We're gonna go ahead and get started.

It's good to have everybody here tonight.

This is uh this is a bonus meeting for us.

Uh most often we uh approve the annual fiscal year budget the first Tuesday of June.

Uh, but given that the state had some moving pieces, uh, we pushed this back to tonight.

Uh so here we are.

It is Monday, June 9th, 2026.

Um, and I'm going to ask Clerk Spring or excuse me.

Uh Clerk Howard, thank you.

Uh, roll for us.

Taylor, here, President Fisher, here.

Johnson, here, Call Pepper.

Myers, here, Thornton.

Here, Handy.

We have a floor.

All right, thank you, Madam Clerk.

All right.

Um, our civility pledge is in front of me as provided by the Georgia Municipal Association.

It indicates that uh we govern ourselves well when our collective decisions have allowed differing views to have the opportunity to be fully vetted and considered, when all people have the right to be treated with respect, courtesy, and openness.

Uh, we also value all input and commit to conduct ourselves at all times with civility and courtesy to each other.

Uh so we have three items of business tonight, two items of old business, uh, one item of new business, and now is the time of the evening when we provide public input.

Uh, terms of public input are a single three minute opportunity.

There's a light in front of the clerk toward that will turn green when you provide your name and place of residence.

It will turn yellow when you have thirty seconds remaining, and red when your three minutes has concluded.

And I'll thank you for your time with us.

So is in fact any member of the public here tonight who'd like to speak to us?

Hello, my name is Tuesday Demeter.

Uh, I live in Athens, Clark County's uh second district.

Um, and I have concerns over the implications of flock spending on the budget listed on page one hundred thirty-four C ninety-seven.

Um, according to Mitter, who worked for our two who work to manage and assess uh cybersecurity threats, uh, these cameras are not only unsafe.

Uh, they play an active role in the criminality that they claim to deter.

In Dunwoody, California, or in Dunwoody, Georgia, in September of 2025, disclosed via open records requests.

Flock Vice President of Business Development, Bob Carter, access these cameras in the uh gymnastics room of Marcus Marcus Jewish community center of Atlanta.

Randy Gluck, another flock safety employee in business development, access the same room alongside preschool, daycare center areas and fitness gyms.

This isolated incident is unrelated to the spending of the license plate readers in downtown areas, but represents to me and hopefully this body that access to these cameras through external means is possible and is not conducive to reduced crime in our community.

Returning to minor and common vulnerabilities and exposures, nonprofits who release uh publicly available information on this security risks.

Uh there are about 28 cybersecurity vulnerabilities within both license plate readers and Android apps for accessing the camera's footage and more whose vulnerabilities range range from quick and easy access to this footage from an external attacker to personalized information being presented in clear text or insecure data being readily accessible and available to read by anyone in the county with access to these cameras.

MITRE and CV also cite vulnerabilities and accessibility, meaning that any lay person uh in the county can readily access these cameras and get instant access to personal lives of people living here.

I hope that this body will discuss this as a breach of security to our neighborhoods and not as a means to reduce crime in Athens Clark County.

Thank you, Tuesday.

Is there anyone else here to speak to us this evening?

All right.

Uh seeing none, we'll come for a discussion of old business.

Uh I know manager Cowell, there was uh interest in a brief presentation around some of the contours of our enterprise fund budgets.

And uh so uh get given our interest in that.

I'm gonna go ahead and relocate uh temporarily.

Thank you.

And I'll be um very brief about this.

Um, you all a couple of you had requested, and I think everyone concurred that um you would benefit from a little bit more uh information about how the budget presents enterprise funds and what goes into those enterprise funds.

Um, I would say that it's best also to view this as maybe a precursor to an upcoming work session item because I think that it you will everyone will benefit from digging deeper into um into these as well.

So I'll start by um first making certain that everyone who's viewing and in the room and otherwise um kind of understands the significance of enterprise funds and what they are and how they differ.

So the easiest way to explain it is when you and I get our tax bill and we pay our taxes, those taxes come to you all, and you decide where and how to spend those.

Um, and it can be spent near where we live or have a business, or it can be spent elsewhere.

Enterprises are conducted as businesses, so they're business-like operations, which means that the people who use those services pay for those services, and the dollars collected for those services are used for those.

So they're actually very targeted, they're not available to use for other purposes generally, um, in those cases.

Um, so that that's one of the significant differences, and that differs a little bit from special revenue funds.

