HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - CC - 07/06/2020Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council
Monday, July 6, 2020 at 6:00 pm
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CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Lockwood: I’d like to call the regular meeting of the Milton City Council for
Monday, July the 6th, 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 City Clerk as soon as possible. While Milton rules allow for
a speaker to turn in their comment cards up until the clerk calls the
agenda item, once the agenda item is called, no more comment
cards will be accepted. So, will the City Clerk please call roll and
make general announcements?
Sudie: Good evening, Mayor, and, Council. I’ll be happy to call roll for
the July 6th, 2020 regular 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 fill out a 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 presenting
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 bringing your comment card to me now.
Demonstration of any soft within the Chamber is prohibited. Please
refrain from any applause, cheering, booing, outbursts, 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: Council Member Peyton Jamison?
Peyton: Here.
Sudie: Council Member Paul Moore?
Paul: Here.
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Monday, July 6, 2020 at 6:00 pm
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Sudie: Council Member Laura Bentley?
Laura: Here.
Sudie: Council Member Carol Cookerly?
Carol: Here.
Sudie: Council Member Joe Longoria?
Joe: Here.
Sudie: And for the record, Council Member Rick Mohrig is absent.
Would everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance?
Councilmembers Present: Councilmember Peyton Jamison, Councilmember Laura Bentley, Mayor Joe Lockwood, Councilmember Carol Cookerly, Councilmember Paul Moore and Councilmember Joe Longoria. Councilmember Absent: Councilmember Rick Mohrig
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE (Led by Mayor Joe Lockwood)
Everyone: 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, good evening, everybody, and welcome to our City Council
Meeting here in the City of Milton. Sudie, if you would please
sound the first item, the next item.
Sudie: Our next item is the Approval of the Meeting Agenda, Agenda
Item No. 20-175.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay, I do wanna add an Executive Session that to discuss
personnel. Is there anything else that anybody would wanna add to
the agenda? If not, I’ll open for a motion on the Agenda Approval.
Joe: Mayor, I move that we approve the meeting agenda as prepared
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Monday, July 6, 2020 at 6:00 pm
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with the addition of an Executive Session to discuss personnel.
Carol: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I have a motion for approval as amended from Council
Member Longoria with a second from Council Member Cookerly.
All in favor please say aye.
City Council: Aye.
Mayor Lockwood: Any opposed? That’s unanimous. Sudie, do we have any General
Public Comment?
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to approve the
meeting agenda with the following change: Add an Executive
Session to discuss Personnel. Councilmember Cookerly seconded
the motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Mohrig was
absent from the meeting.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Sudie: I do have two, one to be read into the record and another one.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay, let me just read the rules then in. The next item is General
Public Comment. 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 not a time to engage the Mayor or
Members of 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. You’ll
have five minutes for remarks. The City encourages you right now
to review the Agenda, and if you wish to speak, to bring your
comment cards to the clerk. So, we’ll move on, or, Sudie, you say
you got two.
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Monday, July 6, 2020 at 6:00 pm
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Sudie: Yes, sir. Miss Pamela Jackson.
Pamela: Pamela Jackson, 2105 Bethany Way, Milton, Painted Horse
Winery, The Farm at Pamelot. I don’t even really know if I need to
say anything right now. I’m more just here because my presence –
because I know that all of you are very aware, and you’ve been, I
think, supportive of me. I did send an email out to y’all the day
before yesterday, I guess, I think it was. And I hope you got that,
and I think I’m not contesting or approving. I’m not sure what I’m
doing because I’m so confused on what is being presented as far as
the farm wineries go.
I did see the foreign wine is there, but I thought they were going to
present that but at least the beer. And that is one of the big issues
that I’ve got but the whole kind of package in there. So, all I
wanted to do is say I’m here, this is hugely important to me. I do
appreciate all of the effort and time that you all have put into it.
And it’s important, thank you.
Mayor Lockwood: Thank you. Okay, Sudie, you have another comment?
Sudie: Yes, I have one to read into the record. It does not have
[inaudible] [00:05:43], and it was an email sent to me by Arthur
Pashayan at 13895 Bethany Oakes Pointe, Milton, Georgia.
“My comment relates to the following item from Page 24 of the
Plan Tier 3, five to 10 years, sidewalk on North side of Bethany,
West of Highway 9, 2.6 million. By the drawing, I see this
continues a sidewalk on Bethany Bend all the way to Hopewell
Road. This section of Bethany Bend is incredibly dangerous for
bicycling being narrow with no safe shoulders.
“Therefore, I strongly recommend that this be specifically marked
as ‘multi-use trail’ in the Plan versus ‘sidewalk’ given North Park
and the number of schools on Bethany Bend and the dangerous
road conditions for walking or bicycling. Please, see if you can
move the priority to Tier 1 or 2 to hopefully reduce the chance of
someone getting hurt.”
And that’s all, sir.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. So, do we have no more Public Comment then?
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Monday, July 6, 2020 at 6:00 pm
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Sudie: No, sir.
Mayor Lockwood: All right, so if we can move on to the Consent Agenda. Sudie, if
you’ll please read those items.
CONSENT AGENDA
Sudie: The first Item is approval of the May 18th, 2020 regular City
Council Meeting Minutes, Agenda Item No. 20-176.
Next is approval of the financial statements and investment report
for the period ending May 2020, Agenda Item No. 20-177.
Approval of a change order between the City of Milton and
PURVIS Systems, Inc. for the Fire Station Alerting, Agenda Item
No. 20-178.
Next, approval of a contract between BIS Digital, Inc. and the City
of Milton, Georgia, for the installation of an ADA-compliant
listening assist for the Milton Courtroom, Agenda Item No. 20-
179.
Approval of a professional services agreement between the City of
Milton and CHA Consulting, Inc. for Cogburn Road sidewalk,
Agenda Item No. 20-180.
Our sixth and final Consent Agenda Item this evening is approval
of subdivision plots and revisions, Eric Mundy, land lots 833,
2770, and 2780 Bethany Bend, Minor Plat, recombing three lots
into two lots, 8.136 total acres, 0.24 lots perspective acre, Agenda
Item No. 20-181.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay, do I have a motion for approval on the Consent Agenda?
Laura: Mayor, I’d like to make a motion to approve the Consent Agenda
as read.
Paul: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay, I have a motion for approval from Council Member Bentley
with a second from Council Member Moore. All in favor please
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Monday, July 6, 2020 at 6:00 pm
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say aye.
City Council: Aye.
Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. Okay, Sudie, if you’d please sound the items
under Reports and Presentations.
