PUBLIC HEARING AND COUNCIL MEETING
CITY OF BERKELEY LAKE
4040 BERKELEY LAKE ROAD
BERKELEY LAKE, GEORGIA 30096
Full Minutes for
November 4, 2004 Those in attendance for the Council Meeting were as follows:
Mayor: Lois Salter
Council Members:
Bernie Cohen, Debbie Guthrie, Delicia Reynolds, George Sipe and Marcie Zielazienski
City Clerk- Jackie Wall
City Attorney- Dick Carothers
Citizens Present- 9
CALL TO ORDER
Salter opened the meeting at 7:30 PM at 4043 South Berkeley Lake Road. PUBLIC HEARING
The clerk read the minutes summary of the P and Z meeting which recommended the revision to the plat of the development known as ‘Berkeley On the River’.
The P and Z unanimously motioned to accept the revised plan which will eliminate the left hand turn lane heading east bound from the west on the left of North Berkeley lake road into the village area of development.
Other additions to the plat were as follows:
PPI has added a disclaimer removing their liability for building in a flood zone.
The DOT added corner sight distance requirement for internal driveways.
Sidewalks are not allowed within 13 ft of the edge of North Berkeley Lake Road without curb and gutter and any necessary draining structure.
The name of the subdivision has been changed to the ‘River District’.
There were no comments by the public. MINUTES
Sipe motioned that the minutes of the meeting of October 21st, 2004 be accepted as presented. Cohen seconded. All were in favor of the motion. The motion passed.
Reports had been received from the Police and OEO.
Salter recognized and thanked Craig Friel who is retiring from Gwinnett police, and has been working for the City for several years. He is moving to Florida. She listed his professional achievements.
Sipe reported back on a meeting with Brian Allen and Bill Powell from the County regarding the three way stop sign by the ‘Berkeley on the River’ development. Their main concern was that a stop sign could be large liability risk. They reiterated that the City could take over the road and therefore take over the liability. Sipe said they had discussed several other options too, including a solar powered ‘This is your speed’ sign which the City would have to buy. They all agreed not to just drop the subject. Sipe had agreed to walk it with a traffic engineer. The County representatives also said that the City could consider a traffic study for controlling safety as well.
Sipe said he had also asked questions about the guardrail on Lakeshore Drive and the possible sidewalks on North Berkeley Lake road. There were no plans yet for the sidewalk.
Salter said she was looking at a possible budget amendment. She said she had talked with the City treasurer and City attorney. Both had said that it may not necessary as the amounts were not significant. She said that she had also asked for the auditor’s opinion too. She said it was possible to see the few areas where the budget had been exceeded, although it was mainly in salaries. The general ledger shows the details.
Cohen said that the code states that an increase in any item of appropriation by more than 10% requires a public hearing and a vote of council.
Salter said that historically a budget amendment had been made after the fact.
Cohen said that it would not be necessary to make a budget amendment but that in future he would like to see that the budget was not exceeded in any area without a budget amendment and Public hearing. Council agreed. MAYOR’S MESSAGE AND OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
Salter announced that the SPLOST referendum had passed, which will be very important to the City’s finances.
Salter reminded everyone that the ‘Celebration of Neighbors’ would be on Sunday 7th November at 3pm at the Chapel.
