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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRegular Commission Meeting November 15, 2016 REGULAR MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER NOVEMBER 15, 2016 Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 2:00 p.m., November 15, 2016, the Hon. Hardie Davis, Jr., Mayor, presiding. PRESENT: Hons. Lockett, Guilfoyle, Sias, Frantom, M. Williams, Smith, Fennoy, D. Williams (Participating by telephone), Hasan and Davis, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission. Mr. Mayor: It’s an exciting time to be in Augusta. Ms. Bonner, we’ll call this meeting to order. The Clerk: Yes, sir. At this time we will have our invocation delivered by Dr. C. William Joyner, Jr., Pastor of the Broadway Baptist Church, after which the Pledge of Allegiance. Would you please stand. The invocation was given by Dr. C. William Joyner, Jr., Pastor, Broadway Baptist Church. The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America was recited. Mr. Mayor: Dr. Joyner, we have something for you. Let’s give Dr. Joyner a hand for his leadership in our community. (APPLAUSE) He is a pastor among pastors not just in the community but for other pastors across the U.S. and we thank you for your service here in Augusta. God Bless you. Ms. Bonner? The Clerk: I call your attention to the Presentation portion of our agenda. The Clerk: PRESENTATIONS(S) A. Presentation by General Aviation Commission Airport regarding Daniel Field Airport. (Requested by Commissioner Dennis Williams) Mr. Mayor: All right, you’ve got a, on your right here on the dais you’ve got a presentation from Daniel Field. And we have with us today Jeffery I believe. Thank you, sir. Mr. Wells: Mr. Mayor, Commissioners good afternoon. I’m Jeff Wells; I’m with the General Aviation Commission. On behalf of our Chairman Tim Martin who unfortunately is unable to be with us today for health issues, I want to thank you very much for this opportunity to give you a quick overview of Daniel Field as a reminder the importance of this airport to Augusta and Richmond County. From its beginning Daniel Field has played a key role in Augusta’s growth bringing Augusta into the age of air travel and serving the country proudly during World War II. The airport is governed by the General Aviation Commission which you and the State Legislative Delegation appointed. Mr. Tim Martin as I mentioned chairs that commission. Augusta Aviation, Inc. under contract to the General Aviation Commission serves as the manager of the airport. That 1 arrangement saves us the cost of hiring a separate management staff. Mr. Steven Gaye, President of Augusta Aviation, oversees the operation and maintenance of the airport and Ms. Becky Shealy provides our administrative support and keeps our books straight. So what makes Daniel Field green? The answer in large part is location. Daniel Field is Augusta’s downtown airport giving visitors who arrive in personal and corporate charter aircraft easy access to the city’s commercial, medical, government and education centers. Daniel Field is the busiest airport of its size in Georgia and not surprisingly most of that traffic is business related. A modern well-run downtown airport also makes the difference in promoting economic development. To companies considering a presence in Augusta Daniel Field’s location is definitely a benefit. Location is especially important to the medical community. Augusta is a key player in the organ transplant network. The ability to quickly move organs and transplant teams as well as blood, time sensitive medications, it’s critical. Daniel Field’s proximity to Augusta’s medical facilities helps insure fast point-to-point air transportation. Air ambulances and medical charity flights also find Daniel Field convenient for transferring patients to and from Augusta treatment facilities. This overhead view shows how close Augusta’s key medical facilities are to Daniel Field, all well within 3½- miles of takeoff. Masters Week, well Masters Week is our Olympics. Hundreds of private, corporate and charter flights fly into Daniel Field throughout the week. It’s the one week during the year we have an active control tower at Daniel Field. An extra staff is hired to accommodate the wave of visitors. Daniel is sometimes called the overflow field for Augusta Regional; in fact it is the preferred airport in Augusta. It’s just a short 3½-mile drive to the front gate of the National and our ability to accommodate many general aviation aircraft helps insure Augusta Regional has the space needed for larger airplanes. Along with location Daniel Field and Augusta Aviation bring important services to the community. Charter flights to virtually anywhere in the country move people, equipment, products, even animals and hazardous materials to hundreds of airports not served by the airlines and without being constrained by airline schedules. Other localized charter services include flights for things like aerial photography, real estate evaluations, aerial survey such as the survey we currently run on bird populations by Augusta Regional and tours or just about any other reason to tour around the county. For those interested in learning to fly Augusta Aviation does that too. The number of airline and military pilots have received their primary training at Daniel Field. One of our most famous graduates Astronaut Susan Still Kilrain began her distinguished aviation career at Daniel Field. Augusta Aviation maintains and repairs both piston and turbo prop airplanes and installs and repairs avionics, the electronic systems used for communications and navigation. We have a new first-class terminal building with excellent facilities to serve both travelers and flight crews. The building and the friendly service delivered by Augusta Aviation’s people give arriving and departing visitors a positive impression of Augusta. And we support several community programs such as aviation, physics and math presentations to the Board of Education’s STEM Program and their SHADOW Program that brings students face to face with real aviation jobs. And charity events such as Cooking for Kids and the Sheriff’s Fall Safety Fair. We provide a home for Augusta’s Civil Air Patrol Squadron and Space on the Ramp for fire department driver training and the county department heads meet every quarter at Daniel Field. All this comes at no cost to Augusta Richmond County taxpayers. Daniel Field sustains itself with lease revenues. And airport improvements are funded by grants from the state and the FAA. And Daniel Field contributes revenue to the county through an Ad Valorem Tax on each airplane based at the airport, sales tax on fuel and other items sold at the airport and general business fees. The most recent State Airport Economic Impact Study shows Daniel Field 2 has been making a significant contribution to the local economy. And while Daniel Field sustains its day to day operation the taxpayers have generally supported major capital improvements. So that’s our story and I thank you for the time and the opportunity to be with you today and tell you about Daniel Field, we invite you to visit of course at any time. And Augusta Aviation has asked me to pass on to you their invitation to come out for a flight to tour the county from the air and Ms. Becky Shealy will be happy to set that up for you. Mr. Mayor: Thank you, Mr. Wells. All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from th the 4. Mr. Sias: Thank you, sir. Mr. Mayor, I would like that if we have any of the staff and Commission members from the Daniel Field that they are here we can ask them to stand and be recognized. Mr. Mayor: Absolutely. All right at this time any of the staff and the Aviation Commission from Daniel Field please stand. (APPLAUSE) Thank you for your service thank you for what you do. All right, Ms. Bonner, do you have another one? The Clerk: Yes, sir. The Clerk: DELEGATIONS B. Mr. Roy Simkins regarding New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam. (Requested by Commissioner Marion Williams) Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes Mr. Roy Simkins to share with us what’s going on. Mr. Simkins: Mr. Mayor, thank you for having me, Commissioners. I’m a little nervous because usually when I come down here and picking on ya’ll I’m talking about trees and I know a good bit more about trees than I do about hydrology. But nonetheless there’s a situation that is in process right now that I’m terribly concerned about. For the sake of a lot of stakeholders the major ones being the cities of Augusta and North Augusta. All of you are somewhat aware that as part of the litigation or the deepening of the Savannah Harbor one of the subjects that came up that was of particular interest to the environmentalists was that the, they had stated that the deepening of the harbor on that project would reduce the population of short-nosed sturgeon by 8% and they needed to mitigate for that and part of the mitigation was in the Savannah Harbor or in that area and the other part of that mitigation was upstream all the way to Augusta or just below Augusta at the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam. I was contacted by Hope Morrell of the Port Authority and she wanted to come visit with me and talk to me about something and so she came and we met, met on some property that I have, my family has that straddles the Lock and Dam. We have a fair amount of property down there that thanks to my hard-working father who put it together back in the 40’s and 50’s. At any rate when Hope Morrell came, she said as part of this mitigation they needed to build a fish ladder. I think well all right what can I do for you. Well, it may involve a little bit of your land and so I said okay. She said can the Corp of Engineers come on here with 3 the surveyors and with the other scientists that they needed to inspect the area. I gave them that permission and this thing started out of concern to me because it affected my farm down there. They had to come through my land to get there and they had to take some of my land to build this fish ladder. Well, what turned out to be a fish ladder except for me I don’t know if some of you have seen one out west usually but most of them are not as wide as that series of desks that you all are sitting at. When they got through surveying there were flags way out yonder and it turned out they were going to reroute the Savannah River and I said well, that’s kind of interesting. And as part of this design, I wish I had a picture of it, I’m sorry I didn’t bring it, but as part of this design they had to take out a lot of earth which they had to haul out of the river bottom, 400,000 yards