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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEXECUTED-MIN - 8.17.20 Regular MinutesRegular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 1 of 26 1 CALL TO ORDER Joe: Thank you very much. I'd like to call the regular meeting of the Milton City Council for August 17th, 2020 to order. The city strongly recommends that you review tonight's agenda carefully, and if you wish to speak to any item on the agenda, please bring your comment card to the city clerk as soon as possible. While the Milton rules allow a speaker to turn in their comment card up until the clerk calls the agenda item, once the agenda item is called no more comment cards will be accepted. Our comment cards are back on the table. Tammy: Right now, they're right here. Yes, yes, sorry. Joe: And to Tammy, our city clerk, if you'd bring those. So, if the city clerk will please call the role and make general announcements. Tammy: Good evening mayor and council. I'll be happy to call roll for the August 17th, 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 complete a public comment card prior to speaking on the item. Your comment card must be submitted 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 recognizing an organization, an affidavit is required stating you have the authority to speak on behalf of that organization. Please review tonight's agenda and if you would like to make a comment, please bring your comment card to me now. Demonstration of any sort within the chamber is prohibited. Please refrain from any applause, cheering, booing, outburst, or dialogs 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? Joe: Here. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 2 of 26 2 Tammy: Council Member Peyton Jamison? Peyton: Here. Tammy: Council Member Paul Moore? Paul: Here. Tammy: Council Member Laura Bentley? Laura: Here. Tammy: Council Member Carol Cookerly? Carol: Here. Tammy: And for the record, Joe Longoria is absent, and Rick Mohrig is joining us calling in via Zoom. Joe: Has Rick called in yet? Tammy: Yes. He is in. Would everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Councilmembers Present: Mayor Joe Lockwood, Councilmember Peyton Jamison, Councilmember Paul Moore, Councilmember Laura Bentley and Councilmember Carol Cookerly. Councilmember Calling In: Councilmember Rick Mohrig. Councilmember Absent: Councilmember Joe Longoria. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE (Led by Mayor Joe Lockwood) All: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Joe: Again, I wanna welcome everybody here tonight. Appreciate you being here. If our clerk will please sound the next item. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 3 of 26 3 APPROVAL OF AGENDA Tammy: Approval of the -- my apologies, Mayor. Approval of the meeting agenda, Agenda Item Number 20-221. Joe: Okay. I want to add an executive session to discuss potential litigation before new business. And do we need to also add another item on, executive session? Peyton: For personnel, yes. Joe: Personnel, yeah. So, I want to add an executive session to discuss potential litigation before new business as well as discuss around personnel. Is there any other change to the agenda anybody has? I'll open up for a motion. Paul: Mr. Mayor, I move we approve the meeting agenda with the adjustments that you just added. Laura: Second. Joe: Okay. I have a motion for approval as read. An adjusted from Council Member Moore with a second from Council Member Bentley. All in favor, please say aye. All: Aye. Joe: Any opposed? Council Member Moore, can he hear? At this point, I've heard those that are here, so. You'll have to confirm that for me, minutes. Okay, do we have any general public comment, Tammy? Motion and Vote: Councilmember Paul Moore moved to approve the meeting agenda with the following changes: discuss potential litigation before new business and add personnel to the Executive Session. Councilmember Bentley seconded the motion. Councilmember Joe Longoria was absent from the meeting. The motion passed (6-0). PUBLIC COMMENT Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 4 of 26 4 Tammy: I do not, sir. Joe: We can move on to the consent agenda. Tammy, if you'll please - there's a… CONSENT AGENDA Tammy: Sure. The first item is approval of the July 6th, 2020 regular city council meeting minutes. Agenda Item Number 20-222. Next is the approval for an agreement for outside providers, a facility use agreement between the city of Milton and Rush Union Inc. to provide adult soccer programming. Agenda Item Number 20-223. Our third item is approval of a professional services agreement between the city of Milton and Atlanta Retirement Partners to serve for investment advisors for the city's 401 and 457 plans. Agenda Item Number 20-224. Our next item is the approval of a change order Number 1 agreement between the city of Milton and At Zorro Technologies, to provide advanced additional features in connection with the ongoing design and development for the smartphone application for the city's smart community grant project, Walking School bus. Agenda Item Number 20-225. Our fifth item is the approval of a construction services agreement between the city of Milton and Wilburn Engineering LLC for the construction of an emergency vehicle hybrid beacon for the new public safety facility located on SR-9. Agenda Item Number 20- 226. Next is the approval of a professional services agreement between the city of Milton and Southern Actuarial Services to perform