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Home My WebLink AboutRegular Commission Meeting February 7, 2017 PETITIONS & COMMUNICATIONS 22. Motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of the Commission held th January 17 and Special Called Meeting held January 31, 2017. APPOINTMENTS 23. Motion to approve the appointment of Mr. James O’Neal to the Augusta Planning Commission effective April 1, 2017 representing District 1. 24. Motion to approve the appointment of Mr. Steve Sanders to the Augusta Public Library Board of Trustees representing District 3. 25. Motion to approve the appointment of Ms. Beverly Tarver to the Augusta Public Library Board of Trustees representing District 9. 32. Motion to approve the appointment of Mr. Bill Hollingsworth to the Economic Development Authority to replace Mr. Michael Schepis. (Requested by Mayor Pro Tem Mary Davis and Commissioner Grady Smith) Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. Voting. Motion Passes 10-0. \[Items 1-3, 5, 8-12, 14-15, 18, 20-25, 32\] Mr. Mayor: Madam Clerk, I’m ready now, item number 31. The Clerk: FINANCE 31. Motion to approve a request for $25,000 for MACH Academy to support the services they provide to our community youth. (No recommendation from Finance Committee January 31, 2017) Mr. Fennoy: Motion to approve. Mr. Hasan: Second. st Mr. Mayor: We’ve got a motion to approve from the Commissioner from the 1 and a th second from the Commissioner from the 6. Voting. Mr. M. Williams: Can we have a roll call vote, Mr. Mayor? Mr. Mayor: Absolutely, sure. The Clerk: Ms. Davis. Mr. Hasan: She’s out. The Clerk: Mr. Fennoy. Mr. Fennoy: Yes. 10 The Clerk: Mr. Frantom. Mr. Frantom: No, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. Guilfoyle. Mr. Guilfoyle: No. The Clerk: Mr. Hasan. Mr. Hasan: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Jefferson. Mr. Jefferson: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Sias. Mr. Sias: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Dennis Williams. Mr. D. Williams: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Marion Williams. Mr. M. Williams: Yes. Ms. Davis out. Mr. Frantom and Mr. Guilfoyle vote No. Motion Passes 7-2. Mr. Mayor: All right, Madam Clerk, we’re going to take Items 6 and 7 together. The Clerk: ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES 6. Motion to approve a request for the replacement of 3 Ford Rangers with the purchase 3- F-150’s with CNG/LPG engine prep package, for Environmental Services Department. (Bid Item 16-235) (Approved by Administrative Services Committee January 31, 2017) 11 7. Motion to approve a request from the Utilities Department to replace a 2001 Ford F-350 used in support of the Fort Gordon contract from Allan Vigil Ford for $48,145.00. (Bid Item 16-190) (Approved by Administrative Services Committee January 31, 2017) Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes Mr. Ron Crowden to speak to the matter. Mr. Crowden: Was there a specific question or --- th Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9 for a question. Mr. Crowden: --- or go over the whole --- Mr. M. Williams: Ron, I didn’t want to necessarily pull this item but I wanted to make sure that the lease program we were under are we still under the lease program we have been under for quite some time with our vehicles? Mr. Crowden: You’re talking about the GMA Lease Program? Mr. M. Williams: GMA Lease Program. Mr. Crowden: This vehicle was purchased under that program --- Mr. M. Williams: And that’s --- Mr. Crowden: --- and it was paid off within the 3-year period so it belongs to us. Mr. M. Williams: --- I understand. My question is are we still under the GMA Lease Program that we’ve been under was my question. Mr. Crowden: The program is available for our use if that is the desire of the Commission to use that program --- Mr. M. Williams: Okay, well, that helps me a lot. Mr. Crowden: --- we’re not obligated to use it. Mr. M. Williams: Okay, thank you, Ron, I’m for the education because I’m under the assumption that we had to be under that program or that we were bound to that program. Now I’m hearing after 12-14-years later I’ve been asking the same question. I’m not opposed to it but if we’re going to use it one time why we don’t use it all the time. If it’s a good program are we selecting to go with or without? I’m looking for the best value for this government. Mr. Crowden: I’d like to defer to Donna Williams who is more familiar with that program than I am. Mr. M. Williams: Okay, Donna, help me out with this a little bit it don’t take much. 12 Ms. Williams: Yes, sir, the GMA Lease Program is a financing option. It is not a true lease program like you would think about if you go to a dealership and lease a car and you would turn that back in at the end of the time. The GMA Lease Program like I said is a financing mechanism. We use it for cash flow purposes because it is advantageous to us in some circumstances to split the payments up the cost of the vehicle over the 3-year time period rather than purchasing them outright. We evaluate to see which pieces of equipment it is more beneficial to the government to use the program for and then we make our recommendation. Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Donna. Ms. Williams: We own the equipment at the end, either way. Mr. M. Williams: I get that. I was trying to make sure that we are purposing or going down the avenue. I was under the assumption that we had a GMA Lease Program that we had to use under the assumption. Somebody told me that. I was under the assumption that we was bound through the lease program the government that we was kind of bound onto at one point. Now I’m hearing that it’s an option we can use if it’s a good time to use it. I’m not opposed to these two items but I’ve been questioning this kind of stuff especially when I see a $48,145.00 dollars for an F-350 that’s a 2001 and it just kind of alarms me but I’m not opposed to that. Ms. Williams: It does not increase the cost of what we are purchasing. Those go out through the regular bidding procedures and then we make the determination whether or not you write a check, cash all at one time or you go through the state sponsored program to buy it over the 3-year time period. Mr. M. Williams: Okay, I’m going to make a motion to approve --- Mr. D. Williams: Second. Mr. M. Williams: --- I wasn’t against the problem I just wanted to know the details of what we were doing because I was under the assumption because when I saw the other dealership. And I know the difference from the previous one I had seen who sparked my attention so. Ms. Williams: Competitive bid. Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, ma’am. Mr. Mayor: All right, I’ve got a motion to approve and a proper second. Voting. Motion Passes 10-0. Mr. Mayor: Item Number 4. The Clerk: 13 PUBLIC SERVICES 4. Motion to approve the transfer and acceptance of Bus Shelters from the Jacksonville Transit Authority and the funds to ship them from Jacksonville, Florida to Augusta, Georgia. (Approved by Public Services Committee January 31, 2017) th Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9. Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I asked for this to be pulled. I’m in support naturally of getting the bus shelters. We need something for people to stand in even sitting on the ground. But my question is, is this a bid process if it was is it local or small business have an opportunity to bid to be able to assist with this transportation, with this transfer? How does that work, Pat, can you help me with that? Mr. Stephens: Outstanding question. First of all this was not a bid process. When we learned of these shelters that they were available, a team from transit went down to make sure that this was something we wanted to acquire. The next thing we wanted to know how much it was going to cost us to get them here compared to new shelters. This bid or this quote has not been awarded. We talked to some of the local businesses in Jacksonville, a moving company, a rigging service to see what it would cost us to transport these things one way to Augusta with the idea that maybe the trucking companies could pick up some loads here locally or something going back so we wouldn’t have to pay for a two-way trip. We were quoted $2,600 dollars per load. That’s how we came up that if we got up to 100 shelters from them or $26,000. We’ve had some subsequent conversation with Procurement as well as our Compliance Office. We are going to try to solicit some local bids to see by chance if that price can be beat, you know, and then we will award. We want to be as quick as we can with this process so that we can get them out of Jacksonville’s hands and not lose them. Our main point with this is we hoped that aside from the shipping we wanted to use local businesses to refurbish them under the SPLOST dollars. But nothing’s been awarded to anybody right now but we believe it’s probably going to prove to be most cost effective to ship them one-way from Jacksonville. Mr. M. Williams: Can I follow up, Mr. Mayor? Mr. Mayor: Certainly. Mr. M. Williams: Pat, and I appreciate that and I understand that so where are we now approving this would do what? Just get us in the conversation to get the Compliance Director to get with local businesses? I mean what would that do? Mr. Stephens: I think your approval authorizes us to accept the shelters from there. It further authorizes approximately $26,000 to get them shipped here. And what will happen is before we would award this out, you know, I know I talked to Kelly this morning she’s going to see if local businesses authorized, I mean that are interested in it and then we would simply go through the procurement process of awarding that. Again, we’ve talked to them based on our quotes that we got early on and that was deemed to be an appropriate procedure to go forward with. So, I guess we’re going to take a second look quickly to see if there’s somebody locally that 14 can help us with this. We do want to be mindful that we don’t want to get into a long-drawn process so that we don’t lose these shelters because they do need to dispose of them. Mr. M. Williams: So moved, Mr. Mayor. Mr. D. Williams: Second. Mr. Mayor: We’ve got a motion and a second. Voting. Motion Passes 10-0. Mr. Mayor: Item 13, Madam Clerk. The Clerk: PUBLIC SAFETY 13. Motion to approve the purchase for Richmond County Sheriff’s Office (RCSO) in the amount of $29,461.00 to purchase a security gate for the Charles B. Webster Detention Center. (Approved by Public Safety Committee January 31, 2017) th Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9. Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, the same question for this one. The purchase of the gate and installation of the gate is going to have to be done. My question to Compliance or Procurement or to anyone have we, has this been thought through to the fact of local small business or whatever, Kellie, to have an opportunity? Ms. Irving: I don’t recall, this may have come before the Compliance Department however because of the dollar value at $29,000. It would not have been one that we would have evaluated to set a goal line. Mr. M. Williams: May I follow up, Mr. Mayor? Mr. Mayor: You may. Mr. M. Williams: In general what’s the dollar value that you have to have to follow up on? How much is it that crosses this threshold that you’ll be involved because I’ve got a couple more of these coming up here and I wondering what is the dollar value that crosses over into your --- Ms. Irving: Yes, sir, thank you very much for that question. The threshold for evaluation of a Local Small Business Opportunity Program Utilization Goal is $100,000. Mr. M. Williams: So --- 15 Mr. Mayor: Okay, suspend. We have a matter about the purchase of a security gate and I’m going to get a ruling on germanous in a moment about our debating whether this is a matter as it relates to local small business opportunity. I don’t think that we’re at the point of where we’re needing to necessarily debate the merits of whether this comports. We’ve already gone beyond that place. This is a matter that has already been identified, the Procurement efforts have already th taken place and what I would ask the Commissioner from the 9 do is again honor that process. This came through your committee and as such if we’re going to again debate the merits of whether we have a sufficient Local Small Business Program I would ask you to caution, Commissioner. Again, just as you’re thinking through that because you said you’ve got a series of questions related to that but this is a matter that’s already been debated through your committee. Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor, I’m in support of the gate. Never said I was not but at the same time we’ve got a Compliance Department that we have put in place. And since I’ve been here I hadn’t heard and hadn’t seen very much effort to make sure that Compliance Officer or office is doing what we put them in place to do. Now I’m not questioning, I know the gate needs to be purchased. I’m I support, it’s got to be installed. But if you don’t ask those questions and I don’t when those questions should be asked I guess. I was on a committee which consists of four people but it got to this full Commission and that’s where the rubber meets the road at so to speak because it takes six votes, four votes can’t do it. I mean I could’ve held this up in committee. I’m not trying to hold the project up but I do have some serious questions that I have a right to ask. Here’s one a four-hundred a $4,351,872.58 I’ve got a question the same thing about that one but how do we make sure that we’re doing what we say we’re doing? Now you may not have time to do it I’m elected to hopefully help the situation get better not get worse so that’s my point for asking those questions was that her because I don’t know here threshold. I just learned that the threshold is $100,000 dollars is that right, Ms. Irving? Ms. Irving: Yes, sir. Mr. M. Williams: So anything under $100,000 dollars ain’t no use in me addressing about the small local businesses because it doesn’t come before that department. That helps me a whole lot. Mr. Mayor: All right, I’ll entertain a motion to approve. Mr. Sias: So moved. Mr. G. Smith: Second. Mr. Mayor: Voting. Motion Passes 10-0. Mr. Mayor: Number 27 please. The Clerk: 16 PUBLIC SERVICES 27. TA-07 – A request for concurrence with the Augusta Georgia Planning Commission to approve a petition to approve the updated Tree Ordinance for Augusta, Georgia. (No recommendation from Public Services Committee January 31, 2017) Mr. Guilfoyle: Motion to approve. Ms. Davis: Second. Mr. Mayor: All right, we’ve got a motion and a second to approve. The Chair recognizes th the Commissioner from the 4 for a series of questions. Mr. Sias: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Is it Ms. Terri? Ms. Terri Turner: Yes, sir. Mr. Sias: Ms. Terri, my concern about this Tree Ordinance is the same as it was when it first came before committee. And it was sent back and nor did, I never received any call or anything to sit down with the Tree Ordinance folks or the department to kind of express what the issues really were. And we’ve done some talking from behind on the dais and most of the time that don’t get it. If my colleagues want to pass this, I’ll be voting no because for one thing my position has not changed on that fact that I see so many of these dead trees out there at these businesses who’s wasted money put those things there and they’re doing nothing but just junking up the area, junking up the parking lot or they’re half dead half the time and I think we need to address that. So for me I really would like for you all to sit down with some of us you might interested to look at the situation, go out and visit some sites and see. I see that as a real problem. And we know one of our major developers had a real problem with that and that was a tug of war that went on for months about those same little trees. We removed the ones that we were supposed to have in our parking lot for security purposes so I don’t think we’ve adequately addressed that issue. And I’ll leave that for my colleagues to decide but I know where I’ll be voting at. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. th Mr. Mayor: Thank you so much. The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 6 for a question. Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ms. Terri, is that what it is? Ms. Turner: Yes, sir. Mr. Hasan: Okay, Ms. Terri, thank you. In terms of the types of trees that you encourage the owners to plant, do they have any say so in that? Ms. Turner: Yes, sir, absolutely. In fact the updated ordinance encourages more diversity in the plant material that can be picked by the developer or the developer’s design engineer. Obviously the trees with the wider canopy would garner more canopy coverage and would be 17 desired but the developer has right now and will have under the updated ordinance the ability to pick the types of trees they want on their site. Mr. Hasan: Okay. Another question. When this conversation first came up several weeks I think you were not at the mike I think Ms. Wilson was at the time and if I’m not mistaken the Mayor mentioned as an example something like the Mercedes Benz place. And I think just recently I came down Washington Road and passed that. What I noticed as they parked their vehicles for display purposes closer to the curb on their property trees was right there planted right on the right-of-way per se. Do they have any say so in terms of where they park laterally further back or midway on that property because if I was a property owner or car owner and the time those trees begin to shed I’m constantly washing my vehicles because debris and things are falling from the tree. So, do they have any say so in that? Ms. Turner: Yes, sir, they have a say so as to where they park their cars. Any developer has a say so in where they design parking lots on their particular site. And they also have a say so as to what types of trees that they can pick for the site. They could pick something evergreen, something that doesn’t shed, something that doesn’t drop nuts and so there is that ability on not only a car dealership site but on any site. Mr. Hasan: Ms. Terri, I probably confused myself more so than you but let me try again. Short of redesigning their parking lot I was wondering because the tree, this is the parking lot here. Let’s say this is the edge and my car is parked right here, the tree is planted right here. I was wondering could that tree be moved back midway, I know you don’t want it too close to the street so could you park, could the tree be planted midway as opposed to directly over where the vehicle is parked. Ms. Turner: Yes, sir, I understand the question now and thank you for your patience with me. There is a street yard requirement which requires a ten-foot street yard just inside the property line. We have worked with some developers on certain streets especially streets under City of Augusta ownership to move those trees back in the planted area so that they are basically on the property line so that the root system can not only be in the right-of-way but on the site. And we have done that with several property owners over the course of time especially under Director Wilson’s leadership. Mr. Hasan: Thank you, ma’am. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: Thank you, Commissioner. This tree ordinance originally drafted I believe back in 1946 is receiving its first substantial updates. And Director Wilson’s communication just a week ago in fact as late as January she shared with us the same and talked about the implications of one, providing more tools in this for property owners and/or developers to be able to work with the city. While it may not be perfect this is what happens, Ms. Bonner, when you’re making the sausage. You try to perfect it along the way and you get better and you get better as you get smarter and you begin to understand more thing from a design standpoint, Tom. And with that being said we have an opportunity to adopt something that takes us one step further down the road. What I’ll th share with the Commissioner from the 6 who’s taken the jaunt over to Washington Road and Mercedes is that Ms. Wilson met with the principals from Mercedes on last week and they are 18 working on a mitigation path for it which further answers your question. And so what I think what we’ve consistently heard from our Director in Planning is that the City of Augusta’s open for business. We want to work with folks; we do not want to have these public policies be an impediment to progress moving forward. And so I think we are on the right path. The Chair th recognizes the Commissioner from the 9 for a question and then we’ll vote. Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and thank you for your comment because I agree th with those comments exactly. And that’s why the Commissioner from the 4 comments to me made a lot of sense because we ought to talk about creating something and voting on something th that we can use to just voting on something. Now I know the Commissioner from the 6 talked about the Mercedes dealership. We’ve got places on Gordon Highway for instance where from one end to the other one you can’t find no trees. But then we’ve got some places that got trees so close they’re shaking hands with each other when the wind blow. So I’m trying to figure out why is it one sided I guess or why is it that it looks like it’s one set of trees in one area. My problem with the trees in this area is that the type tree that the people are being told to plant the cost of the tree I heard complaints about, builders talking about the cost of the tree they’ve got to put down. Now I thought they had to put the tree in the position because they had moved trees from that position. I’m not opposed, Terri, to nothing you all are doing I’m in support but I don’t see the rush in trying to do it today or tomorrow. I mean if we were stopping people from building or stopping people from coming in with their plans because we don’t have a tree ordinance in place I could say we need to do something. But if we’ve got someone that don’t understand or don’t feel as good about it why don’t we talk about it, why don’t we explain it, why don’t we make it th. known versus saying well you’re going to take it anyway. I’m like the Commissioner from the 4 I’m not voting for it either. I’m not against it but I’m not going to support it because I’ve got some issues that I still don’t agree with. So unless there was a reason to rush it today or to get it done by 2:00 o’clock in the morning then I don’t. Mr. Mayor: All right, thank you. We’ve got a motion and a proper second. Voting. Mr. Sias and Mr. M. Williams vote No. Motion Passes 8-2. Ms. Terry: Thank you, Commissioners. Mr. Mayor: Madam Clerk, we’ll go back to Item 17, 16 thank you. All right, okay. The Clerk: We’ll take items 16, 17 and 19 as companion items. For the record: The Clerk: ENGINEERING