College Park City Council
April 20, 2026

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. . . . . . development program manager. Good evening Mayor, Council, City Manager, City Attorney, City Clerk. Tonight I'm here to talk to list the names of the award for appointees. That would be Shanae Motley, Eleanor Cornelius, and Ken Jenkins. Is there a motion? Motion. Thank you Councilmember McKenzie. Is there a second? Second. Thank you Councilmember Gaye. Any discussion? I do have another member I needed to add. I hadn't heard back from them yet.

I'd like to, I don't want to wait until the next meeting, but City Attorney I know we have a got one of the budget workshops. Is there a possibility we could just add an appointment there so that my person could be afforded for the next meeting? Is the budget workshop going to be noticed and advertised? It is. It already has been.

The final agenda has not been set, but has it? I don't think so, but if we can add it to the agenda, if it's a public meeting, then it can be voted upon at that time. I just wanted to be afforded to hear back from that resident and that's all right. So just the item to add on that agenda, just a board appointment. All right, any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor? Aye. That is unanimous. Thank you. Item 5A, workshop session minutes dated April 6, 2026. Is there a motion to approve? Motion. Thank you

Councilmember Arnold. Is there a second? Second. Thank You Councilmember Carn. Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor? Aye. All right, thank you. That is unanimous. Item 5B, regular session minutes dated April 6, 2026. Is there a motion? Motion. Thank you, Councilmember Arnold. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Councilmember Carn. Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor? Aye. That is

unanimous. Item 6, proclamations, resolutions, plaques, and announcements. 6A, consideration of an action on our request to recognize May 17th through May 23rd, 2026 as National Public Works Week and pay tribute to the city's public works professionals within facilities, the water and sewer, highway and streets, stormwater, building and ground, sanitation, parks, and keep College Park beautiful. This agenda item is being requested by Public Works Director

Brian Anderson. Is there a motion? Motion. Thank you, Councilmember McKenzie. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Councilmember Arnold. Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor? Aye. That is unanimous. Item 6B, consideration of an action on our request for a proposed proclamation designating May 3rd through the 9th, 2026 as National Drinking Water Week in the City of College Park. This item is being requested by Public Works Director Brian Anderson. Is there a motion? Motion. Thank you,

Councilmember Arnold. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Councilmember McKenzie. Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor? Aye. That is unanimous. Next item, seven remarks of citizens. First public comment, Annette Wideman. Good evening, Mayor, Council, my Councilman Gage. I come to you to talk

about short-term rentals. I came here the first quarter of the year in January. However, I haven't seen any actions being done except for the fact that you still want them and I don't understand. I live on a street where there is two split paths and one Airbnb. I have been there 39 years and it's just not fair to us to have

our quality of life just messed up because of these short-term rentals and Airbnbs. On the weekend, if we leave home, we could barely get back in. Suppose they live next door to you. No, I take that even further. Suppose this was your parents and they are afraid to walk in the community, to walk to the park. I have walked and ran this city for 22 years

and now not so much anymore because I am afraid. I've had people to jump out on us in our community. So I want you all to think about what we're going through and I want you to think about if you want your parents to go through something like that in their last days after we have worked hard to keep our community up and now we are afraid to walk outside. It's just not

fair. So I ask all of you to please, with empathy, see things through our eyes and the people that live in our community. One of our neighbors, someone said that they backed into her car and demanded money from her. She was afraid and she didn't give them what they asked for the first time. But when they asked for a lesser amount, she did it out of fear. We should not have to live like

that. And I thank all of you for all the hard work that you do in this city and, Roderick, what you do in our community. We just want to be safe and we want to enjoy our last days in a place that we call home. Thank you. Thank you, Nick.

John Duke. Good evening. Good evening, John. I just want to do a debrief from the workshop session I presented at two weeks ago. First, I'm always trying to be a better communicator and I went back and rewatched it and I did raise my voice a little bit toward the end and I apologize for that.

I felt like it went on a little too long and it did get off topic a bit but still no excuse and I apologize. But I just want to make another thing clear and that is, it deals with the Georgia Department of Transportation. I've done a lot of work, a lot of study, a lot of open records requests, like I said. And in America, no one is above the law, not the President of the United States,

not even GDOT. And they may be a powerful agency, but again, they're not above the law and they have a job to do and we have a job to do. And for example, Paul Denard is a very nice man. I've enjoyed working with him. He's been very helpful. But still, GDOT is never

going to help us in anything. And the only reason, again, why that they're willing to fix our street is because I'm like forcing them, holding them accountable. And so, the law, as one statement goes, possession is nine-tenths of the law. And they certainly do have jurisdiction over the lanes of traffic. But beyond that, it's our responsibility to fix our own infrastructure. And I'm just asking,

please, please, you and city staff to stop giving GDOT more jurisdiction than they actually have. And I could go on, but I don't have time. If you want to discuss it, you want to see some of the research I've done, some of the I've done, I'd love to talk to you about it, but at the end of the day, that area outside that white line of traffic is called the public domain and it's owned by many, many stakeholders

and jurisdictions. So with that, anyway, just trying to make the city better as best as we can be and take care of our responsibilities so that it is a great city to live in. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Stanley Muhammad. Go ahead.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Good evening. I'm here on behalf of Project Torchlight, LTD, a non-profit organization, which I am a part of. And I just want to share with you all that we have been working for the past few weeks in Ward 1, in the Collisview Hills Apartments, and I want to just share with you all that

we have been doing a work that represents our current mission statement. We must make our community a decent and safe place to live. We're not just talking about it. We're doing the work. And over the past several weeks in Collisview Hills, we focus on what actually changes our community. We're working with our young men, our families, on a day-to-day reality basis.

We have a boys-to-men program, a girls-to-women program. We are mentoring 13 young men and several young women, teaching them discipline, self-defense, responsibility, and real trade skills. These young men are trying, they're learning how to build, how to lead, and to carry themselves with purpose. And more importantly, they want to be there. They're showing up, engaged, and ready to grow.

At the same time, we're supporting families directly. We provided groceries to the families in need. We've helped parents enroll their children in school. We step into real situations like a parent-teacher conflict at the Collis Park Elementary and help resolve it successfully by God's grace. We're also doing something many organizations avoid. We are stepping into conflict inside the home, helping families work through it.

And because of that, something powerful is happening in Ward 1 in Collis View Hills. People are starting to trust us. They are reaching out to us. They're asking for help. And when you're in the community consistently, you start to see the truth. And we are seeing a real need for substance abuse support and rehabilitation. We are seeing families struggling without access to quality health care.

These are not isolated problems. These are patterns, and we are prepared to meet those needs as we grow. So the impact is clear, and we are giving young men direction. We are stabilizing families. We are building trust where there was none. And as we are showing up consistently, Project Torchlight is committed. Do you have another three minutes, sir? I have another three minutes, but I'm going to just use one, and I'm going to share the

rest with my neighbor, Diane Baptiste, about the, what do you call it, the short-term homes. Thank you. Come on up here, neighbor. And we are showing up consistently. Project Torchlight is committed to continue this work and partner with the city to help create a safer, stronger, more unified community.

We're not just asking for change. We're actually building it. And I want to just say, this is Gerald X. He's actually on the board. He's actually the Ministry of Arts and Culture. And I want to just commend the Director of Recreation, Lance Terry. He's doing a wonderful job. We've been working with him and working with many of the staff members, Brian Anderson. They're doing a fantastic job. And over at Tracy Wyatt, I'm working with them as well, Ray, and they call him Sarge,

and I think it's Ronald, right, Lance, Ronald as well. I think they're doing such a great job. I'm just letting you know, I would like to see them get a raise, Mr. Hicks. So I want to give the rest of my time to my neighbor, Ms. Baptiste. Ms. Baptiste, just so you know, we do have a public hearing coming up on this issue, so you wouldn't be limited by time. But you can speak now if you'd like. Okay, just frankly, just for a few minutes. I just want to ask you one thing.

Please, please, please do nothing in terms of passing the law, a law about short-term rentals until you talk to us. We've got a big problem here. Our councilman is aware of it. Maybe some of you. The police department definitely is, because we are on the phone sometimes from 12 at night until 4 in the morning every day, like three or four days in advance. The worst part that is happening is that drugs are being introduced into our community.

It doesn't take but a little bit. We all know, as adults, we know that drugs lead to other things as well. There are so many other unlawful activities that are connected. So please, don't do anything without us. We really need you on this. We love the city of College Park. As one lady said, most of us have been here since the 80s and 70s. We raised our children, grandchildren, and now we're working on our great-grandchildren. Please, please listen and talk to us.

We love you. We appreciate your assistance, and we, too, want College Park to be good. We know that change has to come, but let us be a part of that change, please. That's all I ask. Thank you. And I want to say that I support my neighbor, the Airbnb on Lafayette. We talked to Councilman Gay about it, and we've been seeing a lot of negative activity. So we got two. Thank you. We got two. But we have seen all the ones in Ward 4. Can you please stand?

Who is here? Our neighbors from Ward 4 that oppose the Airbnb. So I think we have enough to actually spark some interest. Thank you very much. God bless you all. Thank you. Madam Mayor, that is all I have for public comment for those that have signed up. All right. If anyone wishes to speak and they did not sign up, they can approach at this time.

They'll have three minutes. I will remind you that we do have a public hearing on the short-term rental. So if you would like to speak on that issue, you have the opportunity to do so at that time as well, which should be coming up pretty quickly if no one else has any public comment. All right, we'll move on. Next item, 8, public hearing. 8A is a public hearing, second reading of an ordinance to amend section 4-7I of the

city charter relating to the contracting and purchasing of the city manager. Madam Mayor, I'll go ahead and read the ordinance now. An ordinance by the mayor and council of the city of College Park, Georgia, to amend section 4-7 powers duties within article 9, city manager of the city's charter to provide

for severability to provide an effective date and other lawful purposes, whereas the city of College Park, Georgia, is a municipal corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of the state of Georgia, and whereas the duly elected governing authority of the city is the mayor and council thereof, and whereas the governing body of the city is authorized to exercise home rule powers pursuant to article 9, section 2, paragraph 1 of the constitution

of the state of Georgia and applicable general law, and whereas section 4-7I of the city charter currently limits the city manager's authority to make and execute contracts, purchases, obligations without prior approval of the mayor and council to those not exceeding $10,000, and whereas the city council has determined that maintaining a fixed dollar threshold in the city charter is administratively inefficient and requires repeated charter amendments to address changing operational and economic conditions, and whereas removing the fixed

dollar threshold from section 4-7I of the city charter will allow contracting and purchasing limited to be established and adjusted through the city's purchasing policy or by ordinance or resolution of the mayor and council as appropriate while preserving existing budgetary controls and ensuring ensuring continued legislative oversight of the city operations and whereas the synopsis of this ordinance shall be advertised once per week for three weeks within 60 days preceding the final adoption of this ordinance in accordance with Section 36 dash 35 dash 3B1 in the official

code of Georgia and a newspaper of general circulation on March 18th 2026 March 25th 2026 and April 1st 2026 and whereas the notice of adoption of this ordinance provides that a copy of the proposed ordinance shall be available for inspection in the office of the city of the College Park City Clerk in the office of both the Clayton County Superior Court and the Fulton County Superior Court Clerk in accordance with Section 36 dash 35 dash 3B1 in the official code of Georgia and a copy

of the proposed ordinance shall be placed in said locations and whereas this ordinance shall be considered at two consecutive public meetings no less than seven and no more than 60 days apart in accordance with Section 36 dash 35 3B1 of the official code of Georgia with public meetings held on April 6th 2026 and April 20th 26th and whereas the amendment contained herein will benefit the health safety morals and welfare of the citizens of the city and now therefore be

ordained by the mayor and the council of the city of College Park pursuant to their home rule authority as follows Section 1 Section 4 dash 7 powers duties within Article 9 city manager of the city's charters hereby amended with permanent additions in bold font and permanent deletions and strike through font to be read and codified as set forth in Exhibit A attached here to incorporated here in Section 2 preamble the preamble of this ordinance shall be considered to be and is hereby incorporated by reference as a fully set out here

in Section 3 this ordinance shall be codified in a manner consistent with the laws of the state of Georgia in the city Section 4 it is hereby declared to be the intention of the mayor and council that all sections paragraph sentences clauses and phrases of this ordinance are or were upon their enactment believed by the mayor and council be fully valid enforceable and constitutional. Be it is hereby declared to be the intention of the mayor and council that to the greatest extent allowed by each and every section paragraph sentence clause or phrase of this ordinance is severable from every other paragraph

section paragraphs sentence clause or phrase that this ordinance that is hereby further declared to be intention of the mayor and council that to the greatest extent by law no section paragraph sentence clause or pair or phrases this ordinance is mutually dependent upon any other section paragraph sentence clause or phrase of this ordinance C in the event that any phrase clause sentence paragraph or section of this ordinance shall for any reason whatsoever be declared invalid unconstitutional otherwise unenforceable by the valid judgment or decree of any court of competent jurisdiction

it is the express intent of the mayor and council that such invalidity unconstitutionality or unenforceability shall to the greatest extent allowed by law not render invalid unconstitutional otherwise enforceable any of the remaining phrases clauses sentence paragraphs or sections of the ordinance and that to the greatest extent allowed by law all remaining phrases clauses sentence paragraphs and sections of this ordinance shall remain valid constitutional enforceable and of full force and effect. Section 5 all ordinances and parts of ordinances