of it. They had to move back in 350,000 yards of stone and all of a sudden, they realized after all of this engineering work they suddenly realized if they built this runaround, this fish ladder, fish passage I think they came to call it, and they didn’t fix the Lock and Dam, they were going to wind up with a huge pile of rock that didn’t function because the river would be down here. It couldn’t run through the rock bed. Well then you would’ve thought they would’ve realized that a lot earlier than at that point in time. You say well why don’t they just fix the Lock and Dam with the funds they’ve got, they’ve got hundreds of millions of dollars to deal with the harbor deepening. Why can’t they just do it? Well under the quirks of the law and legislation they can’t mix the two projects. Well, now what do you do. Well, one of the alternatives they came up with was a so- called fish weir upriver. They would go upriver 2,000 feet and put in a rock dam and either ends it would create a shoals area and that would be 1,800 feet of stone below this weir, so-called and 800 feet of stone above that from the South Carolina shore to the Georgia shore with no gates, no locks to let boats through. It would be a rock permanent dam across the river and no way to adjust for any kind of flood water. And the consortium that was created when this matter, whole matter came up consisted of the industries downstream, the two cities, the Chamber of Commerce both sides and then had a they hired a I guess you’d call him a lobbyist to guide them along the way. At the last, let me back up a minute and I hate to take so much time but this is a hard story to tell in five minutes. About two months ago at the last minute when the Water Resources Act came up in Congress it was passed out of the house. It doesn’t mention about the dam or the weir or anything else. And when the city got it at the last minute the two Georgia senators amended the bill that would do two things. One, it would study the Lock and Dam and the opportunity to put a rock shoal over the dam. Well, that’s not going to work. The engineers long ago said that’s not going to work. Failing that they we would go upstream and build this weir. The weir does two things. It does not help you regulate the river level at any kind of high water. Last January for instance because of the Lock and Dam and the way it was designed, they could raise all five gates at the Lock and Dam and just let the river run free so you didn’t have any back up of water. Even then some of the locks over in right across the river close to Hammonds Ferry and River North were flooded. Now Hammond’s Ferry and this Project Jackson in North Augusta are two of the most exciting projects we’ve had come up in years and years, maybe ever. And a rock weir that does not allow you to adjust for flood and flood stages it would put them both under water. And the interesting part is there a lot of people in the United States Congress who do not understand that and there are a lot of people in this town who don’t understand that. And I’ve been working with, Tom Robertson’s been helping me and ya’ll know Tom. He’s done some work for you, I’m sure a lot of it. Tom is the most knowledgeable student of the Savannah River and of hydrological engineering than all the other engineers in Savannah and Washington put together and Tom can help me try to come up with some method that everybody can agree to that would do three things. 4 One, it would maintain the pool that’s so necessary for the city to provide water supply and North Augusta as well. It’s a level at which these industries draw water out of the river. If you let that pool down and don’t give them a minimum amount of water then they’ve got to redesign their whole shooting match and that would be terrible. The other thing it does it’s got to provide some way for these anadromous or migratory fish to come upstream, that’s a must. So it’s not an easy thing to do. What I’m asking, what I’m here to ask you to do today is I’m going to leave some stuff because I can’t just tell you about this and have it make any sense. I would like to leave it and I would hope that you would read it because it means a lot to the future of this town and a whole stretch of stakeholders up and down the river. Mr. Mayor: All right, Mr. Simkins --- Mr. Simkins: I’ve got them right over here, I’ll leave them for you in a minute. Mr. Mayor: --- all right, thank you. Mr. Simkins: If you have any questions, don’t ask me a technical question because I might get it wrong but if you’ve got a technical question I’m sure Tom Robertson would be happy to answer it. Mr. Mayor: Okay, all right let me just mention a few things. One, we appreciate Mr. Roy Simkins, he’s very passionate about this issue. This is extremely important for the health and welfare and safety of citizens not just in Augusta but North Augusta as well. This is the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam Project that is part of the conversation about what’s happening with SHEP, the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project that’s taking place. I think many of you are aware of it or familiar with it and so there’ve been a series of meetings that started last year. As I understand it, I was brought it to a meeting about a month ago now but they’ve been working diligently with the consortium and the stakeholders. It’s certainly something that we’re monitoring. There have been a series of letters that have been sent to Congress I think, the most recent letter Roy and some others sent to Chairman Shuster there in the Senate and some other folks as well. So, there’s some background there. We’ll have Ms. Bonner share it with us the rest of the information but I’ll take a few questions. The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the th 9 for a question. Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Simkins, when I spoke to you about that and I’m glad that you brought that to my attention and I had it put on the agenda. But when I hear about the dredging of the Savannah River and how much increase that’s going to be with goods and services coming in I’m thinking that’s a good thing. But what I’m hearing from you now is it going to affect here on this end more than we realize and my question to you is what can we do? If the Corps because we you know we’ve been dealing with the Corps for quite some time since I’ve been here. So what is it that we can do as an elected body? Mr. Simkins: One of the first things we recommend they do is that they fix the Lock and Dam. It operates, it works it still works, those gates work. It protects us against excess flooding upstream up there. Fix the Lock too so that we can have continued communication with the, that 5 Lock and Dam was built 80 years ago. It served us well I don’t know why, it may be a candidate for the historic registry. The weir on the other hand takes land on both sides of the river. By the way all of my land on both sides of the river, it has a conservation easement on it. It was put on a long, well this January and that conservation easement what it does it keeps that land intact and keeps it from being cut up and messed up over the years. I thought I was protecting the land forever and all of a sudden it looks like I didn’t and it’s interesting to see what two federal agencies that come you know clash head to head just what’s going to happen to that I don’t know. I’ll tell you one thing, I’m too doggone old to be fighting these things effectively I have to rely on these young guys like Tom and my sons and others who have a stake in the integrity of our river valley. And it’s way more, I’m glad to give let them have a few acres of farm land or timber land for that matter but by golly don’t come flood us all out. And it just it hurts me that those who are in charge who don’t fully recognize what they’re almost about to do and I would ask that you all consider sending a, be a resolution or some authority that the Mayor can write a letter. Lark Jones has already done so, there was a letter from the consortium but that letter the wording in that letter didn’t fix things. It went out. Now Lark is sending an amended letter and I hope that the Mayor Davis will do the same thing with ya’ll’s blessing. But please if you don’t mind study that information that I furnished you with and I’m sorry that I can’t just spit out a perfect situation or a perfect direction in a few minutes. It’d take me a couple of days to fully explain my feelings about this. Mr. Mayor: All right, Mr. Simkins, we appreciate that. We are going to continue to be engaged in this. As you’ve indicated there was an initial letter that I signed on to and we’ve sent out as well and after further conversation with Tom there’s more that we can get done. Mr. Simkins: Well, thank you so much for your time. th Mr. Mayor: All right the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 8 for a question or are you waived? Mr. Guilfoyle: Never mind, Mr. Mayor, as long as we get our feet moving in the right direction. Hopefully somebody will reach out to Rick Allen who represents this area and hopefully he can talk to some of his colleagues but so since Mr. Simkins has stepped down there’s no need to (inaudible). Mr. Mayor: The Congressional Delegation has been engaged from start to finish in this discussion and there, it’s a moving target. When you’re dealing with federal legislation there’s just so many things that are going on right now that we can’t control them all but we are engaged in this fight. Roy’s not alone in this so we’ll keep pushing forward. Okay all right, Madam Clerk, we’ve got one more presenter? DELEGATIONS C. Ms. Josephine Green RE: Parking spaces at 311 East Boundary, Augusta, GA 6 The Clerk: No, sir. Mr. Mayor, members of the Commission, Ms. Josephine Green has requested that her request to appear before you be rescheduled for a later date. Mr. Mayor: All right. The Clerk: Our consent agenda consists of items 1-22, items 1-22. For the benefit of any objectors to any of our Planning petitions once those petitions are read would you please signify your objections by raising your hand. I call your attention to: Item 2: Is a request for a Special Exception to establish a church on property known as 411 Pleasant Home Road. Item 3: Is a request for a Special Exception to establish a Family Personal Care Home on property known as 2511 Dexter Road. Item 4: Is a request for a Special Exception to establish a Family Personal Care Home on property known as 2541 Est Kensington Drive. Item 5: Is a request for a change of zoning from a Zone B-2 (General Business), R-3C (Multiple-family Residential) and R-2 (Two-family Residential) to Zone PUD (Planned Unit Development) affecting property on McCauley Street and Railroad Avenue. The Clerk: Are there any objectors to any of those Planning petitions? I call your attention to our Public Services portion of our agenda. For any objectors to our alcohol petitions would you please signify your objection by raising your hand once the petition is read. I call your attention to: Item 8: Is for an on premise consumption Liquor License to be used in connection with th the location at 1678 15 Street. Item 9: Is a request for renewal of our Alcohol Beverage Licenses along with all Adult Entertainment Establishments. The Clerk: Are there any objectors to any of those petitions? Mr. Mayor and members of the Commission, our consent agenda consists of items 1-22 with no objectors to our Planning or Alcohol petitions. Mr. Mayor: Thank you, Madam Clerk. All right, the Chair will entertain any motion to add or remove from the consent agenda. All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from th the 4. Mr. Sias: Thank you, sir. I’m going to pull Item 1. st Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 1, Engineering Services Chair. Mr. Fennoy: Yes, I want to pull Item Number 10. 