actuarial services for the city's defined benefit pension plan. Agenda Item Number 20-227. Our seventh and final agenda item is approval of a subdivision plat in revisions. The first development is located at 13645 Free Manville Road, land lot 915 and 916. It's a minor plot subdivided from 13645 Free Manville Road to two lots. The total acres are 18.364 and the density is 0.109 lots per acre. Our second development is Hansard, Hewlett, and Carter, 14875, Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 5 of 26 5 14905, 14915 Thompson Road, land lot 603. It's a minor plot to reconfigure property lines for three lots. The total acres are 3.78 and the density is 0.79 lots per acre. Agenda Item Number 22-228. Joe: Okay. Do I have a motion on the consent agenda as read? Laura: Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda as read by the city clerk. Carol: Second. Joe: Okay, I have a motion from Council Member Bentley with a second from Council Member Cookerly for approval. All in favor, please say aye. All: Aye. Joe: Any opposed? That's unanimous. And again, we still -- do we know if Rick was able to vote on that? Tammy: He said aye, or at least he spoke when everybody else was saying aye. We're gonna get him to call in. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to approve the Consent Agenda. Councilmember Cookerly seconded the motion. Councilmember Longoria was absent from the meeting. The motion passed (6-0). REPORTS AND PRESENTATIONS 1. Presentation of E-Scooters Regulations. (Parag Agrawal, Community Development Director) Joe: All right. We'll move on to reports and presentations. If the city clerk will please sound that next item. Tammy: Our first item is presentation of E. Scooter's regulations. Mr. Parag Agrawal. Suba: Hello, everyone. I'm Shubhangi Jangam, senior planner of city of Milton. On behalf of community development department, I have been looking into impact of rental eScooters on other communities. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 6 of 26 6 So today we are revisiting the rental eScooter business regulations in Milton. We are here, first, to follow up on the last presentation that happened in August 2019. I think [inaudible] [00:09:47] department did that presentation about the eScooters. And we would like to present also today some key findings about rental eScooters in other cities and talk about the regulations for Milton moving forward. So, what we want to achieve today, we would like to finalize regulatory options for the city for this particular business model, either allow the eScooters, ban them, or allow in just certain areas. So, I just want to remind everybody because we are just talking about the rental eScooter business, it's a rental and not personal eScooters. We are allowing personal scooters. So, what is a rental eScooter business, it's when the electric vehicle is being rented by a single rider and it's mostly a slow speed vehicle. And it can be legally considered as moped. And the users usually just use their credit cards to use these things. And the pick it up from the rental racks and they -- it works very well in like business district or entertainment district. And the leave it once they have traveled a short distance, wherever they want to go. And the rental company then picks them up and puts them back at the original locations. So that's how that business operates. A quick reminder on the timeline, what happened in the past, we had a first presentation on August 17th about eScooters. Then I think at the end of September, the community development department got a request for such kind of business and that's why we started looking into it. And November 16th, the city council put a six-month moratorium on starting such a business because we wanted to really look into how we can really deal with these things. I know lots of things happened since then. This moratorium has expired. But today we want to talk about what do we do about this issue? So first of all, just to be clear, from various points of view, for example, legal point of view, I just want to remind that the city has Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 7 of 26 7 a right to ban or regulate the eScooters. Policy-wise, the city does not currently have any particular policy regarding the rental mobility devices. And the public view, support or non-support, is not yet really clear. Now these are my findings. There are our neighboring cities and some of them have outright banned eScooters, for example, [inaudible] [00:13:01], Woodstock, they have banned completely. Some of them have no ordinance or no stances. They don't have any ordinance on the book. It doesn't mean they don't allow it; they just don't have anything. For example, Roseville does allow it, obviously pre-pandemic situation. They did allow eScooters without any ordinance. And some of them like Atlanta, Brookhaven, East Point, they have active ordinance to regulate the eScooters. And [inaudible] is in the process of getting there. So, these are just examples of what other cities have been doing. And we do want to note that - we do want to tell you that it looks like Crabapple and Deerfield are potential market for this type of business. But at Crabapple we have lots of new construction and Deerfield, obviously we share our boundaries with Alfredia, which has banned eScooters. So those things can complicate things if we start regulating and allowing those things. So just wanted to have it out there. But the fact remains that mobility devices are really good for the