DeKalb County Committee of the Whole Meeting - April 21, 2026
DeKalb County Committee of the Whole Meeting - April 21, 2026
The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners held a Committee of the Whole meeting on April 21, 2026, chaired by Presiding Officer Commissioner Shaira Johnson. The meeting included committee reports, review of the proposed executive agenda for April 28, 2026, and a discussion on scheduling an in-depth data center ordinance debate at a future nighttime meeting.
Committee Reports
- Public Works and Infrastructure (Commissioner Patrick): Reported seven items from the last meeting, including a sewer maintenance contract, CIP update, and upcoming discussions on bus rapid transit funding.
- County Operations (Commissioner Davis Johnson): Discussed proposed rule changes to reduce commissioner speaking time to eight minutes total (five first, three second). Also reported on the charter review committee’s discussions, including age requirements for office (state law sets 21; DeKalb had previously set 25 but now aligns with state) and voter registration qualifications.
- Employee Relations and Public Safety (Commissioner Bolton): Approved items for fire training campus study, first responder kits, and smoke alarm donations. Deferred an animal restraint ordinance for further discussion at the next ERPS meeting.
- PECS (Commissioner Masaya): Reported six items on the April 14 agenda: three recommended for approval and three deferred to the April 28 BOC meeting. Ongoing work on data center text amendments was highlighted.
- FAB (Commissioner Terry): Covered CIP updates, water billing status (including condo complexes and inactive Emory accounts), and the Urban League’s debt amnesty program. Several items were deferred to the next committee meeting.
Review of Proposed Executive Agenda (April 28, 2026)
Chief Operating Officer Williams and Chief of Staff May presented the agenda assignments. Key items included:
- One public hearing (traffic calming petition, $15,100).
- Four appointments to county authorities (all to PECS committee).
- Three airport lease terminations (consent).
- Acceptance of a $3,259.50 grant from ACCG for an intern (consent).
- Resolution authorizing $142.3 million in tax anticipation notes (direct to BOC meeting).
- Transfer of $850,000 to senior services grant fund (PECS).
- Police services grants and data subscription (ERPS).
- Calendar change for July zoning meeting (consent).
- Various purchasing and contracting items assigned to appropriate committees.
- Two sewer upgrade agreements for Wesley Woods Senior Living and Related Development LLC (both to PWI).
- The board agreed to move the zoning calendar change to consent and requested more detail on the ACCG grant.
Discussion on Data Centers
Commissioners agreed to schedule a more in-depth discussion on data center text amendments (primarily item 0341) at the next nighttime Committee of the Whole meeting on June 2, 2026, at Lou Walker Center. Commissioner Terry suggested moving the location to districts impacted by data centers (3, 6, 7), but after debate the board kept the original location, citing logistical constraints. Staff will prepare a survey to collect commissioner questions and may involve other county departments (e.g., watershed) and external experts on water usage and noise. Commissioner Masaya noted four related agenda items. The board directed staff to also briefly mention the other items at the meeting to inform constituents.
Key Outcomes
- Rule change proposal: Commissioner Long Spears suggested adopting an immediate reduction of speaking time to five minutes first, three minutes second (from current 10+10). The presiding officer preferred formal inclusion in the blue book; no vote was taken.
- Data center discussion: Scheduled for June 2 nighttime COW at Lou Walker Center. Planning staff will provide an overview and text amendment details.
- Meeting adjourned at 12:18 p.m. (estimated) with a motion and second, over the objection of one commissioner who requested time for commissioner comments. The motion passed with one opposed.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning, everybody. Excuse me, and welcome to the committee of the whole meeting. Today is April 21st, 2026. I am your presiding officer in District 4, Commissioner Shaira Johnson, so we will call this meeting to order. Um I do want to take a point of privilege and congratulate Dr. Ladina Bolton and Lavisa Sanders Johnson on their amazing second place finish at Dancing with the Cab Stars on Saturday night. If you guys did not see it, it was an amazing performance. Congratulations. Thank you, Madam P.O. All right. You're welcome. We will move right into the agenda. We'll start with committee reports. Um, Commissioner Robert Patrick, are you ready? Uh yes, ready to go. Thank you. Hey, I'm uh Commissioner Robert Patrick, uh serve as the chair of public works and infrastructure, effectually known as the greatest show on earth. Uh we had a total of seven items last at our last meeting. Um, and we covered uh some other topics as well. Um of the things that we discussed was uh a contract that unclogs sewer uh manholes and residential sewer lines throughout the county. Of course, that's something that people find very important, making sure that the sewer system works. Uh, we also had an opportunity to talk a little bit about uh our CIP update. Um, and um this afternoon we have a very interesting conversation coming up, including um ways to fund uh bus rapid transit and other transit um obligations for the county. We also have some very large ticket items, so I hope you'll tune in and we'll uh see you then. Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer. Thank you, Commissioner Patrick. Commissioner Marita Davis Johnson with Ops. Uh good morning everyone. I am Marita Davis Johnson and I chair the county operations committee, also known as the ops committee. My colleagues who sat on that committee with me are Commissioner Robert Patrick and Commissioner Ladina Bolton, the greatest dancer ever. The ops committee met on Tuesday, uh April the 14th, where committee members were joined by Commissioner Ted Terry and Commissioner Long Spears. During that meeting, uh we continued our discussion on the Board of Commission standing procedure rules, starting with um commissioner speaking time. Yeah, starting with the commissioner's speaking time. The committee supported the amendment to reduce commissioner speaking time at the BOC and committee of the whole meetings to a total of eight minutes uh per commission discussion. The committee uh discussed the ability of the committee chair to hold an item from a content uh committee agenda, and it was suggested that there be a special call meeting to discuss the items that are held from agenda. However, there was no concrete recommendation made during that discussion. We moved on to discuss unanimous consent in regard to members of the board and an items to the agenda when necessary rather than urgent, needing a two to three majority vote. The ops committee met for a special call meeting again on third, well, not again, but a special call meeting on Thursday, April the 16th, where all committee members were present and virtually joined by Commissioner Ted Terry. The committee continued the discussion of the charter review committee uh continuing with section two, which led which lists voters districts from the care um the CAP voter registration and elections director Keisha Smith uh joined us and advised us that the precinct boundaries and locations are handled at the state level. The uh committee members agreed to leave this section as is already written as a local referendum at the as a local reference as the count at the county level. Age requirement to run for office is also mentioned in section two. The law department is looking into the reasoning why state law requires no less than 21 years of age and how to cab county initially decided on 25 years of age, but a discussion with um since this meeting with Keisha stated that uh the cab county requirement was also 21 years of age. The committee did agree that an individual running for office in the CAB County should be a registered voter to qualify. This conversation was held to be discussed with section two portion of age eligibility. We briefly discussed section six of the charter. The ops committee will be held again this afternoon at 1 p.m. Be sure to turn in. Tune in live or on DC TV. Thank you, and I yield back. Thank you.
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