and that this is the posture in which you are operating, is that not true? Mr. Dennis: Correct. Mr. Mayor: Okay, so thank you, Tax Commissioner Kendrick. So it’s not necessary but if you want to do that I’ll be happy. Mr. Sias: If we did have a recommended solution and you want to change that to information if you want to or what. 21 Mr. Guilfoyle: Mr. Dennis, I realize you could get back on the next committee agenda. Your time is different than ours because you’ve got to meet with each of the board members. You come back on this floor on an agenda all you have to call Madam Clerk and she’ll get you back on and we’ll proceed from there. Mr. Dennis: Thank you very much. Mr. Guilfoyle: I’d like to make a motion to receive this as information. Mr. Sias: Second. Mr. Mayor: We’ve got a motion and a second to receive as information. Mr. Dennis: Thank you. rdrd Mr. Mayor: All right the Commissioner from the 3 the gentle lady from the 3 District is on deck for a motion after Madam Clerk reads it of course. Mr. Lockett out. Motion Passes 9-0. The Clerk: We’re at item 14 are we ready to proceed with that one? Mr. Mayor: Yes. The Clerk: ADMINISTRATOR 14. Approve resolution requesting the Augusta-Richmond County Board of Elections to place the approved SPLOST 7 package on the ballot for the November 3, 2015 election. rd Mr. Mayor: All right the Chair recognizes the distinguished lady from the 3 District Commissioner Davis. Ms. Davis: Mr. Mayor, thank you I’d like to make a motion to approve please. Mr. G. Smith: Second. Mr. Mayor: We’ve got a motion and a second to approve the SPLOST 7 package on the rd ballot for November 3. All those in favor will vote yea and all those opposed will vote no. We do have one more item. Mr. M. Williams votes No. Mr. Lockett out. Motion Passes 8-1. 22 The Clerk: OTHER BUSINESS 15. Discuss certificate of occupancy for the Municipal Building. (Requested by Commissioner M. Williams) th Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9. Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I had this item put on the agenda to address whether or not we have an occupancy for this building because we was told that everything was finished except for a little backup work I think we’ve been doing behind here. And I spoke with the Fire Chief for a brief minute and he shared there were four or five things that had not yet been done. And I guess my question today is have those things been done and when will it if this building is safe should we be in this building? Ted, I see you at the mike so -- Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes Mr. Rhinehart, Deputy Administrator. Mr. Rhinehart: Yes sir, Mr. Mayor and Commission, you are correct there are a handful of items that are still being completed on this building. They are items that either are facilities or IT or possibly the Marshal’s Office are actually working on. So the architect and the general contractor have really finished their obligations; you still see them working next door on the IT building finishing the old print shop and the storm drain and the concrete path and then they’ll bring in some grass and seed the green spaces. Yes, there’s still a few items on this building that you mentioned. The courtroom space behind here when we added that specialty commode for the detention holding cell back there, that’s now actually the critical path item. There’s a long delivery time on it that the vendors told the Facilities will be installed in October. Then there’s some type of hearing impaired device that we use in the courtroom that must be installed that IT has on order. And then Facilities has an additional curb cut they’re doing that out front; they have a purchase order for that and then there may be one or two other small items that Facilities is working on kind of is I guess what you all final punch list or whatever for both Planning and then as you mentioned the Fire Marshal to sign off on the final 100% project completion. Mr. M. Williams: And I guess, Mr. Mayor, if I can continue --- Mr. Mayor: You may. Mr. M. Williams: --- even with the surveillance that we had around this building had been interrupted several other things that were supposed to have been finished and that came from security measures that I think you mentioned other entities are working. I thought that came under the contract that we had with the contractor and the architect. I thought all of that was in that position versus now we’re putting it in the hands of someone else. Mr. Rhinehart: And the rationale was we didn’t want to continue to pay Turner’s large general contractor overhead for small items. So in other words we didn’t want to extend their time period and their expensive overhead just to wait on delivery of a commode, to wait on delivery of a hearing impaired device, small ticket items that you could pay two, three, four 23 times overhead on a $2 or $5,000 dollars item. So for that reason we didn’t add it to their scope Facilities just did separate PO’s for it. Mr. M. Williams: And my understanding is that should’ve been something written up that we wouldn’t have to pay them after a certain deadline. And I don’t know what that is I don’t want to get into all