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to approve the
Consent Agenda. Councilmember Moore seconded the motion.
The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Mohrig was absent from
the meeting.
REPORTS AND PRESENTATIONS
Sudie: This item is discussion of the Trail Master Plan, Mr. Parag
Agrawal.
Parag: Mayor, and, the City Council Members, I am Parag Agrawal,
City’s Community Development Director. And today we are here
in front of the City Council to present the final draft of the Trail
Master Plan called the Milton Community Trail Prioritization Plan.
This has been a 15-month process that included numerous
community meetings, field visits, City Council briefings, data
analysis, online surveys, and cost estimating.
Today, I have the entire project team here with me to answer any
questions from the City Council including Michelle McIntosh-
Ross, Principal Planner, and she has served as the Project Manager
of this very important project, Shubhangi Jangam, Senior Planner
from our Department, Teresa Stickels, Conservation Project
Manager, Cristina Pastore, the Project Manager from [inaudible]
[00:10:24], and Cindy [inaudible].
Today, we are also joined by the Citizens’ Trail Advisory
Committee Members including the Chair of the Citizens’ Trail
Advisory Committee, Dr. Brian Maloney. Thank you, Dr.
Maloney, for being here today. I would also like to thank City
Council Member Paul Moore. Before City Council Member Paul
was elected to the City Council, he was a very active member of
the Trail Advisory Committee, and he helped us immensely in
drafting this Trail Master Plan. So, thank you, City Council
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Member Moore, for helping us out.
As we all know, the Milton residents love their trail network, and
according to the 2019 Comprehensive Parks Integration Master
Plan, around 85% of the residents used walking, biking, and hiking
trails in the past. In 2016 Comprehensive Transportation Plan,
around 95% of the residents responded by saying they would like
to walk and bike if improvements are made to the City’s trail
network. The 2020 Trail Master Plan puts the focus on community
participation and community involvement into the trail planning
activities of Milton.
Therefore, the project team is calling this Trail Master Plan as the
Milton Community Trail Prioritization Report. The Trail Master
Plan was guided by the community and is not only a division of
exercise. This plan basically divides the division of exercise into
various trail segments. It also prioritizes the various trail segments
as per the funding levels, and we also have our implementation
schedule of this Trail Master Plan.
So, again, in transportation planning, this is not only a
transportation plan, but what we call it as a transportation
programming that basically looks at the various transportation
projects, funding levels, and also prioritizes those transportation
projects based on the funding levels.
Female Speaker: I’m sorry to interrupt. If you have to the advance slides, can you
[inaudible] [00:12:38]?
Parag: Yeah, I will update them when I need.
Female Speaker: I just wanna make sure [inaudible – crosstalk]. Sorry.
Parag: So, what we heard from the Trail Advisory Committee Members
that the City has been planning for the City’s Trail Master Plan for
the last 10 years, and the focus should now be on the Trail Master
Plan implementation, construction, and maintenance of the trail
network in the City of Milton. So, David, can you move the slides
now?
So, starting with the summary of the Plan recommendations, the
system of the – I cannot see these slides on this screen, right? Now
coming to the summary of these Plan recommendations, some of
the recommendations are this Master Plan recommends around 1.8
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miles of street trails, 5.3 miles of new site paths, 6.86 miles of
sidewalks, and around 11 new crossing treatments to encourage
more pedestrian environment in the City of Milton.
If you look specifically in the Birmingham Park and Greenspace
Properties, this Master Plan recommends around 4.2 miles of
decomposed granite trails, around 9.5 miles of native soil trails,
and 97 parking spaces. David, can you move the slides? Again,
these are some of the priorities of the Master Plan. I will say I was
very proud when I saw that the Trail Advisory Committee was able
to come up with their priorities in the very first Advisory
Committee Meeting.
And these are the top four priorities of this Master Plan. The first
priority area is within and connecting to the Crabapple area. As we
know, Crabapple is the City’s new downtown, and there’s so much
construction happening. And very soon, by next year, the City will
be having a very vibrant downtown. So, the Trail Advisory
Committee Members thought our downtown Crabapple should be
the first priority area for having new trail network in the City of
Milton.
Second is the Deerfield Area. As you know, Deerfield is also
another of the very important commercial corridors of the City, so
again, walking, and biking trails within the Deerfield Area. No. 3rd
was the area of safety concerns for walking, biking, and for horse
riding. No. 4th, was the trails in Birmingham Park and the trails in
the newly acquired Greenspace bond-fund properties, again,
hiking, walking, biking, and horse riding. Can you move the slide?
So, this is a summary of the community engagement. As I
mentioned, this Trail Master Plan was very heavy on the process,
and there were a number of community meetings. We have been in
front of the City Council for three times in the past. There were
four Milton Trail Advisory Committee Meetings. The Milton Trail
Advisory Committee Members was a large group. It included
around 25 members. There were three open-house meetings and
four target-group meetings.
One target-group meeting was on Deerfield, Crabapple, citywide,
and [inaudible] [00:15:48]. We also had an online survey in the
month so September of 2019, and there were more than 1,000
people who responded to that survey. Again, this is some more
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details of the community engagement.
As I mentioned, there was a community-input survey from
September 11th to September 25th. More than 1,000 people
responded. Again, the were these four target-group meetings,
August 7th, August 14th, 22nd, and 18th, again, Crabapple Area,
Deerfield, [inaudible] [00:16:24], and citywide. There were four
public open-houses so that the Milton residents can give us their
feedback on the Trail Master Planning in the City of Milton.
So, this is the group of our – these are the names from our Milton
Trail Advisory Committee. Again, this was a very balanced group,
residents, business owners, people from all the City Council
districts, very balanced group, very large group. I will not advise to
form such a large group in the next projects, but again, before we
move forward, I will invite Dr. Brian Maloney to come here and
speak for the Milton Trail Advisory Committee.
Mayor Lockwood: Yeah, I’ll bet Robert didn’t know this was part of his job
description he came here a few months ago.
Dr. Maloney: I was about to say, “Man, I’d love to get him to come to our
office.” Mayor, and, Council, I think it’s really important to reflect
back on what brought us to this moment. Seems it wasn’t too long
ago where we had a total disconnect between some of the plans of
the City and what the citizens really wanted. What Parag has laid
out for you is really an amazing effort on behalf of the City, and I
praise both Steve, Parag, and your staff, on assembling the whole
team. And the level of community involvement is really
unbelievable.
