Those in attendance for the Council Meeting were as follows:
Mayor: Lois D. Salter
Council Members:
Bernie Cohen, Delicia Reynolds, George Sipe, and Marcie Zielazienski

City Clerk- Jackie Wall

Citizens Present- 11

CALL TO ORDER
Salter called the meeting to order at 7:30 PM at 4043 Berkeley Lake Road.

MINUTES
Cohen motioned to accept the minutes from February 5th, 2004. Zielazienski seconded the motion. All were in favor, and the motion passed.

FINANCIAL REPORT
Reynolds motioned to accept the Financial report for January 2004. Sipe seconded the motion.

In discussion Reynolds asked for clarification as to whom two of the checks had been paid to. Zielazienski, and Wall explained the services that had been provided.

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

MAYOR’S MESSAGE
Salter announced that the Planning and Zoning committee had met on 12th February with Charles Dean to approve a concept plan for the Henderson property known as the Sod Farm. He wants to place 80 homes on the lot. An agreement has been made that he will build fewer homes in the wooded area by the road, so that the homes on the flat will be closer together.

Salter announced that the City Earth Day would be on April 24th for large trash removal. She said she hoped there would be a litter clean up too.

Salter announced that three Council Members: Cohen, Zielazienski, and Sipe, have had meetings with Charlotte Nash (the county administrator), and her staff as well as Tom Rice (our state representative), and David Shafer (our state senator) in an effort to see if they can help the City in terms of our stormwater difficulties.

Salter said the Mayor’s message had been sent out, and received today.

Salter said that the coming week was Severe Weather Awareness Week, and she warned that there would be a test siren blast on Wednesday 25Th February.

Salter announced that the two persistent problems had both been resolved in the last week: the pothole on South Berkeley Lake Road, and the trash on PIB.

Salter said she had spoken with Carol Hassel to let her know officially that Julie Stuart is the GOLT representative. She would confirm it in writing too. She would also be sending the payment of $2,000 that had been agreed upon.

Salter said she had finished the final revision of the Committee Guidelines that had been discussed. She said there were copies available and it would be posted on the web site too.

Salter said she had a Resource Book available for committees to use should they need access to other resources available from student interns and professors, from colleges and universities, in the area at little or no cost.

OLD BUSINESS
INFRASTRUCTURE REPAIRS- ZIELAZIENSKI
Zielazienski said that there would be a delay of about a week at the culvert repair on Lakeshore Drive as a result of a water line that the county did not know was there. It was resolved that afternoon, and some citizens had been without water several times. Work on the culvert repair will resume as soon as possible.

Zielazienski said that Kitchens had reported the siphons used to lower the lake had been turned off as they lowered the lake quicker than expected. They will be turned back on just before the contractor begins work on the spillway outfall pipes replacement, and that should not be for approximately a week to a week and a half. Zielazienski also said an engineer had inspected the spillway but the report was not back yet.

AMEND CHAPTER 3 TO CLARIFY EMPLOYEE CITIZENSHIP REQUIREMENT (3-403K), 2nd READ – COHEN
Cohen motioned to accept the ordinance on second read and approve it. Sipe seconded the motion and all were in favor. Motion passed.

UPDATE MAYOR'S DISCRETIONARY SPENDING LIMIT (4-208, 4-211) 2ND READ- COHEN
Cohen said Reynolds suggested a slight change in the title. The word “discretionary” was removed.

Cohen motioned to put the newly titled Ordinance on second read and approve it.
Reynolds seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion passed.

NEW BUSINESS
CLEAN AIR ORDINANCE (CHAPTER 13?)– SALTER
Salter said she had been asked by Wayne Hill if the City would consider passing a similar Clean Air ordinance to that of the county’s which limited smoking in public places. She said she had asked the City Attorney to suggest any modifications to their ordinance.

Sipe motioned to put the Clean Air ordinance on first read. Cohen seconded the motion.

Reynolds questioned the possible conflict of wording on page 6, and 7 between Section 13:205, and 13:207a iii.

Sipe said he would like to compare the original county document with the one Carothers was suggesting.

All in favor of the motion and the motion passed.

MASSARONI RESIGNATION AND REPLACEMENT- SALTER
Salter said she had received a resignation from Massaroni and it had also been posted on the web site. She said she would like Debbie Guthrie to be appointed in his place.

Reynolds said that according to the Charter Article 2.12 (“the City Council, or those remaining shall appoint a successor”), and Ordinance 3-203, (“the City Council, or those remaining shall by vote of a majority of the remaining appoint a successor”), it was the City Council’s job to appoint a Council Member, not the Mayor.