that either but if we hired a contractor and there was some language put in there that they caused some problems for us or didn’t finish in time that just like we have to pay I think that was something that we’re supposed to be looking at as far as them having to pay. So -- Mr. Rhinehart: And it really is the addition to the courtroom is what extended the time limit the most and so for that reason we couldn’t control how soon we could that specialty commode. And so for that reason we said we don’t want to pay the general contractor another couple of months overhead when the very last item is something our Facilities guys could do themselves. Mr. M. Williams: And so I’m hearing that we have the authority to operate this building because of what, I mean I see the Fire Chief sitting back there and he’s nonchalant. I guess it’s not on his watch but in my mind he’s responsible more than anybody about the life safety of this building. So where are we we’re all right you’re saying? Mr. Rhinehart: We’ve been assured by the architect that life safety codes have all been met. The, we can’t use it as a courtroom until we finish those final items that then the Fire Marshal and Planning would sign off as enabling it to meet code for a courtroom. Other than that, we’re in good shape. Mr. M. Williams: But the architect and the construction company is the one who’s been I mean they’re telling us it’s okay. I mean we have nobody else to look at that nobody else to address that? We have someone on staff to address it to make sure that what they told us was? Mr. Rhinehart: Yes, so you’re correct. The Fire Marshal, the Planning Department have a punch list of we’re not going to sign off until you do these items but the items that are left on there are items that are not still in the scope of the general contractor it’s things that Facilities is handling outside that scope. So you’re right, it is their final sign off. We don’t get that Certificate of Completion under the Fire Marshall and Planning sign off. But the items that had to be delivered for the use of this building as a Municipal Building the architect and Turner have completed. Mr. M. Williams: Okay, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: All right, wonderful. Okay, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from rd the 3. Ms. Davis: I just want to ask one quick question. Do we have a plan as far as signage in this building? I know that I get asked that daily when I’m here. Is there a plan to put back up you know the seal I guess was outside, Ms. Bonner, and the different commission information, Mayor information and just overall signage on each floor of where to go. 24 Mr. Rhinehart: The dedication signage Facilities has they’re ready to install that. I think they’re planning a ceremony here in a couple of weeks. There’s not any additional I’m aware of informational type signage. All of that has been placed but there is a dedication sign going on outside of here. Ms. Davis: And if we can just keep that in mind. I know that there is information printed on paper you know and taped up all throughout the building but if we can just keep that in mind that we need some I think more appropriate signage throughout. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. st Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 1. Mr. Fennoy: Ted, as far as the renovations in this building is concerned are we ADA compliant in all areas? Mr. Rhinehart: That is my understanding. There is one final curb cut that Facilities is doing out front. You can see that there’s some parking that has been disturbed by the demolition work that still has to be restored so there are some handicap spaces to be restored and there’s an additional curb cut where they’re putting that sidewalk around out front. But it’s my understanding those are the only outstanding ADA related items. If possible I guess the hearing impaired device for the courtroom would be considered ADA also. Mr. Fennoy: Okay, Mr. Mayor, a motion to receive as information. Mr. Mayor: Okay, all right. I’ve got a motion to receive, I need a second. Mr. Frantom: Second. Mr. Mayor: All right, voting. As we’re counting down on votes I want to remind all the Commissioners to recheck your emails and please call Dr. Hooker to provide your input --- Mr. Lockett and Mr. Guilfoyle out. Motion Passes 8-0. Mr. Mayor: --- he’s expecting your call by today. All right, each of you have also have just received a handout, it’s a one pager. Appreciate the good work of Ms. Owens and our Administrator as they have collaborated in kind of putting together a single page of talking rd points. I know that there’ll be more as we move forward towards November the 3. If there any suggestions that you all have with regards to things like this, please don’t hesitate to share that. If there be no further business, we are adjourned. [MEETING ADJOURNED] Lena Bonner Clerk of Commission 25 CERTIFICATION: I, Lena J. Bonner, Clerk of Commission, hereby certify that the above is a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Regular Meeting of The Augusta Richmond County Commission held on September 1, 2015. ______________________________ Clerk of Commission 26