HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - CC - 03/20/2020Special Called Meeting of the Milton City Council
Monday, March 20, 2020 at 5:00 pm
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These minutes have been transcribed verbatim. Any reproduction of these minutes must
include this notice. Public comments are noted and heard by Council. This document
includes presentation by Council and invited speakers. This is an official record of the
Milton City Council Meeting proceedings. Official Meetings are audio and video
recorded.
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Lockwood: All right. I’d like to call the special called meeting of the Milton
City Council for Monday, March 20th, 2020 to order. The city
strongly recommends that you review tonight’s agenda carefully
and if you wish to speak on any item on the agenda, please bring
your comment cards to the clerk as soon as possible. While the
Milton rules allow a speaker to turn in their comment card up until
the clerk calls the agenda item, once the agenda item is called no
more comment cards can be accepted. The comment cards are the
yellow cards in the back and the city clerk is here to my right,
Sudie. Sudie, if you will please call roll and make general
announcements.
Sudie: Good evening Mayor and council. I will be happy to call roll for
the March 20th, 2020 special called meeting. I would like to
remind those in attendance to please silence all cellphones at this
time. Those attending the meeting who would like to make a public
comment, you are required to complete a public comment card
prior to speaking on the item. Your comment card must be
presented to the city clerk prior to the agenda item being called.
All speakers, please identify yourself by name, address, and
organization before beginning your comment. If you are
representing an organization, an affidavit is required stating you
have the authority to speak on behalf of that organization. Please
review tonight’s agenda and if you would like to make a comment,
please bring your comment card to me now.
Demonstration of any sort within the chamber is prohibited. Please
refrain from any applause, cheering, booing, outburst, or dialogue
with any person speaking. Anyone in violation will be asked to
leave. As I call roll this evening, please confirm your attendance.
Mayor Joe Lockwood.
Mayor Lockwood: Here.
Sudie: Councilmember Peyton Jamison.
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C.M. Jamison: Here.
Sudie: Councilmember Laura Bentley.
C.M. Bentley: Here.
Sudie: Councilmember Carol Cookerly.
C.M. Cookerly: Here.
Sudie: Councilmember Joe Longoria.
C.M. Longoria: Here.
Sudie: Councilmember Rick Mohrig.
C.M. Mohrig: Here.
Sudie: Councilmember Paul Moore is calling in from Memphis,
Tennessee. Councilmember Moore, are you there?
C.M. Moore: I am. Can you hear me?
Sudie: Yes. Thank you. Would everyone please rise for the pledge of the
allegiance.
ROLL CALL
Councilmembers Present: Councilmember Jamison, Councilmember Bentley,
Mayor Joe Lockwood, Councilmember Cookerly, Councilmember Joe
Longoria and Councilmember Mohrig.
Councilmember Paul Moore called in from Memphis, Tennessee.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE (Led by Mayor Joe Lockwood)
All: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and
to the Republic for which it stands. One nation, under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Before we approve the agenda, I wanna…We actually
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Monday, March 20, 2020 at 5:00 pm
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discussed this a few minutes ago that we got some emails. I think
Sudie said 12 which typically if the people aren’t here, they would
have to have an affidavit but since we’re kinda –
Sudie: We’re up to about 18 now coming in.
Mayor Lockwood: Eighteen. So, it’s up to the council if you guys wanna have Sudie
read those into the record. We’d have to make an adjustment –
C.M. Mohrig: We’d need to make a motion to basically suspend our rules with
respect to the normal requirement that they have to be in
attendance if we’re gonna read. That would be up to the council.
You could either have the clerk read the comments or provide
simply a summary of the comments either in favor or opposition to
whatever the agenda item is.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I’m gonna assume most of those emails were probably
copied to the council, correct? Would that be –?
Sudie: I would say three quarters of them.
Mayor Lockwood: Three quarters. Maybe a summary of them the name and the
position and whatnot? Is the council all right with that?
C.M. Bentley: Mm-hmm.
Mayor Lockwood: Laura, you good? Okay. So, we’ll need to make a motion on that
before the agenda –
C.M. Mohrig: I make a motion. Mr. Mayor just make a motion for the clerk to
provide a summary of the emails to the council as part of the
record for the night’s meeting.
Mayor Lockwood: And also make sure that the council gets a copy of those. Does
somebody wanna make that motion?
C.M. Bentley: Mayor, I’d like to make a motion that the city clerk summarize the
emails and provide a copy to the record.
C.M. Mohrig: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. We have a motion and a second as read from
Councilmember Bentley, second from Councilmember Mohrig. All
in favor please say I.
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All: I.
Mayor Lockwood: All right, that’s unanimous including Paul. Before we get to the
agenda too, I wanna also and apologize. This seems to have stirred
up some attention here in the last hour or two and we’ve all gotten
a lot of comments. I’m sure we’ve got folks that wanna speak
public comment but what I’d like to do before is to actually have a
discussion and let Ken explain this ordinance before we get public
comment because there may be some information in there. And
then we’ll listen to public comment and then we’ll discuss the item
and make a decision if that’s okay with you guys. All right. So,
Sudie if you will read the next item which is approval of the
meeting agenda.
APPROVAL OF MEETING AGENDA
Sudie: The next item is approval of the meeting agenda.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Do I have a motion?
C.M. Mohrig: So moved.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Second?
C.M. Bentley: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: I have a motion from Councilmember Mohrig with a second from
Councilmember Bentley for approval on the agenda. All in favor
please say I.
All: I.
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Mohrig moved to approve the
Meeting Agenda. Councilmember Bentley seconded the motion. The
motion passed (7-0).
Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. Okay. We do have some public comment. So,
public comment is a time for citizens to share information with the
Mayor and city council and to provide input and opinions on any
matter that is not scheduled for its own public hearing during
today’s meeting. Each citizen who chooses to participate in public
comment must complete a comment card and submit it to the city
clerk prior to the agenda item being called. Please remember this is
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Monday, March 20, 2020 at 5:00 pm
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not a time to engage the Mayor or members of the city council in
conversation. When your name is called, please come forward and
speak into the microphone stating your name and address for the
record and you will have five minutes for remarks. The city
encourages you right now to review the agenda and if you wish to
speak bring your comment card, again the yellow cards, up to the
city clerk.
All right. So, we will move on to new business. City, if you will
sound the item and again, we’ll just discuss it first or have Ken go
over it and then we’ll ask for public comment.
• Council Consideration and Possible Approval of an Emergency Ordinance
Declaring and Proclaiming a State of Local Emergency due to COVID-19,
Triggering those Unilateral Emergency Powers that are vested in the Mayor
Pursuant to Section 18-25 of the City Code, Granting the Mayor Additional
Emergency Powers to Suspend Certain Ordinances and Rules, Providing
Guidance on the Operation of the City Council during the Period of the
Emergency Ordinance, plus any Extensions, and otherwise Superseding
the Emergency Ordinance adopted by the Council on March 16, 2020.
(Agenda Item No. 20-089)
(Ken Jarrard, City Attorney)
Sudie: Council consideration and possible approval of an emergency
ordinance declaring and proclaiming a state of local emergency
due to COVID-19 triggering those unilateral emergency powers
that are vested in the Mayor pursuant to Section 18-25 of the city
code granting the Mayor additional emergency powers to suspend
certain ordinances and rules, providing guidance on the operation
of the city council during the period of the emergency ordinance,
plus any extensions and otherwise superseding the emergency
ordinance adopted by the council on March 16th, 2020. Agenda
item number 20-089. Mr. Ken Jarrard.
Mayor Lockwood: And Ken, if you would, yeah, I’d like to – Ken authored this
ordinance and if you would explain why you were recommended
to bring it forward to us.
