Transcript

Event transcript
All right, Merry Christmas. 00:00:09
To all and welcome to the December. 00:00:11
Watkinsville City Council meeting It's a special time of year and I'm grateful. 00:00:16
For all of you and all of you who've made time to join us on a what has to be a busy night if your home is like my home. So I'm 00:00:21
glad you're here. We'll work through the agenda pretty quickly. 00:00:25
And try to get everybody out of here post haste. But we do have some things we want to do at the front of the meeting that are a 00:00:30
little bit unusual. We do have a quorum here tonight. I'm grateful for that. I know we've got some busy travelers and I've had 00:00:33
some. 00:00:37
Illnesses around, so I'm glad everybody's healthy and everybody's here. 00:00:40
We have a quorum, and so as usual, we'll start with the. 00:00:43
Pledge of Allegiance and I believe Sophie Claire is going to lead us in that. 00:00:46
Sophie. 00:00:51
I pledge allegiance to the flag. 00:00:52
Of the United States of America. 00:00:55
And to the Republic for which it stands. 00:00:57
One Nation. 00:01:00
Under God. 00:01:01
Indivisible. 00:01:02
With liberty and justice for all. 00:01:04
Sophie. 00:01:14
Is one of three children of Stephanie and Walter Claire. 00:01:15
Walter is our newest police officer in Watkinsville. We are going to. 00:01:20
Step forward and administer the oath. 00:01:24
For Officer Claire. 00:01:26
Walter, I'm gonna let you hold that. I don't think anybody needs to hear me. All right? 00:01:40
We might have hundreds of people watching online. 00:01:46
Please raise your right hand. 00:01:51
And repeat after me. 00:01:57
I, Walter Claire Walter Claire, Do solemnly swear or affirm that. Do solemnly swear or affirm that. 00:01:59
I will faithfully execute the office of police officer. I will faithfully execute the office of Police Officer. 00:02:05
For the city of Watkinsville. For the city of Watkinsville into the best of my ability and to the best of my ability. Support and 00:02:10
defend the Constitution of the United States. Support and defend the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of 00:02:14
Georgia. The Constitution of Georgia. 00:02:19
And the charter, ordinances and regulations of the City of Watkinsville. And the charter, ordinances and regulations of the City 00:02:23
of Watkinsville. 00:02:26
I am not the holder of any unaccounted for public money. 00:02:30
I'm not the holder of any unaccounted for public money. 00:02:33
Do this state or any political subdivision or authority thereof? 00:02:35
To the state. 00:02:39
Or political subdivision. Subdivision for authority thereof. 00:02:40
I am not the holder of any office of trust. I'm not the holder of any office of trust. 00:02:45
Under the Government of the United States. Under the Government of the United States, any other state, any other state, or any 00:02:49
foreign state, or any foreign state, which I by the laws of the State of Georgia and prohibited from holding. 00:02:55
Which I by the laws of the State of Georgia and prohibited from holding. 00:03:00
I'm otherwise qualified. 00:03:04
I'm otherwise qualified to hold said office, to hold set office according to the Constitution and laws of Georgia. According to 00:03:05
the Constitution and laws of Georgia. 00:03:09
I will perform the duties of my office. 00:03:13
Outperformed the duties of my office in the best interest of the City of Watkinsville and the best interest of the City of 00:03:15
Watkinsville. 00:03:18
To the best of my ability. To the best of my ability. 00:03:21
Without fear, favor. 00:03:24
Without fear, favour. 00:03:25
Affection, reward. Affection, reward, or expectation thereof, or expectation thereof. 00:03:27
So help me go, so help me God. 00:03:32
Thank you, Sir. 00:03:34
A lot of family. If you don't want to come up and get a picture with Walter, I'll take that. 00:03:40
Jake, do you have any officers here you want to move? 00:03:46
Y'all just the family 1st and then we'll we'll put the chief and Ryan. 00:03:59
Perfect. All right, Right up here. 00:04:07
All right, let me grab some spots over there. 00:04:11
Don't go 1st and I'll jump. 00:04:16
Here we go. 00:04:23
All right. 00:04:25
All right, ready. 00:04:33
All right, there's a lot of up and down tonight for the first part of the meeting. We've got some. 00:04:56
Things to celebrate. Before we do that, I'd like to do the mayor's report while we've got people here. So I'm going to move 00:05:01
through this pretty quickly, but it's always fun to share with so many people what else happened and then Watkinsville. 00:05:06
We have a group of citizens who are working on a unique area in Watkinsville Woods in honor of Alice Woodruff, who we lost in 00:05:13
November. 00:05:17
Alice was a gifted artist and and. 00:05:22
Very committed Watkinsville citizen and they are doing a wonderful native plant. 00:05:25
Project called the Woodruff Meadow in the Watkinsville Woods. 00:05:31
And that was also in the area where we have the Ivy Maple tree. So that whole area is getting a really nice citizen driven upgrade 00:05:35
at no cost to the city. So we're grateful for that. 00:05:39
Our pedestrian bridge along Simonton Bridge Rd. for those of you who don't drive that way, is really coming along. 00:05:44
That's 105 foot long structure this pictures from today you're starting to see. 00:05:50
What it's going to look like this is going to be the. 00:05:55
Newest, Probably the first new covered bridge built in the state of Georgia in probably 20 or 30 years. Go back one more. 00:05:58
You can really start to see the. 00:06:05
Siding going on. That siding was cut from pine trees on site that were harvested. 00:06:07
And then that wood was taken to a sawmill. 00:06:11
It's really going to be a spectacular addition to Watkinsville. And then if you look up the hill, you'll see that's where the 00:06:13
sidewalk will go and connect to Rocket Field. You can go ahead now, Sharon. 00:06:17
This is the view from the other side, going back towards Thomas Farm Preserve. 00:06:21
This is the newer side of the bridge. It's a week newer than the other side, so they haven't poured the concrete yet there on that 00:06:25
pan. They'll do that on Monday or Tuesday. 00:06:29
And then they'll start moving forward with the siding there. But it's really a. 00:06:33
Coming coming on quickly, hoping that the bridge itself will be done. 00:06:36
In the first or second week of January. 00:06:39
And then the adjacent landscaping done in the next month or two after that. 00:06:42
Today we did the I don't think it's done, but we started installing the RFB crosswalk at Katie Lane and Thomas Farm Preserve. 00:06:47
That's a flashing light. 00:06:51
We have a ton of people who come into Thomas Farm Preserve via Morgan Manor on foot. 00:06:56
And on bike and this is going to create a safe crossing for them. 00:07:00
We also added some laser cut artistic panels at Giardini Green. These were done by a local group of artists, the Saint Udio. 00:07:05
We've got a little bit of finishing work that we need to do, but they're really lovely and create a nice new entrance into the 00:07:14
Giardini Green. 00:07:17
So we're excited to add that, but there's a little bit more work to come there. 00:07:21
Thomas Farm Preserve Pavilion was painted to match the house and the. 00:07:25
Yard and then we also had the fences stained black to match the other fences in the area again that the. 00:07:30
Park just keeps looking better and better and we're thankful for it. You can see the bollards were also stained in the cemetery. 00:07:36
That whole corridor looks very different now. 00:07:42
Christmas at Wire Park. 00:07:45
Part 1 I think was last Saturday, Part 2 is this Saturday. 00:07:47
We can move on. 00:07:52
We can recycle our trees with Keep Oconee County Beautiful so they'll all accept trees December 26th through January 10th. 00:07:54
I know that our city partners would prefer that you take your trees there rather than leaving them by the curb. 00:08:02
And they can be recycled into. 00:08:08
Fish habitat or other things there. 00:08:10
And then I would just encourage everybody to really shop locally. I know it is so easy to hop on that computer and are on your 00:08:13
phone and just take care of what you need on Amazon, but there is some stuff you are not going to find on Amazon. 00:08:18
If you follow me on Facebook, you'll see I'm pretty relentless about posting, you know? 00:08:23
What where the sales are? What's happening? 00:08:28
I see Dover grace here. I don't think I'm following you all so I probably need to. If you're posting regularly on Instagram, I'll 00:08:30
be sharing it. 00:08:33
SO and our friends from Elizabeth Ann's are here SO. 00:08:36
Take an hour. 00:08:40
Go downtown, then take an hour and go to Wire Park and spend some of your dollars locally. It means the world to our our vendors, 00:08:42
our businesses and our partners. 00:08:46
And is is just a wonderful way to support. 00:08:51
We all love having a full downtown, right? But if you don't shop down there. 00:08:54
That doesn't happen by accident, so we need people to shop down there, especially this time of year. 00:08:57
And I think next what I have is Speaking of downtown. 00:09:02
We have a proclamation, we have a certain long time business. 00:09:08
That has been open 70 years downtown, so that is Elizabeth Ann Forest. Lynn Yarborough. Are you the loan representative here 00:09:12
tonight? 00:09:16
All right. Is the proclamation up there? Truly, we have a proclamation, Lynn. So if you could come forward. 00:09:20
This does not happen. 00:09:29
Every day, or every year, or even every 70 years, so. 00:09:31
Lynn, I'm going to read this aloud because it doesn't happen very often. 00:09:35
Whereas Elizabeth Ann florist and gift shop established in 1955 by founder Elizabeth Ann Betty Yarborough. 00:09:40
Has served the Watkinsville community for 70 years. 00:09:46
I don't think what's her last name was. 00:09:49
Elizabeth Ann's last name? Yarborough, OK Bill's mom, OK. 00:09:51
Becoming a treasured institution in the heart of our city. 00:09:54
Whereas Elizabeth Ann Forrest and Gift Shop is located on North Main Street and historic downtown Watkinsville. 00:09:57
Whereas the family owned business continues to thrive under the leadership of Bill and Lynn Yarbrough and their son Paul. 00:10:03
Probably carrying forward the legacy and values established by Betty Yarborough. 00:10:08
And whereas the City of Watkinsville recognizes and celebrates the enduring impact of Elizabeth Ann Forrest and gift shop. 00:10:12
Whose commitment to excellent service and community. 00:10:17
Has enriched the lives of residents for seven decades. 00:10:20
Now, therefore, I, Brian Broderick, Mayor of the City of Watkinsville. 00:10:23
On behalf of the Watkinsville City Council, do hereby honor Elizabeth Ann Forrest and Gift shop for its outstanding service. 00:10:27
And lasting contributions to our community for 70 years. 00:10:32
And witness here whereof I have here unto set my hand, and cause the seal of the city of Watkinsville to be affixed the 17th day 00:10:36
of December, 2025. 00:10:39
Congratulations. 00:10:43
What does it take to keep a business open for 70 years? Maybe just give us a little bit of wisdom. 00:10:50
Kindness. 00:10:56
The ability to have your pulse on the community and to. 00:10:58
Be familiar with your customers needs and. 00:11:03
Prayer, uh. 00:11:06
It just just to be yourself. 00:11:08
And just to be thankful for where you are and to be in a community like this has truly been a blessing. 00:11:11
Truly thank you and so. 00:11:17
There's some. Let's step up here for a picture and. 00:11:20
What's the secret to success for a whole lot of businesses? All right. 00:11:23
Don't get too comfortable. 00:11:52
Because we also had. 00:11:55
The downtown business decorating contest winner. So Christine and Jan, you want to come up here and help me with this? 00:11:57
And then we need Lynn, we need you to come back up. And then Elizabeth and Dee Dee, we need y'all to come up to. 00:12:06
So I think we have a tie. 00:12:13
For our downtown decorating contest. 00:12:15
So, Jan, is there anything you want or Christine, anything you want to say about the downtown decorating contest? 00:12:17
No, Jan. 00:12:23
Please. 00:12:24
Tell everybody about the contest and what it took to. 00:12:25
These folks to be our to be our winners. 00:12:29
So what we did was we challenged the downtown businesses to. 00:12:31
Decorate to their hearts content and if you go downtown. 00:12:37
They. 00:12:40
They really did, and so we took photos and made it a public vote. 00:12:41
And it was neck and neck. 00:12:46
And neck and neck. And we had to expend it because we were. 00:12:47
And it was back and forth and back and forth and it ended up. 00:12:49
A tie. 00:12:52
Which I think is lovely. 00:12:53
Yeah. All right. So congratulations to both of y'all and the prizes. 00:12:56
A certificate. 00:13:03
In downtown dollars, OK. 00:13:05
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:13:07
All right, why don't you all stand up here and get a picture? 00:13:15
All right, come to the middle there. 00:13:21
If you give me your phone, I'll get home here soon. 00:13:25
All right. 00:13:33
All right, now we're going to do the. 00:13:47
Now we're going to do the parade. I know some of you are here for that, so we'll get that done pretty quickly here. So let's see 00:13:50
what we've got. 00:13:53
Our grand Marshall was Lottie Davenport. Lottie couldn't be here tonight. For those of you who know Lottie, you can't miss her if 00:13:56
you go to Oconee State Bank. 00:13:59
Best smile in town? 00:14:03
But most of our marshals have great smiles, so it's hard to hard to compete. Compete with Lottie though, she's great. 00:14:05
Thankful to all these people who helped us pull together the pull together the event. 00:14:10
It is not an easy thing to pull off and pull together and. 00:14:15
So there are so many people who helped pull this together, I saw. 00:14:19
A Facebook post on Winders about their Christmas parade and it said that they use like 60 staff members. 00:14:23
To put together their parade. So it may really may be grateful that we have volunteers. 00:14:28
And a very lean staff that helps put hours together. So grateful to everybody who helped pull that off. They're all recognized up 00:14:32
here. If you weren't able to be there, here's some shots from the night. 00:14:36
Was a was a great event. 00:14:41
Where Mrs. Santa and in that picture, but he he came and joined us and had a great celebration with all the kids. 00:14:43
But grateful to everybody, but especially want to recognize Melanie Atkins who? 00:14:50
For the seventh year in a row. 00:14:53
Has done just a wonderful job coordinating that. 00:14:55
Before we get to the winners, I do think I need to recognize because I always think about her. With the parade, we lost. 00:14:58
Mary Williams the other night. Mary D was the longtime owner. 00:15:03
And publisher of the Oconee Enterprise, Mary D also helped save the parade years ago. 00:15:07
When nobody was sure who was going to take it over. 00:15:13
And Mary and her mom, Miss Vinnie, decided that. 00:15:16
We couldn't have. 00:15:19
Christmas without a parade in downtown Watkinsville and. 00:15:21
Mary D for a long time organized it, put it together every year. 00:15:24
And beyond that, she was a great example of a local female business owner who did a great job of stewarding a family enterprise. 00:15:28
One of our oldest other businesses in the community, which is the O County Enterprise, so. 00:15:34
Will miss Mary D She was a Watkinsville resident. Was very proud to be a Watkinsville resident. We're grateful for her. 00:15:38
So who are our winners? They are here, Jan. Are you going to help me with this? So who won the Mary Dee Williams award? 00:15:45
I don't know if they're here. I'm not sure who else here. He's here. All right. Oconee roadside. 00:15:52
If you want to come forward and get your prize. 00:15:57
Congratulations. All right, I'm going to let you tell us about. 00:16:04
Tell us about your. Wow, Is that all for them? OK, All right. I want to tell you about your telescope. 00:16:08
My father-in-law had the old truck so we. 00:16:15
