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Manager we ready? | 00:00:03 | |
All right. | 00:00:05 | |
Welcome everybody to the August meeting of the Watkinsville City Council. It's great to see a full house. | 00:00:10 | |
It always means a lot when citizens. | 00:00:19 | |
Choose to come and participate and. | 00:00:21 | |
Be a part of the civic process and all that that means for our community, especially on a night like tonight. | 00:00:24 | |
We do have a quorum and so, as we always do, I will lead off with the pledge and judge England if you will lead us please. | 00:00:30 | |
Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, | 00:00:43 | |
indivisible, with liberty. | 00:00:51 | |
You always know when. | 00:01:08 | |
Is it a meeting? | 00:01:10 | |
As I said earlier to welcome everyone for being here tonight, we have a couple pieces of business to take care of out of the gate. | 00:01:13 | |
I will remind you of our. | 00:01:17 | |
A couple things about Watkinsville City Council meetings. These meetings are being simulcast and broadcast online and available to | 00:01:21 | |
the public via a system called Suite 1. | 00:01:25 | |
Those who aren't able to attend the meeting can always watch on our public portal and see the meeting information, which is also | 00:01:29 | |
posted right alongside that. That information is on the website. | 00:01:35 | |
From those times. | 00:01:42 | |
The agenda and the meeting information is posted on Fridays. You're welcome to review that then before our meetings. We also have | 00:01:45 | |
a relatively informal public comment process here. | 00:01:49 | |
Regular meeting minutes. Do I have a motion to approve those minutes? | 00:02:26 | |
I make a motion to approve. You have a second. Second, we have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion. | 00:02:31 | |
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. | 00:02:37 | |
Ah. | 00:02:40 | |
Motion carries, I failed to mention. | 00:02:42 | |
Generally I do. When he joins us, we have, we have a Councilman. | 00:02:45 | |
And Kuwait Councilman Thomas, we're always grateful that you're able to join us at 2:00 AM local time. | 00:02:49 | |
From Kuwait and we want to thank you for your service as well, Sir. | 00:02:55 | |
Hey, thank you very much. I'm glad to be here. | 00:03:01 | |
Thank you. So when you guys hear a voice speaking through the phone, that is Councilman Thomas. | 00:03:04 | |
We Next up we have the approval of the July 26th, 2023 special called Meeting Minutes to have a motion to approve those minutes. | 00:03:11 | |
Make a motion to approve those minutes. All right. Do I have? | 00:03:20 | |
OK. | 00:03:26 | |
All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion hearing? None. All in favor. Say aye. Aye. | 00:03:27 | |
All right, motion carries. We'll move on to the approval of the agenda. We do have a couple items on there that I need to address. | 00:03:34 | |
I would request that the title Anthem be removed from. | 00:03:40 | |
Item 18 And that the renewal recommendation is partly for Anthem, but also for another insurance provider. | 00:03:47 | |
And then under consent agenda we'll need to remove item 13. | 00:03:53 | |
And move that to old business. So I will add that there is quite a bit on the consent agenda. So if anyone has anything else they | 00:03:58 | |
want to remove from consent, now is the time to do that. If not, we'll address all that together and approve those items, but. | 00:04:05 | |
So either speak up, if not, I'll entertain a motion to make the change I requested regarding Anthem and to pull item number 13 and | 00:04:12 | |
move that to Old business. | 00:04:16 | |
I make a motion to approve the agenda. With those two changes, Do I have a second second? | 00:04:20 | |
We have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. | 00:04:27 | |
All right, motion carries. | 00:04:32 | |
All right, we will move on to administration again. As I said earlier, public input may or may not occur here. Comments should be | 00:04:34 | |
made directly relating to agenda items, speak only from the podium, Refrain from debate, argument, personal attacks or irrelevant | 00:04:39 | |
discussion. Should you take that opportunity to address? | 00:04:45 | |
The Council. | 00:04:51 | |
First up, tonight we have. | 00:04:53 | |
We were bittersweet moments, probably the best way to describe it. We're going to have recognized our police chief, Shannon Brock, | 00:04:58 | |
with several. | 00:05:02 | |
Moments. So this. | 00:05:08 | |
And Chief, no amount of time that we spend on this is going to justify. | 00:05:11 | |
The sacrifices and the service that you've made to Watkinsville, but we're going to start with a little video. | 00:05:15 | |
After that, we've got a few proclamations and some people who want to make some remarks. | 00:05:19 | |
He's a phone call to his parents. He's a. | 00:07:27 | |
He's a teacher that I'm wearing. He's the song stuck in my head. He saw it and he silly like me. I'm getting yours. He knows he's | 00:07:33 | |
where he's going. It is good where he's wrong. | 00:07:40 | |
He's one of the good ones. | 00:07:53 | |
You'll know him when you see him. | 00:08:31 | |
You say he hung alone. I say he hung a Galaxy. | 00:08:37 | |
Nobody does it better. | 00:08:43 | |
I've known her to go. There was a day for me to win. What's the good world? | 00:08:46 | |
Communication. | 00:08:58 | |
The. | 00:10:07 | |
Anybody can be. | 00:10:11 | |
He's good all the time. He's one of them. | 00:10:15 | |
He's a man. | 00:10:23 | |
He's a man. | 00:10:33 | |
Chief. | 00:11:14 | |
It's going to be a minute if you don't want to stand up yet, so we got a little bit to do here so. | 00:11:18 | |
I'm going to take a moment of mayoral privilege. I've got a proclamation, but the last thing anybody wants to do is hear somebody | 00:11:24 | |
read a proclamation. So I'm going to speak from my heart. | 00:11:27 | |
For those of you who don't know, I think most of you are here for this. But for those of you who don't, we're losing our chief. | 00:11:34 | |
Our Chiefs Ret. | 00:11:39 | |
But we're losing a piece of our heart. | 00:11:41 | |
In Watkinsville. | 00:11:43 | |
I don't know that in such a short time I've ever seen somebody make as big a difference in this town. | 00:11:46 | |
How many years has it been? | 00:11:53 | |
Four years. | 00:11:55 | |
In four years, our police departments transform. | 00:11:58 | |
You've transformed our community. Your family has leaned. | 00:12:01 | |
You've made an amazing difference. | 00:12:05 | |
And when I think about you, I think about 5 things. | 00:12:08 | |
Those five things are. | 00:12:11 | |
Conviction. | 00:12:14 | |
Creat. | 00:12:16 | |
And. | 00:12:17 | |
Everybody who saw that video and everybody knows you knows how big community. | 00:12:19 | |
I love that in a lot of those pictures you weren't even in it because it's your officers who took that lesson too. | 00:12:23 | |
You've made a difference in our community. | 00:12:30 | |
But even bigger. | 00:12:33 | |
We had. | 00:12:35 | |
We have Black Lives Matter, We have challenging moments challenging this community and you had the courage to take it on. | 00:12:36 | |
You didn't put your head down. | 00:12:43 | |
You pop your head up even though and everybody's playing in the whole country. | 00:12:45 | |
And you stood up and you took it on. | 00:12:50 | |
And you showed courage there and countless other. | 00:12:53 | |
Again, you've made a difference. | 00:12:56 | |
You showed character. | 00:12:59 | |
What's character characters, what you do when nobody's looking? | 00:13:00 | |
And you showed character the entire time. You showed conviction in your beliefs. There were times when we disagreed. There were | 00:13:05 | |
times when you and Sharon disagreed. You didn't back down. You stood up for your men. You stood up for what was right. You showed | 00:13:09 | |
conviction. | 00:13:13 | |
And you showed creativity. | 00:13:19 | |
Those those pictures. Everything that you did. Cops and bobbers. | 00:13:21 | |
The different moments. | 00:13:26 | |
The mass, the photos, the. | 00:13:28 | |
You made policing fun in a time when policing was hard. | 00:13:30 | |
All over the country. | 00:13:33 | |
You did? | 00:13:36 | |
And you did more. | 00:13:37 | |
So. | 00:13:39 | |
Wasn't our chief tonight. I feel like we're losing part of our heart. | 00:13:40 | |
You know that this community. | 00:13:44 | |
You meant the world to me. You met the world of the city and and we're incredibly grateful. | 00:13:47 | |
Again, I've got a proclamation for you. We'll take a photo in a little while with this proclamation. It says a lot of stuff that | 00:13:52 | |
we've shared publicly before, but I want to share a little bit with you and Selena and the family from my heart about what you've. | 00:13:57 | |
To me, into the city means a tremendous amount. So thank you, Chief. Thank you for that. I'm going to let this sit here. We've got | 00:14:03 | |
Hunter Spear. | 00:14:07 | |
Governor Kemp. | 00:14:12 | |
And Hunter's going to step forward and read a proclamation from the governor. | 00:14:13 | |
For. | 00:14:17 | |
Um. | 00:14:20 | |
He's aware of your situation and it means a lot that he's here. Then we're going to have another presentation from. | 00:14:21 | |
Georgia Military College then. | 00:14:27 | |
Todd's Todd's going to do some stuff and then we'll get a picture at the end. So Hunter, if you want to come forward. | 00:14:29 | |
Share the proclamation from the governor's office. That'd be great. | 00:14:34 | |
Like Mayor said, my name is Hunter Spear from the governor's office, field representative for the area and. | 00:14:42 | |
Can't thank chief enough for what he's done for the community. | 00:14:47 | |
Proclamation by the Governor of the State of Georgia Accommodation. | 00:14:51 | |
Whereas Chief Shannon Brock has faithfully served the people and city of Watkinsville as Chief of Police since 2019. | 00:14:55 | |
And whereas as Chief has defined servant leadership as he committed himself and his department to bettering the Watkinsville | 00:15:02 | |
community as a whole. | 00:15:06 | |
His career in law enforcement has demonstrated A dedication to public safety and to the state of Georgia. | 00:15:10 | |
And whereas under his leadership, the Watkinsville Police Department has seen improvements and ongoing developments that have made | 00:15:16 | |
it the efficient and effective force it is today. | 00:15:20 | |
Chief Rock was instrumental in implementation of up-to-date procedures and equipment along with the folks. | 00:15:26 | |
Hiring quality officers across the force. | 00:15:32 | |
And whereas as he steps back to focus on his personal health, he is remembered by his city and his state as a chief who not only | 00:15:35 | |
protected his fellow citizens but became a friend of his community. | 00:15:40 | |
And whereas it is an honor to commend Chief Brock for his monumental career and to wish him well as he navigates the future. | 00:15:46 | |
Now, therefore, I Brian P Kemp, Governor of the State of. | 00:15:54 | |
Do hereby commend Chief Shannon Brock in witness thereof. I have here and to set my hand and cause the seal of the Executive | 00:15:57 | |
Department to be affixed this 14th day of August. | 00:16:02 | |
In the Year of Our Lord 2023 signed Brian Pecan. | 00:16:07 | |
Thanks. | 00:16:12 | |
I think we have someone here from Georgia Military College, Is that correct? | 00:16:22 | |
Also. | 00:16:33 | |
I'm Gene McKinney. Must see you. Probably in this room. Don't know me. I'm from Georgia Military College. Formerly from Georgia. | 00:16:39 | |
Piedmont Law Enforcement Academy. | 00:16:43 | |
Where I was the Academy director and that's where I got the pleasure to meet Chief Brock and I have to tell you as being an | 00:16:47 | |
Academy director for several years. | 00:16:51 | |
I have got the opportunity to meet lots of agency heads, lots of command staff, lots of chiefs, lots of sheriff's. | 00:16:57 | |
And I have never met. | 00:17:04 | |
An agency had. | 00:17:07 | |
That is as universally loved and cherished as Chief Bro. | 00:17:08 | |
He clearly knows what it means to be a servant. | 00:17:14 | |
I have constantly seen him and the interest he has taken in his people. | 00:17:18 | |
And his family. And that's ultimately what you all are to him as his. | 00:17:23 | |
So I'm very, very proud to have met you and to have been a small part of your life and for you to be a small part of my life. | 00:17:28 | |
So greatly appreciate you for that. | 00:17:35 | |
So to show you my appreciation, I've had the pleasure to talk a lot about you to. | 00:17:39 | |
Where I'm at, the people where I'm at now, and so I do have. | 00:17:45 | |
Person personally signed a letter. | 00:17:49 | |
Lieutenant General William Caldwell who is a three star general at our institution and a challenge coin that. | 00:17:52 | |
Has the inscription of return with. | 00:18:00 | |
And so we appreciate you and everything you do, and thank you for being a shining light in this profession, Sir. | 00:18:03 | |
Make sure. | 00:18:22 | |
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Todd Tether. | 00:18:34 | |
Formally and currently the deputy chief of the City of Watkinsville, serving as the interim chief. | 00:18:37 | |
Saying goodbye. | 00:18:43 | |
My best friend. | 00:18:47 | |
I've known the chief for about 25 years. | 00:18:52 | |
We served together in law enforcement in South Georgia. | 00:18:55 | |
When he worked in a department and I worked in a neighboring department, we have gone on SWAT calls together. | 00:18:59 | |
We have made a rest together, We have done training together. | 00:19:04 | |
With the acad. | 00:19:07 | |
And as well as our depart. | 00:19:08 | |
When I later left local law enforcement to serve as AUS Deputy Marshall. | 00:19:11 | |
I continued the relationship I had with. | 00:19:16 | |
And was honored to be selected to come up here to be his deputy. | 00:19:19 | |
Little did I know that he would be leaving. | 00:19:22 | |
So. | 00:19:26 | |
You need to. | 00:19:36 | |
Let's. | 00:19:47 | |
Hey. | 00:19:57 | |
I want to thank everybody for being here. | 00:20:01 | |
It's a tree humbling. | 00:20:04 | |
To see everybody. | 00:20:08 | |
I'm so grateful that. | 00:20:10 | |
We're all able to come and. | 00:20:12 | |
Uh. | 00:20:15 | |
Four years ago I provided an opportunity to come to Walkinsville and. | 00:20:17 | |
Services. | 00:20:22 | |
I know that. | 00:20:24 | |
So much of A blessing. | 00:20:28 | |
I was brought here by. | 00:20:31 | |
I was meant to be. | 00:20:35 | |
Because. | 00:20:37 | |
City. | 00:20:39 | |
Need a Police Department that they can trust that they could rely on that. | 00:20:41 | |
Come to. | 00:20:48 | |
It was damaged when. | 00:20:51 | |
You know they'll put that together. | 00:20:54 | |
But not without. | 00:20:57 | |
I didn't do this all myself. | 00:20:58 | |
The team over there. | 00:21:03 | |
Came over. | 00:21:06 | |
That's what got it. | 00:21:08 | |
I appreciate the relationship we've had. | 00:21:14 | |
Between this agency. | 00:21:16 | |
Previous organization did not have a good relationship and I'm glad we were able to repair that. | 00:21:19 | |
Maintain religious area today and. | 00:21:24 | |
I'm grateful. | 00:21:29 | |
That we were able to do that because we're all the same, but we're all doing. | 00:21:30 | |
And I'll say. | 00:21:38 | |
The law enforcement agency in the state or in this country? | 00:21:42 | |
Not engaging the. | 00:21:46 | |
Face to face with members of the Citiz. | 00:21:48 | |
Because that's where it is. That's where it is. We need to get back in our communities. | 00:21:55 | |
We need. | 00:22:00 | |
Officers are being. | 00:22:03 | |
Reliable resources that they can be. | 00:22:06 | |
Entrusted. | 00:22:10 | |
Agencies need to be transparent in everything they do. | 00:22:12 | |
I. | 00:22:20 | |
All my. | 00:22:23 | |
Also. | 00:22:24 | |
To continue doing what we have established already. | 00:22:27 | |
Put down the. | 00:22:31 | |
People. | 00:22:33 | |
Lay in the. | 00:22:36 | |
Keeping the kids. Keep keep keeping the backpack back to the kids at the at the car line. | 00:22:38 | |
