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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - CC - 04/23/2020Special Called Meeting of the Milton City Council Thursday, April 23 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 1 of 13 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: I’d just like to call the virtual special called meeting of the Milton City Council for Thursday, April 23, 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. One will be at the beginning during general public comments and No. 2 would be 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, there will be no more comment requests to be accepted. So, at this point, could our city clerk please call the roll call. City Clerk: Good evening, Mayor and council. I’ll be happy to call roll for the April 23, 2020, special called 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. CM Bentley: Here. City Clerk: Councilmember Carol Cookerly. Special Called Meeting of the Milton City Council Thursday, April 23 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 2 of 13 2 CM Cookerly: Here. City Clerk: Councilmember Joe Longoria. CM Longoria: Here. City Clerk: And Councilmember Rick Mohrig. CM Mohrig: Here. 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. I want to welcome everybody here, although virtually, to our meeting tonight. I appreciate everybody making accommodations to get here as well as any of the public that has joined us. So, I’ll ask Sudi as our city clerk to please sound the next item. APPROVAL OF MEETING AGENDA City Clerk: Our next item is approval of the meeting agenda. Agenda Item No. 20-111. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Do I have a motion and a second for approval of the agenda? CM Cookerly: Mayor, I make a motion that we approve the meeting agenda as read, Item No. 20-111. CM Longoria: Second. Mayor Lockwood: All right. I have a motion from Councilmember Cookerly with a Special Called Meeting of the Milton City Council Thursday, April 23 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 3 of 13 3 second for approval from Councilmember Longoria. All in favor, please say aye and raise your right hand. I’m going to ask each individual councilmember first. So, Councilmember Longoria, if you could please vote. CM Longoria: For, yes, aye. Mayor Lockwood: Councilmember Moore, please vote. CM Moore: I vote aye. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Councilmember Mohrig, please vote. CM Mohrig: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: Councilmember Cookerly, please vote. CM Cookerly: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: Councilmember Jamison, please vote. CM Jamison: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: And Councilmember Bentley, please cast your vote. CM Bentley: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: And I also vote in favor. So, that passes unanimously. All right. The next item is public comment. Stacy, do we have any public comment? Motion and Vote: Councilmember Cookerly moved to approve the Meeting Agenda. Councilmember Longoria seconded the motion. The motion passed (7-0). PUBLIC COMMENT (General) None. Stacy: We do not currently have public comment, sir. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I’m going to move on to new business then. Please note, this Special Called Meeting of the Milton City Council Thursday, April 23 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 4 of 13 4 is the second opportunity for public comment if you wish to comment on any new business item. Please use the raise hand feature now. Will the city clerk please sound the first new business item? NEW BUSINESS 1. Council Consideration of Possible Amendment to the April 15, 2020 Emergency Ordinance, Modifying those Limitations on the Conduct of the City Council as they Pertain to Policy Making Functions and Ordinances. (Agenda Item No. 20-112) (Ken Jarrard, City Attorney) City Clerk: This is council consideration of possible amendments to the April 15, 2020, emergency ordinance modifying those limitations on the conduct of the city council as they pertain to policy making functions and ordinances. This is Agenda Item No. 20-112. Mr. Ken Jarrard. Mr. Jarrard: Mr. Mayor and members of the council, thank you very much this evening. Just to make sure, can everybody hear me? Just maybe a head nod would let me know. Thank you. Fantastic. The agenda item this evening is, actually, a possible amendment to the emergency ordinance. As the council is aware, since March 20, 2020, we have had in Milton a declared emergency ordinance that is, specifically, provided for in this city’s charter. The ordinance did a variety of things. And one of them I want to mention at the outset is that it declared that we were able to have these live streaming teleconference virtual meetings pursuant to the Open Meetings Act 50-14-1(g). And so, we have been doing that for the duration of the emergency ordinance as it has been in effect. So, the first iteration of the emergency ordinance did a variety of things over and above just the teleconference meeting accommodation. But it also sort of defined how the city of Milton was going to operate for the duration of the emergency. This was a very practical, pragmatic thing candidly trying to balance the operations of the government with the understanding that we’re going to be doing some things remotely and we want to give the citizens of Milton confidence that we’re not going to be Special Called Meeting of the Milton City Council Thursday, April 23 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 5 of 13 5 doing anything that is too much in the nature of large policy pronouncements while otherwise folks are sheltering in place and may not have the access they normally would have. So, that’s what you did and, candidly, many governments did a similar thing, again, attempting to balance the need for transparency with the need for folks to have some distancing as well. So, that ordinance, for instance, stated that during the term of this emergency, we would not hold public hearings, etc. And we, actually, wouldn’t