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[7:00] Good evening. Welcome to the regularly scheduled meeting of the Mayor and City Council of the City of College Park. I'm Mayor Bianca Motley-Broom. We have a full quorum present with Council Members Mackenzie, Karn, Arnold, and Gay. And so I will call the meeting to order at 7.33 p.m. The first item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the liberty of the Blacks of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 
[7:40] Chaplain Walker is going to be doing our invocation this evening. Good evening. Let us pray. O Lord, our Lord, and the Holy Spirit and all of the good angels that reside in our minds and in our hearts, 
[8:11] We seek inspiration to be able to understand and reach for a sense of holiness, a sense of community, a sense of respect, a sense of belonging. We have a special thanks and a request for you and all of your good angels to be with 
[8:42] us as our Mayor and Councilman seem to be in a situation where they have experienced rumors of harm coming to our city. Be with them, if these rumors are true. And be with us. Move our hearts to help us get a more community attitude. 
[9:14] Because there are those bad spirits, oh Lord. They too reside in our minds, in our hearts. And it is a struggle to keep focused on our good angels and not let the bad angels influence us. This is especially true in this city council meeting. Help us to focus on the good spirits. 
[9:46] Let them come. Be with us. Help us to be better citizens. Help us to continue to be whole persons. We give thanks, O Lord, for our mayor and city councilpersons, especially as they seek to embody love and order. We give thanks for our police department, our fire department, and our first responders, 
[10:22] and all of the workers that labor in the city for our health and welfare. May we leave here with a sense of fellowship, a sense of honesty, a sense of being respected, and we call again on your better angels to help us articulate what it is we really feel 
[10:58] and we want for ourselves and our neighbors in this community. As we look for a future as to who we can be, how we can get there, and what would serve the most need for the most people. Maybe a way to be open to your better angels as they are lifted up by your divine wants, 
[11:34] knowledge and interests. May we follow along in our imagination to transcend the brokenness of our own visions of who we are and who we have been. And this way, hopefully, we can have an alternative to be a different person, a different council, a different city. 
[12:05] so hopefully when we leave here oh God we'll have a path forward with imagination and courage to be more whole people individually and collective as we continue to seek the order of what can and cannot be done for the best of our community. 
[12:39] In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Good evening, Mayor, Council, City Manager, and our wonderful city of College Park. Let's embrace civility. Civility is more than just politeness. It is about disagreeing without disrespect, 
[13:13] seeking common ground as a starting point for dialogue about differences, listening past one's preconceptions and teaching others to do the same. Civility is the hard work of staying present even when those with whom we have deep-rooted and fierce disagreement. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members, City Managers, Tennis Purses, and Visitors. I'd like to share a brief Thursday's message with you. 
[13:46] In the event of a forward emergency, please remain calm and proceed to your nearest exits. Exercise are clearly marked throughout the building, two or to the front and two or to the rear. Please call the direction of College Park staff and designated assembly areas, and once outside, remain there at the assembly point until further instructions are given by city personnel. If you notice smoke or fire during the meeting, please alert staff immediately and follow evacuation instructions. And safety is our priority. Thank you for your attention. Thank you. 
[14:22] Next agenda item number two, additions, deletions, amendments, or changes to the agenda. I'm going to add it. Madam Mayor, we have no additional delusion, but I wanted to make sure we're in mind so that we talked about any of this meetings at 930. So I'm hoping that we can kind of get back to that so that we can get all about this now. That's why we have the consent agenda so we can push through that and then send the rest of our time on the regular things. So hopefully we'll be able to do that. 
[14:53] And secondly, we have two items on the public hearing. I'm asking that we limit after 30 minutes each, so usually the items on the public hearing side. All right. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? Thank you. Council Member Korn, is there a second? Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Arnold, any discussion? Hearing none, we'll move to approve. All those in favor. Aye. Does that be unanimous? 
[15:23] Next item 4A, presentation of minutes of City Council, Work Class Session minutes dated August 17, 2026. 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 through a vote. All those in favor? Aye. That is unanimous. Item 4B, regular session minutes dated August 17, 2026. 
[15:53] Is there a motion? No motion. Thank you, Council Member Arnold. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Council Member McKenzie. You need to discuss them. Hearing none, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor. Aye. That is unanimous. Item 5A is introduction of new hire. Good evening, Mary Council. 
[16:41] We are pleased to welcome our newest team members to the city. I would like to ask our new employees, all of our new employees for the month of August to come down and introduce themselves to you and tell what department they are in. 
[17:14] Good evening, Mayor and Councilor. Oscar Huskin Jr., Chief Building Officer, Inspector Department. Thank you. Ethnals Ridgway, call enforcement award three. Ward three. Hello, everybody. My name is Rachel Simmons. I am legislative aide for Jamel McKenzie-Wardway. 
[17:48] Good evening. My name is Lisa Gibson. I am the business manager at the Gateway Center with Giannis Warner. Good evening. Garrett, been around for a while. Happy to be here with you guys. Good evening, Sergeant Long. 
[18:22] Retiree now back time, part time over record. Amaya Brooke, College Park Police Department. Good evening. I am Ravi Hines. I am back with the State College Department of Police Department with the Criminal Investigations Division. 