Do all things we did we eat lunch with. | 00:22:44 | |
Policy. | 00:22:48 | |
Hey, I'm not going anywhere so don't want to come pick me up and take me. | 00:22:49 | |
So. | 00:22:56 | |
Mayor Council. | 00:22:58 | |
Thank you for the opportunity. | 00:23:06 | |
Thank you for the opportunity to have been here. | 00:23:10 | |
To. | 00:23:14 | |
Become a member of. | 00:23:21 | |
Because that's what we. | 00:23:24 | |
Thank you. | 00:23:28 | |
I. | 00:23:37 | |
1100. | 00:23:56 | |
1100. | 00:23:59 | |
Have a good night. | 00:24:02 | |
1100 would be 10/7 10:42. Thank you for your 22 years of dedicated and professional law enforcement service to the citizens of the | 00:24:09 | |
State of Georgia and the Walkinsville community. | 00:24:13 | |
As their police chief, we wish you a safe and happy retirement. According to our units, 1100 would be 10/7 10:42 for the last | 00:24:18 | |
time. | 00:24:22 | |
I'll hear for that. | 00:24:33 | |
OK. | 00:24:59 | |
If you and your family would just come up here and we'll get a couple pictures. | 00:25:04 | |
Would like to add. | 00:25:09 | |
I didn't plan this retirement this early, so. | 00:25:12 | |
Councillor. | 00:25:15 | |
Four more. | 00:25:18 | |
All right. I wonder if you could come up in the box family, Todd, you as well. I think that would be appropriate for quite a few. | 00:25:20 | |
Keeping up in the middle. | 00:25:32 | |
Right. | 00:25:51 | |
All right, let's have another round. | 00:26:01 | |
I. | 00:26:28 | |
Thank you. | 00:26:35 | |
Council, come on up, Julie, come on up to. | 00:26:53 | |
And an officer. | 00:27:20 | |
While everybody's coming up here, I just want to say thank you for your service and I am proud and grateful that I have had the | 00:27:27 | |
opportunity to help you. | 00:27:31 | |
I'll get in there. I'm sure it was, but. | 00:27:38 | |
Act like you like them. | 00:27:42 | |
Thank you. | 00:28:14 | |
Council members, do any of you, Connie, thank you for speaking up and reminding me that council members, you have anything you | 00:28:21 | |
want to? | 00:28:24 | |
Share about the chief and then? | 00:28:27 | |
Then we'll what those who are here. | 00:28:30 | |
Chief Department council members feel free to share a few reminisces and then we will. | 00:28:32 | |
Move on. OK, so. | 00:28:38 | |
When we were doing the search for a new chief, I was very skeptical that we would be able to find anyone to run a small town | 00:28:42 | |
Police Department. Well, with limited budget, limited resources. | 00:28:50 | |
And you blew all of my expectations out of the water. | 00:28:58 | |
You have truly done all the things that you said you would, and then some thank you for making. | 00:29:12 | |
Our community such a priority and showing what law enforcement can be in a community. | 00:29:21 | |
I also really appreciate all the deals you always got. | 00:29:28 | |
My Scotch Irish heart sings true to that. | 00:29:33 | |
So you always had a creative solution and we're networking and I don't know how you have the time to lead. | 00:29:38 | |
This great group of people find new people, train them. | 00:29:47 | |
And just build a department that the city can be incredibly proud of. | 00:29:53 | |
So thank you so much and thank you for bringing your family to this community as well. They are a jewel as well. So thank you. You | 00:30:00 | |
will be very missed. | 00:30:05 | |
Yeah, Chief Buck, I think there's people coming to your life, something you get to know really well. Some you just meet in a | 00:30:19 | |
conversation, but it sticks with you. | 00:30:24 | |
I don't know you real well. | 00:30:29 | |
I've been up here for just over 2 and 2 1/2 years. | 00:30:32 | |
It's amazing how you make such a big impact. Even things you don't do when you see the all the pictures up there, you're always | 00:30:36 | |
smiling. | 00:30:40 | |
You know, you're always enjoying life and that's the example that we all need to have. It's just enjoy life, be a positive person. | 00:30:45 | |
And I take that whenever I saw you're always smiling. | 00:30:51 | |
And I mean the work you did, You know, every. | 00:30:57 | |
Praised your work and it was first class and it's what Watkins both needed. So I just appreciate everything you've done, but I | 00:31:01 | |
appreciate. | 00:31:05 | |
The obvious love for life. You. | 00:31:10 | |
She violence, types of echo, whatever one is saying, but you know, we've known each other for a short time and just your | 00:31:18 | |
creativity and the things that you brought to the table has been amazing. | 00:31:23 | |
For our community and you leaving a legacy here. | 00:31:28 | |
Last it'd be here lif. | 00:31:33 | |
Thank you. | 00:31:35 | |
Councilman Thomas, if you have anything you want to share. | 00:31:39 | |
Yeah. Hey Chief, I greatly appreciate your, your, your servant leadership, man, you you have done a fantastic job. | 00:31:44 | |
Leading this community and. | 00:31:52 | |
You know you will be missed and I look forward to seeing you in and around the city and you've got my number. If there's anything | 00:31:56 | |
I can do, please do not hesitate to reach out. That goes to your family as well. | 00:32:01 | |
I look forward to seeing you again, brother. | 00:32:08 | |
Councilman Massey, anything else you wanted to? | 00:32:13 | |
Woman, a few words. | 00:32:16 | |
All right. | 00:32:19 | |
Chief on behalf of this entire community, on behalf of the City of Watkinsville. | 00:32:19 | |
There's not much other to say. | 00:32:27 | |
Than a huge thank. | 00:32:29 | |
It's not goodbye because you're still around. | 00:32:31 | |
And you're still going to be a part of this community. And just because you're not the chief doesn't mean you can't continue to | 00:32:34 | |
inspire and serve and do all the amazing things that you have. | 00:32:38 | |
And that's what we expect to see from you in the years ahead. | 00:32:42 | |
OK, so we're we're grateful to you. We're thankful. | 00:32:46 | |
Selena to you and the family. | 00:32:50 | |
Wow, you all made such a difference for us too, so we're grateful. But thank you from Watkinsville. Thank you from Oconee County. | 00:32:53 | |
Thank you from everybody. Everybody here. Congratulations and good night. Yep. | 00:33:03 | |
Yep. | 00:33:08 | |
Thank you. | 00:33:51 | |
Yeah. | 00:34:05 | |
I. | 00:34:15 | |
High school. | 00:34:22 | |
Can we get a picture quick? Whatever you need to do. | 00:34:25 | |
Hey you, you may want to do a contribution to the city. This yard is on the Union. | 00:34:42 | |
We got a legend here. | 00:34:52 | |
He remembered when the dead seemed still. | 00:34:55 | |
Where is. | 00:35:07 | |
Yeah. | 00:35:11 | |
Two of us. | 00:35:46 | |
That was very good man. Thank you. Thank you. That was very good. | 00:36:20 | |
Thank God and you know, get so busy and when you stop watching and see. | 00:36:26 | |
School. | 00:36:32 | |
There we go. | 00:36:41 | |
Thanks for coming. | 00:37:01 | |
Here. | 00:37:24 | |
You're going to get that for Venice and chair to get it sheriff's. Do you want to get in with them? | 00:37:27 | |
Me too. | 00:37:48 | |
I. | 00:37:56 | |
And I get one really quick. | 00:38:05 | |
Yeah, they all get gone. | 00:38:30 | |
Remember the best high school class county ever. So you know he's got that going. | 00:38:44 | |
Yeah. | 00:38:49 | |
They didn't get that Italian. | 00:38:51 | |
We're going to reconvene. | 00:39:33 | |
It's kind of hard to keep going after something like that, Y'all, but we're going to do it. We got got a fairly full agenda that | 00:39:38 | |
we're going to keep working through. | 00:39:41 | |
And next on our agenda as we have Constitution Week coming up. | 00:39:45 | |
I don't know that with all the conversations we're having in America, if there could be a more important week. | 00:39:51 | |
That's coming up, and I'm Assembly Givens has been a leader with the junior American citizens and the DAR for a long time. So, | 00:39:57 | |
Emily, we're grateful that you're here. If you'll come forward to the Dias with your guests. | 00:40:05 | |
I will read a proclamation and give you guys a couple minutes to talk about Constitution Week if you want to. | 00:40:14 | |
Whereas the Constitution of the United States of America, the guardian of our liberties, embodies the principles of limited | 00:40:35 | |
government in a Republic dedicated to rule by law. | 00:40:39 | |
And whereas September 17th, 2023 marks the 236th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America by | 00:40:44 | |
the Constitutional Convention. | 00:40:48 | |
And whereas it is fitting and proper to afford official recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary. | 00:40:53 | |
And to the patriotic celebrations which will commemorate it. | 00:41:00 | |
It witnessed thereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of Watkinsville, Georgia, to be affixed the 16th day of | 00:41:35 | |
August, the year of our Lord 2023. | 00:41:40 | |
So thank you. | 00:41:45 | |
And if you want to share a little bit about what y'all are going to do, I think you have a few things planned and that would be | 00:41:50 | |
great. Thank you so much. | 00:41:54 | |
Thank you. | 00:41:57 | |
Thank you so much. | 00:42:01 | |
As the mayor said, I'm Emily Givens. I'm the chair of the Watkins Field Junior American Citizens. We are Youth service club that | 00:42:03 | |
is sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution and we've been very active in Watkinsville for over 11 years. With me is | 00:42:09 | |
my daughter, Grace Holland Givens, and she is. | 00:42:14 | |
Just stepped down as president and we have another JC member that has take this going to be the president for the coming year. | 00:42:21 | |
Thank you so much again Mayor for. | 00:42:26 | |
Telling everyone about Constitution Week. Constitution Week is so important. In fact, it was the dollars the American Revolution | 00:42:32 | |
about 75 years ago. The petition Congress to. | 00:42:37 | |
To pass this so that it it. | 00:42:43 | |
The law of the land, so to speak, that we take time to remember our Constitution. It is vitally important. Could I? Would. I | 00:42:48 | |
would. | 00:42:52 | |
I would say no more important than it is at any other time in history for us to come together under this as Americans. And the | 00:42:57 | |
wonderful thing about the Constitution is it covers all of us and that's what I think we can all get behind. And that said, I just | 00:43:03 | |
want to give you a little sneak peek of what we're going to do. I. | 00:43:09 | |
On September 1st, the junior American citizens will be decorating a library cube in the Watkinsville library to kind of help | 00:43:16 | |
educate our younger Watkins villains about the Constitution. And the city is graciously will put up the Constitution banners. | 00:43:24 | |
Around this second week in September. We appreciate that so much and they'll put out flags for us. | 00:43:34 | |
When we get closer to the big day, which is September 17th, and it's a 236th anniversary of the signing of the document, excuse | 00:43:42 | |
me, of the Constitution. | 00:43:47 | |
In 1787. And when that happened, and those brave men got together, and they. | 00:43:53 | |
Put There's John Hancock. Hold it. Bales peeled out over the countryside. And that's exactly what's going to happen on September | 00:43:59 | |
17th in Watkinsville. Church bells we ring in. We will have a constitution program at Ashford Memorial Methodist Church starting | 00:44:06 | |
at 3:30 with patriotic music. We'll have a community bell ringing at 4:00. And then the junior American citizens, along with the | 00:44:13 | |
children of the American Revolution, will present a history program. And then? | 00:44:20 | |
Nothing could be a better finale. | 00:44:27 | |
Than. | 00:44:33 | |
Don Phillips, Civil War Cannon being shot off behind the courthouse and we are so appreciative of John Daniel for letting us do | 00:44:34 | |
that two times in a row. So thank you so much. I hope everybody comes to Constitution Day. We really appreciate it and thanks for | 00:44:40 | |
all, all all your help. Thank you. | 00:44:45 | |
We'll get a photo. And I do want to Emily, you have been an inspiration in terms of patriotic activities in Watkinsville, which I | 00:44:55 | |
love. She's always. | 00:44:59 | |
Hold on a second. | 00:45:41 | |
Thank you. | 00:45:48 | |
Thank you. | 00:45:57 | |
The balance sheet, the revenues and expenses. | 00:46:49 | |
Through the end of July. If there are no questions about that, we'll move on and you can certainly ask me afterward. | 00:46:52 | |
On the Splice 2 report, I wanted to mention that with the completion of sewer Line A and the receipt of the final invoices, we | 00:46:58 | |
anticipate closing this out this month, so there'll be no money left in this account that you may recall Lost One and Two together | 00:47:05 | |
along with some general fund monies made-up the remaining amount of funding for sewer Line. | 00:47:12 | |
Sposs 3 Right now we have encumbered funds for the Rocket Field improvements, for streetscape improvements downtown, and for a | 00:47:21 | |
Police Department and public works capital expenditures that were part of. | 00:47:27 | |
Fiscal Year 24 Budget. | 00:47:34 | |
We are averaging about $78,000 a month. | 00:47:37 | |
On revenues and you'll see that there, you'll see, well, you'll see between the two years obviously, but we've seen a 15% increase | 00:47:40 | |
over year to year between 22 and 23 and we have about 1.2 million in the bank right now. | 00:47:46 | |
On our tea spots, which we just started collecting in April, we've only had a small amount of expenditures. But you, the mayor | 00:47:54 | |
will talk about in his report tonight, one of our biggest expenditures and projects, very first project is the sidewalk segment. | 00:48:01 | |
Installation of sidewalks throughout the community. Right now, New High Shoals Rd. is currently under construction, expected to be | 00:48:10 | |
completed possibly by the end of this week. And then we'll be moving on to the other segments that you guys approved. | 00:48:17 | |
And right now we're averaging 68,000 on that. There is a difference, remind you guys a difference between tea spots and SPLOST 3 | 00:48:23 | |
in the percentage because the county in the city agreed to a different percentage on that. | 00:48:29 | |
There is your comparison. | 00:48:35 | |
Techn. | 00:48:37 | |
And we've got a little over $205,000 at the end of July in. | 00:48:39 | |
And then our American rescue plan reports that money was set aside. Council approved a standard allowance. The government allowed | 00:48:46 | |
us to select that, and by doing so, you can use that money. | 00:48:51 | |
For any general fund purpose that the city. | 00:48:57 | |
The council approved funding for premium pay for retention of our officers and that that money is encumbered for that purpose and | 00:48:59 | |
then future uses to be determined. Council will be making decisions about that in the coming months. | 00:49:06 | |
And we have a little bit over $800,000 in that account. | 00:49:12 | |
Any questions on any of those? | 00:49:17 | |
OK. On economic development, we're actually fixing to kick off the new business license here. So we don't have a lot of these | 00:49:19 | |
candidates would be new, new companies that are established and so we only have a couple. | 00:49:25 | |
Through the end of July, our excise tax, remind everybody that the monies for June don't come in until July. That's why I'm giving | 00:49:31 | |
you this report. | 00:49:35 | |
So the July, July money that came in is for June. So all those numbers up there for June are what were received through the end of | 00:49:40 | |
July. | 00:49:44 | |
And then on the economic development with building permits, you'll note we have the instructional support center, which because of | 00:49:51 | |
state law, they're allowed to do their own permitting. They don't have to, they do have to provide review and inspections of that, | 00:49:57 | |
but they're not required to go through our office to do that. And so they're, they are listed, the evaluations are listed, but | 00:50:04 | |
then we have HVAC's which are typical this time of year and some signs. | 00:50:10 | |
Nothing really terribly exciting through July. Any questions on those? | 00:50:17 | |
