Transcript

Event transcript
All right. Welcome everybody to the November. 00:00:13
City of Watkinsville council meeting. 00:00:15
We're grateful at this busy season of the year that we have so many people here tonight. We do have a quorum, everybody here with 00:00:18
us. 00:00:21
And we will start with the pledge if we can all stand. 00:00:24
CJ, if you want to lead us in the pledge. 00:00:29
Yes, Sir, I pledge allegiance to the flag. 00:00:31
Of the United States of America. 00:00:34
And to the Republic for which it stands. 00:00:37
One Nation. 00:00:39
Under God. 00:00:41
Indivisible. 00:00:42
With liberty and justice for all. 00:00:43
I thought I heard Kirby Smart down there. 00:00:46
Couple points of privilege, it is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month. Does anyone here representing that organization? 00:00:54
If we have no one here representing that organization, I will forgo the reading of the full proclamation. But I do want to 00:01:02
recognize that for 40 years, Hospice has helped provide comfort and dignity to millions of people. 00:01:08
And that I am proclaiming November 2025 as National Hospice and Palliative Care Month and encourage citizens to increase their 00:01:13
understanding and awareness of care at the end of life, Discuss their end of life wishes with their families. 00:01:19
And observe this month with appropriate activities and programs. 00:01:25
The pork pond, if you can transmit that to the appropriate people, that would be great. We also want to recognize our Fall for 00:01:32
Watkinsville contest winners. They are both here. 00:01:37
So we had. 00:01:41
Our first and 2nd place. 00:01:44
Winner and I'll bring these. 00:01:46
Up and we will recognize them. 00:01:48
Taking second place, we have Miss Carol Ivy. 00:01:55
Carol, you. 00:02:00
Carol always participates and you're great when you've got a $25 gift, so. 00:02:07
Don't care. We don't want her to quit decorating or quit entering, so we're grateful. 00:02:23
And our winner this year is Miss. 00:02:29
Shirley Dean and you can see her beautiful porch up there. You guys are neighbors. 00:02:32
We've got. 00:02:38
That's from Empire South. 00:02:46
If you don't enjoy it, I know you have some grandchildren too. 00:02:50
So thank you all for participating. Thanks to everybody in the city who participated. I know Brad always provides a little 00:02:54
encouragement on that too. Thank you. Thank you, Brad. 00:02:59
And don't feel like you'll have to hang around as interesting as this meeting is going to be. You'll just stay as long or as short 00:03:06
as you want to. I'll say this for the rest of our crowd. We do have two dense topics we're going to work. 00:03:11
Quickly tonight, so if it feels like I'm moving fast, I'm going to move fast so we can get to. 00:03:16
To our items that are just a little bit complex, we're going to discuss. 00:03:21
And then we have our annual highlight, our stormwater review. 00:03:25
From our engineer Mark Campbell, which is always to highlight November, the only thing we're missing in November this year is our 00:03:29
audit. So. 00:03:33
We don't have that. 00:03:36
We'll have that next month, but normally that is a November. 00:03:38
Highlight. 00:03:42
Said loosely. We do have approval of minutes, so October 15th minutes Council, you've had an opportunity to review those. Are 00:03:43
there any edits, changes, suggestions to the minutes? If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve, to make a motion to approve. 00:03:49
2nd. 00:03:55
We have a motion, we have a second. Any further discussion? 00:03:56
Hearing none all in favor say aye. 00:03:58
Any opposed? 00:04:01
Motion carries. 00:04:02
The agenda, we have two changes to the agenda. I'd like to suggest we want to table item 11 as no bids were received. I think that 00:04:03
is the extra large Christmas tree stand. So I will advise the public if you want an extra large Christmas tree stand, we've got 00:04:09
one for you here in Watkinsville. So when you go to get the Griswold tree, you let us know and you can bid on that and have it 00:04:15
ready for your family in December. Sharon might even make you a deal on that. 00:04:20
And then we're going to move up Item 16. That's our strategic plan presentation for downtown, which I think will be a real 00:04:27
highlight for tonight. So again, if you're interested in what's going to happen in downtown Watkinsville, stay tuned on the 00:04:33
screen. That'll move up from Item 16 to earlier in the agenda, Item 6, Downtown Development Authority. So if council, if you're 00:04:39
willing to make those two changes, if someone could make a motion to that effect and we will approve the agenda. 00:04:45
I make a motion to approve the agenda with those two changes. 00:04:51
Do we have a second? Second. 00:04:55
All right. Any discussion? 00:04:56
Hearing none all in favor say aye, Any opposed? 00:04:58
Motion carries, we'll move those two items. We'll move into administration. Again, I'd ask staff to be thorough but be brief. We 00:05:01
do have an informal public input process in Watkinsville that's at council's discretion. If you have a question about something 00:05:06
that's shorthand for, raise your hand and we'll recognize you and you can ask it. If it gets personal, if it gets long, if it gets 00:05:11
inappropriate, then we do reserve the right to. 00:05:16
To do that and go back to the more standard rules, which means you can come up in a public input point or during public comment 00:05:22
and ask those questions. But we generally do like to keep things informal. So if something pops up here and you have a quick 00:05:26
question, just raise your hand and we'll ask you to come up and ask your question because we know not everybody's here every week. 00:05:30
With that, we'll go on to administration. We'll start with financial reports. Sharon, share some good news with us. All right, 00:05:35
well. I. 00:05:39
There is good news. I can't share it with you on the general fund because we are working with the auditors right now to try to get 00:05:45
everything done so we can present at the December meeting. 00:05:49
But so we don't have the reconciliation, but everything is moving along fine, no surprises on the general fund side. 00:05:53
On the splash side, we have we're averaging about $86,000 a month. We budgeted at 64. So that's good news. We have a little bit 00:05:59
more than jump to the next slide. 00:06:05
We have a little bit more than a million three in the bank. 00:06:11
I think last month y'all noticed we. 00:06:16
We because the way the deposit was, we didn't actually have the August or September deposit. So this month we have both deposits 00:06:17
in there. 00:06:21
But everything is moving along fine on that. Just a reminder that the projects that's lost three pays for. 00:06:25
And I believe we are getting ready for a spliced for referendum sometime early next year. 00:06:31
Good projects for us and then on T spas was which is the transportation splost. 00:06:36
We are averaging about 75. We think we'll be. 00:06:41
Closer to we budgeted at 85% which is 78, but we're very early on and normally what happens is it it you know averages out higher 00:06:44
as we get in there. We are averaging though monthly about 6% higher than this time last year. So that's that's good news too, a 00:06:50
little bit less than $1,000,000 in that account. 00:06:56
Reminder that T SPOTS and SPLOST are actually both funding the Simpton Bridge Rd. pedestrian connector as well as some other 00:07:03
projects. 00:07:07
And this is where I interject. All that sounds complicated. The short version of that is. 00:07:10
The SPLOST and T spots that voters approve allow us to keep your property taxes lower. 00:07:14
Because we're using sales taxes to pay for things. So you're going to hear a lot of talk around the state over the next year 00:07:20
about. 00:07:22
Income tax, Sales tax. 00:07:25
Property tax, the way we keep property tax lower is by approving these pennies because more of that money's coming from people 00:07:27
from out of the county going to Costco and shopping in Watkinsville and spending their money here versus all that being on the 00:07:32
backs of our property taxpayers. So as you talk to your friends, as you have a cup of coffee, if people complain about sales tax, 00:07:37
remind them that about 45% of that is paid by people from outside our community. 00:07:42
Sharon, back to you, OK. 00:07:47
On the economic development side, the business license renewals went out. 00:07:50
A couple of weeks ago and they are due back March 15th of next year. We already have quite a few coming in. 00:07:55
And then on the excise tax side, alcohol and hotel, motel or short term vacation rental, those are trending a little bit higher 00:08:01
than what we expected this time of year. So that's good news as well. 00:08:06
Not a whole bunch economic development on building permits. We will have a few more in November and December. 00:08:11
Mostly in the four different projects. Just simple little things like signs and plumbing. 00:08:17
Any questions? 00:08:22
OK. 00:08:26
All right, Mayor Pro Tem, I'm going to hand it to you for a bit. 00:08:27
So we've had a lot of fun things happening in our community in the last month. 00:08:31
We are after I. 00:08:36
Talk fairly quickly. We're going to have our strategic plan presented to us, which it's pretty impressive. 00:08:39
They're going to just be hitting the highlights. It is all online and available to read in full and I highly recommend going and 00:08:46
doing that and I'm excited to see. 00:08:51
US start implementing this and the next. 00:08:57
Months and years. 00:09:00
Sorry. 00:09:02
So in business news. 00:09:04
The Classic City Golf Lounge which is going to be on School St. There is a soft opening in mid-december, grand opening January of 00:09:07
26. So this will be a. 00:09:11
Golf simulation lounge. 00:09:17
And I am personally not a golfer, but my husband is, and this is pretty impressive technology and I think just a fun thing. 00:09:19
For our community to have. 00:09:27
We had the fall festival. If you were not able to go out, it's always the. 00:09:31
But is it always the third Saturday of the? 00:09:37
Of October and so much fun. The setup was great, lots of vendors, perfect weather. 00:09:41
And brought. 00:09:47
Lots and lots of people to our community. 00:09:49
And then we had the American Heart Association Heart Walk that following week. 00:09:52
And then one of the highlights for many people, including I think, Mayor Broderick with his amazing costumes, every year he 00:09:58
outdoes himself. We had our downtown trick or treating. 00:10:04
And so it's just a really fun community event. Lots of businesses get involved. 00:10:11
And just a great thing for our community. 00:10:17
Upcoming we have. 00:10:21
Mingle Bells, which is a ladies after hours event. It is this. It's tomorrow. Actually, this Thursday. I'm realizing it's 00:10:24
tomorrow. 00:10:28
And we are starting at Chops and Hops at 4:30 for cocktails and apps and then. 00:10:34
Shopping and going to other businesses. 00:10:39
And. 00:10:43
Registration is required. 00:10:45
Umm, shopping is free so. 00:10:49
I know that link is kind of hard for anyone to click on sitting in the audience. Is there an easy place for people to go and do 00:10:54
that? 00:10:57
And can they? 00:11:02
Can they just and how like can someone register? 00:11:04
4:00. 00:11:10
OK, so just make sure you register and you do have to be a lady. 00:11:11
I think. 00:11:15
Sure, I don't know. 00:11:16
And then we have. 00:11:18
And the spirit of the decorating contest, we are doing a first we're going to do a downtown business decorating contest. 00:11:20
And. 00:11:27
It is. 00:11:29
It's December 5th, Sunday. 00:11:32
7th is. 00:11:34
The contest Sunday and the fifth, yeah, it's supposed to be Friday. That's my, that's my mistake. Friday, Totally fine. 00:11:37
And so it. 00:11:44
Yeah, can't wait to see what businesses do. 00:11:47
And so that is the upcoming stuff. Of course, we have the Christmas parade and the tree lighting, but that will be talked about 00:11:49
probably during the mayor's report. 00:11:53
And then I also do want to just mention before we get to the strategic plan update, oh Calf is having their holiday market this 00:11:58
weekend. 00:12:01
Friday, Saturday and Sunday Friday 4:00 to 8:00 Saturday 4:50 Sunday 2:50. 00:12:06
And it's $5 entry, it is. 00:12:13
No cash this year for the entry. Just FYI. It's card only. 00:12:17
And then obviously vendors will take different payment methods, but if you've never been to that event, it is fantastic. It's a 00:12:22
great place to shop local, support artists and get a jump start on your Christmas shopping. 00:12:28
And now our strategic plan. 00:12:34
How's that? 00:12:48
Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. 00:12:51
Nice to be with you all tonight. 00:12:53
Appreciate it. 00:12:55
My name is Eric. 00:12:57
Bread felt and I am. 00:12:58
The economic development director for. 00:13:01
Inspire placemaking. 00:13:04
And we were hired. 00:13:06
Earlier this year to work on the strategic plan. 00:13:08
Our offices are in Midtown Atlanta in the Biltmore. 00:13:11
If you're familiar with that area. 00:13:16
I just want to introduce two of my colleagues here. 00:13:18
Eleanor Tell. 00:13:21
Who is the deputy project manager? 00:13:22
And Alex Kozela, who both worked on that on the. 00:13:24
Both worked on the job. 00:13:28
Alex is a planner. 00:13:29
I I wanted to bring them along because it's important for. 00:13:32
For you all to know that they're important members of the team and I feel like on projects like this, I want to make sure the team 00:13:35
gets. 00:13:38
Get some credit as well. 00:13:41
So we were given the opportunity this afternoon to meet with the DA and review the strategic plan. And so we wanted to do the same 00:13:44
with you. I have a PowerPoint. 00:13:50
But we're gonna do it. 00:13:55
With much brevity. 00:13:57
Much more brevity. 00:13:59
Then this afternoon so. 00:14:00
I'm going to go through these slides and hit them pretty quickly. 00:14:02
So this has been a fairly. 00:14:08
Quick turn around in terms of a project, we actually got the contract here in May. 00:14:12
Had our kickoff with staff in June. 00:14:17
And. 00:14:20
We're now here with the final plan basically, so about 5 or 6 months. 00:14:22
In terms of the timeline, we did the project kickoff. 00:14:28
We did. 00:14:31
Some public engagement with the community in June. 00:14:32
We were here in town. We had a public engagement session on June 26th. 00:14:37
For most of the day. 00:14:41
And then did a brief presentation of the DDA on the 27th of some of our initial findings. 00:14:43
And and then we followed up in July, August. 00:14:49
With some additional stakeholder meetings. 00:14:53
Some additional public engagement, which actually the city. 00:14:55
Did some additional engagement. 00:14:58
And then we basically been. 00:15:00
Working on wrapping up the plan. 00:15:03
The last couple of months. 00:15:05
Wanted to touch base on the plan structure. So when you take a look at it, you know how we kind of. 00:15:08
Take a. 00:15:13
Take a swing at these things. 00:15:14
We usually go into a project like this and we. 00:15:16
We try to get a handle on where we are now and that's basically looking at the data. 00:15:19
Getting to the community and trying to figure out our own impressions. 00:15:25
Based on our experience, but also what we're finding. 00:15:29
In different data sources. 00:15:32
Then we move into the where are we going? And that's really. 00:15:34
We all know that data only goes so far. 00:15:38
That you have to, really. 00:15:41
Talk to folks that. 00:15:43
Have the personal experiences in the community. So that's where we actually do the community engagement. 00:15:44
And get that input as well. That's important. 00:15:49
To flesh out the plan, but it's also important. 00:15:52
For the third part about how we get there, because that's about implementing the plan. 00:15:56
And we want to make sure that the plan. 00:16:00
Is reflective of some of the community input that we got. 00:16:03
Because then we have folks that are on board. 00:16:06
And can make it a smoother process down the road. 00:16:08
We have. 00:16:12
In addition to the. 00:16:13
The structure, we have a framework where we kind of focus the plan on these particular areas. 00:16:15
Strengthening community owned assets. 00:16:21
Amplifying connections and neighborhoods nodes. 00:16:24
And then activating the downtown core. 00:16:27
So when we get to the end of the slide presentation, you're going to see an implementation table. 00:16:30
That has a series of things that we think the city should move forward on. 00:16:35
Is moving forward on some of them already. 00:16:39
And they're basically follow the same color pattern, so you know, like. 00:16:42
What the framework is and what's behind those things? 00:16:45
So on the where we are now. 00:16:49
Next slide. 00:16:52
Of course, when we approach this, we approach it in terms of different contexts, you know, because. 00:16:53
We have the DDA in Area 1. 00:16:58
Ah, which is the study area basically, but we're also cognizant of what's going on. 00:17:01
In the city area too. 00:17:06
And then the overall context which is. 00:17:08
Oconee County. 00:17:10
So it's important to kind of look at. 00:17:12
At the plan in that way, it also kind of gets to some of the engagement that we did. So I'll talk about that in a minute next 00:17:14
slide. 00:17:17
I wanted to hit on this slide. 00:17:22
Particularly because. 00:17:24
This is an interesting question of why this plan? Why now? 00:17:26
And I feel like as I explained to the DDA, from my perspective in looking at the where the community is, I think there's. 00:17:30
I think you're kind of in an inflection point. 00:17:38
And there's three reasons for this that I see. 1 is. 00:17:40
What came across in the engagement and some of our. 00:17:45
Review of the situation here this there's. 00:17:48
One of the. 00:17:51
Paramount themes is. 00:17:52
Pre preserving the community values and the sense of character. 00:17:54
Of Watkinsville. 00:17:58
In the context of the growth that's going on. 00:18:00
So there's a lot of things that are going on. 00:18:03
Around that theme. 00:18:06
That really makes the plan important right now. 00:18:08
The second thing is. 00:18:11
There's some pending public projects. 00:18:13
That are out there. 00:18:16
The one that you'll see when you read the narrative of the. 00:18:18
Plan that we kind of. 00:18:21
Highlighted a little bit was the. 00:18:22
The proposed bypass. 00:18:25
Which is coming down the road at some point. 00:18:27
No pun intended. 00:18:30
But it is going to be important because. 00:18:32
It's potentially a project that you want to gear up. 00:18:34
To be ready for so that when it does happen. 00:18:37
You've thought through like some of the traffic concerns that are going through. 00:18:40
Downtown Watson. So right now. 00:18:44
And then third is just this issue of advancing opportunities that are coming to you already? 00:18:46
As a deliberative body. 00:18:52
Because a strategic plan is about. 00:18:54
Thinking about. 00:18:57
Like. 00:18:58
The big picture basically and how things. 00:18:59
Come together. 00:19:01
Rather just than just like isolated things that are coming before you right now. 00:19:03
I watched your lot of tape, your last meeting. 00:19:07
And I noticed that you had an item on there. 00:19:10
Forgot all the details, forgive me but it was something to do with. 00:19:12
Dealing with maybe a hotel use somewhere? 00:19:16
So maybe. 00:19:19
That's like indicative of some of the issues that you might be seeing. 00:19:20
Pop up and spot basis and those things are going to continue to happen. 00:19:24
Hopefully the plan will give you some. 00:19:29
Sort of implementation actions and things that you can. 00:19:31
Like, stitch those things together so you have a. 00:19:34
Plan of action to deal with that. 00:19:36
Next slide. 00:19:40
So. 00:19:42
You're going to see, I'm not going to go through all these graphs, but you're going to see a bunch of data. 00:19:42
In the Where we are now section. 00:19:46
To be candid. 00:19:49
Watkinsville. 00:19:51
I'm just going to be candid here. 00:19:52
Watkinsville has good problems to have. 00:19:54
In a way OK, because when you look at the data. 00:19:57
You, you have a lot, you have a lot of growth, which is which in a way is a good thing. 00:20:00
And and you have high incomes. 00:20:05
It's in a lot of areas that we work in, we don't see either of those and so. 00:20:08
Communities are starting at a real. 00:20:13
Disadvantage there so. 00:20:15
I think Watkins on the demographics and some of the data points has a real solid thing going on. 00:20:17
Next slide. 00:20:22
We know that your land use and zoning in the downtown is governed by. 00:20:23
Character areas and. 00:20:27
Our zoning designations, we took a look at what you have in the Muni code. 00:20:29
On your designations, they seem like. 00:20:34
You know, for your downtown character areas and downtown zoning your historic main areas. 00:20:36
You have some of the like regulatory structure that you need. 00:20:41
To handle some of the development that's coming in and around the downtown. 00:20:44
Next slide. 00:20:48
You're also going to see some maps in the. 00:20:50
Where we are now about. 00:20:52
The environment and the natural. 00:20:54
Features of Watkinsville. 00:20:58
I had my lunch in Harris Shoals Park. 00:21:00
Beautiful day to do that today. 00:21:04
You know you get to check out the Creek there. 00:21:07
Of course, creeks are important for their just their natural. 00:21:09
Um, character, but also. 00:21:13
We develop. 00:21:16
In though in those boundaries. 00:21:17
That dictate. 00:21:20
How a site is going to actually develop? 00:21:21
Develop how it's going to look. 00:21:24
So we have to be aware of those things when we're. 00:21:25
We're doing a plan. 00:21:28
Mobility and connectivity is just about how people are getting from. 00:21:29
Point A to point B and we have mapping in there. 00:21:34
Regarding the. 00:21:37
Pedestrian. 00:21:38
Connections that are being made, the roads, etc. 00:21:40
Next slide. 00:21:43
We've done an analysis in the plan of Real Estate by. 00:21:45
Different. 00:21:49
Segment retail, office, industrial and multifamily. 00:21:50
The General. 00:21:56
Finding is that you have a pretty stable. 00:21:58
Real estate market in terms of how those different sectors are? 00:22:01
Performing. 00:22:04
You have maybe some issues with like age of some of the inventory. 00:22:06
But you have some low vacancy rates there. 00:22:10
So you're going to see that called out in the plan. 00:22:13
Very important to. 00:22:16
Downtowns and how they fund function are like civic and cultural assets. 00:22:18
And you have. 00:22:23
A plethora of those in and around the downtown. 00:22:24
So stitching those together in a in a. 00:22:27
In a fine urban fabric is really what you're trying to shoot for in the downtown. 00:22:31
We kind of. 00:22:38
In our summary of that particular first section. 00:22:40
We we talk about the strengths and weaknesses that we see. I'm not going to go through all of them. 00:22:43
But. 00:22:47
You'll see, you know, like with any analysis that you do. 00:22:48
You have a lot of things going for Watkinsville, but you have some things that need to be. 00:22:53
Ameliorated. 00:22:57
It's the old thing about. 00:22:58
