Those in attendance for the Council Meeting were as follows:

Mayor – Lois Salter
Council Members: Betty Covington, Frank Lombardi, Delicia Reynolds, and David Steventon
City Attorney- Dick Carothers
Public Works Director- Marcie Zielazienski

Citizens Present- approximately 45

CALL TO ORDER
Salter called the meeting to order at 6:00 PM at 4043 South Berkeley Lake Road.

CITIZEN COMMENTS
There were no citizens’ comments.

MINUTES
Reynolds moved to accept the minutes from September 10th as amended.

There was amendment on Page 5, which should read Seldomridge instead of Reynolds.

Reynolds said that on Page 6, Salter had said that ‘everyone agreed the road closure was an emergency situation’. She said that although Salter may have said those words, not everyone had agreed at the time that is was an emergency. Two council members had not voted to close the road. She said if she had thought it was an emergency, she would have voted to close the road but she did not feel the road was in jeopardy.

Salter said the engineer said it was an emergency.

Reynolds disagreed and said the engineer did not say it was an emergency.

Covington said that the engineer did say it was catastrophic. He did cover the issue of danger, but he did not cover the timing.

Reynolds said he did say it before, and more than once, that council had time to study the situation and it was not necessary to close the road. She said she had since found out that the other engineer had said it was not likely that it would fall in.

Salter agreed that the minutes were correct as she had said that. She said if Reynolds was disagreeing with what she said, that should not change the minutes.

Reynolds said Page 8 also needed amending. ‘Also Holben may not have that option if whatever comes from his pond impacts elsewhere’. She said that Holben would have an option as the stormwater plan would not be mandatory, so he would have an option.

Salter clarified that she thought it meant that Holben may not have the option to opt out and take care of his own problem, if his problem impacted other people.

Reynolds said she didn’t think he would be forced to participate or give the city access.
She suggested the sentence be removed.

Covington suggested that the clerk be asked to go back and listen to any part that was unclear, so it could be re-written exactly.

Reynolds withdrew her motion.

Salter said that approval for the minutes from the 10th and 18th September would be postponed until the next meeting.

Agenda
Lombardi said there was an agenda that had been posted for a while, then another one, which was changed a day, or two ago. Some issues had been dropped off. He asked that they be put back on the agenda.

Salter said that he could make a motion to change the agenda. The clerk had removed some of the items after talking to her after the council work session.

Lombardi said he would like the three items originally listed under ‘Greenspace’ be put back on the agenda.

Salter said the reason she had removed them was her understanding after the last meeting was that council had agreed, in response to her request, to let the three documents be posted on the web site and held in the city hall for the public to be able to view them for a month before council voted on them. She said she thought that Lombardi and therefore council had agreed not to act on those documents that evening.

Lombardi said there was some confusion as to what he thought Salter wanted to post. He said he thought she wanted to post the notice of the vote. He said he thought that made a lot of sense and there was some misunderstanding. He said he did agree to something, but nobody else agreed and to proceed with just one council member on the assumption that everyone else was agreeing may not have been the right way to go. He said he understood the confusion but he was only one that agreed. He didn’t think it was appropriate to take it to that conclusion.

Covington said she did remember saying that the changes council made were not substantive changes and she thought it had been on the web for thirty days already.

Salter agreed it had been but there were additional changes that had been made and she said she didn’t think there was any confusion about her point that she feels very strongly that when the final documents are done that council owes it to the citizens to let them see them and not vote on something that permanent without leaving it on the table for at least a month.

Lombardi said the changes were minor.

Salter said that was not even the issue. The issue is that she thought people deserve some notice to say here is what has been decided on. She said for the most ordinary ordinances, they are put on the table and are not finalized until after a first read and a second read. She said she knew that legally, they are not obligated to do it but she thought it was such an important issue that it is wrong to enact it without the city having been given notice on the final documents so they can read it and it is available for a month to do that. She said some people do not have access to the web site.

Carothers said the only changes were to remove a “7”. He noted that changing from ‘Word Perfect’ to ‘Word’ sometimes changed the format and caused problems. He described some of the changes. He said the easement did not change.

Lombardi suggested that the two ordinances be put back on first read.
Salter asked if he wanted it put back on the agenda under old business.