[18:54] Woo! Thank you. 
[19:38] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next agenda item is Employee All-Star of the Month of August. Okay, this employee began with the City of College Park in November 2014 and has proven 
[20:16] to be a tremendous asset to our team. Throughout his years of service, he has demonstrated unwavering dedication to the City of College Park Buildings and Grounds Department. Beginning his career as laborer one, he continued to grow professionally and advance through one, then operators two, through his hard work and commitment. In 2023, he faced a life-threatening heart condition that ultimately required a heart transplant. After a long and difficult recovery, 
[20:46] including relearning how to walk and rebuilding his strength, he returns to work with renewed determination and appreciation for life. Today, this employee continues to demonstrate exceptional leadership, positivity, resilience, and dedication to his coworkers and the community. His journey reflects courage, perseverance, and an unwavering commitment to service. His remarkable recovery and continued contributions made him highly deserving of this recognition 
[21:19] to embody the City of College Park's motto, the health of our community ensures the longevity of our community. Please join me in celebrating and congratulating Mr. Frederick Davis as our August All-Star of the Month on this well-designed... 
[21:56] Thank you. 
[22:26] Thank you. 
[22:56] Thank you. A proclamation honoring Dr. Marion Gamble. This item is sponsored by Councilman Roderick Gay. 
[23:26] So this is the proclamation to a board for a register, correct? For many years. And what's so amazing is that as a council member, I didn't even know if she had such a lustrous career. 
[23:57] And after I read, I'm like, oh my gosh, how did I miss all this? So I'm honored to have you here tonight, okay? So where is the City of College, where is it? Where is the City Council of the City of College Park proudly recognized Dr. Marion Gamble as she celebrates the remarkable milestone of her 85th birthday on August 6th, 2026. Dr. Marion Gable was born on August 6th, 1941 in Everton, Illinois, 
[24:33] and throughout her life has amplified excellent integrity, wisdom, and a waving dedication to education, service, and community, and whereas her exceptional academic achievements begin at an early age, excelling the only child in the second grade at age five, graduating from high school, that's the salutatorian, did I pronounce that right? Salutatorian. At the age of 15. 
[25:09] Earning a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Chicago Teachers College. At 19, and a Master's degree in School Library Science. And later, a PhD in curriculum development from Georgia State University. Whereas Dr. Gamma devoted her professional career to shaping future generations as a distinguished 
[25:40] educator and safely served the Georgia Department of Education for many years for her leadership, experience, and commitment to education excellence positively impacted countless students, educators, and schools throughout the state of Georgia. whereas Dr. Gamma has proudly called the Seattle College Fog home for more than 34 years as a respected resident of Ward 4, enriching the community through her kindness, dignity, pride, wisdom, and steadfast example of servant leadership, and whereas through her love of music, 
[26:10] her compassionate spirit, and her dedication to uplifting others, Dr. Gamma has brought harmony, encouragement, and inspiration to her family, friends, neighbors, church, and all whom live whose lives she's touched, and whereas as a devoted mother, mentor, educator, and community leader, she has built a legacy defined by faith, perseverance, compassion, and a lifeline commitment to serving others. And where the City of College Falls joins her family, friends, and loved ones in celebrating a life marked by an extraordinary accomplishment and a merciful contribution to education and community. Now therefore, be it proclaiming 
[26:46] the Mayor, Mayor Fulton, and City Council of the City of College Falls, Georgia, do hereby recognize and honor Dr. Marion Gabel on her joyous occasion, on her 82th birthday, and sincere appreciation for her distinguished service, her many contributions to education, and her due and commitment to the Citizen College Park, proclaimed this eighth day of September, 2026. So we'll just talk. 
[27:17] Thank you so much. Thank you, Councilman Gay, and thank you, everybody. The only few words I have is to God be the glory. I can't take any credit for the days I have lived. I am thankful for the things that I have been able to do with these years so far. So thank you so much. 
[27:51] Over one, two, and three. Again, one, two, and three. Last time, one, two, and three. Thank you. 
[28:21] Next item, a proclamation honoring this city's inaugural Miss College Park, Dana Nicole Howard, sponsored by Councilwoman Tracy Onill. Thank you. Miss College Park, if you would please come forward. Isn't this beautiful, everyone? Our newest ambassador for the City of College Park, Ms. Jada Nicole Howard. 
[28:54] And the proclamation reads, whereas the City of College Park is committed to recognizing individuals who exemplify excellence, leadership, service, and dedication to uplifting their communities and Miss Jada Nicole Howard made history as the inaugural Miss College Park on July 11, 2026 representing the city of College Park with distinction and establishing a legacy of leadership, civic engagement, 
[29:27] community advocacy and excellence for future title holders. And whereas Miss Miss Jada Nicole Howard is a talented actress, poet, motivational speaker, vocalist, community advocate for those, advocate whose diverse talents and accomplishments have allowed her to positively impact audiences through Georgia and beyond. 
