Great day, everyone.

My name is Nicole Messiah, and I have the distinct honor to serve as the chair of PECS, and that's planning economic development and community services, in addition to being your DeCab County District Three Commissioner.

I serve alongside both my colleagues in the PECS committee, Commissioner Longspears from District 2, who's running a bit behind, but will be with us in a few, and also from District 2, excuse me, and Commissioner Robert Patrick from District O.

No one else and our other colleagues are joining us presently, but that may change as well.

If you've had an opportunity to review the miners minutes, excuse me, I will kindly ask to uh entertain a motion on those.

Um motion to approve 0852.

Thank you so much.

Second, all those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

There you go.

The minutes from our April 28, 2026, planning economic development and community services committee meeting have been passed.

Now we're on to appointments.

The first is agenda item 2026-0758.

All commission districts appoint Ms.

Rhonda F.

Briggins, JD to post one of the development authority of DeCab County, post one of the residential care facilities for the elderly authority, and post one for the pro private hospital authority.

If um Miss U Brigands or Attorney Brigands, if we come forward, thank you so much for for coming and uh spending some time with us here.

How are you doing today?

I'm good.

Thank you for this opportunity.

Fantastic.

So we um both myself and my colleague have your interview packet, and thank you so much for sharing some information about yourself, including your resume.

Um could you start out just sharing um you know outside of what we can just read in uh resume, just some things about yourself and um what you hope to be able to bring in your role on the development authority, residential care facilities for the LE authority, and prosper and private hospital authority if um the appointed appointee moves forward.

Appointment move forward.

There we go.

Yes, um, I'm Rhonda Brehans.

I have been a resident here in DeCab County for well over 20 plus years.

Um, as the I guess region began to grow.

I refuse to move out of DeCab County.

DeCab is my home.

I believe in DeCab.

I love DeCab, and I want to see the growth and progression of DeCab County.

So the opportunity to serve on these boards will um allow me to do that, allow me to um make sure that growth is being done smart.

Um it's being done done the right way, but more importantly, that it's really centered around the community.

Um, I believe that we also, as we grow, need to protect our citizens.

And so I'm very interested in making sure that that that is also taken into consideration for all three of these appointments.

Thank you so much for that.

I appreciate you.

All right.

And so let me I'm gonna jump to question um for on our documents, and my colleagues, of course, are free to answer to ask any questions that haven't been asked or one of their own.

But what role do you think stakeholders and the public should play in shaping large development projects?

Um, specifically, what tools would you use as a board member to solicit community feedback and to ensure and influences and authority priorities.

Um thank you.

Um, I was I did government and community relations for MARTA for over 15 years, and so I understand the importance of having the community engaged at all levels of it, especially big large decisions.

Um that way they're they're comfortable with what's coming in.

Again, as a resident, you want to make sure that people have a voice.

You want to make sure they're also as understanding of what you're trying to accomplish and to do.

Um, when you do that on the front end, you have less resistance on the back end, and so I think that is very critical and important.

And so you do that by um making sure you're properly communicating to the community.

You do that um allowing them to have ways in where they can provide input.

And so those are the types of things I think um with all of my past experience that I could bring to um these entities.

All right.

And do you have some thoughts around how you would um solicit that uh community input, like what mechanisms would be.

Oh yes, uh-huh.

There are so many ways now.

You have social media to provide input.

You have social media to provide input, you have um jot forms, surveys, and then also you have the opportunity actually actually to hold community forms and have different events in where the community come in and provide their input.

You can solicit that digitally, and you can also uh make sure you have ways in which people can write in.

Thank you for that.

And I'm gonna ask just one additional question before I open it up to my colleagues.

All right, how would you utilize your position on these three boards to work in tandem to address socioeconomic and health disparities across the county?

Well, let me tell you, health disparity is something that's near to dear to my heart.

Um, with everything that's going on, the cost of health care continuously to increase.

And so we have to make sure we have programs that are sensitive to all of the community needs.

Um, and so we need to make sure we understand what those needs are.

Um, I think I I am what you call the the sandwich generation where we're being having to provide for our children and our parents at the same time, and so with that, healthcare is very sensitive to to everyone right now.

And so just making sure we understand um the needs of the community when it comes to health care, making sure we're talking to the entities that actually make the decisions around individuals' health care, you know, prescription drugs are continuous continuously growing up, um, and then the cost overall cost of health care continues to go up.

So I think that needs to be a conversation as people are coming into the the um the county, making sure people are the on all levels are sensitive to the needs of the community.

Thank you for that.

I agree.

Dr.

Dr.

Briggins, because I'm gonna mention, and it's funny because I I tease PhD and others will use doctor and I have a jurisdoctorate as well.

We don't use doctor as often as we should, but we have a doctorate.

So instead of just calling you Miss Briggins, I'm gonna refer to you if you don't mind as Dr.

Briggins, since that's fitting of your title.

Yes.

I appreciate that.

Look at that.

Absolutely.

Well, thank you so much.

And I I I think that you know, with that advocacy, that spirit, you do a great job.

I do want to open the floor up for the rest of my colleagues.

Commissioner Patrick.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh Dr.

Briggins, welcome.

Good to see you here.

Um, I'm gonna go a little off of the script that we have.

Uh, what is your understanding of these institutions or organizations that you're being appointed to?

And how do you see how they function within the community?

Okay.

Um, that's very fair.

Um, well, again, being in transportation, which has been my industry my entire um the entire time I've been in Atlanta from out of um college, um, I have worked with almost every entity um with Decide DeCab, the CIDs, workforce development.

I served on workforce development board for a number of years, and so um, and then in this industry, we're always having to deal with small businesses, DBEs, MBEs.

Um, so I understand all of those pieces.

I understand the side because I am in um on the engineering side and transportation side my entire um career as well.

So all of the developers, all of the construction companies, many of those folks I I know and have relationships with, and so um I think I understand all of the growth patterns um that's needed in DeCab County.

I've watched them grow and have been at the tables amongst um many of those decisions over the years.

So I'm very comfortable with that, and as I've said, on the health care side, um I understand that from a personal perspective, the need of health care and where we are.

I've I've seen Grady, all of the the different um iterations of Grady, the funding side of Grady over the years and all of the other um hospitals around the region.

Um, you know, again, I worked at Martha for 15 years, so we pre provided transportation to all of these places, but more importantly, we we worked with the um patients that was trying to get to their medical um their their um appointments and all of their treatments, and so I understand that side as well.

So I think I I bring a good balance of the business side as well as the community side of understanding um all of the individuals that utilize those services.

Uh that's a that's a great answer.

Um just just for disclosure, I was also on the development authority for a couple years, and um coming from a planning background, uh there are lots of great locations in DeCab County for housing, for jobs, for industry, but the question is always the transit how do you get people from A to B to work and then back again?

And so I'm hopeful that your uh your knowledge with um transportation as well as engineering uh is something that will be a true benefit for uh for DeCab County.

So thank you very much for your interest.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Commissioner Patrick, Commissioner Long Spears.

Thank you.

Um welcome, Dr.

Briggins.

We are glad to have you with us today.

I have um one question and then one just basically confirmation.

So the first question is as an appointee to the development authority board, what are the top priorities that you want to focus on during your tenure?

That's part A.

Part B, how do you plan to advise the development authority board regarding those priorities?

All right.

Um, well, if you look at all of the um one of the biggest things we have a we have some development needs still in in um DeCab County.

Like we need a convention center bad, right?

So we need a convention center.

So, you know, I would love to be a part of those conversations and making sure we usher in that I think we're missing out.

Everyone has one but us.

Uh, we need a place where where people can gather, large, a large place where people could gather, I think, um, and have conventions here um in the county.

And so I think that would be my number one priority.

And like, how do we start that conversation and where do we place that that um that location?

Um, and the other thing, how would I advise them?

Again, I'm I'm in infrastructure in engineering, so um we have I have access to all of those expertise to help make sure that we um find the right location.

Again, I was at MARTA for 15 years, and we did land acquisitions and all of those things over the years, and over the years we've we've had some bad locations because the other thing about the Cab County, you are sitting on a rock.

And so when you're looking for locations, you need to be able to dig and actually build on top of the land in which you've purchased.

So I think I might bring all of those expertise to um this entity.

Thank you.

Excellent responses.

I appreciate that.

Um my final question again, brief.

Um, do you have any financial or personal interest that will prevent your attendance or discussion or participation on any matters coming before the development authority board?

Well, I I don't have any personal, but you know, my work is in infrastructure, so that's what I do, and that's where I I make my bread and butter.