7 th Mr. Mayor: Are there any others? The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 5 for a motion. Mr. Lockett: Move to approve. Mr. G. Smith: Second. CONSENT AGENDA PLANNING 2. Z-16-37-SP – A request for concurrence with the Augusta Georgia Planning Commission to approve with the conditions listed below a petition by Steve Gindlesperger, on behalf of Lakemont Presbyterian Church, requesting a Special Exception to establish a church per Section 26-1 (a) of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance for Augusta, Georgia affecting property containing approximately 5.72 acres and is known as 411 Pleasant Home Road. Tax Map 016-0-048-00-0 DISTRICT 7. 1. A field delineation of floodplain and wetlands must be performed prior to submission of a site plan. 2. Improve the internal driveway to meet the standards applicable to a private road, including a minimum paved width of 25 feet (31 feet preferable), and provide a Private Road Maintenance Agreement for both properties prior to issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy for the church. 3. No parking signs should be erected along the existing driveway/new private road. 4. Based on the Engineering Department recommendations upgrades, paid for by the applicant/develop, may be required to improve Pleasant Home Road to include a left turn center lane heading northbound, and deceleration lane and acceleration lanes for the internal driveway. 5. Every effort be made to ensure that the existing driveway at Pleasant Home Road be aligned as closely as possible with Sugar Mill Road, the intersecting street across Pleasant Home Road. 6. The project site plan must comply with all development related ordinances and regulations in effect at the time of site plan review. 7. Redevelopment of the site will trigger compliance with provision of the Tree Ordinance. 3. Z-16-38-SP – A request for concurrence with the Augusta Georgia Planning Commission to approve with the conditions listed below a petition by Nadine Pulling, PH.D requesting a Special Exception to establish a Family Personal Care Home per Section 26-1 (h) of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance for Augusta, Georgia affecting property containing 0.24 acres and known as 2511 Dexter Road. Tax Map 108-0-238-00-0 DISTRICT 5 1. The hone shall be staffed in three (3) 8-hour shifts on a -day, 24-hour basis with no staff sleeping in the hone. 2. A private room shall be provided for staff to conduct business. 3. No more than four (4) clients are permitted to reside in the home based on the number and size of the existing bedrooms. 4. In order to continue to maintain a local business license, the applicant must continue to maintain a license with the State of Georgia, proof of compliance with the minimum requirements of Chapter 111.8-62.01 of the O.C.G.A must be adhered to, and the applicated must provide updated Fire department compliance for four (4) clients, and all must be provided within six (6) months of approval of this Special Exception request, or the Special Exception is void. 5. If wheelchair bound persons reside in the residence all 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design requirements must be net, including but not limited to: a. All doorways must be at least 3 ft. wide. B. At least one bathroom that permits a wheelchair dependent person to use all bathroom facilities unimpeded must be provided. 6. 8 All conditions must be met prior to adding the forth client to the personal care home. 7. If approved, staff will review the most recent area crime report to determine whether the use should continue to operate following one (1) year of the effective date of approval. 4. Z-16-39-SP – A request for concurrence with the Augusta Georgia Planning Commission to approve with the conditions listed below a petition by Nadine Pulling, Ph.D., on behalf of Andy Pivovaroff, requesting a Special Exception to establish a Family Personal Care Home per Section 26-1 (h) of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance for Augusta, Georgia affecting property containing .25 acres and known as 2541 West Kensington Drive. Tax Map 107-0- 521-00-0 DISTRICT 5 1. The home shall be staffed in three (3) 8-hour shifts on a 7-day, 24- hour basis with no staff sleeping in the home. 2. A private room shall be provided for staff to conduct business. 3. No more than four (4) clients are permitted to reside in the home based on the number and size of the existing bedrooms. 4. A satisfactory inspection from all applicable building inspection officials and a re-inspection by Code Enforcement must be obtained within six (6) months and prior to the application obtaining a local business license from Augusta, Georgia or the Special Exception is void. 5. The applicant will have to obtain a license with the State of Georgia, and proof of compliance with the minimum requirements of Chapter 111.8-62.01 of the O.C.G.A must be provided within six (6) months and the applicant must obtain a local business license from Augusta, Georgia or the Special Exception is void. 6. If wheelchair bound persons reside in the residence all 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design requirements must be met, including but not limited to: a. All doorways must be at least 3 ft. wide. B. At least one bathroom that permits a wheelchair dependent person to use all bathroom facilities unimpeded must be provided. 7. All conditions must be met prior to moving residents into the personal care home. 8. If approved, staff will review the most recent area crime report to determine whether the use should continue to operate following one (1) year of the effective date of approval. 5. Z-16-40 – A request for concurrence with the Augusta Georgia Planning Commission to approve with the conditions listed below a petition by Columbia Ventures LLC & Augusta Housing & Development, on behalf of Kamloops/Shoshone LLC & Augusta Land Bank Authority, requesting a change of zoning from Zones B-2 (General Business), R-3C (Multiple-family Residential) and R-2 (Two-family Residential) to Zone PUD (planned Unite Development) to establish a mixed use development affecting the following property: Tract A: Beginning at a point located on the southeast right-of-way line of the intersection of Wrightsboro Road and McCauley Street containing three parcels with approximately 4.97 acres made up of 35 existing tax parcels. A complete list of addresses and tax parcels is available in the office of the Planning and Development Department. DISTRICT 1 Tract B: Beginning at a point located where the northwest right-of-way line of Railroad Avenue containing approximately 2.44 acres known as 1492, 1494 and 1482 Railroad Avenue. Tax Map 045-4-215-01-0, 045-4-208-00-0 and 045-4-212-00-0 DISTRICT 1 1. The project should adhere to the concept plan dated September 30, 2016 and submitted with the rezoning application. Major components of the concept plan include: a. Maximum number of buildings will be six (6) buildings; maximum number of units will be 2221 units. b. Height of buildings will be four (4) stories for Building 1 and three (3) stories for all other buildings within the development. c. No more than eight (8) ground-floor unites in Building 1, facing Wrightsboro Road, may be used for commercial purposes. d. Open space must consist of a minimum of 2.39 acres and be a minimum of 32.19% of the overall development. e. 384 9 surface parking spaces; 10% of these parking spaces for compact parking spaces. f. Leasing space, a pool, a fitness center, a club room and business center amenities must be provided within the overall development. g. Sustainable features such as trees and shrubs, streetscape furniture, lighting, bicycle parking spaces, green stormwater management techniques, pocket parks, a dog park and areas improved for aesthetic appeal. 2. All new or relocated water and sewer lines must be approved by the Augusta Utilities Department prior to the submittal of a site plan. 3. Power for the project should be installed at the McCauley Street/Wrightsboro Road intersection according to specification from the Augusta Traffic Engineer. 5. A five (5) foot sidewalk be installed along the project side of Wrightsboro Road and on both sides of McCauley Street within the project area. Five (5) foot sidewalks will also be constructed throughout the development pursuant to the Concept Plan submitted with the rezoning application. 6. Adherence to the Preliminary Tree/Landscape Sketch submitted October 19, 2016 as part of the rezoning package; and minor deviations from the Preliminary Tree/Landscape Sketch must be approved by the Planning Director prior to the submittal of a Site Plan for the development. 