Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the May 21st, 2026 Committee of the Whole.

I am presiding officer and District 4 Commissioner Shekira Johnson.

We will get going on our agenda today.

We have we will have two presentations and an executive session.

So if we will start with committee reports, Mr.

PWI chair, if you're ready, I'll start on that end.

All right.

Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer.

I'm uh Commissioner Robert Patrick, Chair of Public Works and Infrastructure.

My uh committee colleagues are uh presiding officer and fellow commissioner Shakira Johnson, as well as uh Super Six Commissioner Ted Terry.

Uh we had about 14 items at our last PWI meeting.

Um without getting into all 14 of those items.

Some things I do want to draw your attention to.

We approved roughly about 48 million dollars worth of emergency spending for uh sewer and water repairs.

Uh, primarily uh, as some of you recall, we have about 14 areas where there are some hot spots for sewage leaks and spills, and uh the bulk of that funding was addressed to towards that area.

Uh it also contemplates upsizing the pipes as well as capacity uh at the treatment plant so that this new effluent that's entering the system can be also processed through without causing additional problems downstream.

Um today we will not have PWI at the regular scheduled time.

We're actually gonna have PWI tomorrow at uh 10 a.m.

So I hope everybody will be willing to tune in.

We have at least three presentations as I recall, and we have I think about seven pages of uh agenda items to go through, so we'll have a full schedule for tomorrow.

Still the greatest of all the committees, uh and the most fun.

But uh, we'll see you guys tomorrow at PWI.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Commissioner Marita Davis Johnson.

Good morning.

I'm Marita.

I am Marita Davis Johnson, and I chair the county operations committee, also known as the ops committee.

My colleagues who sit on that committee with me or uh Commissioner Robert Patrick and Commissioner Ladina Bowden.

The ops committee uh met on last Tuesday, May the 5th.

We approve the minute the meet minute meetings for the April the 21st ops meeting.

There was a new one new agenda item innovation and technology.

Item uh 260634, change order to Talley Cloud Hosting Services, migration for the um IAS World Software.

We recommended deferral that is pending audit.

And this meeting we continued our discussion on the Charter Review Committee.

We discussed sections um 12 and 14 and move forward with minor textual changes to section um 14.

The ops committee will meet today this afternoon at 1 p.m.

And be sure to tune in line on DC TV to join the second greatest committee meeting of all time.

Madam PO, perhaps we have many greatest.

We're all the greatest.

We're all the there we go.

We're all the greatest.

Thank you.

Commissioner Bolton.

Good morning, everyone.

I am Ladina Bolton, Deputy Presiding Officer for the Board of Commissioners, Chair of Employee Relations and Public Safety, and your Super District 7 Commissioner for four more years.

So thank you, my night.

So at our last meeting on May 5th, the commissioners who joined me during that meeting were Commissioner Messiah, Commissioner Robert Patrick, and Commissioner Terry.

Those commissioners that serve on the committee with me are Commissioner Nicole Masaya and Commissioner Marita Davis Johnson.

During that meeting, we did approve the minutes for the April 21st meeting, in addition to a couple other items that were approved, including the FY 2026 FIFA World Cup grant and the amount of 1,487,037.

We also approved an item in police services for the surveillance of detection equipment.

And this is to purchase the equipment, mapping devices, and training for the equipment as well, which is reasonable.

Item 2026 0650 was a contract that consisted of cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting of police vehicles as needed.

That of course was approved.

They encounter many different types of folks with different issues and concerns.

Item 2026 0682 is a contract that consisted of the purchase of aviation fuel for the county's police helicopters.

That was also approved.

The department is growing, and we have to have capacity to meet the need so they can continue to serve.

In addition with fire rescue, we had a contract that consisted of medical and mental health screening and evaluations for our fire rescue personnel.

In support of them, we did approve that item.

Following an addition, there was a contract providing the production and installation of vinyl decals for the department again as our public safety grows.

We have to grow in tools and resources that so that they can effectively serve you.

An item that came out of Super District 6, we held in committee, which was a resolution requesting the administration to establish independent civilian oversight and auditing for digital shield initiatives.

We have not had that conversation yet, and we will in the near future.

Just a few tweaks and we will be there.

Item 20260596 was also deferred deferred.

That was an item to regulate the restraint and transportation of animals, in addition to the deferral of 2026-0728, which is an ordinance to amend the code with respect to regulating the sale of dogs, cats, and rabbits in pet shops.

And with that, I yield back.

Thank you, Commissioner Bolton.

Commissioner Masaya.

Thank you so much, Madam PL, and great Thursday to everyone.

My name is Nicole Masaya, and I have the honor to serve as the District 3 Commissioner in addition to the Chair of PECS planning economic development and community services.

I serve alongside my colleague and committee members, Commissioner Robert Patrick from District 1, Commissioner Long Spears from District 2.

Our last regularly scheduled meeting was held on May 12th, 2026.

Those in attendance were myself, Commissioner Robert Patrick, and Commissioner Spears.

There were eight items on the uh printed on the agenda, five items of which were recommended for approval.

Three items for deferral, and they are all due back to the Board of Commissioners on 526 2026.

Um, you know, I'll just tease just very briefly, Commissioner Davis Johnson.

I was gonna say that I'm the second PECS is the second for the greatest show on earth, but I'm sincerely thinking that we are good running first at this point, Commissioner Patrick.

So you know, our next PECS meeting join us will be held on Tuesday, May 26th at 3 30 p.m.

Uh, thank you, Madam PO.

This concludes my PECS committee report.

All right, thank you so much.

And um, Commissioner Terry for FAP.

Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer.

Uh, we did not have a FAB committee, so no report.

Uh, but we will have our committee meeting next Tuesday at the same regular scheduled time.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um, we will now have a motion from Commissioner Bolton.

Yes, ma'am.

I move to limit the time for discussion on each of the matters in today's meeting, only to allow five minutes the first time uh commissioner speaks and three minutes the second time for a total of eight minutes on any individual item.

Second.

There's a motion and a second.

All in favor, please raise your hand.

Aye.

Aye.

That is unanimous.

Thank you so much.

So now we will start the review of the proposed executive agenda for May 26, 2026.

Good morning, Mr.

Williams.

Good morning, Madam Presiding Officer, members of the board.

I'd like to begin the review of the executive agenda for May 26th, the first item under proposed public hearing items, item 0887.

Application of the Director of Planning and Sustainability for DeCab County Board of Commissioners to hold a public hearing to consider and review whether to extend a moratorium on adult entertainment devices.

Next we have under public works transportation item 0818 Street Light Special Tax District, Flat Schultz Parkway.

Next we have item 0820, Street Light Special Tax District.

Packs in place, Calium Court, Axel Ridge, Arcadia Drive, followed by item 0875.

We're uh distributing a substitute on that one, which is a resolution order and declaration of taking.

Required temporary easement for Constitution Roads Freight Corridor Improvement.

Cost of the county $97,505.

And it's at 3327 Woodstock Road.

Next we have item 0876, property right of way exchange, Stone Quarry Road, Land Lot 144, 15th district.

Next uh after the public hearing items, we have item uh for watershed management, item 0778, partial easement abandonment abandonment reposed drive.

Like that PWI.

We'll have that in PWI.

Next we have proposed appointments.

First is item 0918, reappoint Mr.

Stephen P.

Smith, Esquire, to post eight of the development authority of DeCab County and post eight of the private hospital authority.

It's a reappointment.

So we'll just move it forward.

Yes, please.

Next we have a item 0923, appoint Dr.

Leroy Reese, PhD to post six of DeCab County Community Service Board.

Is that a PECS item?

Community Service Board.

Next we have item 0924, appoint Dr.

Lynette Wilson Phillips, MD to post five the DeCab County Community Service Board.

PECS as well, thank you.

Next we have item 0925, appoint Ms.

Kendra Price to post four of the Cab County Community Service Board.

The same, thank you.

So those three items go to PECS.

Next under proposed preliminary items under Airport.

The first item is 0859, standardized T Hanger Space Lease Agreement with Vene Bose.

Consent.

Next we have item 0905, resolution to accept GDOT contract for costs associated with airport perimeter fencing replacement.

Rehabilitate taxiway K.

Design and Relocate Taxiway G.

Design at the Peachtree DeCab Airport.

There's a $600,880 35 cents cost to the county.

Would you like that in ops, Madam Chair?

Ops.

Ops.

Okay.

Next we have under the Chief Executive Office Item 0474.

This is an approval of amendment number one to contract number 2001 eight six operational and performance assessment services.

Purchasing policy exempted awarded exemption awarded to Malden and Jenkins, LLC amount not to exceed 116,530.

This is the assessment of the watershed department, which was part of the 1010 resolution.

So would you like that in PWI or lease?

Okay.

Next we have item uh 0926, uh motion to adopt tentative 2026 millage rates and a substitute will be presented.

Would you like that in fab, Mr.

Chair?

Thank you.

Next we have under the executive assistant.

We were trying to get them to vote on that next week.

Okay, I'm I apologize.

Item 0926.

We would like uh we'll be doing a presentation.

We'd like to get the tenant of vote to set it next week.

So then we would not send that to FAD.

And the presentation is today.

Presentation is shortly.

And wouldn't be the final setting.

This would be to set the uh to set the millage rate hearings.

That's fine.

Next we have uh 0632, authorized proposed rate increase for parking at the DeCab County Courthouse Parking Deck, aloof building parking lot and camp circular parking lots.

It'd be ops.

Next we have fire and rescue services, item 0903 uh for fire station 16 and 27 street lighting lease agreement.

We'll be providing a substitute in ERPS for that.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, under police services item 0840, agreement of mutual aid and assistance between DeCab County, Georgia, and the City of Atlanta, Georgia for law enforcement services.

Next we have item 0842, uh grant year 2023 Urban Area Security Initiative, UASC program grant in the amount not to exceed 132,750.

That's ERPS.

Yeah, just because we like to hear about these great opportunities.

Sure and what we have going on.

I just want to say great job to the police department.

A lot of grants have been coming through lately.

They've been doing an outstanding job.

Just say again.

Okay.

Next we have under uh public works sanitation.

Uh item 0930, sanitation department increase of commercial and residential service fees, landfill and transfer station tipping fees.

Uh PWI.

PWI.

Uh next um Public Works Transportation 0891.

Indication of round roundabout support at State Road 8, Ponce de Leon Avenue, Northeast at East Lake Road Northeast and State Road 8, Ponce de Leon Avenue Northeast at West Ponce de Leon Avenue North, Parkwood Road, G dot uh can you see the numbers in the city?

PWI PWI.

Next is an indication of round of support for State Road 155, Claremont Road, and Rose Cliff Drive.

I think it's PWI.

PWI for those two items.

Next we have our purchasing and contracting items.

Are you good with your purchasing and contracting?

Yep, good with ERPS.

Just good fab, you had one item.

All right.

Ops has several items.

And Pex, you have a few items as well.

And then PWI is good.

PWI is good.

So I have nothing further.

Thank you, Mr.

Will.

Thank you.

Appreciate you.

So now we can do the review of the preliminary, excuse me, preliminary agenda.

Good morning, Mr.

Mayor.

Good morning, presiding officers.

Good morning, Commissioners.

How are you all doing today?

Doing well.

Good, good, good.

All right, let's get into the uh recap.

Uh if we could, um let's begin with uh item two zero two six zero eight eight seven.

Uh application of the director of planning and sustainability for the the CAP Board of Commissioners.

Um where did you just decide that to go?

I'm sorry.

This is public hearing.

Public hearing, okay.

Yeah, those first ones are all of them are public.

Okay.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

Um 2026 0818 0820 0875, that one is a substitute.

Okay, and then 0876, all of those are public hearings.

All right, item 0778, uh watershed management, um, commission districts one and six, partial easement abandonment, reposed drive, that's to PWI.

Um for proposed appointments under the CEO's office, uh item 20260918, uh reappointment of Mr.

Stephen Smith, uh Post 8 of the development authority and pulse eight of the private hospital authority.

We're moving that one forward.

Okay.

All righty.

Item 20260923, um, appoint Dr.

Uh Leroy Reese uh to Post 6 of the DeCab Community Service Board to PECS.

Correct.

Item um 20260924, appoint uh Dr.

Lynette Wilson Phillips to Pulse 5 of the DeCab Community Service Board to PECS as well, and then item zero uh two zero two six zero nine two five.