So, I think before you have a good idea of the priorities of the
community, but there’s so much growth and development going on
in Milton to accept one document is just gonna be something on a
shelf. And I think going forward, the way you really make that a
living document and continue to keep that connected to the
community is by really reestablishing that Milton Trail Committee.
Years ago, it was rolled into the Parks and Rec Committee under a
different advisor than Jim, and at that point, very little money, and
very low priority.
This is a high priority now, and so, I would encourage you to think
about reestablishing a committee where everyone appoints one
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person, and I would also encourage you to put that under Parag
because Community Development, that was part of the reason why
we chose some of those areas. Because with the rapid development
and everything, there’s are key. But thank you so much for
allowing me the opportunity to serve, and thank you.
Mayor Lockwood: Thank you, Brian.
Parag: So, again, just want to give you a brief overview of the various
meetings of the Milton Trail Advisory Committee, the first
meeting was held in June of 2019 that basically established the
goals and priorities as I mentioned. In the very first committee
meeting, the committee members were able to establish the top
four priorities of the Trail Master Plan.
In the second meeting, we reviewed and discussed the draft
concept plans. We also discussed the [inaudible] [00:19:35]. We
also had field tours. Again, many of the committee members
wanted to meet in the field rather than sitting in this conference
room. So, Michelle was able to schedule a very important tour in
September of 2019. The third Trail Advisory Committee Meeting
was in November of last year, and we basically reviewed the
community input, discussed the draft costing and phasing, and we
also reviewed the amount of funding that’s available for the trail
network in the City.
The fourth meeting was early this year, and in the final meeting,
we were able to come up with a consensus on the various trail
planning projects in the City of Milton. So, after this, I will – so,
let me start with this. So, as I mentioned, there was a lot of
community input, but we also went in front of many existing city
committees and city boards which a very, what I will say, very
important aspect of trail planning in the City of Milton. So, we
went in front of the Milton Greenspace Advisory Committee just to
make sure what are their priorities for the Milton Greenspace
Properties.
We also went in front of the Milton Equestrian Committee to
identify their priorities for horse riding and for other users. We also
went in front of the Milton Public Arts Commission because as
you know, public art is one of the key focus areas of the various
trail networks. If you look in Atlanta, Atlanta BeltLine, and if you
look at the best public art projects which are coming around this
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BeltLine Project, we thought that this could also be one of the
focus areas in Milton.
The art which is basically compactable and it will enhance the
Milton’s character. So, we also went in front of the Milton Public
Arts Commission. So, with this, I will ask Cristina who was a very
important member of our team to talk about the scope and process,
and we’ll take it from there.
Christina: Good evening, Mayor, and, Council. Thank you for the
opportunity to be here. This is the second time I have left my house
for a meeting, so very excited to be here, very, very unique time
with are in, so. What I wanna do, Parag gave you an overview of
all of the things that we have been doing from an outreach
perspective. So, I wanna give you a little bit of more detail on
some of the technical components. Because as you know, with any
planning process it’s important to have both of those.
So, what you see on the screen is a little bit of an overview of the
overarching process. We had three major tasks. The first task really
was understanding where we are today. So, really doing that
inventory, a lot of the mapping, and then being able to go out to
actually visit a lot of the sites, we also spent a lot of time
developing the goals and priorities as Parag mentioned with the
Advisory Committee.
Moving on to Task 2, we really dove in to work on developing the
trail concepts, and along with that, we had a number of associated
committee meetings that went with that and target-group meetings,
and then finally, really understanding we had a cost, what those
projects look like, and then understand the feasibility,
constructability of those elements, and then prioritize them based
on the funding availability that we saw.
Next slide. I will wave bigger. So, some of the technical elements
of the work that we did, as I mentioned, we conducted site visits,
went out to each of the different – to Crabapple, to Deerfield, and
to a number of the Greenspaces and Birmingham Park. And
actually, for Cooper Sandy, we went out and took a GPS unit and
actually mapped the trails and the logging roads that are out there.
Because we didn’t have any sort of starting place for that, so that
was a great way to be to digitize that information.
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On the alignment and concept development, we really got to work
on developing the concepts for Deerfield and Crabapple
specifically, and then a completely different type of process when
we went out into the Greenspaces to really to be able to get out
there and work on the concepts. You’ll see one of the images in the
middle really is of our principal landscape architect working with
various contours. So, we were working with limited information in
the Greenspaces since they are so very new, and we don’t have
survey data.
But we had a lot of great information to start, and so, we were able
to work with our landscape architect to develop some of those
different concepts for the different trail facilities. And then as I
mentioned, the constructability and feasibility, trying to figure out
how many of these projects, what is the reality of them being able
to be done for some sort of reasonable cost. And so, the next piece
of that that then was the costing of those facilities. So, let’s go to
the next slide.
So, on the costing front, we broke out projects into three different
categories, existing, projects that are underway, meaning they’re
being constructed through another entity, and then ones that are
proposed. The proposed projects are the ones that we focused on
specifically for the costing effort. So, what we did was work on
costing for engineering and construction. It does not include utility
costs, and it also does not include right-of-way costs. So, those are
other considerations that will need to be taken into account mostly
in Crabapple and Deerfield where you actually have some right-of-
way and utility considerations.
For projects that we anticipated might compete well for regional
funding we did discount of the overall cost of those by 50%
recognizing that there could be some match opportunities, and so,
we would encourage you to aggressively look for those
opportunities to be able to leverage your local dollars to be able to
get more regional and federal funding. And so, when we look at
then the budgeting piece of this, so we costed the projects. Then
we needed to understand how much money, how much funding are
we realistically working with.
Obviously, this is a planning-level study, and so, none of this is
guaranteed. I clearly, couldn’t’ve told you we would be standing
here social distancing in July, so there’s a lot of things that can
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change. But based on the information that we had available to at
the time, we looked at some of the local funding opportunities as
well as some of the non-local funds. So, when we look at local
transportation dollars, there’s obviously a current [inaudible]
[00:26:15]. We did anticipate that a second round of [inaudible]
could be an opportunity for future funding for these trails.
And there’s also your sidewalk fund. So, any of the projects in
Crabapple and Deerfield, could be eligible for transportation
dollars. So, that is how we allocated those funds. Now, there’s
other local funds that are non-transportation that we looked at the
Impact Fee Pprogram as well as just the City’s general funds. So,
those were the funding that we looked at for the Park and the
Greenspaces.
And then, of course, there are other opportunities to be able to gain
non-local funds. Some of those federal transportation funds that I
mentioned as well as there are other bicycle and pedestrian grant
programs and a lot of recreation programs. So, a lot of the NRP,
the National Recreation and Parks Association, they’re doing a lot
of those different type of grant programs especially right now
because there is a lot of enthusiasm around getting outside and
being able to take advantage of those outdoor spaces.
