All right, welcome back.

We are here for our finance audit and budget committee chaired by myself, Commissioner Ted Terry, and joined by committee members, Commissioner Michelle Long Spears and Commissioner Shekaira Johnson.

All right.

Committee members, we have our agenda before us.

Um pretty short one today, so we might get out here a little early.

Um let's just go ahead and start with our meeting minutes 0804, and that is from the April 14th FAB meeting.

Motion to approve 0804.

Second.

All right, motion and a second.

All in favor is your hands say aye.

Aye.

All right, Chair Both I motion carries.

All right.

Um I see our county attorneys walking in or walking up right now.

So uh one of our discussion items, uh, just following up on the last agenda we didn't have time to discuss was the specific uh water billing debt related to the condominium complexes.

And um County Attorney Phillips, um, I know y'all are working on some um kind of proactive legal uh theories and sort of um you know, I guess um, I'll just say strategies, I guess.

Um can you give us a high level on what our approach is thus far to address the condo complexes from a legal perspective?

Maybe just start with what we've done, I guess, with the NRIM in the past probably several years, right?

Well, what I can share with you, Commissioner, there there has been in-rem activity at certain condominiums.

Um I couldn't I couldn't name them for you right now, but as is the case with all property, if the code compliance team identifies it as out of compliance and reaches a point where they think we should ask the court's permission to go in and address it, then they transfer that to the law department and we file a civil lawsuit, and when you reference NREM, that's what you're talking about.

We're asking the court's permission for the county to go in and clean property up.

And that has happened at condominiums.

In the larger context at a very high level, um, I will certainly speak with any commissioner offline about it.

We've begun investigating and researching strategies to address any real bad problems with a condominium that is beyond just a small individual isolated case.

Um just to get a feel for what the circumstances are and to investigate what the county's options may be in addressing it.

Um that that's what I'm comfortable saying right now.

And I think you and I, to be fair, um, you've had some ideas and you've expressed to me uh a long time desire to see work done in that area.

So I'll I'll continue to speak with you, and we're looking at some ideas that you've presented is what I'm comfortable acknowledging now publicly.

Okay, very good.

I know you are working on it, and um we definitely want to.

This is one of our goals this year for the committee is just um trying to work through the water billing debt, Zach.

So just trying to figure out like you know, of that large spreadsheet that Director McNabb went over last committee meeting.

You know, I know some were working out uh negotiations with like some of the universities, the apartment complexes, uh, but it looks like the condo complexes are a little bit intractable in terms of who owns them, you know, uh the the water bill kind of continuing to rise.

Um so uh knowing that the law department is still working on sort of all the the comprehensive strategy, um I think County Attorney Phillips, this it's sort of dual focus, it's related to uh blight, but also water bills is part of the issue that's wrapped into it, because I think what we've heard from some of the condo complexes is as we've done the in-rim demolitions of some properties over the years.

Um we've demolished uh you know a pad, and there might be a water meter at that pad, uh but now there's not no one's there anymore, right?

And so we have a water meter that's sort of an orphan meter with you know 100,000 in debt on it.

And so the question is, you know, what do we do about that?

Um and then some of them are master meters where the entire complex, you know, is the the owner of the water meter.

So just a you know a couple things that are a little intractable.

So um really the goal here is just to start that discussion, Zach.

And is that is there I know y'all have been maybe kind of looking at it from like the housing angle as well.

So what what can we how can we kind of move this discussion forward and what are y'all thinking from the administration side?

Well, one one of the things um it's important to note that we do recognize that any instance of uh unpaid water bills uh where you have residents who continue to reside um in in these condominiums, um as well as other multifamily um the circumstance the county finds itself facing is how do we address the issue to stop the incurring of debt?

The easiest way, of course, is to simply turn off the water, which is very complicated because then you find yourself in a position or we find ourselves in a position where you have uh potentially hundreds of families living in on uh places that are no longer habitable and they need to find housing.

So uh for that reason uh we have not simply turned off the water because it creates a bigger challenge for the county uh because of the fire hazard that would be created and and or the need to relocate families.

So where we have the ability to sit and talk with uh represent representatives of condo uh associations, we have those conversations.

Um there have been instances where we've been able to come to settlement uh type agreements historically, and we will continue to pursue that.

Um but as we stand here today, it's just continuing to identify uh where the problems exist, and we're trying to be as creative as possible and coming up with what can we do to assist in um stopping the the in many instances leaks, yeah, uh, and then addressing the back bill and most importantly getting folks to start paying regularly as they move forward.

Okay.

Um I think this um that's great.

Thanks, thank you, CO Williams, for that.