That's a substitute, uh updated um uh copy of that uh point uh miss Kendra Price to Pulse 4 of the DeCab uh County Community Service Board PEX as well okay.

You said there was a sub on 0925?

Yes.

And not was it an update for that?

The zero nine two five.

I know there's one for zero nine two six.

Uh page two okay.

I am mistaken on that.

That is as given.

Yeah, I think it's zero nine two five.

Yeah, 0925 is fine.

It's fine.

0926.

One second.

You is that your question, Commissioner Marina?

No.

Okay.

No.

This is absolutely one question.

Go ahead.

My question was on uh 260918.

Which one?

I'm sorry.

Uh 0918.

So we're moving that two.

Moving it forward to vote on and not going to committee.

And coming back, the um COO is just uh stated that 0925 is a substitute.

Yes.

Okay.

But it will go to PECS.

Okay as well.

We don't have it.

I don't think you have.

Do they have the um the update?

Okay.

You don't have it right now.

They are working on that as we speak.

Okay.

All right.

We'll have it before we vote on it.

Yeah, you'll have it before.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

Uh let's uh move now to um.

Okay, we have proposed preliminary items.

Uh airport, uh, item two zero two six zero eight five nine.

Uh standardized T Hanger space lease agreement with Vene Bose.

That's consent.

Correct.

Uh 20260905, Commission Districts 1 and 6.

Resolution to accept G DOC contract for costs associated with the airport perimeter, fencing replacement, uh rehabilitate taxiway K design and relocate.

Um Taxiway G design at the Peace Street DeCab Airport.

That's to ops.

Correct.

Okay, under CEO.

Uh we have two items 2026 0474, all commission districts.

Uh amendment number one to contract 2000 six.

Operational and performing assessment uhwarded to Malden and Jenkins.

That will be to PWI.

Correct.

Okay.

Uh item 20260926.

That's also an updated uh substitute.

I think you all have been handed that that presentation will be here at committee of the whole and not to FAB, correct?

Correct.

Okay.

All righty.

Um COO's office, uh item 2026 0632, uh authorized proposed rate increase for parking at the DeCav County Courthouse parking deck, Maloof Building Parking Lot, and Camp Circle Parking Lots.

Uh that will be to ops.

Correct.

Okay.

Fire and rescue, one item 20260903, fire station 16 and 27 street lighting lease agreement in commission districts four, five, and super district six and seven, that will be in ERPS.

Uh and police services, uh, we have three items, look uh two items actually, uh two zero two six zero eight four zero, uh, all commission districts agreement of mutual aid and assistance between DeCab County and City of Atlanta, Georgia for law enforcement services.

That's to ERPS, yes, sir, and then item 0842, all commission districts uh uh for a um 2023 Urban Area Security Initiative UAC program grant, the amount not to exceed 132,750 dollars.

That's to ERPS as well.

Yes, sir.

PWI, uh we have uh one item that's in sanitation, item 0930, sanitation department increase of commercial and residential service fees, landfill and transfer station tipping fees.

That's to PWI.

Correct.

Okay.

Uh public works, transportation.

We have two items, uh item one zero eight nine one, commission districts two and six.

Indication of roundabout support at uh state route eight, Ponce Da Leon Avenue uh at East Lake Road and Pont's Daily on Avenue Northeast at West Ponce Daily on North Parkway Parkwood Road.

That item would be to PWI.

Correct.

0895, Commission Districts 2 and 6, indication of roundabout support at State Route 155, Claremont Road and Rose Cliff Drive.

Uh that will be uh to PWI as well.

Don't stop till you get enough.

Don't stop till you get enough.

All right, there you go.

You're quick on your feet, Commissioner.

All right, purchasing and contracting.

Um these are all items that will be going to um ERPS committee, items 20260303, uh item 0285, item 0683, item 0687, item 0748, all to ERPS committee.

Okay, purchasing and contracting to Fab committee, just one item, that's item 0693.

Okay, purchasing and contract it to ops committee.

We have a number of those.

Um so I'll just read them 0387 040 0467 0690 0714 0760 0765 0770 0771 and 0781.

All of those items going to ops.

All right.

It's gonna be a busy committee.

All right.

Purchasing and contracting to PECTS committee.

Um we have two items, um, two zero two six zero four five seven and zero four eight seven.

Okay.

Um purchasing and contracting to PWI committee.

Uh we have a number of those as well.

Um items two zero two five, one zero eight zero zero, zero three one seven, zero four two three, zero four three four, zero four five five, zero four five six, zero four nine five, zero five eight four, zero six, six nine, zero six, seven nine, zero six eight four, zero seven six two, and zero seven nine two.

All of those items will be in PWI.

Another busy committee.

Okay.

Then we have items um for review of the board, uh, preliminary agenda uh item uh for the board of commissioners.

We have um 2026-0865 rec record the appointment of Dr.

Tiffany Hogan to the DeCav County Women's Commission as the DeCab County Board of Education appointee.

Item 0866, uh record the appointment of Dr.

Katrina Young to the DeCab County Women's Commission as the decide DeCAP appointee and item 0868 uh record the appointment of Ray Rothman to the DeCab County Women's Commission as the City of Dunwoody appointee.

All right, uh Board of Commissioners District 1.

Um 2026 0870, record the appointment of Nazar Beluka.

I'm hoping I'm pronouncing that correctly to the DeCab United Sports Commission as a standing member with voting privileges to the DeCab United Sports Commission as a district one representative.

An item 0871, record the appointment of Shayla, uh that's my sister-in-law's name, Shayla Royal, to the DeCab County Women's Commission as the District 1 appointee.

Um, Madam Presiding Officer, actually, Shayla's last name is changed, is now Shayla Alexis Alexis, and I'll be getting a substitute to staff as we can get that.

Thank you.

A L E X I S.

I believe so, yes.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

Uh preliminary items, Board of Commissioners, um, item 2026 0921, approval of minutes for the May 21st, 2026, Committee of the Whole meeting.

Consent.

Consent.

All right.

Uh Board of Commissioners, District 1, 2026, 0872 to approve the appropriations in an amount not to exceed 98,750 from District 1 reserve for appropriations to IntelliG for a child care and caregiving needs assessment and strategic planning initiative.

Consent.

Consent.

All right.

Just a quick question on that one.

Commissioner Patrick, is it are you planning to do it for like the county wide, or is it more for the county government?

Uh this is gonna be county wide, county wide.

Um since you asked, uh, when we were up in NACO in February, uh bumped into the New Mexico governor who has a statewide um uh system set up and wanted to see, you know, I don't know if we can do everything that she's proposed over there, but certainly see what our needs are here in DeCab County, as well as see what what other funding sources would be available to sort of meet the needs of working families.

Of course, as you know, uh the Board of Education is considering closing as many as 27 schools, uh, which means we are suffering some type of population decline and um child care is a phenomenal expense.

I remember when I was a Norcross employee, it was about 10,000 bucks a head times three times all the years.

Um, and if that's uh something that perhaps the county can offer as a business incentive to move your business here to DeCab County, as well as um encourage families to come to DeCab County.

Uh that's something I think is worthwhile looking into, and so that's the basis of you and me and Zoran Mondani all agree on that board.

How about a peditaire?

I'm glad that was on camera.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh Commission District uh three.

Um item 20260912 um to allocate an amount not to exceed 10,000 dollars to how big is your dream from District 3 reserved for appropriation for the summer academy.

Consent.

Consent 0913 to allocate an amount not to exceed 15,000 dollars to neighbor in need from the district three reserve for appropriation to help support the neighbor in need community senior home repair initiative.

Consent.

Consent.

Item 0914 uh to allocate an amount not to exceed $5,000 to 100 black men of the cab from the district three reserve for appropriation fund to the 100 BMOD.

The legacy is not extinct.

The future is a live youth program.

Consent.

Item 20260916 to allocate an amount not to exceed six thousand four hundred dollars from the district three reserve for appropriation to the United Barbadians and Georgia women empowerment for the moms and bloom community events.

Consent.

Consent.

Then we have items uh from the clerk to the board of commissioners and CEO.

Item 2026 097, 0697, approval of the minutes of the Board of Commissioners meeting of May 12th, 2026.

Consent.

Consent.

Item 2026 0883, approval of minutes of the special call meeting of May 5th, 2026.

Consent.

All right, and commissioners, I believe that um ends our or concludes our review of the agenda.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

And I'm giving Commissioner Masaya a point of privilege right now.

Thank you so much.

I just want everyone, and I'm trying to see if he's actually in the back.

Seems like he is disappearing really quickly.

We just stepped out.

But to uh one second.

All right.

Well, we can do it after all right.

Just I was wanting to give a point of privilege to um celebrate and say happy birthday to uh not only um our intern, our previous intern, he is now a permanent uh employee here with the district three family, and um that is Lawrence Sanford today is her his birthday, and he just graduated from Moorhouse on Saturday with a uh master's degree and public health.

And so when he comes back in, we'll give him a big you know clap again.

But I appreciate that, madam PO yield back to you.

Thank you so much.

So now we do have two presentations this morning.

Uh Mr.

Williams, or we're starting with stormwater.

Yes, ma'am.

And if the stormwater team could come on up.

As you're aware, uh Commissioner, and this will be discussed by Mr.

Gruel with Arcadis.

Um, you know, about three years ago um we began working on the stormwater master plan, and we had it adopted, I believe about 18 months ago.

And uh during that time, we told we informed the board, the sitting commissioners at that time that we would be back to fund said program.

Um, and so what we'll be discussing today is our strategy over the next five to ten years of addressing those issues that are identified in the stormwater master plan.

All right, thank you.

Good morning, commissioners.

Good morning.

Some of y'all have seen this.

We made a few uh modifications from the one that we did for PWI, uh, just based on the comments that we received.

So with that, um this is just really more for the crowds since a lot of y'all already know this, but the stormwater utility just just real quick, it operates primarily through public works under the Rhodes and Drainage Division.

Um it provides services to unincorporated DeCab as well as the city of Stonecrest that's still part of the utility.

Um primarily funded through utility fees collected within developed properties of the service area again, unincorporated and and uh Stone Crest does not collect fees from places like Dunwoody or other of those communities.

Um it was initially created in 2003, uh began operations in 04.

The rates remain static.

Some of y'all were here for the rate increase back in 2023.

Um that was the first rate increase, and so kind of got them in a better place, and then um today we're just gonna talk about uh what's happened since as well as uh looking forward.

Just I'm not gonna read every one of those numbers, but it kind of gives you an idea of the scale of the system that they're trying to manage.

I mean, it's 34,000 plus pipes, um almost a thousand attention ponds.

They've also responsible for dams, some of the bridges, all the roadside ditches, you know, tens of thousands of inlets.

So that's what they're trying to manage through this through this stormwater utility.

Just a reminder, this is from the uh strategic master plan for those of you who recall.

Um one of the things was to kind of move from or into the idea of four main categories or areas of operations, that being routine, that's your normal cleaning, just maintaining corrective maintenance that's for smaller things that become come into disrepair just due to age or storm damage or what have you.

Things like pipelining, pipe repair, uh emergency repairs, things of that nature.

We'll show you some examples.

Um you have your CIP, these are your big ticket items.

These are the these are the ones that will come to you know, you guys see us as actual projects that come before you guys for approval.

Um, and plan system renewal, dam rehabilitation, these are our big budget items, and then finally, you know, we can never forget that we've got a regulatory compliance element of that as well through the MS4 program.

So that's kind of the the shift in how they're kind of thinking about things is trying to divide things up into these buckets.

Um recent successes.

I know when we came to you guys three years ago, um, the actual number of ponds was over a thousand, and they were struggling to get that done.

And since then, since the rate increase, they were able to dedicate more resources.

Um, I'm just showing you two examples.

These are our two ponds that I took pictures of uh a few months ago that were we'll just say rather overgrown.

Um, and they just you know, with a thousand ponds, it's it's a struggle to get out to ponds multiple times a year.

Um, and so they've with that increased funding.

You can see they've spent five million dollars just in the last two years trying to get these ponds back to a place.

And I can tell you, this is when I if I could walk up on every pond and see what you're seeing on the photo, that would be awesome.

Um, these are these are well-maintained ponds.

Uh the one on the top, you know, probably had trees six or seven feet high in it last the first time I went out there a few years back, and then the other one was overgrown with kudzu.

So you can see the level of effort that uh roads and drainages put into trying to get these ponds back where they need to be.