Ken: Mr. Mayor and members of the council, thank you very much. So,
I guess it goes without saying that we are in an unprecedented time
right now. My law office represents a lot of different governments
and every one of them is attempting to deal with COVID-19 and
all of the fall out of this and attempting to do what they can to
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preserve the public health, safety, and welfare. Milton is no
different in that regard. So, that has been kind of the focus of my
week this week is the various actions by local governments
attempting to do this.
In fact, as referenced by the clerk when she was reading the agenda
item, this council too in fact took action by way of an emergency
ordinance on Monday. You did that by way of section 3.18 of the
Milton charter which allows for the adoption of emergency
ordinances that have 30-day duration. I wanna compartmentalize
the various acts upon which you are acting to emphasize the
limitations of those powers.
First of all, I wanna deal with your charter. The charter allows the
city the council to adopt emergency ordinances that have a 30-day
duration. These are obviously in emergency circumstances which I
think we indisputably have, and they are of limited duration
intended to provide exceptional relief in exceptional
circumstances. Milton did that on Monday and to the extent that
you do that again today, this ordinance that you have in front of
you would in fact supersede that ordinance and would reset the
clock on the 30 days.
Now, if you will recall, the ordinance that we adopted on Monday
was basically aimed at the operation of the government, public
hearings, what sort of items that you would take up for
consideration during this 30-day period. One of the driving forces
behind that ordinance was in fact to make the citizens of Milton
understand that for at least a 30-day period, the actions of the city
of Milton are not gonna be based on long-range planning and the
sorts of things that generate public assemblies because citizens
wanna come out. It was gonna be basically either a response to
COVID-19 or typical acquisitions or contracts that have to occur to
keep the government running. So, that was sort of the reason we
went to the lengths to do that.
I will tell you that the world has changed even between Monday
and today. This crisis continues to evolve. Candidly, a lot of
governments are struggling with sort of the nimbleness, the
flexibility to make the sort of interim, short-term decision making
that they need to provide relief. Candidly, for instance, just by way
of an example one of the industries right now that we are seeing
that is very effected is the hospitality and restaurant industry.
Whenever you have a crisis where the stop-gap interim measure is
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don’t assemble or gather, one of the byproducts of that is your
restaurant industry is getting really hurt right now. So, a lot of
governments in the metro area have been adopting codes or
ordinances that may delegate some power to one of their officials
to be able to make some stop-gap interim measures to provide
relief.
For instance, to perhaps suspend regulations involving package
sale licenses. In other words, to allow restaurants the ability for
instance that have on-premise consumption licenses to also be able
to engage in limited package sales. So, in other words when
somebody drops by to pick up their meal, they may be able to get
an alcoholic beverage as well. Is it perfect and complete relief? No.
But it’s an attempt to mitigate the financial impact of this on our
business communities. That’s just an example. I’ve got another
government even today that adopted a declaration not forbidding
public assemblies but strongly recommending against public
assemblies. Wanting to at the one hand recognize the civil liberties
that we enjoy under the constitution while on the other hand using
the full power of the government to educate the citizens to act in
their own self-interest.
You get the idea. That was a byproduct of the giving of that
particular elected official some unilateral powers to act as opposed
to having to assemble the entire board to make that. Everybody
kind of follow and see what I’m doing there? All right. So, in
addition to the Milton charter giving you this authority to adopt
these 30-day ordinances, the Milton code for over a decade since
Milton has been in existence, it’s section 18-25, has vested in the
city mayor the unilateral – Hear me on this – The unilateral power
to declare an emergency. In other words, the council did not have
to assemble for the Mayor to declare an emergency of his own, but
he has chosen to do that. Upon that unilateral declaration of
emergency, it enumerates eight specific powers that the Mayor
unilaterally would have had.
Those powers have actually been put into this emergency
ordinance for you to take a look at. Hear me when I tell you, the
Mayor could have done this without the council, but the council is
actually for purposes of transparency and accountability, this has
been put into this emergency ordinance. This has been in the code
for a long time. This is nothing new. This is nothing that has been
written by staff or me. This has been in the code since I believe
Milton has been in existence and these powers have been put into
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this emergency ordinance this evening. Candidly, it may be that as
we walk through the various powers in the ordinance it may be that
the will of the council is, we don’t want to use all of them. They’re
in the code whether you exercise them or not, but it may be that
you don’t want them as part of this ordinance.
But I want the council to hear that because I believe there may
have been this notion that these have all been assembled like ad
hoc and these powers have been put together. This has been in the
city of Milton ordinance since 2006. All right.
City Manager: I even might state too, Ken, per our conversation some of these are
actually limiting what is already in the code. Some of these as we
get into the rest of the ordinance.
Ken: Right.
City Manager: So, they’re actually taking away a little bit of powers that were
already in the code.
Ken: The bottom line is that these are not gonna be unilaterally
undertaken. That the Mayor does need to make the proclamation
which is actually in the ordinance that it is the Mayor proclaiming.
But it’s not just the Mayor proclaiming there is an emergency. The
city of Milton proclaimed there was an emergency on Monday of
this week. So, that has already been done, of course, so has the
state of Georgia through Governor Kemp and so has the President
of the United States declared there is a national emergency. So, I
think we all understand the sort of common denominator behind all
of this.
Having said all of that, a couple of things to also remember. Any
ordinance should you adopt it this evening only lasts for 30 days.
That’s number one. And to the extent that it’s supposed to last for
longer than 30 days, it would have to be extended. In addition, the
city council obviously has the right to terminate it earlier than that.
In addition, any power exercised by the Mayor should the Mayor
actually have unilateral powers at the end of this proceeding this
evening, can be undone immediately by an act of the city council.
Okay. So, I want everybody to understand that as well. The last
thing I wanna point out as we being to walk through, and if you
would I hope you have a copy of this in front of you or have it
available on your tablet the actual ordinance, but I’d like you to go
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to page two which is where the enumerated powers that are again
in the city of Milton code that would be sort of activated should the
council adopt this ordinance. There are eight of them. To enforce
all rules, laws, and regulations related to emergency management. I
know one that has caused some concern is to seize, take for
temporary use, condemn property for the protection of the public.
Understand, Councilmembers, that any local ordinance or
enactment of this kind is gonna be bound and subject to Georgia
general law as well as the Georgia constitution and the United
States constitution.
There is no such thing as a unilateral right by any individual
elected official to take anything. It’s subject to tremendous
constitutional and statutory protections. So, please don’t believe
this would give anybody the right be [inaudible] [00:15:28] to just
go out and point at a piece of property and say I own it. That’s not
the way the works or the Georgia constitution works. And that’s
even assuming if the Mayor and the council want this to be one of
the enumerated powers, which you may actually decide not to.
Mayor Lockwood: And could I just to put it in more clear language especially for
those people at home. The powers that is listed that we’re going
through right now that are one through eight are the ones that
already existed within the code. These are not new powers or
anything that’s been added to in addition as a result of this
proclamation. In fact the powers that are looking to be sought are
actually able to loosen some of our regulations so that some of our
businesses that are suffering are able to do some things that they
might not be able to currently do now because of regulations. So,
one through eight that Ken is going over and some of the things
that we talked about: declaring a curfew, ordering a business to
close. That’s 18-25 so those were basically cut and pasted into
what’s before you right now.
I just want to…I think that’s important that – I know you get that
because of what Ken just said but I wanna make sure the people at
home that are watching understand that these are not specific to
what we’re trying to accomplish. These were powers that were
already listed in our code.
C.M. Cookerly: Can we ask a question about two now?
City Manager: Let him – Yeah. Discuss two and then, yeah. Because that’s one
that pops out. Let’s let Ken discuss….Or Ken if you wanna explain
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two and then yeah, Carol –
Ken: No. I mean, I think I had pretty much done that.
City Manager: Okay.
Ken: I know what it says facially but my only point is there is no local
enactment that we could undertake that would supersede the
Georgia constitution or the general laws of the state of Georgia.
