Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us in the employer relations and public safety committee meeting, also known as ERPS.

I am Ledina Bolton, your Super District 7 Commissioner and Deputy Presiding Officer, but also the chair of the ERPS Committee.

Also joining me on the committee is Commissioner Nicole Masaya of District 3, and then our fellow commissioner Robert Patrick of District 1.

And oh, we also have District 2 Commissioner Michelle Long Spears.

So we only have just a few moments.

As you can tell, we're starting a bit late.

Our committee meeting.

So we're gonna go ahead and jump into the minutes.

Item 2026 1068, all commission districts.

These are the mint minutes for the June 18th meeting.

Do we have a motion for that item?

Thank you so much.

Um, Madam Chair, I've had our opportunity to review those minutes, and my motion is to approve them.

Second, all in favor.

Aye.

Motion carries recommendation for approval.

Following, we do have a discussion that we are excited to hear from our EMS services and update, and I believe that should be loaded.

Chief, are you presenting?

Are you really?

Go ahead then.

All right.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Just a moment.

Can we have it up on our screens as well?

Or if there is a printout, can you please share that with us?

Okay.

All righty, we're ready for you, sir.

Absolutely.

So I'm excited to uh come and give a comprehensive update on our EMS services.

Um, as you know, um, as of July 1st, we entered a new contract with our partner with AMR.

And so I want to kind of just give an oversight of some of the progress that we've made over the past year.

Last year in 2025, uh the CAP Fire Rescue we responded to 1,333, over 1,000 uh 33,000 calls in the system.

Uh, we did see a slight uptick in our call volume, and we've continued to kind of see that trend moving forward uh since 2024, but we saw a slight decline in our uh call volume.

Just to give you an uh understanding of what you get in our services, all of our units that respond to calls in DeCab County, all of our members are trained to at minimum the EMT basic level.

That means that every fire truck, every engine, every rapid response vehicle there responds to calls in DeCab County, they have at least an EMTB.

We also have our EMS division where we're currently operating on average about five to seven ambulances, and those run from ALS and BLS.

So those units also have paramedics on them as well.

The goal is what we're reaching for is to get up to 10 ambulances uh in the system at one time, and that's really to give us the unit that 240 unit hours that kind of that's that sweet spot for us that we would like to be at.

So system enhancements, and this is a lot of the things that went in place in the new contract.

A lot of our systems increase what we had was an increase in unit hours, and this was a to balance the demand of the emergency services and uh mainly to focus on these high priority calls.

Uh with this new contract, we also have uh increase of minimum requirement of 600 unit hours that AMR is providing.

And obviously, if they do not meet that, there the is a 200 fine for each hour that's below that minimum of $600.

Also, we're uh working really hard to on our APOD times, and that's the time that we spend at the hospitals.

Um, obviously that can become a strain on the system if we see units that obviously transport uh patients to the hospital, but then we wind up staying at the hospital waiting to get them offloaded.

So uh really been working with our regional partners on uh trying to reduce those APOD times.

And then there's other things that we're doing to the system where uh such as Nurse Navigator, which is and as well as our uh MIH program, and those are aimed at more so of our lower priority calls.

Um that does it's a large portion of the calls that we get.

And um, if you go to the next one, what you can see with our nurse nav, you can see the number of calls that we have used Nurse Nav for and what nurse navigation is if you're not familiar, is a call comes into 911 dispatch.

If it meets certain requirements that would then deem it as a lower priority call is sent over to Nurse Nav, and what they try to do is mitigate that call where it's not going to utilize a transport unit that needs to be serviced.

Um as you can see, uh we've been very successful with this nurse navigation program.

What it does is again it helps keep a number of our units available.

You can see we have a 4.8 out of five as far as our patient satisfaction, and uh 92% of our patients, they don't call 911 back.

So it is a very successful program.

Um another thing that we're really excited and enhancement that we're very proud of is our whole blood program.

Um is something that we started back in 2025, and this gives us the ability to obviously to give blood to these are more critical uh calls that we're running.