OK. | 00:50:23 | |
OK, giving the DDA update, Georgia, our wonderful director Kate has finished the Georgia Main Street training. | 00:50:30 | |
And so opportunities with Georgia Main Street are going to be starting. | 00:50:42 | |
She also submitted the Revitalizing Underdeveloped Rural Area Legislation Application or the rural designation. It's a very | 00:50:48 | |
competitive process. | 00:50:54 | |
And it was a lot of work to put the application together. So we're very grateful that Kate did all of that work and fingers | 00:51:01 | |
crossed, like I said, it's very competitive to see if we'll get that or not. We probably won't know until the end of the year. | 00:51:08 | |
The creative place making grant that we received this winter, The committee is hard at work. If y'all have not heard October 14th, | 00:51:17 | |
we are having. | 00:51:22 | |
An event at Rocket Field. | 00:51:28 | |
The splits band is going to be there. They're a local kind of cover band and they're well known, very popular. There is a public | 00:51:30 | |
art project that we will be doing. We have engaged an artist that has come up with five different. | 00:51:37 | |
Outline paintings and the community is going to get to paint that and then it will be displayed publicly. And also we have local | 00:51:46 | |
restaurants that are there's food for sale and all of it is going to help support the DDA and continued beautification. | 00:51:57 | |
Of downtown. So that's really excited. So October 14th. | 00:52:10 | |
5 to 8 it is a free event, just bring money for food. | 00:52:14 | |
And yeah, that's the main point. | 00:52:20 | |
Good evening, Mayor. | 00:52:31 | |
Going to make this fairly short in your packet, you should have received the police department's report. | 00:52:35 | |
For this month, I'll just touch on a couple of things. | 00:52:42 | |
We did attend the opening day Cullen Ferry Elementary School to greet the children. We assisted the principal there on completing | 00:52:46 | |
some assigned tasks that she needed and that was during the week on a Wednesday and we followed up that Friday with our very first | 00:52:51 | |
yearly bus unloading and. | 00:52:57 | |
Children's drop off. We did that with music and about six officers. We had a really good time doing that. The kids seem to really | 00:53:04 | |
enjoy it. | 00:53:07 | |
Moving farther down. | 00:53:12 | |
We have had a badge and vanilla's meeting with ESP and we're in the process of putting together a package to possibly sponsor some | 00:53:13 | |
needy children to go to the next summer camp next year. | 00:53:19 | |
We are involved with the library program for the young readers. Officer Ryan Anglin is going to read a book there on what it's | 00:53:26 | |
like to be a police officer and hold a coloring book event after. And then we're working up to our annual 5K Run for responder | 00:53:33 | |
event in October that we're really involved in. And I'm looking for chili entries. So if anybody wants to cook chili, we need all | 00:53:40 | |
the chili entries you can you can put in. | 00:53:47 | |
Officer Train. | 00:53:54 | |
So Sergeant Hitler just became one of the newest Georgia Post firearms instructors. | 00:53:56 | |
Completed that A. | 00:54:01 | |
To tell you how difficult the class is, they started with 24, they graduated about 12, so it's it's pretty tough. | 00:54:03 | |
He joins me in being the agencies. | 00:54:11 | |
Firearms instructors Officer Stearns just completed Georgia First responder over in Fulton County. | 00:54:15 | |
So she is the next best thing to a paramedic. | 00:54:21 | |
We are going to be traveling this Friday. Five of us are going over to assist the Barrow County Sheriff's Office in Winder with | 00:54:26 | |
the DUI checkpoint. | 00:54:30 | |
And then we will be going over to Clark County the month after and in October we're actually hosting the DUI checkpoint here. | 00:54:35 | |
Interesting case the month. I won't touch on this one. All I will tell you is it involved a car? | 00:54:43 | |
A gas pump and it didn't workout well for the gas pump. | 00:54:48 | |
But it was a hit and run at the Golden Pantry. The vehicle was located and the driver was apprehended and. | 00:54:51 | |
The gas pump did not catch on fire, which is a good thing, but you can read about that in the report. | 00:54:59 | |
So activity and I don't want to spend a lot on this, but let me just tell you what we got up to. | 00:55:06 | |
So if you look. | 00:55:11 | |
We had 11184 calls for service for the month since we last. | 00:55:13 | |
Our guys issued 134 citations or warnings for various things and we conducted 691 security checks. | 00:55:18 | |
So we had a lot of officers away at training and doing different things. So some of those numbers may have dropped slightly, but | 00:55:26 | |
not a lot. | 00:55:30 | |
On the traffic activity it was mostly speeders, because if you can imagine, we wrote 89 speeding citations and 62 warning. | 00:55:33 | |
On our fixed LPR. | 00:55:43 | |
We had a total of about 75 on those for various things. | 00:55:45 | |
As you go through the packet, there's a breakdown and everything. | 00:55:50 | |
Interesting enough, we worked. | 00:55:54 | |
A citizen private concern on North Main that came from a couple houses that was worried about speeders. | 00:55:58 | |
So the first thing we did is we started conducting extra patrol. Then we put our two variable message signs out there and started | 00:56:04 | |
gathering data. | 00:56:08 | |
And what we learned is that's a pretty heavily traveled road, right? You just wouldn't believe the numbers of cars. | 00:56:12 | |
On one week, going southbound, we recorded about 21,000 cars. | 00:56:20 | |
And on northbound, we recorded just under 30,000. | 00:56:24 | |
Now when it comes to. | 00:56:29 | |
From what we've saw now, we did write some citations and warnings, but generally speaking people are paying attention. I don't | 00:56:31 | |
know if it's because of my signs or us, but during those two weeks. | 00:56:36 | |
Speeders for enforcement activity. | 00:56:41 | |
On the southbound. | 00:56:44 | |
Was at .1. | 00:56:45 | |
.1% not even 1% Point one. | 00:56:48 | |
On the northbound lane they were a little bit heavier. | 00:56:51 | |
.2%. | 00:56:54 | |
.2 So not a lot there, but our guys are going to continue working it and hopefully we made a difference. I know for a fact that | 00:56:56 | |
one of the residents came out and talked with one of the. | 00:57:00 | |
And it was one of the residents that actually contacted us, so they were very happy to see us and thanked us a lot. | 00:57:05 | |
And that's pretty much everything I've got, unless you got questions. | 00:57:12 | |
It's been kind of a hard meeting for. | 00:57:16 | |
Thank you. Yeah. I think that's an important note though, that you know that this is. | 00:57:22 | |
There's two aspects to community policing. There's getting out and seeing the community and there's being responsive when the | 00:57:27 | |
community comes in and I think that's the summary that you put in. The packet is so impressive and shows exactly. | 00:57:32 | |
You know, living in a small town with a great police force is an awesome thing that a citizen can ride in with a concern and not | 00:57:39 | |
only have an officer show up to run radar a couple times a week, we get a detailed report of. | 00:57:43 | |
This is how much traffic this is what percentage you're speeding. We're still going to help address your concerns, but here's the | 00:57:49 | |
data that shows what's really going on so that that's really a great example of best practice. So thank you. All right. Thank you, | 00:57:53 | |
Sir. | 00:57:57 | |
All right, we'll move on to the consent agenda. As a reminder, we pulled item 13 off of this, but I would ask for a motion to | 00:58:04 | |
approve items 91011121415 and 16. | 00:58:09 | |
Do I have a motion on that? | 00:58:15 | |
I make a motion to approve. We have a second second. | 00:58:16 | |
Any conversation? | 00:58:21 | |
If not all in favor, say aye, aye. | 00:58:22 | |
We have no public hearings tonight. We have no appearances tonight. We have two items under old business Do we want to do trove or | 00:58:28 | |
do we want to do historic preservation first? | 00:58:33 | |
OK. Then this will be item 13 off the consent agenda. Attorney Reitman and Manager Dickerson, if you want to update us. | 00:58:38 | |
I'm going to let the attorney do all this. All right, Very good. Mayor and council. | 00:58:46 | |
I'm going to make available for anybody in the public who wants a copy. This is kind of late breaking. This is a green space | 00:58:52 | |
passive recreation land donation agreement. Would anybody like a copy of this? Be glad to carry it back to you if anybody like | 00:58:57 | |
copy. I see Madam Press is interested in a copy. | 00:59:02 | |
This has been in the works for a couple weeks, but was finalized today. Let me just give you all the very brief highlights in the | 00:59:12 | |
interest of time and that we are at a little bit later hour. This pertains to. | 00:59:18 | |
Goes back to a development agreement that was agreed upon several years ago on the Trove development. | 00:59:26 | |
Wherein subsection C5 of A of an exhibit to the Development Agreement reference specifically. | 00:59:34 | |
Parkland, recreation area, green space, walking and biking trails, among other things that noted that the open space may be | 00:59:40 | |
conveyed to the city by Trove Constructs, LLC is a company name for inclusion in the city's open Space program. Both parties agree | 00:59:47 | |
the area is to be used for passive recreation opportunity only, such as walking and wildlife. There may be a community building in | 00:59:55 | |
the area at some point in time, in the discretion of the city. | 01:00:02 | |
With perhaps a community garden in various neighborhood amenities including bike racks, pet waste bag receptacles and so forth. So | 01:00:10 | |
what this does specifically is it donates 3 parcels of property for these stated purposes which are tracked one at the corner of | 01:00:20 | |
Column Ferry and Morrison, which has a substantial value to it $183,000 appraised value 1.967 acres. | 01:00:29 | |
Tract #2 is known as Morrison North. | 01:00:40 | |
Value assigned to that one is 222 K 7.66 acres. And then tracked 3 Morrison S opinion of value of that parcel $133,500 for 3.219 | 01:00:43 | |
acres. And again all this is for the purpose of passive recreation, parking, green space, land for use by the citizens and then | 01:00:53 | |
most importantly city desires to accept the contribution. | 01:01:03 | |
For such public purposes. | 01:01:14 | |
The remainder of this is required under the Internal Revenue Code, stock, boiler plate and verbiage, and this is the net result of | 01:01:15 | |
a lot of discussion among the attorneys staff. Some heavy lifting by the City Engineer Manager Dickerson ET al Has been a team | 01:01:21 | |
effort. | 01:01:27 | |
So just some context for our guests here on that. So there's a subdivision called Trove that's being built near Colin Ferry | 01:01:34 | |
Elementary School is a part of the conditions with that neighborhood. They were allowed to build on smaller lots than as normal, | 01:01:40 | |
but enabled. In order to do that, they had to make several contributions back for the benefit of the city. That included a | 01:01:47 | |
sidewalk from the school to Column Ferry Rd. as well as substantial contributions of green space for public use. | 01:01:53 | |
Possession of those properties and they'll become part of our parks and green space program. So in total acreage, Joe, what's that | 01:02:30 | |
roughly around? | 01:02:34 | |
1.97 Let's call that 2 + 7.66 puts us at 9.66 + 3.2 puts us up close to 12 acres. So So the city will. | 01:02:39 | |
The city, the citizens will have 12 acres of new green space, 13 acres of green space in the column ferry quarter to use and | 01:02:52 | |
again, one of our stated goals that have everybody be within an easy walk of meaningful green space. So this is going to help us | 01:02:57 | |
accomplish that. | 01:03:02 | |
Council Questions for. | 01:03:07 | |
Mr. | 01:03:09 | |
And again as as Mayor stated the contingency because we are finalizing the plat which we've been coordinating very carefully. | 01:03:12 | |
Madam Manager, the City Engineer and myself, we do need to insert the meats and bounds legal description from the approved plat | 01:03:20 | |
into this document. So what you see is almost final, but it will have an updated Exhibit A with all the meets and bounds to make | 01:03:28 | |
sure we've dotted I's, cross T's and there's 100% legal. So any motion be contingent upon approval by. | 01:03:35 | |
Manager, engineer and attorney, thank you. | 01:03:43 | |
All right. Any questions from the public on that? | 01:03:46 | |
Kind of an interesting. | 01:03:49 | |
All right. I see a thumbs up. Thank you, Kathleen. All right, more green space. That's good, right? All right, Council, do I have | 01:03:51 | |
a motion? I make a motion to approve. | 01:03:55 | |
With final approval and review by the manager, engineer and city attorney, do we have a second second? | 01:04:01 | |
All in favor of any conversation. | 01:04:10 | |
All right. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? | 01:04:15 | |
All right. Thank you. We will move on to historic preservation update, I think. Councilman Campbell, this is you. | 01:04:19 | |
Yeah, Chuck Garrett and myself met with Professor James Reap yesterday here. He's a professor at University of Georgia and | 01:04:28 | |
specializes in teaching historic preservation. | 01:04:35 | |
And for those who don't know, he's going to have a class assignment. He's got 14 students in his class that are all graduate | 01:04:42 | |
students. One's actually a third year law student and they are going to work on the project of creating our Historical Historic | 01:04:48 | |
preservation ordinance. Excuse me. | 01:04:54 | |
The and they're going to start on it. | 01:05:02 | |
Right now as UGA starts, so the first half of the semester they're going to research all the cities with historical preservation | 01:05:04 | |
ordinances in state of Georgia, which they're approximately 150 cities in the state that do. | 01:05:11 | |
So that sounds like a lot of fun. | 01:05:18 | |
So anyway, they'll do that the first half of the semester. They're going to use the State Historic Preservation Ordinance as the | 01:05:22 | |
the baseline to create our ordinance off of. | 01:05:28 | |
Let's see. | 01:05:36 | |
They'll do the research the first half of the semester and right around October 1st they'll start kind of writing the ordinance | 01:05:37 | |
for Watkinsville and basically. | 01:05:42 | |
They'll create the ordinance that they think we need, and there'll be discussion back and forth, and then they'll come up with | 01:05:46 | |
what they believe is a good ordinance for the city, and then we'll have sh. | 01:05:52 | |
To discuss, OK, we like this or let's modify that. There will be, you know some adjustments if you will from the preservation | 01:05:59 | |
ordinance at that point and. | 01:06:03 | |
There's a lady there, Jennifer Lewis, in the college there. She also has a degree in historic preservation, but she's experienced | 01:06:09 | |
in holding Tourette's for these ordinances so she can. | 01:06:15 | |
Us down the road, but he kind of want to get wants to get the ordinance. | 01:06:23 | |
Done on his end and then we'll she'll leave the tweaking on our end if you will. I. | 01:06:27 | |
So that's kind of where we stand there and he's very excited, he's written. | 01:06:33 | |
Ordinances for many cities, small and large. | 01:06:37 | |
City of Decatur, for example. So he's very well respected. He travels all over the United States working on on this, so we're | 01:06:42 | |
fortunate to have him. | 01:06:46 | |
Do this with for us and if they didn't add at a low cost. | 01:06:51 | |
No cost. Even better. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So great. Yeah. So he's very excited. | 01:06:56 | |
Attorney Reitman Yes, Sir. I had the privilege of working with Professor REAP in approximately 2016 on behalf of another | 01:07:04 | |