SERVICES 16. Motion to approve Change Order for Construction Services for Augusta Canal Embankment Repair Project. (Approved by Engineering Services Committee January 31, 2017) 17. Motion to approve award of Construction Contract to Reeves Construction Company in the amount of $4,351,872.58 for Dover-Lyman Rehabilitation Project as requested by AED. 19 Award is contingent upon receipt of signed contract and proper bonds. (Bid Item 16-223) (Approved by Engineering Services Committee January 31, 2017) 19. Motion to approve Change Order #1 for Construction Services for Renovation of 452 Walker Street. (Approved by Engineering Services Committee January 31, 2017) Mr. Mayor: All right, thank you, Madam Clerk. The Chair recognizes the Commissioner th from the 9. Mr. M. Williams: Tom, 16 and 19 is similar, the change orders I want to know about that amount. The major problem, concern I have I’m not against this project we talked about it in committee I told you I’ll see you today, is that right? Mr. Wiedmeier: Yes. Mr. M. Williams: I’m a man of my word, right --- Mr. Wiedmeier: Yes. Mr. M. Williams: -- okay I want you to know this. But the four million three fifty-one I think meets the threshold that Ms. Irving talked about earlier and I’m trying to figure out how do the small and local businesses how do they play into this contract when we award it to anybody, the four-million. Is there something there to make sure that they are --- The Clerk: That’s Abie’s project, number 17 is Mr. Ladson’s project. Mr. M. Williams: --- okay, let me get Tom just the change order then, Tom, the amount of the change order comes in, it didn’t have a dollar amount of here and this is for the canal? Mr. Wiedmeier: Right the canal was $173,000 I believe. Mr. Hasan: That’s what it was. Mr. Mayor: That’s correct. Mr. M. Williams: Okay, the smaller local contractors have an opportunity to? Mr. Wiedmeier: Regarding the change order work? Mr. M. Williams: Right. Mr. Wiedmeier: I’m not exactly sure. Mr. M. Williams: Because see if you and what this history’s being here, Sean, is that you come in with a price but then you do a change order then it gets back up to where it really was but the little man you know ends up being left out of there. So the change order’s that amount 20 shouldn’t the small and local businesses be a part of that as well? I mean that’s the question, Tom. I’m not opposed to you, I’m going to support it. Mr. Wiedmeier: I think that whatever, if it’s similar type work which this was all the same type of work if there was a percentage committed to for the original contract I would think that that percentage would also apply to the change order work. Mr. M. Williams: Ms. Irving. Ms. Irving: Yes, I agree. If the original amount of the contract increases through a change order so should the business that small business participating on the contract it should increase as well, same percentage but obviously the dollar value has increased. Mr. M. Williams: Can I follow up, Mr. Mayor? Mr. Mayor: Sure. Mr. M. Williams: Ms. Irving, how do I know as an elected official that that happened, that takes place? You know because if I’m a small contractor working for a larger one and he gets a change order, if he don’t give me if he don’t tell me if I don’t know even how to ask for that how does that take place? Ms. Irving: The prime contractor is responsible for submitting monthly utilization reports and from there our department is able to evaluate and check and monitor and track whether or not that ultimately whether or not the small business dollar value has increased. Mr. M. Williams: Okay, that helps me, Mr. Mayor. I’m going to make a motion to approve --- Mr. Hasan: Second. Mr. M. Williams: --- 16 and 19. As to Walker Street which is a change order as well but --- Mr. Mayor: Okay, we took 16, 17 and 19 as companion items. Mr. M. Williams: --- 17 though is different, that’s Mr. Ladson I think. Mr. Mayor: That’s true but we took them all as companion items because they’re similar in nature. Mr. M. Williams: Okay the same question goes back to Ms. Irving the on the $4,351,872.58. 21 Ms. Irving: Yes. This particular contract has a 3% Local Small Business Participation Goal which was met by Reeves Construction and we have two certified LSBOP’s participating on this contract once awarded. Mr. Hasan: Motion to approve unless (inaudible). Mr. Mayor: Okay --- The Clerk: Is it the same motion that Mr. Williams and you, Mr. Hasan, will include item number 17 if that’s okay. Mr. Mayor: --- all right very good. All right, we’re voting on items 16, 17 and 19. Voting. Motion Passes 10-0. Mr. Mayor: Item 26, Madam Clerk. The Clerk: PUBLIC SERVICES 26. Update from staff regarding keys to the Jamestown Community Center for Commissioners. (No recommendation from Public Services Committee January 31, 2017) th Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9. Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor, this is another item that’s been on the agenda that the Administrator, the Attorney, yourself, along with this body has been familiar with but there have not been any changes that I know of since then. I requested a key to the building as a Super District Commissioner. I feel like if anybody got a key, an elected official, we all should be able to have one if we so desire but that has not taken place as of yet. And I don’t plan to let this go to bed I mean because I think it’s too serious. It was wrong when it was done the way it was done before but now being an elected official the District 4 Commissioner can’t have that and just, you know, and look like there’s nothing to it. The city pays all the utilities bills, all the expenses been paid by the, it’s a city facility but the city don’t have no access. When I asked for the key the only thing the Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation had was a key to the gate so I’m waiting on something from staff somebody to tell me what rock to find my key up under. Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes Administrator Jackson. Ms. Jackson: Sir, at this point I’ve not received any direction from the board asking me to do so. If it is the pleasure of the majority of the board members to provide such a key we will. Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Williams? Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Ms. Mayor Pro Tem. This body has not made a move in fact this body hasn’t said very much, Ms. Jackson, to you or to anybody about that. I think that’s 22 totally wrong for taxpayers to foot the bill for a facility that one Commissioner or maybe even two Commissioners even three or four, five everybody ought to be able to have the same rights and privileges, George, like they say in the Baptist church we all ought to have the same privileges. I don’t think no one ought to be more privileged than anybody else. Now it’s been brought up about what kind of work. I have never questioned the work that has been done or has been done there. I commend that but I just don’t agree and I won’t ever agree that one elected official can have the authority over the rental, the money that comes in to the rental ought to be coming back to this governing body. It goes to that facility. We don’t know anything about, none of the maintenance stuff itself but what we’re told. Now I can take this to another level. I’m trying to keep it right here in the backyard but if you want to take it out of the backyard we can do that too. But I’m saying that we asked the Administrator to get with the Parks and Recreation Director they’re going to look at the contracts, they’re going to renew the contracts. You can’t be an elected official and do the same things you did when you wasn’t an elected official. We’re held in a different scrutiny, we’re held in different guidelines. So now if they can tell me how much diesel fuel I used that I’m allotted, when you got a key to a building that’s rented out and we don’t have any of the guidelines on it, none of the reports come back to this body or anybody else. Maybe Recreation’s got some report maybe they can tell us where the rentals go and when the rentals go and hours and all of that stuff. Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Mr. Mayor, we have Commissioner Sias next and then Commissioner Fennoy. Mr. Mayor: All right, Commissioner Sias, before you speak, Ms. Jones, I know you’re still here but your item was approved yeah, just wanted you to know. All right, Commissioner Sias. Mr. Sias: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and I’m going to say this one more time and hopefully I won’t say too many things. This is absolutely ridiculous. I’m going to say it again. This is absolutely ridiculous. We have one of the best programs in the city and yet we have an individual for their own personal whatever vindictive reason is referencing a Gold Cross thing that was improperly and illegally done and sustained over the years attacking Jamestown and the people that work out there, the people that volunteer. Let me say that again, the people that volunteer out there. This is absolutely stupid. We worked out there for 17 years and now we have this kind of foolish activity going on coming from this dais who’s supposed to be professionally elected people. It is a shame on this city to have to listen to this week in and week out and another week and another week. I done already and many other folks know what’s been done out there so I’m not going to sit here and repeat that. It is just absolutely ridiculous. Thank you. Mr. Mayor: The Chair will entertain a motion to receive as information. Mr. Fennoy: So moved. Ms. Davis: Second. Mr. Mayor: Voting. 23 Mr. M. Williams: Madam Clerk, will you put this back on the Administrative Services agenda for those stupid people who wants it back on there? The Clerk: Administrative? Mr. M. Williams: Administrative Services. The Clerk: Mr. Attorney? If you could, Mr. Mayor, Administrative does not have oversight over this item. Mr. M. Williams: No, but it does not have an oversight but I can place it on the agenda. Well, let’s see what your Attorney rules and if not we’ll put it back on the Public Services if that’s the committee it goes on. Mr. Mayor: The Chair will recognize you at the appropriate time and you’re out of order. You’re just talking out of turn. Madam Clerk has the floor and I’m going to recognize in her stead the Parliamentarian. The Chair recognizes Attorney MacKenzie. Mr. MacKenzie: Sure. Based on prior action of the Commission I think there’s a designation of which different subject matters fall within each committee. My recommendation would be to continue to follow that precedent that’s been set. Mr. Mayor: All right, we’ve got a motion and a second to receive as information. Voting. The Clerk: Mr. Mayor --- Mr. Mayor: Madam Clerk: The Clerk: --- just to correct one is not practice. The Commission did vote to approve the oversight so it’s an official action of the Commission that set the oversight responsibilities of each committee. Mr. Mayor: That is true, that is true. Mr. M. Williams votes No. Mr. Jefferson out. Motion Passes 8-1. Mr. Mayor: All right, Madam Clerk, we’re going to go to Item number 29 and I’m going to limit debate to ten minutes on this matter. Each Commissioner will have an opportunity to talk about this for one minute. The Clerk: PUBLIC SAFETY 24 29. Discuss Gold Cross Ambulance Contract. (No recommendation from Public Safety Committee January 31, 2017) th Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 4. Mr. Sias: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: One minute. Mr. Sias: For the last eleven years Gold Cross has provided Augusta’s EMS service yet they have never legitimately won an EMS contract in Augusta. The citizens of Augusta by their own leaders were deceived, put at risk and cheated out of $9 million dollars, $9 million dollars in cold hard cash from the General Fund. How is that, you ask. Due to my limitation of one-minute I will skip ahead. In 2005 the Augusta Technical EMS Subcommittee unanimously recommended that Augusta award EMS contract to American Medical Response under the terms and standards of RFP 05082. Yet the bid was given to Gold Cross in violation of Augusta Procurement laws. See the attached July 26, 2005 minutes. And to see the same attempt being made, see the attached minutes from the July 18, 2002 meeting. It is time to stop this harm to the City of Augusta. Augusta citizens are threatened with double rates, additional fees for routine calls and post-service due to a reduction of their subsidy or free money. th Mr. Mayor: Your time has expired. The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 8. Mr. Guilfoyle: Mr. Mayor, as of last week underneath the Public Services Committee we were discussing Jamestown and this was brought up improper and illegally done. As far as Gold Cross well there’s information that my commissioner colleague of mine, Commissioner Sias, has that I guess some of us Commissioners is basing this decision on Gold Cross. There’s some of us that’s never seen this documentation that we’re at a disadvantage. If we’re going to put something out there at least put it out there for all the Commissioners to see so they could absorb it, try to figure out there’s any validity to it and just look at the facts. I say move this off for two weeks and if my colleague don’t mind, if he’s kind enough to pass it out to my other colleagues, give it to the other ones that did not receive this information and let us make our own decisions. I believe that’ll be a fair level playing field. Mr. Mayor: Your time has expired. Mr. Guilfoyle: That’s pretty good for one minute. th Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9. Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor, the citizens are paying twice as much now for ambulance services. And every county around here, adjacent counties kind of below us and all that I’m hearing that some of it’s done wrong and I’d like to get Procurement in this room to explain and share with us. She’s been challenged hundreds of times not just in this room but in a court of law and so far she’s batting one-hundred, she hasn’t missed yet. I mean you can’t win them all but I’d like to hear from Procurement as to what was done. All these smart folks, these rocket scientists 25 got information nobody else has got, I’m a little bit worried about that. So I would like to hear from Procurement as to what was done and what wasn’t done because I’m sick and tired of folks playing games and acting as if they got a hammer, if they had one they’d done used it by now. I leave that last comment, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: Thank you so much; your time has expired. The Chair recognizes the th Commissioner from the 7. Mr. Frantom: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I agree with Commissioner Sias. I’ve got some information that showed that the $400,000 dollar was at subcommittee level and then once it got to the floor there was a $980,000 dollar bid and $1.9 million dollar bid but we ended up at $1.3 million dollars. What happened between subcommittee and the commission vote, was it level of service, what was it. But I do think we ought to punt this situation because I think we owe it to the taxpayers to find out the solution of what happened back in 2005. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. st Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 1. Mr. Fennoy: Motion to receive as information. Mr. Hasan: Second. Mr. Mayor: All right, we’ve got a motion and a proper second. Mr. Sias: Mr. Mayor? Mr. Mayor: I understand, I’ve got you. All right, are there any other comments from any th other members of the Commission? All right the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 4. Mr. Sias: Thank you, sir. I move that we offer Gold Cross a three-year contract with an annual subsidy of $380,000, substitute motion. I’m going to make a substitute motion. Mr. Mayor: Okay just suspend, just pause. Okay, we’ve got a motion and a proper second to receive as information. You’re making a substitute motion --- Mr. Sias: Absolutely. Mr. Mayor: --- okay. All right, continue. Mr. Sias: I move that we offer Gold Cross a three-year contract with an annual subsidy of $380,000 and if they do not accept it in writing by 3:00 p.m. on Thursday 23 February 2017 all negotiations are done and $380,000 goes into the Contingency Fund. Mr. Fennoy: Second. Mr. Mayor: I’ve got a motion and a second, substitute --- 26 Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor, Point of Order. Mr. Mayor: --- I understand. I’ve got a substitute motion with a proper second. We will dispense of this matter and then we’ll come back to the underlined motion which is to receive as th. information. All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9 State your inquiry. Mr. M. Williams: I’d like to hear from my Legal Counsel whether you can put stipulations and a time to either accept or reject. I mean this whole thing is crazy but that’s even crazier for that statement that was just made but I’d like to hear from my Attorney. Can we legally put those type of stipulations in a contract when there had not been no negotiations, had not been no conversations? Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes Attorney MacKenzie. And Attorney MacKenzie I want you to specifically respond to that question. Mr. MacKenzie: Sure, I’d be happy to do that. Because Gold Cross has the zone and we’re not required to go through the competitive bidding requirements as we would with any other type of procurement it is permissible to put conditions on an offer that you’re making with respect to a vendor who already has the right to perform the services. Mr. Mayor: You still have the floor, Commissioner. Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor, I totally disagree with that but that’s what the ruling is. The Attorney said that because they have the zone, now the zone ain’t germane to what we’re talking about. He just mentioned the zone. But we done added something else now when somebody else adds it in we don’t want to go there but now we want to use the zone. I didn’t ask him about the zone so if the zone is the issue that’s what we need to address versus the contract. And people need the ambulance service and they don’t have to be Gold Cross but we ought to have ambulance service with some company, somebody. Gold Cross is at the table now --- Mr. Mayor: Okay, all right again we’ve limited debate on this matter and we’ve still got just a few minutes. All right, we have a substitute motion with a proper second with conditions. All those in favor will vote yea and those opposed will vote no. Voting. Commissioner from the st 1 and the Commissioner from the (inaudible) we’re waiting on both of you. Mr. Fennoy: Okay, can I get a repeat on the substitute motion? Mr. Mayor: Yes you may. All right, Madam Clerk. The Clerk: The motion was to offer Gold Cross a three-year contract with annual subsidy rd, of $380,000 and if they do not accept it in writing by 3:00 p.m. on Thursday February 23 2017 all negotiations are done and the $380,000 returned to the Contingency Fund. Mr. Mayor: Voting. The Clerk: Tie vote Mr. Mayor with Mr. Fennoy voting yes --- 27 Mr. Mayor: We have technical difficulties just pause with us for a moment. Madam Clerk, we’re waiting on it or are you waiting on me? The Clerk: No, sir, we’re trying to get the, read into the record the vote --- Mr. Mayor: Okay. The Clerk: --- it didn’t record. Mr. Speaker: Roll call, Mr. Mayor? Mr. Mayor: Well --- Mr. Sias: No, sir, we already had that vote, already had that vote 5-5. We don’t need to know who you are. The Clerk: Well, Mr. Mayor, we had five and five. Mr. Mayor: We did. The Clerk: And so either you voted for the motion or against the motion to determine whether it will pass. And then in the meantime we’ll get those who voted. Mr. Mayor: Okay, so I’m not pushing a button, is that correct? The Clerk: Uh-hmm. I know we’ve all been in ethics training so if I could get you all, oh no we’ve got some scholars up here who’ve been certified can tell me if they voted yes or they could vote no. Mr. Mayor --- Mr. Mayor: All right, so I think this is an extremely important matter. The Clerk: Can we, Mr. Mayor, we can take yours now but --- Mr. Mayor: Let’s do that, Madam Clerk. All right I need everybody’s full attention. Madam Clerk, if you’ll continue. All you want me to go ahead and –-- The Clerk: Do you want me to just ask them so, I mean because --- Mr. Mayor: Everybody will stand at ease for a moment. Okay, it came up just a moment ago. I think this is an appropriate time to --- The Clerk: All right. Mr. Mayor: --- (unintelligible) where I reference my good friend Mace. Maybe everybody should stand in that breeze, stretch, shake and let it go. 28 Mr. Fennoy, Mr. D. Williams, Mr. Sias, Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Hasan vote Yes. Ms. Davis, Mr. Frantom, Mr. Guilfoyle, Mr. M. Williams and Mr. G. Smith vote No. Vote ties 5-5. The Clerk: Okay, Mr. Mayor, you’re on. The Mayor votes Yes. Motion Passes 6-5. The Clerk: Twenty-eight, we’re left with 28, sir. Mr. Mayor: We will come back to that one. The Clerk: And 30. Mr. Mayor: Right. We’ve got 28 and 30 at this time, Madam Clerk, and, I’m going to need another haircut because you’re going to see too much gray in a minute. All right, Madam Clerk, we’re going to deal with number 30. The Clerk: PUBLIC SAFETY 30. Discuss Probation Services Department. (Requested by Commissioner Ben Hasan) Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 6th. Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, the other day we had a discussion around this issue Probation Services. I think we’re all familiar with the general conversation. One of the things that came out of that there was supposed to have been a phone call that was made to try to get two or three agencies on the phone, to try to get some resolution around this issue about Probation Services should it be P.O.S.T. certified or just certified as probation officers. With that being said I attended the Friday’s meeting with their committee with the participants there with that had not been arranged. At the end of the day one of the questions I asked Judge Slaby was in his mind did he intend that the probation officers be certified law enforcement officers or certified probation officers. In no uncertain terms he declared that he wanted them to be certified law enforcement officers. Mr. Mayor, as you look at our order here in terms of buying in or establishing allowing his officers to be established, it is probation officers that we allow to be established. We never intended for this to be a police agency. That was one of the things that Sheriff Roundtree and others shared with us that we back out become a probation services. Those P.O.S.T. certifications may not necessarily be needed. There’s been a lot of conversation that we’ve had around that and so I’d like to see us move away from that, Mr. Mayor, because we never in this order nowhere does it mention a law enforcement agency. That was not our intent to do that. Our intent was probation services to be P.O.S.T. certified for probation services. I do understand that P.O.S.T. is not currently giving that course but also from the Department of Services DCS they are giving classes they said that we’re in good standings with them. And with 29 that being said, Mr. Mayor, I want to let it be known for the record I think we need to take a vote to let them know we’re not trying to be another police agency. We want a private probation officer and a private probation office. That’s what we declared to be to get established and not a law enforcement agency. Mr. Mayor: All right so let’s clarify. I think in your statement you referenced private, this is a public probation office --- Mr. Hasan: Public, I’m sorry, public, I’m sorry. Mr. Mayor: --- public probation office. The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the th 8. Mr. Guilfoyle: Mr. Mayor, I believe the Administrator’s well aware on how Athens-Clarke did their probation P.O.S.T. certified probation officers. They’re allowed to carry a gun, they work hand in hand with the police department. They’re able to do community with the probation people is able to routine cleaning if they cannot pay their fees, the fines. But I don’t believe it’s fair that nobody has reached out to Judge Slaby, the probation officer for them to be here to number one listen, number two is to give their side of the story. I believe what we need to do is send this back to committee and have Judge Slaby as well as the probation officer because they were actually the authors, as well as the Administrator, our Attorney. And our Finance Director was there from the embryo stage and I believe it’s only fair practice to have them present in front of this conversation so that they can respond, sir. Mr. Hasan: Mr. Mayor, can I respond to that? Mr. Mayor: I don’t want you to talk out of turn. Just hold on, you’ve got several hands that are before you. Just pause, just pause I’m coming back down the line. All right, Commissioner Guilfoyle you still have the floor unless --- Mr. Guilfoyle: Sir, I’d like to make a motion to send this back to committee if you don’t mind, sir. Mr. Frantom: Second. th Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9. Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. In light of what my colleague said Judge Slaby and the Director knew that this meeting was, this agenda was on the schedule for today. In terms when we had Sentinel doing work for us they were not P.O.S.T. certified. I didn’t have a problem with it either way. But what it is amounting to now is that we’re hiring police officers to fulfill the role of probation services. We hired a person and made them the Director or Chief or whatever title you want to give them and they interview people to make sure we have people who can identify with and associate with people who are trying to get their lives back on track. Now when you’ve got a gun and a badge and a uniform on, it scares me so I know it scares a lot of other people. I mean there’s a problem when you’re walking to an office whether it’s a woman or a man 30 with a uniform and a badge you’ve already been on probation and they’re coming in to pay a fine. Now we know we’ve had law suits with Sentinel because they were mistreating the people. They were charging collecting their fees versus the fine so that went on for quite some time so we ended up going with our own services. So may question is if we hired somebody to have the expertise to know how to put this program together but at the same time know how to hire the right people to be able to deal with the general public and now we’re going back to getting law enforcement officers to do it. What I’m told that there’s a 98% failure rate for officers to take the test themselves so a man or a woman who is not interested in being an officer would never pass the test. I just got information today that the assistant to the Director in that department was waived from having to take the test or be P.O.S.T. certified but the Director had to be P.O.S.T. certified. That bothers me when we’re trying to help people and get people off. Now we’re not trying to lock people up. We’re trying to get people to come in and turn themselves in and pay their fine and to educate them and to treat them like they are human beings in order to get them to better themselves. We talk about Athens-Clarke County but for my understanding and I could be wrong but I’m told that we’ve got twice as many people to deal with in Augusta that they’ve got in Athens. And most of these people are poor people. Most of these people that don’t have the necessary means to even get to the probation office. I went by with my other colleagues at different times and visited the new facility and all of the workers even the people were coming in saying hey, you know this feels like a place we can come to and we won’t be harassed or put in a different situation. So I’ve got some issues if we’re going to make police, we might as well put it under the Sheriff’s Department might as well put it under the Marshal’s Department or we either create another police department but if we’re going to have an agency that’s only collecting money. That’s all they’re supposed to be doing is collecting fines from these people and treating them and talking to them to try to get them to see a better way and we’ve got a 98% failure. We’ve got six maybe seven people who did everything they were supposed to do except pass that test and they couldn’t pass it because there’s 98% failure rate. So my question is what are we doing as an elected body are we trying to help the people that’s in this situation. They can’t do for themselves or got into that situation and needs some help how to get out. Are we going to frighten them with officers and badges? So I don’t think and the Sheriff was at the previous meeting, you were there, Mr. Mayor, when he said we can do it one or two ways. We can do a minimum training to collect fines or we can do them P.O.S.T. When you do the P.O.S.T. you’ve got to do a (unintelligible) driving course. I mean most of the people can’t get past the (unintelligible) driving course but when you’ve got a 98% failure rate for the test. I mean let’s quit playing games. If we’re going to give it to the Sheriff or the Marshall let’s give it to them and quit saying we want to do the right thing because that ain’t doing the right thing. Mr. Mayor: Okay. Mr. M. Williams: And if I can make a substitute motion is to back out of this contract, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: Okay --- Mr. Hasan: Second. 31 Mr. Mayor: --- all right so, Madam Clerk, we’ve got a motion and a second. The original th underlined motion was to from the Commissioner from the 8 was to refer this back to committee is that correct? The Clerk: Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor: Okay now we have a substitute that’s before us that and I want to I’m going th to direct the Chair’s going to direct this to the Commissioner from the 9 and maybe we can get you to revise your substitute motion. And that is to amend the order establishing the probation office. That might be more appropriate. This is a public probation office. We’re not in a contractual agreement with an outside entity and so if you’re going to make changes in terms of how this office is stood up the proper thing would probably be to amend the order establishing the office. Mr. M. Williams: So moved. Mr. Hasan: Second. Mr. Mayor: I just want you to, I think that would probably be appropriate. The Clerk: Are we amending it to --- Mr. Mayor: Well, I don’t know what that looks like at this point but I think it’s probably proper. All right, Attorney MacKenzie. Mr. MacKenzie: My suggestion would be a motion to request an amendment to the order entered into by Judge Slaby --- Mr. Mayor: Okay. th Mr. MacKenzie: --- on the 12 day of April 2016 to bring that back in front of the Commission for approval as amended. Mr. Mayor: All right --- Mr. M. Williams: Point of Order, Mr. Mayor? Mr. Mayor: --- Attorney MacKenzie, if you’ll restate that. Mr. MacKenzie: That would be a motion to request that Judge Slaby bring forth an th amendment to the order of April 12 2016 and to bring that before the Commission for approval. Mr. Mayor: Okay, all right I would ask you to strike that “Judge Slaby” because it was a body of people who worked on that. As noted in the order that I’m looking at right now if you’re going to have that you would go back to the Chief Probation Officer, the Chief Judge, the Administrator and then the Commissioner from the, the Chair of Public Safety Committee is also 32 a part of that. So again I would say you would involve all those individuals of that committee to come back with an amendment. Let’s clarify that. We’ll hear some more discussion but you think through that and then I’m going to come back to you okay? I want to make sure we get that right th today. All right, I’ve got the Commissioner from the 4, he was next in line. Mr. Sias: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I totally agree that we need to make some changes in still but if it’s permissible, Mr. Mayor, I do want to ask the Attorney a question. Mr. Mayor: You may. Mr. Sias: Mr. MacKenzie, in the order from my reading we do have the ability to make changes but it was my thought that we give the judges, I believe there’s a time notification and timeframe. But my understanding also is that we can make changes we just need to give them a notice of time. So I don’t want us to put this out again and come up next week that we or in two weeks that we are not in compliance with the timeframe. So is there a timeframe that we need to notify the judges of any action we’re planning on taking? Mr. MacKenzie: I’d have to look at the document to verify that but this is a, there’s multiple signatures on there as they Mayor has pointed out. I think what is the intent of this body to do is try to modify this document. To do that you would need the signatures of all the people who signed it originally to make any modifications and changes. And so that’s my suggestion was for it to be brought back up with the changes which have been discussed today, have it be made to the document and brought back before this body so they can approve it and then get all the other signatures approved as well. Mr. Sias: And using the Mayor’s words if we cannot come to a consensus on making the changes, does this body have the right to terminate the agreement and restart, Mr. Attorney? Mr. MacKenzie: It requires the consent of the Chief Judge to make alterations to the program in which the way you’re anticipating. But I am hopeful that there can be a win, win solution to this. I’ve been in conversations with the Judge regarding this and anticipation going to P.O.S.T. to resolve some of the issues that we’re discussing here. Mr. Sias: One last, termination or reduction of services may be addressed by one of the following actions: by Commission formal action after discussion with the courts or by order of the court with approval of the governing authority. So, Mr. Attorney, I certainly feel from reading this agreement that this body has the right to terminate that agreement and restart it as such or whatever. So thank you, Mr. Mayor. st Mr. Mayor: All right okay, all right the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 1. Mr. Fennoy: Yes, Mr. Mayor. I understand the substitute motion but I’m not quite sure about what all, about all the changes that we want made to the current contract that we have. And I think that it would appropriate for us to send this back to committee to discuss what is it we want to see done and then take a vote on I mean vote on approving those things. 