So anytime there's any type of a conflict, I would do the proper thing as recruits myself and make sure I am completely protected and the um the county's protected, and I'm not in engaged in that type of um transaction.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much.

I yield back.

Thank you so much.

Uh Commissioner Long Spears.

Um, Dr.

Briggins, I'll just say thank you so much for mentioning the convention center.

Um, I I think that is something that's very much needed in DeCab County as well.

So it does my heart good to um have people that are willing to serve in the capacity that realize the same thing.

So um are there any other questions or concerns?

All right, with that, thank you so much for taking the time to spend uh a little bit moment, uh a little bit of a moment here um in PECS with us, uh Dr.

Briggins.

Someone from staff will be back in touch with you and enjoy the rest of your day.

Thank you again.

All right, thank you all.

Bye.

And so the next is agenda item 2026-0759, all commission districts for the appointment of Bruce McMillan to post one of the DeCab County Housing Authority.

Mr.

McMillan.

Thank you so much for joining us here in um PECS today.

Really do appreciate it and being able to get you scheduled to come in here and spend some time with us today.

And I will say uh and take a just uh quite a privilege to say that I appreciate um even you know, Madam CEO putting forth uh Mr.

McMillan for appointment to um the housing authority just from uh Mr.

McMillan's advocacy and work in the community.

I very much appreciate that.

All right, can you just briefly tell us about yourself and um any review uh previous experience and how that would be relevant to the housing authority?

Uh I retired from the federal government in december of 2018.

Uh, during my 35 year federal career, I spent 10 years with Department of Housing Urban Development working in the office of uh civil rights, and we worked on an array of issues across the spectrum for us.

Housing and communities are concerned.

Uh specifically in 1999.

Um I was a graduate of the University of Maryland Housing and Community Executive Program, uh, where we studied how communities and housing come together to work for the benefit of those that live uh within it.

Um I'm a 41-year resident of the Cab County.

I served on the schools closed council, the school closing committee back in 2009.

I chaired the school council for Southwest Decal High School for three years while my young son was there.

It was the school council at that time that advocated for the 35 million dollars that we were able to secure to do the um performing arts center and the other renovations that need to be done at Southwest DeCab.

I've been a very strong advocate for improving the quality of life within our community.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate that.

So how do you see the authorities' role in supporting both affordable housing and broader economic development, but economic development that's purposeful and responsible?

That's kind of a split screen for lack of a better term.

DeCab County has real urgent needs in some parts of the county, whereas it does not have the same needs in other parts of the county.

If you ride in South and West DeCab County, taking someone on a tour and then taking them into other parts of the county, they would not know that they're riding in the same county.

South DeCab County has looking back through the years when in the um early 90s, late 80s and early 90s, when the development started, it appears that all we did was build houses.

We didn't build communities.

Well, considering doing school closings recently, and always kept in mind that the school system reacts to the county on the building that's done in the county.

It's not the other way around.

My subdivision has 425 homes in it, and probably 90-90% of them probably are retirees are close to it.

So we don't have kids going to school anymore.

Um there've been very few developments near us that can take up for that 400 home laws for as children are concerned to make that connection back to the schools.

So it's a kind of a mixed thing.

What needs to be done for is advising the uh the CO's office and the Board of Commissioners as to how we can best develop the Cab County, focus on those parts that's most needed, and then move forth uh from there.

Thank you for that.

I appreciate that.

Commissioner Patrick.

Uh thank you, Madam Chair.

Um Mr.

McMillan, if you don't mind.

I'd just looking at your resume.

Your core competencies, federal law enforcement, criminal investigations, civil rights enforcement, Title VI and Title VII.

And Title VII for Housing Act, 88 and Section 504 compliance, ADR, mediation and conflict resolution, equal employment housing opportunity or equal excuse me, equal employment opportunity.

Program management, team leadership, stakeholder engagement, policy compliance enforcement.

I I mean you bring a lot to the table to begin with.

Um again, um deviate from the uh questions that we already have, and and you did mention this, so I want to sort of dig a little bit deeper with you.

How do we bring younger folks to all of the cab, but but South DeCab in particular, from your estimation?

Young people are interested, I feel, in the so-called live live work play concepts.

They don't want to be in um for I have a I have a 32, almost 33 year old son that lives out in Seattle, Washington.

He works with Microsoft.

Recently he moved into a three-bedroom um uh uh condo uh townhouse, and Blake says it's too big.

I say, Blakey, that's more space.

Dad, I don't need all I need is my my bedroom, a place to work in a kitchen.

They're not interested in the big house, but at the same time that they're interested in quality.

That's what we must do quality.

I would rather see a fifty uh a 2,000 square foot house that's built with quality than the 3,000 square foot house is not built with quality.

Right.

And sustainability.

The same goes with developments.

If someone comes in and say, Well, I want to build a shopping center, if that person only interest is to s to skirt every code to the max he can and not build because if you invest and put money in something, you're gonna follow through with it and you're gonna take care of it.

If you put minimum investment, you're gonna have minimum interest in that particular project.

So we need stuff that can attract young people.

Young people looking for entertainment, they're looking for quality.

And South Decal sits, well, the CAP as a whole, and definitely South Decal is centrally located.

It's 15 minutes from downtown once you get on 20, and it's 15 minutes from the airport without traffic.

It is an ideal place for young people.

So we have to come up with ways and means that interest them.

But they like those smaller entertainment areas, but they can walk for some Starbucks coffee, or they can walk for a sandwich, or they can walk to have a beer, or they can walk to a public so they can walk to a specialty store, or they can walk to a thrift shop.

Those are the types of things that our youth are interested in.

And right now we don't have that, so you find them mostly living in these big developments like right beside us.

That's what they are interested in.

That's gonna have the coffee shops, they're gonna have the little thrift stores, they can have other things they can go through, and go downstairs, get a cup of coffee, go to the gym, go back upstairs.

Uh, as someone that worked in a planning office, 100% agree with you, and and uh thank you.

You've answered my question.

I appreciate you a lot.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Commissioner Patrick.

Commissioner Longspears.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh pleasure to meet you.

We're happy you're with us today, and certainly your background is incredibly impressive.

I have one question for you and just one confirmation, if you will.

So the question is are you aware?

You've kind of talked about this by the way.

Are you aware of any emerging trends, opportunities, or challenges in the affordable housing market?

Briefly just got describe how you plan to support DeCab residents and families with access to quality, sustainable, and affordable housing during your tenure on the board.

You know, affordable housing is a word that's used quite a bit.

Professionally, it's difficult to say what is affordable.

Um what I think the cab needs to do.

I think back on my training, um, we did a case study when I was in class at the University of Maryland on Columbia County, Maryland.

Columbia County, Maryland does not allow any single-out affordable housing.

All of its affordable housing must be mixed in with other developments.

The reason why that's done, 60 or 70 years ago, the federal government thought public housing was a brilliant ideal.

But they didn't realize when you put certain people, certain incomes all together, you may be you may be working on a short-term solution, but it's gonna be long-term problems.

You must mix in your affordable housing with other housing.

It keeps the value of it up, it keeps the quality of life up, and the Cab County has a a very good interest in keeping property values up.

Look back no forward in 2009 when the property values were down and the tax digest went down.

Guess what?

The revenue coming into the county went down.

So the county has invested interest in every property in every community in this county stand as high as possible because that's where your revenue comes from.

So I think a public uh affordable housing is something that should be mixed in with other housing and not single out developments, because if we do it now, 30, 40 years from now, we won't be dealing with the problem, but our children and our grandchildren will.

Thank you very much for sharing your wisdom and your response and all the years you've been doing this.

Uh the next confirmation question is uh brief and simple.

Are there any professional, financial or personal circumstances that could present a potential conflict of interest or otherwise affect your ability to serve impartially and fulfill your responsibilities to the housing authority?

No, I've been retired for almost eight years.

There we go.

All right.

Well, thank you, sir.

Um, nice to meet you.

I yield back.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it, Commissioner Long Spears.

Uh and I think are there any other questions?

Yep.

That is uh, I sincerely again appreciate you, Mr.

McMillan, for being here being willing to serve in this capacity.

It's very important work, and it says a lot your willingness to be a part of it.

So thank you again for coming in and being with us today.

All right, thank you.

Have a great evening.

You too.

And I just want to briefly uh note we had um President DeBar from um, I guess he's gone now from the side to cab that had joined us um a moment ago.

Just want to acknowledge um the fact that he was here with us.

Um with that we can go back to agenda item ending in 058, and that's the appointment from Ms.

Ronda Briggins, JD to post one of the development authority of the Cab County, post one of residential care facilities for elderly authority and post one of the private hospital authority.

