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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - CC - 04/15/2020Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 1 of 29 1 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: Again, welcome to everybody. Before we begin, I’d like to ask our city attorney, Ken Jarrard, to say a few words regarding tonight’s Zoom webinar. Mr. Jarrard: Mr. Mayor and members of the council, first of all, can everyone hear me this evening? Mayor Lockwood: Yes. Mr. Jarrard: Good, thank you. Fantastic. Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I just wanted to offer a few preliminary remarks to let those in attendance both, obviously, virtually or on Facebook, know the reason and the governing authority for why we’re able to have this sort of a meeting. Obviously, this is the first of its kind in Milton and, candidly, first of its kind for most jurisdictions anywhere. And that is the ability to have a cyber meeting where there is no public physical attendance in the gallery. The reason is the Open Meetings Act, specifically, OCGA 50141G allows that in situations involving a declared emergency or an emergency as recognized by the governing authority, in that case Milton, that we have the legal authority to meet so long as our citizens are able to participate, and when I say participate that means listen, simultaneous with the meeting ongoing. And that is what is happening this evening. That is consistent with the law. And, of course, this council has already previously, by way of an emergency ordinance, declared an emergency with specific reference to this statutory section that would authorize an open meeting to be conducted by this simulcast technology that we’re using. So, Milton has done all of this. And I am asking, Mr. Mayor, for the city clerk to recognize this announcement and the necessity for this sort of virtual meeting in the minutes for this evenings meeting. Mr. Mayor, I will return it to you. Thank you. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 2 of 29 2 Mayor Lockwood: Thank you, Ken. Okay. So, I would like to call the virtual meeting of the Milton City Council for Wednesday, April 15, 2020, to order. The city strongly recommends that you review tonight’s agenda carefully and if you wish to comment on any item on the agenda then, you may do so by public comment. There will be two opportunities for public comment on tonight’s agenda. 1.) Is during general public comment and 2.) is during new business. The moderator will provide public comment instructions at that time. While the Milton rules allow a speaker to request to make a comment up until the clerk calls the agenda item, once the agenda item is called then, no more comment requests can be accepted. So, at this point, I would ask for our city clerk to call the role. City Clerk: Good evening, Mayor and council. I’ll be happy to call roll for the April 15, 2020, regular meeting. As I call roll this evening, please confirm your attendance. Mayor Joe Lockwood. Mayor Lockwood: Here. City Clerk: Councilmember Peyton Jamison. CM Jamison: Here. City Clerk: Councilmember Paul Moore. CM Moore: Here. City Clerk: Councilmember Laura Bentley. Councilmember Carol Cookerly. CM Cookerly: Here. City Clerk: Councilmember Joe Longoria. CM Longoria: Here. City Clerk: And Councilmember Rick Mohrig. CM Mohrig: Here. ROLL CALL Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 3 of 29 3 Councilmembers Present: Councilmember Jamison, Councilmember Paul Moore, Councilmember Bentley, Mayor Joe Lockwood, Councilmember Cookerly, Councilmember Joe Longoria and Councilmember Mohrig. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE (Led by Mayor Joe Lockwood) City Clerk: And now, we will have the Pledge of Allegiance. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. 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. Okay. Sudie, will you please call the first item. APPROVAL OF MEETING AGENDA City Clerk: The first item is approval of the meeting agenda, Agenda Item No. 20-091. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Do I have a motion for approval of the agenda? CM Moore: I move we approve the Agenda Item No. 20-091. CM Mohrig: Second. Mayor Lockwood: I have a motion for approval from Councilmember Moore with a second from Councilmember Mohrig. All in favor please say aye and raise your hand. Group: Aye. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Moore moved to approve the Meeting Agenda. Councilmember Mohrig seconded the motion. The motion passed (7-0). PUBLIC COMMENT (General) Mayor Lockwood: Any opposed? That’s unanimous. Okay. Our next item is public comment. Public comment is a time for citizens to share information with the mayor and the city council and to provide any Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 4 of 29 4 input and opinions on any matter that is not scheduled for its own public hearing during tonight’s meeting. As a reminder, there will be two opportunities for public comment. The first, which is now, is general public comment. And if you wish to make a general public comment, please use the raise hand feature located in the bottom of your screen now. If you’re using the telephone, press star 9 to raise your hand. And as a reminder, when your name is called, please unmute your microphones and state your name and address before your comment. And you’ll have five minutes for remarks. Stacy, do we have any general public comment this evening? Stacy: We do, sir. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. If you would please call the first speaker. Stacy: The first speaker is a phone caller. And the last three digits are 245. Speaker, if you will unmute yourself by pressing star 9 and go ahead and say your name, address, and state your comment. Sorry, speaker, if you will unmute yourself by pressing star 6. I think I told you the wrong one. Mayor Lockwood: Yeah. I think I’ve said nine, too. I apologize. Ed Mitchell: Hello. My name is Ed Mitchell. I’m a partnership specialist with the US Census Bureau. And my comment, basically, is that we are still under the Covid-19 stay, which means our field operations have, basically, been delayed. But we still are in the process of getting people to respond online. So far, Milton has done a great job. We’re at 60% response rate today. We’ve got a challenge on our hands from the city of John’s Creek. They’re 1.6 points ahead of us. They’re at 61.6%. So, I’d like to issue a challenge to all of the listeners for the city of Milton to talk to all of their friends who have not responded to the census to date. And you can do it online just by going to www.my2020census.gov and follow the prompts. Or you can call a 1-800 number. For English, that 1-800 number is 844-330-2020. Again, that’s 844- 330-2020. So, I’d like to, again, issue the challenge to Milton to continue to stay ahead in this North Fulton race to 100% by whatever initiations or outreach efforts that are needed to engage citizens and encourage them to go online and submit their census Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 5 of 29 5 information. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Thank you very much, Ed. Stacy, do we have any more general public comment? Stacy: We do, sir. We have another phone caller. And the last two digits are 278. Caller, if you will press star 6 to unmute yourself and state your name, address, and your comment. Ms. McIntosh-Ross: Hi. This is Michelle McIntosh-Ross, [inaudible] [00:08:51] with the city of Milton. And I’d just like to second what Ed Mitchell spoke on earlier. We want to get everyone counted. The census window is still open. So, everybody who has not responded yet to go ahead and respond to the census. And so, I just encourage everybody in Milton to respond. And if you want to have some fun, you can go ahead and try to get ahead of the rest of our sister cities in the response rate as quickly as possible so that we can reach that 100% first. So, that’s my challenge. Thank you. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Thank you, Michelle. Stacy, do we have any more general public comment? Stacy: We have one other one that just raised their hand. If you would like to hear this person talk, her name is Krista Kahn. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Stacy: Krista, you can unmute yourself and go ahead and make your comment – state your name and address and make your comment. Ms. Kahn, did you have a comment you wanted to make? Okay. Well, I think we’re going to have to move on. I don’t hear her. She is unmuted. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Well, certainly, we would love to hear what she has to say at a later time. She can get in touch with you. Stacy: Okay. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. So, that’s all of our general public comment, correct, Stacy? Stacy: That is correct, sir. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 6 of 29 6 CONSENT AGENDA 1. Approval of the March 2, 2020 Regular City Council Meeting Minutes. (Agenda Item No. 20-092) (Sudiee Gordon, City Clerk) 2. Approval of the Financial Statements and Investment Report for the Period Ending January 2020. (Agenda Item No. 20-093) (Bernadette Harvill, Finance Director) 3. Approval of a Professional Services Agreement between the City of Milton and Dynamo Pool Management, Inc. for Pool Deck Resurfacing. (Agenda Item No. 20-094) (Jim Cregge, Parks & Recreation Director) 4. Approval of Change Order #1 to the Professional Services Agreement between the City of Milton and Wolverton & Associates, Inc. for the Freemanville Road at Birmingham Road Roundabout. (Agenda Item No. 20-095) (Robert Drewry, Public Works Director) 5. Approval of a Professional Services Agreement between the City of Milton and Pond & Company for On-Call Planning Services. (Agenda Item No. 20-096) (Parag Agrawal, Community Development Director) 6. Approval of the Public Safety Project for the following Service Agreements and Easements: 1) Electrical Service Agreements between Sawnee EMC and the City of Milton for Permanent Electric Power; and 2) Right of Way Easement between Sawnee EMC and the City of Milton and Sawnee EMC for Electric Service. (Agenda Item No. 20-097) (Parag Agrawal, Community Development Director) 7. Approval of the Public Safety Project for the following Service Agreements and Easements: A Non-residential Gas Extension Contract between AGL Atlanta Gas Light Company and the City of Milton to Provide Gas Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 7 of 29 7 Service Infrastructure. (Agenda Item No. 20-098) (Parag Agrawal, Community Development Director) 8. Approval of a Professional Services Agreement between the City of Milton and Tunnell, Spangler, Walsh and Associates, Inc. (TSW) for On-call Planning Services. (Agenda Item No. 20-099) (Parag Agrawal, Community Development Director) 9. Approval of a Change Order to Construction Management at Risk Agreement between the City of Milton and New South Construction Company, LLC for the New Public Safety Complex Project. (Agenda Item No. 20-100) (Parag Agrawal, Community Development Director) 10. Approval of a Construction Services Agreement between the City of Milton and Prime Contractors, Inc. for Selective Demolition and Mold Remediation Services at the Former Milton Country Club. (Agenda Item No. 20-101) (Parag Agrawal, Community Development Director) 11. Approval of an Athletic Association Organizational Manual Agreement & Facility Use Agreement between the City of Milton and Hopewell Youth Association to Provide Youth Baseball Programming. (Agenda Item No. 20-102) (Jim Cregge, Parks & Recreation Director) 12. Approval of an Athletic Association Organizational Manual Agreement & Facility Use Agreement between the City of Milton and Eagle Stix Lacrosse. (Agenda Item No. 20-103) (Jim Cregge, Parks & Recreation Director) 13. Approval of a Change Order to a Task Order with BM&K, P.C. to Provide Pre-Construction and Right of Way Acquisition Services for Hopewell Road Corridor Intersection Improvements. (Agenda Item No. 20-104) (Robert Drewry, Public Works Director) Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 8 of 29 8 14. Approval of a Goods and Services Agreement between the City of Milton and Purvis Systems, Inc. for a Fire Station Alerting System. (Agenda Item No. 20-105) (Robert Edgar, Fire Chief) 15. Approval of a Construction Services Agreement with Ashford Gardeners, Inc. for the Recovery and Clean Up of the Trails Located at Birmingham Park, 16050 Old Bullpen Rd. (Agenda Item No. 20-106) (Robert Drewry, Public Works Director) 16. Approval of a Construction Services Agreement with Blackjack Paving, Sealcoating & Striping LLC for Updated Striping and the Addition of Raised Pavement Markings. (Agenda Item No. 20-107) (Robert Drewry, Public Works Director) Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Thank you. The next item is our consent agenda. So, Sudie, as our city clerk if you would please sound the consent agenda items. Stacy: City clerk, I believe you’re muted. If you unmute yourself and state the agenda items, please. City Clerk: First item is approval of the March 2, 2020, regular city council meeting minutes, Agenda Item No. 20-092. Next, approval of the financial statements and investment report for the period ending January 2020, Agenda Item No. 20-093. Approval of a professional services agreement between the city of Milton and Dynamo Pool Management, Inc., for pool deck resurfacing, Agenda Item No. 20-094. Approval of a Change Order No. 1 to the professional services agreement between the city of Milton and Wolverton and Associates, Inc., for the Freemanville Road at Birmingham Road intersection improvements to revise the proposed geometric alignment of the roundabout, Agenda Item No. 20-095. Approval of a professional services agreement between the city of Milton and Pond and Company for on call planning services, Agenda Item No. 20-096. Approval of the public safety project for the following service Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 9 of 29 9 agreements and easements, electric service agreements between Sawnee EMC and the city of Milton for permanent electric power and right of way easement between Sawnee EMC and the city of Milton and Sawnee