And I think um, you know, the the virtue of working on this issue um has sort of kind of two overlaps.

One is on like the infrastructure side, um uh Mr.

Chair uh PWI Commissioner Patrick, um, because what we have observed in some of the complexes is the the water bill is really high and we find that it keeps getting higher and higher.

Yep.

And so we had one that was like three million uh maybe two years ago and now it's five million, and there's leaks happening behind the meter, but because there's been some um you know uh uh attrition in terms of the owners at those condo complexes, there's less people paying the HOA fee, and so the remaining residents are left with an even higher proportion of the bill.

They can't fix the leaks, and so therefore the water just keeps pouring out through the leak pipes, and then now you go from three million to five million.

Right.

Um but Commissioner Patrick, do you have any um thoughts on that?

I'll open up for the committee members as well.

So I guess one of the questions I have, you know, if if they are indebted to the county five million dollars for a particular HOA, isn't there a way we can go through the courts and say, look, we we want to put in these measures uh make sure that their pipes are up to uh are current.

Um make sure that each unit is is metered individually as opposed to a group meter, and then just assume that we're with permission of the court get you know get reimbursed for that money.

Right.

So unless you know, in terms of any potential legal action, maybe we can have separate conversation, but uh you know uh something like that may be possible.

Um ultimately that would involve uh a court uh authorizing county to uh do certain repairs um and and um of course having a lien to recoup the the uh investment uh but those are the type of thing.

Let us talk separately about that, but rest assured we do lean uh the properties for for the old water or the revenue for the water.

As that older infrastructure is modernized, however the process we choose to get to it, that then means that those are that's land available for housing options, functional water and sewer systems on it.

So it we're building that virtuous circle of rebuild and then growth to go with it to sustain it.

So just some just uh some opinions.

And I think that's a great point, and and I think there's the issue of lack of um of housing opportunities because some of these have been demolished and they're sort of just pads sitting there.

Um and unfortunately, at least two, maybe three complexes have really become sources of um public safety concerns, dumping, and on several occasions we've had to go in with um beautification sanitation and clean up a thousand tires, right?

And because there's like uh very there's like 20 percent of the of the condo complex is left standing, and so the rest of it's vacant land and there's no one monitoring it, there's no security, so it becomes these no man's lands, and then you know it kind of just creates more blight in the community.

So there's some overlapping solutions when we kind of fix one issue, we might help the other issues.

Um but let me open it up to committee members if you all have any thoughts, questions, concerns?

I don't have any questions, um, but I would like to just state that I'm glad that we're addressing this, and thank you for allowing Fab to go through this process, and I look forward to the continued conversation.

And Mr.

Williams, we do have a meeting with you on Thursday.

And so we'll do a little sideline on it.

Thank you, sir.

Yield back.

Great.

Commissioner Johnson.

No, no additional questions, but I will co-sign Commissioner Long Spears that it is an important conversation, and glad that we are having it.

Great.

Okay.

All right.

So um Zach and County Attorney Phillips, um, can y'all give and you don't have the answer now, but um I know this has been these are being issues that we worked on over many, many years.

I think I was looking back at uh an old news clip when uh Commissioner Connie Stokes was on the board of commissioners and uh she was out in Clarkston at Brandon Hills on the news saying we're gonna clean up Brandon Hills, and that was 25 years ago.

So, you know, we have a there is a a living memory of people who over many different CEOs and boards of commissioners have had a press conference or some statement of commissioners going out to these sites where there was a murder or dumping or a fire, and you know, we're up up there on the news saying we're gonna, you know, we're gonna clean this up, and then we kind of just take a couple steps.

We we make progress, but we still haven't solved solved is so um I'm hoping that we can keep the march towards progress on this.

But can you can y'all give us kind of a your proposed timeline of how we can begin to methodology methodically methodically methodically address this?

Sure.

I I'm hesitant to to state a timeline right now.

What I would ask is that you give us a chance to continue working.

I've been partnering with COO Williams and the administration's been giving this attention as well.

I I think I'm uniquely qualified in that I was here when Commissioner Stokes was here.

I I addressed some of these code issues as far back as 1998 and 1999.

Okay.

So I I've seen the issue.

Um I I will tell you, I've seen it from all perspectives.

Yeah.

I've adjudicated some of the cases as a pro hack judge in recorders court.

I've prosecuted some.

It's an old but voluminous issue with many layers, Commissioner.

So let us prepare something that we can bring to you as a proposal and and a strategy that will include some indication of timing.

Um and we'll try to work to get that to you in in relatively near future.

Okay.

Great.