Sipe said the Mayor should therefore only recommend a successor

Salter agreed and said that Guthrie was her recommendation.

Reynolds also said that historically, since she had been on Council, there had been more communication with the public when there had been a vacancy. She recalled that the Council had previously reviewed resumes and letters from those people who had been interested, explaining why they would like to be on the Council. She said she felt that it had not been adequately communicated, although she did not think that Guthrie was not well qualified.

Salter explained how she had arrived at the appointment of Guthrie. She said she thought that those who had stepped forward to volunteer to serve on committees should be considered as candidates, as anyone who had not volunteered was obviously not prepared to take on the additional work as a Council Member. She said she had specifically looked at people who lived in sub-divisions and had talked to two such people in particular, but they were not interested. She also looked at how much involvement people had had in the City up to that point. She said she felt strongly that Guthrie would be the best person for the job.

Sipe motioned that the Council fulfill Section 2:12 of the City Charter with the appointment of Debbie Guthrie. Zielazienski seconded the motion.

In discussion Sipe asked about an interview in the Gwinnett Daily Post newspaper, which quoted Reynolds as saying “they will get a puppet to take his place so they can have their majority of three votes, because they don’t trust Bernie”. He asked Reynolds if she really said that.

Reynolds said it was maybe not in those exact words, she was not a politician, but it was “a pretty close quote”.

Sipe asked if she felt if Guthrie was appointed that she would be a puppet to somebody other than to the will of the citizens of Berkeley Lake.

Reynolds said she did not know, but it remained to be seen.

Salter said that it did remain to be seen and that she hoped that it would not start out that way in the minds of the public.

Sipe, Cohen, and Zielazienski voted in favor of the motion. Reynolds opposed the motion because of the process. Motion passed.

SPLOST – COHEN
Cohen explained the situation with Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax (SPLOST) money and where the money is currently spent in Georgia. He said that Gwinnett County had collected $500 million in the last five years. They spent $84 million on projects, which benefited the cities and the county such as public libraries and parks. $20 million dollars went to the cities, which was divided by population and land use, so smaller cities do not get much. The GMA (Georgia Municipal Association) would like the Counties to spread the money more evenly.

Cohen said he would like to ask the Mayor to support GMA and to write to our representatives - Rice and Shafer to reinforce that. He said there was a model letter to help.

Cohen motioned to get a consensus of Council to support GMA to try to change the system so that cities get more money from the SPLOST. He said that most of the money comes from the cities in the first place.

Reynolds said the County does have to account for where they spend the money. She asked that Council ask Carothers first before doing this in case it should upset the county.

Salter said Carothers had spoken on this issue before and does agree with the need to support GMA.

Sipe agreed with Reynolds that the County does a lot for the City and it would be important not to ruin a good relationship with them.

Salter suggested drafting a letter first for Carothers to read before it was sent to the county. She agreed to do it within the next week.

Everyone agreed by a show of hands.

OTHER BUSINESS
SWEARING IN OF DEBBIE GUTHRIE BY MAYOR.
Salter administered the oath to Debbie Guthrie and congratulated her on her appointment.

CITIZEN COMMENTS
Rick Rice- 12 Lakeshore Dr
Rice said he wanted to comment on the process to nominate Guthrie to the vacant Council seat. He asked why the Mayor and three Council Members needed to deviate from the process used in the past where the public was made aware of the vacancy, then sought people who were interested and had them go through an organized process (wrote a letter and/or supplied a resume) in order to be considered for Council. He asked why it was thought this process could be deviated from.

Salter said there had not been an established procedure.

Rice agreed but he said there had been a tradition.

Sipe said that it had only been done that way once before and that was by the previous Council.

Cohen said it had only been done that way once in the whole history of the City. It had never been done at all previously. The Mayor had made the appointments before.

Rice asked about the reference Sipe had made to Reynolds concerning her comment in the newspaper. She said decisions had been made behind closed doors. He said he thought this gave credence to that comment. There had been no public notice and nobody had been asked if they were interested. This process made assumptions that people who were not interested in a committee were not interested in City Council. He said he thought it was a poor assumption. If people were aware there was an open vacancy on City Council who was to say who would have applied. He said it looked like something was done behind closed doors to get a hand picked person without making it public knowledge that there was a vacancy.