municipality to update an ordinance that was based on the state law model some decades ago, and he was just wonderful to work | 01:07:11 | |
with. He's just a real joy because he is such an expert. He's creative, he's very energetic, and he just puts out good work | 01:07:19 | |
product. In fact, what you saw is kind of a very initial early rough draft a year or two ago. | 01:07:27 | |
Was basically a slightly simplified streamlined. | 01:07:34 | |
Version of the culmination of all that work that we did around 2016. You're really getting the best of the best here. And he and I | 01:07:40 | |
had a long conversation. He reached out to me about 3 weeks ago, told me basically what you've said. We got into some legal | 01:07:46 | |
nuances and details and I was really impressed with the game plan. His team and he advised to basically I think you alluded to | 01:07:51 | |
their willingness to come down here and present and and give you basically the best product and what may become a new statewide | 01:07:57 | |
model. | 01:08:03 | |
Perhaps with tweets? | 01:08:10 | |
In the future. | 01:08:11 | |
Thank. | 01:08:13 | |
And just a reminder for the members of the public, you know our goal with this is we're we have a we have some challenges with | 01:08:14 | |
preserving our old homes in Watkins, but we don't have a lot of old homes. | 01:08:19 | |
Leading the way on that and I'm really glad we're going to engage the public broadly as we move that forward. I think that's | 01:08:53 | |
really important. | 01:08:56 | |
So we don't need a vote on that. We'll move on to scouts, hang in there. This is almost as exciting as the financials. We're going | 01:09:00 | |
to talk about employee health insurance renewal. Y'all don't appreciate that now, but at some point later in life, you'll | 01:09:05 | |
understand the importance of good insurance and we've been working on. | 01:09:10 | |
We're going to talk a little bit about that. She's going to help me figure this out. So what we are going to request though is | 01:09:47 | |
approve the renewal with Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield for our medical dental vision, long term disability. At the current premium | 01:09:53 | |
rates that means there's no increase in the rates from this fiscal year 23 to 24 with a $10,000 premium credit that Anthem will | 01:10:00 | |
issue us and adding short term disability benefits for 12 months beginning October 1st through September 30, 2024. You did have, I | 01:10:06 | |
think I may have actually. | 01:10:12 | |
So insurance brokers in Georgia did receive. | 01:10:55 | |
Services or I'm sorry, price proposals from Anthem, United Healthcare, Cigna and Oscar and Aetna. | 01:11:00 | |
In the last fiscal year, we spent a little bit less than 175,000 on those on those. | 01:11:09 | |
Basic benefits, I've updated as you see have updated. We anticipate spending 164,000 and that was. | 01:11:15 | |
If you go back and look at #4, that was for 19 full time employees. We're now up to 20 and we're going to be spending 10,000 less. | 01:11:23 | |
On those same things, if we stay with Anthem, we already pay for long term disability. That amount that's listed in item 6 of | 01:11:29 | |
$4319 is already been budgeted in the budget process that's been approved. | 01:11:36 | |
At our request we ask that we look at short term disability for our employees. Some of us do it on our own, but the majority do | 01:11:44 | |
not. That would be and this is the revised number $5132.64. It was not accounted for in the budget, but because of the savings | 01:11:51 | |
that Anthem is offering the premium credit, it will more than cover that. | 01:11:57 | |
In addition, you may recall that the fiscal year 24 budget, we anticipated an increase of more than 5 1/2%, which it now is no | 01:12:04 | |
longer required. So. So we're looking at a significant savings and we're hoping that you guys will consider using some of that to | 01:12:10 | |
provide that additional. | 01:12:15 | |
Service, and this is teeny tiny, but everybody should have a copy in front of them. I want to make sure I had it up on the screen. | 01:12:21 | |
And I'm going to let her talk a little bit about why we've changed our position from going with Aetna and now going with Anthem. | 01:12:27 | |
And I'm going to pop up some of the reasons here and I'll let you take it from there. | 01:12:33 | |
So good evening, everyone. I'm Sandon Shaw Caldwell with Insurance Brokers of Georgia and Oak Bridge Partner. And we are your | 01:12:41 | |
benefits broker for employee benefits for the City of Watkinsville. And yes, Sharon, bless her heart. | 01:12:47 | |
I send things and then it's a little bit of a dance back and forth, right? And we negotiate, but. | 01:12:55 | |
Having a broker, the perk of that is that I shot the market and I compare and contrast all the options from various carriers, | 01:13:02 | |
because as a brokerage or a broker, I'm not a captive agent. I can look at every option available and we can. | 01:13:10 | |
The biggest thing for the book, right. So initially last week as of end of day Friday that was looking to be Aetna. That was going | 01:13:19 | |
to be the recommendation they came in with a great proposal when. | 01:13:26 | |
Quoted the Benef. | 01:13:33 | |
But I used that proposal to present back to Anthem to negotiate. | 01:13:35 | |
What else can you offer us? And ultimately as of 3/30 this afternoon, I got the revised proposal where they originally we did | 01:13:43 | |
have, I believe it was a 5.8% rate increase, which was actually excellent. We were very pleased with that. | 01:13:51 | |
I was very pleased with that and we negotiated it down to a 0% increase. So we're locked in at the same rates that we were last | 01:14:00 | |
year, which is fantastic and a win in and of itself. But on top of that, we got a $10,000 premium credit with Anthem. | 01:14:09 | |
And. | 01:14:18 | |
We want to add the employer provided short term disability. This is going to benefit your employees twofold. One, it covers | 01:14:20 | |
everyone. Anytime a benefit like that can be employer provided as opposed to voluntary, it's more affordable, The rates are lower. | 01:14:28 | |
Because you have 100% participation. | 01:14:36 | |
The voluntary elections that are currently in place, those employees will experience. | 01:14:39 | |
A pay raise essentially because they will no longer have to pay that out of pocket on their own. So that's a great benefit as | 01:14:45 | |
well. | 01:14:48 | |
With the increase and the deduction, I think the compare and contrast though on Aetna. | 01:14:54 | |
You'll notice that there is. | 01:15:01 | |
Probably financial savings still to move to Aetna and they also offered an admin credit, however. | 01:15:03 | |
Through discussion and just talking about the history of the group, any ongoing claims that may be in process, we feel the | 01:15:13 | |
simplicity of staying put and still having a great savings. | 01:15:20 | |
Is the better bet and the better way to move forward. So our recommendation at this point is to renew with Anthem. | 01:15:28 | |
Based on the revised proposals and negotiations and added value of short term disability and no disruption to any providers. | 01:15:36 | |
Pharmacy benefits or prescription medications that anybody may be on at the time. | 01:15:47 | |
They wouldn't have to change any of that and there's something be said for that as well, not having to make a change mention about | 01:15:53 | |
the chamber. | 01:15:57 | |
Also as a member, so with our Anthem plan, it's on a chamber smart plan which is considered a MIWA, it's a multiple employer | 01:16:01 | |
welfare arrangement and that means that our claims pool over the course of the year is actually. | 01:16:08 | |
Combined with many. | 01:16:16 | |
Clients that are in that same chamber plan. So it kind of mitigates or helps our claims experience, whereas if we do move to a | 01:16:19 | |
level funded plan of our own potentially with Aetna AFA that was presented or proposed and recommended last Friday, but that has | 01:16:26 | |
changed. | 01:16:32 | |
Your claims would be all on your own, and so the risk reward of that is that next year we could experience a larger increase | 01:16:40 | |
depending on how claims go. One of the perks of Aetna, they do a surplus share if your claims run well, but again when evaluating | 01:16:47 | |
all the pieces of the puzzle. | 01:16:53 | |
We feel that renewing with Anthem, with the concessions that have been negotiated, makes the most sense for this year. | 01:17:01 | |
Yeah. But I'll just remind you all it, it's been hard to get insurance with us just having what do you call it when it's just us | 01:17:11 | |
not part of the Hewa, but when it's just our our population here, our pool when it yeah, when it's just your. | 01:17:17 | |
You often hear about insurance for. | 01:17:25 | |
Companies or employers? And it's like, oh, I love this carrier. I didn't really like that plan. And you really can't judge the | 01:17:28 | |
carrier based on that because you have to judge it based on the group. It has nothing to do with me. Each group stands alone. | 01:17:36 | |
So your claims, your census, your average age, your zip code, all of those things can get taken into consideration. | 01:17:45 | |
With the chamber smart plans. | 01:17:55 | |
They lump all of those together in a pool of other participating clients or groups or employers that are. | 01:17:57 | |
It just helps alleviate a little bit of that pressure. So historically we had a small number of employees and when you're trying | 01:18:08 | |
to go to market with a small number of employees, anyone employee event or insured event, make sure prices skyrocket. And the | 01:18:12 | |
other thing is. | 01:18:16 | |
So they kind of put those safeguards in. | 01:18:49 | |
Kind of for that reason, to protect the carrier swapping if you will, but. | 01:18:53 | |
You know my job as your broker is to. | 01:18:59 | |
Compare and contrast and shop the market for you. Thank you for your work, Sanda. Do we have any questions from council on | 01:19:03 | |
insurance? | 01:19:06 | |
Will you be here after the meeting? I sure will. I sure will. A self-employed people. | 01:19:11 | |
Look at that Chamber of plan. Seriously. | 01:19:19 | |
OK, great. We need a motion to approve the recommendation. | 01:19:22 | |
I make a motion to approve the recommendation. | 01:19:26 | |
We have a second, second discussion. | 01:19:30 | |
All in favor, Say aye. | 01:19:34 | |
Motion carries. We will move on to our agreement for maintenance and scheduling at Rocket Field with the yard and we're glad. | 01:19:37 | |
To announce this tonight, just a little bit of light context before I turn it over to to the manager to talk about the specifics. | 01:19:45 | |
Rocket Field is really coming along, I think what we've realized and thank you Brock Tool as well who's supporting us on that | 01:19:49 | |
project. We're glad to see you tonight. | 01:19:54 | |
Yeah, we have the potential to have one of the nicest little hometown ball fields in America, I think. | 01:20:00 | |
But what we realize is there is a lot more that goes into taking care of a ball field than just dragging it a couple times a month | 01:20:05 | |
and keeping the grass mode. So we realized we had some experts in town with the yard. We also had some proposals for how to take | 01:20:11 | |
care of that because we don't know that our team in the city really has time to take care of it. | 01:20:17 | |
We have some experts at the yard who expressed an interest in that in a public, private way and we also think we can get this and | 01:20:23 | |
I'll let the manager. | 01:20:27 | |
See if she agrees or disagrees with my guess. But we think we can get this maybe close to revenue neutral through the way that we | 01:20:31 | |
utilize the field and have some other groups using it in terms of Little League and others. So. But it's an exciting opportunity | 01:20:37 | |
because our goal with Rocket Field wasn't just to get the field fixed, but also to maintain it in such a way that it's a really | 01:20:42 | |
awesome venue for anybody who wants to play baseball out there. So Manager Dickerson, I'll let you take it from there. | 01:20:48 | |
Well, I'm not sure I'm going to add a whole bunch to that. But as the mayor said, we are looking at trying to maintain it at its | 01:20:54 | |
current state and we do not have that expertise on staff. So we've reached out to the community and communities reach back and we | 01:21:01 | |
have a proposal from the yard to not only maintain the field and to the desired level that it should be for those playing on the | 01:21:07 | |
field, but also helping us schedule events, not just those events that may happen on the feet, the playing field like softball or | 01:21:14 | |
baseball teams or T-ball teams. | 01:21:21 | |
But also events in the outfield or I guess we're outside the infield. | 01:21:27 | |
And the proposal which is in the packets, this is the proposal we have, which roughly comes out to about 1700, sixteen, 1650 a | 01:21:33 | |
month. | 01:21:38 | |
Sir, good evening. Thank you for having me. My name is Miles Mingi, representing the yard at our park. | 01:23:22 | |
On behalf of the Yard, we're grateful to have the potential opportunity to not only preserve this historic site in downtown | 01:23:28 | |
Watkinsville, but also enhance it. | 01:23:33 | |
I feel like this is a place that. | 01:23:38 | |
We can really help people. | 01:23:41 | |
And. | 01:23:43 | |
Is another site to help people gather and really in Watkinsville, the people that surrounding this place, it's it's what makes it | 01:23:46 | |
special. You seen that out there at? | 01:23:50 | |
At Wire Park, the reach that we've been able to to have in the youth and the families of this community. | 01:23:56 | |
And and Rocket Field is a place that is, it's really a gold mine when it comes to. | 01:24:04 | |
To facilities. It's kind of like reminds me of the sand light. There's not many other places I've ever seen this had just, you | 01:24:11 | |
know, I've been in this community for a year and a half. | 01:24:15 | |
Didn't even know about Rocket Field. | 01:24:20 | |
Probably two months ago I wrote up on it and I was like, wow, like why are we not doing anything with this? | 01:24:23 | |
And I'm just excited for the potential opportunity to again enhance it, help people gather. | 01:24:30 | |
And and really see where it goes again. That place it can. It can, really. | 01:24:35 | |
Turn into something special with the with the proper upkeep. And I think not many people realize what it takes to again, not only | 01:24:42 | |
maintain it, but to enhance it. | 01:24:48 | |
And so yeah, so. | 01:24:54 | |
Hopefully. | 01:24:56 | |
This can become a site for for people to gather and and and really connect people watkinsville for years to come. So thank you. | 01:24:58 | |
Joe, do you have anything you want to? | 01:25:08 | |
Just to reiterate a couple key provisions that they the yard will be the point of contact in charge of scheduling the organized | 01:25:11 | |
athletic events, which I think is a real benefit and a help for the city and the schedule. We maintain the shareable file, so | 01:25:17 | |
there'll be real time access to the city at any given point in time. They will maintain liability insurance and do a standard hold | 01:25:23 | |
harmless defendant indemnification. So I think we've covered the bases here. I think it's a very good agreement, mutually | 01:25:29 | |
beneficial. | 01:25:35 | |
And I recommend. | 01:25:41 | |
Council, do we have questions for our friends from the Yard or Sharon? We also have Brock available if we have questions for our | 01:25:44 | |
project manager. | 01:25:48 | |
Yeah. I have a couple questions. So you had mentioned that this is kind of a trial thing. | 01:25:53 | |
Is there a like a timeline? Will it come back before us? I mean, I'm just wondering as we're potentially approving this, what? | 01:25:59 | |
You know, simply we budget for it and you guys approve those contracts after the fact. | 01:26:46 | |
My other question is how far? | 01:26:53 | |
Not how far in advance, but like. | 01:26:59 | |