Salter showed an article on Berkeley Lake recently published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
Salter said she would recognize Tom Kitchens for his work on promoting SPLOST in her next mayor’s message. OLD BUSINESS
Infrastructure Repairs- Zielazienski
Zielazienski said she was still waiting for easements from the County for the 380-398 Lakeshore Drive culvert project. The County finance department is waiting for the City to use the funds and they had offered to help speed the process up. The City will not lose the money if it is not completed this year. Consideration of Waste Management Proposals
Zielazienski recognized and thanked the companies who had bid on the waste disposal contract. She said that all the companies concerned put a lot of effort into their proposals. Zielazienski motioned accepting the bid from Advanced Disposal Services. Guthrie seconded the motion. Sipe said that there were differences in the details in the proposals in addition to what the City required. He said they had looked at what the proposals actually said and which proposals offered the highest value for City. Guthrie asked Carothers how a performance bond works. Carothers said that if a company fails then the bond pays someone else to collect the waste and complete project. Reynolds asked if there was an issue as the citizens were paying their own invoices, and not the City. She asked if the performance bond would still be effective. Carothers said that the Contract was with the City and that it would come into effect if necessary. Frank Lombardi - 20 Lakeshore Drive
Lombardi asked what criteria were used to assess the proposals. Sipe said that Council had asked questions of the bidders at last meeting. He said that they had looked at their financials closely. The City treasurer was also asked to look at them too. He said that there was a focus on the extra services that were offered. The main focus was the lowest cost with the highest value. Guthrie said that Advanced Services offered a number of extra services in their proposal, for example, additional recycling, information stickers, expanded yard waste pick up, impressive customer service, white goods and bulk goods. They also offered full sponsorship for Earth Day. Reynolds said she was still concerned about their financial position and possible accounting practice. She said whatever company is awarded the contract, it is a high contact service and therefore there will always be complaints. Sipe also said that Guthrie had checked many references too. None of them were perfect but all of them were ok. Guthrie said that neither of the two lowest bidders had significantly better references. Salter said that the Treasurer did study the financials on Advanced Disposal and there was nothing in there that gave her a major concern. Cohen, Guthrie, Sipe and Zielazienski were in favor of the motion. Reynolds was opposed to the motion. The motion passed. Consideration of Budget 2005
Cohen said that SPLOST would have a major impact on the City’s budget. He said he estimated that the City would receive about $300,000 next year. He complimented the finance committee, treasurer and mayor for putting a proposed budget together. He suggested that council was not in a position to hold a public hearing at the next meeting. He said that SPLOST income would eliminate the need for a residual equity transfer. The income would be about $978,187 to work with. He questioned the figures for income from the building permits for the ‘River District’. Dean said it would depend on the economy. A builder had a contract for phase 1 which is 37 lots. The remainder would be built after 12 months. He said it would depend on sales but it was looking very positive at the moment. The average price house for a house would be about 800K. Cohen was concerned about the building economy and quoted from an article in Business Week. He said that it was ‘soft number’ which could change- unlike the rest of the numbers, although he suggested leaving the number as it is. Cohen had other suggestions:
• He asked to have an executive session to discuss city personnel for next year.
• He said that the number of rentals for the chapel should not be reduced as the ordinance says that there are two meetings a month
• He said that the budget should be increased for the City attorney
• He said that the budget for the police should be increased.
• He suggested that the SPLOST money be used for maintenance and storm drainage. He suggested that $80,000 should be used for maintenance, and $220,000 for roads (resurfacing River Mansions and the remainder of the money for Lakeshore Drive). Further resurfacing could be done with SPLOST money the year after.
• He suggested that the Cultural and Recreation budget be increased to at least $12,000 depending on playground / equipment maintenance.
• He said the contingency should be at least 2 months operating costs, to include possible costs for funding the Comprehensive Plan, which is a state requirement.
• He said that there should still be an excess of revenues over expenditures of approximately $100,000 during 2005. He suggested that a new line item be added to pay down the bond in 2008. He estimated that it was possible to collect $600,000 between now and then. He said it would be an excellent opportunity. He said that the reserves are needed for the operating costs. Frank Lombardi - 20 Lakeshore Drive
Lombardi suggested that the OEO’s salary be increased to cope with additional work for the new development. He agreed with Cohen’s suggestions on the police, cultural and recreation fund and Contingency fund. He was concerned that the Clerks and Deputy clerk are 31% over budget. He said it looked like they work 185 person hours a month, and City hall is only open 80 hrs a month, even if they work at the same time. The City is not growing, but administrative costs are increasing. Salter said that the City no longer is paying a Roads and Public works director or a City manager. Council had also received an email from the clerk detailing achievements and extra hours worked. Zielazienski also acted as deputy clerk when she was on salary as Public works director, which she no longer did. Lombardi also asked if the budget for Storm drainage included maintenance or repair of existing projects. Salter said that the OEO’s salary would be discussed in executive session. The OEO is being asked to look at procedures to make him more efficient, so that he should still be able to work with the new development with a slightly higher salary. She said that long range the City is not supporting itself adequately. She urged that council maintain a tight budget. There was discussion about the police budget and the possible need for increasing the amount allocated to it. There was discussion about when the Public Hearing for the budget would be held. It was agreed that the Public hearing would be held on December 16th in order for the clerk to have enough time to advertise it after the next meeting. There will also be an executive session held on November 18th for the discussion of personnel issues. There was further discussion about putting money aside to pay down the bond, and the concerns about the burden on the city. Reynolds pointed out that early payment of the bond does not benefit current residents, just future residents. She said she would rather have the money in the bank for future use in case, for example, SPLOST revenue were not available in later years. There was discussion about how the budget would be discussed between meetings, to keep it open to the public but also to save time. NEW BUSINESS
Possible Plat Revision, “Berkeley on the River” now called “River district”
Sipe moved to approve all changes to the plat recommended by the P and Z as described by the City Clerk. Cohen seconded the motion.