So, these are great opportunities for the City to once again leverage
local dollars. So, what you see on the screen here is how we broke
out the funding. We have a total of four funding tiers perspective
sub-area. Once again, this is still planning level, so these are guides
depending on the funding opportunities you may move a little bit
slower. But you also may move a little bit faster on the
implementation. So, what you can see are the first four tiers. The
first three of them are what we would consider to be financially
constrained.
So, Tier 1 is for up to two years. Tier 2 is from two to five. Tier 3
is five to 10, and then anything in Tier 4 would be anything
aspirational where we don’t have a dollar amount associated with
those tiers. And you can see they’re broken out by sub-area
allocated across the three different tier time frames. The funding
amounts were determined with the Trail Advisory Committee. So,
we had a meeting and really decided how to break out the funding
by sub-area and by tier.
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As I mentioned before, Crabapple and Deerfield were allocated the
transportation dollars, and the remaining funds that were non-
transportation went to Birmingham Park, Preserve at Lackey Road,
and Preserve at Cooper Sandy. The other thing I do wanna
continue to reiterate, these are high-level cost estimates for the
projects themselves. They are high-level estimates of funding. So,
it's really meant to be a guide as you move forward, but to give
some sort of stratification and prioritization to projects within.
Okay, so now what we wanna do is just seeing a little bit of a
highlight of the specific concept plans. So, we can go. We’ll start
with Crabapple. As you know, Crabapple is your downtown, and
so, there’s a lot of conversation around connectivity and being able
to fill in some of the different gaps and take advantage of some
trail opportunities. So, what you see here, Crabapple and Deerfield
maps both look like this. Any of the orange lines are existing side
paths or sidewalks.
Anything that’s in blue is underway from an outside entity. So,
someone else is already funding it and implementing it. Anything
in pink is what we focused on as part of the plan itself. And so,
what you can see is the full build-out of the plan through Tier 4
through the aspirational phase. So, anything that’s shown in pink,
and then you also can see those proposed crossing treatments are
shown in green.
In total for the Crabapple four phases, the draft concept will
include connectivity and safety in the area with .77 miles of off-
street trails, 1.3 miles of side paths, 2.7 miles of sidewalks, and
three crossing treatments. Okay, so let’s move to Deerfield. So, as
you know, Deerfield is Milton’s most populated area. So, once
again, connectivity particularly to some of the schools and some of
the safety considerations were very important for this plan. When
you look at the full build-out, once again, you can see all of the
coloring is the same.
So, we’re focusing the plan on the things that are shown in pink.
Included in the entirety of this is 1.0 of off-street trails, 1.7 miles of
side paths, 4 miles of sidewalks, and eight crossing treatments. So,
now we move into the Parks and Greenspaces. So, Birmingham
Park is our first one. It’s a 200-acre park that is very popular
particularly among the equestrian community today. So, that plan,
now we’re showing a little bit of a different symbology here. So,
what you can see is the lines that are dashed in green are natural
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surface trails that are decomposed granite or crushed stone.
And those tend to be, we really targeted those to be the ones with
more moderate terrain, so more people could access those a little
bit more easily. Then we also have shown in the orange dashed
line are the native surface trails. So, they might have a little bit
more topography, and they would just be the native soil
underneath. And you can also see they’re some crossing
treatments. Now, underlying those, you can see under the existing
facilities, there is that lighter orange color. So, some of these trails
exist today, are in use.
Some of them need some additional attention. They might have
erosion-control issues, might need to do some clearing and
grubbing. But it’s a combination in some places of fixing trails that
exist, and in some cases, adding new trails. So, what we have in
Birmingham Park includes 4.7 miles of native soil trails, 2.3 miles
of decomposed granite trails, and 52 general and equestrian trailer
parking spaces.
Next, we have the Preserve at Cooper Sandy. So, this is a
centrally-located Greenspace bond-fund property. This is one of
the ones where I said we actually went in with a GPS unit and were
able to digitize all of these by walking them with Dennis. So, that
was a really exciting opportunity. The draft concept plan for
Cooper Sandy includes 1.4 miles of native soil trails, 1.3 miles of
decomposed granite trails, and 25 general parking spaces.
And then our last is the Preserve at Lackey Road. So, this is
another Greenspace bond-fund property. It’s a little bit more
remote, but it’s got some really beautiful, naturally-occurring
environmental areas including the large lake that you can see in the
middle. So, for this, the draft concept plan includes 3.7 miles of
native soil trails, 0.6 miles of decomposed granite trails, 0.1 miles
of boardwalk, and roughly 19 to 20 general and equestrian trailer
parking spaces.
Now, the last area that is kind of more citywide is areas of safety
concern. That was one of the other priorities, and so, we took a
little bit of a different approach with the areas of safety. What you
can see on the map here is a combination of, in the yellow dots,
those are locations where we had bicycle and pedestrian crashes in
a six-year time frame. Beyond that, then you can see the lines and
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the circles that were drawn in red are safety concerns that were
identified by the community or by the Trail Advisory Committee.
So, this gave us an idea of where some of, even if we don’t have
observed crashes, we have concerns over safety. And you can see
they’re in a number of different places throughout the City. So, we
took a little bit of a policy-framework approach on that. And you
can see there we have a number of – oops, my iPod is acting up.
So, we have three different phases that we’re approaching from
that.
So, first is identifying the key corridors where we really need to
focus. So, that’s understanding are their opportunities for lane
reconfiguration. We know a lot of the roads are very narrow,
winding, not a lot of shoulders, and this has been a conversation
since the first transportation plan back in 2008. And so, we know
over time, the City has been working to create additional shoulder
space when the resurfacing has happened. And the shoulders can
be built out, so really go in and identify where can we adjust some
lane configurations, where can we have some traffic-calming
implementation.
And then also looking back to the 2016 comprehensive
transportation plan, considering the bicycle priority network that
was recommended as a part of that plan recognizing that some
corridors might be better as bicycle priority facilities and others
might be better prioritized for vehicles. So, that’s kinda the first
step.
Then going on to the Phase Two which really focuses on the
systemic policy recommendations, looking at places where we can
be putting in flashing signals or HAWK signals, any sort of
pedestrian crossing, wayfinding, and signage-type pieces that can
also help to educate on where we should be crossing safely and
then developing policy guidance associated with the bicycle
priority network including an education campaign, and then
finally, once those projects are identified working to advance and
implement those individual projects.