So in our budget, we have general fund, which is basically that the tax dollars that come in, special revenue funds which are collected for a specific purpose and can go to that specific purpose only, and then of course, enterprises, which again are business like operations.

Um we have um several of those in um our um budget.

These will many of these are followed by a lot of other communities, and then other communities will have other um enterprises as well.

So the ones that we use are uh airport, landfill, water and sewer, solid waste, and stormwater.

Those are the enterprise funds that we have community I worked at previously, parking was an enterprise fund.

Our parking is not an enterprise fund that there are dollars that commingle, if you will, that come in from tax dollars that go toward it and other purposes associated with it.

There are um communities that run their own electric company.

That would be in another type of enterprise fund, but those are the ones that we have: the the airport landfill, water sewer, solid waste, and stormwater.

So, how how do we collect um charges for these?

That is predominantly done through service charges, fees, rates, et cetera.

So let me give you a few examples for each of those enterprises.

So for airport, there are things like ramp fees, fuel charges, bag handling charges, and so on.

That means that anybody that uses the airport pays to use the airport.

The rest of the taxpayers don't pay for the operations, the local operations at the airport.

We all pay through federal funds, but for the local operations it's paid for by the people actually using it.

On water and sewer, you can think of rates that we all pay if we're if we're customers, connection fees, septic disposal fees, and so on.

That's how they generate their revenue.

On solid waste and landfill, that comes through refuse service rates.

Again, if we're customers, we pay for those rates.

Dumpster charges, disposal charges, which are tipping fees, and so on.

And then in stormwater, that's the stormwater collection disposal fee and inspection fees.

Note and none of those do you see taxes because again, the taxes collected through your property tax don't go toward those efforts because they're operated as enterprises, the users of them pay for those.

The objective of all enterprises is that they collect enough money to pay all of their costs, again, rather than the taxpayer, and then in many instances actually generate revenue that is put into savings so that those dollars can then be applied to future future uses associated with those.

So, how are these funds spent?

And that's kind of what we're what we're showing on the screen.

I want to just I'm extracting kind of one enterprise, and that's the water and sewer to use as an example rather than going through all of them.

But in this in this instance, if you look based off of those charges for services that I gave as example and other revenues.

So when we all pay our water bill, we all pay for our sewer if we're sewer customers, we have those other things like uh disposal fees and so on, those generate are projected to generate about 82 and a half million dollars in FY27.

So in the current budget, about 82 and a half million dollars being generated.

If you drop down to the bottom and you were to add up the expenses, so the 41 million dollars for things like personnel operating and so on, and then the capital expenditures, the the spend side of it is actually 95.5 million.

So $13 million more is being spent than is being taken in in the projected year for revenue, and that's because as I mentioned prior, there is funding left over from the previous year on purpose that's banked up that actually is being used to fund capital projects.

So we're able to actually carry a balance forward from year to year.

We report that as net in or the unrestricted net position.

Other places will refer to that as retained earnings.

If we were in the private sector, that would be profit.

So basically it's in the difference is we keep those dollars to apply to projects, whereas in the private sector, that profit that would be generated is paid out to the shareholders.

We don't do that.

We actually reinvest um into the um into the infrastructure that's there.

So when you come out all of all of that at the end, we start it with um $96 million in kind of our fund balance, if you will, and we anticipate ending with $73 million.

Those are dedicated to those future capital projects and also to having operating revenue should there be something catastrophic that we'd have to carry for three months worth of expenditures.

So that's in this page exists in the budget for every one of the enterprises.

So you'd be able to go to any enterprise, be able to look and see how this is done for airports, the money they're collecting, how they're spending those dollars, and what if anything they're carrying over from year to year.

Same would be true of stormwater and so on.

Um that's the operating side of it.

I'm mentioned a little bit on the capital piece of it.

So also inside the budget for the capital section.

So we have a whole section of the budget, as you all know, about all of our capital investments, and those are similarly divided up by those activities.

So if you go to the public utilities section of capital projects, there's 10 or 15 pages of different capital.

The one that I've pulled up is the rehabilitate and replace sewers.

So when I mentioned those, if you go back to that slide we had, there was like 40-something million dollars being invested in capital.

In this case, we're projecting 20 million of that to go to this particular kind of capital project.

So this is the investment that is expected to be made in each of the upcoming years to replace existing sewer lines and rehabilitate them, and that's where we're getting rid of things like infiltration of stormwater into the sewer lines and so on, and that's projected to again be 20 million dollars in the um in the given year.

Similar to the operating side, if you go into the budget, every one of the um every one of the enterprises that have capital expenditures will have pages like this.

