1/16/2024 Meeting Preview
You’ll see below the agenda for our second regular meeting of 2024 (we've also had one special called meeting - you can read my recap). I’ve added information from the council agenda memos and background on items that may be of particular interest. You can watch the meeting on the city’s Facebook or YouTube pages. Our meetings are on the first and third Mondays of the month. Workshop session begins at 6:00 pm; regular session begins at 7:30 pm.
You can access the entire agenda packet here.
WORKSHOP SESSION AGENDA
1. Six West Process Status Update Presentation by Stream Realty
Members of the Stream Realty team will provide an update on the call-for-projects process and the vetting process for submitted offers.
2. Presentation from the Fulton County Board of Health and the O'Donnell Marketing Group regarding the "Healthy Looks Good on You" campaign
The Fulton County Board of Health, in collaboration with the O’Donnell Marketing Group, would like to present a proposed healthy initiative program aimed at providing healthy alternatives to the residents of College Park.
3. City Recycling Program
We have received numerous concerns about the current system. I anticipate we will discuss some of those concerns and viable options.
REGULAR SESSION AGENDA
1. Opening Ceremonies.
A. Pledge of allegiance to the flag.
B. Invocation.
2. Additions, Deletions, Amendments, Or Changes To The Agenda
3. Approval of Agenda
4. Presentation Of Minutes Of City Council
A. Approval of Regular Session Minutes dated January 2, 2024
B. Approval of Workshop Session Minutes dated January 2, 2024
C. Approval of Special Called Meeting Minutes dated September 27, 2023
D. Approval of Special Called Meeting Minutes dated January 5, 2024
5. Remarks Of Citizens
6. Annual Appointment
A. Appointments for Ward 2 – College Park Main Street Association
Councilmember Carn’s appointee to this board stepped down so he will be nominating a replacement.
B. Official Bank Depository
Truist Bank has served as our depository since 2013. There has been discussion over the past couple of years about adding a minority-owned bank and the Council supported that idea. However, there have been challenges that staff has highlighted in making that happen and I anticipate we will have a deeper conversation about this.
7. Public Hearing
A. Motion to approve a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for a Type II Home Occupation for an arts and crafts studio at 1579 Vesta Avenue. Ward 1
The applicant is proposing adding an addition to the existing one-story residential unit to provide for a second-floor arts and crafts studio. This is not a use within a residential district that the applicant has a right to in our ordinance, so she had to go before the Planning Commission. Six neighboring homeowners have submitted letters of support for the proposed addition for the arts and crafts studio. The Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval.
8. Other Business
A. Motion to approve the Inter-governmental Agreement (IGA) with the Business and Development Authority (BIDA), as approved by Council and amended by BIDA.
Staff, in discussion with the City’s auditors and credit rating agency (Moody’s and S&P), recommended that the City formalize the terms of the financial and real estate relationship between the City and BIDA. This agreement establishes written evidence regarding the financial and real estate obligations between BIDA and the City of College Park. It further memorializes the practices of staffing and other operations that the City has engaged for the past 43 years, institutionalizing these practices and providing transparency regarding roles and responsibility.
BIDA serves as a financial conduit for certain City capital projects, bonding and real estate activities. The City performs all of BIDA’s administrative activities through City staff. The City has committed and continues to commit substantial financial resources to fund BIDA projects for purposes of executing City economic policy. The City’s various funds have loaned millions to BIDA and BIDA has used these funds to acquire real estate. But there are no written agreements related to these transactions.
To date, the City has had no written agreement formally requiring BIDA to convey proceeds arising from any sale of “BIDA property” to the City. Further, there is no written agreement requiring BIDA to gain the approval of the City prior to selling any property held in BIDA’s name. Also, until recently, it has always been understood that BIDA operated like a department of the City and taken direction from Mayor and Council; the IGA formally institutionalizes the long standing practice of the past 43 years.
Staff recommends approval.