Um, in addition to that, they also have their green infrastructure program.

They're doing a lot in the parks, uh trying to help help parks department do do a lot of different things to kind of do water quality in addition to just flood control and traditional drainage.

Um, just an example, um, just because it we just looked at that pond uh there on the top right.

You know, this was a pond that as part of the um current basin specific planning that that the county is currently doing.

They're finding ponds that aren't providing a lot of flood control, and they're trying to say, you know, what can we do with these?

Do we need to just decommission them?

If they're not providing a benefit to the community, why are we spending the community's money on it?

In some cases, we're saying, you know what, it's not providing great benefit, but it's uh there's an opportunity to do some water quality enhancements, and so that's an example of one that we're proposing to uh rehab or re uh change the kind of the use of it instead of just being a old 1980s style detention pond.

Let's turn that into a water quality um facility, and and this example and sorry, and then the uh second pond that I showed you, that was an example of one that did not provide a lot of attention because it discharged literally into a creek, and it was like you know, trying to regulate a creek with a teaspoon.

And so that was one the pond, this the second pond was one we had actually recommended decommissioning and returning that land to the to that particular community.

In addition to that, you know, kind of looking forward, we're looking for opportunities because this is kind of more on a larger scale.

So this is the Snapfinger Creek watershed that you guys are seeing, is right in the central part of the county.

Um we've looked at every single pond and done kind of a qualitative analysis and said, okay, is are they providing opportunities?

Where can we decommission?

Where can we change?

And you can see we're we're actively looking at those facilities and say what can we do with those existing facilities, turn them into something that serves the community maybe a little bit better, or opportunities to do some additional green uh infrastructure to do more water quality.

In addition to that, um, you know, that's kind of the cool fun stuff.

This is the stuff that that makes the public works staff get gray hairs.

This was uh Stone Gray Boulevard.

It it failed.

I think it was was it last year, right?

Yeah, last year.

Um this is the kind of stuff that happens.

Luckily, this was a road that was not super critical.

And what and what I mean by that is we were able to close the road for a short period of time to do the repairs.

We're gonna talk about critical infrastructure here in just a second, but you can see they they went through, got the got got the public safe, and then got everything restored, and they were able to do that with that increased funding.

So it's a great great job by Public Works, and you can see it was they've uh submitted it for uh an award for you know being nimble underfeet and getting that done because that is not an easy project.

I haven't been involved with projects like that, it's not easy.

So ongoing, um, you guys approved the uh strategic stormwater master plan, I believe, last year.

Um, and so that's kind of our guiding light at the moment, or moving forward.

Um, in addition to that, you know, there was a big backlog, so they got a GIFA loan uh to help fund that, and that's an ongoing, you know, now that they've got the funding for that without sinking the utility fund that got that loan to kind of get all those projects going.

Um they're out doing watershed specific master planning as far as looking at critical infrastructure there.

I'm gonna come back to that, and then also um I mentioned one of the areas that they're responsible for are dams.

And so they have um gotten preliminary approval for a loan from the Corps of Engineers.

Um, if you hear me use the phrase uh SWIFP, it stands for core water infrastructure financing program, but we just call it SWIFT P just to because it's too much of a mouthful.

So that's uh they've gotten preliminary approval for that, and that's part of the the rate increase they're gonna be talking about.

It's it's kind of fun part of that, and I'll show you that here in just a second.

And these are the publicly owned dams, and so you can see you know quite a few.

Um the category.

I realize you know you and I are you know, we're we're engineers, so we know, but uh the category relates to a program by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division called the Safe Dams Program.

Certain dams, when they either get a certain height or they impound a certain amount of water, it becomes a life safety concern.

And so they start the state starts monitoring them, keeping an eye on them.

Category two means it's exceeded those thresholds, but they don't think there's a likelihood of loss of life.

It were to come apart catastrophically.

They don't think.

Category one is they've done what we call breach analysis where the dam fails and that flood waves goes down the channel.

Is there a chance somebody's gonna get get hurt?

And so that's what a category one is.

So I say all that to say category one, those are those are the ones we need to be you know concerned with, make sure they're doing their thing.

Category two is not something we should ignore, it's just means there's less likelihood somebody's gonna get hurt, and then the NA just means it didn't exceed that height or volume requirement.

So it's still a dam, but it's not big enough that the state's tracking it, but it's still it's still a legitimate uh Laker Dam.

And then uh on the their owner, that's just the department that's responsible for them when so, like for example, Scott Candler Reservoir, that's your big water treatment plant.

They have really big reservoirs on site that actually hold water for treatment and then eventually sending out to the customers.

Uh those are classified as category one dams.

And then the last one is the you can see the Swift P column.

Those are those are the um dams that are gonna be repaired or upgraded, you know, to bring up to bring them up to uh additional safety standards with that SWIFT P loan.

Having said all that, this isn't all the lakes.

There are these are just the ones that are on county-owned property.

There are additional lakes and dams that are not on county-owned property, but are county responsibility because there's an easement around that said the county accepted at some point in the past maintenance responsibility.

So there are additional ones beyond this, it's just at some point the list gets really long.

I mentioned that you know, we did the strategic master plan, and that was more program level.

Like here's the direction for the program as a whole.

Um, we're now looking at uh watersheds, and I mentioned, you know, I showed you that picture earlier, it showed the Snapfinger Creek watershed.

That's the that's the one that's in pink there in the in the middle.

Um that that assessment is is wrapping up as we speak.

Uh, but there are um three other major watersheds.

The the blue is the North Fork and South Fork of the Peach Tree.

Then you've got the the South River watersheds there on and then that tan color on the left, as well as um the yellow river uh kind of ones that or ones that drain into I believe the yellow river there on the right and purple.

We're currently looking at the the assets up in the blue area uh as as we speak.

Um that that assessment just got started last month, and they're already starting to find assets that are in need of help there as well.

Alright, so on the left, you've got group one, two, three, four.

Those are those colors.

Snap finger, which was the one in the middle.

Uh that assessment is complete, and so you can see critical assets.

There's about a there's just over a thousand critical assets.

So, what are critical assets?

It is not every pipe in the watershed that the county's responsible for.

It's just the ones that if they come apart, you're gonna hear about it.

So, an example I would give you is like let's say you got an entire neighborhood, comes off of off the main road into the subdivision interest, crosses a creek, and then it spreads out to all the homes.

If we lose the culvert under the road where that stream goes through, that entire community is cut off.

Like they can't get in, we can't, or they can't get out, we can't get in.

That's that's an example of a critical.

Some of the other critical assets are pipes that are under major roadways, you know, that would be like if we lost, let's just say Redan Road, you know, that would be something y'all would hear about that because that would be a pretty big traffic disruption, and that is a county road.

Um other ones are like where we have creeks going under a road, and it's a little corrugated metal pipe, which tends to fail quicker rather than say a concrete culvert.

So those are examples of critical assets.

So we got about a just over a thousand of them in the Snapfinger Creek watershed.

They have gone out and done some assessments on them, and they found about 161 of them are in poor shape, they're gonna need some kind of rehabilitation or renewal in the not too distant future.

And if you look at that, that's about 15% of the assets in that watershed.

Now we have not done field like put the old Mark 1 eyeballs on the rest of them.

But what we did was we took that 15% or 35 or 41%, and we said, How many critical assets do we have in those other three major watersheds?

And said, let's just assume for just a second, since we don't know yet, that those that trend holds.

And so you can see in the North Fork and South Fork, we're expecting about 158.

Uh I looked yesterday, I think we're up in the 10 to 15 already, and we're just getting started range.

Um South River, we're looking at about another 200.

You know, Yellow River, uh, we're looking at another 172.

So all said and done, out of the nearly 4600 critical assets that we've identified for quick assessment.

We're thinking about 700 of them are going to be in that poor condition range, um, which is you know, we want to get on top of those and make sure that there's a plan to put those together.

And I'm sure at some point we'll be bringing the snap finger assessment, like a more formal presentation, so y'all can see all the all the data.

Now, just because it's in poor shape, that doesn't mean we're gonna go dig the roads up.

Remember that first example I told you where we got that that culvert under the only road into that neighborhood.

If you do public works, that's a nightmare scenario for you just to work on because we can't be like, hey, we're gonna replace your culvert and give you a brand new solid one, and y'all just wait for three months while we replace it.

Can't do that.

We got to maintain those uh you know access for those residents the whole time.

So what we've done after we said, okay, we've got those however many poor conditions, we we did a level of service assessment on them, and we said, how are they operating?

And what you're seeing here is uh of those hundred and sixty one we identified, ninety-nine of them we think are good are providing enough flow rate, enough capacity that we can just go in and line them.

In other words, we go in and we actually kind of form a new pipe inside the old pipe.

We never disrupt the traffic, we never disrupt the utilities.

We kind of make life easy for the residents.

For those that are below what we call 25-year storm event, those are the ones we're saying we probably need to go and look at replacing those, especially if they're way lower because roads tend to fail when water goes over them.

Like if you've got a creek that comes up, flows over the road, what you will see is as that water flows over the back side of the road, it spins, turns into a buzzsaw and can eat up the road.

And that's usually so when you a lot of times when you see those roads failed, they'll fail from the backside, and that's why we're kind of targeting those 62.

So we did that same kind of analysis.

So of those nearly 700, we think about 270, 300 of them or so are probably gonna need to be replaced.

The rest we can just do a lining, which is much cheaper.

So we're not just saying, oh, hey, look, it's batch sheep, let's go start digging.

We're not doing that.

We're trying to make smart investment decisions.

So I'm bringing back an old slide.

Um Commissioner Terry, you may remember this one because I shared this one to you when at Pete when you were PWI previously.

Um this is where we took the entire infrastructure that we think the county owns and kind of put it into classes of risk.

So class one was that neighborhood example, single ingress egress routes.

Class two is your big roads, class three are those roads where we got water uh active creek flowing under.

Then class four is all the pipes that are under the roads that aren't one, two, or three, they're not as critical.

Like, for example, Stone Gate Boulevard that I just showed you, they could close that road to do the repair.

And then the last one was we do have some off-right-of-way pipes.

We had done a preliminary estimate, and this is where we come up with, you know, if you've heard that $500 million number thrown around, that's where that's coming from.

Um, in addition to that, you know, we want there's probably about another hundred million.

So between Stonecrest and unincorporated the cap, i.e.

the service area, the utility, we're looking at about 600 million dollars.

This is again from the previous presentation uh from a couple of years ago, um a few years ago.

This was the funding gap analysis that we did.

So what you're seeing here is the blue line represents revenue as it was passed three years ago.

So you can see in 2023, that blue line kind of ramps up for three years.

That was the planned rate increase that was passed.

Then it goes flat because there was no uh additional rate increases planned after that as part of that study.

But you can see, and I swear we did not put that blue line because it's 2026, it just happened to be where it landed three years ago.

That's the funding gap with all this infrastructure renewal.

We knew that that rate increase, it was gonna get them into a place where they could start getting proactive.

So, like the ponds, things like that, uh the emergencies, they're handling that now with those additional funds.

But we always knew we were gonna have to do some additional uh funding to kind of get over that once we started getting specific sites put in place, as well as the dams.

So that's kind of looking backwards.

Looking forwards, uh again the the funding for the utility, it's primarily from stormwater utility fees, user fees, i.e.

the rates, but I don't want y'all to think that that's the only place they're getting money from.

I mean, somebody mentioned that the police were doing a great job getting grants, they're doing the exact same thing.

I mean, you can see uh they got that GIFA loan to kind of get ahead, that was 10 million dollars to fund some of that backlog work.

Um, the American Rescue Plan, they use some of the ARPA money, uh, 10 million dollars there.

Um, they won a brick grant, and it's gonna come through.

Um, and it kind of died for a few minutes after the change in the administration, and now we think it's it's back alive, but that's another 2.4 million dollars to deal with some of those critical infrastructure assets.

Um obviously we got the Swift P loan, that's another 30 million dollars to get those uh dams, the county owned dams to to uh up to snuff, and then they're also using SPLOSS money.

So I don't want you all to come away thinking like all we're doing is just raising rates and trying we're looking everywhere.

So it's it's trying to be smart with the uh investments.

So they asked me to put together another uh rate model.

Um so here are the kind of the assumptions.

Uh anticipated near fund or near-term funding needs is the the debt service for that SWIFT P loan to cover the the payback on that 30 million dollars, as well as start funding the capital for the system renewal and rehabilitation, a lot of those critical assets we were talking about, as well as some of the other ones.