Motion to approve.

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Thank you so much.

And I guess we can go ahead now as well to agenda item ending in 0759.

That's all commission districts to appoint uh Bruce McMillan to post one of the DeCab County Housing Authority.

There you go.

Motion to approve.

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Thank you so much.

Moving on, um, we're going into park and rec.

And that's agenda item 2026-0614, Commission Districts 345 and 6.

I'm sorry, 356 and 7.

My apologies.

Change order number two, contract number 1373 63 restoration and maintenance of athletic fields, annual contract with two options to renew for the use of department by Department of Rec's uh park and cultural affairs.

This contract consists of site restoration and maintenance of athletic fields.

It seeks to increase the contract funds and extend the contract term through August 31st, 2026, and it's awarded to JMB landscaping incorporated for an amount not to see exceed over 200,000.

Great afternoon, uh Director Bass.

Thank you for being with your us here today.

Good afternoon.

Uh we are recommending approval for this item and this request uh request recalled seeks to increase the contract funds and extend the contract terms through August 31st, 2026, uh, and in the amount not to exceed 200,000.

And um, this is used for um site restoration for our 46 athletic fields and includes mowing, pest management, uh, irrigation, overseeding, fertilization, aeration, and dragging of our fields.

Fantastic.

Are there any uh questions from a committee?

No.

Yeah.

Seeing that I'll entertain a motion.

Motion to approve.

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

The next agenda item is 2026 is from community development to 026, 0862.

All commission districts and amendment to agenda item 2026-0396, changing the DeCab County Day Center venue from Peace Baptist Church to New Life Community Alliance Incorporated at 3592 Flat Shells Road, Decatur, Georgia, 30034.

Um, an overall reduction reduction in the cost to the county, and that reduction amount is 23,077.

Great afternoon, Director Mitchell.

Uh good afternoon as well, Commissioners.

Uh, thank you for allowing me to present.

Uh, I've got a um short presentation to take you through where we're on day centers.

As you know, back on March 10th, you approved the uh implementation of the Camp Day Center.

And that approval included uh using uh Peace Baptist Church on Covenant Highway, as well as uh using uh New Life Community Alliance as a provider of services and they are on Flat Joe's Road.

And uh we've been working with those entities uh since March to get ready to implement the uh Day Center uh and serve all uh unfortunate homeless individuals in various parts of the county.

And there's a we're very excited about that opportunity to be able to plug those gaps, and as you know, we're working in other locations as well to bring on other day centers.

Uh however, um we unfortunately got a message from Peace Baptists that they wanted to withdraw from the initiative and the rationale, and they presented this um probably a couple weeks ago, letting us know that they no longer wanted to pursue using their venue to be able to have the day center.

We had about 6,800 square feet there to use the day center, and we've had many meetings and all to be able to effectively get on board.

The rationale from the church is that the board had decided that the day center might have an adverse effect on the much larger project that they have on the way.

They are trying to replicate the city of refuge.

And I'll I'm quite sure quite a few have been to City of Refuge.

They've got 20 acres on Covington Highway.

And with their board, community, and investors, they felt that uh the day center implementation at the location would have an adverse effect on their plans, and they had some investors to withdraw temporarily uh regarding this proposal.

So that was one of the rationale for withdrawing.

Also, they felt that uh the community was concerned about uh issues regarding the day center in that location, and they also wanted to be able to be more involved for the board in the implementation of a day center uh and not serve as a simply a landlord.

So uh those are their rationale.

It was documented from the pastor, which is Pastor Tyrone Barnett.

Thanks.

So with that, I'd like to uh thank you for giving us um that update and letting us know the rationale wise um so that we can have a full understanding.

Yes, please do get right in your presentation.

Thank you.

Okay.

So uh the ask today is to um approve a venue change, which is to amend the original agenda item that you had approved back in March to be able to allow us to change the venue.

Secondly, when you look at the budgets, the puts and takes between the budget, you have a copy of them.

It reduces the overall 1.7 million dollars by a small amount, but it's $23,000 less than the original commitment of 1.746, 187.

Thirdly, we'll like to be able to use space at uh New Life.

New Life has 10,700 square feet, which is considerably larger than uh what we had at Peace Baptist, and we're actually entering a lease agreement with them.

Uh but here is only for seven months.

And the logic on that is because the county would like to pursue a long-term solution for day centers and South the Cap, and we are currently looking to purchase something in the way of acquisition of an asset.

So we're working with the CO's permission uh and Zach, of course, to look at things.

We felt we needed between today, which is June 1 is the implementation date, through uh 1231 of this year to be able to buy something and get your approved acquisition uh, of course, and with that uh new life will be able to transition to the new location.

So you're gonna find in the budget that they have 12 months of service obligation.

However, the lease is only for seven months, uh, which gives us enough time between today and year end to uh seek uh decide and bring back to you that to vote on an acquisition of a new day center location for a long-term basis.

And then lastly, we'd like to uh get you approved a contract with New Life because the contract would obviously increase because we're including the lease to 1,572, the seven months lease transaction, and also the wraparant services would be for 12 months.

So the operational contract would be for 12 months, the wrap rent services would be for 12 months, but the lease would only be for seven months, with the I added that we would buy something on a long-term basis for the day center.

So that's the the ask and this agenda item.

Uh the other thing is New Life.

I'm quite sure that some of you may or may not know New Life.

I covered them very briefly in our last presentation that we provided to you.

But some highlights for that would be that the leadership they are going to at first, they're led by Pastor Marlon Harris, who's a renowned preeminent uh pastor, but he's also the chairman of the board.

They've got other individuals in leadership positions listed on the chart there.

The executive director, I know very well, his name is Michael Bryant, and he's been a steward and helped us over uh many projects in the county.

If you look left on the chart, you see that the federal funds they've acquired.

We use about $3.3 million with them with ICE, ICCI, and you approved that, of course.

And we spent uh $13 million in aggregate, but they spent $33.3 of that in addition to home ARP, they have contracts of around $600,000.

And they also get a COC grant.

Overall, their mission is state it there.

You can see it.

Uh they've been in business for 24 years, which is a long uh a quarter of a century.

And last year they helped about 7,000 people within their wrap rent services at their facility.

And of course, on Friday, we have an all-employee state of the county address, which will be conducted at this facility, and you get a chance also to see their campus if you choose to come.

This facility will be uh open target one June.

In addition, um it's gonna be as you're approved before, six days a week, not nine to five o'clock.

Uh this is the photograph of the facility.

It's actually 10,000, 10,700 square foot facility.

There are a couple of photographs there you can see, and their office space is in the back.

And the budget is here, which summarizes the reduction of our 23,000 dollars.

This budget portrays before and after the transaction that was approved.

And in the end, the recommendations is to approve the venue change, approve the program reduction, approve the contract assembly assemblage, and also include something I didn't mention before.

Uh Claritel has been selected as a behavior health provider.

We work with Fabio extensively, and we discovered after an analyzing Emory and Mercy that they have an ability to obtain state funds to be able to help people that get into their portal.

And the other facilities couldn't do that.

So with Five EO's assistance, uh not assisted assistance with his hub and telemedicine, we'd be able to link them to state services by using Clarartel.

So Cartel is referenced in the agenda item as being the provider for behavior health.

So with that, uh uh I'll entertain questions.

Thank you so much, uh Director Mitchell.

Um I appreciate I'm sure the citizens of the Cav County will appreciate us being able to offer the service and a reduction.

Um, you know, tens of thousands.

Um that's still that's less that you know it's costing us to be able to provide the great services related to this.

So I appreciate that.

Um so just if we could go back to the um the slide in terms of the with the breakdown of the budget, that would be great.

I'm sorry, I I was training with Zach, I didn't hear the question.

I'm just trying to go uh to go back to the budget.

Oh, the budget slide.

The budget slide, correct.

Sorry about that.

Uh that's quite all right.

I completely understand that.

Okay, uh I explained the budget slide.

The budget slide is set up so that the original contract that was approved uh is there, it delineates the original contract.

And if you go down the left side, it includes the uh initial tax associated with operations.

Um, and it goes down to an operational total, which is 1.4 million.

That's what we had reported to have in the contract.

The lease transaction was not with them, it was with Peace Baptists, and you can see that right below.

And then below that are the total amount for that.

In addition, we also have services that we were expressed before, Claratel, uh IT support and FF and E support, and that budget aggregated to 1.7 million dollars.

Uh under the new proposal, we would lay out specifically the same tasks.

There's very little change other than that, we get some cost reductions in the operations.

We don't have to get showers because showers are physically at New Life.

They were not at the O facility.

