COUNCIL MEETING
CITY OF BERKELEY LAKE
4040 BERKELEY LAKE ROAD
BERKELEY LAKE, GEORGIA 30096
Full Minutes for
November 18, 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- 3
CALL TO ORDER
Salter opened the meeting at 7:30 PM at 4043 South Berkeley Lake Road.
MINUTES
Sipe suggested that the City attorney’s name be corrected in the draft minutes.
Sipe motioned that the minutes of the meeting of November 4, 2004 be accepted with the change. Zielazienski seconded the motion. All were in favor of the motion. The motion passed. REPORTS
There were questions regarding the accruals in the financial report. The clerk will investigate.
Guthrie motioned to accept the financial report. Zielazienski seconded the motion. Cohen, Guthrie, Sipe and Zielazienski were in favor of the motion, Reynolds opposed the motion. The motion passed.
Sipe reported back on the issues brought forward by the Arbitration Board’s recommendations regarding the P and Z. He said that some members of Council had asked other cities how many members were on their P and Z boards. Everyone had said there were five members- the same as Berkeley Lake. He said he had also checked the attendance of the P and Z board to date. There have been a total of eight meetings, with an average attendance of four members per meeting. The two summer meetings were the ones where attendance was down to three members, which is still a quorum. He said that members had attended the following percentages of the meetings: Chairman Herb 100%, Gary Moore 87.5%, Craig Belt 75%, Rodney Hammond 75% and Skip Johnson 62.5%. Sipe also said there had never been an issue that required a member to recluse themselves from the meeting, but should there be a need for that to happen, then there was no question that they would.
Sipe reported back on the request for a stop sign by the new sub-division on North Berkeley Lake Rd. He said Zielazienski and himself had met with Joe Womble and Kim Conroy from Gwinnett County DOT. They had walked the area in question but GDOT were still not in favor of a stop sign. They had spoken about other possibilities, including Berkeley Lake taking over jurisdiction of a section of North/South Berkeley Lake Road.
There was some discussion about the issues relating to that possibility, but it was agreed to discuss it further at another time should Council feel it could be a possibility.
MAYOR’S MESSAGE AND OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
Salter described the BLEMA meeting she had convened.
Salter said that more back property taxes had been collected and that only five were still owed.
Salter appointed Bob Farris from Miramont and Beth Gilbert from the lake onto the Events Committee. She also appointed Rebecca Spitler to both the Communications and Stormwater committees.
Salter said that as SPLOST had passed, the group discussing the Aquatic Park project was meeting that night. She said that the Aquatic park should be open in 2-3 yrs for citizens to use.
Salter announced that some of the ‘Artists of Berkeley Lake’ would be having a show at the weekend and she encouraged citizens to attend.
Salter thanked Cohen for negotiating the 2001 SPLOST fund swap with Lawrenceville.
OLD BUSINESS
Infrastructure Repairs- Zielazienski
Zielazienski described her meeting with two DOT engineers. They had measured and rated every road in the City. They would provide a document, which could be used to make decisions on roads in the City that needed work.
Zielazienski also described a request from Britt Collins to swap some blue granite quarried stone with the fill stone for the ditch on the dam. He offered to move it himself and place it properly at no extra cost to the City. There were questions as to what an engineer would say about the way it is replaced. It was agreed to get an opinion about the placing of the stone from a county engineer first. Zielazienski was asked to go ahead with the swap should the engineer agree with how it should be done. Consideration of possible City events.
Salter said she had resubmitted the Veterans event to the Events committee. They had reconsidered the changes to include all veterans and to include the history of the Citizens whose memorial crosses were annually erected outside the chapel, which was currently being researched by Linda Craigg.
There was discussion about whether the City should celebrate the Veterans Event, as it is already a federal celebration. It was pointed out that veterans like to be recognized at a local level too. Cohen, Guthrie, Sipe and Zielazienski voted to support the idea. Reynolds opposed the event. Consideration of Budget 2005
Council reviewed the Mayors proposed budget line by line and made several changes, some of which are summarized below:
• The residual equity transfer was removed and replaced by $300,000 income expected to be received from SPLOST.