even adopt or even work on ordinances. All well and good. However, as I think everyone will acknowledge, this state of emergency has now drug on for a while and we understand why and there are, obviously, reasons why folks need to be careful and that we need to all keep our distance for some additional period of time. The original date, as the charter requires, was for this ordinance to have a 30-day lifespan. So, that would have put it to April 19. On April 15, the city council went ahead and adopted an extension of the emergency ordinance. And when you did that on the 15th, you kept it just the same, except you extended it for another 30 days, again, as the charter allows 30-day increments. So, we are, actually, already now a few days into that amendment. However, during the discussion of that amendment, and it sort of sprang up organically, if you will, became the notion of do we need to open the lid just a little bit to allow some things that are beginning to become backlogged for us to be able to take some actions. Things like can we go ahead and at least allow us to discuss ordinances. Maybe ordinances of the non-land use variety. I know that land use is of pretty imminent importance in Milton and, certainly, citizens want to be able to engage actively and openly when it comes to land use. But how about some other ordinances? They may not actually be Covid-19 ordinances that may be things like, I don’t know, vape shop ordinances or the other sorts of regulatory powers that Milton needs to be able to take advantage of and be able to put into effect? So, we had the discussion April 15. We went ahead and adopted that emergency ordinance. And, candidly, I think there was a [inaudible] [00:08:11] error in that ordinance. It, actually, needed to expire on May 19. So, now we’re to tonight. The direction that I received was to put together another version of the ordinance. It would be in the nature of an amendment. And it would, basically, run within the same Special Called Meeting of the Milton City Council Thursday, April 23 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 6 of 13 6 durational time period as the emergency ordinance you just adopted. So, it would still run to what I believe was supposed to be the effective termination date of May 19. And that is clarified in this emergency ordinance that I have provided to you, May 19. But with context, just to give you a little bit of context on that, the governor’s declaration of statewide emergency is currently slated to end on May 13 is my understanding, May 13. And I think the shelter in place, actually, ends on April 30. So, what this new version would do is, as I’ve already mentioned, it would expire on May 19. But it would also lift the lid a little bit with respect to the actions and the activities and the functioning of the city of Milton. For instance, in Section 6.1, if you’re following along in your agenda book, we have some new language. So, for instance, rather than saying all matters involving a public hearing would not be able to go forward, it would say now that all land use matters requiring a public hearing, including but not limited to zonings, special use permits, and variances would continue to be stayed. So, again, taking the focus on land use, which as I mentioned previously is something I know is very important to the citizens of Milton and very important to the council that you want full and robust engagement on that. I get it and your staff gets it. So, that’s why we sort of lifted the lid but only on those sort of police power enactments that were not land use driven. And then, we did the same thing with respect to the general statements. With respect to policy making functions, we still would have the impediments that we can’t work on strategic plans, those things that are supposed to guide us strategically for the next several years. And we’re not going to engage in land use planning functions or visioning or development of these large scale visioning enactments by the city. But we could work on an ordinance or two and conduct some activity that we just need to discuss it to prevent a significant backlog in the operations of the city when we are finally able to go back to what I would call business as normal to the extent we’re ever able to do that, which I hope we will. This ordinance that I’ve put in front of you would continue to prohibit us from adopting zonings and plots and variances and other land use decision making that would continue to be the case. But as has been the case for our emergency ordinance since its inception, we could do Special Called Meeting of the Milton City Council Thursday, April 23 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 7 of 13 7 contracting, budgeting. I’ve added in ordinances. And we would continue to be able to operate, obviously, in fiscal operations to keep the city running as normal. So, bottom line, councilmembers, the biggest thing this amendment does is is it does allow us to work on non-land use based, zoning based ordinances. We could continue to go ahead and continue to move forward with those. And, again, it makes clear that the termination date of the emergency ordinance is a solid May 19 termination date. Mr. Mayor, that’s my presentation. Again, there’s not a great deal going on in the emergency ordinance. This is what I hope to be a very utilitarian, practical loosening of the reins a bit. But it is, certainly, not any effort to begin to do all of the robust decision making that Milton traditionally engages in. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mayor Lockwood: Correct. But, obviously, when we first went into this, we didn’t know how long the situation would last. And there are several business items that are starting to pile up, so to speak, for lack of a better term. So, this will give us some flexibility to continue on business with the city. Let me ask Stacy. Is there any public comment on this? Stacy: No, sir. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I’ll close the hearing. Are there any questions from council or, I don’t know, Steve, if you’ve got anything you want to add to that? Steve: No, Mayor. I believe Ken captured everything perfectly. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. How about council, are there any questions on that? CM Cookerly: I think it’s understandable, reasonable. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. If there are no other questions or comments from council, I’ll open up for a motion. CM Longoria: Mayor, I move that we approve Agenda Item No. 20-112. CM Mohrig: Second. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I’ve got a motion for approval from Councilmember Special Called Meeting of the Milton City Council Thursday, April 23 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 8 of 13 8 Longoria and a second from Councilmember Mohrig. I’m going to ask individually for votes, again. So, I’ll just go Councilmember Cookerly, would you please state your vote. CM Cookerly: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. And that’s for approval. Councilmember Longoria, please state your vote. CM Longoria: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: Councilmember Mohrig, if you would please state your vote. CM Mohrig: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: Councilmember Jamison, if you would please state your vote. CM Jamison: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: Councilmember Bentley, if you would please state your vote. CM Bentley: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. And Councilmember Moore, if you would please state your vote. CM Moore: Aye. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to approve Agenda Item No. 20-112. Councilmember Mohrig seconded the motion. The motion passed (7-0). ORDINANCE NO. 20-04-419 Mayor Lockwood: Okay. And I’m also going to vote in favor. So, at this point, that was unanimous, Sudie. So, that was our only business item. Before we adjourn, I just want to open up for any comments. I know with the governor’s latest orders and the possibility of our state opening up, there are a lot of questions. I know staff has done a pretty good job – everybody has done a great job, put some things out there online. Again, there are a lot of things that we have to consider and whatnot. So, I know there have been questions about opening up Parks and Recreation, not only programs but also our parks. And a Special Called Meeting of the Milton City Council Thursday, April 23 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 9 of 13 9 lot of questions with businesses and all of that. So, again, I don’t know, Steve, if you – we talked briefly about it. But at this point, we’ve still got to assess a lot of things before we take any actions. Are there any comments from council or, Steve, do you have anything to add to that? Steve: The governor’s shelter in place order is still in effect until the 30th. We want to take at least the next week that we have available to us to kind of assess how things progress right now. We’re seeing numbers fluctuate that I don’t think that necessarily we were expecting to see fluctuate regarding infection numbers and some things along those lines. I think this is a great opportunity for us to assess the current environment and then, make decisions more towards the end of the governor’s order. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Are there any council comments on that or concerns or questions? Paul? CM Moore: Steve, in reference to the governor’s action that he’s taking, is it my understanding – or it is my understanding that he’s lifting some of the requirements and allowing some businesses to go back to some semblance of normalcy effective tomorrow with a rather peculiar list of businesses but nonetheless a list. Are we going to allow those to in Milton cooperate at the same level or are we going to hold a higher standard than the governor is offering at this point? Steve: That’s a great question, Councilmember Moore. To piggyback on what the mayor said earlier, I don’t think this is going to go like a light switch regardless. There is going to be a significant ramping up period. But the governor has also included in his order that, as a municipality, we can’t create more stringent regulations or looser regulations related to this. So, Ken, please free if I’m not stating this correctly but I believe we are bound by the governor’s order on how things will open. Mr. Jarrard: That’s right. This is Ken Jarrard. Yes. The city manager is right. The governor has put in place an order that effective tomorrow, those businesses that have been effectively banned will be able to come online. The order is very clear. They must engage in what’s called minimum basic operations. Under the order, the sorts of businesses are, for instance, like massage institutions, hair salons, beauty shops, etc., those sorts of things, not only are those Special Called Meeting of the Milton City Council Thursday, April 23 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 10 of 13 10 institutions required to engage in minimum basic operations and the order itself contains a list of 20 different protocols they are to consider as part of their opening. I will also tell you that the State Board of Cosmetology has also issued some guidance that is online that practitioners can take a look at that provides how they can sort of come back to life, if you will, in this difficult environment. And, candidly, the reason that these were, if I may, shut down businesses is because they are the kinds of businesses that simply require close physical interaction as part of the way they operate. And so, there has been some guidance put online, too, at the various boards that govern some of these entities. But the city manager is correct. They will come online or have the right to. That’s one of the things, too, that’s important to understand. What the governor has indicated is that they are allowed to open subject to these minimum basic operations. It’s not a mandate that they do but it is an authorization that they can, which I think is meaningfully different. And I also believe that the governor indicated in the same press conference