Um it gives us a 90% survival rate on these non-traumatic arrest patients, and um what as of today we've uh we've given out 123 units uh to patients.

So really proud of that program is something that we all like to keep around and continue to see it grow.

This next one is talks about our unit hours, and what you can see is that since 2025, we've had a uh studied increase increase in our unit hours.

As of today, uh AMR is averaging 676 unit hours, the CAP fire rescues submitting uh 93 unit hours.

So that that increase in unit hours is what's doing having a huge impact on our response times and just our overall service model.

When we talk about our response time, so a lot of these initiatives that we have in place when you look at our response times for structure fires, uh fire calls, EMS critical calls.

You can see where we're we're doing really well.

We're we're trending down as of um from twenty again going back from 2025 moving forward, where our response times are uh in a great spice.

Uh we continue to that's one of those areas that you continue to work on as we continue to do all the great things that we're doing with the station bills and adding more units and more stations.

We'll continue to see a reduction in these as well.

Some of our more critical calls, these priority one calls, and again to talk about some of the the uh improvements that we've made since um 2022 up to current, we've seen a reduction of two minutes and 22 seconds on our priority one calls, and priority one calls are the ones that we're our most serious calls are such as cardiac arrest, someone who's not breathing, and then our priority two calls, we've seen a reduction since 2022 of two minutes and 52 seconds, and these are calls that are like multiple seizures, heart problems, it could be uh a traumatic injury that uh with hemorrhage.

So overall, our response times have recruited have improved across all of our priorities.

Uh, we are continuing to expand our capabilities with AMR as well as county ALS resources.

Um our nurse navigation, we're leading the nation in some of the numbers that what we're doing with uh nurse nav.

The whole blood whole blood program again is something that's very successful, and we've implemented it and very very proud of that as well.

And then continue to focus on our hospital offload times.

Those main focuses are what's going to be to continue to push our EMS services in a positive direction.

And if you have any questions, let me know.

Okay, thank you for the presentation, sir.

I'm sure our commissioners have questions, and I'll start with Commissioner Masaya.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

Um great to see that uh our partnership with AMR is flourishing and moving strong.

I really do appreciate one that there's a reduction in those offload times because I know that was something of issue.

Um, but then also overall, it seems like whether it's priority one through three, there's that reduction in the average response time.

I know that was a um critical piece and something that was a question in terms of initially um you know making the investment to continue to move on with them, and I am glad to see that they are continuously showing improving in that area.

Um, and that you know what we are doing directly, um, is having a positive impact on folks.

I mean, that's really in encouraging.

And so just want to say thank you and thank you for all of the work that you're doing.

I yield back to you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And commissioners, do you have any questions or comments?

Commissioner Patrick.

Uh yeah, uh, thank you, madam chair.

Uh, thank you for the time.

Um, Chief Carter, uh glad to have you here today.

I just want to say thank you very much for the service.

Um, I know it was uh somewhat of a difficult vote when we talked about uh the new contract um with AMR, but uh I think the results show that the investment works and that um we're seeing the the improved service, which is what we expect.

Uh I'll also note that to date my cities in the north have not mentioned any concerns.

Um of course at the moment they do, I'll be right uh right at your doorstep letting you know.

But as of right now, uh it really looks like uh very good work.

I did have one question.

Okay.

Um, and this was on slide five.

Uh you call it the A pod, I guess at one point we were called it uh wall time, the waiting time from the ambulance to being received at the hospital.

Do you have an idea where that is?

I know back in 22 ish, it was around uh I was hearing up to 55 minutes or we that time it has reduced.

I don't have the the exact numbers of where we are, the average that average time now when we're talking about from a system wide problem.

It's a system wide issue that we face with multiple hospitals, so trying to just you know narrow it down to each individual one.

I don't have the exact times.

We have made improvements in it, it's something that we want to continue to work on.

Um, and there's things that we work on internally as well as with the partners at the hospital.

All right, Chief, thank you very much, madam chair.