Accentuating the positives and eliminating the negatives. 00:23:01
To the extent possible. 00:23:04
Next slide. 00:23:07
OK. Where are we going is the second part of the plan and that's really the community engagement. And So what you're going to see 00:23:10
in that section is just like. 00:23:13
A retelling of the engagement story that we did. 00:23:17
The actual. 00:23:20
For some of the some of you actually attended that session or. 00:23:22
Those sessions, but. 00:23:26
We did various activities with the public. We. 00:23:27
We talked about the existing conditions, but then we also had light. 00:23:30
Often we do is have. 00:23:33
Visual preference boards. What do you like? What don't you like? How do things look and function? 00:23:35
We actually had a budget activity where we asked people to like. 00:23:41
In theory, put their money where their mouth is basically and say what their priorities are. 00:23:44
Which is just like. 00:23:49
Putting chips into a Mason jar. 00:23:50
So I'll, I'll mention that in a minute and then we basically have an interactive map where folks can lease their. 00:23:53
Various and sundry comments on a variety of things. 00:23:59
And then we did that all on the 26th and then we. 00:24:02
Reported our initial findings to the. 00:24:06
DDA on the 27th, next slide. 00:24:08
So these are. 00:24:13
Some of the like this was the budgeting. 00:24:14
Exercise where we had these Mason jars and people. 00:24:16
Put their chips basically in the deformation drawers and some of the things that came out strongly. 00:24:20
Which? 00:24:25
Is not. 00:24:27
Different from what we see in other downtowns is that if people like the way the downtown looks and feels. 00:24:27
They want more of it. 00:24:33
They want more. 00:24:35
Shops and retail, you know they want more restaurants and pubs they want. 00:24:36
They want the connections to be enhanced to those two things. That's what really came through in that exercise. 00:24:41
Next slide. 00:24:48
We did these preference boards that I talked about. So we had like. 00:24:50
Different. 00:24:55
Visual design preferences that were just generalized, but then we had them in a residential context. 00:24:56
And a commercial context and you can see on the. 00:25:02
The right side What the? 00:25:05
The most highly. 00:25:06
The highly voted things were. 00:25:09
You know, like on general designs, people like the Street Academy. 00:25:11
Gotta be They like public art. They like historic character. 00:25:14
It's a predominantly single. 00:25:18
Home family home community so. 00:25:20
You know, there was a stressing on that. They kind of would like to see mixed-use. 00:25:22
Cottage style. I think they're people were thinking about like it. 00:25:26
What we talk about with. 00:25:29
Respect to accessory dwelling units, that type of thing, which is. 00:25:31
A different type of residential, but small scale. 00:25:35
It's contextual. 00:25:38
And then commercial preferences? 00:25:40
More restaurants, possibly grocery. 00:25:43
They like festivals, they like events. 00:25:47
We had. 00:25:50
In addition to that, we had a. 00:25:51
Project website that has been was online for two or three months. 00:25:53
We had 357 participants on an online survey. 00:25:57
And. 00:26:01
Tell you the truth, I can't actually read all those and I'm not going to read. 00:26:03
But. 00:26:07
There's plenty of data in there that summarizes where people were coming from on the survey. It's like a series of questions on. 00:26:08
That we asked them. 00:26:14
And if. 00:26:17
For those of you are really interested in. 00:26:18
The particulars of that data we've also provided like the data set that's behind that summary, so you can really. 00:26:20
Get into it if you'd like that stuff. 00:26:26
Then the city, just briefly. The city did I think 2 engagement summaries as well. 00:26:28
In addition to what we did so those. 00:26:32
Those are reported out as well. 00:26:34
OK. And then finally. 00:26:36
How do we get there? 00:26:38
So. 00:26:40
This is very important because I've I've been doing this for a long time and the one thing that. 00:26:42
I don't really want to be engaged too much in anymore. Is. 00:26:47
Doing plans that are not going to be implemented. 00:26:50
I mean. 00:26:53
If we're going to do a plan, we want to, we want to like structure it in a way. 00:26:54
That it's going to be implemented like it's going to get done. 00:26:58
We're not gonna just. 00:27:01
Produce it and then. 00:27:02
We're going to leave the community and it's just going to sit on a shelf somewhere. 00:27:03
So we were trying to be deliberate about. 00:27:07
How? 00:27:10
We put this. 00:27:11
Section of the plan together and maybe we can go to the next slide. 00:27:12
So. 00:27:16
In this section is basically this table. 00:27:18
Which we basically. 00:27:21
I have a series of about. 00:27:23
I'd say 15 projects. 00:27:25
And the projects are all. 00:27:27
Described. 00:27:29
And then there. 00:27:31
Highlighted as being what we think are either immediate. 00:27:33
Short term or long term? 00:27:36
Immediate is anything. 00:27:38
Between now and two years. Thank you. 00:27:40
And those items are mapped. 00:27:45
Go to the next slide. 00:27:48
The short term are those projects that are. 00:27:50
Two to five years, you know, like. 00:27:53
One that comes that you can see there that is a couple of the. 00:27:55
Potential redevelopment properties that you have that. 00:27:59
The community might want to look at so those are. 00:28:02
Projects that. 00:28:05
We think might want to. You might want to look at. 00:28:06
In the short term. 00:28:09
And then the last slide. 00:28:10
Is the longer term projects. 00:28:12
That are five years plus. 00:28:14
So they're mapped and described. 00:28:16
The big one on the five year long term project which we heard a lot of support for, which is a complicated project, but. 00:28:18
Maybe the community wants to pursue it in like digestible parts. 00:28:25
Rail to trail corridor. 00:28:29
Which? 00:28:31
Can be transformational. 00:28:32
We've seen that in a lot of communities. 00:28:34
But it's complicated and you gotta like spend a lot of time working at. 00:28:36
But that would be an example of a long term project. 00:28:40
I should note that. 00:28:43
On the matrix that we have there. 00:28:44
What we kind of cut that off, but what you're also going to see there, importantly is. 00:28:47
We kind of suggested. 00:28:51
Who the responsible party should be? 00:28:53
Which I think is important. 00:28:57
And then we have one other thing there that I wanted to mention. 00:28:59
Excuse me, let me just check that. 00:29:04
Quick. 00:29:06
So we had the lead and we had the response like the partners that could be involved in it. So I think that's important because. 00:29:10
Again. 00:29:16
Been doing this work long enough that. 00:29:17
To get things implemented. 00:29:21
Can't really usually do them all by yourself. You're going to have to like it's sometimes it's an issue of control. 00:29:23
Sometimes it's an issue of money. 00:29:28
Or resources. 00:29:30
And like these economic development and planning projects. 00:29:31
They take a long time and like. 00:29:35
Many hands make for lighter work. 00:29:37
You know what I mean? So. 00:29:39
So that's important, but it's important that we. 00:29:40
Call the folks out that. 00:29:42
Need to probably be involved in those things. 00:29:44
Lastly. 00:29:47
Before I say thank you, is that. 00:29:49
We also have some things that we put at the end of the plan, which are listed under. 00:29:52
I think additional considerations and those are things. 00:29:56
That we thought. 00:29:59
We wanted to provide that because sometimes you go into something and you like. 00:30:02
Know what you don't know? 00:30:06
Or there are things that you know that you don't know. 00:30:08
And these things are like out-of-the-box things that. 00:30:11
Maybe you guys don't know about them and maybe it's something that you want to think about a little bit. So those are in the plan 00:30:14
as well. 00:30:17
Want to thank you very much for your time tonight and. 00:30:20
We we really enjoyed working on the project. 00:30:23
You have an excellent staff. We enjoyed working with Jan and with Sharon. 00:30:26
And appreciate it and I'm happy to. 00:30:30
Answer any questions. 00:30:32
Thank you. 00:30:34
Council kind of questions do you have? 00:30:37
Hey, Eric's heard all my questions throughout the process, so. 00:30:45
I just want to thank all of you it was. 00:30:50
Really wonderful working with you guys you did. 00:30:52
Fantastic work you were. 00:30:55
Patient with our changes and our questions and. 00:30:57
So it's, it's really been a joy. And maybe we'll get to. 00:31:02
Work together on. 00:31:05
Future projects in some way or other. So I just really want to thank you guys. 00:31:06
Thank you. 00:31:12
When do we talk about next steps? 00:31:13
Yeah, let me before we do that, was anybody in the public have any questions? I know we just have a few people here. 00:31:17
No, OK. 00:31:24
And let's talk about next steps. Brett, my understanding is the DDA is and if you could stay art for a second. 00:31:26
The DDA is. 00:31:32
Has gotten this and will review it and move to adopt it in January is most likely because I don't think you're having a December 00:31:34
meeting. 00:31:38
Then we would adopt this. 00:31:41
In January as well, formally, what we've seen in the past is. 00:31:43
You know, doing these plans. 00:31:47
And I'll and I'll say what I was going to say at the end anyway too, because. 00:31:49
We're not at the city of city where plans sit on shelves, it's the city where plans get implemented. So I would encourage all 00:31:52
y'all to take your time and read the plan. 00:31:55
Because that plan that you guys adopt. 00:31:59
I guarantee you Sharon will be coming back to us for our planning session and there will be stuff from that plan on there, so. 00:32:02
I don't want to get in the situation of, oh, I didn't know that was part of the plan. So it is important that that you guys take 00:32:08
some time and read this and if you have any concerns about anything in there that you express those concerns. 00:32:13
Or that we talk about those before we adopt it in January. But my. 00:32:19
Hope would be that the DDA would adopt it and recommend it to this body in January and that we would then adopt it in January and 00:32:22
then begin to work on the. 00:32:25
The shortest term implementation stuff and. 00:32:30
Some of the longer term stuff is going to really require some thoughtful budgeting and and that kind of stuff. 00:32:32
So any other thoughts? 00:32:37
Christine on implementation of next steps. 00:32:41
OK, I just want to offer, I want to say the same thing largely that Christine said. But. 00:32:45
This, this group for council to know, for the public to know, they really rolled up their sleeves. I'll also remind everybody that 00:32:49
Georgia Power, the Georgia Power Foundation actually provided a grant for this funding. So this did not. 00:32:54
Most of the funding came from Georgia Power and we're grateful for that. 00:33:01
But you know this, Watkinsville is not a city where we get plans and then we don't activate them. You know, you can go in my 00:33:05
office. You can see our transportation plan. You can see our Harris Shoals plan. You can see our Thomas Far Preserve plan. 00:33:11
We tend to activate things and we activate them responsibly, but we also. 00:33:17
Work relatively quickly. I was smiling when you said this has been a fast process. You'll find when you work with Watkinsville 00:33:21
when we get aligned. 00:33:24
And we make it a priority. Things happen quickly here, and we think that's really important. 00:33:27
So their citizens have confidence in the local government, so. 00:33:32
Elena, Alex. 00:33:37
Eric, great work. We're grateful for that. I. 00:33:39
Will circulate this, I'll put it in my update tonight and hopefully our citizens will also take time to read it and share any 00:33:42
thoughts they have before we move to final adoption. But I think this is really reflective of. 00:33:47
What our citizens wanted, but also brought. 00:33:52
One of the reasons we wanted Inspired was to bring in a perspective of someone who had done this in a lot of other communities 00:33:54
across the Southeast. So it's got. 00:33:58
What our citizens want, but it's informed by a perspective of a group that's worked and seen. 00:34:02
Awesome small towns that are a little bit ahead of ours all over the country. So we're grateful for you guys and for what you've 00:34:07
done. 00:34:10
So OK. 00:34:12
I know you all have a drive so don't feel like you have to hang around. We are going to talk about retirement plans if you do want 00:34:14
to stay or stick around. Nice Thanksgiving. 00:34:19
OK. All right. 00:34:24
All right. Is there anything else on the DDA front, Christine? 00:34:27
OK, great. 00:34:31
All right. I think Chief Allwood had to step out. He did. Yeah. I don't think there's the whole. I'm happy to. I think the most 00:34:32
important thing is one of our cadets. 00:34:37
Walter Claire all of a sudden got kind of nuts. Walter Claire, right? 00:34:42
Yeah, I don't want that sound a weirdo sudden graduates Friday from the police Academy. That will be at the classic center. 00:34:46
Everybody is involved is invited to attend. Sometimes the governor shows up. So 10:00 Friday, Classic center. Hopefully y'all can 00:34:50
join us. I think the rest of the report, if you have questions, just let him know or send me a quote. Send me any questions you 00:34:55
may have. 00:34:59
All right, great. 00:35:05
And I think all the numbers were consistent with where they typically are on the Police Department report. So that's good. 00:35:07
We were highlighted as one of the safest communities in Georgia I think last week, Oconee County and Watkinsville, which was which 00:35:13
was really nice. 00:35:17
All right, we'll move on to the consent agenda. 00:35:22
Nobody asked that anything come off the consent agenda. I will note that we have CJ Worden. 00:35:25
Here with us tonight, I think he has. 00:35:31
The we're adopting the Oconee County Multi Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation plan. CJ, that's your baby, is that right? OK, so I'm 00:35:34
sure all of you read that in great detail. 00:35:39
All all 250 pages of it but. 00:35:46
All the walkins are highlighted. No, I did too. And I told CJ I was like wanting to knock on wood after that because it basically 00:35:48
said you're in a really safe community that doesn't have many tornadoes, winds or storms. And I'm like, OK, well. 00:35:53
Back then, but because it got down in the 60s during the night, so yeah. 00:36:28
Yeah. But anyway, everything looked good on the consent agenda unless anybody has any questions. 00:36:33
Just because CJ is here, if you have any questions about that, we can ask him. Otherwise I'm going to take a motion to approve 00:36:38
that. 00:36:41
I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. 00:36:43
There we have a second. 00:36:46
Do we have any questions for CJ before we do? 00:36:48
All right. I don't hear any. So all in favor of approving the full consent agenda say aye, aye. 00:36:51
Any opposed? 00:36:56
All right, that carries CJ. You're welcome to stay. You're welcome to get. 00:36:57
All right. 00:37:01
We have no public hearings. We have no appearances. We do have some old business manager, Dickerson. I'll let you walk us through 00:37:03
that. 00:37:06
So tonight we're going to ask that you approve a change order and a contract with Gantt Construction for the. 00:37:10
Sumption Bridge Rd. Phase one extension which is roughly 1200 linear feet of. 00:37:16
Pedestrian sidewalk Multi Use sidewalks down Sign 10 Bridge Rd. 00:37:22
As a as a reminder. 00:37:28
Back in. 00:37:31
January of 24 we submitted a request for G Tib grant. 00:37:32
For this project. 00:37:37
It's a. 00:37:39
3 1/2 phases essentially. 00:37:39
And we were awarded in June of $1.5 million grant or $2.225 million loan from G Tub. 00:37:42
For this project we have been busy at work since then. 00:37:49
The. 00:37:53
We released in August of last year of. 00:37:54
Yeah. Last year, crazy, we released an RFP for the work for phase one. That phase one work, we received 4 proposals. We ended up 00:37:57
going with Gantt construction. 00:38:02
One piece in here that I should add, which was Gantt Construction did receive that award even though they were not the lowest. 00:38:07
Again, we do proposal process, not a bid process. So we look at the overall. 00:38:12
Contractor and their ability to perform the work and we've been really pleased with Gantt Construction. 00:38:17
He and then in June of this year, we submitted a request to the State Road and Tollway Authority, which administers the G tip 00:38:22
program, to ask them to give us the ability to use. 00:38:27
Some funds that we knew we had available extra that we had not appropriated for these other. 00:38:33
Prop. For these other phases. 00:38:37
In order to extend the sidewalk from Simonton Drive down to the city limits and that was approved. That approval was given or 00:38:39
granted in July. 00:38:44
And then the Council actually did execute specific amendments to that agreement with them. 00:38:49
As I mentioned, Gantt Construction did get phase one. They are still under contract. They're actually going to be out hopefully 00:38:55
this week. 00:38:58
Keeping my fingers crossed. 00:39:01
Completing the landings for the. 00:39:03
Rectangular rapid flashing beacon that you you see those around town for crosswalks. 00:39:06
We're going to be installing those, hopefully, maybe before Thanksgiving, hopefully before the end of the month. 00:39:10
And he's doing that work to get those landings ready. So he's still under contract and made sense to reach out to him for the to 00:39:15
provide a proposed price for this phase one extension. 00:39:20
Engineer Campbell and myself looked at Engineer Campbell looked at it. 00:39:26
A little bit different filter looking at what actually costs. 00:39:29
You know what the costs are, what's reasonable? 00:39:32
He came in, I think. 00:39:34
Engineer Campbell can speak for himself, but. 00:39:36
Mr. Gant came in. 00:39:38
Relatively similar to what he did on the first phase of the project and as as he did on the extension. 00:39:40
We are recommending to go to. 00:39:46
Except his price, a little bit more than $360,000. 00:39:48
And have a 15% contingency added to that. We do have the funds available for that. 00:39:52
Work. So again our request is to. 00:39:58
Award Gantt Construction and Maintenance a contract considering considering that as a change order, but as a separate contract 00:40:01
since it has a different scope. 00:40:05
For the phase one extension. 00:40:09
With a 360,219. 00:40:11
Price estimated cost up to 15% above that and asking that mayor and city clerk sign all the documents that are needed. 00:40:14
Can take questions if anybody has any. 00:40:23
Anything for Mr. Campbell or Mr. Reitman? 00:40:26
Short story here is you know. 00:40:30
Y'all, we're about to do what everybody said couldn't be done. 00:40:32
10 years ago, which is we're going to have a sidewalk all the way from downtown to the end of Simonton Bridge Rd. 00:40:34
And as we outlined before then, what we anticipate happening hopefully by July 4th will be a connection from First Baptist Church. 00:40:39
At that sidewalk point and then all the way over to Wire Park, which will be, which will be tremendous for the city, but this is 00:40:46
the first step. 00:40:49
And credit to Sharon's good management, we were able to. 00:40:53
The G tip funds. 00:40:57
Are able to stretch a little further than we anticipated and we're going to be able to fund. 00:40:58
The full cost of this out of that? 00:41:02
Grant and loan package that we received, so it's good news. 00:41:04
Any questions? 00:41:08
All right, hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve. 00:41:12
The change ordering contract with Gantt Construction for the new additional sidewalk. 00:41:15
Between Simonton Place and the city limits. 00:41:20
I make a motion to approve. 00:41:24
The administrative recommendation of option #1. 00:41:27
We have a second. 00:41:31
2nd. 00:41:34
All right, we have a motion. We have a second. 00:41:35
Any further discussion? 00:41:37
Hearing none, all in favor say aye aye. 00:41:39
All right, it's approved. There are many neighborhoods who appreciate y'all. 00:41:42
This will be, I think it's a couple 100 houses who will. 00:41:47
Have safe. 00:41:50
Connection to downtown and eventually wire. 00:41:52
All right, now what you've all been waiting for, we have some new business and that is the defined benefit retirement plan and 00:41:55
adoption. I'm going to let Manager Dickerson and Julie Klein kick us off with a report on that. We'll then have a report from. 00:42:02
Representative from GM EBS and then we'll discuss this, Sharon. 00:42:09
Thank you, Mayor. 00:42:14
So we are. 00:42:16
Asking that you consider adopting an ordinance for to create a defined benefit retirement plan and an agreement approve an 00:42:17
adoption agreement with the Georgia Municipal Associations Georgia Municipal Employee Benefit System. Got to love all these 00:42:22
acronyms. 00:42:27
The program with the proposed plan would become effective December 1st. 00:42:33
And that would also include designating A pension committee. We'll talk a little bit more about that. So specifically the 00:42:38
designation of the the pension committee would be comprised of the city clerk myself. 00:42:42
Two employees, Mark Novak and James R Wood. 00:42:48
And three council members, and that would be Chuck Garrett, Connie Massey and the mayor. Chuck, I'm sorry. 00:42:51
Councilman Garrett and Councilwoman Massey. 00:42:57
Both serve on the Finance and Personnel Committee, so it made sense for them to be the ones that we selected or are recommending 00:43:00
so. 00:43:03
Just a little brief history. I'll go through all of it, but you all remember that in June of. 00:43:07
Last year you approved a certain amount of money to fund a defined benefit plan and. 00:43:12
In April, we. 00:43:17
Asked and that was. 00:43:19
After we had already asked the. 00:43:21
GMA to give us a cost study to determine whether or not we could afford to do this. 00:43:23
Plan or not, we'll walk through that a little bit here in a second. 00:43:27
So a defined contribution plan we already have in place, that's a where the city provides, allows for 3% IRA match for 00:43:31
participating employees. 00:43:35
The city. 00:43:39
Matches that 3%. 00:43:41
For the employees, a defined benefit and that's a, that's a plan that basically is like your IRA, your 401K or your IRA basically 00:43:43
that you might have at a bank or with a with a investment company. 00:43:49
And that you can take with you. That's not something the city. 00:43:55
That you have to meet any type of vested period with you. 00:44:00
You can contribute to it, and when you leave, you take it with you. 00:44:04
A defined benefit plan, however, is a pension. 00:44:07
You do have to meet certain requirements in our, in this case we'll talk a little bit about it, but the vested period is 10 years. 00:44:09
The employee would not pay for this would be fully funded by the city, very similar to Oconee County. 00:44:16
In fact, we our program mirrors Widow County. County has. 00:44:23
We are we are going to recommend that it be a dual retirement plan. So basically keep the the defined contribution plan and. 00:44:28