7. PUD Documents must be submitted prior to final site plan approval/commencement of construction. PUBLIC SERVICES 6. Motion to approve the 2017 Cooperative Agreement with CSRA Regional Commission for Senior Nutrition Services for Augusta, GA. (Approved by Public Services Committee November 8, 2016) 7. Motion to renew the Sec. 5311 Rural Transit grant application between the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) and Augusta, Georgia for July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018. (Approved by Public Services Committee November 8, 2016) 8. Motion to approve New Application: A.N. 16-36: request by Milton L. Allen II for an on premise consumption Liquor License to be used in connection with American Legion Screen th and Ramsey Post 505 located at 1678 15 Street. There will be Dance. District 1. Super District 9. (Approved by Public Services Committee November 8, 2016) 9. Motion to approve a request by the Planning & Development Department to renew all the existing Alcohol Beverage Licenses in the City of Augusta. This will include all Adult Entertainment Establishments. There will be Sunday Sales. There will be Dance. District 1 thru 8. Super Districts 9 and 10. (Approved by Public Services Committee November 8, 2016) 11. Motion to approve Beam’s Contracting Change Order #6 – Southwest Development Area Access Road. (Approved by Public Services Committee November 8, 2016) 12. Motion to approve the contract with McCarthy Improvement Company for the Reconstruction & Extension of Taxiway A Bid Item 16-209 (Approved by Public Services Committee November 8, 2016) 13. Motion to adopt a Memorandum of Understanding for Professional Services related to Public Art between the Greater Augusta Arts Council and Augusta, Georgia. (Approved by Public Services Committee November 8, 2016) 14. Motion to approve the Greater Augusta Arts Council’s Public Art Policy dated 10-18-16. (Approved by Public Services Committee November 8, 2016) 15. Motion to approve a Resolution authorizing the filing of an application for Fiscal Year 2018 Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Section 5303 Metropolitan Planning Grant. (Approved by Public Services & Finance Committee November 8, 2016) 10 16. Motion to approve a request by Amy JoAnn Pollock for a Therapeutic Massage Operators License to be used in connection with Hand Over Stress located at 601 Shartom Dr. District 7. Super District 10. (Approved by Public Services Committee November 8, 2016) ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES 17. Motion to approve the purchase of 9 F-150 4X4 Trucks for Engineering-Storm Water Division, supporting Maintenance Coordinators, using Storm Water Capital, fund 581. Bid Item 16-235 (Approved by Administrative Services Committee November 8, 2016) 18. Motion to approve proposed changes to the Augusta Commission’s Rules of Procedures as recommended from the Rules Subcommittee. (Approved by Administrative Services Committee November 8, 2016) PUBLIC SAFETY 19. Motion to approve an addendum to Juvenile Justice Incentive Grant MOU Agreement with Community Solutions, Inc. Grant #Y17-8-002. (Approved by Public Safety Committee November 8, 2016) 20. Motion to approve Agreement with Harris Computer to Update Configuration and Capability of Existing System. (Approved by Public Safety Committee November 8, 2016) ENGINEERING SERVICES 21. Motion to approve professional services contract with WK Dickson for Phases 1 and 2 of the Camp Hancock Sewer Basin Outfall IRP in the amount of $313,150.00. (Approved by Engineering Services Committee November 8, 2016) PETITIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS 22. Motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of the Commission held November 1, 2016 and Special Called Meeting November 8, 2016. Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. Items 1 and 10 have been removed from the consent agenda. They’ll be debated on the regular agenda. Voting. Mr. Guilfoyle: Mr. Mayor? th Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 8. Mr. Guilfoyle: Madam Clerk, I’m going to approve it except for agenda item number 18 I’ll vote no on. The Clerk: Item number 18, sir? Mr. Guilfoyle: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: Okay. Mr. Guilfoyle: Thank you. 11 Mr. Guilfoyle votes No. \[Item 18\] Mr. D. Williams out. Motion Passes 9-0. \[Items 2-9, 11-17, 19-22\] The Clerk: Mr. Mayor, members of the Commission, Commissioner Dennis Williams has requested that he be allowed to participate in this meeting via telephone and primarily for the discussion relative to the budget so once we get to that item we’ll make that communication. Mr. Mayor: Very good, I appreciate that, Madam Clerk. All right, we’ll go top of the order. The Clerk: Yes, sir, pulled Item Number 1. Mr. Mayor: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: PLANNING 1. SA-51 – A request for concurrence with the Augusta Georgia Planning Commission to approve a petition to amend the Land Subdivision Regulations for Augusta Georgia be amending the following sections: • Section 302 – Development Plan – require multiple access points and interconnectivity to unsubdivided lands. • Section 400 – General Standards for Streets – require multiple access points and interconnectivity to unsubdivided lands and length of cul-de-sacs. Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes Director Wilson, Planning and Development. st All right, the Commissioner from the 1 the Chair recognizes you, sir. I’m sorry --- Mr. Fennoy: I’ll yield (inaudible). Mr. Mayor: --- you’ll yield to the Commissioner, there you go. All right, the Chair th recognizes the Commissioner from the 4. Mr. Sias: Thank you. On this particular item I have some concerns about this item. I’ve talked to Ms. Wilson about it; I know they’re ready to get it done. And I’ve seen some things in it I think is excellent and outstanding but I do have a concern where is the Homeowners Association maybe entering into some agreements or some agreement by the developer and be getting some role maintenance that they may or may not be prepared to do in the future. So what, in deference to Ms. Wilson and their attempts to get this done, if I can get a commitment from Ms. Wilson that we go back and we look at the Homeowners Sections where they may be required to do this and also some issues around the dead end parts and I’d be willing to support this today with the commitment that we come back and we take a strong look at the obligations that may be required of the Homeowners Associations under the present way this is written. And if I can get that commitment from you, Ms. Wilson, I’ll make the motion to approve it. 12 Ms. Wilson: Yes, sir. We will look further at the language for the requirement for the Homeowners Association and we will work with the Engineering department for that because this is the language that comes from their regulation. Mr. Sias: And Mayor and colleagues these are some of the things that I’m really concerned about it as to have been in some of the neighborhood and homeowners associations initiatives but particularly here in Richmond County. Mandatory homeowners associations are not working that well in Richmond County and there are some reasons for that and that is not a thing that you can fix, Ms. Wilson, but there are some ways that we can help alleviate the problems that are coming with that. Move to approve. Ms. Davis: Second. Mr. Mayor: We’ve got a motion and a second to approve. Any further discussion? The th. Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9 State your inquiry. Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I’m in support I think the Commissioner from th the 4 he’s got a good point but how will we know what will be done or what will not be done. I mean how am I going to tell if Ms. Wilson found something or didn’t find nothing or leave everything the same. I mean my question would be she agreed to take a look at it and I think she will but how will we know what was changed and what wasn’t changed? Ms. Wilson: If I may, I will agree to come back in 60 days if I find that there are basically with an update whether I find that there is something that I can legally do. As I said working with Engineering because a lot of the concerns that Commissioner Sias had are centered around the private roads and homeowners associations and their responsibilities for those. And you know I make a commitment then I can come back in 60 days and I’ll give a report to whether I found that we could do anything to strengthen the requirements for the developer and the HOA or whether there’s nothing that we can do from the standpoint of having further requirements of a developer to a homeowners association. Mr. M. Williams: That made my point, Mr. Mayor, if I continue --- Mr. Mayor: You may. Mr. M. Williams: --- that made my point even more relevant that once we hire, once we get a developer he comes in or she comes in or whoever is doing the developing and they turn the roads over to the city then it’s out of the hands so to speak. I think you’re trying to work with the request, Ms. Wilson, on, don’t get that wrong I’m just trying to figure out how will I know as an elected official that this was changed or, for instance if somebody came in and wanted to build a subdivision and wanted the homeowners to take responsibility for a part of the road. And they did it or agreed or didn’t do it and after the fact it’s too late is what I’m trying to say. 13 Ms. Wilson: If I may currently one of the things that this ordinance does is it deals with the length of the cul-de-sacs in roads as well as having multiple ways in and out of the subdivision. If a subdivision comes in for development review, if they are putting in public roads then they will be built to the current standards and they will be roads that we will take over as a city. I think and you can correct me if I’m wrong, Commissioner Sias, but I think that one of the concerns that he has is for developers that come in and put in private roads. And the fact that when a community has private roads that it is the responsibility of the developer and the homeowners association to deal with the maintenance of those private roads. And so from the standpoint of coming back that would be the area where you know we would look at it but that’s primarily where the issue is. Public roads we would treat them as we currently treat them and right now the reason that I mentioned the Engineering Department is that when someone builds a private road they still have to build it to the current standards and they basically certify that they do that and that is done with the Engineering Department. So that’s why I’m asking for the time so that we can get with them and look at what further we can do if anything to strengthen the language regarding the road concerns that I know that a couple people in some of the communities that have private roads have and see if we can do something about that. Mr. M. Williams: Okay and but we had several incidences like that where we accepted some roads that wasn’t even big enough to turn a firetruck around in and all that kind of stuff. So, thank you, I agree with Commissioner Sias on that. Thank you, Ms. Wilson. Mr. Mayor: All right, fantastic we’ve got a motion and a second. Voting. Mr. D. Williams out. Motion Passes 9-0. The Clerk: Item number 10 I believe? Mr. Mayor: Item number 10. The Clerk: PUBLIC SERVICES 10. Motion to approve McCarthy Improvement Company Contract Modification #5 – Rehabilitate Air Carrier and General Aviation Apron. (Approved by Public Services Committee November 8, 2016) Mr. Mayor: Thank you, Madam Clerk. All right, we’re going to recognize the st Commissioner from the 1, Engineering Services and Mr. Herbert Judon our Airport Director. Mr. Fennoy: I think on this item right here we’re going to reduce the original contract by $11,000 dollars? 