Put it up there and. 00:16:17
I put my art degree. 00:16:19
To use for something. OK, all right, There we go. There we go. OK, well, congratulations. Proud of you. Grab your stuff and we'll 00:16:20
get a picture of you and Jan. 00:16:25
Jane, you come in here, you're gonna look better on these pictures. 00:16:29
All right, here we go. 00:16:36
Got it. All right. Congratulations. All right. 00:16:39
All right, Spirit of the Season Award churches only. This is Ashford Memorial Methodist. Anybody here from Ashford? All right, 00:16:45
let's go. Come on up. 00:16:49
All right, what are the prizes for our other folks who don't get the basket of goodies? Downtown Bucks? OK, put that to work with 00:16:56
your youth group or something. OK, tell us about your flu. 00:17:01
Well it's been the same exact float I believe for 12 years, so I wonder if we're the only church in the parade. 00:17:05
But. 00:17:14
Ma'am, the Catholics were there. The Catholics were there, but we are happy to retire the. 00:17:15
The big church that we've been putting on the parade for so many years to. 00:17:21
OK. Well, congratulations. Thanks for being here. All right. 00:17:28
OK, best tractor. 00:17:30
NSD truck and performance anybody here? 00:17:33
They are not here, all right. 00:17:37
Best antique vehicle we have. Clyde's air cooled VW Clyde is this quad? 00:17:39
All right. Congratulations, Clyde. 00:17:44
All right. 00:17:49
All right, Claude, tell us about this machine. I work on Volkswagens for folks. 00:17:51
And to my good customers wanted to be in it. San Bernard was supposed to be in it. 00:17:57
I'm driving his car because he just had back surgery. 00:18:01
Mr. Claude. 00:18:08
All right. Thank you. 00:18:14
All right. Best Use of Theme Youth Award, Boy Scout Troop 196. 00:18:15
There we go. All right. 00:18:21
The oldest scout in Oconee County. 00:18:25
He's here. 00:18:27
Just 96. All right. Boy Scout Troop 96. All right. OK. Tell us about your float. 00:18:29
So this is our. 00:18:37
4th or fifth time in the parade. 00:18:39
I'm very competitive. I think we've won two other times. 00:18:42
So this may be my last year. My youngest son is leaving the. 00:18:45
Cub Scouts moving up. 00:18:51
But yeah, we we really wanted to do an outdoor theme that looked like and felt like you were outdoors. 00:18:53
That's where scouts are at home. 00:18:58
So for us, that was. 00:19:00
That was perfect. 00:19:03
I did take a few trees off stage at. 00:19:04
Waukesha First Baptist, where I work, had put them back real quick. So yeah, that's awesome. All right. 00:19:07
Well, congratulations, thanks for being a part of it. And I hope you, whatever Boy Scout troop gets you next year will be lucky to 00:19:14
have you say. 00:19:17
Troop sevens where my son eagled out. It's it's a good one. All right, go ahead. 00:19:21
All right. 00:19:31
Best use of theme. I think I've seen somebody here with the logo on. That would be Piedmont. 00:19:33
Emergency Department. 00:19:38
Come on up. 00:19:40
Congratulations. 00:19:44
All right, who wants to tell the story of the float? 00:19:46
Well, this is our third year participating in the parade. We've had so much fun, our second year winning an award, so thank you 00:19:49
for that. 00:19:52
While technically the Pecha's Fruit Stand is not located in Oak County County, it's in Putnam County. But it's something that's 00:19:56
been around forever and it's something that you just think of. 00:20:00
You pass that when you're going on vacation. Kids pass it whenever they're coming home from college for the holidays. And so we 00:20:05
just decided. 00:20:09
To make the fruit stand and like like the sign says 30th, 37 ish miles to Watkinsville when you get past that fruit stand. 00:20:12
And we got a lot of. 00:20:21
Kudos from the crowd. A lot of people knew what the float meant and what it stood for and we just had a lot of fun making the 00:20:23
making the float. 00:20:27
So thank you. Congratulations. 00:20:32
All right, y'all smile for your picture with? 00:20:34
Now we've got all these Piedmont emergency doctors who live on Main Street, you know, next year, you know, do we need to lean on 00:20:41
them to get them under float, you know? OK, OK. All right. OK. Next year. Next year. All right. Most artistic. 00:20:48
Youth Award. The Stage. Oconee. 00:20:56
Here we go, all right. 00:20:59
All right y'all tell us about your float and then tell us when your next next performance is so the community can attend. Yes. So 00:21:06
our float this year, our Christmas show was Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. 00:21:12
And we decided to make that our whole theme this year. And as you can see the picture, these are little elfs that were in our 00:21:19
show. The kids really love participating in the Christmas parade and we always try to get them to participate. And that's one of 00:21:25
our favorite things to do is when the kids participate and things like this. 00:21:31
Our upcoming shows are in. 00:21:38
March, we're doing big fish. 00:21:42
And then we will be doing Space Pirates and Dear Edwina. And in the summer we'll be doing Little Mermaid. 00:21:45
Yes, auditions are in January. If anyone would like to audition, it's gonna be very fun. Awesome. Well, congratulations. Thanks 00:21:54
for being here. 00:21:57
Type smile for your picture with Jan. 00:22:01
All right then. Surprise of the century. Our most artistic adults. I can't imagine where they spend their time. Probably the 00:22:10
Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation. 00:22:14
So congratulations to OCAF who is representing O CAF here tonight. I see two people elbowing each other. 00:22:19
Come on up here, Lawrence. All right? Yep, all right. 00:22:27
Well, thanks for being here. 00:22:30
Lawrence always deserves a round of applause. All right, now tell us. Tell us about the float. 00:22:33
The float is. 00:22:38
It's it's a couple little houses. The theme was hometown. 00:22:41
Right, so and some high school kids helped me build it, so that was really nice. 00:22:45
Because I always love working with high school kids. 00:22:50
And it's a. 00:22:52
It's a package. 00:22:54
And you can see it, we kind of parked it. 00:22:56
Down at the community park. 00:22:58
Which doesn't have a name yet, but it's a pocket park, we call it. 00:23:00
So if you drive out, you can see it still and. 00:23:04
It was fun. We, you know, I asked the kids if they had any toys and they're like. 00:23:08
Course, we have toys in the attic. 00:23:12
So we hung all the toys up in the attic and I thought that was pretty hilarious. So. 00:23:14
All right, awesome. Well done. All right, stay for your picture. 00:23:19
All right, then you guys can, you guys can do you guys just make sure those downtown Bucks get used? 00:23:22
You know so. 00:23:30
All right, Yeah, that's right. All right. So. 00:23:32
For those of you who need who have other plans, it is. 00:23:37
December 17th, right? And so, so don't feel like you have to hang around. You're welcome to. 00:23:40
We don't have a ton of other stuff on the agenda, but we do have our most exciting presentation of the year. 00:23:45
Which is will merit our auditor that's coming up, but I'll give a minute for anybody who does not want to stay and hear our audit. 00:23:50
If you need to exit, I understand, but I will tell you this is the best audit presentation you will ever hear from Mr. Merritt. 00:23:56
Hey, Jan. 00:24:03
You worried about vampires? Make sure my wife don't work. 00:24:12
It's good. I love darling like I eat. 00:24:30
All right, we now return to our regularly scheduled programming. 00:24:39
For those of you who are normally here, you'll remember what this feels like. So first up, we have our meeting minutes from 00:24:43
November. Do we have any modifications, questions, changes to those minutes? 00:24:48
Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve. I make a motion to approve. Do we have a second? 00:24:54
2nd. 00:24:59
All right. We have a motion. We have a second now. 00:25:00
I will flag for Council that Councilman Campbell's voice might be a little hoarse if somebody else needs to step in on the 00:25:02
seconds, just be aware. 00:25:05
It sounds like Councilman Thomas is ready to do that. We have a motion. We have a second. Any questions, comments, hearing, none, 00:25:09
all in favor say aye aye. 00:25:12
Motion carries unanimously. We'll move on to administration. Again, I'll be brief tonight, but as per normal. 00:25:16
We, we are more flexible with public comment here than we have to be, and that means if you all choose, someone has a question, 00:25:22
raise your hand. If Council chooses to want to hear from you, we will allow that. That is at Council's discretion. We're not 00:25:28
required to take public input except on certain items. If we do call any, please come speak from the podium. You have 4 minutes. 00:25:35
Refrain from debate, argument, Personal attacks are irrelevant discussion. Address only the merits of the pending matter. 00:25:41
Address remarks directly to Council. 00:25:46
We're not going to speak about litigation or attorney-client items. Joe, you look like we need to approve the agenda first. All 00:25:48
right, we will do that in a second. 00:25:52
After I finish what I'm saying, which is that we will not comment on personnel matters, we'll go back to approval of the agenda. 00:25:56
I don't have any changes to the agenda. Does anyone else Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve it. I make a motion to 00:26:03
approve the agenda. All right. Do we have a second? Second. All in favor Say aye. All right. Motion carries unanimously. 00:26:08
We'll be back to administration fiscal year. 00:26:14
2025 audit report and then we'll have a few budget amendments coming out of that. 00:26:17
Mr. Merritt. 00:26:23
I hope I didn't build you up too much. 00:26:25
Huh. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for that. 00:26:26
Overwhelming welcome. Probably not worthy of that. It's. 00:26:30
Kind of par for the course that when I stand up the room clears. 00:26:34
To give one of these presentations so. 00:26:38
Not surprised, but we'll keep it brief and positive this evening. 00:26:41
So this is the table of contents, just kind of what's in this presentation. 00:26:45
We'll start with First things first. 00:26:50
Our audit opinion. 00:26:54
So this is really what you pay us for as auditors. 00:26:55
To come in, look at the finances. 00:26:58
Look at the. 00:27:01
Financial statements and issue an opinion on those financial statements. 00:27:03
For the year ended June 30th, 2025. 00:27:07
We have issued an unmodified opinion on those financial statements. 00:27:10
Which is the cleanest opinion you can have? 00:27:14
So what that basically means is we believe those financial statements, the city's financial statements. 00:27:17
Are materially correct. 00:27:23
And free from material misstatement. 00:27:26
Whether due to fraud or error. 00:27:28
Also in this letter. 00:27:31
By the way, this is page one of the bound. 00:27:33
Annual financial report that I have put in front of you. 00:27:37
Also in this letter, we talk about the city's responsibilities. 00:27:41
What our responsibilities are as the auditor. 00:27:45
And then we talk about. 00:27:49
How we have to perform this audit under government audit standards? 00:27:50
And make the financials be in accordance with Generally accepted accounting principles. 00:27:55
So in this report. 00:28:02
We'll start with the government wide statement. So this is the activity of all of your funds put together. 00:28:04
OK, umm. 00:28:11
So page 12. 00:28:11
That's the statement of net position. 00:28:14
Or the balance sheet? 00:28:16
Page 13. 00:28:17
That's the statement of activities or the income statement. 00:28:18
So I have I think 1 slide about the statement in that position. Yep, here it is. 00:28:22
I don't know why my total bled together there. I apologize for that. 00:28:26
But. 00:28:31
This is government wide net position. This would be all of your assets less your liabilities across. 00:28:32
The all the activities of the city. 00:28:38
So you can see we've given a three-year comparison here. 00:28:41
Net position in 2023. 00:28:45
10.4 million 2020 four. 12.7 million. 00:28:47
2025 has 14.3 million so. 00:28:51
Pretty substantial increase in the net position of the city. 00:28:55
So one other thing to highlight here I've kind of given you. 00:28:59
What the three classifications are? The Gray section of the bar is the unrestricted net position. 00:29:03
The orange is the restricted and then the blue is the net position that is. 00:29:10
Included or tied up to your capital assets. 00:29:15
So. 00:29:19
This is about the split that we see most of the time. 00:29:20
The vast majority of net position is. 00:29:24
Is. 00:29:26
Included in your capital assets, what's called net investment and capital assets. 00:29:27
That would be your. 00:29:33
Buildings, uh. 00:29:35
Your park. 00:29:36
That pedestrian barrier we just saw? 00:29:38
Beautiful bridge, by the way. 00:29:40
Um, and. 00:29:42
Vehicles, police cars, equipment, stuff like that. 00:29:45
But your unrestricted net position, the $3.981 million, that is the net position that. 00:29:49
Is at the discretion of mayor and council about what to do with. 00:29:55
Now let me make a clarification. 00:30:00
That is not. 00:30:02
Cash, OK. 00:30:03
That is net position, so that is. 00:30:05
Assets less liabilities. 00:30:08
Alright. 00:30:10
All right, so this. 00:30:15
Is essentially a summary of your statement of activities. 00:30:17
It shows your change in that position for the last three fiscal years. I'm a visual guy. 00:30:20
I like charts and graphs, so that's what I've done in this presentation. 00:30:25
You can see 2023 we had a net loss of $356,000. 00:30:30
2024 we had a huge. 00:30:36
Change there and we basically showed net income of 2.2 million. 00:30:39
And then in 2025, we're kind of. 00:30:43
Back down to reality again, about 1.6 million so. 00:30:46
The sharp increase in 2024. 00:30:51
Had a lot to do with. 00:30:54
Recognition of ARPA. 00:30:57
So you received all that cash in 20? 00:30:59
3 or 22. 00:31:02
Fiscal years, it all kind of runs together. You receive the cash in a previous year. 00:31:05
Well, according to accounting standards, you recognize the revenue from that when you expend it. 00:31:09
So a lot of that was expended in 2024. Therefore we recognize the revenue for that. 00:31:14
We also showed. 00:31:20
Revenue associated. 00:31:23
With. 00:31:25
The Thomas Park, the G Falone, so that actually goes into revenue and then. 00:31:26
Later on it gets paid back as debt. 00:31:32
Debt service. 00:31:34
So in 25, yeah, that's right. 00:31:36
25 We kind of split the difference between the two. 00:31:39
So we were talking about the government wide and now we're going to talk about just the general fund. Oh. 00:31:43
Go Back 1 Sharon. 00:31:48
So this is just your general fund over the last three years? 00:31:50
So your expenditures are in blue, your revenues are in yellow. 00:31:53
So like I talked about before, 2024 is kind of the outlier. 00:31:58
Due to all the stuff at Thomas Park. 00:32:02
You had. 00:32:07
Basically double the expenditures in your general fund. 00:32:08
In 2024 associated with that. 00:32:11
And then we saw that come back down to. 00:32:14
Almost equal to revenues in 2025. So they were. 00:32:17
I think that's $15,000 difference. 00:32:23
That's like. 00:32:26
As good as you can get. 00:32:27
So awesome job here. 00:32:30
And I have a breakdown of those revenues and expenditures as we keep going here. All right, so here's your. 00:32:32
Revenues by source. 00:32:38
Sharon, I don't know why. 00:32:40
The the formattings kind of gotten funky here guys. I apologize for that. 00:32:42
When I proof this on my computer, it did not look like that. 00:32:47
Um, so this slide is just kind of for your information, right? So it tells you. 00:32:50
How diverse your revenues are in your general fund? 00:32:57
This is what you want to see. 00:33:01
You want to see diverse sources of revenue in your in your general fund. 00:33:03
What you would not want to see would be that. 00:33:07
Orange section. 00:33:10
Be about half that. 00:33:12