in conflict herewith are hereby expressly expressly repealed. Section 6 the city clerk is authorized to make such clerical and formatting corrections as may be necessary to implement this ordinance provided that no correction shall result in a substantive substantive change to the charter. Section 7 the ordinance the effective date of this ordinance shall be the date of the adoption unless otherwise stated herein. Exhibit A part 1 charter Article 9 city manager

section 4 dash 7 powers duties as the chief administrative officer of the city of College Park the city manager shall have power and it shall be his or her duty to see that all laws and ordinances are enforced B to see that the business and affairs of the city are efficiently organized and handled C to exercise administrative control over all regular departments divisions of the city of College Park including the appointment removal and disciplining of department heads provided however that the city manager shall not have

or exercise any control over the College Park Planning Commission Board of Zoning Appeals Recreation Commission or other special board commission committee authority or body set up under any general law or any ordinance or agreements agreement agreement of the mayor and council to appoint as required department heads for departments authorized by the mayor and council department heads with the approval the city manager shall appoint and remove all subordinate officers and employees in their respective offices and departments provided however they shall be guided

in their actions by the city of College Park civil service laws and regulations upon failure of such department heads and or the city manager to act in making such appointments and recommendations the mayor and council shall have a full authority and power to act nothing herein shall prevent the mayor and council from creating abolishing consolidating altering or modifying departments E to attend the meetings of the mayor and council with the right to take part in all discussions but having no vote F to recommend to the mayor and council for adoption such measure measures

as he may deem necessary expedient G to prepare and submit to the mayor and council an annual budget H to keep the mayor and council fully advised as to the financial conditions and needs of the city I to make and execute all lawful contracts on behalf of the city of College Park as to matters within his jurisdiction except such as may otherwise be provided by law or by ordinance or resolution of the mayor and council provided that without approval of the mayor and council neither the city manager

nor other officer or employee shall in any calendar month expend or obligate for any purpose any sum or sums in the excess of the monthly budget or one twelfth of the annual budget therefore as fixed by the mayor and council J to make to the mayor and council monthly written report showing his acts and doings the operations of the city and all city disbursements purchases contracts and obligations K to perform such other duties as may be prescribed by ordinance or resolution of the mayor and council L to give bond in the penal sum fixed by the mayor

and council maturity approved by the mayor and council payable to the city of College Park and its successors and signs for the benefits and said city of College Park and for the use and benefit of the public to secure and identify the city of College Park and each of all the public by reason of his default misfeasance malfeasance and or nonfeasance in the performance of his duties a premium of such bond shall be paid by the city of College Park. That is the end of the ordinance. Thank you madam clerk. At this time I'll declare the public hearing open.

If anyone wishes to speak on this matter they can do so at this time. Good evening mayor and council. Tom Coleman Cambridge Avenue. Contracting and purchasing and financial controls is the main thing that the city does

that citizens are well one of the main things the city does citizens are interested at. Our form of government has you the council responsible for the stewardship of our money. Okay if we don't like the way you're spending the money we can have enough of us there. We can vote you out of office next time around. We're not set up to where the majority of the controls given to the city manager is competent as he is.

We count on you folks to do that. So this ordinance as I understand it loosens those financial controls and puts too much power in one person who is not directly responsible to the citizens not that he doesn't respond to us. It's just that we don't have the control over the city manager that we do over council people. I would point out that we've got a charter commission

going on right now to look at the whole charter and what's right and what's wrong in it. And rather than do it piecemeal why don't we wait for the charter commission to come back and say here's what we think all encompassing and then we can devote that, debate that back and forth. This large amount of financial responsibility dodges transparency. The ability to without bringing it before the public

expend large amounts of money, larger amounts of money and continue to add on to it without control. So you know that little mnemonic that we had back there transparency is supposed to be one of our key tenets and this goes against that. If you think about the charter of a city is roughly analogous to the constitution of the United States. It's the foundational document that underlies everything else.

The constitution is very hard to change and there's a reason for that because it has widespread, changes to that have widespread consequences. So they should not be done without due thought. I'm against it. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Elizabeth Lester. Can you make sure the microphone is closer? I'm here tonight to oppose the adoption of the Charter Amendment to remove the $10,000

threshold and its companion resolution to increase the threshold to $50,000. Ms. Lester, can you move your microphone closer? Thank you. Sure. My core position is that the $10,000 threshold is not the problem right now. The ordinance claims that a fixed $10,000 threshold is administratively inefficient, but the city has operated under that threshold for years. It's not prevented the city from conducting business, and many other cities also operate under similar thresholds.

The real problem is honestly not the threshold. It is the actual lack of oversight of spending that falls below it and the abuse of the definition of professional services for things that fall well outside of what most governments consider to be such. The public only learns about the spending below $10,000 when individuals go through the effort to make open records requests for the information and then share that information with the broader public. By way of example, RSW Services, the company owned by Sabrina Willis, has received more than $750,000 over the past two years.

Virtually all of that money was through invoices that were under the $10,000 threshold purportedly under their on-call maintenance contract, with much of that being for tree removal and landscaping services or even the purchase of books for Councilman Karn's community bookmobile. It's not that that's not allowed. It's that the public doesn't see it unless we ask the questions and demand for the transparency. It also has been used to pay a photographer that's done photography and videography work for Councilwoman McKenzie's events to the tune of over $20,000 through numerous small

invoices. The same photographer actually accompanied the youth council meeting trip to D.C. Still other examples are the numerous payments made to marketing consultants that are providing services to Councilwoman McKenzie, many of which are duplicative contracts with other city contractors being paid to provide the same services. Eliminating the threshold will only increase the potential for abuse. This is why I previously proposed to Mayor Cancel and the City Manager the value of implementing an open checkbook that would provide near real-time access into our city's spending

in order to eliminate the need for numerous open records requests that are currently required to uncover the tens of thousands of questionable spending. It seems that if the city is looking for operational efficiency, perhaps the open checkbook would be a better investment than a change of the charter at this point. The solution to a lack of oversight is more oversight, not less. Removing the threshold from the charter eliminates the one firm unchangeable protection taxpayers have and replaces it with nothing more than a future ordinance that a Council majority can change at any meeting without any notice.

What's to prevent the Council from deciding they don't like public scrutiny of a $75,000 or a $250,000 contract and voting to increase the threshold above even these levels? The companion resolution basically makes this a slippery slope. The vote to change the charter doesn't just impact the purchasing policy threshold but has a broader impact throughout the procurement process and how the city manages its spending.

At a time when the city manager has indicated that revenues are falling short of what is expected and where we are spending from our reserves and below the permitted threshold for our reserves, this seems fiscally irresponsible. Just a few ways that the Council's vote tonight creates a slippery slope is the proposal to increase the spending from $10,000 to $50,000. Every financial control in the purchasing manual is proposed to be reset at once. Competitive bidding, city manager signature authority, change order approvals, emergency

purchases, sole source purchases, all raised from $10,000 to $50,000. The definition of professional services exempt from competitive bidding at any dollar amount is also being expanded to include consultants, insurance brokers, artists, musicians, and writers. Many of these professionals do not require a state license and most state laws instead limit these types of exemptions to licensed professions. Change would allow virtually any spending to avoid competitive bidding simply by saying

it is a consultant or somebody with a specialized skill set without identifying what that specialized skill set is. The campaign contribution disclosure threshold would also rise. So a contractor that is receiving $40,000 wouldn't have to disclose that they had made an even $500 disclosure to an elected official. That's a problem. What's most surprising to me, though, is at the February 2nd meeting, city manager Hicks proposed raising the threshold to $25,000.

Tonight's companion resolution doubles the number that seemed to have consensus just 10 weeks ago with no public explanation for why $50,000 is now necessary. If $25,000 was okay 10 weeks ago, why is $50,000 required now? And even at the time, it didn't seem like we had an explanation for why the $25,000 wasn't enough. So my request is to vote no on the charter amendment, keep the $10,000 threshold or any fixed threshold, and the charter where it's harder to change, and put out a request to

the charter commission that you all have put in place and that I am a member of to consider this and do a comparison of what other cities do and to make recommendations based on that. If a threshold change is necessary, conduct a full audit of all of the spending, especially under the sub $10,000 spending, before loosening the controls to make sure that we understand where the gaps and the issues are. Require an independent review of recent contracts and bonus payments before expanding the unilateral

spending authority. The threshold is not what is causing disruption to the city. What's causing disruption is the lack of oversight. Tonight's vote would eliminate the safeguard that's supposed to prevent that, and I urge you to vote no. Thank you. All right.

Thank you. Forgot to greet you all with peace when I came up here. Peace be unto you. Peace be unto you all. Thank you all for choosing a very, very competent and great city manager. From my humble vantage point, he has the credentials, and I think that it's important that we don't

take this job and make it subjective. It should be always an objective point of view of having a position as a city manager. In the past, from my humble vantage point as a resident, most of those who choose this position have been very subjective and self-serving.

And even my, I would say, those who reside in the city of College Park, the two residents that just came before us, you got to listen to what they're not saying. And I wasn't going to speak, but it's too often that what undergirds the criticism of

government that's trying to be a steward over the budget and the affairs of their constituents, it's a very difficult job. But when we come up here, it should be something that is sound. It's not personal. It should be based upon what's best for the citizens. But what I heard from the two residents, I didn't hear that.

I heard a personal attack against Councilwoman McKenzie. I heard a personal attack against our city manager. And you heard the same thing. And what is the motive of the attack? Because certainly, I didn't see this many Caucasian residents come up here when Ambrose Clay was up here, when you were no longer the mayor, Ms. Motley Broom, and Ken Allen

was in your seat. I didn't see Caucasian constituents come up here as frequently in criticizing them. So it feels like it's a racial attack. That's what I feel as a resident. based on feelings because we have over 400 years of history of racism, institutionalized racism.

And being that which is apologetic for white racism as a black person is not going to work today. And I really am offended by these two residents coming up here using this public hearing to attack a woman from my vantage point, Councilwoman McKenzie, who is doing the work of a true servant.

And I see that our city manager is doing the great work as well. If they believe and they feel from their vantage point that it needs to be increased, because everything's going up. I just was pumping gas. $5 a gallon is going up? But when we talk about increasing the spending of a city manager, $50,000

is not a lot of money. But why are we making this an issue? That's not the issue from what I heard. That's not the issue. Because if he was Caucasian, I don't think that that would be an issue. I know it wouldn't be. If he was Mr. Myers, it would not be an issue. So what I'm saying is that as a resident, I vote yes because I know they have it on the agenda for a good reason.

And I want us to stop this attack. And I see on the social media the attacks on black leadership. And I think that I didn't see when Ambrose Clay was actually in that position once again. And I'm closing with this. Or Ken Allen was in your position, Councilwoman Arnold. And when Longino was in your position, I hardly seen any Caucasian person come up here

on a regular basis having major attacks towards their council. And I've been here since the early 80s. So I'm asking you all, don't let them actually sway you based on their intimidation tactics. That's what I heard. So I pray that you all stand strong in what is right and what is proper.

I see you all doing a good job, who's actually doing a good job in the community. But let's don't take this public hearing and then listen to people who are actually coming up here and it's self-serving to attack those who are actually trying to do the work, which is a difficult job what you're doing. So I say yes. And thank you very much for allowing me to speak. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Anyone else wishes to speak?

Thank you. Mayor, council. Dr. Chisoulo. All right. Chisoulo Akuno Ajanaku. I sat back there and listened.

I also sat back there and prayed. Change. Change. Change. People are afraid of unplanned change. I'm scared of unplanned change. Change. We're facing change.

I'm asking for change. Model City Initiative, change. I know our children are in trouble. We like the past. We feel safe in the past. Doing what we've been doing is not good for our children. Change. Change. Women in leadership, change.

It's a great thing. Change. We've got a man. Change. Change. So of course I vote for change. We got change. We need to go forward motion and embrace change. Change with love. Love this change. We're in a position of power and authority

to bring about change for the good of all the people. Change. There's still some people who want us to stay in the past. Change. Embrace the change. You are the change. You are the change. Change it. You are the change we need. Change it.

You got what's needed. Give him what he needs or give it to him because he's going to bring the change that we need. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Does anyone else wish to speak? Hearing none others, I will declare the public hearing closed.

Thank you. Item 8B. Are we voting on this? With city manager, I believe we're supposed to. Next public hearing. That's the next hearing. I'm sorry. 8B, public hearing in action. I request to amend appendix A, zoning article 1, basic provisions and article 3, zoning districts intents, uses, and standards for short-term rentals

and rent-by-the-room housing. Good evening, mayor and council. Yes, tonight we have before you a text amendment to the appendix A of the zoning ordinance, including article 1 and article 3.

Currently, vacation rentals are prohibited citywide in all zoning districts, and rent-by-the-room housing is not defined or regulated. The proposed ordinance amendment tonight would amend article 1 to define short-term rentals, and then in article 3, which is where the zoning permitted uses and classifications are, would amend article 3 to allow short-term rentals via conditional use permit in the R1, low-density residential, R2, medium-density

residential, R3, high-density residential, and RM, multiple family residential districts. Vacation rentals would be removed from these sections as well, and then rent-by-the-room housing would be clearly defined in article 1 and then further prohibited citywide in article 3. This item went before the planning commission on March 30. Staff has recommended an approval of the amendment.