So that's kind of my quick overview of sort of how the enterprises are presented within the budget and why they differ from the other part of the budget and how they're kind of separate from those.

Um it's my my hope that in probably early fall we'll add a work session.

We'll come to you, and it's probably gonna be over a couple of work sessions.

I'd like to take public utilities and do it independent of the other enterprises because it's so large.

And we'll dig into this much deeper.

So we'll talk about kind of how those rates feed into the revenues.

We'll talk about what what is actually in the capital program over the course of the years.

Um, you know, we talk about dollars that are saved or identified for future capital projects.

We'll talk about what those are so that you have a much much better understanding and a deeper understanding of those enterprises.

And again, we'll do that in the fall and kind of pick those those up.

And the utility folks in the um and the other enterprises will be present to answer those questions as well.

But I think the key piece is they're operated like businesses, the money they collect pays for what it is that they do.

General tax dollars do not pay for for these activities.

Be happy to answer any questions.

Um, yeah, you mentioned the airport enterprise fund.

We recently purchased the I don't know, one and a half million dollar piece of fire equipment.

Um was that out of the enterprise fund or was it still?

It was.

So the the other advantage of the enterprise fund, and this is true also with stormwater and with sewer and and uh and water, and to some degree landfill, and in all of their cases, much less so than they used to be in the past, is we can use the funds that we're collecting through rate charges to actually leverage grants from the state and federal government.

So in the case of the fire truck, pretty close to 90% of the cost of that truck is actually being provided by the state and federal government.

Um the 10% is what's getting collected locally through through the airport.

Again, we'll do the same thing with um water and wastewater projects.

There's just not very many federal funds any longer for those.

More often you may tap into a low-interest loan program through the state.

Um, but yes, that's how we would leverage those dollars so that even though we're not using tax dollars in those cases, local tax dollars, and we're collecting those fee charges, it lets us use those fee charges to actually access federal and state dollars that would otherwise go to another community, and so we're able to grab those.

Thank you.

What were the uh uh special revenue?

Special revenue general fund and enterprise.

So special revenue, really good example is hotel motel.

Um so those are dollars that are in that case both statutorily and local local ordinance driven of what you can do with those.

So we account for those separately in the budget.

So you'll see just like enterprise, you'll see a separate section in there for each of those special revenue funds.

They're just not necessarily business operations like the enterprises are.

Yeah, tad dollars are.

So TAD dollars are though.

And the special revenue, yes.

Thank you.

Thank you all, and I look forward to talking more in the fall on that stuff.

So, and again, thank you, um Bob for doing that.

Again, I think one of the things we'll just really want to um community know, and I'd rather know about we do have these enterprise funds and what they use for, and I'm looking forward to when in the fall we get a little bit deeper into in the residents, understand how we use those dollars and that you know the things all available, the help as we move forward and look at how we do those type of things in the future, especially when it comes to water and our sewer and replacing stuff.

And I hope we would you know, because we don't know, but I'm hoping to your point you mentioned it.

If we don't do loans, we there'll be some grants you know on the federal or state level we use to help help us, you know, subsidize some of that too.

Yeah, that's the best the best use of those dollars is to leverage those for other dollars.

And you know, another it's also really important for folks to understand that if you're only a water customer, so you're on a septic system, you're paying a water bill, and the money that you're using for that water bill goes to water improvements.

So you're not paying for sewer line extensions if you're not a sewer customer.

If you we don't have very many folks that are sewer customers and not water customers, but if you're in a customer for both of those, you're helping contribute to both of those, but we get asked that question quite a bit for folks that aren't on sewer.

I think you get a follow-up.

No, I think I'm okay.

Okay.

All right, everybody ready to move on.

Alright, thanks, guys.

All right, so as everybody knows, the kind of most significant action most local governments take every year is adoption of their fiscal year budget.

And so at this point, I'll entertain a motion for approval of the FY27 budget uh as uh as presented.

So do we have public input?

We already did that.

Oh, maybe all right.

I've got a motion from Commissioner Thornton and I've got a second from Commissioner Myers.

Commissioner Thornton, any remarks?

No, this is probably no things.

Never.

I have no comment.

Commissioner Myers.

Let's go with it.

I think for for those uh people who are listening or want to know there's an amendment to the to the to the mayor's budget, and that's included in the agenda item.

Um and uh what's really good is that we had a lot of consensus on this as a group, and we are moving through in a conflict-free, calm, responsible way.