Uh in addition, we didn't have to transport food because there's a massive kitchen at New Life, so food is basically coming upstairs.

So there's some reductions to get the budget down by 152,000.

However, on the ad side, we've got a lease transaction.

Their square foot footage amount is not $21 as a Peace Baptist, it's actually $24.50 per square foot for seven months.

And there's also some repairs we have to uh insist that they do with regard to getting the place in order.

Uh in addition, we add in the same amounts for Clarartel, IT, and FF and E.

Um, and with the puts and takes, it aggregates to be a total reduction about $23,000.

Well, okay.

Yeah, um again, glad to see the reduction.

Um with New Life, New Life already offers counseling services, don't they?

Yes, they do.

They they're using the the beauty of being there is that as we transition to staff up with six people that's in the budget, they're able to use some of their staff, treat them off until the others come on board, and also provide a faster training with having a counselors.

If you go back to the original slide with leadership, I portray individuals that we know very well.

Uh there uh we've got uh uh Tammy uh uh and Faith.

They are competent individuals, both directors at the church, and they will actually be able to transition uh initially with the project, and then as people come on board, they'd be able to train them.

So they are competent, as you know, with the means of dollars we spent with them so far, they were the uh individual individuals that actually drove the expenditures and the case management activities for uh 7,000 citizens that you see there being served last year.

Yes, uh absolutely.

I mean, and 60 900, you know, plus that's now no small feat.

And um, you know, I am seeing that there's other services that as a result of utilizing New Life, for instance, you know, that um expenses that we're not expecting to incur, like the transportation in terms of food, and even um when it comes to security deposits.

Um life also they offer uh some behavioral health and mental health support right through their their counseling as well.

Uh they do that, but we're gonna rely with via a small contract for $75,000 with uh Claritel.

We had made that uh a recommendation uh back in March when you approved it.

Uh we since got a scope of work and we have to put an agreement in place with uh Claritel.

No, no, I'm sorry.

I'm asking you specifically about New Lines uh New Life and the savings based on what we're we're providing and what they're offering, in that we've made a transition to um to New Life, and they have countless services that they provide, including after school programs, career services, GED.

That's one of the things that I mentioned that I'm I'm really proud that they offer right here in District 3 or right in District 3.

So specifically, not Claritel, but New Life, don't they already have behavioral health and uh mental health services?

Yes, yes.

They have uh not they have them, but not to the extent that we'd get from uh a behavior health expert, and they don't have the connectivity to the state system where if someone gets into their hub, their portal, they end up getting services.

So the linkage with Claritel is that they have a contract with the state, and the state can provide services to someone.

So that's the value add, being able to use them.

They could not solely take on the role of behavior health and be as good as a con uh uh in a company that's that's labeled as that.

They are authorized certified, and they've got clinicians there, uh, whereas New Life has staff, but they're not as competent as would be Claritel.

So there's a distinction.

They have something, but it's not as elaborate and not robust.

And we we think with the population, the number of individuals that are being subject that have behavior health and mental health problems, we need to have something that's more robust and clinicians and doctors to be able to help us.

All right, and so you mentioned um that having access to a portal, and so tell me the benefit for a constituent and having access to that portal.

Uh the portal is um it's a six-foot uh uh apparatus that's glass enclosed that it's linked to the internet.

We're gonna have obviously uh infrastructure there to be able to log back into the state system, and we can actually log individuals into that.

It's go call a I call it the hub.

Uh I I don't have a picture with me today, but I have pictures in my office.

But it's it's it's it's all big enough.

It's only the kiosk but it's bigger than the kiosk.

It's really elaborate.

Right.

And they're gonna provide that with no charge at all to be able to put that in.

As we with security, we're getting security from facilities management to make sure we we search anyone that comes into the facility.

Well, I'm talking about behavioral self services.

So I would say it's 75,000.

It's not that it's no charge, and so this is a different agenda item, in which case um there have been a number of iterations that are taking place that we're addressing in terms of um and one big service as you mentioned is mental health and behavioral health services.

And so we discuss uh options and opportunities for other providers, and as you were explaining why Claritel um versus Emray versus Grady or some of our other health partners, I was trying to understand what you they are offering.

That's really a huge differentiator, particularly at the $75,000 mark.

Uh so your question, Commissioner, is the difference between uh Emory on Mercy versus Claritel?

Uh, Grady, in terms of providing behavior, uh behavioral and mental health services to um the citizens that are gonna be taking a part of the day center and the 7,000 folks that New Life serves on a on an annual basis or in 2025 alone.

So my response would be that having spent time with Fabio and looked at his scope of work and having chatted with individuals in the industry, uh, and I don't do it single-handedly, I do it with my staff and others.

We felt that um with our analysis that Claritel uh emerges being better, and therefore we engage them to sit with us, which they've done extensively to look at the logistics and things that they would do.

So in our judgment, uh they end up being a better provider for this particular day center than than the other providers that we would look at.

Better in what way is what I'm trying to understand.

Uh better in what way in that they are proven to be uh have clinicians, uh met with their staff, they're very competent with regard to the very services that they offer.

Also, the key factor for me is that we get additional services uh and these individuals get logged into a system so they can get help from the state.

So when you do counseling at a site and someone needs to have substance abuse training or mental mental help and medicine, et cetera, Claritel has an ability to lock them into a system and therefore funding can be provided to these individuals that we wouldn't be able to provide, and I think that's a plus with their knowledge.

In my opinion, they do a great job of being able to do that.

Um I think Commissioner Spears, you're on their board, so I think you might be able to help me out a bit about the puts and things with Claritel.

We're very impressed with Claritel's efforts.

So but that was our assessment.

You might have a different assessment, but in our opinion, they they emerged to be better uh for the as being the provider.

Yeah.

Exactly what we're talking about.

And uh and I think that being on the board, that's great.

But I mean, uh I'm talking about specifically the benefit to um the the constituents, just trying to understand.

And so related to the $75,000 breakdown, um, what part of it is, for instance, we have the breakdown um with the other numbers in terms of counselors and the cost of that and IT and the cost of that.

So what specifically is it a flat fee that they're just charging us $75,000 to participate and what $75,000 from the money that's being appropriated, or what specifically is the the cost breakdown for the $75,000?

So it's actually it's one of the signed person.

One individual is going to be there six days a week.

So the idea would be that they are not going to come and go.

They're going to be there committed physically on site for the day tenure of day center operations.

They aren't there Monday and Tuesday, they're there for the entire tenure.

I've got a scope of work here which delineates specifically all the things that the case manager would there would be one case manager.

In addition to that, we have outcomes delineated as well and the services.

Right.

That would be great to make that a part of it so that we can understand.

Yes, and if I may, Madam Chair.

I'd like to just add a little bit about um how Claritel and it's really the state's behavioral health system, uh, some of the unique features that they would offer that others would not.

And understand that one, we will have the counselors on site, and what they have the ability to do is to plug clients into their system that allows for everything from crisis stabilization to outpatient service.

And I think that continuum uh provides a difference that other agencies, with the exception of possibly Grady, um, could not provide.

And that that's a key component that literally, what, six miles up the road from this facility, you have the crisis stabilization unit.

And that unit, as you may be aware, you know, allows for the um the short-term um stabilization of clients um all the way up to transfer, you know, if necessary, to state hospital.

Um, and so that level of care is a very intensive level of care that they can provide that uh New Life is certainly not positioned to do.

Um and in addition, they have the ability to do the long-term outpatient counseling and such.

So all of those are you know good reasons for the thank you so much for that.

I appreciate it.

But as you uh mentioned, we do have Grady as a partner, and actually they are they are not in a position to do that long-term.

My understanding is Grady actually is that long the long-term care and and services and with the state.

So you mentioned Grady, and Grady was one of the providers that I suggested we actually look into just because of the capacity that Grady has, not just for behavioral mental health, as we can understand sometimes people um have need for services aside from.

So having Grady uh in support as a partner, particularly as uh they provide low and sometimes no cost health services to constituents and have the actual long-term capacity um to serve our constituents, that's something to consider.

Right.

So that's what I that was what my ask was.

Right.

So I don't know.

I just want to be clear on the long term, I was referring to you know the State Department of Behavioral Health, of which um you know Kelly Claritel fits into that system.

And so the state hospital is what I was referring to in terms of long long-term care.

Yeah.

So it'd be great to again, I'll reiterate my ask um as it relates to Grady.

And looking at Grady and what that would look like from providing and also seeing the scope of work that Claritel is um presently offering, but also the consideration for more reasons than one as it relates to Grady in considering what Grady um what their capacity is and the work that they do in partnership with the Cab County as well.