The planning commission that they're hearing recommended to deny the proposal as proposed and included some additional considerations, which include, one, to codify minimum review criteria for short-term rentals via a separate ordinance to be created in the development standards and or administrative process,

and then, two, better understand the ability of the city to provide resources for code enforcement, police, and fire to meet the conditional use permit issuance under this ordinance. Thank you, Ms. Lyons. At this time, I'll declare the public hearing open on the request to amend the appendix in the zoning ordinance. Those who wish to speak can approach at this time.

Thank you very much. I think she may speak. went through the articles I don't I didn't have my notes on those but I just like to speak on what I think what we would like to see happen and number one first of all I'm not sure about this zoning changing the zoning when I bought my house I bought in a single-family residential area and that's what I

wanted and that's what we have always been that helped us build a community over the years and that's what we see that's been downtrodden let me just give you a couple instances when it comes to drugs okay directly next to me there's a house at 4380 Janice Drive the young man bought it from after some longtime residents male husband and wife died and the stepdaughter sold it my first I

went over to introduce myself that you can call me knows a neighbor whatever it's just that I want to know who's next door to me and see if I can be of some help to welcome them there and let them know I'm there as well so I went over to find out oh yeah you know how are you doing and I find out later that this guy bought this house to flip it and this is what these investors are saying they're doing they want to do when they go down to the bank to get the money but after they get the house they fix it up and we had a lot of break-ins in our area when

these particular houses were start with being rehabbed and then they put up a sign for two or three months assess for sale although there are several other houses around for sale too and then they turn it into short-term rentals or boarding houses now the drug houses the house on Janice Drive to a house on Janice Drive to my right immediately adjacent to my side yard is a party house they start partying at 10 o'clock at night and they end at 4 o'clock in

the morning there's drugs filling our air in our neighborhood until they decide to leave the next day noise cars parked in the street in front of your mailbox in front of your driveway and sadly the last incidents was they started driving across my yard in my yard to get to the backyard of that house because somewhere in College Park an ordinance that we used to follow that says no parking on the grass no longer exists so these people just drove across

my yard to get to the backyard I have my camera one night some person that I learned later is an influencer on TikTok came up for some event he had this big house that to me at five o'clock in the morning it looked like a mobile home to me the next day I looked and it was a mobile something like a mobile home of those little houses that you I guess sell food I don't know what he did with it and then behind that he had a little trailer with gas tanks behind that he had

another trailer and behind that another trailer this man came into my yard at five o'clock on a Sunday morning okay early the next morning I got to run out to see exactly what this was that entered my yard and he was gone I said well it's just one time you know well three o'clock the next morning here he comes so that's when I got the city involved and called to get some help because there were two gas tanks on the back of this contraption and they were next closer to my home and closer to my gas line plus my gas line runs on that

side of my property and this man came into my yard now he would not open the door when the the the I called the Department of College Park he wouldn't open the door to get a citation but after that I was on the phone to I finally got in touch with the Department of Transportation or somebody there he wanted me to take a picture I go out I take up trying to take a picture this man comes out with his Denzel Washington training day stance you'll want to take

a picture of me and starts walking towards me in my yard I'm still I'm some little frail senior citizen he could have blown me to bits knocked me out or something okay and all I want to do is take a picture so I could have some evidence of I'll get a picture of the name of that contraption another house directly across from him which is now inhabited by a young couple that was a drug house and a boarding house and the owner sold it somebody bought it you see

one person you see two people and there was one man I approached one day I said oh how you're doing neighbor you bought this house he would never say anything back to any of us but what happened was every day I noticed there was some man in a wheelchair they would bring out front and sit him you know at the at the carport and leave him there then there was some little young guy that stepped off that had moved in he stepped off the curb one day and opened his hands now being close to White City Road we know what they do when they open they come

approach it open their hand we know what they're talking about I ran and reported it to the police because I thought perhaps that was a drug dealer well lo and behold less than a month later the house blew up someone runs out of the house saying he's crazy he's crazy he's crazy because apparently he had been over there cooking drugs that's just the right side of me let's talk about the left side of me the left side of me an empty house became first a rental LLC then it became a boarding house there were three kids under age left in that

house for three months I might have been four I have to ask my neighbors without an adult present because the adult had not arrived yet and after the adult arrived some other family came in a teenager a person in in medical school and they were not related and this teenage boy had serious mental problems one day I drove out of my yard he walked they would always walk across my yard for some reason not out of their exit he put my beside the exit to my yard and he

was fondling himself and this was a teenage kid okay that's now the same house has turned over again and now I learned in the grapevine that it is to become a short-term rental and I we do not want them in our neighborhood if you if we cannot avoid them then we want to see some kind of rule and we would like to be involved and maybe talking to you guys about possible language to stop the

number of Airbnbs in neighborhoods and on streets and I think we have less than 20 houses we've already got a boarding house that has caused traffic problems there are other streets that have boarding houses quote-unquote and we're seeing derelict people walking out streets early in the morning talking to themselves coming through a late at night talking through themselves and this has got to stop we're gonna end up like one of the worst neighborhoods that they present us as on internet on the internet when I was in New York for 13

years I used to always and I miss my homes I missed home so much I used to always always Google College Park Google College Park to find out what was going on down here my home was still here I just needed a job to get back in it and they would say College Park is the most violent city in Atlanta in Georgia I'm going like but where my neighborhood's not like that so please let us help draft the language please don't do change our zoning because these people

don't care anything the owner next to me I've tried to talk to him you know what he told me oh I know you texted me but I knew it was going to be some bad news so I didn't answer it okay he also sent me a picture of some kind of legalese I can hardly see it of some kind of zoning thing that apparently he must have known about two or three years ago why can't I know about that okay why can't the people of Lafayette Lane and Monticello the Lakeshore area know that all these

changes are being made legally we don't want people parking on the yard okay we don't want all these strangers that we we have no idea who especially people bringing drugs into our neighborhood a mentally ill person needs help but don't flood our neighborhood with that you know something's got to happen these real estate agents are a lot smarter than us because they know how to work it well I'm not a lawyer but I worked at two of the greatest firms in the country

for over 30 something years for 21 years here in Atlanta and then 13 in New York where I work with the Magic Circle firm out of London and we are here not to complain but we are here to help of solutions so we don't want boarding these boarding houses we do not want them and you know I can to give you other reasons there are other stories we don't want we want some kind of restrictions on these short term rentals they cannot become party houses we've got teenagers 17 and

18 year old coming to our neighborhood any given night after dark having parties the police came and they all open my gate they open my neighbor's gate to our backyard yards and ran in it. Now this was 12 o'clock at night. Your cameras are showing a bunch of kids with hoodies on, running down the side of your house. Then you look out there in your backyard. My god, what am I supposed to think that's going on? These kids are not the little lambs that we raised.

It's a different breed. You can't say anything to them. They don't even respect the police. So please, please help me, help us, help College Park, help the police to be able to do their jobs. Please do not pass this until you talk to us. There have been other municipalities with the same problem. Roswell was pretty strict on her stand. Another thing that helped them was they made it possible, they had a rule, that it was in the Roswell Ascending Springs,

that the owner of these LLCs and these air nubs must live in Fulton County. Well, think of the legal benefit to this city if that were to occur. That's number one. It's a good thing. And then there are others. But please stop the party houses. Stop the drug houses. Don't let College Park fall to the worst city that could be on the South Side. That's where it's headed. I'm 70-something years old, so I know how it goes.

I watch TV. But mostly, I've seen it from the legal side. And please, please listen. Let us be involved. Tell us what's going on. Let us sit down and explain all this stuff to us. Please just slow it down so that whatever we do as a city, it will be effective. And it will be a building block for College Park.

Because right now, it's been torn down. It's been torn down. I was told when this man drove across my yard, there was no law. There was no law. He was not against the law. It was not against the law for him to drive across my yard unless he damaged something. Well, just drive by 4363 Lafayette Lane. You'll see some trail tracks, car tracks, because he wasn't the only vehicle that did it. There were two others I caught on a camera.

One young man got out and took a picture of my cameras one night, I guess to see where they were situated so he'll know how to get around them. I don't know. But I'm telling you, please let the citizens of College Park help, please. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, I'm Eleanor Willis and Ellen Willis. And we reside at 2625 Lakeshore Drive. And we're going to share some concerns that we have for the Airbnb and the short rentals and so forth. Ellen Willis, first of all, I want to talk to you guys about the zoning of our area. Seemed like to me there shouldn't be a house, a rental house, or any kind of public rental

in our area to begin with. How did that person do it and then continue to do it? No regulations or anything, none whatsoever. And I want to ask you all a question. This is a question and answer right here. Do you all get any money, any tax dollars from that? I had heard that. Yes. I am appalled. I am appalled.

How can you take money from an illegal entity? The houses belong to us. This is our community. I don't want everybody in our community. I don't want somebody smoking dope. And I got to smell it. That's not going to happen. I want my wife to be safe. I want the neighbors to be safe. We're senior citizens. We need to be left alone. If you want these things, please put it in your neighborhood.

I want to see that. That's what I like. It's in your neighborhood right next to you where you got to smell marijuana, deal with the homeless, the mentally ill. I'm sorry for those people. They have issues. But do you know what? They don't spend no money on mental people. They let them just walk the street. They don't even put them in jail because that's a hazard. I mean, they can't afford it. What I want to see here is zoning regulations.

I want safety for my wife and my family and my friends. And that came up here a moment ago. We visit them from time to time. They visit us. I was appalled on two different occasions. We went to their house. It was cars on both sides of the street. If it had been an emergency, they couldn't have gotten out. Matter of fact, had it been an emergency, nobody could have got out because it was totally blocked.

They didn't give credence to one side or the other. They just took both sides. Didn't happen just once. Happened twice. I saw it personally. I think that we should put a zone around the city, downtown, put a circle in downtown, and put all the Airbnbs and rentals that you want. But when it comes down to my property value, you know that decrease your property value, right?

Don't think it doesn't. It does. When people come and see what's happening, these people walking up and down the street, bringing different kids in there, different people, your property value is going down. I'm 73. I don't plan on being here forever. But I can guarantee you one thing. As long as I'm here, I'm going to make sure that this is a safe environment and things are done right and in order. I talked to two of my council people. They are in agreement with me about that's not

what we want in College Park. Give it to someone else. We got some hotels. I know y'all see them. Go to a hotel with that, but do not rent around my house. I don't want to be commercial. My property is not commercial. Get an apartment complex commercial when you're in it. Get a motel commercial. Oh, my goodness. It is. A hotel is commercial. But when you're renting rooms out in front of my house,

that's commercial. And you just come in our city, buy a house, set it up, rent it any way you want to. And we pay the price because we pay taxes here. The people that come in here don't pay none. We don't have a problem with tourists. There's a difference. But when it comes down to people living in our neighborhood, I just want safety for our people. And if there's anything that you guys can do to make the difference, because I'm definitely going to be calling everybody, trust me,

I'm going to call every one of you guys and I'm going to tell you that I don't want deals in my community. It makes me sick when I think about how much we have to pay for things right now. And then someone is going to come in and make commercial property out of our property. That's not appropriate. Thank you, guys. And I really appreciate what you do. But I appreciate it more if you show me that you don't want that to come in my community. Mr. and Mrs. Wills, I did want to clarify,

because you did ask the question about whether or not we receive property tax revenue. I'm sorry, tax revenue. And the answer is yes, that the short-term rental purveyors, Airbnb and the like, send tax revenue to the Department of Revenue. And then the Department of Revenue distributes it amongst the counties and cities. You know what's amazing to me? Ironically, we don't have any ordinances on it. Nothing governs the use of these things.

But the state of Georgia would actually give some money from those people. Without me, I'm the voter. I'm the person that lived there. I didn't ask for that money. Tell me if I'm supposed to deal with that. From their perspective, that's a law. But please make sure the laws apply to this area. Don't just give me money. Matter of fact, people should have been alarmed when they found out. Said, man, what are we doing with this money?

We just don't want it. OK, I'm going to be very brief. I've spoken to everyone on the dais regarding my position on the short-term rental. So you already know how I feel about that. I've spoken to every one of you. And I'm going to leave this quote with you from Dr. King. He says, the ultimate measure of a man or woman is not where he or she stands in the moment of convenience

and comfort. but where he or she stands at times of challenge and controversy. Let's take heed, Mayor and Council, to Dr. King's quote. Thank you. Thank you. I do have something that I want to – can we speak on this during this time? I mean, I answered their question, but – Because I wanted to respond to what they were saying as well. So is this open to the Willis's and those who have spoken?

You made a good point about the tax revenue. It's not such that the city does, but because they are taxed, when the persons use their homes as Airbnbs, there are taxes paid on each rental. And that's why the City of College Park – we are aware that these short-term rentals exist. However, they are illegal. They are illegal, and that has been my soapbox on this thing. We know that they're illegal, so what are we going to do about it?