Well, yes, yeah.

Commissioner Lake?

Um yeah, I I know we had quite a bit of public input on the uh special events issue.

Um, and I just asked the mayor to consider appointing some kind of task force so we can kind of reevaluate how we approach that and where funds come from and um how they're distributed for next year, so we can you know kind of write the ship a little bit and maybe open up opportunities for other organizations and other locations to access local funds to put on special events.

Thanks, Commissioner, and and just a couple of brief notes about that since it has come up in conversation.

Um, you know, one of the components is just you know what's the um absolute limit of funds that any one event can receive, as I think accurately noted by a lot of event promoters, costs of everything are going up, you know, cost of security are going up, materials are going up, you know, renting lighting is going up, talent, all those sorts of things.

Um course, you know, we've moved from a situation in FY19 where we had about 90,000 dollars this year we'll we'll have three hundred thousand dollars.

Um, and and so one of the things we may want to consider is well, rather than just adding a multitude of events to sort of have a um stable of events relative to the total amount.

Another thing I've shared with uh a lot of folks who've uh queried us about this is that an opportunity we'll have in the coming general assembly session is to see if the General Assembly will put us on a level playing field with places like Gainesville and Macon and have an eight penny hotel motel tax, which would produce ballpark and additional million dollars a year in in revenue that would kind of allow for some expansion.

Uh, membership of the General Assembly's delegation has changed.

So maybe there's some opportunity there.

Um and then the last thing I'll note is that uh I think it's reasonable to say, hey, you know, do we want to go ahead and allocate some amount of funds for downtown and some amount of funds for uh the community outside downtown?

So I have one more comment.

Um regarding the flock cameras.

I'm wondering if uh the manager's office could offer us some kind of um memo or something, uh letting us know the terms of our contract, and um the possibility of assure uh what kind of assurances there are that um you know any information that's taken in from those cameras is only accessible to our local law enforcement officer, except maybe in special cases of a warrant, particular warrant from an outside agency.

I think I can I I can provide a response from the from the chief.

He's he's kind of verbally conveyed some of those and can do that as well.

I mean, my concern is you know, the accessing information that is intended for use by our own local law enforcement um being made available to other agencies um for purposes beyond local law enforcement.

Yeah, and they and they have some fairly stringent local, we do local standards relative to that, so yes, absolutely.

And can I and let me address that?

I talked with let me I've got Commissioner Wright.

And then I'll I don't know.

I didn't mean to jump.

You move on to you.

My bad.

Uh, Commissioner Wright.

Y'all just made me forget what I was gonna make.

I started off just piggybacking on what Obita had said, and I I do appreciate the fresh way that we have been, and I really believe that we've been learning together, possibly just the same way the county managers is learning from being here and assessing things and staff supporting that and teaching us things and us learning um what's going on and it being methodically you started really early, the mayor pro Tem did in in asking us to what we're thinking and to speak, and he circled around several times to make sure comments were coming forward, making everybody comfortable.

Uh I think there were some times when we talked about different things, but like um Commissioner Myers has also said it's all come together um really well and I hope that we continue that strategy in the future, and I think learning more about the enterprise funds together also will be good.

And then um if we can also when we're looking at the um CE the community event program, I think that it would also be a good time to look at how other communities are running those through the CVB and if our CVB was not underneath the um Classic Center authority, that would allow our whole community to get the benefits of the CBB um as well because uh the the different people have come forward with different stats on how much money a different community uh have in that area, but I don't know that they have the same structure as we do.

So we could also be learning about some changes in structure and some improvements that would give us the whole community involvement for the CDB.

Thanks, Commissioner.

Commissioner Fisher, thank you.

And I apologize, Commissioner Ryan.

That's okay.

So um just a little bit of comment on the flock cameras, and I've I've been constantly talking with the chief um about our flock cameras.

First I think the public need to know we're only we only have 300 cameras that we have was with the government.

The rest of the eighteen hundred so cameras are tied to either businesses, homes, or other neighborhoods.

So I think uh a community uh needs to know that.

Secondly, um we scrub um according to chief every 30 days with scrubbing stuff that's coming off um that we have videotape and things like that.

Um our chief do they do a deep dive on the information that we get, make sure that no that um the flock cameras are not being misused by our local um law enforcement and of course if anything, any system could get hacked, but uh I'm proud of the fact that what our local law enforcement are doing when it comes to those fault cameras, like too many times, and I get it what we're happening in other communities, but I always worry about what happened in Athens.

And we need to really be mindful of what we do in this particular community.

