COUNCIL MEETING and PUBLIC HEARING
CITY OF BERKELEY LAKE
4043 SOUTH BERKELEY LAKE ROAD NW
BERKELEY LAKE, GEORGIA 30096
FULL MINUTES
February 21, 2008

Those in attendance for the Council Meeting were as follows:
Mayor: Lois Salter
Council Members:
Walter Anderson, Rebecca Spitler, Debbie Guthrie, Tom Kitchens, and Frank Lombardi
City Attorney and Associate: Dick Carothers and Amy Cowan
City Administrator: Tom Rozier
Deputy City Administrator: Leigh Threadgill
Citizens Present:  17  

CALL TO ORDER (0:00:00)

I. APPROVAL OF OR CHANGES TO THE AGENDA (0:00:25)

Salter indicated the need to drop Old Business item ‘B’ (BLEMA, direction from Council for Mary English) until the March Council Meeting.

Guthrie gave Council the option to postpone New Business item ‘B’(City of Ethics) and that option was accepted.

There were no further suggested changes to the agenda.

Anderson moved to accept the agenda with suggested changes.  Kitchens seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion passed.

II. PUBLIC HEARING regarding O-63-07, Chapter 78-201, Building Restriction on City Right-of-Way (0:01:22)

Salter opened the Hearing regarding Ordinance O-63-07, Chapter 78-201, Building Restriction on City Right-of-Way, inviting citizens to speak.

No citizens spoke.

III. GUEST SPEAKERS (0:01:31)

a) Gwinnett County Environmental Health Department

Carolyn Simonton passed out printed copies of previously provided information sheets, introduced herself and the Health Department and volunteered to answer questions.

There were no questions.

IV. MINUTES (0:03:54)

a) City Council Meeting of January 17, 2008

Guthrie motioned to accept the minutes of January, 17. Anderson seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion passed.

V. REPORTS (0:4:21)

a) Financial Statements for December 2007

b) Financial Statements for January 2008

There was a consensus to postpone approval of both December 2007 and January 2008 Financial Statements until such time as Council Members had an opportunity to review them.

c) OEO report

There were no questions regarding the OEO report.

VI. STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS (0:05:31)

Salter read a written report that is copied into the minutes below:

Mayor’s Address to the Citizens of Berkeley Lake
regarding the
State of the City
February, 2008

It has been a busy and very challenging year in Berkeley Lake.  We finished an unprecedented infrastructure repair project as well as a second project to rebuild and repair roadsides.  We very carefully and thoroughly researched possible architects for our new City Hall, identified an outstanding firm, and began the design process.  We struck off into uncharted territory by declining to join the county’s stormwater utility, thus saving our citizens significant cost, but saddling our staff with some difficult new tasks.  The staff has had a tough enough time just dealing with turnover and new jobs.  All of them are relatively new to us and the process of finding and training good people is never easy.  One clear trend is that we are no longer able to rely on good-hearted, hard-working citizens to do many things for our city as volunteers, or as underpaid employees.  For years the City gotten by in this way, but as the pace of life increases, people now struggle with so many responsibilities and claims on their time that volunteers are getting scarce, and thus the paid staff are taking on more and more.  To further exacerbate this situation, the tasks they must perform are getting more complex and challenging while citizens reasonably expect and ask for better service and performance.  For all these reasons, the City is paying more than ever before in salaries, although still less than our outstanding staff is worth and could earn elsewhere.  To give you one example that I hope will make this clear to you, I asked our new City Administrator to make a list of the changes he’s made in his first few weeks here.  Modestly he sent this to me with the request that “these accomplishments should be attributed to the City:”
 
1) Installed a new file server and configured it for higher security.
2) Installed Virtual Private Networking allowing City Staff secure remote access to the City's Local Area Network.
3) Enhanced wireless LAN security level to prevent unauthorized access and use.
4) Improved security of the City's website to prevent unauthorized access and editing.
5) Negotiated an increase to the storage capacity of the City's website to from 1 giga-byte to 100 giga-bytes at no additional cost to the City.
6) Performed an end-to-end review of the City's website and updated all stale references.
7) Completed website back-end upgrade to allow citizens to listen to the voice record of Council meetings on the web.
8) Increased our accounting system's ability to store records for more than 2 years.
9) Working to implement our new business license ordinance.
10) Reviewing options for tracking of licenses, permits and code enforcement.
11) Urged and achieved the removal of unsavory material from a website referencing BLEMA.
12) Performed a review of telephone service and equipment technology and made a recommendation to Council for improvements related to City communications.
13) Negotiated with AT&T to provide twice the number of telephone lines to us for the same price.
14) Evaluated the current cost of operations banking and reduced those fees by $865 per year.
15) Currently learning and planning for implementation of the Stormwater Management Plan.
16) Tightened City Hall's security systems and brought the management of security codes in-house.
17) Researching costs associated with outsourcing the distribution of the Mayor's Message.
18) Distribution of the PrepareFirst documents to citizens.