Either we're going to make a way for them to be legal or we're going to enforce the illegality of them. And that's where I stand right now with this. So I want you to know, yes, we are aware they're being taxed, and I've talked to the city manager and code enforcement, and even Councilman Gay and I have discussed this, about making sure that we are enforcing our laws in this city that say that these are illegal, and until they become illegal,

and if they ever become legal, but right now, they're illegal. And I, too, will be brief. I just wanted to make sure that I stand with my neighbors. We live on Lafayette Lane, and Joe's been in College Park for a while, and Michael Hicks, Lakeshore. I went to Lakeshore High School.

And the neighborhood we live in, Roderick, has always been a quiet, peaceful neighborhood. It's always been a goal that most of our people, when they retire, they want to come to Ward 4 and settle down and enjoy a peaceful living. And now we talked about this before in the past, Roderick.

We talked about it, and you said you were going to do something about it. You're going to make sure you enforce certain things to prevent it from happening. But here we are still talking about it. And so I live on Lafayette, and I bear witness to all my neighbors about this activity when it was peaceful. There ain't no problems. We got children. Most of these married couples, family structure, good family structure.

Me and my wife are about to celebrate our 36th wedding anniversary on Wednesday. She blessed me with nine children. We got 11 grandchildren. They come over to the house. But then you have right on the corner, you have this on Janice and Lafayette, which we talked about, Roderick, that all this illegal activity or this police is always being called, the peace of the neighborhood is being disturbed.

And we want to make our community a decent and safe place to live. So what I'm saying is that it appalls me that we're even coming up here doing a presentation on zoning something that's illegal. Why would even someone let her come up here and do a presentation on zoning something that is illegal? But more importantly, why would we, and I ain't beating up on you, Roderick.

I'm just talking because I want you to verify that we talked about it. But we're still, nothing's being corrected. I'm not here trying to beat up on nobody. But let's look at the bigger picture because it's not personal. Are we going to wait for one of our children to be killed? One of our little girls to go missing and be involved in sex traffic? And you don't know who's in those places. So now you have enough residents that are saying, look,

cease and desist these Airbnbs and these short-term rentals. It's simple as that. But who's making money off of it? Is someone getting a deal or cut under the table? And why aren't certain people who came up here earlier, right, on an issue by increasing the city manager's spending on contracts and whatnot?

That's $50,000 a lot of money. Everything's going up. Go talk to Trump about making everything go up. Waste your time talking to him. That's your brother. Talk to him about that. But when it's time that we black governments trying to manage the affairs of a 95% black community, you want to come up here and criticize them.

But when Caucasian people come here and buy property, houses in terms to rent it out and make some money, shh, you don't see them coming up here, man. Why is that? And they hear their fellow residents going through violence. Why aren't they coming up here now? Say, I stand with them if that's what's going on.

Now my black people come up here on this issue. Now they might say, Mr. Muhammad, he always taught me to black and white. Look, it ain't about black and white. It's about wrong and right. Lance and I, he's white. I'm black. We get along very well. It ain't about color with me. My wife got white people in her family.

That's not about color. But racism does exist. And all I'm saying to you is that now black people are suffering. You're black residents in World War IV, Roderick, our councilmen. And I don't want nothing to happen to our constituents. We don't want nothing to happen to our children. Let's cease and desist. We shouldn't even be entertaining something that's illegal.

Is it illegal? We got a city manager, city attorney. Is it legal? I think it should be on the record for attorney to say, is it illegal? Mr. Demark, you can respond. At present, short-term rentals are not allowed in any zoning district in College Park. Oh, now you heard it from the lawman. So they ain't here say no more. So why is my sister, which I'm not pointing anything at her, she

shouldn't even be coming up here talking about zoning for something that's illegal. So we should cease and desist. I'm against it. And I'm just witness bearer that not only is it illegal to have it, it's bringing illegal activity to our community and upsetting the peace of our elderly and our children and our families. Now, come on now. Let's don't wait until someone dies or someone gets hurt.

Let's do the right thing. And you all are God-fearing people. And Pastor Wallace, he said a prayer so beautifully, I almost had to out of body experience. It was so beautiful. Let's just follow the way of God. Because the founding fathers of this country, they believed in God. So let's put God in the equation and do unto others as you want others to

do unto you. Thank you very much. God bless. Mayor, my name has been called about ten times. I'd like to make a comment. You want me to stay up here, Roger? Sir, you can have a seat. It's okay. We're not going to have a back and forth, though. No, he might have a question for me. Do you have any questions for Mr. Muhammad? Okay. I have a question. First of all, for the public, this item was put on the agenda. It wasn't put on the agenda, I don't think, by the planning person. That item was placed on the agenda. As a matter of fact, I'm the one who made the clarion call earlier this

morning to call the residents to come here. I asked residents to come as late as 4 o'clock today, so thank you residents for coming down. I'm glad that this opportunity gave some of us an opportunity to be so linguistic. astute. But let me say this for you. It's not the fact that the short-term rentals is the problem. You also got to understand that our city gets funding

from hospitality. We are a hospitality city. So every time and someone just said earlier in the workshop that we spend a lot of money on heads in bed. We give the DMO about two million dollars a year and then there are other tourism related initiatives. So then why would we want to encourage someone to rent a room for a couple days and compete against our own money. We are tourism city so why would

we want to encourage that. Another thing that you got to understand is that it's not just the short-term rentals. My wife was telling me the other night I don't even know if you have a ward 4-4-1 for you Roger. Y'all might not even have a ward. Literally. Let me tell you why. What you don't know is I probably had what ten legal reviews about the same house. At least ten. You don't know that. What

you don't know is that on Saturdays and Sundays I make calls. I just shot Texas out this Sunday. When many of you okay and it was about you know the big pile of debris by by Dairy Queen. It's been there for seven days. I could tell you right now where litter is on every street. What you also don't know is that ward 4 is disproportionately affected by rentals. It's not just short-term

rentals. It's group homes and apartments, HIV and AIDS, alcohol and numbs. But I didn't put that on the agenda and it just didn't happen on the agenda. I'm the one who made the clarion call. It'll be talked about more on our town hall in May. Also what you don't know is that there's a what 200 bridge trucks getting to get parked on Global Gateway. I mean when they leave they're gonna come right up Global Gateway into our community. What you don't know is that

there is a recycling on Sullivan Road that there's about a 50 ton debris of rubbish that we still don't even know what's in it. You don't see me calling them every day about that. When I'm working on the dog park and I mean physically working on the dog park. You don't know how I feel every time I look across the street and see the recycle tractor beating and making noise in my

community. What you don't know is you don't know how many times I try to get the brother help that sits on the bench. Give him four dollars to let him pick up litter. This man bring more litter for more money. I'm not finished ma'am. I'm not finished. I'm not you know ma'am I'm not finished. Councilmember I'd ask you just stay on the issue. Ma'am I'm here to talk and now it's my time. We still have other folks. I understand ma'am but this is not your time. I'm talking. Councilmember you're out of order.

So what I want to tell you is that those people came down here ma'am and if we here to in the morning we gonna talk. So what I want to tell you is that understand that we care about our community. We care about short term. I live next door to a renter and another thing ma'am what you don't get is that you're not at legal review on Wednesday. You're not up there with me fighting and arguing to stop short term rentals. I live next door to one and guess what I smell the dope when I come home. It's been there ma'am for five years and

nobody no city manager has ever enforced it. Even going back to you Tasha and that other lady. Y'all ain't never enforced it okay. So in Hearthstone Station you didn't say anything or nobody said nothing when them investors bought over 60% of them houses and all them rentals. 60% of Hearthstone Station are rentals. Them people are renters okay. So the reality of it is is that it ain't no Roderick. It's it's y'all

we then us. It's all of us. It's a bigger problem. It's a systemic problem and we need to find real solutions. Real solutions because in our clothes I care about my quality of life. You don't see me running down the street getting tag numbers from truck to truck that about to knock my decorative lights over. You don't see me doing drive-thrus every week about litter. About the people

building the house on your street. I mean it's just get crazy okay. So we could talk as a man we could talk in violence but I will stand down ten toes down on anything that come about the quality of life and my leadership. Ten toes down. Now I'm trying to be quiet over here okay. I'm really trying. That's all I got mayor. Thank you sir. Appreciate you coming back to short-term rentals on that. And Miss Lyons just a question.

Where did this come from in the first place to have it have short-term rentals as a conditional use? This is an ordinance that was sent to me by the city attorney to place on the Planning Commission agenda. Mr. Denmark from whom did you receive? I have no idea. I mean obviously it's not my idea but we got direction that it needed to be drafted and put on the agenda. It was probably somebody on my team work with somebody at the city. So no one knows where this

came from. Okay. Hi Elizabeth Lester. For once Mr. Mohamed and I actually agree on something and I do have my remarks and I was coming up here to speak against this ordinance. Currently vacation rentals are prohibited citywide in all zoning districts and this amendment would be a significant change. The Planning

Commission voted to deny the amendment at its March 30th 2026 hearing and this is the group that the council has seated to look at these issues and I would hope that their recommendations and opinions would be something that would be taken seriously by this council. Their two objections were practical not ideological. That there be minimum operating criteria for short-term rentals and that it be codified in a separate ordinance before permits be issued and that the city has not demonstrated that the code enforcement police and fire have the capacity to actually enforce the conditional use

permit requirements and we're hearing this from fellow residents who are all coming up and speaking. We're having a hard enough time enforcing the current illegality of it. The idea that we're going to be in an even better position to enforce a conditional use permit just doesn't make sense and this is at a time when our police and fire departments are currently stretched well beyond their capacity. A problem that's only going to be rectified if there's substantial pay raises during this year's budget process that put

their pay at least on par with other communities if not above what our neighboring communities pay. But a conditional use permit framework is only meaningful again if the city can enforce it and the Planning Commission has said they don't have that capacity. So the question that is answered is it creates permits that exist on paper but they can't be meaningfully administered and so I would ask that the council not override the Planning Commission's denial without directly answering its specific concerns. Neighborhood character

and quality of life depend on code enforcement that actually works and before opening residential districts to commercial short-term rental activity residents deserve to know how complaints will be handled, how permits will be monitored, what enforcement resources are actually available. Prohibiting of rent by the room housing citywide is actually a separate matter that most residents likely support but it should not be bundled with a short-term rental approval in a way that pressures a yes vote. I also would like to read remarks

that were provided to me by Grace Lunsford who is not able to be here this evening. She said cities across the county have already figured this out. We've been talking about this for 10 years because it is emotional and platforms are evolving but this is not rocket science. Personally when we left Chicago to start a new track with our business renting our condo on Airbnb made it possible. It also made it possible for us to buy our land in College Park which we later built on. The cities that work best keep short-term rentals for residents and stop large investor operations from taking over

neighborhoods. This is key. We presently live next to a private equity long-term rental and when we had an issue there was nobody to contact nor communicate with. The last renter left when the private equity group owners increased the rent by $600 with zero improvements. That was three years ago and no one has moved in since. We doubt we will ever have serious neighbors in that home. To have a strong neighborhood, owners must be accessible, not hidden behind LLCs. Santa Monica has one of the simplest and most effective

systems. If you live in the home, you can rent it. If you don't, you can't rent it as a full-time short-term rental. I do not agree with this method, but I think the registration and policing of short-term rentals is commendable and one we should copy. New York City requires Airbnb and VRBO to remove illegal listings. When they did this, thousands of illegal rentals disappeared almost overnight. It's a strong arm in a big city, but also copyable. College Park can do this right, helping owners to benefit financially from their assets and keep the neighborhood a neighborhood,

not a rental strip. If we, one, require personal registration, no LLCs or non-present owners, two, limit short-term rentals to present owners, five max, and limit the amount of registration per square mile, three, we must hold platforms accountable for illegal listings, and you, the city, must enforce and check in regularly to demonstrate College Park means business. If we don't do these three things, we don't have a policy, and large investor groups will find the loopholes faster than the city can react. I suppose that is what has happened up until now.

This isn't about banning short-term rentals. It's about keeping them in the hands of residents, not turning housing into a commercial investment system. I'm not anti-short-term rentals. I'm anti-investor abuse. So in view of my comments as well as Grace's, we would ask that you table the short-term rental approval until the Planning Commission's concerns about enforcement capacity and operating criteria have been fully answered. And the Planning Commission asked a simple question. Can we enforce this?

Question's not been answered, so let's not move forward until it is. I'd like to comment on what Elizabeth was sharing. Thank you. I think what's important here is we did bring up short-term rentals a few months back, but we tabled it at that time because of the fact that we realized, even discussing short-term rentals, since they're not legal, the first thing was to enforce the illegal short-term rentals that we have.

It seems like none of us really know how this item showed up on the agenda today. The only thing that I can say that I agree with regarding this is what you mentioned, Elizabeth, about the rent by room. Because the issue that I don't want us to miss tonight is the fact that the rent by room, there is nothing in the language that we have in any of our ordinances right now that addresses it.