Can someone call and say, oh, we want to book it for tonight or whatever? And I'm sitting here thinking from a city perspective, | 01:27:02 | |
from a citizen perspective, that wouldn't be great for just the community who might want to use it. Like will it be posted? | 01:27:09 | |
Because I know a lot of families go out and use Rocket Field and we want to be able to continue. I mean, this is a public park and | 01:27:15 | |
so we want people to be able to enjoy it and use it. So will there be some kind of schedule posted and how last minute can people | 01:27:21 | |
like reserve it? | 01:27:28 | |
Absolutely. Good question. I think it's important to note that that with a site like this, it's important for it to be public, but | 01:27:35 | |
at the same time in order to preserve it and enhance it and and and it's it's not overdone and overused, I will say that. | 01:27:43 | |
It will. | 01:27:51 | |
It will be the potential for revenue for the city and in the yard in that aspect is it is rented out by the hour. | 01:27:54 | |
And those financial details are to come. | 01:28:03 | |
But. | 01:28:08 | |
As far as scheduling. | 01:28:08 | |
Those details have not come to light yet I would say. I doubt you know the day of the detail, day of scheduling will occur again | 01:28:10 | |
just because just the organization of it. | 01:28:16 | |
And the structure of it this. | 01:28:23 | |
Not something that we want to take lightly and not something that we're just, you know, anybody can go out there at any time. Let | 01:28:26 | |
me speak into that a little bit though, because Miles what we talked about I think with Phil. | 01:28:31 | |
We don't want to necessarily an organized baseball team going out there at anytime and playing on it. But if, if you know, if | 01:28:36 | |
someone and their daughter wants to go, you know nobody's on the field and they want to play. They want to play catch or do some | 01:28:41 | |
batting practice or throw the ball around. | 01:28:45 | |
Then that's acceptable if the fields not reserved and then we're also I think going to reserve some blocks of time just for public | 01:28:50 | |
use. | 01:28:54 | |
Saturday, if somebody want to have a tournament, we would need to know that up front because otherwise we would want that | 01:30:12 | |
available like the stage if somebody wanted to have. | 01:30:15 | |
You know, reunion and they wanted to be on the outfield or maybe they wanted the whole field and that's we'll talk a little bit | 01:30:19 | |
about that and the fee structure that we're going to propose here in a minute. But I think we're still working through that. And I | 01:30:24 | |
mean I think we're open to that. I think again, we're going to give it a shot. We tweak things here and there and between them and | 01:30:30 | |
us and the public, figure out what works the best and adjust as needed. | 01:30:35 | |
I think it would be helpful to have like in a laminated way, weatherproof where maybe there's AQR code so that the public could | 01:30:41 | |
access that obviously not manipulate the schedule, but access the schedule. So because I don't think it's realistic to constantly | 01:30:48 | |
be going to the field and putting up the times, but something like that I think would be super helpful. So that. | 01:30:55 | |
You know you don't have disappointed kids because you promised them to come out to Rocket Field and. | 01:31:03 | |
There's a someone else's birthday party there and I just a Matt, you know, I was a mom with children. I am a mom with children. | 01:31:09 | |
They're just not little children that would scream anymore about this thing. So I think what we're wanting to do is find that mix, | 01:31:15 | |
right. What we don't want to do is invest this money and have a facility that's being underutilized, you know, especially when | 01:31:20 | |
it's going to be, I think create some amazing opportunities for children who are in the sport. | 01:31:26 | |
At the same time, we also want to, and we've watched Rocket Field right where there's not a lot of baseball softball use out | 01:31:32 | |
there. So if we're going to put in a nice field, we want people to use it. | 01:31:36 | |
Hey, there's good bathrooms. There's an upstairs room where you can have a cake. There's other stuff you can do. So we anticipate | 01:32:09 | |
people taking advantage of it that way. And then I think Sharon will walk us through the next part, deposits and stuff like that. | 01:32:14 | |
So if you do use it, you can't trash the field and not have to pay because that's the other thing that has happened historically | 01:32:19 | |
at Rocket Field is people have a great time out there and then they leave. | 01:32:24 | |
You know, enough litter to fill up a trash can and broken toilets and other stuff, and we're stuck with the bill on that. So | 01:32:29 | |
that's we're trying to protect that investment that we've made. I think this is a good first step and we'll see how it works. | 01:32:35 | |
Any other questions? | 01:32:43 | |
All right. Thank you, Miles. | 01:32:46 | |
Council with that, any members of the public have questions or comments on Rocket. | 01:32:49 | |
That part of it. | 01:32:54 | |
Kathleen. | 01:32:56 | |
We. | 01:32:58 | |
For the record, Kathleen asked about the dog park We. | 01:33:02 | |
Kathleen, if you want to talk it through, we can, but the we are, we'll see. I think that's where we are right now. We've realized | 01:33:07 | |
that a space is smaller than we thought it was going to be. We're worried about the impact that dogs are going to have on it. We | 01:33:12 | |
are actively looking at some other locations potentially if it is a dog park, it won't be before the end of the year. We've got to | 01:33:16 | |
let that side settle in. | 01:33:21 | |
And route otherwise we'll have wasted a bunch of money on that quadrant. So we're trying to evaluate that. We want to have a dog | 01:33:27 | |
park downtown. That's what we're trying to figure out whether it's that tiny space or whether we can find another location is what | 01:33:32 | |
we're looking at. So, but we made a commitment when we did that that there would be a dog park. But after looking at it, we are a | 01:33:37 | |
little concerned about the size of it. So that's what we're trying to work through. | 01:33:42 | |
So that's where we are with it. So maybe, maybe not. | 01:33:49 | |
Trying to work. | 01:33:53 | |
Anything else? | 01:33:56 | |
All right, with that Council, we have a motion to approve the agreement with the yard. | 01:33:59 | |
I make a motion to approve the agreement with the yard through this fiscal year. | 01:34:07 | |
We have a second. | 01:34:12 | |
Any discussion? | 01:34:14 | |
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? | 01:34:16 | |
Motion carries 5 O fee schedule. Sharon, if you want to walk us through that. | 01:34:20 | |
So we reached out to Oconee County Public Parks and Rec to see what therapy structure look like. Pat Sebring has been just a | 01:34:27 | |
wealth of knowledge and information and and then we consider what we have which is maybe a little bit nicer than what they have | 01:34:34 | |
and and and so we came up with just some pricing. This is sort of throwing it at the wall and sort of looking at what's out there | 01:34:41 | |
and I believe Mayor Pro Tem and the mayor both looked at it, we had. | 01:34:48 | |
I believe Phil looked at it for Roberts looked at it. What I will say is, as the mayor said, we are going to be recommending, as | 01:34:56 | |
the county does, refundable rental deposits, especially when there's a private event. We're not going to do that for the softball | 01:35:03 | |
field at this point. That may change. We'll see how they use it and stuff, but for events, private events that are held or even | 01:35:10 | |
public events and we'll talk about that in a minute, but public events will will require something as well. | 01:35:18 | |
So what we're looking at right now is $50.00 an hour. I believe the county charges 35 an hour. | 01:35:25 | |
We. | 01:35:31 | |
If if there was a group that wanted to have a one day tournament or two day tournament and the and the the county prices there | 01:35:33 | |
similarly it's a little bit more like again they Figure 8 hours. | 01:35:38 | |
So we're figuring $50 and eight hours, so $400.00 for the day and then 350 per day if it's a two day. | 01:35:44 | |
We talked about concession standing right now that sort of that may be moving a little bit. We're not really sure what will happen | 01:36:24 | |
with that with just having one team. It's not like you're being out of OVP and there's multiple teams and you've got a vendor like | 01:36:29 | |
Oconee Little League that wants to run your concession stand. You might only have two teams and you know we're not really sure | 01:36:34 | |
what that's going to look like yet. So we're keeping it essentially the exact same as what the county has, which is $200 a day or | 01:36:39 | |
$400.00 for the weekend. | 01:36:44 | |
As I mentioned, we have other spaces other than the infield we call I guess what I'm trying to determine and and this is green | 01:36:50 | |
space, this would be everything at this point everything because we haven't determined. | 01:36:56 | |
Where the line will be if there is a dog park, where that will be. So we're saying everything outside of the infield is considered | 01:37:03 | |
green space. | 01:37:05 | |
Covington We looked at some other communities in the area that rent events space like this and we're, you know. | 01:37:39 | |
Way under what they're charging, but we're just trying to come up with something again. | 01:37:44 | |
If we if we don't get a lot of people that say, yeah, I want to rent it and they go, that's ridiculous, then maybe we'll come back | 01:37:48 | |
to y'all and say we need to drop the pie. So it would. We're just trying to sort of figure it out. The market will dictate it and | 01:37:53 | |
we'll we'll know soon enough. | 01:37:57 | |
We did talk about for any out of county clubs that want to use the baton courts, there won't be any rental or any scheduling or | 01:38:02 | |
anything on the baton courts. However, we do know there are other clubs in the area and it could be that they want to rent them. | 01:38:07 | |
If they do, we'll let them but it's it's not going to be for free. | 01:38:12 | |
I think they have like a flat fee and we were figuring, I think it works out sort of the same, but we figured we do a percentage | 01:38:49 | |
and it's high because we don't really want people, we want our citizens to use it. But you know, if somebody had an event, wanted | 01:38:56 | |
to have an event over there, we'll consider it on the public, on just some general notes. So again, these are for reservation | 01:39:02 | |
purposes. People can go out anytime that it isn't reserved And I love the QR code, Great idea. | 01:39:09 | |
Anytime it's not being used, people go out there and use the field, enjoy the field. | 01:39:16 | |
And that's on the first come first serve basis we will require or we met. We reserve the right to require anything that may be | 01:39:22 | |
essential to help support an event such as trash, additional trash cans or Porta potties. | 01:39:28 | |
And if it is a public event, like somebody want to have a concert and invite the public, that is going to be considered a special | 01:39:37 | |
event. They will have to come through our our permit process as you normally would like fall festivals as an example or you know | 01:39:42 | |
something again wanted to have a concert at the field and invite the public and sell tickets. | 01:39:48 | |
We would, we would have to be involved in a different level with them on that. | 01:39:54 | |
So that's what we've got so far. | 01:39:58 | |
Quest. | 01:40:03 | |
A tobacco system for any rentals. | 01:40:06 | |
Yeah, I don't know yet. For all rental, for everything except for probably a public event. | 01:40:10 | |
Yeah, I think public events, that's where we'll have to talk about it now. We talked for fall festival. We're not going to have | 01:40:15 | |
them over for fall festival. They don't want to be responsible for the bathrooms. They can't do them or bring in porta potties for | 01:40:19 | |
that. | 01:40:22 | |
And so I think, you know, we will try it. I mean again we're going to, this is our first rodeo, so we'll give it a shot, we'll | 01:40:26 | |
monitor it back. Right now the bathrooms, the officers have keys to the bathrooms and they're in around 7:00 or 8:00 they're | 01:40:33 | |
opening them and around that time at night they're closing them just because. | 01:40:39 | |
We have had issues not at Rocket Field, but in other parks we've had issues with, you know, people. | 01:40:46 | |
Destroying things. And we just don't want to, you know, have anybody you know, nothing happened, nothing could ever happen after | 01:40:53 | |
it gets dark. So we're just not going to encourage that, so. | 01:40:57 | |
So with the the baseball that the yard is scheduling, is there going to be something where, and maybe I'm getting to the weeds or | 01:41:02 | |
being too paranoid here where after you know? | 01:41:08 | |
Two teams have played. Someone's going to check the bathrooms as that. Is the yard going to do that? And then if they've trashed | 01:41:15 | |
it, they're responsible because there's no deposit for any of that. Like, I guess I'm just. | 01:41:20 | |
Like fix anything but they can alert us hey, there's a problem. | 01:42:00 | |
You know, you only take care of that first thing in the morning. Our guys will be back out. We'll try to address it. So it'll be | 01:42:02 | |
it's going to be a lot of you know just gonna be team sport trying to make sure if we're keeping track of what's going on and and | 01:42:07 | |
and working through it the first first few months or so. | 01:42:12 | |
Any other questions? | 01:42:19 | |
Lawrence. | 01:42:22 | |
No. | 01:42:25 | |
That's right. | 01:42:27 | |
Yeah, again. | 01:42:32 | |
Once we saw what happened when some cars drove on the field previously and the amount of damage it did and the time it took to fix | 01:42:35 | |
it. | 01:42:38 | |
We realized for the investment we're making, we're not going to allow cars on the field, so we've worked with the chamber. | 01:42:42 | |
They're working through the new processes to allow that we're adding gates on different sides of the field to make it easier for | 01:42:48 | |
people to get in and out carrying their stuff. Brock I think we're working with Rotary and others to make sure we got volunteers | 01:42:52 | |
to help people get set up. | 01:42:57 | |
And and then we're adding parking around the field and striping the area closest to Ho CAF. So we're adding parking on the West | 01:43:02 | |
side of the field. I think our total new net new parking is somewhere. | 01:43:08 | |
Around 16 spaces and then once we stripe the area around OCAF, that's all going to get much more efficient. So we anticipate for | 01:43:13 | |
special events in other places where OCAF used to use it, they'll have additional parking and then with the school board | 01:43:17 | |
relocating. | 01:43:22 | |
Next year we anticipate further spaces being available up there. So it's going to have to be a little bit of learning. But what we | 01:43:26 | |
realize is we allow cars on that field, it's going to totally ruin the quality of the field and the experience out there and we | 01:43:30 | |
just. | 01:43:35 | |
We, you know, too much has been invested to allow that to happen. | 01:43:39 | |
To benefit of something for two or three days a year and there's lots of other festivals around Georgia where you can't drive | 01:43:43 | |
right up to where your booth is, so. | 01:43:46 | |
All right. | 01:43:52 | |
We have a motion to approve the fee schedule. | 01:43:54 | |
Make a motion to approve the fee schedule. | 01:43:58 | |
All right. Do we have a second? Second, all in favor, say aye. | 01:44:01 | |
Any opposed motion carries. We will move on to public comments. | 01:44:06 | |
Just reminders. Comments should be related to the agenda items. Not really. There's no agenda in public comments. You can say | 01:44:13 | |
whatever you want. | 01:44:17 | |
But when you do it, be respectful. Refrain from debate, argument, personal attacks or irrelevant discussion. | 01:44:22 | |