EMC for electric service, Agenda Item No. 20- 097. Next, approval of the public safety project for the following service agreements and easements. A non-residential gas extension contract between AGL Atlanta Gaslight Company and the city of Milton to provide gas service infrastructure, Agenda Item No. 20- 098. Approval of a professional services agreement between the city of Milton and Tunnell, Spangler, Walsh, and Associates, Inc., for on call planning services, Agenda Item No. 20-099. Our ninth item is approval of a change order to construction management at risk agreement between the city of Milton and New South Construction Company, LLC, for the new public safety complex project, Agenda Item No. 20-100. Approval of a construction services agreement between the city of Milton and Prime Contractors, Inc., for selective demolition and mold remediation services at the former Milton Country Club, Agenda Item No. 20-101. Approval of an athletic association organizational manual agreement and facility use agreement between the city of Milton and Hopewell Youth Association to provide youth based ball programming, Agenda Item No. 20-102. Next, approval of an athletic association organizational manual agreement and facility use agreement between the city of Milton and Eagle Sticks La Crosse, Agenda Item No. 20-103. Our next item is approval of a change order to a task order with BM&K PC to provide preconstruction and right of way acquisition services for Hopewell Road Corridor intersection improvements, Agenda Item No. 20- 104. Approval of a goods and services agreement between the city of Milton and Purvis Systems, Inc., for a fire station alerting system, Agenda Item No. 20-105. Approval of a construction services agreement with Ashford Gardeners, Inc., for the recovery and clean up of the trails located at Birmingham Park, 16050 Old Bullpen Road, Agenda Item No. 20-106. Our sixteenth and final consent item is approval of a construction services agreement with Blackjack Paving, Seal Coating, and Striping, LLC, for updated striping and addition of raised pavement markings, Agenda Item No. 20-107. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 10 of 29 10 Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I’ll open up for a motion for approval on the consent agenda. CM Longoria: May I move that we approve the consent agenda as read by the city clerk. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Do I have a second? CM Moore: I’ll second. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I’ve got a motion for approval from Councilmember Longoria with a second from Councilmember Moore. All in favor, please say aye and raise your right hand. Group: Aye. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to approve the Consent Agenda as read. Councilmember Moore seconded the motion. The motion passed (7-0). REPORTS AND PRESENTATIONS 1. Recognition of Milton Citizens Government Academy Graduates, 4th Cohort. (Mayor Joe Lockwood)a Mayor Lockwood: Are there any opposed? Okay. That’s unanimous, Sudie. So, our next items, we’ll move on to reports and presentations. Sudie, if you’ll please sound the first item. City Clerk: This is recognition of Milton Citizens Government Academy graduates fourth cohort. Mayor Joe Lockwood. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I’d like to recognize and express our appreciation. And, again, I want to apologize that we’re having to do this virtually. But I wanted to, certainly, take this opportunity. So, we want to express our appreciation to the graduates of our fourth class of Milton Citizens Government Academy. The CGA is a great program in which members of our community learn in depth about Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 11 of 29 11 all aspects of city government through presentations, field trips, and hands on activities. This year’s class completed seven weeks of in person sessions learning firsthand from Milton officials and then, finishing off with a final virtual session. Today would have been their graduation. Even if they aren’t here in person, I want to honor them for their participation in the Citizens Government Academy and contributions to the city of Milton. Our CGA graduates are Laura Raddisack, Sanjita Jitimbar, Greg Cronk, Mary Cronk, Lee Crowley, Chase Hadden, Evelyn Harris, Gary Jublonski, Jeffrey Kahn, Krista Kahn, Lisa Kippley, Jimmy Loridge, Lisa Loridge, Barbara Peck, Tony Rich, Jenny Schaefer, Deborah Valentine, Jason Bitterman, Anita Jupin, Patricia Wolf. And, again, I want to thank those that have completed this very meaningful and important academy to be a part of our city. And as I always try to remind everybody that one of the main reasons that Milton is such a great city is because of folks like this that get involved and give their time and energy to help make sure that we have a better community. So, I want to thank you all for that. Sudie, if you would please sound our next item. 2. Discussion of Impact to City Operations Related to Covid-19 Pandemic. (Mayor Joe Lockwood) City Clerk: Our next item this evening is discussion of impact to city operations related to Covid-19 pandemic. Mayor Joe Lockwood. Mayor Lockwood: Thank you, Sudie. I wanted to use this opportunity to just discuss a few things of what the city has been doing and possible issues as well as during this virus outbreak but also allow council to also ask any questions or give any input that they’re hearing out there. So, if we could start out and I’m going to pull staff and Steve into this. But if we could kind of discuss how the city, in general, has been since the last time we met in person, how the city operations or how the city is handling things right now virtually. So, Steve, if you’re there. Steve: I am, Mayor. Can you hear me? Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 12 of 29 12 Mayor Lockwood: I can. Steve: Excellent. Thank you. So, this, obviously, has been a tremendous undertaking for the city of Milton just like it has been for everybody across the nation. And the transition has been significant but has gone smoother than I would have anticipated. Our first priority when we started to move into this transition when we recognized we were going to have to start closing down facilities was to ensure that we were able to continue to deliver all of our services in a manner that kept our staff safe. I’m very happy to say that we have all of our operations currently running, except those that would have caused members of the community to gather. So, we, actually, have everybody working in full capacity in either an entirely remote situation or a blended situation. And all of our operations continue moving forward. The things we did right up front was we created a web page devoted entirely to keeping our citizens informed related to Covid-19. Mayor, you suspended several regulations so that businesses that were most impacted by the current situation could continue to operate. And, additionally, you extended certain deadlines so that businesses could hold onto much needed cash during this very critical time for them. So, as I said, we switched gears and we started