33 Mr. Mayor: I think all of those things are relative which is why I think the substitute motion and the underlined motion they intersect from a standpoint of this is a complex matter and it needs to be addressed as such. I don’t think that it’s important or prudent for us to again be in an adversarial posture with the judiciary. This is an office that was decided by this body to bring in- th house and last year that was a great discussion. The Commissioner from the 8 the Commissioner th from the 5, the former commissioner, Commissioner Lockett and others to include the Administrator visited a number of locations. There was a great deal of deliberation put in establishing this office and so to that end I want us to one, make the right decisions as we move forward. I will further say that we have an office that we’ve said we’re committed to but if we th cannot keep people in that office because of an inability as the Commissioner from the 9 has indicated based on all of the data we have in front of us are not successful in accomplishing P.O.S.T. certification we effectively will capsize that office and it will fail. Let me assure everybody we will not allow that to happen and again we will take whatever steps necessary in order to put this office in a position to be successful to include the Chief Probation Officer who is responsible for the oversight in the day-to-day operations of this office. And whatever that requires th us to do we will get it done. The Chair’s going to recognize the Commissioner from the 7 to speak to this matter. Mr. Frantom: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I understand all the points of why we have the substitute motion and the motion but I think out of respect for the people all involved in this document that what’s, why can’t we just send this back to committee and hear their side before we just you know we’re kind of telling them what to do instead of hearing from them on why they did what they did on this document. It’s unfortunate that they’re not here to kind of defend themselves but what’s the rush I guess is my question instead of sending it back to committee and giving them a chance to explain. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: I think everybody’s at that place of where we’re going to work on it. I don’t there was a desire today to decide and try to force something down anybody’s throat so I’m going to recognize the author of this agenda item to speak to the matter and then I’ll come back. I’ve seen your hands on the end down there, I’ve got you written down. All right, the Chair recognizes th the Commissioner from the 6. Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, the reason why when they say the rush, the rush is because as we speak the judge the Chief Judge is putting in where people are currently being released. To even say that we will send it back for discussion we need to say we get a cease and desist to not release anybody until we get a clear ruling about that. He’s constantly releasing people. In the meantime before we get some clarity around the issue that concerns me. The Attorney, Ms. Jackson, all the persons who are present here now, Commissioner Dennis Williams was there when I asked Judge Slaby pointblank, Judge, was your intention to do a probation office or are you into trying to create a law enforcement office, he said that. So you can ask the three what his response was and my concern is to continue to release people in the midst of trying to find out where are. That concerns me. So can we get that and I don’t mind sending it back if he would stop until we get some resolution. Also to the Athens conversation I talked to Mr. Dale Allen twice today. Obviously they are P.O.S.T. certified. He admits that. He admits the value in being that but he does also agree that we are in compliance from all of his understanding. Mr. Mayor, I did not pass out to all of you all and I apologize for that we also realized that there are 28 34 cities that the Chief, well Ms. Bolton’s office looked at some of the cities in the State of Georgia. Only seven of those cities or eight of those cities were P.O.S.T. certified. 21 on them are not. None of those cities have been notified in any form or fashion that anybody is aware of so somebody’s targeting us and asking us for requirements that’s holding nobody to the same standards. That is a concern to me. That is a concern to me that we are being undermined from inside the government of the City of Augusta in some form or fashion so we need some clarity around those issues. So my thing, Mr. Mayor, I don’t have a problem but I don’t think he should be able to continue to move forward and dismiss people because many the signers of this document may not be aware of what’s actually gone on. I can know from talking to Judge Watkins talking to Ms. Kellie. They had no idea, well Ms. McIntyre just got there but she’s a State Court Judge at this point they had no idea all these issues was going. To Judge Watkins he was the one you know was at the meeting the other day as well. So that’s my concern that people are steadily being released in the meantime so how do we stop that if we want to send it back as we’re saying. How do we stop that? Mr. Mayor: Okay all right, that’s a very good question. All right everybody let’s just --- Mr. Hasan: Or terminated. Mr. Mayor: --- all right I think it’s extremely important we’re dealing with a very important issue; everybody needs to be operating from the same set of common facts. Attorney MacKenzie --- Mr. MacKenzie: Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor: --- all right, we’ve got a substitute motion and its merits are good. It is important for us to have broad conversation about the requirements around P.O.S.T. certification. We also understand that statutorily there are conflicts in what current state laws says with regards to this matter and those issues have to be resolved. In the interim, what would you advise us to th do because the Commissioner from the 6 raises a very valid point. To date we have an office that’s supposed to be operating at fourteen. As I understand it we have five save maybe one. All right? Mr. MacKenzie: This is an issue that has many components that really need to be addressed to, address the issue in its totality. I think the discussion is primarily resolved around the structure of the office and whether or not Peace Officer Certification Training would be required for all officers. There is some statutory requirements that say municipal probation officers are required to have some P.O.S.T. certification but not necessarily the Peace Officer Certification and I think that seems to touch on the issue that we’re looking at at this point. And there’s many efforts being done that I don’t think’s been covered in this discussion today to try to resolve that issue with P.O.S.T. and with the Georgia Attorney General’s Office to come up with a solution to that problem. But it sounds like the issue of today’s discussion seems to relate to whether or not it is the intention of this office to moving forward remain an office where all of the probation officers will be Peace Officer certified P.O.S.T certified officers. And that’s an issue that would require the alteration of this document potentially however I will point out that this document it only says P.O.S.T. certification. The order does not specify that they be Peace Officer trained. But I agree 35 there is probably some need to look at this order to possibly make modifications to clarify some of those issues and it may be required also to address the other issue which is this has contemplation that people would acquire the P.O.S.T. certification whether it be at the lower level or the higher level within a one-year period. So, it looks to me like this is going to need to be changed anyway. My suggestion would be either to pass some kind of motion whereby the people who executed the document except for the one who is no longer on State Court be made a part of the process to come and bring this in some form back to the Commission for some kind of approval addressing these issues because there are multiple signatures on it. Obviously all these people need to be involved in it. My suggestion would be a motion either to that effect to get everybody who would need to sign off on the document involved to bring back a version for this body to review or you send it back to committee where really the same thing would be able to be done at the committee level. You could do a motion to refer it back to committee for further review and consulting the appropriate parties to draft an appropriate amendment. Mr. Mayor: Okay all right, I’ve got everybody’s hand we’re going to think through it. I’m th going to go to the Commissioner from the 8 and then I’ll come back this way. Mr. Guilfoyle: Mr. Mayor, that’s the reason why when I first spoke earlier about this conversation for us to send it back to committee because none of us are experts in this probation issue, none of us and I see Mr. Sias tapping himself he is. Imagine that. There were several 13/14- people in Legal last week when the Judge Slaby, Sheriff Richard Roundtree and the Ms. Bolton the Director of Probation Services. I think there was a misnomer that was just passed out from my th colleague from the 9 where he said 98% of the people fail the P.O.S.T. Certified program. It’s not whatsoever. Her position as far as the Probation Director has a success rate of 2%. The people’s that’s going for P.O.S.T. certified two out of five failed, that’s a 40%, that’s a 60% success rate. One thing that we followed from Mr. Allen in Athens-Clarke is other cities, not only in Georgia, followed their template. And what surprises me the Administrator has been there since the foundation and one thing Mr. Allen always said is to make sure everybody P.O.S.T. certified. It’s going to take time. You ain’t going to hire 12 to 15 people. It’s not going to happen; it’s going to be a slow process. We had one hiccup and we want to throw this program out the door where my colleagues wanted to terminate this contract. I believe that would be a foolish thing to do at this point. We knew we were going to have hiccups. Anytime per se in business not every week’s going to go perfect, not every month’s going to go perfect. You’re going to go through your trials and tribulations but the successful people is the one’s that’s willing to stay in and endure the problems and overcome it with solutions not add other problems, not lower the standards. We’ve got one chance, we’ve got one chance as a government to do this right. Let’s let the people in this operation do it right, let’s respect their judgement. I’m not in the business but I hope it goes back to committee. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Hasan: Point please, Point of Personal Privilege please? Mr. Mayor: All right, if ya’ll just raise your hand, just raise your hand. All right, we’re going to stand in recess for five minutes. \[RECESS\] 36 th Mr. Mayor: Okay all right, here’s our posture. The Commissioner from the 9 has agreed to withdraw his substitute and we’re going to go back to the underlined motion with the following condition and that is that all terminations cease and desist until the, all right we’re going to withdraw the substitute and then we’re going to go back to the underlined motion and refer this back to committee with the condition that all terminations cease and desist until this matter of P.O.S.T. certification is resolved with the Attorney General, P.O.S.T. and DCS. Mr. Sias: The maker of that motion is a part of it so do you want somebody else to do it? Mr. Hasan: Ms. Bonner, I will honor that motion. I make a motion that it go back to committee with all terminations cease and desist until the matter is resolved by DCS and the Attorney General’s office. Mr. Jefferson: Second. Mr. Mayor: Okay, all right. Mr. Hasan: Did I get that right? Mr. Mayor: You did. Mr. Jefferson: Well, I would hope so. I seconded it. Mr. Mayor: All right, voting. Mr. Guilfoyle out. Motion Passes 9-0. Mr. Mayor: This is why you don’t leave early, John. He brought us to the dance like the th Falcons and he left us at the altar. The Commissioner from the 8 should’ve stuck around. All right, we’ve got one more matter that’s before us. Madam Clerk. The Clerk: ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES 28. Presentation/update from the Compliance Director regarding initiatives relating to the city’s DBE & ADA Programs. Mr. Mayor: All right we’re going to recognize Ms. Irving but I’m going to refer this, I’m th going to recognize the Commissioner from the 9 who has been talking about this issue for some time. Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and I’m delighted to see Ms. Irving here to bring us an update on where we are. We have been skirting around this issue for quite some time and it’s very serious to me how we have not allowed local and small business to participate. With all of the money we spend in this government in trying to get this city to move forward and have 37 people to move into this city and to be take part of the economics that had not been privileged to before. So I’m waiting to hear from Ms. Irvin to see exactly what she’s proposing for us now. Ms. Davis: Okay, Ms. Irving, are you going through this presentation? Ms. Irving: Yes, thank you. To the honorable members, the Mayor and members of the Commission thank you very much for this opportunity to present to you the Compliance Department’s 2016 Year End Report and the 2017 goals for accessibility, EEO and DBE/Local Small Business Opportunity Program Divisions. I’d like to begin with just a quick brief overview of the purpose of our department. The purpose of our department is to provide management and oversight of Augusta, Georgia’s compliance with programs and functions mandated under Federal, State, local laws and ordinances relative to accessibility under the ADA Act and Equal Employment Opportunity under Civil Rights Act, the DBE Enterprise Program under the Code of Federal Regulations and our Local Small Business Opportunity Program under the administration of the Augusta, Georgia Commission. Our responsibility. It includes awareness, investigation, monitoring and reporting required by law. I would like to commit our department’s commitment to the citizens and to the Commission of being accountable. We know that accountability is critical; we know that agility is a critical element. We are constituent focused, we are inclusive we are responsive and most definitely aligned with the city. We are transparent in what we do and provide to city overall. I’d like to introduce you to our wonderful staff that makes this Compliance Department work, Kelly Irving, Compliance Director, Tamara Walton, Compliance Technician, Lauren Saul, Administrative Assistant, J.G. Long our EEO Officer, Gerald Jefferson our DBE Officer and we are currently in the process of on-boarding a hire for our Accessibility Officer. Let’s start this conversation with our accessibility our 2016 Year End Report. These are the elements that were accomplished during the 2016 year. Understand that I on-boarded here with st Augusta, Georgia August 1 of 2016. From that time forward through December 31 we designed and implemented an online ADA Accessibility Form that can be completed by all constituents interested concerns regarding accessibility. We completed the final self-evaluation and transition plan for sidewalks, curbs and transit stops. We partnered with our AARP Age-Friendly Initiative to make sure in the absence of a disability board our council from the city that we have conversations with individuals that potentially can and will have individuals with disabilities and we started the recruitment for our ADA Coordinator. So, through our implementation and rollout of our ADA Access Form we were active, very active particularly around the tail end of our SETP the Self Evaluation Transition Plan. We received a number of online issues submitted from citizens either directly from the citizen or through our 311 Call-In Center. On average, we for the year beginning September through December we received ten complaints or issues that were brought to our attention. Those were primarily around the public space element. Also, we were our closure of the ten that were submitted in 2016 four of them were closed and resolved typically through our Engineering Department and the other six are slated for repair during our redevelopment of Green Street downtown. This here particular graph will show you that the majority of the issues came from the downtown area and they were referred over to our department partner Engineering. 2017 Goals for Accessibility. We plan to hire our ADA Coordinator within the first quarter, we will develop and roll out and an ADA Awareness Initiative for employees and engage individuals with disabilities and the protocol and etiquette of dealing with individuals with disabilities. We will create an ADA Policy and Procedure Manual hopefully to include requiring Compliance ADA Division to sign off or to review public space programs and services relative to 38 individuals with disabilities. These are our goals. Please allow me to preference that any goals that I discussed today will require the partnership and collaboration of the entire Augusta, Georgia Enterprise therefore we will work along with our City Administrator and other department directors. Moving on to our EEO. Our 2016 End of Year Report for EEO. This is a snapshot of what this is going to be based on, this particular graphic is based on complaints not individuals. According to the U.S. EEOC there where 91 plus thousand claims filed in 2016. For the State of Georgia there were 5,200. For the City of Augusta 27. That is on average out of the state .5% issues filed through our city government. Those issues pretty much dealt with all of the protected classes for EEO. Some of the items that we accomplished during this particular year 2016 we established an EEO work environment culture metric baseline. Before we didn’t know what the status of any cases or any claims were according to our department. We wanted to be able to bring that to the Commission so that we can talk and have a conversation on how we can have better engagement with our employees. We also designed our EEO online training module. This module was created during 2016 with the anticipation of rolling it out in 2017. We designed an EEO Print Awareness Campaign. The best way to engage individuals and to help change culture is to educate. Education requires awareness, awareness requires Print and opportunities to people to engage and ask questions and we are hoping to achieve that through our Print Awareness Campaign. In addition we established the EEO Hotline and the EEO web email address for individuals to either call in and/or to submit their concerns via email within the anticipation that they at some point would come to our office or we will go to them to have a consultation. Moving on to our 2017 goals for EEO. This year we will be required to complete a 2017 EEO4 Report in addition to an affirmative action plan for the city. We will roll out our EEO online training module. We will design and EEO Best Practices Booklet for our supervisor and our managers and directors. We will create the One Augusta Inclusion Employee Survey taking a pulse of what do employees feel about their current work environment and the attitude around their participation and whether or not there’s harassment or discrimination in the workplace. In addition, we will continue to enhance our constituent services model for EEO. Now our DBE Local Small Opportunity Program. Our 2016 Year End Report for that we entered into a strategic alliance memoranda with the Small Business Administration. We increased our DBE outreach through training and special events. We increased our certified firms through a fast track certification process. We created the Local Small Business Online Directory. We implemented the NERA recommendations, not all of them but we have begun implementing a few of them to make sure that we are operating based on the recommendation of past disparity studies. We enhanced our Clients Center Service Model for DBE Local Small Business in addition to a very important element our prime contractors. We also increased our Citizens Small Business Advisory Board Accountability. That board requires consistent monthly attendance in order for us to be better in delivering quality programs and services for local small business. The Advisory Board appointees must attend and must be held accountable to their participation; this is a very important and critical role. Our 2017 goals for the DBE Local Small Business Program are to issue the Disparity Study RFP, to introduce a micro- procurement initiative for local small business opportunity program firms to serve as prime contractors, to enhance our Local Small Business Certification Program with onsite interviews to verify the ownership. Minimum to also introduce a minimal Local Small Business Participation for SPLOST funded projects and to create a One-Stop Project Inclusion Center for Local Small Business contracting and local hiring. This is an example of our strategic alliance with the Small th Business Administration that was entered on October the 4 2016 with the Mayor and the Small Business Administration Director. This is an example of what our online small business directory 39 looks like. We currently have 41 firms representing professional services, construction related services, suppliers and material providers. We’re constantly recruiting different trades and services so that we can fully exhaust all potential contracting opportunities represented through Augusta, Georgia. This a snapshot of some of the activities that we hosted during 2016. The Fast Track Certification Program we actually hosted three certification sessions. Individuals came in on the same day with their materials and they were notarized, their application notarized and they were certified on the spot after a two-hour session. Georgia Department of Transportation Support Services attended and also supported a separate event where they provided information on DBE Certification and all of the contracting opportunities that were available through GDOT. We hosted a business to government mixer, the autumn business to government mixer held in October. We also hosted in December our Citizens Small Business Advisory Board Retreat and we also hosted in collaboration with the Small Business Administration and our internal partner, Housing and Community Development, the Small Business Development Conference held in December. Moving forward to our goals for 2017 these are new initiatives that you will not have seen before. We plan to have a comprehensive ADA Resource Portal through our