And if anybody wants to come forward and make a comment, now is the time. 4 minutes. State your name and your address and. | 01:44:28 | |
Let's hear from. | 01:44:34 | |
Oh, Kathleen, no comment tonight. | 01:44:38 | |
Or scouts. No y'all ready to get out of here. OK, All right. | 01:44:44 | |
All right, we'll move on to the mayor's report. Sharon, if you could tee that up, a couple updates. Number one, want to give a | 01:44:50 | |
huge thank you to our. | 01:44:54 | |
Street Department public works guys, it feels like every night, thankfully not tonight. We are having thunderstorms and we have | 01:44:59 | |
had a lot of damage from those storms and our guys are working tirelessly. | 01:45:05 | |
To take care of that. Very grateful for them and coordinating with the county and Georgia Power and others to do that. You can see | 01:45:11 | |
the huge tree that was across Thrasher Drive. We've had issues on Katie Lane, we've had issues on 2nd St. we've had issues on | 01:45:16 | |
Marshall Drive. | 01:45:21 | |
There are a lot of trees coming down and our guys are out there taking care of it and we're grateful to them for that and for | 01:45:27 | |
those late hours into the Police Department for coordinating with that. | 01:45:31 | |
Sidewalks are almost done on new High Shoals Rd. There's some fair bit of finishing work they're going to come back and do. But | 01:45:38 | |
those guys are fast and despite the thunderstorms have made good progress, I didn't go by today. Did they make it to the other? | 01:45:44 | |
Our pavilion is looking really nice at Rocket Field. | 01:46:23 | |
Credit to everybody who's working on that. We're anticipating a real a formal opening in October. Fields already getting some use | 01:46:27 | |
from certain groups and the Pavilion looks great. I think. I haven't been buying a day or two, Brock, but I think we've got steps | 01:46:33 | |
on the front now. We've got a roof on that. | 01:46:38 | |
And as we mentioned earlier, we've still got to. | 01:46:45 | |
How and if the dog park is going to integrate there and how that's going to all fit together, but that's really coming along nice | 01:46:48 | |
and it's going to be a really great community resource. So again, thank you to our partners on that. G dot cleaned up a drainage | 01:46:54 | |
issue at Hardin Hill. We're always appreciative of them. I always remind people Main Street is not all Rd. so as much. | 01:47:01 | |
People might be frustrated with Main Street, its condition, the stormwater, the other things. Scouts. There's different groups who | 01:47:08 | |
own roads and control roads. There's city streets, there's county streets, there's state owned streets and there's federal owned | 01:47:13 | |
streets. And Main St. in Watkinsville is controlled by the state of Georgia. So we have issues there. We try to get them to take | 01:47:18 | |
care of it rather than spending city tax dollars on it. | 01:47:23 | |
Accounting Library construction update. It is flying marker. Y'all still looking at January. Yep, so January. Hopefully the | 01:47:30 | |
library will move over to Wire Park. A lot of work going on on the outside and the inside. It looks like it's coming along well. | 01:47:38 | |
As well. | 01:47:46 | |
There's a little preview of what's happening there that's going to be an awesome facility. | 01:47:47 | |
Thomas Farm Park, pleased to announce we are going to put together a citizens committee to work with us on that. Again, we would | 01:47:53 | |
really hope to really get moving on that January 1st. Our deadline to close is by the end of the year, so we're putting all the | 01:47:59 | |
pieces in place to work on that. We've completed due diligence, so our contract is in good shape with the owner. | 01:48:06 | |
So I am going to put together a citizens committee to work on that. The names will pop up in a second that who's going to support | 01:48:13 | |
us on that but shared if you could pop back. | 01:48:18 | |
Our goals are really to help us prioritize the amenities and features, right? I mean, we've already thought about that as a | 01:48:23 | |
council finalize our site plan. | 01:48:28 | |
Determine what the rough schedule for those improvements looks like. Discuss whether we want to call it Thomas Farm Park or | 01:48:34 | |
whether we want to call it something else. | 01:48:37 | |
And then? | 01:48:42 | |
And then begin moving forward. So that's what we're going to ask these citizens to help us with. Obviously they're also going to | 01:48:43 | |
be help us extend deeper out into the public and get. | 01:48:47 | |
What the public thinks about this, but ultimately the role, the decision making authority for all this relies right here with you | 01:48:51 | |
guys. OK, so they may make recommendations, but I am going to be clear with them in the charge. You know, ultimately it's the city | 01:48:58 | |
council's decision about what goes there, but we do want to this group to help us gather input and come up with ideas. | 01:49:04 | |
Around that and then obviously our staff will help us with implementation and making sure that reminding sometimes when you get | 01:49:11 | |
people together haven't dealt with budgets, sometimes ideas get big and they don't understand the constraints of the dollars and | 01:49:15 | |
the resources we have and then obviously. | 01:49:19 | |
Attorney and engineer will need to be involved and make sure we don't make any missteps. | 01:49:24 | |
This is what we're looking at in terms of timing for that. I really anticipate six or seven different meetings including a | 01:49:30 | |
property tour for that group in late September. | 01:49:34 | |
In October, I anticipate some public input meetings with an update coming back to us in October refining the concept design, | 01:49:39 | |
finalizing that. | 01:49:44 | |
In, in December along with the schedule. So that's what I anticipate happening. This is the members of the committee so far. We | 01:49:49 | |
may add a few others. | 01:49:54 | |
Christine and Jeff, thank you for agreeing to serve on that. | 01:50:00 | |
And you'll see some other names here, some that you may may recognize, some that you don't. But it's a mix of neighbors and people | 01:50:04 | |
with diverse experience. Some who live in the county, Most live in Watkinsville. | 01:50:10 | |
But all kind of have experience that's relevant to what we're trying to do at the park. | 01:50:16 | |
There we go. | 01:50:25 | |
Yeah. So happy belated birthday, Christine. OK, yeah. | 01:50:30 | |
Chuck Garrett Happy birthday, yeah. | 01:50:38 | |
Any other surprises, Sharon? Or we're done. OK, good. I never know what's going to come up last on the mayor's report. | 01:50:43 | |
With that, council reports will go to Chuck yet for post one. | 01:50:50 | |
I think we've already touched on the sidewalk stuff and just a lot of great comments and people are very excited. | 01:50:54 | |
To see that happen, and one everybody grumbled about getting mud on their feet, the DLT is. | 01:51:02 | |
Stepped in and took care of that. And no mud is with the rain we've had. No mud is on the sidewalk, so. | 01:51:09 | |
That's a good. That's their Harden Hill. Yes. Yeah, that's that's good. OK. | 01:51:15 | |
All right, Connie, post 2. Nothing to report, OK. | 01:51:20 | |
Brett, anything from post 3? | 01:51:24 | |
I am just excited to be coming home. | 01:51:28 | |
Anticipate being there for next month council meeting. So super excited about coming home and rejoining council behind the behind | 01:51:31 | |
the rail. | 01:51:37 | |
All right. Well, we're we're super excited about having you back with us. | 01:51:43 | |
All right, Post for Councilwoman Tucker, Yes, just a quick update. I met with one of the artists that we have commissioned to do | 01:51:47 | |
the art. | 01:51:52 | |
Behind. | 01:51:58 | |
City Hall essentially. And so we are thinking through placement of the three different pieces of art. So that is ongoing and it | 01:51:59 | |
may be next spring before we actually see it. These are very large pieces that they are working on, but that'll be exciting when | 01:52:06 | |
they are installed. | 01:52:13 | |
Awesome. | 01:52:20 | |
Councilman. | 01:52:21 | |
Nothing to report. I did mine earlier. All right. Thank you for that update earlier. We do have a brief executive session, so we | 01:52:24 | |
will. | 01:52:28 | |
Ask all of y'all to head on out of here. If you want to hang around, you're welcome to and we will go back into open session to | 01:52:33 | |
adjourn unless we take any action otherwise. Good night. A motion to move to executive session. So I will take a motion to move to | 01:52:37 | |
executive session. | 01:52:42 | |
All in favor. All in favor. | 01:52:50 | |
30. | 01:52:57 | |
I make a motion to adjourn. | 01:52:59 | |
2nd. | 01:53:02 | |
Aye. | 01:53:04 |
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Manager we ready? | 00:00:03 | |
All right. | 00:00:05 | |
Welcome everybody to the August meeting of the Watkinsville City Council. It's great to see a full house. | 00:00:10 | |
It always means a lot when citizens. | 00:00:19 | |
Choose to come and participate and. | 00:00:21 | |
Be a part of the civic process and all that that means for our community, especially on a night like tonight. | 00:00:24 | |
We do have a quorum and so, as we always do, I will lead off with the pledge and judge England if you will lead us please. | 00:00:30 | |
Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, | 00:00:43 | |
indivisible, with liberty. | 00:00:51 | |
You always know when. | 00:01:08 | |
Is it a meeting? | 00:01:10 | |
As I said earlier to welcome everyone for being here tonight, we have a couple pieces of business to take care of out of the gate. | 00:01:13 | |
I will remind you of our. | 00:01:17 | |
A couple things about Watkinsville City Council meetings. These meetings are being simulcast and broadcast online and available to | 00:01:21 | |
the public via a system called Suite 1. | 00:01:25 | |
Those who aren't able to attend the meeting can always watch on our public portal and see the meeting information, which is also | 00:01:29 | |
posted right alongside that. That information is on the website. | 00:01:35 | |
From those times. | 00:01:42 | |
The agenda and the meeting information is posted on Fridays. You're welcome to review that then before our meetings. We also have | 00:01:45 | |
a relatively informal public comment process here. | 00:01:49 | |
Regular meeting minutes. Do I have a motion to approve those minutes? | 00:02:26 | |
I make a motion to approve. You have a second. Second, we have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion. | 00:02:31 | |
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. | 00:02:37 | |
Ah. | 00:02:40 | |
Motion carries, I failed to mention. | 00:02:42 | |
Generally I do. When he joins us, we have, we have a Councilman. | 00:02:45 | |
And Kuwait Councilman Thomas, we're always grateful that you're able to join us at 2:00 AM local time. | 00:02:49 | |
From Kuwait and we want to thank you for your service as well, Sir. | 00:02:55 | |
Hey, thank you very much. I'm glad to be here. | 00:03:01 | |
Thank you. So when you guys hear a voice speaking through the phone, that is Councilman Thomas. | 00:03:04 | |
We Next up we have the approval of the July 26th, 2023 special called Meeting Minutes to have a motion to approve those minutes. | 00:03:11 | |
Make a motion to approve those minutes. All right. Do I have? | 00:03:20 | |
OK. | 00:03:26 | |
All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion hearing? None. All in favor. Say aye. Aye. | 00:03:27 | |
All right, motion carries. We'll move on to the approval of the agenda. We do have a couple items on there that I need to address. | 00:03:34 | |
I would request that the title Anthem be removed from. | 00:03:40 | |
Item 18 And that the renewal recommendation is partly for Anthem, but also for another insurance provider. | 00:03:47 | |
And then under consent agenda we'll need to remove item 13. | 00:03:53 | |
And move that to old business. So I will add that there is quite a bit on the consent agenda. So if anyone has anything else they | 00:03:58 | |
want to remove from consent, now is the time to do that. If not, we'll address all that together and approve those items, but. | 00:04:05 | |
So either speak up, if not, I'll entertain a motion to make the change I requested regarding Anthem and to pull item number 13 and | 00:04:12 | |
move that to Old business. | 00:04:16 | |
I make a motion to approve the agenda. With those two changes, Do I have a second second? | 00:04:20 | |
We have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. | 00:04:27 | |
All right, motion carries. | 00:04:32 | |
All right, we will move on to administration again. As I said earlier, public input may or may not occur here. Comments should be | 00:04:34 | |
made directly relating to agenda items, speak only from the podium, Refrain from debate, argument, personal attacks or irrelevant | 00:04:39 | |
discussion. Should you take that opportunity to address? | 00:04:45 | |
The Council. | 00:04:51 | |
First up, tonight we have. | 00:04:53 | |
We were bittersweet moments, probably the best way to describe it. We're going to have recognized our police chief, Shannon Brock, | 00:04:58 | |
with several. | 00:05:02 | |
Moments. So this. | 00:05:08 | |
And Chief, no amount of time that we spend on this is going to justify. | 00:05:11 | |
The sacrifices and the service that you've made to Watkinsville, but we're going to start with a little video. | 00:05:15 | |
After that, we've got a few proclamations and some people who want to make some remarks. | 00:05:19 | |
He's a phone call to his parents. He's a. | 00:07:27 | |
He's a teacher that I'm wearing. He's the song stuck in my head. He saw it and he silly like me. I'm getting yours. He knows he's | 00:07:33 | |
where he's going. It is good where he's wrong. | 00:07:40 | |
He's one of the good ones. | 00:07:53 | |
You'll know him when you see him. | 00:08:31 | |
You say he hung alone. I say he hung a Galaxy. | 00:08:37 | |
Nobody does it better. | 00:08:43 | |
I've known her to go. There was a day for me to win. What's the good world? | 00:08:46 | |
Communication. | 00:08:58 | |
The. | 00:10:07 | |
Anybody can be. | 00:10:11 | |
He's good all the time. He's one of them. | 00:10:15 | |
He's a man. | 00:10:23 | |
He's a man. | 00:10:33 | |
Chief. | 00:11:14 | |
It's going to be a minute if you don't want to stand up yet, so we got a little bit to do here so. | 00:11:18 | |
I'm going to take a moment of mayoral privilege. I've got a proclamation, but the last thing anybody wants to do is hear somebody | 00:11:24 | |
read a proclamation. So I'm going to speak from my heart. | 00:11:27 | |
For those of you who don't know, I think most of you are here for this. But for those of you who don't, we're losing our chief. | 00:11:34 | |
Our Chiefs Ret. | 00:11:39 | |
But we're losing a piece of our heart. | 00:11:41 | |
In Watkinsville. | 00:11:43 | |
I don't know that in such a short time I've ever seen somebody make as big a difference in this town. | 00:11:46 | |
How many years has it been? | 00:11:53 | |
Four years. | 00:11:55 | |
In four years, our police departments transform. | 00:11:58 | |
You've transformed our community. Your family has leaned. | 00:12:01 | |
You've made an amazing difference. | 00:12:05 | |
And when I think about you, I think about 5 things. | 00:12:08 | |
Those five things are. | 00:12:11 | |
Conviction. | 00:12:14 | |
Creat. | 00:12:16 | |
And. | 00:12:17 | |
Everybody who saw that video and everybody knows you knows how big community. | 00:12:19 | |
I love that in a lot of those pictures you weren't even in it because it's your officers who took that lesson too. | 00:12:23 | |
You've made a difference in our community. | 00:12:30 | |
But even bigger. | 00:12:33 | |
We had. | 00:12:35 | |
We have Black Lives Matter, We have challenging moments challenging this community and you had the courage to take it on. | 00:12:36 | |
You didn't put your head down. | 00:12:43 | |
You pop your head up even though and everybody's playing in the whole country. | 00:12:45 | |
And you stood up and you took it on. | 00:12:50 | |