Thank you for uh no additional questions.

Thank you.

And I just have a few.

We always appreciate the updates, especially considering the recent contracts and extensions that were approved just in the last year and a half.

Um on page three, when you were discussing the call volume, and you mentioned there was an uptick in call volume.

Is that specifically for um significant emergencies or just calls overall?

Because we know you get a little bit of everything.

Absolutely.

Yes, ma'am.

So um it is for just calls overall, no specific priority calls that we saw that up to it, but just a system wide uptick on calls.

Okay, and then on slide four, you indicated the goal is to have 10 uh ambulances operating uh at 240 unit hours.

Is that including both um the vehicles that AMR and DECAP will provide or specifically AMR?

No, so for AMR to be 600 unit hours, that's what they're they're contractually obligated to give us.

The 240 hours is for the CAB EMS.

And the the 10 vehicles, that's a combination of both the CAP and AMR?

Because I know we were um we wanted to get more vehicles.

I think that was subject of discussion last year.

And we have them, so yeah.

So right now it's just one of those things as we continue to recruit and hire, that's what we're working towards.

So that average of five to seven is where we're at right now from a staffing level, and obviously as we bring on more personnel, we'll be trying to bring up more of those units.

Okay.

And also on page six, where you discuss innovative patient care programs, and um it shows here under nurse navigation a 4.8 out of five patient satisfaction.

How is this data collected?

Is it a survey at the end of the call?

Yes, it's collected through Nurse NAV.

So we get that we do pull that data directly from Nurse Nav.

So that is uh there are they are third party that we work with, and so we pull that information from there.

And do you have to work with the call center on that?

And we they came when did they come?

About a month or so ago, and we had a lot of questions about Nurse Navigator.

So, do you guys have to work with them in order to get that data?

Yes, ma'am.

So through through 911, so it's coming through the disk through dispatch, and again, as those calls are screened through 911 dispatcher, they make a determination whether or not they want to send it over to Nurse Nav.

Okay.

And also under that section, nurse navigation, where you mentioned 92% of patients did not um I don't did not hang up and call back.

Well, that's what I wrote.

That they when you said they didn't call 911 back, you mean they completed their exchange with nurse navigation.

They didn't hang up and say, I'd rather call back and get um someone from 911 to assist me.

Is that what you were indicating?

Yes.

So once they once they went over to Nurse Nav, that means that whatever that call was mitigated in whatever way that was needed.

So it wasn't something that wound up where they felt like they they still needed uh the cap services and they called 911 back, you know, because we didn't meet whatever the need was.

Okay.

And on slide nine, where you discussed EMS response times.

You did communicate that since 2022 there was a reduction by two minutes and 22 seconds.

And on here, it looks like we're at about seven minutes for ambulance.

And so what is the target time?

So when you talk about target times and and this average, you know, what people will say there isn't a standard NFPA.

They do have recommendations on response times.

Um, but a lot of that is it could be determined on population density, call volumes, and things of that nature.

So where we at right now uh is that five minutes is what for priority one calls.

The from an NFPA standpoint, um, is five minutes is what they would recommend.

And from a uh for priority twos, it goes up to about nine minutes.

Okay, so it looks like we're just about on track for priority two, three with the just above nine minutes.

We're still working on the priority one.

And uh my last question um was just the presentation of the data.

Was there something significant about 2022 while we do the comparison since then as opposed to benchmarks like when contracts are approved or commitments were made, anything like that?

Why 2022?

So we went back to 2022 just to give the large sample size.

Obviously, those numbers and at 20 going back from 22 um is when some of this we're going through this contract extension.

So we've been working off this extension now for two years, obviously going back.

So we want to just kind of give a large sample size to show a little bit of before that extension as well as where we are now.

Okay.

Well, those are all the questions that I have.

Thank you, sir, for your presentation.

Did that prompt Commissioner Long Spears?

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I will be brief.

We have limited time today.

Slide three, you have call volume 2023 to present.