So, that’s the framework that we’ve outlined for the areas of safety
concern. So, beyond that then, that’s really the conclusion of the
overall plan itself, and so, next steps would include any sort of
document edits coming from the Council or from the public and
then looking forward to plan adoption and then further
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implementation on the part of the City. So, that includes the
presentation, and I’m happy to answer along with Parag if you
have any questions.
Mayor Lockwood: Before we do questions, Sudie, do we have any public comment?
Sudie: No, sir, we do not.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. All right. Certainly, first up, I wanna just thank everybody
that’s involved from our staff, Dr. Maloney, citizens, [inaudible]
[00:36:30]. It’s interesting. This is something that, in fact, Brian’d
probably remember 13 years ago, 14 years ago, us discussing. And
when you talk to people, and you say, “Wouldn’t it be great to
have a trail system that goes North/South, East, West, everybody
can connect, walk, ride a bike, horses, whatever?” And everybody
was all gung-ho for it. It’s overwhelming.
And long story short, it’s going through different variations and
whatnot, and then you get digging into it, and then all of a sudden,
people’s ideas change. And my favorite is somebody doesn't want
it, and you say, “Well, I thought you were for it.” And they say,
“Well, I thought I liked it when it was in somebody else’s yard,
but…” So, anyways, my point is it’s a very tough thing to do
something that everybody’s happy with and all that, but you guys
have done a good job looking at the overall goal and worked hard
to achieve that.
So, just wanna thank everybody that’s been involved to this point,
so I know it’s been a lot of hard work. So, with that, I’ll open up to
if Council has any questions…
Carol: I have.
Mayor Lockwood: Carol, comments?
Carol: Thank you very much. I don’t quite understand the flow of the
money. So, as we’re focused on Milton Country Club, and then we
have all these aspirational opportunities, who’s the best person to
answer that?
Dr. Maloney: Probably me.
Carol: Okay.
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Dr. Maloney: So, they did an excellent job of tiering out how they wanted to
approach the projects. And credit to them, they actually created
one that it’s achievable. With our current [inaudible] funding and
some of the other dollars we believe we could leverage in addition
to our current CIP plan, there’s no reason that we can’t at least stay
somewhat in line with that plan so long as there’s no shift in
priorities or significant revenue drops that we’re not currently
forecasting. This doesn't have to be done separate and apart from
the Milton Country Club though the Milton Country Club is not
part of this plan.
And there may be times that you’ll have some competing projects
across parks to be able to make them happen. Then you as a
Council will have to determine what your priority is, but they have
set a plan here that is doable which is not the easiest thing to do.
And I do believe over – they did obviously identify some
aspirational goals which’ll – that may or may not happen. But all
the other ones, those are very doable objectives under our current
financial structure.
Mayor Lockwood: Laura?
Laura: I just have a few comments. I wanted to respond to Dr. Maloney’s
suggestion on reconvening the Trail Plan Committee because
thanks to the vision of our staff and Mayor and Council we tapped
the brakes when we started to get very serious implementing these
throughout Central Milton. And to everyone’s credit, we came up
with this plan which is, I think, a great plan which prioritizes
connectivity in Crabapple and Deerfield and then what was new
we the Greenspace.
We introduced $25 million worth of Greenspace, and perhaps
maybe destination trails are the way to go. And that’s what I see
that’s so great in this plan is prioritizing were those trails go along
with Birmingham Park. I can’t say enough times to concentrate our
equestrian efforts in Birmingham Park, we can’t do everything in
everything park for everyone. For example, the same holds true
with ADA compliance. I think we need to try to concentrate those
measures in certain parks, learn from it, and then see if it can apply
in other parks.
So, I would love to see the Trail Plan Committee reconvened for
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staff have that group to check back with on the implementation of
this plan, so that it’s a living document. My other thoughts are, as I
mentioned, Birmingham Park. I’d the detail that I saw in there, the
trailer parking. Always would be great to have a water source, and
I know that I saw that in there. That’s what makes it a legitimate
equestrian use, and then also some emergency accommodations for
loose horses, someone gets in trouble out there.
And then also for Birmingham, if we’re gonna have equestrian use
out there, and it is absolutely the most perfect place, I think we can
attract people to larger parcels here by having that draw in the
cornerstone of our community. We just need to make sure that it’s
safe for everyone that uses it by keeping dogs on leashes especially
there. The other part of this is the Greenspace, the destination
Greenspace parks, and I was very thankful for the hard work that
y’all did on the funding, but I really would like to see more
emphasis put on public/private partnerships and utilizing land
trusts.
I think that it wouldn’t be a surprise that we intend to put
easements on this Greenspace forever so that future Councils don’t
feel that this in play for anything but passive-use Greenspace. So,
those easements can bring us revenue, and we can try to use that
mitigation credits from companies that need places to do waterway
improvements. That could be some of these Greenspace areas with
water. I also liked the detail of the signage, getting that up as soon
as possible. I know that in order to put a sign up we have to name
it, and I think that’s coming up in our next Council Meeting,
maybe.
So, when folks get their tax bill, and they see what they’re paying
for with their bond money, they can know, “Hey, that’s a
Greenspace park.” And as soon as we get a sign-up, they’re gonna
wanna park there and go check it out. So, I appreciate the funding
of something practical, just to get a trail cut and a couple parking
spaces. The safety concerns and my final comments on that are
with regard to the speed limits on gravel roads, I know that wasn’t
a big part of this plan, but I think that our gravel roads are such a
draw for trails, and we decided, no, we don’t want side paths there.
But they’re always gonna be utilized, and I think dropping the
speed limit so that we can try to deter cut-through traffic and
utilize it more as a trail. Also, the citywide speed limit was briefly
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mentioned in here, and walkability throughout the City is going to
do nothing but increase if people feel safe getting onto some of
these side paths and sidewalks. So, and I know that we had just an
update last week on our progress on putting forward a citywide
speed limit study so that we can start to address that in all areas of
the City.
It’s of tremendous importance especially to the equestrian
community on open roads. Those are my comments, and I think
that as a city, we have three things that will differentiate us forever,
and that is our Greenspace, our parks, and our trails. And so, as
this converges into a tremendous quality of life that we can have, I
think that it does warrant having an active Trail Committee so that
we can engage them as needed. So, thank you so much for your
hard work. I know it was a huge stakeholder group, and I
appreciate all that they did as well.
Mayor Lockwood: Anybody else, questions, comments? Paul?