The defined benefit plan and not get rid of 1. Not get rid of the defined contribution plan. 00:44:35
So just as a reminder, this is a pool pension system, the Georgia for Georgia municipalities. There's more than 300, I think Josh 00:44:42
will probably tell you there's. 00:44:46
The exact number, but there's more than. 00:44:51
300 local governments that participate in over 40,000. 00:44:53
Employees. 00:44:56
In this in this plan. 00:44:57
That we're going to be hopefully be part of. 00:44:59
I'm going to hit some of the highlights, so it is important. 00:45:02
It is professionally managed and. 00:45:06
The it's pooled for stability, but the liability rests with the city. So ultimately we were responsible for providing. 00:45:08
Those funds, and I know Josh can share a little bit about there have been funds that have been frozen or how that works. We'll 00:45:14
talk a little bit about that. That may be a question. I think that those were some of the questions we put in the document. We 00:45:19
won't go through each and every one of those, but that may be something you want to highlight. 00:45:23
It so GMA doesn't absorb the gap on behalf of cities. If the actuary, the actuary will recalculate the cities required 00:45:29
contribution rate I believe every six months. 00:45:34
Sorry, annually. So I think that happens in January. 00:45:40
Or. 00:45:43
July. 00:45:44
OK. Yeah. So so January for us, so. 00:45:46
If this gets approved, it'll actually get re. 00:45:50
It'll get reviewed again in January. 00:45:53
Oh, come up to the mic just to come back and forth. I'm sorry. So not for the first year since we're just starting it in December. 00:45:57
OK, All right, so, so we won't get a review until January of 27. 00:46:02
So, OK, again the employer, the financial risk of longevity and market performance lies with the employer, but and not the 00:46:08
employee. 00:46:12
But umm. 00:46:16
But we feel, you know, the returns are strong on these programs and so we're not. I'm not. 00:46:18
Super concerned about that at this point. 00:46:22
A couple things to think about is that we did talk to our auditors about starting a new pension plan could result in increasing 00:46:25
administrative time. 00:46:29
Julie and I've looked at what's required. We don't think it's that significant. So we're not as concerned about that. 00:46:32
However, it will require. 00:46:38
Increase in audit probably with our auditor said probably an estimate about $5000 because there's so many more footnotes and 00:46:40
disclosures that they have to have. 00:46:45
When they're reviewing that. 00:46:49
So just be aware of that I. 00:46:51
The the plan that's being proposed to to be offered to employees will cost about $6500 per employee plus $54 per active and 00:46:53
terminated vested participant. 00:46:59
Etcetera, etcetera. So right now the annual cost is 100 and 29602. 00:47:05
That was based on 19 full-time equivalent employees and. 00:47:09
And that was based on. 00:47:13
Two employees who had a fair amount of time with us, who were no longer with us, and I think that's where we talk about. 00:47:14
Things. 00:47:19
Like in January of 27, things may look a little different because we're dealing with a different set of employees, right? Well, 00:47:21
when we do annual synthesis, that's where we will pick up any new employees that have come on, any employees that have left, and 00:47:26
then we recalculate the valuation with the new angle census. 00:47:30
Right. So you guys will submit the census around? 00:47:35
October ish every year and then we'll use that census for the January 1 valuation and then we'll deliver that valuation report in 00:47:37
the late winter, early spring every year. 00:47:41
Great. 00:47:46
You go ahead if you have a question. 00:47:48
So if. 00:47:50
Like if we've just lost. 00:47:52
Two that work like up the number. 00:47:54
Does that mean that? 00:47:56
And assuming no other major changes that in January 27 that. 00:47:58
129602 would probably go down, yes. I wouldn't say would go down substantially just because these are. 00:48:03
Your long term funding assumptions. 00:48:09
You're likely to rehire new employees that are going to accrue future benefits or we're going to have the assumption that they'll 00:48:11
agree those future benefits. But yes, it can go up or down. It's also dependent on on markets, so. 00:48:17
You know, umm. 00:48:23
We don't know what the markets are going to be doing and I saw in reporter you're going to touch on actuarial versus true market 00:48:23
value. You can talk, you can touch on that all you want. Not my area of expertise, you can't you say that, but this is probably 00:48:29
one of the best packets I've ever seen put together for one of these presentations. So give yourself a paddle back, but. 00:48:35
So every year when we do the annual valuation, that's how we will pick up any kind of changes in demographic informations. 00:48:42
You do have assets in the plan that we talked about that are being in. 00:48:48
Invested. 00:48:51
The way that we calculate these actuarial. 00:48:52
The value of assets, there are two ways. There's kind of the true market. 00:48:56
And there is also the actuarial, actuarial market value. 00:48:59
The true market is going to be the true dollar amount in your assets as of January 1st every year. There's also the actuarial. 00:49:03
Valuation, which is going to use a smoothing curve. So if there's a year where the markets do really well, we're not going to ask 00:49:11
you to contribute. 00:49:14
Significantly less and if there's a year where the markets. 00:49:17
Underperform. 00:49:20
Kind of our assumed rate of return, it's not going to you know tank everything and you guys have to cover a ton month you pay in 00:49:21
the ton of money to cover. 00:49:24
Those markets. 00:49:27
OK, All right, so. 00:49:30
As I mentioned earlier, the Council approved the general Fund capital and operating budget, which included. 00:49:33
Monies for this we didn't have quite enough we had. 00:49:40
I think you budgeted, I can go back, it was like $75,000. But the good news is, is that because of our health benefits coming back 00:49:43
lower, we actually. 00:49:48
Freed up some additional money so. 00:49:52
All that to say is I don't have to come back and ask you for money to cover the cost of this program because we have it in the 00:49:53
budget. 00:49:56
And it would again start in December and go through the end of June. And then we'll, you know, as he said, we'll have a new, a new 00:49:59
number for the new fiscal year. 00:50:03
So just some details of the plan, does it only covers employees, not elected officials? 00:50:08
There's no waiting period for eligibility, but vesting is 10 years of service. 00:50:12
There is a prior service credit that we asked them to come up with. We'll explain. We've got some examples. We went had a meeting 00:50:17
last week with employees about it. 00:50:21
So I think we got some pretty good examples for everyone. 00:50:26
The IT does include a 2%. 00:50:29
Multiplier and again I'll walk you through an example in a minute. 00:50:35
It doesn't. It assumes no employee contributions. Again, this mirrors what Oconee County does. They've funded 100% for their 00:50:39
employees. 00:50:43
Trying to see if there's anything else on there. We we did ask for up to A5 year. 00:50:48
Prior service credit and again, we'll walk you through an example of that. 00:50:53
Next, umm. 00:50:57
So a couple of examples. 00:50:58
Let's say the final average salary of an employee who's retiring is $50,000. 00:51:00
There are years of service prior to this plan starting, which would be part of December 1 is 4. 00:51:05
The city has agreed in this in this plan to pay to to give them credit for up to five, so they get credit for four. 00:51:10
Plus any years of service they've. 00:51:17
They've earned after, so if they've earned 6 after 12-1 then they've got their 10, so they're vested. 00:51:19
And that's because they get the four years of paid service credit plus. 00:51:26
The six that they had. 00:51:29
After the program began and so they would be looking at with the benefit multiplier of getting around $10,000 per year. 00:51:31
OK, walk through another one. So same idea. 00:51:38
Final average salary 50,000. 00:51:42
Employee has one year of service prior to starting the plan. 00:51:44
So they get that one year credit, but then they work 9, so again they've got their ten years. 00:51:48
2% multiplier. They'll be getting 10,000 as well. 00:51:52
On this one a little bit different but same salary so 50,000. This is essentially using mine so I have seven years but I only get 00:51:58
5. 00:52:02
Years of credit. 00:52:06
I If I worked another eight, I'd have 15 so. 00:52:08
Ultimately, I have enough service to be vested. 00:52:10
And then the multiplier workout to about $13,000. 00:52:13
Per year. 00:52:17
And then this one is for somebody who may come in. 00:52:19
Who starts the plan? They have a year of service with us before the plan starts. 00:52:23
But only works five years after they don't meet the 10 year requirement, therefore they don't. 00:52:27
Qualify for this benefit at all they would they would walk out the door with nothing. The money stays in any money you've 00:52:32
contributed for that employee stays in the in the fund. 00:52:36
But they don't get to take, they don't get any of it paid out later. 00:52:40
So that's part of the reason we talked about the defined contribution plan to give employees. I mean, there are some employees may 00:52:43
come in, maybe they're later in their career, they don't have 10 years on them, but they want to be, you know, a way for us to 00:52:47
attract is not just. 00:52:51
A pension program for people who may have longevity, but also the defined contribution gives that opportunity. 00:52:56
Attracts employees who may only say I only have 5 or 6 years in me. 00:53:01
But I don't want to be. I want to be able to contribute to a. 00:53:05
Retirement plan and walk away with something. I don't want to not have that pre tax. 00:53:08
You know, opportunity. 00:53:12
So, so we're hitting it from both sides and, and we have to be competitive and we're competing. Our biggest competitor probably is 00:53:14
the county. 00:53:17
So we're trying to be, you know, mirror our program to what they have. 00:53:20
Top talent, I know the chief is not here, but Chief was one who sort of brought this up when he first came on. He asked Jefferson, 00:53:25
which is a little bit bigger than we are, but. 00:53:29
They had a program and for police officers, it's actually a huge attractive, very attractive feature to have. 00:53:32
And that's of course, that was Chiefs big. 00:53:39
Job is to get more officers in here, fill those vacancies and stuff so. 00:53:41
The adoption agreement can be modified. There's a process like anything else, so just know that. 00:53:46
If you approve it, you know it can be modified. 00:53:51
So. 00:53:54
I'll end with the option is we're asking that you approve the ordinance for the defined benefit retirement plan and the adoption 00:53:55
agreement with GMA. 00:53:58
And that you? 00:54:02
Designate the pension committee to be comprised of the city clerk myself. 00:54:04
Employees Mark Novak, James R Wood and council members Garrett Massey and the mayor to the pension Committee. 00:54:08
So just one, this is a teeny little thing, but just as written up there says 3 council members, City Council shouldn't be mayor 00:54:16
and two council members or does that matter? It's basically pension. It says 3 council members can be mayor is a council 00:54:22
essentially he's just the head council member. It's not they don't they do that on purpose, but. 00:54:28
A lot of communities have like boards. 00:54:35
And then they have a chip, they elect a chair. So that's just sort of. 00:54:37
Generic SO. 00:54:41
OK. Thank you, Sharon. 00:54:44
Josh, what would you want to add there? 00:54:47
Not too much I need to add. Do you want any kind of background on our program as a whole for all the cities, anything specific to 00:54:51
your retirement plan or kind of the the valuation aspect of your retirement plan? 00:54:56
Counsel, what do you want to hear? 00:55:01
I think Sharon did an incredible job. I'll just say. How many years have you all been? Has this been established? I don't know the 00:55:05
exact number, but our earliest plan started in the 60s. OK, so a very long time. So y'all have gone up and down with the economy 00:55:11
over years and it has. 00:55:17
Been fine. Like no you haven't had cities. 00:55:23
Go. I think so I asked a lot of questions about this and I want you to know that because. 00:55:27
Defined benefit plans are pretty rare. 00:55:34
You know, in corporate America, you know, there's not many like if. 00:55:37
You know, if you had a business and you said, hey, I want to start a defined benefit plan. 00:55:40
You know, there, there's just not many. 00:55:44
Or yeah, there's not many businesses doing it. 00:55:46
But so I was a little I was like this is interesting that it's coming up, but. 00:55:49
The fact that we've got this massive pool that we can be a part of is, is a is really important. 00:55:54
Be the. I think the construction and the approach that we took is very conservative here, both in terms of the vested time. 00:56:01
The approach with the employees. 00:56:09
Would I love to have it be richer, more robust? Absolutely. But I think given our size. 00:56:11
You know, this is a very feasible way to start this and make sure that we can accommodate it because ultimately, and this is 00:56:16
really important and this needs to be in the record, we are responsible for this. So if in. 00:56:21
30 years. 00:56:26
I don't know if any of us are young enough to still be sitting here in 30 years, but when the. 00:56:28
The people who follow us are here in 30 years. Then there's, you know. 00:56:31
You know, 20 employees who are eligible for this and who are retired. They're going to, they're going to be dealing with retirees. 00:56:34
Coming in here wanting to make sure that their pension is taken care of in other communities have to deal with that. So how you 00:56:40
manage it, how you treat it. 00:56:43
How you set it up and how you structure it is really important and being. 00:56:46
In my mind, pretty conservative and how you construct it in terms of the percentages that share in. 00:56:50
Shared is is really important. So and I think we've balanced that right where we've got to and you guys know the county, the 00:56:55
county is conservative and how they can, how they construct things too. So by mirroring the county, we feel pretty good about 00:56:59
that. 00:57:03
You know, it is challenging to get police officers in particular when you don't have any kind of retirement benefit. 00:57:08
Is this portable from other communities? If they're vested in another community that's a part of this? I think that's also 00:57:15
something else that's probably worth mentioning. So if if you have a police officer from another community that's participating in 00:57:19
this. 00:57:23
They can bring their eligibility. Is that correct testing service, Yeah, vesting and eligibility, yes. So if you were with all use 00:57:26
the City of Jefferson for an example. So if you had eight years at the city of Jefferson and then you come here. 00:57:32
And say you did four years with the city of Watkinsville, you combine that into 12 years total. 00:57:37
You would be vested with the city of Watkinsville, but we would only pay you based on that four year benefit you had with 00:57:42
Watkinsville and we pay your Jefferson benefit separately. So they only combined for meeting that vesting requirement. 00:57:46
The calculation is independent using your service earnings in the plan for each municipality. So we're not picking up the cost for 00:57:51
their service time in Jefferson, but if someone wanted to. 00:57:55
You know, from another community, want to come over here and finish out their career. 00:58:00
And they, they can still get vested, they can pick that up. So it's a, it's a big win for us from a. 00:58:03
You know, and I think philosophically we've all agreed we've really worked hard to make it, you know? 00:58:08
Create an opportunity for our employees to. 00:58:12
You know, be able to afford insurance, be able to have a wage. That's Sharon spent a lot of studies on our salaries and you guys 00:58:15
have approved that. I think that's really improved the quality. 00:58:19
Of the staff that we've had. But I think it's also really important to reward folks like Julie who have stuck around for a long, 00:58:23
long time. 00:58:26
And worked really hard and I'm sure Julie's put some money away, but also to have that defined benefit. 00:58:30
At the end of her career for her to know hey. 00:58:35
I put some money away, but I've also got a benefit coming in from the city. 00:58:37
That I can count on every month as well. So one thing if you don't mind me adding, Julie, sorry, Sharon touched on this a little 00:58:41
bit, but. 00:58:45
You guys still have the defined contribution plan, that 3% that's going in, that's what we call hybrid plan, which is when you 00:58:48
have defined benefit and defined contribution. That is a great, great retention and recruitment tool. 00:58:54
For the city. 00:58:59
I would say pensions. 00:59:00
You know, they're good, they're good recruitment tools, they're better retention tools. So your, your employees that know they're 00:59:02
going to get that 2% for every year of service that they have are a lot like more likely to, to, you know, stay out there. And 00:59:06
then you guys, once you're in retirement status, living on a defined benefit is great. You're going to guarantee that check that 00:59:11
you get every month, but it's also important to have some kind of additional retirement savings so that that 3% that the city is 00:59:15
contributing. 00:59:19
To pick up where you know a. 00:59:24
Benefit. 00:59:26
If you need money once you're in retirement status, you can't call up GMA and say, hey, can I get 2 months advance. But that's 00:59:27
where something like where that defined contribution would come into play. So I think the the hybrid model, that's what we have at 00:59:32
GMA. We have much lesser pension than what you guys are offering, but we have a fairly good defined contribution match. 00:59:38
So I think that is. 00:59:44
Probably the best route for cities. 00:59:45
As far as retirement? 00:59:47
Recruitment, retirement success, recruitment, retention and everything. 00:59:49
So this. 00:59:53
May be too much to talk about, but what where does that 2% number come from and all your formulas the 2% times that. So it's what 00:59:55
we call benefit multiplier every. 01:00:00
Retirement plan has some kind of benefit multiplier. 01:00:06
2%, I'll definitely say is on the. 01:00:09
Better end of average, we do see some that are higher than 2%, but we see a lot that are. 01:00:11
Lower than 2%. 01:00:15
So it's you. 01:00:16
You're getting 2% of your earnings for every year of service that you have. 01:00:17
So just take your service under the plan so you can go back up to five years. 01:00:20
Than any future service so someone had been here for. 01:00:24
They have their five years of prior service. You're here for 15 more years. 01:00:27
15 * 2 is going to be. 01:00:30
I'm sorry, that'd be 20 years. 15 * 2 would be 40. They're going to get 40% of the earnings for the rest of their life. 01:00:32
So that that's what that 2% multiplier does. 01:00:38
And we see them across the state anywhere from. 01:00:42
We have one city that's out of 1%, which is. 01:00:45
Not great, but anywhere from 2 1/2 to. 01:00:48
Three, but some of our cities that are up to 3%, they don't have. 01:00:50
They don't pay into Social Security, so some of them will beef up that. 01:00:54
Retirement benefit in order to cover for the lack of Social Security. 01:00:57
So when you think about folks, you know, your teachers, your county employees, your others, you know this is it's, it's a pretty 01:01:03
typical. 01:01:06
Government benefit. Government benefit? 01:01:09
You know, but I frankly was surprised we could afford to. 01:01:12
Be able to do something like this and I do think we're going to have to, you know, monitor what that and our good thing is our 01:01:16
auditors will help us monitor. 01:01:19
What that contribution is, and if it feels like something that we need to modify, then we'll have to. 01:01:22
Be responsible and do that. 01:01:27
So how would that work? Let's say you know. 01:01:29
Heaven forbid we have a slump in the economy, that is. 01:01:33
Long going and. 01:01:36
We're like, OK, this the markets have. 01:01:38
It's not a dip in a year like they've gone down and our sales hat you know like our our revenue cities got all, all the worst case 01:01:41
scenario which hopefully none will happen. But if it did. 01:01:46
What are our options at that point? Yeah. So if you're going to modify the plan, if you're ever revoking any kind of benefit, so 01:01:52
lowering a benefit multiplier, increasing retirement age or anything like that, you can only do it for people hired on or after 01:01:57
the the date. 01:02:01
That it was modified. 01:02:06
So that can make, that's one thing that can make the plan cheaper. We have had cities in the past just being totally honest. 01:02:08
Freeze retirement plans. There's a couple ways you can do that, which is you can freeze it for anyone hired on or after a certain 01:02:14
date. 01:02:17
Or. 01:02:20
You can stop accrual of any kind of benefit for anyone that's currently in the plan. We call that a hard freeze. The first one we 01:02:21
call soft freeze. 01:02:24
Soft phrase would be more so. 01:02:28
The people that are in the plan stay in the plan, continue to approve benefit where hard freeze would be. 01:02:30
No one's occurring anymore benefit. The city would still have to pay the liability for the plan, so the future benefits because 01:02:35
they have accrued it underneath the plan. 01:02:38
But that that's kind of how. 01:02:42
Plans would would cease if you do want to stop the retirement plan. 01:02:44
So, yeah, so worst case scenario, all of a sudden we lose a funding stream, we're unable to do something like that then yeah, 01:02:50
that. 01:02:53
This body or whoever the body is after us would would have to take those steps. And I think that's. 01:02:56
You know where? 01:03:01
You've really got to have a good auditor who's helping you plan ahead and looking at that every year and making sure that you're 01:03:02
in. 01:03:05
You're in good shape with that and we did talk to the auditor about this before we did it. 01:03:08
And I, I do think, correct me if I'm wrong, but I do think if the plan changed, if you modified your agreement, you could also 01:03:12
have the employee have to pay. I mean, I know you talked about you so you could add. 01:03:17
You know, contribution from the employee to assist with that, that's an option as well. We talked about that, but we're marrying 01:03:22
it after the county. They don't have one. But I did want to mention, I did talk to Donna at Ball Ground. She's the finance and HR 01:03:27
director. I talked to several communities trying to find some that were similar in size. 01:03:32
They started their program in 2017. They have a population about 3000. 01:03:37
And she said it's definitely been a plus for them. They have police, they have 2024 employees. She said it's not difficult to 01:03:41