I think you can see that we get what we pay for.  Our Deputy City Administrator has used her outstanding professional competencies and a lot of hard work to make significant changes for us this year that move us in new and better directions.  This past year would have been disastrous without her.  Significantly, all of our accomplishments this year were made with a millage rate decrease, and the City is in excellent financial shape.
     The coming year holds its own challenges and they are compelling, I must say.  I have been very proud of the job our police have done for us, and I deeply regret that the county will no longer allow them to continue in the working arrangement that has been so positive for us.  We must find new ways to protect our citizens.  A council member who is interested in security guards is looking into that possibility.  I have spent a lot of time investigating the possibility of hiring our own police officers, and that research goes on.  There are many complexities in that consideration, and the safety of our citizens is so important that this decision must be made with the utmost care.  There are no easy answers.
     Also in the coming year, we will begin building our new City Hall.  We have moved very slowly and deliberately in the planning and preparatory phases.  Soon the vision of our citizens will become a reality.  At this point everyone becomes more interested and questions arise.  Will our citizens be allowed to gather informally in this building for book clubs, study groups, or just to visit with each other, or will they be limited to specifically approved formal meetings?  What will it look like?  Knowing our City’s propensity to get so passionate about things that we become cranky with each other, I would hope that we’d all maintain some openness and patience with each other as we work through the final phases.  This building will be the heart of our City for many years to come, and we have to get this right.  It will belong to all our citizens, and I sincerely hope they will all be proud of it.
    We will complete the Comprehensive Plan for our City’s future this year.  There are some thorny issues in that process as well.  Should we strengthen the City’s tree and septic ordinances?  If we seek to annex nearby commercial or residential areas we can bring in additional tax dollars and benefit from some economies of scale, but many fear this would change the character of our City more than they would like.  We must decide this year what to ask for in the next SPLOST, which will have a huge effect on us.  I think you can see that 2008 will be the most challenging year our City has ever faced.  Decisions made in the next few months will affect us all for a very long time.  To meet these challenges it will be more important than ever for our citizens to participate and pay attention, and for us all to work together - not for our own personal agendas, but for the overall good of our City.

Salter asked if any citizens or Council Members had any questions about what she had just read. There were no questions.

Salter made the following brief announcements: (0:13:44)  

a) Lesley Pendelton has been kind enough to be our Relay for Life team leader again this year for Berkeley Lake.
b) Salter has obtained a commitment from the Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful commission to clean  Peachtree Industrial of trash which has become a problem lately.
c) She let Council Members know at the last Council meeting that we are going to have a City-sponsored art show but did not know the date at that time. The date is going to be April 12th.
d) Salter met the previous week with the Georgia Safe Dams agency inspectors and they are going to send her a formal report in writing.  They indicated verbally that they had not seen any significant problems and she hoped that they had not discovered any later. Salter asked them if they would have any objection with there being a plot near the City-owned parking lot for Organic Gardens because some citizens have suggested to Salter that that would be something they might desire. It would be a community plot and she wanted to ask the Georgia Safe Dams people if they would have any concerns with people gardening in that area.  There are 2 areas there that Salter would be happy to show to us all where the Georgia Safe Dams people are not worried about there being a communal garden. Salter indicated that that is not for Council to have to consider tonight but that it is to let them know that it is a concern for some people in the community and that she has run it by the Georgia Safe Dams people.
e) Salter recently met with Georgia Power and asked for an estimate of what it would cost to bury power lines around the street periphery of the City Hall property. They have not arrived at a dollar amount but are researching it.  The architects had mentioned that the power lines there are unsightly. Salter indicated that she did not know if Council was interested in that but that she didn’t think it would be a problem to get a quote.  She further invited comment on the matter, otherwise, she will get a price and present it to Council.

Kitchens asked if it is possible that we could allocate SPLOST funds to that. Salter indicated since it was a streetscape problem, that we could and that Lilburn had done that as well and confirmed that with Carothers.  Anderson asked if that included telephone and cable lines.  Salter indicated that she is going to attempt to get them all buried although Georgia Power indicates they won’t allow the burying of Comcast or AT&T lines in their trench. Salter indicated she has communicated with other cities and found that that is routinely done in other places so she is going to ask them what their problem is. She and one of our other Council members are having lunch with some Georgia Power people before our next meeting so she is going to ask them.

