DeKalb County Committee of the Whole Meeting - May 21, 2026
DeKalb County Committee of the Whole Meeting – May 21, 2026
The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners held a Committee of the Whole meeting on May 21, 2026, at 2:00 p.m., presided over by District 4 Commissioner Shekira Johnson. The meeting included committee reports, review of the proposed executive and preliminary agendas for May 26, 2026, two presentations (stormwater master plan and 2026 tax digest/millage rate), board comments, and an executive session to discuss potential litigation. All votes were unanimous unless noted.
Consent Calendar
- Approved minutes of the May 21, 2026 Committee of the Whole meeting and the May 12, 2026 Board of Commissioners meeting.
- Approved reappointment of Mr. Stephen P. Smith to the Development Authority and Private Hospital Authority (Post 8).
- Approved appointments to the DeKalb County Community Service Board (Dr. Leroy Reese, Dr. Lynette Wilson Phillips, Ms. Kendra Price) – referred to PECS committee.
- Approved consent items from the preliminary agenda, including standardized T-hanger lease agreement (Airport), and various district reserve appropriations (e.g., $98,750 for childcare assessment in District 1; $10,000, $15,000, $5,000, $6,400 for District 3 community programs).
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were received.
Discussion Items
- Stormwater Master Plan & Rate Increase: Rich Gruel (Arcadis) and Director Allen presented a five-to-ten-year strategy to address $600 million in identified stormwater infrastructure needs, funded through a proposed 10% annual rate increase for 10 years (10x10). Current residential rate is $10/month; proposed increase to $11/month in Year 1. Funds would address critical assets (e.g., dams, pipes, ponds) and debt service for a $30 million SWIFT P loan. Commissioners expressed support but requested a public town hall and concurrent watershed assessments across all districts. The item will return to PWI committee.
- 2026 Tax Digest & Millage Rate: TJ presented the proposed tentative millage rate of 11.635 mills (a 1.02% increase from the rollback rate of 11.518 mills). The increase would generate approximately $21.60 additional on a $450,000 homestead and $36.27 on a $775,000 non-homestead property. The board will be asked to adopt the tentative rate on May 26, with public hearings scheduled for June 23 and July 7, and final adoption on July 7.
Key Outcomes
- Motion to limit discussion time to 5 minutes first round, 3 minutes second round (total 8 minutes) per item passed unanimously.
- Stormwater presentation: Board directed staff to schedule a public town hall and consider concurrent watershed assessments. The rate increase proposal will advance through PWI.
- Millage rate: Board will vote on tentative rate at the May 26 meeting; formal public hearings and adoption process set.
- Executive Session: Board unanimously approved a $40,000 settlement for John Austin’s lawsuit (Civil Action No. 1:24-CV-5603) and authorized the interim county attorney to execute the settlement agreement.
- Meeting adjourned after executive session at approximately 12:00 p.m.
Meeting Transcript
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.
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