maintain. They've only had one employee retired to date. 01:03:46
Said it. They did not see huge financial, you know, over that period of time, anything really astronomical. But their employees 01:03:51
each contribute 2 1/2 percent. 01:03:56
So I think there's there's different ways to slice and dice this if we ever got in a situation, you know. 01:04:00
That would be an option as to modify the agreement and have a contribution from the employee as well. But she did say it helped 01:04:05
attract and retain employer employees. 01:04:09
And I we talked to Nash City of Nashville and also. 01:04:14
Jasper. 01:04:20
Georgia too. They're similar in size too. And talk to them and all of them. 01:04:21
No, nobody had anything bad to say about the said. It was really helpful for their employees and stuff so. 01:04:25
Yeah, I think again, the thing just to remember and again I'm supportive of this. I think it's the right thing, but we just have 01:04:33
to remember we are putting a. 01:04:35
Significant liability on to onto future councils and a responsibility just to. 01:04:38
Monitor and maintain. But again, if we're. 01:04:44
Really want to have. 01:04:46
Continue to recruit top tier employees in this era. You know we need to have. 01:04:47
This kind of benefit and be be competitive for. 01:04:53
For the folks that we want serve in our citizens so. 01:04:56
Any further questions for the manager or for Mr. Colley? 01:04:59
All right, hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. 01:05:05
I make a motion that we approve. 01:05:08
All right. We have a motion to approve the ordinance and any other associated documents is that. 01:05:11
Correct. 01:05:16
All right, do we have a second? 01:05:17
2nd a second for Mr. Campbell. Any further discussion? 01:05:20
Hearing none all in favor say aye, Any opposed? 01:05:24
All right. Hearing none that carries unanimously. Thank you. 01:05:28
Mr. Colley, I think we may have one other piece of paperwork we need to do on this. This is the amendment to Chapter 2. Sharon, We 01:05:32
need to explain that. Yeah. And first, let me say we talked to the employees last week. Don't be surprised if you hear from them 01:05:36
because they were super excited about this. And. 01:05:41
I, on behalf of them, I'll tell you I really appreciate this. I think this will help, you know, continue to help us retain and 01:05:46
attract good employees for the city. So appreciate that. 01:05:50
The ordinance amendment for Chapter 2 needs to be amended if we're going to keep the defined contribution plan. 01:05:54
It wasn't very specific in the ordinance and we felt like we needed to be, you know, specify exactly what it was that we're doing. 01:06:01
We are. 01:06:05
Matching the retirement at 65. 01:06:09
For umm. 01:06:12
For the defined contribution plan. 01:06:14
So that matches the defined. 01:06:16
Pension plan. 01:06:18
Our defined benefit plan. Sorry. 01:06:19
Defined contribution points are they're all that anyway, but we did add the defined benefit contribution plan under Section 2614, 01:06:21
so that basically right now there's been some confusion about whether or not employees could start immediately and. 01:06:30
And so we were making them wait a year to begin and then the count and then and the city was matching. What we were doing now is 01:06:39
we're saying you can start participating, but the city's not going to start contributing until you've been here a year. So that's 01:06:45
what this is doing is just trying to be more specific about about what it is and keeping it valid so. 01:06:51
All right, Council, any questions on that? 01:06:58
All right, hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. 01:07:03
I make a motion to approve. 01:07:05
We have a second. 01:07:06
Second, any further discussion? 01:07:07
Hearing none, all in favor say aye aye. 01:07:10
Any opposed? 01:07:12
All right. Thank you all. We'll skip item 16. 01:07:14
Are we doing public comments before we know? No, I just didn't put a slide. 01:07:18
He normally Mark doesn't need a slide, so we'll let Mark go. Your time to shine, engineer Campbell. 01:07:21
Thank you, Mayor. So we talked about a lot of things when you talk about storm water throughout the year and then during our 01:07:27
annual storm water update, right. So we talked about the requirements for for new construction with storm water. We talk about 01:07:32
erosion control. Everybody thinks about that if you happen to see a mud in the streets. 01:07:37
We think about things like flooding, but one of the things we wanted to talk about this year as part of the required annual report 01:07:43
update to this body would be creeks and streams. I thought it was very interesting that Eric brought that up as part of the 01:07:49
strategic plan review, but we generally in Watkinsville have two main. 01:07:56
Creek basins that are named so everything that's on the Northside of the railroad tracks generally all flows into calls Creek. 01:08:02
And everything that's on the South side of the railroad tracks generally all flows into Porter's Creek. 01:08:11
And what you're probably most aware of are places like hair shows park, like Thomas farm preserve and a few other places in in the 01:08:16
the city where there is a chance for the public to see those streams to interact with with the water. And that brings a benefit 01:08:22
right to to those. And I will say. 01:08:27
I've this year I've just happened to have an opportunity to have walked. 01:08:33
Many of the streams within Watkinsville, both in the Cause Creek basin, even if it's an unnamed tributary, or within the Porter 01:08:37
Creek basin if we think about. 01:08:41
Porter Creek is your is you're leaving Watkinsville on Hwy. 15. You're you're really kind of crossing Porter Creek there, but 01:08:46
anything that's kind of behind Jerry Smith Dr. even on the boundary of of stone show subdivision. 01:08:52
That would be in that Porter Creek basin. 01:08:58
And the streams in Watkinsville. 01:09:01
Are beautiful. 01:09:03
There's some of the clearest water you would see. 01:09:04
I'm an engineer, right? I'm not an ecologist, I'm not a biologist. But when you see a very clear stream and it is filled with 01:09:06
minnows and what the? 01:09:10
That that don't allow for the the ecological activity, but you see very clear streams in Watkinsville. And I just think that's a 01:09:45
tribute to the people that are here to the programs that are in place to keep that in in such a high level of maintenance. So that 01:09:51
was the update for this year. Happy to talk about streams if you'll have any questions or any other items, but wanted to share 01:09:57
that with you tonight. 01:10:02
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. We are grateful to have. 01:10:10
So much. 01:10:13
Clean water and. 01:10:14
And to be able to highlight our beautiful creeks and streams. 01:10:16
All right, public comments. 01:10:19
Julie, did we receive any? 01:10:21
No Sir. Is our member of the press wish to be a member of the public? 01:10:23
All right, she does not. 01:10:27
We've, we've had a, we've had a publisher do that before here. But Natalie, we appreciate you being here and sticking with us. 01:10:31
We'll move quickly through the rest of this. I do have a couple items to highlight. 01:10:38
But judging by our attendance and and unlikely that we have a lot online, I won't spend much time on it. 01:10:42
We dedicated a marker for Ryan Benton at the Wire Park crosswalk. Ryan. 01:10:47
Was the Stone Shoals resident who battled muscular dystrophy. 01:10:53
A lot of people spoke highly of Ryan and I had a couple citizens contact me. 01:10:57
And talk about how much he loved going up and down that sidewalk on his his. 01:11:02
Motorized wheelchair and it was interesting. His family even said that he would complain when he was living there about the dark. 01:11:07
Factory across the street and why couldn't we do something really great with that? And he was so excited when Wire Park came 01:11:14
along. 01:11:17
He didn't. 01:11:20
Live long enough to see it as it is now, but he saw it starting to take off and. 01:11:21
Anyway, his family was just really thrilled that we we did that. And I think that's all a part of continuing to highlight our 01:11:27
citizens and our heritage and. 01:11:30
One of the things that Eric talked about, which is, you know. 01:11:33
Really being cognizant of the culture that's made us so special and and not letting go of that as we. 01:11:36
Grow and that there's changes here. 01:11:42
We lost Alice Woodruff October 29th. 01:11:44
I know most of us knew Alice. Just a remarkable artist's. 01:11:48
And woman in our community. 01:11:52
We have a group of citizens at Alice's wish, have taken it upon themselves to. 01:11:54
Create a wildflower Meadow in Watkinsville Woods. 01:11:59
If you haven't walked through there lately, check that out. This is a drone shot of what they're planning to do. This is going to 01:12:02
take three years to pull off y'all, because they really want to do it right. So they're going to start planning in the spring. 01:12:07
They're going to start growing stuff in greenhouses. 01:12:12
Start planning in the spring their fundraising. 01:12:15
For that, I think as of midday today, they've raised $2500 already. They're hoping to raise about $10,000 to fund that. 01:12:18
We're going to work with them to. 01:12:25
Make sure irrigation is in place. 01:12:26
This is also going to dress up the area where Mayor Ivy's memorial tree is. 01:12:28
Our friends at Farm 441 contributed. 01:12:32
Maple tree, that's really lovely. The other one that was out there had struggled. That was planned in honor of Mayor Ivy, so we'll 01:12:35
dress up that area. 01:12:38
And we'll have the Mayor Ivy Memorial. 01:12:42
And the Woodruff, The Woodruff Meadow in Watkinsville Woods and this is the space was opened up when we lost a large tree there. 01:12:44
Last year. So it actually gets a lot of sun. It'll be a great location for that. 01:12:51
We had a great visit with Commissioner Barbara Rivera Holmes. She's Georgia's Department of Labor commissioner, and she came and 01:12:56
visited several of our businesses. 01:13:00
She visited wire park. I am I Weber, Coleman, ESP and Ladd truck lines. 01:13:05
And is a is a really great leader and anytime we have a chance for a constitutional officer to visit Watkinsville. 01:13:11
We're grateful for that, so we were excited to have Barbara here and have her come learn about. 01:13:17
Some of our businesses we had. We continue to have a lot of great events at Thomas Farm Preserve. This is Kate's club. 01:13:22
Doing a memory walk. 01:13:28
This was a larger event that was a few Sundays ago, but. 01:13:29
You know, the park continued. I went out there Sunday afternoon and. 01:13:32
You know, we had to overflow park again just because it was a nice day. There wasn't even anything going on. But between holiday 01:13:37
pictures and people just wanting to be outdoors. 01:13:40
People are loving that park. 01:13:44
So we have Dr. put the flags out at the cemetery on veteran's day. I don't know about you guys, but I do get a lot of compliments 01:13:46
on us getting our flags up on the holidays. 01:13:51
Really appreciate the staff doing that and also appreciate DA are for. 01:13:56
How they continue to take great care of our. 01:14:00
Cemetery. 01:14:03
We dedicated the Giardini Green just last week. That was another wonderful event, another example of highlighting our history. 01:14:04
And what it took to really. 01:14:11
Turn into a beautiful space it was. 01:14:14
It was really cool to hear Emery Harden talk about that. Amory was mayor before Mayor Giordani. 01:14:17
And Emery's a visionary kind of guy and. 01:14:22
For it to have him stand up and say Mayor Giordini. 01:14:25
It took Mayor Giordani to see something at Harris shows that all of us who'd lived here forever had never seen before. I thought 01:14:28
that was really impactful. 01:14:31
He mentioned Mayor Giordani did not just the baseball field. 01:14:36
The playground. 01:14:39
And the boardwalk in the back, all in four years. He would make Sharon Dickerson proud in terms of his energy level. But he got a 01:14:40
lot done in Harris Shoals Park. 01:14:44
Just in his two terms as mayor. 01:14:48
And his, it was wonderful to have his family out there to recognize him. I think he was the last mayor that Julie didn't work for. 01:14:51
Is that right? 01:14:53
OK, All right. So our resident historian, that was the one question I could ask you. What do you know about Mayor Giordani said. I 01:14:57
didn't work with Mayor Giardini. So. But anyway, it was it was great to celebrate him and then it was great to hear from some 01:15:01
folks who. 01:15:06
Poured concrete with him and helped build that boardwalk with him. 01:15:10
Back in the back in the early 90s. 01:15:14
We had a great citywide litter pickup Saturday. It was very successful. That warms my heart. I just hate I couldn't be there, but 01:15:17
we had 57 people come out for a litter. 01:15:21
Pick up and the city looks great. I hope we can schedule another one after the Christmas parade. It always takes time to get that 01:15:26
candy up. 01:15:29
But but this was a group that's the most people far and away that I've ever seen in a city, city litter pickup. We've done 01:15:34
somewhere. We've just had eight or ten people. So that's really great and. 01:15:38
Things look great. Thank you Sharon and staff for being there. 01:15:42
Continue to make progress on the Simonton Bridge pedestrian improvements. We've had a lot of compliments on the new fencing by the 01:15:46
cemetery. 01:15:49
It looks great. 01:15:52
They're really working fast on the. 01:15:54
The bridge. 01:15:57
That was, it looks like maybe yesterday, even today they've they've finished work, doing some of the work on the rebar. 01:15:59
On those wing walls, I think they're going to try to pour tomorrow or Friday on those. 01:16:05
Then they'll begin to backfill around those, and then they'll begin to bring in the trusses. Once that backfilling is done, go 01:16:10
back one picture. I think this is an interesting one. 01:16:14
That area with the ferns? That's what a bridge footer looked like. 01:16:19
In 1890 or whenever the original bridge it was built. And so if you see the stone and you see those ferns, there's two of those 01:16:23
that are still down there. 01:16:27
So I I laughed and I told somebody, I think our bridge is just going to is going to be just fine if that other bridge was carrying 01:16:33
traffic until until 1920 something on those old footers down there in the home so. 01:16:38
But anyway, the the guys are, it's a great crew working down there. 01:16:43
If any of you want to go down there, just ask me and I can take you down there and get you introduced and be safe. 01:16:47
This is just this is one of the trusses that's going to go on the side. This will be the structure that the wood will be attached 01:16:51
to. 01:16:54
This is 55 feet long. It's at IMI. I think they're painting them today or tomorrow. 01:16:57
But that just so that's one quarter. 01:17:03
Of the side of the bridge there to give you a little bit of a feel of the scale. 01:17:05
That's 10 feet tall. 01:17:08
We'll have a we'll have a roof on top of that. If you look in my office, you'll see the color of the roof there. 01:17:10
And then we'll stain the wood once it's put on there. 01:17:16
The wood that will go on the side of the bridge was actually taken from pine trees that were harvested from the site, so we've got 01:17:18
to let that dry out a little bit and cure. 01:17:22
Before we paint it. 01:17:25
All right, I'm excited to announce our 2025 Christmas parade. 01:17:27
Most of y'all are going to know Miss Lottie from Oconee State Bank. 01:17:32
She has been welcoming. 01:17:36
Folks at the bank. 01:17:38
As long as I've been going there and is just a wonderful representative of our community. 01:17:40
Miss a lot. He's always got a smile and a kind word for anybody, so we are incredibly excited that Lottie Davenport will be. 01:17:46
Our Grand Marshall this year. 01:17:52
So congratulations to Lottie Sharon. 01:17:54
I'm assuming maybe we'll work up a little announcement about that we can share on our. 01:17:56
Facebook page and whatnot but but. 01:18:00
Naughty is. 01:18:02
She's. 01:18:04
She's just a wonderful ambassador for our community. We're excited to excited to honor her. 01:18:05
Is there anybody who doesn't smile when they think about Miss Lottie? If you know Miss Lottie, every everybody smiled when that 01:18:09
name popped up there. 01:18:12
This is the agenda for the Christmas parade. It'll be a busy day, but an exciting day. Always. The road will be closed. 01:18:15
From. 01:18:22
4:00 Sharon to. 01:18:24
Closes the 2 Main St. Closes at. 01:18:27
Thanks for closing it too as well. OK, yeah. 01:18:31
So 2 to. 01:18:34
Two to seven, that's your annual opportunity to walk up and down Main Street and Barnett Shoals in a Safeway. We will have the 01:18:36
fencing again this year though, when the parades going on and all the activities that we normally do always send incredibly 01:18:40
exciting. 01:18:45
Time in Watkinsville and hope you all will be there to participate on our float. 01:18:49
And we had some folks get reelected. Congratulations to all y'all. 01:18:55
All right, and we'll move along. 01:19:01
Happy birthday to Jeff Campbell. 01:19:04
And raggedy, raggedy Andy may be there. 01:19:08
I loved having blonde. 01:19:12
Well, and hair. 01:19:13
Who would have thought Jeff Campbell was a blonde boy? So happy birthday. 01:19:17
Yep, all right. 01:19:23
Oh, wow. OK, yeah, so this guy, this guy had a good run in Carrollton. 01:19:26
And one of his second cross country title and he's continuing to chase a couple dreams for a few more weeks. We'll see how that 01:19:31
works out. So. 01:19:35
And then the team, more importantly, won their 4th title in a row. 01:19:39
Which was a big accomplishment for. 01:19:42
For Oconee, we've got a couple. 01:19:45
Watkinsville kids there. Second from the left is Dayton Bloss. 01:19:47
He lives in Christian Lake. 01:19:51
And then Tate Jenkins sees certainly an honorable Watkinsville kid. He was born here and has spent most of his life on the streets 01:19:53
of Watkinsville. But all these kids have run a lot of miles on our trails and in our city. 01:19:58
And. 01:20:04
We're grateful to recognize their hard work. The ladies team finished second. 01:20:05
And and we've got a couple Watkinsville. 01:20:09
Residents there, Bailey wagon on the left. 01:20:12
Also lives in Christian Lake and some of the other ladies live in Watkinsville or just outside so it was a great. 01:20:14
Sunday or Saturday for our team. 01:20:21
In early November. 01:20:24
And then we've got. 01:20:25
Our County Warriors are playing in the second round. Football Warriors are playing in the second round of the state playoffs. 01:20:27
This week and they've got several kids competing as well and our coach and his son also live. 01:20:33
In Watkinsville. So we're excited. 01:20:39
See how the Football Warriors do and all the rest of our. 01:20:41
Local athletes who have competed so well. 01:20:43
That's all that I've got Council. It's up to y'all at this point to. 01:20:46
Share what you want to share and get us home for dinner. So Councilman Garrett, no pressure post one what you got? I never thought 01:20:49
a whole lot but. 01:20:52
Chief, you here and I'm glad you're here. 01:20:56
CJ left, but I had an opportunity. Most, a lot of us went to that District 5. 01:20:59
Meeting Water Park. 01:21:04
And just I picked up on the. 01:21:07
You know, we're in the top tier. 01:21:10
Of the 911 system in Georgia. 01:21:12
O County. 01:21:15
Pretty impressive. 01:21:17
And it was kind of sad how. 01:21:20
The condition of the 911 system and a lot of. 01:21:22
Georgia, but. 01:21:25
Is good. That wouldn't top. 01:21:27
Yeah. 01:21:29
They have pointed that out very much. So we were we were like the color that was. 01:21:31
That's great. 01:21:36
That's one of those things you got to invest in, but. 01:21:37
You know, you nobody really cares about it till you need it, right? But we got to got to keep supporting that what you said about 01:21:39
Oak County being safe earlier. 01:21:43
It just goes to show, I mean, those guys, they really. 01:21:47
They take it to heart. 01:21:50
That really do. 01:21:51
It's Speaking of safety. I didn't mention this when we were talking about our upgrades at the park, but we added some more 01:21:53
advanced cameras at Thomas Farm Preserve. 01:21:56
And there were a lot of compliments about that system, apparently, to the guy who was installing them. And it just makes people 01:21:59
feel good. 01:22:02
Being out there to know. 01:22:05
You know, to know that should something happen, we've got cameras throughout the park to take. 01:22:06
To, you know, that they can count on, you know, or that we can go back and look at if we need to, if something was to occur or if 01:22:12
there was an accident or whatever. So real credit to. 01:22:16
Sharon and Chief for getting those in and in a lot of the other, you know, kind of quiet safety measures that we've taken. 01:22:20
So, all right, Councilwoman Massey. 01:22:26
Have nothing to report, OK. 01:22:29
Councilman Thomas. 01:22:31
Just glad to be here. 01:22:32
We're glad to have you. 01:22:34
Mayor Pro Tem. 01:22:36
Nothing more. 01:22:38
Mr. Campbell. 01:22:39
Just thank you for my gummy bears. 01:22:41
It will not last long. Yes, yeah. 01:22:43
All right. Love the gummies and Chief our wood, you are back. We did kind of go over your report, but as we are at the end. 01:22:47
But is there anything you would want to share or add or offer? 01:22:54
Over the past month. 01:22:58
No, I think, you know, we had some challenges. 01:23:01
That's all you know, with the with the turnover and stuff. 01:23:04
I feel like Officer Higgins and and sauce man or. 01:23:08
Or up the par and I see things picking up really good with him. 01:23:11
Claire Walter Claire graduates Friday from the Academy, so we have. 01:23:16
Our FTO program starting Monday with him. 01:23:20
I feel pretty good We we had. 01:23:24
Six, we interviewed last Friday. We're working on some background checks on on those and. 01:23:26
You know, most of all. 01:23:32
I'm coming up on my one year anniversary and. 01:23:34
I've said it every time, every month. I'm proud to work for you guys and thank you for. 01:23:36
You know, allowing me to be here. 01:23:41
I love it here. I don't see any changes and I hope you keep me for. 01:23:43
Many years to come and. 01:23:47
I will always do the best job that I can and. 01:23:49
I didn't get to hear about the retirement, but thank you all if it passed, I hope it did. And it's it's, it's a huge blessing to 01:23:52
have that. And I think it will attract more because that's going to be. 01:23:58
You know, it's something important. 01:24:04
To most of. 01:24:05
You know the the officers and employees these days and something that we can. 01:24:07
You know, hopefully retain good qualified. 01:24:11
Officers in the near future. 01:24:13
Perfect. 01:24:16
OK. Thank you, Chief. 01:24:17
Can I interject my thanks as well for the retirement plan? I really appreciate it, it means a lot. 01:24:19
Thank you. 01:24:26
Thank you, Julie. OK. 01:24:27
All right. 01:24:29
It is. We have no executive session, so I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. 01:24:30
I make a motion to adjourn. We have a second, Second. Jeff, All in favor say aye. All right. 01:24:34
Thank you all. 01:24:42