• ‘Professional services’ was increased to include more money for engineering services for the ‘River District’ project.
• ‘Maintenance- grounds’ was increased to include necessary repairs on the Spillway.
• ‘Rentals’ was increased to pay for twice monthly council meetings and the additional 3 days for Earth Day, July 4th and Fall Festival.
• ‘Communications General’ was increased to allow for an increased budget to develop a new web site, following research and comments by Rebecca Spitler (3825 Berkeley View Dr).
• ‘Travel’ and ‘Education and Training’ budgets were increased to enable the Mayor to attend the GMA conference in Savannah as recommended by Cohen.
• ‘City attorney’ budget was increased to allow for an increase in hourly rate.
• ‘Energy’ budget was increased to pay off the debt to attach City hall to the sewer line one day.
• ‘Police’ budget was increased to $50,000
• ‘Maintenance - Streets’ was allocated $220,000 of SPLOST money to resurface streets to be indicated in need by the latest DOT survey.
• ‘Maintenance – Storm drainage’ was allocated $80,000 of SPLOST money to fix the culvert at 185 Lakeshore Drive.
• ‘Contingency’ was increased to 60 days operating costs. Cohen suggested that the surplus $100,000 in the budget be put aside to accumulate with other surplus over the next five years to pay $500,000 off the bond payment at a later date. (Included in the debt-bonds principal line item) Chapter 3, Administration Ordinance – Sipe
Sipe read some of the changes he was recommending:
- (various sections) combined the Storm Water Management and Transportation departments into a single department to be known as Public Works; renamed Safety and Public Works committee to simply Safety.
- 3-602-2-a changed "submit it to the Mayor and Council" to "submit it to the Mayor"; the mayor then produces the proposed budget for council
- 3-602-2-c changed the authority to execute contracts to a requirement to co-sign (with the mayor); the original wording was taken from the existing powers and duties of the city manager but is too broad and possibly in conflict with the charter
Guthrie questioned as to whether or not this is in contradiction to Charter, which states that the Mayor executes all agreements.
- 3-602-2-j added "The Mayor will investigate any complaints relating to Department Officials. Council will be notified of all investigations and their findings."; the original wording was taken from the existing powers and duties of the city manager
- 3-701-6 removed "at least once each month" from P&Z meeting requirements; P&Z meetings have always been as necessary (often once per month, but not necessarily)
- 3-801 removed the changes regarding ordinance enforcement (from a 3 step procedure to a 2 step one); he said he would propose these changes for first read separately as they are not related to the department proposal. Sipe motioned to amend the proposal on first read.
He said that it was his intention to put the whole document on second read and adopt it at next meeting. Zielazienski seconded the motion.
Cohen, Guthrie, Sipe and Zielazienski were in favor of the motion. Reynolds opposed the motion. The motion passed. Sipe motioned to change the OEO procedure from a three-step process to a two-step process per the recommendations of the arbitration board. In discussion, Guthrie noted that further changes would be needed to be made in other ordinances, which would now contradict this change. Sipe suggested that she investigated what they were and brought them to the attention of council. She agreed. All were in favor of the motion and the motion passed. Cohen motioned to enter into an executive session for personnel issues. Sipe seconded the motion. Cohen, Guthrie, Sipe and Zielazienski were in favor of the motion. Reynolds opposed the motion. The motion passed. Zielazienski motioned to exit the executive session. Guthrie seconded the motion. All were in favor of the motion. The motion passed.
THERE BEING NO FURTHER BUSINESS, COHEN MOTIONED TO ADJOURN THE MEETING AT 10.30 PM. ZIELAZIENSKI SECONDED THE MOTION, AND ALL WERE IN FAVOR. THE MOTION PASSED. Respectfully submitted by Jackie Wall
|