14 Mr. Judon: Yes, sir, that is correct. As we got at the latter part of this particular contract there were some materials that were slated for the project that we did not need to use therefore able to reduce it. Mr. Fennoy: Okay and, may I continue, Mr. Mayor? Mr. Mayor: You may, continue. Mr. Fennoy: I think that some of your staff and some of your board members recently with the Jekyll Island for a, was it Jekyll Island? Mr. Judon: Yes, sir, about three weeks ago there was the Georgia Airport’s Association their annual conference which is held in Jekyll Island. Mr. Fennoy: And I think that Augusta Regional Airport received an award during that time? Mr. Judon: We did, yes, sir. Mr. Fennoy: And could you explain to me what that was all about? Mr. Judon: Yes, sir, it’s actually for this particular project. The name of the award was the Commercial Airport Project of the Year by the Georgia Airport Association so we were, that was a surprise to me but we were recognized from this rehabilitation project. So there were several other projects submitted from around the state but we were recognized on this particular project. What it did was replace some of the aging asphalt concrete outside of the terminal extending south to the FDO so it was funded by a prior year T-SPLOST grant; it was about an $8.3 million-dollar project. And I think one of the reasons why we got the award for this particular project was just because of all the coordination that was required to execute this project. It required us working with the air carriers to kind of shift their gates and to shift some of the other operations on the air carrier and the FDO ramp. So this new pavement is a great asset for us as we go forward and try to grow the airport operation. It helps from a safety standpoint from an aircraft load-bearing standpoint. Also this new pavement extends to the FDO so our corporate and general aviation patrons especially during Masters season will be able to benefit from this new pavement as well so it was a great project for our team to coordinate all this. Mr. Fennoy: That’s all I have. Motion to approve. Mr. Hasan: Second. Mr. Mayor: All right, very good, we’ll got a motion and a second. The Chair recognizes th the Commissioner from the 5, state your inquiry. Mr. Lockett: Thank you, good afternoon, sir. 15 Mr. Judon: Good afternoon. Mr. Lockett: I think the last time you were before this body I was talking about the airport and we’re talking again about it. I just flew out last Sunday and came back in this past Friday and it’s amazing when they requested additional parking spaces and so forth for the airport I felt at the time that, hey this is just going to be a waste of money. But I notice the short-term and long-term, I mean it’s just packed, it’s amazing. And our airport is beautiful and it is busy but one caveat. When I went out on Sunday and came back in on Friday we had to use the old ramps, you know the kind where you have to go out in the weather, the kind you see in the movies back in the 30’s, you need to get that resolved if you haven’t already. Mr. Judon: Yes, sir, I guess I’ll comment on both of those. The parking the short-terms is actually to-capacity today as well so we, it’s a good problem to have so we have been to-capacity in the parking over the summer especially when we have charters that go out that add some additional demand in the parking. What you’re talking about is I believe is the jet bridge that we use to access the aircraft. We’ve had some mechanical issues with it and we ordered a part to repair it and they’re working on it today so hopefully that will be repaired. The last week or so people have been having to ground board so they’ve been having to walk out and walk up the jet stairs in and out of the aircraft. So this has been a challenge especially with handicapped or people with limited mobility so we’re trying to have that fixed within the next day or so. Mr. Lockett: All right thank you very much, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: Yes, sir. All right, we’ve got a motion and a second. Voting. Mr. D. Williams out. Motion Passes 9-0. The Clerk: I think that brings us to our regular agenda, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: It does. The Clerk: PUBLIC SERVICES 23. Motion to approve the FY 2017 Transit Planning Services contract between Augusta, Georgia and the Georgia Department of Transportation. Mr. Mayor: Okay. Mr. Fennoy: Motion to approve. Mr. Lockett: Second. Mr. Mayor: We’ve got a motion and a second to approve. 16 Mr. Hasan: Mr. Mayor (inaudible). Mr. Mayor: Okay. All right, I’ve got a motion and a second. Mr. Hasan: I have a question, Mr. Mayor. th Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 6, state your inquiry. Ms. Wilson? Mr. Hasan: Did this come before us in committee? Mr. Mayor: It did. Mr. Hasan: (Inaudible). Mr. Mayor: It did it was actually on the Public Safety agenda and the Finance. We removed it from the Finance agenda. Oh, is that different? The Clerk: This one did not. Ms. Wilson: What happened was that when part of this came before the committee this is the actual contract. In the past normally both documents are uploaded in the system and it didn’t get captured when it was put in so this is an item, it does exactly the same thing. This is a request for moving the Transit Planning Services Contract forward but this is for the contract itself. Mr. Hasan: Well, like I said I know it said not recommended here with our Attorney (inaudible) funds are available or nothing here. I don’t know what you want to do about it but we didn’t see it last week at the committee level --- Mr. Mayor: Yeah, I understand. Mr. Hasan: --- so (unintelligible) sent back to committee. Mr. Mayor: Okay. Mr. Hasan: I make a motion to send it back to committee. Mr. Mayor: All right, that’s a substitute motion. Mr. Hasan: Yes, substitute, I’m sorry I apologize. Mr. Mayor: It’s no problem. Mr. M. Williams: I’ll second that. 17 Mr. Mayor: Okay all right, I’ve got a substitute motion to refer back to committee. All right, I’m not sure what the disconnect was, Ms. Bonner. I heard what you just said but I thought that this was an item that was on both of the committee agendas and clearly that was not the case. Okay all right, here’s our posture. I’ve got a substitute motion with a proper second which is voted up or down dispose of it then we’ll move on if it passes. All right the substitute is to refer it back to committee. All right, voting. Mr. M. Williams: I had a question, Mr. Mayor, but I can ask it anyway. Mr. Mayor: Well, I mean --- Mr. M. Williams: --- I was just trying to figure out I mean because you won’t stop this unless we figure out how it happened it didn’t fall out of the sky --- Mr. Mayor: I understand. Mr. M. Williams: --- it had to come from somewhere. Mr. Mayor: Yeah, I couldn’t agree with you more. It was not the baby that dropped off the turnip truck but now that it’s here, now that it’s here you can take action on it or you can do what you’re about to do. Mr. M. Williams: I can’t let nothing drop, folks can drop stuff and it’s all right and they make a whole lot more money than I make but that’s my problem. Not necessarily this department head but the Clerk’s office wherever this came from we got a process it’s supposed to go through and if it don’t go it needs to go back through the process it don’t get or it don’t get on this agenda. Mr. Mayor: I’m going to give you that opportunity to have that heard. All right voting, this is you’re voting on the substitute and that is to refer it back to committee. Mr. Sias, Mr. Hasan, Mr. M. Williams and Mr. G. Smith vote Yes. Mr. Fennoy, Ms. Davis, Mr. Lockett, Mr. Frantom, Mr. Guilfoyle vote No. Mr. D. Williams out. Motion Fails 4-5. st Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 1. Mr. Fennoy: Mr. Mayor --- Mr. Mayor: Yes, sir. Mr. Sias: We have a primary motion. 18 Mr. Mayor: We do. I haven’t forgotten it. I’m going to come back to it but I’m going to recognize the Engineering Services Chair he has an inquiry, state your inquiry. Mr. Fennoy: --- this is a Planning item, Ms. Wilson --- Ms. Wilson: Um --- Mr. Fennoy: --- Planning and Zoning? Mr. Wilson: --- this item normally when we move forward this is basically only the contract. The action that you took on consent which did go before committee was basically it kind of did the same thing it’s just that this is the contract portion that goes with that. By moving this forward and I’ve spoken with the Administrator about what happened with regards to how the information went into the system but I made the request to move this forward because it puts us in the position to get reimbursements sooner by entering into the contract so it’s something that happened. We’ve had a lot of activity going on in the department and when it was updated it was just missed when they did the graph. Mr. Mayor: Okay, all right, let me speak to this, Ms. Wilson. All right, so we’re contending about the process I understand that. We have a matter before us unfortunately the contract’s not even in the notebook so I don’t know if you sent that over or not. But the financial impact, Commissioners, according to Tab 23 is that the contract stipulates that the GDOT will reimburse the city for 90% of eligible costs incurred consistent of 80% federal transit money and 10% GDOT money and the remaining 10% local match, hopefully that kind of clarifies some things for us in terms of what the funding source is. And there’s really no reason for us to hold this up, let’s move forward if you don’t mind. The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the th 6. Mr. Hasan: Yes, Mr. Mayor, thank you. Today is the reason why we still, we don’t even have the contract. Mr. Mayor: Well, I, if it’s a traditional contract that GDOT sends it’s --- Ms. Wilson: It’s the same contract that you signed previously and we’ve not attached it previously. Mr. Mayor: --- oh, okay. Well, Ms. Wilson, I would encourage you to moving forward, get it in there and attach it so we can see. I think it’ll give the Commissioners a great level of confidence just to know what we’re working with. All right, those are the terms and conditions of it. We are where we are. We have a motion and a proper second, Ms. Bonner, voting. Mr. Hasan and Mr. M. Williams vote No. Mr. D. Williams out. Motion Passes 7-2. 19 Mr. M. Williams: Point of Order, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: Okay, state your order. Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, sir. You know all of this government business is very serious business and I don’t think anything is more important than the other. If we’re going to go by the rules and there are some times when things do get caught outside of the scope of work but we’ve got too many things coming through that didn’t go through the normal process. Then when we go to picking and choosing some people get upset because this didn’t go. But if it’s a rule it ought to be a rule. It ought not be for certain grants because it’s a grant the grant’s there it’s still going to be there. Now you made it seem like we’re going to hold the world again and we get up against the wall but I just want to clarify now I mean because when somebody else comes we ought to get the same thing and we create a different set of rules for a different set of times. Mr. Mayor: I understand, I understand. There’s a lot of passion, I understand a lot of passion. All right, Madam Clerk --- The Clerk: Item number 24? Mr. Mayor: --- Madam Clerk, just hold for a moment. All right, so here’s our posture. We’re going to take up item number 24 and then we’re going to take a motion to go into Executive Session. Mr. M. Williams: What’s going to be in executive when we go into Executive Session there are several things --- Mr. Mayor: We’re going to talk about litigation. Mr. M. Williams: --- personally, litigation? Mr. Mayor: Yes, sir. Mr. M. Williams: Can I get the Attorney to read into the record what we’ll be going in for, Mr. Mayor? Mr. Mayor: At the appropriate time. Mr. M. Williams: Okay. Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes Madam Clerk for Item 24. The Clerk: PUBLIC SAFETY 20 24. Motion to authorize the Law Department to prepare a proposed amendment for the Animal Services ordinance adopted earlier this year to incorporate recent changes to state law and to amend the Animal Services Advisory Board By-Laws Section XX. (No recommendation from Public Safety Committee November 8, 2016) Mr. Hasan: Motion to approve. Mr. Lockett: Second. Mr. Mayor: All right, I’ve got a motion --- The Clerk: Sorry who was that, that made that motion? th Mr. Mayor: Motion from the Commissioner from the 6 and a second from the --- Mr. Sias: I guess (unintelligible) recognized no more. Mr. Mayor: --- you all are a little giddy today, that’s all, just a little giddy, no worries. Mr. Sias: (unintelligible). Mr. Mayor: Well, I wouldn’t recommend that, don’t do that. All right, the Chair th recognizes the Commissioner from the 4. Mr. Sias: The motion’s already been made, Mr. Mayor, and seconded. Mr. Mayor: All right, voting. Mr. D. Williams out. Motion Passes 9-0. th Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9 for a motion. Mr. M. Williams: I don’t have a motion. I have an inquiry to the Attorney as to what we’ll be going into Legal to discuss. Mr. MacKenzie: That would be pending and potential litigation. Mr. M. Williams: Potential litigation so, Mr. Mayor, I mean that means we do have a situation that is potential litigation. Now if there’s any potential I ain’t going to talk about it in Legal. Mr. Mayor: Well --- 21 Mr. M. Williams: I’m just clarifying so you know when you go in there we’d better be talking about some legal. LEGAL MEETING A. Pending and Potential Litigation. B. Real Estate. C. Personnel. ADDENDUM 27. Motion to go into an executive session to discuss pending and potential litigation. Mr. Mayor: --- well, I can assure you Commissioner that if we go into Executive Session and we say this is what we’re going to talk about that’s what we’re going to talk about, I can assure you of that, all right. I learned this on Saturday the hot button issue --- Mr. Lockett: So moved. Mr. Fennoy: Second. Mr. Mayor: --- hot button issue I think that’s the term I’ve heard, hot button issue. The th Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 8. Mr. Guilfoyle: Mr. Mayor, does this have anything to do with Gold Cross, sir? Mr. Mayor: It has everything to do with a hot button issue, a litigation in nature. Voting. Mr. Frantom, Mr. Guilfoyle and Mr. M. Williams vote No. Mr. D. Williams out. Motion Passes 6-3. \[LEGAL MEETING\] 28. Motion to approve execution by the Mayor of the affidavit of compliance with Georgia’s Open Meeting Act. Mr. Lockett: So moved. Mr. Speaker: Second. Mr. Mayor: Voting. Mr. D. Williams out. Motion Passes 9-0. Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes Madam Clerk. 22 The Clerk: Item number 25, sir? Mr. Mayor: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: FINANCE 25. Motion to approve proposed FY 2017 budget for Augusta Georgia. Mr. Lockett: Move to approve. Mr. Hasan: Second. Mr. Mayor: We’ve got a motion and a second. The Chair recognizes the Administrator for a brief presentation. Mr. Hasan: Dennis Williams (inaudible). Mr. Mayor: We’re going to get him on the phone. Ms. Bonner, Madam Administrator, if nd you’ll suspend for a moment we’re going to get the Commissioner from the 2 on the phone. Mr. Lockett: Mr. Mayor, a Point of Personal Privilege? th Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 5. Mr. Lockett: Would it be okay to give that Commissioner a sobriety test before we get involved here? Mr. Mayor: I believe the gentleman knows of that of which he speaks. Ms. Jackson: I just have a few slides and follow up to the last meeting a few adjustments that we’ve made. As you know we submitted a balanced budget on October 18. We received your input as well as (inaudible). The Clerk: Wait a minute --- Mr. Mayor: All right, Madam Administrator, if you’ll suspend. The Clerk: --- yes, there’s some interference going on here. Mr. Lockett: Ya’ll thought I was joking didn’t you. The Clerk: Hold on just a moment. Can you hear us, okay thank you. 23 The Clerk: He’s traveling, we’re going to try it again. Mr. Mayor: If we can just turn the volume down on him, Ms. Bonner, turn the volume down on him until the point in time we give him a chance to ask questions. The Clerk: You can go ahead. Mr. Mayor: All right, Madam Administrator? Ms. Jackson: All right, thank you. Following up Bullet 3 Commission Proposed Changes done in November 10th workshop which would require increased revenue and Commission action. We have revisited our revenue projections and we feel comfortable adding about $180,000 dollars to our projected revenue for the year. $140,000 of that will come from a real property tax revenue adjustment. Ms. Williams made her budget presentation last week, she noted that our property revenues are coming in a little bit higher than expected so we felt like felt like we would be comfortable in adding approximately $140,000 dollars to our revenue base for 2017. In addition, Ms. Melanie Wilson of the Planning Department proposed a few fee adjustments some of which we had projected in our recommended budget revenue and some of which we had not. If we go ahead and add $40,000 dollars for re-inspection fees and administrative fees that would net an additional $40,000 for a total of $180,000 to be added to our revenue for 2017. With that funding we added that into the Contingency giving Contingency a new total of $724,940 dollars. In regard to the Solid Waste Fee proposal given the discussion we had in public as well as in one on one conversations with several of you at this point I’m no longer proposing an increase in those fees. In acknowledgment of the various frustrations that many of you as well as our citizens experienced in 2012 from the changes made to services back then I would like to step back, reexamine the services, revamp some of the basic services as well as take a look at some of the additional programs that have been added over the years to figure out the best way to meet the needs of our residents at a reasonable cost. We plan to come back to you in approximately three months or so with some recommendations on that service and at that time you can look at what the appropriate fee levels would be and make a decision at that point. We feel like this is appropriate given the frustrations that you and others have had as well as the fact that a final decision would not have to be made until around mid-year or slightly thereafter just in time for the correct rate to be on our tax bills so at this point we have removed that revenue from our recommended budget. I also note that this does not affect the General Fund because with the General Fund the, that $50,000 dollars in revenue was not included in our overall revenue projections so this only affects the Enterprise Fund as we know the Enterprise Fund does have fund balance to make it through the year or at least over the next few months until you all make a final decision. Always as we say about the budget process it’s a final plan, it’s a fluid document. We develop this budget with the best information we have available to us right now. We know as we gather more information and circumstances change we can make changes to the budget and that’s the purpose of doing a budget amendment process. Looking through there’s several areas that I know of right now where there could be possible amendments to the budget. Many of those we discussed already but just to go back through those. In the case of street lights, Transit, Environmental Services as I just discussed as well as Code Enforcement we’re in the process of doing some significant study and review of those service areas. After review of those service areas we’ll come back with recommendations 24 that may have an impact upon the budget. In the instance of the Tax Assessors office as well as Engineering we’re in the process of doing some significant reorganizations of those departments that could result in changes to the budget so we want to give you a heads up about those. Also, Animal Services and Probation Services, both are new in terms of Probation being a new service to our government all together. Animal Services being new with the new fee structure that you all put in place with registration. In this budget, we made pretty unscientific guesses in terms of the revenue that those things would generate so we could very well beat it as we see what those revenues come in at that we come back to you with some changes to the budget at those points as well. The other one to point out being the Library services we have an ongoing challenge with be able to maintain facilities and remain state of the art, bring in new collections just a bevy of circumstances that are affecting the library’s ability to provide services in the way that we’d like to do them so we’ll also be looking at their services to see if there’s any possibility of anything that we could do that might help them with their challenges. Lastly at this point, Mr. Mayor, I’ll open it for questions, comments and for you all to proceed with your discussion. th Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9 for a question. Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ms. Jackson, can you tell me what’s in this budget that’s going to help us for next year to have more than we’ve got now? I mean besides services and fees that we’re doing, what economic impact is added to this budget that’s going to help us do something to create more revenue for this government? Ms. Jackson: At this point, sir, as I’ve indicated in earlier session there is no specific investment here that’s part of this budget. What I have challenged staff to do is to come in and do some research recommendations and come back to you with some ideas that we could implement in future budgets related to what I call non-traditional economic development, those non- traditional sources of revenue that we’ll have to expand to. As of right now we have not built in any such revenue in the budget, I’ll be clear about that. Mr. M. Williams: So there’s no dollar amount, no set figure anywhere to use for economic development it just was staff would come in to try to --- Ms. Jackson: We’ll bring you some proposals that hopefully you can give us a yay or nay on as we move forward and we determine from that point if there is any opportunity for some of those non-traditional sources of revenue. Mr. M. Williams: What other services or what services total would you recommend or you recommend to be cut in this budget that’s been a motion to be approved or what, any cuts that’s optional there? I mean we all heard one about the Animal Services but are there any other cuts that’s been proposed in any other department? I know we talked about bringing back in equipment that we could use and stuff like that but I’m talking about cuts because we did talk about a cut for the Animal Services so are there any other cuts? I’ve been a proponent of cutting Fleet Management for instance because we pay $3 million to do maintenance work on our cars and I thought we could do that a lot cheaper at least save a million and a half but is there any other cuts besides that one? 25 Ms. Jackson: We have budgeted a few hundred thousand dollars in reductions to Fleet across the organization I think about $100,000 dollars for the General Fund. That again is one of those fluid numbers as we assess the impact of the Fleet cuts that we’ve made, the number may grow larger than that. We’ve also sent letters out to all of our departments in a range of about $750,000 dollars in various cuts. When we say cuts in services we are not intending that those cuts would actually reduce services so much as they did would call for us to make those services happen in a more efficient manner but yeah, across the organization there’s almost a million dollars for our departments. There’s over $300,000 dollars of various non-governmental organizations in cuts as well as reductions to various contracts such as the Gold Cross contract. th Mr. Mayor: Thank you, Commissioner from the 9. The Chair recognizes the th Commissioner from the 8 for a question. Mr. Guilfoyle: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It’s probably going to be more than one question. Under your presentation you spoke of a 2017 possible budget amendment so these last three or four public meetings that we had in regards to what the Commission wanted to see as far as the Transit, Animal Services, Code Enforcement, Engineering, the Public Services side of our industry that I was hoping to focus on as well as the list on the left hand side. So, the budget that was presented originally two weeks ago on 11-10-18 has not changed? Ms. Jackson: The change to the budgets are, go back to page 3 which is up on the screen. Mr. Guilfoyle: Yes, ma’am. Ms. Jackson: The change is we increased our revenue projections by $180,000 dollars, we added that money into Contingency. That is there in the event that this body wants to add funding to any of those things you just mentioned. Mr. Guilfoyle: All right, is My Brother’s Keeper still in there? Ms. Jackson: At this point I believe it is still budgeted, it is still (unintelligible) budget. Mr. Guilfoyle: It would be nice to amend the budget to where the Brother’s Keepers would be used with private money and that way we could funnel that to Animal Services with all this impact with the ordinance change that we are having. As far as Probation when we went to Athens Clarke in talking with Judge Slaby as well as yourself and the Finance and Commissioner Lockett you know it was, we had to follow the lead of what Athens Clarke was doing. When we tried to figure out how many probation officers we would need, the number that was being used for us was somewhere around 1.2. We actually have 1.5 in there so --- Ms. Jackson: About 1.6 actually. Mr. Guilfoyle: --- okay so we could take $400,000 dollars of that out of there. I had talked to Judge Slaby this morning and he’s saying well you know y’all got to do what you have to. The 26 whole concept of the private probation, I mean the in-house probation was to alleviate to where we could actually work with the people that’s on probation more efficient shall I say. Because Athens Clarke had the best program there was and we followed it letter by letter and their docks. So there’s some money there, I know that. If we don’t make any adjustments to this for the service side of our industry then it’s the same status quo for 2017 for Augusta-Richmond County. The people won’t have to, our directors will not have the resources apparently, you’ve been working or the Finance has been working just to find this little bit of money. We are not going to be able to take care of Gold Cross here in the future. I don’t know, I mean I know there’s already a motion on the floor but I don’t know how this budget could pass unless we actually face the music right now which is kicking the can down the road and try to come up with solutions here in the near future without a revenue or cuts coming up. We are, we’re just complacent at that point. What would you suggest, Madam Administrator? Ms. Jackson: First I suggest the recommended budget that you have before you, sir. In relationship to the Probation Services office I would be very hesitant to make any changes to that right now. As we started that program it’s a brand-new program, they’re not yet fully staffed. I have no idea if they’re going to generate the amount of revenue that they projected for the year and that was why I had that on the list of possible budget amendments. We go with the number that’s provided to us. We’ll have to see if they become fully staffed whether they’re really going to be able to generate that amount of money. If they are, that does create some opportunities for us but that’s very much unproven at this point. Mr. Mayor: Thank you. Mr. Mayor: Okay, all right, I’m going to recognize a couple more Commissioners here in just a second but let me, I want to speak to a couple of issues that I think are germane to this conversation. Last year this body made a decision to do two things that the community resoundingly supported and they were significant decisions things that have quite frankly they were unprecedented in this government’s history. One was the issue of demolition services to the issue of blighted, vacant and abandoned properties in this City of Augusta-Richmond County. I applaud the leadership of our Environmental Services Director for coming forward with a proposal that helped us get that done but at the end of the day it was an unfunded mandate. It was unfunded in that it was something that has been needed to be done for 20-plus years in the city. That was an infusion of $900,000 from the Enterprise Fund to be able to stand that up. It’s been successful to the degree that our citizens have said we want you to keep doing it but yet it was an unfunded mandate. I remember in executive session last year where we had a task team consisting of the thth Chairman from the 5, the Chairman from the 8 who visited along with Ms. Jackson, Judge Slaby and others Athens-Clarke County to bring in-house Probation Services like they’ve done in other cities. At the point in time we had this conversation I remember vividly, Ms. Bonner, stating to this body, it will not pay for itself it will be a losing proposition for the first several years. I said that multiple times. Now we find ourselves on the other side of this body hasn’t made the decision and I remember vividly again support from those same Commissioners to move forward with those programs and we propped that up with $300,000 from Contingency knowing that on the other side of yesterday we’d have to infuse additional resources in that. Again, another decision that this community resoundingly said we want you to do this. The national conversation around probation 27 being a prison pipeline and Jack Long and his great work across this nation to deal with that issue helped make it easier for this body I believe to make the decision to the Commissioner from the th 9 your good friend, Jack Long, has fought this issue and you agreed to bring it in house. What you agreed to also understand that we would put money into it moving forward but yet we might not recover those costs initially. So, there should be no debate about those; we are where we are. It was a hard decision; you made it now we’ve got to move forward. Again, you put money in the budget to be able to stand it up, they’re not fully staffed and now we’re here. We’ve got a balanced budget in front of us and these are difficult decisions. They allow you to provide level services to all of our citizens and to do that as efficiently and effectively as possible hopefully meeting the needs of all of our citizens. That’s what you’ve got in front of you. Mr. Guilfoyle: Call for the question, sir. th Mr. Mayor: Okay all right, the Chair the Commissioner from the 8 called for the question. th I’m going to recognize the Commissioner, I’m going to recognize the Commissioner from the 7 he came to me early and said hey, I wanted to speak. I’m going to give him an opportunity to speak. Mr. Hasan: (unintelligible) call for the question? th Mr. Mayor: I’m sorry. All right hold on, I’m going to give the Commissioner from the 7 th. and opportunity to state his inquiry. The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 7 State your inquiry. Mr. Frantom: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, you know I have some questions about this budget. We’re sitting here going to take a vote before we even have I’ve asked my question. I mean I think that’s not right and I think the people deserve those answers. Mr. Guilfoyle: I retract my statement then, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Hasan: (unintelligible) Commissioner Guilfoyle called for the question. Mr. Guilfoyle: I retracted. Mr. Mayor: All right, all right, all right, Commissioner, you’ve got an opportunity to ask your questions. Mr. Frantom: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Madam Administrator, the items that my colleague Commissioner Sias mentioned in the budget the Board or Health, the Board of Elections, the CSRA Alliance, MACH Academy, are those now in this budget? Ms. Jackson: The $180,000 dollars that’s up on the screen is provided for the purpose of you all making decisions as to whether you’d like to address those issues. There is enough in there to fund the Board of Health at $75,000 dollars, MACH Academy at $25,000 Alliance at Fort Gordon at $10,000. 