Um and then uh Zach, I think the one thing that Diane was going to look at, I know she's out of town right now, but um just looking at that like delta of how much I guess we'll just call it, you know, treated water, drinking water that is there's basically being lost because it's leaking through pipes at some of these complexes, and just looking at that delta of like how much money are we losing.

Um what do you call it?

Non-revenue water loss, I think it's what it's called.

Sort of you know, what's that delta between how much money we're losing and then to Commissioner Patrick's you know, great suggestion of like if we just went in and fixed it, would that actually be cheaper than just letting the water leak and then it's now two million, three million dollars more?

Excellent.

And if we could fix some for a million and say you know what I'm saying, just like figure out like the cost benefit analysis and hopefully that helps us justify maybe doing you know, taking some action that might be a little more um creative.

Sure, understood.

Yeah, and and actually to the extent we track the actual gallons and put the value to the actual gallons of water because some of the things that may be in the numbers that aren't readily in parent could be uh late fees and other things that you know uh and of course over the last uh year or so we've had a couple of rate increases.

Uh so focusing in on the gallons of water may be important.

Yeah, absolutely.

Okay, great.

All right.

Um so Jessica, let's just um let's plan to kind of just we'll just do a quarterly kind of check-in and we'll give you all a heads up before the next quarterly check-in just to see where we're at.

And um, yeah, and in the meantime, you know, commissioners, if y'all have any ideas or um any suggestions, like bring them to the committee and to Jessica and Zach, and we'll um start working on this together.

Um okay, great.

Um all right, let's go to item 0158.

I actually have a little presentation to just kind of go through this resolution.

So I'll uh hand the gavel over to Commissioner Long Spears um and if it's okay, ma'am.

I'll just um uh you want to read the agenda item and I can do the presentation.

All righty.

Um we are at the bottom of page one, Board of Commissioners District Six, item 2026-0158, uh Commission Super District 6 to approve a let resolution to establish a decab for the people, AI tech divid tech dividend fund and fiscal stability policy.

AI tech divid tech dividend fund and fiscal stability policy.

And I understand, Commissioner Terry, our chair has a presentation.

So turn it over to you, sir.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair.

And uh Zach, can you hear me the little clicker right there?

Um I thought it would be helpful, and thank you to my staff for putting together a nice little PowerPoint presentation.

Uh it's very beautiful.

Um to be clear, that image of the data center on the trail is not I'm not in favor of data centers on trails.

Uh but this is just a visual, so these are just meant to elicit um conversation.

So, all right, very good.

So I'm just gonna go through this and then we'll uh open it up for questions.

So, first off, we know that AI growth is happening in America.

Um, and as we know, DeCab County um has at least one active application that's been you know deferred until June, as well as um two more potential applications for data centers in DeCab.

A lot of this is related to the growth of AI.

Um I was at a town hall meeting in Savannah the let's see, three weeks ago, and someone held up their phone and they said, if you're concerned about data centers, put your phone down.

Uh to which my response, not in public, but to the side was well, yes, there's part of data centers or streaming and you know cloud computing, but the vast majority of data centers, the purpose of data center growth is to power the computational um capacity for the development of artificial intelligence through these language models.

So ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, um, Anthropic, there's a bunch of others out there.

Um so the purpose of this resolution is really just to center if there are benefits that come from data centers.

We want to make sure that the benefits are not just global benefits, in other words, they're just helping us, as I think one uh video from the Trump administration put out uh fighting China.

Um they've said this is a national security imperative.

So there could be global benefits, but the cost um certainly are local.

And so the goal here with this resolution is to prioritize resilience, equity, and environmental protection.

Uh also to assure property tax revenue you know hand can potentially mitigate some of the impact as well as fund uh core services, uh, and then also just uh cautioning about the overuse of tax abatements.

Um so this is something that's come out of the the discussions at the public service commission in December.

The PSC voted for an additional 10,000 megawatts uh for Georgia Power to expand power capacity.

So this equates to about four million homes, uh which apparently is how many homes there are in Georgia.

So just think about that.

There are four million homes in Georgia, and this 10,000 megawatts could power all those homes, but it will be powering the uh the projected demand over the next several years for data centers.

Um we know that the large data centers um can take anywhere from 100 to 300 acres, and then while the construction jobs are you know pretty significant, the long-term permanent jobs of who's actually in the building, sort of checking the servers and doing the other maintenance stuff, um, is pretty low in comparison to other economic development projects.

Umsively, um, and there's a a good Bloomberg article that we can refer to here, is that overall across the country power bills um have gone up an average of 267 percent uh for all customers, but certainly residential customers, and then unfortunately there have been some data centers approved that um have been um uh unregulated, and so they are noisier, they have light pollution, and then in some cases uh they're encroaching on residential areas.

