Good afternoon.

I am Ladina Bolton, your Super District 7 Commissioner and Deputy Presiding Officer.

Welcome to the Employee Relations and Public Safety Committee, where I serve with Commissioner Nicole Masaya and Commissioner Marita Davis Johnson.

We have a short agenda today.

We're gonna go ahead and jump in to make sure we have plenty of time for the remainder of all of the mini meetings we have for the rest of the day.

Item 2026 0582, all commission districts.

These are the minutes for the March 17th ERPS meeting.

Have committee members had an opportunity to review the minutes?

I have and I'd like to make a motion uh to approve 260582, the minutes for the uh March the 17th employee relations public safety committee meeting.

Second, all in favor.

Aye.

Wonderful.

Jumping down to new agenda items beginning with fire rescue item number 2026 0563, commission districts three and six, fire rescue training at 3211 Glenwood Road and 1816 Candler Road.

Thank you, Chief.

Can you go ahead and share with us what this item is referring to?

Yes, ma'am.

Um good afternoon, everyone.

Um this item is to um property that's gonna be soon demolished.

Uh what we would like to do is use this time to um do some st um training.

It's a one-store commercial storefront that helps aid in just us training and things, real life uh scenarios such as forcible entry down firefighters, other basic firefighter training that we uh would love to do.

Uh this this agenda item has been vetted through legal and uh it's been brought before you now for consideration.

And legal, just to be clear, they want to train here, but what what do they need from us now?

It's nothing that they need.

This does is no at no cost to the county.

So what they'll be doing is again, we'll use we oftentimes acquire these structures that are going to be torn down, and so they'll they'll reach out to us and say, hey, if you guys would like to come, obviously we're gonna be doing a lot of damage, so we'll be forcing doors, ventilation and things of that nature.

So it just gives us some real life practical scenarios that we can run, obviously causing damage to the building, but it's going to be torn down here soon anyway.

What and what were these prior to the new training usage?

Was it like a gas station or what were these?

Do you know?

I'm not sure exactly what it was.

I just know that it was a uh just a one-story uh commercial storefront.

Not sure exactly what was in it.

All right, any other questions or comments from committee members?

Yes, yes, thank you so much, madam chair.

And so thank you so much for uh being here as always and all of the service and everything that you do for us, um, the constituents in all of DeCab County.

And so just with this being in District 3 and 6, and I see my colleague also um, you know, trying to work feverishly to look up some details.

But um, do we know what commercial property this was prior uh to and I again appreciating the real life experience and opportunities, particularly where we don't have to make an investment financially into it.

Um and so with it being right there, Glenwood and Kandler, knowing that we have the corridor and a lot of things that are coming up in that area.

Did we know specifically what it was before?

And I could appreciate that there's no cost, but I want to make sure we've gone through you know um the procedures in terms of notice and everything else, and so it'd be helpful to also hear from um legal regarding it.

I see former chief Fulham and Director Fulham coming up as well.

Yeah, and so I believe this is the location for the uh what a new public is gonna be built.

Uh okay.

And so um and I see the interim county attorney is not um here, but I do see that uh deputy county attorney Welch is here.

Can you speak to this in terms of the procedures that have been gone through in order to uh provide sufficient notice related to this commercial property and the use of the county um to be able to utilize this for training purposes?

And and before you respond, I do just want to say this because the agenda item doesn't provide that much clarity.

It just says fire rescue training, but this is it came to the board because this is an agreement between or proposed agreement between BSI Decatur LLC, a Georgia limited liability company and DeCab County.

So essentially, you guys are requesting that we approve the agreement so that you can use the space for training.

Okay, that helps.

All right, now you can go ahead and answer the question, but you might need to reiterate because I interrupted.

Okay.

And so um Chief Carter, do you uh are we still on the same page in terms of my question?

Okay, fantastic.

Yes, ma'am.

So what it was um prior to, I'm not exactly sure is uh what the property was prior to where we are right now.

All right, and so I see um the county attorneys am gonna give them an a moment just to understand procedurally because uh is this something that we have done in in the past?

I know it's not something we typically do, but is this something that we've done in the past and what procedures do we go through in terms of providing sufficient notice that we're gonna utilize this as a um essentially a demolition for free?

All right, yes, Commissioner.

Um over my 12 years here, we have had properties uh and the property owners require uh this type of documentation, just recognizing that we're gonna do training, we're not gonna hold them liable for um any accidents that may occur on site.

And also, let me add, I believe these locations have been vacated.

I know it it's under process that that uh those uh stores in that subdiv or excuse me in that uh strip mall there are being emptied out, but I think that's already starting to happen.

So they will be empty, and just before they tear them down, they're just allowing us to use them for training.

All right, and we've given sufficient notice to the new owners and whoever needs to have it.

I and that would that would be a question for interim county attorney from a procedural standpoint.

You got the contract.

We will work with our public safety director to make sure we've covered exposure to the county and all the proper contractual things and reviews to try to limit any exposure the county could face through this.

We work with operations all the time in that regard.

I'm sure CO Williams and Director uh Fulham as well as Chief Carter will give us all the info we need so that we can work with them in that regard.

Thank you so much.