Salter asked if there were any other comments/questions. There were none.

VII. OLD BUSINESS (0:18:19)

Barbara Carroll was not available to give a ‘New City Hall’ update. The topic was postponed until later in the meeting, pending her arrival.

a.) O-63-07, Chapter 78-201, Building Restrictions on City Right-of-Way (2nd read) (0:19:00)

Anderson made a motion to put O-63-07 on second read and adopt. Kitchens seconded the motion. All Council members were in favor and the motion passed.

b.) O-65-08, Home Rule Amendment of Charter to Increase Maximum Fine to $1000 (2nd read) (0:19:41)

Kitchens made a motion to put O-65-08 on second read and adopt. Anderson seconded the motion. All Council members were in favor and the motion passed.

c.) Police Coverage (0:20:07)

Salter related that the County will no longer allow us to continue with our current positive arrangement for police coverage.  Salter suggested to Council that they authorize her to sign the contract for an increased amount of money for County police coverage at least until we can explore other options. Anderson asked whether the contract contained a 30-day out clause. Carothers indicated that it does. Carothers indicated that it is his recommendation for Council to authorize Salter to sign the contract subject to his approval of the contract and that there is a sticking point on insurance provision with the current contract.

Kitchens inquired about insurance cost ramifications. Carothers indicated that it is possible that in the insurance renewal process there may be increases for the City to bear.

Salter indicated that our current police solution will cease on February 29th before Council meets again in regular session.

Anderson motioned that Council authorize Salter to enter into an agreement with the County to provide police coverage subject to the approval of the City Attorney as to the form of the contract.  Kitchens seconded the motion.

There was discussion regarding GIRMA and insurance rates. Threadgill indicated that she believes the insurance term begins in May and that she recently sent the renewal in to GIRMA.

Lombardi asked Salter to explain the difference between the existing police coverage scenario and the police coverage under the County plan.  Salter indicated for the citizens who may not have heard the details that the County plan will cost more per hour and provide less control to the City than the previous solution we enjoyed.

Guthrie, Anderson, Spitler and Lombardi were in favor. Kitchens abstained. The motion passed.

Salter asked Council how they wished to proceed with allocating police coverage in light of the increase in cost. There was discussion regarding the contract and potential methods for moving forward, fiscally until the next step is determined.

Salter indicated that the contract with the County is entirely in the County’s favor and that the County was unwilling to make any changes.

Salter related a discussion she had with Randy Belcher, Chief of Police with the City of Duluth as a potential solution.  She indicated that Belcher had taken great pains to indicate that he was not speaking on behalf of the City Council of Duluth and Salter indicated that she was not speaking on behalf of our City Council during that discussion. Salter related that Belcher had indicated that he was interested in providing services to our City and that the City of Berkeley Lake should buy a police car as the City of Grayson is doing. She further indicated that Belcher said that they could find, train and supervise our police and that the police would need to change their shirts when they came from there to here and that the City of Duluth would provide backup in that scenario. Salter indicated that those are tentative things that Belcher and she are talking about.

Guthrie asked Salter to provide that information in a written summary report.

Salter indicated that the reason she wanted to relate this information tonight is because Belcher believes that we could pay for this program with the fines based upon what they do in Duluth. Salter further indicated that the Citizens of Berkeley Lake would likely need to alter their driving habits to avoid having to pay fines. She gave an example of an average Duluth traffic ticket of $60 and a DUI fine of $600.

Anderson asked Carothers about a state law which limits the percentage of a city’s revenue which can be derived from tickets and whether he knew what that number is.  Carothers indicated that he did not know what that number was but that he doubted we would achieve that percentage of revenue.

Guthrie indicated we should be open minded to all possible scenarios and that if Council could get all of that information in summary, that it would be helpful. She indicated that we should continue to look at security guards as an option and that the end solution may be a system which combines different options.

Salter indicated to Council that neither she nor Lombardi wanted to spend significant amounts of time researching options of which Council could not be supportive and asked Council for a sense of whether it is okay to keep researching this option.

Kitchens made a motion for the City to pursue a relationship with the City of Duluth in that regard as well as security guard options Lombardi is already researching.

Salter indicated to Council that she is also researching the option of hiring our own police department as the City of Grayson is doing and that she assumed Council wants Lombardi to continue researching security guard options.

Guthrie indicated at this point that Council owes Lombardi feedback in the form of questions regarding information he has previously provided.