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Transcript

Event transcript
All right. Welcome everybody to the November. 00:00:13
City of Watkinsville council meeting. 00:00:15
We're grateful at this busy season of the year that we have so many people here tonight. We do have a quorum, everybody here with 00:00:18
us. 00:00:21
And we will start with the pledge if we can all stand. 00:00:24
CJ, if you want to lead us in the pledge. 00:00:29
Yes, Sir, I pledge allegiance to the flag. 00:00:31
Of the United States of America. 00:00:34
And to the Republic for which it stands. 00:00:37
One Nation. 00:00:39
Under God. 00:00:41
Indivisible. 00:00:42
With liberty and justice for all. 00:00:43
I thought I heard Kirby Smart down there. 00:00:46
Couple points of privilege, it is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month. Does anyone here representing that organization? 00:00:54
If we have no one here representing that organization, I will forgo the reading of the full proclamation. But I do want to 00:01:02
recognize that for 40 years, Hospice has helped provide comfort and dignity to millions of people. 00:01:08
And that I am proclaiming November 2025 as National Hospice and Palliative Care Month and encourage citizens to increase their 00:01:13
understanding and awareness of care at the end of life, Discuss their end of life wishes with their families. 00:01:19
And observe this month with appropriate activities and programs. 00:01:25
The pork pond, if you can transmit that to the appropriate people, that would be great. We also want to recognize our Fall for 00:01:32
Watkinsville contest winners. They are both here. 00:01:37
So we had. 00:01:41
Our first and 2nd place. 00:01:44
Winner and I'll bring these. 00:01:46
Up and we will recognize them. 00:01:48
Taking second place, we have Miss Carol Ivy. 00:01:55
Carol, you. 00:02:00
Carol always participates and you're great when you've got a $25 gift, so. 00:02:07
Don't care. We don't want her to quit decorating or quit entering, so we're grateful. 00:02:23
And our winner this year is Miss. 00:02:29
Shirley Dean and you can see her beautiful porch up there. You guys are neighbors. 00:02:32
We've got. 00:02:38
That's from Empire South. 00:02:46
If you don't enjoy it, I know you have some grandchildren too. 00:02:50
So thank you all for participating. Thanks to everybody in the city who participated. I know Brad always provides a little 00:02:54
encouragement on that too. Thank you. Thank you, Brad. 00:02:59
And don't feel like you'll have to hang around as interesting as this meeting is going to be. You'll just stay as long or as short 00:03:06
as you want to. I'll say this for the rest of our crowd. We do have two dense topics we're going to work. 00:03:11
Quickly tonight, so if it feels like I'm moving fast, I'm going to move fast so we can get to. 00:03:16
To our items that are just a little bit complex, we're going to discuss. 00:03:21
And then we have our annual highlight, our stormwater review. 00:03:25
From our engineer Mark Campbell, which is always to highlight November, the only thing we're missing in November this year is our 00:03:29
audit. So. 00:03:33
We don't have that. 00:03:36
We'll have that next month, but normally that is a November. 00:03:38
Highlight. 00:03:42
Said loosely. We do have approval of minutes, so October 15th minutes Council, you've had an opportunity to review those. Are 00:03:43
there any edits, changes, suggestions to the minutes? If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve, to make a motion to approve. 00:03:49
2nd. 00:03:55
We have a motion, we have a second. Any further discussion? 00:03:56
Hearing none all in favor say aye. 00:03:58
Any opposed? 00:04:01
Motion carries. 00:04:02
The agenda, we have two changes to the agenda. I'd like to suggest we want to table item 11 as no bids were received. I think that 00:04:03
is the extra large Christmas tree stand. So I will advise the public if you want an extra large Christmas tree stand, we've got 00:04:09
one for you here in Watkinsville. So when you go to get the Griswold tree, you let us know and you can bid on that and have it 00:04:15
ready for your family in December. Sharon might even make you a deal on that. 00:04:20
And then we're going to move up Item 16. That's our strategic plan presentation for downtown, which I think will be a real 00:04:27
highlight for tonight. So again, if you're interested in what's going to happen in downtown Watkinsville, stay tuned on the 00:04:33
screen. That'll move up from Item 16 to earlier in the agenda, Item 6, Downtown Development Authority. So if council, if you're 00:04:39
willing to make those two changes, if someone could make a motion to that effect and we will approve the agenda. 00:04:45
I make a motion to approve the agenda with those two changes. 00:04:51
Do we have a second? Second. 00:04:55
All right. Any discussion? 00:04:56
Hearing none all in favor say aye, Any opposed? 00:04:58
Motion carries, we'll move those two items. We'll move into administration. Again, I'd ask staff to be thorough but be brief. We 00:05:01
do have an informal public input process in Watkinsville that's at council's discretion. If you have a question about something 00:05:06
that's shorthand for, raise your hand and we'll recognize you and you can ask it. If it gets personal, if it gets long, if it gets 00:05:11
inappropriate, then we do reserve the right to. 00:05:16
To do that and go back to the more standard rules, which means you can come up in a public input point or during public comment 00:05:22
and ask those questions. But we generally do like to keep things informal. So if something pops up here and you have a quick 00:05:26
question, just raise your hand and we'll ask you to come up and ask your question because we know not everybody's here every week. 00:05:30
With that, we'll go on to administration. We'll start with financial reports. Sharon, share some good news with us. All right, 00:05:35
well. I. 00:05:39
There is good news. I can't share it with you on the general fund because we are working with the auditors right now to try to get 00:05:45
everything done so we can present at the December meeting. 00:05:49
But so we don't have the reconciliation, but everything is moving along fine, no surprises on the general fund side. 00:05:53
On the splash side, we have we're averaging about $86,000 a month. We budgeted at 64. So that's good news. We have a little bit 00:05:59
more than jump to the next slide. 00:06:05
We have a little bit more than a million three in the bank. 00:06:11
I think last month y'all noticed we. 00:06:16
We because the way the deposit was, we didn't actually have the August or September deposit. So this month we have both deposits 00:06:17
in there. 00:06:21
But everything is moving along fine on that. Just a reminder that the projects that's lost three pays for. 00:06:25
And I believe we are getting ready for a spliced for referendum sometime early next year. 00:06:31
Good projects for us and then on T spas was which is the transportation splost. 00:06:36
We are averaging about 75. We think we'll be. 00:06:41
Closer to we budgeted at 85% which is 78, but we're very early on and normally what happens is it it you know averages out higher 00:06:44
as we get in there. We are averaging though monthly about 6% higher than this time last year. So that's that's good news too, a 00:06:50
little bit less than $1,000,000 in that account. 00:06:56
Reminder that T SPOTS and SPLOST are actually both funding the Simpton Bridge Rd. pedestrian connector as well as some other 00:07:03
projects. 00:07:07
And this is where I interject. All that sounds complicated. The short version of that is. 00:07:10
The SPLOST and T spots that voters approve allow us to keep your property taxes lower. 00:07:14
Because we're using sales taxes to pay for things. So you're going to hear a lot of talk around the state over the next year 00:07:20
about. 00:07:22
Income tax, Sales tax. 00:07:25
Property tax, the way we keep property tax lower is by approving these pennies because more of that money's coming from people 00:07:27
from out of the county going to Costco and shopping in Watkinsville and spending their money here versus all that being on the 00:07:32
backs of our property taxpayers. So as you talk to your friends, as you have a cup of coffee, if people complain about sales tax, 00:07:37
remind them that about 45% of that is paid by people from outside our community. 00:07:42
Sharon, back to you, OK. 00:07:47
On the economic development side, the business license renewals went out. 00:07:50
A couple of weeks ago and they are due back March 15th of next year. We already have quite a few coming in. 00:07:55
And then on the excise tax side, alcohol and hotel, motel or short term vacation rental, those are trending a little bit higher 00:08:01
than what we expected this time of year. So that's good news as well. 00:08:06
Not a whole bunch economic development on building permits. We will have a few more in November and December. 00:08:11
Mostly in the four different projects. Just simple little things like signs and plumbing. 00:08:17
Any questions? 00:08:22
OK. 00:08:26
All right, Mayor Pro Tem, I'm going to hand it to you for a bit. 00:08:27
So we've had a lot of fun things happening in our community in the last month. 00:08:31
We are after I. 00:08:36
Talk fairly quickly. We're going to have our strategic plan presented to us, which it's pretty impressive. 00:08:39
They're going to just be hitting the highlights. It is all online and available to read in full and I highly recommend going and 00:08:46
doing that and I'm excited to see. 00:08:51
US start implementing this and the next. 00:08:57
Months and years. 00:09:00
Sorry. 00:09:02
So in business news. 00:09:04
The Classic City Golf Lounge which is going to be on School St. There is a soft opening in mid-december, grand opening January of 00:09:07
26. So this will be a. 00:09:11
Golf simulation lounge. 00:09:17
And I am personally not a golfer, but my husband is, and this is pretty impressive technology and I think just a fun thing. 00:09:19
For our community to have. 00:09:27
We had the fall festival. If you were not able to go out, it's always the. 00:09:31
But is it always the third Saturday of the? 00:09:37
Of October and so much fun. The setup was great, lots of vendors, perfect weather. 00:09:41
And brought. 00:09:47
Lots and lots of people to our community. 00:09:49
And then we had the American Heart Association Heart Walk that following week. 00:09:52
And then one of the highlights for many people, including I think, Mayor Broderick with his amazing costumes, every year he 00:09:58
outdoes himself. We had our downtown trick or treating. 00:10:04
And so it's just a really fun community event. Lots of businesses get involved. 00:10:11
And just a great thing for our community. 00:10:17
Upcoming we have. 00:10:21
Mingle Bells, which is a ladies after hours event. It is this. It's tomorrow. Actually, this Thursday. I'm realizing it's 00:10:24
tomorrow. 00:10:28
And we are starting at Chops and Hops at 4:30 for cocktails and apps and then. 00:10:34
Shopping and going to other businesses. 00:10:39
And. 00:10:43
Registration is required. 00:10:45
Umm, shopping is free so. 00:10:49
I know that link is kind of hard for anyone to click on sitting in the audience. Is there an easy place for people to go and do 00:10:54
that? 00:10:57
And can they? 00:11:02
Can they just and how like can someone register? 00:11:04
4:00. 00:11:10
OK, so just make sure you register and you do have to be a lady. 00:11:11
I think. 00:11:15
Sure, I don't know. 00:11:16
And then we have. 00:11:18
And the spirit of the decorating contest, we are doing a first we're going to do a downtown business decorating contest. 00:11:20
And. 00:11:27
It is. 00:11:29
It's December 5th, Sunday. 00:11:32
7th is. 00:11:34
The contest Sunday and the fifth, yeah, it's supposed to be Friday. That's my, that's my mistake. Friday, Totally fine. 00:11:37
And so it. 00:11:44
Yeah, can't wait to see what businesses do. 00:11:47
And so that is the upcoming stuff. Of course, we have the Christmas parade and the tree lighting, but that will be talked about 00:11:49
probably during the mayor's report. 00:11:53
And then I also do want to just mention before we get to the strategic plan update, oh Calf is having their holiday market this 00:11:58
weekend. 00:12:01
Friday, Saturday and Sunday Friday 4:00 to 8:00 Saturday 4:50 Sunday 2:50. 00:12:06
And it's $5 entry, it is. 00:12:13
No cash this year for the entry. Just FYI. It's card only. 00:12:17
And then obviously vendors will take different payment methods, but if you've never been to that event, it is fantastic. It's a 00:12:22
great place to shop local, support artists and get a jump start on your Christmas shopping. 00:12:28
And now our strategic plan. 00:12:34
How's that? 00:12:48
Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. 00:12:51
Nice to be with you all tonight. 00:12:53
Appreciate it. 00:12:55
My name is Eric. 00:12:57
Bread felt and I am. 00:12:58
The economic development director for. 00:13:01
Inspire placemaking. 00:13:04
And we were hired. 00:13:06
Earlier this year to work on the strategic plan. 00:13:08
Our offices are in Midtown Atlanta in the Biltmore. 00:13:11
If you're familiar with that area. 00:13:16
I just want to introduce two of my colleagues here. 00:13:18
Eleanor Tell. 00:13:21
Who is the deputy project manager? 00:13:22
And Alex Kozela, who both worked on that on the. 00:13:24
Both worked on the job. 00:13:28
Alex is a planner. 00:13:29
I I wanted to bring them along because it's important for. 00:13:32
For you all to know that they're important members of the team and I feel like on projects like this, I want to make sure the team 00:13:35
gets. 00:13:38
Get some credit as well. 00:13:41
So we were given the opportunity this afternoon to meet with the DA and review the strategic plan. And so we wanted to do the same 00:13:44
with you. I have a PowerPoint. 00:13:50
But we're gonna do it. 00:13:55
With much brevity. 00:13:57
Much more brevity. 00:13:59
Then this afternoon so. 00:14:00
I'm going to go through these slides and hit them pretty quickly. 00:14:02
So this has been a fairly. 00:14:08
Quick turn around in terms of a project, we actually got the contract here in May. 00:14:12
Had our kickoff with staff in June. 00:14:17
And. 00:14:20
We're now here with the final plan basically, so about 5 or 6 months. 00:14:22
In terms of the timeline, we did the project kickoff. 00:14:28
We did. 00:14:31
Some public engagement with the community in June. 00:14:32
We were here in town. We had a public engagement session on June 26th. 00:14:37
For most of the day. 00:14:41
And then did a brief presentation of the DDA on the 27th of some of our initial findings. 00:14:43
And and then we followed up in July, August. 00:14:49
With some additional stakeholder meetings. 00:14:53
Some additional public engagement, which actually the city. 00:14:55
Did some additional engagement. 00:14:58
And then we basically been. 00:15:00
Working on wrapping up the plan. 00:15:03
The last couple of months. 00:15:05
Wanted to touch base on the plan structure. So when you take a look at it, you know how we kind of. 00:15:08
Take a. 00:15:13
Take a swing at these things. 00:15:14
We usually go into a project like this and we. 00:15:16
We try to get a handle on where we are now and that's basically looking at the data. 00:15:19
Getting to the community and trying to figure out our own impressions. 00:15:25
Based on our experience, but also what we're finding. 00:15:29
In different data sources. 00:15:32
Then we move into the where are we going? And that's really. 00:15:34
We all know that data only goes so far. 00:15:38
That you have to, really. 00:15:41
Talk to folks that. 00:15:43
Have the personal experiences in the community. So that's where we actually do the community engagement. 00:15:44
And get that input as well. That's important. 00:15:49
To flesh out the plan, but it's also important. 00:15:52
For the third part about how we get there, because that's about implementing the plan. 00:15:56
And we want to make sure that the plan. 00:16:00
Is reflective of some of the community input that we got. 00:16:03
Because then we have folks that are on board. 00:16:06
And can make it a smoother process down the road. 00:16:08
We have. 00:16:12
In addition to the. 00:16:13
The structure, we have a framework where we kind of focus the plan on these particular areas. 00:16:15
Strengthening community owned assets. 00:16:21
Amplifying connections and neighborhoods nodes. 00:16:24
And then activating the downtown core. 00:16:27
So when we get to the end of the slide presentation, you're going to see an implementation table. 00:16:30
That has a series of things that we think the city should move forward on. 00:16:35
Is moving forward on some of them already. 00:16:39
And they're basically follow the same color pattern, so you know, like. 00:16:42
What the framework is and what's behind those things? 00:16:45
So on the where we are now. 00:16:49
Next slide. 00:16:52
Of course, when we approach this, we approach it in terms of different contexts, you know, because. 00:16:53
We have the DDA in Area 1. 00:16:58
Ah, which is the study area basically, but we're also cognizant of what's going on. 00:17:01
In the city area too. 00:17:06
And then the overall context which is. 00:17:08
Oconee County. 00:17:10
So it's important to kind of look at. 00:17:12
At the plan in that way, it also kind of gets to some of the engagement that we did. So I'll talk about that in a minute next 00:17:14
slide. 00:17:17
I wanted to hit on this slide. 00:17:22
Particularly because. 00:17:24
This is an interesting question of why this plan? Why now? 00:17:26
And I feel like as I explained to the DDA, from my perspective in looking at the where the community is, I think there's. 00:17:30
I think you're kind of in an inflection point. 00:17:38
And there's three reasons for this that I see. 1 is. 00:17:40
What came across in the engagement and some of our. 00:17:45
Review of the situation here this there's. 00:17:48
One of the. 00:17:51
Paramount themes is. 00:17:52
Pre preserving the community values and the sense of character. 00:17:54
Of Watkinsville. 00:17:58
In the context of the growth that's going on. 00:18:00
So there's a lot of things that are going on. 00:18:03
Around that theme. 00:18:06
That really makes the plan important right now. 00:18:08
The second thing is. 00:18:11
There's some pending public projects. 00:18:13
That are out there. 00:18:16
The one that you'll see when you read the narrative of the. 00:18:18
Plan that we kind of. 00:18:21
Highlighted a little bit was the. 00:18:22
The proposed bypass. 00:18:25
Which is coming down the road at some point. 00:18:27
No pun intended. 00:18:30
But it is going to be important because. 00:18:32
It's potentially a project that you want to gear up. 00:18:34
To be ready for so that when it does happen. 00:18:37
You've thought through like some of the traffic concerns that are going through. 00:18:40
Downtown Watson. So right now. 00:18:44
And then third is just this issue of advancing opportunities that are coming to you already? 00:18:46
As a deliberative body. 00:18:52
Because a strategic plan is about. 00:18:54
Thinking about. 00:18:57
Like. 00:18:58
The big picture basically and how things. 00:18:59
Come together. 00:19:01
Rather just than just like isolated things that are coming before you right now. 00:19:03
I watched your lot of tape, your last meeting. 00:19:07
And I noticed that you had an item on there. 00:19:10
Forgot all the details, forgive me but it was something to do with. 00:19:12
Dealing with maybe a hotel use somewhere? 00:19:16
So maybe. 00:19:19
That's like indicative of some of the issues that you might be seeing. 00:19:20
Pop up and spot basis and those things are going to continue to happen. 00:19:24
Hopefully the plan will give you some. 00:19:29
Sort of implementation actions and things that you can. 00:19:31
Like, stitch those things together so you have a. 00:19:34
Plan of action to deal with that. 00:19:36
Next slide. 00:19:40
So. 00:19:42
You're going to see, I'm not going to go through all these graphs, but you're going to see a bunch of data. 00:19:42
In the Where we are now section. 00:19:46
To be candid. 00:19:49
Watkinsville. 00:19:51
I'm just going to be candid here. 00:19:52
Watkinsville has good problems to have. 00:19:54
In a way OK, because when you look at the data. 00:19:57
You, you have a lot, you have a lot of growth, which is which in a way is a good thing. 00:20:00
And and you have high incomes. 00:20:05
It's in a lot of areas that we work in, we don't see either of those and so. 00:20:08
Communities are starting at a real. 00:20:13
Disadvantage there so. 00:20:15
I think Watkins on the demographics and some of the data points has a real solid thing going on. 00:20:17
Next slide. 00:20:22
We know that your land use and zoning in the downtown is governed by. 00:20:23
Character areas and. 00:20:27
Our zoning designations, we took a look at what you have in the Muni code. 00:20:29
On your designations, they seem like. 00:20:34
You know, for your downtown character areas and downtown zoning your historic main areas. 00:20:36
You have some of the like regulatory structure that you need. 00:20:41
To handle some of the development that's coming in and around the downtown. 00:20:44
Next slide. 00:20:48
You're also going to see some maps in the. 00:20:50
Where we are now about. 00:20:52
The environment and the natural. 00:20:54
Features of Watkinsville. 00:20:58
I had my lunch in Harris Shoals Park. 00:21:00
Beautiful day to do that today. 00:21:04
You know you get to check out the Creek there. 00:21:07
Of course, creeks are important for their just their natural. 00:21:09
Um, character, but also. 00:21:13
We develop. 00:21:16
In though in those boundaries. 00:21:17
That dictate. 00:21:20
How a site is going to actually develop? 00:21:21
Develop how it's going to look. 00:21:24
So we have to be aware of those things when we're. 00:21:25
We're doing a plan. 00:21:28
Mobility and connectivity is just about how people are getting from. 00:21:29
Point A to point B and we have mapping in there. 00:21:34
Regarding the. 00:21:37
Pedestrian. 00:21:38
Connections that are being made, the roads, etc. 00:21:40
Next slide. 00:21:43
We've done an analysis in the plan of Real Estate by. 00:21:45
Different. 00:21:49
Segment retail, office, industrial and multifamily. 00:21:50
The General. 00:21:56
Finding is that you have a pretty stable. 00:21:58
Real estate market in terms of how those different sectors are? 00:22:01
Performing. 00:22:04
You have maybe some issues with like age of some of the inventory. 00:22:06
But you have some low vacancy rates there. 00:22:10
So you're going to see that called out in the plan. 00:22:13
Very important to. 00:22:16
Downtowns and how they fund function are like civic and cultural assets. 00:22:18
And you have. 00:22:23
A plethora of those in and around the downtown. 00:22:24
So stitching those together in a in a. 00:22:27
In a fine urban fabric is really what you're trying to shoot for in the downtown. 00:22:31
We kind of. 00:22:38
In our summary of that particular first section. 00:22:40
We we talk about the strengths and weaknesses that we see. I'm not going to go through all of them. 00:22:43
But. 00:22:47
You'll see, you know, like with any analysis that you do. 00:22:48
You have a lot of things going for Watkinsville, but you have some things that need to be. 00:22:53
Ameliorated. 00:22:57
