All right, good morning, everyone.

Welcome to our special call, Finance Audit and Budget Committee, chaired by myself, Commissioner Ted Terry.

We are joined by committee member and um presiding officer Commissioner Shakira Johnson, District 4, and uh District 2 Commissioner Michelle Long Spears will be joining us shortly.

And we might have a few joining us on the Zoom.

So um DC TV just give us a wave when anyone else joins.

Um all right, so we do have mostly budget discussions scheduled for today.

We have two agenda items that we might knock out first.

Commissioner, just I think they're pretty straightforward.

Um so let's just go ahead and start with our meeting minutes from the special call uh February 18th Fab meeting.

That's agenda item 2026 0407.

And if those are all in order, I'll take a motion.

Move to approve item 0407.

All right, I'll second.

Seeing no further discussion, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye.

Motion carries.

All right, let's go to the the two agenda items.

Um item 0258.

This is renewal contract number uh 2000 four eight four, two zero zero zero four eight five, and then same numbers four eighty six, guns, ammunition, and accessories, first renewal option of five options to renew.

Free use by department of police services and marshal's office.

Can contract consists of purchasing through the competitively lit SWCs for guns, ammunition, and accessories.

This request seeks to ratify pre previously provided contract term increase and also requests to exercise the first renewal option through January 7th, 2027 awarded to Gulf States Distributors Incorporated, Dana Safety Supply Incorporated, and Precision Delta Corporation.

Total amount not to exceed 150,000 dollars.

And Chief Patrick, come on down welcome.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Yes, this is the first renewal.

Sorry.

This is the first renewal of our contract.

Um as you know, you know, in law enforcement, we have to have guns and ammo.

Um we are in a good place as far as our our firearms right now, but uh we're working on upgrading those at a later date.

But this is predominantly for our ammunition for training for deployment uh and the different vendors in order to accomplish all of the things we need in the different types of ammo.

Um we also use it in our criminal investigations for our ballistic testing.

When we're testing firearms, we have to have ammo to test those firearms to for comparison and things of that nature as well.

Okay, great.

Thank you for that description.

And um, I see also uh the marshal is here, and that's also that you'll be using that in this contract as well.

Yes, okay, very good.

All right, um, Commissioner Johnson, any questions, comments?

I did just have one question.

So if we're this is for the first renewal through January 7th, 2027.

So is the expectation to put this back out to bid?

Not necessarily for this contract, no, ma'am.

Okay.

Understood.

Thank you.

That's all.

Okay.

All right.

I'll open the floor for a motion.

Yes, sir.

I move to approve item ending in 0258.

All right, I will second.

Um all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye.

Motion carries.

All right, thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

All right, next we have item 0293.

This is change order number one to contract number 2004 seven two, prosecutor case management software services, sole source for use by the office of the solicitor general.

This contract consists of the provision of the prosecutor by Carpel, PBK case management system, including installation, companion services, and annual subscription.

The request seeks to increase the contract funds for the purposes of data extraction to the newly integrated PBK system awarded to Carpel Computer Systems Incorporated, doing business as Carpel Solutions, amount not to exceed 32,000 dollars.

And I believe Madam Solicitor mentioned this when she went over her budget proposal.

I think this is just the upgraded system.

So um, Zach, do you have any more information on this by any chance?

I do not.

I believe this is something that we've been working with the solicitor's office on for the past number of months.

Okay.

Uh so I believe the funding is in place and this is something we would support.

Okay, Commissioner Johnson.

Oh, yes, go ahead, Director Butler.

Thank you.

Sorry, just adding some additional information.

Yes.

Um, it is in support of their current efforts.

It's actually an increase because they are migrating data, and so the 32,000 is to assist in migrating that data.

Okay, to the the new the new system.

Yes.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Uh Commissioner Johnson, any questions?

No questions.

Okay.

All right.

Um, you good to move forward with this?

I think we need more information, we can get it before I guess tomorrow potentially.

Yes.

Okay, open the floor for a motion.

Yes, sir.

I move to approve item ending in 0293.

All right, I will second.

All in favor, raise your hands say aye.

Aye.

Chair puts aye.

Motion carries.

Okay.

Great.

All right.

So let's go down to go back up to our budget discussion.

So today we'll be um sort of discussing the final budget recommendations for recommendation to the full board tomorrow at tomorrow's BOC meeting.

We did want to uh hear just from the remaining departments that haven't had a chance to present so we'll start with our clerk of the Superior Court Ms.

Deborah DeBerry.

Welcome and we get a you have a PowerPoint also right here.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right we got it right here in front of us.

No worries we got it right here.

Good morning.

Morning.

Good morning.

Oh yeah hit the button.

Yeah.

Oh.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I'm Deborah DeBerry, Clerk of Superior Court.

Thank you for the opportunity to present to you today.

And the only thing outside of what has been recommended and moved on our four positions in the amount of 3040 and 27 dollars.

These four positions we did not when the rest the rest of Superior Court rolled in their positions rolled it into their operating budgets because they were out of because these were grant funded positions for the two additional divisions that we got coming out of COVID.

They were grant funded through last year Superior Court kept all of the funding for that but also every all the other agencies rolled over their positions.

For these two existing divisions that we're supporting but we had enough money in our grant fund that I didn't want to waste it and then because we wanted to use it.

So we decided not to roll over those positions until we exhausted everything out of the grant fund now.

As of next as of March 1st those funds are are finished.

The two divisions still exist and that is why we need the four those four positions in that amount rolled over into our operating budget.

All right yes Commissioner Johnson yes could you state the amount again the total amount?

300 304027 dollars okay thank you all right um I see you provided us with lots of stats.

Yeah since I haven't I haven't been over with them uh in a while uh I thought I would share with you uh our activities and but uh our budget as well as our revenue numbers um and I'm happy to take any questions around around any of this okay sure but that was the the main purpose is for those four positions outside of that we're not asking for anything else okay all right um Zach TJ do y'all have any uh any background on the previously funded positions and where they're at in the budget now these were previously grant funded positions correct right so my understanding is that uh these were uh uh positions that were funded by a grant the grant has gone away correct the grant actually ended in 2020 this is six five twenty actually at the end of twenty twenty three then there was there was seven I believe it was seven hundred and eighty four thousand dollars that was given to superior court typically we all split that but we did not this time so superior court kept that and so the DA myself sheriff the other offices we did not get any of that but I did have enough uh so why so at that time they most of the other I believe all of the other agencies rolled over their um the additional staff that was funded out of the grant fund because of divisions eleven and twelve which we still have coming out of COVID that was the purpose of that grant but we're still running two division additional divisions and therefore that's why I need these same positions.

So at that time they most of the other, I believe all of the other agencies rolled over there, the additional staff that was funded out of the grant fund because of divisions 11 and 12, which we still have coming out of COVID.

That was the purpose of that grant, but we're still running two division additional divisions.

And therefore that's why I need these same positions.

And I did not roll it over when it probably was easier, no questions, just put them in operating.

But we had the money to pay out of the grant fund, and we couldn't use those funds for anything else, so that's why I didn't roll them over at that time.

Okay.

Okay.

And um the finance and accounting uh spreadsheet, you have the total county revenue and then total county and agencies revenue line items, the very last page.

And so you are projecting 56 million five hundred and eighty thousand total revenue collected in the correct this year.

Yeah.

And for 2025, it was 49.7 million, looks like.

Or I was projected, actually.

It was 50 million seven hundred and ninety-three thousand.

Okay.

And then in twenty twenty-four it was fifty-six, twenty twenty-three to sixty-one, twenty twenty-two is forty-six.

So it does fluctuate.

It does.

Um it the uh the biggest fluctuation right now, as Zach knows uh all too well, has to do with the real estate market.

Oh.

So some of our, even though the real estate market is not where it should be, and we watch the those numbers daily, they are not uh they're still low.

Um they have come up some.

We're hitting more 150, 175,000 days.

Um, where that used to be a low mark for us, but that's not consistent yet.

Okay.

And this is the real estate, well, I guess all the real estate.

All of real estate, correct.

Okay.

And of course, we still are we did over a million dollars just in transaction fees on e-file.

On e-file, okay.

And fines and fees went up to over three million.

Okay.

And uh we started a new initiative.

Uh I now do fingerprinting.

So that's an additional revenue stream.

I don't have the figures for that yet.

And we haven't done an official rollout, so we are doing some other agency uh fingerprinting.

My initial purpose for getting it was because we uh were part of AFIS and we have to have fingerprint for adoptions.

So, but now that we're a registered um, we have our own ORI number for uh fingerprint.

Um we can do it for any agency.

But I have not sent it out because we wanted to get very comfortable with it using it.

So that will get bigger.

Okay.

Um TJ, so Madam Clerk is projecting uh $12.6 million in total county revenue and then $56.5 for total county and agencies or is that the 56 is actually.

Is it total?

Okay.

Is are you are those your projections as well for revenue?

I would have to verify that and have to double check what we have in the budget.

But okay.

Um I bring that up, Madam Clerk, because um, you know, just in terms of the budget, we need to kind of project what we think we're gonna get in, you know, obviously with expenditures, so uh I'm just kind of thinking out loud if we and I I don't doubt uh uh depending on 56 we could meet if we are like this and hope that the real estate market picks up.

I would think though at the very least we would be at 51 million if you want to be uh if we are gonna be super conservative around that.

Okay.

Go ahead, Zach.

As I look at this and make sure I'm reading this right, uh Madam Clerk, but in 2023, it looks like the actual was 61.5.

And we're we believe the actual for 2025 is uh 50 million approximately.

Probably 51, a little over 51.

Okay.

But yeah.

In that two year period, that will still be about what 17 percent decline?

I don't think we'll have a 17 percent decline decline between 25 and 26.

Right.

Right.

I'm just looking at the the 23 to 22.

23 to 25 was significant.

Yeah.

That's when uh interest rates went up in 23, the end of 2022, 23, and that tanked the real estate market.

And we believe it's gonna hold or maybe go up a little bit between 25 and 26.

Okay.

Um and Madam Clerk, the um and actually, Commissioner Johnson, you wrote it down the what was three hundred and fourteen four.

Is that is that uh prorated for when the grant ends, or is that just an annual cost?

That's an annual cost.

Okay, all right.

So I get so TJ, I guess we'll take two months off.

Can we pro prorate that to take out January, February?

They put it out in the budget.

Oh, they already took it out.

Okay.

It's already been taken out.

Okay.

Okay.

Oh, so that 304 is the prorated.

Gotcha.

Okay.

That's for the entire year, correct.

That's for the entire year.

But um, but what they should be funding is for the positions look on for uh budgeted adoption.

I see for March June.

So the 305 was before the mile, but within a two months of the outer movement of funding for the end of it, but the grant funding, okay.

So they're all right.

Um TJ, is it possible, and we might want to take a recess at some point in the meeting just to kind of check some of these numbers, but is it possible to kind of hone in on like necessarily now unless you have it.

Well, I I just wanted to ask a question.

So when it says end agency, so is that the other jurisdictions within the cab?

Correct.

So not all of this is county revenue.

Because we do have to pay out to uh 13 cities.

Okay.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Okay, so we're really interested in the 12.6 million.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Okay, so is that what you have projected?

I'm looking now.

I I believe it's pretty close, so it's it's not far off.

Okay.

You know, typically we look at the actuals from previous years and project from that.

And then we do a more of a true up around mid-year.

Okay.

Okay.

So if anything it is closer to the because we had 14 million in 2023, then 9 million in 2024.

And then 2025, you'd project it 11.1, but maybe it was a little higher.

It is higher.

Okay.

In fact, I think it's 16.

Yeah.

It's going to be um 16.

Okay, though that's the highest.

7 million for 47.

And for transfer than it's 60 million.

And then for the fines and fees, it's going to be about three.

So it's about 16.

Yeah.

So I'll give a fine figure when I run the report.

Okay.

Because remember, we don't get the full revenue until the end of January.

Correct.

We get the full yeah.

But what it looks like is on the location that the county will get on the family about 176 million 17 million.

That's the annual transfer and the time for the fee.

Okay.

Would y'all um so just so we can keep the meeting moving, would y'all mind kind of giving us sort of the exact amount for revenue from 2025 for all those?

The total revenue would be 50 million.

I mean, just for the county record.

Oh, just for the county.

Do you have that?

It's between 16 and 17 million.

Okay.

That comes straight here.

I think we're at the phase where we need to know again.

We need to sharpen the pencil.

Um if we can maybe just let so if it's okay, Commissioner Johnson.

Um Madam Clerk.

And Madam Clerk, we'll be here for like about an hour or at least another, you know, hour, maybe an hour and a half.

So would you mind kind of running those exact numbers?

And then that way TJ can just check with his estimates and see if we're close or raw.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay, great.

All right.

All right.

Well, and we'll have you come back just to clarify that.

Okay.

Um, thank you, Madam Clerk.

Thank you.

Um so TG, I think we at this point we wanted you just to cover anything else that the committees didn't get a chance to talk about before today.

Um there was mention in the CEO's budget the voter outreach.

So if you could just kind of briefly cover that and then any other departmental requests um that you know we thought were important to highlight uh would be great to hear now.

And Zach and TJ can do it if you want.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

So you want to start with voter and elections?

Or do you want to just go through the the whole thing?

Right, and maybe going through the the letting.

Yeah, I think that would be a of value, uh, Mr.

Chair.

Um at the outset, and we'll let uh TJ talk us through it.

But uh what you're going to see is a budget amendment that does a couple of key things, and um not the least of which, and quite frankly, the most important, I think, is really dials in an investment on our health and human services uh type activities.

So you're going to see um a significant investment in housing, uh taking care of the unhoused and underhoused.

You're going to see investments in um health care in the form of contributions to MedCura as well as a contribution that is already identified for mosaic.

Each of those are ensuring that we provide um ongoing um available access to to health care needs and ensuring that it's in the right place at the right time.

So I think those are significant contributions.

Okay.

And let's um just so we're since we're going to go through these kind of in buckets.

Um you brought up health care access.

So we have the MedCura Health mobile health care unit, and then um the mosaic health to expand health care access.

Um Commissioner Johnson, any questions, comments on that area?

Um just a comment.

I think that that's very critical for our community right now.

With the rollbacks in the um for the Affordable Care Act um subsidies, I think that is going to hit our community very hard.

So I'm happy to see expanded coverage in this area.

Okay.

And Zach, the establish a new point of contact, does that just mean there's going to be someone coordinating it, like just coordinating that mobile unit with the CEO's office, or would it be health and would it be human services?