[29:57] And whereas Ms. Jada Nicole Howard is a SAG-AFTRA eligible actress whose film and television credits include Tyler Perry's Madea Family Funeral, the products of American Ghetto, and the television series Genius, Arisa. And whereas, the past five years, Ms. Jada Nicole Howard has served as a coordinator 
[30:28] for Greenlit Atlanta, one of the region's notable film industry networking events, helping to foster relationships, opportunities, and professional connections within Georgia's entertainment industry. And whereas, Miss David Nicole Howard is also an accomplished spoken word artist and a poet who has shared her artistry at special events hosted by New Birth Baptist Church and the 
[30:59] House of Hope Atlanta using the power of her words to inspire, encourage, and connect with audiences. And whereas Miss Jada Nicole Howard's vocal talents have led her to perform professionally with Brett Kirkland's See It Choir and the Community Atlanta Choir with a versatile performance background spanning musical theater and appearances on Jermaine DeVries' The Rap Game. 
[31:34] And whereas a native of Macon, Georgia, Ms. David Nicole Howard has established herself as a compelling motivational and keynote speaker, using her voice and personal experiences to encourage others to pursue excellence, embrace their purpose, and become an active contributor to their communities. And whereas Ms. Jada Nicole Howard has served as a keynote speaker for significant regional events, including Georgia AFL-CIO, 
[32:09] annual Martin Luther King's banquet, demonstrating her ability to inspire audiences through messages of leadership, perseverance, service, and community empowerment. And whereas the City of College Park recognizes that the inaugural Miss College Park title represents more than a crown, it represents a commitment to leadership, service, mentorship, civic responsibility, 
[32:42] and being a positive example for young women and residents throughout the community. And whereas Ms. Jada Nicole Howard embodies these values through her accomplishments, talents, educational achievements, and commitment to using her voice as a platform to positively influence others. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and the City Council College Park, Georgia, do hereby recognize, honor, and commend Ms. Jada Nicole Howard 
[33:19] for making history as the first Ms. College Park and exemplifying excellence in leadership, artistry, education, advocacy, and community service. Be it further resolved, the city of College Park proudly celebrates Ms. Jada Nicole Howard and commend her for becoming a trailblazer whose accomplishments and service will help establish the standard for future generations of Ms. College Park title holders. The City of College Park 
[33:55] encourages all residents to join the Mayor and City Council in congratulating Ms. David Nicole Howard. To all the constituents of College Park, thank you all so much. 
[34:25] I have no words. Thank you for celebrating individuals that put in the work, and they often do so without getting clapped, without getting celebrated. Thank you. This feels like a long time coming. And it's a scripture that's burning in my spirit right now. It says, when you sow in tears, you will reap in joy. And this is that moment for me. 
[34:56] Thank you so much to everyone in the city of College Park. Thank you. Thank you. 
[35:36] Next proclamation is honoring the executive pageant coordinator for Miss College Park, Bethany Nicole. Sponsor right Councilwoman Tracy Arnold. Thank you. So, of course, you know, a lot of hard work went into our first inaugural pageant, and we could not do it alone. we had to bring in a specialist, someone who is a subject matter expert, and that is Ms. 
[36:12] Tiffany Nicole Walker. And if I may add, Madam Walker is the founder of Salmob University, which was our first University here in the City of College Park. It's considered an HBCU and actually it is the first school of cosmetology that actually has a FAFSA number. And so we want you to 
[36:48] know the person that came out to help us put on this pageant and to help us select our inaugural queen. And the proclamation reads, the City of College Park recognizes individuals whose vision, leadership, and dedication inspires excellence, uplifts communities, and empowers future generations. And whereas, Miss Tiffany Nicole, founder and chief executive officer of Salmob University, 
[37:19] has established herself as an accomplished entrepreneur, educator, mentor, and community leader, committed to developing confident, purpose-driven young women through education, leadership and personal development. And whereas through Dalmob University, Ms. Nicole has cultivated a platform that has empowered countless women and girls by providing professional development, image enhancing, 
[37:50] leadership training, scholarship opportunities, and mentorship that extends far beyond pageant stages. And whereas Ms. Nicole has earned recognition for her outstanding contributions to the pageantry industry, fashion, leadership development, and youth empowerment, serving as a role model whose commitment to excellence has positively impacted communities throughout Georgia and beyond. 
[38:21] As the Executive Pageant Coordinator of the inaugural Miss College Park Pageant, Miss Nicole's professionalism, creativity, organization, and unwavering commitment helped establish a program dedicated to celebrating scholarship, service, leadership, confidence, and civic engagement among the young women of the City of College Park. And whereas the City of College Park 
[38:58] is grateful for Ms. Nicole's passion, vision, and dedication to creating meaningful opportunities that encourage young women to dream boldly, to lead confidently, courageously, I'm sorry, and serve faithfully within their communities now therefore be it proclaimed that the mayor mayor pro ten and the city council of the city of college park do hereby recognize honor and 
[39:29] commend Tiffany Nicole Walker for her extraordinary leadership distinguished service and invaluable contributions as the executive pageant coordinator of the inaugural Miss College Park pageant and for her continued commitment to empowering women, strengthening communities, and inspiring excellence through the work of Salmon University. Be it further resolved, the City of College Park exises its sincere appreciation and congratulates Miss Tiffany Nicole Walker and wishes her 
[40:05] continued success as she continues to transform lives and leave an enduring legacy of leadership, empowerment, and service. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Whoa. That was a lot. Thank you so much, City Council. I love this city. This is probably one of my favorite cities. 