moving toward this telecommuting environment. And as we transitioned to a telecommuting environment, I should say that all but our public safety personnel. Obviously, they’re still out there and they’re answering calls. But they’re doing so in a manner that they’ve adopted vast practices for our public safety personnel. So, when they’re responding, they’re doing so safely in a manner that protects both our staff and the potential patient or caller. And I’m pretty happy to say that and I don’t want to jinx us but our safety protocols appear to be working 100%. So, from an operational standpoint, those have been our significant impacts. But I’ve got to say, our department heads and really all of our staff have been able to pivot very quickly into an environment that is somewhat difficult to operate in, especially when we’re all used to operating face to face. And while it may seem that it might be enjoyable, I know I’m speaking to hundreds of thousands of people and saying this same thing, you would think it would be nice to be able to take meetings from your home office but it quickly grew Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 13 of 29 13 old and very challenging. So, I do appreciate the work that everybody from all of the department heads right through every one of our staff have been able to accomplish that. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. No, that’s great. And, again, I want to offer a thank you, not only from myself but council and our citizens for everything staff has had to do to shift gears but also keep things going. I also want to talk about operations and future effects and whatnot, Steve. So, if you could kind of address that. Steve: Absolutely. So, obviously, financial concerns are upfront for us. We’ve been working on a few different things over the past several weeks as we’re waiting to see how things unfold. Fortunately, our conservative fiscal policies have been designed to insulate us from short term shortfalls and revenue. And it is doing that – it immediately did that. I have to say that we’re working with very imperfect data. Mayor Lockwood: Steven, let me break in on that, too. Obviously, thanks to the council and staff on our financial side when we went to our Pay Go system a while back that has certainly paid off well for us now financially. Steve: Really, I’ve got to say that is a very important statement you just made because it’s going to be a combination of that Pay Go situation plus our low fixed debt, which our debt policies are extremely conservative. And it puts us in a position like it would any private sector company with low debt and cash on hand being able to survive these types of situations. And I have to say the policies that you all have created will help us weather this storm however long this storm may be. So, we are well positioned for that. Working with the current data that we have, we’re basing it on a potential three month shutdown. So, we’re going with the worst-case scenario of 25% impact. And while I understand there are going to be residual effects beyond a three-month shutdown, we’re using a 25% impact on our revenues that we think would be directly impacted by that three month shutdown. And we think that our worst-case scenario, currently, would be a $2.6 million revenue reduction, which would be really – first of all, $2.35 million of that is lost revenues, local option sales tax. And that would mean that we got no lost revenues for three months. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 14 of 29 14 Of course, it isn’t going to be the case because there are all kinds of businesses operating from grocery stores to places like big box stores and online, which we get revenues from right now. We just don’t know what the ripple effect will be for long term lost revenues. But I anticipate because there’s actually a two month lag time in that, I think we’ll start being able to get better forecasts on that within the next month or so. And that being said, I’d have to say so long as current economic factors don’t lead us into a prolonged recession causing the ripple effects into areas such as housing or financial markets and jobs, we should be able to absorb that $2.6 million hit fairly well with a variety of strategies that we could employ that would not noticeably impact our service delivery. Again, it’s our Pay Go system with our low fixed debt that’s going to provide us that opportunity. Really, that’s what the bond rating agencies upfront liked about the city of Milton, which got us our triple A rating. However, with all of that, I have to say that if this turns into a prolonged event, we’re still well positioned because our 2021 budget doesn’t begin until October. So, our planning process by July and August when we’re really in the throes of budget, I think we’re going to have more concrete financial data out there, both macro and micro that will help us determine what the true impacts we believe will be in 2021 and better position us to be able to budget appropriate. But as far as the existing 2020 budget is concerned, I think we’re in pretty good shape. I’ll know more within a few months. Mayor Lockwood: And I might add, too, sometimes what some others looking from outside looking in might say is a negative from a budget or revenue source, which we have a much lower commercial base than other cities, that’s actually probably helped us right now. And, again, some of our sister cities have, obviously, a much larger commercial base but also, for example, the city of Alpharetta has 37 hotels and conference facilities, things like that as well as some of our other cities, which we don’t. So, again, we’re not taking a huge hit in those areas, too. Steve: This will be about the only time, Mayor, that this will be an advantage. Joe? CM Longoria: Yeah. Steve, so do we know if there has been any impact on the Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 15 of 29 15 construction of the new court facilities or the fire station? Because any kind of delay there impacts the savings that we’re projecting on our lease on Deerfield, is that correct? Steve: That’s an excellent question. We just met on that yesterday. And we are on target and on budget, even with the social distancing protocols. They have put in significant protocols there with wash stations and other cleaning stations, keeping everybody apart. But we are still moving forward at a rate that we should be. And we anticipate there will be no impact on that. CM Longoria: So, in terms of divesting ourselves of the Deerfield facility, we don’t anticipate any problems there so these just come in when they’re scheduled to end and whether or not we need the facility in terms of the physical space, obviously, the Fire Department will. I’m not sure about the courts. But there shouldn’t be any impediments there. Steve: There should not. Unfortunately, it’s police and court are the only ones left in Deerfield. And we anticipate that we’ll be able to get them in within several weeks of when our lease ends there. It should give us time to fully set up and make sure our IT infrastructure is working. And we’ve left ourselves a decent cushion there. CM Longoria: Thank you. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Steve: I’m sorry. I just don’t want to lose – I do have one other thing I’d like to discuss if there aren’t other questions. Mayor Lockwood: Sure. And if there are any questions, specifically, on the budget or, again, council, keep the questions and we’ll, certainly, open up on any of this. Go ahead, Steve. Steve: So, one thing I would like to discuss, obviously, when we did the original emergency order, we really had no idea how long we were going to be operating like this. And there are certain restrictions within that order that I would ask that the Mayor and council consider right now because it’s preventing us from moving some of our business forward. Specifically, I apologize, I’m trying to pull up the section. So, on the original ordinance under Section 4 Subsection 1, it said that we were going to suspend any ordinance Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 16 of 29 16 resolution order rule or regulation prescribing – I’m sorry. I read the wrong one. I apologize. Here it is. I’m sorry, it’s 5.4A. All policy making functions of the council, i.e., strategic plans, ordinances, land use, planning functions, visioning, development of citywide objectives and goals and like activities shall be suspended for 30 days, except for policy making and ordinance functions related to addressing Covid-19 and related public health and safety issues. And there are a bunch of others that are also going to be an issue. C is nonessential business, which includes presentations. We’ve got a few things in the hopper right now. And these are just a handful of what we’re looking at. We’re just about ready with the Chapter 4 alcohol rewrites, which I’m sure, as the restaurants come back online, this would benefit them quite a bit to be able to hit the ground running. Our tree ordinance, our vaping ordinance, our trail plan. We’ve got a presentation on a new method of acquiring vehicles that we think we can save a significant amount of money on. And I’d like to find a way to be able to get these before you considering I’m sure the next meeting in April is still going to be virtual. And it’s very possible considering that the first meeting in May is within the first couple of days of May that that will also be virtual. And I don’t want to unnecessarily hold things up if we can help it. Mayor Lockwood: Sure. Steve: That’s just regarding impacts on operations. Mayor Lockwood: Yeah. Is there any input on that, council, that or any of the other items or questions? Okay. I guess we’ll take direction from Ken or at least be addressing this moving forward, correct, Steve? Steve: You do have an agenda item coming up that you’ll consider for extending the current emergency order. That might be the appropriate time to discuss that. But this is affecting operations. I just wanted to bring it up here. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Is there anything else staff or the council that wants to bring up or questions or discuss about ongoing operations in the situation? Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 17 of 29 17 CM Moore: Joe, maybe just a comment and then, a question. When I am out and about for essential services, things that are appropriate to be amongst the community, I still see a Milton presence both with fire, police, and rescue. If Steve or any of the chiefs could comment this evening on just address any concerns the citizens may have. We’re still fully operational for all of our city services from that standpoint, too, as well, correct? Steve: We are. And I’ll just answer on their behalf just for logistics here. We are. We are doing really nothing differently from a police and fire perspective, except where it pertains to how we respond to a patient with potential Covid-19 symptoms. We’re protecting our staff a little bit more. And our police officers are practicing social distancing from each other and from people that need their services. But otherwise, there is no impact on service delivery in either regard. CM Moore: Terrific. Thanks, Steve. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Anybody else? Again, I also want to thank, not only you, Steve, and staff members that are participating in this meeting but also all of our staff for these, certainly, different and trying times. So, thank you, guys. All right. We’ll move on to new business. Sudie, if you’ll please sound the first new business item. NEW BUSINESS 1. Council Consideration of a New Emergency Ordinance Associated with the COVID-19 Pandemic, to Become Effective April 20, 2020, Upon Expiration of the Existing Emergency Ordinance, and to Run for an Additional 30 Days. (Agenda Item No. 20-108) (Ken Jarrard, City Attorney) City Clerk: This item is council consideration of a new emergency ordinance associated with the Covid-19 pandemic to become effective April 20, 2020, upon expiration of the existing emergency ordinance and to run for an additional 30 days, Agenda Item No. 20-108, Mr. Ken Jarrard. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 18 of 29 18 Mr. Jarrard: Mr. Mayor and members of the council, good evening. So, I wanted to update you on this. We did, as the council is aware, on March 20 of this year, the council adopted an emergency ordinance. This is a device that is, typically, contemplated by the city charter to, basically, allow the city to take emergency action in times of crisis, which is exactly what we have been living through as the city manager just walked us through as well. So, you adopted that emergency ordinance and it expires on April 19. Now, the city of Milton’s emergency ordinance was a very practical and utilitarian device. It, primarily, focused on doing two things. 1.) It set the parameters of how the city is going to do business for that 30 day period as the city manager just walked through that has been both a great thing but it is also now, as it continues to lag on, beginning to present some challenges. And so, as I want you through what is contemplated for this evening, perhaps we can discuss that further. But nonetheless, it sort of set how the city was going to conduct its affairs for the next 30 days during this crisis. And it also triggered the mayoral proclamation that allowed some of the activities that the mayor has undertaken, which we’ll get actually to in the next agenda item to impact the citizens and affect businesses during this pandemic. So, it sort of had a twofold effect. So, the city charter provides that an ordinance of this kind, perfectly lawful, perfectly legal but had a 30 day expiration date. And as I mentioned, this one ends April 19. In your agenda packet, you have a document that would pick up right after the existing one ends. It would commence the 20th of April. And the way it’s structured right now is it would then go for an additional 30 day period. I will tell you, and you may have seen the communication that I sent to you, I did make a few tweaks to the version of the ordinance that are different than what was in your agenda packet. They are non-substantive. And I will tell you