That would mean that half your revenues are made-up by property tax. 00:33:14
Light blue section at 31%. You don't want that to be. 00:33:19
Over half your pie. 00:33:22
That means you're you're. 00:33:24
Living on sales tax. 00:33:25
So a diverse. 00:33:27
Revenue stream in your general fund is always a healthy. 00:33:29
So same with expenditures. 00:33:36
You don't want to see any. 00:33:39
One function of expenditures take up the vast majority of your pie. 00:33:40
So we break these. We, we. 00:33:46
We actually aggregate the expenditures. Y'all approve budgets by department. 00:33:49
But according to accounting standards we only have to present them by function. So let me give give you an example. 00:33:53
Your public safety function. 00:33:59
That would be. 00:34:01
Anything in public safety so. 00:34:03
Police. 00:34:05
Fire, jail, whatever you have, all that goes into public safety. 00:34:06
General Government. 00:34:11
The yellow that would be. 00:34:12
Finance. City Manager, Mayor, Council. 00:34:15
And and many others. 00:34:19
OK. So they're kind of aggregated up? 00:34:21
So what we have here? 00:34:24
We have public safety as the majority at 26%. 00:34:26
Followed by General. 00:34:30
Actually followed by Public works at 21, then General Government at 19. 00:34:31
So pretty healthy split there. 00:34:36
A lot of times we see. 00:34:39
That public safety. 00:34:41
Piece be 50% or more. 00:34:43
So this is. 00:34:47
This is really what you want to see. 00:34:48
So awesome job to you guys. 00:34:50
All right, so. 00:34:54
As you continue to go through this report. 00:34:55
You'll get to another letter that we issue. 00:34:58
This is the report on internal control and other matters. 00:35:01
This is the report that. 00:35:04
We talk about internal control and then talk about any findings we may have associated with. 00:35:07
Those controls. 00:35:11
That can be found on pages 48. 00:35:13
And 49 of this report. 00:35:15
I would encourage you to look at that and if you have questions, please let me know. 00:35:17
All right, so. 00:35:22
There is a Standards Board that sits up in Connecticut. 00:35:26
That gets to tell all of us. 00:35:30
Umm, common folk here in Georgia. 00:35:32
How we're supposed to. 00:35:36
Do the accounting for local governments. This board is called the Gatsby. 00:35:39
The Gatsby. 00:35:44
Has issued I don't know how many pronouncements over the last few years. 00:35:45
I guess they wanted to work some overtime. I don't know, but they've been issuing pronouncements like crazy. 00:35:51
And they had another one that was effective for this year. 00:35:57
That was 101. 00:36:00
That pronouncement had to do with what we call compensated absences, so that would be your. 00:36:02
Sick and vacation and sick bank leave times, OK, so it changed how we have to account for that. 00:36:07
Um, it's. 00:36:15
Conceptually the change is small, but in practice it was pretty large. We actually had to estimate usage. 00:36:17
Not going to get into all that calculation with you. 00:36:23
But it it's a lot of work and your team was very helpful. 00:36:26
Helping us implement this for you guys. 00:36:31
You know we. 00:36:34
We can do the accounting. 00:36:35
But. 00:36:36
We can't run all the reports and get all the data and so. 00:36:38
Lee and Sharon and Julian and the rest of the team. 00:36:42
Just did a. 00:36:45
A great job, they were prompt when helping us get this done. 00:36:46
And we very much appreciate that. 00:36:50
So like I said, they're busy. 00:36:54
Here's another reporting change for this year. This one really didn't affect the city. 00:36:56
This had to do with disclosing risk if you have. 00:37:00
Like a concentration of revenue. Like for instance if you. 00:37:04
I had one utility customer. 00:37:09
That was 70% of your utilities revenue. You would now have to disclose that in your annual financial report. 00:37:11
Again, this didn't really affect the city. 00:37:18
But. 00:37:20
We have to say that we implemented it. 00:37:21
You'll see in the theme here. 00:37:25
All right, so next year we will be implementing Gatsby 103. 00:37:28
Which is what they call financial reporting model. 00:37:33
Improvements. 00:37:36
That's very subjective. 00:37:37
Improvements. 00:37:39
Should not affect the city too awful much. The main change will be in the management discussion and analysis. 00:37:42
Which? 00:37:48
Let me throw out a little tidbit here. 00:37:49
If there's any. 00:37:52
Part of this report that I would encourage you to read. 00:37:53
It would be the first. 00:37:56
Like 10-11 pages. So that would be our opinion letter. 00:37:58
And then that would be your management. 00:38:03
The piece that your management drafted and put into this report that kind of sums up the operations of the city for the year. 00:38:05
OK, so that is the piece. That is their words, their writing. 00:38:12
And then the rest of the financial statement smaller. 00:38:17
We help you prepare. 00:38:20
But I would encourage you to read those first. 00:38:21
I think it's. 00:38:23
1st 11 pages. 00:38:24
Again. 00:38:29
Another new standard for next year. 00:38:29
This one has to do with a note disclosure relating to capital assets. So basically. 00:38:33
Going forward, if you have any capital assets? 00:38:37
That are going to be sold in the next. 00:38:40
Fiscal year. 00:38:44
You now have to disclose those. 00:38:45
In the financial statements. In the notes to the financial statements. 00:38:47
Don't really know where the logic behind this has come from, but that's not my job, that's above my head. 00:38:52
And that's all I have for tonight. 00:38:59
As you can see. 00:39:02
The photographer. 00:39:04
Probably took the best picture of me that's ever been taken. 00:39:05
So if if you would like his name and number, I'll be glad to share. 00:39:08
Any questions? 00:39:13
I mean this. 00:39:16
Is a silly question, but with that last. 00:39:17
Improvement. 00:39:20
What if you don't know you're going to sell something in the next year? You don't have to disclose it. OK, Yeah. 00:39:22
That. 00:39:28
I think the spirit of that is. 00:39:31
Sometimes governments will. 00:39:34
Acquire like for instance. 00:39:36
Acquire land. 00:39:38
In a strategic type move. 00:39:40
Hold it for three years and then. 00:39:42
Try to play the market and sell it. 00:39:45
And so that that is a disclosure. 00:39:47
Kind of intended to inform the reader that. 00:39:51
Hey, we have this capital asset, but our intent is to sell this in the next 12 months and hopefully make money. 00:39:54
So I think that's the nature of that. 00:40:01
Good question. 00:40:04
I wish I could give you a. 00:40:06
Straight, hard, concrete answer. 00:40:07
Because. 00:40:10
Some sometimes we don't understand what they're trying to do. 00:40:11
Any other questions here? 00:40:15
I know that's a lot and I'm trying to go fast to be respectful of people's time. 00:40:16
If you have further questions or comments or concerns, please reach out. Here's my contact. 00:40:21
Also, uh. 00:40:26
Mayor Broderick has it. 00:40:27
Share and all the other staff members so. 00:40:29
Please reach out if you need anything. 00:40:32
Well, thank you Will. Outstanding report. 00:40:34
The real credit to our staff and the way that the cities run too, and absolutely. 00:40:37
Seeing significant improvements in a very strong financial position for Watkinsville. We're grateful for that manager Dickerson, I 00:40:41
don't know if you have anything you'd want to add or comment on. Yeah, just two things. First of all, this is the first full 00:40:46
fiscal year where we used. We were under the new financial software, which made things a little bit more challenging because some 00:40:52
of the reports that were previously set up under QuickBooks weren't on this one and we had to work with our. 00:40:57
Vendor, uh. 00:41:03
And the second thing I want to say, and most important is. 00:41:04
Lee absolutely. I don't know how many hours she lost on, you know, she's lost time because she was working on this project for the 00:41:06
last since what, July? I think we've been working on this since July, so. 00:41:13
And during that time, she had. 00:41:20
Three months where we had someone on maternity leave who is now not returning, so she had additional responsibility for somebody. 00:41:22
It was supporting her so. 00:41:25
Certainly acknowledge her hard work and her efforts and it was it was definitely a lot to do and and we could not do it without 00:41:30
her. So I really appreciate her work on this. 00:41:34
I'll add to that I could not do it without. Thank you very much. 00:41:43
Well, I've been seeing these reports for. 00:41:48
20 plus years I guess now and it's kind of mind blowing how far, how far we've come, you know, as a city. 00:41:51
Both in terms of the programs and what we're able to execute, but also. 00:41:57
The sophistication of our team. Lee, Sharon. 00:42:01
And what y'all do and we're grateful. 00:42:04
Grateful for that every month and then we'll always grateful for you. 00:42:07
Keeping us make sure we're minding our P's and Q's so we are how important. Thank you all. Do we have any questions from the 00:42:11
audience regarding the audit? If you do, I want you to come forward and and offer those up and. 00:42:16
One of us will attempt to answer them if we can. 00:42:22
Yep, Yep. Kathleen Mccriston 13,000. 00:42:25
Barnett Rd. 00:42:29
We have $195,690.00 in. 00:42:31
Judicial expenses. 00:42:35
Is that? 00:42:37
Typical for a city our size. 00:42:38
That's a hard question to answer. 00:42:46
So every city is unique. 00:42:50
Right, so. 00:42:52
We we see some cities that. 00:42:55
Their judicial operations are much larger than Watkinsville. 00:42:58
And then we also see some that are much smaller. 00:43:01
I would say. 00:43:05
Based on the piece of that pie. 00:43:07
That judicial was, I would say that it's it's appropriate. 00:43:09
So I think that's probably the best answer to your question. 00:43:13
I wouldn't say it's overly large. 00:43:18
But it's not drastically small. 00:43:20
Either I think it's appropriate. 00:43:22
I'd point out too, we have two staff members. Well, actually, yeah. 00:43:25
Because we find we, we actually charge our finance director in Municipal Court, that won't happen this next year. We'll probably 00:43:31
charge that person in the general government. So that number is going to shrink. 00:43:35
The Municipal Court clerk position that I. 00:43:40
Spoke with the. 00:43:43
Mayor and the personnel and Finance Committee recently and got approval to reorganize and we're going to be peeling. So Lee Black 00:43:45
is are currently our finance Director and our Municipal Court clerk. 00:43:49
Which again. 00:43:54
Kudos to Lee because she's doing that job too along this. We're gonna peel that back so she'll go into General Gov this next time 00:43:55
and we'll have Municipal Court will just be our Municipal Court clerk as well as keep in mind, we don't actually. 00:44:01
Like have a full time. 00:44:07
Judge or solicitor like a lot of communities do, we pay them a monthly contract fee similar to. 00:44:09
To how we handle our. 00:44:14
Our city engineer and our city attorney. So it could be much higher if we had to set have salaries and benefits for those people. 00:44:15
So I think. 00:44:19
Yeah, I mean, but again, you're going to see it shrink, You'll see General Gov go up a little bit as a result, but. 00:44:23
But I think, I think and I. 00:44:28
Worked. I worked for Athens Park County and they have a huge Municipal Court budget so I don't think this is out of line at all. 00:44:30
I think the other thing to remember about that is it's also there's a revenue stream that. 00:44:36
That offsets that offsets that. So it's not just like a sunk expense, you know, there's a. 00:44:39
There's fees and fines and other things that are, you know, a healthy part of our revenue stream that come out of that. I didn't 00:44:43
really appreciate the court function much till I was here more often, but you know, when you. 00:44:48
See that crowd in here? Is it once a month or twice a month? 00:44:52
Once a month and. 00:44:55
You know, and then just what Chief and his officers are doing to to. 00:44:57
To keep things moving, it's. 00:44:59
It's an important part of our city and it's also sort of very approachable. It's a little bit of. 00:45:01
Mayberry, RFD When you come in here for our for our Municipal Court, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of being here, 00:45:05
so. 00:45:08
Doctor Mayberry. 00:45:12
What you got? 00:45:13
Did you have a question? Yes, Sir. 00:45:14
I got a question I'd like to speak. We'll come on up to the microphone and we can bring it to you if you'd prefer, either way you 00:45:17
want to do it. 00:45:20
I'm a civilian now, so I'm Bill Mayberry. I live on Cedar Dr. 00:45:28
I have two. 00:45:34
Two issues. 00:45:35
Number one. 00:45:37
Well, I have three issues. Here's the bad news. I have No Fear of public speaking. 00:45:39
I hear that 4 minutes is my Max. That's right. Yeah, we'll finish it. 00:45:47
Number one. 00:45:52
I don't want to. 00:45:54
I want to tender a praise. 00:45:55
For the rapid and efficient response to my. 00:45:57
Recent emergency. 00:46:02
Without the. 00:46:05
Rapid and efficient response. 00:46:08
Of our first responders. 00:46:12
Including the Police Department. 00:46:15
The Sheriff's Office. 00:46:18
First responders. 00:46:20
And. 00:46:23
The assistance of my wife received. 00:46:26
To to. 00:46:29
To resuscitate me. 00:46:32
I would not be here. 00:46:36
So. 00:46:38
I. 00:46:40
And. 00:46:42
The Piedmont. 00:46:45
That emergency room was fantastic, except. 00:46:48
Too bad I was on a ventilator, I don't remember it. 00:46:52
OK #2 and. 00:46:57
Most important. 00:46:59
And something germane to the police force. 00:47:03
I beg. 00:47:10
You to do what you can to get a traffic light down here at VFW. 00:47:13
And experiment Station Rd. 00:47:19
Now I'm I am. 00:47:22
I must admit that I'm ignorant. 00:47:25
Of the red tape involved. 00:47:27
I know it's a state Rd. 00:47:29
But I don't know how many. 00:47:33
Casualty. 00:47:37
Deaths have have occurred. 00:47:39
I know I got a ticket there for. 00:47:43
For dangerous left turn. 00:47:45
And. 00:47:49
But I was guilty. 00:47:52
It's very, very difficult to get. 00:47:56
Get out of here. 00:47:58
And I'm surprised that there's. 00:48:00
There's not more. 00:48:02
Traffic, Traffic accidents down here. 00:48:04
Now I understand. 00:48:07
Also that. 00:48:09
They're shared duties with the city. 00:48:10
And the county? 00:48:13
Um. 00:48:15
I also know. 00:48:18
Who I also know and have the phone numbers of the state legislators. 00:48:20
When I need to brush up or actually discover. 00:48:27
How am I doing? You got about a minute and a half, I think. I won't take it all. 00:48:33
I will. I will be researching. 00:48:38
A law and procedure. 00:48:43
And. 00:48:46
I'll be bugging the city manager. 00:48:48
And I'll be bugging the sheriff. 00:48:51
I'll be I will really be bugging. 00:48:54
The county. 00:48:58
Commission. 00:49:00
They have plenty of money. 00:49:03
To put up. 00:49:06
Which will save lives. 00:49:09
That's it. Thank you. All right. 00:49:16
Thank you, Bill. 00:49:18
All right. Any questions regarding the audit? 00:49:20
If there's not. 00:49:24
I think we have some budget amendments we need to handle coming out of that. Is that correct, Sharon, do you want to explain those 00:49:26
and then we'll? 00:49:28
Move forward on those. 00:49:32
Yeah. So just budget amendments that when they go to balance the budget again, some things come in after the fiscal year has 00:49:33
begun, they have to be booked back. 00:49:37
To the fiscal year when they happened as he mentioned earlier. And so that's what this is doing. 00:49:41
All right. Is there anything on the screen related to those or it's just in the packet? 00:49:46
OK. All right. I'll entertain a motion to approve the amendments as provided in the packet. 00:49:50
I make such a motion. 00:49:55
We have a second. 00:49:57
I will second. 00:49:59
Any discussion questions? 00:49:59
Hearing none, all in favor say aye aye. 00:50:02
Any opposed? 00:50:05
Motion carries unanimously. 00:50:07
Again, before we leave this, thank you. 00:50:09