Sipe said there had been vacancies on City Council regularly over past times. It is not a rare thing. He said Council did not just wait for this kind of thing to happen, and then do something about it. Current Council knew that it was previously thought that there might be a vacancy to fill, so they had been in a position to give it some thought already. It was not that two days ago, it had crossed their minds for the first time. He said he thought it was important to appoint someone whom they believed would be elected by the citizens, if it were put to a vote. He said he thought Guthrie would win such an election.

Rice said that this was not an issue about Guthrie, but about the process.

Sipe said he would vote for the person he felt most comfortable with. He said he trusted Guthrie and he thought she would not just vote in a block as a puppet, but would vote as a puppet for the citizens of Berkeley Lake. Sipe said he would have to make the decision in his own mind. The citizens do not get a list of names to lobby for; it was up to the City Council to do the very best job they could to make the decision. He said if the citizens disagree with his vote to appoint Guthrie to Council, they could turn him out of office in four years. He said they could vote Guthrie out in 20 months too. He said he thought it was a good appointment and that she would be re-elected if she chose to do so.

Rice reiterated it was the process he disagreed with. He asked whether it was part of the new communication strategy. He said he could not think of a more important decision that a Mayor and Council could make than to fill a vacant slot. There was no community involvement or public notice.

Sipe said he would not be able to vote in favor of someone he did not know.

Rice said it was still not known who else might have come forward should the vacancy have been made known. He said the Council did not care who else might have come forward. He said it sounded like Council did not care what the citizens thought.

Cohen said very few candidates had opted to run for office in the last election just a few months ago, and asked Rice if he thought there were more people who were interested now.

Rice asked about the two people who did run for Council the previous November.

Cohen said that they had been heavily defeated, and that it was obvious the citizens did not want them in government. He asked if they should have been appointed.

Rice said Council had appointed someone who did not run at all and reiterated it was a poor communication strategy.

Sipe said he felt that Rice had done a disservice to the City by suggesting that, and he had grossly mischaracterized the Council that had been elected. In the case of Guthrie, Rice had suggested there would be other mysterious candidates that might show up.

Rice agreed that there could be other candidates.

Sipe said he was thrilled when Guthrie’s name was mentioned, as she would be at the top of his list. Other candidates would be good but he knows Guthrie, and other candidates may be good, but she was still the best candidate in his opinion. He said he did not want to throw everyone’s name in and make it into a political issue. He said he had selected, using his judgment (as he is required to do) the best candidate that is available for the office.

Rice said she was the only one nominated or presented and asked how he knew she was the best candidate. He said he still felt the process was bad.

Zielazienski denied that there was alliance and a decision that already been made before it came to the table. She said this had not been the case. She herself had been out of town all week and had not expected Massaroni to resign. She had seen it on an email but did not talk to a member of Council regarding this issue. Guthrie’s name had not been mentioned. She said it was not pre-planned. She said she believed in Guthrie who had lived in Berkeley Lake for 20 years. Zielazienski said she had demonstrated a lot of interest in the community and does not serve any particular area. She said she was glad to support her nomination. Zielazienski said in terms of process, that as long as she had served the City, the Mayor had made the appointments. She said she was not sure when the change had been made to Council appointment, and questioned whether it was when the Charter was last changed.

Reynolds denied absolutely that this was the case.

Zielazienski said that people who had shown interest in the City and had been involved, had always been appointed.

Rice said that he still disagreed with the process and even if Zielazienski was not involved in decisions prior to the meeting, that other Council Members had been at least in conversation.

Salter said she was sure that there were conservations between Council Members occasionally before a meeting, but there had been conversations between other Council Members such as between Reynolds and Massaroni at other times too. She said there was nothing wrong with that, and that they all talked to each other at different times to share ideas. She said that there was nothing evil about that.

Zielazienski said she did not want people to think that they had come to the meeting tonight having made the decision before they came to the table.

Rice said that the whole process had led to that perception.

Sipe agreed Rice’s issue was not with Guthrie. He said Rice was free to have his position on the issue but that he too was also able to have his position on it as well. He said, as an elected official that he believed it was a good and healthy process, which he understood Rice disagreed with. He said that when the citizens elect people to represent them, it is their choice. If they agree more with Rice than with Sipe, then he would expect it to be reflected in the future electoral process. In the mean time, Sipe said he does what he believes the citizens want him to do, not because he thinks he is smarter than the citizens. He said no other Council had as much community involvement as the current Council has. He said they had chosen to involve the citizens in that way, and it is a different responsibility to fill a vacancy.

Rice said the committees were not more important than this one decision.