Lombardi agreed.

Carothers said however there is only one ordinance, an easement and an agreement.

Lombardi said it was two ordinances 3-703 and 3-205

FINANCIAL REPORT
Reynolds motioned that the financial report should be accepted as filed. Lombardi seconded the motion.
All were in favor of the motion and approval was unanimous.

STAFF AND COMMITTEE REPORTS
Salter said she had received a report from the Police officer- Doug McClure and Ordinance Enforcement Officer, Charles Sewell and asked for comments.

Lombardi asked if Officer McClure would continue to do a monthly report.

Salter said yes.

Reynolds asked that the reports from the police be given at the end of the month in future.

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND APPOINTMENTS
Berkeley Lake Track Club Event
Salter announced that as a result of the work session Tuesday night that the Berkeley Lake track club Fun Run will be supported by the City in the amount of half of the police officers scheduled. She said it was a nice event last time and she was sure it would be this time.

Addresses
Salter said that she has been working with John Linder’s office and had extracted a promise from him that Berkeley Lake would get its own zip code. After he was elected she was informed that would not be the case but in continuing to work with his office and with them, she was able to announce that they have been able, with the US Postal Service, to reprogram their computers based on all of the streets and the number of houses on the streets. She said that now, when an insurance agency etc, types in a Berkeley Lake address, it will automatically come up as Berkeley Lake, GA. She said she was trusting that it would happen and she was very pleased about it.

Earth Day
Salter said there was a Fall Earth Day. Only 20 people availed themselves of the opportunity but several people had said they had wished they had known about it earlier. Some people were only aware of it as a result of the signs that the Clerk posted up around the city. She said she was disappointed that the Clerk was not allowed to send out the mailer that she wanted to and hoped that in the future we would be able to do that. She said she wanted to relay the feedback to council.

City Clerk
Jackie is unable to attend the meeting because she is at a family wedding in England that has been planned for a very long time but she was sorry that is impacting the city with elections coming up. She will return on Wednesday 28th. The previous City Clerk, Claire Grimes and OEO Charles Sewell will be covering city hall while she is away.

Elections
Salter said that the City Clerk/Election Superintendent, wanted to mail out some information on advanced voting but was unable to do that either. She said that she wanted to announce that Advance Voting is a new thing that has recently passed that allows citizens to vote the week before the election with no reason such as being out of town on Election Day. She said it was a convenience to the citizens and that they could vote on the Monday, Wednesday and Friday during regular hours which are 10-2 Monday and Friday and 10-4 Wednesday.

Homeland Security
Salter said she had also attended a two and a half day meeting recently. She is on the state board, which oversees the criminal justice, appointed by the governor, to represent all the mayors in the state. She had been asked to relay that there is a tremendous concern by Homeland security for the G8 conference that is coming up in June. It will probably necessitate moving some of our police resources from this area and all over the state to Sea Island and the Savannah area.

Salter said it is important for everyone in the state to be aware of people between now and June 8-10th. They have already caught an Iranian gentleman photographing a bridge, who was seen by a concerned citizen, who contacted the police. Homeland security was involved and he was arrested. He had tickets to leave the country two days later. It is suspected that he was photographing the bridge, as it is similar to other strategic bridges. She said it is important for everyone to be vigilant and observe ‘unusual observers’.

CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate)
Salter also described a program called CASA, which can involve anyone in the community who can volunteer to be the eyes and ears of the court to observe an abused or neglected child. The volunteer would interview anyone who had pertinent information about a child and make recommendations to the judge. It is a powerful position in the life of a child. She asked that anyone would contact her if they have any interest in playing that role.

Appointments
Salter appointed Charles Sewell to be another Absentee Ballot Clerk, along with Claire Grimes and Carol Seitz. The City Clerk (Wall) who is also the Election Superintendent is endowed with the authority to recommend a pay rate for those helping out in the election.

Lombardi and Reynolds asked what the expected hours and duties of the clerks could be.

Salter clarified it would be for the three days of advanced voting as well as Election Day itself. She also said that the Election Superintendent appoints a poll manager, Lane Shutt and two assistant managers, Carol Seitz and Kay Lee. There are also eighteen volunteers who will not be paid. She said that Wall had asked that Shutt, Seitz and Lee be paid at the rate of $10 an hour.