So it's vague. So when you don't have something, when you don't make something illegal, then you have no way to enforce it. So I do believe that one of the things, it doesn't have to happen tonight, but if anything, I don't know. Like I said, I don't know how short-term rentals got into this, but I do believe that we have an issue right now, and we need to handle this rent by room, because that's going to get rid of. Once we can get that done, then code enforcement

can go out and enforce the law. The bigger issue is how do we enforce this? And I believe that this is what the conversation that I believe Councilman Gaye has been having with legal, I've been having this with legal and staff, is making sure that we have the code enforcement staff that we need, the numbers, to be able to address these issues. And then being able to give them,

that's what I've been back and forth with legal. And I don't know who's here from code enforcement. I mean, Sabrina's here. But looking at, and that was one of the questions that we talked about in legal review a few weeks back, do our code enforcement people have what they need to be able to enforce this? But we needed to get rent by the room on there. So, and Councilman Gaye and I have had this conversation on several occasions. I do agree with every person that has come up and spoke

about this tonight, that before we move forward even to consider, the first thing we need to do is they're illegal, we need to enforce them. That's number one. Number two, we begin a discussion over time. There's no hurry to change this to bring short term rentals. It was brought up because of the fact that we had the World Cup games coming and persons may have wanted to use their house. Well, guess what? That's 55 days away. We're not doing nothing with it. So that's why we left that alone.

So the key now is to begin community meetings, charrettes, town halls throughout this city to hear from our residents. And even as my sister said, making sure that you have a seat at the table and a voice that's heard at the table. Because this is not supposed to be to make life worse or to take our property values down. This is about ensuring the safety until we know, like I said, we do quasi know where these rentals are.

Some of us know because the people in the communities that are seeing what's going on and other things is going into those taxes and finding out where that tax revenue is coming from for Airbnb properties. But the rent by room thing, that needs to be addressed immediately. It needs to be shut down. That's my opinion. I know that we can't approve this tonight. This was just a hearing to hear from everybody. But my thought is the next step is we make sure that we have some strong legislation

that makes these rentals illegal in the city of College Park. Does anyone else wish to speak at the public hearing? Yes, sir. Tom Goldman again. I had some fairly extensive notes I took this afternoon on this thing. But much of it's been covered already so I won't hit it twice. I can't be near as eloquent as the Willis's

and Ms. Baptiste are on the depredations that can be caused by having commercial move into a residential zoning, which is what we're talking about. So I won't beat that over the head because they did a whole lot better job than I can. The one thing that hasn't been brought up is we're continually told by our police folks that if you see something, say something. And if you got a neighborhood watch going, you're looking for things that are out of the ordinary and why is this person doing this?

They're not my neighbor. That is greatly complicated by having rentals come in and you don't know whether it's legit or whether that's somebody casing your neighbor to steal stuff from them. So I'd just like to point that out. Vote this down. Thank you, sir. Anyone else wish to speak at the public hearing?

All right, I'll declare it closed. Just so I'm clear, this was a public hearing and action on the request. That's how it was listed on the agenda. Thank you, Ms. Lyons. I have some comments. Okay, so do we need to discuss this? The public hearing's over, so we need a motion. Motion. To do what? To do what?

To act. Chair, what's your motion? Whatever the motion is. I would like to make a motion that we table it. All right. For further discussion. Thank you, Council Member Gaye. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Council Member Arnold. Discussion? Council Member Card? A couple things I will say. Tabling it is a good idea. First of all, this idea certainly did not come from me at all. I've spoken several times up here that the last thing

you wanna see in your neighborhood, you own a home, is playing guess who's coming for the weekend and what I'm gonna have to be dealing with. I've said it over and over again up here. Residents are looking for a disruptive, free lifestyle. Gonna say that again. Disruptive, free lifestyle. A big part of that is having a neighborhood and a home and a street that's secure.

But beyond that, the bigger picture of this thing. Strong legislation, yes, we need some. But, city manager, how about some strong enforcement? Yeah. That's what we need first. Now, before, when there was another council up here, there were connections to, I'd say, crash pads and the boats weren't here. I'll leave it at that. But, Airbnb's are illegal.

Now, we have rental that's room by room by room. It's called a hotel and we're a hospitality city and that's exactly where I think it belongs. At the end of the day, we've got to enforce what's on the books. And city manager, one of the reasons why you're here is so that we can right this ship.

This is an illegal situation. We know where many of those places are. And those that we're not sure of, we can investigate and find out and get to the bottom of it very, very, very quickly. So how about this? See, the second meeting for May is scheduled May 18th. I want to make it our business to eliminate and shut down every short-term rental in this city that's operating illegally. By that meeting, the 18th, I want to see 75% of them gone.

And city attorney, I believe that that doesn't require the same process in terms of evictions, but it does require a little bit of dispossessary in the whole three-four-month deal for stuff that's operating illegally. Is that right? It doesn't require dispossessary, but it's not as easy as that. It's a process, and we've had internal conversations about it. And I do think we need to clarify that as we all sit here at this very moment, every single short-term rental that's operating in College Park is operating illegally.

And so, the citizens came and talked about the horrible things happening in their neighborhoods, but those horrible things are happening by illegal operations. And so, we need to appreciate that. Furthermore, the rent by the room, the pad splits, we don't have any regulations on those. And so, they're operating right now, so short-term rentals, the Airbnbs are currently illegal, every single one of them. And we need to take action to shut them down, and then this council will, in the future

at some point, address itself to the pad splits, the rent by the rooms. And so, these things are, for the short-term rentals, are on the books right now. And Councilman Cohen, you're exactly right, it's an enforcement issue within the city. Okay. Well, we're about to solve it. And in terms of the pad splits, I consider that an issue as well. I don't like them as well. They'll just hijack that by name and keep going. All right.

So, by May the 18th, the May the 18th meeting, I want us to at least have all the rents done. Does that sound fair, reasonable, and doable? I think it absolutely is. I don't really want to hear that it's not, because it is doable. We can do it. You know, bringing, you know, anything that brings instability into a neighborhood is not in the best interest of the public. Everybody knows that.

And we can get it done. This time next month, we want to have rents in all of those places, and those people heading out the door and in the process of being shut down. City manager, I want to make this a priority and make sure that that does happen. Now, I have mostly apartment communities in my neighborhood, but I've got several subdivisions that I've gotten complaints from as well. And we can get it done in 30 days and get the process moving and get most of these businesses on their way out of the door if they're operating illegally.

There's a lot that we can do. We can establish an Airbnb tip line. City attorney, we could actually probably do rewards for tips with this, because this is something that's not a good deal for the city. Is that right? Or we could just go on the Airbnb website. They're right there. They're advertising it. Exactly. They're not hiding. They're doing it in the open with impunity. They're telling you. You can pull out your phone right now and find almost every Airbnb in College Park. It's right there.

Okay. So we go after the online ones that are operating legitimately. We have a lot of them that are operating illegitimately that are not on those deals. They're all illegitimate. They are all illegitimate. That's quite right, Mayor. But some are registered and flagrantly illegitimate. So let's work on both of them. Let's work on both of those dual tracks. And city manager, a month from now when we come back, we want to get an update where we are.

And we want to have lots of RITs and folks on their way out of the door through the Fulton County process. If it's illegal on its face in the city of College Park, though, again, let's check with Fulton County and see what the story is on that because I'm sure they've dealt with that in some of the other 15 cities, Clayton County, too, to see how they're handling that because, like you said, there's a slight difference there in terms of just a standardized eviction. But let's get the particulars on that and let's get moving on this thing.

Mayor? I think Council Member Arnold. Yes. So, we need a robust team when it comes to code enforcement because code enforcement is who's actually going out to cite these individuals that are breaking the law or writing up the owners of the homes. I think we talked about adding some additional support on the code enforcement team by way

of some part-time individuals. But in order for this to work, code enforcement has to be responsive to the citizens. The citizens need a way, a hotline, and someone needs to go immediately to address these Airbnbs. Airbnbs have been a problem for quite some time, even before COVID, and the challenge

that we were having in our neighborhood is that the calls would be made, but then there was no resolution to the complaints. And so, as long as we are not enforcing and we don't have an easy way for constituents or citizens to put in a complaint and to receive immediate rectification for these problems, then we're just spinning our wheels. So are we willing to put some meat on the bones, add some teeth to this particular legislation

of enforcement, if you will, which means that we're going to put some resources behind the ordinance of this being illegal? As of right now, we don't have enough code enforcement officers. So if we're not going to fund this mandate, and I believe we should, then we're just talking.

So I personally do not want to see another Airbnb at all. I'm tired of people parking in my neighborhood on both sides of the streets or parking their cars and leaving them in the neighborhood to walk up the street to a restaurant, come back with food bags, dropping food in the cemetery, dropping food on the street. Then you've got the feral cats and you have a whole other issue. So we need enforcement.

I would like to see us, if we're going to do this 30-day situation, the team that we currently have, have enough going on as is, they're going to need some additional support. Those are my comments. Council Member McKendry. Okay. I know we have a motion to table this particular item, and I'm going to offer a substitute motion. I guess we can do whatever we're going to do with that first motion. But before I bring the substitute motion, my concern is tabling this tonight does not

solve the problem that citizens are going to go back home and still have to deal with these rent-by-the-room situations. We already know that short-term rentals are illegal, but these rent-by-the-room are not always short-term. What I'm hearing, that's not short-term rentals. These people are renting rooms out throughout the year for months. So my concern is that we must address both of these things at the same time.

So meaning we already know short-term rentals are illegal. I would like to make a substitute motion to immediately enforce the siting of short-term rentals and to make rent-by-the-room housing illegal in the City of College Park. That's what I'd like to leave out of here tonight, that we immediately enforce the siting of short-term rentals, okay, and that we get on this just like my colleagues have said.

We're going to get on it, we're going to stay on it, we're going to empower our code enforcement if we have to bring more people on, whatever we have to do to enforce it. But I don't want us to leave out here tonight and put the rent-by-room on the back burner. So that's what I'm requesting. I'll second that with a caveat. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Wait, wait, stop, stop, hold on, hold on, please, Councilmember Gaye. So do you, hold on, give me one moment, I'm coming to you, I have a clarifying question

for Councilmember McKenzie. That is a substitute motion, not a friendly amendment? Well the problem with a friendly amendment is we're saying we're tabling this. I mean we could still go ahead and vote to table this particular piece of legislation, but I'm saying we need to leave out of here with something shutting down these rent by the room. Yeah, that's why my substitute motion, I mean we can go ahead and vote to table if you want to continue that, but then I want to come back, either way, like I said, if he's willing

to withdraw his motion to table, I mean that's a whole other thing. So Councilmember, my question, I was just clarifying, it is a substitute motion, not a friendly amendment, correct? Oh, it's definitely not a friendly amendment. Okay, great, all right, Councilmember Gaye. So before I ask, when we were in legal review, and this is to my colleagues, last week, we were told that I wanted a cease and desist as the strongest way to shut them down.

I was told that, and by the way, our code enforcement has been in court numerous times for the same issues, so many times, the solicitor don't even know what's going on. So I was just told that the code enforcement does not have the power to shut them down. It has to be a letter from planning to the city attorney. Can you clarify before I substitute, how you going to proceed with this?

There's a different process, and I was trying not to get into the weeds like this, but that's fine. It's a different process when you're dealing with a zoning violation. Right now, if you're operating an Airbnb in College Park, you're violating our zoning ordinance, and so then we need to gain evidence of that, and then it needs to be a letter from the planner, and there's a process that we've outlined that we need to go through. So there's a clear pattern. We did the same thing with Rogers Automotive. They were operating in violation of our zoning ordinance.

So it's more than just a simple citation. It's a different process that we've gone through before, that's well-documented, we've done it many times, and we could work with the planner, the city manager, and the staff to accomplish that. So what's the penalty once they get the letter? What happens then? Right. Then we ultimately would take them to court in order to enforce that. Because Rogers Automotive took two years. There's no way you can do this by a 30-day moratorium.

If we got to go through zoning violation, and they got a due process, this is not a 30-day remedy. Correct. Correct. You're right. I'm cutting in here for a minute. Further discussion on the substitute motion, Councilmember Arnold. So what is the remedy? Because our communities are suffering from short-term rentals and Airbnb's.

So what is the short-term? We don't need a long-term solution. We need an immediate solution. Well, we have to understand we're limited by what the law allows us to do. And so we will pursue, I've heard every single member on the dais loud and clear tonight. You want this addressed, and you want it addressed in the near term. You want to give relief to the citizens who've come up here and spoken tonight, and some of them who have not been here but who are suffering due to the same circumstances.

So we will pursue the most aggressive course of action that the law allows us to pursue. Questions? To shut them down. Councilmember Carr. Winston, I think this is obviously a code enforcement matter, but I think this is also a police matter in terms of public safety in general. Now, what is to prevent us from making this into a criminal misdemeanor as well? It would be my recommendation that we don't discuss all of our legal strategy and how

we're going to get this done. All right. I'm trying to put a bow on this by saying I've heard each and every single one of you. You have not been unclear, you've not been ambiguous, you've been crystal clear. You want this addressed. And so you've directed the staff to get it accomplished. So I've heard you. Okay. So I accept the substitute motion with a couple of caveats. Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry. We're discussing the substitute motion. We haven't taken a vote on it. Right. Well, I had some additions to the substitute motion.

One is going to be, I discussed the 30-day countdown, something along those lines, where we start the process court-wise for writs, dispossessory, whatever, is the most expedient channel with Fulton and Clayton. Number two, I do want us to establish a tip line, a tip line, Airbnbs, room-by-room, rent-by-the-room, whatever you want to call it, all of it. Let's shut the whole thing down and let's get it done.

But I want to look into the other legal option that I just spoke about. Obviously, we're going to have this code enforcement court coming into effect very, very quickly. I understand, City Manager, that's one of the new things that you're proposing and rolling out. That's going to be very effective. It's going to be in person, no online, no Zoom. And that's going to be a serious court calendar. Is that right? We do mean serious.