Right.

I I believe it's going to be a facility.

A facility.

Okay.

Well, what about the well the MedCure is for as a for a mobile unit?

I imagine mosaic is for the facility.

But for the mobile units.

So yes, establishing uh well, MedCure will identify, you know, how that um the point of contact.

And then we'll be working, of course, with our office.

Okay.

Okay.

So that will be coordinated through the CEO's office.

Okay.

Gotcha.

Do you have another question on this?

Is there a time frame on when, especially the McCure with the mobility?

Um that seems like a new operation.

So any time frame on when that would actually get operational.

I don't have a time frame as I sit here, but by by tomorrow I'll be able to provide some.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Um is there because we're, you know, there may be right.

Is you already know what I'm gonna say?

I think so.

And so we're gonna have those conversations to see if uh, all right.

So the 1.4 million for MedCura Health, there they might purchase a new unit, but we might also have some units potentially available.

Um, that's a true statement.

And I and I guess um will there be an opportunity to just and uh Commissioner Masaya is here, uh chair PECS.

Um so I imagine we would want to get updates on that program in PECS as it rolls out.

Right.

I I think right each of our health care uh related initiatives and and actually a lot of the stuff that we'll be talking about in the budget amendment will go to PECS.

Uh but the health care related um items as well as the housing related, uh we're gonna look forward to maybe scheduling in quarterly reports or something.

Okay.

Okay, perfect.

Um, yeah, I think um so I mean I think it's a great idea, and I think I agree with Commissioner Johnson that with the ending of the Affordable Healthcare Act subsidies, um either people will just have to pay more or they'll just lose their health insurance.

And so now they're gonna be going to grady or a federally qualified health clinic, which MedCura is, or Mosaic, which is basically this as you know, safety network.

Load a no insurance access.

Um it all interrelates um uh Mr.

Chair, because lack of access makes people wait longer, makes them end up in the ER.

And then we're paying that.

We're paying that, and then also the wall time associated with offloading personnel from ambulances at the ER because you have people who otherwise wouldn't be there if they were able to provide.

And then we have to pay more for ambulance capacity to deal with the wall time.

And we know how much the ambulance contract costs.

We know Commissioner Messiah.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

Just very briefly wanted to also share that at the state of Grady last uh week, um, you know, CEO and um Mr.

Valo and also um Dr.

Ferguson, um, a couple of others of our of us who are in attendance.

Um, but we heard from um the President of Grady essentially that they are operating in a deficit of 135 million dollars.

Um large yes.

Yes.

And in large part to um some of the federal funding that has been um lost.

So as we are looking to provide um, you know, dollars to you know, MedCure and Mosaic Health and needing to supplement um, you know, dollars to make sure that the constituents of DeCab County get health care.

I do want to make sure that we keep that in consideration as well.

Um, as I know there will be an ask um for gradient some need for some additional support because albeit they are doing the best they can.

My understanding is they're hanging on by a string.

So um just as a consideration as well.

And with that, I yield back to you, Mr.

Chair, thank you.

Great.

Yeah, thank you for mentioning that.

So let's let's just stay on top of that, Zach, because I know part of our grady contract is to expand a third clinic.

But of course, the question becomes you build a clinic, can you run it?

And operate it.

So um so Madam Chair Peck's let's stay on that and invite Grady to come in and tell us what they're gonna do with that shortfall, and hopefully they're on track with their third clinic that you promised us in the contract.

It's in the contract.

Um that's the health care access.

You did skip over the um Do you want to come back to housing affordability and work source, or do you want to whatever order you want to take it in?

Zach.

Okay, so we'll just make this conversational and and the housing affordability.

Okay.

Um many of uh you I believe all of you have had an opportunity to have a conversation with uh Dr.

Alan Ferguson, who is our director of uh housing, our chief housing officer.

Um what we're looking to do is um, and this is related directly, quite frankly, all of these items are directly related to a millage rate increase, half a mill, um is establish uh an allocation, an annual allocation uh that will be between 12 and 15 million dollars ultimately with housing to implement a comprehensive strategy uh aimed at dealing dealing with or addressing housing affordability uh issues uh related to the unhoused.

Um, you know, whether and then there's a whole host of items.

And the long-term strategy will be to issue bonds uh that will help not only in building affordable housing, um, you know, also uh managing programs to assist uh person, whether it's with down payment, whether it's uh taking them from uh living in cars into transitional housing, whether it's from um uh day center, uh which is something that we're talking about, where we take the unhoused, uh provide them a certain level of transitional um services that will ultimately put them um uh the emergency need to long-term strategy.

And no one can tell it better than Dr.

Ferguson.

So I'd like to turn it over to Doc.

Yes, thank you, Zach.

And yeah, uh you were you're in the on the in the corner here, and I said, come on in.

Come on in.

Um we have been joined by Commissioner Robert Patrick, District One.

Thank you for being here.

Um, yes, um uh Chief Housing Officer Ferguson, if you don't mind, give us you've already given that presentation and PECS, but give us just kind of the high level of kind of what anything Zach missed or anything you want to emphasize, please.

Sure, absolutely, and thank you, Commissioners uh for allowing me this opportunity.

Um, yes, you know, what we're trying to do is really advance and open up housing opportunity uh, you know, throughout the county.

Excuse me.

And when we talk about housing opportunity, we're not just talking about, you know, the production and the preservation of housing, but we're also talking about, you know, how do we serve our most vulnerable residents, and that means homelessness and the underhoused.

So already there are a number of different initiatives and considerations that we're contemplating and we're trying to move forward in a programmatic way.

I think that you know, the county taking this step, you know, not only sends uh message, you know, to our residents, but also it provides a very strong signal and message to the state, which is you know, the state of Georgia, we all know that Governor Kemp has proposed, you know, allocating $50 million, you know, towards homelessness efforts uh this year.

And you know, taking this step, this initiative, you know, to approve the budget and support these housing initiatives actually positions us well to really compete, you know, for those funds to augment our efforts and really kind of expand and extend our efforts in serving home the homeless community and the underhoused.

So I think we you know it's really kind of coming together, you know, for lack of better description in this perfect storm uh, if you will, we've been able to, you know, really kind of align and start building a really strong you know network of you know collaborative partners, um, you know, coalescing with various uh you know members of the community um you know in various aspects, but you know, as well as with private funders, philanthropy, you know, really kind of everyone is energized and motivated to see how they can support the CAB, advances housing efforts, you know, through during this time.

Um so you know, I've gone over the you know various programs, you know, with you know all of you and uh in detail um but we're looking at you know doing things to not only increase housing production but to preserve the quality uh affordable workforce housing that we have, looking to advance programs that really enable and support home ownership uh as well as protect our legacy residents through owner-occupied rehab initiatives, incorporating some service components in terms of you know providing our residents access to information regarding ARIS property, weatherization, you know, um, you know, preservation uh of their homes per se.

Uh and then again, you know, I can't really emphasize enough how we're really, really uh trying to build this strong ecosystem here and strengthen the current ecosystem here in DeCab County.

So you're gonna see us really engaged in capacity building, uh working with our nonprofit and in some cases our for-profit partners to make sure that they have capacity to address um the Cab County's housing needs, not only now but in the future as we continue to grow and develop.

Absolutely.

Um and just two quick kind of high-level questions that will open up to commissioners here, uh, Director Ferguson.

So could you just speak briefly about this annual investment and how it will be leveraged for greater economic development?

Can you give us some of those numbers of what we would be investing and how that would be leveraged for even more investment?

Yeah, absolutely.

So uh, you know, at the you know, the heart of what we do when we start talking about housing, you're really talking about places and spaces.

And so um there's going to we're going to use you know the resources of the housing investment run to really unlock other sources of capital, you know, both you know, private and philanthropic investment as well as you know, other you know, state and federal government tools to really amplify you know the system.

Uh so we're you know currently projecting when it's all said and done, we'll issue you know uh bonds that'll generate somewhere in the neighborhood of around 150 milli five million dollars uh in proceeds um over the next couple of years.

And with that and injecting that the ten years?

Well, the the total span of the program that we're projecting is an eight to ten year to ten, okay, you know, um, you know, type of effort.

Um but over those eight to ten years, we expect that well over a billion dollars uh in investment will be leveraged from that 155 million dollars in capital that we're gonna inject into the system.

And we think that we'll produce really well over, uh produce and preserve well over 10,000 units when you know when it's all said and done.

Uh so it's you know, seems like a big number uh on the front end, but it's actually going to amplify and allow us to increase investment and unlock investment in the county, you know, really almost tenfold when it's all said and done.

Okay.

Um and actually just remind me, so you know, TJ, when you look at this investment from the public side creating a billion dollars in new economic development, um, that does have future tax revenue implications as well, because some of these might just be, you know, they'll be added to the tax rolls in essence, um, where otherwise they might not have been built or there might have not have been that investment.

So is that something that you that you're taking into account, not for this budget, but for future budgets?

Right.

We haven't done an analysis of that sort, but we could definitely look at that.

Okay.

I think that'd be good.

Um and then just in terms of sort of the budget approval for today, Director Ferguson and Zach.

So we're really we're not getting into the the detailed line item spending of these um because we'd like to know that we want to go in this direction and then we'd want to actually go forward with the housing bond.

But I guess later on, as the program rolls out, the commissioners you'll come back with projects and initiatives that the commissioners will talk about in PECS probably budget allocations.

So there'll be more conversation about how the money gets spent.

Yeah, yes, absolutely.

So yeah, even when we talk about you know programmatic uses and allocations, um, you know, my plan is that we would you know conduct a number of work sessions, you know, focusing on different stakeholder groups, but definitely open to the public and our residents as well uh to you know chime in, provide you know their opinions uh and feedback on the programmatic efforts you know that we're proposing, the different guidelines and parameters, you know, to make sure that we're bringing things, you know, to the marketplace for lack of better description, you know, that can be really be used, leveraged and um and advanced uh and the market.

And so as we come back to you know, the board of commissioners when we seek approval for intergovernmental agreement with the housing authority, you know, to essentially enable the issuance uh you know of the bonds going forward, all of that uh information that we gather uh you know from these stakeholder groups um and revising you know our program guidelines, we're gonna provide that in a presentation, you know, to PECS committee, but then as well as to the board of commissioners, so everybody be fully informed and understand you know what we want to do, the rationale behind it, and understand that there's been some community conversation that's gone into you know what we're proposing.

Great, thank you for that.

Um Commissioner Johnson, questions, comments?

Comments, um thank you, Dr.

Ferguson, and thank you, Chair, for recognizing me.

Um I'm just I will note that I think it is time, it is highly time for us to be putting in investment into this housing and helping the homelessness out of the general fund.

Um I I know that's something that I was trying to champion for last year as well.

So I'm really excited to see this.

This is bigger than what I envisioned we'd be able to tackle to begin with.

So I'm I'm happy about this.

Um I think it's time, you know, our county services were typically, you know, police, roads, drainage, those type of things, but our community is wanting us to get into these um arenas as well.

And I think this is showing that we're listening to them, we're paying attention to what's happening in the world around us, and we're putting our money where our mouth is.

Um I'm so I I'm happy and excited to see how this program moves forward and looking forward to the continued conversation as this could get online.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I yield.

All right, thank you, Commissioner.

Uh Commissioner Massai.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Chair, for recognizing me.

Um I just want to say again in echoing of um my colleague here, the investment into housing um, but not on a generalized way, actually a very prescriptive and specific way, um, segregating the types of um folks that are on housed because there's a number of different needs in housing um specifications that they need just based on their circumstances and situations.

So that we are really investing specifically.

And so you had mentioned the road to home and um as many know, um the cab delegation, the CEO of the Board of Commissioners and staff were in Washington most recently, just getting back most of us yesterday.

Um, but to that point, they were federal dollars um in and around housing in HUD, and that's one of the areas that um if anything has been more strengthened um through this administration versus being um reduced additionally with road to home, that is a specific program that is um they didn't call it quest road to home.

That's our thing, that's our DCA thing here.

Um exactly in the trademark.

Um but you know, just making sure that not only we're providing access to folks that are in motels, hotels, but also that are living in the cars and on their street and in um parked on the street and just providing uh safety net and services for them as well.

So I commend you and all of the work the administration and all the work as a board of commissioners that we're doing here to make sure we're investing in our folks.

But that I yield back to you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Commissioner.

And we are joined by our other committee member, Commissioner Michelle Long Spears, welcome.

Uh we'll give you a minute just to get your things in order, but the uh we're going over the uh memo um and we're talking about the housing and affordability section, which I'll know you'll be interested in.

Um actually I believe that's the PECS committee right there.

Y'all three are PECS this year?

Okay, so this is mostly about y'all because this PECS is gonna be the housing committee this year, it sounds like uh Director Ferguson.

Um so uh Commissioner Patrick and then Commissioner Lockspears.

Uh thank you, uh Commissioner Terry, appreciate that.

Uh I know we talked about this uh individually, but just to hear you say it again, how does this impact the county's bond funding ability?

Does this no?

So this fortunately, you know, I think the county has been managed conservatively, maybe in some cases a little bit too conservatively, but from my understanding uh and conversations with our CFO uh Diane McNabb, we have plenty of bonding capacity in the county to address uh the county's needs.

Umwards, yeah, I forget the exact numbers she told me, but and you know, we have billions of dollars available and bonding capacity.

Okay.

And uh I guess as it becomes appropriate through the PECS committee or even FEF conversations on housing types, uh square footage, all the kind of details that we would love to hear information about, you'll be coming back to us with that, correct?

Yes, uh absolutely.

But that will also be a conversation as a part of the zoning rewrite.

Uh the conversations that you know I've had with uh our planning and sustainability uh department and uh director uh and joku is that rather than approach some of these issue issues on a kind of a piecemeal basis, incorporating them into the zoning rewrite.

So I'll I'm more than happy to kind of circulate some preliminary ideas we've had um in regards to possible modifications of the kind of uh court homeowner ordinance that can allow for some different housing types and things of that nature, and and like I said, there's kind of providing a framework for us to address issues around you know minimum home size, increasing you know, housing variety, uh and really you know allowing a more expansive uh uh menu, if you will, of housing choices uh in the Cab County.

So perfect.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it, Mr.

Ferguson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thanks.

Yep, absolutely.

Um and I want to just want to just re-emphasize what Commissioner Patrick was talking about, because uh and Zach knows this, yes.

The analysis I think that PFM had done maybe two years ago is that the county's bonding capacity is actually quite substantial based on our tax base.