[40:36] I love the excellent that comes out of College Park. And I am 100% will always be honored to share my love, my advocacy, and my leadership in the city of College Park. Congratulations again, Jada, and thank you for representing so beautifully. Thank you. 
[41:11] All right, group on three. One, two, and three. Again, one, two, and three. Last time, one, two, and three. That's her. Thank you. Next is a presentation from House Representative Rhonda Brunel announcing the recognition of Miss College Park at the state level, sponsored by Councilman Tracy Arnold. 
[41:45] Good afternoon. I'm retired, so I guess mornings are very important to me. Good evening to the mayor and to the council, and I want to thank you all for allowing me to do this presentation. So if Tracy can come up and help me, I appreciate it. The pageant that the city of College Park sponsored and put on, if anybody here was in attendance, can you raise your hand? 
[42:16] It was an amazing production. And so I know that the goal is that the other cities would put on their own pageant, but I don't know if they're going to be able to top what you all did because you all set a very, very high bar of excellence. And so I just want to congratulate you all on that accomplishment. And so I'm just here today to recognize the people who kind of work behind the scenes. And so I have an outstanding Georgia Citizen Award. 
[42:48] And so the first one is going to go, and I'm going to just call up some names, and then I'll read one of them. So the first one will go to Councilmember Tracy Arnold. It's Tiffany Natole Walker, if she's here. And Sierra Thompson Cook, and I'm going to get her back since she got me, and Jada Dexter. And I also have one for Michael who took the picture. 
[43:30] She said you would take the hand. Okay. All right. And I'll stay here and read with the data. It says the State of Georgia, Secretary of State, I, Brad Rassenberger, Secretary of Secretary of State of the State of Georgia do hereby proclaim, and then you all have your name, as an outstanding Georgia citizen. May this outstanding citizen be afforded every courtesy as a goodwill ambassador from Georgia in his or her travels to other states, the nations beyond the borders of the United States of America, or wherever she or he may hereafter travel or reside. 
[44:04] Thank you for your service to our state and testimony whereof I have here on to set my hands and affix it. So my office as the state capital in the city of Atlanta, this 17th day of July, AD 2026, Brad Rassenberger. And so these awards come from the Secretary of State's office. And then I also have an individual letter in here that complements all the outstanding work that each one of you all did. So I just want to thank you for letting me hear the card over there. 
[44:40] Thank you. 
[45:10] Last time, one, two, and three. Thank you. Next item is a proclamation honoring the South Fulton Area Section of the National Council of Negro Women. This item is sponsored by Councilwoman Tracy Arnold. Thank you. 
[45:40] Thank you. As all my sisters get joined, please. The proclamation is recognizing and celebrating the chartering of the South Fulton Area Section of the National Council of Negro Women, Inc. 
[46:14] The National Council of Negro Women, Inc., also known as NCNW, founded in 1935 by the distinguished educator, humanitarian, and civil rights leader, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, has served as a powerful force for advocacy, education, leadership development, and community empowerment for more than nine decades. NCNW has maintained a steadfast commitment to improving the quality of life for women, 
[46:50] families, and communities for service, civic engagement, economic empowerment, educational advancement and social justice initiatives. Whereas the chartering and officer installation of the South Woulton area section marks a historic milestone and the beginning of a new chapter of servant leadership dedicated to addressing the needs and aspirations of residents through the South Woulton area. 
[47:23] Whereas the charter members and officers of the South Fulton Area Section have demonstrated exceptional vision, dedication, and commitment to building an organization that will empower women, strengthen families, foster community partnerships, and create opportunities for future generations. And whereas the theme, A Legacy of Service, A Future of Impact, reflects the enduring values of NCNW and honors the legacy of Dr. Behoom while embracing a future of transformative 
[47:59] leadership and meaningful community impact. And whereas the City of College Park proudly recognizes and celebrates the 153 charter members of the South Walton area section of the National Council of Negro Women, Inc., dedication, vision, leadership, and commitment to service have made the establishment of this new section possible and whose collective efforts will help advance the mission of empowering 
[48:31] women, uplifting families, and strengthening communities through South Holton and beyond. And whereas the following individuals are recognized as chapter members of the South Fulton area section of the National Council of Negro Women Incorporated. I'm not going to read all the names. It's 153. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and City Council of 
[49:03] the City of College Park, Georgia, I, Councilwoman Tracy Arnold, Ward 3 Representative of the City of College Park, Georgia, do hereby congratulate and commend the South Fulton Area Section of the National Council of Negro Women, Inc. upon its chartering ceremony and officer installation and extend sincere appreciation for the commitment to service, leadership, and community empowerment. Be it further resolved that we celebrate the accomplishments of its charter members and 
[49:38] officers and offer best wishes for continued success as they build a lasting legacy of impact for the residents of South Wilson and beyond. Proclaim this 8th day of September, 2026. And now I'll turn it over to Madam President. Thank you so much. On behalf of the National Council of Negro Women, the South Fulton Area Section, I do 
[50:13] stand before you tonight with an overflowing heart of gratitude. Our sister, Councilwoman Tracy Arnold, Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem and other council members, Sister McKenzie and the entire City of College Park. Thank you so much for recognizing our historic chartering with this proclamation. We don't take this honor lightly, but I do want to take a moment of personal privilege as president. When I just saw those names and I saw the actual names of 151 sisters and two male supporters, 
[50:47] it does make me emotional because those names mean something to me. I know what it took to get here. I know the women behind these names. The women that said yes. The women, they couldn't see the vision fully, but they knew what it was going to become. I know the hours, the sacrifices, the service, the encouragement, the flexibility, the sisterliness that carried us to the chartering. So as their president and seeing their names individually by the city of College Park means more to me than I can adequately express. 