Paul: Just back to a couple of comments that Council Member Bentley
has said. I agree also with the idea of an ongoing Trails Committee
is an important one to ensure that the vision and continuity of this
has carryover, and we continue to engage the community on those
things as we execute them but also what the next evolution will
bring. I’ve had a chance through the nudging of Council Member
Bentley as well to do a little bit of homework on the funding,
public, private funding.
I happen to have a family member who’s involved in stream
mitigation funding, and this is out of state, not here. But it at least
gave me a quick education on some of the value of that and some
of the roles that they play. And there seems to be a constant source
of funding and very few places to spend.
So, I would encourage us to take a hard look at that as a resource
for us in Georgia as well, and last to applaud the work of our very
capable consultants finally listened to some of the key messages. I
shouldn’t say finally, because we did have some excellent
exchange throughout, and the end product is a very good product.
Thank you.
Christina: And I will say on the public/private partnerships, we took a more
conservative approach on funding. So, if the City can find other
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avenues to increase the resources, I think that’s fabulous. And what
it means is that you can implement things faster. So, I would
definitely encourage you to explore some of those unique funding
strategies.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay, all right, well. There’s no other questions. Thank you very
much, and again, everybody else that’s involved and also presented
tonight, thank you.
Christina: And thank you to the Committee and the staff. I am really am
excited about where we have come to, so. Thank you all.
Mayor Lockwood: Do we need anymore – do we need to take some direction? Does
staff need any direction, or…?
Dr. Maloney: I love what I’m hearing which means we only have to do some
basic edits and then get it back before you for a vote. I just wanna
make sure you’re all aware of that. You will not see this again,
now, correct, until this comes back for a vote which is gonna be in
short order.
Parag: So, again, thank you for all the great feedback. So, the next steps
are we will make some of the changes which the Council Members
have told us to make. And we plan to bring this back in front of the
City Council on July 20th for the final vote.
Laura: And I just, I – one last, I wasn’t able to hear the detail of the public
comment about the Cogburn Road. So, I just would ask that maybe
if you could look at that, and –
Parag: Yes.
Laura: – because I didn’t turn to the page on time to see. Sorry, it was
Hopewell Road that was the pointed-out concern.
Male Speaker: About the –
Mayor Lockwood: Let me suggest that, Sudie, if you wouldn’t mind, could and, Steve,
if it’s okay with you, have that public comment emailed to
Council. And then again, in the next short future, if Council has
any more comments or whatever, certainly feel from to share.
Parag: Yes, definitely, as the mayor said, we still 14, 15 more days to go,
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if you hear from any other Milton residents, if you want to give
some more feedback, more than happy to make those edits, and
again, want to bring this back in front of the City Council.
Mayor Lockwood: And we can still discuss that at the actual meeting, too.
Parag: Yes.
Mayor Lockwood: But if, Sudie, if you don’t mind getting that public comment that
way, just to be refreshed for Laura’s comment. All right, thank you
very much. Sudie, if you would, please sound the items on the first
person.
Sudie: First item is consideration of an ordinance to amend Chapter 4
Section 85 Farm Wineries, of the Alcoholic Beverages of the Code
of the City of Milton, Georgia. The is Agenda Item No. 20-182.
Our second and final, first presentation item is consideration of an
ordinance to amend the Milton Tree Conservation Ordinance to
provide a time extension on the ability to use the density-based tree
conservation ordinance or the canopy-based tree conservation
ordinance in the City Code, Agenda Item No. 20-183.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay, do I have a motion for approval of the first presentation
reading?
Laura: Mayor, I’d like to make a motion to approve the first person
reading as read by the City Clerk.
Joe: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: 'Kay. I have a motion for approval of the first presentation items
from Council Member Bentley with a second from Council
Member Longoria. All in favor, please say aye.
City Council: Aye.
Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. Okay, we have no items under Public Hearing,
Zoning Agenda, or Unfinished Business. So, we’ll move on to our
new business. Sudie, if you’d please sound that item.
Sudie: This is consideration of an agreement and certification statement
with Fulton County for the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic
Security Act funding, Agenda Item No. 20-184, Mr. Matt Marietta.
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Mayor Lockwood: I don’t see Matt.
Female Speaker: Matt is attending via Zoom.
Mayor Lockwood: Oh, didn’t recognize him. Sorry.
Female Speaker: Hold on just a moment. Hold on just a moment, Matt. We are able
to hear him.
Mayor Lockwood: So, will Matt be on our screen?
Female Speaker: He’s just gonna be on the – he doesn't have a presentation. He’s
just speaking.
Mayor Lockwood: Right.
Female Speaker: If we can get it to work, hold on just a moment. Hold on one
moment, Matt, we’re trying to see if we can get the video or audio
working in the Council Chambers.
Male Speaker: Sounds like something.
Matt: Hello.
Female Speaker: There he is. You’re working, Matt.
Matt: Okay, I’m sorry. I’m trying to turn down my audio on my feed, so
we don’t have feedback. So, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and
Economic Security Act, or the CARES Act, was passed by
Congress and signed into law on March 27th, 2020. Among other
things, it provided funds for local governments to support their
responses and to recover from the COVID-19 disaster. The initial
funds were distributed based on the population that the government
was serving.
So, several of the Metro Counties, the City of Atlanta, and Fulton
County received funds, but the smaller municipalities in Fulton
County did not. The County itself received, I believe, $104 million
for relief out of this initial grant package from the Fed. And they
voted on June 3rd to allocate $2.5 million to support the other cities
in Fulton County, not what the City of Atlanta, but the other
municipalities in Fulton County, to help them cover COVID-19-
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related expenses.
This grant will only cover things that were not budgeted, items that
were specifically COVID-19-related, and so, we have pursued this
possibility along with several other grant opportunities. But given
the ongoing impact of this, we thought it would be worthwhile to
bring this before to see if we can see reimbursement for expenses
specifically between March 1st and May 15th. So, it doesn't cover
the entirety of the disaster. It only covers a discreet period in that
disaster.
And the two documents that would need to be agreed to tonight is
the contract for the CARES Act funding and also a certification on
the part of the City that stipulates that we’re not offsetting planned
expenses, that we’re not asking for the same funds from multiple
different sources and other things to make sure that we’re
following the regulations of the CARES Act and also being
financially clear in the funding and how we’re using it.
And I would be happy to – oh, the total amount that the City would
be asking for in this is approximately $23,000.00 in relief aid with
no match. And that represents real expenses of the City between
March 1st and May 15th for the COVID response. And I would be
happy to answer any questions that y’all have.
Mayor Lockwood: A there any questions for Matt on that? Okay, no questions, Matt,
thank you for that.
Matt: Definitely.