Covington said it was not very much and asked how Wall came to that figure and whether she did any research on it.

Salter said Wall had talked to the ladies and they had agreed to that amount.

Lombardi asked what had been done in the past.

Salter said they had either been volunteers in the past, or already employed by the city. There had not been advanced voting before.

Lombardi asked whether Wall had a budget for the expenses.

Salter was not sure but asked that council did approve the rate she had suggested.

Covington asked what cities such as Norcross and Chamblee paid for the same thing. She said even if they had agreed to it, she did not want to underpay the workers. She did not have an objection to the rate however.

Covington motioned to agree to the appointments and paying $10 an hour to work in the elections this year. Reynolds seconded the motion.

In discussion Lombardi asked how it was known whether there is enough money in the election budget to employ these people. He asked if council can approve funding for something that there isn’t funding for.

Steventon said that anything council should be making decisions about should be put on the agenda as an agenda item instead of an announcement, although part of it is an appointment. He said then it would be noted, as something that council would need to make a decision about. He said it would move things along.

Salter said she did not get the information until yesterday and she said she believed that Wall thought that it was a simple issue and she did too.

Steventon said that he believed that things that required a vote should be previewed.

Salter agreed.

Lombardi asked whether the next work session was before the election.
Covington said it was on November 6th.

Covington, Reynolds and Steventon were in favor of the motion. Lombardi abstained from the vote. Motion passed.

MAYORS BUDGET MESSAGE
Salter handed out copies of her budget to the council and the public.

Salter said she wanted to explain how she arrived at this budget. The Berkeley Lake Charter specifies that the Mayor makes a budget message to the citizens and it had always been done at that particular meeting. She said council had had most of the budget before them for over a month. Reynolds put it together, and she said she was indebted to her for all the effort she had put into it with the finance committee. Council has had the opportunity to add input to it. Salter she had then taken the budget and added two columns on the far right so that the changes she has made are very clearly specified on the notes- the line item detail.

Salter asked that everyone look at the line item detail so she could go over it. She said the first page was the same as council has already seen. She pointed out where her suggestions were on the second page. She said she was also indebted to Pam Williamson, a member of the finance committee, who had spent many long hours helping Salter with the budget changes.

Salter said the first thing she was concerned about was that the income in the original budget appeared to be considerably higher than what the city really expected. She said the figures can be obtained from the digest and the difference between this year and last year. Last years budget also over-estimated what the city would get and it was one of the reasons the city had had some difficulties this year. She said she wanted to be very careful this year not to over-estimate the income and therefore had deducted $78, 109 from the revenue in order to keep the budget conservative and stay at the mil rate that we have now. She said she is hoping not to have to raise taxes.

Salter said there were reduced FICA payments as she is recommending that the position of city manager be eliminated as that accounted for $25,000 based on the expectation it would take six months to change the city charter and a city manager could not be employed until about six months into 2004. They are expecting that a city manager would be found for $50,000 a year with no benefits, although the finance committee came up with an expected salary of $70,000 a year excluding benefits. She said she was also recommending cutting the Mayors salary almost in half. She said this was because she is very concerned about the city’s financial situation.

Salter said all the numbers with ‘R’ alongside them have been annualized because she is hoping that the city will hold their expenses to that level as well as not need to use the city attorney so much next year.

Salter said Lombardi had suggested the insurance liability for the city be increased, and on the chance the city attorney might recommend this was a good idea, Salter did put the money for it in the budget.

Carothers said he had called the third party administrator who administrates the city insurance, to pose some questions to him, but he had not responded yet.

Salter said the largest savings up to that point was the decrease in the construction costs for the new City Hall. She said it was a difficult decision for her to make, as we obviously need a new City Hall and she was as excited about it as everyone else. However she said she didn’t think that the city could afford the plans that have been tentatively made. She said she had asked an experienced builder to give her a rough estimate as to what it would cost to eliminate the elevator and the glass doors and windows in the basement. She said it had been pointed out that if the city were to store expensive things in the basement such as chain saws and winches, having windows and partly glassed doors facing the woods would be just an invitation for someone to sneak around where they would not be observed and break in. She suggested that the basement be just a basement for storage and that it have a door, which could be accessed from the outside in an emergency.