I'm proud that the chief, you know, they scrub every 30 days, they're getting it taking that information off off the system and possible off the cloud.

I'm not an IT guy, but at least we're trying to make sure that other agencies are not trying to um get our information or even um the um company that we deal with.

Again, I don't know all that um the um interact in uh interactions of that, but I gotta I gotta trust our local law enforcement to make sure that we're doing right um for the benefit of our community.

First of all, the privacy of our community, but second, make sure we continue to make sure our community is safe because when I hear a parent when uh when I found a three-year-old was was killed, and if those cameras would have not been there, um and you talked with that mother and and found and got those people got people off the streets, that means a lot.

Um especially when you talk about a black and brown community, things happen a lot.

And our community, you know, the um those folks want to feel safe also.

And again, and the cameras is not to do all, and you still got to do the work.

Well, but it's just a tool, and I think people need to really realize that um moving forward with that.

So thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Uh, Commissioner Hamby.

Sure, Commissioner.

I was just gonna make a little joke here so y'all y'all don't get too comfortable with Bob's way of doing things.

I've been I've been down, but I'm not out.

So I'll be I'll be back to true form uh next next budget.

Thank you.

I guess I appreciate Commissioner.

Reminding us of your skills.

You're looking a little cheerier now.

Commissioner Thor.

Um I was going to uh comment uh I think on Commissioner Link's comment.

Um, I do think that I was, you know, I was uh downtown with at this neighborhood health centers for a gay pride day um downtown, and it was magnify you know it was really a good day or so, and I don't think I think a lot of these groups they bring in um not just um entertainment, amusement, fun day, um, but revenue also.

And I do after we just talked about the different enterprises, maybe um manager, you can think about how can we do a downtown or entertainment type either enterprise or special revenue ahead of time.

Um I don't want us to cut back, I think, like I said, and I'll be downtown this weekend with hotcorn.

So if we know that these events are important to the community, um we should not wait till budget season, um, for folk to make their case of of how much they do.

I think we as a commission should be more proactive, and um, Kelly, you won't be here, but um, by next year, um, and Mike hopefully we'll be okay.

Um we need to start planning, be more proactive if these groups are doing, not if they are doing great work for asset.

So I would like to see if you would put that on your to-do list, um, how can we proactively.

Yeah, and I think it it actually works well with some of the conversations that you all have already mentioned today, whether it's pursuit of looking at an expansion of the hotel motel tax, whether it's the relationship between the CDB and the classic center.

I think all of those come together.

Even even the way in which the ADA is funded and operates and stuff is a is a piece of that also.

So I think there's several pieces with that.

And this has nothing to do with anything we're talking about, but I'm gonna say it um because it's a revenue opportunity.

Why are we allowing pilgrim's pride poultry to park all over that place, which is our property for free?

That's a revenue opportunity.

So, just putting it out there.

Commissioner Myers.

Yeah, actually I just want to kind of return the discussion, at least in my head, to what this budget is really doing, and the responsibility that we're uh sort of following through on our commitment to the mission of Athens Clark County and to our employees, because really the majority of the of the biggest probably funding is going to our staff.

Um, and we are with the the amendment from the commissioners able to raise the market rate increase to four percent for our uh unified plan employees and the public safety plan has three percent, plus they have all these built bumps built in, um, and then increased slightly our you know, the uh initial um the target pay for the new employees as well, so that we can keep pulling people in.

And we and I was also looking at the agenda report and seeing how we're taking some of the the splashed money revenue and putting it towards really important capital projects and ongoing maintenance.

So, um, I know we're talking a lot about special events and such, but the vast majority of the budget that we're passing is going to do the work of the county and to keep it running uh smoothly and efficiently for all of us and for uh our residents so I kind of just want to bring it back to that before uh um we go on and have a vote all right now I believe we have an ordinance associated with this we have a budget ordinance and also the ordinance that reorganizes the uh uh include people in belonging department Mr.

Mayor and or the budget ordinance an ordinance to provide for the raising of revenues and the appropriation of funds for the unified governor of Athens Clark County Georgia for the fiscal year 2027 beginning july 1st 2026 and in June 30 2027 to provide for the operations of government departments board agencies elected officers elected offices and other governmental activities to provide for the level of personnel authorized for the various departments and agencies to provide for capital budgets to establish 2026 property tax rates to establish compensation for the charter officers to establish rates and structure of fiscal year 2027 health insurance programs to establish fees and charges to repeal conflicting ordinances to provide effect dates and for other lawful purposes the second ordinance in order to amend the code of Athens Park County George Georgia with respect to rename renaming and reorganizing certain government offices and departments for other lawful purposes and for their lawful purposes.