28 Mr. Frantom: And my colleague Commissioner Guilfoyle mentioned is My Brother’s Keeper coming out and IT $154,000. Are those as well taken out? Ms. Jackson: I didn’t hear anything about IT, I’m sorry IT $154,000. Mr. Frantom: That’s what Commissioner Guilfoyle mentioned on last week. Ms. Jackson: Oh on last week we made a pretty substantial cut to Information Technology as part of that $750,000 dollar cut that I referenced earlier. I think the number was probably a little bit more than, we’ve cut $144,000 from IT. Mr. Frantom: So the $180,000 is supposed to make we’re supposed to or you’re supposed to or whoever is supposed to decide this $247,000 that Commissioner Sias mentioned between those four organizations is now $180,000. Who’s going to make that determination on how much each of these organizations gets if any? Ms. Jackson: What could be done, it’s ultimately yours your decision to make. What could be done at $75,000 dollars for Board of Health, $10,000 for Alliance of Fort Gordon, $25,000 for MACH Academy. We did not include the, I don’t think there’s enough money there may not be enough in there for increases to the Board of Elections I believe that was one of them because that was for a merit increase and that becomes an equity issue as to whether you want to increase some employees and not others (unintelligible). Mr. Frantom: Okay and my last question is can you please explain if Gold Cross was put in what the $700,000 dollars in cuts would be? Ms. Jackson: No. Mr. Frantom: Do you not have that information? Have we not discussed it? Ms. Jackson: What I would suggest is that you all look at some other sources of raising some revenue to do that. Mr. Hasan: Call for the question, Mr. Mayor. th Mr. Mayor: Okay, the Commissioner from the 6 has called for the question. The Chair th recognizes the Commissioner from the 4, same thing? Mr. Sias: Absolutely, call for the question. Mr. Mayor: All right, Ms. Bonner, I think we had a motion and a second and that’s before us right now. The Clerk: Yes sir, we do. 29 Mr. M. Williams: No, ma’am, I think the call for the question don’t mean you get your motion and second you vote now to see if you’ve got enough votes to keep talking about it or not talking about it. You just can’t vote on the issue. I mean unless I’ve got my rules mixed up, Ms. Bonner. Mr. Mayor: Well --- The Clerk: If there’s un-readiness. Mr. M. Williams: I’m addressing it so there’s got to be some un-readiness so I don’t know what ya’ll need me to say now. Mr. Mayor: --- well, well here’s what I’d like for you to I’d like for you to address the Chair, that’s what I’d like for you to do --- Mr. M. Williams: Okay well --- Mr. Mayor: --- we’ll start there first. And then number two my question or comment to the Clerk was do we have a proper motion and a second and she indicated yes. Mr. M. William: --- okay. Mr. Mayor: I understand, I understand what call for the question means. Mr. M. Williams: Well, I mean ya’ll (inaudible). Mr. Mayor: This ain’t my first rodeo. Mr. M. Williams: I don’t like it (inaudible). Mr. Mayor: This ain’t my first rodeo. Mr. M. Williams: Okay. Mr. Mayor: All right, okay, all right. Mr. M. Williams: Ya’ll have been hollering call for the question and people are going on and voting and I’ve been letting that go but not today. If you call for the question then you vote whether there’s enough if, because you’ve got some un-readiness to see you’ve got enough to keep talking. If you ain’t got enough then you vote on the issue. Mr. Mayor: I fully understand that. It’s a good day, all right, I’m ready. All right, let’s call for the question. 30 Mr. Hasan: Motion to approve. Mr. Sias: Second. Mr. M. Williams: Clarify --- Mr. Mayor: Not the underlined motion, I understand. Mr. M. Williams: Can you clarify what we’re voting on, Mr. Mayor, so everybody’ll be able to understand? Mr. Mayor: We’re voting on whether we close debate. That’s what we’re doing. We’re voting on whether we close debate off, all right? Mr. M. Williams: Whether we stop debating? Mr. Mayor: That’s right, whether we stop debate. That’s what we’re doing. All right voting. Mr. Hasan: We stop debating, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: We did. The Clerk: Let me ask Mr. Williams --- Mr. D. Williams: (unintelligible). The Clerk: --- they called for the question to discontinue debate on the budget. I need to know how you will vote, yea or nay. Mr. D. Williams: Nay to discontinue. The Clerk: To discontinue? Mr. D. Williams: (inaudible). The Clerk: Okay, all right. Mr. Frantom, Mr. Guilfoyle, M. M. Williams, Mr. D. Williams vote No. Mr. Fennoy, Ms. Davis, Mr. Sias, Mr. Hasan, Mr. Lockett and Mr. G. Smith vote Yes. Motion Passes 6-4. Mr. Lockett: What about Mr. Lockett --- The Clerk: Lockett. 31 Mr. Lockett: --- you scratched me off the list already. The Clerk: You’re there, my humble apology. Mr. Mayor: Okay, thank you, we’ve ended the debate. All right, so this is our posture. We’ve ended debate, we’re going to vote on the underlined motion and that is to approve the budget, 2017 budget that’s been presented. Those that are opposed will vote no and those that we in favor will vote yea. Voting. The Clerk: Mr. Williams, Commissioner Williams --- Mr. D. Williams: (inaudible). The Clerk: --- okay, what’s your vote on the budget as presented by the Administrator? Mr. D. Williams: I vote yea. The Clerk: Yes, okay. Mr. Fennoy, Mr. Sias, Mr. Lockett, Mr. Hasan, Mr. G. Smith and Mr. D. Williams vote Yes. Ms. Davis, Mr. Frantom, Mr. Guilfoyle and Mr. M. Williams vote No. Motion Passes 6-4. Mr. Mayor: All right, I want to take a moment and thank a variety of people. I want to thank our Administrator. I want to thank without question our Finance team, Donna Williams, Tim Schroer, Hope, you have done a fantastic job in a very difficult time for us. And I want to commend you for your hard work in putting together a balanced budget and allowing us to deliver on government services to all of our citizens. Often times when we’re faced with voting in a climate in which we’re in, you make difficult decisions and sometimes you have to come back and revisit those decisions which that’s what government’s about. It’s a fluid process. You make the best decisions with the information you have in front of you and I want to applaud you all for doing that. All right, thank you all so much. Let’s give then a hand for the work that they do. (APPLAUSE) All right, we’ve got one more item that’s before us and Madam Clerk. The Clerk: APPOINTMENT(S) 26. Motion to approve the appointment of Mr. Butch Gallop to the Augusta Economic Development Authority to the seat held by Ron Brown. (Requested by Commissioner Bill Fennoy) st Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 1. Mr. Fennoy: Yes, Mr. Brown had called --- 32 The Clerk: Your mike, Mr. Fennoy. Mr. Fennoy: --- I’m sorry. The Clerk: Thank you. Mr. Fennoy: Mr. Brown had called me a little over a month ago requesting a replacement that he spent a lot of his time in Jacksonville and Tallahassee and he’s ready to come off. I think the last appointment we made we had two candidates Steven Kendricks and Butch Gallop and Steven Kendricks went out so this is my recommendation. Mr. Guilfoyle: Second. Mr. Mayor: Okay, I’ve got a motion and a second. All right, the Chair recognizes the th Commissioner from the 7. Mr. Frantom: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So about three months ago we all got books about each of the different boards and I’ve had names come to me. I thought there was going to be some discussion before we just starting nominating folks for these different boards. So, there’s other names that I have as well but I haven’t put them up because I thought we were going to have a discussion as colleagues. So, thank you, Mr. Mayor. th Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9. Mr. M. Williams: Likewise, Mr. Mayor, I thought it was a consensus appointment not a Commission appointment. I feel like that we should have sit down and at least talked to other Commissioners to find out who would be eligible, who would be someone favorable to go. Mr. Gallop’s been around here a good while and is no stranger to this government. There’s been a lot of different facets. But I was wondering how can there be a District 1 appointment versus a consensus appointment where this body would come together and select like Commissioner Frantom just said. I don’t understand that. Can somebody explain how one name got brought forth versus several? Mr. Mayor: Well, I certainly can’t, I can’t explain that. I think again this is another one of those fluid processes. I don’t get an opportunity to make an appointment so I’m just here to support and work with you all on this. So, all right the Chair recognizes the Commissioner, what’s your posture? What would you like to do? Mr. Fennoy: Motion to approve. Mr. Guilfoyle: Second. Mr. Mayor: All right, I’ve got a motion and a second. Voting. 33 The Clerk: Commissioner Williams, we’re now voting on the appointment of Mr. Butch Gallop to the Augusta Economic Development Authority to the seat currently held by Mr. Ron Brown. Your vote, sir? Mr. D. Williams: My vote is yes. The Clerk: Yes? Mr. D. Williams: Yes. The Clerk: Okay. Mr. Fennoy, Mr. Sias, Mr. Lockett, Mr. Hasan, Mr. Guilfoyle, Mr. D. Williams and Mr. G. Smith vote Yes. Ms. Davis, Mr. Frantom and Mr. M. Williams. Motion Passes 7-3. Mr. Mayor: All right, it’s been a long day. The Clerk: That’s it, Commissioner Williams. Enjoy your vacation. Mr. Mayor: Madam Clerk, any additional business before us today? The Clerk: Sir? Mr. Mayor: Is there any additional business before us today? The Clerk: No, sir, that’s it. Mr. Mayor: All right, this meeting is adjourned. \[MEETING ADJOURNED\] 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 Regular Meeting of the Augusta Richmond County Commission held on November 15, 2016. ______________________________ Clerk of Commission 34