And it it might be counterintuitive, you know, borrow money, right, from the ta you know, from now and future tax pace based on a millage rate.

But that investment is something that but for that investment from the public side, those economic development projects would not happen.

And because they if they do not happen, then nothing happens.

There's not housing units, there's not construction jobs, there's not um an increase in the in the digest, uh, which supports the overall you know, budget of all the county operations.

So it um it's it is kind of a miracle actually, leveraging you know, a small amount of money, you know, in theory for a a large investment that will pay off.

I mean, once you build a project, it's there, it's in the ground for 30, 40 years.

I mean, I guess these some of these housing projects are what, 40-year lifespans minimum.

Yeah, uh yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

You know, 30 in terms of you know the length of affordability, yeah, they can span you know from 30, you know, to 40 years.

Okay.

Um and TG, I just was reminding reminding myself that the um the urban three land revenue analysis that's in the budget document later, um, that that study is designed to get you the answer of how these projects and you know that work we're doing in housing and and also zoning will impact future revenues, which I know you'll be interested in.

So um that's hopefully that's something a way we can kind of really hone in on the data to articulate what this investment means in the long run for the county's tax base.

Um Commissioner Patrick, you have a follow-up?

Yeah, just one other thing to add.

I hope that uh transit ends up being a consideration with any kind of housing options we have in the future.

Uh it's great to have more people living in DeCAB, but we need to find a way to get them from home to school to the grocery store, work and back without uh making 285 uh more of a parking lot than it already is.

Yes, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Yes, and we had great conversations in DC with um the Build America Bureau on Monday, where we talked about the transit-oriented development and how we're um updating our transit master plan.

Yes.

And we have our housing plan and we have our housing bond.

This is all coming together.

And actually, when I mentioned our housing investment um effort here, uh, or when I was we were up there, um they kind of they kind of perked up because that's what they're they want to see dedicated funding sources that will go to support these TODs.

Um without it, um you know, some of those check boxes and their you know grants don't get checked.

Yeah, thanks.

And so we get knocked down the list.

Um, but they were very interested to hear how we move forward with the housing bond to Commissioner Patrick's point, does that support you know, affordable housing or housing development at transit um stations?

Uh awesome.

Okay.

Uh Commissioner Long Spears, go right ahead.

Dr.

Ferguson, we'll get a little cozy here since we'll be sharing a mic.

I hope that's okay.

Um first, my apologies for being late.

Um if you guys have already discussed um some of my questions, then so be it, we can talk about it offline.

But to begin with, um, thank you very much for bringing forward the housing initiatives that you have.

And then also just from reading the amendment and previous conversations about the desire to establish an actual housing office.

I think that is necessary for you as our leader and for us as the leaders of the county to really move this work forward.

So I'm in full support of that.

Second is um my understanding is that in this amendment document, plus in a previous document, there was the recommendation to consider this half mill rate increase that we will vote on in July.

And so our budget is due before March 1st.

So tomorrow we're scheduled to actually vote on our budget.

Certainly you'll need that funding that for the half mill, because it's stated in this memo to really lift up and then move forward with the housing work.

And so if we vote on the budget as is today, and then we advance to July and we don't vote that half mill does not pass, how will that impact your operations this year moving forward?

Thank you, Commissioner.

That uh that's uh a great question.

So if you vote on this budget right now, essentially it kind of secures funding for 2026.

Um, but what it does and if the millage rate increase does not you know pass, um, it's going to, you know, really restrain and restrict, you know, everything, all the plans that we have kind of moving forward.

So there are some programmatic initiatives that we that is you know absolutely essential that we get access um, you know, to the funding capacity in order to issue the bonds in order to advance.

If we don't have that, um we have no certainty of repayment and we can't issue the bonds.

So it's going to dramatically reduce uh you know what we can do in the housing space.

And it's just going to quite frankly delay and exacerbate some of the challenges that we have with housing affordability.

It limits our ability and our capacity to really lean in and do everything that we want to do in serving the home homelessness and underhoused uh you know population.

Um it's going to dramatically contract the resources that we'll have available to uh preserve existing affordable housing as well as is going to dramatically reduce how much input and how much influence we have in terms of creating new affordable workforce housing within the county because we won't be able to help unlock capital to energize production uh in the county.

So not that it won't ever happen, but it's just going to delay, and the more we delay the less output we're going to be able to generate, you know, going forward because costs keep going up, land costs keep going up, there's a cliff that's coming in the construction labor market that all developers are are going to have to address, and all of these factors are going to affect the cost of delivering housing uh in the long run.

Um so as a follow-up to that, and thank you for your thoroughness and your response.

So with the operating budget that we're looking to pass tomorrow, um how would the development of this new housing office look like if we don't pass the mill rate?

I don't have a magic ball.

I don't know what this board is going to decide to do in July, which is four months from now.

But what is in the operating budget right now, you know, separate from that, can you do between the execution of the budget on March 1st through the end of the year?

So do you have the money in the budget to prop up the office with the required personnel that you need?

Maybe I can try to Zach, if you want to answer that.

So here's how I would see it uh Commissioner Long Spears.

Once the board adopts the budget, and it is based on the adoption of a millage rate increase, we would plan spending based on what we presented, these things that have been identified.

Any bond resolution would come to the board as a separate item, and that's what would really commit the board to finding or the governing authority to allocating funds in out years to pay back the bonds, because that would be a separate obligation.

If we moved forward and implemented this budget based on a half mill increase and did not get the half mill increase, then what that would mean is these programs would be a one-year program and the funds would have to come from about 22 million dollars worth, would come out of uh fund balance out of reserves, and we would not have the ability to sustain that, right?

So we would not have an OL an annual allocation.

Um a lot of the funds that would be allocated to housing would be to leverage that 155 million dollars.

That would not happen without this millage rate increase.

But so we would learn come in July or so, if the board did not approve uh the millage rate increase, we would essentially go back to spending levels of 2025 and these programs that are slated to move forward in 27 and beyond would not be able to be sustained.

That makes sense?

It does.

And so um I just would like to comment that if I choose to support this budget tomorrow, that will not commit me to support the millage rate increase.

In July.

It is a separate vote.

I don't even know if it's legal to do that to try to push us into a corner and say, if everything you just said is really kind of going to be determined if we all approve or we get the four votes at least for the millage rate increase.

And so if it doesn't happen, you did mention reserves.

There's a possibility of being able to access some of the reserves so that Dr.

Ferguson can move forward with his housing programs?

Yes.

The intent is when the board adopts the budget, we will begin implementing the budget as presented.

If we do not get a millage rate increase, we will not be able to sustain that level of sp spending in out years.

So we would literally go to the reserves to balance the budget.

Understood.

Um in 2026.

Okay.

Well, that gives me some confidence, sir, that your programming will move forward.

That's really what I was getting to.

Okay.

My next question is so in 2026, you're saying the investment of 12 million dollars for the housing fund, correct?

Correct.

Okay.

So that's just prorated because it wouldn't start until April 1 or then 15 million after that.

Okay.

Yeah, it's prorated because um it wouldn't start uh, you know, until that time frame, but also in terms of the timing of the rollout of the programs.

You know, we've got uh some programmatic expenditures that we need to incur to really kind of you know build out the framework for you know everything we're trying to launch, and that includes, you know, everything from systems and um and working on integration, uh, you know, data integration, but as well as making sure that we have the right capacity uh in various departments to support this efforts.

Uh and um I would also be remiss if I didn't mention that um, you know, just the basic infrastructure rant, just application process, uh making sure that the programs that we want to offer, we are you know instituting, you know, some good application processes that we can, you know, have a good process, especially when we're talking about serving residents through owner occupy rehab, down payment assistance and things of that nature.

So um a lot of that effort, that front-end work needs to take place before we actually you know kind of flip the switch and open up uh for programs, and so those you know, programs will be rolled out, you know, as they're ready towards the latter part of this year and into 2027.

So um when will the affordable housing fund kickoff be active?

I know there's obviously a setup phase.

So would it be April 1st, May, or you just haven't gotten there yet?

Yeah, we quite have we quite haven't gotten there yet, but I am anticipating that around the same time when the uh completion of the comprehensive housing plan is due, which is around October, November timeframe, we'll also have this governance structure set up.

Um, because you in my conversations you know with the Board of Commissioners, we talked about having a governance structure uh where proposals regarding housing could be you know vetted, especially when we're talking about some of the grant dollars that we want to provide for high impact outcome uh types of initiatives.

And I'm anticipating it'll coincide, you know, at that particular point in time.

So I would say fourth quarter uh of this year is more realistic because I really want to make sure we've got a really strong governance structure uh in place.

But in the meantime, uh there are initiatives that are currently underway that fit within the parameters of what we proposed within the affordable housing fund that we know we intend to pursue.

And those are really around some of the efforts around homelessness uh and serving the under house.

Okay.

Uh and T TJ, did you want to add something to that?

Yeah, I was just going to say that the original request I think was for the 15 million.

It was.

And just as we were going through this and building the budget, we were trying to reduce how much we were taking from the reserves.

So that's why.

In the first year we thought we could, you know, do 12 million.

Um it's going to take some time to issue the bonds.

Um we don't know exactly what that debt service is going to be this year.

Um, the initial request included about 10 million of debt service and then five million, that was kind of programmatic.

So we don't think we'll need that 10 million this year, you know, all 10 million.

So it might be something that you know, once those bonds are adopted, uh, we'll know exactly how much that uh requirement is for this year and future years.

Okay.

So um if we're still requesting 12 million for 2026, but we don't really kick it off until Q4.

Why 12 million?

Would it be like three and a half million?

Or is it because you're gonna you see what I mean?

So if you take 15 million divide it by four, it would not be 12 million.

So yeah, so let me let me just clarify.

Um we s we still need access to dollars to you know build out that infrastructure and framework.

At the same time, while we're doing that, there are initiatives, you know, yeah.

There are initiatives that are currently underway and currently being planned to pursue that specifically address uh homelessness and underhouse that we want to advance.

Um so with that, you know, having been said, you know, I think we're going to use maybe not all of the 12 million dollars this year, but definitely uh significant amount of funds, and then the funds that we don't use this year will actually roll over into you know 2027 uh so that we can uh you know begin you know addressing, you know, continue addressing needs, you know, for the county.

Okay, so the funds will roll over.

Correct?

Yes.

Okay, wonderful.

All right.

My last question is you kind of threw me the softball there.

Um and you might have just answered my question.

So on page it's not numbered.

So I guess page four or five of the amendment under housing zero seven three hundred.

These are the only two items I believe in the entire amendment that doesn't have a dollar amount, not the there's one more creation of a community inclusion manager.

But most of them actually have a dollar amount associated with the um proposed amendment by department.

So one is housing investment bond and two is unhoused assistance.

Is there a specific financial request for either of those items to to prop them up to set them up?

TJ, you want to answer that?

Yes.

So I I think this relates back to what I was saying previously that we don't know exactly what the debt service will be this year.

And basically whatever the debt service is, that's what will be dedicated for the housing investment bonds, and then the rest will be programmatic and those will be you know whatever programs Dr.

Ferguson brings forward.

Okay, great.

Thank you so much for responding to my questions.

I yield back.

Great questions, Commissioner Long Spears.

And um TJ and Director Ferguson, maybe just um elucidate a little bit more about why the bond is key, because what you're talking about is some ongoing annual programs, but with the debt service, we're paying for the debt service over many years, but we want to have more of the money up front.

So you'll probably see larger projects in 2027-2028 because we're getting the money up front, basically.

So just explain that concept of it's some of it's annual, but most of it is to get things going earlier in the in that eight to ten year period.

Yeah, absolutely.

So probably the bulk of the resources, what we're anticipating, we'll probably get you know deployed between you know 2027 and call it 2028, maybe even to you know 2029.

And um and the the type of structure of the bond that we've been contemplating is what's called a drawdown structure.

So as we receive applications, as you know, we approve projects moving you know through the process, we'll be able to quantify that number, and then we'll issue bonds, the CFO's office will you know initiate a bond issuance and you know accordingly to fund those projects as we go.

So there'll be a ramp up uh, if you will, uh, you know, in terms of the funding as well as the debt service.

Great.

Um and we have Commissioner Davis Johnson on the Zoom.

Um Commissioner Davis Johnson, we're going over the housing and affordability section.

Um so if you have any questions or comments, we can recognize you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh and uh idea in my hand up looking at it.

We gotcha.

Uh yeah, in any event, um yeah, one of the things that I found at this past NACO uh convention is that housing is on the top of everyone's mind.

And that is happening everywhere.

So I just appreciate uh your comments uh chair about the bonds.

Um, you know, so we know we have to make uh sources because uh housing is a significant problem.

I think that uh Commissioner Terry, Messiah, and um and uh Commissioner Lone Spears has worked on tirelessly since um you all have been here.

So Dr.

Ferguson, I'd like to uh say thank you for giving us a roadmap as to uh how we can go for to uh resolve some of the issues that we're having in the CAB County.

So I just wanted to say that and uh I appreciate all of y'all's efforts.

And uh I think that this is where uh we need to be as a county recognizing the tough tough decisions that we have to make because it's a nationwide problem.

But as always, DeCAB County takes the lead.

So thank you.

Appreciate y'all.

Absolutely.

Okay, great.

Um I think we're good on housing and affordability section.

Uh Director Perkinson, uh so we'll we'll excuse you.

All right.

Thank you.

Um, any other Commissioner Patrick, anything else?

One one quick question, Mr.

Chair.

Um the governance structure that you guys are talking about uh and then the notion of drawing down as needed, that will not create an environment for negative arbitrage as we've had to deal with in the past.

Absolutely, absolutely not.

And that's something that we're uh definitely very mindful of.

Um so you know it'll it'll be in likelihood chunks, it may be a $50 million, 50 million fifty, something like that.

Right.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

That's a great point.

Um Commissioner Mesai, good.

Thank you.

Just um very briefly, and in terms of um what the costs of um the debt services is.

I know we're saying that we were uncertain about that.

I um however, I saw um in and around housing, I saw something about five million dollars.

And so is it is that an estimate, or we just don't know as it relates to this bond what the debt services will be at this point.

So I I think the initial debt service estimates were based on a flat repayment and issuing all the bonds at once.

Okay.

So that was going to be a 10 million dollar debt service.

Um, but as Mr.

Williams just said, we might not do everything all at once, which I would uh you know, refine that number.

Okay, fantastic.

Thank you.