Nor has anybody from the city of Milton expressed or indicated an
interest otherwise. And as to what the city manager indicated; this
was simply part of the enumerated powers that were in the city
code for years.
City Manager: [Inaudible] [00:17:27] and then I’ll let Carol. Yeah. Number two
when someone reads that it looks like it may have been put in like
we’re gonna come in and seize their property or whatever. I don’t
know if you have any explanation, and again, why it was
(obviously it’s in our code) but why we would need that in here
now.
Ken: Well, there could be situations where to the extent where the
Mayor wanted to initiate a condemnation action that could occur.
But again, condemnation actions are subject to statutory protocols,
court intervention, and the payment of just and adequate
compensation. So, again, this was simply the laundry list of things
in your code for the city of Milton to consider. And then almost
like a cafeteria plan, to kick out as you didn’t want those in the
ordinance. But I’m not at liberty to lessen the extent of the
ordinance that already exist in law.
City Manager: Okay. Carol?
C.M. Cookerly: Okay. So, I think you pretty much asked the question.
City Manager: Sorry.
C.M. Cookerly: No. It’s fine. I understand that these were in there. That was my
understanding that they are all contingent upon a higher power.
Ken: Exactly.
C.M. Cookerly: And the fact that this is only a 30-day event, it makes no sense that
it is still in there. So, what would be the point of having it in there
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going forward? Would we be able to undo? Is it imbedded in the
charter or is it a different working document?
Ken: What I would recommend is if the city council has no interest in
that being a power that is part of the emergency ordinance, just
declare that when you adopt it and take that one out. Take any of
them out. But again, most governments are bringing to bear all of
the various codes in responding to emergencies. The city of Milton
has acted in a very responsible fashion to this. I have seen other
governments that are shutting down business, trying to ban public
assembly, shutting down restaurants. The city of Milton has done
none of that. So, I think you all are acting in a very modest, sober,
sort of very reasonable way. But on the other hand, when I’m
preparing an ordinance that sets forth powers under emergency
opportunities, I’m gonna put everything in your code that speaks to
that and let the council as the policy makers choose which and
what they want out of that. So, that’s what we did.
Mayor Lockwood: Another one that has raised some concern, number three to sell and
give, distribute. Steve and I were talking about that and kind of,
Ken, can you explain why we might want that in there or not?
Ken: Well, the typical reason is because in states of emergency where I
have seen that language before in similar sort of ordinances is
because of simply the lack of necessities. Sometimes governments
are better or in a situation better to stockpile and en mass quantities
whether it’s food. I’ve seen it in bottled water, in the bottled water
context etcetera. We’re not talking about giving away staplers.
We’re talking about giving away things that people need to live.
That would give the city the power to do that. One of the
fundamental powers of a city government or any government is to
protect and preserve life to the extent you have the ability to do it. I
don’t know where this thing ends nor does anybody else. It is a
power that will likely never be exercised but it may be better to
have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
City Manager: So, that doesn’t provide the power to seize someone’s property and
give it to somebody else. It’s the ability for the city to be able to
distribute water, medication, things along those lines.
Ken: Absolutely, which is why it indicates there is a strict accounting
requirement because it is in fact the giving of city property, not
private property.
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Mayor Lockwood: And that was a clarification I wanted because Steve and I were
looking at it. It’s like well I could see where someone would look
at it like the city is going to go over to so and so and take their
stockpile of something and distribute it.
Ken: Well, right, right. In interpreting any ordinance or police power
enactment of the city of Milton or any government in Georgia,
people need to cross reference it against the constitution. I mean,
this notion of being able to just go out and take private property
without compensation being paid, that’s foreign to the Georgia
constitution.
Mayor Lockwood: Does anybody on some of these others, are there some – Let’s see.
Joe?
C.M. Longoria: Just for the first eight items that are in section two?
Ken: Yes.
C.M. Longoria: Our vote is more of less inconsequential because these are already
in the city’s set of ordinances. And so, just for section two, we’re
just affirming that this is the case. Because if we were to either not
vote or vote no against this ordinance, we still have these eight
items in Milton law.
Ken: That’s right. But those eight items do anticipate a Mayoral
proclamation. And the Mayoral proclamation is actually built into
this resolution. In other words, the proclamation which could have
been done unilaterally by the Mayor without having a public
meeting to do it has actually been placed into this ordinance for
purposes of transparency. So, if the city in fact wants to take out
some of these enumerated powers and not make them part of the
ordinance, they wouldn’t be part of the ordinance. Could the
Mayor unilaterally exercise them if he wanted to? Yes, until the
Milton code is changed which you all may want to change this as a
byproduct of tonight. But those would still be there.
Still, however, subject to all of the constitutional safeguards that I
am a firm believer of and will not allow the city of Milton to act in
derogation of. I’m very conservative when it comes to that.
Mayor Lockwood: Anybody else on any of these first eight? I think we just got –
C.M. Moore: This is Paul if I can interrupt for a minute?
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Mayor Lockwood: Is that Paul?
C.M. Moore: It’s Paul. I think a lot of the hard part that I’ve been hearing from
the community really has to do with two and three. I think with
Ken’s clarification just now that two is independent of three, it’s
not like we’re gonna seize somebody’s property and then be
distributing it for the public good, I think that clarification was
really important this evening and hopefully that will arrest a lot of
the concerns from the community. So, I will put that one to rest
unless, Ken, you feel like it’s necessary to comment on that. But I
would also point out in the declaration of the Mayor’s ability to
declare the operating and closing of any business. Can you
comment on that, Ken, too? I think there is a lot of peoples
concerned about having their rights taken away to be an
independent business owner and make their own decisions on that.
Ken: Right. So, two other powers and I’m gonna put them together on
this. The limited or general curfew and to order the closing of any
business, those are significant encroachments into civil liberties.
I’m just gonna say it. They are. Could there be such a compelling
public necessity that a governmental entity bound the United States
and Georgia constitution has to take the power to do those very
things? Yes. I could see a situation where that exists, but that
would be something that would need to be a very significant,
significant public health and safety concern before I would be
comfortable signing off on that. I have seen other jurisdictions
already engaging in this activity. I’m not gonna point out
jurisdictions. Everybody can read the news same as me, but I have
seen governments that are already doing that.
I have seen prohibitions on certain forms of public assembly. I
have seen prohibitions on restaurants closing. How about this? I
am challenged by that activity. I do think it is a power that could
be properly exercised and I’m not gonna comment on whether it
has been properly exercised yet.
C.M. Longoria: Ken, why does the Mayor need to have an ability to make
decisions in an emergency to begin with?
Ken: Right. Typically, there are two reasons for that, and they’re related:
flexibility and timing. This situation – I’ve been practicing law for
25 years in local government – Is probably a once of a career
situation for me. I was telling the City Manager before we spoke
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today, you know I have lectured on this in emergency ordinances
and laws but not actually seen it done. So, it is different. It is easy
to lecture about something. Quite a bit different to actually watch it
unfold. The thing about this pandemic that is unique and I’m not
saying that a fire or a natural disaster or a flooding event is any
less, but I am suggesting the unfolding, the rapid pace of the
factual development is a challenge. I do think that one thing that
governments aren’t, and this is on purpose, is terribly nimble. They
tend to be a little more regimented.
And so, having a little bit of flexibility that allows a responsible
elected official to be able to make some calls is extremely helpful
in addressing a situation like this. And the beauty of this situation
is there is a check and balance. If in fact the Mayor was to make a
decision that the rest of the council found that they were not in
agreement with or found to not be acceptable, they would have the
immediate authority to override that decision. Candidly, I know
how decision-making works in Milton. I know that it would be
vetted thoroughly by staff and me so I’m not the least bit
concerned about that. But of course, the final arbiter of what is
appropriate would be the council.