So just adding those caveats to the motion to make sure that those components are going in place. And I want to have a report on the May 18th meeting to see how we're looking, where we are, the ones we know about, where they're in the process of being closed, shut down, and handling things through the proper legal channels as fast as possible. Is that all part of your friendly amendment to the substitute motion? I think the City Clerk has some meat and potatoes of it, don't you?

Yes, sir. I have one, if you'd like me to read it. Madam Clerk, yes, please. Yes, ma'am. Discuss a 30-day countdown to address the issue and two, to establish a tip line. And start the eviction process, whatever the process is, we want to have that moving. So in 30 days, all of those we know about are in the pipeline for disposition, removal, whatever. It's not a dispossessory process.

All right. Well, City Attorney, whatever you want to call it, tomatoes tomatoes, get it done. So what's the motion, though, that, I mean, what's the substitute motion in terms of the language of that? City Clerk? The language that I gave was the motion to immediately enforce... Wait, wait, wait. Hold on, hold on, Council Member McKenzie. I'm trying to understand the friendly amendment, so I can ask you if you accept it. So what is the last portion of that proposed friendly amendment to the substitute motion?

Are you asking me or the clerk? I'm asking anyone who can clarify. Point of clarification, Mayor. So the, Ms. Lyons came down here to ask for us to approve a conditional use permit, a conditional use permit, which none of us want. And apparently the board, the planning board don't want it, they don't want it either,

right? So why can't we just reverse this a little bit, right? And go back to what she's asking. At the end of the day, the board has already said that they do not recommend that we approve it. All the other language with the short-term rentals, the Airbnbs, Winston has heard us and we need to get some enforcement done around that. But the fact is that to offer a conditional use permit for the utilization of short-term

rentals is a no by everybody that's sitting up here. And with the planning commission, I heard that there was a denial, but then I also heard that there was, Ms. Lyons, I also heard that they said that there was some conditions that had to be stipulated that they would look at it. Did I hear both of those things or did I hear you completely wrong? So they made a motion to reject as proposed and one of those considerations included that

were in your packet in the summary, but they were one, to codify minimum criteria to review for a short-term rental versus via a separate ordinance to be created in development standards and or administrative process and two, better understand the ability of the city to provide resources for code enforcement, police and fire to meet the conditional use permit issuance under this ordinance. Okay, so technically they had a recommendation for denial as is, but they would approve under

these specific conditions. Is that basically what I was hearing? Um, no, they said it to reject as proposed, but consider recommendation of the following points. Okay, that's what I thought I heard. Yeah. Okay. So, so they were basically saying no, but, but, but yes, may, but maybe. They were saying no, but because, because of the fact that we do not have anything in place for enforcement, for safety, um, um, and essentially for the community, that it

should be a no until we come up with like, pretty much what, uh, Councilman Gaye was saying as far as, you know, tabling it, but we can say no to the conditional use from it and let legal look into if we, how we're going to put some plate, some teeth around enforcement. Okay. Hold on guys. Hold on one second. I understand Council Member, Council Member Arnold, I understand where you're coming from. We probably have overcomplicated this, however, which, which is why I say a point of clarification,

right? And, and I, I think you're right, but what is actually pending right now is a friendly amendment and I'm looking for point three. That's where Council Member Arnold came in with her point of clarification. So Council Member Karn, to your third point on the friendly amendment, can you, can you please clarify that? Do you have some clarity on the point three I made? Point three?

I have start the eviction process. Okay. Whatever that is. Is that? Yes. That's correct. Yes, sir. It's not eviction. Uh, what? Start the process. Start the legal process. Start the legal process. Yes, sir. So, we can motion for this and then we can come back and deny the request as well in another motion. So, we got this one on the table, like the Mayor said. Uh, I was offering a substitute. No, you were, Council Member Karn made a, um, made a friendly amendment.

Do you accept it? A friendly amendment to what? The motion, my substitute motion or Council Member Gaye's motion? To your substitute motion. Okay. Yeah, I, I accept that. Yeah. Okay. So. Council Member Gaye. So, I, I actually like her substitute motion because she brought short-term rentals. Not short-term. The room. Yeah, I want to make sure that. Right. That gives us even more than what we had hoped for.

Right. So, to that point, I would like to accept the short, the substitute motion with the friendly amendments. Thank you. Okay. And who made the second, Madam Clerk? Council Member Karn. Council Member Karn. Oh, was it, Jim? It was me. I might not have had a second. I can't remember. Hold on one second. Hold on. Let's just. The second on the friendly amendment? On Council Member Gaye's underlying motion.

My underlying motion to table. Council Member Arnold. Yeah, I think it was me. Who's Arnold? Uh, the table, uh, Council Member Arnold. Yeah. All right. Council Member Arnold, do you. Yes. Accept the. Yes. Okay. All right. So, here we are. So, clarification, Mayor, is that we are giving our legal team whatever they need to do in our code enforcement plan, whatever has to happen to enforce these short-term rentals

being illegal, right? And then the second piece is we are making all rent-by-rooming illegal. And then whatever the end that Joe put on there. Okay. Madam Clerk, um, can you read the motion one more time in its entirety? Madam Mayor, beginning with Councilwoman McKenzie's substitute motion.

Yes. Okay. Councilwoman McKenzie offered a substitute motion to immediately enforce siting of short-term rentals and rent-by-the-room to be illegal, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Karn. And Mayor Pro Tem Karn offered the friendly amendment to add the following caveats. One, to discuss 30-day countdown to address this issue.

Two, to establish a tip line. And three, to start the legal process. Everything but discuss. 30 days, start the 30 days. Start the 30-day countdown. Not discuss it. Everything else was correct. Yes, sir. Noted. Okay. Any further discussion? Yes. Councilmember Arnold? Um, I would like for us to have a communication plan around that. An immediate communication plan. Yes. Yes. Because if we're putting this in motion, no one is going to know about it unless we communicate that. That's right. Communication. We need to get some... Yes.

Let... Winston, last question. Can we actually look into establishing some kind of a... Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. We're going to look at... We're going to do a tip line. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. But a reward, is that... I don't know about reward. ...within the... Is that... If it's legally possible. Yes. We'll be very aggressive.

But for some reason, I think the citizens are going to drop down without a reward, sir. All right. Yes. All right. I believe you. Any further discussion? I do want to just say in terms of the communication plan that we do make it clear. I mean, some people are going to be like, why would you not want short-term rentals? I think it's important to note that we are a hospitality city. We have all these hotels. We have means for people to be able to rent if they want to stay somewhere for short-term.

So I don't know how we get that into the communication strategy, but the fact that these... Letting people know immediately that rent-by-the-room housing is illegal in short-term rentals and will be enforced by the City of College Park. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor? Aye. That is unanimous. And while the clerk is sounding, Ms. Lyons, how do we get 8C on the agenda, the appeals

process? I got this from the city attorney's office. Mr. Denmark, where did you get it from? The same man. So, Madam Mayor, I mean, if we get requests to draft ordinances, I can't remember. I can't remember. Who knows? Madam Clerk? Yes, Madam Mayor. I'll go ahead and sound. 8C, public hearing in action on a request to move to amend the Appendix A Zoning Article

12, Boards and Commissions, Section 12.14, Establishment of Appeals Processes for Variances. Okay. Good evening again. So currently, per Article 12 of the College Park Zoning Ordinance, the Board of Zoning Appeals shall hear and act upon applications pursuant to procedures and standards established by the Mayor and Council. Once they render a decision, an aggrieved party or someone wants to appeal that decision,

they go to court, to Superior Court. The proposed ordinance would amend Section 12.14 to allow aggrieved parties to appeal to BZA decisions to the Mayor and City Council, and then still not satisfied, then you would move on to Superior Court. Staff, the Planning Commission heard this at their March 30th hearing. Staff recommended approval with the condition that we add a definition of an aggrieved party

to Section 1.4 and definitions. The Planning Commission recommended denial with the following considerations, a defined appeals process for the Mayor and Council hearing that may include public notice, public hearing, and detailed timelines for the hearing including notice, a definition of an aggrieved party within the proposed ordinance, providing training on zoning and variance processes

within the municipal code, and for a consideration of a separate appeals board in place of Mayor and Council to execute the proposed ordinance. Thank you, Ms. Lyons. And at this time, I'll go ahead and declare the public hearing open. If you wish to speak on this matter, the amendment to Appendix A, Article 12, Section 12.14. You may be seated at this time.

Hello, Elizabeth Lester, I'm back. Currently, anyone aggrieved by a BZA ruling can appeal directly to the Superior Court by a certiorari, and this ordinance inserts a mandatory stop at Mayor and Council first. So we heard the Planning Commission recommended a denial and said there were some changes that needed to be made. But yet, here it is for you all again,

when the commission who has been established to provide expertise on this matter has advised against it. The BZA exists precisely to insulate individuals' zoning decisions from political pressure. And routing the decisions through mayor and council without a defined standard of review turns an appeal into a do-over, where a council majority can substitute its policy preferences for the BZA's decision. In any legitimate appellate process, the reviewing body is constrained by a defined standard, typically whether the lower body made

an error of law, exceeded its authority, or reached a decision not supported by the record. This ordinance has no such standard. The concept of a local administrative appeal is not unreasonable. It can be faster and less expensive than superior court. But the concept only works if the process is fair and defined. And this ordinance, as written, is not ready. The three missing pieces the planning commission identified are not minor technicalities. They are minimum required to protect due process for both applicants and affected neighbors.

I would ask that you, again, table this ordinance and send it back so that the issues are further developed before it's brought back. I'd also ask that you consider whether a function of an appeal should sit with a separate appeals board, as the planning commission suggested, rather than with a politically accountable body. The ordinance gives counsel the power to overturn the BZA with no standard and no defined process. It's not an appeal system. It's a political override. So I would ask you to please send it back for revisions.

Thank you. Does anyone else wish to speak? All right. Hearing or seeing none others, I'll declare the public hearing closed. Is there a motion? I make a motion for approval with discussion. Always discussion. Is there a second?

Motion dies for lack of a second. All right. Well, I make a substitute motion. I guess I'd like to, city manager, maybe we have staff go back and take another look at this and move forward with the rest of the process when it comes to mayor and council.

I think conceptually this saves residents or a business or developer the expense of having to hire out a lawyer and head on off to court, Fulton County or Clayton County. I think the planning commission wants good development in this city. We want good development in this city as well. And this moves the process forward so that we can have good development moving forward in this city as efficiently as possible. I would make a substitute motion that city manager,

you have your staff work on the additional things that the planning commission are asking for and bring it back to us with something that works for everybody. Is your motion to table? My motion is to table it and bring it back at one of the next, as soon as possible, once we get a fix to it. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Council Member Arnold. Any discussion?

Hearing none, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor? Aye. That is unanimous. Next up is consent agenda. Item 9A, consideration of an action on a request to approve consideration of professional services agreement for Ward 1 legislative aid. This is a budgeted item, fund contractual services. This item is sponsored by Councilwoman Dr. Jemele McKenzie. Item 9B, consideration of an action on a request

for the approval of the disbursement of the MEAG Power 2025 year-end settlement refund in the amount of $1,818,157.24 via a power cost credit. This request is from Power Director Hugh Richardson. This is a budgeted item. This will service all wards. 9C, consideration of an action on a request to approve the annual public safety services contract with Axon Enterprise Incorporation in the amount of $371,410.66.

This is a request from Interim Chief of Police Charis McCrary. This is a budgeted item from FY26, contractual services. This will service all wards. Item 9D, consideration of an action on a request to approve payment to 144th Marketing Group, LLC, in the amount of $22,940 for the installation of new vehicle light bar. This is a request from Interim Chief of Police Charis McCrary. This is a budgeted item, fiscal year 26 for patrol vehicles replaced. This will service all wards. Item 9E, consideration of an action on a request

to approve Central Square 2026 annual renewal contract in the amount of $167,587.59. This is a request from Interim Chief of Police Charis McCrary. This is a budgeted item, GL account contractual services. This will service all wards. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Motion. Thank you, Council Member Carnes. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Council Member McKenzie. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. That is unanimous. Agenda item 10A, under regular business,

consideration of an action on a request to approve an ordinance to amend section 4-7I of the city charter relating to the contracting and purchasing authority of the city manager. Is there a motion? Motion. Thank you, Council Member McKenzie. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Council Member Arnold. Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. That is unanimous. And Madam Clerk, before you sound, the expansion of the professional services definition in this upcoming agenda item to college purchasing policies

would have an umbrella that would allow consultants with specialized subject matter expertise. That is a very, very broad category that I am concerned could be used for great things. Not concerned that it could be used for great things, but I'm concerned that it could be used to avoid the purchasing process. And I would hope my colleagues would take another look at that, because it essentially means any time we've

got anybody who can do anything that's halfway specialized, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, we don't put it out for bid. Madam Clerk? I'd be consideration of an action on a request to approve a resolution amending the college park purchasing policies and procedures manual. Is there a motion? Motion. Thank you, Council Member McKenzie. Is there a second? Second with discussion. Thank you, Council Member Carn. Go right ahead.

