Those in attendance for the Council Meeting were as follows:
Mayor pro tempore: Debbie Guthrie
Council Members: Walter Anderson, Bernie Cohen, Tom Kitchens and George Sipe
City Clerk- Jackie Wall
City Attorney- Mark Scott (Carothers and Mitchell)
Citizens Present- 8
               
CALL TO ORDER
Guthrie opened the meeting at 7:30PM at 4043 South Berkeley Lake Road.

MINUTES
Sipe motioned that the minutes of the meeting of February 2nd, 2005 be accepted.  Anderson seconded the motion.  All were in favor of the motion. The motion passed.

REPORTS
Anderson motioned to accept the December 2005 un-audited financial statements. Kitchens seconded the motion. Kitchens and Anderson were in favor of the motion. Sipe and Cohen abstained.  The motion failed.

Kitchens motioned to accept the January 2006 financial statements. Sipe seconded the motion, and all were in favor. The motion passed.

Guthrie said that Council had received a second Public works progress report from Rich Edinger of Clark Patterson Associates (CPA).

MAYOR’S  MESSAGE
Guthrie said that Governor Perdue had announced Severe Weather Awareness Week for the week of February 19th to 26th. There would be a Severe Weather Drill on Wednesday February 22nd, and the severe weather warning siren should go off some time that day. If the weather is inclement the drill would be postponed to February 24th.

Guthrie said that she had given council a suggested agenda from the seminar instructor for the Ethics Day on March 17th. She asked Council to submit any suggestions or changes to her by February 24th. Cohen said he would like to add ‘executive sessions’ to the agenda.

Guthrie said that Mayor Salter had received a letter from Jock Connell, the County Administrator, regarding the county’s new aquatic center that will be built on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, and she read an excerpt from it:

‘Please let me assure you that the county is going to take every precaution and install every measure necessary to prevent the migration off the aquatics center site during construction, and will design it in such a way that any long term post development run-off impacts are mitigated as well. Multiple departments are combining their expertise to make this happen.

Construction of the aquatics center will not begin before summer, 2006. Our contract specifications will include extra clauses and extra provisions for erosion, and sediment control. Moreover, we will inspect the contractor’s work closely, especially during early land disturbing phases, but also for the project duration. Additionally, we plan to perform routine turbidity monitoring both upstream and downstream of the site.

Notwithstanding our design and contract specifications, the diligence of our inspection, our need – as a regulator – to set a good example, and our monitoring, we would like to recruit your residents as well. If you receive any reports of siltation from the direction of the aquatics center we would greatly appreciate hearing from them at the earliest opportunity. After all, the eyes of the community are important tools for monitoring compliance with our environmental regulations.’

Cohen said that his concern was that no measurements had been taken downstream beforehand, and therefore there would be no comparison available if silt became a problem.
 
Randy Kirkus. Chair of Public Works Committee.  Kirkus said he had already spoken to Bill Waddell, the project manger from Gwinnett County, and Waddell would be attending their next committee meeting on March 1st to discuss measures to be taken prior to land disturbance.

OLD BUSINESS 
Crescent Development Drainage Protection measures- Thomas Evon - Project manager for Berkeley Lake Village.
Evon said that he had given council a packet of letters and emails generated in last few weeks regarding erosion control on the site. He said they had hired a third party inspector to inspect the area every week to check to their erosion control measures. He said they also checked the area on the other side of Peachtree Industrial Blvd. Evon said they would also check the area within 24 hrs if there was anything over one half-inch of rain and they provided regular written reports. He said that the City had also employed Rich Edinger, from CPA, to inspect the work with everyone else. He brought a diagram to show the movement of stormwater in the watershed area of Berkeley Lake and explained that it was also possible that silt could come from other sites in the vicinity. He also showed pictures of the erosion control measures that had already been employed. Evon said that they hoped to start building the retention walls next week, which would contain the site further. He assured Kitchens that the entire site had at least two rows of wire backed siltation fence everywhere. The orange fence was a tree safe area fence and was not supposed to be wire backed. Evon explained that once the retaining walls were in place, they would be laying drainage pipes for drains, and it would be 1-2 months until the site was totally contained.  He said that they had several other measures other than the silt fences, including a gel pad on the lake side of Peachtree Industrial Blvd, which allowed for further precautions. He described the other measures used particularly on the steep slopes.

Kitchens asked about the progress of acquiring the pond from the Blue Ridge Group. Evon said that he thought they would be meeting again soon, but Mr. Johansen was waiting to hear back.