what they are. They were going to some of the preamble language, the whereas language that dealt with the various orders from the governor. As we put together these documents, irrespective of the jurisdiction, we try to do a good job of providing a nice trail of all of the various things that have occurred. And I will tell you, councilmembers, like any time, candidly, in my Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 19 of 29 19 legal experience representing governments, I’ve never seen events unfold as quickly as they have in the last three weeks to a month as far as all of the various governments taking action that they’re trying to make to safeguard the public health safety and welfare. And that has, certainly, been done in this situation. So, I modified, for instance, the fact that, as you all know, Governor Kemp issued a shelter in place order on April 2, 2020. And I’m sure, as all of you are aware, the interesting thing about that order, and I thought it was a good thing, was that it, basically, superseded any other shelter in place enactments that all of the other jurisdictions had enacted. So, this was the rule with respect to shelter in place. The shelter in place order from Governor Kemp had a natural expiration date of April 13, 2020. But then, on April 8, Governor Kemp extended the shelter in place until April 30 and also extended statewide declaration of emergency until May 13, 2020. Will that be extended again, either the shelter in place or the statewide emergency? I don’t know. But I do want to make clear and follow that paper trail in this ordinance I have put in front of you. So, those are the tweaks I made was outlining better that sort of history. With respect to what the ordinance in front of you does, it picks up on the 20th right when your existing one ends and, basically, continues it for an additional 30 days. So, April 20 for an additional 30 days would be May 19. That’s what it does. Now, that’s a little bit of a difference. That’s not completely consistent with the gubernatorial declaration of statewide emergency. The governor’s order expires on May 13. This ordinance, if you adopt it, will, in fact, go to May 19. So, you’ve just got a couple of days of differential there. There is no requirement that our locally declared emergency be consistent with the governor’s. But I did want to point that out to you. Otherwise, this keeps everything the same. There are no changes. It ’s just a change of time. And, again, the next agenda item, Mr. Mayor, I will go over with the council the various declarations that you have issued pursuant to the powers that have been given to you by, not only the emergency ordinance that’s already in place, but also the Milton code as well. And I will go over the various enactments that you’ve done. Mr. Mayor, that’s my presentation. If the council adopts the proposed Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 20 of 29 20 order this evening, it would be the one that I emailed to you, which contains those timeline tweaks I just walked you through. Otherwise, it is simply a continuation of additional 30 days effective April 20. Mr. Mayor. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Thank you, Ken. Before I open up to questions, Stacy, do we have any public comment on this item? Stacy: We do not have any public comment, sir. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I’ll close the public hearing part of that and open up any questions or comments from council. Laura? CM Bentley: Just quickly, Ken, if we need to end the order, the extension, we can do that as well, correct? If for some reason – Mr. Jarrard: Councilmember Bentley, yes, of course. The council always has the right to terminate it earlier. So, yes, the short answer is yes. CM Bentley: Thank you. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. If there are no further questions or comments, I’ll open up for a motion on this item. CM Bentley: Mayor, I’d like to make a motion to approve Agenda Item No. 20- 108. CM Longoria: Second. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I have a motion for approval from Councilmember Bentley and a second from Councilmember Longoria. All in favor, please say aye and raise your hand. Group: Aye. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to approve Agenda Item No. 20-108 Councilmember Longoria seconded the motion. The motion passed (7-0). ORDINANCE NO. 20-04-418 Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous, Sudie. So, we will – Sudie, if you can please sound the next new business item and last new business item. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 21 of 29 21 2. Council consideration and ratification of 2020 Mayoral Emergency Orders authorizing (1) event facilities and caterers that hold a valid use permit to sell prepared meals for pick-up and delivery; (2) restaurants with on-premise consumption licenses to allow “to go” alcohol sales for wine and malt beverages; (3) retail and restaurant establishments to utilize unpermitted temporary signage to provide operational guidance to the public in light of COVID-19; (4) deferral of Occupational Tax Certificate Renewal to April 30, 2020; and (5) restaurants to defer payment of alcohol excise taxes to April 30, 2020. (Agenda Item No. 20-109) (Ken Jarrard, City Attorney) City Clerk: Our final item this evening is council consideration and ratification of 2020 mayoral emergency orders authorizing 1.) event facilities and caterers that hold a valid use permit to sell prepared meals for pick up and delivery. 2.) Restaurants with on premise consumption licenses to allow to go alcohol sales for wine and mulled beverages. 3.) Retail and restaurant establishments to utilize unpermitted temporary signage to provide operational guidance to the public in light of Covid-19. 4.) Deferral of occupational tax certificate renewal to April 30, 2020. 5.) Restaurants to defer payment of alcohol excise taxes to April 30, 2020. Agenda Item No. 20-109. Mr. Ken Jarrard. Mayor Lockwood: And before Ken, if you don’t mind, before Ken speaks on this, in the spirit of transparency, these items that I have taken as the mayor and also had run those by each councilmember, just in the spirit of transparency for the public, I wanted to at least bring these forward and have them ratified by the council. Go ahead, Ken. Mr. Jarrard: Mr. Mayor, thank you very much. And members of the council, I agree with that. In addition, the city of Milton council was very clear on March 20 that with respect to actions taken, they wanted to be immediately made aware of those. And I know that we have tried to push those out to you as quickly as they were done. I will also tell you that all of the actions taken pursuant to that time were or of the mayor have had a consistent theme. And that theme was attempting to minimize the detrimental impact of this pandemic and all of these collateral effects of that on your business Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 22 of 29 22 community and your citizens. So, I’m sure, as I’m walking through this, you will see a theme begin to arise. So, I’ll go very quickly through them. And