Anderson mentioned that he thinks we should continue to research all avenues until such time as we have ‘apples to apples’ comparisons which can be made.

Guthrie said that we may end up being surprised as to how things work out with the County and the scenario may not work exactly the same as they have in the past, but not necessarily negatively.

Tom McDonald, 4331 S Berkeley Lake Road, asked how to contact Council to provide input. Salter drew his attention to the City website as a source for e-mail addresses.  Mr. McDonald mentioned that he has read about progressive communities such as ours subsidizing mortgages for police officers who live within the city limits and work for the City, providing a presence.

Salter indicated that there are other costs to be considered and asked for additional comments.  There were none.

d) New City Hall (0:41:35)

Barbara Carroll, chairperson of the Architectural Design Committee, 3430 Kingsland Circle, gave a summary of the history of the new City Hall planning process.  She announced the following important dates:

1) A draft floor plan is currently being worked up and on Wednesday, February 27th at 7:00PM, a work session to review the draft plan will be held between the architect/design firm and City Council at Berkeley Walk Club House. At that meeting, the Council will discuss the draft plan and make changes and comments. The meeting is an advertised Council Work Session and as such is open to the public.
2) On Saturday, March 15th, from 9:00AM to 11:00AM, the final drawings will be on display at the Chapel for citizen review and comment. Wakefield Beasley & Associates will make a detailed presentation at 10:00AM. Council, Urban Collage and WBA will be on hand to respond to comments and answer questions.

Steve Seitz, 34 Lakeshore Drive and President of BLHA, indicated that it was good to see the opportunity to come in and look at the plans again and applauded what the City had done in 2006 to gain input from citizens.  He asked for clarification as to whether the drawings to be presented on March 15th were final as Carroll had indicated previously or preliminary as indicated tonight.

Guthrie indicated that the plans presented at the Open House will not actually be considered final because Council will not have approved them by that time. They will be presented to Council at the March 20th Council meeting and at that time Council will make the decision to approve them, not approve them or approve them with modifications. She indicated that when she met with Wakefield Beasley, they had said that if Council were unable to approve them at that time, then WBA had not done their job.

Seitz asked that a PDF file be made available. Guthrie indicated that it was discussed that the drawing be available at City Hall during the week prior to the meeting.

Tom Rozier indicated that if a PDF file were made available, that it could be placed on the City website and that a link could be included in an e-mail.

Tom McDonald 4331 S Berkeley Lake Rd indicated that he was unaware of the process which had come to pass with the planning of the new City Hall and that he knew of a number of people who had voiced concern about how we were going to use our City Hall.

Spitler indicated the following:

She is new on Council, but that prior to being on Council she had attended all of the meetings in 2006 where Urban Collage helped us out with the planning process.  She attended not only the meetings for general citizens, but also additional meetings for stakeholders in leadership positions like homeowner association presidents. Since 2006, there really has not been a lot for citizens to do. Information was culled and gathered from the community and at that time we all had the opportunity to come and make our votes on the different features we wanted so that the weighted areas are the ones in that design document. After that point, there wasn’t really any more need for citizen input because from that point on and all last year all the effort was put forth to putting out an RFP and deciding on an architect.  That contract wasn’t even approved by council and signed until the end of last year. So last year, there really wasn’t a lot for citizens to do. There wasn’t anything actually until we got the architect firm on board and there have been some planning sessions with them, but that’s really all. 2006 was really the time for citizens to be involved.

McDonald mentioned that to his knowledge, the City had not communicated with citizens regarding the project. He indicated that he had not received any emails although other neighbors may have.

Spitler further indicated the following:

Last year, she attended Council meetings and there were periodic updates where Barbara (Carroll) came and talked about where we were in the process of putting an RFP out and getting responses back from architects. She felt like by the time she became a Council member at the beginning of this year that she was pretty well-informed as to where we were in the process. Maybe all that information was not put up on the website but the information was available in Minutes from Council Meetings or if you actually came to some of the Council meetings.

McDonald indicated that he had not attended those meetings and indicated that the only reason he was here tonight was that he was told that we are at a critical time with laying the blueprints of City Hall.

Guthrie drew McDonald’s attention to the Programming Document posted on the City website. She indicated that the City had spent a few thousand dollars with Urban Collage in creating that document based on everything the Citizens, staff, Council and the Mayor had input. She indicated that in response to Steve Seitz bringing it to the City’s attention, the City had improved how the information is presented on the City website.

Tom Rozier indicated that the information could be accessed by selecting “Reports” from the main page of the City website. He also indicated that there is a link in the City News on the main page of the website, information needed to access that area of the website.