City Hall Planning
Barbara Carroll- Chairperson of Facilities Committee Carroll said she had arranged to meet Rich Edinger from CPA with the Facilities committee next week. She said they would ‘screen’ them before presenting them to Council. She asked that they be included on the agenda at next meeting if everything went as planned. She said she had also spoken to one of the references of ‘Urban Collage’ who was very impressed with their work and have given them a 15 on a scale of 1 to 10. Guthrie noted that Mayor Salter had also received very positive feedback regarding ‘Urban Collage’ from the City Manager of Snellville. Carroll said that she would also call the City of Grayson to find out who else they had interviewed in their city hall planning process. Cohen said that ‘Precision Planning’ was one of those they had interviewed. Anderson suggested that two more companies should be invited to present at the next meeting, if they were ready; and asked Cohen if this would comprise a sufficient group of candidates for selection.. Cohen agreed.

O-34-06b  Ch 6 Alcholic Beverage Ordinance- Guthrie  O-34b-06_ ABO-2006.pdf
Guthrie said that City Attorney Carothers had sent a revised version of the ordinance that day.  Guthrie noted that the issues regarding seating requirements and Sunday sales still needed to be decided.

Sipe motioned to put the latest version of the Alcoholic Beverage ordinance on first read. Anderson seconded the motion.

There was discussion about the different areas of concern such as seating capacity in terms of alcohol sales, and the size of the restaurants that would be in Berkeley Lake Village. It was suggested that the ordinance should be more stringent to start with, which could be relaxed later if necessary. The intent was still not to allow stand-alone bars. It was also suggested to be more proactive and be explicit in what the city would not allow in terms of entertainment. It was agreed that Council would comment on one document via e-mail prior to sending all their suggestions to City Attorney Carothers. The final comments could be posted on the web site for citizens to see.

All were in favor of the motion. The motion passed.

Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful prize- Anderson
Anderson said that he had asked the Berkeley Lake Home Owners Association (BLHA) about the proposed clean up changes to the land adjacent to the boat ramp. He said that they would not want to encourage free and unfettered access to the lake from the street, which was similar in thought to Council’s comments at the last meeting.

Betty Covington- Chair of Berkeley Lake Conservancy (BLC).  Covington said that she had discussed the area with Carol Seitz, chair of the Events Committee, and they would like to use the prize money to plant dogwoods and azaleas near the roadside of the area in conjunction with Arbor Day. They were not going to clean out the area, just make it look better. She said that quotes were being sought from Landscape companies by Nick Lore to do the work. She said she had also been able to get a good idea of prices from a landscape supply store with a discount, and she offered to go and buy them herself, and employ some workers to plant them. She said she was waiting to see what the quotes were first, but they hoped to go ahead with the work in the next 30 days with approval from Council.

Sipe motioned to support the idea as described by Covington. Anderson seconded the motion and all were in favor. The motion passed.

NEW BUSINESS
Money Management issues
Liquidity report: Guthrie read an email from Pam Williamson, City Treasurer:
‘I talked with Kelly, the CFO of Peachtree Bank, and she provided a strong case for relying more on the pledged amount for faster access than the FDIC amount.  She said first that in her 30 years of banking she had never had experience with a bank failure but would expect that the FDIC guaranteed amount would take a bit of time to receive given it had to go through Federal review prior to payout.

The pledged amount is actually a portion of Peachtree's portfolio where the assets are legally pledged to us.  In the event of a failure, she said we would need to contact SunTrust and give them permission to release the assets to us.  She felt we would have access to the funds within 24 hours. SunTrust is legally bound to not touch any of the pledged assets without our permission.  So if Peachtree called to release the pledge, SunTrust legally could not do it without our permission. Kelly is sending seven copies of their latest financial statements (which council received in their packets)’

Cohen said that he had read Peachtree’s financial statements and nearly 90% of their money was in real estate loans. He said other cities still had their money -in at least four different banks. He still felt it was safer to distribute City money.
 
There was discussion about removing part of the money from Peachtree bank and getting the same type of set up in a larger bank. It was suggested that the 6 month CD be split into two separate CD’s of $100,000 each, one in Peachtree and one in SunTrust, in order to keep a banking relationship with both banks.

Sipe motioned to put $100,000 of the 6 month CD in SunTrust bank in July. Anderson seconded the motion.
In discussion, there were questions regarding how much less money the City would earn in interest by having $200,000 divided between two CD’s at two different banks. 

Sipe motioned to postpone the motion to the next meeting.

