City Council Agenda Work Session – September 8, 2025
City Council Agenda Work Session – September 8, 2025
The Marietta City Council held an agenda work session on September 8, 2025, at 5:15 PM in the Council Chamber. The meeting covered routine approvals, reports from the Board of Lights and Water (BLW), multiple proposed ordinances and resolutions, and discussions on funding, naming, and intergovernmental agreements. The council voted on several items to move them forward to the regular meeting on September 10, 2025, and entered executive session for legal and property matters.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes Approval: The minutes from the August 11, 2025 Agenda Work Session were approved as revised.
- Deane Thompson Bonner Day: A proclamation declaring September 10, 2025 as “Deane Thompson Bonner Day” in Marietta was presented via video. The council approved the proclamation unanimously.
- GMAC Mayor’s Reading Club: Council Member Morris moved to add an item to join the Georgia Municipal Association’s Mayor’s Reading Club. The motion passed with no objections; the city will participate without cost.
Public Comments & Testimony
No public comments were recorded during the work session. Several public hearings were scheduled for the regular meeting on September 10, including for the rezoning of 92 and 96 Whitlock Avenue (First United Methodist Church properties) and the variance request for 31 Rock Street. The applicant for 1880 Scuffle Grit requested a one-month tabling, which was granted.
Discussion Items
- BLW Report – Council Member Richardson presented the BLW report. Items included:
- A $132,000 federal reimbursable lighting grant to convert non-LED lights to LED. The board approved adding the grant to the budget.
- Water authority report: July water sales averaged 86 million gallons per day (budget: 90M), revenue $9.9 million ($30,000 under budget), net income $5.3 million, year-to-date net income exceeded budget by $3.7 million. Year-to-date capital spending $32.6 million, remaining CIP commitment $59.6 million.
- BLW finance report: July actuals – MIAG charges 7.4% over budget, year-to-date 2.45% under. Surplus energy sales under budget by 8.14%, but total actuals over budget by 19%. Gas spot prices declined to $2.70/mmBTU. Off-system sales revenue increased to $1.147 million year-to-date (from $434k last year). Five-year highs were reached for NCP and energy requirements.
- Supplemental power subscription: The board recommended approving the revised form (selecting section five). The council approved the grant budget addition and the revised supplemental power nomination as separate motions.
- Rev. Nelson L. Price Memorial Pathway – Mayor Tumlin requested naming the portion of Roswell Street from Marietta Square to Cobb Parkway (across from the Big Chicken) as the “Rev. Nelson L. Price Memorial Pathway.” The council voted to move this forward for approval at the regular meeting, with signage to be made in-house and a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
- Revised MOU for School Resource Officers (SRO) – City staff presented revisions to the Memorandum of Understanding with Marietta City Schools. Key changes: Section 7 clarified SROs will not administer but may utilize school safety technologies (e.g., metal detectors). Section 11 adjusted cost-sharing (70/30 split between school board and city, including vehicles). Attachment C included sample verbiage related to HB 268 on student privacy. The council voted to move the item to a special called council meeting on September 30, 2025, to allow further review by legal and the school board.
- 2026 Employee Group Benefits Program Administration – The council approved renewal of group health/dental administration with Anthem, stop-loss with Voya, retiree Medicare Advantage with Aetna, pharmacy with Express Scripts, life/disability insurance transferred to Lincoln, and transfers of COBRA/FSA administration to Admin America and vision to Anthem. Council Member Richardson disclosed a conflict as an authorized attorney for ARAG (legal services benefit). The motion passed unanimously.
- Final Plat – The Sheridan (Roselane Townhomes) – Staff requested approval of the final plat for 22 townhomes on 1.87 acres on Roselane Street (rezoned in 2017, preliminary plat approved in 2023). The council approved the plat without objection.
- Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art Additional Funding – Council Member Sims requested $31,500 in additional funding for the museum, citing challenges with rent increases from the county. The city has a reserve of approximately $1.1–1.2 million. The council voted to move the item forward, with the funding to be provided as a one-time allocation via an amendment to the Welcome Center contract, payable within 30 days. A representative from the museum will speak at the regular meeting.
- City Club Fees – Range Balls – Council Member Walker clarified that a prior committee motion to raise cart fees inadvertently omitted a planned $1 increase in range ball prices. The council voted to amend the motion to include the range ball increase as originally stated in Exhibit A. The motion passed, and the item was placed on the consent agenda.