[51:22] Their names are now a part of this moment and a part of this history. And that matters to me because I never wanted this journey to be simply about building an organization. I wanted the women who built the organization to stand alongside me and know that they were seen. They are valued and they are part of something that will live beyond all of us. NCMW's mission is to lead, advocate for, and empower women of African descent, their families, and their communities. And tonight, we make a commitment to College Park. 
[51:53] We are an organization that will put the mission to action. We are not an organization that simply receives recognition tonight. We do serve the city. We will continue to show up. We will continue to advocate. We will build our community partnerships. We will support the families, young people, women, and all in the community. We want the City of College Park to know that NCNW South Fulton Area section is here. And we didn't have to get ready because we stayed ready working. 
[52:25] This House Bill and Mary section didn't take breaks. As long as the community needs us, we are here. This proclamation, which is beautifully framed, but it will never just hang on a wall, it represents a relationship, a responsibility, and a charge to continue the legacy of our founder, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune. So thank you again for seeing us and how fitting tonight as we celebrate the legacy we have inherited. We have living legacy connection with us for that legacy. It is my honor to turn it over this moment to the granddaughter of our beloved founder, Dr. Mary McElley-Bethun, Dr. Evelyn Bethun. 
[53:13] Amen. To protocol, of course, and recognizing all of you who are here, this represents not just legacy, but our history in motion. We can't ever forget who we are, where we came from, and whose sex we stand on. Before there was Martin, before there was Malcolm, there was Mary. And she opened the door for so many different things. 
[53:45] My grandmother is an icon in this country. Her statue is in Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C. so far. And then so when I think about her legacy and then I look at the 153, I'm one of the 153. This is my section, and it's a continuation of the seeds that my grandmother planted in 1935. NCNW has always been an action word. 
[54:18] She never just sat and talked. She did action, and she brought women together because she understood the power of women when we come together with a made-up mind. NCNW has a made-up mind. nationally and internationally. And trust me, the 153 will probably be five times that number by the time the year is over. But congratulations, and thank you. Thank you for continuing to lift as we rise, because that's how we all get to where we're supposed to be. 
[54:55] We do it together, and that's what NCNW has always represented. So thank you, and thank you sister, because you are an incredible president. 
[55:30] Thank you. 
[56:00] Okay, we're going for one, two, and three. All right, now. We're very proud of this. Take this of the photo. Thank you. All right, one more go. Yeah, yeah, one more. There we go, ready? 
[56:30] It's a boomerang, okay? All right, here we go. One, two, three. Perfect. Thank you. 
[57:00] Thank you. 
[57:30] item is remarks of citizens. Before I call the first name I would like to make a comment and let everyone know that each individual is allowed three minutes only there is no print for us. 
[58:11] First is Annalie Kulip. Good evening, I'm Annalee Killip, College Park Residence. Tonight you're considering extra security from what I read is due mostly to criticism of your performance. I don't know all of your work history and if you've ever worked for a company or business under management. But when an employee is underperforming and their manager gives them feedback, the employees 
[58:45] react in several different ways. Usually and hopefully the employee takes that feedback and attempts to improve. But that's sometimes the employee gets defensive. They start making excuses or try to pass the blame. They may say they are being retaliated against or bullied. They do anything but take responsibility for their core performance. 
[59:16] You have all been hired by the people of College Park. When your constituents give you feedback or are unhappy with the job you are doing, you should be thanking them for their suggestions and promise to improve and do better. Doing otherwise shows a level of immaturity that does not demonstrate competent leadership. Any citizen, myself included, should never be retaliated against for speaking out or venting their frustration and expectations of the City Council. Feedback and criticism does not equal a threat. 
[59:48] Criticism of your leadership does not warrant the need for personal security. I have lived in the City for four years and have been appalled by the response and backlash from the City Council. This does not reflect well on you, nor give me and other citizens confidence in your ability to lead. This does not reflect well on our city. Meetings such as this have become a source of entertainment around the state. It's embarrassing. The citizens of College Park deserve better. The spending of our tax money needs to be taken seriously. 
[1:00:20] Please take my comments and all the comments you don't like as constructive advice. Thank you. Thank you. Marshawn Johnson. Good evening, everybody. My name is Marshawn Johnson, and I'm coming here on something different. Three minutes is not long enough for me because we have a problem in the community that is causing a problem for us to be able to do this. 
[1:00:57] problem for us to get to know the board. We have a group that is called Speak of College Park that is aiming at our council member. And yes, if I was in her shoes, I would want protection. I tried to come for the group because I have been in College Park 35 years. I have raised 14 children. All are productive. I am here to bring solutions. I'm not here to bring problems. I'm not here or none of that, but you have a specific group that is targeting our community. 