website. We also have our EEO online training module available for individuals to tap into that and complete it with a certificate at the end of their hour of training. We intend to promote and complete a Labor Compliance Program for our construction related projects. We have quite a few of major capital improvement projects relative to construction that are forecasted and we would like to put Labor Compliance as a critical element and that will support the next initiative of the Local Hire Program for SPLOST funded projects. Most of the SPLOST funded projects are in the construction arena and we want to make sure that we are engaging local qualified individuals to participate on those construction projects and Labor Compliance will be critical to trap those local hard hours. Our Compliance Stats. This is where the rubber hits the road. Accessibility with the implementation of the online ADA Accessibility Form Rollout. We received ten issue forms seven from citizens and seven from the, I’m sorry, three from the 311 Call Center, ten were regarding public space issues, sidewalks and curbs. Four issues have been resolved, six issues are slated for repair in 2017. EEO Division. We will manage and investigate and discrimination harassment issues in our workplace. The EEO Year End Stats are as follows: 36 individuals, employees filed complaints formal and informal. Of those eight were formal EEO related, 11 of the 28 were informal EEO related. Eight formal EEO related complaints were closed in 2016. Of the eleven that were EEO related five were informal resolved at the EEO level, I’m sorry were resolved at the department level five informal resolved at the EEO level and one with a consultation only no further action was requested by the person that submitted the complaint. Our DBE Division. Of the number of contracts that we issued last year that were evaluated and ultimately assigned goals it totaled, the contract values totaled $49.7 million dollars. Of the goals established on those contracts the average goal is 4.9%. It ranged sometimes between 2% and 9%. Our overall amount paid on the committed contract dollar to date is $216,000. This does not mean it will stay there. Those contracts just commenced and started in 2016. The percentage amount paid to date over the ultimate overall contract value is .44% so we’re under 1% and we’re trying to reach the 4.9% of contracts released in 2016. Our local small business firms increased. When we started in August we had 28 firms that were certified. We today have 41. We have all but increased it by 68% due to the excellent efforts of our DBE Officer and our entire team Ms. Tamara Walton, Ms. Lauren Saul and Mr. Gerald Jefferson. We have the demographics of those 41 firms, 28 black male owners, six black female owners, five white female owners and two white male owners. At this time I would like to see if you have any questions. 40 Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Thank you, Ms. Irving. Any questions or comments? Commissioner Fennoy. Mr. Fennoy: Yes, you had a somewhere the NERA or something? Ms. Irving: Yes. Mr. Fennoy: What does that stand for? Ms. Irving: NERA is the name of a company that completed the Disparity Study years ago and they provide some recommendation on how to engage and erase a gender-neutral environment. Mr. Fennoy: Okay, any may I ask Ms. Jackson question? Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Sure. Mr. Fennoy: Ms. Jackson, when we were doing the budget one of the recommendations that we put $1,000 dollars I mean $100,000 dollars aside to do a Disparity Study so that when we get ready to do one, did we ever do that? Ms. Jackson: Sir, I think we put in place actually a larger amount of money. I think it was about $250,000 dollars that’s in the budget for a Disparity Study. Mr. Fennoy: Okay. Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Hasan. Mr. Hasan: Ms. Jackson, was that not last year’s budget or was it this year’s budget? Ms. Jackson: We carried it over. We put it in last year’s budget --- Mr. Hasan: Right. Ms. Jackson: --- it didn’t get done so we carried the money over into the current year budget. Mr. Hasan: It means it didn’t get done. You mean we approved it, we just didn’t utilize it, is that what you mean? Ms. Jackson: The study didn’t get done --- Mr. Hasan: Right exactly. Ms. Jackson: --- is what I’m saying, correct. 41 Mr. Hasan: (unintelligible). Right, okay. Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Ms. Irving, can I ask for the Advisory Committee do you have full appointments I mean as far as our appointments, our appointees? Ms. Irving: No, ma’am. There are a few Commissioners that have yet to appoint an individual to represent their district. Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, can you email us whoever that is just to remind us because sometimes we get a little confused on what terms are up. Commissioner Williams. Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Madam Pro Tem. Ms. Irving, I appreciate the information; a couple of points, a couple of questions. In your mind do we need to do another Disparity Study or is that something, I mean we were told that we didn’t have to violate the court order that we could’ve done. From my attorney, today who said that at one point if the Commission got serious about it we could do it without violating. So, my question to you is do you suggest or do you have any idea about a way to do something without doing a study or do you suggest a study? Ms. Irving: May I answer that question this way. A Disparity Study is needed because it will provide you with current data. Data is the driving factor should you elect to operate and erase a gender conscious environment. So, if we as a body wanted to elect to have a minority business enterprise program and a woman business enterprise program we would have to actually have the data to support it, current data and currently we have obsolete data based on old disparity studies. Does that answer the question? Mr. M. Williams: It does. Now why is it that the data, and I know it’s old because it’s done passed and whatever but have you gotten that data as of yet as to what we had? Ms. Irving: We currently have raw data based on our contracting history over the last couple of years I think from I want to say dating back at least to 2013. So we currently have raw data, we do, but that raw data has to be massaged and put into a formal presentation in order to evaluate and based on the court a formal presentation in order for us to act upon it. So as of right now it’s raw but we do have data that we have collected over the years. Mr. M. Williams: Okay one other question is that I’ve been very adamant about when there’s a situation where it gets to either Atlanta or Savannah where someone has filed a complaint or filed an appeal whether it be discrimination whether it be whatever the price but it gets out of our hands into another venue. My question to you is does that come under your procurement area or your department? Shouldn’t that be brought to this body as a Commission before it gets to Atlanta or Savannah that we can say hey, let’s go right, go left, go up, go down. Now I hear about stuff along with my colleagues when we get into the Legal meeting but it’s done got into another venue and we’re told there ain’t nothing you can do about it because we’ve got to wait on, so my question to you is I guess it’s more work, shouldn’t you be ahead of that and bring that to the body because a lot of stuff got to Atlanta and know for sure it shouldn’t have got there. It should’ve been resolved before it got there because it was the right thing to do. So does that come under your area of expertise or does that come under another one? 42 Ms. Irving: And you’re referencing the EEO, okay. The EEO, any employee has should they feel that they are experiencing harassment or discrimination they have two choices, to go to Augusta Georgia’s Equal Employment Opportunity Division in the Compliance Department. We strongly recommend they start with us first because of the ability to resolve the issue in a timely fashion. Or they can elect, it’s their constitutional right as an employee of an employer to go directly to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission which is a federal office located in Atlanta or Savannah or any other major metropolitan city within a state. Mr. M. Williams: I understand that. Ms. Irving: No, the question was can they come should they, yes, we can hear those issues if in fact that the employee elects to go to EEOC we can once we learn that they have filed with EEOC we can attempt to contact them to see if they would like to resolve it at the local level first. But sometimes they may have gone to the EEOC based on us not having a finding and then they go to the EEOC with hopes of asking them to review. Mr. M. Williams: I guess to make it easier if I just explain. Not having that department in effected areas there’s been times and there’s a lot of history a lot of time spent between people who had a complaint who may have been legitimately or may not. But because there’s so much time when we do get it when we do hear about it, then that person has decided they’re going to Atlanta. I mean I don’t think nobody in their right mind would say now I’ve got a problem with Augusta but I’m going to Atlanta to get it checked on. But if you don’t have a resource department or an area to go to here the first thing I’m going to do or a person would do is say well they’re not going to do anything in Augusta they don’t have a department so I’m going to Atlanta with it. Now I’m hearing that once it gets to Atlanta or Savannah it’s out of our hands at all. There’s nothing we can do so I’m asking about your department as to advertise or bring awareness to this body or workers that they can come here first to give us a chance to resolve it or give you a chance to be a mediator to talk about the issue to get it worked out because too many times it gets out of our hands and then we say well we can’t do nothing. Why didn’t we know about it that’s, I’ve got a problem with a worker that goes to Atlanta but didn’t give us a chance to resolve it or bring it to a department and they don’t bring it to us by making a decision that we ought to be making. Ms. Irving: Thank you for that clarification, that point. And that’s a very strong point and that is one of the reasons why we have elected to just design a very strong Print Campaign to create awareness that our office is available for employees to come and seek a consultation. That’s the very first step. From there elect to either file a formal complaint or an informal complaint so that we can resolve the issue at our level and that’s one of the reasons why we are really pushing a very strong awareness campaign centered around Equal Employment Opportunities. Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, ma’am. Ms. Irving: Thank you, sir. 43 Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Mr. Mayor, do you want me to finish? Any other comments or questions? Okay thank you for all that good information and thank you to your staff for their hard work. Ms. Irving: Thank you very much. Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Madam Clerk, is there anything else on the agenda? The Clerk: No, ma’am, that’s it. Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Thank you. We’re adjourned. \[MEETING ADJOURNED\] Lena 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 February 7, 2017. ______________________________ Clerk of Commission 44