So the assumption is this is a um we looked at both short term and longer term.

Um it's a tiered rate increase, so uh I believe you guys call it a 10 by 10, where it looks at a 10% increase per year for 10 years, so that you don't hit them all at once.

Um we assume the service area is gonna stay consistent that it's gonna still be decab in Stone Crest, um, and then we'll continue to bill as as uh as we've been doing it.

So no changes operating where there while and then um we're trying to up maintain a six month operating reserve in the model.

All right, so I've kind of shown I'm showing I'm gonna show you two pieces of this model, and then I'll show you the whole model because it it's pretty large.

What you're seeing here is the revenue side of the model.

So the the two things I want to point to you is uh the top box, that's what a typical homeowner would pay in each year for the next five years.

So you can see that 10% increase.

So the current rate is ten dollars a month, so 10% more makes it 11.

So it's a dollar increase uh per month for uh your typical homeowner.

Um you can see that card, and then down at the bottom you can see how it ramps up the revenue over time.

One quick question.

An ERU, it's an equivalent residential unit.

The way to think of it is it's a it's a typical home.

And then we the way we build non-residential parcels is how many equivalent homes are you?

So if you're 10 times the size of a typical home, your bill is 10 times.

Thank you.

Sorry, and please stop me.

I use a lot of acronyms.

So we are gonna let you get through the presentation and then we'll do the question, but I just I need to know what that acronym was.

Thank you.

Okay, so that was the revenue side of the ledger.

This is the expense side.

So this is what they're gonna spend it on.

Um that that base here 2026, that's that's the approved budget for this year.

And then the next column where it says year one 2026, assuming that you guys approve the rate increase, that's what we would um increase the uh the spending, and what you're seeing here is you can see the first kind of the top red box.

That's the that's the payback for the uh Swift P loan.

So we're accounting for the additional spending for that $30 million loan.

Um, and then the bottom the or the middle box I should say is what would get sent over to uh CIP for renewal and rehabilitation.

The way we set that was we assumed we're not gonna grow operations per se.

We're going to whatever additional money after we cover operations, you know, roads and drainage repairs, MS4 compliance, all that good stuff.

Any money that's left over after that and any debt service, uh we would roll that into the CIP.

And so what we did was we just increased the amount of funding going to renewal and rehabilitation of infrastructure every year, so that the bottom box you're seeing is how many months of reserve we would maintain in the fund balance.

Um, and we tried to keep that around six.

So, you know, it doesn't work out exact exact, you know, 6.0, but that was the that was the goal was any money we don't need to beyond covering payroll salaries, grip wrap, extra pieces of pipe, whatever, would go into that renewal system, and we just kept bumping that up, and so you'll see over time it starts increasing so that we can kind of get ahead of that curve.

I know Commissioner Patrick, I think during PWIU had asked, like, show me the 10 year.

Now you know why I didn't try to show it all at once.

There's there's a couple of numbers on the page, but we did run this out for a 10-year 10-year plan.

Um so just to kind of come back to capital renewal.

Um, so this is the way the model's set up, this is what we're projecting uh in the model for what would go into the CIP fund to handle that renewal.

So you can see it goes from 4.75 million this year, eventually ramping up to 3642.

Now remember, there's a lot.

10 years out, you know.

If I said what is your salary gonna be in 10 years, you'd be like, Well, uh, if I get this much, you know, maybe I'll be here.

So that's that's what we did.

So it's about 212 million dollars over 10 years uh going into the CIP fund.

Um we did stress test it.

Um, me and uh Bob Hackins, I asked him, like, hey, can you give me your bond guys and say if we need to accelerate spending and we need to go get a bond because we can't wait for 50 million dollars to build up and that would take what five years, you know, if we needed to go get a bond, what would that look like?

And so he ran some numbers.

You can see uh on a $50 million bond, $3.5 to $6.8 million dollars based on current bond uh market conditions and payback and that kind of thing.

So as you can see, we could depending on how they wanted to structure it out, we could easily handle a $50 million bond within this bottom line.

There is we're not coming back for another rate increase to cover a bond.

We think we can cover it in here and still have money for those regular repairs on the non-critical assets or or storm comes through and suddenly creates a large need.

We think we can handle that.

And then the last thing um I want to just point out that you know the R and R priorities.

We're we're in a risk-based model world now where we're we're not just running to the next emergency, we're trying to get ahead of that.

So, you know, promote life safety, life, you know, life and property.

That's think about those dams.

I told you about the category one dams, those are the ones we want to get ahead of.

We don't want the we don't want that to be a repair after the fact.

We want it to be that a rehab before again avoidance of isolating and trap and trapping communities.

That that neighborhood example I gave you, uh displacement of residents and businesses, and and then the traffic disruptions.

Those are kind of the guiding principles of the risk-based model that they're currently working with.

And then the last thing I know every everybody always asks, you know, what's going on uh with the rates, how do they stack up against uh your peers?

I got two slides here.

a rehab before um again avoidance of isolating and tra and entrapping communities that that neighborhood example I gave you uh displacement of residents and businesses and and then the traffic disruptions those are kind of the guiding principles of the risk-based model that that they're currently working with and then the last thing I know every everybody always asks you know what's going on uh with the rates how do they stack up against uh your peers I got two slides here the first one is the other cities here in the county that have utilities that have gone off and done their own thing some of these used to be part of the county storm utility and then they decided for example um Tucker you know they incorporate and they said no we're we're gonna handle it ourselves so um this is kind of what you're seeing here is what the average homeowner pays um it's you know you're not the top you're not the bottom so um and then again that equivalent residential to your question Commissioner Johnson um that's the amount of impervious surface associated within a a typical home um what we do to kind of normalize that for the non the commercial guys is we try to say what is it per thousand square feet so if you just take like for example I'll pick on our current one current decade county rate is 120 dollars per year if you were to divide that by three in other words into a thousand instead of three thousand just do it in a thousand you can see we normalize that rate um to about forty dollars per thousand square feet and so you can see commercially where you guys stack up against some of the other communities here in the county um the next slide so I I went ahead and grabbed some outside so that was just in internally what are we looking at these are some of the surrounding now I'm gonna caution you the way the county does it is every resident single family home resident gets a flat rate bill they get 120 no no change they're gonna get a on their tax bill they're gonna see a line items of stormwater 120 dollars.

Other communities do it differently it's not right or wrong it's just other people do it differently.

So Rockdale County is operates very similar to how you guys operate so in their case they do 102 Gwinnett's completely different so I need to explain this because Zach and I were going through it and he was like how are they so much lower and I was like well they're not really um I normalize that rate to what somebody with three thousand square feet of impervious service on their on their property pays in Gwinnett County and that's the rate only people that have that exact amount of impervy surface area get that rate they actually charge two dollars and forty six cents per 100 square feet of impervious area so if you have a really small lot in a really small impervious area you pay less there are people in residents in Gwinnett County that pay over $500 a year because it's just they measure every single parcel.

It takes them like four months or three months to go through and develop their bills and then they do a bespoke bill for every single property they spend an amazing amount of effort trying to get those bills out but that's just how they do it and it's related to a court case from many years ago that involved Columbia County.

So they're trying to figure out how to get above that that head of that curve as well Fulton County you know our neighbor to the to the west they don't have a stormwater utility.

They also don't have very much unincorporated area left because so many cities incorporated um Atlanta currently does not have a stormwater utility they fund a lot of their stormwater out of water and sewer rates so if if this were Atlanta we'd be funding everything out of DWM instead of the utility.

So they're what your water rates would be higher.

Cobb that they're they're gonna pay $57 a month and I say they will because it hadn't started yet like they just passed it and the bills are going to hit uh next month.

So they're just getting started and then I threw a couple others um in there just for examples uh and again a lot of those guys have different rates structures as well so I tried to normalize it like what would a typical homeowner pay and with that I think that's it for me.

All right I'm sorry Peggy's gonna come up and say a couple good morning ma'am good morning I just wanted to add a couple of things in addition to um what Rich provided um and to kind of reiterate why we meet the rate increase uh one of the things that uh that we're doing well some of the things that we're doing is the Cap County participates in the national flood insurance program it's not a requirement but it's something that the CAP does and we participate in the community rating system.

But what that does is we um we do a lot of things to help reduce flood rates and occurrences in the CAP county some of those things are floodplain buyouts you know uh over the years DeCAP has purchased more than 146 properties and each time we do that we're reducing the flood risk for residents in the county.

And each time we do that, we're reducing the flood risk for residents in the county.

So as a part of participating in the CRS program, you know, we agree with the federal government to do these things to reduce insurance rates and in return, the Cap County gets a reduction in flood insurance rates for its citizens for of right now 15%.

So we continue to do additional things to try to reduce that rate.

But the things that we do, they're not free.

You know, so all of the flood buyouts, you know, we have to participate and pay money uh in order to uh to do that.

So all of those things cost money.

That's another reason why we need the additional funding.

And one thing that Rich uh mentioned was the critical infrastructure where um maybe a community is cut off if there's a damage covered.

Well, when he mentioned that, it's not that we think that's gonna happen.

That has happened in the last three years, we've had that to happen three times.

Um primarily it happens uh with uh storms because of the the rush of water, it wipes out a community.

Uh but um on one occasion it happened on a nice sunny day.

You know, we're driving through a community, and actually one of our sanitation trucks fell through a cover because those streets or the people at the end of that route were cut off.

And I think um Mr.

Williams may remember the the one that happened on a holiday after storm, that the community was washed, you know, that their access was washed away.

So we had to you know come together with police, fire, rescue, because we had neighbors back there that could not get out for police services or even you know emergency services, amules couldn't get there.

So we had to get our cons our contractor to come in and kind of build a road on the fly to get people in and out of that community until the cover could be repaired.

So it's not that we're anticipating this to happen, it has happened, and we believe it will continue to happen unless we're um given the funding to be able to get these repairs done as quickly as possible.

And that was all that I had.

Thank you, Director Allen.

Okay, you have something else, Sarah.

We're available for questions.

All right.

I know Dr.

Bolton had raise her hand.

I see I might just start with Dr.

Bolton, go down the line.

Okay.

Yeah, most of my questions were answered throughout the presentation, but just two in particular.

The first one when one of the earlier slides you showed about 2.4 million dollars for the repairs.

Was that or it might have been preventive maintenance, I can't recall, but was that for all 1,000 or were those numbers just for what you spent in that year?

Was that for the funds?

Yeah, the GFA.

No, that was for the GIFA, GIFA loan.

Yeah, can you I didn't quite understand that all of the question.

What was that?

Yeah, can we go back um to some of the earlier slides?

And I thought it was a slide on preventive maintenance and how much you had spent.

Uh it might have said 23 and 2024, something like that.

Yes, this one here.

Oh, it was this one?

Yeah, yeah, okay.

So it is maintenance.

Is this how much you um invested in all 1,000, or that's just for the year, and it may have been a few shorts that that's a good question.

Um, that was just for the year.

Uh and it's it was less than 300, less than 300 of the 1,000 ponds.

Oh, really?

Yes.

So the the cost now to maintain some of those ponds is just enormous.

Some have trees 36 inches in diameter.

So that was just for the years.

Would you say that cost or the number of ponds is the in greatest factor inhibiting us getting around to all of them?

We don't have the funds, or it's just too many of them.

I think it's a combination.

Uh there is too many of them, but we're finding now that the cost to service and individual pond has tripled in the last few years.

Okay.

And the other question is is there an immediate need that should be addressed with um respect to us needing to implement the increase now because maybe there are several ponds that you've identified need to be maintained or corrected immediately.

So what initially drove the um I'm sorry.

What initially drove the uh need for the rate increase was the SWIFT P loan, that $30 million loan to do a we just need the coverage.

Um we could cover that the current uh utility fees, however, comma.

It would mean taking money away from something else.

So like we'd have to pull that CIP.

So when Stone Gate happens or those three that she just talked about, the CIP is where that money comes from.

So you know, if we we can do the SWIFT P loan and reduce the thing without a rate increase, but I don't think that's we don't want to get people cut off.

So that's what initially drove it.

And then obviously, as we gather this data, we're finding ones that are in need of repair.

So I think it's it's a combination of those two factors that's kind of driving the need.

Okay, thank you.

Those were my questions.

I yield back.

Thank you, Commissioner Patrick.