[1:01:30] I have kids in this community that work in this community, have titles in this community, and them going to the group and thinking that they're trying to get introduced and be brought in on a good note. No, it's total negative. I'm not used to this. I fight in the school system. I think it's Dr. McKenzie, first person I see over here at College Park Elementary. Hey, we got bigger fish to fry. Whatever you all need to do, that's on you all. 
[1:02:00] We voted you all in. But we need to stop this mess. It's just total mess within our city because it makes you guys look bad. You all are representing us. And it's bad when me as the community go out to eat or whatever, you all are at the top. especially on social media. They are really tagging at Dr. McKenzie. I might have had a problem with Mr. Carnes. I might have had a problem with Mr. Gay. I really don't know you, Ms. Arnold. 
[1:02:31] I respect you, but I haven't been in your area. I passed the award. But I would never bring Mr. Gay or our personal interest to social media. I would never bring Mr. Carnes' information. So I would give them the opportunity to handle it. But this needs to stop. And it's affecting our new people here. We got new young mothers, couples, families that are coming to College Park, and they are being directed in this group. 
[1:03:02] Yes, they might be mad at me now because I told them, you step on my feet, I'm going to step on your toes. I don't blame Dr. McKenzie blocking responses. They block them too, but they don't think they're blocking them. If I make a post, they'll cut it off. They won't post it. She has the right to do that because they are really aiming at her. And I am going to the police about this. I'm not going to say no names here. I don't operate like that. But enough is enough. And we need to stop this in our community. 
[1:03:34] It's floating in the school system. It's floating at the restaurant. It's floating at the bar during lunchtime. It's disturbing. And we need to stop. A tree fell. Oh, Mackenzie didn't call for the police to come fix me. They need to stop. Rose Stewart. 
[1:04:05] Good evening, Mayor of City Council, Mr. Hicks, and the citizens of College Park. I am Rose Stewart, Executive Director of Ignite Resource Center, and I came this evening to share some information with you about the Resource Center and some of our goals and accomplishments for the rest of the 2020 space. As you all know, Ignite Resource Center continues to coordinate community programs in the Tri-Cities area to serve as a one-stop shop by providing resource information to persons who are homeless, unemployed, underemployed, and need of financial assistance, food, or clothing. 
[1:04:40] One of our most recent events was the shoe give back that was held on August 1st. I am thankful for the contributions of the City of College Park, our local and out of state sponsors, partners and citizens, and even we had a number of volunteers. I am grateful to them. We received approximately 500 pairs of sneakers for the children who are returning to school this year. year. We received over 700 applications across the United States, even though we requested 
[1:05:11] that they live in the College Park area, we did receive those. Of that 700, 250 eligible applicants were in the College Park community. IGNITE distributed two to three pairs of shoes of sneakers to over 100 families who were available to receive them. And those remaining features will be distributed during the upcoming year for events that are planned for later this year. IGNITE has received and responded to over 110 phone calls if I did an average per month 
[1:05:43] since January of 2026. Resource referral information is sent to customers also by email. We are in the planning stages for an after-hours call center, which will be maintained by a live representative who will respond to citizens calls after hours between 3 and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday. We are continuing to provide information to residents who are interested in the in-home plumbing initiative that Councilman Gay had started. 
[1:06:14] And I will say, Councilman Gay, that the residents in your ward are the primary citizens who are using that initiative and who have enrolled in it. And so it has been very beneficial. I am available to share information about this initiative to any ward during your upcoming town hall meeting as needed. Other 2026 events include the financial literacy workshop for the residents of the Housing Authority that focused on protecting your assets. And we had an emergency transportation workshop along with a brunch that provided information to residents about the benefits of air transport. 
[1:06:52] And then Ignite is involved in the monthly Scribe meeting. Ignite participates in events in all wards, provides resource material where needed, and would like to expand our area of impact. We plan to partner with sponsors for the annual turkey giveaway and other events in the city. Thank you so very much. Demetrius Taylor. Demetrius Taylor, Bacardella Club apartment, 18-year resident. 
[1:07:41] I'm here on a couple of things. Number one, let me let it be known, because I'm sure it's going to come up. I am the admin and the creator of the Everything College Park Georgia page. And I know that all of my naysayers in Carin' On are going to look at me and in Carin' On going to bring up the whole what's your Wallace entity because of some things that have been said 
[1:08:13] on social media and which is one of the reasons why I'm here because Madam Mayor I'm coming to you directly. The last time I had to come to address you like this it was pre-election where we had some very tough information to come on about your family about KKK information and and carrying on and I came to you and said, listen, you need to jump ahead of this because this is what's out here. This was where before the campaign started. There was nothing there. Now we have just tremendous allegations and forthcoming pictures, whether they are AI 
[1:08:50] affirmed or not. One of them is not because I've seen that picture when it was first done from the conference and now there are some substantial allegations that's going on concerning your behavior, concerning this what I'm calling as a coup for you and this alleged takedown of each and every one of your constituents up here on the desk and I'm bringing it to your attention because you have the opportunity not to right the wrongs or say what it is, 
[1:09:22] what it is not, and provide the receipts. Because for a long time, we have noticed that your accident here has said, I will not work with this counselor. That has been your creed, almost as the instruction of this particular administration. And because of that, you have said, I cannot be seen alone with this counselor. I will not be alone in their presence, and this, and that. I need someone here. I need protection. And you have said that on numerous occasions, which is why we find it difficult for you to meet with your colleagues, 
[1:09:55] one or one or whatever, which is why if you are able to say that I feel threatened and everything, it is a farce and it is absolutely ridiculous that someone else who is a government official, a sitting person on the day, is saying, listen, the citizens are coming at me. I have been there to see this in my own person when they have stated. I have been on the Speak Up page when I was on it. before they barred me because they didn't agree with what I had to say. When they said up there, you better do right 
[1:10:27] or you know what's good for you. When those kind of statements are being made over and over and over, and so now they've gotten even more salacious. And so for someone to say, oh, I need police protection because, thank you. Pamela Greer. Thank you. 