Lee, thank you, Sharon. 00:50:11
It looks like Mr. Merritt had to leave, but we're grateful to him as well for the clean audit. 00:50:13
And for everybody who took time to review it. 00:50:17
We'll move on to financial reports. Sharon, I'll let you. 00:50:19
Handle that please. Everybody should have received the balance sheet. 00:50:23
The one thing that does look a little different, you may have noticed that we now have the Georgia fund, one state of Georgia, two 00:50:26
and a half million dollars. We move that money out of our money market account into that account so that we could. 00:50:32
Get a higher interest rate is a little bit. 00:50:38
More secure and so. 00:50:40
That's some of our understood, some of our restricted. 00:50:43
Fund balance about 800,000 or so of that is. 00:50:46
838,000 is restricted. 00:50:50
Meaning that if the everything were to go to. 00:50:52
Heck, in a handbasket. 00:50:55
We got three or four months worth of operating funds that you can pull from. And so that's why it's restricted. A lot of 00:50:56
communities only have two months, but we have 3. 00:50:59
So that's the that's the highlight on the balance sheet, but we are balanced. 00:51:03
We did provide both October and November you may recall again because of the of the audit and because of some. 00:51:07
Financial challenges and stuff, we did not have those reports in, but they you should have October and November. 00:51:15
This month's report. This month's agenda. 00:51:20
Not anything really surprising. We're right on track. 00:51:24
With where we need to be on revenues and expenditures. 00:51:26
I'll talk a little bit about our. 00:51:29
Spas 3. 00:51:31
We have. 00:51:33
Let's see. 00:51:35
Find my right report here. 00:51:36
Go through these fairly quickly if I can get my reports together. 00:51:38
OK. So we have average of about $86,000 a month we've. 00:51:43
Again, only budgeted around 64 so we had a surplus and a few months back. 00:51:47
Council reallocated some of those monies so that we could. 00:51:52
Continue to use those for the projects that are outstanding. 00:51:56
We have a little bit more than. 00:51:59
Whoops, a little bit more than a million. 00:52:02
Three in the **** in the. 00:52:04
Balance. One thing to note on that is the reason we have a high balance right now is because we are currently being reimbursed for 00:52:06
the work on Simonton Bridge Rd. As soon as the loan has been used, some of the most of the money will be coming out of SPLOST 3, 00:52:10
some out of T SPLOST. 00:52:15
As soon as that money's. 00:52:19
Used. 00:52:21
The loan will convert. 00:52:22
To a monthly payment and we'll. 00:52:23
Start drawing that down. 00:52:25
And we had a little bit more than $94,000 in the month of collected through the month of October. 00:52:29
Just a reminder of all the. 00:52:36
Great projects we've got going on. As I mentioned the Simpson Bridge Rd. A lot of work at Thomas Farm. 00:52:38
Police vehicles, streetscape improvements and then. 00:52:42
Wayfinding signage and and whatnot that we've got going to Harris Shoals Park, the improvement the mayor mentioned earlier as part 00:52:47
of that. 00:52:50
On T spots, we are averaging about 75,000, a little bit more than 75 six. 00:52:53
We budgeted about 78, but that's normal. We're early in the process. We expect will be exceeding that. 00:52:58
As we move down the line, we have a little bit more than $1,000,000 in that account. 00:53:04
And we were up a little less than two 2% about 79,000 in the. 00:53:08
October Collections. 00:53:14
Again, T SPLA Samjhan Bridge Roads part of that project. The Bridge. 00:53:16
Resurfacing our roads, we've the Mulberry St. 00:53:21
Road was resurfaced for that. 00:53:24
And there's other. 00:53:26
Other improvements that. 00:53:27
That were made the Bishop. 00:53:29
Yeah, Bishops Vineyard. Sorry, I went blank. Bishop's Vineyard was. 00:53:32
Was paved as a result of these funds so. 00:53:36
Any questions on any of those? 00:53:39
All right, move into economic. 00:53:42
Reports. 00:53:44
So business alcohol licenses. 00:53:45
The business alcohol licenses, applications, renewals went out. 00:53:48
In October. And so we're starting to see a lot of those come in. 00:53:52
Had a little bit more than $3000 of that come in and. 00:53:56
November. Umm. 00:53:59
And then on alcohol side, we have some renewals on those as well. 00:54:01
On the excise tax, alcohol. 00:54:06
24,000 through November and hotel motel. 00:54:09
We have that comes in sometimes. Again, some of these things come in after the fact, so we didn't get it in right before the 00:54:12
cutoff. 00:54:15
That will be shown in the next month's meeting. But we're doing, we're tracking where we need to be. 00:54:18
And then on building permits, we have 7 permits for seven individual projects. 00:54:23
Several pools, people are getting excited. We have three pools out of those seven projects, so. 00:54:28
Any questions on those? 00:54:34
OK. 00:54:37
All right, Mayor Pro Tem Tucker. 00:54:41
Get a little energy in my body, OK? 00:54:43
So. 00:54:46
Last month we had the report of the strategic planning process. All of that is online. 00:54:48
We have a great blueprint. 00:54:54
As we continue to develop our. 00:54:57
Downtown. 00:54:59
Um, the Classic City Golf Lounge will be. 00:55:01
Opening in January, so that's an exciting new. 00:55:05
Business coming to our downtown. 00:55:09
Recently we have the OKAV holiday market. 00:55:11
And then? 00:55:14
Always. We've talked a lot about it already. Tonight, the annual downtown Christmas parade and tree lighting with our first ever. 00:55:16
Downtown business decorating contest so. 00:55:22
Some of you still in the room have your downtown bucks to spend. 00:55:27
And if you don't, just as Mayor Broderick mentioned. 00:55:32
Please shop local, I mean the statistics are all out there. 00:55:37
It's just a great way to help our community thrive. 00:55:41
All right, Chief Harwood. 00:55:48
All right. As always, I want to thank everybody and you know. 00:55:54
Passed my one year anniversary and it is a it is a true privilege. 00:55:57
To be able to work with such a good group of people. 00:56:01
The city of Watkinsville. 00:56:04
Is is an awesome place to be and I'm proud to be part of it. 00:56:06
For our training, we we got Officer Claire. 00:56:10
Going through his field training. 00:56:13
I'm predicting 8 to 10 weeks. We want to make sure he's ready to go by himself. He's he's doing excellent. 00:56:15
He actually responded to attend to a domestic violence. 00:56:21
Today with an arrest and did extremely well. He was with Sergeant Anglin. 00:56:24
We have completed all our firearms qualifications which. 00:56:28
You know, we have three different weapons that we use. 00:56:31
And then we do a low light shooting. 00:56:35
So we we familiarize ourselves with how to shoot at night as well and use flashlights and techniques and. 00:56:36
We got that done last week. 00:56:42
And then I have put out a calendar for training, mandatory training for everybody. 00:56:44
Next year. 00:56:48
That we will have in house. 00:56:49
So we will do. 00:56:51
You know, policy evidence, procedures and different kind of things like that in house and then allow them to do some specialized 00:56:52
training outside. 00:56:55
Is it, is it time for Taser recertification? January, that is, in January. 00:56:59
Any volunteers? 00:57:04
I think officer player. 00:57:09
Sorry, I did not think for you to hear that. 00:57:13
So it's OK, you weren't at the microphone. 00:57:15
Officer Claire. 00:57:19
Is the new officer so he he has already said he will take a voluntary exposure and we will be nice to him and. 00:57:21
I do the training in here as well and and get him Taser certified. 00:57:29
Yeah. 00:57:34
We did a swearing in. I want to thank Jimmy and Stuart Willis for their continued support every year to badges and benevolence 00:57:36
they. 00:57:39
Came in last week and. 00:57:42
And, umm. 00:57:44
Very thankful for their support. 00:57:45
We have a new car to Sergeant Wade. He got his new 2025 Explorer. He's extremely happy and well deserving of it. 00:57:48
I can't. You can't. 00:57:57
Get rid of the smile off of space. We have an amazing team. 00:57:58
And that's why, you know, it's hard to get. 00:58:01
Some officers here because we are being selective. 00:58:04
We want the right person in Watkinsville Police Department and not just, you know. 00:58:07
Um, somebody that's looking for a job we want the right person for. 00:58:13
For the vision we have. 00:58:17
And the. 00:58:18
Christmas bright, I don't think I thought went very well, you know, with. 00:58:19
The help of Oconee County, we actually had Tristan. 00:58:23
We hired him as well. 00:58:27
To help out but. 00:58:29
With the short staffing it went. 00:58:31
Incredibly well. 00:58:33
We are going to make a few changes after our debriefing just to tighten a couple things up. 00:58:35
A couple rest through this time period. We had a Warner person and a suspended license. 00:58:40
And possession of marijuana actually had another rest today. That'll go on the next report. 00:58:47
For domestic violence. 00:58:52
And then our stats. 00:58:54
You know they have taper down a little bit although. 00:58:57
We are working with a few officers less and then a couple. 00:58:59
That we've had to train Officer Higgins, Officer Sauce and now Officer Claire. 00:59:02
Once we get them. 00:59:06
Fully prepared. 00:59:08
I see the numbers going. 00:59:09
Going up a little bit, uh. 00:59:11
I ran the traffic data collecting stats for you should be in your packet. 00:59:13
I don't see anything out of the. 00:59:19
The norm it was from. 00:59:20
July till December. 00:59:22
We will keep an eye on. 00:59:24
Some of the. 00:59:25
The spots that we get a lot of complaints on as far as speeders and continue to. 00:59:26
To educate. 00:59:31
The citizens and. 00:59:32
And folks that. 00:59:33
Need to be told to slow down so. 00:59:35
Um, but everything, everything looks, looks pretty good. 00:59:38
I feel really. 00:59:43
Good about the future, the the six that we have, the six officers, including myself. 00:59:44
I can't ask for better people. 00:59:50
We really I. 00:59:52
Have a good vision and and and plan going so. 00:59:54
Any questions on any information? 00:59:58
Any questions? 01:00:02
Thank you, Chief. I wish everybody Merry Christmas. All right. 01:00:04
All right, consent agenda. 01:00:10
Usually we just breeze over consent, but I think this one is worth talking about. 01:00:13
Everybody's probably seen waters walk go up and hopefully they'll have people moving in soon. 01:00:18
But one of the things that's easy to forget, part of the Waters Walk arrangement was a donation of, I think, 6 acres of green 01:00:22
space along Durham St. to the city. 01:00:26
So that that property is donated at no cost as part of that transaction to the city. 01:00:31
So what we're doing? 01:00:36
What we're doing tonight is. 01:00:38
Approving the acceptance of that donation and we'll sign the paperwork and that will become City of Watkinsville property. 01:00:40
As they work to get their CEO. So that's good news for us. 01:00:45
So are there any questions or comments about that? 01:00:50
There's none. We'll. 01:00:54
I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. 01:00:56
I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Have a second, I'll second. 01:00:59
All right. Any questions, comments, hearing none, all in favor say aye, All right. 01:01:03
We have no public hearings. We have no appearances. 01:01:09
We have no old business. 01:01:12
We have one item of new business. 01:01:13
This is to consider year end bonuses for city employees. The. 01:01:16
Personnel Committee and I met. 01:01:20
A few weeks ago and I believe there was a recommendation in your packet. 01:01:21
Chuck or Connie, I don't know if you want to add anything to that recommendation. 01:01:25
Yes, we wanted to add our. 01:01:31
Cedar Manager. 01:01:34
To same as same as less. So I think what the intent is to do a weeks weeks. 01:01:35
Pay, is that correct Sharon, for everybody? So we would. 01:01:42
The manager made recommendations for a week's pay for everybody, as she typically does. She left herself out of that, so we want 01:01:45
to correct that and add her in with a week of. 01:01:50
A week of uh. 01:01:56
Pay for year end bonus for you as well Sharon so. 01:01:58
Up there, Chuck, is that a? 01:02:01
And a motion, yes. 01:02:04
That's the recommendation from the committee. 01:02:05
So that comes with a motion and with a second. 01:02:09
Sharon, do you have anything you want to? 01:02:13
Talk about now that we've made a motion on that. 01:02:14
Yeah, Thank you. I just wanted to point out that this is only for employees have been employed for full time since for 12 months. 01:02:16
As has been our tradition, anybody that was hired in January does get included. 01:02:23
For that so. 01:02:28
It's only 10, There's only 10, well, if you count me, 11 of the 17 that are eligible. We've got new employees that have not made 01:02:30
that 12 month. 01:02:33
Market umm. 01:02:37
OK. All right. 01:02:38
OK. 01:02:41
Any other comments? 01:02:43
I will say we have again, it's one of. 01:02:45
Things I've been. 01:02:47
You know, when you're on council, you, you see these folks, but. 01:02:48
When you're here more often as mayor. 01:02:52
You get a. You get a good handle on how often, how hard they really work, and how efficiently all work and. 01:02:54
We're grateful for that. I know Connie also, I think. 01:03:00
Comes to the staff meetings and gets a great sense of that as well. 01:03:02
But I will tell y'all and I'll share it with the public we have. This is not. 01:03:05
This is not a group that adheres to any of the stereotypes of how government employees work. This is a group of people who work 01:03:10
like it is their own business. 01:03:13
In their own town and they take ownership and they work hard and they work relentlessly and they do a great job. 01:03:17
And if they don't, they don't tend to stick around too long. So, Sharon, grateful for your leadership. 01:03:22
Of the staff and really proud to be able to. 01:03:28
Being a financial position to be able to provide these bonuses so. 01:03:31
So we have a motion and a second already because that came from the committee. So all in favor say aye. 01:03:35
All right, that carries unanimously. We'll move on to public comments. 01:03:41
Mr. Mayberry, thank you for your comments earlier. Is there anyone else who'd like to make a public comment tonight? 01:03:47
Kathleen, I know we've heard from you. Anything else? Everything good. 01:03:53
OK. All right, Count. Yep. Thank you. 01:03:56
Come on. 01:04:03
We got to get your steps in. 01:04:05
I failed to mention this, but a lot of. 01:04:08
Appreciate the donation of the wood that we went put into the float and that we're adding the jewelry studio at Oak Half. 01:04:10
And a number of other projects and that was really a. 01:04:16
There's a great. 01:04:19
Donation. Umm. 01:04:20
Thanks again. 01:04:21
Awesome. 01:04:22
Will be working for your mate. That's right, that's right. 01:04:24
We are. We're really excited about what's going on today, if you can. 01:04:28
Feel when I always tell people when OCAF is working well, it's like having a, it's like having a tailwind or a fifth wheel on the 01:04:31
bus in Watkinsville and really excited about everything that's happened in there now. 01:04:36
So yeah. 01:04:41
All right, no other public comments. With that, we'll do Council reports. Councilman Garrett, your first. 01:04:44
All right. Connie Massey, Councilwoman Massey. 01:04:50
Nothing to report. 01:04:54
Councilman Thomas. 01:04:55
I just want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 01:04:56
All right. Thank you, Sir. 01:04:59
Mayor Pro Tem. 01:05:01
Welcome back. 01:05:04
And Councilman Campbell. 01:05:06
Glad you're among the living all right. We have. We are done with council reports. We do not need an executive session. 01:05:07
So I will. 01:05:14
Ask for a motion to adjourn. 01:05:15
I make a motion to adjourn second and we have a second all in favor say aye, aye. All right. Good night, everybody. Merry 01:05:16
Christmas. 01:05:20