B. Consideration and action on Ordinance No. 2024-01 to amend certain Sections in Chapter 2 (Administration) relating to parliamentary procedures for City Council meetings and proclamations.
This proposed ordinance purports to address parliamentary procedures during our meetings. In reality, it is a radical change to the form of government. Amongst other things, it prevents the Mayor from expressing an opinion while presiding over the meeting. While this has been shared as nothing more than alignment with Robert’s Rules, that argument fails to take into account that Robert’s Rules has special rules for small boards (fewer than twelve members) - specifically Robert’s Rule 49:21(7). That rule allows the chair if she or he is a member of the board, to participate in debate. While that rule also allows the chair to vote on all questions, our Charter says the Mayor only votes in the event of a tie.
Moreover, the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) actually does not recommend the use of Robert’s Rules for city councils. They note, “While Robert’s Rules may be effective to assist in the orderly conduct of large groups, it may become unwieldy for smaller bodies of people, in particular local legislative bodies. It may cause confusion, waste time, and even cause legitimate actions of the mayor and council to be invalidated on technicalities.” GMA makes some suggestions about what rules of procedure to use that I think we should explore.
My immediate predecessor in this role presided over council meetings for 24 years. Prior to him, there were 25 other mayors who have served this city and never had this type of restriction placed on their speech. If this passes, the Mayor will have essentially no voice at the meeting. The city clerk will announce the agenda and the city manager will acknowledge those who wish to speak — other than the Mayor — and tally votes.
As the presiding officer pursuant to our Charter, the Mayor has the duty of running the meetings of the council. This proposed ordinance seeks to strip the office of that responsibility. I am deeply concerned about the precedent the Council will set if this is approved.
1/15/2024 UPDATE: The city attorney send out a revised proposed ordinance Monday afternoon. While the responsibility of presiding over meetings remains with the Mayor, it still prevents me from participating in the discussion regarding any issue and my concerns with the legislation remain.
C. Motion to approve a healthy initiative program developed by the Fulton County Board of Health and the O’Donnell Marketing Group: the “Healthy Looks Good on You” campaign.
The Fulton County Board of Health, in collaboration with the O’Donnell Marketing Group, is presenting a proposed healthy initiative program aimed at providing healthy alternatives to College Park. This health initiative would focus on each ward within the City of College Park to reduce some of the common illnesses within our community such as hypertension, diabetes and obesity. The primary focus of this initiative is to provide education and awareness.
Staff recommends approval. The funding will come from Fulton County.
D. Motion to approve the Master Services Agreement with Hinderliter De Llamas & Associates for hotel and motel tax administration.
The City participates in the Georgia Municipal Association’s hotel/motel tax administration program (“Program”), which utilizes a third-party to manage the collection and accounting of hotel/motel taxes within the City. GMA has selected a new firm to manage the program—Hinderliter De Llamas & Associates (the “Consultant”). To continue the City’s participation in the Program, the City needs to approve a Master Services Agreement (“Agreement”).
Under the Agreement, the Consultant will provide the following operation management services: (i) establish and maintain a database of lodging providers; (ii) receive and process registrations, tax returns, and payments in a timely fashion; (iii) provide lodging providers options for submitting registrations, tax returns, payments, or support requests; and (iv) remit monthly revenue to client, as well as online payment processing services.
Because we have over 35 hotels in our city, proper collection of the tax is particularly important. In FY2023, the City received $12,694,893 in hotel/motel tax. Part of that money, pursuant to state law, goes toward funding the ATL Airport District, our convention and visitors bureau. We are permitted to use remainder of the funds for other tourism related purposes.
Staff recommends approval.
E. Motion to extend 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.
During the period without a City Engineer, the City relied on engineering consultancy services, particularly from Prime Engineering Inc. The current contract for engineering services with Prime Engineering was initiated in 2019 and requires an update. Prime Engineering Inc. plays a pivotal role in reviewing Land Disturbance Permits—a responsibility demanding State certifications and experience levels that are currently unavailable within our staff.