I get back to you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right, um, Zach uh workforce and economic developments next.

So uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

And you see under work source and economic development, we're also looking for an investment of an additional 1.9 million dollars from the general fund uh into work source to cab, and that's going to go into two key buckets.

One is the summer youth program, uh, which is something that we have done in the past, and then that has uh been tremendously successful.

And a new thing, which is uh 1.3 million dollars to expand our operations in um uh training.

Uh something that we have found um is that the contributions by the federal government have uh not kept pace uh with the need.

Okay.

And in order, and it's really uh hopefully you see the theme here uh to uh help in addressing the needs of our residents um besides housing, uh job training is a critical factor in terms of uh uh allowing people uh to be more self-supporting and self-sufficient.

So this um uh 1.3 million dollars will be supporting a program uh which will have uh entrepreneurship, agriculture training.

I'm just reading some of the key things, EMT Academy, dental assistance, business development.

So we have a number of providers that will be uh working with um work source uh DeCAB uh to provide various training programs, 12 and 14 week training programs uh with the anticipation of training, you know, um over 300 residents uh in a variety of skills.

So uh we're gonna be quite excited because I think many of in many instances some of the clients are going to come from the programs that Dr.

Ferguson is talking about.

We'll be involved, whether it's in the day center, whether it's into transitional housing, um, and we will assist people um in getting on the road not only to home but to self-sufficiency.

So that's what is the providing some fish and teaching them the fish.

That's it.

That's it, and helping them build some fishing ponds.

And build some more fish in the pond and then learn how to turn fish into sushi and all of them.

We can go on and on that metaphor.

Um Commissioner Johnson.

Yes, I did just have one brief question.

So just to clarify the 1.3 million, those are existing training courses that we are expanding, or we are bringing in some new programs as well.

I think it's going to be an expansion on what we are doing, but without the same federal constraints and regulations.

Because it's from general from general fund.

Right.

So the job training will be similar in that it is job training, but the eligibility criteria may be greatly expanded.

Which is means we can actually train more individuals.

Absolutely.

And then we're also will be partnering with some of our local partners to get some of this training done, or is it all through work soldiers?

Right.

So I'm looking at Grady Hospital, Morehouse School of Medicine, Goodwill Industries, Georgia Sheep Merit Medal, a number of uh agencies.

Very good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Commissioner Long Spears.

Thank you very much.

Chair Terry.

Um question relates to leadership to cab.

We had voted last year on the 100,000 dollars per year for three years for leadership decab.

Is that included somewhere in the budget?

And if yes, can you point me to it?

Yes, it would be a non-departmental.

That's in the regular budget because you approved that.

Okay.

So it is included.

Okay, so it's not appearing.

I just didn't see it.

I perhaps just missed it.

But you're confirming it's there.

Okay, fantastic.

Um thank you so much.

Workforce and economic development looks looks good to me.

Very thoughtful.

Thank you.

Yield back.

Um and just one quick question on the summer youth employment programs.

So is that was that 600,000?

Was that basically what we did last year?

Or is this expanding that program?

50 percent expansion or something.

Close to it.

So last year it was 800,000.

So this is an additional 600,000.

An additional six.

Okay, correct.

Okay, perfect.

Okay, great.

Um Commissioners, any other questions, Commissioner Comments, questions on this item or line item.

Okay.

All right.

Um we covered health care access.

Um Zach, you can go whatever order you want.

If you want to want to go in order, right, so we'll just keep going.

Some of these additional uh general fund investments, um, um one million dollars for the we're characterizing Arts Council.

Um, that will be the function that will be under the parks department, but uh we're invest investing one million dollars in arts.

Uh voter outreach and education.

Uh there's been a number of conversations on the need to ensure that people clearly understand how to access and ultimately exercise their right to vote.

Um so we're uh looking to contribute funds uh to assist that in happening.

Uh one million dollars to establish a tire recycling program, and that's something that we're very excited about.

And what we're um been working on is establishing an entire um ecosystem around addressing uh the illegal dumping of tires and such, and what this would specifically speak to is a partnership where arrangement for uh the ability to create crumb rubber uh locally, uh so uh partnering with an agency to uh uh provide a location for tires to go.

Um the expansion of the Lifeline Animal Project, uh the contract with Lifeline, um something that we have been working diligently on.

I think uh we made a presentation recently in ERPS.

I think uh we made a presentation recently in ERPS or ERPS but what this speaks to is is significantly expanding our uh spay and neuter uh activities, as well as a number of other um initiatives all aimed at keeping um pets at home to the extent possible, of course, uh lowering the unwanted uh pregnancies of of animals, but um you know providing food and other activities for people to keep them their pets at home.

Uh funding of two paralegal positions to facilitate court dog cases.

One paralegal would belong in the county attorney's office, the other uh would report to, I believe the director of public safety would be in the it would be under uh Director Fulham, whether it's in animal care or directly reporting to the director.

Um food security initiatives.

Uh this is keeping what we have been doing going, but also creating a study where we take a look at not only what we're doing with Kashi and what we have historically done with the uh food distributions, um, but how, when and where can we implement food pantries, uh stationary locations that people can come and visit.

So we intend to overlay existing data of food uh deserts and and and work that is being done.

So I would envision kind of a uh needs assessment gaps analysis being applied to what we know in the space of uh food insecurity and finding out what's the best strategy to address that.

Um the creation of the community inclusion manager within the CEO's office.

Um that's a position really to assist the county in having proactive outreach and interface with our various uh um uh immigrant communities that we have simply not done.

We have not been deliberate about that as an institution, which is somewhat amazing when you think about it when you when you know how diverse uh DeCab County is, but this position we would envision uh assisting uh not only in many instances helping them grow businesses, uh have access to uh different information, partner with the county uh and make doing business with the county.

So we we see a whole area that would be uh uh developed and created through that position.

Okay.

Let's pause there and Commissioner Johnson.

Yes, I did have a question.

Um food security portion, um, are we also going to be looking at when we're doing the study and looking at the landscape, existing food pantries that are in the community and how we can support them?

Because there's some great ones.

Yeah, there really are some good ones that I think if we could uplift them that that would be easier on the county resources, but also have a great impact on them.

Um and also on the community inclusion manager.

I think that is a really good idea.

That's actually something we've been toying with in District 4.

We haven't gone public with it, but even for our office, having our own kind of um community group where we know, because we are such a diverse community, how can we directly impact and have those conversations with those community groups within District 4?

So I think this is expanding that.

Um, and it's kind of it's always good synergy when administration is having a conversation that they didn't know we were also having.

So I'm excited to see this as well.

That's excellent point.

And I would envision this position working very closely with your offices because in many instances you have events and and coordinate and plan with various community organizations, and this person would be able to be you know working alongside and assisting.

Understood.

I'm looking forward to that.

I yield, thank you.

Great, thank you.

Commissioner Michelle Lomespierce.

Thank you, Commissioner Terry.

Um I do have a couple questions on the additional general fund investments.

The first relates to the funding for two paralegal positions to facilitate court dog cases.

Um I just want to make sure I communicate this.

I did send it through email as well.

And thank you so much, um, Interim County Attorney for considering this position within the law department.

Um my question, though, pertained more to our public safety director.

Um I want to call you still Chief Fulham, but Director Fulham.

Um I sent an email yesterday, and it really was a result of a meeting with Madam Solicitor last week.

And so she was talking about the challenges that her office had to deal with in terms of animal cruelty investigation.

So she stated that her office is doing majority of those investigations, but she felt that it should actually be the police department to do those investigations.

And so the email I sent to you guys yesterday after receiving the amendment document from TJ was suggesting that we have a paralegal in the law department, because that's what he suggests and makes the most sense.

And perhaps instead of a court dog coordinator under police, instead make that a um, I guess an animal investigator.

How do you feel about that?

And Chief Pedrick just uh uh stepped out, so I'm gonna ask him to come and speak directly about that part of it.

Uh and just so you know, I've uh taken some time to try to understand this.

Yes, this is uh a very complex situation, and I did hear um that conversation that you had last week, and so I understood that.

Uh but what I did understand from the uh animal services perspective is that some of this information had to be gathered by them.

Uh obviously they're the ones who are taking custody of the dogs.

And so what I thought was having that paralegal, not as the only solution, but having that paralegal who could assist the the legal department uh would aid in the process.

And so I would like for Chief Pedrick when he comes to speak directly to what you were asking about uh that part that they play when it comes to uh these animals that have been taken into custody due to uh an abuse and how they would interact.

Okay.

So we can give just a moment.

Sure.

All right.

So um oh, go ahead, sir.

Mr.

Chair.

I I'd just like to offer this as as one point of clarification.

Uh the in the investigations, as I understood our esteemed solicitor general that she was referring to, were tied to the prosecution of people by her office.

And there may there may be a narrow focus on the portion she was speaking about, but she mentioned having her investigator do more than just the animal cases and the animal cases that she referred to would have been those cases where she's prosecuting a person who has neglected or mistreated an animal.

But the underlying animal would be dealt with in the work that we do in the way of cost of care petitions, other motions to deal with how long we're keeping the animal and those kinds of dynamics.

So there's a separation, and I just wanted to clarify that point.

I trust the police department's investigative work would be in support of the solicitor's prosecution of the human being.

But the other part that I believe our director was speaking to, they would have someone who work closely with us on all of the data that's necessary before we could go and file the civil actions to work with the animal that's in the shelter and keeping up with those dynamics as well.

And I think that's been a big part of what you were looking for.

Yes, absolutely.

And monitoring so that you regularly have an understanding of what this is doing to our shelter overall with how long animals are there and the like.

Well, thank you for that clarification.

Ultimately, we are shooting for not having these court-held dogs stuck in our shelter for years and going in cage crazy, and then they get out and then they euthanize them because you can't adopt them out.

So if you're suggesting then that you've got a paralegal with the law department, and hello, Chief Patrick, I don't mean to spring this on you.

Um, and then there is a coordinator who may or may not be a paralegal with the police department, then you guys can work together on monitoring the data, the processing, but then that takes me to another question is that animal services is not under police, it's under the public safety director.

Lifeline is a subcontractor.

So how are we going to make this work?

And I don't really see another point you said is it's either or, as you also alluded to.

So perhaps it's paralegal coordinator and an investigator, but they're just, I know we don't necessarily have to create a position, but there has to be some coordination with our enforcement folks, and then also lifeline as well, or it's gonna fail, right?

Yes.

And Commissioner, if I can to add another layer to this as well, because animal services is for the entire county.

So it's not only DeCab uh PD, it's all of the police departments.

We just had an incident recently in Brookhaven that you may be aware of.

And then is it made national news?

And so they decided not to pursue it, as I recall, but that was Brookhaven police that decided that.

So that's that other layer.

So it's not only uh the CAB County uh police, they would only be a percentage, obviously uh probably a large percentage of it, but we also have to have that connection between those other law enforcement agencies.

So I just wanted to add that.

Okay.

And Chief Patrick, do you have anything that you'd like to add?

No, ma'am.

Okay.

So um I guess ultimately my request then is that we've got the paralegal with law, which he is agreed to, and it's written in here already.

The coordinator under police, I would like to add an investigator to investigate these animal crimes that have occurred, and then um also challenge you, as I did the judges last week, to please try to coordinate with all law enforcement in our county to aggressively deal with these abuse, neglect, and abandon abandonment situations with our animals.

And of course, we're happy to support in any possible way.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Um my next question on those items is the um really more of a comment, the expanded services through the lifeline animal project.

I just want to thank you, Mr.

Williams and uh TJ as well for working so hard with the previous um public safety director, Director Lumpkin on the tiered um approach to that.

And I am super thrilled that you all did recommend that tier one.

And so I am hoping that the commissioners, when we go to approve the budget, will also support that tier one service increase so that we can more effectively ensure a high quality of life for our furry friends.

Thank you so much, yield back.

Okay, thank you, Commissioner, and just two quick follow-ups so I'll make sure we capture what you're talking you are interested in.

So we're good on the paralegals and how they're being distributed, but you're wanting just to understand and we can get more information, I think, Zach, on how the DeCab County Police Department and capacity in the animal cruelty case investigator area can support the Solicitor General's investigatory capacity.

So is that something that you all could potentially come back to maybe um ERPS kind of?

We're bringing it back to ERPs.

Sort of explain sort of how that strategy will work.

And you know, I know that's sort of we're approving the DeCab County Police Department budgets, which I think has opportunity for um programs to be sort of brought forward once the budget is approved, I imagine.

So can we just um plan to get more information about how the investigator capacity will work?

I think um maybe we'll come back, maybe a joint presentation, quite frankly, between um animal care, the solicitor and the police department, and just show how it flows.

Who who does what?

Okay.

That may be helpful.

And Mr.

Chair, a quick clarification.

I'm not expecting that investigator role and this budget.

I just want our um public safety director and police chief to strongly consider that in the future.

So perhaps it's a budget amendment we can bring forward in Q2 after there's an opportunity to discuss it and how it would be most effective and and how it could integrate with all of the layered entities involved in animal well-being in our community.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

And then you mentioned Tier 1 services.

So the 780,000 is an additional for the lifeline um contract for that tier one services.

Is that right?

It is.

And I believe that contract is before the board as we speak.

Okay, gotcha.

Okay.

Um say go ahead.

Yes.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

So um there's a couple of things just before I go into just a couple of questions I have.

I do have a suggestion as it relates to some of the concerns for Commissioner Um Long Spears, as we have the animal officers that actually will come to the scene when there is a violation and concerned.

They typically do the investigations, and those are the ones that are usually there showing up at court as it relates to seeing the process through from fruition, from uh essentially the seizing of the animals, and then um any court cases, maybe an at you know, an advocate.

So we have victims' rights advocates within the court system.

We have them here in DeCab County, particularly when we have a um someone that's been violated.

Um, there is an advocate, a court of point it sometimes advocate, but there's an advocate that usually will stand in um conjunction with the family, help the family communicate about court dates, help to coordinate in, speak on behalf of.

So maybe that may be something that's helpful um having the investigating part with the officers that are usually the ones showing up, and being able to have a designated advocate that is there to show up to go to court and to coordinate the communication and speak on behalf of.

That's something that I've suggested before and maybe something to consider now because they even have an opportunity sometimes to speak and be a witness as to some of what you spoke to as to the animals being in the cages for a while, and then what happens and it you know it the court has to go through uh due diligence and um proper notice, and a lot of times it, you know, they're reset for notice requirements and different challenges.