So the the basic concept, Commissioners, is what's called a social dividend model, and this is actually something that's actually picked up steam at the national level.

If you think if you look at what they're discussing in Congress right now, um there's been discussions on a nationwide data center moratorium at the same time of trying to actually uh share the benefits and the finance the financial benefits of the AI tech boom with the American people, and this has been noted in proposals like universal basic income, or um more recently in what's called basically a dividend that would come back to the American people.

So this is a similar idea, but it's just localizing it here in DeCav County.

And it is a uh a 50-25-25 split.

So of any new tax revenues that would come from data centers, this will be a fiscal policy the Board of Commissioners would adopt that 25% of those new tax revenues would in essence go to support what Madam CEO has put forward as a rainy day fund increase.

TJ has talked about the goal is to get the four months of fund balance.

So that 25% right off the top would go towards the rainy day fund.

The next 25% would be the core services.

And this just basically is attached to our general fund, our police fund, hospital fund, our fire fund.

So fire police 901 hospitals, the core services of the county would benefit with that 25%.

The final percentage is the 50% share.

And this is really about trying to localize the benefits to communities that might experience data center growth in their area.

And the general concept is this money is set aside and invested right back in the communities that live near data centers.

And they would be resident led.

So we would create some sort of community benefits agreement structure that allowed residents to say where they want their tax money to be spent and the data center tax money to be spent.

So we have it based in four different policies.

One is the impact zone.

So anyone that might be living within three miles of a data center or an industrial cluster with data centers, as well as anyone that might be in the Justice 40 designated areas or socially determinants of health burdens, which is an index that the public health department puts together, would be the prioritized zones for these investments.

For the most part, these zones are going to be in South DeCab, but there's some in central, there's even a few up in the Doorville Shamble area, Commissioner Patrick.

So they there is, you know, there's kind of spread out.

But most of the areas of the industrial growth has been in DeCab and South DeCab.

Second, the resolution is opposing tax abatements.

Data centers, it's been well studied by the Carl Benson Institute that the state tax exemptions, if they weren't in place, 75% of the data centers that were built in the last few years would have come anyways.

Quite frankly, because they have the money and they don't need the tax breaks.

So this is a policy that would simply request that decide to cab, uh just not agree to any local tax abatements, and instead focus on community benefit agreements.

And then number three of the resolution is focusing on humanity first, and so these are about the bread and butter of what we what residents are concerned about.

They're concerned about their energy bills going up, they're concerned about health, environment, and the economic impacts, as well as infrastructure, stormwater, uh water infrastructure.

So the goal here would be to focus on those those areas.

And so the the idea here is that this fiscal policy could be suspended if there was an emergency situation.

So a recession, an economic downturn, a major budget allocation that couldn't be funded except for that revenue that would come in.

And so if there was ever a 5% shortfall in any one year, the fiscal policy could be overturned by the Board of Commissioners with a vote.

And then a couple more slides here.

So there are some good examples of the social dividend model, and we have all these link that we can provide for y'all.

So Henrico County, Virginia used 60 million in data center revenue to launch an affordable housing trust fund.

Um, you know, this is an interesting concept because we, of course, are talking about creating an affordable housing trust fund, right, Zach.

Um Mexico has actually used a dividend model with their oil and gas revenues to create an early childhood fund as well as pay uh educators and child care uh workers higher wages.

And then most recently, which is also very encouraging, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta have collectively committed to $4 billion in community benefits agreements.

And so this is really the opportunity for the community to say this is what we want if you're going to bring a data center to DeCab County, and they are offering additional money.

So this this community benefit $4 billion commitment is not tax revenues, this is the revenues from the tech billionaires who quite frankly are making some the most some of the most obscene amounts of money that I think we've ever seen in the history of modern society.

This is just a snapshot of what we're talking about in terms of revenue.

This is based on the data center that is currently has an application before us in the Cedar Grove Boulder Crest Overlay District area.

The applicant asked the tax appraiser to basically assess what a 681,000 square foot data center, which is what they had proposed at the time.

It might have gone up a little bit since the last application.

But if we were looking at just a 500,000 square foot data center, if you want to talk about ratios, we're talking about 20.7 million dollars in tax revenues annually, and of course that would be split between the schools and the county, and then if it's in a city, then that county portion would get sliced up a little bit more.

So dividend share support, 4.5 million can be used for energy relief and home weatherization for approximately a thousand households, uh 2.9 million for youth job development program, 2.5 million for a rainy day reserve fund.

So this is just an example of one 500,000 square foot data center, one year of about 10 million dollars in revenue, and how it can go to and be invested in our community.

And then just a couple more example.