With that, I I will ask um if there's any additional questions or concerns.

Commissioner Longspears.

Thank you very much.

Um I am a proud board member of Claritel.

I was appointed by our former CEO to serve on the board and think they're a fantastic institution and will do a great job servicing the needs of our day center.

So I did want to point that out.

Second is um I've had well, you know, I just found out about this quite honestly, um, but I have done my homework the very best of my ability at this point in time.

I may have additional questions um for follow-up.

Um I do have some I'll ask today, but um if something else comes up, should I direct them to you, to Mr.

Williams?

Okay, to Mr.

Mitchell, you're cool with that?

Okay, very good.

Um at first stroke, first look into this, it seems like um this is actually a good move and that um this entity would be a good partner and has been a good partner to DeCab County.

The only concern I do have is um the distance from the MARTA stations in that area.

Can you talk to me a little bit about how we can maybe um implement microtransit or some system and maybe that's frontline that we'll be able to trans uh transport folks to the um day center?

Uh okay, two responses.

The motor stop is right up front.

Oh, it's right out front.

Right, it's very close.

It's on Canada Road.

It's flat shows, but it's really at that area if people think it's candler, but it's really flat shoals technically.

So it's very close.

Wonderful.

Okay.

In addition, uh, we have part of the contract that you approve before was the use of fast track.

Commissioner Patrick has uh contract underway, is in law to be able to provide 200,000 dollars for transportation.

That was embedded in the last approved agenda item, which allows us to have frontline pick up individuals at various points of the county to take to many places to include the day center.

And so they're modifying the contract today to be able to include the new location, which is 3592 Flatchels Road.

Okay, that baked into uh Terry Tucker's contract.

So we have two ways to get people there, MATER and also fast track, which is wonderful.

Okay.

And that was part of the original agenda item that we had in place.

That certainly quells one of my concerns.

So there's a MARTA stop right out in front of New Life.

Yes.

Okay, wonderful.

Um second is at least from what I understand, is that it's a large space.

There's like you noted, there's already showers there, large bathroom facilities, and uh on-site kitchen.

Yes.

So again, I that to this to me, this is certainly evolved.

This is our fourth vendor that we're looking at to manage the day center, but from what you said and what the homework I've done, that really tracks is a good location for a day center.

So that's good.

Um I was at a um conference in Salt Lake City this past week, and I had the opportunity over the weekend to tour one of the day centers in Salt Lake City.

It was it was an awesome site visit.

I learned so much.

They were incredibly gracious with their time and informative, and I left with a whole lot of ideas that I don't have time in this meeting to even talk about.

But um thing I will say is that and what I really liked about it was it was one big campus owned by um one of the partner entities, and that partner entity again owned the whole campus, and they facilitated and managed and ran the day center.

Then there was a second partner that managed the night shelter, but it was one campus.

So the day center operated from 7 a.m., I believe to maybe six p.m.

And so people literally physically left the day center side of the same campus, walked out, and then got in line for the night shelter.

And I really thought there was just wisdom and having it located right there on one campus.

So that's just a an observation that I had that I wanted to share with you.

And then just some questions and I will run through them quickly because I am recognizing the time.

Could I respond to that?

We have a similar situation.

Right.

At frontline.

And so with fast track in place, anyone that stays the uh has tenured on the day there at the day center uh will leave, has an option to go uh to the shelter.

People in the shelter can actually come over to to the day center.

So it's it that's an option we have in place.

But it's not the same campus.

It's not the same campus.

Okay, that goes to my first question, which is around how is transportation handled.

Okay, so question one how is transportation handled once the facility closes at five or six.

What is the time now you moved it to?

Five.

It is five.

Okay, nine to five.

So once it closes at five PM, you guys are gonna have transportation over to a night shelter, if desired.

If if desired, or other places, depending on what where where an individual would like to go.

Okay.

Very good.

I'm glad to hear that.

And that will be managed by frontline.

Uh the transportation component would manage by front line.

Very good.

Um, when there are um extreme heat or cold days and people are staying at the warming or cooling center, again, remind me of the times of the warming cooling center.

And then if folks want to go to the, say, for example, they stay overnight at one of them and they want to go to the day center.

What is the plan for organizing them over to the day center for showers and that kind of thing?

Uh could you restate your question?

You're referring to leaving the shelter, going to the day center or if they're leaving a warming or cooling center and would like to go to the during, say the extreme weather, the 24 hours, will you be running where people can go to the day center if the streets are safe, of course?

Yes.

So the best example would be let's say we have uh a warming center.

Warming centers are, we use probably five locations, and you've seen those data I've sent out.

And so therefore, after that tenure uh at night typically, they can actually be transported to uh any place you choose to choose to go to.

They can actually go to the day center uh in the daytime if they choose to.

Uh most of the the uh warming centers, we pick people up around 6 30 at night uh from various locations.

We transport them to one of um four to five locations.

As you know, we use Mason Mill, Tugrant, we also use uh frontline.

Uh we also use St.

Vincent De Paul, okay?

Yep.

Uh and and so we had various sites we take people to.

So you have the option to transport people uh the next day.

We release typically based on the weather, so it could be released as early as six o'clock, seven o'clock, eight o'clock.

In the morning.

In the morning.

And that's all every time we have an announcement at an event for warming, we indicate pickup time and release time.

Or for the 24 hour activation, as you know, we keep people for successive days if there's cold weather.

And we worked that out with DEMA in terms of that meetings of our task force handles that.

So they have an option to do that.

The cooling center would be a little bit different because they're typically there during the daytime.

Uh and so the idea would be where do you go at night because it's it's not as cold.

So if someone wanted to uh go to a different location, they would be transported to that location.

Uh so the shelter individuals are people that stay in the shelter uh for 24 hours up to 120 days.

Uh and so that that's where the the uh shelter works.

Okay, so um So the best example would be the warming center release to a day center.

Understood.

All right.

But what I'm really actually trying to get to is that there are gaps in the hours.

So the day center is nine until five, and then you said that um so pickup would begin around 6.30.

So between 5 and 6.30 p.m., will people just kind of hang out in front of the day center and just wait for someone to come pick them up, or do they have to go sit on the side of the street or I would say no because that was last year's operating procedures because we didn't have a day center uh and we're picking people up from wherever they were at six o'clock, and we uh continue the transportation mode up until 10 o'clock at night.

We start the routes there, four supports that we use.

Each route has about six stops.

So imagine four routes with six stops, and it starts around six thirty, and we continue that until the last run is about ten o'clock at night.

So if we have a day center and the day center is going to exit at about five, we'd have to move the hours up to be consistent going forward.

You said six thirty earlier, so I'm glad that you're projecting to move the hours up.

Yeah, we can move the hours up.

We can move the hours up to instead of six thirty.

We can move them up to be more six o'clock.

Yes, to bridge the gap.

Fantastic.

That's helpful.

Also, just to acknowledge this, I know that our libraries are closed on Sundays.

And I believe Tucker is one of the churches that jump in on Sundays.

So what is the rationale for not having the day center open on Sundays?

Are you relying on the faith institutions on Sundays?

It's the logic we had was that uh in the county there are very few things that operate seven days except golf courses.

So we really don't have that.

Getting a vendor to run seven days a week was was a bit much.

Uh because you have to clean and there's downtime and all that.

So we felt that Sunday.

And the other location had to do with uh the place of worship.

Uh we were using Peace Baptist now we're at New Life, and the idea would be people that are there for worship.

So we tend to stay away from Sunday by having it.

That that was that was a logic.

Uh so and it's also very difficult to run a seven-day operation.

Uh six days was really pushing it.

Well, we got six days.

All right, now's the logic.

I I get you've been doing this a long time.

And uh you know I'm gonna ask this question.

Oh, go right ahead.

Um Will the day center allow pets?

And one of the reasons I'm asking is one, of course, I lead the animal services initiatives, and I'm very proud of the accomplishments of DeCap County with animal services.

But when I was in Salt Lake City touring their day center, that was one of the observations I had is that they allow their clients to come into the day center with their pets, as long as the pet behaves.

So they're allowed to bring their dog in, their cat in.

I don't know if they could bring like a snake or anything, but I know they can bring dogs and cats because I saw them there.

And they actually have dog food and cat food at the day center.

And so is that gonna be an option with this day center?

Uh yes, we're gonna accommodate uh animals and kids.

So if they behave, of course.

I I understand like dogs, if they start to they lunge at someone, they're gonna eject them out.

We have access to cages.

We use the cages on the warming center transactions.

We had a number of cages so that exchange.

And we had exchange was a designated location for animals.

Uh-huh.

And we had quite a few cases that were donated to us.