However, if there is someone that can, you know, speak to the delays and how that negatively impacts, you know, the animals to where they can't then be um adopted out and to be able to testify on that behalf, then that might be helpful to communicating that uh as well.

So just um a consideration in terms of not having an outside investigator, but the officers that are there allow them to investigate by having an advocate that could also communicate with, you know, uh the paralegal if need be and offer legal support where necessary.

Just a quick suggestion there.

Okay, uh attorney Phillips.

I just wanted to offer one quick thing that I hope helps this budget discussion I follow and understand, and I thank you too, Commissioner Spears, for trying to make sure everyone has what they need to accomplish the goals you're helping identify.

This is a comprehensive approach to addressing these issues that involves all of our cities, the police agencies, various prosecutorial entities, with all due respect to our police chief.

I hope he won't mind me saying this.

The police typically limit their involvement to state charges with animals.

When there are ordinance charges with animals, we deal with animal control.

I will stop there and say that getting you information through the assistance of this paralegal, working with all of our partners diligently to make sure that we're working collaboratively, we'll probably show some improvement.

We hope so.

And I I heard you loud and clear, but we're we're not gonna answer all the questions today.

We'll work to get you more answers.

I just didn't want to continue pushing without acknowledging that we're at the top of a rabbit hole that involves everybody.

And and we'll work to clear it up.

Okay.

Okay.

I think I heard um CL Williams say that we wanted to maybe kind of have a little joint session where we kind of go through sort of the the whole system.

Um central staff, let's start coordinating that, and if we need to do kind of a joint committee meeting or committee the whole, maybe I don't know, um, in the in the near future we can um start to uncover that rabbit hole um so everyone's aware of the process, and then you know, the goal obviously would be how can we support making the process more efficient, more just, more fair.

Commissioner Long Spears.

Thank you.

Just as a a brief follow-up to Commissioner Masaya, and and thank you, sir, very much for um your comments.

Is that there has been um discussions in the past of creating a program similar to like guardian at Lightham, but for animals.

And I think that's what you were kind of getting at.

So perhaps when we we pull together this joint meeting that could be a discussion topic is is creating a new program there.

All right, thank you so much.

And I appreciate everybody's care and concern for our furry friends.

Yield back.

Yes, Commissioner Massai.

Yes.

And so um then also I wanted to briefly just speak on the community inclusion manager.

And um thank you so much, um, Commissioner Johnson for touching on that and understanding um trying to get some understanding as to how that would align in our level of access um to individual NCO, saying that you imagine them working closely with the Board of Commissioners, um, because I had uh questions in terms of the organizational um chart, if you will, and structure of that inclusion manager, and essentially who specifically they would be answering to, you know, to ascertain sort of our access to that individual as well.

Um again, just speaking on the need for um that individual to make sure they have um you know close relationship and communications with the board of commissioners, and then you know, it's great to have a inclusion manager, um, someone that's dedicated to address these issues.

However, that individual needs support as well.

So um in order to address the actual issues that folks are, you know, um that are coming to them need, for instance, from a legal standpoint.

So um, you know, we'll get down to law and as we're creating additional positions in terms of paralegal in some of the these other cases, making sure that they're sufficiently outfitted with the um additional acts that we're placing on them.

But just making sure they have support to be able to properly answer without putting the county at any particular risk in terms of providing legal advice, because a lot of them need specific, you know, advice as it relates to statuses or experiences, but just making sure that they have the support necessary as they are providing advice sometimes of a very sensitive nature, whether again it's related to immigration or you know, some of the others that we've been dealing with, um just a consideration in terms of making sure they're connected from our organizational standpoint.

With that, I yield back to you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Zach, just on the community inclusion manager position.

So we're you're budgeting, you know, the the position, and I imagine that it would take some time to hire the person and for them to kind of start to um do their fact-finding and and discussions with stakeholder groups.

Um do you envision in mid-year more programmatic support for this office?

Because I'd hate to get create a position and then just have them exist without sort of any uh ability to kind of move some initiatives forward at least you know later this year.

Right.

And that that would be very likely that you know, once they're they get their feet on the ground, get an understanding of what's going on, then come back with, you know, here are some uh staffing or whatever type of needs to augment um what they're looking to do.

Much it's the same process we really did with the chief housing officer.

Um as well as intergovernmental relations.

So a number, you know, we get the get the person in, uh they get the lay of the land, and then we figure out how can we bolster them to make sure that they and their program is successful.

Okay.

Um and then just on the food security initiatives um for my committee members.

So um basically what we had talked about is at the very least um continuing the mobile food markets.

Right.

Um however, though I think there was the notion of expanding it to a third day that would cover um District 1, District 2 area.

Um so we're kind of having the North DeCab, maybe Beaver Highway, Pleasant Dale Park.

I mean, that direct that location can be figured out, but um that would cost a little bit more money.

Um and then the the um posture is to uh take back over the fresh on deck bus.

Uh Director Gordon is confirmed it is running and Larry Jacobs has confirmed it has insurance.

Um so the so it is able to be driven um and the Rataza would have to secure the driver, of course, but that would be sort of in the package.

But um are y'all is the committee good with in that 500,000 having the additional day, and then of course the the kind of taking back over the fresh on deck bus.

Any questions, comments, concerns, Commissioner Johnson?

Yes, I am in support of expanding um the services.

I think when we were having that discussion, we also um they mentioned how sometimes with having the three in one day is not quite enough time.

So can we also build in or maybe not maybe by mid-year, how can we expand the time if adding the third day may help solve that, but if we're already adding two additional on that third day, I just want to make sure there's not that time crunch and people are actually getting the ability to shop, because it sounded like there were sometimes they were having to cut off so they could move on to the next one.

So if we could look at that as well.

Yes, absolutely.

And I think um and I I think the offer remains for Rataza as the fresh on deck vendor wants to work with each of the districts to figure out what's the best flow.

So um I think the answer is yes.

And the the bus, hopefully the theory is that because the bus is bigger, they can have more shoppers than the sprinter van.

Because the sprinter van, you have to like walk into the van and it's like one person at a time.

So they think that they can serve more, but I think all of that is sort of flexible.

Um so I think what we want to do for each of the district stops is figure out is that enough time.

Um but uh you know the the whole the goal though is if we get three days in the contract, they'll have some um areas to sort of work within those three days.

Understood.

Okay.

Um the additional thing that was brought up was including dairy and eggs in the market.

So if there's more protein sources, um it wasn't that much more in the grand scheme of the whole market.

So um I think TJ, you ran some kind of ballpark numbers for 10 months.

Um, you know, give or take a month or two when the when the bus is fully operational, the drivers in place, the certain locations.

So what was that amount?

I think all in, so including the services that have been provided so far and then the expansion for 10 months, it was uh 314,000.

Okay.

And we said we were going to round it up 315, right?

Okay.

So 315 um commissioners, um, and then was that 315 plus the five?

Within the 500.

Within the five, yeah, and then the other portion will be for the the study, and then that'll leave some additional um programmatic support.

But I think Zach, the the study is hopefully gonna let us look at a broader picture.

So there might be some additional funding coming after the study that would give us more details on what other programmatic things we can do.

I would anticipate that once the study is done, we're able to devise a much more comprehensive strategy um that would um probably incorporate a lot of what uh uh Commissioner uh Johnson was mentioning.

Okay.

Um and Commissioners, oh, and uh one second, Commissioner Davis Johnson, I'll recognize you.

Um just wanted to add in.

So uh Rataza did provide um some ballpark estimates for the ten dollar subsidies.

Um however, just because we're trying to stick within sort of the budget that the CEO's provided, um, I think what we're looking at doing is um if district commissioners would like to put in additional funds for subsidies, um that would be sort of an additional layer.

Um I think it was uh about a hundred and twelve thousand if they sort of did it countywide.

So um we can kind of um prorate that for Y'all's district stops, so um that will sort of be an option if each commissioner would like to add X number of dollars for subsidies.

Um I think that can be done TJ right through an appropriation and it can be dedicated to that the contract with RTASA.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

Okay, great.

Uh Commissioner Davis Johnson, go right ahead.

Yeah, my question is this, and then I remember uh asking them some questions about other vendors that do the same thing.

Um and so my question is if we want to expand it and and maybe needs you know um we may give a bit of more personally down what we had recently talked about because they are relatively new, and there's others that have been doing it for a little bit longer.

And may typically give us about pricing.

Well, it means compared to pricing.

When you're talking about extending what we had initially talked about.

Yes, understood.

Um and Zach, in terms of the food um insecurity plan, um I'm and Commissioner Johnson ran up a good point that there are existing food pantries and other programs that exist in Metro Atlanta.

So I think where we were at was we didn't want the market just to end and it to have kind of a six-month gap where we're studying this something, you know, what we're gonna do.

So you know, in essence, we're continuing the fresh on deck program, which you know has been in operation for several years into CAB.

But to Commissioner Davis Johnson's point, you know, let's look at the larger ecosystem um and see how we can build a system that sort of supports all the existing players, and maybe there's some um cost efficiencies if we scale up certain programs and um like she was referencing.

Is that is that fair that the the study can really hone in on that?

Absolutely that's fair, and I think just the opportunity to leverage uh a lot of the good work that is happening out there where the county may not need to reinvent the wheel but just provide uh appropriate support um in various locations.

But um and just Commissioner Davis Johnson, you mentioned um getting meats added to the market, so um that is sort of similar in line with the subsidies.

So if there was a holiday or a special event where you wanted to get a turkey or a chicken, um Rataza can estimate what you need and how much it would cost per unit in essence.

And so that could be kind of added into district stops um at the commissioners, you know, uh choosing.

Um so hopefully that's an opportunity for us, you know, for like Easter or Christmas or Thanksgiving to have just additional um options for uh residents.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Um and then last thing, Zach, on the arts council.

So um and I know you're still looking at because we have the resolution that the board passed that you know wants the commissioners to have a little bit more sort of input in the arts council um kind of process.

It'll be hearing project ideas, but the ultimate approval of those projects will come back back to the Board of Commissioners.

Or are you looking for one allocation?

No, no, no.

No.

So where there's going to be contracts, because this is this will essentially be a division within the parks department?

Okay.

So the board will have approval of any contracts above 100,000 dollars?

Okay.

So for commissioners who want to advance art projects, this will be an opportunity for us to propose potential things.

And there's a whole things you a lot of things you can do under arts.

And the expectation is that the arts council will receive those recommendations and they will prioritize budget requests to bring back to the board for approval.

Right.

So they will prioritize they will come up with the you know events and activities.

Okay.

And where there is a contract to do something, you know, concerts.

And so if your question is, can the board how will the board have input into that?

We'll have to, you know, figure out what does that mechanism look like?

Okay.

Um but ultimately it would go through the process as does any other contracts really coming up through through the administration uh to the board where appropriate for a vote.

Okay.

And um maybe and I don't want to like kind of gum gum the works up because I know like the arts, the council for the arts does the CEO's initiative and you know, there's a lot of big big plans there.

Um would it be possible within that one million if we had in essence sort of just a set aside per commission district?

And it would be, you know, in conjunction working with the arts council, um, but uh in other words, we're not kind of all fighting over sort of you know, one big project or two big projects, and at the very least there can be some kind of district-related things, and maybe it's 50,000 commissioners um per district that would, you know, and we can work together on cross districts.

Um that way there's funding for the arts council in general, but we know there's some commissioner kind of directed um you know programs and and um whether they're installations or like you said, concerts or things like that.

Um Commissioner, when we or Mr.

Chair, when we added in uh our proposed adding into the amended budget, 100,000 you'll see down increase per commission district.

The thinking was that that could be used for arts or any other thing.

Um so that's kind of how we had um felt that this would give the uh board members an opportunity to invest in arts.

What you just suggested could be done, I guess if you know if we wanted to, like in human services, we have $350,000 in human services budget allocated $50,000 each per commission district to to do things.

So could we modify this increase or could we add $50,000 to the arts budget?

Same concept as is uh human services?

I mean, but we could probably do that.

Okay.

Well I just wanted to throw that out there for the commissioners to respond.

So um committee members, any thoughts?

I mean, there's a couple of different options.

There's kind of an a la carte menu here.

So what's the best, what's going to be the best for y'all in terms of facilitating art art programs and how you would like to see it run?

Go ahead, Commissioner.

So I think um the question is do they have the additional 350,000 to add to the arts?

But would that adding that 100,000 already to the commission district?

I think if that is a priority of a commissioner, then they can easily use that money towards the arts program.

So I'm comfortable with either option.

Okay.

All right, Commissioner Long Spears.

Thank you, Commissioner Terry.

Um so I like where you're going with this.

I think um it's a good idea.

We certainly don't want to in any way um instigate any disagreements among commissioners if they don't feel like they're getting an art installation or something in their district.

So figuring out a way where each of us independently can pursue um an endeavor or an installation in your own district, I think there's some wisdom in that.

Um my second question to you is um earlier you said that you can propose use the word things.

And so when you propose things, is that is there a definition of that?

Is it only like entertainment, such as a um a jazz concert?

Or would that include an installation such as a mural?

Or could it be a program, like an arts program or a study?

Like he's got um in district one, like a creative TAD, right?

Yeah, or study.

So is that been defined what that would look like?

Or or could you do that?

And TG, I think maybe we might be sort of operating in sort of this as an operational and less a CIP, but maybe it could it could be either, right?

Because sometimes a mural would be an uh an installation, but that might take months to actually get going, and it could go into an an another year.

So how would you treat that in terms of budget operations versus CIP?

I I think generally this would be even though it might be kind of in more in the nature of a CIP, it would be handled through the regular operating budget.

Okay.

Which probably makes some more sense.

All right.

Thank you.

So I think the answer is if I mean and Zach, maybe the Arts Council, and I know there it's the one million is still to be determined, but it's not like there's going to be some programmatic things the Arts Council will do this year.

That's correct.

And but if there is like an installation that might take past 2026, there's still an option to set aside that money.

I think there's still some flexibility there.

Right.

And so and we would have to ensure that that would in likelihood be a contract.

You know, the conclusion.

And so then the money would stay with the contract.

Okay, which would be a board approval.

That's true.

Okay.

Um, and then just in summary, um, again, I'm supportive of this.

I'm excited about the council for the arts, and certainly understand that it's new.

And so I think, you know, we'll have some learnings along the way about how to best approach um projects, installations, programs, initiatives just throughout the county, so that there is equity and everyone feels like their district is getting the attention of the arts council that I'm sure all of us would like a yield back.

Thank you.

Okay, yeah, thank you.