Uh thank you.

Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer.

Rich uh and director, uh always a pleasure to see both of you here.

Um Commissioners just want to let you know we had this conversation in PWI.

We also recognize that we need the entire Board of Commissioners to be able to support such an action like this, and so that's why uh PO was kind enough to allow this presentation to be given again at the full cow so everyone can be in attendance and be aware and knowledgeable of what's being considered.

Uh a couple questions for you, Rich uh or for uh Director Allen.

Um so with these additional fees that would be read raised, uh this would not be money that could go into additional road pavings.

This is specifically for damaged roads and I guess uh uh uh water stormwater areas that have been damaged, correct?

Correct.

That's it goes into the enterprise fund, which is has rules on what it can be spent on.

Perfect.

Okay.

Um for any new pipes that we put in the ground, are we going to be putting back in those corrugated metal pipes, or are we going to be able to put in a more durable product instead of that?

I think for yeah, it'd be probably a combination.

Um critical roads, like you you really want those to last long and be you know, be able to take that punch from the from the creek.

I would think those would be concrete.

Um of the less critical at least we get back more into the class four and class five pipes.

You can go with other materials like I know HDPE, uh high density polyethylene is a is an option that's a lot cheaper than concrete.

Okay, and still has some corrosion resistance and that kind of stuff.

Okay, great.

Um, and then uh this is sort of specific to my residence in district one.

Um I want to note that uh at the intersection of Henderson Mill Road and Midvale, there is a growing hole, stormwater hole.

Uh it's wrapped with uh the yellow um uh caution fencing that you guys have put in there, but it is growing and it is a concern that the residents at uh Glen Rose have uh mentioned in the past.

We just made a note we'll get out there and check.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Um and then also want to call out uh director Gordon had took an opportunity to walk with me and some residents on Northcrest Road uh between Northcrest neighborhood and Rose Arbor.

There is some separation that's occurring between the sidewalk, the um curb, and the roadway.

Uh it's about three to four feet in certain areas in depth, and then the length is just is just getting longer and deeper.

So I'm hoping that these are the kind of the things that since it's near a large uh G dot um uh culvert, that that is stuff that we can use to repair items within the district.

Um and then around the Mercer area, uh of course they have a very large, I think about 145 acre forest, um, which is fantastic.

Uh but they also have a lot of streams that go with that that I know impact our roads, and in those areas, uh particularly near the bridges, those roads are in tough condition, and I'm looking to um show our residents that once with the resources in place, we can actually go out and fix these concerns so that the potholes aren't there and the bridges are in place uh when we need them.

Uh the final thing I want to add is um we all acknowledge that we're in the middle of a drought right now until yesterday when there was enough rain to shut down the connector.

Um and storm this is the type of stuff that stormwater resources are needed to to be able to address that, either to have a person go out there and clean the drains or actually go back and build back the infrastructure that's been damaged or washed away.

Um final thing I'll mention is is also within District One Um within the city of Tucker, there was a house that had a stormwater uh public-private pipe on it.

I think it was more public than private, and um uh off of the backyard or off the the back door, there was a 40-foot cave in that happened right off of these people's house.

And again, that comes back to the county is responsible for maintaining the stormwater infrastructure, but without the resources, we can't do that, and it is far cheaper to replace a pipe and repair a bridge section than it is to buy out every neighbor in the neighborhood because the stormwater damage has been so great that it has eroded everyone's foundations.

The final thing to mention, uh want to acknowledge my residence at um Bradford Square condominiums.

We had a great little town hall with them last week talking about these very issues with stormwater, and uh Rich, the timeliness uh and director, the timeliness that which you guys have brought this is is perfect, and this is how we can help address the concerns of the community.

So thank you very much.

Madam Presiding Officer, I yield back.

Thank you.

Commissioner Marita Davis Johnson.

Do you have a question?

Your questions okay.

Commissioner Massai.

Thank you so much, Madam PO.

Um, just a quick question with regards to um something that was mentioned, and um we didn't really get an opportunity to explore um more in depth than if we need to have further conversation offline, then that's great.

But I wanted to see if we have some idea of the costs um to repair the lakes, the dams, the ponds, um related to properties that we don't the county doesn't own, but we're responsible for the uh the maintenance of um particularly the easements that were were mentioned.

And so we just mentioned you know properties that we have responsibility for, but not um specific ownership, so those um particular properties were not listed.

Question Commissioner, and uh we don't have that information at this time.

One of the things that we have to do is do a thorough and engineering investigation and get cost estimates for those pending repairs.

So as we work to get that information, we'll pass it on to the board.

All right, thank you so much.

I appreciate that.

I yield back on P.

Thank you.

Commissioner Long Spears.

Thank you very much, Madam PO.

I appreciate your presentation.

No comments at this point, but if I do, I will reach out to both of you.

Thank you.

Yield back.

Thank you, Commissioner Terry.

Thank you.

Um I did have a lot of questions.

Can we reset the clock for him, please?

Thank you.

Um thank you.

I did have a lot of questions answered at the PWI committee, so thank you, Rich and Director Allen for being there.

I think we spent a good 30, 40 minutes going through all this.

Umetable.

Um I will off the top of the of my comments and questions ask.

I did bring up the notion of some sort of public town hall that would basically provide the same presentation that you provided us to anyone that you know would like to be present and ask questions, and so is there any plans to do that?

Commissioner Commissioner Terry, uh uh, we've continued that conversation, Zach, if you don't mind uh speaking to that.

Sure.

We're just looking at the calendar to see what date makes the most sense.

Um, but we're definitely not uh uh opposing or supportive of doing that.

We're just looking at when to schedule it between now and um I gotta get the exact date that we need a vote, quite frankly.

And we're coming with this item, and there'll be another one uh that would be part of the conversation sanitation rates, quite frankly.

Okay.

Uh can you put up the watershed basin map?

That one?

Yep.

And so Rich, you were laying out that we've completed the assessment of Snapfinger, and then your the next assessment is the Peace Tree Creek.

Yes.

Okay, and then South River.

So as the assessments are done, does that mean that any major infrastructure projects will follow the assessments?

Okay.

That's that's what we're working on trying to get that wrapped up.

Is all the assessment work is done, and we've done the H and H analysis to determine what's the level of service those coal those assets are provide, and then what's the rehab plan look like and what's that cost?

Okay.

Um and you know uh one of the things I've been uh pushing for is that we really embed more of green infrastructure.

Um so you know, we talked a lot about flooding, um, but water quality is a big important part of that.

The uh South River watershed and the South River River has been named as one of the most um endangered rivers in America.

And so my main concern is that the South River watershed is sort of third on the list for assessment.

And and I know that we've had several um neighborhood flooding concerns in that area.

So I'm just wondering is there going to be an opportunity to do um really um issues that constituents have been complaining about for years before the assessment is done.

If we know something's an issue and that there's an opportunity to address it before we you know do the the entire assessment.

Yes.

I mean it's yeah, we're looking at all of that.

I mean, for example, the water quality.

I'm sorry, yes.

Uh excuse me.

No, absolutely.

Uh yes, so to respond to that question, yes, there will be, because even though we're working through each watershed, we're still getting the concerns and complaints from the neighborhoods, and we're working on those concerns with our existing funding.

So, yes, there will be an opportunity to to address those as we go.

And once the uh watersheds are actually developed, there'll be a bigger opportunity to take care of the major overall conditions.

So, yes.

Okay.

Um I want I'll highlight a couple that I've heard over the years.

Um, Echo Lakes is in the dam project there, that's still a concern.

Uh Willow Lane.

Um that was something where um the public works department said that we would have to wait until the assessment was done, but that was completed, and I don't think we've done anything on Willow Lane.

Uh constitution in the South River continues to flood, and then we have the same issue in dealing with um on Springdale and Lullwater on the on the Twitten that connects the two streets, and that's uh just another you know concrete funnel.

And so um what I'm really looking for is just some specific examples of how we can address those issues in this next five-year funding plan.

That's a good question, Commissioner.

And uh to that point, uh, the Echo Lake project, we're gonna be actually having a community meeting next week uh to uh give an update on that project.

So as we move along, we're we're addressing uh these issues kind of slowly but one at a time, and so they are in in our view in Echo Lake is up next.

Okay.

Um and then the final point is on the concept of a stormwater park.

So Old Fourth Ward Park in Atlanta is a stormwater facility, but it actually is a beautiful park.

And I know we don't have necessarily like that level of acreage into cab, maybe, but I believe that the efficacy of neighborhood stormwater parks could really be an empowering if we could show investments in neighborhoods where we're reducing flooding, but not just having a vacant lot or a detention pond.

Uh maybe there's a reworking of some of these detention ponds where it's like you identified a royal town park, or maybe it's not really a quantity issue, it's more of a quality issue.

And it could be something that could in essence be a park and a stormwater asset.

That's a good point, Commissioner.

We've already had that discussion with the consultant, and we're working on that now as well.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I did have a couple questions, and we'll see if anyone has follow-ups.

Um when you mentioned the field assessments, I know you guys are working on that.

Did you give uh an estimate of when we think they'll be completed?

Well, the assessments for the assessments for Snapfinger are complete.

As you saw, the uh assessments for Norfolk South Fork should be done here in a in a few months.

I mean, they're out they're like out there right now, but today doing that, and then um I don't know when the other two are slightly authorized.

I to that point, um, just so you know, uh coming to you soon will be a change order to go to the next watersheds.

Okay.

So we want to keep it moving, keep all of the watersheds that we haven't studied in our view.

So we will be coming to you with a change order probably in the next month to move forward with the next watersheds on the list.

So it sounds like probably within the next year, all the assessments would be completed.

Potentially.

Yes.

Okay.

And then with the um rate assessment on the commercial, I know it's per 1,000 square feet, but is it of building area or total lot size?

It's the total impervious area of the property.

Okay.

So if you just take like take take a uh the shopping center, figure out how much impervious areas on that, divide it by 3,000 square feet, and then multiply it times the residential rate, and that's what they're built to be.

Got it.

Okay.

So more than just the building.

And then there was a question about would be CMP be put back in.

Um preferably not.

But if we do CMP, are we coding it so that it will last longer, or are we just not allowing CMP back?

Okay, and to that point, again, we're for those homes that'll be cut off.

We're trying to go totally away from CMP.

Totally the concrete, something that'll be more uh durable, and then the HDPE pipe in the occasions where we can use that, we'll use those also.

So CMP is probably gonna be our third and last resource.

I like that answer.

Thank you.

All right, anyone have follow-up, Commissioner Patrick?

Again, uh thank you, madam presiding officer.

Um following up on a question that uh presiding officer had asked the uh so north and south work assessment should be done into the summer, end of the year.

The field work will be yes field work will be done.

And then we'll do the rest of the assessment as far as how how much water can it pass, but the actual like which ones are bad, which ones are good, should be done here in a few months.

Okay.

Um and then director Allen mentioned that y'all are gonna be coming back to us with a change order.

Is it possible to do all of the rest of the county at once as opposed to piecemeal to Commissioner Terry's point?

You know, there are residents in different districts that are gonna have to have issues.

Can we can you guys do you guys have the resources available to just start on a Monday, get it done by a certain point?

Well, we did include the rest of the county in that change order.

Okay.

So okay, and those will be done concurrently, like all everyone.

Okay, perfect.

Um, and then uh Rich, I asked you this question uh in committee, and this is this is a hard question, and director, since you're here, you I'm gonna throw this at you as well.

Uh I want to acknowledge that the price of gas and everything else is going up right now.

We're at about four or five bucks a gallon.

Um, why why are you coming to us with this now?

Do you want to start?

Those are four bullets at the bottom.

Those are those are what we think about when it comes to you know, safety, property damage, major disruptions to commercial.

I mean at the end of the day, I mean, this is an infrastructure question.

Um we would love to get a lot of these fixed before they fail.

Um that just promotes, you know, kind of in a back way, kind of promotes quality of life.

Like when people think your community is good, your community is good.

And so when you don't you have a lot of failures and a lot of things happening, you know, it kind of creates this feedback loop, and so that's what we're trying to do is get ahead of the curve.

Remember, I said what was it, two-thirds of the infrastructure that we found in poor shape is could possibly be lined.

That's a that's a whole lot cheaper.

I mean, a lot cheaper to line a pipe than it is to replace it after it's failed.

Anytime we go into emergency repair, it's it's not a competitive, you know, not as competitive bid situation where it's just get it done.

