City Council Agenda Review - June 11, 2025
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City Council Agenda Review - June 11, 2025
The Marietta City Council held an agenda review session on June 11, 2025, at 6:00 PM in the Council Chamber. The session focused on preparing the agenda for the regular council meeting scheduled for 7:00 PM that evening. Key actions included approving minutes, rearranging the agenda to highlight the budget, and receiving departmental updates.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes: The council approved the May 14, 2025 regular meeting minutes by a motion and voice vote.
- Consent items – staff reported no new information on several zoning cases: 195 Canton Road (nonconforming billboard clarification), 1475 Camp Road, 160 and 595 Weaver Running, 1751 Bells Ferry Road, 74 Austin Avenue, Crescent Circle (follow-up on grandfathering), 462 and 480 Roswell Street, a code amendment, 29 Doran Avenue, and other items. All were placed on consent with no objection.
- 156 Church Street – a lease extension item was modified to clarify the authority (adding language referencing Section 3 of the 2022 lease agreement) and remained on consent.
Discussion Items
- Agenda Reorganization: Councilman Walker requested a motion to move the budget item (0409) from the consent agenda to before the consent agenda, citing the city’s strong financial position ($420 million budget for a city of 70,000, less than inflationary increase). The motion was adopted without objection.
- 195 Canton Road (Billboard): Staff clarified three options for the council regarding the nonconforming billboard on the property, including leaving it as grandfathered nonconforming. A clerical error (deadline of December 31, 2025 vs. 2026) was noted, and the table was extended to August 13, 2025 (originally July 9).
- Crescent Circle Follow-Up: Councilman Goldstein asked whether the current owner was the owner when the property lost its grandfathering. Staff confirmed the owner purchased in 2017, when residential use lost grandfathering, and later had a commercial tenant in 2020.
- Fire Department Update: Chief Pacheco announced two new fire trucks have arrived (cost $680,000 each, currently valued ~$900,000). They will be equipped and placed at stations 55 and 56 within a few weeks, replacing high-mileage vehicles that will move to slower stations.
- Public Works Week Videos: The council viewed videos highlighting each division: streets (257 miles of streets, 514 miles of curbing/sidewalks), engineering (2,500 permits, 9,000 inspections, $12M SPLOST projects), fleet (725 vehicles/equipment), sanitation (15,500 residential customers, 7,500 recycling customers), traffic (121 signalized intersections, 25 cameras, 5 red light cameras), and building inspections (6,000 permits, 12,000 inspections annually).
- Public Works Update (Mark): Cap project complete; Roswell Street four-lane gap ahead of schedule, to be safe for July 4th parade; Fairground and Haley project finished with ribbon cutting in late June; Mountain View Ridge road widening awaits gas line relocation; traffic calming meeting for South Woodland Drive scheduled for June 12; recycling grant (EPA) advanced to second round – if awarded, $1 million no-match for recycling cart conversion.
- Parks and Recreation Update (Rich Buss): Summer camps underway (Lego, magic, Brazilian footsall); spring splash attendance reached 260; Juneteenth events in Glover Park (June 13-15); concert series June 27; July 4th celebration with parade, music, bell ringing, and fireworks (~9:30 PM); Wildwood Park restroom expected July.
- Police Department Update (Chief Bean): Completed active shooter training and low-speed driver training for new officers (who are unfamiliar with SUVs). Department at full staff; six to seven new officers will graduate and be introduced at the July council meeting.
- Service Delivery Strategy (SDS): Mayor Tumlin reported that Cobb County and Mableton reached a one-year agreement. If not extended, the city could be in non-compliance. A change in state law effective January 2026 removes legislative triggers, but the county’s comprehensive plan update in 2027-28 may reopen negotiations.
Key Outcomes
- Minutes approved (May 14, 2025) by voice vote.
- Agenda reorganized: Budget item moved before consent agenda – adopted without objection.
- All discussed items placed on consent for the regular council meeting, except the budget which will be taken up separately.
- No executive session was called.
- Department updates were received as information; no formal votes taken on policy matters.
Meeting Transcript
I'd like to call the city council review session to order, please. I don't have my agenda for this one. Just a minutes. Yes, just a minute. Yes, sir. First item of business is the May 14th, 2025 regular meeting minutes. Is there a motion or make a motion to approve? Second. All those in favor, please age right in. Motion carries. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Now the the city council uh we do. We do it. I'll I have one request for us to consider a motion to rearrange the budget. I mean rearrange the minutes. I'd like to take the budget off of consent and move it to just before the consent agenda. Just after watching what Mapleton's gone through, what we did with STS, how amazing budget we have. A little city of 70,000 with a budget of 420, no cuts, less than inflationary. I think it'd just be good for us to have it when we could see it, and good way to bring in a new finance director. So that I think to rearrange the agenda would take a motion. And then we just take it and take it as he called it. I want to do more and take it off. I want to move it up. Okay, to the beginning? Yes. Okay. No objection to having it being one of the first items. Thank you. No objections. Then I will put it after the second scheduled appearance before the consent agenda. Okay. Okay. Yeah. The first item, we have two scheduled appearances. Cheryl Richardson's gonna lead us in the invocation on this. And then before the consent agenda, we we've added 0409 the budget before the consent agenda, and then on the consent. Going through the minutes, we have three meeting minutes. They're on consent, and I'll have to leave that them on there. No objection, sir. No objection. Consent. I mean uh consent for the ethics committee. I'll have to leave that gentleman on there. Yes, sir. 195 Canton Road. Thank you, Mayor. Um, we do not have any new information related to this case to share with you, um, but I did want to clarify from a question that was asked on Monday night. Um Councilman Goldstein asked a question about the uh Planning Commission's uh approval, in which they also incorporated um as a part of their approval that there should be an addressment of the nonconforming billboard on site. And so those three are three potential options for city council to consider if you one wanted to rezone the property, and then two wanted to address the nonconforming billboard.
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