Alright thank you attorney Drake all right we have a motion from Commissioner Thornton and a second from Commissioner Myers all in favor please say aye.

Aye music to my ears friends thank you very much.

Yeah and if I can just say thank you to you folks so please appreciate certainly want to thank the uh the the budget team and the finance team for the work that they've done obviously they do they do the real work we just get to meet and talk about the work that they're actually doing so certainly appreciate that and HR also who's always working kind of behind the scenes alongside um us with it as well and Sarah for keeping track of all of the comments and making sure that you all get those in a timely fashion the rest of the manager's office and the directors who actually are the ones that kind of put forth the the needs that are present in the community and then of course most importantly you all thank you for being kind to me on my first budget and I don't expect quite the same treatment the second time but I appreciate it and I know the next year's budget you know we've already kind of previewed it I mean there's gonna be some very difficult um decisions as we move forward good decisions because it's because we're bringing more things online um but it'll it won't be probably quite as smooth but I really appreciate um the work that you all did in getting us to this point so thank you.

Thanks to you Bob we really appreciate it.

All right uh item two is uh resolution calling for a referendum for imposition of the floating local options sales tax uh we've engaged uh positively with the city of Winterville and the town of Bogart so I'd uh entertain a motion from the body second all right I have a motion from commissioner Davenport I have a second from Commissioner Wright.

Commissioner Davenport any remarks yeah this is uh people decision so um we'll be voting in November.

I look forward to our roll out of communicating this it is complicated but it makes sense and I and I think it's um it's a good fit for our community but again it'll be for um the voters in our community to decide but I hope that we can educate them between now and I agree communication will be key commissioner fisher yeah and that's sort of my point to um mayor and actually if I can be so bold and I do I'll do this respectfully I really wish before if we got some time I really wish we could really just do a little bit of a work session on this and really start that conversation about um about the flaws and what it's mean and whether it's going to impact all it is you know and again I I say that I was gonna say that um but last week and there's a regressive tax and I think we need to figure out what's the impact is going to be not on our community but the people we're trying to help you know homeowners how much money we're trying to raise or again if I can be so bold as to say before we vote on this um I guess for the motion to do one work session, you know, I know it may be a special call.

I'm my colleagues may not want to come back.

Let's do a um work session before we vote on this.

So maybe just have some community input.

I think um I don't know whether or not the community is really being um communicated with what we're trying to do.

And you're right, the people are going to make the decision.

I can I get that in November, but I think we really do some education, start now instead of the later because sometimes we get so caught up and everything else that we may forget and then it'd be too late.

I don't want us to wait October November, then we're trying to rush and do education to our community.

I'd like for us to start sooner than later, unless you all can convince me that we'll start working on this later after our break, then I may be okay with it.

And I'm still on the fence, but I just think um this is a big step for us.

Couple points, Commissioner.

Um, the one is that given our ballot construction timeline in engagement with the board of elections, we we need to act before the Commission hiatus that we're about to go on.

However, I think your kind of larger point is key, which is that we need to be able to really understand ourselves and communicate to the public.

You know, here is what the set of trade-offs are.

You know, here is what the typical take would be of folks from outside the community.

Um, and of course, we've talked about students living on campus similarly, contributing new dollars to the community, and I anticipate that we could quantify that in a way that would be helpful for everybody at our August work session.

Yeah, good.

Yeah, and I think you can also have an opportunity to delve deeper if you want.

Also at your the retreat in September as well.

So I think there's a couple of initial steps before we get really into the communication part of it.

So that's what Commissioner Thor.

Um I have prepared to vote no, but I will be abstaining.

I do think that um just with some past things that we voted on.

I just do not know where it lands that I'm pretty sure this thing is going to pass without my vote.

So therefore, I do think that um having some type of education training as soon as possible is necessary, but I will be abstaining because this is too complicated for me.

I this is this is a bit more than I want to take on as a thing.

Thank you, Commissioner.

We'll we'll make sure we do a roll call vote so that you can abstain.

Commissioner Davenport.

Okay, y'all can sign up to my newsletter and my gym is there.

I detail what a floss is, how's the voter?

Um went out to more than a thousand of District One residents.

But if y'all want to um educate the public, I will send it to you so you can but yeah.