C.M. Longoria: Right. And the reason I ask the question is principally because I
think that two things could be wrong and could be generating the
concern that the public is expressing on this. The first one I would
say is that there are various emergencies where interruption of
common services, infrastructure capability is part of the emergency
itself. If the country were to go to war, if there was some kind of
an invasion or something like that where literally people were
impacted, and our infrastructure was impacted that would be one
thing. The second, I don’t think that this is necessarily that
situation. Now, I don’t wanna try to speculate. I don’t wanna try to
diminish. I don’t wanna try to pretend like something isn’t
happening that actually is. But we are seeing a transformation in
things that happen every day.
I mean, I work for a company that employs over 75,000 people in
the US and we’ve got 50,000 of them right now that are working
from home. We’ve had to do that, and we’ve had to ensure that we
can still do our business. Now, not all businesses are ready for that
step, but I’m trying hard to understand why our current level of
technology and capability as a city and as councilmembers
wouldn’t enable us to support the Mayor in any kind of decision
that needed to be made as quickly as we needed to make it.
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Ken: It probably could. A lot of governments are grappling with that
right now as well. So, we still are subject to the Open Meetings
Act. The Open Meetings Act does allow for meetings with less
than 24 hour’s advance notice upon the declaration of an
emergency, which by the way this ordinance does. It declares an
Open Meetings Act emergency. What the law says is you’re
basically given two options. You can either meet like you’re doing
now which is a physical quorum in place. Or you do have the right
to engage in what’s called a teleconference which is what
Councilmember Moore is doing but it anticipates it would be all of
you. In other words, you would not be physically here.
The key is though if you do that the public has to have the right to
simultaneously see and hear everything you’re doing in real time.
Councilmember Longoria, a lot of governments are struggling with
that just because it anticipates multiple computers, multiple
monitors, multiple streaming all together into a common place and
then streaming all of that in real time to a link to your webpage.
Now, to some of you in private industry, that may not be terribly
sophisticated but there are a lot of governments in Georgia that just
have never even dealt with that situation before and are kind of
getting up to speed on it.
I will tell you that everybody that I know, the governments I work
in, are looking at it and all of them have sort of dusted off their IT
and are going as hard as they can go to figure that out. Because
given we don’t know how long this is going to last, the next sort of
new frontier in this is how do you pull off a cyber public hearing?
That’s gonna be the next step. How do you do that? And if you do
that, do you disenfranchise those that don’t have the internet
infrastructure? Or what about maybe certain individuals that just
aren’t comfortable with technology? Do they not get a seat at the
table? You see – This is the sort of thing that the folks in my
profession are struggling with.
But to your point, the nimbleness, could it be accomplished? Yes.
Could it be accomplished today? I don’t know. And If you were to
adopt this, it’s gonna expire in 30 days anyway.
Mayor Lockwood: Let me, yeah, make a statement too or a clarification. Yesterday
when Steve called me, and I called council through Ken’s direction
and the reason for this ordinance. Again, like you’re saying and
again I didn’t come up with this idea or get with Steve or Steve
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didn’t go, hey, let’s give the Mayor more powers, less powers, or
whatever. The intention or the attempt from what I understand was
with the rapidly changing things that are going on right now, the
need for a little bit of nimbleness for example to your point we can
telecommute or teleconference. We can do this or that but let’s say
something happens tomorrow at 11 a.m. and the governor comes
down with a mandate of the state or from Washington or whatever.
Or an emergency happens, and I need to make, or the city needs to
make a quick decision. If we go advertise a public meeting and this
and that and by the time you do that it may be too late.
So, that was the intent that we talked about and the reason for this
ordinance. Again, there is nothing saying, number one from the
council I certainly…I don’t want the decisions all on my shoulder.
I want the council to be involved. So, it could be as simple as a
phone call. I would certainly call you guys and talk about hey
we’ve got this situation right this second. We need to make a
decision in an hour or whatever. But then it also could be ratified
later by the council. Again, to your point it’s only a 30-day
window or whatever we could make decisions and the council
could change them.
Again, I’m just explaining that to the council and the public. This
is not something where I’m trying to have some powers that we
don’t have and do. This is if something happens tomorrow or
Saturday or Sunday or whatever and we need to make a quick
decision and we don’t have time to advertise 24 hours and have a
meeting or whatever. But it may be a temporary decision and then
later we adjust, or council can adjust. That was the reason we
discussed.
Ken: Let me explain. This was more my idea than anybody else’s
because every government I deal with is trying to struggle with this
right now. Let me give you two real world examples of where I’ve
seen this manifested. The first one was in a jurisdiction I work in
the call was convenience centers. Right now, individuals still have
to deposit their trash. They were coming in but because we charge
fees there was a lot of contact. So, the folks at the convenience
centers were calling, the employees of that jurisdiction, saying hey
can we suspend collecting the fees for maybe 30 days so we’re not
having to have that contact with the citizens? Okay. The head
officers in that entity was able to make that call by way of a
declaration under this grant of power. It was a simple thing to
suspend the collection of convenience fees.
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Another example, in another jurisdiction I work in they do random
drug testing, random drug testing which is done in most
jurisdictions. But the folks in that jurisdiction said, hey, can we
suspend this because if we’re doing drug testing that means we’re
taking away vital facilities that are needed to do Corona Virus drug
testing. So, can we suspend that even though it’s mandatory under
our code? You see the idea? I mean, it’s a very utilitarian thing.
This is not some sort of declaration of something bigger than this.
It's very day to day sort of activities that are needed.
Mayor Lockwood: Excuse me, Steve. And that was the intent in fact when I called
council to see if we could set up this meeting. That was all it was.
Now, I know then you did the ordinance and it looks like, hey,
we’re wanting to take property or do this and that is not the intent
at all. So, the main thing I want the public to know and obviously
the council is this is only in an instance where a quick decision
needs to be made, a reasonable decision. You guys can weigh in
and we can confirm later and you have the right that let’s say I
made a decision you didn’t agree with, the next week you could
call a special called meeting and you could reverse it. Is that
correct?
Ken: Yes.
City Manager: And I could give you real-world examples of what we’re dealing
with right now. Excise taxes are due today. That is something that I
would be recommending that we put off for a little while. It
primarily impacts our restaurants. These are the things that are just
emerging right now. Maybe excise taxes we could hold off for
awhile and interest-free, penalty-free and collect them on the other
side of this. Occupational taxes are coming due very shortly. These
are the same businesses that are going to be affected by what it is
going on in the economy right now. I wouldn’t…I can’t do that as
a City Manager. If that’s something that we could be able to do and
be nimbler and be able to do it on a real-time basis, I think we
could serve especially our business community but also our
citizens just a little bit more. That’s really what’s behind this.
C.M. Cookerly: Okay.
Mayor Lockwood: I, again, especially with all the outcry from the public, I’d just
assume we didn’t do this but it’s –
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C.M. Cookerly: Well, it’s a misunderstanding.
Mayor Lockwood: A misunderstanding but as far as it’s only intended if there’s a
reasonable call to implement something quicker that the health and
safety of our citizens. Laura?
C.M. Bentley: Obviously, we have an Open Meeting Act emergency situation.
We do not have the time to convene and what if we can’t get a
quorum. And so, I’m comfortable with taking this measure so that
we can protect the health, safety, and welfare of our community. I
mean, look at the culture and the environment of when we were
here on Monday and how much it’s changed. And going into this
weekend, I’m very uneasy with seven of us having to convene or
make a decision. So, I’m 100 percent behind doing this and it’s
unfortunate that we haven’t looked at this part of our charter for a
while. I think that’s what happened today. I think that this
community should have faith in this council up here and our legal
counsel and our city staff that are here. So, those are my thoughts.
Ken: And I will say, members of the council, if in reviewing the
ordinance whether the power exists or not, if the council wants to
strike some of the laundry list of powers, that is certainly
appropriate. This is not a fixed document and it can be adjusted. If
you all want to do that, that’s perfectly fine.