And you showed courage there and countless other. | 00:12:53 | |
Again, you've made a difference. | 00:12:56 | |
You showed character. | 00:12:59 | |
What's character characters, what you do when nobody's looking? | 00:13:00 | |
And you showed character the entire time. You showed conviction in your beliefs. There were times when we disagreed. There were | 00:13:05 | |
times when you and Sharon disagreed. You didn't back down. You stood up for your men. You stood up for what was right. You showed | 00:13:09 | |
conviction. | 00:13:13 | |
And you showed creativity. | 00:13:19 | |
Those those pictures. Everything that you did. Cops and bobbers. | 00:13:21 | |
The different moments. | 00:13:26 | |
The mass, the photos, the. | 00:13:28 | |
You made policing fun in a time when policing was hard. | 00:13:30 | |
All over the country. | 00:13:33 | |
You did? | 00:13:36 | |
And you did more. | 00:13:37 | |
So. | 00:13:39 | |
Wasn't our chief tonight. I feel like we're losing part of our heart. | 00:13:40 | |
You know that this community. | 00:13:44 | |
You meant the world to me. You met the world of the city and and we're incredibly grateful. | 00:13:47 | |
Again, I've got a proclamation for you. We'll take a photo in a little while with this proclamation. It says a lot of stuff that | 00:13:52 | |
we've shared publicly before, but I want to share a little bit with you and Selena and the family from my heart about what you've. | 00:13:57 | |
To me, into the city means a tremendous amount. So thank you, Chief. Thank you for that. I'm going to let this sit here. We've got | 00:14:03 | |
Hunter Spear. | 00:14:07 | |
Governor Kemp. | 00:14:12 | |
And Hunter's going to step forward and read a proclamation from the governor. | 00:14:13 | |
For. | 00:14:17 | |
Um. | 00:14:20 | |
He's aware of your situation and it means a lot that he's here. Then we're going to have another presentation from. | 00:14:21 | |
Georgia Military College then. | 00:14:27 | |
Todd's Todd's going to do some stuff and then we'll get a picture at the end. So Hunter, if you want to come forward. | 00:14:29 | |
Share the proclamation from the governor's office. That'd be great. | 00:14:34 | |
Like Mayor said, my name is Hunter Spear from the governor's office, field representative for the area and. | 00:14:42 | |
Can't thank chief enough for what he's done for the community. | 00:14:47 | |
Proclamation by the Governor of the State of Georgia Accommodation. | 00:14:51 | |
Whereas Chief Shannon Brock has faithfully served the people and city of Watkinsville as Chief of Police since 2019. | 00:14:55 | |
And whereas as Chief has defined servant leadership as he committed himself and his department to bettering the Watkinsville | 00:15:02 | |
community as a whole. | 00:15:06 | |
His career in law enforcement has demonstrated A dedication to public safety and to the state of Georgia. | 00:15:10 | |
And whereas under his leadership, the Watkinsville Police Department has seen improvements and ongoing developments that have made | 00:15:16 | |
it the efficient and effective force it is today. | 00:15:20 | |
Chief Rock was instrumental in implementation of up-to-date procedures and equipment along with the folks. | 00:15:26 | |
Hiring quality officers across the force. | 00:15:32 | |
And whereas as he steps back to focus on his personal health, he is remembered by his city and his state as a chief who not only | 00:15:35 | |
protected his fellow citizens but became a friend of his community. | 00:15:40 | |
And whereas it is an honor to commend Chief Brock for his monumental career and to wish him well as he navigates the future. | 00:15:46 | |
Now, therefore, I Brian P Kemp, Governor of the State of. | 00:15:54 | |
Do hereby commend Chief Shannon Brock in witness thereof. I have here and to set my hand and cause the seal of the Executive | 00:15:57 | |
Department to be affixed this 14th day of August. | 00:16:02 | |
In the Year of Our Lord 2023 signed Brian Pecan. | 00:16:07 | |
Thanks. | 00:16:12 | |
I think we have someone here from Georgia Military College, Is that correct? | 00:16:22 | |
Also. | 00:16:33 | |
I'm Gene McKinney. Must see you. Probably in this room. Don't know me. I'm from Georgia Military College. Formerly from Georgia. | 00:16:39 | |
Piedmont Law Enforcement Academy. | 00:16:43 | |
Where I was the Academy director and that's where I got the pleasure to meet Chief Brock and I have to tell you as being an | 00:16:47 | |
Academy director for several years. | 00:16:51 | |
I have got the opportunity to meet lots of agency heads, lots of command staff, lots of chiefs, lots of sheriff's. | 00:16:57 | |
And I have never met. | 00:17:04 | |
An agency had. | 00:17:07 | |
That is as universally loved and cherished as Chief Bro. | 00:17:08 | |
He clearly knows what it means to be a servant. | 00:17:14 | |
I have constantly seen him and the interest he has taken in his people. | 00:17:18 | |
And his family. And that's ultimately what you all are to him as his. | 00:17:23 | |
So I'm very, very proud to have met you and to have been a small part of your life and for you to be a small part of my life. | 00:17:28 | |
So greatly appreciate you for that. | 00:17:35 | |
So to show you my appreciation, I've had the pleasure to talk a lot about you to. | 00:17:39 | |
Where I'm at, the people where I'm at now, and so I do have. | 00:17:45 | |
Person personally signed a letter. | 00:17:49 | |
Lieutenant General William Caldwell who is a three star general at our institution and a challenge coin that. | 00:17:52 | |
Has the inscription of return with. | 00:18:00 | |
And so we appreciate you and everything you do, and thank you for being a shining light in this profession, Sir. | 00:18:03 | |
Make sure. | 00:18:22 | |
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Todd Tether. | 00:18:34 | |
Formally and currently the deputy chief of the City of Watkinsville, serving as the interim chief. | 00:18:37 | |
Saying goodbye. | 00:18:43 | |
My best friend. | 00:18:47 | |
I've known the chief for about 25 years. | 00:18:52 | |
We served together in law enforcement in South Georgia. | 00:18:55 | |
When he worked in a department and I worked in a neighboring department, we have gone on SWAT calls together. | 00:18:59 | |
We have made a rest together, We have done training together. | 00:19:04 | |
With the acad. | 00:19:07 | |
And as well as our depart. | 00:19:08 | |
When I later left local law enforcement to serve as AUS Deputy Marshall. | 00:19:11 | |
I continued the relationship I had with. | 00:19:16 | |
And was honored to be selected to come up here to be his deputy. | 00:19:19 | |
Little did I know that he would be leaving. | 00:19:22 | |
So. | 00:19:26 | |
You need to. | 00:19:36 | |
Let's. | 00:19:47 | |
Hey. | 00:19:57 | |
I want to thank everybody for being here. | 00:20:01 | |
It's a tree humbling. | 00:20:04 | |
To see everybody. | 00:20:08 | |
I'm so grateful that. | 00:20:10 | |
We're all able to come and. | 00:20:12 | |
Uh. | 00:20:15 | |
Four years ago I provided an opportunity to come to Walkinsville and. | 00:20:17 | |
Services. | 00:20:22 | |
I know that. | 00:20:24 | |
So much of A blessing. | 00:20:28 | |
I was brought here by. | 00:20:31 | |
I was meant to be. | 00:20:35 | |
Because. | 00:20:37 | |
City. | 00:20:39 | |
Need a Police Department that they can trust that they could rely on that. | 00:20:41 | |
Come to. | 00:20:48 | |
It was damaged when. | 00:20:51 | |
You know they'll put that together. | 00:20:54 | |
But not without. | 00:20:57 | |
I didn't do this all myself. | 00:20:58 | |
The team over there. | 00:21:03 | |
Came over. | 00:21:06 | |
That's what got it. | 00:21:08 | |
I appreciate the relationship we've had. | 00:21:14 | |
Between this agency. | 00:21:16 | |
Previous organization did not have a good relationship and I'm glad we were able to repair that. | 00:21:19 | |
Maintain religious area today and. | 00:21:24 | |
I'm grateful. | 00:21:29 | |
That we were able to do that because we're all the same, but we're all doing. | 00:21:30 | |
And I'll say. | 00:21:38 | |
The law enforcement agency in the state or in this country? | 00:21:42 | |
Not engaging the. | 00:21:46 | |
Face to face with members of the Citiz. | 00:21:48 | |
Because that's where it is. That's where it is. We need to get back in our communities. | 00:21:55 | |
We need. | 00:22:00 | |
Officers are being. | 00:22:03 | |
Reliable resources that they can be. | 00:22:06 | |
Entrusted. | 00:22:10 | |
Agencies need to be transparent in everything they do. | 00:22:12 | |
I. | 00:22:20 | |
All my. | 00:22:23 | |
Also. | 00:22:24 | |
To continue doing what we have established already. | 00:22:27 | |
Put down the. | 00:22:31 | |
People. | 00:22:33 | |
Lay in the. | 00:22:36 | |
Keeping the kids. Keep keep keeping the backpack back to the kids at the at the car line. | 00:22:38 | |
Do all things we did we eat lunch with. | 00:22:44 | |
Policy. | 00:22:48 | |
Hey, I'm not going anywhere so don't want to come pick me up and take me. | 00:22:49 | |
So. | 00:22:56 | |
Mayor Council. | 00:22:58 | |
Thank you for the opportunity. | 00:23:06 | |
Thank you for the opportunity to have been here. | 00:23:10 | |
To. | 00:23:14 | |
Become a member of. | 00:23:21 | |
Because that's what we. | 00:23:24 | |
Thank you. | 00:23:28 | |
I. | 00:23:37 | |
1100. | 00:23:56 | |
1100. | 00:23:59 | |
Have a good night. | 00:24:02 | |
1100 would be 10/7 10:42. Thank you for your 22 years of dedicated and professional law enforcement service to the citizens of the | 00:24:09 | |
State of Georgia and the Walkinsville community. | 00:24:13 | |
As their police chief, we wish you a safe and happy retirement. According to our units, 1100 would be 10/7 10:42 for the last | 00:24:18 | |
time. | 00:24:22 | |
I'll hear for that. | 00:24:33 | |
OK. | 00:24:59 | |
If you and your family would just come up here and we'll get a couple pictures. | 00:25:04 | |
Would like to add. | 00:25:09 | |
I didn't plan this retirement this early, so. | 00:25:12 | |
Councillor. | 00:25:15 | |
Four more. | 00:25:18 | |
All right. I wonder if you could come up in the box family, Todd, you as well. I think that would be appropriate for quite a few. | 00:25:20 | |
Keeping up in the middle. | 00:25:32 | |
Right. | 00:25:51 | |
All right, let's have another round. | 00:26:01 | |
I. | 00:26:28 | |
Thank you. | 00:26:35 | |
Council, come on up, Julie, come on up to. | 00:26:53 | |
And an officer. | 00:27:20 | |
While everybody's coming up here, I just want to say thank you for your service and I am proud and grateful that I have had the | 00:27:27 | |
opportunity to help you. | 00:27:31 | |
I'll get in there. I'm sure it was, but. | 00:27:38 | |
Act like you like them. | 00:27:42 | |
Thank you. | 00:28:14 | |
Council members, do any of you, Connie, thank you for speaking up and reminding me that council members, you have anything you | 00:28:21 | |
want to? | 00:28:24 | |
Share about the chief and then? | 00:28:27 | |
Then we'll what those who are here. | 00:28:30 | |
Chief Department council members feel free to share a few reminisces and then we will. | 00:28:32 | |
Move on. OK, so. | 00:28:38 | |
When we were doing the search for a new chief, I was very skeptical that we would be able to find anyone to run a small town | 00:28:42 | |
Police Department. Well, with limited budget, limited resources. | 00:28:50 | |
And you blew all of my expectations out of the water. | 00:28:58 | |
You have truly done all the things that you said you would, and then some thank you for making. | 00:29:12 | |
Our community such a priority and showing what law enforcement can be in a community. | 00:29:21 | |
I also really appreciate all the deals you always got. | 00:29:28 | |
My Scotch Irish heart sings true to that. | 00:29:33 | |
So you always had a creative solution and we're networking and I don't know how you have the time to lead. | 00:29:38 | |
This great group of people find new people, train them. | 00:29:47 | |
And just build a department that the city can be incredibly proud of. | 00:29:53 | |
So thank you so much and thank you for bringing your family to this community as well. They are a jewel as well. So thank you. You | 00:30:00 | |
will be very missed. | 00:30:05 | |
Yeah, Chief Buck, I think there's people coming to your life, something you get to know really well. Some you just meet in a | 00:30:19 | |
conversation, but it sticks with you. | 00:30:24 | |
I don't know you real well. | 00:30:29 | |
I've been up here for just over 2 and 2 1/2 years. | 00:30:32 | |
It's amazing how you make such a big impact. Even things you don't do when you see the all the pictures up there, you're always | 00:30:36 | |
smiling. | 00:30:40 | |
You know, you're always enjoying life and that's the example that we all need to have. It's just enjoy life, be a positive person. | 00:30:45 | |
And I take that whenever I saw you're always smiling. | 00:30:51 | |
And I mean the work you did, You know, every. | 00:30:57 | |
Praised your work and it was first class and it's what Watkins both needed. So I just appreciate everything you've done, but I | 00:31:01 | |
appreciate. | 00:31:05 | |
The obvious love for life. You. | 00:31:10 | |
She violence, types of echo, whatever one is saying, but you know, we've known each other for a short time and just your | 00:31:18 | |
creativity and the things that you brought to the table has been amazing. | 00:31:23 | |
For our community and you leaving a legacy here. | 00:31:28 | |
Last it'd be here lif. | 00:31:33 | |
Thank you. | 00:31:35 | |
Councilman Thomas, if you have anything you want to share. | 00:31:39 | |
Yeah. Hey Chief, I greatly appreciate your, your, your servant leadership, man, you you have done a fantastic job. | 00:31:44 | |
Leading this community and. | 00:31:52 | |
You know you will be missed and I look forward to seeing you in and around the city and you've got my number. If there's anything | 00:31:56 | |
I can do, please do not hesitate to reach out. That goes to your family as well. | 00:32:01 | |
I look forward to seeing you again, brother. | 00:32:08 | |
Councilman Massey, anything else you wanted to? | 00:32:13 | |
Woman, a few words. | 00:32:16 | |
All right. | 00:32:19 | |
Chief on behalf of this entire community, on behalf of the City of Watkinsville. | 00:32:19 | |
There's not much other to say. | 00:32:27 | |
Than a huge thank. | 00:32:29 | |
It's not goodbye because you're still around. | 00:32:31 | |
And you're still going to be a part of this community. And just because you're not the chief doesn't mean you can't continue to | 00:32:34 | |
inspire and serve and do all the amazing things that you have. | 00:32:38 | |
And that's what we expect to see from you in the years ahead. | 00:32:42 | |
OK, so we're we're grateful to you. We're thankful. | 00:32:46 | |
Selena to you and the family. | 00:32:50 | |
Wow, you all made such a difference for us too, so we're grateful. But thank you from Watkinsville. Thank you from Oconee County. | 00:32:53 | |
Thank you from everybody. Everybody here. Congratulations and good night. Yep. | 00:33:03 | |
Yep. | 00:33:08 | |
Thank you. | 00:33:51 | |
Yeah. | 00:34:05 | |
I. | 00:34:15 | |
High school. | 00:34:22 | |
Can we get a picture quick? Whatever you need to do. | 00:34:25 | |
Hey you, you may want to do a contribution to the city. This yard is on the Union. | 00:34:42 | |
We got a legend here. | 00:34:52 | |
He remembered when the dead seemed still. | 00:34:55 | |
Where is. | 00:35:07 | |
Yeah. | 00:35:11 | |
Two of us. | 00:35:46 | |
That was very good man. Thank you. Thank you. That was very good. | 00:36:20 | |
Thank God and you know, get so busy and when you stop watching and see. | 00:36:26 | |
School. | 00:36:32 | |
There we go. | 00:36:41 | |
Thanks for coming. | 00:37:01 | |
Here. | 00:37:24 | |
You're going to get that for Venice and chair to get it sheriff's. Do you want to get in with them? | 00:37:27 | |
Me too. | 00:37:48 | |
I. | 00:37:56 | |
And I get one really quick. | 00:38:05 | |
Yeah, they all get gone. | 00:38:30 | |
Remember the best high school class county ever. So you know he's got that going. | 00:38:44 | |
Yeah. | 00:38:49 | |
They didn't get that Italian. | 00:38:51 | |
We're going to reconvene. | 00:39:33 | |