You know, um, we're doing it this early because we need to make sure to get on the ballot by November, but it's completely residential, the residents' decision.

If the residents feel that, hey, we don't want to do this, they can make that decision in November.

So this body doesn't do anything other than hey, we would like to do a floss.

But um, for just the educational purposes, um ACCG has done um a really good job with 581 explaining floss, and maybe Christine can send that back out.

Uh, you said that this is before, but um, but yeah, I would just recommend just I know Dr.

Myers maybe have put it in our newsletter.

I know uh Commissioner Wright did it in her, so I think I've got uh Commissioner Myers and Commissioner Cole.

Yeah, um, I'm gonna be voting against this.

I've thought a lot about it.

Um I know it provides property tax relief and we're getting revenue from outsiders, but I I cannot get beyond the fact that it's a regressive tax that 60% of the people in Athens are renters, that the people who don't vote are the ones who are gonna be most impacted by this.

So if we pass it and gets on the ballot, I can't see any way, even with education that it's not gonna pass because of voter turnout and and who turns out to vote.

So um, you know, that's I just have to do that.

Um, so I will be voting against it.

Commissioner Cole Pepper.

Yeah, I just want to make sure everybody listening understands we're not voting for this.

We're voting to let it be on the ballot for the our constituents to make the decision.

So, you know, I think that's why I'm gonna vote yes for because I want them to be able to make the decision, and it's our responsibility to make sure we give them the right information.

Commissioner Johnson.

Yes, I would like to also comment that I'm not planning to vote for this for several reasons.

The first one is when you first introduced it to us at the retreat in Gainesville, there were no questions.

You did a great presentation, no commissioners asked questions.

I don't recall any conversation about it since.

And I get town halls, I get newsletters, but let's let's ruminate here over how close the T-spots almost did not pass.

We are losing confidence.

It's more than we have between now and November to educate folks.

This is a transparency issue.

This is a communication issue at the very least.

It's communication.

You were interested in it so much so that you introduced it to us.

There were no questions, but since then we could have been communicating with the public all this time.

Now we're in June.

And so I do not want to put it in the hands of voters and just expect them to vote because they understand.

I do agree with my colleague that individuals might vote yes because it's on the is on the referendum.

But if they don't have any information, there's a 50% chance that they'll just vote for it because it sounds good.

I would rather us do these type of big decisions in the right order.

The communication, you didn't get feedback from us, but start the feed start the communication process early on.

That would have been an indicator to me if I didn't receive any feedback from colleagues that maybe I need to get more information out there.

I feel the same way about getting more information out to my constituents.

My primary reason is we've had time to communicate and educate.

We've not taken the opportunity to do that with our constituents, and so that's why I'll be voting no.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Alright, I've got a uh motion from Commissioner Davenport, second from Commissioner Wright.

We'll go ahead and do a roll call.

Davenport, yes.

Link, yes, Taylor, yes, right?

Yes.

Fisher?

No.

Johnson?

No.

Call Power?

Yes.

Myers?

No.

Thornton.

Might as well be a no.

It was gonna be a dissention.

No.

Yes.

Hambi.

Yes.

Six yes, four no.

Thank you, madam clerk.

Thanks, everyone.

All right.

Uh, we've got one item of new business to consider under suspension rules.

So I just need a motion for suspension rules.

Move.

All right, motion from Commissioner Davenport.

Second.

All right.

Second from Commissioner Fisher.

All right.

Um, uh this item is a resolution uh to uh ask the planning commission to amend title nine around inclusionary zoning and commercial district regulations.

Uh Commissioner Hamby.

Uh sorry, I had a good idea at our last meeting, uh, which was to put this in front of a full body, and so uh appreciate attorney Drake, your office putting a resolution together.

Um, this stems from our experience in our inclusionary zoning code, which we've recognized can be a great source of revenue for our housing fund, which we've had, of course, a lot of discussion about, and so this really uh begins a process of creating more revenue for that housing fund, and then also comes from some reflection based on a lot of our large-scale downtown projects, our arena district project, our north downtown project, and then our forthcoming uh judicial facility, um, so that we would be able to effectively move residential density around within downtown uh as I um explained to uh manager Cowell might think of this uh moving of residential density as maintaining the same total potential density within the downtown district, but almost like those balloon animals that you sometimes see at the county fair, you're just moving the air from one place in the balloon to another place in the balloon.

Um so uh again the this would be uh deliberated on by our planning commission and then would return to this body for future deliberation.

So uh entertain a motion to the body, so move second.

