The meeting convened at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, with two sessions: a special called hearing for the state-required Taxpayer Bill of Rights (budget hearing #2) and the regular voting session. Public input followed a three-minute format with a green/yellow/red light system. The mayor read the civility pledge from the Georgia Municipal Association. Roll call showed four commissioners present initially, later a full quorum of nine.
It is good to have you here tonight. It is Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026, and we have uh two sessions this evening. Uh, and I will describe public input on both of those. We have a special called session for our state required taxpayer bill of rights hearing number two, and then we have our regular voting meeting as well. Uh public input on the taxpayer bill of rights hearing on the consent agenda on old and new business on our zoning items, and then at the conclusion of the evening, uh all effectively follow the same format. Um there will be an opportunity each time public input is called for a three-minute opportunity for public input. Uh, you see the fancy light in front of Clerk Howard. It will turn green when your three minutes begins, uh, with you uh giving us your name and place of residence. It will turn yellow when you have 30 seconds remaining, and it will turn red when your three minutes is concluded. And I'll thank you for your time with us tonight so we can move on to some other folks. Um so we need to go ahead and begin with a roll call from Clerk Howard. Taylor, here, all right, President Fisher, Johnson, Culpepper, here. We have the four. Alright, thank you, ma'am. Clerk. All right, I'll uh read our civility pledge provided to us by the Georgia Municipal Association, uh, which indicates that the way we govern ourselves is often as important as the positions we take, that our collective decisions will be better when different views have had the opportunity to be fully vetted and considered, that all people have the right to be treated with respect, courtesy, and openness, that we value all input, and we commit to conduct ourselves at all times with civility and courtesy to each other. Uh so with that said, uh the proposed budget for FY27 uh has been in front of the public for a number of weeks, and so we provide three opportunities for public input on the budget leading up to final approval of the budget, which will be a week from tonight, Tuesday the ninth. So if anybody would like to speak to the proposed FY27 budget uh from the public, now is that time you can line right up at the podium and again just provide your name and place of residence. And uh if you slide the card in that slot, it'll get taken care of. Good evening. Hi, my name's Mary Joyce. Um, I live at twelve oh five Townsquare Court here in Athens. Um, I am speaking on the budget agenda item 29. I'm the executive director for Athfest Educates. Um, we put on the Athens Music and Arts Festival and the Ath Half Half Marathon, raising funds for youth arts education in town. And I am advocating for an increase in the funding from the CP special events fund. I am advocating for an increase to 500,000. Um that amount would still be less than five dollars per resident for all of the incredible downtown events that happen. Um, advocating for that whether through this budget process or an additional one cent added to hotel motel tax, like many other Georgia counties have done. I want to thank all of the commissioners and mayor mayor that were involved in the most recent increase in 2024 and the increase proposed in the current proposal for budget. But I'm pushing for more. Downtown events are critical to our culture and our economy. We sent out a special events kind of survey to the community, getting over 300 responses, all dominated by comments that are downtown events are what makes Athens Athens. They're why people choose to move here, stay here, and build lives here. They're why I did all three of those things. Athfest, just itself, the music and arts festival has an overall economic impact of close to a million dollars. An estimated 42,000 of that goes straight to local government revenue. There are economic and political factors at play right now that are putting pressure on events. So economically, increased costs for production. Just as an example for Athfest, electrical services increased 37% from 2024 to 2025. We just got our ACC police department estimate for 2026. It's up 18% from 2025 and 54% from 2024. Our local businesses are so generous and sponsor all of our events, but they are feeling the economic pressure as well. So corporate sponsorship is down due to inflation, rising gas prices, everything that everyone is dealing with right now. Politically, federal and state arts funding is harder to get. Last year we had an NEA National Endowment for the Arts grant for $35,000, which was fantastic. Except for it was pulled at the last minute in April. We had already signed contracts, we had to eat that loss. It's not likely we'll get that funding again under the current administration. To keep our iconic Athens events vibrant and sustainable, it's critical that the city invest.