It's kind of hard to keep going after something like that, Y'all, but we're going to do it. We got got a fairly full agenda that | 00:39:38 | |
we're going to keep working through. | 00:39:41 | |
And next on our agenda as we have Constitution Week coming up. | 00:39:45 | |
I don't know that with all the conversations we're having in America, if there could be a more important week. | 00:39:51 | |
That's coming up, and I'm Assembly Givens has been a leader with the junior American citizens and the DAR for a long time. So, | 00:39:57 | |
Emily, we're grateful that you're here. If you'll come forward to the Dias with your guests. | 00:40:05 | |
I will read a proclamation and give you guys a couple minutes to talk about Constitution Week if you want to. | 00:40:14 | |
Whereas the Constitution of the United States of America, the guardian of our liberties, embodies the principles of limited | 00:40:35 | |
government in a Republic dedicated to rule by law. | 00:40:39 | |
And whereas September 17th, 2023 marks the 236th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America by | 00:40:44 | |
the Constitutional Convention. | 00:40:48 | |
And whereas it is fitting and proper to afford official recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary. | 00:40:53 | |
And to the patriotic celebrations which will commemorate it. | 00:41:00 | |
It witnessed thereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of Watkinsville, Georgia, to be affixed the 16th day of | 00:41:35 | |
August, the year of our Lord 2023. | 00:41:40 | |
So thank you. | 00:41:45 | |
And if you want to share a little bit about what y'all are going to do, I think you have a few things planned and that would be | 00:41:50 | |
great. Thank you so much. | 00:41:54 | |
Thank you. | 00:41:57 | |
Thank you so much. | 00:42:01 | |
As the mayor said, I'm Emily Givens. I'm the chair of the Watkins Field Junior American Citizens. We are Youth service club that | 00:42:03 | |
is sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution and we've been very active in Watkinsville for over 11 years. With me is | 00:42:09 | |
my daughter, Grace Holland Givens, and she is. | 00:42:14 | |
Just stepped down as president and we have another JC member that has take this going to be the president for the coming year. | 00:42:21 | |
Thank you so much again Mayor for. | 00:42:26 | |
Telling everyone about Constitution Week. Constitution Week is so important. In fact, it was the dollars the American Revolution | 00:42:32 | |
about 75 years ago. The petition Congress to. | 00:42:37 | |
To pass this so that it it. | 00:42:43 | |
The law of the land, so to speak, that we take time to remember our Constitution. It is vitally important. Could I? Would. I | 00:42:48 | |
would. | 00:42:52 | |
I would say no more important than it is at any other time in history for us to come together under this as Americans. And the | 00:42:57 | |
wonderful thing about the Constitution is it covers all of us and that's what I think we can all get behind. And that said, I just | 00:43:03 | |
want to give you a little sneak peek of what we're going to do. I. | 00:43:09 | |
On September 1st, the junior American citizens will be decorating a library cube in the Watkinsville library to kind of help | 00:43:16 | |
educate our younger Watkins villains about the Constitution. And the city is graciously will put up the Constitution banners. | 00:43:24 | |
Around this second week in September. We appreciate that so much and they'll put out flags for us. | 00:43:34 | |
When we get closer to the big day, which is September 17th, and it's a 236th anniversary of the signing of the document, excuse | 00:43:42 | |
me, of the Constitution. | 00:43:47 | |
In 1787. And when that happened, and those brave men got together, and they. | 00:43:53 | |
Put There's John Hancock. Hold it. Bales peeled out over the countryside. And that's exactly what's going to happen on September | 00:43:59 | |
17th in Watkinsville. Church bells we ring in. We will have a constitution program at Ashford Memorial Methodist Church starting | 00:44:06 | |
at 3:30 with patriotic music. We'll have a community bell ringing at 4:00. And then the junior American citizens, along with the | 00:44:13 | |
children of the American Revolution, will present a history program. And then? | 00:44:20 | |
Nothing could be a better finale. | 00:44:27 | |
Than. | 00:44:33 | |
Don Phillips, Civil War Cannon being shot off behind the courthouse and we are so appreciative of John Daniel for letting us do | 00:44:34 | |
that two times in a row. So thank you so much. I hope everybody comes to Constitution Day. We really appreciate it and thanks for | 00:44:40 | |
all, all all your help. Thank you. | 00:44:45 | |
We'll get a photo. And I do want to Emily, you have been an inspiration in terms of patriotic activities in Watkinsville, which I | 00:44:55 | |
love. She's always. | 00:44:59 | |
Hold on a second. | 00:45:41 | |
Thank you. | 00:45:48 | |
Thank you. | 00:45:57 | |
The balance sheet, the revenues and expenses. | 00:46:49 | |
Through the end of July. If there are no questions about that, we'll move on and you can certainly ask me afterward. | 00:46:52 | |
On the Splice 2 report, I wanted to mention that with the completion of sewer Line A and the receipt of the final invoices, we | 00:46:58 | |
anticipate closing this out this month, so there'll be no money left in this account that you may recall Lost One and Two together | 00:47:05 | |
along with some general fund monies made-up the remaining amount of funding for sewer Line. | 00:47:12 | |
Sposs 3 Right now we have encumbered funds for the Rocket Field improvements, for streetscape improvements downtown, and for a | 00:47:21 | |
Police Department and public works capital expenditures that were part of. | 00:47:27 | |
Fiscal Year 24 Budget. | 00:47:34 | |
We are averaging about $78,000 a month. | 00:47:37 | |
On revenues and you'll see that there, you'll see, well, you'll see between the two years obviously, but we've seen a 15% increase | 00:47:40 | |
over year to year between 22 and 23 and we have about 1.2 million in the bank right now. | 00:47:46 | |
On our tea spots, which we just started collecting in April, we've only had a small amount of expenditures. But you, the mayor | 00:47:54 | |
will talk about in his report tonight, one of our biggest expenditures and projects, very first project is the sidewalk segment. | 00:48:01 | |
Installation of sidewalks throughout the community. Right now, New High Shoals Rd. is currently under construction, expected to be | 00:48:10 | |
completed possibly by the end of this week. And then we'll be moving on to the other segments that you guys approved. | 00:48:17 | |
And right now we're averaging 68,000 on that. There is a difference, remind you guys a difference between tea spots and SPLOST 3 | 00:48:23 | |
in the percentage because the county in the city agreed to a different percentage on that. | 00:48:29 | |
There is your comparison. | 00:48:35 | |
Techn. | 00:48:37 | |
And we've got a little over $205,000 at the end of July in. | 00:48:39 | |
And then our American rescue plan reports that money was set aside. Council approved a standard allowance. The government allowed | 00:48:46 | |
us to select that, and by doing so, you can use that money. | 00:48:51 | |
For any general fund purpose that the city. | 00:48:57 | |
The council approved funding for premium pay for retention of our officers and that that money is encumbered for that purpose and | 00:48:59 | |
then future uses to be determined. Council will be making decisions about that in the coming months. | 00:49:06 | |
And we have a little bit over $800,000 in that account. | 00:49:12 | |
Any questions on any of those? | 00:49:17 | |
OK. On economic development, we're actually fixing to kick off the new business license here. So we don't have a lot of these | 00:49:19 | |
candidates would be new, new companies that are established and so we only have a couple. | 00:49:25 | |
Through the end of July, our excise tax, remind everybody that the monies for June don't come in until July. That's why I'm giving | 00:49:31 | |
you this report. | 00:49:35 | |
So the July, July money that came in is for June. So all those numbers up there for June are what were received through the end of | 00:49:40 | |
July. | 00:49:44 | |
And then on the economic development with building permits, you'll note we have the instructional support center, which because of | 00:49:51 | |
state law, they're allowed to do their own permitting. They don't have to, they do have to provide review and inspections of that, | 00:49:57 | |
but they're not required to go through our office to do that. And so they're, they are listed, the evaluations are listed, but | 00:50:04 | |
then we have HVAC's which are typical this time of year and some signs. | 00:50:10 | |
Nothing really terribly exciting through July. Any questions on those? | 00:50:17 | |
OK. | 00:50:23 | |
OK, giving the DDA update, Georgia, our wonderful director Kate has finished the Georgia Main Street training. | 00:50:30 | |
And so opportunities with Georgia Main Street are going to be starting. | 00:50:42 | |
She also submitted the Revitalizing Underdeveloped Rural Area Legislation Application or the rural designation. It's a very | 00:50:48 | |
competitive process. | 00:50:54 | |
And it was a lot of work to put the application together. So we're very grateful that Kate did all of that work and fingers | 00:51:01 | |
crossed, like I said, it's very competitive to see if we'll get that or not. We probably won't know until the end of the year. | 00:51:08 | |
The creative place making grant that we received this winter, The committee is hard at work. If y'all have not heard October 14th, | 00:51:17 | |
we are having. | 00:51:22 | |
An event at Rocket Field. | 00:51:28 | |
The splits band is going to be there. They're a local kind of cover band and they're well known, very popular. There is a public | 00:51:30 | |
art project that we will be doing. We have engaged an artist that has come up with five different. | 00:51:37 | |
Outline paintings and the community is going to get to paint that and then it will be displayed publicly. And also we have local | 00:51:46 | |
restaurants that are there's food for sale and all of it is going to help support the DDA and continued beautification. | 00:51:57 | |
Of downtown. So that's really excited. So October 14th. | 00:52:10 | |
5 to 8 it is a free event, just bring money for food. | 00:52:14 | |
And yeah, that's the main point. | 00:52:20 | |
Good evening, Mayor. | 00:52:31 | |
Going to make this fairly short in your packet, you should have received the police department's report. | 00:52:35 | |
For this month, I'll just touch on a couple of things. | 00:52:42 | |
We did attend the opening day Cullen Ferry Elementary School to greet the children. We assisted the principal there on completing | 00:52:46 | |
some assigned tasks that she needed and that was during the week on a Wednesday and we followed up that Friday with our very first | 00:52:51 | |
yearly bus unloading and. | 00:52:57 | |
Children's drop off. We did that with music and about six officers. We had a really good time doing that. The kids seem to really | 00:53:04 | |
enjoy it. | 00:53:07 | |
Moving farther down. | 00:53:12 | |
We have had a badge and vanilla's meeting with ESP and we're in the process of putting together a package to possibly sponsor some | 00:53:13 | |
needy children to go to the next summer camp next year. | 00:53:19 | |
We are involved with the library program for the young readers. Officer Ryan Anglin is going to read a book there on what it's | 00:53:26 | |
like to be a police officer and hold a coloring book event after. And then we're working up to our annual 5K Run for responder | 00:53:33 | |
event in October that we're really involved in. And I'm looking for chili entries. So if anybody wants to cook chili, we need all | 00:53:40 | |
the chili entries you can you can put in. | 00:53:47 | |
Officer Train. | 00:53:54 | |
So Sergeant Hitler just became one of the newest Georgia Post firearms instructors. | 00:53:56 | |
Completed that A. | 00:54:01 | |
To tell you how difficult the class is, they started with 24, they graduated about 12, so it's it's pretty tough. | 00:54:03 | |
He joins me in being the agencies. | 00:54:11 | |
Firearms instructors Officer Stearns just completed Georgia First responder over in Fulton County. | 00:54:15 | |
So she is the next best thing to a paramedic. | 00:54:21 | |
We are going to be traveling this Friday. Five of us are going over to assist the Barrow County Sheriff's Office in Winder with | 00:54:26 | |
the DUI checkpoint. | 00:54:30 | |
And then we will be going over to Clark County the month after and in October we're actually hosting the DUI checkpoint here. | 00:54:35 | |
Interesting case the month. I won't touch on this one. All I will tell you is it involved a car? | 00:54:43 | |
A gas pump and it didn't workout well for the gas pump. | 00:54:48 | |
But it was a hit and run at the Golden Pantry. The vehicle was located and the driver was apprehended and. | 00:54:51 | |
The gas pump did not catch on fire, which is a good thing, but you can read about that in the report. | 00:54:59 | |
So activity and I don't want to spend a lot on this, but let me just tell you what we got up to. | 00:55:06 | |
So if you look. | 00:55:11 | |
We had 11184 calls for service for the month since we last. | 00:55:13 | |
Our guys issued 134 citations or warnings for various things and we conducted 691 security checks. | 00:55:18 | |
So we had a lot of officers away at training and doing different things. So some of those numbers may have dropped slightly, but | 00:55:26 | |
not a lot. | 00:55:30 | |
On the traffic activity it was mostly speeders, because if you can imagine, we wrote 89 speeding citations and 62 warning. | 00:55:33 | |
On our fixed LPR. | 00:55:43 | |
We had a total of about 75 on those for various things. | 00:55:45 | |
As you go through the packet, there's a breakdown and everything. | 00:55:50 | |
Interesting enough, we worked. | 00:55:54 | |
A citizen private concern on North Main that came from a couple houses that was worried about speeders. | 00:55:58 | |
So the first thing we did is we started conducting extra patrol. Then we put our two variable message signs out there and started | 00:56:04 | |
gathering data. | 00:56:08 | |
And what we learned is that's a pretty heavily traveled road, right? You just wouldn't believe the numbers of cars. | 00:56:12 | |
On one week, going southbound, we recorded about 21,000 cars. | 00:56:20 | |
And on northbound, we recorded just under 30,000. | 00:56:24 | |
Now when it comes to. | 00:56:29 | |
From what we've saw now, we did write some citations and warnings, but generally speaking people are paying attention. I don't | 00:56:31 | |
know if it's because of my signs or us, but during those two weeks. | 00:56:36 | |
Speeders for enforcement activity. | 00:56:41 | |
On the southbound. | 00:56:44 | |
Was at .1. | 00:56:45 | |
.1% not even 1% Point one. | 00:56:48 | |
On the northbound lane they were a little bit heavier. | 00:56:51 | |
.2%. | 00:56:54 | |
.2 So not a lot there, but our guys are going to continue working it and hopefully we made a difference. I know for a fact that | 00:56:56 | |
one of the residents came out and talked with one of the. | 00:57:00 | |
And it was one of the residents that actually contacted us, so they were very happy to see us and thanked us a lot. | 00:57:05 | |
And that's pretty much everything I've got, unless you got questions. | 00:57:12 | |
It's been kind of a hard meeting for. | 00:57:16 | |
Thank you. Yeah. I think that's an important note though, that you know that this is. | 00:57:22 | |
There's two aspects to community policing. There's getting out and seeing the community and there's being responsive when the | 00:57:27 | |
community comes in and I think that's the summary that you put in. The packet is so impressive and shows exactly. | 00:57:32 | |
You know, living in a small town with a great police force is an awesome thing that a citizen can ride in with a concern and not | 00:57:39 | |
only have an officer show up to run radar a couple times a week, we get a detailed report of. | 00:57:43 | |