- 1880 Scuffle Grit – Annexation and Rezoning – The applicant requested a one-month tabling (to October). The council moved to table all three related items, placing them on consent for denial (since tabling before a public hearing was allowed).
- 31 Rock Street Variances – The council discussed a variance request for continued outdoor auto storage at 31 Rock Street. Six variance requests were outlined, including use and setback waivers. The applicant is expected to present at the regular meeting.
- Accent Marietta Sign Variances – The developer of Accent Marietta (former Harry’s Crossing site) requested variances to modify existing large signs: reducing height from ~35 feet to 23 feet (3 feet above the 20-foot maximum) and exceeding square footage by 18 sq ft. Representatives argued the new design is significantly lower than the existing signs and improves aesthetics. The item will be heard on Wednesday.
Key Outcomes
- Votes:
- Approved BLW grant budget addition and supplemental power nomination (unanimous).
- Approved Rev. Nelson L. Price Memorial Pathway naming (unanimous, no objections).
- Approved 2026 Employee Group Benefits Program renewals (unanimous, with conflict disclosure).
- Approved Final Plat for The Sheridan (unanimous).
- Approved moving SRO MOU to special called meeting on September 30, 2025 (unanimous).
- Approved $31,500 additional funding for Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art (unanimous).
- Approved range ball price increase as part of cart fee motion (unanimous).
- Approved joining GMAC Mayor’s Reading Club (unanimous).
- Tabling: 1880 Scuffle Grit items tabled to October.
- Referrals: The SRO MOU will be further reviewed by legal and the school board before final vote.
- Executive Session: The council voted to enter executive session to discuss property acquisition/disposition and legal matters regarding potential litigation.
Meeting Transcript
You want me to cut this off? Prove the minutes as revised. Your second to me. Thank you. What did we just did? Yes. Okay. So we did as revised for the August 11th. Got it. Thank you. So of course the meeting this afternoon called to order at twelve oh three by the mayor. One of the first things that we did after passing the minutes, um, Sherry Rashad came up and gave us a presentation, and what they're looking at is how BLW is accomplishing the parts of their strategic business plan. So she reviewed two different sections. Well, she reviewed one objective, and the other one was in our book. And the objective that she reviewed was new technology applications for all customer service deliveries. The fact that we'd received a grant, uh, it's the federal reimbursable lighting grant, which will enable Marietta Power to change over non-LED lights to LED lights. With the money, and I believe, and I don't have it with me, but I think it was 132,000. With that money, that will go to purchasing the light, and we will do the work in-house, so we're able to spend all of the grant money to purchase the supplies, not for any other reason. Um I do believe that that will need to be a separate motion if I am not correct to change their budget. I think they passed it as a budget. They passed it as their budget. Do we need to do anything with that here? We would need to do the same here, so we could add that along with the other item. Okay, so we'll come back to that as separate. Um Mr. Shalfant on the water authority, please. Yes. I've got the water authority report here for um the time for July 1st, ending in July 1st, 2025. Water sales for the month averaged 86 million gallons a day compared with the budget of 90 million gallons a day. Water sales revenue totaled 9.9 million dollars, which fell short of the budget by about $30,000, which they did a good job pretty close on that one. Um net income for the month was $5.3 million. Year-to-day net income exceeded the budget by $3.7 million. Uh year-to-date spending on capital projects totaled $32.6 million as the date of the financial report with a remaining annual uh CIP budget commitment of $59.6 million. Cash reserved for CIP spending totaled $52 million at the end of July. Year-to-date operating costs per thousand gallon sold averaged uh $22.28 at the end of July, compared with an average of $2.14 for the same period. Compared to last year, the date to date, operating expenses were two percent higher than um and water sales in gallons was 4.3 percent lower. Um bring the through the uh general manager's report. We had um listed in your in your book was um three. We we started out in the year, and this we ended up completed one of the projects just recently, so we've only got we've got three linear or pipe projects going. We completed the one on the Cedartown uh connector. We've got three facilities projects going, four active design projects, and nine EPA type um uh unfunded initiatives that we're working on. So that's about it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh the next item, Ms. Brown is going to cover the BLW finance report for August. Good evening. So the report that I am going to cover will be for the month of July. Um actuals. The um if you're following along in your book, um, looking at page one, and this will only be the supplementals this month because due to the holiday, we were short a day for our month end close, so we were unable to complete the financials in advance of this meeting, but we will have those financials available by Wednesday this week.
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