last mile travel. We should have an open mind about it and look into it, maybe not right away because we're not ready for it. But in the future, we should look into it because they are providing a good service. So finally, I just wanted to show that we have options. These are our options for regulating or banning. And whichever way you want to go, the community development department is here to support it and we will move forward. So, any questions? Joe: Are there any questions or comments? I want to clarify, and this is for rental or business with the eScooters. So, if someone lives in Crabapple and owns an electric, they are allowed to use their own personal one? Anybody have any questions or comments? Paul? Paul: Just a comment to start the conversation. I think in more urban environment they have been used in a pretty successful way. I know that the contrast to the success of the user is the community Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 8 of 26 8 that has taken issue that they become urban trash if they get left in disrepair or they're left in not a designated place and they become more of an eyesore then they are something that's providing a utility. I don't think we're anywhere near an urban center at this point in Milton's stage of development. I think it might be something that might be worthy of consideration further down the road in our two more commercial areas, Crabapple and Deerfield. But at this point, I don't think we're in either of those locations at the stage of development where I could see a real good application of the current business model. Joe: Okay. And I know we're not voting on anything. But directly from me personally, want to hear from everybody though, extend the moratorium or possibly ban for a limited time. Because to Paul's point at some point five years from now, ten years from now, may be a different scenario. But probably isn't a good fit, my opinion right now, for Deerfield or Crabapple. But certainly, want to hear from everybody else too what your thoughts or direction are. Laura? Laura: So, what are the options if -- how many times can we extend a moratorium, or how long can we ban something to be able to revisit it? Paul: I can answer that, Council Member Bentley, so long as it speaks to the public health safety and welfare of Milton, it is legitimate, it is objectively reasoned, and based on legitimate public policy considerations, you can impose a ban for as long as those reasons exist. This implicates a lot of those issues. It implicates Milton sidewalks, Milton right of way, it implicates public safety, it implicates aesthetics. I could go on. Laura: Thank you. Because I ask that because I agree as well. I don't see a need right now for the scooters. And I think that's a big problem, especially in the Deerfield area. You pointed out that Alpharetta has banned them, and we share so many of the same roads. And it's gonna be very complicated if we ever do wanna consider that. So, I'd be in favor of banning or extending a ban or a moratorium. Joe: Okay. Anybody else? Okay. Rick, do you have any comments, Rick? Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 9 of 26 9 Rick: Not at this time, no. Joe: Could you guys hear that? I didn't. Rich: He has no comment. Carol: I have a comment. I think we should go in the other direction and have bridal trials and hitching posts. And let me make use of my mags and I'll rent them out. That would be my contribution. So, no eScooters. Joe: And I believe we may have a public comment. Tammy: No, we do not. Stacy: We do online. Tammy: Oh, we do, I'm sorry. Joe: Stacy, I'll let you. Stacy: All right. Mr. Jesef, if you'll go ahead and unmute yourself and go ahead and state your name and address before you make your comment. Hold on, Mr. Jesef, we're having some technical issues. Go ahead. Jason: Yes. This is Jason Jesef at 13455 Bethany Road in Milton. And I just wanted to offer my comment on the scooter issue. I would not support the rental eScooter business in Milton. We've been downtown Atlanta where they've got the scooters all over the place. We were down there for Music Midtown in the last year, and the scooters were just strewn everywhere. They're all over the sidewalks. They're in people's front yards. They're half into the road. And people were tripping on them and falling, it was just a complete disaster. There seemed to be no sense of responsibility or ownership for keeping them cleaned up. And they really were, they were just urban litter. They were just all over the place and really were just a hazard to the pedestrians and the public. So, I would not support bringing that to Milton. Rich: If you couldn't hear that, he's not in support of it. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 10 of 26 10 Joe: Well, and that's what I wanted to say. It was a little hard to hear but I did pick up that he discussed the urban litter and the problems with it in different areas that they've been to. So, in case anyone didn't hear but that was the definition jest. Okay, I there any more public comment? I'm assuming that there is not. Okay, again I think that you guys have direction. And thank you very much. We'll move onto the first presentation. FIRST PRESENTATION Tammy: The first presentation is consideration of RZ20-10 to amend Section 64-1, definitions as it relates to the creation of contemporary consumer fireworks retail sale facilities. Agenda Item Number 20-229. The next item for consideration is RZ20-11 to amend Section 64- 775 use regulations C-1 community business, as