All right, Commissioner Massime.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

And so um I know that we've had a number of discussions ahead of the passing of the recent resolution related to the arts uh count council and the formation thereof.

Um my understanding that it was going to be mainly for entertainment and performance arts, and when it comes to visual arts like murals and things like that that would be uh erected and um the district commissioners um areas that that was still something that would go through the um commissioners.

So is that something that's changed or in in this initiative, are we speaking about uh entertainment performing arts?

Are we talking about visuals such as murals and statutes?

Or I just want to make sure we have a clear delineation since we've had a number of discussions related to it.

I think the function would be all of the above, performative as well as uh visual.

Okay.

Um and the going through commissioners, I don't know that that's something we're prepared to commit to, um, but it would be logical, obviously have some level of coordination.

Well, some level of coordination versus engagement and involvement.

Um so you know, particularly as we have like the South DeCab hub and we have monies, there's 25, you know, uh million dollars related to that.

What I don't want is you know, um to not have the level of input um we have, for instance, Candler and the public loan can't we have art that's supposed to go there as well.

And so I hear you saying that um similar to any other contract that if it's uh a hundred thousand and above, then there would need to be the approval of the Board of Commissioners as a whole and not necessarily um anything under that with the administration come to the Board of Commissioners.

But what I don't want either is the commissioners um in and just to be frank with all the development and what's going on in my district not have the capacity to have an input as to the art that's going in.

I love the idea specifically as we have Porter Saint for a performing art center and looking at the character of what can be supported and building on you know what we have in district three, how you know, so the idea of doing um some more performance and entertainment art is fantastic.

What I don't want to do is lose the capacity or just be an afterthought in terms of any art being erected in in the district.

Understood.

Okay.

All right, with that I yield back to you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

All right.

Commissioner Johnson?

I had a question, but it's not on arts council.

Okay, good for it.

Okay.

For the voter education and outreach, um, the increase of a million.

Do we think we also need an increase of security on election around election time?

Yeah.

Let me circle back with uh the VRE director.

If that's the case, we would certainly come to the board now.

Um I have not had that conversation with her, but you know, it did say point well taken.

And I think it's also to make sure that our residents are feeling comfortable going to vote, because it's very important that we encourage that.

All right, thank you.

I yield.

Yep, great, absolutely.

Um we're gonna have several elections, so if we get past this primary and runoff, and then for the general the it might be additional discussions at mid-year or just as we get closer to that election when we have a greater understanding of the terrain.

Uh Commissioner Massai.

And just a a quick point to that, um, there are a lot of constituents that were reaching out talking about security and their concerns about um security in and around their opportunity to vote and wanting to know what different they may need to do when it comes to preparing to vote, opposed to I know there's been some efforts in terms of um how to become a candidate.

And so the feedback that I've got is they care less about how to become a candidate as much as they want to be able to exercise their right vote um without being impeded.

So that's just as an F by I and a little bit of feedback there.

With that, I yield back to you, Mr.

Chair.

All right, thank you.

Uh, I have my hand.

Yes, go right ahead, Commissioner Davis Johnson.

Okay.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Yeah, I plan to have the um pieces make the director of election voting elections to come to come to so that she can give a briefing and give us some understanding as to campaign that they may have.

Uh one of the focuses that we would have on voting is early voting rather than having people come the day of voting.

And uh once they have that right.

But I would also like to see real quick.

Uh early.

So we wouldn't bring up that presentation.

We need both like today's complex.

We cannot check any of the water voter act.

Do you have a secondary item?

No, she's on the fly.

Oh, we lost it there for a commitment second, Commissioner Davis Johnson, you still there?

Okay, just uh flag.

I'm sorry, I'm in saying that I will have uh case.

Okay, gotcha.

Because better focus would be have people vote early.

And I'm sure that they have a plan for that.

And so I will have her to um and consent and ops as soon as possible.

Okay, perfect.

Okay, great.

All right, thank you for that.

Um and um Clerk DeBerry has to go to the Capitol in a few minutes, so why don't we bring her back up?

Because I think we may Okay, and then District Attorney Boston is here also.

Yes, I'll have a call you up next.

Um yes, Clerk DeBear, yep.

You got some more information for us.

Yes, the uh exact number as exact as we can be today um is 13 million one hundred and ninety-six thousand six hundred and thirty dollars.

And that's your estimated county revenue.

Well, that was last year.

Oh, that was last year.

For this is just the county portion.

Okay, for the for 2025.

Correct.

Okay, and then your but your 2026 estimate is 12.6 million.

It is, and uh again, that's extremely conservative.

And if any of the I mean it's r it's probably gonna be more.

And if the millet rate changes, if it goes up, it will change that number.

It will?

Yes.

How is that because of the uh the intangible and transfer taxes?

Oh, interesting.

Okay.

So the your projections for 2026 might go up potentially.

Well, they may go up.

I I believe they're gonna go up anyway, but with uh an increase in the milletry, they definitely will go up.

Gotcha.

Okay.

And then just to reiterate the 304,000, that is what you need in your budget.

For the entire year.

For the entire year.

Correct.

But you did have a revenue source through March.

Well, yes.

So do we need to close do we need the budget 304 or is there a we do because we took it out of our operating budget already for January and February.

Gotcha.

Okay.

And it's for the positions.

What positions were they again?

For divisions 11 and 12, the additional judicial divisions that were created out of the grant.

Gotcha.

Okay.

And these were grant positions.

Okay.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Any other questions, Commissioners?

Okay, no other questions.

All right.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

I just just since I'm here and you were talking about homeless, I just wanted to say that we are still getting homeless people in our office.

They come in to freshen up.

Um the courthouse.

Yeah.

In the bathrooms.

And they'll sit there, cool off in the summer, warm up in the winter, uh, bring in their bags.

It is, it is a it is a real problem.

It hasn't really bothered us that much.

You know, some other citizens may say I think they are just loitering, but if they're not bothering anybody, we just understand.

Okay.

They're not spending the night.

So the day shelter.

That's why we're excited that before the board as we speak is uh contract to do a day center on Covington at Peace Backley site.

So we're gonna we're gonna keep working on that.

And then on the elections, and I know Terry left, but uh for election days, you know, we have coordinated with the Chief Judge, uh the elections and all the precincts and and our staff and office.

Um we're legally to be on duty until 10 o'clock, but we're there until the polls close, but we have a system worked out so that any contest, any if we have to change uh precinct hours because of irregularities, that happens almost uh uh immediately.

Okay.

Understood.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

Um TG, did you have a chance to look at any of those projections?

I mean, what's our delta here between the 304,000 and the estimated revenues?

Yes.

So uh the revenues that we have budgeted are are rather close to what was projected for last year.

It's about 11.5 million.

So typically what we will do, though, is when we uh get to the mid-year when we're setting the millage rates.

That's also when we'll adjust the revenues.

So we could look at um, I guess if we're trying, are you asking about offsetting that amount?

We we could take that into consideration.

Okay, so you might increase the revenue projections.

We could.

We could certainly look at that.

I don't know that we can commit right now, but we'd like to if we can take everything that comes out of this discussion, and then we'll go see what we can come up with in 20 hours or so.

Okay.

Okay, got it.

Okay.

All right.

Thanks, Madam Clerk.

Appreciate it.

Madam DA, do you um do you have a time limit?

I do.

I also have to be at the Capitol.

Oh, okay.

All right, come on down.

District Attorney Sherry Boston, welcome.

And um, Zach, did you want to just go over what you have on the district attorney budget line items?

Right.

So as of now?

Yes.

After our conversation last week, um, and this is all in light of our budget uh you will see that we tried to fund throughout the the request, those most critical items.

So we did see in the DA's office that there was a position, a a um uh human tr human trafficking investigator, and that's a position that we believe that is currently on staff.

Um so we were supporting uh recommending supporting uh continuing that position because there is a person in that position.

Okay.

Uh there were additional requests for a number of other positions and such that we um just in the interest of uh funds we're not recommending.

Okay.

All right, Madam DA?

Yes.

Welcome.

Go right ahead.

Thank you so much, and I appreciate you fitting me in so I can get down to the Capitol for hearings this afternoon.

Um yes, so I I spoke with COO Williams.

As you know, in our original budget request, um we had uh enhancements uh that we outlined in our budget that totaled um a little over $2 million.

Um but when I came before Fab a couple of weeks ago, I had brought you a reduced request.

Um and that request I had called down to what we thought was the most critical, and that I'd called that down to about 1.2 million dollars for 13 positions before it was at 20 positions.

Umversations with um Zach, um what I am coming to you today is an even more scaled down proposal of things that are crucial.

I appreciate the fact that we have already isolated out that grant funded position, which was for our investigator who is doing exclusively the work around human trafficking as well as ICAC crimes, which are internet um crimes.

Um, and he supports and is the liaison for DeCab County with the GBI as well as the FBI.

And of course, as we know, we're gonna be doing a lot of operations, um confidential operations as we are having um visitors and tourists coming into our community for FIFA, so that's it continues to be incredibly important because we know these large major sporting events bring um more intense human trafficking.

So um I appreciate um the administration already carving that out.

So set that aside and what we're left with today, um, and what I'm asking um this committee to consider is I have reduced that that 1.2 million down to approximately 380, 800 380,836, if that makes sense if I'm saying that right.

Okay, which would be for five positions, two would be in operations, which I explained at our last meeting.

We are sorely sorely hurting when it comes to the operations of our office.

Um we have over 300 employees, five locations, and we are responsible for physical, digital, and a various amount of evidence for 10,000 criminal felony cases as well as an additional 6,000 juvenile court cases.

Um and um our operations department is mighty and small, but they are churning and burning and burning out at both ends.

Um we really don't have enough people.

So um two operations positions.

I am reducing my ask, which originally for our digital forensics unit, which I told you is also um uh supporting DKPD, our DKSO, as well as our other law enforcement agencies locally and as well as the GBI.

Um, and uh we needed uh six position, no, five positions we asked for.

I'm reducing that just to one.

Um not that we don't need those other positions, it's just that if I get one additional person, that's a little bit more work, and we can chip away at what the needs are, and hopefully um in the future we can talk about making sure that unit is fully staffed.

Um HR position to help to my right, uh someone you see all the time with me.

Um that is Lou Sanchez, my director of HR Finance budget and grants here, all of those words.

She is responsible for all of those things, and she has a very small team.

And remember, we interface not just with county, we have state federal funding and all the things and positions.

So the work that we're doing is not just with the county, we have to interface with all of those other agencies, and we are in desperate need of giving her another person on her team.

And then finally, we talked at the meeting about the receptionist issue that we have currently one person supporting all of our walk-up walk-ins and phone calls on any given basis.

So if she is tied up, people are placed on hold and the traffic is not sustainable.

And I mentioned to you that um when I was solicitor, we we always had two people.

The DA's office has only historically had one, um, and we are interfacing with the public at over with all the over 90,000 contacts a year when you count walk-ins and phone calls, and so we desperately need a second person at the window.

Um so the fourth, those four items, which are five positions, two positions for operations, one for digital forensics, one's for HR, and one for receptionist would total would have an increase of 380, 836,000, which I'm asking this committee to consider um finding to put into my um FY 2026 budget.

Thank you for that detailed breakdown.

And then was the 380, is that for uh uh a 12-month um position.

April first, right?

We start all of ours April 1st.

April 1st.

Okay, so it would be for um eight nine months.

Eight months.

Okay.

Okay.

Um Commissioner Johnson, any questions, comments?

No.

Okay.

Commissioner Messiah, nothing.

I I mean you can't.

And this is the part this is part of the program where you you say that you like the idea or no, I'm sorry.

I want to hear some feedback because we have to do that.

No, I mean it is the feedback is that we need to uh and I've been saying this in terms of the courts needing, you know, support that we um have some challenges in terms of um arguably folks can will complain about the timeliness of things taking place um related to the courts, however, uh or um answering phones and getting back to people.

However, there just really needs to be more support to be able to execute um a higher level of um customer service and um facilitate more efficiently and effectively throughout um our courts as well, and they need the support.

So this is where I support giving what's necessary.

Um, especially with having to interface our DA on a state level and a federal level and knowing what we have coming down the pipeline related to the World Cup.

Um also uh super I mean, it just increases in terms of um the level of responsibility and their level of of need.

So I support it with that.

I yield back to you, Mr.

Chair, thank you.

Okay, Commissioner Patrick.

Uh I too support it.

Uh I suspect it's gonna be a long hot summer with all the activities going on in the metro area.

And so I would be comfortable making sure that your office is uh staffed as we can afford.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um Commissioner Johnson, then Commissioner Davis Johnson.

So I didn't have questions.

It wasn't that I didn't support, I just didn't have questions.

Thank you.

Understood.

Thank you, Commissioner Johnson.

Okay, Commissioner Davis Johnson.

Oh, clerk.

Yeah, she also is and so uh I would just say that if that was made.

Uh I will support because I think that uh she does a fine uh job at the money that it's allocated.

It's needed.

But I will say that we assist it.

As well as the quantum getting that uh with uh uh constituents and address their needs.

So uh I know that the money that is less than it's needed, but I want to say that she already commander came to camp systems.

Okay.

Okay, great.

I think I'd I think that was a support for the clerk and the DAs.

I will I will accept that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

I I will say that.

I'll leave uh a fantastic.

Okay, great.

Thank you, Commissioner Davis Johnson.

Um District Attorney Boston, do you have um an updated handout for that three?

Okay, because Commissioner Long Spears will be back at 1230.

So um I just want her to be.

I brought sufficient copies for everything.

So let's um so we'll when she gets back, we'll kind of do our committee recommendation.

Um so we'll just have that for her to look at um when we come back.

So um Okay, great.

All right, well um I counted four votes, so I think we're gonna put this in the budget, Zach and TJ.

Um I want to make sure Mr.

Williams and TJ both get copies as well.

I think there should be enough right there.

Thank you.

Great.

Okay.

All right, seeing other questions for District Attorney Boston.

All right, we'll let you go to the Capitol and fight whatever you're fighting down there.

It's not gonna be as uh pleasant as this experience.

I can guarantee you that.

But I I'm I'm going to bring the fight as usual.

Great.

Thank you, Madam D.

Appreciate you.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right.

Let's um Zach, we left off.

Okay, I think we covered everything out of the the last little bucket.

Um so let's go down to public safety and workforce investments.

So under public safety and work source investments, there's two things that we're well, we're excited about everything, but in this area, there's two key things that we're excited about.