[1:11:21] Good evening, I'm Pamela Brooke from Carsport Housing. I never come to these things and talk, but I'm going to talk now. 
[1:11:53] Because I've got too much rumors going around saying that I don't have a problem with nobody. I don't have a problem with the mayor, the council, or nobody. But the key slang, our name, the grill, this and the grill, that we just like everybody else. Just because we have our name changed, because we have roots in college park. G-R-I-E-R-G-R-E-E-R. So what I'm saying is, Mayor, you used to be together when you first got here. I was walking around with two voting you in. 
[1:12:25] Everything's okay. So now I'm with Mackenzie, but, you know, we're getting threatened, like they say, that she's with her, she's doing this and she's doing that. I don't mess with nobody. I don't say anything. I hear everything on their Facebook and stuff. I don't have anything to say because I don't have anything to do with it. What they do, what y'all do here is y'all be. But I'm still with the mayor of my team. And also the officer, y'all sit around, y'all say y'all don't have no money, but y'all have the state trooper out here, Clayton County, Fulton County, out here in the housing, 
[1:12:57] but y'all do not block the all rugs that people out. They have day-day while we can't have our day. We have to have police securing us like we prison or stuff, and I don't think it's right. So y'all giving money to state troopers and stuff. We got good cops. And some of them good, some of them bad. And then they do, some of them do need to go back and train because they don't know how to talk to grown people. That's all I have to say. Thank you. 
[1:13:29] Patience, Rocky Moore, Turner. Good evening, Mayor, Council members, City Attorney, City Manager, City Clerk, residents, business owners, and other stakeholders. My name is Patience Blackmore Turner. I have a very different look today. I just wanted to say that I'm really excited about becoming involved with the city. 
[1:14:03] I am now a board member with Pete College Park Beautiful as well as a member of CMAQ, which is the City Manager's Action Committee. And as part of that CMAQ, we have five different committees. Each of those committees is there to address one of these strategic goals. And the one that I volunteered for is the Governance and Customer Service. And from my understanding, that's about leadership structure. It's understanding the mayor's role, the council members, department heads, and... 
[1:14:37] Oh, I'm not too bad. So understanding the capital projects and funding like T-SWAS, L-M-I-G, CDBG, and please forgive me for using acronyms, I didn't spell these out. And then accountability, which would include the city charter, strategic goals, public records, audits, performance reporting, comprehensive plans, and others. And last but not least, that customer service piece would be the stakeholder relationships and interactions between the residents, the business owners, visitors and tourists, neighboring municipalities such as Capeville, Union City, South Fulton, East Point, Riverdale, Clayton County, et cetera. 
[1:15:20] And I'm just so excited to just welcome citizens or encourage them to get involved as well. And the other, oh, and I want to say in support, this is totally off subject, but I want to thank those who knew about my son's illness. I want to thank you for your prayers and support. I had to go down to Georgia Southern and pick my baby up for a week. He's doing much better, so I do. And he's probably watching tonight. Like, we still talk about what's going on in the city. And the last thing is that those signs for the city, they're absolutely gorgeous. 
[1:15:54] And I'm speaking of the one that's on Washington Road in rugby. When the sign disappeared, I reached out to Dr. McKenzie. I'm like, what happened to the sign? Eugene went out. He took a video. He's like, yep, the sign is missing. We were so concerned. They were just being redone. And the sign is gorgeous. This is hunter green, kind of metallic, with this gold lettering. This kind of sleek, maybe theater-colored wood. The only thing is, from dusk to dawn, you can't read it. 
[1:16:25] So I would suggest that we use solar panel lighting so that people can see, you know, that sign at night just as well as they can during the day. So thank you so much, and thank you for allowing me a moment to speak. Thank you. Alice in blue. Most James? 
[1:17:03] You know, marriage is, like, really tough. As I was preparing my words for tonight, I was reminded I met my wife 24 years ago this week. I've been honored to be married to her for 16 years. We had children 12 years ago. 