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Transcript

Event transcript
All right, Merry Christmas. 00:00:09
To all and welcome to the December. 00:00:11
Watkinsville City Council meeting It's a special time of year and I'm grateful. 00:00:16
For all of you and all of you who've made time to join us on a what has to be a busy night if your home is like my home. So I'm 00:00:21
glad you're here. We'll work through the agenda pretty quickly. 00:00:25
And try to get everybody out of here post haste. But we do have some things we want to do at the front of the meeting that are a 00:00:30
little bit unusual. We do have a quorum here tonight. I'm grateful for that. I know we've got some busy travelers and I've had 00:00:33
some. 00:00:37
Illnesses around, so I'm glad everybody's healthy and everybody's here. 00:00:40
We have a quorum, and so as usual, we'll start with the. 00:00:43
Pledge of Allegiance and I believe Sophie Claire is going to lead us in that. 00:00:46
Sophie. 00:00:51
I pledge allegiance to the flag. 00:00:52
Of the United States of America. 00:00:55
And to the Republic for which it stands. 00:00:57
One Nation. 00:01:00
Under God. 00:01:01
Indivisible. 00:01:02
With liberty and justice for all. 00:01:04
Sophie. 00:01:14
Is one of three children of Stephanie and Walter Claire. 00:01:15
Walter is our newest police officer in Watkinsville. We are going to. 00:01:20
Step forward and administer the oath. 00:01:24
For Officer Claire. 00:01:26
Walter, I'm gonna let you hold that. I don't think anybody needs to hear me. All right? 00:01:40
We might have hundreds of people watching online. 00:01:46
Please raise your right hand. 00:01:51
And repeat after me. 00:01:57
I, Walter Claire Walter Claire, Do solemnly swear or affirm that. Do solemnly swear or affirm that. 00:01:59
I will faithfully execute the office of police officer. I will faithfully execute the office of Police Officer. 00:02:05
For the city of Watkinsville. For the city of Watkinsville into the best of my ability and to the best of my ability. Support and 00:02:10
defend the Constitution of the United States. Support and defend the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of 00:02:14
Georgia. The Constitution of Georgia. 00:02:19
And the charter, ordinances and regulations of the City of Watkinsville. And the charter, ordinances and regulations of the City 00:02:23
of Watkinsville. 00:02:26
I am not the holder of any unaccounted for public money. 00:02:30
I'm not the holder of any unaccounted for public money. 00:02:33
Do this state or any political subdivision or authority thereof? 00:02:35
To the state. 00:02:39
Or political subdivision. Subdivision for authority thereof. 00:02:40
I am not the holder of any office of trust. I'm not the holder of any office of trust. 00:02:45
Under the Government of the United States. Under the Government of the United States, any other state, any other state, or any 00:02:49
foreign state, or any foreign state, which I by the laws of the State of Georgia and prohibited from holding. 00:02:55
Which I by the laws of the State of Georgia and prohibited from holding. 00:03:00
I'm otherwise qualified. 00:03:04
I'm otherwise qualified to hold said office, to hold set office according to the Constitution and laws of Georgia. According to 00:03:05
the Constitution and laws of Georgia. 00:03:09
I will perform the duties of my office. 00:03:13
Outperformed the duties of my office in the best interest of the City of Watkinsville and the best interest of the City of 00:03:15
Watkinsville. 00:03:18
To the best of my ability. To the best of my ability. 00:03:21
Without fear, favor. 00:03:24
Without fear, favour. 00:03:25
Affection, reward. Affection, reward, or expectation thereof, or expectation thereof. 00:03:27
So help me go, so help me God. 00:03:32
Thank you, Sir. 00:03:34
A lot of family. If you don't want to come up and get a picture with Walter, I'll take that. 00:03:40
Jake, do you have any officers here you want to move? 00:03:46
Y'all just the family 1st and then we'll we'll put the chief and Ryan. 00:03:59
Perfect. All right, Right up here. 00:04:07
All right, let me grab some spots over there. 00:04:11
Don't go 1st and I'll jump. 00:04:16
Here we go. 00:04:23
All right. 00:04:25
All right, ready. 00:04:33
All right, there's a lot of up and down tonight for the first part of the meeting. We've got some. 00:04:56
Things to celebrate. Before we do that, I'd like to do the mayor's report while we've got people here. So I'm going to move 00:05:01
through this pretty quickly, but it's always fun to share with so many people what else happened and then Watkinsville. 00:05:06
We have a group of citizens who are working on a unique area in Watkinsville Woods in honor of Alice Woodruff, who we lost in 00:05:13
November. 00:05:17
Alice was a gifted artist and and. 00:05:22
Very committed Watkinsville citizen and they are doing a wonderful native plant. 00:05:25
Project called the Woodruff Meadow in the Watkinsville Woods. 00:05:31
And that was also in the area where we have the Ivy Maple tree. So that whole area is getting a really nice citizen driven upgrade 00:05:35
at no cost to the city. So we're grateful for that. 00:05:39
Our pedestrian bridge along Simonton Bridge Rd. for those of you who don't drive that way, is really coming along. 00:05:44
That's 105 foot long structure this pictures from today you're starting to see. 00:05:50
What it's going to look like this is going to be the. 00:05:55
Newest, Probably the first new covered bridge built in the state of Georgia in probably 20 or 30 years. Go back one more. 00:05:58
You can really start to see the. 00:06:05
Siding going on. That siding was cut from pine trees on site that were harvested. 00:06:07
And then that wood was taken to a sawmill. 00:06:11
It's really going to be a spectacular addition to Watkinsville. And then if you look up the hill, you'll see that's where the 00:06:13
sidewalk will go and connect to Rocket Field. You can go ahead now, Sharon. 00:06:17
This is the view from the other side, going back towards Thomas Farm Preserve. 00:06:21
This is the newer side of the bridge. It's a week newer than the other side, so they haven't poured the concrete yet there on that 00:06:25
pan. They'll do that on Monday or Tuesday. 00:06:29
And then they'll start moving forward with the siding there. But it's really a. 00:06:33
Coming coming on quickly, hoping that the bridge itself will be done. 00:06:36
In the first or second week of January. 00:06:39
And then the adjacent landscaping done in the next month or two after that. 00:06:42
Today we did the I don't think it's done, but we started installing the RFB crosswalk at Katie Lane and Thomas Farm Preserve. 00:06:47
That's a flashing light. 00:06:51
We have a ton of people who come into Thomas Farm Preserve via Morgan Manor on foot. 00:06:56
And on bike and this is going to create a safe crossing for them. 00:07:00
We also added some laser cut artistic panels at Giardini Green. These were done by a local group of artists, the Saint Udio. 00:07:05
We've got a little bit of finishing work that we need to do, but they're really lovely and create a nice new entrance into the 00:07:14
Giardini Green. 00:07:17
So we're excited to add that, but there's a little bit more work to come there. 00:07:21
Thomas Farm Preserve Pavilion was painted to match the house and the. 00:07:25
Yard and then we also had the fences stained black to match the other fences in the area again that the. 00:07:30
Park just keeps looking better and better and we're thankful for it. You can see the bollards were also stained in the cemetery. 00:07:36
That whole corridor looks very different now. 00:07:42
Christmas at Wire Park. 00:07:45
Part 1 I think was last Saturday, Part 2 is this Saturday. 00:07:47
We can move on. 00:07:52
We can recycle our trees with Keep Oconee County Beautiful so they'll all accept trees December 26th through January 10th. 00:07:54
I know that our city partners would prefer that you take your trees there rather than leaving them by the curb. 00:08:02
And they can be recycled into. 00:08:08
Fish habitat or other things there. 00:08:10
And then I would just encourage everybody to really shop locally. I know it is so easy to hop on that computer and are on your 00:08:13
phone and just take care of what you need on Amazon, but there is some stuff you are not going to find on Amazon. 00:08:18
If you follow me on Facebook, you'll see I'm pretty relentless about posting, you know? 00:08:23
What where the sales are? What's happening? 00:08:28
I see Dover grace here. I don't think I'm following you all so I probably need to. If you're posting regularly on Instagram, I'll 00:08:30
be sharing it. 00:08:33
SO and our friends from Elizabeth Ann's are here SO. 00:08:36
Take an hour. 00:08:40
Go downtown, then take an hour and go to Wire Park and spend some of your dollars locally. It means the world to our our vendors, 00:08:42
our businesses and our partners. 00:08:46
And is is just a wonderful way to support. 00:08:51
We all love having a full downtown, right? But if you don't shop down there. 00:08:54
That doesn't happen by accident, so we need people to shop down there, especially this time of year. 00:08:57
And I think next what I have is Speaking of downtown. 00:09:02
We have a proclamation, we have a certain long time business. 00:09:08
That has been open 70 years downtown, so that is Elizabeth Ann Forest. Lynn Yarborough. Are you the loan representative here 00:09:12
tonight? 00:09:16
All right. Is the proclamation up there? Truly, we have a proclamation, Lynn. So if you could come forward. 00:09:20
This does not happen. 00:09:29
Every day, or every year, or even every 70 years, so. 00:09:31
Lynn, I'm going to read this aloud because it doesn't happen very often. 00:09:35
Whereas Elizabeth Ann florist and gift shop established in 1955 by founder Elizabeth Ann Betty Yarborough. 00:09:40
Has served the Watkinsville community for 70 years. 00:09:46
I don't think what's her last name was. 00:09:49
Elizabeth Ann's last name? Yarborough, OK Bill's mom, OK. 00:09:51
Becoming a treasured institution in the heart of our city. 00:09:54
Whereas Elizabeth Ann Forrest and Gift Shop is located on North Main Street and historic downtown Watkinsville. 00:09:57
Whereas the family owned business continues to thrive under the leadership of Bill and Lynn Yarbrough and their son Paul. 00:10:03
Probably carrying forward the legacy and values established by Betty Yarborough. 00:10:08
And whereas the City of Watkinsville recognizes and celebrates the enduring impact of Elizabeth Ann Forrest and gift shop. 00:10:12
Whose commitment to excellent service and community. 00:10:17
Has enriched the lives of residents for seven decades. 00:10:20
Now, therefore, I, Brian Broderick, Mayor of the City of Watkinsville. 00:10:23
On behalf of the Watkinsville City Council, do hereby honor Elizabeth Ann Forrest and Gift shop for its outstanding service. 00:10:27
And lasting contributions to our community for 70 years. 00:10:32
And witness here whereof I have here unto set my hand, and cause the seal of the city of Watkinsville to be affixed the 17th day 00:10:36
of December, 2025. 00:10:39
Congratulations. 00:10:43
What does it take to keep a business open for 70 years? Maybe just give us a little bit of wisdom. 00:10:50
Kindness. 00:10:56
The ability to have your pulse on the community and to. 00:10:58
Be familiar with your customers needs and. 00:11:03
Prayer, uh. 00:11:06
It just just to be yourself. 00:11:08
And just to be thankful for where you are and to be in a community like this has truly been a blessing. 00:11:11
Truly thank you and so. 00:11:17
There's some. Let's step up here for a picture and. 00:11:20
What's the secret to success for a whole lot of businesses? All right. 00:11:23
Don't get too comfortable. 00:11:52
Because we also had. 00:11:55
The downtown business decorating contest winner. So Christine and Jan, you want to come up here and help me with this? 00:11:57
And then we need Lynn, we need you to come back up. And then Elizabeth and Dee Dee, we need y'all to come up to. 00:12:06
So I think we have a tie. 00:12:13
For our downtown decorating contest. 00:12:15
So, Jan, is there anything you want or Christine, anything you want to say about the downtown decorating contest? 00:12:17
No, Jan. 00:12:23
Please. 00:12:24
Tell everybody about the contest and what it took to. 00:12:25
These folks to be our to be our winners. 00:12:29
So what we did was we challenged the downtown businesses to. 00:12:31
Decorate to their hearts content and if you go downtown. 00:12:37
They. 00:12:40
They really did, and so we took photos and made it a public vote. 00:12:41
And it was neck and neck. 00:12:46
And neck and neck. And we had to expend it because we were. 00:12:47
And it was back and forth and back and forth and it ended up. 00:12:49
A tie. 00:12:52
Which I think is lovely. 00:12:53
Yeah. All right. So congratulations to both of y'all and the prizes. 00:12:56
A certificate. 00:13:03
In downtown dollars, OK. 00:13:05
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:13:07
All right, why don't you all stand up here and get a picture? 00:13:15
All right, come to the middle there. 00:13:21
If you give me your phone, I'll get home here soon. 00:13:25
All right. 00:13:33
All right, now we're going to do the. 00:13:47
Now we're going to do the parade. I know some of you are here for that, so we'll get that done pretty quickly here. So let's see 00:13:50
what we've got. 00:13:53
Our grand Marshall was Lottie Davenport. Lottie couldn't be here tonight. For those of you who know Lottie, you can't miss her if 00:13:56
you go to Oconee State Bank. 00:13:59
Best smile in town? 00:14:03
But most of our marshals have great smiles, so it's hard to hard to compete. Compete with Lottie though, she's great. 00:14:05
Thankful to all these people who helped us pull together the pull together the event. 00:14:10
It is not an easy thing to pull off and pull together and. 00:14:15
So there are so many people who helped pull this together, I saw. 00:14:19
A Facebook post on Winders about their Christmas parade and it said that they use like 60 staff members. 00:14:23
To put together their parade. So it may really may be grateful that we have volunteers. 00:14:28
And a very lean staff that helps put hours together. So grateful to everybody who helped pull that off. They're all recognized up 00:14:32
here. If you weren't able to be there, here's some shots from the night. 00:14:36
Was a was a great event. 00:14:41
Where Mrs. Santa and in that picture, but he he came and joined us and had a great celebration with all the kids. 00:14:43
But grateful to everybody, but especially want to recognize Melanie Atkins who? 00:14:50
For the seventh year in a row. 00:14:53
Has done just a wonderful job coordinating that. 00:14:55
Before we get to the winners, I do think I need to recognize because I always think about her. With the parade, we lost. 00:14:58
Mary Williams the other night. Mary D was the longtime owner. 00:15:03
And publisher of the Oconee Enterprise, Mary D also helped save the parade years ago. 00:15:07
When nobody was sure who was going to take it over. 00:15:13
And Mary and her mom, Miss Vinnie, decided that. 00:15:16
We couldn't have. 00:15:19
Christmas without a parade in downtown Watkinsville and. 00:15:21
Mary D for a long time organized it, put it together every year. 00:15:24
And beyond that, she was a great example of a local female business owner who did a great job of stewarding a family enterprise. 00:15:28
One of our oldest other businesses in the community, which is the O County Enterprise, so. 00:15:34
Will miss Mary D She was a Watkinsville resident. Was very proud to be a Watkinsville resident. We're grateful for her. 00:15:38
So who are our winners? They are here, Jan. Are you going to help me with this? So who won the Mary Dee Williams award? 00:15:45
I don't know if they're here. I'm not sure who else here. He's here. All right. Oconee roadside. 00:15:52
If you want to come forward and get your prize. 00:15:57
Congratulations. All right, I'm going to let you tell us about. 00:16:04
Tell us about your. Wow, Is that all for them? OK, All right. I want to tell you about your telescope. 00:16:08