I took a close look at this when we talked about it, I guess over six weeks ago, I guess, going through this process. And now the last time I checked, the state purchasing divisions policy, at least as of this year, 2026, the competitive bidding threshold in terms of applies to services and items, over $25,000.

That's when it's bidded out. I think we want to move forward. We want positive change, but we also want responsible policy with proper checks and balances, of course. Now, there are several cities within our region whose spending is above the state's $25,000 limit. And that's their policy.

I think we're looking for a lower threshold than some cities have currently. I could live with $25,000. That would be commensurate with the state's limit. So I am for making some changes on that. I would be more comfortable there, but that's where I'm at on it.

Council Member Reed. I'm sorry, who made the motion? I made the motion. OK, Council Member McKenzie. OK, so are you making a friendly amendment to amend all the spending thresholds to $25,000 instead of $50,000? Well, I wanted to discuss it. I wanted to get anyone else's input on it. OK, all right. Council Member Arnold. I'm at $25,000. OK, I'm at $25,000.

I think when we had our discussion a few weeks ago, we talked about being where the state was, right? And so I'm comfortable. with 25 with the same state number for all of the categories. Any further discussion? I will revise my motion. I mean, I motioned for this. However, I will revise to 25,000. For all the standards as opposed to 50, correct?

Excuse me? For all of the purchasing policy limits, you want to change all of them to 50? I'm sorry, 25 from 50? What did Councilwoman Arnold just say? She said I'm good with 25. 25 for what, Councilwoman Arnold? I'm responding to you. Right, all of the categories. Then that way we will be in alignment with the state, right? Yeah, so I am agreeing with what Councilwoman Arnold said. So you've amended your motion to approve the purchasing policies

and procedures manual with the spending limits at 25,000 instead of 50,000, correct? Well, not an instead, just 25. 50 was what was in the... Well, I made a motion, so now the motion is, the amendment on the motion is 25. I'm not saying instead. My motion is not instead. My motion is just 25,000. No instead. Okay, I'm just saying that because that's what the text of the resolution says.

Yeah, I know, but I'm saying the motion is to amend it. We're amending the motion to 25,000. Okay. Councilmember Carn, were you the second? I'm fine with that second. Can we strike instead out of the language? That will make it more comfortable. It's not in the language. That's why I said I'm not putting it. No, she was putting it in the language. Okay, so that was just to add in. Never mind, scratch that. I'm fine with it.

Okay. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor? Aye. That is unanimous. I'm sorry, Madam Clerk. Mr. Demark, I have a question for you on item 10C, and I should have asked this during the workshop session, but it includes contractual – it includes contractors to get paid time off

for bereavement in the language. Yes, it says – so I just wanted to make sure that everyone was on board with that, and it says contractors. I'm sorry. No, ma'am.

It's supposed to just be for employees who are in the full-time status, not contractual. I think it was – where did you see contractors because I didn't see that. Can you tell us where you found that, Mayor, please? I would be able to tell you, but I'm having some technical difficulties. I apologize. But in my review of it – Madam Mayor, what I would say is, I mean, to the extent contractors was in it,

it was certainly not intended to be so we could approve it. It may have been in the body. It may have been in the agenda memo, as I recall. It's not in the resolution. It's not there at all. It's for full-time employees. It's not for part-time. It's just for full-time. Correct. All right. Thank you for the clarification. Madam Clerk. Krista.

Madam Mayor, did you guys locate the contractual? It's not there. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. That's all. Okay. 10C, consideration of an action on a request to approve a resolution amending the city's paid time off policy to increase bereavement leave for city employees. This item is requested by Krista Gilbert, Director of Human Resources.

Is there a motion? Motion. Thank you, Council Member Carnes. Second. Thank you, Council Member Arnold. Any discussion? City employees, not contractors, just so we're clear. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor? Aye. That is unanimous. Item 10D, consideration of an action on a request to install playground communication boards for neurodivergent individuals in all local parks and recreational areas in partnership

with the Chaka Khan Foundation. The total cost is $31,500. This is not a budgeted item. This item is sponsored by Council Member Roderick Gay. Is there a motion? Motion. Thank you, Council Member Gay. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Council Member McKenzie. Any discussion? Council Member Carnes? Looking at this cost, if we divided this amongst the four of us, we're looking at about $7,800. The five of us. This would be divided amongst the five of us? Well, it's citywide.

If it's covering all four wards, it's covering all four wards. Well, my issue was this. We've got to figure out where we're going to find the money for this. If we're going to do it out of community enhancements, that's fine. But if we're not, if we're going to find it elsewhere, then... I think it's an awesome idea. Three to five ways. That would just be awesome. So this covers all of the parks, right? And recreation centers. There's seven.

Yes, seven. I think it's an awesome idea. I wasn't going to suggest that it came from there, but since the mayor approached him, I think he should take on three-fifths of it. Well, I wish I could. I don't have... I don't either, until maybe July. But you've got something in mind. Yeah, so I really like your idea of spending five ways. That would be ideal. That would be great. Happy to do three. Well, let's see. So the mayor's happy to do three.

Five is... We can start the bidding war. If not, I'm fine. Three-what? Three-fifths? The mayor said she'll do three-fifths? No, three-sevenths. Okay. Three-sevenths? There's seven boards. Happy to take on three. And then... Well, if we're going to split the cost, it's $31,000. That's right. $31,500. That's $6,300 a person. Right. Now, I saw on the display that the boards were $4,500 apiece.

I thought that's what I saw. Yes, and there's seven. Okay. That's... Okay. So that comes to... That's the 31? $31,500. That's right. And we have seven. So it would be among seven parks. Right. So every park would get one. Correct. Is that right? You already have one. You have one already. Every park will get one, and the recreation centers will also get one. Oh, okay. The recreation centers. So that's where the seven comes from. That's where the additional come in. Right. And so to split up the $31,500 is $6,300.

Well, you might as well... I heard the mayor say she was going to pay for three boards, which would be about $12,000. So I think we should leave that, and then y'all can figure out how... I don't have the funds. I can't commit to anything I don't have at this moment. Okay. I will find the funding. This is all taxpayer money anyway, so... Madam Mayor, I'll find the funding. Can we move on? I'll find the funding. Yes. I'll find it. I was going to say you were going to make it easier. Councilman Gay, I'll take care of it. Thank you, sir.

All right. He's got it. All right. Unless Lillian knows I have some money. Actually, Mr. Hitch, you need to add another one to the new park that's coming on Gabby Road. Exactly. Exactly. That's what I was talking about. Until the colleagues point early, can that also be a communication? I'm sorry? Can you also make that a communication that the city is doing this? Yeah. Citywide? It does not matter. I mean, if you want eight boards out of mayoral community enhancement, that's fine, too. It doesn't matter.

I'm okay to find it, so we'll take care of it. So can we amend this motion to the fact that, yes, but we will use the mayoral. The entire bill will be paid for the mayoral community enhancement because we have to vote on any spending that the mayor has. I didn't make the motion. Oh, Councilman Gay, I second it.

What do you want to do? I was saying that the mayor just now said she would take the entire, since she has the funds and her community enhancement. She's doing all of them? Yes. She's doing all eight. The community is buying them. It's not my money. Motion to purchase all eight of the neurodivergent boards out of the mayor's discretionary budget? Community enhancement. Community enhancement budget. And I second that.

All right. Any further discussion? Yeah, can you make that a communication? Yes, sir. Gerald, press release, please. All right. Hearing no further discussion. All those in favor? Aye. All right, that is unanimous. Next item, City Attorney's Report. Sorry I was late.

Correction, correction, we still have one more motion that was item that was added to the agenda at the beginning of the meeting, but it was not placed on the agenda, it was not given item. Thank you, thank you, Councilmember. Thank you. That was the consent agenda. Apologies for my error, that would be the consent agenda policy. Okay is there a motion? A motion to move forward with option B and something else in there, where's my, in addition to the

That's all you said earlier. You changed your motion. No, I had a... I'll find it as soon as I... You got your worksheet? No, I don't. I'm looking for my worksheet. Give me one second here.

Give me one second.

Okay, I think we're good. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Councilmember McKenzie. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. That's unanimous. Item 11, city attorney's report. As I was saying, sorry I was late. Thank you. City manager's report.

Mayor Kaufman, I'll move expedient here. I just got a couple things. Since I did not send out my city manager's report, so we're going to hold off on the video for the finance department. We're highlighting our finance department, so we'll show that video on May 4th. I want to give you guys time to look at the city manager's report, so we won't show that tonight. Just a reminder that we're having a budget meeting tomorrow, 630. Goal number three is going to be transportation and mobility. We're going to talk about the highways, the streets, and T-spots. Goal number four, public safety and security. We're having a municipal court, police administration, investigation, patrol, E911, communications, corrections, confiscation, and state drug funds. All of those will be at the budget meeting tomorrow.

That concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you, sir. 13, report of mayor and council. All right, so happy Georgia Cities Week, everyone. We are kicking it off here in College Park. Take a moment to check your seat. There are two planes that are in the room. The committee has hidden planes to celebrate the kickoff for Georgia Cities Week and our 130 years as a city. But if you do not have one, check the city's social media. There will be more hidden throughout the city, and we have a great week of events coming up starting tomorrow with Touch a Truck.

Oh, there we go. All right, we got a plane. All right, congratulations. Touch a Truck is at the public safety complex from, I believe it is, there we go, 5 o'clock to 7 o'clock. We've got Earth Day coming up, Earth Day plant sale and a wellness event at Phillips Park on the 22nd from 3 to 7. And we've got a citywide cleanup on April 25th from 9 to 12. And there will be giveaways and lots of fun stuff for the entire week because all 536 cities in Georgia have something unique to offer.

And it has been such a delight as president of the Georgia Municipal Association getting to interact and engage with people from across the state. And today I was in Jimmy Carter's hometown of Plains, Georgia for the district meeting, the District 8 meeting. And I want to thank the mayor and the rest of their staff for their tremendous hospitality. It was a wonderful, wonderful visit. And there's a lot of great things going on in District 8. That includes Cordele, Buena Vista, a number of other outstanding communities in the south of our state.

And so it was a great visit. Also had the opportunity to visit Thompson early last week and then also have one other district meeting later on in the week. And so it was a busy, busy time there. I want to thank the African American Mayors Association and immediate president Van Johnson for honoring me with the Maynard Jackson Award for Economic Development. I shared that recently with Mayor Vi Lyles of Charlotte, North Carolina, who is one of my mayor crushes and is doing such amazing things in the city of Charlotte.

And I also want to congratulate our neighbor, Mayor Vince Williams, for his Legacy Award. He has served not only Union City but our state and the nation for so many years with integrity and confidence and also want to wish him a happy belated birthday. He is one of my favorite mayors and just leads with such distinction. And we are lucky to have him in our area. And he has such a great outlook on all this, great family, and we love him and there's nothing he can do about it.

Also wanted to highlight a wonderful event that we had recently at the GICC. The Georgia Association of Senior Centers had their statewide line dance showcase and seniorpreneur expo. And the seniors were out in force having a great time dancing and dancing and then dancing some more. It was phenomenal. The energy was electric as soon as you walked in the room and they were line dancing to songs that I didn't even know had line dances.

And it was really hard to keep up. But it welcomed over 800 attendees to the GICC to see exactly what College Park has to offer. And they had a fantastic time. It was, I mean, the spirits were high and it was just such a great event. I want to thank the Georgia Association for Senior Centers for working with us and making the event absolutely unforgettable. And if you have not signed up for partake yet, please do so.

It is a great way to share things with our community and get to know your neighbors a little bit more. And lastly, on April 25th from 9 to 12 at our public safety complex, the College Park Police Department is having a job fair. And so we are looking for more best and brightest folks to serve and protect the city of College Park. So if you know someone who is interested, please have them come because we want to make sure that College Park stays as great as it can be.

And we don't do that without our talented, dynamic, committed police force. So do share and spread the word. So I believe that is all that I've got. Council Member McKenzie? I've got two quick announcements before Kelly plays my video. Everyone, this is National Library Week, okay? So it's Cities Week, but it's also National Library Week. And this is a great time to visit your library, which is what I did this afternoon.

Encourage your friend to get a library card. Yep, they still have library cards. And browse the shelves when you're in the library and take home a book and share it. And being that it's National Library Week, I just wanted to let everybody see that I am releasing this week my fourth book, which is called 12 Votes. And that is what I won this seat by. It's a really great book, and it will be available on Amazon by Friday.

So we'll be sharing some more information on social media. But there she goes, 12 Votes, 12 Votes. And the last thing is that we have a team surveying in Ward 1 right now. And so if you get somebody knocking on your door, they're knocking on your door just to get some information about how you feel about things that are going on in our city and how we can improve and any input that you can get. All right. Thank you.

This is Dr. Jamil McKenzie with my April 20th, 2026 council report. Tonight's report is dedicated to the memory of my nephew, Richard R.J. London, who departed this life on Wednesday, April 15th. Gone too soon, but he will never be forgotten. As many of you may be aware, I'm a history buff. And so on April 6th, we attended Hats and Houseplants at the Atlanta History Center

with several women preservationists and historians. And I want to thank Dr. Lenise Littleton for the invitation and the opportunity to meet amazing women doing phenomenal things. And speaking of history, one of the greatest moments that I will always treasure since I have been in office was being able to award the 1969 basketball champions from Ivor L. Thomas with their championship rings. After 57 years, these gentlemen were finally able to receive

the congratulations they've always deserved. Today we stand in the sacred space between history and justice, between what was overlooked and what will never ever be forgotten again. Yes! Yes! Did you hear what I said? Yes! What was overlooked and what will never be forgotten again. Hallelujah! We gather here today to honor the extraordinary men of the 1969 Ivor L. Thomas basketball team, the Red Kats.