Salter said she thought there should be three offices instead of four in the building. She said she had scaled down the whole building in total square feet in order to have a smaller building. She said her expectation was that the city should still be able to use the chapel to meet in. She said a small conference room in City Hall could be used for Court and Planning and Zoning meetings. She said she suggests it is scaled down from 34 feet by 40 feet to 30 feet by 40 feet. Salter said she had asked for brick and still thought it was a valuable long-term investment, with vinyl trim, which will not have to be painted. She said having factored those things in; she had received an estimate for $154,500. She said she wanted to pursue it, as the citizen committee formed by city council had not met in quite a while and there had been several citizens comments which needed to be incorporated into a new plan. However she said she had had to make some decisions in order to do the budget.

Salter said that she hoped some of the projects listed that came from the study council had asked for, could be delayed to another year. She said she was also hopeful that the $43,200 for the project at 325 Lakeshore Drive could be cut too, as Chris Holben had received some funds from a legal settlement that may take care of some of that problem. She said she hoped they could work together with Holben to do that.

Salter said the last item that she had cut was the $25,000 put aside for the furnishings for City Hall. She said she hoped to cut it to $5000 or less by using the current furnishings too.

Salter said she wanted to show the reason why she felt so strongly about cutting the budget. She said that currently the city has $1.2 million in reserves, which sounds like a lot of money. She said the problem is that Zielazienski expected that the city might have to spend another $185,000 from that fund this year. After using part of the reserves for the budget next year as described, the city will only have approximately $286,500 in reserve, which she said she feels is a very precipitous drop.

Salter said lastly that the estimated millage rate will stay at 4.35 with the budget she proposed based on the figures derived from the tax digest. However it would need to go to 5.43 based on the previously proposed budget.

Salter said the information is clear and that council will have a month to respond and would be able to do their own budget but that was her budget message tonight.

OLD BUSINESS
PUBLIC WORKS- ZIELAZIENSKI
Dalton-Downey Pond
Zielazienski said she was following up from the work session. She had asked the City Attorney and Todd Seldomridge, the engineer, to offer dates when they might be available to meet with all the homeowners to discuss the culvert area and easements.

50 Lakeshore Drive
Zielazienski said she had met with Bob Manning, a chief traffic engineer, to discuss the curves at 50 Lakeshore Drive as it is very dangerous there. She said he was able to make some good recommendations. She said she was going to have someone else come out and look at other sites, so the city could take care of all of them at the same time.

The Dam
Zielazienski said that there has been work going on on the dam and it is just about done. The engineers who have been on site all the time say a good job has been done. The wind has washed a shelf out underneath the dam and that has been dug out and rock has been laid there. A representative from ‘Safe Dams’ would be visiting next week to inspect the work.

Donation of an Easement
Zielazienski said the city had received a request from Gwinnett County to donate a permanent easement to the county to construct a sidewalk on the property adjoining the chapel grounds, opposite City Hall. She said they are asking for 2254.25 square feet. She asked what council thought.

Salter said it had been talked about at the work session and she thought that council had agreed to do that and asked for a motion to support that.

Lombardi asked that it be done under new business.

Covington asked how Zielazienski was arranging the meeting for the homeowners for the Dalton Downey Pond easements.

Zielazienski said she had asked Carothers and Seldomridge when they would be available so she could offer some dates to the homeowners by letter.

Covington suggested that they be called instead of writing a letter to them to make the process quicker.

Zielazienski said she could drop a letter off as fast as she could call them.

Covington said she should ask for four dates from everybody so they could all be there. She said that it would be a waste of time if the attorney and engineer could make it and three out of four of the homeowners could not make it. She said it would be important for everybody to be there, otherwise there would be a question at to whether those who were not there would go along with the plan.

Zielazienski said it would only take 20 minutes to do a letter and deliver it once she has possible dates from Carothers and Seldomridge. Then she said she could see when everybody was available and call them individually to confirm it.

Lombardi said he believed council was also going to be involved in the meeting.

Zielazienski said she assumed she would send the same letter out to council.