My father-in-law had the old truck so we. 00:16:15
Put it up there and. 00:16:17
I put my art degree. 00:16:19
To use for something. OK, all right, There we go. There we go. OK, well, congratulations. Proud of you. Grab your stuff and we'll 00:16:20
get a picture of you and Jan. 00:16:25
Jane, you come in here, you're gonna look better on these pictures. 00:16:29
All right, here we go. 00:16:36
Got it. All right. Congratulations. All right. 00:16:39
All right, Spirit of the Season Award churches only. This is Ashford Memorial Methodist. Anybody here from Ashford? All right, 00:16:45
let's go. Come on up. 00:16:49
All right, what are the prizes for our other folks who don't get the basket of goodies? Downtown Bucks? OK, put that to work with 00:16:56
your youth group or something. OK, tell us about your flu. 00:17:01
Well it's been the same exact float I believe for 12 years, so I wonder if we're the only church in the parade. 00:17:05
But. 00:17:14
Ma'am, the Catholics were there. The Catholics were there, but we are happy to retire the. 00:17:15
The big church that we've been putting on the parade for so many years to. 00:17:21
OK. Well, congratulations. Thanks for being here. All right. 00:17:28
OK, best tractor. 00:17:30
NSD truck and performance anybody here? 00:17:33
They are not here, all right. 00:17:37
Best antique vehicle we have. Clyde's air cooled VW Clyde is this quad? 00:17:39
All right. Congratulations, Clyde. 00:17:44
All right. 00:17:49
All right, Claude, tell us about this machine. I work on Volkswagens for folks. 00:17:51
And to my good customers wanted to be in it. San Bernard was supposed to be in it. 00:17:57
I'm driving his car because he just had back surgery. 00:18:01
Mr. Claude. 00:18:08
All right. Thank you. 00:18:14
All right. Best Use of Theme Youth Award, Boy Scout Troop 196. 00:18:15
There we go. All right. 00:18:21
The oldest scout in Oconee County. 00:18:25
He's here. 00:18:27
Just 96. All right. Boy Scout Troop 96. All right. OK. Tell us about your float. 00:18:29
So this is our. 00:18:37
4th or fifth time in the parade. 00:18:39
I'm very competitive. I think we've won two other times. 00:18:42
So this may be my last year. My youngest son is leaving the. 00:18:45
Cub Scouts moving up. 00:18:51
But yeah, we we really wanted to do an outdoor theme that looked like and felt like you were outdoors. 00:18:53
That's where scouts are at home. 00:18:58
So for us, that was. 00:19:00
That was perfect. 00:19:03
I did take a few trees off stage at. 00:19:04
Waukesha First Baptist, where I work, had put them back real quick. So yeah, that's awesome. All right. 00:19:07
Well, congratulations, thanks for being a part of it. And I hope you, whatever Boy Scout troop gets you next year will be lucky to 00:19:14
have you say. 00:19:17
Troop sevens where my son eagled out. It's it's a good one. All right, go ahead. 00:19:21
All right. 00:19:31
Best use of theme. I think I've seen somebody here with the logo on. That would be Piedmont. 00:19:33
Emergency Department. 00:19:38
Come on up. 00:19:40
Congratulations. 00:19:44
All right, who wants to tell the story of the float? 00:19:46
Well, this is our third year participating in the parade. We've had so much fun, our second year winning an award, so thank you 00:19:49
for that. 00:19:52
While technically the Pecha's Fruit Stand is not located in Oak County County, it's in Putnam County. But it's something that's 00:19:56
been around forever and it's something that you just think of. 00:20:00
You pass that when you're going on vacation. Kids pass it whenever they're coming home from college for the holidays. And so we 00:20:05
just decided. 00:20:09
To make the fruit stand and like like the sign says 30th, 37 ish miles to Watkinsville when you get past that fruit stand. 00:20:12
And we got a lot of. 00:20:21
Kudos from the crowd. A lot of people knew what the float meant and what it stood for and we just had a lot of fun making the 00:20:23
making the float. 00:20:27
So thank you. Congratulations. 00:20:32
All right, y'all smile for your picture with? 00:20:34
Now we've got all these Piedmont emergency doctors who live on Main Street, you know, next year, you know, do we need to lean on 00:20:41
them to get them under float, you know? OK, OK. All right. OK. Next year. Next year. All right. Most artistic. 00:20:48
Youth Award. The Stage. Oconee. 00:20:56
Here we go, all right. 00:20:59
All right y'all tell us about your float and then tell us when your next next performance is so the community can attend. Yes. So 00:21:06
our float this year, our Christmas show was Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. 00:21:12
And we decided to make that our whole theme this year. And as you can see the picture, these are little elfs that were in our 00:21:19
show. The kids really love participating in the Christmas parade and we always try to get them to participate. And that's one of 00:21:25
our favorite things to do is when the kids participate and things like this. 00:21:31
Our upcoming shows are in. 00:21:38
March, we're doing big fish. 00:21:42
And then we will be doing Space Pirates and Dear Edwina. And in the summer we'll be doing Little Mermaid. 00:21:45
Yes, auditions are in January. If anyone would like to audition, it's gonna be very fun. Awesome. Well, congratulations. Thanks 00:21:54
for being here. 00:21:57
Type smile for your picture with Jan. 00:22:01
All right then. Surprise of the century. Our most artistic adults. I can't imagine where they spend their time. Probably the 00:22:10
Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation. 00:22:14
So congratulations to OCAF who is representing O CAF here tonight. I see two people elbowing each other. 00:22:19
Come on up here, Lawrence. All right? Yep, all right. 00:22:27
Well, thanks for being here. 00:22:30
Lawrence always deserves a round of applause. All right, now tell us. Tell us about the float. 00:22:33
The float is. 00:22:38
It's it's a couple little houses. The theme was hometown. 00:22:41
Right, so and some high school kids helped me build it, so that was really nice. 00:22:45
Because I always love working with high school kids. 00:22:50
And it's a. 00:22:52
It's a package. 00:22:54
And you can see it, we kind of parked it. 00:22:56
Down at the community park. 00:22:58
Which doesn't have a name yet, but it's a pocket park, we call it. 00:23:00
So if you drive out, you can see it still and. 00:23:04
It was fun. We, you know, I asked the kids if they had any toys and they're like. 00:23:08
Course, we have toys in the attic. 00:23:12
So we hung all the toys up in the attic and I thought that was pretty hilarious. So. 00:23:14
All right, awesome. Well done. All right, stay for your picture. 00:23:19
All right, then you guys can, you guys can do you guys just make sure those downtown Bucks get used? 00:23:22
You know so. 00:23:30
All right, Yeah, that's right. All right. So. 00:23:32
For those of you who need who have other plans, it is. 00:23:37
December 17th, right? And so, so don't feel like you have to hang around. You're welcome to. 00:23:40
We don't have a ton of other stuff on the agenda, but we do have our most exciting presentation of the year. 00:23:45
Which is will merit our auditor that's coming up, but I'll give a minute for anybody who does not want to stay and hear our audit. 00:23:50
If you need to exit, I understand, but I will tell you this is the best audit presentation you will ever hear from Mr. Merritt. 00:23:56
Hey, Jan. 00:24:03
You worried about vampires? Make sure my wife don't work. 00:24:12
It's good. I love darling like I eat. 00:24:30
All right, we now return to our regularly scheduled programming. 00:24:39
For those of you who are normally here, you'll remember what this feels like. So first up, we have our meeting minutes from 00:24:43
November. Do we have any modifications, questions, changes to those minutes? 00:24:48
Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve. I make a motion to approve. Do we have a second? 00:24:54
2nd. 00:24:59
All right. We have a motion. We have a second now. 00:25:00
I will flag for Council that Councilman Campbell's voice might be a little hoarse if somebody else needs to step in on the 00:25:02
seconds, just be aware. 00:25:05
It sounds like Councilman Thomas is ready to do that. We have a motion. We have a second. Any questions, comments, hearing, none, 00:25:09
all in favor say aye aye. 00:25:12
Motion carries unanimously. We'll move on to administration. Again, I'll be brief tonight, but as per normal. 00:25:16
We, we are more flexible with public comment here than we have to be, and that means if you all choose, someone has a question, 00:25:22
raise your hand. If Council chooses to want to hear from you, we will allow that. That is at Council's discretion. We're not 00:25:28
required to take public input except on certain items. If we do call any, please come speak from the podium. You have 4 minutes. 00:25:35
Refrain from debate, argument, Personal attacks are irrelevant discussion. Address only the merits of the pending matter. 00:25:41
Address remarks directly to Council. 00:25:46
We're not going to speak about litigation or attorney-client items. Joe, you look like we need to approve the agenda first. All 00:25:48
right, we will do that in a second. 00:25:52
After I finish what I'm saying, which is that we will not comment on personnel matters, we'll go back to approval of the agenda. 00:25:56
I don't have any changes to the agenda. Does anyone else Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve it. I make a motion to 00:26:03
approve the agenda. All right. Do we have a second? Second. All in favor Say aye. All right. Motion carries unanimously. 00:26:08
We'll be back to administration fiscal year. 00:26:14
2025 audit report and then we'll have a few budget amendments coming out of that. 00:26:17
Mr. Merritt. 00:26:23
I hope I didn't build you up too much. 00:26:25
Huh. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for that. 00:26:26
Overwhelming welcome. Probably not worthy of that. It's. 00:26:30
Kind of par for the course that when I stand up the room clears. 00:26:34
To give one of these presentations so. 00:26:38
Not surprised, but we'll keep it brief and positive this evening. 00:26:41
So this is the table of contents, just kind of what's in this presentation. 00:26:45
We'll start with First things first. 00:26:50
Our audit opinion. 00:26:54
So this is really what you pay us for as auditors. 00:26:55
To come in, look at the finances. 00:26:58
Look at the. 00:27:01
Financial statements and issue an opinion on those financial statements. 00:27:03
For the year ended June 30th, 2025. 00:27:07
We have issued an unmodified opinion on those financial statements. 00:27:10
Which is the cleanest opinion you can have? 00:27:14
So what that basically means is we believe those financial statements, the city's financial statements. 00:27:17
Are materially correct. 00:27:23
And free from material misstatement. 00:27:26
Whether due to fraud or error. 00:27:28
Also in this letter. 00:27:31
By the way, this is page one of the bound. 00:27:33
Annual financial report that I have put in front of you. 00:27:37
Also in this letter, we talk about the city's responsibilities. 00:27:41
What our responsibilities are as the auditor. 00:27:45
And then we talk about. 00:27:49
How we have to perform this audit under government audit standards? 00:27:50
And make the financials be in accordance with Generally accepted accounting principles. 00:27:55
So in this report. 00:28:02
We'll start with the government wide statement. So this is the activity of all of your funds put together. 00:28:04
OK, umm. 00:28:11
So page 12. 00:28:11
That's the statement of net position. 00:28:14
Or the balance sheet? 00:28:16
Page 13. 00:28:17
That's the statement of activities or the income statement. 00:28:18
So I have I think 1 slide about the statement in that position. Yep, here it is. 00:28:22
I don't know why my total bled together there. I apologize for that. 00:28:26
But. 00:28:31
This is government wide net position. This would be all of your assets less your liabilities across. 00:28:32
The all the activities of the city. 00:28:38
So you can see we've given a three-year comparison here. 00:28:41
Net position in 2023. 00:28:45
10.4 million 2020 four. 12.7 million. 00:28:47
2025 has 14.3 million so. 00:28:51
Pretty substantial increase in the net position of the city. 00:28:55
So one other thing to highlight here I've kind of given you. 00:28:59
What the three classifications are? The Gray section of the bar is the unrestricted net position. 00:29:03
The orange is the restricted and then the blue is the net position that is. 00:29:10
Included or tied up to your capital assets. 00:29:15
So. 00:29:19
This is about the split that we see most of the time. 00:29:20
The vast majority of net position is. 00:29:24
Is. 00:29:26
Included in your capital assets, what's called net investment and capital assets. 00:29:27
That would be your. 00:29:33
Buildings, uh. 00:29:35
Your park. 00:29:36
That pedestrian barrier we just saw? 00:29:38
Beautiful bridge, by the way. 00:29:40
Um, and. 00:29:42
Vehicles, police cars, equipment, stuff like that. 00:29:45
But your unrestricted net position, the $3.981 million, that is the net position that. 00:29:49
Is at the discretion of mayor and council about what to do with. 00:29:55
Now let me make a clarification. 00:30:00
That is not. 00:30:02
Cash, OK. 00:30:03
That is net position, so that is. 00:30:05
Assets less liabilities. 00:30:08
Alright. 00:30:10
All right, so this. 00:30:15
Is essentially a summary of your statement of activities. 00:30:17
It shows your change in that position for the last three fiscal years. I'm a visual guy. 00:30:20
I like charts and graphs, so that's what I've done in this presentation. 00:30:25
You can see 2023 we had a net loss of $356,000. 00:30:30
2024 we had a huge. 00:30:36
Change there and we basically showed net income of 2.2 million. 00:30:39
And then in 2025, we're kind of. 00:30:43
Back down to reality again, about 1.6 million so. 00:30:46
The sharp increase in 2024. 00:30:51
Had a lot to do with. 00:30:54
Recognition of ARPA. 00:30:57
So you received all that cash in 20? 00:30:59
3 or 22. 00:31:02
Fiscal years, it all kind of runs together. You receive the cash in a previous year. 00:31:05
Well, according to accounting standards, you recognize the revenue from that when you expend it. 00:31:09
So a lot of that was expended in 2024. Therefore we recognize the revenue for that. 00:31:14
We also showed. 00:31:20
Revenue associated. 00:31:23
With. 00:31:25
The Thomas Park, the G Falone, so that actually goes into revenue and then. 00:31:26
Later on it gets paid back as debt. 00:31:32
Debt service. 00:31:34
So in 25, yeah, that's right. 00:31:36
25 We kind of split the difference between the two. 00:31:39
So we were talking about the government wide and now we're going to talk about just the general fund. Oh. 00:31:43
Go Back 1 Sharon. 00:31:48
So this is just your general fund over the last three years? 00:31:50
So your expenditures are in blue, your revenues are in yellow. 00:31:53
So like I talked about before, 2024 is kind of the outlier. 00:31:58
Due to all the stuff at Thomas Park. 00:32:02
You had. 00:32:07
Basically double the expenditures in your general fund. 00:32:08
In 2024 associated with that. 00:32:11
And then we saw that come back down to. 00:32:14
Almost equal to revenues in 2025. So they were. 00:32:17
I think that's $15,000 difference. 00:32:23
That's like. 00:32:26
As good as you can get. 00:32:27
So awesome job here. 00:32:30
And I have a breakdown of those revenues and expenditures as we keep going here. All right, so here's your. 00:32:32
Revenues by source. 00:32:38
Sharon, I don't know why. 00:32:40
The the formattings kind of gotten funky here guys. I apologize for that. 00:32:42
When I proof this on my computer, it did not look like that. 00:32:47
Um, so this slide is just kind of for your information, right? So it tells you. 00:32:50
How diverse your revenues are in your general fund? 00:32:57
This is what you want to see. 00:33:01
You want to see diverse sources of revenue in your in your general fund. 00:33:03
What you would not want to see would be that. 00:33:07
Orange section. 00:33:10