Um it notes the first half of 2024 decrease from the previous year.

Call volumes since then have shown an upward trend.

When your data on logistics uh manager is prepared and has a chance to crunch that data.

Could you send me Jan through June of this year?

I just want to see how it tracks historically.

Absolutely.

Great, thank you.

Yield back.

Go ahead, Commissioner Patrick.

Madam Chair, thank you.

Your your questions prompted a follow-up question for Chief.

Um on page uh, sorry, slide six, uh, under nurse navigation, you have projected 15,000 referrals and 7,000 successful navigations.

Uh, just to be clear, is that saying you you sort of expected 15,000 calls that Nurse Navigator would handle and 7,000 were successfully uh run through that process?

Is that that is correct?

So that's just going off of our trends from previous years, okay, and just kind of where we are right now and what we're trending towards.

Okay.

That is correct.

So um what happened to the other 8,000 calls?

I guess.

And I know you may not be able to answer that on the fly, but that's um first of all, I think that's very successful work on the county's part uh and and being prepared for those situations that come up for 15,000 calls.

But is there a general trend that you guys are seeing that might account for for that disparity?

As far as well, right now again, it's just those it is a projection um on where we are right now.

Okay, uh, I don't have what we had what we did for 25 as far as those total numbers.

If you like, I can definitely get those to your office, though.

I appreciate that.

Thank you much.

Absolutely.

Okay, thank you, Madam Chair.

Yes, sir, Commissioner Masaya.

Thank you so much, just briefly uh madam chair.

And so um having the ability through Nurse NAB to do that triage without having the transport.

Do we have an estimate as to the amount of savings that was realized by the county as a result?

No, I don't have a dollar amount savings uh or the fiscal impact uh of Nurse Navigator.

Uh the biggest impact that we have focused on was most of the the unit availability hours, and that's what we've tracked the most on it.

Um as far as savings to the counties, we have never really quantified that.

Okay, that may be something that we can do, and to the extent that we have more units available, and we're not having to employ um you know more individuals and a whole new vehicle than maybe something realized from you know the absence of those that can be you know quantified in a way that we can you know be able to point to this is at minimal or around how much savings just based on this dynamic alone.

But I'm just curious because I'm expecting that it's gonna be you know um reasonably impressive.

So I'm just curious as to you know what that is um to the extent that we can get it at some time in the future.

I yield back.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's something I'm sure that we should be able to work on, and I could definitely get that to you.

Thank you.

I appreciate you.

I yield back.

Okay, and I do not see any other requests for questions or comments from commissioners.

So thank you, sir.

We appreciate your presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, moving right along, and we only have about 15 minutes uh remaining.

I believe home rule is one of the items we'll be coming back to the board on Tuesday.

So if, well, let me read through it.

20260941, all commission districts.

Home rule ordinance to amend the pension code of DeCab County, Georgia, 1962, Georgia Laws 3088 as amended to add a death benefit for beneficiaries of certain plan participants who die in the line of duty as officers, employees, or deputies of DeCab County on or after September 1, 2026, and to provide for compliance with certain uh updates to federal tax law.

And can you talk us through some of the updates that we were briefly discussing?

Yes, sir.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Commissioners.

Yes, some of the changes that were substituted in were to address uh some uh concerns from the pension board attorney.

Uh very broadly speaking, one uh was to address some IRS rules um that are part of something called the Secure Act.

Uh we don't believe that those uh that that language that references ages would affect our plan, but out of an abundance of uh caution, um our um uh outside attorney recommended that we add it.

Uh also added uh to uh the uh substitute would be um wording that would explain what would happen in the event of public safety uh employee were to die in the line of duty without having named a beneficiary.

And so the substitute uh explains that uh the surviving uh child under this scenario would re be eligible to receive a uh benefit equal to a um uh a 10-year uh uh pension benefit on or the actual value of a pension uh benefit.

Uh and so that sort of closed the loop on those scenarios in which a uh uh employee dies without naming a beneficiary.

Yes, thank you, sir.