it relates to the creation of contemporary consumer fireworks retail sale facilities. Agenda Item Number 20-230. Consideration of RZ20-12 to amend Section 64-1608 and create Section 66-1608.1 the temporary consumer fireworks retail sales facilities administrative use permit. Agenda Item Number 20-231. Our fourth item is the consideration of RZ20-13 to amend item – I have to help with that, which one is that one? Crabapple forum- based code definitions Article 6.1 as it relates to the creation of temporary consumer fireworks sales facilities, Agenda Item Number 20-232. Consideration of RZ20-14 to amend the Crabapple form-based code, Article 5, Table 9 as it relates to the creation of contemporary consumer firework retail sales facility. Agenda Item Number 20-233. Consideration of RZ20-15 to amend Deerfield formed based code, definitions Article 6.1 as it relates to the creation of temporary consumer firework retail sale facilities. Agenda Item Number 20- 234. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 11 of 26 11 Our seventh and final item is consideration of RZ20-16 to amend article for the Deerfield form-based code, Article 5, Table 10, as it relates to the creation of temporary consumer fireworks retail sales facilities. Agenda Item Number 20-235. Joe: Okay. Do I have a motion on the first presentation item? Laura: Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve the first presentation items as read. Paul: Okay, second. Joe: I have a motion from Council Member Bentley with a second from Council Member Moore. All in favor, please say aye. All: Aye. Joe: Any opposed? That's unanimous. Excuse me. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to approve the First Presentation items. Councilmember Moore seconded the motion. Councilmember Longoria was absent from the meeting. The motion passed (6-0). Okay, we don't have any items under our public hearing or zoning agenda, so we'll move onto unfinished business. Tammy, if you would please sound that item. PUBLIC HEARING (None) ZONING AGENDA (None) UNFINISHED BUSINESS Tammy: That item is the consideration of a resolution to accept the Milton Community Trail Prioritization Plan, Agenda Item Number 20- Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 12 of 26 12 236, Mr. Parag Agrawal. Parag: This was the hardest part. Mayor and the city council members, I am Parag Agrawal, cities community development director. And today we are in front of the city council to make the final draft presentation on the Milton's trail master plan, called the Milton Community Trial Prioritization Plan. If the city council agrees with the goals and objectives of this trail master plan, the city council will be voting today on a resolution to adopt the Milton's Trial Master Plan. We gave our presentation to the city council on July 6th council meeting. We got some very good input from the city council members. So, the goal of today's presentation is not to go over the entire plan again. I will be giving a very brief introduction. We have made a couple of changes since last time based on the feedback which we received from the council members. I will be going through those changes, and then we will be happy to answer any questions from the city council. This has been a 16-month process that included a number of community engagement meetings, field visits, city council briefings, data analysis, online surveys, and cost estimating. And today we have the entire project team with us, in case to answer any questions. Michelle Macintosh was the principle planner in our department and the project management of this project, Humber Jangum who you just heard. She is a senior planner in our department. Christina Pastor, the project manager from the community team and the project planner, Sendia also from community forum. On July 6th, we also invited the trial advisory committee members to attend the city council meeting and you heard from the advisory committee chair, Dr. Bran Melony, who spoke very passionately supporting this master plan. As we all know, the Milton community loves it's trail network and the city has done a number of trail planning efforts in the past. But the focus of the 2020 trail master plan is on three things. Number 1 is the community participation, number second is the community prioritization, and number third is the project implementation. That is the reason why the project team is calling this trail master plan Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 13 of 26 13 as the Milton's Community Trial Prioritization Plan. Because it's basically done by the community for the trail network. This plan basically divides – it's not only a visionary exercise, but it also divides the vision into various trail planning projects. It also has investment levels, and it also basically puts together the project schedule of these trail segments based on those funding levels. What we heard from the trial advisory committee members that the city has been planning for the trail network for almost ten years now. The time is here now for project implementation so that we can get these trails built. So again, just to go over the summary of this plan. This is a new master plan. It's recommending around 1.8 miles of off-street trials, 5.3 miles of new site paths, 6.6 miles of sidewalks, and 11 new crossing treatments to encourage pedestrian network in the city of Milton. The focus of this plan is also on putting new trials on the greenspace properties, which we are calling them preserves now, and this master plan is recommending