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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCalled Commission Meeting May 8, 2018 CALLED MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER May 8, 2018 Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, May 8, 2018, the Honorable Hardie Davis, Jr., Mayor, presiding. PRESENT: Hons. Jefferson, Guilfoyle, Sias, Frantom, M. Williams, Davis, Fennoy, Hasan and Smith, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission. ABSENT: Hon. D. Williams, member of Augusta Richmond County Commission. Mr. Mayor: All right, we’ll call this meeting to order. The Chair recognizes Attorney MacKenzie. 2. LEGAL MEETING A. Pending and potential litigation B. Real estate C. Personnel Mr. MacKenzie: I would entertain a motion to go into an executive session to discuss pending and potential litigation, real estate and personnel. Mr. Fennoy: So move. Mr. Frantom: Second. Mr. Mayor: Voting. Ms. Davis and Mr. Jefferson out. Motion carries 8-0. \[EXECUTIVE SESSION\] Mr. Mayor: We’ll call the meeting back to order. The Chair recognizes Attorney MacKenzie. 3. Motion to authorize execution by the Mayor of the affidavit of compliance with Georgia’s Open Meeting Act. Mr. MacKenzie: I would entertain a motion to execute the closed meeting affidavit. Mr. Frantom: So move. Mr. Sias: Second. Mr. Mayor: Voting. 1 Motion carries 9-0. Mr. Mayor: I’ll recognize Attorney MacKenzie. Mr. MacKenzie: I would entertain a motion to accept the resignation of Sharon Broady effective July 1, 2018 and to approve six months of severance pay in accordance with Section 500.311 of the Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual. Mr. Fennoy: So move. Mr. Sias: Second. Mr. Mayor: A motion and a second. Voting. Mr. Guilfoyle: Mr. Mayor. th Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the commissioner from the 8. Mr. Guilfoyle: I’d like to express to Ms. Broady. She was a long-time employee and served this county very well and we all appreciate her and her time served. Motion carries 9-0. th Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the commissioner from the 4. Mr. Sias: What was the effective date again? Mr. Mayor: July 1. Ms. Jackson: July 1. Mr. Sias: Thank you. Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes Attorney MacKenzie. Mr. MacKenzie: I would entertain a motion to approve an amendment to the annual plan of the Reynolds Street Parking Deck Management Agreement to allow for the leasing of 100 or more spaces in the parking deck to a single entity – Mr. Hasan: We put that off. Mr. MacKenzie: -- at a rate of no less than $50.00 per space on a month-to-month basis subject to the approval by the Administrator of the licensee and all rental terms. 2 Mr. Mayor: Okay, all right, everybody suspend for a moment. What we articulated was that we would make some amendments to the language to address the issues as it relates to parking for specific groups and that we would then come back as opposed to taking action on that today. th All right, so he withdraws that. All right, commissioner from the 9, you are recognized, sir. Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to see the agreement with that before, so I’d like to get a copy of that agreement as it states now so I’ll be familiar with it as far as details of what’s in there so – Mr. Mayor: I agree with you. Mr. M. Williams: -- bring that back to – Mr. Mayor: So, Attorney MacKenzie, if you will again transmit by way of Clerk of Commission the current copy of the agreement and then with the amendment language added so th that we can see the comparison so the commissioner from the 9 and the rest of us can see that so we’re not taking any action on that at this time, Ms. Bonner. The Clerk: Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor: Okay. All right, very good. Attorney MacKenzie, any other business before us? Mr. MacKenzie: That’s all I have. Mr. Mayor: All right. Committee meetings. There was a slight oversight on our part. We had an item on the special called meeting. There was one agenda item that was up for debate and we, again, it was an oversight. We do need to go back to that and address that issue. All right, the Chair recognizes Attorney MacKenzie. 1. Motion to approve a contract with the McLaughlin Group to create concept for a Whitewater Center to address a holistic approach for river recreational activities. Mr. MacKenzie: Sure. The other item on your special called meeting agenda is a motion to contract with the McLaughlin Group to create a concept for a whitewater center to address a holistic approach for river recreational activities. We have got an agreement ready. There is two different options and I can pass these out and distribute them for ya’ll to review. One would include the additional scope of work that was contemplated at our last meeting and then one was the original proposal which Ms. Bonitatibus brought to us which was just to look at the whitewater piece of it. The additional cost to do the broader approach was, brought the cost to approximately $30,000 as that proposal was. However, I would also like to communicate as well that we consulted with the Procurement Department and the Procurement Department recommends that we not utilize the emergency procurement procedures to procure this kind of work. Instead recommended an expedited procurement process whereby we would go out and do a shorter duration procurement to get these services, have a competitive process to allow for other firms to be considered for the work and so she has recommended that course of action as well. 3 th Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes the commissioner from the 6. Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. If we do that, Mr. Mayor, if we take the option the way you just go with all of the things that the commission, I can see us not doing the emergency, but just to do the one that is, that we feel is time sensitive which is the whitewater and we can come back and do the others at another time. Ask them just to highlight doing just what we started out I think we can declare that from an emergency perspective because we all know it’s time sensitive. I think what comes to mind for me and I don’t know whether we want to use this as an analogy when we think about the ice storm I think one of the many challenges that we seem to have if my memory serves me correct is that for most part a lot of the project was deemed to be an emergency situation and any time you can take and stop business for a whole week and then come back and declare it an emergency, that didn’t pass the smell test with FEMA nor GEMA, but in this instance we need to try to make the decision and get that on to them and I think we can declare it an emergency. Probably all the things we added to it, we probably could not get away with that but if we stuck to the original request I think we can be successful in declaring this as an emergency because it is time sensitive. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: Okay, thank you, Commissioner. All right, Ms. Sams, would you approach? Okay, the Chair recognizes Madam Pro Tem. Ms. Davis: Ms. Sams, can you give us, I know Commissioner Hasan was just saying he thinks we could use that emergency procurement process but could you give us your opinion too, please? Ms. Sams: My opinion as it relates to an emergency process, I know that that would not be applicable because items that are time sensitive or does not address the health and welfare and the safety of Augusta Richmond County citizens. Ms. Davis: So what do you recommend that we could do to get this moving sooner than later? Ms. Sams: I recommend that you go through a very short executed process that would require 15 days and that clock starts ticking as soon as we receive something either the Recreation Department in the form of some solicitation or the State of Georgia has adopted and has given municipalities the authority to go up under what we call a cooperative purchasing and if there is another contract out there in the United States, and there are several water parks and there are several events, ventures that does address zip-lining and also taxi, a water taxis and I think if we find one good one and go up under that, we could do that in less than a week and we have been very proactive in looking for something to substitute and give you all options. At any rate we can complete any process in 15 days. Ms. Davis: Thank you. th Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes the commissioner from the 9. 4 Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ms. Sams, while you’re there I need to know because I’m kind of confused now we want to get this moving and we’ve been talking about it for quite some time so I’m hearing you say 15 days or a seven-day process if we did it but if we did just a whitewater part of that, it’s something that we’ve been talking about along with the other stuff we added to last time, can we do, do we have to do them all? Are you saying you have to do everything at once or can we still get a seven-day company to come in and look at the other additional stuff we want to do besides the whitewater? How can we move this forward I guess? Ms. Sams: Mr. Commissioner, I would recommend that if we move forward in doing the sort procurement process that it be inclusive of all of your suggestions and be very clear and precise in what we’re looking for. Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor, do I need to make a motion to go ahead and follow that process and get that ball rolling now? Mr. Mayor: Yeah. I think that’s certainly proper at this time. Mr. M. Williams: Okay, that’s my motion. Mr. Fennoy: I second it. Mr. Mayor: Okay. All right, there’s a motion to use the expedited procurement st process which is effectively 15 days with a proper second from the commissioner from the 1. th The Chair recognizes the commissioner from the 7. Mr. Frantom: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My question is for the attorney. The two documents I have here are $15,000 and $30,000. You said $10,000. Where is that document? Mr. MacKenzie: I’m sorry. If I said $10,000, I misspoke. The only options ever presented were the $15,000 and $30,000. Mr. Frantom: Okay. And I guess, Mayor, my concern is that why are we just hearing about the procurement process when this has been talked about and now we’re coming back and we’re slowing down the process. The Savannah Riverkeeper has been working on this. I’m sure other people in our government knew about it. Why now are we slowing this down and then possibly not even using a company that’s got great credentials? Mr. Mayor: Well, I certainly can’t articulate that. The Chair recognizes Administrator Jackson. Ms. Jackson: If I’m not mistaken, we certainly did have conversations with the Riverkeeper about wanting to bring in a firm but we did not have a document from that firm until the last discussion I think that we had and I think it was at that time that it came to the attention of the (inaudible). 5 Mr. Frantom: I guess are we doing anything wrong as a government if I make a substitute motion to approve it at the $15,000 level? Mr. Mayor: Well, I don’t think you’re necessarily doing anything wrong as a government but you’ve heard from your Procurement Director that the preferred process is to expedite it through those normal channels and you’ll get to the same end. And I think that’s what’s being thst offered by the commissioner from the 9 with a second from the commissioner from the 1. That’s all that I’ve heard is effectively being asked. I think that’s certainly a prudent process. I’ve not heard anything that would be an encumbrance to progress at this point. Mr. Frantom: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. th Mr. Mayor: Yes, sir. All right, the Chair recognizes the commissioner from the 4. th Mr. Sias: Thank you, sir. Just wanted to make sure that my colleague from the 9, the motion was for the holistic approach. Am I correct? Mr. M. Williams: That’s correct. Mr. Sias: Thank you. Mr. Mayor: All right, we’ve got a motion with a proper second. Voting. Mr. Frantom votes No. Motion carries 8-1. Mr. Mayor: All right, I’ll yield to the Chairman of Public Services. \[MEETING ADJOURNED\] 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 Called Meeting of the Augusta Richmond County Commission held on May 8, 2018. ________________________ Clerk of Commission 6