We still have those, exact ex access to those.

Uh but we made accommodations in and new lights contract to provide assistance for kids as well as animals to be able to come to the facility.

So they would not be turned away.

They would be allowed to come.

Okay, fantastic.

Um I'm just cognizant of the time, Madam Chair.

I do have more questions.

I can hold them for the business meeting, I suppose.

That that would be great just to give Commissioner uh Robert Patrick an opportunity as well.

Thank thank you.

Commissioner Patrick.

All right.

Uh thank you, Madam Chair.

Um Alan, uh first I just want to say thank you for the budget breakdown in between the two different uh um submissions that you have given to us, showing us how there's a bit of a financial savings uh with the second version.

Um I'm less concerned about the the vendors that you guys are working with, uh knowing that uh these are gonna be the services provided.

Um very comfortable with that.

Uh question just to make sure I'm clear.

Um, so district one is contributing about two hundred thousand dollars for transportation needs.

Um ask is I think was closer to six hundred thousand dollars.

So I hope you have a plan that can bridge the gap uh from what district one's provided to other needs for uh throughout the year.

Uh Commissioner, yeah.

Uh we we don't have a plan currently to bridge the gap.

We're uh my understanding is that it's being sponsored with Tara's working with Nicole Agner to get the contract out, and I'm involved in that as well.

Uh but we uh only using 200,000.

We don't have a mechanism to get the balance uh to get the six hundred thousand.

That's gonna be uh fundraising.

Okay.

Uh the contract were frontline.

We have two contracts with frontline today.

Um and the third one would be fast track.

So the front the front one is Warm and Cooling Center, that's one contract.

That's uh that's for uh uh a large amount, and also the shelter was five hundred and seventy thousand dollars, and that was for the shelter, four hundred to bed shelter.

That your contract uh or our contract would effectively be uh fast track, but that's two hundred thousand dollars.

Okay.

There's not I'm not seeing anything that would elevate that to six hundred thousand.

I know that was a request from frontline, but I'm not seeing any funding, source and use of funding to do that.

Uh if you go right ahead.

Go ahead.

Go ahead, right ahead.

Any contributions to the to the transportation fund would be much appreciated.

Oh, absolutely, I completely agree.

Sorry, Alan, go ahead.

Oh, yes.

So that that's a response to your answer.

We only have 200,000 in the contract, and we felt we might as well execute that and get that moving because it's synergistic to the day center operation.

But uh I'm not aware of the uh status of the balance of the 600,000.

Okay.

All right.

Um and then um just to explain to me one more time.

So I know certain components of the contract is for twelve months worth of service, but the agreement, the lease agreement is only for seven months.

Can you explain what happens in that other five months?

Uh yes, I'll do that.

So uh the idea would be uh for a long-term solution basis, and also the the church wanted us to be able to uh they have things they want to do at the property, so we were able to get them to be able to stay there for seven months uh and to year in.

Uh the idea with the administration was that we look at a long-term solution, which is to actually buy something.

So and so buying it is going to take some time to be able to do that.

So if we'll look at a number of sites, they're kind of confidential in order to turn to where we're looking, but it is going to be in this opticap area.

Uh the other day center uh as I mentioned um to Commissioner Spears, uh, is that we're looking at St.

Vincent DePa, and I'll I'll be coming forward probably in a couple of weeks with legislation to recommend to the administration to have a second day simmer at St.

Vincent DePaul's location.

They own the facility.

Right.

And it's 10,000 square feet, and it's right across from the airport.

Okay.

You've been there many times.

I have.

And that's in your district.

So we plan, and it's not too far from the Martha Station.

So we're working on that as well.

Yep.

So if nothing materializes uh for those five months of physical space, you know, we we don't make the purchase.

We still have the ability, maybe perhaps stay at this location for those other five months, worst case scenario.

Yes, we have to make an amendment to come back to get your permission to move forward.

Okay with that.

Okay.

So we'd definitely do that.

And we keep you in form along the way.

But you also see if there's going to be an acquisition, it clearly has to come before the board, so you would see that uh in the progress of that with Zach coming forward.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much.

And I I heard you um, Commissioner Patrick, in terms of the transportation, and thank you for being forward thinking, you know, on that.

Maybe we can um rub a couple of nickels together to to be able to uh to that.

Or or just a couple of commissioners will rub them together and shake some.

There you go.

Multiple hands make light work.

I agree.

Um and it would be great um if we're talking about equ um acquisition of properties, particularly with new life and others, um, and with relations to providing services, and we're anticipatory of it being in District 3.

It would be great as the district three commissioner to be able to um be made aware of it and to be able to have those conversations as well.

Absolutely.

We we'll keep you informed uh with regard to that.

Zach and I work we're closer together, so we do that.

Yeah, happy to work together as well.

All right.

So we so that we're all working together.

All right.

Um with that, I will entertain a motion.

Motion to approve.

Second.

All those in favor?

Um with the caveat that I still want that those details.

Um actually um yeah, I'm gonna still want the information with the breakdown, please.

And thank you.

Yes, please.

Thank you, sirs.

All right, thank you so much.

Uh, uh thank you for the approval.

Good afternoon.

All right, great afternoon.

Thank you, Al.

All right.

And we're hitting um close to 330.

We have some time and the discussions are under our discussion um area, and they deal with planning sustainability, expecting to be um a bit lengthy, but we'll try to our best to get through them as much as possible.

And with that, just um taking a look at the specific agenda items, uh expecting that some may be more lengthy in discussion than others.

We're on the page on page two for those following along.

We're gonna skip in the three discussions to agenda item 2026-0453, all commissioned districts, application of the director of planning sustainability for a text amendment relating to residential entertainment and RE estate OI office institutional OIT office institutional transitional M Light Industrial, M2 Heavy Industrial Zoning Districts for other purposes.

Great afternoon.

Good afternoon, Commissioners.

Great afternoon, go right ahead.

Uh this afternoon, um myself and staff would like to give a policy presentation of three ordinances that we sort of are putting together in a package.

Um what we're recognizing, and I think what everybody knows is that we're living differently, and housing um has taken on different forms.

Many of the residential areas are now being used for short-term stay as well as places where people are continue to entertain.

Outside of NHOA, we notice that there have been different things that have been transpiring as far as how we're living in community, especially when it comes to entertainment.

This afternoon, myself and staff want to present to you the short-term rental ordinance.

Even though it's passed, we want to provide you with an update for the implementation as well as some of the edits that have been made.

We'll be presenting also the residential entertainment ordinance slash party house.

This ordinance is highlighting some of the guidelines that we believe are fair guidelines for entertaining, especially if your home is being used for any large-scale event, as well as it gives clear definitions for when that home has moved into the category of a party house.

In addition to that, and sort of anchoring these two ordinances, we'll be introducing a policy that we're currently working on with our public safety and code enforcement team, which has to do with the chronic nuisance property ordinance.

This is if we could, because I actually read that one, so um I see they're packaged in tandem.

So I'll read out the other three again.

Um about the three of them, but seeing as you're taking them in tandem for the purposes of discussion, we'll do that and do an individual vote on them.

So let me just sound out the other two for those that are following along.

Um again, under discussion session planning sustainability 2026-062AR commission districts application of the director of planning and sustainability for a text amendment to chapter 24 pertaining to an exercise tax on short-term rentals and chapter 27 pertaining to zoning for the purposes of clarifying provisions.

This text amendment is countywide.

The next agenda item 2026-0629, all commission districts application of director of planning and sustainability for the text amendment to identify repeated nuisances, nuisance property, excuse me, and establish pathways for notice, corrective action, and related to administrative fees.

This text amendment is countywide.

And previously I read the other agenda item ending in 0453.

Right ahead.

Absolutely.

Um, the third ordinance that we're will be discussing here and sort of a package that anchors is the chronic nuisance property ordinance.

And this is really primarily focused on administrative fees.

Um, what we're looking for is an expansion of what we may have on staff or administrative fees for chronic behavior, uh, recognizing that party houses are banned from short-term rentals, as well as their party house guidelines that we're having for residential entertainment.

Uh myself and staff thought it would be apropos and even prudent for us to be able to have another opportunity that provides our public safety and code enforcement an opportunity to provide a little bit more teeth into their enforcement.

Uh, this by no way supersedes or even replaces uh the capabilities for what public safety does when it records of any when it pertains to criminal behavior or what code enforcement does as it pertains to nuisance and nuisance behavior.

But what this does is it introduces a framework and sort of sets the groundwork for what we're thinking what we're calling uh chronic administration fees that could be charged for a home or property uh that refuses to come into compliance, especially after repeated opportunities for them to be able to get into compliance.