Um I really do uh appreciate you guys working through some of those questions that were um emailed out to you and the clarification that we needed with some of those specific things.

Do we have any questions from committee members?

Go ahead, Commissioner Masaya.

Thank you so much, uh Madam Chair.

And so in terms of um the death without uh naming a beneficiary, how did uh you guys derive at identifying that a surviving child would be then um identified as the beneficiary?

That is a great question.

Uh normally, and this is present case, um an individual associated or connected with the deceased employee would apply to the court to become the uh an administrator or of the estate.

That individual would be in the position to receive this lump sum payment.

Uh typically speaking, the court administrator is someone who has the child's best interest in mind, and that administrator would uh manage that fund on behalf of the uh child, assuming that child is not of an age to make those decisions.

All right, so I could appreciate that response.

It really didn't in earnest answer my question as to how you came to um making that finalized um decision because yes, um there can be uh someone that um files to be an administrator, but then there may be just because someone has not identified in a beneficiary under these circumstances doesn't mean there's not an executor and that there is not a will that may be present.

So in someone, you know, as the executor could do the same thing, you know, obviously as that administrator, but uh even then it usually um when someone dies in in test state for instance and say that they don't have there's absence of a will, then it will go to the estate, right?

So and a process um for being able to realize you know whatever is there, whether it's a distribution or a debt.

So I'm it was just curious as to how you arrived at that.

I think that may be something left to consider and maybe have um further conversations um with our capable county attorney's office, you know, related to that, and whether it should be a surviving child or if it's something that should just go automatically to um to an estate versus identifying a beneficiary assuming there's a child present.

With that, I yield back to you, madam chair.

Thank you, commissioners.

Are there any other questions or comments regarding the home rule ordinance?

Okay.

Um so I am comfortable with the way this item is written.

However, I'm still waiting on my conversation.

You ain't got none for me.

Oh, he's saying no.

Hold on now.

Let me turn my microphone off.

Okay.

Uh uh, madam chair, if I might to uh Commissioner Messiah, uh it's not in the ordinance, but it's always been a practice also to work with uh the individual that can demonstrate a legitimate power of attorney or the executor of that estate would also be eligible, but it's always been um in the plan, so uh we didn't add it to the ordinance.

I'm sorry, that's still not gonna resolve the issue as uh communicated.

Um saying what's typically as practice is not necessarily in accordance with Willow's estate law law.

Um, and then in reiteration, even with an executor, whether it's an executive or if it's an administrator, doesn't mean it automatically will go um the benefit to a surviving child, right?

There's certain instances where it'll go to a spouse, or it may be going to a grandchild or to a sibling.

I mean, the the point is there's more work to do there, and opposed to just making that designation that it would go to a surviving child, it may be good to consider it just going to the estate and then letting um people to provide what necessary information, not POA, but um whatever's necessary from the courts to then realize the benefit um that death benefit that was left by the um the seedent employee.

Just a suggestion again talk to to legal and you know, and have the conversations with legal.

I yield back.

We'll do that.

Okay, so I have another question then.

And I'm gonna beat this dead horse until I know it ain't coming back, right?

Um considering that this ordinance came about based on the lives that were lost last year.

Is there a way to honor them by naming this or something after them because this is going to impact so many people, and there's many folks can really appreciate that their lives allowed them to preserve moving forward the futures of their families.

So Madam Chair, if you'd give us an opportunity to to visit that in terms of naming, and I'm gonna say naming something.

Something, yes.

Because I don't know that I would recommend naming this because they're not eligible.

But yes, we I mean, and trust me, we've we've been racking our brains, and we've you know we will have another conversation on some of the conversations we've had, but yeah.

Okay, well, I I can rock with that, and I appreciate you being amenable to it.

All right, so do we have a motion for this item 2026 0941?

Okay.

My motion is to approve, and y'all need to get with legal, um, because that verbiage, you know, as to who it who would actually be realized as the beneficiary.

Um, if you know, none is named, I think would it is something you really should look at very, very, very, very closely.