It's the old thing about. 00:22:58
Accentuating the positives and eliminating the negatives. 00:23:01
To the extent possible. 00:23:04
Next slide. 00:23:07
OK. Where are we going is the second part of the plan and that's really the community engagement. And So what you're going to see 00:23:10
in that section is just like. 00:23:13
A retelling of the engagement story that we did. 00:23:17
The actual. 00:23:20
For some of the some of you actually attended that session or. 00:23:22
Those sessions, but. 00:23:26
We did various activities with the public. We. 00:23:27
We talked about the existing conditions, but then we also had light. 00:23:30
Often we do is have. 00:23:33
Visual preference boards. What do you like? What don't you like? How do things look and function? 00:23:35
We actually had a budget activity where we asked people to like. 00:23:41
In theory, put their money where their mouth is basically and say what their priorities are. 00:23:44
Which is just like. 00:23:49
Putting chips into a Mason jar. 00:23:50
So I'll, I'll mention that in a minute and then we basically have an interactive map where folks can lease their. 00:23:53
Various and sundry comments on a variety of things. 00:23:59
And then we did that all on the 26th and then we. 00:24:02
Reported our initial findings to the. 00:24:06
DDA on the 27th, next slide. 00:24:08
So these are. 00:24:13
Some of the like this was the budgeting. 00:24:14
Exercise where we had these Mason jars and people. 00:24:16
Put their chips basically in the deformation drawers and some of the things that came out strongly. 00:24:20
Which? 00:24:25
Is not. 00:24:27
Different from what we see in other downtowns is that if people like the way the downtown looks and feels. 00:24:27
They want more of it. 00:24:33
They want more. 00:24:35
Shops and retail, you know they want more restaurants and pubs they want. 00:24:36
They want the connections to be enhanced to those two things. That's what really came through in that exercise. 00:24:41
Next slide. 00:24:48
We did these preference boards that I talked about. So we had like. 00:24:50
Different. 00:24:55
Visual design preferences that were just generalized, but then we had them in a residential context. 00:24:56
And a commercial context and you can see on the. 00:25:02
The right side What the? 00:25:05
The most highly. 00:25:06
The highly voted things were. 00:25:09
You know, like on general designs, people like the Street Academy. 00:25:11
Gotta be They like public art. They like historic character. 00:25:14
It's a predominantly single. 00:25:18
Home family home community so. 00:25:20
You know, there was a stressing on that. They kind of would like to see mixed-use. 00:25:22
Cottage style. I think they're people were thinking about like it. 00:25:26
What we talk about with. 00:25:29
Respect to accessory dwelling units, that type of thing, which is. 00:25:31
A different type of residential, but small scale. 00:25:35
It's contextual. 00:25:38
And then commercial preferences? 00:25:40
More restaurants, possibly grocery. 00:25:43
They like festivals, they like events. 00:25:47
We had. 00:25:50
In addition to that, we had a. 00:25:51
Project website that has been was online for two or three months. 00:25:53
We had 357 participants on an online survey. 00:25:57
And. 00:26:01
Tell you the truth, I can't actually read all those and I'm not going to read. 00:26:03
But. 00:26:07
There's plenty of data in there that summarizes where people were coming from on the survey. It's like a series of questions on. 00:26:08
That we asked them. 00:26:14
And if. 00:26:17
For those of you are really interested in. 00:26:18
The particulars of that data we've also provided like the data set that's behind that summary, so you can really. 00:26:20
Get into it if you'd like that stuff. 00:26:26
Then the city, just briefly. The city did I think 2 engagement summaries as well. 00:26:28
In addition to what we did so those. 00:26:32
Those are reported out as well. 00:26:34
OK. And then finally. 00:26:36
How do we get there? 00:26:38
So. 00:26:40
This is very important because I've I've been doing this for a long time and the one thing that. 00:26:42
I don't really want to be engaged too much in anymore. Is. 00:26:47
Doing plans that are not going to be implemented. 00:26:50
I mean. 00:26:53
If we're going to do a plan, we want to, we want to like structure it in a way. 00:26:54
That it's going to be implemented like it's going to get done. 00:26:58
We're not gonna just. 00:27:01
Produce it and then. 00:27:02
We're going to leave the community and it's just going to sit on a shelf somewhere. 00:27:03
So we were trying to be deliberate about. 00:27:07
How? 00:27:10
We put this. 00:27:11
Section of the plan together and maybe we can go to the next slide. 00:27:12
So. 00:27:16
In this section is basically this table. 00:27:18
Which we basically. 00:27:21
I have a series of about. 00:27:23
I'd say 15 projects. 00:27:25
And the projects are all. 00:27:27
Described. 00:27:29
And then there. 00:27:31
Highlighted as being what we think are either immediate. 00:27:33
Short term or long term? 00:27:36
Immediate is anything. 00:27:38
Between now and two years. Thank you. 00:27:40
And those items are mapped. 00:27:45
Go to the next slide. 00:27:48
The short term are those projects that are. 00:27:50
Two to five years, you know, like. 00:27:53
One that comes that you can see there that is a couple of the. 00:27:55
Potential redevelopment properties that you have that. 00:27:59
The community might want to look at so those are. 00:28:02
Projects that. 00:28:05
We think might want to. You might want to look at. 00:28:06
In the short term. 00:28:09
And then the last slide. 00:28:10
Is the longer term projects. 00:28:12
That are five years plus. 00:28:14
So they're mapped and described. 00:28:16
The big one on the five year long term project which we heard a lot of support for, which is a complicated project, but. 00:28:18
Maybe the community wants to pursue it in like digestible parts. 00:28:25
Rail to trail corridor. 00:28:29
Which? 00:28:31
Can be transformational. 00:28:32
We've seen that in a lot of communities. 00:28:34
But it's complicated and you gotta like spend a lot of time working at. 00:28:36
But that would be an example of a long term project. 00:28:40
I should note that. 00:28:43
On the matrix that we have there. 00:28:44
What we kind of cut that off, but what you're also going to see there, importantly is. 00:28:47
We kind of suggested. 00:28:51
Who the responsible party should be? 00:28:53
Which I think is important. 00:28:57
And then we have one other thing there that I wanted to mention. 00:28:59
Excuse me, let me just check that. 00:29:04
Quick. 00:29:06
So we had the lead and we had the response like the partners that could be involved in it. So I think that's important because. 00:29:10
Again. 00:29:16
Been doing this work long enough that. 00:29:17
To get things implemented. 00:29:21
Can't really usually do them all by yourself. You're going to have to like it's sometimes it's an issue of control. 00:29:23
Sometimes it's an issue of money. 00:29:28
Or resources. 00:29:30
And like these economic development and planning projects. 00:29:31
They take a long time and like. 00:29:35
Many hands make for lighter work. 00:29:37
You know what I mean? So. 00:29:39
So that's important, but it's important that we. 00:29:40
Call the folks out that. 00:29:42
Need to probably be involved in those things. 00:29:44
Lastly. 00:29:47
Before I say thank you, is that. 00:29:49
We also have some things that we put at the end of the plan, which are listed under. 00:29:52
I think additional considerations and those are things. 00:29:56
That we thought. 00:29:59
We wanted to provide that because sometimes you go into something and you like. 00:30:02
Know what you don't know? 00:30:06
Or there are things that you know that you don't know. 00:30:08
And these things are like out-of-the-box things that. 00:30:11
Maybe you guys don't know about them and maybe it's something that you want to think about a little bit. So those are in the plan 00:30:14
as well. 00:30:17
Want to thank you very much for your time tonight and. 00:30:20
We we really enjoyed working on the project. 00:30:23
You have an excellent staff. We enjoyed working with Jan and with Sharon. 00:30:26
And appreciate it and I'm happy to. 00:30:30
Answer any questions. 00:30:32
Thank you. 00:30:34
Council kind of questions do you have? 00:30:37
Hey, Eric's heard all my questions throughout the process, so. 00:30:45
I just want to thank all of you it was. 00:30:50
Really wonderful working with you guys you did. 00:30:52
Fantastic work you were. 00:30:55
Patient with our changes and our questions and. 00:30:57
So it's, it's really been a joy. And maybe we'll get to. 00:31:02
Work together on. 00:31:05
Future projects in some way or other. So I just really want to thank you guys. 00:31:06
Thank you. 00:31:12
When do we talk about next steps? 00:31:13
Yeah, let me before we do that, was anybody in the public have any questions? I know we just have a few people here. 00:31:17
No, OK. 00:31:24
And let's talk about next steps. Brett, my understanding is the DDA is and if you could stay art for a second. 00:31:26
The DDA is. 00:31:32
Has gotten this and will review it and move to adopt it in January is most likely because I don't think you're having a December 00:31:34
meeting. 00:31:38
Then we would adopt this. 00:31:41
In January as well, formally, what we've seen in the past is. 00:31:43
You know, doing these plans. 00:31:47
And I'll and I'll say what I was going to say at the end anyway too, because. 00:31:49
We're not at the city of city where plans sit on shelves, it's the city where plans get implemented. So I would encourage all 00:31:52
y'all to take your time and read the plan. 00:31:55
Because that plan that you guys adopt. 00:31:59
I guarantee you Sharon will be coming back to us for our planning session and there will be stuff from that plan on there, so. 00:32:02
I don't want to get in the situation of, oh, I didn't know that was part of the plan. So it is important that that you guys take 00:32:08
some time and read this and if you have any concerns about anything in there that you express those concerns. 00:32:13
Or that we talk about those before we adopt it in January. But my. 00:32:19
Hope would be that the DDA would adopt it and recommend it to this body in January and that we would then adopt it in January and 00:32:22
then begin to work on the. 00:32:25
The shortest term implementation stuff and. 00:32:30
Some of the longer term stuff is going to really require some thoughtful budgeting and and that kind of stuff. 00:32:32
So any other thoughts? 00:32:37
Christine on implementation of next steps. 00:32:41
OK, I just want to offer, I want to say the same thing largely that Christine said. But. 00:32:45
This, this group for council to know, for the public to know, they really rolled up their sleeves. I'll also remind everybody that 00:32:49
Georgia Power, the Georgia Power Foundation actually provided a grant for this funding. So this did not. 00:32:54
Most of the funding came from Georgia Power and we're grateful for that. 00:33:01
But you know this, Watkinsville is not a city where we get plans and then we don't activate them. You know, you can go in my 00:33:05
office. You can see our transportation plan. You can see our Harris Shoals plan. You can see our Thomas Far Preserve plan. 00:33:11
We tend to activate things and we activate them responsibly, but we also. 00:33:17
Work relatively quickly. I was smiling when you said this has been a fast process. You'll find when you work with Watkinsville 00:33:21
when we get aligned. 00:33:24
And we make it a priority. Things happen quickly here, and we think that's really important. 00:33:27
So their citizens have confidence in the local government, so. 00:33:32
Elena, Alex. 00:33:37
Eric, great work. We're grateful for that. I. 00:33:39
Will circulate this, I'll put it in my update tonight and hopefully our citizens will also take time to read it and share any 00:33:42
thoughts they have before we move to final adoption. But I think this is really reflective of. 00:33:47
What our citizens wanted, but also brought. 00:33:52
One of the reasons we wanted Inspired was to bring in a perspective of someone who had done this in a lot of other communities 00:33:54
across the Southeast. So it's got. 00:33:58
What our citizens want, but it's informed by a perspective of a group that's worked and seen. 00:34:02
Awesome small towns that are a little bit ahead of ours all over the country. So we're grateful for you guys and for what you've 00:34:07
done. 00:34:10
So OK. 00:34:12
I know you all have a drive so don't feel like you have to hang around. We are going to talk about retirement plans if you do want 00:34:14
to stay or stick around. Nice Thanksgiving. 00:34:19
OK. All right. 00:34:24
All right. Is there anything else on the DDA front, Christine? 00:34:27
OK, great. 00:34:31
All right. I think Chief Allwood had to step out. He did. Yeah. I don't think there's the whole. I'm happy to. I think the most 00:34:32
important thing is one of our cadets. 00:34:37
Walter Claire all of a sudden got kind of nuts. Walter Claire, right? 00:34:42
Yeah, I don't want that sound a weirdo sudden graduates Friday from the police Academy. That will be at the classic center. 00:34:46
Everybody is involved is invited to attend. Sometimes the governor shows up. So 10:00 Friday, Classic center. Hopefully y'all can 00:34:50
join us. I think the rest of the report, if you have questions, just let him know or send me a quote. Send me any questions you 00:34:55
may have. 00:34:59
All right, great. 00:35:05
And I think all the numbers were consistent with where they typically are on the Police Department report. So that's good. 00:35:07
We were highlighted as one of the safest communities in Georgia I think last week, Oconee County and Watkinsville, which was which 00:35:13
was really nice. 00:35:17
All right, we'll move on to the consent agenda. 00:35:22
Nobody asked that anything come off the consent agenda. I will note that we have CJ Worden. 00:35:25
Here with us tonight, I think he has. 00:35:31
The we're adopting the Oconee County Multi Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation plan. CJ, that's your baby, is that right? OK, so I'm 00:35:34
sure all of you read that in great detail. 00:35:39
All all 250 pages of it but. 00:35:46
All the walkins are highlighted. No, I did too. And I told CJ I was like wanting to knock on wood after that because it basically 00:35:48
said you're in a really safe community that doesn't have many tornadoes, winds or storms. And I'm like, OK, well. 00:35:53
Back then, but because it got down in the 60s during the night, so yeah. 00:36:28
Yeah. But anyway, everything looked good on the consent agenda unless anybody has any questions. 00:36:33
Just because CJ is here, if you have any questions about that, we can ask him. Otherwise I'm going to take a motion to approve 00:36:38
that. 00:36:41
I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. 00:36:43
There we have a second. 00:36:46
Do we have any questions for CJ before we do? 00:36:48
All right. I don't hear any. So all in favor of approving the full consent agenda say aye, aye. 00:36:51
Any opposed? 00:36:56
All right, that carries CJ. You're welcome to stay. You're welcome to get. 00:36:57
All right. 00:37:01
We have no public hearings. We have no appearances. We do have some old business manager, Dickerson. I'll let you walk us through 00:37:03
that. 00:37:06
So tonight we're going to ask that you approve a change order and a contract with Gantt Construction for the. 00:37:10
Sumption Bridge Rd. Phase one extension which is roughly 1200 linear feet of. 00:37:16
Pedestrian sidewalk Multi Use sidewalks down Sign 10 Bridge Rd. 00:37:22
As a as a reminder. 00:37:28
Back in. 00:37:31
January of 24 we submitted a request for G Tib grant. 00:37:32
For this project. 00:37:37
It's a. 00:37:39
3 1/2 phases essentially. 00:37:39
And we were awarded in June of $1.5 million grant or $2.225 million loan from G Tub. 00:37:42
For this project we have been busy at work since then. 00:37:49
The. 00:37:53
We released in August of last year of. 00:37:54
Yeah. Last year, crazy, we released an RFP for the work for phase one. That phase one work, we received 4 proposals. We ended up 00:37:57
going with Gantt construction. 00:38:02
One piece in here that I should add, which was Gantt Construction did receive that award even though they were not the lowest. 00:38:07
Again, we do proposal process, not a bid process. So we look at the overall. 00:38:12
Contractor and their ability to perform the work and we've been really pleased with Gantt Construction. 00:38:17
He and then in June of this year, we submitted a request to the State Road and Tollway Authority, which administers the G tip 00:38:22
program, to ask them to give us the ability to use. 00:38:27
Some funds that we knew we had available extra that we had not appropriated for these other. 00:38:33
Prop. For these other phases. 00:38:37
In order to extend the sidewalk from Simonton Drive down to the city limits and that was approved. That approval was given or 00:38:39
granted in July. 00:38:44
And then the Council actually did execute specific amendments to that agreement with them. 00:38:49
As I mentioned, Gantt Construction did get phase one. They are still under contract. They're actually going to be out hopefully 00:38:55
this week. 00:38:58
Keeping my fingers crossed. 00:39:01
Completing the landings for the. 00:39:03
Rectangular rapid flashing beacon that you you see those around town for crosswalks. 00:39:06
We're going to be installing those, hopefully, maybe before Thanksgiving, hopefully before the end of the month. 00:39:10
And he's doing that work to get those landings ready. So he's still under contract and made sense to reach out to him for the to 00:39:15
provide a proposed price for this phase one extension. 00:39:20
Engineer Campbell and myself looked at Engineer Campbell looked at it. 00:39:26
A little bit different filter looking at what actually costs. 00:39:29
You know what the costs are, what's reasonable? 00:39:32
He came in, I think. 00:39:34
Engineer Campbell can speak for himself, but. 00:39:36
Mr. Gant came in. 00:39:38
Relatively similar to what he did on the first phase of the project and as as he did on the extension. 00:39:40
We are recommending to go to. 00:39:46
Except his price, a little bit more than $360,000. 00:39:48
And have a 15% contingency added to that. We do have the funds available for that. 00:39:52
Work. So again our request is to. 00:39:58
Award Gantt Construction and Maintenance a contract considering considering that as a change order, but as a separate contract 00:40:01
since it has a different scope. 00:40:05
For the phase one extension. 00:40:09
With a 360,219. 00:40:11
Price estimated cost up to 15% above that and asking that mayor and city clerk sign all the documents that are needed. 00:40:14
Can take questions if anybody has any. 00:40:23
Anything for Mr. Campbell or Mr. Reitman? 00:40:26
Short story here is you know. 00:40:30
Y'all, we're about to do what everybody said couldn't be done. 00:40:32
10 years ago, which is we're going to have a sidewalk all the way from downtown to the end of Simonton Bridge Rd. 00:40:34
And as we outlined before then, what we anticipate happening hopefully by July 4th will be a connection from First Baptist Church. 00:40:39
At that sidewalk point and then all the way over to Wire Park, which will be, which will be tremendous for the city, but this is 00:40:46
the first step. 00:40:49
And credit to Sharon's good management, we were able to. 00:40:53
The G tip funds. 00:40:57
Are able to stretch a little further than we anticipated and we're going to be able to fund. 00:40:58
The full cost of this out of that? 00:41:02
Grant and loan package that we received, so it's good news. 00:41:04
Any questions? 00:41:08
All right, hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve. 00:41:12
The change ordering contract with Gantt Construction for the new additional sidewalk. 00:41:15
Between Simonton Place and the city limits. 00:41:20
I make a motion to approve. 00:41:24
The administrative recommendation of option #1. 00:41:27
We have a second. 00:41:31
2nd. 00:41:34
All right, we have a motion. We have a second. 00:41:35
Any further discussion? 00:41:37
Hearing none, all in favor say aye aye. 00:41:39
All right, it's approved. There are many neighborhoods who appreciate y'all. 00:41:42
This will be, I think it's a couple 100 houses who will. 00:41:47
Have safe. 00:41:50
Connection to downtown and eventually wire. 00:41:52
All right, now what you've all been waiting for, we have some new business and that is the defined benefit retirement plan and 00:41:55
adoption. I'm going to let Manager Dickerson and Julie Klein kick us off with a report on that. We'll then have a report from. 00:42:02
Representative from GM EBS and then we'll discuss this, Sharon. 00:42:09
Thank you, Mayor. 00:42:14
So we are. 00:42:16
Asking that you consider adopting an ordinance for to create a defined benefit retirement plan and an agreement approve an 00:42:17
adoption agreement with the Georgia Municipal Associations Georgia Municipal Employee Benefit System. Got to love all these 00:42:22
acronyms. 00:42:27
The program with the proposed plan would become effective December 1st. 00:42:33
And that would also include designating A pension committee. We'll talk a little bit more about that. So specifically the 00:42:38
designation of the the pension committee would be comprised of the city clerk myself. 00:42:42
Two employees, Mark Novak and James R Wood. 00:42:48
And three council members, and that would be Chuck Garrett, Connie Massey and the mayor. Chuck, I'm sorry. 00:42:51
Councilman Garrett and Councilwoman Massey. 00:42:57
Both serve on the Finance and Personnel Committee, so it made sense for them to be the ones that we selected or are recommending 00:43:00
so. 00:43:03
Just a little brief history. I'll go through all of it, but you all remember that in June of. 00:43:07
Last year you approved a certain amount of money to fund a defined benefit plan and. 00:43:12
In April, we. 00:43:17
Asked and that was. 00:43:19
After we had already asked the. 00:43:21
GMA to give us a cost study to determine whether or not we could afford to do this. 00:43:23
Plan or not, we'll walk through that a little bit here in a second. 00:43:27
So a defined contribution plan we already have in place, that's a where the city provides, allows for 3% IRA match for 00:43:31
participating employees. 00:43:35
The city. 00:43:39
Matches that 3%. 00:43:41
For the employees, a defined benefit and that's a, that's a plan that basically is like your IRA, your 401K or your IRA basically 00:43:43
that you might have at a bank or with a with a investment company. 00:43:49
And that you can take with you. That's not something the city. 00:43:55
That you have to meet any type of vested period with you. 00:44:00
You can contribute to it, and when you leave, you take it with you. 00:44:04
A defined benefit plan, however, is a pension. 00:44:07
You do have to meet certain requirements in our, in this case we'll talk a little bit about it, but the vested period is 10 years. 00:44:09
The employee would not pay for this would be fully funded by the city, very similar to Oconee County. 00:44:16
In fact, we our program mirrors Widow County. County has. 00:44:23
We are we are going to recommend that it be a dual retirement plan. So basically keep the the defined contribution plan and. 00:44:28
