1/16/2024 Council Meeting Recap
Tuesday’s meeting saw the termination of our city manager, Stanley Hawthorne. I discussed that in an earlier post.
For your information, state law requires our city clerk to post the action items from the meeting within two business days of the adjournment of a meeting. O.C.G.A. 50-14-1(e)(2)(a). Action items are the issues upon which the Council has decided to take some sort of action via a vote.
A full list of the action items from Tuesday’s meeting can be found here. You can see the recordings of the meeting here. The meeting is in three separate videos - workshop, regular session and the return from executive session, when Mr. Hawthorne’s termination was decided.
When the Action Items document says a motion was made by a councilmember, seconded by another and “the motion carried” without additional reference to how the other council members voted, the vote was unanimous.
While you can see the documentation all of the action items via the above link, I wanted to highlight and discuss in detail some of the motions that were considered.
WORKSHOP SESSION
1. No action taken.
REGULAR SESSION
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10. Councilman Carn moved to approve to appoint Valerie Lee as the Ward 2 Board Member to the College Park Main Street Association, seconded by Councilwoman McKenzie and motion carried.
Ms. Lee is the owner of The Wellness Spot and VB Consulting on Main Street. She’s also a Woodward alum. I think she’ll be a great addition to the board.
11. Councilman Carn moved to appoint Truist Bank as the Official Bank Depository with the consideration that an agreed upon percentage to be deposited in a minority bank, seconded by Councilwoman McKenzie and motion carried.
Council will determine the particular minority-owned bank at a later date after staff has had an opportunity to vet potential partners.
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13. Councilman Carn moved to approve Ordinance No. 2024-01 to amend certain Sections in Chapter 2 (Administration) relating to parliamentary procedures for City Council meetings and proclamations, seconded by Councilman Gay and motion carried.
I shared many of my thoughts about this ordinance in my preview of the meeting. Those concerns still remain. We ran into another issue this past week when there was consensus to proceed with a proclamation. The ordinance did not provide the flexibility to issue one without it being considered at the second meeting of the month and presented at the first meeting of the following month. Because of the adoption of the ordinance, a proclamation from the city could not be presented until the first meeting in March. I anticipate we will see an amendment to the ordinance to accommodate for emergency proclamations.
This ordinance inserts a level of rigidity into a customary practice that may hamper the issuance of proclamations in the community. Hopefully we can achieve a balance that makes sense for all.
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16. Councilwoman McKenzie moved to deny extending an on-call and general engineering services contract with Prime Engineering Inc. and authorize a purchase order and budget allocation in the amount of $110,000, seconded by Councilman Carn and motion carried.
Right now the city engineer’s office has one employee - the city engineer. Prime Engineering has been an invaluable partner as we have worked through projects and navigated challenges such as the water crisis in December 2022. Staff has said the relationship with Prime is necessary to get the work of the city accomplished. I am concerned this may lead to delays in service.
17. Councilman Carn moved to approve to allow RFP submittals for management services for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), federal regional facilities located at 1701 Columbia Avenue, seconded by Councilman Gay and motion carried.
Colliers International has contracted with the City for nearly 30 years and has managed the maintenance, upgrades and repairs of the FAA building and grounds in accordance with the lease agreement between the City and the General Services Administration (GSA) on behalf of the FAA. Staff recommended approval. This was a budgeted item.
I am not aware of any complaints or issues with Colliers International’s management of the FAA facility. The Request for Proposal (RFP) process may take several months to complete. During that time, Colliers International will be on a month-to-month contract.
18. Councilwoman McKenzie moved to approve the proposed 2024 State Legislative Priorities for the City of College Park with the exception of Local Option Sales Tax (LOST), seconded by Councilwoman Arnold and motion carried.
The city hires lobbyists on both the state and federal level to advance our interests and help shape policy. The Council adopts priorities so those lobbyists have clear objectives as they interact with lawmakers. The proposed state legislative priorities for 2024 were:
1. Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) reform
2. Non-Emergency Ambulance Transportation
3. Revenue Funding Sources Discussion
4. Limitation to Local Control
5. Workforce & Attainable Housing
Councilmember Carn advocated to remove LOST reform from our priorities. He cited our relationship with Fulton County as the impetus. The rest of the Council supported this line of thinking.
In 2022, I and the other mayors from Fulton County engaged in negotiations with the county government regarding Local Option Sales Tax, or LOST. LOST is a one cent tax that is imposed on sales within the county and the proceeds are split between the county and the cities. (If you want to dig into the statutes that govern this tax, click here and go to sections 48-8-80 — 48-8-97.) The negotiations for LOST take place every ten years, after the census numbers are released. Like every other jurisdiction in the state, we were able to reach an agreement with the county. However, it was a long, arduous process that created a fair share of acrimony between the cities and the county. We were not alone; this happened across the state. I will note, however, College Park had to go through the process twice because we are in two counties - Fulton and Clayton. The process with Clayton County was much smoother, however. Everyone agreed to keep the distribution the same as it was ten years prior.
The Georgia Municipal Association has been talking with the organization that represents counties statewide, ACCG, about this issue. Practically speaking, while it has been removed from College Park’s legislative priorities at Councilmember Carn’s request, the issue is still one that is being discussed on the state level and legislators are working to see if there may be an opportunity to improve the process when it comes up again in 2032.
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24. Consensus was given to move forward with drafting lighting standards for hotel and motel properties.
Councilmember Carn shared his thoughts that better lighting at hotels and motels could lead to improved safety.
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26. Councilman Carn moved to approve to conduct an Impact Fee Study and adopt an ordinance for implementation of suggested results from study, seconded by Councilwoman McKenzie and motion carried.