C.M. Longoria: I mean, I’ll make one suggestion. Item number in section two
number two, I’m fine if we strike that because it just kind of leads
you to think that –
C.M. Cookerly: It’s not gonna stand up in court anyway.
C.M. Longoria: It’s not gonna stand up in court. It’s not gonna change our code
anyway.
C.M. Cookerly: Three is the same. Two and three because three is contingent on
two I would think. So, why not two and three?
Ken: Three is not contingent on two. Three is in my respectful opinion,
three is talking about the distribution of city [inaudible]
[00:39:01].
C.M. Cookerly: Oh. I’m sorry.
C.M. Longoria: Yeah. I think we just need to clarify that. I think some people, and
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I know at first read of it, it looks like –
C.M. Cookerly: I thought it meant private property.
C.M. Longoria: We’re gonna go over to say [inaudible] and take their bottled
water and distribute it to somebody else.
C.M. Cookerly: I misunderstood. Got it.
C.M. Longoria: And that’s not the intent there.
C.M. Cookerly: Okay. So, strike two.
C.M. Moore: [Inaudible].
Mayor Lockwood: Say that again, Paul?
C.M. Moore: That was the clarification that I had asked for that Ken provided
earlier that two is independent of three.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Is there…Laura?
C.M. Bentley: I have a question. So, there’s no scenario that we can think of, Mr.
Krokoff, that number two…I mean, I can’t think of anything. So, is
there any danger in striking it?
City Manager: I’m not the attorney here but I see no danger in striking it. It still
exists in 18-25 regardless.
C.M. Longoria: It’s still there. Yeah.
C.M. Bentley: Okay. Right.
City Manager: But you had – This is no different from the few condemnations that
we’ve had to do over the years acquiring right of way. That’s
exactly what this is. I assume that this exists in the event that we
had to take over a large building for an emergency hospital or
something like that. This is an ordinance, correct me if I’m wrong,
this was most likely acquired from Fulton County when we
became a city and it was anticipating some type of large-scale
mass casualty event where we would have to pick up a huge box
store and turn it into a medical unit.
C.M. Bentley: Okay.
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Mayor Lockwood: Yeah. These are absolutely –
C.M. Moore: The city – Joe, I’m sorry to interrupt. I would remind everybody
too the preamble to the section one states clearly that all the
balance of the things listed here are contingent upon them being
related to the specific Corona Virus pandemic. So, it’s not like we
can take a random act that’s not associated to the virus. That’s a
part of the section one preamble to all of this.
Mayor Lockwood: Yeah. That’s a good point. This is all just to this specific virus
right now and everything is changing by the hour and what not. As
you guys all know me, and I think the same things you guys.
Nobody in this city wants to take somebody’s property or condemn
anything. Rick?
C.M. Mohrig: And I guess listening to Steve and some of the examples that you
brought up that are really practical things that would help
businesses that would help. I guess what I would suggest after we
hear public comment or go through this, maybe some of these
other things we don’t need to include in this if they don’t preclude
you from doing the very things that you need to. Like number
seven gasoline sales or closing of businesses. There maybe be a
reason to do that. I don’t know if we wanna just do that at a quick
check from the…I would think that would be something we could
probably have more discussion before we’d enact something like
that that’s that broad and sweeping in what it impacts.
Mayor Lockwood: You know, can we go over number seven because I know in
reading it at first it talks about firearms but if you read closer it’s
precluding firearms. Also, I don’t – To prohibit or regulate the
possession, sale, or use of explosives. Ken, what would the basis of
that be?
Ken: It’s hard to know. It could have been in a situation of extreme
drought. It could have been a situation like that where there is a
concern of just the combustible component of it. But I mean, we
could probably think of situations all day long where there could
be a concern related to that. But again, it was just in the ordinance
and it’s part of your emergency management response.
Mayor Lockwood: And gasoline or other flammable liquids. What could be a
situation? I mean, if we had a gas shortage and odd even days kind
of deal?
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Ken: Well, I mean there is the prohibition but also the regulation of sale.
You know, candidly, folks, a lot of the focus of emergency
management ordinances at the local level is on prices, gouging and
hoarding. That is very common. So, that’s probably the focus.
City Manager: And isn’t there federal laws against that right now that we’re
seeing actually enacted where people try to hoard and then sell it at
marked up price? I think we’re seeing the federal government and
states –
Ken: Well, there’s a variety of things but the federal laws that are
evolving with respect to this are unfolding daily. There are federal
laws coming down the pipe.
C.M. Mohrig: I look at number six when it talks about closing of public like city
facilities. We’ve already taken an action on that. So, I don’t see
any problem with allowing that to stay in there because we’ve sort
of already gone that direction.
C.M. Longoria: So, Ken, I’m trying to understand a statement you made earlier. Is
there an activation component to this?
Ken: There is: a proclamation by the Mayor.
C.M. Longoria: And we have to take that?
Ken: You do not.
C.M. Longoria: Okay. So, if we don’t take that, what does that mean?
Ken: If you don’t take it, the Mayor could take it still, but he may
choose not to. The reason that it was designed this way was
because it was candidly a limitation on that power. It’s a 30-day
check on it.
C.M. Longoria: I’m trying not to be over simplistic or net this out. What we’re
voting on is do we wanna remove any of the current powers that
the Mayor has in an emergency and do we wanna recognize that
fact?
Ken: That’s right.
C.M. Longoria: Just for the next 30 days.
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Ken: That’s correct.
C.M. Longoria: Okay.
Mayor Lockwood: Anybody else? Do you guys have anything else before we have
public comment? And then we could –
Ken: The only thing that I would offer up to you is that candidly what I
think is the most important part of this ordinance we’ve not even
discussed yet. The most important part is –
C.M. Longoria: Go ahead. Be that way!
Ken: Well, no. This is my guidance to you all. Number one, eight is to
perform functions and duties to take action to promote the safety,
security, and protection, and well-being of the inhabitants. That is
obviously a huge power subject of course to your check. Again,
that’s all to aid our citizens. And then if you’ll turn to page three of
six, section four. To suspend ordinances, resolutions, orders, rules,
or regulations regarding the conduct of city business. That’s
actually sort of one of the things that generated this entire
undertaking was within the context, once again, of alcohol was the
notion that typically if an on-premise consumption vendor wants to
sell package alcohol they would have to come in and go through an
elongated process of public hearings to get a new license. This
would allow at least for a 30-day period for that to be suspended
by the Mayor.
That’s sort of the dance that brung us was that. Everything else sort
of wrapped around it.
Mayor Lockwood: Some of you were on a conference call with Senator Alberts today
and some of the other cities and that’s a good example of
something that we might wanna do temporarily.
Ken: Right.
C.M. Bentley: And I think other cities are doing that, correct? So, yeah.
Ken: Every…I mean, the lists serves that I’m on are lit up with respect
to other jurisdictions that are doing that. So, yes. That is exactly
right.
C.M. Bentley: Trying to provide a lifeline to some of these –
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Ken: It’s a lifeline. Yes.
C.M. Bentley: Yes.
Mayor Lockwood: I think it’s important to clarify, especially to our citizens, that the
goal of the council and the city and our staff is to help our citizens.
I mean, keep them safe obviously but also to help through this.
Ken: Right.
Mayor Lockwood: We’re all in it together so we’re not looking at these things to take
rights away. Okay. Any…Carol?
C.M. Cookerly: One final quick thought. At the conclusion of tonight, Mr.
Manager, can you or someone on your staff draft what the actual
essence and the purpose of this? Let’s not wait for the minutes to
go back to the people where this has become like it’s own viral
thing and so highly inaccurate. Can we get something back to folks
because they’re getting upset about non-factual information?
Mayor Lockwood: I think I would add something. All of this seemed to be fueled
within the last 30 or 45 minutes. Usually, I like to answer all
emails, but they were coming in way –
C.M. Bentley: They probably don’t have the luxury of being able to watch.