Be about half that. 00:33:12
That would mean that half your revenues are made-up by property tax. 00:33:14
Light blue section at 31%. You don't want that to be. 00:33:19
Over half your pie. 00:33:22
That means you're you're. 00:33:24
Living on sales tax. 00:33:25
So a diverse. 00:33:27
Revenue stream in your general fund is always a healthy. 00:33:29
So same with expenditures. 00:33:36
You don't want to see any. 00:33:39
One function of expenditures take up the vast majority of your pie. 00:33:40
So we break these. We, we. 00:33:46
We actually aggregate the expenditures. Y'all approve budgets by department. 00:33:49
But according to accounting standards we only have to present them by function. So let me give give you an example. 00:33:53
Your public safety function. 00:33:59
That would be. 00:34:01
Anything in public safety so. 00:34:03
Police. 00:34:05
Fire, jail, whatever you have, all that goes into public safety. 00:34:06
General Government. 00:34:11
The yellow that would be. 00:34:12
Finance. City Manager, Mayor, Council. 00:34:15
And and many others. 00:34:19
OK. So they're kind of aggregated up? 00:34:21
So what we have here? 00:34:24
We have public safety as the majority at 26%. 00:34:26
Followed by General. 00:34:30
Actually followed by Public works at 21, then General Government at 19. 00:34:31
So pretty healthy split there. 00:34:36
A lot of times we see. 00:34:39
That public safety. 00:34:41
Piece be 50% or more. 00:34:43
So this is. 00:34:47
This is really what you want to see. 00:34:48
So awesome job to you guys. 00:34:50
All right, so. 00:34:54
As you continue to go through this report. 00:34:55
You'll get to another letter that we issue. 00:34:58
This is the report on internal control and other matters. 00:35:01
This is the report that. 00:35:04
We talk about internal control and then talk about any findings we may have associated with. 00:35:07
Those controls. 00:35:11
That can be found on pages 48. 00:35:13
And 49 of this report. 00:35:15
I would encourage you to look at that and if you have questions, please let me know. 00:35:17
All right, so. 00:35:22
There is a Standards Board that sits up in Connecticut. 00:35:26
That gets to tell all of us. 00:35:30
Umm, common folk here in Georgia. 00:35:32
How we're supposed to. 00:35:36
Do the accounting for local governments. This board is called the Gatsby. 00:35:39
The Gatsby. 00:35:44
Has issued I don't know how many pronouncements over the last few years. 00:35:45
I guess they wanted to work some overtime. I don't know, but they've been issuing pronouncements like crazy. 00:35:51
And they had another one that was effective for this year. 00:35:57
That was 101. 00:36:00
That pronouncement had to do with what we call compensated absences, so that would be your. 00:36:02
Sick and vacation and sick bank leave times, OK, so it changed how we have to account for that. 00:36:07
Um, it's. 00:36:15
Conceptually the change is small, but in practice it was pretty large. We actually had to estimate usage. 00:36:17
Not going to get into all that calculation with you. 00:36:23
But it it's a lot of work and your team was very helpful. 00:36:26
Helping us implement this for you guys. 00:36:31
You know we. 00:36:34
We can do the accounting. 00:36:35
But. 00:36:36
We can't run all the reports and get all the data and so. 00:36:38
Lee and Sharon and Julian and the rest of the team. 00:36:42
Just did a. 00:36:45
A great job, they were prompt when helping us get this done. 00:36:46
And we very much appreciate that. 00:36:50
So like I said, they're busy. 00:36:54
Here's another reporting change for this year. This one really didn't affect the city. 00:36:56
This had to do with disclosing risk if you have. 00:37:00
Like a concentration of revenue. Like for instance if you. 00:37:04
I had one utility customer. 00:37:09
That was 70% of your utilities revenue. You would now have to disclose that in your annual financial report. 00:37:11
Again, this didn't really affect the city. 00:37:18
But. 00:37:20
We have to say that we implemented it. 00:37:21
You'll see in the theme here. 00:37:25
All right, so next year we will be implementing Gatsby 103. 00:37:28
Which is what they call financial reporting model. 00:37:33
Improvements. 00:37:36
That's very subjective. 00:37:37
Improvements. 00:37:39
Should not affect the city too awful much. The main change will be in the management discussion and analysis. 00:37:42
Which? 00:37:48
Let me throw out a little tidbit here. 00:37:49
If there's any. 00:37:52
Part of this report that I would encourage you to read. 00:37:53
It would be the first. 00:37:56
Like 10-11 pages. So that would be our opinion letter. 00:37:58
And then that would be your management. 00:38:03
The piece that your management drafted and put into this report that kind of sums up the operations of the city for the year. 00:38:05
OK, so that is the piece. That is their words, their writing. 00:38:12
And then the rest of the financial statement smaller. 00:38:17
We help you prepare. 00:38:20
But I would encourage you to read those first. 00:38:21
I think it's. 00:38:23
1st 11 pages. 00:38:24
Again. 00:38:29
Another new standard for next year. 00:38:29
This one has to do with a note disclosure relating to capital assets. So basically. 00:38:33
Going forward, if you have any capital assets? 00:38:37
That are going to be sold in the next. 00:38:40
Fiscal year. 00:38:44
You now have to disclose those. 00:38:45
In the financial statements. In the notes to the financial statements. 00:38:47
Don't really know where the logic behind this has come from, but that's not my job, that's above my head. 00:38:52
And that's all I have for tonight. 00:38:59
As you can see. 00:39:02
The photographer. 00:39:04
Probably took the best picture of me that's ever been taken. 00:39:05
So if if you would like his name and number, I'll be glad to share. 00:39:08
Any questions? 00:39:13
I mean this. 00:39:16
Is a silly question, but with that last. 00:39:17
Improvement. 00:39:20
What if you don't know you're going to sell something in the next year? You don't have to disclose it. OK, Yeah. 00:39:22
That. 00:39:28
I think the spirit of that is. 00:39:31
Sometimes governments will. 00:39:34
Acquire like for instance. 00:39:36
Acquire land. 00:39:38
In a strategic type move. 00:39:40
Hold it for three years and then. 00:39:42
Try to play the market and sell it. 00:39:45
And so that that is a disclosure. 00:39:47
Kind of intended to inform the reader that. 00:39:51
Hey, we have this capital asset, but our intent is to sell this in the next 12 months and hopefully make money. 00:39:54
So I think that's the nature of that. 00:40:01
Good question. 00:40:04
I wish I could give you a. 00:40:06
Straight, hard, concrete answer. 00:40:07
Because. 00:40:10
Some sometimes we don't understand what they're trying to do. 00:40:11
Any other questions here? 00:40:15
I know that's a lot and I'm trying to go fast to be respectful of people's time. 00:40:16
If you have further questions or comments or concerns, please reach out. Here's my contact. 00:40:21
Also, uh. 00:40:26
Mayor Broderick has it. 00:40:27
Share and all the other staff members so. 00:40:29
Please reach out if you need anything. 00:40:32
Well, thank you Will. Outstanding report. 00:40:34
The real credit to our staff and the way that the cities run too, and absolutely. 00:40:37
Seeing significant improvements in a very strong financial position for Watkinsville. We're grateful for that manager Dickerson, I 00:40:41
don't know if you have anything you'd want to add or comment on. Yeah, just two things. First of all, this is the first full 00:40:46
fiscal year where we used. We were under the new financial software, which made things a little bit more challenging because some 00:40:52
of the reports that were previously set up under QuickBooks weren't on this one and we had to work with our. 00:40:57
Vendor, uh. 00:41:03
And the second thing I want to say, and most important is. 00:41:04
Lee absolutely. I don't know how many hours she lost on, you know, she's lost time because she was working on this project for the 00:41:06
last since what, July? I think we've been working on this since July, so. 00:41:13
And during that time, she had. 00:41:20
Three months where we had someone on maternity leave who is now not returning, so she had additional responsibility for somebody. 00:41:22
It was supporting her so. 00:41:25
Certainly acknowledge her hard work and her efforts and it was it was definitely a lot to do and and we could not do it without 00:41:30
her. So I really appreciate her work on this. 00:41:34
I'll add to that I could not do it without. Thank you very much. 00:41:43
Well, I've been seeing these reports for. 00:41:48
20 plus years I guess now and it's kind of mind blowing how far, how far we've come, you know, as a city. 00:41:51
Both in terms of the programs and what we're able to execute, but also. 00:41:57
The sophistication of our team. Lee, Sharon. 00:42:01
And what y'all do and we're grateful. 00:42:04
Grateful for that every month and then we'll always grateful for you. 00:42:07
Keeping us make sure we're minding our P's and Q's so we are how important. Thank you all. Do we have any questions from the 00:42:11
audience regarding the audit? If you do, I want you to come forward and and offer those up and. 00:42:16
One of us will attempt to answer them if we can. 00:42:22
Yep, Yep. Kathleen Mccriston 13,000. 00:42:25
Barnett Rd. 00:42:29
We have $195,690.00 in. 00:42:31
Judicial expenses. 00:42:35
Is that? 00:42:37
Typical for a city our size. 00:42:38
That's a hard question to answer. 00:42:46
So every city is unique. 00:42:50
Right, so. 00:42:52
We we see some cities that. 00:42:55
Their judicial operations are much larger than Watkinsville. 00:42:58
And then we also see some that are much smaller. 00:43:01
I would say. 00:43:05
Based on the piece of that pie. 00:43:07
That judicial was, I would say that it's it's appropriate. 00:43:09
So I think that's probably the best answer to your question. 00:43:13
I wouldn't say it's overly large. 00:43:18
But it's not drastically small. 00:43:20
Either I think it's appropriate. 00:43:22
I'd point out too, we have two staff members. Well, actually, yeah. 00:43:25
Because we find we, we actually charge our finance director in Municipal Court, that won't happen this next year. We'll probably 00:43:31
charge that person in the general government. So that number is going to shrink. 00:43:35
The Municipal Court clerk position that I. 00:43:40
Spoke with the. 00:43:43
Mayor and the personnel and Finance Committee recently and got approval to reorganize and we're going to be peeling. So Lee Black 00:43:45
is are currently our finance Director and our Municipal Court clerk. 00:43:49
Which again. 00:43:54
Kudos to Lee because she's doing that job too along this. We're gonna peel that back so she'll go into General Gov this next time 00:43:55
and we'll have Municipal Court will just be our Municipal Court clerk as well as keep in mind, we don't actually. 00:44:01
Like have a full time. 00:44:07
Judge or solicitor like a lot of communities do, we pay them a monthly contract fee similar to. 00:44:09
To how we handle our. 00:44:14
Our city engineer and our city attorney. So it could be much higher if we had to set have salaries and benefits for those people. 00:44:15
So I think. 00:44:19
Yeah, I mean, but again, you're going to see it shrink, You'll see General Gov go up a little bit as a result, but. 00:44:23
But I think, I think and I. 00:44:28
Worked. I worked for Athens Park County and they have a huge Municipal Court budget so I don't think this is out of line at all. 00:44:30
I think the other thing to remember about that is it's also there's a revenue stream that. 00:44:36
That offsets that offsets that. So it's not just like a sunk expense, you know, there's a. 00:44:39
There's fees and fines and other things that are, you know, a healthy part of our revenue stream that come out of that. I didn't 00:44:43
really appreciate the court function much till I was here more often, but you know, when you. 00:44:48
See that crowd in here? Is it once a month or twice a month? 00:44:52
Once a month and. 00:44:55
You know, and then just what Chief and his officers are doing to to. 00:44:57
To keep things moving, it's. 00:44:59
It's an important part of our city and it's also sort of very approachable. It's a little bit of. 00:45:01
Mayberry, RFD When you come in here for our for our Municipal Court, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of being here, 00:45:05
so. 00:45:08
Doctor Mayberry. 00:45:12
What you got? 00:45:13
Did you have a question? Yes, Sir. 00:45:14
I got a question I'd like to speak. We'll come on up to the microphone and we can bring it to you if you'd prefer, either way you 00:45:17
want to do it. 00:45:20
I'm a civilian now, so I'm Bill Mayberry. I live on Cedar Dr. 00:45:28
I have two. 00:45:34
Two issues. 00:45:35
Number one. 00:45:37
Well, I have three issues. Here's the bad news. I have No Fear of public speaking. 00:45:39
I hear that 4 minutes is my Max. That's right. Yeah, we'll finish it. 00:45:47
Number one. 00:45:52
I don't want to. 00:45:54
I want to tender a praise. 00:45:55
For the rapid and efficient response to my. 00:45:57
Recent emergency. 00:46:02
Without the. 00:46:05
Rapid and efficient response. 00:46:08
Of our first responders. 00:46:12
Including the Police Department. 00:46:15
The Sheriff's Office. 00:46:18
First responders. 00:46:20
And. 00:46:23
The assistance of my wife received. 00:46:26
To to. 00:46:29
To resuscitate me. 00:46:32
I would not be here. 00:46:36
So. 00:46:38
I. 00:46:40
And. 00:46:42
The Piedmont. 00:46:45
That emergency room was fantastic, except. 00:46:48
Too bad I was on a ventilator, I don't remember it. 00:46:52
OK #2 and. 00:46:57
Most important. 00:46:59
And something germane to the police force. 00:47:03
I beg. 00:47:10
You to do what you can to get a traffic light down here at VFW. 00:47:13
And experiment Station Rd. 00:47:19
Now I'm I am. 00:47:22
I must admit that I'm ignorant. 00:47:25
Of the red tape involved. 00:47:27
I know it's a state Rd. 00:47:29
But I don't know how many. 00:47:33
Casualty. 00:47:37
Deaths have have occurred. 00:47:39
I know I got a ticket there for. 00:47:43
For dangerous left turn. 00:47:45
And. 00:47:49
But I was guilty. 00:47:52
It's very, very difficult to get. 00:47:56
Get out of here. 00:47:58
And I'm surprised that there's. 00:48:00
There's not more. 00:48:02
Traffic, Traffic accidents down here. 00:48:04
Now I understand. 00:48:07
Also that. 00:48:09
They're shared duties with the city. 00:48:10
And the county? 00:48:13
Um. 00:48:15
I also know. 00:48:18
Who I also know and have the phone numbers of the state legislators. 00:48:20
When I need to brush up or actually discover. 00:48:27
How am I doing? You got about a minute and a half, I think. I won't take it all. 00:48:33
I will. I will be researching. 00:48:38
A law and procedure. 00:48:43
And. 00:48:46
I'll be bugging the city manager. 00:48:48
And I'll be bugging the sheriff. 00:48:51
I'll be I will really be bugging. 00:48:54
The county. 00:48:58
Commission. 00:49:00
They have plenty of money. 00:49:03
To put up. 00:49:06
Which will save lives. 00:49:09
That's it. Thank you. All right. 00:49:16
Thank you, Bill. 00:49:18
All right. Any questions regarding the audit? 00:49:20
If there's not. 00:49:24
I think we have some budget amendments we need to handle coming out of that. Is that correct, Sharon, do you want to explain those 00:49:26
and then we'll? 00:49:28
Move forward on those. 00:49:32
Yeah. So just budget amendments that when they go to balance the budget again, some things come in after the fiscal year has 00:49:33
begun, they have to be booked back. 00:49:37
To the fiscal year when they happened as he mentioned earlier. And so that's what this is doing. 00:49:41
All right. Is there anything on the screen related to those or it's just in the packet? 00:49:46
OK. All right. I'll entertain a motion to approve the amendments as provided in the packet. 00:49:50
I make such a motion. 00:49:55
We have a second. 00:49:57
I will second. 00:49:59
Any discussion questions? 00:49:59
Hearing none, all in favor say aye aye. 00:50:02
Any opposed? 00:50:05
Motion carries unanimously. 00:50:07