Salter said that someone who had invested themselves in the City before there was any hope of holding office, and the honor that goes with it, and was willing just to do the work for the good of the City, speaks more strongly to Salter than someone who shows up just when there is an opportunity to be a Council Member and hands a resume in.

Rice said he tried to stay involved in the City and did not know Guthrie, or what she has done in the City.

Salter reiterated Guthrie’s efforts on behalf of the City.
Pam Williamson- 3996 S. Berkeley Lake Road.
Williamson welcomed Guthrie, and thanked her for taking on the opportunity Council presented.

Williamson said that the Finance Committee had met the previous Tuesday. She said Cohen was their liaison. She said they had started to build blocks towards suggesting a millage rate and were working on the budget. She said she hoped that they would have some steps to go forward with in the next few weeks.

Frank Lombardi -20 Lakeshore Drive.
Lombardi congratulated Guthrie on her appointment.

Lombardi said he was disappointed with the current new Council Members who had campaigned on openness, communication, and citizen involvement. He said he believed the selection that evening had happened without openness, and without going to the residents, and that it was a disappointment. He said he had heard the campaign promises and that evidently it was just campaign rhetoric.

Sipe said the only way that Lombard’s comment could be taken was as a political statement.

Lombardi said he disagreed. He said that while he had run for office, unopposed, he said this was not a political statement, but a personal statement, to say he had believed them and they had not delivered. He said that there was not a political bone in his body; he said that the Mayor had said many times that he did not have any agenda. He said it was only Sipe’s perception.

Cohen said he would believe Lombardi if he believed he had voted for Sipe. He did not know how he had voted but he knew how Lombardi had campaigned.

Lombardi said maybe he had come to believe Sipe and that others who had voted for him and believed him may be disappointed, too.

Sipe said he did campaign on openness and feels very strongly about it. He said he believed that this was the most open Council that had existed in memory.

Lombardi said it had been established that the last Council had gone through a very open process to replace someone on Council.

Sipe said in terms of openness, the current Council has direct involvement with a dozen committees, boards, and commissions, which involved over 60 citizens. He said the committees mean many people are involved in every part of government. He said there was also 30 minutes of public discussion before each meeting. These issues show how open the current Council is. He said Lombardi was actually just agreeing with Rice in disagreeing with the process Council had used to fill the vacancy.

Lombardi said that was not the case and that his issue was not with openness but that he was personally disappointed in the lack of follow through on their campaign platforms. He said the committee guidelines do not encourage communication either.

Sipe continued to describe the reasons why the current Council is more open than the previous Council. He said they were all things they said they would do and are all the things that they have done. He said they had never discussed the process they would use to elect a new member of Council during the campaign.

Lombardi agreed but said it was a significant issue.

Sipe said he would continue to defend the accusations that this is not an open Council, and to defend the Council when Lombardi says that they had lied to the public, and are not following through on their commitments. He said he took exception to that.

Lombardi said he had not used the word “lie” and reiterated that the new Council had not stepped up to their campaign promises.

Sipe disagreed and said people would make up their own minds. He said that if that were the case, they would not vote for him in the future.

Zielazienski said they had followed the Charter.

Lombardi said there was no question that they had.

Sipe said he understood that had Lombardi been on Council that he would have done it differently.

Lombardi said he was on Council, and they did do it differently. He said that was not what he was suggesting and reiterated that he was disappointed that they had not followed through on their campaign promises.

Zielazienski said they had followed through on their campaign promises, that it was only February, and that they are trying hard to get everything rolling, as well as communication so it is visible to everyone. She reiterated that they had followed the charter in regard to the appointment.

Faye Harwell- 381 Lakeshore Drive
Harwell asked exactly what the charter says, and whether the Council had followed it.

Salter said Reynolds had clarified it and that the Council had followed it.

Sipe read the exact text section in the charter: Section 2.12 Vacancy;
“(b) Filling of vacancies. In the event that the office of mayor or councilmember shall become vacant, the city council or those remaining shall appoint a successor. The successor shall serve until the next succeeding special or general election held in the City of Berkeley Lake, at which time the vacant position shall be filled by the election of a successor for the unexpired term.”

Sipe said there was no mention of process.

Harwell said that it is therefore up to the judgment of this group to do that.

THERE BEING NO MORE BUSINESS, REYNOLDS MOTIONED TO ADJOURN THE MEETING AT 8:30 PM. COHEN SECONDED THE MOTION, AND ALL WERE IN FAVOR. MOTION PASSED.

Respectfully submitted

Jackie Wall, City Clerk