So, with that, I would like my staff to be able to provide you with a short um presentation of each so that we can take questions from the from the board.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Raquel Jackson, special assistant to the director and the project manager for the short-term rental implementation.

As a reminder, on July 24th, 2025, following approximately one year of community engagement, the board of commissioners adopted the county short-term rental ordinance.

Since adoption, staff has been actively working through the implementation phase, including system development, interdepartmental coordination, operational procedures, staff training, and public outreach with a go live date of May 20th, which is next week.

The amendments before you today are intended to provide additional clarity, strength, and strengthen the county's ability to effectively administer and enforce the ordinance as implementation continues.

Specifically, the amendments clarify the short-term rentals, clarify that short-term rentals must maintain a 24-7 local agent located within 30 miles of the property, establish a 24-7 complaint hotline and response process, standardize ordinance terminology by replacing permits with license, add short-term rentals to the zoning use table for alignment purposes, clarify exemptions related to temporary stays associated with domestic violence situations, expand enforcement authority related to license denial, suspension, and revocation, establish provisions related to chronic nuisance properties, and prohibit party houses and residential entertainment venues operating as a short-term rental.

Overall, the proposed amendments are intended to support reasonable, responsible short-term rental activities while protecting surrounding neighborhoods and maintaining quality of life for DeCap County residents.

Good afternoon, Commissioners.

I'm Yvonne Tramel, and I will be presenting the framework for residential entertainment.

The residential entertainment will only be allowed in the only residential district that the residential entertainment will be allowed in is the RE.

The other districts are the OI, OIT, M, and M2, and those are non-residential districts.

And then the first step is to define residential entertainment, which is use of a residential property that is charging a fee.

It's also setting up applicable properties such as single family, two family dwellings, and the multifamily units.

Also, the indoor is indoor music only and is subject to the DeCab County noise ordinance.

Standard residential lighting only is required.

And then for the event limits, it will be a maximum of eight events per year, which will be uh two per quarter.

Events must end by 1230.

If they want to go past 1230, it will be required a slop.

Permits issued to the property owner only, and it is non-transferable.

And in terms of the neighborhood protections, parking security, and logistics plans are required, the neighborhood notification within 500 feet, and no public advertising of these events.

And then under location, there's is not to be permitted in your park, schools, senior housing, or certain residential districts, must comply with zoning, fire, parking, and noise regulations, and there are to be no alcohol sales.

And then next there will be the chronic nuisance ordinance portion.

Thank you so much, Yvonne and commissioners.

If you should ride past your district and see multiple blue lights out in front of a residential house, there is a chance that property may be in danger of becoming a chronic nuisance.

The chronic nuisance ordinance proposed establishes a program that regulates and defines properties that become a chronic nuisance by generating multiple nuisance activities.

It authorizes administrative fees for the purpose of recovering the cost of burden of multiple county services at one address.

It also defines and escalates actions against permits, licenses, and other sanctions against properties, including liens.

This ordinance does not seek to replace any other existing method of compliance and regulation.

On the next slide.

A nuisance violation specifically includes disorderly conduct, loud parties, unlawful gatherings, repeated noise violations, alcohol in drug-related offenses to be specific.

In the ordinance, a nuisance classification is triggered upon those three violations within a consecutive 180-day period.

Upon the first violation, a property owner or responsible proper responsible party will receive a warning stating that this ordinance will come into effect and that that property and responsible party needs to come into compliance.

Upon the second violation, they'll receive a warning again, indicating on their third violation they could become a chronic nuisance property.

And that third violation triggers that designation as a chronic nuisance property, as well as the enforcement by way of administrative fees.

Administrative fees will be maxed at $5,000.

In addition, if a property owner doesn't come into compliance or responsible party doesn't come into compliance, they could be subject to additional actions, for example, suspension or revocation of any SAPs, business licenses, or the land use or slump permits on that property.

In addition, any unpaid administrative fees can be leaned against their property, or additional collections activity could take place.

These are proposed language as well as proposed fines and fees.

We've been uh meeting with the community uh to make sure that we spoke to community council, and I believe on one of the slides, I think it's the next one.

Yep, that we have met with the individual community councils to be able to get feedback from from the jury area, which actually has been quite positive.

However, we're also meeting with our internal staff, uh specifically those that are working in public safety as well as with code enforcement for the details for the for the necessary ways to be able to look at chronic nuisance to look at the administrative fees, to look at what could be charged as administrative fees, and to make sure that we're aligned with the processes before we move forward.

So I wanted uh to make that specific notification that what we have proposed had to do with our general research and the general guidelines that we were able to look at, but they're not the final text regarding the chronic nuisance as we are now in speaking with public safety as well as code enforcement.

Any questions Commissioner Loves Bears?

Um I just wanted to add one thing really quickly, and I'm just very appreciative of the work that the team has done.

I mean, this is an ongoing issue that we've been talking about for years, so um hopefully what you see is that we're working towards some sort of way of addressing these homes that simply don't seem to want to follow the rules, follow the law.

Um, and so a lot of the detail is is yet to be worked out, but we were uh we were confident that we'll be able to get there.

But hopefully we show that we are setting the tone that we need to do something, and we're working together to try and come up with that best solution.

Thank you, Mr.

COO.

Um, and I just want to applaud the PNS department for your efforts around all three of these.

I certainly deal with these issues in my district, which you are well aware of.

I missed the first um presentation, so I'll move on to the second one, which is the residential entertainment.

And if you sent this out in advance, I've been traveling up until yesterday.

I have not had a chance to review any of them.

So I will most likely follow up with questions between now when it appears on our agenda again at the second business meeting of the month.

So my first question is um under residential entertainment slide five.

So to make sure I understand under the exemptions, so basically, um I guess um broadly the only entities that can't do these type of residential entertainment would be where it's more of operating more like a business would be individuals and private entities, right?

Because we have 501c3, a nonprofit organization.

Yeah, which I know was a private corporation, but we all get what that means.

Business, civic, or professional groups, so I get that.

And then political organizations or campaigns, I certainly understand that.

So an individual who just wants to host in charge for a uh residential party cannot do it, and then a for-profit entity cannot do it.

Is that correct?

Am I reading this right?

They cannot do it without a um they they cannot do it, no.

Okay, thank you.

All right, very good.

So you've confirmed that.

Um the next question I had was um so for eligibility, it has to be one acre lot and two thousand square feet, correct?

Not or it's definitely and correct.

Yes, okay.

I thought I heard you say or okay, thank you.

I was just confirming that.

Um glad to see it has to be located on minor major arterial roadway or higher.

The um when you say standard residential lighting, you just mean like your front door light, light out by your mailbox, light up the driveway.

So they can't put like one of the massive lights that goes up into the sky, and you know, that type of thing.

That's what we're trying to avoid, but things that are certainly obstructive to the neighbors or a distraction to enjoying a quiet evening.

Uh yes, Commissioner.

Okay, thank you.

Um the indoor music only subject to the county noise ordinance.

We are working on that um as you well know um right now, and so I know there'll be more on that one moving forward.

Um the maximum of eight events per year, it looked like one of the community council was wanting only two per year, is that right?

Which community council is that?

No.

That was from the planning commission recommendation.

That was the planning commission recommendation.

Okay, okay, thank you so much for that.

Okay, so planning commission, so no more than two.

And the vote on that one was you unanimous with that one condition?

Okay.

That's correct.

Okay, thank you for that.

Um the next one is public advertising.

Okay, so no public advertising of events.

I know that's something we're dealing with right now in district two.

So there will be someone that will monitor, as we were talking about earlier today, it's great when we do these ordinances, but if we don't have a plan to monitor or enforce, it's kind of not worth the paper they're written on.

So how will you guys will you have someone that's designated to kind of just you know peruse uh social media and determine if you know there is any advertising going on?

And when you say advertising, does it have to be paid?

It doesn't necessarily have to be paid, but if you're doing public advertising, we've had the gift of uh uh most people finding out and informing us about about advertising because most people are using uh the standard social media vehicles and face or Facebook and so on.

Um but we do uh plan on having a designated um special projects coordinator over uh these um uh special ordinances.

Okay, so there will be uh one FTE that will manage uh do any research as needed based on what you receive from a resident.

Yes, uh to store or commissioner who's sending it to you guys.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, you know, all of our staff will be working in tenum, but yes, we will have a designated individual for our special projects.

Wonderful.

Um and then it says no alcohol sales, but what I have seen is people will buy a pass to the party, so they'll pay 200 dollars, and it includes um alcohol, wine, beer, spirits, etc.

Is that um but that won't apply to this, correct?