Mayor Lockwood: All right, anything else on that, team, staff, Steven?
Laura: Vote.
Male Speaker: And the only thing we’ll need is the approval of this to get – and
I’m gonna need to this electronically down to the County first
thing in the morning.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. All right, I think I have the documents, so I’ll open up for a
motion if there’s no comments.
Joe: Mayor, I move that we approve Agenda Item No. 20-184.
Paul: Second.
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Mayor Lockwood: 'Kay, I have a motion for approval from Council Member Longoria
with a second from Council Member Jamison. All in favor, please
say aye.
City Council: Aye.
Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. Thank you, Matt.
Matt: Thank you.
Mayor Lockwood: All right, Sudie, will you please sound the second New Business
Item?
Sudie: Our final item this evening is Council consideration of proposed
consent order in connection with quiet title action filed by NR
DEED, LLC, Civil Action File No. 2019-CV-323925, Agenda
Item No. 20-185, Mr. Chris Hamilton.
Atty Hamilton: Thank you, thank you, Mr. Mayor, and, Council. And my name’s
Chris Hamilton. I’m here on behalf of Ken Jarrard. I’m his law
partner, and I wanted to, I know that you had had a discussion with
Sarah Van Valkenburg from my office concerning this tax matter.
This consent order provides us with the best ability to get ourselves
out of litigation and get the two years of taxes that we’re entitled to
get under the law. I’m happy to, I know that you had a discussion
with Sarah. I’m happy to answer any questions concerning the
consent order or concerning tax executions in general. But I don’t
wanna plow new ground if this is something that you’ve already
covered in Executive Session.
Mayor Lockwood: I’ll open up, anybody have any questions for Chris on that? So,
we’re probably good. I did wanna say, we had Ken on our agenda,
and I was thinking, “Wow, Ken sure is looking a whole lot better
and all that and not wearing those silly little ties anymore, so there
goes that.” No, but thank you, Chris.
Atty Hamilton: May I have permission to pass that along to him?
Mayor Lockwood: Sure. So, obviously, from a legal standpoint, this is you guys’
recommendation?
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Atty Hamilton: This is the recommendation. If we’re in litigation then we have no
– we can’t advance a better claim than the two years of taxes that
we’re talking about here. And I have some ideas that I would like
to talk with Stacy about going forward that might be helpful to
prevent this situation in the future. But I think I should probably
have that conversation with her before bringing it to the full
Council.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. All right, so if there’s no questions, I’ll open up for a
motion.
Laura: Mayor, I’d like to make a motion to approve Agenda Item No. 20-
185.
Paul: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay, I have a motion for approval from Council Member Bentley
with a second from Council Member Moore. All in favor, please
say aye.
City Council Aye.
Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. All right, we’ll move on to reports. Is there
anything that the Council wants a report on? 'Kay, just a comment,
I hope everybody had a good 4th of July. I think I’ve talked to a
few of ya. It seems like, and I know we’re – the ongoing
discussion on fireworks, and we’ll be looking at it again, but
unfortunately, it’s above our heads.
But it seems like there was more this year even though we
publicized more about the concerns and whatnot which I wanna
thank the City and Greg for doing that. Thought we did a great job
at that, but I think we all noticed. It seemed like because there was
no public fireworks, it looks like a lot of individuals must’ve done
fireworks. So, but is there anything Council wants a report on?
Laura: No, I just wanted to also thank the efforts of the Communications
Team on the fireworks and the video that the Milton Equestrian
Committee put out. I think that goes a long way, the education and
the engagement of the City. I didn’t get any emails this year. I
think people clearly understood that the City’s trying their best to
make people aware of converging uses, so. It was intense, but it
was also pretty concentrated.
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Mayor Lockwood: Okay, All right. Well, then we’ll move on to Staff and Fire. And
the Chief’s looking a whole lot better, too, isn’t he? Oh, yeah,
that’s Mark.
Mark: Good evening, Mayor, and, Council. Mark Stephens, Deputy Fire
Chief standing in for Robert Edgar who’s enjoying some vacation
right now. Just a quick update from the Fire Department, starting
with COVID-19 our Fire Stations still remain closed to the public.
We are doing community outreach remotely and safely following
all of the social distance guidelines, etc. We were able to
participate in two long-standing traditions this 4th of July. With two
subdivisions, we lead a walking bicycle parade.
The kids decorate bicycles, and the fire truck comes and leads ‘em
out. We just weren’t able to do the Touch A Truck and the things
we do normally at the end of those parades. But we’re still trying
to get out there when we can and be seen and support the
community. The COVID-19 call volume, there’s been the recent
uptick we all know about with cases in the state and in the
community. But our call volume is really not representative of that.
We’re still basically where we’ve been since this started as far as
our responses to COVID-related calls.
And our PPE burn rate is still very minimal, so we feel very secure
with our cache of equipment and PPE supply. So, everything is
fine as far as that goes. Staffing is presenting a few challenges. I
don't know if you know, but we had three recent resignations,
couple folks moved out of state, and one decided to change
departments. We have made two job offers, one gentleman joining
us from Florida starts next Monday.
And we have a candidate who is not certified, and they will start
training at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center at the end of
the month. So, we’ve got those two job offers already signed, and
we have five other candidates that we’re interviewing right now.
So, we expect to be back to full staffing here within the next month
or so. Most of you know, but Fulton County Government, to
promote the 2020 Census put out a Fire Station Challenge to
submit a video with some parameters.
Couldn’t be more than a minute long, had to explain how the
census helps the public, and I’m proud to say that our department,
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the creative minds, pooled together. And we submitted a video,
and we got First Place in the County, but first place does not mean
we won because Roswell got the Champion Prize. So, it was
creative how they worded, but first place is actually second place,
so. But we’re still proud of that, and we had a lot of fun doing that.
And then lastly, we did not have any major incidents with
fireworks in the City of Milton over the 4th of July holiday.
However, we did assist our partners in Alpharetta with two houses
late Saturday night that were tied to fireworks. One was very
minor, started in the bushes, and worked up the siding of the
house. And unfortunately, the other one, when it got on the roof,
got in the attic and ran the attic. So, we did have a little trouble
with that. But any questions for the Fire Department?
Mayor Lockwood: Any questions? Mark, as always, thank you for everything that you
and all your guys do for us.
Mark: Glad to do it. Thank you. I have to clean my own mess.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay, Greg?