Salter said her hope was that the priority would be to get the homeowners, the engineer and the attorney together first and then as many of the council members who were available at that time, up to three council members. She suggested if all the principals were able to meet and only two council members could make it, that the meeting would go ahead. She asked for councils agreement on that.

There was some agreement.

Salter said that whichever three council members responded first, would be those who attended as on a first come, first served basis.

Steventon suggested that Zielazienski contacted council by email.

Zielazienski agreed.

Reynolds said that at the work session, they had talked about another estimate or plan.
Salter said her understanding was that was what the group was going to get together to do. To try to come up with a plan that everyone could live with.

Reynolds said she wanted to make it clear that there was no strings attached or any limits as far as the solution, because in July, council had asked for the ‘best fix’ and there were no strings attached. However council did not get a best fix. In August council asked for another ‘best fix’ and there is still some discrepancy as to whether there is still a ‘best fix’ yet or not.

Salter said that with the fix that came up, there were some limitations or strings attached, as she understood it. Zielazienski had felt there were strings attached from council that was to do with the private property issues and waiting until a study could be done. She said at this point, they would sit down with all four homeowners, the city attorney, engineer and as many council members as could make it up to three, to come to an agreement.

Reynolds said there were no strings attached in July and August. Council wanted a ‘best fix’ while the engineering firm was doing the survey for the whole city, council wanted the engineer to go ahead and come up with the best fix for that piece of property. She said she had gone back today to re-read the minutes and there were no strings attached in July or August.

Zielazienski said the engineer did do the best fix he could under the constraints of not being able to remove the silt out of the pond. He said that the pond could be restored and she said she was under the impression that he did explain it.

Reynolds said that her point is that council had never said they did not want the pond restored. They had said the ‘best fix’ and if that meant restoring the pond, then that is the best fix.

Zielazienski said there was a lot of discussion about Bill Downey having taken money to remove the silt and there were a lot of discussions about private property. She said she had never got the impression that the request was to include removing the silt.

Reynolds said she hoped it was clear now, that they had intended there would be no limitations.

Zielazienski said that that would make the negotiations a whole lot easier.

BUDGET 2004
Salter asked if council wanted to discuss it, ask questions or move to put it on first read.

Reynolds asked Carothers if the budget was not in format according to the ordinance, could it be put on first read and be corrected it next month.

Carothers said he thought that it could. He said it was not sure what it should look like.

Reynolds said a whole column was missing.

Salter asked what was missing.

Reynolds said the “current/year actual” column was missing.

Salter said she had just taken the budget from Reynolds and added her suggestions.

Reynolds said it was just a worksheet and it was not intended to be the final budget.

Salter said her budget was not final either; it was just her suggestions. She said she knew council would take it from there.

Reynolds said the “current/year actual column” would have been dropped in before it was presented.

Salter apologized and said she was not aware of that but asked if it could still be used.

Carothers said it could be put on first read as it is still a work in progress.

Covington motioned to put the budget on first read and Lombardi seconded the motion. All were in favor and approval was unanimous.

GEORGIA MUNICIPAL ASSOCIATION TELECOMMUNICATIONS CONTRACT- CAROTHERS
Carothers recommended that council move forward with the telecommunications contract as they are still negotiating the franchise. He reminded everyone that he is on the board of directors of the GMA as a disclaimer. He did however, say that the GMA did save money for the city both in staff time and his time in dealing with the cable company and that they also know what other deals are being made.

Carothers said he had forwarded the executive summary and proposed cable ordinance to council. He said he had reviewed it.

Salter clarified that it would be good to pay the GMA for their services.

Carothers agreed.

Salter said as it was $1000 she was authorized to pay it without a motion.

CD’S- REYNOLDS
Reynolds said that the city does not have enough money in the checking account to pay for all the public works projects coming up. She said two CD’s were maturing at the end of October.

Reynolds moved that they be cashed upon maturity and the proceeds be put into the LGIP short-term investment account until needed.
Covington asked how much they were.
Reynolds said they were $100,000 each, a total of $200,000.
Covington seconded the motion. There was no discussion and all were in favor. The motion passed.