Mayor Lockwood: So, we had actually mentioned to Grey, our communications, to
work on getting the facts out so that they can post that so that
everybody can see that too.
City Manager: He is. He is at the ready waiting for the meeting for us to get
through the meeting to be able to post just that.
C.M. Cookerly: Okay.
Mayor Lockwood: So, if there’s not any questions right now, let’s have public
comment and then we’ll let Sudie read the emails as we said. And
then we can discuss any more. All right, Sudie, if you wanna call
the first speaker, please?
Sudie: First speaker is Miss Hope Wintergrad.
Dr. Wintergrad: Hi, guys.
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Mayor Lockwood: Good. And if you don’t mind protocol just state your name an
address for the record.
Dr. Wintergrad: I’ll say it as Doctor Hope Wintergrad, and I like at 305 Galecrest
Drive in Milton. As I received this and I understand what you’re
saying from a legal aspect. Obviously, when the city ordinance was
originally written, no one took into this a medical emergency and
that’s where I’m coming from is as a veterinarian by profession
having not practiced in a lot of years. That’s the other reason I
brought Hibiclens to remind everybody that Hibiclens which is
also anti-viral is better than just regular soap.
So, none of this takes into consideration and the wording is really
not pretty when it comes to it being medical related. Having had
other instances associated with legal things by saying, oh, you put
in a curfew until 8 p.m. because you think that’s actually safe, but
others for mental health have to get out of the house and they can’t
get out of the house. They’re out there at 8:45 at night. They’re
violating a curfew which is actually illegal. So, then you have
other citizens who will start picking up the phone and calling 911
and saying they’re out there violating curfew. That’s not a good
one.
Then where it says to order the closing of any businesses. Again,
I’m on section two here. It’s like, well, you need a specific medical
reason before you choose to close a business there. And you guys
were talking about not happy with number three and I’m not happy
with four, five, six. And then four, that was the curfew, closing the
businesses, and the same thing with the street. It’s like fine, you’ve
closed the city hall but closing a street or other public place, and I
was using the example before of saying is someone sitting on the
park bench and you’ve closed all the city parks. But you’re sitting
on a bench right there at the park at Deerfield and Webb Road and
saying someone comes along saying, well, that’s illegal. So, yes. I
realize you’re saying it’ only for 30 days but it’s still a legal
violation within those 30 days.
So, if there is any way to reword is so that – I understand what
you’re saying that it’s like it’s there. But at the same time, it’s not
medically necessary. I guess that’s the problem. Nothing was
written for medical emergency as opposed to riots or things like
that. So, I think that’s – Or if anybody wants to ask for an
explanation on understanding viral, I’ll be more than happy to do
that off topic. Thank you.
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Mayor Lockwood: Thank you. Thank you very much.
Ken: Mr. Mayor just a quick point with respect to that. The doctor is not
wrong. It is interesting as we’ve been pulling out a lot of these
emergency management ordinances not in Milton’s but
everywhere, even some of the state models. The viral…They’re
not a perfect fit for this. I will tell you it almost seems like it’s
more a natural disaster from an almost meteorological standpoint
or a hurricane or a tornado or a flooding event. It’s close but it’s
not there really perfectly. Just interesting.
Mayor Lockwood: Sudie, could you please call the next speaker?
Sudie: Karen, did you wanna speak? Okay. Our next speaker is Karen
Rising.
Karen Rising: Hi. Thank you for taking my call earlier today, Sir.
Mayor Lockwood: Oh, sure.
Karen: My name is Karen Rising. I live at 725 Kilgaren Court just down
the street. My comment is pretty straightforward. I’ve heard a lot
of you talk about how the public’s reaction is a misunderstanding
or that we’ve not correctly interpreted the facts. It seems to me that
a lot of the issues and the concerns that we as a community have
with the language as it’s currently written could be resolved if the
language was just quantified a bit better and qualified. That’s my
only comment. Thank you.
Mayor Lockwood: All right. Well, thank you. Ken, if it’s okay I’ll just make a general
comment. We don’t go back and forth with public comment but
just so the public knows. When we read this, obviously it’s done in
legalese and from a legal standpoint. We have some of the same
concerns too. So, we’ve discussed, and we might have had the
same interpretation until we clarified too. The public is not wrong
at all in their interpretation of it. So, Sudie, if you would please call
the next?
Sudie: The next speaker is Derek Manville.
Derek Manville: Hi. I’m Derek Manville, 13215 Owens Way just right up the street.
I appreciate you guys doing this out in the public. It is at least nice
for us to be able to sit here and to be able to come and have
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comments with you. But I’ll start with my ask. The ask is that you
vote no on this. If you won’t vote no on all of it, then at least
remove two, three, five, and seven from the statutes or from this
request or whatever it is. I also think that you should remove those
in the future from the full city code because of the broad-reaching
nature of them.
So, now I’ll go into maybe defending that. I couldn’t help but
listen to what I would characterize as the weakness in the argument
for this. Number one is the questionable constitutionality that was
admitted here. I would like to also point out that the specific
statutes enumerated and given to the governor of Georgia the way
it's written today is actually broader than what he has. There are
specific omissions in what you’ve written that give you more
power than the governor. The second thing would be the idea that
other cities do this, and the examples given convenience center
operations, random drug testing. I don’t see how that fits. I’m at a
little bit of a loss there.
I also – The nimbleness. This was posted four hours ago and yet
here we sit. In addition to that, the idea that the Mayor can do this
unilaterally anyway, nimbleness doesn’t really seem to apply in my
mind. The City Manager’s examples things like suspending excise
taxes, I don’t see that written anywhere in here. If that’s a reason,
let’s get it in there. The last thing I’d say…A couple more things.
I find the argument of having faith to be the argument of non-
representative democracies. I can’t agree with that. Like I have
faith in you guys to do what you’re doing, and I think you’re doing
a great job. But these things go too far. The last thing I would say,
my specific challenge is the unilateral nature, that’s one. And then
number two seizing and taking other people’s property, I can’t be a
part of that. Selling, lending, or giving property, you specifically
stated that that’s the city’s property, although it’s not written that
way. Number five, close a business I find that that impacts people.
It impacts business owners; it impacts the workers that work for
the businesses. I’m not comfortable with city council doing that.
The last thing I’d say is the regulation and prohibiting of gasoline
and things like that. That’s just too far. I appreciate your time.
Thank you.
Mayor Lockwood: Thank you for your comment. Sudie, if you’d please call the next
speaker?
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Sudie: That’s all that we had in the chambers.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay.
Sudie: So, I’ve got the emails still.
Mayor Lockwood: I believe what we discussed was you could summarize. You would
summarize the emails. Obviously, make sure council – Most of
them were forwarded to council anyway beforehand but state the
name and address. Summarize and get through them, their position.
Sudie: So, I have received 13 emails. All of the email comments were in
opposition. I’m gonna give a summation of the common concerns
of the emails, of the 13 emails. Please do not support proposed
amendments. Huge overreach by government. Concerned about
tonight’s meeting specifically in section 2.2, 2.3, 2.6, and 2.8.
They’re broadly written. They leave us anxious and concerned.
Broad language on seizing property. Unchecked powers with no
due process. Unconstitutional language. Is there a way to tighten
them up so we know the intent behind them? So, that was the
common summation.
The names on the emails and addresses: Jeffery Miller and
Margaret Miller at 852 North Brookshade Parkway in Milton, Rose
Prestioni 105 Providence Oaks Point, Milton, Stephanie Costentin,
Michael Mochel, Barbara and Robert Halbert, Drew and Susan
Kimball, Bryan Bush at 1425 Birmingham Road, Leanna Wheeler,
Andrea Bartels, Tamara Dejurdis 1425 Birmingham Road, Deanna
Teal, Ginger Lightburn at 3423 Piedmont Road North East Atlanta
Georgia, Judy Birds at 1165 Bream Road, Milton Georgia. And
that’s all I have.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Thank you for those that emailed but also especially you
folks that showed up tonight here with your comments and just
being here. Is there – I don’t know Steve, Ken, do you have any?