 McDonald said that he was not suggesting that this was being pushed through without people’s knowledge, but that it would be nice if more people were involved.

Guthrie indicated that McDonald may not have had the opportunity to attend the standing-room-only town hall meetings where citizens gave input. 

Salter asked if anyone one else had comments.  There were no comments.

VIII. NEW BUSINESS

a.) Appeal of Staff Determination for 90 Lakeshore Drive (1:00:35)

Lombardi recused himself due to conflict of interest.

Tom Koenig, 90 Lakeshore Drive, described the issue to Council and read a portion of the City Ordinance regarding boat houses.

Kitchens moved that Council deny the appeal. Anderson seconded. All voting Council members were in agreement. The motion passed.

Guthrie asked Carothers whether we needed to clarify the ordinance.  Carothers indicated he felt the language was clear but that it could be made clearer.

b.) Equipment Disposal Policy consideration (1:31:32)

Lombardi made a motion to adopt the policy as Tom Rozier has stated it. Kitchens seconded the motion.

There was discussion regarding columns in the policy grid.

All were in favor. The motion passed.

c.) Georgia Fund 1/LGIP Resolution (1:33:25)

Tom Rozier clarified that this resolution had been passed in the past with different people in the positions of Mayor Pro-Tem and Treasurer.

Kitchens made a motion that we adopt the resolution. Lombardi seconded the motion. All were in favor. The motion passed.

d.) BB&T 6-Month CD Maturation (1:34:27)

Kitchens asked for clarification.  Tom Rozier indicated that LGIP performed at 4.2% in January and that was at or higher than all bids received from banks for CDs.

Kitchens made a motion that Council ratify the investment choice. Spitler seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion passed.

e.) O-66-08 Chapter 62-24, Variances and Appeals (Sign Ordinance) (1st read) (1:38:23)

Kitchens made a motion to place O-66-08 on first read. Anderson seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion passed.

f.) Sidewalks for North Berkeley Lake Road (1:40:03)

Salter summarized the County’s verbal plan to build a sidewalk on the water side of North Berkeley Lake Road and making Bayway a 1-lane 1-way semi-circle.

She further indicated she had requested the County implement recommendations from the recent traffic study paid for by the City. The County is only willing to implement chevrons.

Salter indicated that a round-about at Bush Road at Berkeley Lake Road might be possible if the City doesn’t charge the County for the right-of-way.

Guthrie indicated that she would like to hear what Street Smarts thinks about putting a round-about at Bush at North Berkeley Lake Road.

Salter indicated that the County will be holding community meetings.

Salter indicated a time frame of Spring 2009 with a subsequent9 months to get right-of-way acquisition.

Guthrie indicated the need to make a decision within a couple of days as it relates to building the new City Hall.

Salter committed to consulting Street Smarts before the 2/27 meeting.

Anderson asked for Salter to request a copy of the AutoCAD plot file.

g.) Memorial Day City Celebration (1:57:18)

Britt Taylor Collins, 33 Lakeshore Drive, gave details about the Memorial Day celebration plan to give Huey helicopter rides landing on the dam, living history exhibits and a simulation of a ground assault.

The Army Aviation Heritage Foundation, Hampton, GA is providing the Vietnam-era aircraft rides.  The aircraft are maintained by people who work for Delta and other airlines.

Collins requested the city put up $2500 to be held in escrow to guarantee 50 rides plus $1075 for gas. He noted that it costs $1800 per hour to operate a Huey so they are barely breaking even.

Collins noted the degree to which safety is addressed with maintaining the aircraft and that Georgia Safe Dams has approved landing on the dam.

The celebration is scheduled for May 24th, the Saturday prior to Memorial Day, with Monday, Memorial Day, as a rain date.

He envisions 4 satellite parking lots with transportation and first-aid provided.

BLOKES will be invited to sell food. There are a number of people who want to get involved.

Guthrie moved that Council approve the project as outlined for $3,575 contingent upon the City Attorney’s approval. Anderson seconded. All were in favor. The motion passed.

h.) City Hall Communications Upgrade proposal (2:14:48)

Guthrie moved to ratify the City Hall communication system upgrade request. Spitler seconded.  All were in favor. The motion passed.

IX. CITIZEN COMMENTS (2:16:13)

No citizens spoke.

X. ADJOURNMENT    (2:16:18)

There being no further business to discuss, Kitchens made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Guthrie seconded the motion.  All were in favor and the motion passed.

Salter adjourned the meeting at 9:47pm.  

(Respectfully submitted by Tom Rozier, correct as of March 18, 2008)