around 4.2 miles of decomposed granite trails, 9.5 miles of native soil trails, and 97 parking spaces on these preserves. The master plan has four priorities, and I'm very proud to say in the very first trial advisory committee the committee members were able to come up with these four priorities of the master plan. Number one, we want to build new trials in our downtown area, in our Crabapple area. As you can see there's so much construction going on right now, it's always easy to build new trials when there's already private construction going on. So, the focus of building new trials should be on our downtown. Number second, again is in the Deerfield area. It's our commercial corridor. State DOD is working on widening the Route 9. So again, how can we basically build new trials along our Deerfield corridor. Number third, that the city should focus its resources on addressing safety concerns. Walking, biking, and the safety concerns of horse riding. And number fourth, the priority is to focus trails on the greenspace Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 14 of 26 14 properties. And you know that the city has a separate master plan for Providence Park, and also, for the former Milton Country Club. Again, I won't go through all this. This number should have been updated. We made a presentation; the fourth presentation was in July of this year. We had a number of [inaudible] [00:29:54] meetings. We engaged the community members. Around 1,500 Milton residents have participated in this planning process and that's the reason why everyone is in support of this project because we did a lot of community outreach in the beginning of this project. Again, community input survey, the city had a very robust community online survey last year from September 11 to September 25th. We heard from more than 1,000 residents. We also had four target group meetings that was attended by more than 80 participants. We also had a number of open houses and the city council meetings. Again, we held four public open houses. And these are some of the pictures, that basically shows, that was pre- pandemic era. And so you can basically see people getting engaged in the planning process. Again, trail advisory committee members, big committee. So, we were having some issues with the C-Pac, but this committee was even bigger than the C-Pac. So, it was a 25-member committee. It was chaired by Dr. Brian Melony. Very good discussion. Very robust discussion. Again, some of the trial committee meetings at different stages of the panning process. The goal was engaging the committee at each and every step of the planning process and trying to get their input. So this plan was unique because we tried to engage not only the city council or the trial advisory committee, we also went in front of the greenspace advisory committee, we went in front of the equestrian committee, we went in front of the public parks committee to see if how we can incorporate public art into the trail planning exercise. Like if you look at Atlanta Beltline, Atlanta Beltline has a number of public arts pieces along the trial network. So that was the goal. So, these are the couple of changes which we have made based on the input which we received from the city council last time. Thank you to Council Member Bentley. Some of we have added a few Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 15 of 26 15 lines that basically says on the trial funding. So, number one is we need to have a much more robust public/private partnership, and Council Member Bentley helped us to connect with the land trusts. We had a very good meeting with the Southern Conservation Land Trust and maybe we can engage them more into our various trail construction projects on the greenspace properties. So, this is the only edit that we made since our last presentation. So again, I do have all my slides, but again, I just want to make it short and will be happy to answer any questions. Joe: Is there any questions for Parag on this? Laura? Laura: Thank you very much. That was helpful. We had talked about reconvening the trail planning committee as well as part of the approval of this plan. So, I certainly am in favor of that. And I don't know if this has to be part of this approval or not. Maybe we can talk about it. Joe: No, I would agree. I think it's a good idea to keep them involved moving forward. Laura: I would suggest because it's the trial plan that we – some of our advisory councils are at large and some are by district. And I would suggest that this one be by district because the trail plans hit all of the areas of Milton, just as a suggestion. Joe: Okay, Peyton. Peyton: Yeah, I was ongoing what Laura said. I remember us talking about that, but I don't think we want a 25-person committee. Just like a seven person, like we always have. Okay, yeah. I'm in favor of that too. Joe: Anybody else or is everybody good on something like that? Carol: Yeah, I'd just like clarification on one thing please, Parag. Last time when we talked about money, I know we talked about making sure that the former country club had what it needed for a buildout so that we can get that open and not spreading everything too thin. Can you visit that briefly for us, just so we know that major priorities and that we're very focused on that one property. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 16 of 26 16 Parag: Definitely. So, as you know the opening of the Milton Country Club property is one of the top focuses, top priority of the city administration and also of the city council. So, we are all working towards the opening of this Milton Country Club property. But again, I will say that sometimes the pool of funding is also different. So again, some of the tees-plus dollars and some of the sidewalks money can be used for the implementation of this trails master plan. But the tees-plus dollars cannot be spent for Milton Country Club. And we already have, for the Phase I and Phase I-B, we already have the funding in our budget for the opening of the Milton Country Club. But yes, you are right Council Member Cookerly, the opening of the former Milton Country Club is our top priority. Carol: Yeah, I remember that now. Thank you. Joe: I believe we do have a public comment, so we'll let Stacy handle that. Can you do the music too? Stacy: Mr. Bran, if you can go ahead and unmute yourself if you'd like to speak and make a comment. It looks like he lowered his hand. Okay, Mr. Josef, if you will – hold on. Go ahead and unmute yourself and state your comment. Technical difficulties again. Hold on, Mr. Josef. Okay, try again. Yes. Jason: Yes, good evening. This is Jason Josef at 13455 Bethany Road. I have two questions. We live right in the middle of the preserve at Sandy Cooper. On Bethany Road, we're surrounded by that greenspace. And both my neighbor, the Bakers, and myself, my wife, would like to understand what the plan is for buffers around the residential areas that adjoin to the greenspace to ensure that the trials and things aren't coming too close to private property for privacy concerns. Joe: Were you able to hear that? Stacy: Thank you, Mr. Josef? Joe: And did we have another public comment, Stacy? Stacy: That's it. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 17 of 26 17 Joe: That was it. And if someone can reach out to Mr. Josef to answer his question sometime after the meeting. Okay, anybody else? Did I miss anybody? Okay. I'll open up for a motion. Laura: Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve Agenda Item Number 20-236. Paul: Second. Joe: Okay. Got a motion from approval from Council Member Bentley with a second from Council Member Moore. All in favor, please say aye. All: Aye. Joe: Any opposed? That's unanimous. Thank you. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to approve Agenda Item No. 20-236. Councilmember Moore seconded the motion. Councilmember Longoria was absent from the meeting. The motion passed (6-0). Parag: I just wanted to thank the entire project team for working on this project. All the members of the trail advisory committee, Dr. Brian Melony, former trial advisory committee member, Paul Moore. And a big thank you to Michelle, Christina, Cindy, and [inaudible] [00:38:01] for working on it. Thank you. EXECUTIVE SESSION Joe: Okay. Our next item is added to the agenda. The executive session to discuss potential litigation and personnel. So, I will open up for a motion to adjourn into executive session. Peyton: So moved. Paul: Second. Joe: Okay, I've got a motion for approval from Council Member Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 18 of 26 18 Jamison with a second from Council Member Moore. All in favor please say, aye. All: Aye. Joe: Okay. That's unanimous. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Jamison moved to adjourn into Executive Session to discuss potential litigation and personnel. Councilmember Moore seconded the motion. Councilmember Longoria was absent from the meeting. The motion passed (6-0). Peyton: Mr. Mayor, I do believe we are back. I know that we had recessed for executive session. We do need to reconvene for just a parliamentary issue. Joe: Okay. Do I have a motion to reconvene? Paul: I move we reconvene. Laura: Second. Joe: I have a motion from Council Member Moore, a second from Council Member Bentley to reconvene. All in favor please say aye. All: Aye. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Moore moved to reconvene into the Regular Meeting. Councilmember Bentley seconded the motion. Councilmember Longoria was absent from the meeting. The motion passed (6-0). Peyton: Mr. Mayor, at this point I think, with respect to how we left to go into executive session we may have left a matter off. I do need a motion for reconsideration with respect to the vote to enter into executive session. Joe: Okay. So, we need to – do we need another motion? Peyton: We do. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 19 of 26 19 Joe: But we need a motion to move into executive session. Peyton: We need a motion to reconsider that vote first. Joe: Okay. So, do I have a motion to reconsider that prior vote. Peyton: Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to reconsider that prior vote. Paul: Second. Joe: All right. I have a motion from Council Member Jamison, because he messed that one up, so that's good, with a second from Council Member Moore. All in favor please say aye. RECONSIDERATION OF Motion and Vote: Councilmember Jamison moved to reconsider the vote to move into Executive Session to discuss land acquisition, potential litigation and personnel. Councilmember Moore seconded the motion. Councilmember Longoria was absent from the meeting. The motion passed (6-0). All: Aye. Joe: Is Rick gone? Tammy: He is. He's on the phone right here. Joe: I didn't hear his vote so. Okay, all right. So that was unanimous, correct? I think do we have a vote. To resend that last motion to go into executive session. Do I need to repeat the vote, Ken? Ken: As long as Council Member Mohrig is recorded for the clerk as being in agreement, which I believe he was, you'll be done. Joe: Okay, all right. So, you're okay with that. Okay, that's unanimous. So now, do I need to make a motion to enter into executive session? Ken: For all three items, land acquisition, litigation, including potential litigation and… Joe: Okay, yeah. We didn't say land acquisition so, I didn't know. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 20 of 26 20 Carol: All right. Do you want a motion? Joe: I am asking for a motion to enter into executive session for land acquisition, potential litigation, and personnel. Is that correct? Ken: Yes, sir. That's correct. Joe: Okay. Do I have a motion? Carol: Okay, Mr. Mayor, I make a motion that we move into an executive session for land acquisition, personnel, and potential litigation. Laura: Second. Joe: Okay. I have a motion from Council Member Cookerly, with a second from Council Member Bentley. All in favor please say aye. All: Aye. CORRECTED Motion and Vote: Councilmember Cookerly moved to adjourn into Executive Session to discuss land acquisition, potential litigation and personnel. Councilmember Bentley seconded the motion. Councilmember Longoria was absent from the meeting. The motion passed (6-0). Joe: Okay, that's unanimous. All right, thank you. All right, do I have a motion to reconvene. Laura: Second. Joe: Motion with second to reconvene. All in favor please say aye. All: Aye. Joe: Okay. That is everybody with the exception of Council Member Cookerly, who's in the restroom. So, we'll move onto new business. If our city clerk can please sound new business items. CORRECTED Motion and Vote: Councilmember Moore moved to reconvene into the Regular Meeting. Councilmember Bentley Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 21 of 26 21 seconded the motion. Councilmember Longoria was absent from the meeting and Councilmember Cookerly was absent from the vote. The motion passed (5-0). NEW BUSINESS Tammy: The next item is consideration for agreement of joint representation and cost sharing between the city of Milton and the cities of Resell, Alpharetta, Sandy Springs, John's Creek, East Point, College Park, Hatfield, City of South Fulton, Pomelo, Union City, Chattahoochee Hills, Fairburn, and Mount Park, to jointly engage and to share certain legal fees and costs associated with the representation of Cares Act funding. Agenda Item Number 20-237. Mr. Ken Gerard. Ken: Mr. Mayor and members of the council, thank you very much this evening. You have in front of you a proposed joint representation and cost sharing agreement. If the city council would approve this, it would anticipate that the following jurisdictions, Roswell, Alpharetta, Sandy Springs, John's Creek, East Point, College Park, Hateful, City of South Fulton, Pomelo, Union City, Chattahoochee Hills, Fairburn, and Mountain Park, and of course Milton, all of the municipalities within Fulton County would share a common potential – potential defense strategy, possibly a common attorney, and of course would share legal theories, etc. and all the various other permutations of how you bring a common claim related to COVID-19 or CARES Act funding. The potential claim, if it is in fact advanced, might be against Fulton County. And I'm using all of these non-absolute terms, because it is not absolutely the case that litigation will be required with respect to CARES Act funding. But it is reasonably and in good faith contemplated that that may be required. I have reviewed this agreement. I'm comfortable with it. It anticipates that to the extent that there are legal fees incurred, they would be split among the various cities identified based on our percentage of local option sales tax receipts. And so, I can be comfortable with that as well. This is basically a precautionary measure such that we can share Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 22 of 26 22 theories, share potential arguments and claims, etc., and not of course waive the attorney client privilege. And if we do in fact have to retain a collective or common attorney, we can do that as well. My recommendation, members of the council, would be to approve this agreement with the additional caveat that no lawsuit can be brought on behalf of the city of Milton in this matter unless additional authorization is in fact provided by the city council by affirmative vote. Joe: Okay. Are there any questions for Ken on this? Okay. I do wanna say this, based on whether the council approves this or not, both Commissioner Ellis and Housman have reached out to me and had a good conversation. And I, along with them, are very hopeful that there won't be litigation and the county can work together with the cities to have a reasonable solution. So, but anyways, I just want to throw that out that as Ken said, this doesn't mean we're definitely going into litigation or that will serve or fix everything. But we hope to work together to get a mutual benefit, so. Ken: That's correct. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Joe: So, if there's no other questions, I'll ask for a motion. Laura: Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve Agenda Item Number 20-237, with the caveat that no additional lawsuit can be brought on behalf of the city of Milton without additional authorization. Paul: Second. Joe: Okay, I have a motion as read from Council Member Bentley for approval and a second from Council Member Moore. All in favor please say aye. All: Aye. Joe: Any opposed? That's unanimous. Thank you. Okay. We'll move onto reports and presentations. Anything that the council has that they'd like to report on? All right. We'll move onto staff. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to approve Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 23 of 26 23 Agenda Item No. 20-237. Councilmember Moore seconded the motion. Councilmember Longoria was absent from the meeting . The motion passed (6-0). STAFF REPORTS Department Updates 1. Community Development Parag: Mayor and the city council members, just presenting some highlights from the department. They know who I am. Some numbers. Last month was a very busy month for the department. We reviewed around 102 permit applications from July 16th to August 13th. This was a significant increase from last month. Since I have started doing this, we review around 60 to 70 applications a month. Last month it was around 102. So, suppose there are 20 business days, so around 5 to 6 new permit applications in a day. The number of – you have to go back. The number of tree removal permits also significantly went up. We generally have around 40 tree removal permits in a month. Last month, we reviewed around 56 tree removal permits. Moving forward. We had a good C-Pac meeting on August 12th. Thank you, Council Member Moore, and thank you Council Member Bentley for being there. It was good discussion. We had very good attendance at the C-Pac. It was a good discussion. For the equestrian and the equestrian zoning update project, we are planning to present this in the August planning commission meeting. We have a special webinar planned for the Walking School Bus on August 24th. It was supposed to be an in-person event, which we had to make it virtual on August 24th between 12:00 to 2:00. We will send the meeting invites to everyone, so you won't have to attend the entire webinar. We already have around 18, 20 RSVPs. But whenever you can come in, it would be much appreciated. Joe: Thanks, Parag. Sam, you're doing it all tonight. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 24 of 26 24 STAFF REPORTS Department Updates 1. Human Resources Sam: I missed the last one, so I volunteered. Sorry. Good evening. I just wanted to update you on what's going on in HR since the last time we spoke. Probably the biggest change is the addition of a new staff member in human resources, Alexandra Gebhardt. Alexandra Goeppert who's sitting in the back, far, far away, is our new human resources manager. Alexandra has about nine years of HR experience that she came to the city with and her role here is primarily focused on payroll and benefits, but she's jumped into several other functions as well. She's been instrumental in helping us clean up our administration systems. And having her in the department has allowed us to be more proactive on some of our efforts, especially in recruitment allowing us to prescreen employees and conduct new recruitments a whole lot better and more effectively. Just on a side note, Alexandra is also a Milton r esident and lives very close to city hall. Human resources have also played a role in our COVID response as well. We worked with emergency management and communications to get out guidance to our employees at the beginning of the panic to most recently, our mask policy for city employees as well. We conduct an employee engagement survey to check in with employees, how they were doing, in the middle of the pandemic. And right now, we're working on a policy that will help us finalize our return to work policies that are in compliance with CDC regulations. We've been active in hiring during the pandemic. We've hired 11 new employees, 6 of those are in police, 2 in fire, and 3 in admin. We're closing in on one more placement in our admin position vacancies with the hiring of a records clerk for the city clerk's office. And we're also working on recruitment for the facilities manager right now, also, on the admin side. We're excited about an agenda item you guys passed last week Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 25 of 26 25 with leader gov. we're gonna begin working with them. They're gonna do a disc profile for all of our leadership team. And that'll let us work better together by knowing what all is going on with each of our profile, I apologize about that. And lastly, we're going through vow implementation, that's been an ongoing project for us. But hopefully we're closing in on the actual end of this transition. Last week we began a black out window where we couldn't do anything with ICMA. This week, on the 20th and 21st, our funds will transfer over to Voya, and then it'll be an additional black out period where employees won't be able to make transactions while Voya verifies all of our account information, make sure that it came over clean from ICMA. Thank you very much. Joe: Okay. Any questions for Sam? Thank you. Okay, anything else, staff. And I'm sorry that you had to wait until the end of the meeting for the introduction but thank you. All right. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Paul: So, moved. Laura: Second. Joe: I have a motion and a second to adjourn. All in favor, please say aye. All: Aye. Joe: Unanimous. Thank you. ADJOURNMENT Motion and Vote: Councilmember Moore moved to adjourn the meeting at 6:55 pm. Councilmember Bentley seconded the motion. Councilmember Longoria was absent from the meeting. The motion passed (6-0). Date Approved: October 5, 2020 Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 26 of 26 26 __________________________________ _____________________________ Sudie AM Gordon, City Clerk Joe Lockwood, Mayor