And then council questions, thoughts? I’ll actually Joe. You had a
question.
C.M. Longoria: Yeah. Sorry. Ken, in the future, it’s probably better for us to
separate the activation from the adjustments component of this
because we have to vote on that as a collection or together instead
of as two separate things. Because we already have something in
place that provides these powers to the Mayor and all we’re doing
is trying to adjust how they happen. But we still have to have this
activation component.
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Ken: The only way to have done that would have been for the Mayor to
have simply issued the unilateral proclamation. In which case, we
wouldn’t be having this debate right now at all. He’d simply just
have them.
C.M. Jamison: Couldn’t Monday have served as the original activation?
Ken: It could have. I mean, the ordinance on Monday was of much more
limited scope though. This truly was designed….Candidly, our
enumerated powers of one through eight was not really the primary
focus of this.
C.M. Jamison: Yeah. My point is and for the citizens that are listening in, if we
vote for this motion, we’re actually restricting what’s already
there.
Ken: Correct.
C.M. Jamison: Okay. If we vote against it, we’re saying no. We wanna give more
power in this situation.
Ken: Not necessarily because the Mayor would still have to issue the
unilateral proclamation which he has not done.
C.M. Jamison: Okay.
Ken: He has not done that.
C.M. Jamison: My point is, if what we’re thinking of is how do we restrict we
should be voting for!
C.M. Mohrig: I would agree. I think – Sorry, Ken. I’ll Ken though for a lot of
heat we’re taking. I’m kidding, but again, from my understanding
this more a commonsense decision that needs to be made quick.
The council can certainly come and change that decision. The
council will be at least asked about it or whatever. But if it’s
something over the weekend and we give some kind of order and
we need to take quick action. That’s the only intent that I see.
Obviously, these one through eight items I don’t anticipate or
hopefully we ever see that. Again, that’s in our code ordinance
already. So, I guess the reality is if we took them all out of this
ordinance it really wouldn’t change anything. Would it, Ken?
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Ken: They wouldn’t exist unless the Mayor issues a unilateral
proclamation. So, if you take them out tonight, you have every
right to do that. If you don’t issue a unilateral proclamation of a
unilateral declaration of emergency, the powers won’t exist.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Anybody else? Questions, comments? Rick?
C.M. Mohrig: So, if we took this and in section two, I think that’s where most of
the heartburn is in section two, the number of things. We could
individually remove some of these items if we wanted to as part of
this motion. Correct?
Ken: Yes.
C.M. Mohrig: Okay. And then essentially if we pass that, then that’s what we’re
conferring upon the emergency powers to the Mayor, whatever is
included. That doesn’t preclude coming back at another time and
saying we need to add. If we had to adjust a curfew or whatever if
that wasn’t included. We could later come back and amend that.
Ken: Of course. Yes.
C.M. Mohrig: Okay. And then when I look through this, section five is that pretty
the content of what we approved, Ken, on Monday as far as the
emergency?
Ken: That’s correct. The reason that we’re redoing it in this one though
is because this one will supersede Monday. So, in fact it will add
just another five days. Because remember, these run in 30 days.
So, by superseding it in this one, it will just extend it another five
days is all. So, it’s really a [inaudible] [01:03:23] change.
C.M. Mohrig: So, that’s basically we are at that. We would just be reapproving it
as part of this.
Ken: Correct.
C.M. Mohrig: We start the clock over on the 30 days.
Ken: Right. Really, the only new powers are section two and four. And
candidly, section four was the primary drive which was the ability
to suspend ordinances and rules.
City Manager: Again, section two isn’t really new. It’s 18- I don’t have it in front
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of me now out of our ordinances.
C.M. Mohrig: But I would just have to declare a proclamation.
Ken: Which we’ve built into this ordinance. It would serve as that
purpose. But if the council says, you know what? We’ll adopt the
ordinance but strike section two, those powers would not exist.
You’d have section one. You’d have section three, and four would
be the emergency ordinance.
C.M. Mohrig: And are you saying, Steve, that the majority of what you or you
guys talked about that’s really important is section four?
City Manager: The ability for the Mayor –
C.M. Mohrig: To make the change.
City Manager: Yes, to be able to affect some of those loosening of regulations on
our businesses.
Mayor Lockwood: Right. Well, it’s like I said earlier. Really, the whole intent with
this was to be able to help our citizens with the health and public
safety of our citizens but also with their businesses too. If there’s
something we can do to help in a temporary or emergency
situation. But it kind of grew into a much bigger discussion.
Ken: It did.
Mayor Lockwood: Believe me, I didn’t wanna spend my Friday night doing all this. I
wasn’t looking for any powers.
C.M. Moore: Ken, you did say we could actually extract an item here and there.
I think the one in my mind that has caused the most public concern
at the moment is 2.2. I know that there is concern about others as
well, but the seizure of property is the one that’s got everybody’s
attention. But I think that the balance of those things for all of the
reasons you have discussed this evening have a profound nature
and are for the good of the community. I guess there’s a lot of
misinterpretation of the that in the void that exists without the
benefit of Ken’s extensive legal counsel on this.
I think that as we consider this, we ought to look at striking 2.2 but
leave the balance in place. That would by my suggestion.
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Mayor Lockwood: I’ll just add, I actually marked 2.2 myself that I thought that may
make sense to strike as well as I certainly wanna as we talked…I
wanna make sure that whatever decision is made tonight, Steve, if
you could direct communications to get all the facts out to put the
public at ease of this. It’s a temporary thing and it’s not a power
grab so to speak.
City Manager: Absolutely.
Mayor Lockwood: Carol?
C.M. Cookerly: What is the transparency element of this? So, if the Mayor had to
take some action and it had to with the payment of taxes or let’s
say things got much worse and we dint’ wan anymore moving
around. What is the transparency element for the public?
Ken: Typically, what I have seen is that there would be a unilateral
declaration document issued by the mayor. It is copied on the full
council, senior staff, as well as me. Actually, the City Manager and
I have not gone over the protocol, but it may very well be that they
end up being posted on the webpage as well.
C.M. Cookerly: Can we push it out in a proactive manner or is that out?
Ken: Absolutely.
C.M. Cookerly: Okay.
Ken: And candidly, a lot of what I am seeing right now is a lot of it is in
fact educational narratives. As I mentioned, other jurisdictions
today the chair of that government issued a warning, not a ban
under an ordinance, but a warning against public gathering. As
Governor Kemp has done and the President has done, we are still
seeing individuals sponsoring large weddings, large assemblies,
hundreds of people coming to them. We’re not shutting them
down, but we are trying to tell people that is a horrific idea in this
environment. That’s what we’re trying to do.
C.M. Cookerly: We don’t have spring break here in Milton, do we?
City Manager: We do now! And I have already given the direction out to staff to
come up with protocols regarding these orders. So, not only do we
know how to deal it from a staff perspective, how we get it to
legal. Then how do we get it to the Mayor? And then one that gets
done, how that gets disseminated publicly so people are aware of
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it. And then how we deal with that from a communications
standpoint, so people understand exactly what that is. So,
that’s…Stacy English in fact is going to be spearheading that piece
for us.
Mayor Lockwood: I might just add to for council and public, I had a conference call
earlier with the mayors of the other six North Fulton cities and we
all discussed this. All of us are on the same page that we’re not
looking to make decisions in a vacuum on our own. We want our
councils to be involved and support. Some of these decisions are
some heavy decisions so we certainly want to share that…I won’t
say burden but the decision with our council. So, again, to Ken’s
point, if I did have to make a decision, because a lot of this we may
not have to, if I did have to make a decision, obviously you’d be
copied on it. To clarify, immediately the council could choose to
reverse that decision.