Greg: So, I guess this is my first time doing this in-person even though
I’ve been here plenty. I’ve been here seven months, seems about
seven years or so, but it’s been all good. And I really enjoyed
every moment, so thanks again for having me. I also know to speak
in the mic. I should know that. So, a lot of things we’ve done
before we were continually doing, social media updates. So, if you
see any things from Community Scenes, the Council Recaps, a lot
of more, we’re trying to keep that up.
It’s a little challenging when we don’t have city events in the same
way, but we try to be creative as much as we can. There’s a lot of
answering questions. We’re getting more via social media than
before, and email, and also, a priority is communication to our
citizens. So, things like our – I don't know if you saw that about
our outdoor facility rental policy has changed, things like that.
Council Previews is a priority for us that continues.
And communications with specific stakeholders, later this week
you’ll see something for Milton Country Club neighbors whether
they’re pool-pass holders, that sort of thing, to target people as
much as we can. Another one of our focuses is informing you all,
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the elected officials because I think that it’s important that you
know as much as you can, what’s happening. And also, in tandem
with that, we wanna keep city staff informed, and that’s a priority
for us.
Communications is not just outreach. It’s also within, and I think
you guys are part of the team, and it’s important that you know as
ambassadors what’s going on. It’s also important that all our city
staff know what’s going on as much as we can because it’s a lot of
evolving. We don’t want siloes. We want people to be engaged and
part of this team effort. So, that being said, there’s been, since I
think I talked to you last, with my partner in crime, Courtney,
except not he crime part, who’s with Communications
Engagement, so, we’ve, as you know, special events and things
like that are not happening in the same way.
But we are trying to be creative about things. And we’re trying to
do different things. So, we’ve, for example, are creating project
web pages like the trails fund you just heard about. We completed
the city-wide 2019 Annual Report. We’re working on the Police
Department Annual Report. We did things like the pool permit
workshop with our Community Development Department.
So, there’s different ways we can outreach, and that’s a
combination of in-person and Zoom and electronically, all that
thing. So, we mentioned a little bit about the fireworks things. That
was kind of big effort from the – we had four different videos. I
wanna thank Police and Fire in addition to Susan Kimball for
being such a gracious host. And we were able to spin that to not
just one video but four different videos because frankly, people
don’t necessarily wanna sit through 10 minutes, but they’ll sit
through 10 one-minute videos.
So, it’s just a way to be creative about it in addition to different
things. One of the best parts about that is that this content should
be timeless that we’ve kind of designed it that way, so next time
Labor Day and Memorial Day and whatever rolls around, that we
still have a good stockpile of information. So, you don’t have to
reinvent the wheel every single time. And that web page was also
designed for that. And also, just kind of coming soon later this
month, we are finally on track to relaunch our redesigned website,
hopefully by the end of the month.
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If all goes well, it’ll look different, but it’ll be hopefully more
intuitive, more useful. So, that is a – and I wanna thank Jen
Hartwig for that, for really kind of spearheading that. She’s part of
our team because she’s been basically—it’s been about 75% of her
job lately to do that. One thing I talk about being creative with
events, so Independence Day, there was no walking parade this
year because – it’s not just the walking parade part; it’s really the
gathering before and after. And we didn’t know if we could do that
safely.
We’ve kinda been similar to our North Fulton communities have
done, but we still had six or seven social media posts, trivia,
engaging content, festive pictures. We had Trisha Wolf from our
team went out on July 4th and took some pictures of some things
including our firefighters. And that’s something that we really
appreciate, and it’s part of our efforts to be – where you have to
work harder to engage because you can’t do it in the traditional
ways. You have to be more creative about it, and hopefully, try to
reach people in different ways.
One major change since we last spoke is that in addition to
Council, the committees and boards and resuming, and one of the
things we also still realized that a lot of people still can’t come out
or don’t come out. So, we’re putting more of those on Zoom and
Facebook Live as well. So, it’s not just Council. And also, we are
previewing those and recapping those. So, it’s kind of could be a
few extra things every week, but that’s important.
But I think it’s really valuable because it shows not only what the
Council does but what the entirety of the City Government does
and all these volunteers that you have nominated for these
committees, what they’re doing. We’ll have a DRB meeting
tomorrow night, and that’s something will also – for example,
Partnering Commission, other things like that. And people are
noticing things that they didn’t notice before. So, it’s part of our
commitment to transparency and then showing the breadth and the
depth of our government action.
So, and just kinda in closing, I wanted – that continues our general
mission to engage, inform, and connect with Milton residents.
Wanted to highlight one of the important things for me is remind
them that COVID-19 is with us. I’m not if you saw today that
Alpharetta testing site for Fulton County finished – cut off
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Monday, July 6, 2020 at 6:00 pm
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appointments in the late morning, and that’s the earliest they’ve
ever done. So, it’s kind of a sign that – another indication that this
is not going away needless to say. So, we’re trying to keep people
reminded of that in different things like that.
And generally, we want to stress honestly, transparency, humility.
I think is important, and to be service to our citizens, and that’s
really important for the communications aspect especially. We’re
working with our citizens not against them, so. So, any questions?
Mayor Lockwood: Any questions for Greg? No, but thank you very much.
Greg: Sure. Thank you.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
Mayor Lockwood: Appreciate that. Okay, do I have a motion to adjourn in Executive
Session to discuss personnel?
Joe: So moved.
Peyton: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay, I have a motion from Council Member Longoria with a
second from Council Member Jamison. All in favor to move into
Executive Session, all in favor, please say aye.
City Council: Aye.
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to adjourn into
Executive Session. Councilmember Jamison seconded the motion.
The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Mohrig was absent from
the meeting.
RECONVENE
Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. All right, do I have a motion to reconvene?
Male Speaker: So moved.
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Monday, July 6, 2020 at 6:00 pm
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Female Speaker: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: I have a motion and second to reconvene. All in favor, please say
aye.
City Council: Aye.
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to reconvene
back into the regular meeting. Councilmember Bentley seconded
the motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Mohrig was
absent from the meeting.
ADJOURNMENT
Mayor Lockwood: Do I have a motion to adjourn?
Peyton: So moved.
Paul: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: I have a motion from Council Member Jamison, second from
Council Member Moore to adjourn. All in favor, please say aye.
City Council: Aye.
Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous.
Male Speaker: Thank you.
Female Speaker: Hey, Laura, I left my phone here.
Laura: Yeah.
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Jamison moved to adjourn the
regular meeting at 7:11 pm. Councilmember Moore seconded the
motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Mohrig was
absent from the meeting.
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Monday, July 6, 2020 at 6:00 pm
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Date Approved: August 17, 2020
__________________________________ _____________________________
Sudie AM Gordon, City Clerk Joe Lockwood, Mayor