this is in no particular order. This is the order that they’ve printed out on my printer. So, this is the order I’m going to walk you through them. But the order was, first of all, we had a March 30, 2020, order with respect to businesses in Milton that were event facilities and caterers. And the mayor issued a declaration authorizing valid use permit holders of those event facilities and caterers to host private catered events. They may also sell prepared meals for pick up and delivery under the following conditions. And that condition was that the allowance would remain in effect until April 30 and the facility shall remain closed to the public. Pick up hours are limited to a total of three hours per day. And otherwise, it does not apply to new use permit applications. Once again, this was something where I believe city staff came to the mayor and said, “Look, this is something that those folks that hold event facility and catering permits are asking to do to be able to make ends meet during this situation.” And so, we issued this order that temporarily made that additional allowance for them to be able to sell prepared meals for pick up and delivery. On March 20, 2020, there was a declaration by the mayor that allowed on premise consumption alcohol license holders to obtain and provide packaged license for to go alcohol sales. This was very common. Almost every jurisdiction I’m aware of took action very similar to this to try and sure up their restaurant community that was very much struggling from this. On March 23, the mayor issued a signed permitting declaration that allowed restaurants and retail establishments to erect some additional temporary signage. Members of the council, I don’t have to tell you that right now, retail and restaurants have been uniquely hit by this pandemic. And many of them are struggling to get their message out. Are we open? How do you engage us for business? Curbside service, different hours of operation. All of those were being asked about in the city of Milton as well. And so, the mayor exercised his authority and allowed some additional temporary signage for, obviously, the extent of the emergency that will have to come down when the emergency is over. But, again, something to allow these businesses to be able to communicate to the public and, Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 23 of 29 23 hopefully, bring in additional business if it can. On March, 23, 2020, the mayor issued a declaration that would allow a 30 day deferral on occupational tax certificate renewal from March 31, 2020 to April 30, 2020. Once again, occupation taxes are something within in the purview of the city of Milton. And we have the ability to relax those deadlines before penalties and interest begin to accrue. This was simply an accommodation noting that from any of these businesses, cashflow is everything. And that it may be that if we can allow just the temporary relief on the payment of that that that would benefit our businesses. And finally, we have a similar March 23 enactment that provides the same relief with respect to alcohol excise taxes simply to, again, allow those restaurants that need cashflow so desperately a little bit of extra relief. The declarations are very consistent that nothing prevented them from paying. If they have cash on hand and they want to come in and pay, of course, pay. But we are trying to provide at least a little bit of that into a little bit of deference with respect to the payment of those excise taxes and occupation taxes. Mr. Mayor, that is my presentation. And there is no need to take these individually, unless the council wants to review them individually. But if the council simply wanted to make a motion to adopt all of the declarations that I have gone over in one omnibus motion that would be perfectly in order. Mr. Mayor. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Before I open to council, Stacy, do we have any public comment on that? Stacy: No, sir, we do not. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Certainly, open up to public comment – I’m sorry. Council discussion or comments. Anybody have anything? Okay. Steve: Mayor, can I ask a question? Mayor Lockwood: Absolutely, Steve. Steve: Ken, I just want to check because we’ve got some dates in these. Do these automatically get extended through that May 19 date or do we have to redo these to extend them – Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 24 of 29 24 Mr. Jarrard: Yeah. Mr. City Manager, thank you for asking that. I will probably need to work with your offices to extend any of these. Obviously, as the emergency extends, we may need to extend the relief. It was unclear at the time some of these were done exactly how long we wanted to defer – how long do we want to defer collection of excise taxes and occupation taxes. But his point is a good one. These do have dates. And I will work with city staff and the city manager to extend those and then, bring them to the mayor if he wants to extend them. Some of them may roll over. I’m looking at them right now to see if any of them just run coterminous with the declaration of emergency. But if not, we may have to extend them. And if we extend them then, we’ll do the same protocol. We’ll bring them to the council, let the council know about it. And at some future date, we’ll ratify them again. Steve: Thank you, Ken. Mayor Lockwood: Thanks. Good question, Steve. Okay. Any comments or questions from council? If not, I appreciate everybody working together on short notice on these things that we’re walking through with this, again, strange and different times. I appreciate everyone’s support. I’ll open up for a motion on this item. CM Cookerly: Mr. Mayor, I’ll make a motion that we ratify the 2020 mayoral emergency orders and extend them through April 30, 2020, Agenda Item No. 20-109. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I’ve got a motion for approval from Councilmember Cookerly with a second from Councilmember Longoria. Steve: Mayor, I apologize for breaking in. I think we’ve got a bad date for the closure on that. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Steve: They’re extended not through April 30 but I think through May 19. Is that correct, Ken? Mr. Jarrard: Well, the declarations have some different dates in them. All of them were the creature of the circumstances by which they were done. I would simply ask and thank you, Steve, for jumping on Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 25 of 29 25 that, I think I would simply ask the council to just approve the declarations and ratify the declarations as framed. And whatever those expiration dates are for each one, we’ll just deal with them in turn. Steve: Thank you, Ken. CM Cookerly: Okay. So, should I reframe that? Mr. Jarrard: Yes, ma’am, I would appreciate that. Councilmember Cookerly, if the motion could just be to approve the declarations as presented in your agenda file. CM Cookerly: Okay. Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to ratify the declarations as framed on the Agenda Item No. 20-109. CM Longoria: Second. Mayor Lockwood: I have a motion for approval as read by Councilmember Cookerly with a second from Councilmember Longoria. All in favor, please say aye and raise your hand. Group: Aye. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Cookerly moved to approve Agenda Item No. 20-109 as presented in Council’s agenda file. Councilmember Longoria seconded the motion. The motion passed (7-0). Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous, Sudie. Thank you. We’ll move on to reports. I do want to bring up one issue that Steve had brought up earlier about business items that may need to be taken care of, again, because we didn’t know how long that we’ll be under this order and with not having public meetings or at least physical public meetings. So, Steve, what are your thoughts? I know you brought them up earlier under discussion but things like the trail plan and stuff like that, the business that needs to move forward but that we might have to deal with remotely. MAYOR AND COUNCIL REPORTS Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 26 of 29 26 Steve: I appreciate that, Mayor. Thank you for bringing that back up. We have certain ones, especially like the Chapter 4, the alcohol ordinance rewrite. It can have an immediate impact on some of these businesses as they come back online. And I don’t believe that under the current 5.4A under the emergency ordinance that we would, in theory – we’re supposed to consider things like that. And, obviously, they fall along the spectrum. There are certain things that will lend themselves well to an online meeting. I think we do the alcohol fairly simply. There might be others that might not be so simple. But things like the Chapter 4 ordinance, getting things in line for the tree ordinance because we really only had a few things left to discuss there so we could get the workshops prepared and things along those lines during this down time. That vaping ordinance, we can probably move forward with. And these are just a handful of some of the things I’m talking about. I wouldn’t anticipate – we won’t be doing anything with rezonings or use permits or things like that that require other operations to go on. But some of these other ordinances and things along those lines, if we could move those along, I think it would be very helpful both for the city and for many of our citizens. Mayor Lockwood: Any thoughts from council on that? CM Bentley: I have a question. Mayor Lockwood: Go ahead, Laura. CM Bentley: So, in order to do that, what do we need to do? I guess that’s a Ken question. Mr. Jarrard: It is. CM Bentley: Make an emergency order? Mr. Jarrard: Councilmember Bentley, here is what I might recommend because you alluded to that earlier about the termination of the emergency order. You have just approved this emergency order for another 30 day period. What I could recommend easily though is that city staff compile whatever action items or other items of business they really feel like need to be [audio distortion] a little bit and get that Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 27 of 29 27 to you. And then, we could call a special called meeting at any point in the next week or so. And we’ll advertise this emergency ordinance in the ordinary course. The city charter specifically contemplates that so long as we shut it down with the same formalities as when we adopted it that we can amend it or terminate it. And then, we would modify the emergency ordinance to sort of let a little more of the filter off is what we would do. And that makes a lot of sense. And I will tell you that a lot of local governments are struggling with what is the new normal. What made a whole lot of sense from three weeks to four weeks is not making as much sense from the standpoint of while we, certainly, want to acknowledge the fact that our citizens can’t engage us physically in a building, they can, certainly, watch the meetings online. And we need to, actually, take some action. And even if it’s a limited ordinance-based action, many governments are choosing or having to decide that we may need to go there. So, I’m perfectly comfortable with that. And just from a procedural standpoint, as soon as the city manager says I’ve got a list and gives me the direction to modify the ordinance then, I can guide the clerk on how to do the special meeting and get us back and we’ll modify this ordinance. CM Bentley: Thank you. I’d be in favor of that. Mayor Lockwood: Anybody else? All right. Any other issues anybody want to report on? CM Bentley: I just want to quickly, I know everyone has been out and about a lot more, which is probably the silver lining in this whole thing. But I really wanted to give a shout out to the public safety officers. I see them a lot in the places that I’m walking. And I know that they’re very helpful because when our police officers are often busy, they’re out and about and responding to other calls that may not rise to the same level of importance, which is also an important part of the community. I think that was a great idea and now, I get to see it all of the time. So, anyway, thanks to them. I just wanted to give a shout out to that. Mayor Lockwood: I would reiterate that. Obviously, all of our staff that are public safety that are out and about are doing a great job. It’s interesting. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 28 of 29 28 And I also want to thank all of our citizens and everybody. It looks like at least the overwhelming majority are being responsible. As we’re having this meeting and I’m looking out the window, normally, there are hundreds of bicycles getting ready to ride in groups on the nights that we have our meetings or whatever. And I think I saw one or two bicycles getting out. So, everybody seems to be working hard to follow the rules for our health and safety. So, thank you to everybody for that. I guess, this will conclude our first – and it is Milton’s first in history virtual meeting. Is there anything else that anybody staff wise, Ken, or council has before we close? Steve: I’m all set, Mayor. EXECUTIVE SESSION (if needed) ADJOURNMENT (Agenda Item No. 20-110) Mayor Lockwood: All right. That will conclude this meeting. Do I have a motion to adjourn? CM Longoria: Motion to adjourn. CM Bentley: Second. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I believe it was Councilmember Longoria that made the motion and Councilmember Bentley the second, is that correct? CM Longoria: Yes. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I have a motion from Councilmember Longoria, second from Councilmember Bentley to adjourn the meeting. All in favor, please say aye and raise your hand. Group: Aye. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to adjourn the meeting at 7:01 pm. Councilmember Bentley seconded the motion. The motion passed (7-0). Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, April 15 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 29 of 29 29 Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. Thank you all. Date Approved: May 18, 2020 __________________________________ _____________________________ Sudie AM Gordon, City Clerk Joe Lockwood, Mayor