The clerk was asked to find out what the market rates were currently between the two banks as a point of reference for the future.  She said she would also check current rates at banks used by other cities.
Ratification of transfer of funds: Sipe motioned to ratify the recent transfer of $20,000 from LGIP to the operating account. Anderson seconded the motion and all were in favor. The motion passed.
Future transfer of funds request: Anderson motioned to approve the transfer of up to $100,000 from LGIP to the operating account as needed between now and June 30th.  Kitchens seconded the motion. In discussion it was agreed to that the funds should be kept in the LGIP account as long as possible, and it would be transferred at the Mayor’s or her appointee’s discretion. All were in favor of the motion. The motion passed.

Signatories on bank account:  Sipe motioned to change the signatories of the city bank accounts at LGIP, Peachtree and SunTrust banks to include the Mayor (Salter), Mayor pro-tem (Guthrie), and the Treasurer (Williamson).  Anderson seconded the motion and all were in favor. The motion passed.

Comprehensive Plan- Task A
Sipe motioned to accept the Comprehensive Plan Task A Intergovernmental Agreement with Gwinnett County. Anderson seconded the motion.
 
In discussion there were questions about how the county had derived the costs. It was clarified that the City was benefiting from both a portion of a grant from the ARC, and the economies of scale by purchasing the same service as the rest of the county from the same vendor. As a result, other companies would not be able to be so competitive.  The county would also be entitled to a copy of the results of Task A as a part of the agreement.

All were in favor of the motion and the motion passed.

Sipe motioned that the Clerk, Jackie Wall, be designated as the employee liaison to the County for Task A.  Kitchens seconded the motion and all were in favor. The motion passed.

Sipe motioned to authorize the Mayor to sign the agreement. Anderson seconded the motion and all were in favor. The motion passed.

Stormwater Policy Agreement Draft
Guthrie said that the city engineer had sent his comments on the stormwater policy draft. She noted his request to work with the Public Works committee on the draft, as it had been a difficult document to comment on. It was agreed that the city engineer had done a good job but that the policy needed further input.

Randy Kirkus- Chairman of Public Works Committee. Kirkus said he was confused as to why the policy was on the agenda as the Mayor had agreed more work needed to be done it.  He said that the Committee had agreed to research ‘Municode’ for example, for similar policies that were more easily understood etc.  He said there needed to be a comprehensive plan describing who would do what, and a time plan associated with it, as well as criteria associated to it, so the ‘wheel would not be continually reinvented’. He said he was not sure how long it would take to put such a policy together.  He said he also wanted to see how the projects would be funded too. He said he would be glad to work with the City Engineer when possible too.

It was agreed that the committee should work on the policy first before the city engineer is further involved.

GMA Conference Savannah
Kitchens motioned that the Mayor and Clerk go to the GMA conference in Savannah. Sipe seconded the motion.
It was agreed that that clerk should use her judgment to book the accommodation based on the budget.

All were in favor of the motion. The motion passed.

Maintenance problem at City hall
Guthrie said the Septic Tank at City hall was blocked. The clerk had one quote to replace the blocked pipe, however the alternative was to connect city hall to the sewer.

Kitchens motioned for the clerk to get three bids to connect to the sewer and decommission the old tank, and to go ahead with the lowest price not to exceed $3000 as soon as possible. Sipe seconded the motion and all were in favor. The motion passed. 

Arbor Day
Guthrie noted that Arbor Day is February 17th.

Drainage Project Survey Prices
There was discussion about the fees the city engineer had proposed charging to supervise the drainage project and how they related to the budgeted amount. It was agreed that Randy Kirkus, as chair of the Public Works committee, would clarify with the engineer (as well as consult with the Mayor) to determine what the fees would cover, what would be done with the information once it was received, how it would be incorporated into the final RFP, and what the engineers’ final role would be.

Stormwater Utility
Kitchens noted there was going to be a public meeting on February 22nd regarding the proposed County Stormwater Utility. He suggested someone might like to attend. The Clerk said that she would update Council with the latest information coming from the County at the next meeting

Executive Session
It was noted it would not be necessary to have the executive session, as the information necessary was not yet available. Cohen requested that Council be extremely careful about what they said to citizens as he thought some of the information from the last executive session had been disbursed, as citizens had been asking questions, and it was important that information discussed at the privileged sessions should not be released yet. Guthrie suggested that Cohen speak to the person to whom he suspected was responsible. Cohen said he should not have to.

THERE BEING NO FURTHER BUSINESS, COHEN MOTIONED TO ADJOURN THE MEETING AT 9:30 PM. KITCHENS SECONDED THE MOTION, AND ALL WERE IN FAVOR. THE MOTION PASSED.

Respectfully submitted by Jackie Wall (Approved by Council on March 16th, 2006)