The defined benefit plan and not get rid of 1. Not get rid of the defined contribution plan. 00:44:35
So just as a reminder, this is a pool pension system, the Georgia for Georgia municipalities. There's more than 300, I think Josh 00:44:42
will probably tell you there's. 00:44:46
The exact number, but there's more than. 00:44:51
300 local governments that participate in over 40,000. 00:44:53
Employees. 00:44:56
In this in this plan. 00:44:57
That we're going to be hopefully be part of. 00:44:59
I'm going to hit some of the highlights, so it is important. 00:45:02
It is professionally managed and. 00:45:06
The it's pooled for stability, but the liability rests with the city. So ultimately we were responsible for providing. 00:45:08
Those funds, and I know Josh can share a little bit about there have been funds that have been frozen or how that works. We'll 00:45:14
talk a little bit about that. That may be a question. I think that those were some of the questions we put in the document. We 00:45:19
won't go through each and every one of those, but that may be something you want to highlight. 00:45:23
It so GMA doesn't absorb the gap on behalf of cities. If the actuary, the actuary will recalculate the cities required 00:45:29
contribution rate I believe every six months. 00:45:34
Sorry, annually. So I think that happens in January. 00:45:40
Or. 00:45:43
July. 00:45:44
OK. Yeah. So so January for us, so. 00:45:46
If this gets approved, it'll actually get re. 00:45:50
It'll get reviewed again in January. 00:45:53
Oh, come up to the mic just to come back and forth. I'm sorry. So not for the first year since we're just starting it in December. 00:45:57
OK, All right, so, so we won't get a review until January of 27. 00:46:02
So, OK, again the employer, the financial risk of longevity and market performance lies with the employer, but and not the 00:46:08
employee. 00:46:12
But umm. 00:46:16
But we feel, you know, the returns are strong on these programs and so we're not. I'm not. 00:46:18
Super concerned about that at this point. 00:46:22
A couple things to think about is that we did talk to our auditors about starting a new pension plan could result in increasing 00:46:25
administrative time. 00:46:29
Julie and I've looked at what's required. We don't think it's that significant. So we're not as concerned about that. 00:46:32
However, it will require. 00:46:38
Increase in audit probably with our auditor said probably an estimate about $5000 because there's so many more footnotes and 00:46:40
disclosures that they have to have. 00:46:45
When they're reviewing that. 00:46:49
So just be aware of that I. 00:46:51
The the plan that's being proposed to to be offered to employees will cost about $6500 per employee plus $54 per active and 00:46:53
terminated vested participant. 00:46:59
Etcetera, etcetera. So right now the annual cost is 100 and 29602. 00:47:05
That was based on 19 full-time equivalent employees and. 00:47:09
And that was based on. 00:47:13
Two employees who had a fair amount of time with us, who were no longer with us, and I think that's where we talk about. 00:47:14
Things. 00:47:19
Like in January of 27, things may look a little different because we're dealing with a different set of employees, right? Well, 00:47:21
when we do annual synthesis, that's where we will pick up any new employees that have come on, any employees that have left, and 00:47:26
then we recalculate the valuation with the new angle census. 00:47:30
Right. So you guys will submit the census around? 00:47:35
October ish every year and then we'll use that census for the January 1 valuation and then we'll deliver that valuation report in 00:47:37
the late winter, early spring every year. 00:47:41
Great. 00:47:46
You go ahead if you have a question. 00:47:48
So if. 00:47:50
Like if we've just lost. 00:47:52
Two that work like up the number. 00:47:54
Does that mean that? 00:47:56
And assuming no other major changes that in January 27 that. 00:47:58
129602 would probably go down, yes. I wouldn't say would go down substantially just because these are. 00:48:03
Your long term funding assumptions. 00:48:09
You're likely to rehire new employees that are going to accrue future benefits or we're going to have the assumption that they'll 00:48:11
agree those future benefits. But yes, it can go up or down. It's also dependent on on markets, so. 00:48:17
You know, umm. 00:48:23
We don't know what the markets are going to be doing and I saw in reporter you're going to touch on actuarial versus true market 00:48:23
value. You can talk, you can touch on that all you want. Not my area of expertise, you can't you say that, but this is probably 00:48:29
one of the best packets I've ever seen put together for one of these presentations. So give yourself a paddle back, but. 00:48:35
So every year when we do the annual valuation, that's how we will pick up any kind of changes in demographic informations. 00:48:42
You do have assets in the plan that we talked about that are being in. 00:48:48
Invested. 00:48:51
The way that we calculate these actuarial. 00:48:52
The value of assets, there are two ways. There's kind of the true market. 00:48:56
And there is also the actuarial, actuarial market value. 00:48:59
The true market is going to be the true dollar amount in your assets as of January 1st every year. There's also the actuarial. 00:49:03
Valuation, which is going to use a smoothing curve. So if there's a year where the markets do really well, we're not going to ask 00:49:11
you to contribute. 00:49:14
Significantly less and if there's a year where the markets. 00:49:17
Underperform. 00:49:20
Kind of our assumed rate of return, it's not going to you know tank everything and you guys have to cover a ton month you pay in 00:49:21
the ton of money to cover. 00:49:24
Those markets. 00:49:27
OK, All right, so. 00:49:30
As I mentioned earlier, the Council approved the general Fund capital and operating budget, which included. 00:49:33
Monies for this we didn't have quite enough we had. 00:49:40
I think you budgeted, I can go back, it was like $75,000. But the good news is, is that because of our health benefits coming back 00:49:43
lower, we actually. 00:49:48
Freed up some additional money so. 00:49:52
All that to say is I don't have to come back and ask you for money to cover the cost of this program because we have it in the 00:49:53
budget. 00:49:56
And it would again start in December and go through the end of June. And then we'll, you know, as he said, we'll have a new, a new 00:49:59
number for the new fiscal year. 00:50:03
So just some details of the plan, does it only covers employees, not elected officials? 00:50:08
There's no waiting period for eligibility, but vesting is 10 years of service. 00:50:12
There is a prior service credit that we asked them to come up with. We'll explain. We've got some examples. We went had a meeting 00:50:17
last week with employees about it. 00:50:21
So I think we got some pretty good examples for everyone. 00:50:26
The IT does include a 2%. 00:50:29
Multiplier and again I'll walk you through an example in a minute. 00:50:35
It doesn't. It assumes no employee contributions. Again, this mirrors what Oconee County does. They've funded 100% for their 00:50:39
employees. 00:50:43
Trying to see if there's anything else on there. We we did ask for up to A5 year. 00:50:48
Prior service credit and again, we'll walk you through an example of that. 00:50:53
Next, umm. 00:50:57
So a couple of examples. 00:50:58
Let's say the final average salary of an employee who's retiring is $50,000. 00:51:00
There are years of service prior to this plan starting, which would be part of December 1 is 4. 00:51:05
The city has agreed in this in this plan to pay to to give them credit for up to five, so they get credit for four. 00:51:10
Plus any years of service they've. 00:51:17
They've earned after, so if they've earned 6 after 12-1 then they've got their 10, so they're vested. 00:51:19
And that's because they get the four years of paid service credit plus. 00:51:26
The six that they had. 00:51:29
After the program began and so they would be looking at with the benefit multiplier of getting around $10,000 per year. 00:51:31
OK, walk through another one. So same idea. 00:51:38
Final average salary 50,000. 00:51:42
Employee has one year of service prior to starting the plan. 00:51:44
So they get that one year credit, but then they work 9, so again they've got their ten years. 00:51:48
2% multiplier. They'll be getting 10,000 as well. 00:51:52
On this one a little bit different but same salary so 50,000. This is essentially using mine so I have seven years but I only get 00:51:58
5. 00:52:02
Years of credit. 00:52:06
I If I worked another eight, I'd have 15 so. 00:52:08
Ultimately, I have enough service to be vested. 00:52:10
And then the multiplier workout to about $13,000. 00:52:13
Per year. 00:52:17
And then this one is for somebody who may come in. 00:52:19
Who starts the plan? They have a year of service with us before the plan starts. 00:52:23
But only works five years after they don't meet the 10 year requirement, therefore they don't. 00:52:27
Qualify for this benefit at all they would they would walk out the door with nothing. The money stays in any money you've 00:52:32
contributed for that employee stays in the in the fund. 00:52:36
But they don't get to take, they don't get any of it paid out later. 00:52:40
So that's part of the reason we talked about the defined contribution plan to give employees. I mean, there are some employees may 00:52:43
come in, maybe they're later in their career, they don't have 10 years on them, but they want to be, you know, a way for us to 00:52:47
attract is not just. 00:52:51
A pension program for people who may have longevity, but also the defined contribution gives that opportunity. 00:52:56
Attracts employees who may only say I only have 5 or 6 years in me. 00:53:01
But I don't want to be. I want to be able to contribute to a. 00:53:05
Retirement plan and walk away with something. I don't want to not have that pre tax. 00:53:08
You know, opportunity. 00:53:12
So, so we're hitting it from both sides and, and we have to be competitive and we're competing. Our biggest competitor probably is 00:53:14
the county. 00:53:17
So we're trying to be, you know, mirror our program to what they have. 00:53:20
Top talent, I know the chief is not here, but Chief was one who sort of brought this up when he first came on. He asked Jefferson, 00:53:25
which is a little bit bigger than we are, but. 00:53:29
They had a program and for police officers, it's actually a huge attractive, very attractive feature to have. 00:53:32
And that's of course, that was Chiefs big. 00:53:39
Job is to get more officers in here, fill those vacancies and stuff so. 00:53:41
The adoption agreement can be modified. There's a process like anything else, so just know that. 00:53:46
If you approve it, you know it can be modified. 00:53:51
So. 00:53:54
I'll end with the option is we're asking that you approve the ordinance for the defined benefit retirement plan and the adoption 00:53:55
agreement with GMA. 00:53:58
And that you? 00:54:02
Designate the pension committee to be comprised of the city clerk myself. 00:54:04
Employees Mark Novak, James R Wood and council members Garrett Massey and the mayor to the pension Committee. 00:54:08
So just one, this is a teeny little thing, but just as written up there says 3 council members, City Council shouldn't be mayor 00:54:16
and two council members or does that matter? It's basically pension. It says 3 council members can be mayor is a council 00:54:22
essentially he's just the head council member. It's not they don't they do that on purpose, but. 00:54:28
A lot of communities have like boards. 00:54:35
And then they have a chip, they elect a chair. So that's just sort of. 00:54:37
Generic SO. 00:54:41
OK. Thank you, Sharon. 00:54:44
Josh, what would you want to add there? 00:54:47
Not too much I need to add. Do you want any kind of background on our program as a whole for all the cities, anything specific to 00:54:51
your retirement plan or kind of the the valuation aspect of your retirement plan? 00:54:56
Counsel, what do you want to hear? 00:55:01
I think Sharon did an incredible job. I'll just say. How many years have you all been? Has this been established? I don't know the 00:55:05
exact number, but our earliest plan started in the 60s. OK, so a very long time. So y'all have gone up and down with the economy 00:55:11
over years and it has. 00:55:17
Been fine. Like no you haven't had cities. 00:55:23
Go. I think so I asked a lot of questions about this and I want you to know that because. 00:55:27
Defined benefit plans are pretty rare. 00:55:34
You know, in corporate America, you know, there's not many like if. 00:55:37
You know, if you had a business and you said, hey, I want to start a defined benefit plan. 00:55:40
You know, there, there's just not many. 00:55:44
Or yeah, there's not many businesses doing it. 00:55:46
But so I was a little I was like this is interesting that it's coming up, but. 00:55:49
The fact that we've got this massive pool that we can be a part of is, is a is really important. 00:55:54
Be the. I think the construction and the approach that we took is very conservative here, both in terms of the vested time. 00:56:01
The approach with the employees. 00:56:09
Would I love to have it be richer, more robust? Absolutely. But I think given our size. 00:56:11
You know, this is a very feasible way to start this and make sure that we can accommodate it because ultimately, and this is 00:56:16
really important and this needs to be in the record, we are responsible for this. So if in. 00:56:21
30 years. 00:56:26
I don't know if any of us are young enough to still be sitting here in 30 years, but when the. 00:56:28
The people who follow us are here in 30 years. Then there's, you know. 00:56:31
You know, 20 employees who are eligible for this and who are retired. They're going to, they're going to be dealing with retirees. 00:56:34
Coming in here wanting to make sure that their pension is taken care of in other communities have to deal with that. So how you 00:56:40
manage it, how you treat it. 00:56:43
How you set it up and how you structure it is really important and being. 00:56:46
In my mind, pretty conservative and how you construct it in terms of the percentages that share in. 00:56:50
Shared is is really important. So and I think we've balanced that right where we've got to and you guys know the county, the 00:56:55
county is conservative and how they can, how they construct things too. So by mirroring the county, we feel pretty good about 00:56:59
that. 00:57:03
You know, it is challenging to get police officers in particular when you don't have any kind of retirement benefit. 00:57:08
Is this portable from other communities? If they're vested in another community that's a part of this? I think that's also 00:57:15
something else that's probably worth mentioning. So if if you have a police officer from another community that's participating in 00:57:19
this. 00:57:23
They can bring their eligibility. Is that correct testing service, Yeah, vesting and eligibility, yes. So if you were with all use 00:57:26
the City of Jefferson for an example. So if you had eight years at the city of Jefferson and then you come here. 00:57:32
And say you did four years with the city of Watkinsville, you combine that into 12 years total. 00:57:37
You would be vested with the city of Watkinsville, but we would only pay you based on that four year benefit you had with 00:57:42
Watkinsville and we pay your Jefferson benefit separately. So they only combined for meeting that vesting requirement. 00:57:46
The calculation is independent using your service earnings in the plan for each municipality. So we're not picking up the cost for 00:57:51
their service time in Jefferson, but if someone wanted to. 00:57:55
You know, from another community, want to come over here and finish out their career. 00:58:00
And they, they can still get vested, they can pick that up. So it's a, it's a big win for us from a. 00:58:03
You know, and I think philosophically we've all agreed we've really worked hard to make it, you know? 00:58:08
Create an opportunity for our employees to. 00:58:12
You know, be able to afford insurance, be able to have a wage. That's Sharon spent a lot of studies on our salaries and you guys 00:58:15
have approved that. I think that's really improved the quality. 00:58:19
Of the staff that we've had. But I think it's also really important to reward folks like Julie who have stuck around for a long, 00:58:23
long time. 00:58:26
And worked really hard and I'm sure Julie's put some money away, but also to have that defined benefit. 00:58:30
At the end of her career for her to know hey. 00:58:35
I put some money away, but I've also got a benefit coming in from the city. 00:58:37
That I can count on every month as well. So one thing if you don't mind me adding, Julie, sorry, Sharon touched on this a little 00:58:41
bit, but. 00:58:45
You guys still have the defined contribution plan, that 3% that's going in, that's what we call hybrid plan, which is when you 00:58:48
have defined benefit and defined contribution. That is a great, great retention and recruitment tool. 00:58:54
For the city. 00:58:59
I would say pensions. 00:59:00
You know, they're good, they're good recruitment tools, they're better retention tools. So your, your employees that know they're 00:59:02
going to get that 2% for every year of service that they have are a lot like more likely to, to, you know, stay out there. And 00:59:06
then you guys, once you're in retirement status, living on a defined benefit is great. You're going to guarantee that check that 00:59:11
you get every month, but it's also important to have some kind of additional retirement savings so that that 3% that the city is 00:59:15
contributing. 00:59:19
To pick up where you know a. 00:59:24
Benefit. 00:59:26
If you need money once you're in retirement status, you can't call up GMA and say, hey, can I get 2 months advance. But that's 00:59:27
where something like where that defined contribution would come into play. So I think the the hybrid model, that's what we have at 00:59:32
GMA. We have much lesser pension than what you guys are offering, but we have a fairly good defined contribution match. 00:59:38
So I think that is. 00:59:44
Probably the best route for cities. 00:59:45
As far as retirement? 00:59:47
Recruitment, retirement success, recruitment, retention and everything. 00:59:49
So this. 00:59:53
May be too much to talk about, but what where does that 2% number come from and all your formulas the 2% times that. So it's what 00:59:55
we call benefit multiplier every. 01:00:00
Retirement plan has some kind of benefit multiplier. 01:00:06
2%, I'll definitely say is on the. 01:00:09
Better end of average, we do see some that are higher than 2%, but we see a lot that are. 01:00:11
Lower than 2%. 01:00:15
So it's you. 01:00:16
You're getting 2% of your earnings for every year of service that you have. 01:00:17
So just take your service under the plan so you can go back up to five years. 01:00:20
Than any future service so someone had been here for. 01:00:24
They have their five years of prior service. You're here for 15 more years. 01:00:27
15 * 2 is going to be. 01:00:30
I'm sorry, that'd be 20 years. 15 * 2 would be 40. They're going to get 40% of the earnings for the rest of their life. 01:00:32
So that that's what that 2% multiplier does. 01:00:38
And we see them across the state anywhere from. 01:00:42
We have one city that's out of 1%, which is. 01:00:45
Not great, but anywhere from 2 1/2 to. 01:00:48
Three, but some of our cities that are up to 3%, they don't have. 01:00:50
They don't pay into Social Security, so some of them will beef up that. 01:00:54
Retirement benefit in order to cover for the lack of Social Security. 01:00:57
So when you think about folks, you know, your teachers, your county employees, your others, you know this is it's, it's a pretty 01:01:03
typical. 01:01:06
Government benefit. Government benefit? 01:01:09
You know, but I frankly was surprised we could afford to. 01:01:12
Be able to do something like this and I do think we're going to have to, you know, monitor what that and our good thing is our 01:01:16
auditors will help us monitor. 01:01:19
What that contribution is, and if it feels like something that we need to modify, then we'll have to. 01:01:22
Be responsible and do that. 01:01:27
So how would that work? Let's say you know. 01:01:29
Heaven forbid we have a slump in the economy, that is. 01:01:33
Long going and. 01:01:36
We're like, OK, this the markets have. 01:01:38
It's not a dip in a year like they've gone down and our sales hat you know like our our revenue cities got all, all the worst case 01:01:41
scenario which hopefully none will happen. But if it did. 01:01:46
What are our options at that point? Yeah. So if you're going to modify the plan, if you're ever revoking any kind of benefit, so 01:01:52
lowering a benefit multiplier, increasing retirement age or anything like that, you can only do it for people hired on or after 01:01:57
the the date. 01:02:01
That it was modified. 01:02:06
So that can make, that's one thing that can make the plan cheaper. We have had cities in the past just being totally honest. 01:02:08
Freeze retirement plans. There's a couple ways you can do that, which is you can freeze it for anyone hired on or after a certain 01:02:14
date. 01:02:17
Or. 01:02:20
You can stop accrual of any kind of benefit for anyone that's currently in the plan. We call that a hard freeze. The first one we 01:02:21
call soft freeze. 01:02:24
Soft phrase would be more so. 01:02:28
The people that are in the plan stay in the plan, continue to approve benefit where hard freeze would be. 01:02:30
No one's occurring anymore benefit. The city would still have to pay the liability for the plan, so the future benefits because 01:02:35
they have accrued it underneath the plan. 01:02:38
But that that's kind of how. 01:02:42
Plans would would cease if you do want to stop the retirement plan. 01:02:44
So, yeah, so worst case scenario, all of a sudden we lose a funding stream, we're unable to do something like that then yeah, 01:02:50
that. 01:02:53
This body or whoever the body is after us would would have to take those steps. And I think that's. 01:02:56
You know where? 01:03:01
You've really got to have a good auditor who's helping you plan ahead and looking at that every year and making sure that you're 01:03:02
in. 01:03:05
You're in good shape with that and we did talk to the auditor about this before we did it. 01:03:08
And I, I do think, correct me if I'm wrong, but I do think if the plan changed, if you modified your agreement, you could also 01:03:12
have the employee have to pay. I mean, I know you talked about you so you could add. 01:03:17
You know, contribution from the employee to assist with that, that's an option as well. We talked about that, but we're marrying 01:03:22
it after the county. They don't have one. But I did want to mention, I did talk to Donna at Ball Ground. She's the finance and HR 01:03:27
director. I talked to several communities trying to find some that were similar in size. 01:03:32
They started their program in 2017. They have a population about 3000. 01:03:37
And she said it's definitely been a plus for them. They have police, they have 2024 employees. She said it's not difficult to 01:03:41