Many other cities have impact fees. You can get more information about them on the City of Atlanta’s website. From the construction viewpoint, the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association has thoughts as well. As we initiate a study, I will be interested to see the results so we can achieve a balance that meets the needs of the city while ensuring we do not discourage investment.
27. Councilman Carn moved to withdraw the MARTA Intergovernmental Agreement for the Flint River Project, seconded by Councilman Gay, Councilwoman McKenzie opposed, Councilwoman Arnold voted in favor and motion carried.
This was an addition to the agenda at the start of the meeting by Councilmember Carn. I am very disappointed the community did not have the opportunity to weigh in on this. The Finding the Flint project started in 2017 with the vision of connecting the region to the Flint River, the headwaters of which start in the Tri-Cities. The headwaters are first visible off of Willingham Drive in a seven acre tract of land owned by MARTA. It sits behind the Woodward Academy transportation center. Further downstream, part of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is actually built over the river. William Moore, our former city engineer, initially had the idea to turn the seven acres into a park.
Last year, Council approved a contract to purchase the seven acres from MARTA for the development of the headwaters park. Microsoft, U-Haul and Coca-Cola have all pledged funding for the project and partners such as Delta, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), Aerotropolis Atlanta, the Conservation Fund, American Rivers and our federal representatives including Congressman David Scott and U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff were supporting the initiative. ARC has publicly stated their intention to seek $150 million in federal funding for the overall vision for the project that starts in College Park and extends into Clayton County. Staff from both Congressman Scott’s and Senator Ossoff’s offices had toured the site and expressed their interest in supporting the initiative. The city has applied for a Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Grant to assist with funding the project and was actively working to secure additional partners. Additionally College Park, East Point, Hapeville and Aerotropolis Atlanta all funded, created and formally approved the Willingham Corridor Improvement Plan and the Headwaters Nature Preserve is the centerpiece of that plan.
In accordance with Council’s approval last year, I signed the agreement to purchase the seven acres from MARTA. At Tuesday’s meeting, Council chose to exit that contract, citing concerns about the necessity of greenspace on the south side of the city. I agree about the need for access to greenspace throughout our city. I do think we can walk and chew gum at the same time - this was never an either/or proposition. Framing it as such has led to misinformation about this project that has led us to this point. The Flint River Headwaters Park was poised to not only provide greenspace, however. It was also important to help mitigate flooding downriver that our neighbors in Clayton County experience as storms have intensified over time.
As I shared earlier, this was a project that has been in the making for over six years. To reverse course at this point is disturbing not only because of the above reasons, but because of the message it sends to all of the people and organizations we’ve been working with up until this point. It could raise serious questions for partners in future projects and may impact the willingness of some to work with us at all. I’m concerned pulling out of this project may have broader negative implications down the line.
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29. Councilman Carn moved to approve a policy to implement free recreation and cultural arts programs for all College Park residents with a household income of $50,000 or less to be implemented aggressively and immediately, seconded by Councilwoman Arnold and motion carried.
The entire governing body is supportive of finding ways to keep kids off of the street and involved in positive activities. Right now, a large number of the families served by our recreational programs live outside of College Park. We know we have a large segment of our population that is low-income. Last year I had the opportunity to participate in the Local Leadership Housing Action Committee through the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC). It was a regional program that brought together elected officials to learn about strategies to combat the housing challenges we all face. In that group, ARC shared that 38% of the households in our city earn less than $35,000 per year. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, our median household income is a little over $47,000. We know there are major needs within our community.
Given we have the potential for hundreds of new participants in our recreation and cultural arts programs with this initiative, I would have preferred staff had the time to assess the impact this policy will have and plan accordingly. Councilmember Arnold noted during the discussion that this needed to happen quickly so families would be able to sign up for summer camp. If we open our programs to all residents with a household income under $50,000 I would expect we would need additional staff that is not currently budgeted. I also had questions about how we would confirm a family’s income for purposes of this program. Additionally I shared concerns about people who may not live within our city limits trying to circumvent the policies to participate free of charge. There were also discussions about doing a sliding scale or having a certain number of spaces in each program open to those families who could not afford to participate without a subsidy. These are both good ideas as well. I think a more in-depth conversation about this policy goal after staff had an opportunity to research the implications would have helped.
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EXECUTIVE SESSION
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[Meeting adjourned at 11:32 p.m.]
33. Councilwoman McKenzie moved to override the Chairs decision to adjourn the meeting at 11:32 p.m., seconded by Councilman Carn and motion carried.
If you have the opportunity to look at the video of this portion of the meeting, you’ll hear me note there were no motions coming out of executive session. Generally when discussing items in executive session, there is consensus about the motions that are needed to be voted upon in public.
34. Councilman Carn moved to terminate City Manager Stanley Hawthorne for cause, seconded by Councilman Gay, Councilmembers McKenzie and Arnold abstained and motion carried.
The two votes of Councilmembers Carn and Gay were enough to carry the motion because of the abstentions of Councilmembers McKenzie and Arnold. When Mr. Hawthorne inquired about the cause for his termination, Councilmember Carn told him the city attorney would inform him in the morning.
35. Councilman Gay moved to approve to receive no further comments from Stanley Hawthorne, seconded by Councilman Carn and motion carried.
Per Article IV, Section 4-7(e) of our Charter, the city manager has the duty to “attend the meetings of the mayor and council, with the right to take part in all discussions….” Prohibiting Mr. Hawthorne from commenting at that time, in my opinion, was in conflict with our charter and I disagreed with the action.
Adjourned at 11:38 p.m.