We've heard residents ask about trails, sidewalks, parks, senior centers, um, road paving, things like that.

And so this is just another example of where over a five-year period, even that just that one kind of 500,000 foot state data center, which would be below a campus size, that would be considered considered a major data center, um, could fund um up to 49 million dollars over five-year periods.

All right.

And then just um the request is to approve the resolution as a fiscal policy for the Board of Commissioners, and the goal here is to protect residents to invest in our community and to ensure resilience into CAP County.

And then all the links are there in the uh slides if you have if you have questions.

All right.

I will turn it back over to you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, sir.

All righty.

Uh first I will start with committee members.

Commissioner Johnson, do you have any questions or not so much on the presentation itself, but in looking in through the resolution?

I had a couple questions under section one.

Um the high technology data centers, is that what will be the category that would be under, like for business licenses so that we can track it or the NAICS code?

I just want to make sure that whatever we're calling it is something that can actually be tracked.

Yes, this is assuming I believe that's what the planning department's calling them.

Um, but yes, it would be the LAR, I mean, it could be any size data center, but the idea here is we're not talking about the Bell South closet up in you know, district two that's like two thousand square feet.

But the ones that had they're literally being used as server farms at a mass scale for the AI.

But I I guess just want to make sure that we have a way of knowing, I mean, yes, well, sluts come before us, but if we're someone's just looking at the business licenses that are on the books, the you know, the tax information that's on the books, how do they categorize it?

How do they make sure they're pooling all of them?

Yes.

Well, I think um so because this is a fiscal policy, at the end of the day, it's really more about the commissioners recognizing what parcels are delivering the tax revenue and how we allocate it.

So I think the planning department will be able to categorize high technology data centers.

So in the future, if there was a question, well, how many do we have and how much does the property value?

I think TJ probably could work with planning to identify this one, this one, and this one are you know, quote unquote covered under the under this definition.

Okay.

So again, I just want to make sure we have that built in so that we would be able to track it.

Um I think one of my other questions under with the Justice 40 criteria, is that a criteria that changes?

Do we need to be a little more specific or spill it out in case it does change?

Yes, that is so, and we could do a little updating here, and and honestly, our environmental justice review committee could help us with this, but the Justice 40 initiative was actually a Biden-era initiative.

Um I believe the Trump administration has completely scrapped that program.

Um, but there are uh tenants in it of what would qualify, and there was a Justice 40 map that was put out in 2023, and so there are some of those zones that were um the census tracks were identified into Cap County at that time.

So it needs to be updated as we move forward for sure.

Right.

So either the most ad language that speaks to the most recent or speaks to a specific one that you're referring to.

I think that would help clarify just in case there are changes in the actual criteria.

And we could do a map potentially if you want.

Okay.

Well, I'm just trying to make sure that if someone is only looking at this document, that they have everything that they need.

So and then can you talk through the one before that neighborhoods within a three mile radius of a data center or heavy industrial cluster shall receive priority for greenway connectivity?

So even a heavy industrial cluster that doesn't have a data center, they would still receive that priority.

I mean, we this is um up for debate uh to be quite honest, and you know, the hope is that if we agree to this fiscal policy, um we are able to sort of in essence set aside money.

Um but I think there would need to be a a little bit of a community democracy framework that could come through um existing committees, quite frankly, whether it's the parks committee or the SPLOSS committee, I mean there could be a new number of ways we do it.

Um but the heavy industrial cluster, uh that's mentioned mainly because under our existing draft ordinance data centers are only allowed in those industrial sectors anyways.

Um mirroring a little bit of concern we heard from residents in Southwest to CAB who have been around heavy industries for many years, and there's probably some up in Doraville near the tank farm who kind of feel like they've kind of been on the brunt of some of the you know the impacts of that industrial growth, um, but maybe didn't receive the tax benefits.

And so um this this is that part is open to debate.

Um we could just say three miles near a data center.

Um the heavy industrial clusters would certainly expand it a little bit more.

Okay.

And I think my final question is has law has this been through administration, legal finance for their buy-in on the impacts and implementability?

I don't think that's a word, but you know what I mean.

Is it are we would we be able to implement this?

Yeah, county attorney Phillips.

I mean, if you want to respond to that, I mean, you know, basically because this is a fiscal policy and the Board of Commissioners, you know, is in charge of passing the budget, um, this would just be a really a policy that would guide us in our budget making process.

Well, there are two points I think are important for me to make.

One, I could not speak for anyone other than the law department.

So from a technical legal perspective, we can look at this closely when it's done.

Right now, is as a proposed policy, yes, this board can adopt policies, but we need to be careful this may be considered annually as you go through the budget process, if I understand the proposal.