I've got a motion from Commissioner Hamby, second from Commissioner Myers, we covered a motion.

That was the those suspended rules.

Yeah, suspended rules.

I did that too.

Commissioner, any remarks?

No, sir.

Commissioner Myers.

No, I I look forward to seeing what the comes back to us.

Um these are some significant changes and I look forward to learning more after I see what they come up with.

Any others?

Uh Commissioner Taylor.

I would have said Tyler.

I don't know if it's tippy canoe.

You know, we don't have to get into it afterwards, but okay.

No, no, honestly.

I I appreciate um as going um this route to have the planning department look into it prior to us.

I'm gonna keep my eye on it because I am very like I get this pit in my stomach that with all of the the new development and all of the things that we're proposing, the high rises, you know, the balloons that's popping out of the sky.

Um I'm weary because I still think about how it's gonna impact the people who are already in place.

And I don't want to, you know, always be a Debbie Downer, but I but I also live in the reality that development has um side effects, and a lot of times it's the most vulnerable who are pushed aside and displaced by the new shiny thing.

And so um I do look forward to see what the planning department is bringing back, but I I do want it to be on the record that I am very afraid of what you know could come and what this body could potentially vote on that will change Athens in the next 10 to 15 years that we didn't even take into account, and so this caused me pause, and I and I want it to be on the record.

Um too much help for it.

Commissioner Link.

Yeah, I mean, I have a little bit of consternation about the um commercial downtown um height regulation going above 10 stories.

Um I feel like um developers are don't take advantage enough of our inclusionary zoning downtown because they can already get away with you know so much density within that 10-story limit.

Um, so I hope that the planning commission will kind of do the math on that.

Um, and I mean, I I'm open to seeing flexibility in some of these scale and height um regulation and density regulations when it comes to funds coming into our affordable housing fund or affordable units being included in projects, but I don't want to open the door just for more market rate and luxury high rise, um, unless we're getting a real good payoff when it comes to our affordable housing.

Now, this one I will be abstaining on.

This won't be a no.

This is going to be an abstention.

Um, and I'm I'm abstaining because um, like I mentioned at our last meeting um in June.

Anything that we were dealing with with the um the last study was gonna be kind of passed off to GIC.

Now I admit I'm in a um a campaign season, so I haven't really been paying much attention.

Uh I'm I and like I said before, it sounds like this may pass, and so be it.

But I'm going to abstain because of past experiences that um whole school is burn me once.

Shame on me, Burnt, shame on you.

So I'm going to abstain on this one, but hopefully it'll turn out better than some of the other things.

Thanks, Commissioner Madam Clerk.

Just note uh, Commissioner's abstention, please.

Commissioner Fisher.

So um I guess one thing is um I want the public to know and our colleagues, um, this is just gonna go to the um uh planning commission.

Anything that we do move forward though, we still will have to approve it or moving forward.

So I do want the public it's you have to come in full off there's another project that we don't like we don't have to vote on it so I think you know it is an opportunity though to the planning commission sort of go through it um put that two cents in it and send it back to it and then take a look and see what happens.

Commissioner Ray um yeah and and and in that process too that's other uh opportunities for public um input studying learning it along those timelines so it's also recorded to look back on similar to our work sessions when we have those as soon as we do them we can uh you know direct folks back to those recordings for uh additional insights I think we have an inclusionary zoning uh policy in place so I have no problem with that at all I just want to be clear that um I need time to be more focused in my decision making I have not had that time since election uh session has started um I'm still concerned about how things flow and how things happen so please understand I'm I have nothing against inclusionary zoning I just do not feel confident that I want to take this step and if it passes after this month break I'll be refreshed whatever and be on board.

Thanks Commissioner all right uh we have a motion from Commissioner Hamby and a second from Commissioner Myers all favor please say aye.

Aye.

All opposed all right and I'm upstairs all right thank you all right um friends uh we will entertain a motion to adjourn.

I'll so move before we are just are you going to do this?

I guess so I can do that.

Well either way it is Kelly's last budget.

That's the bills for my hours there with you supposed to run around Kelly just this job is a smith my friend that was funny appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you thank you.

It's been real that was unreal I know I think Christine thought she would somebody shot her I don't know who has the cleanse is though I just think we got a presentation in this room in the morning I just want everybody to know that's that's okay.

I appreciate it dearly thank you thank you the kids from Liverpool will love it.

All right there was a motion to adjourn from Commissioner Davenport is there a second second from Commissioner Fisher all favor please say aye thank you all we have to do with you