You just gotta get it done.

You know, it's like when your air conditioner fails in August, you know, you're gonna be able to do that.

Your spouse doesn't want to wait for you to build up the money in the in the fund to fix the air conditioner.

Understood then.

Understood.

Uh final thing, I believe you had a slide that showed that there was half a billion dollars worth of repairs laying out there.

Is that is that accurate?

That's that's not necessarily repairs, that was what would it take to rehab the entire system.

Okay, and I'm not saying we need to rehab the entire system in the next 10 years.

Some of that could take quite a while longer.

You know, can last so long.

Remember, a lot of those pipes are listed as good.

They can go for years.

Okay.

We don't need to put the money.

We only want to put the money where it's it makes sense in the next 10 years.

Okay.

And then final thing, and the 10 by 10 is the way to go in your estimation.

I think so.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President Officer.

Thank you.

Commissioner Long Spears, I'll count this as your first opportunity.

Oh, wonderful.

Thank you so much.

Five minutes then.

Awesome.

All right.

Um, appreciate y'all recognizing Echo Lake.

We do have the virtual meeting next week, May 27th at 5 30 p.m.

And very much looking forward to it.

That was an issue that was brought to my attention before even um sitting in the seat.

I had a meeting in 2022 with two gentlemen that have been advocating for those repairs for quite some time now.

Um, we also have a number of parks with stormwater issues.

Umite is one of them.

Briar Cliff Bridge property, which I'm sure you're familiar with.

WD Thompson um as well.

So are you able to comment on any of those issues and the status?

I I don't think uh Rich will be able to comment on those because those are just our basic in-house uh projects that we're working on.

Uh but if I if you I can get that information, I think I got someone writing that down, we can provide you a status on where we are on that.

Wonderful.

Okay.

Um, Miss Genga, if we could just send her an email and just request the status of the stormwater projects that you highlighted for me.

Wonderful.

All right, thank you so much, and I yield back.

Thank you, Commissioner Long Spears.

Anyone else have a follow-up question?

Commissioner Terry, second time.

Thank you.

Um I do agree with Commissioner Patrick's suggestion that the the rest of the water uh shed basins assessments be done concurrently.

Um I'd love to hear how we could do that.

The the issue I heard, I guess when Tucker sort of left our stormwater utility is they felt like we weren't prioritizing them.

And so I'd hate for Stonecrest or anyone else in the county to feel that we everyone's paying for the increase, but you have to wait your turn, you know, two, three years later, the assessment.

Um if the assessment reveals things that are more emergencies, then that would be something we'd want to know quicker.

And so we don't have an an unequitable distribution of investments.

Um I do want to um challenge you, Rich, because I know Arcadis is an international firm uh based in the Netherlands, I think, right?

Um but the Dutch know a lot about flooding.

Just a little bit.

Um and I've seen a lot of technology.

Um I was in the Netherlands last week.

I saw really interesting technology on how they manage water.

Um, but a few years ago I went to the Georgia Environmental Conference on Jackal Island, and the Junkle Island Development Authority demonstrated a parking lot that basically is designed to absorb a tremendous amount of um storm surge water.

Um, but a few years ago I went to the Georgia Environmental Conference on Jackal Island, and the Juckal Island Development Authority demonstrated a parking lot that basically is designed to absorb a tremendous amount of um storm surge water, and they literally brought out a fire truck and unleashed the full force of that fire truck hose, and that parking lot literally absorbed all of that water, there was no runoff.

And so I'm curious um how you're looking at this master plan and what types of technology, whether it's road paving, parking lots, and you know, pavers existing or sort of you know cutting edge that really are just designed to just absorb more water so that less is going into the pipes and that the pipes maybe um are a factor, but if we can uh address like the point of the flooding in localized areas, would that be a solution to mitigating the overall stormwater issues?

There were several things there.

Uh some of what you were describing is is land development regulation.

Um one of the things we're looking at in these watersheds is where do we anticipate growth coming and where is infrastructure at risk currently?

Like, so like let's say you got a clover right here, and the land use plan calls for a major increase in the next 20 years of impervious area.

We're looking at that, but then also looking at some of those ponds, where do we need to do some additional work?

You know, how can we repurpose those?

I mean, it's a that's a there's a lot of different things we're hitting there.

But is is it possible that there are certain road segments where there is tremendous flooding, and that might be a partnership with the SPLOSS team and how they look at road paving?

Because I've seen road uh paving technology either pavers or different type of asphalt that literally is absorbing water before it runs off.

And so is that a combination stormwater splost opportunity.

Yeah.

Okay.

Absolutely.

And if you recall, remember I said that most of it's funded through the utility fees, but that doesn't mean they're only looking because Sploss ARPA funding, and I mean I realize RPA funding was a one-time thing, but grants, SPLOST, loans, bonds, whatever, you know, they're they're going, they're looking for everything to reduce the impact on the on the customers, and that's part of it is looking at where can we maybe partner with the development community, you know.

Does do we need to look at certain watershed, you know, subwatersheds and say, do we need to connect a little bit higher standard given that we've got flooding downstream?

So everything's all right, thank you so much.

Any other questions?

Seeing none.

Uh, Mr.

Williams, if you'll get with us on a potential date for a town hall, um, so we can attend and also get it out to the residents as well.

Yes, ma'am.

All right, thank you so much.

Now, if we want to roll into our next presentation on the 2026 tax digest and millage rate process.

Good morning, TJ.

Good morning.

Good morning.

So uh today is kind of the kickoff of our millage rate process and uh discussing the tax digest for this year.

So uh we have a brief presentation just to start off.

Uh this is a high-level timeline of what the process will look like this year.

So uh the first date you see there is next Tuesday.

That's when we'll be asking um the board to adopt the tentative millage rates for 2026.

Um next date on that calendar is the 23rd of June, which is when the first two public hearings would be held on the uh millage rates and any uh proposed tax increase.

Uh 7th of July is when we've uh uh scheduled for the third public hearing and the adoption of the millage rates.

And then at that point, um on the 27th of July, it would be submitted to Department of Revenue, and that's to get certified and then to allow us to be able to mail the property tax bills.

And so the first property tax bills would go out uh 14th of August.

The first payment would be due the 30th of September, and then uh November 16th is when the second installment would be due.

Okay, and the next few slides are just kind of a review of some of the terminology.

Um ad valorum tax or property tax is tax imposed on the assessed value of property, and the millage rate is the tax rate for ad valorem taxes.

So it's expressed as mills, which is one dollar per thousand dollar in value.

Then the tax digest is just the combined values of all taxable property.

And the property is taxed as at its assessed value, which is 40% of the fair market value.

And so when we talk about the gross tax digest, we're talking about that 40% of the fair market value for all property.

And the next the net tax digest is that amount minus any of the exemptions.

So really when we're looking at how much revenue we're going to generate and what the millage rates need to be, it's the net tax digest that we're most concerned with.

Okay, uh the rollback rate comes from state law, and it means the previous year's millage rate minus the millage equivalent of the total net assessed value added by reassessments.

So what that's supposed to do is uh prevent taxes from increasing just by the reassessment of property, or that's that's what the intent of it is that rate is what would generate the same amount of revenue once you take into account the reassessments.

And then the annual notice of current assessment is what property appraisal sends to all property owners, just showing what the the appraisal is for the current year.

Okay, a little bit more about the rollback rate.

Um so that's as I said, a requirement in state law for us to calculate a rollback rate.

Um then if the proposed millage rates exceed the rollback rate, we're also required to then publish uh in the legal organ an advertisement to say that we're increasing property taxes and to hold three public hearings for the for the before we can adopt the the millage rates.

So this year the rollback rate was calculated as 11.518 mills, and that only applies to the county wide millage rates, which are the general fund and the hospital fund.

So the next slide just shows how that rollback rate was calculated.

Um you take last year's digest plus what was added through reassessments, um, and the other changes the net tax digest, and then uh last year's millage rate to then determine what the rollback rate is, the millage equivalent or the rollback rate.

So last year's millage rate for those two funds was 11.638.

The millage equivalent of what's being proposed this year is uh.12 mills.

So that's how we came up with the rollback rate of 11.518 mills.

So based on that, um, we would be required to advertise the millage rate increase.

Um that would be, I believe, um has to be at least one week prior to each of the public hearings.

So um five my days correct.

I think that'll be June 11th when that'll have to be advertised, and so that's why we're asking for this to be approved next week, um, just because it'll be the only opportunity before we have to submit those.

And the proposed tentative millage rate for 2026 is 11.635 mills, which is what was proposed in the budget that was approved in uh February.

Okay, this slide just shows you what that advertisement would look like.

So we have to put what the uh percentage increase is.

So for this year, it would only be a 1.02 percent.

And I'll show you in a later slide what that how that compares to previous years.

And it also includes the dates and times and locations of the public hearings, and then how much the dollar value of the increase would be on an average parcel.

So it does it for both a uh homestead parcel, which the average value is 450,000.

So the increase for that would be roughly 21.6 cents, and for a non-homestead property, the average value is 775,000.

So that increase would be $36.27.

Okay, uh the next few slides just show the tax digest.

Um, as you can see, it's a pretty uh steady increase, although it's leveled off a bit in the last few years.

Um we had some greater growth uh you know earlier this decade.

And you can see that more on the second slide where you see the annual change.

So the blue bars there are the gross digest, and then the green is the net digest.

So if you look at 2025 and 2026, they're both lower than the average, um, more in line with what it was in 2020.

Uh one thing I'll point out here, which is kind of unusual, is if you look at 2026, the net digest actually grew faster than the gross digest, which is usually the other way around.

And the reason being is most of the growth came from new development, not from reassessments for 2026.

So lots of times when there are reassessments, especially for homestead properties, the homestead freeze exemption will rise along with the value of the property.

But since there wasn't as much increase in the revaluations, new property values actually increase the net more than the than the gross did.

Okay, and then the next slide shows how the tax digest came in compared to last year's and what we had originally projected for the 2026 budget.

So the green is last year's tax digest, the blue is uh what we had in the budget, and red is what the uh digest is from 2026.

So you can see it's a slightly better than what we had projected, but not much.

All right, so um over the next few weeks, probably um first week in June, we will be back with a more detailed presentation on what we're proposing for the all the millage rates, and what we'll need to look at with that is one our fund balances, how those ended the year.

Um we don't have final financials for FY25, but based on what we've seen, we do think that's going to be down slightly from what we had anticipated at the start of the year, so that might you know make us look at shifting some of the millage rates between the funds.

Um we'll also be looking at the level of tax appeals.

That's something that um has increased um over the last 10 years.

So about 10 years ago, we usually would lose or about 3% of the the tax digest through appeals, and that's trended up to around 8% now.

And so last year we thought we were going to see uh a decrease in the the amount of appeals due to some changes in state law, and that didn't really pan out.

So we we might have to adjust our our assumptions to this year as far as what we think those appeals will be.

And then of course we'll have budget amendments.

Um I I don't anticipate those being anything significant this year, it'll really be any sort of cleanup items, and then there's also the item for some of the CIP projects that are already that's already on the agenda.

Um we'll also be looking at the expenditure projections just to make sure we're on track.

Uh we'll be looking at those to see if there's any potential savings that we might be able to use to you know lighten the the load, and then finally we'll have information about tax relief.

So we'll have the e-host information, um, what the credit would be for that, what effect that would have on the uh average taxpayer, and then also this year, as part of the state budget, there was the homeowners tax relief grant was passed, which that was something that was um used to be almost an annual uh credit that the state would provide, but then during the the great recession that went away, and then they did it again.

I think I believe two years ago or three years ago, and so uh, but this is the first time since then, so that'll provide an additional credit for uh taxpayers if they're homeowners.

Okay.

Uh next slide just shows the trend of what the tentative rates and rollback rates and adopted rates have looked like for the last I guess uh 11 years there.

Um so you'll see that this year the tentative rate is the 11.635 compared to the rollback rate of 11.518, which is only a 1.02 percent increase.

And if you'll compare that to last year, we had quite a significant jump in the uh the amount of the the millage rate for countywide.

So we uh actually advertised the tentative millage rate last year of 12.427 percent or 12.427 mills, which was a 27% increase.

So we went from 27% last year as far as what was advertised down to a 1% this year.

And also if you look at what was adopted last year for those two millage rates, um it was 11.638.

So the tentative rate this year is actually slightly below that at 11.635.