So um, with that, my motion is to approve that caveat.

Second, and I do want to acknowledge the hit not to work on that.

All in favor, aye, congratulation.

More motion carries recommendation for approval of item 2026 0941.

All right, with seven minutes left.

We can do it.

Okay, so we're gonna you ready?

Um D1.

Item 2025 0683, all commission districts to approve a resolution to address agregious littering and the illegal dumping of scrap tires.

I have a substitute that reads an ordinance to amend the code of DeCab County, Georgia, Chapter 22, Article 4 to address illegal scrap tire dumping by revising sections 22-63, 2266, 67, 68, and 69, and for other purposes.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and ERPS Committee.

Uh what you have in front of you is the latest substitute to the uh code chapter that we are seeking to uh address regarding illegal scrap dumping in DeCab County.

Um you have four different uh items in your packet.

One, the title page of the substitute, followed by the ordinance resolution, a red line version of the latest changes, which we'll read from from the legislative updates, as well as the clean version of those legislative changes.

Now, before we get into it, I'd like to highlight uh our partner in stopping crime.

Um with the CEO and COO's office who is going to provide some key updates as to the administrative milestones that have been reached and all the work that is happening that will couple this legislative action that you are putting forward uh today.

Yep.

Nicole.

Thank you, Marcus.

Good afternoon, madam chair and commissioners.

I would like to uh provide an update on our uh scrap tire ordinance compliance initiative.

This initiative was designed to implement actions required under Chapter 22, um, our solid waste ordinance.

So early 2026, um, we convened a cross departmental stakeholder group comprised of public works, co-compliance, planning and sustainability, and public safety.

And the group was tasked with aligning departmental roles and developing processes to ensure consistent coordination across regulatory land use, compliance, and public safety functions that touch the scrap tire program.

The core of this initiative is a two-agency process amongst public works and co-compliance, and I'll briefly expound on the delineation of roles and responsibilities for each.

For uh public works, they serve as the front end intake and tracking hub, uh receiving and verifying quarterly transport reports and manifests, maintaining the master business tracking lists, uh they send compliance reminders, handles change of ownership updates, and um response to general inquiries.

Cold compliance serves as the enforcement agency.

Um they open and assign cases, refer by public works, conducts on-site inspections, reviews documentation, issues citations, um, refer businesses to the business license division, conducts follow-up inspections, and pursues further enforcement remedies as needed.

In parallel, we're pursuing two deterrence initiatives intended to reduce illegal scrap tire dumping at its source.

Um the first one, which I'm especially um excited about, is the county's first scrap tire recycling program P3 solicitation, which was um the solicitation was released May 18th, 2026, with proposals being due August 20th, 2026.

Um, the other deterrent um initiative is the DKPD flock camera surveillance, where um DKPD is assessing deployment of flock camera surveillance at the most um uh repetitive uh illegal dumping locations.

Some of uh the current status um for this initiative, the in-house quarterly reporting process is active.

Public works is receiving reports online and by mail, um, date stamping mail submissions and verifying manifest content against ordinance requirements, a master tracking list of known tire handling businesses is maintained and updated each quarter to reflect submissions received, uh businesses with changes of ownership or name and businesses that have not yet submitted reports.

Uh the two-step reminder schedule, 30 days past due, then 30 days following the first reminder is in use to prompt non-responsive businesses before a case is referred to co-compliance.

Um public works continues to serve strictly as the intake and tracking hub.

Um, and again, inspections and enforcement actions remain entirely within co-compliance.

Um that is our update.

Thank you, ma'am.

Okay.

Were you gonna add to that, Mr.

Allen?

Yes.

Sure, I could briefly add to that.

Just want to uh conclude before going into any questions you have over the legislation that um exactly as Ms.

Sims stated, uh legis you know, your legislative staff, administrative staff worked collaboratively over the last several months, and much of what you'll see in this uh most recent draft ordinance and what I mean by roast recent is dated May 14th.