that he may, in fact, have some guidance that would allow in dining in restaurants to go live on Monday, the 27th is my understanding. But I don’t want to get ahead of that. And, obviously, the governor has not issued that order yet. But I understood that guidance may be coming from the governor shortly as well. The city manager is also correct that Milton is not in a position to be able to speak and impose stricter or more lenient rules. The governor’s order is very clear that he wants to have the last word on that. And so, we’ll have to yield to that. Mayor Lockwood: And I may just want to add my perspective and what I’m seeing. And, again, my position on this is, to Ken’s point, these businesses may be allowed to open but it doesn’t mean it’s mandatory that they do open. And from what I see and my anticipation is a lot of these businesses are going to take much longer. They’re going to, through their own decisions, as well as our citizens, our public, as far as to where they want to use these businesses. Whether it’s the businesses you recommend or read out the list or restaurants. I don’t think it’s turning a light switch on Monday and tomorrow. I think it’s going to be a slow process. So, again, our citizens have by and by all around used good Special Called Meeting of the Milton City Council Thursday, April 23 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 11 of 13 11 judgment. And I foresee that being the same thing with some of these openings. So, I don’t think it’s going to be a flood gate opening tomorrow and then, again Monday for a lot of businesses opening. Does anybody else have anything? Paul? CM Moore: Joe, I just want to complete that thought. I agree with your assessment, too, and that is that there is a lot of conflicting opinion from the community, both near and far, about whether those are the right businesses to be opening first or whether they should be. We want to, of course, give our small businesses in Milton a chance to take the first step back if they believe it’s appropriate. But I also would share the responsibility back on the community. If you’re uncomfortable with that business opening, it’s not necessarily appropriate to shame that business for trying to get back on their feet. It’s an individual responsibility as a citizen of Milton to use your good judgment on whether or not, if you’re not comfortable then, don’t go. And if you are comfortable, support the business. And it’s an individual decision. We’re, basically, to some extent, reinstating some of the civil liberties that people were concerned about some restriction on. So, I just charge our community with being responsible to themselves whether that business has chosen to open or not. Mayor Lockwood: Yeah. I totally agree. Anybody else? One other thing, too. I just want to reiterate and, Steve, I’ll let you comment, too. We’ve discussed prior and there is a lot of talk with several municipalities on budgeting and potential shortfalls and crises that governments may have. And just so you know, our staff is monitoring that. We do feel that we are in a different position, Milton is, than many others because of the obvious reasons. But I did want to bring that up that it’s, certainly, something that we are tracking and we’ll make sure that we keep everybody updated. And, again, we, at some point, may need to make some budget changes. Steve, I don’t know if you want to – Steve: It’s been the topic of conversation every day And, in fact, next week, almost my entire week is filled with those budget meetings with each of the departments just to ensure we’re tracking in the right direction. And then, I have another meeting at the end of the month at the state level to talk about what are potential anticipated impacts. Again, it’s all guesses at this point but at least we’ll always be getting on the same page. But as of right now, from Special Called Meeting of the Milton City Council Thursday, April 23 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 12 of 13 12 what I stated on the 15th, I still believe that we’re in good shape here. Mayor Lockwood: And, again, I’ll just add that, even though we have existing budgets doesn’t mean that we are going to fund or spend our budget. We’re, certainly, looking at everything very wisely just to make sure in case we do have to make some adjustments later. Steve: We’re focused mostly on infrastructure and support where we need to make sure that operations continue going forward. The rest are on hold. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Anything else from council? CM Bentley: Mayor, I just wanted to mention that, apparently, North Fulton is getting a testing site over at Sergeant and John’s Creek. So, I know that the folks that live over in this area will be happy to know that they don’t have to go to Charlie Brown or Georgia Tech should they need to get that test done. So, thank you to our Fulton County representatives for that. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Lockwood: Yeah. Sounds good. Yeah. We got updated on that the other day. That’s good news. Anybody else? I appreciate everyone showing up for tonight’s meeting tonight. So, with that, I’ll conclude the meeting. Do I have a motion to adjourn? CM Mohrig: Motion to adjourn. CM Mohrig: Second. Mayor Lockwood: All right. I have a motion to adjourn from Councilmember Mohrig with a second from Councilmember Longoria. All in favor, please say aye. Group: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: Aye. So, Sudie and Tammy, that was unanimous. Everyone voted in favor of an adjournment. Imagine that. So, anyway, I want to, again, thank everybody and we’ll talk to you later. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Mohrig moved to adjourn the meeting at 6:25 pm. Councilmember Longoria seconded the motion. The motion Special Called Meeting of the Milton City Council Thursday, April 23 , 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 13 of 13 13 passed (7-0). Date Approved: May 18, 2020 __________________________________ _____________________________ Sudie AM Gordon, City Clerk Joe Lockwood, Mayor