Um, I do want to reiterate here though, this is just a piece of the puzzle.

So um, as we uh proposed in the original budget, the total millage rate for all unincorporated rates does include a half a mil increase.

So we anticipate the the full amount of the uh unincorporated millage rates to be at 21.31 mils versus 20.81 mils that was last year.

Okay, and the last few slides are just um a little bit more detailed calendar.

So I won't go through all those.

Um but that's just there for your for your information.

And with that, I think we can open it for questions.

All right, thank you.

I will start on the opposite end, Commissioner Terry.

Did you have a question?

No.

Commissioner Bolton.

Commissioner Davis Johnson.

Commissioner Patrick.

Great job, TJ.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

All right.

So before we move on, Mr.

May Mr.

Lee May didn't need it to come up.

And it's really just for the clerk's um sake.

Uh item 2026078.

It's listed under public hearing.

We didn't verbally say that it's under public hearing uh at that time.

So I just want to make sure for the record we're good.

Um law department is determining whether it actually needs to be under public hearing uh or not, but uh out of an abundance of caution, we're gonna make sure that it's labeled as that.

If we don't need it, then it's no harm, no file.

And it's still gonna go to PWI either way.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Mr.

All right.

So we will have our comments from the board and then um attorney Phillips, we did need executive session today.

Okay.

So comments from the board.

So I will start with Commissioner Terry and work back this way.

Great.

Thank you, Presiding Officer Johnson for the opportunity to share some quick updates.

Um just uh a couple things.

We're um continuing to focus on engaging our residents through art, sustainability, and civic dialogue, and we're very happy that we're reaching a wide range of constituents and meeting people where they're at.

Um so last week I attended or two weeks ago I attended a sanitation town hall, uh, which is you know partly based on the the rate increase for sanitations, but we also talked about uh my legislation that would provide an equity-based discount program on individual uh property owners who live near uh the landfill, those who are living directly um within a half mile would receive a rebate opportunity on their sanitation if passed.

Um we are discussing that legislation in PWI, of course.

Um we also discussed um the composting program and the efforts to reduce food waste at the landfill that according to the EPA would reduce the odors coming from the landfill as well as create a revenue source for the county and provide uh even higher quality compost for our residents that hopefully we can provide for free.

Um I was very uh happy to attend the very beginning sec uh portion of the youth commission policy uh presentations.

Uh we are hosting three of the youth commissioners in our office this summer through the work source to cab program.

So looking forward to working with them and taking some of their uh policy proposals, which were really really great, um, elevate them to the to our level and hopefully giving them an opportunity to present to the board uh for potential adoption by the uh the board of commissioners.

Um I was very excited to attend the NAACP Unity breakfast last week.

Uh the theme was mobilizing for justice is not an option.

It is required.

And if you haven't had a chance to listen to Reverend Timothy McDonald's uh very rousing uh speech, sermon, um call to action about how grasshoppers can take on giants.

I would definitely encourage you to check that out.

It was really, really great and inspiring for all of us in the room.

Uh this Saturday morning, please join us at the Shamblee Library as we host another workshop on composting.

Uh we're here to demystify the science behind composting and empower DeCab residents to turn waste into wonder.

And then later in the afternoon, this Saturday, we're gonna bring together the community for our final sh Shakespeare uh performance in the park at the Avondale uh town green.

Uh this is the spring series, Romeo and Juliet, one of the best.

Um we're gonna have music vendors, um, a lot of our decapped departments will be out there, our our the fire truck will be out there, which the kids love, and then we'll also be doing a little recycled bottle cap um art workshop.

It might rain on Saturday, but we are gonna continue with the show, so just bring an umbrella and um enjoy um the Avondale Town Green.

And then finally, I was out of town last week.

Um sorry for missing the meeting, uh, Madam Presiding Officer.

Um, but I uh was uh grateful to attend a Atlanta decab delegation on micromobility, bike infrastructure, and sustainability development in the Netherlands.

Um and uh just a couple quick notes.

I'll share the entire time I was there.

We were there with three Atlanta City Council members, the ARC, um uh housing affordability folks, micromobility um advocates, and I did not take a car the entire time.

Uh took train, bus, and every single day we were on our bicycles.

Um the Netherlands turned their mostly car infrastructure in the 1970s, and within 25 years they turned it into a bicycle paradise.

Uh they have bicycle highways, integrated bicycle lanes.

The most remarkable thing I noticed was that kids, almost all the kids, as young as elementary school ride their bikes to school safely and securely.

And if they're too young to ride a bike, the parents have these little cargo bikes that look like little wheelbarrels, and they got like six kids in the wheelbarrows with their little seat belts on, and the parents are literally riding their bicycle with their kids, like little mini bike bus uh to school every day.

It was really phenomenal.

And then um even more remarkable was the seniors.

Um someone asked me, Well, well, can seniors ride bicycles?

Well, a lot of them do, but if they have mobility issues, there's a solution for that.

Tricycles and quad cycles.

And so it was really crazy is to and really awesome, honestly, to see was well, as we were biking on our lane, having these seniors on their faster e-bikes, quad cycles pass us on the bicycle lane.

And so what's really really cool is it's intergenerational, the young, the old, um, people who commute to work are getting around on their bicycles.

Uh, and one final fact I'll share they have a 40% lower rate of diabetes in the Netherlands, uh, mostly because they're out exercising and out in the community.

With that, I'll yield back.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, Commissioner Longspears, I know you just sat back down, but we're doing Commissioner Marks.

I can come back if you need me to.

Okay.

Commissioner Bolton.

Yes, ma'am, and I would like to start just by commending our presiding officer and my colleagues up here.

I think we've been doing an amazing job the past couple of meetings, ending in a reasonable amount of time, keeping our comments short and really getting the business of the county done.

So kudos to the team and those who support us to be able to get that work done and stay on task.

Thank you guys for that.

Uh, just a few things.

I I'll name about four things that we have going on.

First, I want to acknowledge Deacon Arrow Case.

Uh we presented a proclamation to him.

He is um a deacon at White Oak Hills Church.

The board as a whole signed the proclamation.

The church is adjacent to Reedan High School, so he's well known in that community, does a lot of work.

Uh we have partnerships in that area, so it was an honor to be able to support him and the community and provide that proclamation.

We also in District 7 attended the youth commission policy presentations, and as expected, they did an amazing job.

But what was unexpected is that they honored uh our the district seven chief of staff, Lavisa and myself with an award because of how much we have supported them over the past year.

For example, funding them to go to NACO, supporting them to uh participate in ACCG.

We took them to Selma for Bloody Sunday.

I was able to speak at the expo they had earlier this year, and a host of other things.

So it was really nice to be appreciated for the support that they already deserve, but but it was um unexpected, and I want to make sure that the youth commissions and everyone know that we are very grateful for that honor.

You guys have heard me talk about a lot over the past year, the youth aviation program, and the website is finally up, fly with d7.org.

You can go there to get more information about the program and be prepared to apply, get the dates and information.

Remember, the youth aviation program is a year-long program that will allow students, of course, to be exposed to all aviation careers, uh, but have an opportunity to participate in exploratory flights, ground school, flight school, all of the things, uh, but ultimately a handful of students will earn their private pilots license through the program using the resources we have at PDK Airport.

And the last thing I wanted to mention also that we're launching uh at the end of this month is our community beautification grants.

I did speak about that the last time, but just a reminder to the community.

You will be receiving an email soon uh confirming applications are open and the expectation for us to start receiving communications from you so we can support the community and making the county look beautiful.

With that, madam presiding officer, I yield back.

Thank you.

I will go now to Commissioner Masaya.

Thank you so much, Madam PO.

Great morning.

First off, I want to thank the uh residents of District Three for their support.

Remember your voice, your vote, your power.

Let's continue the work that we have started together.

Congratulations to my colleague, Commissioner Ladina Bolton, for your victory.

Well done.

I wanted to say that I was also honored to attend the DeCab County 2026 State of the County address, where the leaders and community partners came together to reflect on progress, priorities, and the vision that we have ahead for DeCab County.

We have a lot of positive momentum happening in District 3.

We're continuing to stay on a path forward as we experience these wins together.

I will highlight just briefly some of the most recent.

This past Monday, we did an on-site walkthrough at NH Scott Park in preparation for the pool opening, which is scheduled to open this Saturday Memorial Day on May 23rd, providing the weather permits and is based on the current forecast, of course.

Big thanks to Madam CEO, the administration, Director Bass, Paige Singer, and the entire parks and rec staff, also to the constituents for your constant engagement and advocacy to ensure that we get uh this park done.

Um I remember we came in in 2024, December 2024 when we had the groundbreaking, and it is always an honor to see be able to see projects cross the finish line.

We are looking forward to celebrating with the community during the ribbon cutting, which is taking place on June 6th at 10 a.m.

Also a congratulations to uh D3's Wildworth Magnet School for Higher Achievers.

The U.S.

News and World Report ranked Wadsworth Magnet Schools for High Achievers as the number one middle school and the number three elementary school in the state of Georgia.

So big congratulations briefly to them for that.

We want to make sure that we are celebrating our big achievements and the schools that are doing exceptional and in DeCab County and very proud of that.

Um thank you to Principal Charles Barnes and the entire administration, the staff, the teachers, the helping the scholars um think deeper and explore their opportunities with confidence.

Congratulations again to our planning and sustainability department for the receipt of the ARC awards, 200,000 grant for the LCI update.

So big congratulations to them as well.

This uh I was honored to provide a letter of support for the CAB County application for the Canada Road Flatchills Parkway Livable Center Initiative project, which will help strengthen the county's uh which helped strengthen the county's application.

The ARC has awarded that $200,000 support, um, those efforts, particularly in District 3.

Congratulations to every single one of the 2026 graduates.

Um you stayed the course as you prepare for your next chapter to soar, dream big, and walk in confidence.

And my daughter uh was a part of one of those graduates.

We were happy to celebrate her graduation this past uh Saturday.

So happy for her and her journey forward as um I am gonna be an empty nester.

Oh wow.

Oh boy.

Just also briefly uh events coming up.

Uh we have the Live Laugh Love series, community arts, music, and engagement, where our individuals and families have an opportunity to gather in a free outdoor setting with the arts and entertainment in a very meaningful way.

It is going to take place our first event Friday, May 29th.

The doors open at 5:30.

Bring your long chairs and free parking as well.

It is usually packed there, and it's going to be at our very own Rainbow Park Amphitheater.

Um the event this uh May 29th will include vibes by DJ Field, music performances by Bertel, Rudy Currents, Soul Cartel, and the RSVP is available at LiveLaughlove at eventbrite.com.

And so with that, continuing and looking forward to celebrating and supporting District 3.

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

O.

Thank you.

Commissioner Long Spears, are you ready?

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you very much.

Um good morning, everyone.

I hope you're all getting ready for a lovely holiday weekend.

Would like to acknowledge acknowledge that May 17th through the 23rd is public works week.

Um looking forward to sharing remarks later today at an event here in DeCab County.

Second on my list is I attended the Best Friends Animal Society conference in Utah.

It was an excellent opportunity to learn about what other jurisdictions, municipalities, states are doing around improving the quality of life for animals, companion animals specifically.

Stay tuned for more on that.

Next, we had our first women's commission meeting last night.

We did a chief quorum.

It was an amazing kickoff.

I'm so proud of what we've accomplished.

So thank you, Commissioners, for your support.

Commissioner Davis Johnson did appoint London.

London, are you here?

There she is.

Uh, to serve as her appointee on the women's commission.

And uh, we appreciated having District 5 in the room.

So thank you so much for that.

Um also we have our next women's commission meeting slated for August 26th at 6 p.m., most likely here at Sam Street.

Moving on, um, the DeCab County state of the county was unfortunately while I was in Utah, but my chief of staff Joy attended the event.

I heard it was pretty amazing.

I saw the video, and wow.

Uh CEO, Madam CEO, you really just knocked it out.

It was really spectacular.

The video um really just I think highlighted all of the successes that we've achieved since you have been in office.

So thank you for that.

Um moving on.

Um, we had the hundred black men, they had an event, and I want to shout out to uh Troy Vincent for highlighting the environment and conservation and learning opportunity for students in Costa Rica.

So thank you, thank you.

Also, congratulations to Commissioner Bolton for your win.

It must feel good to not have amazing.

Yes, you are hopefully you can take a rest now and get back focused on what we're doing here 100%.