And one uh we will lead with is uh addressing issues in for recruitment and retention and fire services.

Okay.

Uh and so what we're going to be uh proposing, and we I think we uh articulated in greater detail elsewhere, but the long and short is will be page four has a little more detail.

Offering um a salary adjustment uh for fire uh rescue uh staff uh prorated for 10 months.

That's a total of 3.2 million dollars from the fire fund.

And what that is going to do is raise the salaries of um key fire personnel, not only uh at the recruitment um uh level and those who've been here, Chief Fulham or um Chief Carter's here as well.

Carter helped me.

Come on, come on up.

It is like 20 percent for certain employees.

I don't want to miss state in case they are listening.

Um and they but you see the housing allowance we talk about, the 600,000 allocating that, paying for the medical insurance, the fire annuity, each of those things are what we have done for the police department.

But hone in uh real quick, if you could, on the salary adjustments that we talked about, because that's going to retain those uh firefighters who leave us at critical times in their career.

Absolutely.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome, Chief Carter.

All right.

So um what we've uh talked about was what we uh trying to address is that we have a problem where we bring our firefighters on.

Obviously, our recruit just the recruitment process is about a 10-month process just to get just to go from recruit to firefighter.

We typically start to lose them right around that around where we well, various ranks of firefighters.

So you have firefighters, senior firefighter, master firefighter.

So between that senior and master firefighter, when they're really starting to gain their worth as far as their credentialing to be able to drive apparatus and just getting really the experience to start to add the process, they're starting to get siphoned off by other departments because what they've done is they realize as well that we have great training, they've got great experience over the last three to four years, and then they're moving on to go get greater salaries.

So with the work that's been done by um HR, TJ, COO, I think that we have something that will address this issue where we can then start to retain these firefighters.

We're doing a great job of recruiting, the recruiting team is doing a really great job of of getting people in.

But again, what we're doing is kind of spinning our wheels because we're losing them at a very critical rate uh when they are starting to when they should be starting to progress to more tested ranks.

So that's what it's addressing.

Okay, great.

Thanks, Chief.

Um anything else to add to that?

No.

No.

Okay.

Um can I go on, please?

Yes, let's stay on the on the fire piece for a minute.

So, Mr.

Johnson, any questions, comments?

Yes, I do have a question.

Um good afternoon, good to see you again.

I did get emails from one of the fire unions and there about how we can increase retention for our fire department.

Have they been made aware of these?

Have they weighed in on them?

Um I would like to know if this is this seems robust to me, but I would like to know if we've had a conversation with them as well.

Not with the union, no, ma'am.

We have not.

But tomorrow afternoon.

Right one.

Right, right.

Well, and then we will um as we've done with with police and others, um, you know, we'll make sure that there is face-to-face conversation that people understand that you know that the governing authority uh sees that this is a critical function of DeCab County, and we're gonna do all that we can to retain our firefighters.

Yes, and when Director Fulham was Chief Fulham last year, we did have a conversation one-on-one about this.

Um I'm happy to see that the administration has taken this to heart.

I think it is very important for us to increase that retention for our fire department at the same way that we're doing that for our police department.

Um, all of our first responders, once we're putting those investment dollars in that training, we want to, you know, we want to keep them.

We want them here.

So I think this is really robust and a good a good plan forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um other comments, questions, Commissioner Messiah?

Thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

And just briefly, um I know that um when um Chief Fulham was at the helm, um, we needed some additional um fire trucks.

And so do we still have that need?

I'm I'm seeing you yes, go ahead.

Yeah, I see that the shaking in the head, uh either one of you.

Well, I'll speak to um my time in the position.

So as far as the fire trucks are concerned, uh the county's done uh an outstanding job really in keeping uh pace uh with the replacement.

Uh I was just talking to uh uh Chief Carter, I believe it's somewhere how many are those uh 12 trucks are gonna possibly be delivered this year.

Now those were trucks that were purchased uh and that the board approved uh approximately two and a half years ago.

And and you have heard me talk about this, uh the the pace of building fire trucks these days.

Um it's likened to building an aircraft carrier.

Uh it takes anywhere from three, in some cases, longer years to get them in.

So uh once again, 12 of those trucks that uh the board approved several years ago are due to be delivered this year.

And there are several other trucks, Chief Carter can speak to the other trucks that are already uh in production.

Go ahead.

Yes.

So uh in the in addition to those uh 12 engines, we also have two aerials that will we'll probably be receiving those in the next two months.

They are completely built, they're just being outfitted with equipment as well.

So uh as I were at the Fulham stated, um, the work we've done with fleet to stay on top of getting these trucks, the biggest hurdle that we have is the build-out time.

So we're doing great.

And so thank you for that.

And and to that point, um again, you know, this is um an example of you know, um, the dollars that our constituents spend to allow the the delegation to travel and get additional education, but while at NACO um did um discover that there is um at this point a litigation that's going on, and I see the both of you shaking your head so you're fully aware of it.

Fantastic, because we will have opportunities, of course, to um you know, be able to reduce costs for our constituents and where um there may be some challenge with challenges with the costs unnecessarily.

If it's an opportunity for us to be able to recoup it on behalf of our constituents, all the better.

But essentially what's happen what had happened or alleged to have happened um and what is in litigation now is the claims that there are um several manufacturers that intentionally delayed um the timing in terms of the production of trucks in order to increase the demand in order to increase the costs.

And so there are several counties throughout the nation itself dealing with that exact issue.

So since you have a familiarity, it seems like we've looked into whether or not we're purchasing vehicles from that manufacturer.

Um I'm not familiar with the exact manufacturers that are going that are being named in the lawsuit.

Um but when it comes to manufacturers, they're not there there is a limited amount of manufacturers so um that bill, you know, quality trucks.

We do look to get some of the, you know, get quality equipment.

And so um as far as the litigation and those that have been named and with those allegations, I'm not familiar with that.

But I will say that the build-out times from what we were typical, what was normal, they have drastically gone up.

Okay, fantastic.

So they're increasing.

And we will follow up on offline on you know those other concerns, but thank you so much for being aware of it, staying on top of it, and is I'm glad to hear that we're making sure there is sufficient vehicles for our firefighters on the road.

With that, I yield back to you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And maybe uh County Attorney Phillips can look into that.

Litigation, I don't know if it applies to us, but I did I did not go to that meeting, so I'm glad you did.

Commissioner Messiah.

We were we split into different committees.

Um nothing beyond just to support anything you guys need for your organization to continue to be successful staffing or equipment wise.

Thank you, sir.

Okay, great.

Is Commissioner Davis Johnson still with us?

She is she doesn't have to be.

Yes, so keep going down the underwork for section.

Yes, on work under workforce investments in addition to the um investments in our uh firefighters.

Uh we are also looking to invest in our employees who are paid the least, quite frankly.

And so we will be increasing our living wage or minimum wage for county employees to $19 per hour.

I think the current is about 1760.

$17.68.

Uh so we will be uh giving those employees at the uh at the lowest end of the pay scale, um, you know, a dollar thirty-eight for you know thirty raise.

So that's something we're excited about.

Okay.

And can you just um briefly outline what are the main departments being impacted?

And could it be sanitation parks, libraries, some in watershed?

Okay.

Okay.

So really a lot of frontline workers.

Oh, absolutely.

So these are these are the front-facing workers who interface with the public, absolutely.

Wonderful.

Great, awesome.

That's really great to hear.

Thank you for that.

Commissioner Johnson added.

Yes, Commissioner Johnson.

Question related to this, but I I don't see it.

Is there a cola increase budget?

At this at this point, we have not baked in a cost of living.

Uh that's something we will look at uh maybe towards mid-year.

But the funds simply aren't there.

Okay.

Understood.

Thank you.

Okay.

So we'll continue on, proposed amendments by department.

We've talked about the creation of the community inclusion manager.

So we've we've covered that.

The uh transfer, and this isn't uh not a new cost.

Um of this is just organizational.

Um but uh cost center for the communications budget, uh removing that out of the CEO's office, creating its own budget.

And we're looking to create to establish a standalone business unit that uh incorporates communications assets from throughout the county, uh much more of a centralized uh business unit.

We feel that will give us uh a better uh ability to communicate effectively to uh have uh uniformity of message uh to ensure that information that needs to be getting out is getting out uh more quickly.

Um next is Board of Commissioners.

We talked a little bit about that earlier, the uh increase of the uh individual district budgets by 100,000 dollars.

Uh the intent of that is for um whether it is arts or any other initiatives that the board members uh would like to invest in.

Uh you're able to do that uh with an additional $400, $100,000.

And I think that we the allocation up to 400.

That's correct.

It's $400,000 uh discretionary uh fund for each commissioner.

Um commission security, we added that in, and that's really a result of a change that was made this past year where we found many instances we just don't have uh law enforcement or on duty uh personnel to work at different events, so uh we've asked commissioners to um hire off-duty officers, and so this gives them some funds to make that happen.

Okay.

Uh and the law department creation of a senior consultant position to act as legal office manager.

Um this is simply uh to assist uh the law department in oversight and management uh of the uh myriad of functions and cases and such.

Um that will be a great help to the law department.

We talked about the court dog coordinator earlier, so that's just identifying that position.

Okay.

And so now we're just going through each department.

The communications we talked about, the transfer uh and to create this business unit and the 525,000 that has historically been in nondepartmental, but has also always been spent in uh DCTV operations.

Okay.

Uh GIS, this almost $600,000.

This is contractual obligations that they have had.

Um, and we're not sure if it just wasn't included in the original budget.

Okay.

But this is for ongoing software support.

Okay.

Uh libraries.

And we did talk about checking who is using the software licenses.

Right.

Well, and that's something that's the same.

They were not paying for the ones that are.

Well, we're going to be doing that.

The IT director will be doing that sort of thing throughout the county.

Uh libraries landscape transition plan.

That's something that we have talked about in the past.

The board approved the transition plan, so we're just funding that.

Wellness coordinator.

Um, and this is something I'm particularly proud of because uh we created this uh with uh Michelle Waldorf originally, and she's done an outstanding job, and this is just adding um uh assistance uh to continue to uh promote uh healthy workplace.

So that's what that's about.

The zero premium health insurance for firefighters, this is part of what we just talked about.

Um this is uh something that we feel that the firefighters will uh will help attract folks because they're not going to be paying uh their premium for health insurance, much like we're doing with police, it's the same thing.

The ATT carbine contract, uh, that is supporting the uh 911 operation.

I think that's something that was simply missed in their original submittal.

Um we talked about photo registration and outreach.

The sheriff's office, uh what we have done is took a look at her request uh, and uh these are what we are prepared to support.

Uh the weapons, of course.

Um we believe that that um well we we we need to support uh their their uh having weapons in these contracts.

We think these are active contracts that simply need additional funding on them.

So that's why we're proposing each of those.

The in-house maintenance and repairs for juvenile court.

Um we did not have future or additional conversations, but uh our thinking was it is a relatively low dollar, and if this is something that uh they feel gets them to address issues more quickly, that's something that we have no issue with supporting.

Okay.

Um then the Superior Court, senior judges.

Um was the 15 I'm drawing a button.

I think they were requesting 254,000 for software.

And it says 122,000.

So is there an opportunity to get them started and to check in on the year?

I believe that was a hardware and software request and the software of 122, and what we're looking to do is fund hardware replacement through our IT department.

I see.

Okay.

So you think that there will be that will be there will just be through the IT department.

Right, or they'll be able to, right.

And IT will prioritize a lot of those those requests.

So, you know, it may be that people have an ask, but there needs to be an assessment as to when it could be reported.

Okay.

And Zach, I'm going to have you go through all of them, and then we'll open it up for because we had a hard stop at one.

So keep going, keep on going.

Project Pinnacle.

Um we've discussed that in the past.

This is something the board has funded historically recidivism uh reduction program.

Uh again, in State Court, you see the thing with software.

Um we're supporting uh the purchase of of software, but the same would hold true for any hardware requests.

The additions to the fleet, uh the Marshall's office and the uh probation uh office did a great job articulating what uh their need was and what we were proposing is replacing those pool vehicles.

This will put those vehicles on the um vehicle replacement uh plan in the future.

Okay.

Um so that the funding will be there.

So that's what we have done for each of them.

Okay.

Uh solicitor, the quality of life unit.

I think we had extensive discussion uh there, and we're recommending the 227,000.

Um the DA will will maybe come back to that.

This is what we were supporting.

Um we've had additional conversation here today, and we can revisit that lifeline contract we talked about.

The three positions uh in the public defender.

Um those are things that we were um going on and supporting based on the case that was made here, the court dog coordinator we've talked about.

The interface community immersion program as a program that's been uh ongoing in the police department, and that's something that uh we're supportive of.

Court would again software with magistrate court.

Okay.

Fire we've talked about planning and sustainability, an additional arborist position.

Uh that's something that's a kind of a demand that we often face out in the community and and you know, more need for Arboris.

Um so we're supporting adding a position, and we just need to get and keep them filled.

Um creation of engineering position, uh specializing bike press pedestrian infrastructure, uh, adding that to transportation.

Um that is again just uh um in support of uh various uh methods of transportation helping us make our communities more walkable and bikeable.

Economic development, the chamber is something we've done on an annual basis, and this land value review analysis, uh, both of those uh kind of support the economic development effort.

Okay.

The uh beautification, uh this was a miscommunication type thing in terms of the landscape contract.

Uh so the funding we're just putting back funding that uh should have been the original budget.

Um the meadow partnership, that's a small dollar, but that's for flowers.

The place looked pretty uh housing uh bonds.

We've we talked about the housing investments, human services, a replacement of a passenger van with a wheelchair lift van for central to cab.

Uh that's simply interesting enough, they have a uh a vehicle that doesn't have uh appropriate uh ADA compliance.

Well, I am not gonna say appropriate ADA, it just doesn't have a wheelchair lift, so we're gonna make sure that they get soccer in the streets, uh it's an ongoing program.

And then we've talked about each of these other in nondepartmental.

This is just where the money would be housed.

Okay.

Um but we've discussed those.

Okay.

All right.

Um so commissioners, these are all the sort of the individual department amendments.

Um let's open up to committee members, Commissioner Johnson.

Yeah, I just have one well two questions.

One clarification for mosaic.

Should that also be in the nondepartmental?

I don't see that one listed.

I think it's already there.

Um it was in the initial budget.

It wasn't the initial budget.

So this is just the increases that is.

Yes, ma'am.

And then outside of this, when would we get the CIP list?

I know that's ongoing.

Right.

So, TJ.