Reynolds asked whether the stop sign was on the plat. It is not.
All were in favor of the motion and the motion passed. Resolution to state regarding Solid waste management plan
Zielazienski motioned to adopt the resolution for the solid waste management plan. Guthrie seconded the motion. All were in favor of the motion and the motion passed. Chapter 3 :Administration Ordinance- Sipe
Sipe described the changes to Chapter 3 he wanted to propose. The change included adding departments, and council members being responsible for such departments. It removes references to the City manager and the arbitration committee, but formalized the committees currently formed. Sipe motioned to put his changes to Chapter 3 on first read. Cohen seconded the motion. Reynolds said she did not agree with or understand the changes to this ordinance. She said the Mayor is currently manager of the city and council is responsible as a body and not as an individual person. She said that the ‘Handbook for Georgia Mayors and Council members’ says that it is not a good idea to have council members as department heads. There was discussion about other cities which operate under a similar system. There were concerns about the accountability of council members as departments heads defined in an ordinance. Guthrie pointed out that the Ordinance committee had not looked at the ordinance, as everyone had just received it. The City attorney had only briefly looked at it too. Carothers agreed that it is not a good idea to have council members as heads of department but they could delegate and oversee a department. He said it was not atypical in small communities. It currently happens in Lilburn. He described how it operates there. Zielazienski said that in the past council members had been given responsibility for certain areas of the government.
Salter said that proposed changes delegate power, which is currently held by the mayor and she did not have a strong opinion either way. She said she had opposed the city manager idea in the past as the City could not afford it, and it gave too much power to someone who was not elected. She said she did feel that the ordinance should go to the Ordinance committee first. Salter also said that it was not clear as to who would delegate to each council member. She suggested the mayor delegate the department officials, not Council as it would be difficult for five individuals to decide if they all had a different opinion.
Sipe said that each January a council member would be appointed to a role by a majority vote of Council. The mayor would be responsible if a department did not have a department official for some reason.
There was further discussion about appointments made, about the volunteer committees and whether they could still meet without the department official. The mayor would appoint the committee members as before, but the mission of the committee would be set by the department official. Reynolds noted that Council’s role was to set the mission, not one individual council member. Sipe said that the intention was to change that, so one council member would be responsible for a department. The budget, ordinances and charter would still have to be followed.
Guthrie reiterated that she would have preferred to have more time to consider the large document, and for the attorney and ordinance committee to have seen it first. Frank Lombardi - 20 Lakeshore Drive
Lombardi said that changing the mayor as administrative head is a concern. He said that council had enough to do already. He said that there is a small pool of talent in five people and that subject matter experts could be an issue. He said it could limit Council, especially if someone does not have a feel or a talent or interest in an area they are assigned to. He said he had a philosophical problem with putting council members in charge of a specific area. If they were removed for any reason, it could affect their ability to run for office again. Jeff Pahl- 881 Lakeshore Drive
Pahl said that from a Citizens perspective it is a significant document. He said he would like to see a copy of what is on first read as one defined document attached to the minutes. If it is sent in different directions after first read (to the ordinance committee or city attorney), then it changes without citizens seeing what is changed until the next time it comes to council. Zielazienski, Sipe and Cohen were in favor of the motion. Reynolds opposed the motion. Guthrie abstained as she felt she had not had enough time to look at the document. Motion passed. THERE BEING NO FURTHER BUSINESS, COHEN MOTIONED TO ADJOURN THE MEETING AT 9.25 PM. ZIELAZIENSKI SECONDED THE MOTION, AND ALL WERE IN FAVOR. THE MOTION PASSED. Respectfully submitted by Jackie Wall (Correct as of November 18, 2004)
|