So I get it.

But congrats, congrats.

Um, we are close to a full update to my website, Michelle Longspears.com.

So please do check it out.

Joy, um, you've done a wonderful job.

It is user-friendly, it's beautiful, and provides I think very critical, important information to our residents.

Uh Destiny attended, where's Destiny?

Are you here?

There she is.

Destiny, um, the newest member of the District 2 team.

She attended the MANA work day and provided breakfast last Saturday.

I heard that went very well, so thank you for that.

And last but not least, um, I had an update with our planning department and our chief housing officer about the progress on the housing plan.

And it is moving along swimmingly.

So thank you, thank you to the planning folks for all of your hard work, and I am so excited and look forward to um y'all bringing that to us, I believe, in a future Cal meeting and presenting the draft plan.

With that, I yield back.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Davis Johnson.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um officer, and good morning, everyone again.

This past weekend, I joined my husband, uh, Congressman Hane Johnson at Clark Atlanta University for the celebration of their class reunion and for um graduation.

It was a hectic weekend, but it was enjoyable.

And I just want to give my congratulations to all of the graduates in AU Center, but especially my husband's animal mother.

Um Clark Atlanta University.

On Saturday, and before I get to what I was going to do, I would like to congratulate my colleague Ladina Bowden on her victory.

I look forward to uh celebrating my other colleagues' victory, hopefully, within the next um several weeks.

Umited, we stand as colleagues, and of course, um I'm looking forward to your victory on that.

Um Saturday morning, I attended the NAACP uh DeCamp Unity breakfast at Peace Tree Baptist at Peace Baptist Church.

And the theme was mobilizing for Jack Justice, and it was a pleasure to be there as I was a sponsor of this event to keep hope alive doing times like this.

If there's any time that hope should be kept alive, not only on the national level, but on the local level as well, is now because I stated earlier, united we stand.

As a reminder, uh I want to go back to well, first of all, I want to go back to um the Cab County State of the County address.

I was there, Commissioner Long Spears, and it was great.

It was a great feeling in the room.

It was packed.

Uh people was enthusiastic about what we were doing in the county, and the CEO just laid it out for the future.

So I appreciate all my colleagues.

And not only my colleagues, but staff and the directors and everyone that have their hand into what we're doing with the cab because we are making it even greater.

So thank you, administration.

Thank you, CEO.

Last week I partnered and I partnered with, I didn't make the last meeting with um the school board because I had a conflict, but I partnered with the school board in in many aspects.

But on last Tuesday, we have a financial literacy program that we worked with the school board with along with 21 Savage.

We had a second annual graduation.

It was about a hundred students.

They received their certificates, they received their t-shirts, and they were just so enthused.

It was such a warm day.

And so at the end, we brought 21 Savage up to surprise the students, and you know, they just went wild.

And so we work with the school board, we will continue to work to do with the school board in any uh way possible because uh I'd like to promote, and I'm sure everyone on the board, I would assume like to support the growth of our of our young people.

Um celebrates the uh which comp which celebrate the success of small businesses in the fourth district.

Many of those businesses are in the fifth district.

So I was there, the CEO was there, and so we were able to congratulate those small businesses that impact the communities that we serve.

So it was a great, great time.

And so uh I think that that's all I have time for.

Oh, the ribbon cutting at Mata had the ribbon cutting on last week, and so we were able to celebrate that with the pedestrian grids.

At Indy.

I yield back.

Thank you.

Commissioner Patrick.

Uh thank you, Madam Presiding Officer.

Uh first and foremost, I want to say thank you to all the residents that came out to vote uh on election day, uh, May 19.

It is critically important in these times that everyone's voice is heard.

So I want to first acknowledge the residents that came out to vote.

I want to acknowledge the colleagues that were on the ballot as well, uh, those who succeeded and those who failed on a statewide level.

Uh, it is not easy to put your name out there and say, I think I have an idea that makes it better for all of us.

So to everyone out there, I do want to acknowledge uh the efforts that you all have done.

Uh next thing I want to acknowledge is uh Monday is Memorial Day.

And uh for those families that have had uh service personnel that have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

I want to say thank you very much.

We are a better people, uh, and we always strive to be an improving people.

So thank you very much for your sacrifices.

Uh one acknowledge that uh yesterday we uh celebrated older American older Americans month at the North DeCab uh Senior Center.

We took around uh walk around downtown Shambley, and uh if you were able to uh meet every one of the milestones, you got a badge.

So by the end of the time, you had a whole uh rainbow of acknowledgments so that you walked the downtown of Shambley, which was a great event, great opportunity to meet the seniors uh as well as other members of the community.

And I encourage everybody to pay attention to what's happening at North DeCab Senior Center.

Uh next, I want to mention that uh I also had an opportunity to go to the NAACP breakfast, uh the Mobilized for Justice, as my colleagues have mentioned, uh great opportunity to meet other statewide actors within the county uh or that were visiting the county at the time.

Um do want to stress once again, these are times where if we stand together and if we vote, uh regardless of the political party that you follow, we're gonna be a better country.

As long as our voices are heard, we have an opportunity to speak.

I think that's the that's that's the best part about being American.

Uh also want to acknowledge that um I had an invitation to the Ismali uh solar event, uh flip the switch event.

Um the local location is I'm gonna try and pronounce this the Jama Kana location, but it was an excellent opportunity to meet with folks uh in the Ismaili community uh as well as take a tour of the facility, beautifully remodeled uh location, uh, and also acknowledging that they have uh switched over to solar power for their facility.

We also had the small area uh plan, one of the final meetings, if not the final meeting, I should say, uh, for Embry Hills, and this was a great opportunity to again uh hear from the community what their priorities are, what are the urgent matters in the community.

Uh, we had Commissioner Bolton join us.

She got to be the moderator for a panel that I was not necessarily prepared for, but I think we did a we did a good job.

Um we also had a member from uh the ARC there as well as from the uh Latina uh community um uh I'm sorry, um chamber of commerce.

And uh the panel threw some good questions at us, and I think we we had some good answers.

Um ultimately, you know, as we are moving forward and and considering the growth of not just District One but of DeCab County.

Uh the I know there's always the frequent pushback on more residential development that happens.

The response I have for this, I I know that uh everybody wants to preserve their neighborhoods as they are, but as the metro area continues to grow, we're gonna have more and more people cutting through our neighborhoods to get to their homes where they're gonna defend their communities.

And if there is a consideration, if there's a way to get to yes on some of these more controversial um residential rezonings, the the thought is is we're adding people to be future advocates for the community.

And I guess that often gets missed when we talk about these rezonings.

We talk about traffic impacts and we talk about how the change is, but we don't realize we're getting new people to carry the fight for our neighborhoods.

So just want to mention that as a takeaway from our meeting.

Um the state of the county was phenomenal.

Again, it was in uh district one at uh the assembly studios, absolutely phenomenal location.

Uh I wasn't sure how the CEO was gonna match what she did last year, and she beat it.

And so congratulations to her.

Uh fantastic turnout, fantastic acknowledgement.

Um, and uh, you know, one of the things that makes us proud to be DeCab County residents, I think, is the successes that we've had over the past year, and and as our leader, uh CEO Cochrane Johnson, I think is doing uh an amazing job.

Next thing I want to remind you guys is that we had uh some one-on-one conversations with the Northcrest and Rose Arbor neighborhoods.

They've had some concerns uh regarding a street that happens a lot of accidents, uh left-hand turn accidents.

Went out with uh staff, uh, Miss Patrice Keeter met with them and we walked the neighborhood and sort of talked about all concerns that they had.

Um if you or your neighbors have concerns within your neighborhood, please reach out.

We're happy to pull some staff together and come on out and and uh have the professionals look at the concerns you have and find a way to address them.

As always, if there are any concerns you have, uh we've got a wide array of comms to be reached out through.

So either the district one uh email or anything else.

Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer.

Thank you, Commissioner Patrick.

Um for my remarks, I will start with our we are actively working on planning for our second annual Chicago's cookout, which is our back to school event.

This year's theme is full steam ahead.

So it is a STEM and art, so STEAM emphasis this year.

So we'll have lots of activities, we're giving out STEM kits, um, we're working and connecting with the engineering community as well to have some um STEM-related exhibits and activities, but we'll also have food, school supplies.

We're working on getting free haircuts again.

We'll have the DJs.

So it'll be a really big and really fun event, June 27th at East Central DeCab Senior and Community Center.

Um, our latest episode of the podcast um was dropped, and that was with Director Bass from Parks and Rec.

So that is available.

And from that conversation, um, we're coming into summer, so please sign up for the summer programs.

Our next episode will drop in the beginning of June, and that is with Director Thomson Clark from Code Enforcement, a really powerful conversation.

So look forward to that.

Also, speaking of um East Central DeCab Senior Community Center, the replacement furniture was finally installed.

If you are in District 4 and go to that center, you know there was a water issue last year, and there was a lot of damage done, and some of the furniture in the lobby was damaged, and it took us a while, but the furniture is installed, and we will continue to work and make sure everything that they need at that location is provided.

Um I also wanted to congratulate everyone on the ballot this year.

Um, this past Tuesday, as Commissioner Patrick says, it is very hard to put yourself out there and get on that ballot.

So win, lose, or draw, you guys did an amazing job, and you should be proud and look you we are united in making sure we're working hard to get the cab where we need it to be.

Um, so make sure you come out and vote at the runoff as well and make sure your voice is heard.

Attended several events in the last couple weeks, including um along with Commissioner Bolton.

We attended the Ethiopian Orthodox Monastery service one Saturday.

Um that was a very fun morning.

Council for quality growth.

Um had their 21st annual um community or event uh last Thursday at Colony Square.

That was really fun.

A good great way to connect with other um community members, but also with the business community.

This past um Friday also attended the Hundred Black Men of the Cab Gala, where we were also a sponsor, and then Saturday morning.

I attended also with my fellow some of my fellow commissioners, the Indobla CP Unity Breakfast, and then I tagged along and followed um and attended Congressman Johnson's Pinnacle Awards as um I almost called you Congresswoman Commissioner Marita Davis Johnson mentioned.

Um those were awards for small businesses in Congressional District 4.

Um, but they were really it was a really good event at Lew Walker, and I appreciate the invitation and the acknowledgement at that event.

And then we have talked about the State of the County address.

I was very honored to have the opportunity to get up and speak and give remarks on behalf of the board of commissioners.

Um that was a like everyone has said, it was a really good event.

It's a great time for us to revisit all the hard work that we did in 2025 and look forward to continuing the progress, continuing to keep the promises that were made and making sure we're delivering for our communities.

Um also want to always take the opportunity to thank our employees and our staff, not just central staff, not just our district staff, but all the employees in DeCab County.

We sit up here and we make a lot of decisions and we ask for a lot, but we cannot do any of this work without all of you.

Um so I always am grateful for our employees and the great work that you guys do and making sure that DeCab County looks like a shining example.

And then also just wanted to note that we got um notice this morning that our joint retreat between the CEO's office and the board of commissioners that was scheduled for next Friday has been canceled.

So we are working to get that rescheduled, and we'll get a date out as soon as possible.

And with that, I yield my time as well.

So we do need to adjourn the committee of the whole and go into a special call meeting.

If I can get a motion, so moved.

Second motion to adjourn, seconded by Commissioner Bolton.

All in favor.

Aye.

That is unanimous.

And if I can get a motion to open a special call meeting.

So moved.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

That is unanimous.

And also a motion to go into executive session to discuss potential litigation.

So moved.

Second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Thank you.

We are in adjourned for I mean in recess for executive session.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Good morning, everyone.

We are I would need a motion to come out of executive session.

So move.

Second.

All in favor?

I do have a motion that we need to make out of executive session.

Yes, I'd like to make uh I move that the Board of Commissioners approve payment in the total amount of forty thousand dollars to settle John Austin's lawsuit against DeCab County.

Civil action number one colon twenty-four CV fifty-six zero three in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to resolve this lawsuit.

DeCab County will pay John Austin and his legal counsel amount of forty thousand dollars in return for and conditioned on Austin's dismissal with prejudice of his lawsuit and his execution of the settlement agreement with release and waiver claims that is satisfactory to the interim county attorney.

The interim county attorney or his designee is authorized to sign the settlement agreement.

And that's my motion.

We have a motion and second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

That was unanimous.

Thank you so much.

Can I now get a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

That is unanimous.

Thank you, everyone.