Greenspace Issues - Lombardi
• Deed of Conservation Easement,
• Agreement,
• Ordinances 3-703, 3-205

Lombardi moved to put Ordinance 3-205 and Ordinance 3-703 on second read and approve it. Reynolds seconded the motion.
In discussion, Reynolds asked whether it was Massaroni that had suggested that all the Greenspace documents were passed together.
Salter said yes. Massaroni had suggested that the ordinances, the deed and the agreement be passed at the same time.

Zielazienski said she had a copy of the minutes and the ordinances were put on first read on August 20th.

Lombardi asked why Massaroni had suggested that.

Covington said because it would be cleaner to do it all at once.

Reynolds said it was because all the documents reference each other.

Covington suggested that council waited and votes on all three of the documents next month.

Lombardi withdrew the motion.

NEW BUSINESS
INVOICE APPROVAL PROCEDURE- LOMBARDI
Salter said Lombardi had handed out an updated copy to council.
Lombardi said he did post it on the web site as requested yesterday.
Lombardi motioned to adopt the Invoice Approval procedure as written. Reynolds seconded the motion.

There was no discussion and all were in favor. Approval was unanimous.

EASEMENT DONATION FOR THE SIDEWALK- ZIELAZIENSKI
Reynolds moved to donate the easement to the county for the sidewalk. Lombardi seconded the motion.

There was no discussion and all were in favor. Approval was unanimous.

CITY AUDITOR’S LETTER- LOMBARDI
Lombardi said that council were in receipt of a letter from the city auditor, David Dick, regarding assets. He said Dick suggested fixing a numbered identification tag to city assets to go alongside an inventory in a report to go to council. Lombardi suggested it be complete by the next council meeting.

Salter asked that the city staff have two months in order to complete this task.

Lombardi motioned that the city perform a physical inventory of assets to include the fixing of control ID tags and to provide a report to council to be complete by the December council meeting.

Covington seconded the motion and all were in favor. Approval was unanimous.

CITIZEN COMMENTS
Barbara Brice- 398 Lakeshore Drive
Brice said she had talked to Reynolds last week and wanted to know if the citizens would have a right to access the Greenspace. She said it was unclear in the documents. She asked if the ‘general public’ included the citizens.

Salter clarified that the citizens will have the right to access the property, GOLT will not convey any rights to the larger general public to the property, although they do have right to access it now as it is a municipal property. She said both she and the council hope that the citizens will enjoy walking through there.

Brice also asked what the survey markers were for near her property near the water.

Salter said the BLHA would need to answer that question and she suggested Brice talk to Rick Rice after the meeting.

Tom Kitchens- 150 Bayway Circle.
Kitchens asked about the candidate forum for the election. He said he had a specific concern that any candidate could say anything at the forum that may not be true and not be challenged on it.

Salter said the city is not hosting the forum and she did not believe that council should respond to his question.

Heiner Fuchs said he would be prepared to speak to Kitchens about it later as he was organizing it. Fuchs was asked to speak now.

Fuchs said that the forum had been set up with full agreement with the candidates. He said the citizens would not be allowed to ask questions during the forum in order to keep it structured.

Covington said although she had spoken to Fuchs about the format, she had been asked to agree with the format suggested and she did but it was not the same as suggesting a format herself.

Fuchs said he had not had any other feedback from anyone and he was happy that someone had asked a question about it. He said he could email the candidates to ask them if they would like challenges to questions as well as questions from the floor.

Kitchens said he would encourage both of those as he would like to make sure that the candidates were honest and if they could not be challenged, then they could walk away without ever being challenged.
Fuchs said he would email the candidates tomorrow. He said it was not his intention to set it in stone and he welcomed the feedback.

Deb Robinson 540 Lakeshore
Robinson said she wanted to comment on the initial discussion about the minutes. She said if there was a concern about the accuracy rather than the content of the minutes, she suggested that they were verbatim so no one had to recollect what had been said and that old minutes could be transcribed that way in order to clarify matters pertaining to the failing culvert on Lakeshore Drive. Whether there may or may not have been strings attached in any of the conversations pertaining to what instructions were given to the engineer, then those minutes should be verbatim as well to clarify exactly what was said.

ADJOURNMENT
STEVENTON MOVED TO ADJOURN THE MEETING AT 7:20 PM. LOMBARDI SECONDED THE MOTION AND APPROVAL WAS UNANIMOUS.