Yes.

I don't know that you could pass this right now, Commissioner Terry, and say in the 2028 budget, this board's bound by that.

Right.

I think it would be a consideration on an annual basis just off the cuff.

But again, I'd like to look at the final piece before I opine from a legal perspective.

Okay.

Yeah, and that that was my thought, um, County Attorney Phillips is not this is not a law, it's just a policy.

So to the extent that we would like to follow this policy and we all agree to it, then the goal is that we do it.

Um, but you know, there are circumstances.

So this is probably aspirational.

Um, but hopefully the the goal is if this was an established policy and if the administration also supported it, then um you know, potentially future budgets would sort of just bake in this ratio into some of those priorities.

Um but Zach, do you do you have any comments or thoughts right now on this?

No.

Okay.

All right.

I yield, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Uh Commissioner Patrick.

Uh thank you, Madam Chair.

Um I like it.

Um I would suggest though that we should have this reviewed also by decide to cap, uh particularly for the abatement component.

Um I know that there are some properties in DeCAP that do have agreements on them already, so I don't know if having this in place affects other outcomes.

So it would be worthwhile getting their input on it to Commissioner Johnson's question or point.

Um, is this only for AI or is this for anything else?

I would encourage it to be for anything else.

And the reason I say that is is because when I was a Doraville councilman, we were convinced that movie studios and movie uh production in the CAB and in Doraville in particular was going to be gangbusters.

It'll be the new economy for us, sort of re-kicking off industrial activity or activity on the north side of the county.

Um we are now post-COVID and we've seen that uh movies are not really, they don't have the bang that they had initially promised us or we had hoped to have.

So a way to capture that initial bang of whatever the sector in the economy is, be it IT or movies or widgets, um, have this policy in place that acknowledges for the initial boom, we're gonna capture it and put it that money aside uh for the benefit of the residents and for the communities.

Okay.

Um and then uh as those industries mature, then that funding source to that particular bucket of money dries up, but as new stuff comes in, that's where we capture it.

And then if you know just picking on movies again, so if movies were still booming, there would have been this initial increase in revenues.

Yep.

That bump to the baseline is what we capture, and then the baseline goes into regular operations going forward.

Um I think that's a great idea.

Commissioner, and then finally, I like it so much.

I'd love to be able to be a co-sponsor on this with you if if you don't mind the company.

Um I think this is really the way that um, you know, I I acknowledge when the residents tell us that uh they have concerns or dislike or don't want data centers, uh, but the reality is is that the county does have to have revenue uh to pay for operations.

Police officers are very valuable, very needed, but phenomenally expensive.

Fire trucks are not cheap.

Um 911 operators are a priority.

Uh parks and rec is one of the benefits that everybody expects to see in their communities, and so all of that takes money, and this may be a way to not pay for it all, but helpfully take off some of the edge on those costs and as a benefit to the community.

Um, we already have some partnerships with an organization like Mosaic and with Grady.

Uh perhaps this is a funding source to get more of them in places that are needed on a priority.

Yep.

Yep, absolutely.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

And I can't I'll respond to um Commissioner Patrick.

So on the first part about the um about the side to cab, and you were on the board and Commissioner Johnson, you're on the board now.

So the one thing that the resolution um doesn't interfere with is a tax allocation district because those um increments are you know sort of set aside automatically.

So the this policy would only truly apply um with a data center that uh isn't in a tax allocation district.

Um so just as a caveat there, so you know, to a certain extent, like you know, decide to cab like has a couple economic development zones.

If they were built in those zones, then the the essence of what this policy is doing, that value capture investing it back in that community is is already set.

And I think with the tax alloc or the uh what do we call it, Commissioner Longspeers, the TAD Axe, the TAD AX one?

Tax allocation district advisory committees, the TAD X, the TAD AX.

Um then the community would have a seat at the table to say here are some priorities we'd like to see that um some of that increment invested into.

And so that that's kind of a good model of how we can uh put a little bit more um like neighborhood democracy um into the mix.

Any other comments, Commissioner Patrick?

No, that's it.

Again, just uh also just to remind or refresh the idea, uh don't make this specific to AI.

Any whatever the next big boom industry is that comes along that everybody has to have.

Okay, have the language worded that it if you're the new industry and there's a uh that initial um bump of revenues that come in, let's make sure they're captured in that.

So if car manufacturing comes back or it's it's those giant-sized airplane drones that are the new taxi cabs and they get built here, let's make sure that that we capture that.

Gotcha.

Okay.

I can definitely um okay, I'll work on a um uh some tweaks to acknowledge.

Um we'll just call them new new industries.