Additionally, they provide crucial general engineering services support, Geographic Information System (GIS) services, and construction inspection services. On January 2, 2024, the City Council approved a motion to pay Prime $118,786 for the billing period covering July through November 2023. This resolution aims to secure a purchase order totaling $110,000 allocated for on-call and general engineering services for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Staff recommends approval. A budget amendment is required to fully fund this request.
F. Motion to award an annual contract renewal to Colliers Real Estate Management Services for the continued management of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), federal regional facilities, located at 1701 Columbia Avenue, College Park, GA, in the amount of $119,700 during the contract period of January 1, 2024 - December 31, 2024.
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 recommends approval. This is a budgeted item.
G. Motion to approve the proposed 2024 State Legislative Priorities for the City of College Park, GA.
Proposed priorities:
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
H. Motion to approve Resolution Number 21 for the City of College Park’s revised application for the Fulton County Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) three-year funding grant application for park and facility improvements.
The City’s Community Development Block Grant application requests the amount of $319,000 for the years 2024, 2025 and 2026 for a total request of $957,000 to support park and facility improvements. Fulton County requires a Resolution to be approved in support of the application funding request.
On October 23, 2023, the Mayor and Council approved a resolution for playground and facility improvements for Phillips Park and Zupp Park for the three-year funding application. Because Zupp Park is in a floodplain and wetlands Fulton County requested an alternate location. This resolution updates the funding request to support funding park and facility improvements for Phillips Park and Bill Evans Baseball field and park facility improvements.
I. Motion to approve Fulton County Arts and Culture (FCAC) Municipality Support Funds (MSF) grant application for up to $50,000 for cultural arts programming
I anticipate this will be removed from the agenda as the city attorney confirmed I had authority to sign the application so we could pursue this funding.
J. Motion to approve sewer credits totaling $25,863.41 to various commercial accounts.
Seven commercial buildings utilize cooling towers for their air conditioning (Marriott — Best Rd., Boxer F2 LP — Best Rd., Sysco — Riverdale Rd., Westin — Best Rd., FAA Building, Embassy Suites — Southport and the GICC). Each month, water and sewer expenses are paid by the customer, but the cooling towers evaporate the water consumption instead of returning to the City’s sewer system. Each of the seven commercial buildings have a privately owned water meter that measures the water diverted through the cooling tower and is read by College Park personnel once a year. Sewer credits are then scheduled for refund before the end of the commercial accounts’ calendar year budget.
Staff recommends approval. This is a budgeted item.
K. Motion to approve the voting delegate resolution for Electric Cities of Georgia.
I served as the voting delegate last year.
L. Motion to approve 2 Invoices for Flock Safety in the amount of $48,000.
This will purchase two additional license plate reader (LPR) cameras for the city. These are infrastructure-free cameras that utilize vehicle fingerprint technology to capture vehicular attributes. They offer clear footage of vehicles traveling up to 100 miles per hour for reliable and actionable evidence around the clock. Several years ago, one of our Flock cameras helped the College Park Police Department apprehend a murder suspect traveling through our city. This technology serves as a force multiplier for our public safety professionals.
Staff recommends approval. This is a budgeted item.
9. City Attorney’s Report.
10. City Manager’s Report.
11. Report Of Mayor And Council.
12. Executive Session.
Since before my arrival to council, we have had executive session at 5:00 pm. The shift of executive session to the end of our meeting moves our discussions of matters that cannot be held in public to the end of the evening. When executive session was in this place on the agenda in the past, there were concerns from residents that we made important decisions around matters of real estate, litigation and personnel and put them on the record after most people had left.
I hope you’ll come to our meetings and stay for the whole time. Treat the period when we go into executive session as a break and when we return, be there. We work for you and serve you. If you have to go home, watch online. What we do is always subject to the eyes of the public.
13. Approval of the Executive Session Minutes
14. Adjournment.