Yeah, that won't.

Okay, so you the how they're currently doing it now is still going to be acceptable per this ordinance.

Protest ordinance, yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Um that is all of the questions that I have on this one.

So I will yield back to our chair, and I am reading through the chronic nuisance and might ask a few questions.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh Commissioner Long Spears, Commissioner Patrick.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, under the chronic nuisance, um so as we've talked in the past, uh, an issue that's been in uh district two is is um a tree falls on a house uh and it is sat there for years at a time.

Uh it's in some kind of damaged unhabitable state.

Is there anything that you could fit into this chronic news component that could address uh or encourage the county to be able to follow up with property owners if the house has been damaged, so we don't just have a blue tarp on it for months at a time, like there's always something uh encouraging staff to go back and double check and see what's the status of this property in the neighborhood as opposed to it's it's sort of festering and getting worse.

Yeah, at this particular junction, when it comes to like a tree falling on the house, I know that we already have our our nuisance ordinance that's manned by a code enforcement.

This particular ordinance at this stage.

Now, what the good news is, Commissioner, is that um chronic nuisance ordinances are in our research, and I believe there are 47 of them in the in 47 of them in 50 of the top cities or municipalities in the United States, they grow as we continue to look at the definition of what a chronic nuisance is.

Uh what we've proposed to you today are chronic nuisances related to the two ordinances that we have to create a baseline and sort of a framework for us to be able to move forward.

I believe um code enforcement addresses things in regards to uh if a tree has fallen or has become uh a nuisance to our property thus far.

But you know, we're definitely willing and and looking into as uh um CEO Williams has said, in looking at how we define chronic nuisances in the in the CAB County, how we charge administrative fees and how we're able to expand our definitions to be able to make sure that you do not have repeat behavior if this is a behavioral issue.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Commissioner Patrick.

Thank you again, Director and Juka for being here.

Um I know we mentioned earlier in terms of um enforcement, we had a and I appreciate yourself and deputy um director Bragg and having a conversation that was really just conversations about these items right here.

Um particularly um focusing on the residential entertainment, and we talked about the enforcement piece.

My suggestion at that point is for us to connect and have a conversation with the courts.

Have we done so?

No, we have not had a conversation with the courts at this time.

Uh we've um established this framework and we've had conversations with public safety as well as code enforcement to continue to work out the frame that's frameworks, then to include the courts would be at the next uh level or phase possibly.

I mean, just as an FYI, I wouldn't be comfortable with doing that um until we had that conversation, particularly as we're talking about um unpaid balances in terms of escalation when it comes to enforcement fees and escalation and um an enforcement of those um fees, any NP balances may be collected through liens and collection activity and to the extent the county intends to or would um make an additional step towards putting a lien on a property, then I think it should be at least um some conversation um with the courts related to this.

All right, and so then I have another question in terms of um and still on the page, I think it's eight.

Thank you so much for making sure that it's labeled the enforcement fees and escalation page.

Violation one, it's a fine, but it also say is the first violation is a warning.

But then also it says second violation is a warning.

And so um first violation, the county may require collective measures or corrective, presumably they can do the same thing in two.

What's the real differentiation between the first violation and a second violation besides a $500 difference in cost?

The first violation is what we're seeing the first time that somebody speaks out there is just a warning.

Since uh this framework that we have that we're working on with public safety gives a three count before it kicks in.

The second time around, code enforcement or public safety can administer any uh any uh any violations or any other procedural aspects that they have.

But for this ordinance right here, because it's defined as a three, then we can only say that you're in your second violation and the next one is the kick off for the three for this ordinance related to whether administrative fees will be charged.

So what you're hearing from my staff is the steps for this ordinance, but not the steps for what code enforcement or what public safety would do when they arrive into a home with chronic nuisance, code enforcement can give a warning, they can cite, they can send to court, public safety can take any matter of action within their frame.

But if we maintain the three in the 180, then we have to be able to say this is your first warning, your second warning at the third is when we'll be kicking off the administrative fees.

Uh and I I get that.

Um because specifically about enforcement, if we're saying that the first violation is a warning, and it may require corrective measure, and we're saying the second violation is a warning and the only obvious differentiation is a cost a fee for the um violation, and as a $500 difference.

So specifically related to the enforcement, what is the difference between the actual enforcement of the first violation and the second violation specifically as a you know, not someone sitting on the board, but someone that's expected to comply with this and adhere to it, what can they understand is the actual difference between the first violation and the second violation besides the differentiation in cost of $500?

I think that's something that we should look at making sure that we make um clear, because even looking at the third, it says it equals a designation.

That's something that's clearly different from uh uh violation warning or just a difference in um the thousand dollars again, just getting into the enforcement piece of it.

Um I have some more questions that were um, you know, as I did when we met and discussed this, um now seeing the actual drafts, needing some time obviously to go through that.

Sure.

But just so I can um also understand, and I'm on the slide um five with the residential entertainment.

So um as it relates to the example of events, are we saying, just so I'm clear that in order for someone to have a wedding that at their house that they would need a special permit?

Yes.

Because that's a large scale event.

So we would want to be able to make sure that if they were doing a large scale event that they would come in so that they would meet with the guidelines.

If they're doing a small gathering uh uh renewal of vows or something that is a personal and not a large scale event, this gives guidelines for that.

But if you are anticipating a hundred people coming to your house that we would need to see a traffic plan or something that would let the neighbors know and for for you to follow the guidelines there at that point.

So we should make that clear.

Uh again, um, because you know I've actually performed uh the wedding, you know, it was small, um, it wasn't a hundred folks, so we should just make sure that we're being clear again from that enforceability um piece, um, because again, it goes into then pool or outdoor gathering, what number are we talking about um in terms of a gathering?

Is it specific to the type as what's being explained here?

Or is it specifically the number of individuals?

Um that's what we should you know make clear so that there aren't residents that are uncertain as to whether or not they would need a slip um for a small wedding of a few folks coming together or a um small um family gathering.

I think we should just make sure that they those things are abundantly clear and everything else.

We'll just go on um, we'll deal with uh offline to address the other concerns.

Um are there any other questions?

I I think uh Commissioner Long Spears, you had your your hand brief.

Thank you.

Um I did have a follow-up on the residential entertainment line.

Sure.

And number one and number three, I'll just review in my own time and and shoot you guys some questions.

Um the last section on page six, location and compliance not permitted near park school senior housing or certain residential districts.

Are we defaulting to what that current um standard is?

Meaning like um for like alcohol sales, for example, how close you can to be to a school.

Okay, I understand that.

Yeah, so what is the not near, what is near, I guess.

Define that.

Are you still working on that?

Um it was written basically written for like two thousand feet for the I'm sorry, yeah, two thousand feet for the schools, um, senior centers, and then it's one thousand feet for those other residential districts.

Okay, I've I've grabbed the ordinances, so I'll go back and just read them.

I'm sure it's spelled out there.

All right, thank you very much.

And then my other uh brief ask is just that um and I think something similar uh came as asked on a previous agenda item.

Uh it was with the sound ordinance, just trying to understand how it is affecting um the residents throughout the Cab County and what specific uh areas.

Um, you know, I had a constituent to remind me and I was well aware, but um as a reminder, a lot of what we put forth is uh especially this speaking specifically to unincorporated DeCab County, um, you know, just the impact it's gonna have on unincorporated the Cab County, the majority of which is in District 3.

So I am um curious as to particularly party houses, which I know are affected everywhere and short-term rentals, and even as we have um the uh World Cup coming, there is a need to you know um be progressive in our approach to address it and just curious as to how it's impacting the district, so that would be helpful as well.

Commissioner um Patrick, do you have any other questions?

Um no, I I uh how I'm assuming we're gonna defer this.

And so what's the what would be we what would we be comfortable um deferring bringing this back to the commission?

My ask is gonna be 30 days.

Um that would take us to the all right, that would take us to the let's see.

Commissioners, this is actually on your um zoning agenda.

So we brought it to this body before it actually appeared on any of your business agendas.

So it's currently scheduled um to be heard for the first time on May 28th.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

All right, and so my uh the recommendation is gonna um carry over, it's gonna be heard um then on the 28th.

So um to come back to the BOC that'd be on June 9th, and and for us to actually hear it on the and we're gonna hear it before then, but we can bring it back on the you know 22nd.

We can just continue to have the discussion if you guys would like um and and make it fluid, that's fine if it the rest of the committee members are fine with that.

All right, then we're just gonna keep it in committee and continue to discuss absolutely all right.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

And last um but not least, if all hearts in mind are clear, I will take another motion.

Motion to adjourn.

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us in facts.