When you assume things you make a out of yourself.

So I just wanted to make sure ask the questions that are necessary to be asked so that I can have a full understanding and make a well-informed decision.

So thank you for and and my colleagues for indulging me in the questions that I have.

With that, I yield back to you, Madam P.O.

I'm chair, sorry.

Any other questions for from commissioners?

No.

Um I just want to say I claim this corner.

So I'm gonna write in on my do notes, not just three and six, but also seven, because it's on the east side of the street, not on the west side.

Okay, so we've agreed the super districts have agreed.

Listen, you have children.

You definitely have children.

This is okay.

We have to update this to district seven, then.

One thing is not in controversy is that it's in three.

So there you go.

Okay.

So with the friendly amendment to update this from six to seven, do we have a motion for item 0563?

Uh District 3.

I'm motion to approve.

Okay, well, it's uh in this uh herbside uh but isn't it uh I mean in an earth side?

It's an amount on the earth committee.

Okay.

I'll second.

But uh you know all in favor.

We all want it.

We all want to claim yay, it's mine.

But what what language do they speak in?

Okay.

All right, so by a thread.

Item 2026 0572, all commissioned districts.

First responder kits for kids program.

So tell us about the program.

Yes, ma'am.

So these kids, uh, what we're doing is asking for permission to receive 100 kits.

They're valued at 2,000.

Um, these kits are their age appropriate kits that help aid and comfort.

So if we run a calls where kids have experienced traumatic experiences, and so they have things like stress balls, uh stuffed animals, sometimes even hearing aids that can you know sound uh blocking, just depending on what it is.

So it just kind of helps with uh stress anxiety moments when we run calls on uh with young kids that have been involved.

And will these include the flu flamingos, the plink pink mingles?

Do you guys remember that?

No director Fulham.

What is it?

Yeah, so not the flamingos, so no, they would not include that.

This uh was put together with first responders, uh trauma.

Um and they're uh they're a nonprofit organization out of North Carolina, and they contacted us, and obviously they came through and they come through and we help put the kits together for the kids.

They supply all the uh items and everything, and then they we dole them out between fire and EMS.

Wonderful.

And um just because I I did just bring it up.

Have we received those?

I know they were promised to us last year, the flamingos.

Yes, ma'am, they have they're on the trucks.

Okay, wonderful.

Any other questions or comments from committee members from commissioners?

No, with that, do we have a motion?

It's Jim District.

Well, this one is this is all commission districts.

Okay, then I make a motion.

Then I make a motion to approve this item.

And I'm happily it was second, my colleagues motion.

All in favor, aye.

Motion carries.

Congratulations.

Moving on to the last of three items with fire rescue, item 2026 0580.

All commission districts, these are kid or kitty smoke alarm donation.

Nice yes.

Okay.

So tell us about that and how much.

All right, so these are for uh for permission to receive uh a total of 1,000 smoke alarms.

They're valued at 34,970.

Um, this aids and our community risk reduction efforts.

Um last well, this year alone, we've uh handed out and installed.

Let me make sure we do install smoke detectors.

We've done 500 this year, um, which is a great feat.

Last year we did 773, so we're well on track to outpace the number of uh smoke alarms that we installed last year.

Um so this right here, we have a QR code on our website where people can go on.

Obviously, if they're in need of um smoke alarm installations, our public safety unit, they will go out and do it.

As well as when we have if we recognize areas when things happen, that's when we go out and do our smoke alarm blitzes, but we go door to door, seeing if people have smoke alarms, and then obviously if they don't, we go through and install them.

These are uh smoke alarms that uh come with a 10-year warranty, lift ion lithium batteries uh that last for 10 years.

So it just uh obviously from that again from that community risk reduction standpoint, does a great job for us.

And did we make the request for the increase, or they just said you guys were doing such an amazing job?

They were gonna give you more this year.

Yeah, they they actually they made an offer to us to donate these.

Wonderful.

And I will say um your team came out to my house late last year and came and installed uh smoke detectors.

It was very quick and easy, propped it up.

I I really didn't believe it would work because he did it so quickly, but he proved to me that it worked, and I was very grateful.

So thank you guys for doing that.

Absolutely.

Any other or any questions or comments from committee members?

When are they gonna come to my help?

No, I'm just gonna commission.

I did, and I I actually I didn't make a special request.

I did like everyone else.

I filled out the form with the QR code, and you guys were very responsive.

Absolutely.

Commissioners, any questions or comments?

No.

Okay, with that, do we have a motion?

I motion to approve this agenda item.

And I second all in favor.

I congratulation.

Motion carries for approval.

All righty.

So with that, we're gonna go down to uh district two item 2026 0596, all commission districts.

This is an ordinance to regulate the restraint and transportation of animals and for other purposes.

Uh District 2 did communicate that this item was not ready for discussion.

So, and it was um requested that we defer it for two weeks.

So moved.

Second, all in favor, aye.

And um, we're just gonna postpone this committee goals discussion.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Allen.

I really appreciate you, but the day has been extremely long already, and it's not over.

So I'm gonna give everyone some time back.

All right, with that motion to adjourn.

Second.

All in favor, aye.