Ken: Right. Of course. That’s right.
Mayor Lockwood: Rick?
C.M. Mohrig: I guess my only comment in summary, under section two, I’m
good with number one and number eight and possibly six. But
some of the others I don’t know if we need to take action today,
like the closing of business, the general curfew. I think that’s part
of what’s giving the heartburn. Unless we really think that we can’t
get back together in the event that we would have to do something
like that or be able to pull a meeting. That’s my comment.
Mayor Lockwood: I’d like to just get Ken legal and maybe Steve is on that. I’m
not…You know. I’m not pro closing any business.
Ken: I stand behind what I…Well, I stand behind what I said. Number
one, I do believe that you have the right to go through under this
ordinance and pick and choose out of those eight, candidly any of
it. Don’t let me just confine you to one through eight. But one
through eight and pick and choose which ones you wanna make
part of this emergency ordinance. If you wanna toss out section
two altogether, that is perfectly your right. I will tell you, however,
if anybody is gonna exercise the unilateral power to close a
business and the way Milton usually uses me is you do rely on my
legal guidance. I’m gonna have to take some time to get there. But
no one has suggested that. I’ve seen it done in the Metro but no
one in Milton seems to be pining to do any of that.
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Mayor Lockwood: It’s actually occurring right now in most of our neighboring
jurisdictions. They’ve now closed a lot of businesses.
C.M. Jamison: I think this is important. If we’re removing anything out of here, if
it’s gonna jeopardize the health, or the safety of our citizens, we
need to really reconsider that. This is an emergency. This is only
for 30 days. The Mayor is not a dictator under this. There are
checks and balances in place and I’m okay with removing
something as long as it doesn’t jeopardize the health, safety, or
welfare of our citizens.
Ken: Councilmember Jamison, I don’t believe that removing for
instance 2.2, I don’t believe that will have any adverse effect on
the public health, safety, or welfare. And candidly, for instance Mr.
Mayor just to you if there were some of those that you would be
uncomfortable exercising unilaterally and would in fact want the
full council to assemble, then I could support that and I would
work with your city manager to put together city council meetings
on a dime as quickly as we could.
City Manager: And we’re working on the technology so you can actually attend
these meetings from home or wherever. We’re just not there right
now. This is just changing so rapidly that we want to take
advantage of it.
C.M. Jamison: It needs to be brought up. If you all get a phone call Saturday night
at 11:00 and something needs to be done for the safety and the
welfare of our citizens, it can be done, and we can always overrule
that. But sometimes decisions need to be made in this type of
situation. Mayor Lockwood has been elected for I don’t know how
many terms. He has the trust and the faith of us and the citizens.
We need to start getting down to business.
C.M. Bentley: These powers are essential in an earthquake. Municipalities that
have had earthquakes, this is the norm.
Mayor Lockwood: Again, this is something we hope we don’t have to make any of
these decisions.
C.M. Jamison: Okay. Let’s vote.
Mayor Lockwood: Yeah. Case in point, if it’s the public…I’ll agree. The second one,
that’s probably…That could wait. You know, I certainly don’t
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wanna close down a business or a building but to Peyton’s point
11:00 p.m. on a Saturday night or Friday night there is something
that is a harm to the public or whatever and a quick decision needs
to be made, that could possibly be the health and welfare. But
again, hoping we don’t have to make those decisions, but we may
get something come down on us tomorrow or this weekend that we
have to make a quick decision.
City Manager: You could. You could have a business decide that they’re gonna
have a big spring break party, bring in hundreds of kids from all
over the metropolitan area. You might wanna consider having that
authority.
C.M. Bentley: I mean, the reality is there may be something in our city that
becomes such a center for this virus. We don’t know. And so, as
things unfold and the rapid pace of this information once again, I
am comfortable with this emergency measure under these
circumstances. So, it sounds like I would support this proclamation
with the exclusion of in section two number two if that’s
acceptable to the rest of council.
C.M. Cookerly: Yeah.
C.M. Bentley: Because I can’t think of a scenario where 2.2 is going to be done
without the Mayor asking.
Mayor Lockwood: We’d have time.
C.M. Cookerly: Certainly not within 30 days.
C.M. Bentley: I mean, we’re trying to get in position for this weekend.
Ken: And Mr. Mayor and member of the council, I also heard on three.
Again, that’s the way it’s drafted in the code but if the city was
inclined to adopt this as an emergency ordinance, striking section
2.2 and adding the word city before property in three, that’s a very
modest, reasonable tweak.
Mayor Lockwood: Yeah.
Ken: That would – If that would give the citizens comfort.
Mayor Lockwood: Yeah. Again, so there’s no question on that.
C.M. Cookerly: Also, can you insert something about the transparency and what
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our MO would be if the Mayor…?
Ken: Yep. If someone makes a motion, I will do my best to articulate on
the tail end of that motion what the transparency would be.
Mayor Lockwood: That would go out immediately.
C.M. Cookerly: You need to make the motion.
C.M. Longoria: Knock yourself out, Carol.
C.M. Cookerly: No. You’re high altitude fellow.
Mayor Lockwood: All right. Is there any other questions or somebody wanna add? It
looks like we may have somebody wants to make a motion. But
I’ll certainly open it up if there’s not any more comments. Okay.
I’ll open it up for a motion.
C.M. Longoria: Go ahead.
C.M. Bentley: Mayor, I would like to make a motion to move forward the
emergency proclamation under our new business with the
exception of section 2.2 and the addition in the sentence of 2.3
“city” before the word “property”.
Mayor Lockwood: And would we wanna add the transparency to where –
C.M. Cookerly: Transparency.
Mayor Lockwood: That this would be –
Ken: Right. Any power exercised under this ordinance by the Mayor
will be immediately communicated to the city council, the city
manager, the city attorney, and using some mechanism
communicated to the people.
C.M. Cookerly: Correct. Good.
C.M. Bentley: Okay. And any power exercised by the Mayor will be so
communicated to –
Ken: The city council.
C.M. Bentley: The city council, the city manager, the city legal department, and
the citizens.
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Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Do we have a second?
C.M. Longoria: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: All right. I have a motion as read by Councilmember Bentley for
approval with stipulations as read with a second from
Councilmember Longoria. Any discussion? Paul, are you clear on
all of that?
C.M. Moore: I am. Thank you, Joe.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. All in favor please say I.
All: I.
Mayor Lockwood: Any opposed?
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to approve
Agenda Item No. 20-089 with the exception of
section 2.2 and the addition in the sentence of
2.3, “city” before the word “property”. Also
adding “any power exercised under this
ordinance by the Mayor will be immediately
communicated to the city council, the city
manager, the city attorney, and using some
mechanism communicated to the people”.
Councilmember Longoria seconded the
motion. The motion passed (7-0).
ORDINANCE NO. 20-03-417
Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. Again, I wanna thank the public for not only
communicating with us but also especially you guys that are here
tonight. I know that is tough and that it’s Friday evening.
Hopefully, we won’t have to use any of these unless it’s in the best
interest of all. We’ll do our best to keep everybody safe and get
through this. It’s a weird time right now.
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C.M. Cookerly: Motion to dismiss.
Mayor Lockwood: So, do I have a motion to – That concludes the meeting, so I need a
motion that we adjourn.
C.M. Longoria: So moved.
C.M. Mohrig: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: I have a motion and second. All in favor please say I.
All: I.
Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous.
C.M. Moore: I.
Mayor Lockwood: All right. Thank you.
ADJOURNMENT
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to
adjourn the meeting at 6:21 p.m. Councilmember
Mohrig seconded the motion. The motion passed (7-0).
Councilmember Moore was absent from the meeting.
Date Approved: May 4, 2020
__________________________________ _____________________________
Sudie AM Gordon, City Clerk Joe Lockwood, Mayor