Yes! This championship was a team that achieved greatness in a time when recognition for black excellence was too often delayed, diminished, or denied. Amen. But listen to me clearly today. Greatness delayed is not greatness denied. Amen. Greatness delayed is not greatness denied. For decades, my brothers, your victory lived in memory,

it whispered in pride, in family stories, and in the hearts of those who knew what you accomplished. Yes. But today, your story is no longer whispered. Today it is proclaimed. You were champions then, and you are champions now. On the 16th, I served on the Empire Board of Realists political advocacy panel where we discussed housing access and affordability policy and legislative advocacy and how to strengthen partnerships between government and real estate professionals.

My role in the City of College Park is to advocate and to represent the persons that are in my ward. I am there to also bring equity to my city. I served as the chairman or the chairperson of the Business Industrial Development Authority in the City of College Park. I was on that board for five years and was chair for two years. So development is definitely important to me, but also making sure that we have opportunities for our folks to not only have a place to live,

but to create wealth, and that comes through ownership. So I'm definitely involved in the process of making sure that we bring our city to that level. But 75% of our population, again, 75% of our population are renters. And so that means that we're not generating wealth as a whole, and we have those opportunities. So I'm grateful to be here today, and I'm looking forward to answering the questions and learning some things that I can take back to my city to build College Park better.

On the 17th, we held our Ward 1 Strategic Planning Conference for the spring. It was a really good opportunity for all of our contractors and Ward 1 team members to come together and to look at where we have been, where we're at, and to plan for where they're going. And guess what? The future looks bright as we continue to build College Park better, starting with Ward 1. Ward 1 updates and announcements. Get ready, get ready.

We're having our next Community Thrive on May 1st. That's Friday, May 1st at 12 p.m. It'll go on at the Keith James Auditorium into 2. Again, we'll be giving away food. We've got Amazon and Walmart and several organizations on board with us to give out household supplies, clothing. And this time, we're even having a barbecue. So tell a neighbor, tell a friend, come on, we still could use some volunteers, and let's help our community.

To all gardeners and volunteers, you are invited to join our Main Street Beautification Initiative. Yeah, we're going to be taking care of our Main Street, and we invite you to participate. More details to come. You are invited to join us for our YCAB graduation ceremony, which will be held on May 2nd at 10 o'clock, and Valerie Lee of The Wellness Spot will be our speaker.

Get ready to move, sweat, and build a stronger you beginning May 12th at Badger Stadium for our outdoor fitness program powered by elite trainer Julius Miles of Temple Builders. On Saturday, we held our Ward 1 Quarterly Town Hall meeting, along with our Community Enhancement for 2027 budget charrette. Hear what some of our attendees had to say. Our council meeting went really well today. It was very informative. We got to put faces to names.

We learned a lot. A lot of expectations were set, but it was chock full of information. I encourage other Ward 1 citizens to come out to these meetings when you can. The meeting was excellent. I gave a little couple ideas I had, and I look forward to coming to more meetings. So I'm excited about all that I learned today and all that the city is doing, that it's the gateway to the world. I love the city of College Park. I did not choose College Park. College Park chose me. Community Town Hall is so necessary. It gives me a chance, a public director, to meet the residents and explain to them my initiative, the things we're working on.

It's overall my passion, you know, because I've been in this business almost 30 years, and I'm a servant leader. I love serving, and for Councilman McKenzie to invite me, I feel honored. And I'm here with my colleagues. I'm here with the residents. It's a beautiful thing. I think these are very important to share information. We should always have these Town Halls consistently. So I'm a big fan of it. I just love College Park. I love being here. Hi, I'm Valerie Lee. I'm owner of the Wellness Spot. I was here at the Town Hall meeting this morning, and it was absolutely phenomenal.

I learned a lot about what's going in the Ward 1, and I'm very excited about where we are headed. And I am Michael Lindsey. I'm here a resident of College Park. I'm also on the VCA in representation of Ward 1. And I always enjoy coming to these meetings because, yes, we learn a lot and we can express ourselves and learn and meet new people. And it's always an enjoyable experience. Go Ward 1! This is Ward 1 Councilor, Dr. Jemele McKenzie, and we're building College Park better.

Councilmember Carr? All right. Thank you. Okay. So with the budget hearing tomorrow, again, I wanted to add board appointments to that agenda. I just wanted to take care of that. I want to give a special thanks out to MARTA, our community partner in transportation. Saturday was a great day in College Park. The MARTA Board of Directors.

I personally lobbied MARTA to rearrange a bus route in College Park, the 82 Camp Creek. The issue was that it was not coming into our community close enough to pick up our residents safely. For a few years, the 82 Camp Creek remained on Camp Creek, and residents there at Frontage Road at the Hampshire Plaza had to walk across the dangerous Camp Creek Parkway, and those cars are going at 60 miles an hour sometimes.

And if you've got a bag of groceries or a baby stroller, there is a crosswalk, but it means very, very little at those speeds. So we got MARTA to reroute the bus into the Frontage Road community, and now it comes literally to the corner across the bridge like it used to years ago. And we got that to happen pretty swiftly. They're looking at a bus shelter that will be going up soon as well. The residents are very, very pleased with that change.

That route change started on April 18th. Several of our other routes have been modified as well, but I requested that specific change for safety and convenience of our residents. So with this Airbnb thing, I guess we're going to shut that down tonight. So we're going to establish this hotline, call line, I guess, and an e-mail address to that line so residents can upload any photos, whatever you have.

help us move the process along. So we want a phone number, hotline, and an email hotline. One that's easy to remember, simple. It's short. And so we want to get moving forward with that. With the cleanup on the 25th, city manager, I do have a particular area, cleanup location, that's in need of some serious attention. I want to make sure that maybe a crew does

cover the banks there, the Camp Creek banks there at Frontage Road. There's some issues that we want to definitely work on that. And I think, yeah, that's the 25th, if I'm not mistaken. With code enforcement, in the budget hearing, the last budget hearing, we did discuss the code enforce ambassadors that we approved. We approved four positions in the last budget cycle,

but we didn't have room to place them anywhere. So that may be something to look at if we're going to try to mobilize. I don't know if the ambassadors are the answer, but I know we had talked about that. But looking at, in addition to the Airbnb issue, we want to take a look at what we can do. But we're going to let you and staff work on that and see what you can come up with on that. Congratulations, Mayor, on your award.

I'm sure Maynard would be proud. I was at the MODEX conference last week. I picked up a few new practices that I think we can look at adopting with some modifications. It's funny, you go to different conferences. This was a free conference, so I definitely took advantage of that. We had a wonderful senior event in Ward 2 this past Saturday. We did games for the seniors.

We had a wonderful time. And it was the first day of the bus reroute, so it was extra special there. So we're moving forward in our areas. I did attend the funeral services for the Price family's loss of their young daughter, who was born here in College Park. I remember when she was born. I mean, wonderful young lady. And again, she will be missed. The ring ceremony for the Bearcats,

that was true College Park history. I hate I was not able to attend, but I met with them several times. And when they told me that story, it was unbelievable and long overdue. But folks, there are literally hundreds, hundreds of unsung stories denied throughout College Park's history, a lot of them just race-based. I mean, that's what it was back in the day. But I think we made some progress,

and we righted a terrible wrong last week. There are city manager. Again, the budget meetings have been going very, very well, very smooth and orderly. There are some very happy people who heard the discussion of the College Park trash receptacles, and they are really excited about that. That's going to save time. It's going to be more efficient.

And again, we have the best sanitation service in this region. I mean, it's darn near valet service, trash service, as close as you can get to it. Again, we pick up twice a week compared to our neighbors. We pick up once a week for the same money. That's what you call a two for one. So we're looking forward to more good service in the community. And any way we can raise the bar, we're going to make it our business to do so. So that's all I got.

Thank you. Council Member Arnold. Thank you. So I want to start by thanking Chairman Rob Pitts for joining me at my monthly food giveaway. He walked with me as I delivered hot meals to our senior residents in Ward 3, and I appreciate him for joining me. I also just want to remind everyone that my Leadership Clayton group will be here on May 18,

where we will talk about the project that we're working on that is going to have an impact, not only to Clayton County, but to the city of College Park. And so we want to present to this body to share what our project is, and possibly ask for some support from the city of College Park. I want to thank Trees Collective, Aerotropolis Atlanta Alliance, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport,

and Bold Impact for starting with the city of College Park with the 100-year anniversary of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport with their initiative to plant 100 trees throughout the surrounding area of the airport. They started with the city of College Park in Ward 3 because the airport is in Ward 3. And so we are thankful for that project and that support.

I also want to thank Ms. Laura in Clayton County for visiting Summersby Apartments to help residents to identify whether or not if their voter's registration information was up to date, and for those who were not registered to get them registered for this upcoming election. I want to thank Chairwoman Dr. Alika Anderson-Henry for the invitation to the annual Mays High Prayer

Breakfast on Saturday, where we had the opportunity to help raise funds for graduating seniors there. And also happening on this past Saturday was I want to congratulate our newest team to the city of College Park, the College Park Sonic Swarm, for their first competition in Roswell for their drone soccer. So hopefully they'll bring home a trophy.

But they had their first actual competition. It wasn't just a scrimmage. I want to thank Mr. Hicks, your staff, economic development staff, for the grand opening at Legacy Veterinary Hospital on Saturday. That was actually nice. Did y'all get out to go see the horse? There was an actual horse. You saw the horse? I saw it, but my dog was not having that.

And I'm not going to just, I'm not going to keep going on with all of those updates. You can see all of the current information that we have going on in Ward 3 just by going to cpward3.com and go to Current News, where you'll see highlights of what's been happening in Ward 3. But I do not want to forget to give this reminder about the Ward 3 Thrivers Walking Club, which starts on Wednesday at 7 PM.

We kick off from Zup Park. And that's happening on a monthly basis. It's the fourth Wednesday of every month. And finally, I am going to just take a point of privilege for a moment here to, I want to thank Pastor Adrian and Juanisha Leonard of the Legacy of Glory for their prayers for my mother's recovery.

Yeah, I appreciate the prayers. I appreciate the support. And thank you. That's it. Council Member Gates? Well, I enjoy listening to all of my colleagues' reports as well as the city manager. I'll be very brief. This week, April 22nd, is the ribbon cutting for the Phillips Park restroom. And for those of you who can't come because it is during the day

and it is during the week, I want to let you all know that a special thanks to go to Lance Terry. Lance assisted with this project. He was extremely professional. He paid attention to detail. He was very supportive. And when I say he paid attention to detail, he actually followed the entire project. And so to have him with y'all's projects, I can only.

And he talks about y'all's projects. So kudos to Lance. But the park ranger told me last year that I had ever been in the bathroom. I told her, no, really not, but once. And when I went in there, it reminded me of Rice Street. It was just one commode, one commode. But when you go in there, you may be blown. on the way, so kudos to you all, the city manager, Lance, and the community enhancement dollars,

because it's now a very nice. So that's April 22. The contractor, I don't want to give too much on that, but he's an amazing African-American contractor. He's extremely talented. So we're just very fortunate to have that bathroom. And in the back, there's a storage area for staff and storage for the rest of the facility. Also, the chess pavilion opens in two weeks.

It'll be start a kickoff with a moving night, Life of the King by Cooper Good and Junior. We're waiting for school to be out. There'll be free play tournaments that will coordinate with recreation for people to have access so they can go in there and play. There'll be special tournaments with our HBCUs and special guests by some chess masters. So that should be an exciting amenity to our park.

Mr. Hicks, we do have a couple of unhoused citizens, and it's very inconvenient. It's very unfortunate. But I mean, compared to some cities, we are just tremendously blessed. But we still have the issue, and I'm asking for our resources to see how we can support them. It's just they're taking the mortar bench at night, and they're occupying the storefronts. And one of them is showing signs of diminished psychosis

because of the gestures he's making to the people in the morning. So we do need some help with those unhoused men. I also want us to look at our litter ambassadors who's using their cars for safety. And if there is any liability, we might need to talk about that. They do a great job, but they are using their cars. And today, I was talking to one of them who's parking in the middle of the medium, and I was like, well, what would happen if you got hit? Are you even covered? So let's look at our litter ambassadors.

Maybe we can look at the van and someone from Public Works just dropping them off in different locations. I think I win $20 because I made a bet that the litter wasn't going to be moved on Main Street. That big pile, I bet it myself. So we do need to figure out how to get that big pile up by the dairy queen. It's been there a week now. Thank you, city manager, for your help I went to Callaway Gardens and looked

at their public gardens. And what I learned was that Miss Callaway bought 3,000 acres and left it as a bequest for people to come and enjoy the garden. That was her legacy. So that's my report. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion to enter into executive session for the purposes of discussion of personnel and cybersecurity? Motion. Thank you, Council Member Carney. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Council Member McKenzie. Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor? Aye.

That is unanimous. We'll enter into executive session at this time. Robert, stay around for a moment.