maintain. They've only had one employee retired to date. 01:03:46
Said it. They did not see huge financial, you know, over that period of time, anything really astronomical. But their employees 01:03:51
each contribute 2 1/2 percent. 01:03:56
So I think there's there's different ways to slice and dice this if we ever got in a situation, you know. 01:04:00
That would be an option as to modify the agreement and have a contribution from the employee as well. But she did say it helped 01:04:05
attract and retain employer employees. 01:04:09
And I we talked to Nash City of Nashville and also. 01:04:14
Jasper. 01:04:20
Georgia too. They're similar in size too. And talk to them and all of them. 01:04:21
No, nobody had anything bad to say about the said. It was really helpful for their employees and stuff so. 01:04:25
Yeah, I think again, the thing just to remember and again I'm supportive of this. I think it's the right thing, but we just have 01:04:33
to remember we are putting a. 01:04:35
Significant liability on to onto future councils and a responsibility just to. 01:04:38
Monitor and maintain. But again, if we're. 01:04:44
Really want to have. 01:04:46
Continue to recruit top tier employees in this era. You know we need to have. 01:04:47
This kind of benefit and be be competitive for. 01:04:53
For the folks that we want serve in our citizens so. 01:04:56
Any further questions for the manager or for Mr. Colley? 01:04:59
All right, hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. 01:05:05
I make a motion that we approve. 01:05:08
All right. We have a motion to approve the ordinance and any other associated documents is that. 01:05:11
Correct. 01:05:16
All right, do we have a second? 01:05:17
2nd a second for Mr. Campbell. Any further discussion? 01:05:20
Hearing none all in favor say aye, Any opposed? 01:05:24
All right. Hearing none that carries unanimously. Thank you. 01:05:28
Mr. Colley, I think we may have one other piece of paperwork we need to do on this. This is the amendment to Chapter 2. Sharon, We 01:05:32
need to explain that. Yeah. And first, let me say we talked to the employees last week. Don't be surprised if you hear from them 01:05:36
because they were super excited about this. And. 01:05:41
I, on behalf of them, I'll tell you I really appreciate this. I think this will help, you know, continue to help us retain and 01:05:46
attract good employees for the city. So appreciate that. 01:05:50
The ordinance amendment for Chapter 2 needs to be amended if we're going to keep the defined contribution plan. 01:05:54
It wasn't very specific in the ordinance and we felt like we needed to be, you know, specify exactly what it was that we're doing. 01:06:01
We are. 01:06:05
Matching the retirement at 65. 01:06:09
For umm. 01:06:12
For the defined contribution plan. 01:06:14
So that matches the defined. 01:06:16
Pension plan. 01:06:18
Our defined benefit plan. Sorry. 01:06:19
Defined contribution points are they're all that anyway, but we did add the defined benefit contribution plan under Section 2614, 01:06:21
so that basically right now there's been some confusion about whether or not employees could start immediately and. 01:06:30
And so we were making them wait a year to begin and then the count and then and the city was matching. What we were doing now is 01:06:39
we're saying you can start participating, but the city's not going to start contributing until you've been here a year. So that's 01:06:45
what this is doing is just trying to be more specific about about what it is and keeping it valid so. 01:06:51
All right, Council, any questions on that? 01:06:58
All right, hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. 01:07:03
I make a motion to approve. 01:07:05
We have a second. 01:07:06
Second, any further discussion? 01:07:07
Hearing none, all in favor say aye aye. 01:07:10
Any opposed? 01:07:12
All right. Thank you all. We'll skip item 16. 01:07:14
Are we doing public comments before we know? No, I just didn't put a slide. 01:07:18
He normally Mark doesn't need a slide, so we'll let Mark go. Your time to shine, engineer Campbell. 01:07:21
Thank you, Mayor. So we talked about a lot of things when you talk about storm water throughout the year and then during our 01:07:27
annual storm water update, right. So we talked about the requirements for for new construction with storm water. We talk about 01:07:32
erosion control. Everybody thinks about that if you happen to see a mud in the streets. 01:07:37
We think about things like flooding, but one of the things we wanted to talk about this year as part of the required annual report 01:07:43
update to this body would be creeks and streams. I thought it was very interesting that Eric brought that up as part of the 01:07:49
strategic plan review, but we generally in Watkinsville have two main. 01:07:56
Creek basins that are named so everything that's on the Northside of the railroad tracks generally all flows into calls Creek. 01:08:02
And everything that's on the South side of the railroad tracks generally all flows into Porter's Creek. 01:08:11
And what you're probably most aware of are places like hair shows park, like Thomas farm preserve and a few other places in in the 01:08:16
the city where there is a chance for the public to see those streams to interact with with the water. And that brings a benefit 01:08:22
right to to those. And I will say. 01:08:27
I've this year I've just happened to have an opportunity to have walked. 01:08:33
Many of the streams within Watkinsville, both in the Cause Creek basin, even if it's an unnamed tributary, or within the Porter 01:08:37
Creek basin if we think about. 01:08:41
Porter Creek is your is you're leaving Watkinsville on Hwy. 15. You're you're really kind of crossing Porter Creek there, but 01:08:46
anything that's kind of behind Jerry Smith Dr. even on the boundary of of stone show subdivision. 01:08:52
That would be in that Porter Creek basin. 01:08:58
And the streams in Watkinsville. 01:09:01
Are beautiful. 01:09:03
There's some of the clearest water you would see. 01:09:04
I'm an engineer, right? I'm not an ecologist, I'm not a biologist. But when you see a very clear stream and it is filled with 01:09:06
minnows and what the? 01:09:10
That that don't allow for the the ecological activity, but you see very clear streams in Watkinsville. And I just think that's a 01:09:45
tribute to the people that are here to the programs that are in place to keep that in in such a high level of maintenance. So that 01:09:51
was the update for this year. Happy to talk about streams if you'll have any questions or any other items, but wanted to share 01:09:57
that with you tonight. 01:10:02
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. We are grateful to have. 01:10:10
So much. 01:10:13
Clean water and. 01:10:14
And to be able to highlight our beautiful creeks and streams. 01:10:16
All right, public comments. 01:10:19
Julie, did we receive any? 01:10:21
No Sir. Is our member of the press wish to be a member of the public? 01:10:23
All right, she does not. 01:10:27
We've, we've had a, we've had a publisher do that before here. But Natalie, we appreciate you being here and sticking with us. 01:10:31
We'll move quickly through the rest of this. I do have a couple items to highlight. 01:10:38
But judging by our attendance and and unlikely that we have a lot online, I won't spend much time on it. 01:10:42
We dedicated a marker for Ryan Benton at the Wire Park crosswalk. Ryan. 01:10:47
Was the Stone Shoals resident who battled muscular dystrophy. 01:10:53
A lot of people spoke highly of Ryan and I had a couple citizens contact me. 01:10:57
And talk about how much he loved going up and down that sidewalk on his his. 01:11:02
Motorized wheelchair and it was interesting. His family even said that he would complain when he was living there about the dark. 01:11:07
Factory across the street and why couldn't we do something really great with that? And he was so excited when Wire Park came 01:11:14
along. 01:11:17
He didn't. 01:11:20
Live long enough to see it as it is now, but he saw it starting to take off and. 01:11:21
Anyway, his family was just really thrilled that we we did that. And I think that's all a part of continuing to highlight our 01:11:27
citizens and our heritage and. 01:11:30
One of the things that Eric talked about, which is, you know. 01:11:33
Really being cognizant of the culture that's made us so special and and not letting go of that as we. 01:11:36
Grow and that there's changes here. 01:11:42
We lost Alice Woodruff October 29th. 01:11:44
I know most of us knew Alice. Just a remarkable artist's. 01:11:48
And woman in our community. 01:11:52
We have a group of citizens at Alice's wish, have taken it upon themselves to. 01:11:54
Create a wildflower Meadow in Watkinsville Woods. 01:11:59
If you haven't walked through there lately, check that out. This is a drone shot of what they're planning to do. This is going to 01:12:02
take three years to pull off y'all, because they really want to do it right. So they're going to start planning in the spring. 01:12:07
They're going to start growing stuff in greenhouses. 01:12:12
Start planning in the spring their fundraising. 01:12:15
For that, I think as of midday today, they've raised $2500 already. They're hoping to raise about $10,000 to fund that. 01:12:18
We're going to work with them to. 01:12:25
Make sure irrigation is in place. 01:12:26
This is also going to dress up the area where Mayor Ivy's memorial tree is. 01:12:28
Our friends at Farm 441 contributed. 01:12:32
Maple tree, that's really lovely. The other one that was out there had struggled. That was planned in honor of Mayor Ivy, so we'll 01:12:35
dress up that area. 01:12:38
And we'll have the Mayor Ivy Memorial. 01:12:42
And the Woodruff, The Woodruff Meadow in Watkinsville Woods and this is the space was opened up when we lost a large tree there. 01:12:44
Last year. So it actually gets a lot of sun. It'll be a great location for that. 01:12:51
We had a great visit with Commissioner Barbara Rivera Holmes. She's Georgia's Department of Labor commissioner, and she came and 01:12:56
visited several of our businesses. 01:13:00
She visited wire park. I am I Weber, Coleman, ESP and Ladd truck lines. 01:13:05
And is a is a really great leader and anytime we have a chance for a constitutional officer to visit Watkinsville. 01:13:11
We're grateful for that, so we were excited to have Barbara here and have her come learn about. 01:13:17
Some of our businesses we had. We continue to have a lot of great events at Thomas Farm Preserve. This is Kate's club. 01:13:22
Doing a memory walk. 01:13:28
This was a larger event that was a few Sundays ago, but. 01:13:29
You know, the park continued. I went out there Sunday afternoon and. 01:13:32
You know, we had to overflow park again just because it was a nice day. There wasn't even anything going on. But between holiday 01:13:37
pictures and people just wanting to be outdoors. 01:13:40
People are loving that park. 01:13:44
So we have Dr. put the flags out at the cemetery on veteran's day. I don't know about you guys, but I do get a lot of compliments 01:13:46
on us getting our flags up on the holidays. 01:13:51
Really appreciate the staff doing that and also appreciate DA are for. 01:13:56
How they continue to take great care of our. 01:14:00
Cemetery. 01:14:03
We dedicated the Giardini Green just last week. That was another wonderful event, another example of highlighting our history. 01:14:04
And what it took to really. 01:14:11
Turn into a beautiful space it was. 01:14:14
It was really cool to hear Emery Harden talk about that. Amory was mayor before Mayor Giordani. 01:14:17
And Emery's a visionary kind of guy and. 01:14:22
For it to have him stand up and say Mayor Giordini. 01:14:25
It took Mayor Giordani to see something at Harris shows that all of us who'd lived here forever had never seen before. I thought 01:14:28
that was really impactful. 01:14:31
He mentioned Mayor Giordani did not just the baseball field. 01:14:36
The playground. 01:14:39
And the boardwalk in the back, all in four years. He would make Sharon Dickerson proud in terms of his energy level. But he got a 01:14:40
lot done in Harris Shoals Park. 01:14:44
Just in his two terms as mayor. 01:14:48
And his, it was wonderful to have his family out there to recognize him. I think he was the last mayor that Julie didn't work for. 01:14:51
Is that right? 01:14:53
OK, All right. So our resident historian, that was the one question I could ask you. What do you know about Mayor Giordani said. I 01:14:57
didn't work with Mayor Giardini. So. But anyway, it was it was great to celebrate him and then it was great to hear from some 01:15:01
folks who. 01:15:06
Poured concrete with him and helped build that boardwalk with him. 01:15:10
Back in the back in the early 90s. 01:15:14
We had a great citywide litter pickup Saturday. It was very successful. That warms my heart. I just hate I couldn't be there, but 01:15:17
we had 57 people come out for a litter. 01:15:21
Pick up and the city looks great. I hope we can schedule another one after the Christmas parade. It always takes time to get that 01:15:26
candy up. 01:15:29
But but this was a group that's the most people far and away that I've ever seen in a city, city litter pickup. We've done 01:15:34
somewhere. We've just had eight or ten people. So that's really great and. 01:15:38
Things look great. Thank you Sharon and staff for being there. 01:15:42
Continue to make progress on the Simonton Bridge pedestrian improvements. We've had a lot of compliments on the new fencing by the 01:15:46
cemetery. 01:15:49
It looks great. 01:15:52
They're really working fast on the. 01:15:54
The bridge. 01:15:57
That was, it looks like maybe yesterday, even today they've they've finished work, doing some of the work on the rebar. 01:15:59
On those wing walls, I think they're going to try to pour tomorrow or Friday on those. 01:16:05
Then they'll begin to backfill around those, and then they'll begin to bring in the trusses. Once that backfilling is done, go 01:16:10
back one picture. I think this is an interesting one. 01:16:14
That area with the ferns? That's what a bridge footer looked like. 01:16:19
In 1890 or whenever the original bridge it was built. And so if you see the stone and you see those ferns, there's two of those 01:16:23
that are still down there. 01:16:27
So I I laughed and I told somebody, I think our bridge is just going to is going to be just fine if that other bridge was carrying 01:16:33
traffic until until 1920 something on those old footers down there in the home so. 01:16:38
But anyway, the the guys are, it's a great crew working down there. 01:16:43
If any of you want to go down there, just ask me and I can take you down there and get you introduced and be safe. 01:16:47
This is just this is one of the trusses that's going to go on the side. This will be the structure that the wood will be attached 01:16:51
to. 01:16:54
This is 55 feet long. It's at IMI. I think they're painting them today or tomorrow. 01:16:57
But that just so that's one quarter. 01:17:03
Of the side of the bridge there to give you a little bit of a feel of the scale. 01:17:05
That's 10 feet tall. 01:17:08
We'll have a we'll have a roof on top of that. If you look in my office, you'll see the color of the roof there. 01:17:10
And then we'll stain the wood once it's put on there. 01:17:16
The wood that will go on the side of the bridge was actually taken from pine trees that were harvested from the site, so we've got 01:17:18
to let that dry out a little bit and cure. 01:17:22
Before we paint it. 01:17:25
All right, I'm excited to announce our 2025 Christmas parade. 01:17:27
Most of y'all are going to know Miss Lottie from Oconee State Bank. 01:17:32
She has been welcoming. 01:17:36
Folks at the bank. 01:17:38
As long as I've been going there and is just a wonderful representative of our community. 01:17:40
Miss a lot. He's always got a smile and a kind word for anybody, so we are incredibly excited that Lottie Davenport will be. 01:17:46
Our Grand Marshall this year. 01:17:52
So congratulations to Lottie Sharon. 01:17:54
I'm assuming maybe we'll work up a little announcement about that we can share on our. 01:17:56
Facebook page and whatnot but but. 01:18:00
Naughty is. 01:18:02
She's. 01:18:04
She's just a wonderful ambassador for our community. We're excited to excited to honor her. 01:18:05
Is there anybody who doesn't smile when they think about Miss Lottie? If you know Miss Lottie, every everybody smiled when that 01:18:09
name popped up there. 01:18:12
This is the agenda for the Christmas parade. It'll be a busy day, but an exciting day. Always. The road will be closed. 01:18:15
From. 01:18:22
4:00 Sharon to. 01:18:24
Closes the 2 Main St. Closes at. 01:18:27
Thanks for closing it too as well. OK, yeah. 01:18:31
So 2 to. 01:18:34
Two to seven, that's your annual opportunity to walk up and down Main Street and Barnett Shoals in a Safeway. We will have the 01:18:36
fencing again this year though, when the parades going on and all the activities that we normally do always send incredibly 01:18:40
exciting. 01:18:45
Time in Watkinsville and hope you all will be there to participate on our float. 01:18:49
And we had some folks get reelected. Congratulations to all y'all. 01:18:55
All right, and we'll move along. 01:19:01
Happy birthday to Jeff Campbell. 01:19:04
And raggedy, raggedy Andy may be there. 01:19:08
I loved having blonde. 01:19:12
Well, and hair. 01:19:13
Who would have thought Jeff Campbell was a blonde boy? So happy birthday. 01:19:17
Yep, all right. 01:19:23
Oh, wow. OK, yeah, so this guy, this guy had a good run in Carrollton. 01:19:26
And one of his second cross country title and he's continuing to chase a couple dreams for a few more weeks. We'll see how that 01:19:31
works out. So. 01:19:35
And then the team, more importantly, won their 4th title in a row. 01:19:39
Which was a big accomplishment for. 01:19:42
For Oconee, we've got a couple. 01:19:45
Watkinsville kids there. Second from the left is Dayton Bloss. 01:19:47
He lives in Christian Lake. 01:19:51
And then Tate Jenkins sees certainly an honorable Watkinsville kid. He was born here and has spent most of his life on the streets 01:19:53
of Watkinsville. But all these kids have run a lot of miles on our trails and in our city. 01:19:58
And. 01:20:04
We're grateful to recognize their hard work. The ladies team finished second. 01:20:05
And and we've got a couple Watkinsville. 01:20:09
Residents there, Bailey wagon on the left. 01:20:12
Also lives in Christian Lake and some of the other ladies live in Watkinsville or just outside so it was a great. 01:20:14
Sunday or Saturday for our team. 01:20:21
In early November. 01:20:24
And then we've got. 01:20:25
Our County Warriors are playing in the second round. Football Warriors are playing in the second round of the state playoffs. 01:20:27
This week and they've got several kids competing as well and our coach and his son also live. 01:20:33
In Watkinsville. So we're excited. 01:20:39
See how the Football Warriors do and all the rest of our. 01:20:41
Local athletes who have competed so well. 01:20:43
That's all that I've got Council. It's up to y'all at this point to. 01:20:46
Share what you want to share and get us home for dinner. So Councilman Garrett, no pressure post one what you got? I never thought 01:20:49
a whole lot but. 01:20:52
Chief, you here and I'm glad you're here. 01:20:56
CJ left, but I had an opportunity. Most, a lot of us went to that District 5. 01:20:59
Meeting Water Park. 01:21:04
And just I picked up on the. 01:21:07
You know, we're in the top tier. 01:21:10
Of the 911 system in Georgia. 01:21:12
O County. 01:21:15
Pretty impressive. 01:21:17
And it was kind of sad how. 01:21:20
The condition of the 911 system and a lot of. 01:21:22
Georgia, but. 01:21:25
Is good. That wouldn't top. 01:21:27
Yeah. 01:21:29
They have pointed that out very much. So we were we were like the color that was. 01:21:31
That's great. 01:21:36
That's one of those things you got to invest in, but. 01:21:37
You know, you nobody really cares about it till you need it, right? But we got to got to keep supporting that what you said about 01:21:39
Oak County being safe earlier. 01:21:43
It just goes to show, I mean, those guys, they really. 01:21:47
They take it to heart. 01:21:50
That really do. 01:21:51
It's Speaking of safety. I didn't mention this when we were talking about our upgrades at the park, but we added some more 01:21:53
advanced cameras at Thomas Farm Preserve. 01:21:56
And there were a lot of compliments about that system, apparently, to the guy who was installing them. And it just makes people 01:21:59
feel good. 01:22:02
Being out there to know. 01:22:05
You know, to know that should something happen, we've got cameras throughout the park to take. 01:22:06
To, you know, that they can count on, you know, or that we can go back and look at if we need to, if something was to occur or if 01:22:12
there was an accident or whatever. So real credit to. 01:22:16
Sharon and Chief for getting those in and in a lot of the other, you know, kind of quiet safety measures that we've taken. 01:22:20
So, all right, Councilwoman Massey. 01:22:26
Have nothing to report, OK. 01:22:29
Councilman Thomas. 01:22:31
Just glad to be here. 01:22:32
We're glad to have you. 01:22:34
Mayor Pro Tem. 01:22:36
Nothing more. 01:22:38
Mr. Campbell. 01:22:39
Just thank you for my gummy bears. 01:22:41
It will not last long. Yes, yeah. 01:22:43
All right. Love the gummies and Chief our wood, you are back. We did kind of go over your report, but as we are at the end. 01:22:47
But is there anything you would want to share or add or offer? 01:22:54
Over the past month. 01:22:58
No, I think, you know, we had some challenges. 01:23:01
That's all you know, with the with the turnover and stuff. 01:23:04
I feel like Officer Higgins and and sauce man or. 01:23:08
Or up the par and I see things picking up really good with him. 01:23:11
Claire Walter Claire graduates Friday from the Academy, so we have. 01:23:16
Our FTO program starting Monday with him. 01:23:20
I feel pretty good We we had. 01:23:24
Six, we interviewed last Friday. We're working on some background checks on on those and. 01:23:26
You know, most of all. 01:23:32
I'm coming up on my one year anniversary and. 01:23:34
I've said it every time, every month. I'm proud to work for you guys and thank you for. 01:23:36
You know, allowing me to be here. 01:23:41
I love it here. I don't see any changes and I hope you keep me for. 01:23:43
Many years to come and. 01:23:47
I will always do the best job that I can and. 01:23:49
I didn't get to hear about the retirement, but thank you all if it passed, I hope it did. And it's it's, it's a huge blessing to 01:23:52
have that. And I think it will attract more because that's going to be. 01:23:58
You know, it's something important. 01:24:04
To most of. 01:24:05
You know the the officers and employees these days and something that we can. 01:24:07
You know, hopefully retain good qualified. 01:24:11
Officers in the near future. 01:24:13
Perfect. 01:24:16
OK. Thank you, Chief. 01:24:17
Can I interject my thanks as well for the retirement plan? I really appreciate it, it means a lot. 01:24:19
Thank you. 01:24:26
Thank you, Julie. OK. 01:24:27
All right. 01:24:29
It is. We have no executive session, so I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. 01:24:30
I make a motion to adjourn. We have a second, Second. Jeff, All in favor say aye. All right. 01:24:34
Thank you all. 01:24:42