Right.

So the the goal with the CIP list is to have the recommendation by probably the summer.

This summer when we're probably having the mid-year discussions.

Understood, thank you.

Right.

And and just a quick point while we're waiting for that, though.

There will be, as a matter of fact, I anticipate this next agenda to have a number of splossed capital items uh that will be coming for health centers and uh police stations, stuff like that.

So we're still going to be moving on, fixing things while we develop this CIP.

Right.

And I think some of the commissioner requests were more put in the CIP list.

So like fix uh complete and done air park for one and district four.

So just curious to see where that's going to land and when we'll get that information.

I yield, thank you.

Absolutely.

Uh Commissioner Long Spears.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Chair.

Um I do have some questions.

The first question relates to the um facilities.

Libraries landscape transition plan of 383,000.

Apologies, I had to step out briefly for another meeting.

Is that the library landscape transition plan for all of the libraries in our system or two per district?

Which is the planning all yeah.

It was the first um like seven.

Community input planning, that type of thing.

No, it's actually to do the landscapes.

Oh, actually, oh good.

Yeah.

I think uh when the when we passed the resolution, the first phase um every district was covered.

Okay, but was that two branches per district, is that right?

Well, I mean, the the whole plan is for all the libraries.

Okay.

Um, but it was broken into phases.

So um, Zach, this is the first phase of the first seven libraries, if I'm not correct, if I'm not mistaken.

So we can verify that though from Rodney.

Yeah, okay.

So which libraries in District 2?

Is it Decatur or TOCO or I think it's TOCO.

Okay.

Yeah, but Rodney has the actual Yeah.

Just if you'll send the list of the seven libraries included in phase one, that would be fantastic.

Um the next question is the wellness coordinator support internship program.

I wholeheartedly agree with you.

I think that Michelle Waldorf has done an excellent job with evolving our wellness program and getting staff excited about it.

So that's wonderful.

So I guess you are um requesting for her to have a coordinator.

Is that right?

An actual person to sit to help her.

Yeah, these are staff.

Wonderful.

I know she would be so excited.

And then the internship program.

So is 100,000 enough to a support uh coordinator, and two to lift up an insur internship program.

It I think that that was her, so her initial request was for 100,000.

Um, we could ask her maybe to give us more details, but I think it was just a let's start there and see how far we can get.

But it but the key point, Commissioner Long Spears was to give additional capacity so that um there can be more programming across all the different sites that she goes to, because she does go to every sort of county facility.

I think it's at this point like seven different locations throughout the month.

Um so it's to provide more support there in general.

Understood.

Thank you.

My next um comment and question relates to superior court.

My understanding is that the original quest was for $254,000 for software and equipment because they have these technical issues in the middle of trial and they're not able to stop, wait for, you know, put do an IT ticket, have someone come over.

And so I'm wondering if the board would reconsider including the four full $254,000 into their request.

And I think that's a good question.

From the superior court.

So you were saying that the IT department and their budget would pick up the gap there.

You know what I mean?

So IT is going to have to prioritize and assess uh the state of repair of the hardware before determining a replacement.

So if the board was interested in ensuring that this software or this hardware was replaced, I would encourage us to, you know, we can go back and take a look at the entire request and maybe call out what is is crucial hardware.

I mean that that's a way of guaranteeing it as opposed to, you know, when can IT evaluate fund it?

So the current um hardware that's included in the budget is for 155,000, and then the amendment includes the court-related software of 122,000.

That's correct.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

All right.

I will do a little more homework into that and may have more comment or feedback on that tomorrow.

Um my next question goes to the interfaith community immersion program of 75,000.

So that's in it, you stated that's been an ongoing program, so that's an additional 75,000.

Yeah.

Yeah, Chief Pagework has participated in that over the years.

I don't think it's actually been done in maybe two years.

I think the idea was to bring it back because when we were talking about the um sort of the liaison positions, that was one uh thing that Chief Pedro had highlighted as the police are actually out going with the interfaith community and all the different religious um organizations and leaders.

Um I I think the I believe the programming funding was to do at least two separate immersion um weekends, as they call it three days, I think is sort of the average, um, which commissioners are encouraged to participate in.

Oh, okay.

Um it's meant to be kind of a community leaders with police and public safety.

But do you want to add anything to that?

Yes, sir.

I mean, it was a great program.

Oh, sorry.

I didn't realize I was talking that.

I apologize.

Yes, it was a great program.

I did uh probably 10 years ago as the precinct commander in Tucker.

Uh we had the Clarkson area, and it was uh brought to uh to my attention.

I did it um by myself.

It was uh it was very eye-opening.

I mean, it was with uh many different faith based, but uh you visit with the the mosques, uh the the Sikh temples, um, all of the different faith-based um organizations.

Um you uh dine with them, you spend days with them, um basically sharing information.

There's different work groups.

Uh so it was an an amazing experience to everybody understand and have that cultural awareness uh in all of our diverse communities.

So I fully support it.

It was um a great program.

I've got uh great friends, even today uh that I developed through that that reach out to me directly uh still today.

So uh it's something that I think is amazing for any officer or any community member that wants to uh learn more and and have that partnership with with those communities.

Absolutely.

Um thank you for that.

It sounds like an amazing program.

And please let me know how the District 2 office can support.

And you know, we'd certainly love to engage in any way that we are able.

All right.

Um moving on to moving on to fire and TJ, I've definitely sent a series of emails to you, and I know that you were working diligently on this.

Um could you talk through, and I realize we're we're running long, but just briefly, what the compensation package will look like for our fire rescue personnel.

I see that you've got, you know, um like the buckets, if you will, of salary adjustments and pay incentives for education training certifications of 500,000.

But how will each um fire rescue employee benefit from what you've proposed?

Oh, hello.

How are you doing?

Welcome.

Thank you.

Okay, got it.

Good afternoon.

Um HR working with um FIRE conducted a salary survey um to ensure that our salaries were competitive.

Um we are pretty competitive at the entry-level rate, but we want to be the leader.

So based on the salary survey, we are recommending to move our entry-level pay from $53,000, $40 to $55,000.

And we will be leading Gwinnett County, City of South Fulton, Cobb, and also um Gwinnett.

We also looked at our other ranks firefighter, firefighter senior, master, operator, and captain.

And we also looked at our um the ranks that we were having people leave.

People were normally leaving between year three and year nine.

So based on that, um we suggested providing a a pretty decent bump when the firefighters get to captain.

That's where people were starting to leave.

So we're suggesting a 20 percent increase for our captains.

And that will bring us really close to market with this with the 20 percent.

So moving captain to 20 percent is gonna cause some compression.

So, in order to alleviate the compression, we're gonna move the ranks above that by 10 percent.

All right.

Um, thank you for that.

What what might be helpful is I can just forward you the request I have been sending to TJ and thank you for working on it, so that you could provide me the individual um impacts of this additional funding will have.

And if you need to line it up line item by rank and include a rationale or budget detail, that's fine as well.

So the housing allowance, it looks like there's six hundred thousand from the fire fund plus 48,000 from general funds.

So I'm assuming that would equal 648,000 for the housing allowance.

What is that housing allowance?

So currently we're mirroring the strategy with police.

It'll be $500 a month if they live in the cab.

We have around 100 firefighters that live in the cab.

Is it rent or own?

Yes.

If they live in the cab.

About $100 a month.

Awesome.

Same model as the as police.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

And I will I won't ask any more questions.

I'll just shoot you an email.

I know we're limited on time.

Um the additional arborist position that takes us to how many arborists?

I believe three, but it might be four, we'll verify.

Three or four.

Okay.

Would you shoot me that?

It's at least three, but this will be four.

Okay.

All right, great.

And then um you confirmed under economic development leadership to cab 100,000 is already woven into the budget.

Um Director Ferguson responded to my questions on housing.

The soccer in the streets, the 50,000.

What um what is that for exactly?

Um, that was I think that was related to this the World Cup activities that they wanted to do so.

But I mean, is it a software?

Festive party event kind of.

Okay.

I understand.

Um thank you for including the replacement passenger van for Central to Cab Senior Center.

They will be super duper excited about that.

Also, thank you for including MedCura.

That was something I had recommended.

And that exhausts my questions.

Thank you kindly.

I yield back.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

All right.

Um, Commissioners, any other additional questions, comments?

Yes, Commissioner Side.

Thank you so much.

Um, I want to know presently, do our um sanitation workers um that are in the back of the trucks, do they receive hazard pay presently?

No.

No, they do not.

They don't.

All right.

Do we know how much the cost is for hazard pay per individual, like for our officers or our firemen per person?

Commissioner, if I could take a look at what is meant by hazard pay.

Okay.

Right.

Because I think there's going to be a very specific definition, and I don't know that we characterize that in anyone's pay as hazard pay.

Well, hazard hazard duty pay.

All right.

So we can look at that specifically because that's something um that I'm going to be interested in looking at, just coming at some of the dangers, and particularly what we dealt with most recently in a situation, um, some litigation.

So that's something I'm gonna want to look at.

Also, um, under, and I thought I would see it either under non-develop uh departmental or the communic um the board of commissioners, the um deputy chief of staff and support staff um budget, and so um that's something I guess we've got to um because we will be hiring a um a new chief of staff that's slated to um start relatively soon.

So that's something that's been um an agenda item.

Yeah, yes, we need to look at making sure we have and I think just for the board's purposes, um I mean if we if we want to come back and amend our budget based on those staffing requirements, we can do that any time, right?

Yes, yes, but I don't I don't I don't believe that we've seen that request.

That's that's okay and so the other thing is related to um legal support.

And so uh legal attorney um for the board of commissioners or legislative council.

I did not see that under board of commissioners or under um the non-departmental and so uh and that was supposed to be included in the budget.

So where are we with including that?

So uh I would offer the same thus far.

We have not received a that as a request.

I think that I know that the board is contemplating those things.

So if if and when that is approved, then we would simply go pull the money from reserves, I would I would suppose.

Actually, that was something that was drawn was withdrawn under the pretense that it was going to be included as a budget item.

Um and we actually we probably don't have time to talk about it in too much detail, but Madam Presiding Officer, I think when we have our chief of staff on board and we maybe kind of get to our like retreat, maybe that's an opportunity for us to kind of look at the big picture.

Um there's too many unknowns right now, so I think that's why you didn't get an official request, is that because we just haven't gotten there yet.

So stay tuned.

Um but Madam President Officer.

Yes, that was part of some the conversation with the hiring of the um new chief of staff was to allow them to get in and establish how they would like to see the department function, and then we would bring forward any additional positions that they are requesting at that time.

That was my understanding of the conversation.

And so respectfully I appreciate that, but as the Board of Commissioners, we have to also make very clear the support staff that we need to be able to execute um at our maximum capacity.

And so I would not expect that a chief of staff would dictate essentially whether or not we have legal counsel and support related to that.

Additionally, we would not want our legal counsel to answer to the chief of staff because we might create some challenges with client attorney um privilege.

But I will um ensure that we push um I'll push on that just to make sure that we included it in the budget as it was supposed to as we was to be communicated.

The other in terms of communications, I'm seeing the 525 from non-departmental DCT uh DCTV cost center.

And so um is there going to be a shift in terms of communications as it relates to how it is organized now to where the Board of Commissioners has direct access?

Like how is that expected to be structured now?

Um TJ, this is just sort of moving the cost centers, right?

It's not necessarily changing any of the operations, it's just a different funding bucket.

Is that right, Zach?

Yes, that's correct.

And to answer your question directly, Commissioner Messiah.

Um the activity in the budget does not change reporting relationships.

So well as it relates to the commission.

The uh chief communications officer will continue to report up through the CEO to the chief of staff and the CEO.

But there are assets or personnel throughout the county who will report into the Chief Communications Officer.

Okay, and just so I'm understanding, so and I uh I figured that it wasn't gonna change, but I just wanted to understand as that was an ask if there was intended to be any structuring or organization whatsoever, just so I can ensure as we're talking about the support of the Board of Commissioners and additional positions that are being created that we're having a need to look into ensuring we have direct um communications that we have that as we are fleshing this out.

Um I get that some of this can be addressed later.

And I also understand that we are dealing with the budget um and that's in its entirety for the governing body, and uh we need to consider everything that needs to go into it.

With that, I yield back to you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Commissioner Messiah.

And I think we definitely want to continue the conversation around the points that you raise.

Um so I think let's just continue that with at the board level and hopefully we can come up with a larger strategy that if it requires a budget amendments, we can you know uh certainly talk about it within the FAB committee as well as the um committee of the whole.

So Commissioner Patrick.

Yes.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um I know you mentioned that there would be a different conversation on SPLOST.

Uh just want to make sure that there was uh or you remember that there was some annexations in the Doorville area.

SPLOSS dollars are allocated for paving and new sidewalks, and we want to get those reallocated the other transportation um and roads within unincorporated area.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Okay, great.

Okay.

Um so committee members, um, I think we've exhausted all of our presentations and questions.

Um we had a couple uh I think proposed amendments.

Um I captured the 304,000 from the clerk's office.

Uh the 300, what was the for the DA?

380.

DA was 380.

And you have the spreadsheet.

So 380 for the DA.

836.

836.

And then we had we wanted to call out uh 315,000 out of the 500,000 for food security initiatives for uh fresh on deck to continue.

Um and then Zach, y'all.

But that wasn't increasing.

That's just separate five.

Yeah, and I think just for the budgeting purposes, Zach will just want to put that as a subline item, I guess, if that's the best way to articulate it.

Sure.

Um I think that those were the amendments.

Were there any others, Commissioners that I missed?

Mr.

Long Spears?

I'm sorry, I just had a quick question.

You said 304 for the clerk's office.

Yes.

Where is that in this document?

Okay, thank you.

I missed that piece of it.

Okay, I was like what should be meant by Ms.

Barbara's office.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

Um do we do we have the 200,000 from the tax commissioner or is that no?

Um I don't see tax commissioner on here.

Do you do you see that?

Okay, we will come back to that.

Okay.

All right.

So commissioners, with those budget amendments in mind, um, you have to take a so moved.

Some of second.

Okay.

All right.

Motion and second for those budget amendments.

Zach, you captured all that.

Yes.

So the superior court and DA and everything else as written.

The sub for the uh retaz on the food insecurity sub back.

Fresh on deck.

Okay, great.

All right.

So motion and second.

All in favor Jan say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye.

Motion carries.

All right.

Um that is the end of our agenda.

We will adjourn.

Motion to adjourn.

Second.

All right.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Okay.