So it's the same copy that we've you know recirculated a few times uh to your inboxes, uh it basically states all of the work that has already been do already been done in-house and is continuing to be uh you know expounded upon on a daily basis.

So our departments are already running with this legislation uh and it will fit very well with what you already have on paper.

Thank you, sir.

Any questions or comments from committee members?

Go ahead, Commissioner Massayan.

I'll come back to you.

Commissioners, Commissioner Thierry, thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh great work, everyone, uh Commissioner Patrick for sponsoring it and central staff for putting together, I think a really comprehensive ordinance.

Um I do think the the like the most important part of this, which is great, so thank you for working on it, is the um business license.

Yes, sir.

Um those are I mean at the end of the day, like if the companies that are taking the tires and you know um dealing with all that and they don't if they know they're gonna be audited or checked, they might pick different haulers.

Um that was kind of what I thought was what the real problem is that there is sort of you know fly by night operators if we can just get this into the right system where everyone has to be verified, I think that's important.

Um the only small thing I think it's probably not a problem, but just in the penalty section.

So it says the for the first violation an enforcement officer may issue a written warning, and then it does say the first offense is a fine of $500.

So just practicality um for I guess co-compliance, or I guess police also would be involved potentially.

Um is it okay just to it like it seems like it's officer discretion for the first violation?

So good question warning.

Um just for clarity, that is for the dumping of one scrap tire.

We're gonna call that Fulham's law.

And uh it was a great suggestion by Director Fulham.

Sometimes folks uh will have a flat on the road and change out their tire and don't necessarily dispose of it uh in the proper way or leave it on the side of the street.

Uh it'll be up to the if it is called, you know, be up to the discretion of the uh enforcement officer, it could be co-compliance, it could be uh the actual police officer, but that one tire.

Now, if there is a first violation of you know this ordinance overall for any dumping of tires, um the actual penalty could exceed your up to $500 or 30 days imprisonment for that first actual violation.

And again, you know, all the you know, yes, sir.

Okay, gotcha.

Okay, so um and I did see we deleted the involving more than one trap tire for section two.

So I guess again, like that's I don't know if that needs to be clarified, but um I guess what I'm really looking for is officer discretion that if they if it is just that one tire and someone's you know left it and then hey, you gotta pick it up and take care of it, then the warning should suffice.

Then I guess the um only question would be the um section two where says where any offense or violation continues from day to day, each day's continuance therefore after be deemed a separate offense.

So um that just might be more practical enforcement.

Um if we note is that basically saying if we notify someone that they have made a violation and they every day they don't clean it up, it is an additional 500 errors.

Um all the code language across the entire DeCap County code.

So um dumping does is found uh okay.

So that is the encouragement to clean it up very quickly.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay, great.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, sir, Commissioner Masaya.

Thank you so much, uh Madam Chair, and great work.

Um, you know, it's very detailed.

I really do appreciate everything that's gone into it.

And uh, you know, I'm a big stickler for consistency.

Um it was just uh pushed um just last week that anything that has a discretion for um imprisonment that it be acts to go through uh our chief and our sheriff, and so just curious had that happened or had there been a request that that happened related to this ordinance.

So for violations that would include potential jail time, we have had conversations with the DA's office as well as the solicitor general.

Um we've also discussed extensively with our police uh through our police chief, um our assistant chief golden who who may be in the room as well.

Um so all those uh aspects have been aligned and police is ready to you know take action as necessary.

Uh and the sheriff, did we consult with the sheriff?

I'm not sure if we spoke with the sheriff in terms of you know the actual you know housing of inmates, but when it comes to you know the actual rests that are made and the actual court cases that go through co-compliance, we've all you know discussed from that apparatus.

I appreciate that.

You just realize there's an inconsistency as to when people do things and when they don't, and so uh with that trying to understand, because if we are um using ethics and being accountable, right?

Um we want to make sure that we have a consistency in terms of application that speaks to our integrity.

So uh with that, I appreciate that response.

I yield back.