Again, before we leave this, thank you. 00:50:09
Lee, thank you, Sharon. 00:50:11
It looks like Mr. Merritt had to leave, but we're grateful to him as well for the clean audit. 00:50:13
And for everybody who took time to review it. 00:50:17
We'll move on to financial reports. Sharon, I'll let you. 00:50:19
Handle that please. Everybody should have received the balance sheet. 00:50:23
The one thing that does look a little different, you may have noticed that we now have the Georgia fund, one state of Georgia, two 00:50:26
and a half million dollars. We move that money out of our money market account into that account so that we could. 00:50:32
Get a higher interest rate is a little bit. 00:50:38
More secure and so. 00:50:40
That's some of our understood, some of our restricted. 00:50:43
Fund balance about 800,000 or so of that is. 00:50:46
838,000 is restricted. 00:50:50
Meaning that if the everything were to go to. 00:50:52
Heck, in a handbasket. 00:50:55
We got three or four months worth of operating funds that you can pull from. And so that's why it's restricted. A lot of 00:50:56
communities only have two months, but we have 3. 00:50:59
So that's the that's the highlight on the balance sheet, but we are balanced. 00:51:03
We did provide both October and November you may recall again because of the of the audit and because of some. 00:51:07
Financial challenges and stuff, we did not have those reports in, but they you should have October and November. 00:51:15
This month's report. This month's agenda. 00:51:20
Not anything really surprising. We're right on track. 00:51:24
With where we need to be on revenues and expenditures. 00:51:26
I'll talk a little bit about our. 00:51:29
Spas 3. 00:51:31
We have. 00:51:33
Let's see. 00:51:35
Find my right report here. 00:51:36
Go through these fairly quickly if I can get my reports together. 00:51:38
OK. So we have average of about $86,000 a month we've. 00:51:43
Again, only budgeted around 64 so we had a surplus and a few months back. 00:51:47
Council reallocated some of those monies so that we could. 00:51:52
Continue to use those for the projects that are outstanding. 00:51:56
We have a little bit more than. 00:51:59
Whoops, a little bit more than a million. 00:52:02
Three in the **** in the. 00:52:04
Balance. One thing to note on that is the reason we have a high balance right now is because we are currently being reimbursed for 00:52:06
the work on Simonton Bridge Rd. As soon as the loan has been used, some of the most of the money will be coming out of SPLOST 3, 00:52:10
some out of T SPLOST. 00:52:15
As soon as that money's. 00:52:19
Used. 00:52:21
The loan will convert. 00:52:22
To a monthly payment and we'll. 00:52:23
Start drawing that down. 00:52:25
And we had a little bit more than $94,000 in the month of collected through the month of October. 00:52:29
Just a reminder of all the. 00:52:36
Great projects we've got going on. As I mentioned the Simpson Bridge Rd. A lot of work at Thomas Farm. 00:52:38
Police vehicles, streetscape improvements and then. 00:52:42
Wayfinding signage and and whatnot that we've got going to Harris Shoals Park, the improvement the mayor mentioned earlier as part 00:52:47
of that. 00:52:50
On T spots, we are averaging about 75,000, a little bit more than 75 six. 00:52:53
We budgeted about 78, but that's normal. We're early in the process. We expect will be exceeding that. 00:52:58
As we move down the line, we have a little bit more than $1,000,000 in that account. 00:53:04
And we were up a little less than two 2% about 79,000 in the. 00:53:08
October Collections. 00:53:14
Again, T SPLA Samjhan Bridge Roads part of that project. The Bridge. 00:53:16
Resurfacing our roads, we've the Mulberry St. 00:53:21
Road was resurfaced for that. 00:53:24
And there's other. 00:53:26
Other improvements that. 00:53:27
That were made the Bishop. 00:53:29
Yeah, Bishops Vineyard. Sorry, I went blank. Bishop's Vineyard was. 00:53:32
Was paved as a result of these funds so. 00:53:36
Any questions on any of those? 00:53:39
All right, move into economic. 00:53:42
Reports. 00:53:44
So business alcohol licenses. 00:53:45
The business alcohol licenses, applications, renewals went out. 00:53:48
In October. And so we're starting to see a lot of those come in. 00:53:52
Had a little bit more than $3000 of that come in and. 00:53:56
November. Umm. 00:53:59
And then on alcohol side, we have some renewals on those as well. 00:54:01
On the excise tax, alcohol. 00:54:06
24,000 through November and hotel motel. 00:54:09
We have that comes in sometimes. Again, some of these things come in after the fact, so we didn't get it in right before the 00:54:12
cutoff. 00:54:15
That will be shown in the next month's meeting. But we're doing, we're tracking where we need to be. 00:54:18
And then on building permits, we have 7 permits for seven individual projects. 00:54:23
Several pools, people are getting excited. We have three pools out of those seven projects, so. 00:54:28
Any questions on those? 00:54:34
OK. 00:54:37
All right, Mayor Pro Tem Tucker. 00:54:41
Get a little energy in my body, OK? 00:54:43
So. 00:54:46
Last month we had the report of the strategic planning process. All of that is online. 00:54:48
We have a great blueprint. 00:54:54
As we continue to develop our. 00:54:57
Downtown. 00:54:59
Um, the Classic City Golf Lounge will be. 00:55:01
Opening in January, so that's an exciting new. 00:55:05
Business coming to our downtown. 00:55:09
Recently we have the OKAV holiday market. 00:55:11
And then? 00:55:14
Always. We've talked a lot about it already. Tonight, the annual downtown Christmas parade and tree lighting with our first ever. 00:55:16
Downtown business decorating contest so. 00:55:22
Some of you still in the room have your downtown bucks to spend. 00:55:27
And if you don't, just as Mayor Broderick mentioned. 00:55:32
Please shop local, I mean the statistics are all out there. 00:55:37
It's just a great way to help our community thrive. 00:55:41
All right, Chief Harwood. 00:55:48
All right. As always, I want to thank everybody and you know. 00:55:54
Passed my one year anniversary and it is a it is a true privilege. 00:55:57
To be able to work with such a good group of people. 00:56:01
The city of Watkinsville. 00:56:04
Is is an awesome place to be and I'm proud to be part of it. 00:56:06
For our training, we we got Officer Claire. 00:56:10
Going through his field training. 00:56:13
I'm predicting 8 to 10 weeks. We want to make sure he's ready to go by himself. He's he's doing excellent. 00:56:15
He actually responded to attend to a domestic violence. 00:56:21
Today with an arrest and did extremely well. He was with Sergeant Anglin. 00:56:24
We have completed all our firearms qualifications which. 00:56:28
You know, we have three different weapons that we use. 00:56:31
And then we do a low light shooting. 00:56:35
So we we familiarize ourselves with how to shoot at night as well and use flashlights and techniques and. 00:56:36
We got that done last week. 00:56:42
And then I have put out a calendar for training, mandatory training for everybody. 00:56:44
Next year. 00:56:48
That we will have in house. 00:56:49
So we will do. 00:56:51
You know, policy evidence, procedures and different kind of things like that in house and then allow them to do some specialized 00:56:52
training outside. 00:56:55
Is it, is it time for Taser recertification? January, that is, in January. 00:56:59
Any volunteers? 00:57:04
I think officer player. 00:57:09
Sorry, I did not think for you to hear that. 00:57:13
So it's OK, you weren't at the microphone. 00:57:15
Officer Claire. 00:57:19
Is the new officer so he he has already said he will take a voluntary exposure and we will be nice to him and. 00:57:21
I do the training in here as well and and get him Taser certified. 00:57:29
Yeah. 00:57:34
We did a swearing in. I want to thank Jimmy and Stuart Willis for their continued support every year to badges and benevolence 00:57:36
they. 00:57:39
Came in last week and. 00:57:42
And, umm. 00:57:44
Very thankful for their support. 00:57:45
We have a new car to Sergeant Wade. He got his new 2025 Explorer. He's extremely happy and well deserving of it. 00:57:48
I can't. You can't. 00:57:57
Get rid of the smile off of space. We have an amazing team. 00:57:58
And that's why, you know, it's hard to get. 00:58:01
Some officers here because we are being selective. 00:58:04
We want the right person in Watkinsville Police Department and not just, you know. 00:58:07
Um, somebody that's looking for a job we want the right person for. 00:58:13
For the vision we have. 00:58:17
And the. 00:58:18
Christmas bright, I don't think I thought went very well, you know, with. 00:58:19
The help of Oconee County, we actually had Tristan. 00:58:23
We hired him as well. 00:58:27
To help out but. 00:58:29
With the short staffing it went. 00:58:31
Incredibly well. 00:58:33
We are going to make a few changes after our debriefing just to tighten a couple things up. 00:58:35
A couple rest through this time period. We had a Warner person and a suspended license. 00:58:40
And possession of marijuana actually had another rest today. That'll go on the next report. 00:58:47
For domestic violence. 00:58:52
And then our stats. 00:58:54
You know they have taper down a little bit although. 00:58:57
We are working with a few officers less and then a couple. 00:58:59
That we've had to train Officer Higgins, Officer Sauce and now Officer Claire. 00:59:02
Once we get them. 00:59:06
Fully prepared. 00:59:08
I see the numbers going. 00:59:09
Going up a little bit, uh. 00:59:11
I ran the traffic data collecting stats for you should be in your packet. 00:59:13
I don't see anything out of the. 00:59:19
The norm it was from. 00:59:20
July till December. 00:59:22
We will keep an eye on. 00:59:24
Some of the. 00:59:25
The spots that we get a lot of complaints on as far as speeders and continue to. 00:59:26
To educate. 00:59:31
The citizens and. 00:59:32
And folks that. 00:59:33
Need to be told to slow down so. 00:59:35
Um, but everything, everything looks, looks pretty good. 00:59:38
I feel really. 00:59:43
Good about the future, the the six that we have, the six officers, including myself. 00:59:44
I can't ask for better people. 00:59:50
We really I. 00:59:52
Have a good vision and and and plan going so. 00:59:54
Any questions on any information? 00:59:58
Any questions? 01:00:02
Thank you, Chief. I wish everybody Merry Christmas. All right. 01:00:04
All right, consent agenda. 01:00:10
Usually we just breeze over consent, but I think this one is worth talking about. 01:00:13
Everybody's probably seen waters walk go up and hopefully they'll have people moving in soon. 01:00:18
But one of the things that's easy to forget, part of the Waters Walk arrangement was a donation of, I think, 6 acres of green 01:00:22
space along Durham St. to the city. 01:00:26
So that that property is donated at no cost as part of that transaction to the city. 01:00:31
So what we're doing? 01:00:36
What we're doing tonight is. 01:00:38
Approving the acceptance of that donation and we'll sign the paperwork and that will become City of Watkinsville property. 01:00:40
As they work to get their CEO. So that's good news for us. 01:00:45
So are there any questions or comments about that? 01:00:50
There's none. We'll. 01:00:54
I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. 01:00:56
I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Have a second, I'll second. 01:00:59
All right. Any questions, comments, hearing none, all in favor say aye, All right. 01:01:03
We have no public hearings. We have no appearances. 01:01:09
We have no old business. 01:01:12
We have one item of new business. 01:01:13
This is to consider year end bonuses for city employees. The. 01:01:16
Personnel Committee and I met. 01:01:20
A few weeks ago and I believe there was a recommendation in your packet. 01:01:21
Chuck or Connie, I don't know if you want to add anything to that recommendation. 01:01:25
Yes, we wanted to add our. 01:01:31
Cedar Manager. 01:01:34
To same as same as less. So I think what the intent is to do a weeks weeks. 01:01:35
Pay, is that correct Sharon, for everybody? So we would. 01:01:42
The manager made recommendations for a week's pay for everybody, as she typically does. She left herself out of that, so we want 01:01:45
to correct that and add her in with a week of. 01:01:50
A week of uh. 01:01:56
Pay for year end bonus for you as well Sharon so. 01:01:58
Up there, Chuck, is that a? 01:02:01
And a motion, yes. 01:02:04
That's the recommendation from the committee. 01:02:05
So that comes with a motion and with a second. 01:02:09
Sharon, do you have anything you want to? 01:02:13
Talk about now that we've made a motion on that. 01:02:14
Yeah, Thank you. I just wanted to point out that this is only for employees have been employed for full time since for 12 months. 01:02:16
As has been our tradition, anybody that was hired in January does get included. 01:02:23
For that so. 01:02:28
It's only 10, There's only 10, well, if you count me, 11 of the 17 that are eligible. We've got new employees that have not made 01:02:30
that 12 month. 01:02:33
Market umm. 01:02:37
OK. All right. 01:02:38
OK. 01:02:41
Any other comments? 01:02:43
I will say we have again, it's one of. 01:02:45
Things I've been. 01:02:47
You know, when you're on council, you, you see these folks, but. 01:02:48
When you're here more often as mayor. 01:02:52
You get a. You get a good handle on how often, how hard they really work, and how efficiently all work and. 01:02:54
We're grateful for that. I know Connie also, I think. 01:03:00
Comes to the staff meetings and gets a great sense of that as well. 01:03:02
But I will tell y'all and I'll share it with the public we have. This is not. 01:03:05
This is not a group that adheres to any of the stereotypes of how government employees work. This is a group of people who work 01:03:10
like it is their own business. 01:03:13
In their own town and they take ownership and they work hard and they work relentlessly and they do a great job. 01:03:17
And if they don't, they don't tend to stick around too long. So, Sharon, grateful for your leadership. 01:03:22
Of the staff and really proud to be able to. 01:03:28
Being a financial position to be able to provide these bonuses so. 01:03:31
So we have a motion and a second already because that came from the committee. So all in favor say aye. 01:03:35
All right, that carries unanimously. We'll move on to public comments. 01:03:41
Mr. Mayberry, thank you for your comments earlier. Is there anyone else who'd like to make a public comment tonight? 01:03:47
Kathleen, I know we've heard from you. Anything else? Everything good. 01:03:53
OK. All right, Count. Yep. Thank you. 01:03:56
Come on. 01:04:03
We got to get your steps in. 01:04:05
I failed to mention this, but a lot of. 01:04:08
Appreciate the donation of the wood that we went put into the float and that we're adding the jewelry studio at Oak Half. 01:04:10
And a number of other projects and that was really a. 01:04:16
There's a great. 01:04:19
Donation. Umm. 01:04:20
Thanks again. 01:04:21
Awesome. 01:04:22
Will be working for your mate. That's right, that's right. 01:04:24
We are. We're really excited about what's going on today, if you can. 01:04:28
Feel when I always tell people when OCAF is working well, it's like having a, it's like having a tailwind or a fifth wheel on the 01:04:31
bus in Watkinsville and really excited about everything that's happened in there now. 01:04:36
So yeah. 01:04:41
All right, no other public comments. With that, we'll do Council reports. Councilman Garrett, your first. 01:04:44
All right. Connie Massey, Councilwoman Massey. 01:04:50
Nothing to report. 01:04:54
Councilman Thomas. 01:04:55
I just want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 01:04:56
All right. Thank you, Sir. 01:04:59
Mayor Pro Tem. 01:05:01
Welcome back. 01:05:04
And Councilman Campbell. 01:05:06
Glad you're among the living all right. We have. We are done with council reports. We do not need an executive session. 01:05:07
So I will. 01:05:14
Ask for a motion to adjourn. 01:05:15
I make a motion to adjourn second and we have a second all in favor say aye, aye. All right. Good night, everybody. Merry 01:05:16
Christmas. 01:05:20