Yeah.

Um it could be technology, could be something else we don't know about, right?

So uh at the end of the day, uh DeCab County and Metro Atlanta will be using a phenomenal amount of pipe, and so if there was a clean pipe manufacturing system that could come to to DeCab, we'd want to encourage that to be here because we're gonna be using a lot of pipe ourselves.

Yeah.

Um so uh you know, we should think broadly about that as broadly as possible.

Okay.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

All right.

Um I myself have some comments and questions as well.

And uh fortunately, uh both of my colleagues actually nailed two of them.

So that will save us a little bit of time.

My first overall comment is uh good job on getting the ball rolling with this.

I I think this is a good idea.

Um I however would love to have had the EJ Commission up and running.

This would really have been a great resolution for them to wrap their arms around, dig into and provide feedback.

I'm excited about my appointee, and I think she would have been one of those folks that would have gotten down to business and really um gone through the detail of what this could look like.

My next comment is um pretty much pertaining to the entire now therefore be resolved section.

So the way that you position this is that section one was the funding formula, and the sections two through five are four different policies.

I tend to lean into more detail on most things.

Um since this is a fiscal stability policy, I would be happy to um do a little work on some of it, but I think that for the policies themselves, we need to add a lot more detail into them so that everybody is crystal clear on what the policy is.

Okay.

Um and so, for example, um the impact zone and equity priority model.

Um I believe it might have been Commissioner Johnson, you know, areas that most directly affected by the industrial growth.

Um, also the social determinants of health burdens, uh, like you noted also Justice 40.

I don't do know it went away.

Although I thought it was a great initiative from President Biden, but those tenants, those criteria still do exist.

That's a really good idea to um infuse those tenants into this.

Um the opposition to local tax abatements piece.

I agree with Commissioner Patrick that um decide to cab should really be looped into this.

I don't have any idea how their what their thinking is on it, and then um the humanity first pillars.

I I like how you've broken those down to two different pillars and the digital degree degree and trust fund, and then lastly, that budgetary safety valve.

And my point is is that I think they're all four good policies, a formula that I will have a lot more questions on because I have and I can circle back to that.

But I think that um these either need to be separate policies or they just need to be much more detail included in them into the resolution that you've you've drafted here, just so that we're crystal clear.

Pardon?

Maybe an appendix because you can I can put a lot on all three of these.

You're welcome to do that.

But I think because the data centers there's been so much contention and concern about them and how they impact our community, the more proactive we are on the front end about offering detail, describing what our attention is, how it's going to impact the community, positive or negative, would be so helpful for community members just to understand what direction we're trying to go with these four unique and different policies.

Now, section one is the formula itself.

Um you got 50 percent for the dividend share, 25 for core service, and 25 percent for reserve.

The easiest one to start with is reserve.

So certainly understand that for the rainy day fund.

Um you might want to just consider if CEO Cochrane Johnson is looking for a four-month operating fund balance.

Yeah, go ahead and up that to 120 days.

Yep.

Um, your 25% core service share.

I think that there needs to be um more guidance included in this portion of the formula.

It what that the general fund dollars as a result of the this policy and this tech fund would go to specifically because right now, including library senior and youth services and beautification.

I just think that we need to it's every it's it would be every literally everything.

Okay, so it's everything we do, it's not just those three.

Yeah, that's right.

Then because I just had to ask the question, I would make sure that we articulate that.

Okay.

And then the dividend share, that um 50% to support direct resident equity and environmental restoration.

Again, I think more detail um associated with that point because I think this one right here, the 50% dividend share directly connects over to the um section three.

Yes, set the energy equity pillar, or section three is the human humanity first pillar, but certainly all three of the bullet points underneath that, and so just connect the dots there so we understand what this dividend fund is, what what it's specifically going to support, and again, how will that impact the community?

And again, how will that impact the community?

How will it benefit the residents that are most deeply impacted by data centers?

Yep, totally agree.

And that is it.

So again, I think great job on getting this started.

And I do want to just reiterate for the record that um Jessica Commissioner Patrick has requested to be a co-sponsor on this item.

Thank you so much.

All right, Commissioners.

Any other questions or comments?

Um I'll just um since um we did want to get the administration's feedback on it.

Um Zach, how much time do y'all need?

Because that'll uh inform our deferral for discussion on this.

My inclination is certainly the next couple of weeks, but if we had 30 days, when is the um data center item coming back?

Is that first part of June?

We're having the night cow discussion, June 2nd.

June 9th is when it's actually back on the agenda.

Somewhere in that time frame.

On the b the business meeting agenda, yes.

Yeah.