Thank you.

And are there any quick well you can have a comment because we're running into your time now?

Go ahead.

Thank you.

I'll talk quick, but Madam Chair, thank you for the time considerating the considering this.

Uh thank you to the CEO's office for engagement.

Uh we had that little doodle back at our uh um retreat.

And uh it looks like it's something that actually had a lot of legs, a lot of attention got associated with that.

So thank you to everyone that was involved.

I know Commissioner Terry, I think this Commissioner Spears, everyone here made a little bit of a contribution or had some comments on it.

Also want to acknowledge Commissioner Davis Johnson who uh came along and helped me with the second co-sponsor, co-sponsorship on that as well.

Um, and uh I I'd like to say this is an example of us working together uh from the administrative side to Board of Commissioner side, everyone sort of umpied on this and got us a better product.

So um thank you.

Some questions.

Um I know the CEO's team is gonna be implementing this or may already be implementing this.

Uh how are we relating this to our cities?

And is there an opportunity or has there been a conversation to suggest, hey, we've made these changes, perhaps local municipality may want to consider that.

Yes, sir.

Uh I want to preface this by saying I believe this is the most comprehensive local scrap tire uh ordinance in the state of Georgia, and it is a model that should be utilized and hopefully will be utilized by many of our municipalities, not just throughout the CAB, but throughout the state.

Um we have had preliminary discussions with other counties, other municipalities, um, excuse me, other uh partner counties, Gwyneth, Cobb, Fulton, uh, regarding what we could do on a county level basis as a uh kind of a B2B standpoint.

Uh from our cities, it will continue to take additional coordination that you know is already in place.

So, for instance, our police within the county already work with all of our municipality police departments on a daily basis.

So I think we'll just have to roll those conversations in to the new initiatives that are being pushed forward.

Um so for instance, as we look at the digital shield initiative that's being rolled out, we're working already hand in hand with all of our municipalities in that, and this is just another component of that.

You know, for instance, if we see you know a dump of a thousand tires in the city of Patrick Town, DeCap County.

Oh, you know, we'll work with that city accordingly.

Hey, Patrick Town has hover cars.

We don't really know what I'm saying.

Um, but this is something that we all share the burnt the the burden of responsibility in, and uh we'll we'll work to coordinate efficiently.

Okay.

Um a question just for us to have offline is is perhaps there's a way we can talk about uh seeing what some of our sister cities have within this county and and maybe having uh uh an engagement with them at the mayor and council level to see if we can uh encourage this.

I really truly believe that if we had one uniform ordinance or relatively uh effective similarly enforced type ordinance in place that the that really could take care of the issue within DeCab County first, and then of course the benefit other benefits of working with our sister counties uh in the metropolitan area.

So and I if I hadn't said it, Marcus, thank you to you and your team for uh investing your effort in this.

Um again um people get angry about tires, they don't want to see the scrap in their neighborhoods, and we've said it before, but you know, uh from the vector-borne diseases, mosquitoes, uh to the simple fact that it's trash, um, to the fact that if it does catch on fire, that is a toxic event next to anybody's neighborhood, which nobody wants to have.

So um truly thank you very much to the whole team up here and out there as well.

Thank you all.

I appreciate a lot.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Absolutely, and I do just want to reiterate, even though we didn't have a whole lot of time, we did grapple two of our most significant pieces of legislation today, the home rule and this, because I'm especially excited about as Commissioner Terry mentioned, connecting it to the business license, but also the registry, the reporting, but the recycling and the fact that that's already in action, and you know the community members come and speak about the dumping often, so they're gonna be very happy to hear that we're gonna we ain't even voted yet.

Hopefully, that we're gonna move forward on this item.

So, with that, do we have a motion for this item?

Motion to approve.

Second, all in favor, aye.

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

Motion carries for approval.

All right, with that, do we everything else is going to be held in committee?

We are out of time.

Do we have a motion?

Uh motion to adjourn.

Second, all in favor, aye.

Thank you.

Have a great day.