Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The DeKalb County Public Works and Infrastructure (PWI) Committee convened on Monday, September 28, 2026. Commissioner Shakira Johnson (District 4) served as the presiding officer. Commissioner Terry was absent. The committee reviewed and approved several public works contracts, received an extensive update on the 2026-2035 Watershed Management Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), and advanced a resolution for procuring an independent watershed CIP monitor.
Items Held for Audit Three items were tabled pending audit completion:
Flat Shoals Parkway Sidewalk Design (Item 2026-1066) Approved an award to Atkins Realis ($3,210,410) for designing 2.1 miles of continuous sidewalks on Flat Shoals Parkway. Director Allen noted the high design cost is driven by the GDOT Plan Development Process (PDP) required for federal aid.
Independent Watershed CIP Monitor (Item 2026-1234) Staff presented an updated resolution for procuring an independent monitor for the capital improvement program. Key changes from the 2025 legislation included using a professional services contract instead of a standard RFP to ensure the selection process remains fully independent of the administration. The selection committee will be led by central staff and the CIP Advisory Group (CPAG), with the Office of Independent Internal Audit (OIIA) serving in an advisory capacity only. The prohibition on the monitor bidding on future watershed CIP work remains unchanged. Commissioner Johnson expressed strong support for the updated approach and requested that the monitor’s scope be designed to allow future expansion to include oversight of potential private data center projects. The committee voted to recommend approval to the full Board of Commissioners, with the condition that it be presented at the Committee of the Whole (COW) on October 6, 2026, prior to a final vote on October 13, 2026.
Watershed Management Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) 2026-2035 (Item 2026-1334) Director Wells and AECOM consultant Greg Harrison presented the final 10-year CIP plan.
Good morning, everybody. Happy Monday. Everyone's favorite day of the week. This is the PWI Public Works and Infrastructure Committee. I am joined today by my colleague and presiding officer, Commissioner Shakira Johnson from District 4. Commissioner Terry is not going to be able to join us today, unfortunately. We have a relatively brief, but you know that's always a good way to jinx your time. Agenda ahead of us. Commissioner, I'm going to read out the minutes. Agenda item 2026-1356. Minutes of for the September 10, 2026 Public Works and Infrastructure Committee meeting. Move to approve agenda item 1358. I will go ahead and second. All those in favor, raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Aye. All right. We're going to go through these agenda items here. Um I believe there's about four pages, and then we have uh one or two presentations from uh staff uh before us. So let's get started. Uh first item, public works, roads and drainage, agenda item 2026-1171. This is for all commission districts. Change order number two to contract number 1284298 professional services for mapping and floodplain, three-year multi-year contract for use by public works, roads and drainage to conduct flood studies and mapping to identify both existing and future land use and floodplain conditions as required by the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, seeking to increase the contract term through December 31st, 2027, awarded to Dewbury Engineers Incorporated, contract term only. Director Allen, good to see you. What can you tell us about this? Uh this is our basic professional engineering services. This is our basic professional engineering services contract. Um a large number of our um property within the CAP County is in the floodplain. So we use these services not only to do design work for special projects, we use them for our floodplain buyout projects. We use them for our flood mapping projects, and uh so it's a very uh very critical uh professional engineering group. Um and um I know that we were looking at doing uh floodplain repair, stormwater repairs within the different districts. Uh is this how does this tie into that? Uh just basically to do all of the floodplain analysis prior to doing those engineering projects. Gotcha. Perfect. Uh Commissioner Johnson. Um and then if if needed, would this allow us to make map changes? Absolutely. That's one of their primary functions. Okay, got it. Thank you. I yield. Okay. Uh unless there's any other questions. Open the floor for a motion. Move to approve agenda item 1171. I'll go ahead and second. All those in favor, raise your hand and say aye. Aye.