Well um, if I may suggest perhaps a little bit of a longer runway, uh we want to want to have uh decide to cab take a look at this.

I know they've um sort of been tinkering around with with many notions that were put here, and it might be a good idea to uh take the extra time but get their engagement as well as the CEO's office uh an engagement on that as well.

Okay.

Um and um Commissioner Johnson, would it be okay if we uh invited Dorian to come to the committee to share?

I have not been sworn in yet, so I'm not gonna speak on behalf of De Sign the Cab yet.

Okay, but I'm certain he'd be willing to Okay.

Okay, so we'll we'll um we'll reach out to you decide the cab and then you know, get their thoughts and then um and then we can have them come to a committee meeting.

Um while we're on this topic before we put this out for a vote, um the environmental justice commission.

Do we have a timeline on that?

Um Zach, have the have y'all hired the sustainability director yet?

Because that was the beginning point.

Isn't Kathy Reed our sustainability director?

There's like a new person hiring.

So yeah, I don't believe I know that they're in the process.

I don't think an offer has been made.

Let me let me double check, but I think they're close on that.

Okay.

And the resolution states we can meet within 60 days of the hiring of that individual.

Is that correct?

That sounds like that sounds familiar, Commissioner.

Off the top of my head, I don't recall.

Thank you.

And I I think that that hiring is imminent, though, because I've been part of conversations here.

Okay, great.

So um, Commissioners, maybe um it would be prudent to look at oh, this is the old calendar.

When are we okay, never mind?

We can do either June 9th or June 23rd.

When is NACO?

That's July.

That's in July.

Okay, okay, so we're good for June.

Okay.

Uh suggestion might be do it before the um July break.

Right as an update, and then after the July break, maybe August September time frame, come back for the next in-depth conversation after that.

Good idea.

Okay.

So would are we is it so I got July, I got June 23rd and then July 14th.

Not July 14th.

We're not doing it.

That's when we're taking our break.

That's right.

Okay, so let's have about uh recommend uh deferral to motion to recommend deferral to uh June 23rd, the UC.

Well, you can make that motion, sir.

I have the gavel.

Yes, I move.

All right.

Do we have a second?

Thank you.

Any other uh discussion?

All righty, all in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

That item has been deferred, and I will pass my gavel back to Commissioner Terry.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Next item is yours too.

Uh well, let me just ask Zach.

Um, so Zach, have y'all had any other further discussions on the water customer bill of rights resolution?

Uh Mr.

Chair, I don't know that we've had discussions in the last couple of months.

I think we had sent something um in writing when this was first uh brought to agenda.

Um but I don't recall any specific conversations subsequent to that.

I know that part of uh the desire was to have the Urban League come back and report on what we were doing because I believe many of the things in the Bill of Rights were things that we're already doing.

But um Yeah, let me let me get uh caught up with with Diane again um and we can reissue what we have presented, but I don't think anything has changed in the past three months or so.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Um so why don't we just um uh hold this in committee uh for now?

Did we already did we already defer this this morning?

We didn't.

Okay.

So why don't we just um uh hold this in committee uh for now did we already did we already defer this this morning we didn't okay um so commissioners why don't we um defer this to the um you want to sound it out yeah so um item number 0158 to I'm sorry zero one five two five excuse me a resolution to by the Cap County Board of Commissioners establishing a the Cab County Water Customer Bill of Rights Um and if we can get a motion to defer this to when and what did we say there in the 12th to May 12th is what we said earlier today oh I I think it was the 26th it was the 26th wasn't it let's just do a 26 okay go ahead want to make it uh yes I move to defer the item until May 26th with a prior stop in FAF second okay motion is second um and then Zach can we just um find time in the next week to just work go through the the details and make sure because the the goal really was to codify what we're already doing and then you know just make sure that we sort of are on the right track moving forward okay um all right motion second all in favor aye chair vote side motion carries all right that is our agenda anything else commissioner patrick just wanted to circle back on one quick item for uh 158 um yes who is who is the central staff person that helps with FAV items Jessica Jessica uh would it be appropriate to have Jessica also take a look at 158 and see if there's any recommendation policy recommendations uh jessica may know um some of the concerns that uh commissioner spears is trying to speak towards oh yeah may may if just uh we have good resources I want to make sure we use our resources before we move forward absolutely well I know our chief of staff is watching online so we'll uh uh chief of staff may and Jessica let's uh and then you know the whole policy team you got some you guys all have opinions right Marcus Shannon no Shannon's like nah I'm busy they're one analyst but yeah definitely welcome the policy team's um you know input as well so please you know don't be shy cool great thank you all right move we adjourn second all right all in favor aye aye all right meeting adjourned thank you all very much