[1:17:36] And while all of those years haven't been perfect, you know, sometimes they're better than others, they're all ours. You know, we contribute to the mess that we created, and we contribute to the happy times that we created. But can you imagine waking up Sunday morning after a storm, trees falling down on your neighbor's houses, being without electricity and going online and finding an AI manipulated image of my wife 
[1:18:07] kissing another man. I can't imagine what that does to someone. But I know somebody that that happened to because there was an entity online, somebody that refers to themselves as a machine and they did that to the mayor. and when they someone took a picture of the mayor and made her make out with some random guy and they posted it online for political gain? I don't know what it's for 
[1:18:39] and I just can't imagine that. You know, my mess is my mess but to have somebody else come from the outside and interfere is crazy. But you know we've been used to this in College Park for well over a year now cyberbullying, harassment I've reached out to the city manager and asked him for support. He told me many times he would contact me. It was lie after lie after lie because he still hasn't emailed me or spoken to my wife. I've emailed the entire council. Only one person up there returned my call. 
[1:19:11] I didn't return my email. You know, we kind of, even back in March, there was an AI manipulated image of my son that was put out there. Well, you know, my wife and I, we moved on because we're blessed in so many ways that this BS doesn't matter. But it was last week when a text message was shared that we found out the source of a lot of this information was none other than Councilwoman Janelle McKenzie, who I voted for. In her own message, she said that she sources information to this entity called Webster-Wallace. 
[1:19:47] the reason I'm up here right now is because I read a very compelling statement on Facebook and it said a system that tolerates this kind of behavior from people in office will tolerate whatever comes next I pray for the day when we change out this day is but it won't matter if you all don't do your job if those of you all sitting beside this woman doesn't do their job she said that she sources this information to you that's somebody else 
[1:20:29] raps Good evening, Mayor and Councilor. I couldn't expect to come up behind James, but I guess it's fitting. James can come up here and talk about the mayor, what's been going on. 
[1:21:01] James, I didn't hear you crack your lip. One time, the crack when you know went on with Sabrina and Bido and the lives that lives in Leicester, and the mayor sat there, stood up and just said a word. James, I went by your house, cut the tree down. You don't speak up. You know that tree was rotten. You told me yourself, sir. I thank God y'all cutting it down. But did you ever say anything? You didn't say a word. All the trees fell. McGirt, you raising cane. Tree fell right across your ground. Look, all the trees fell. 
[1:21:33] My tree come in today on Robbie, took down some limbs and trees could have killed many people. I don't need to be making up invoices to get money. But thank God for the last 30 years, Rex Willis has been doing fine. I don't have fur coats, horses, RVs, and everything else. I ain't got to brag. I don't need College Park. Sabrina and I can make College Park better. But you all want to make up lies and things and things. 
[1:22:04] But James, you know the truth. I don't need to be my protector, but just speak the truth. Like I asked the mayor, she knows a lot, whether it's make up about Sabrina. She knows a certain thing. I asked James about it, he said, well, we don't talk about that. Because it's a bunch of bull. I knew y'all come and want to talk to Jamil. I have never seen nobody. I've been here 46 years more than a lot of y'all. There is so much there, I have one person. Besides Mayor Sabrina. I have seen it. 
[1:22:34] I have seen it as a fact. The mayor hated Jack Long, you know. Tried everything she could. She felt not to put his name on that building. I went to Angle's clan and felt the police to get his name put on this building. Then she tried to get the stages to put it on the side. Then she said, hey, no. This guy didn't talk. On the front. Trying to make a deal with Roderick. Because he made something with him. So he wouldn't do it. I know all the stuff that you did. I know it all. 
[1:23:05] You can take these people that want to speak the truth. I ain't trained in my position. I feel they change. When you change, you go around to come up with that guy. Whoa, he should be hurt. I just refuse. But nobody said nothing from Ward 1. I feel been the same. When Joe said something, it's the only thing to stop Joe. Don't argue with him. But I can't see anybody that's been adjusted. But I said this, I'm moving on. Brian, great job this weekend. Mr. Hicks, great job taking care of these trees and taking the citizens in this community. 
[1:23:36] Thank you all who's out there doing something and making a difference in this community. Not the ones who keep on talking, phone, Facebook, and speak up. I'm just not going to do the work. So being a good work. I'm looking for other people to do the work. I've been asking, what are those who I said? I don't know. Thank you. Dr. Kimmel, Muhammad. Good evening, Mayor and Council, and good evening to the citizens of College Park. 
[1:24:17] I'm so honored to be here. I am going to do my best to tell you all about Project Torchlight in three minutes. But I first would like to begin in the name of God, the beneficent and merciful. Many of you may or may not know that I am a project coordinator for a nonprofit organization started right here in College Park called Project Torchlight. So I want to share a little bit about Project Torchlight and what it means. Project Torchlight is a solution to the plethora of problems that plagues our community. 
[1:24:51] What is a project? According to Webster Dictionary, a project is a specific plan or design. Our project is the divine plan that derives from the will of Allah God. What is a torchlight? A torchlight is anything that serves to illuminate, enlighten, or guide. It also means to love someone or something that does not necessarily reciprocate love. The bearer of the torchlight is a person who imparts knowledge, the truth, or inspiration to others. And so what we have been doing as Project Torchlight, we have been focusing on underserved 
[1:25:26] communities here in College Park. As we opened up this meeting with our illustrious members of College Park, we can't say that we love this city if we believe that we don't have a responsibility to the voiceless, to the poor, to the underserved. We are only as strong as our weakest link. So as we had the doctors come up here, 
[1:25:58] we had our Miss College Park, we had our beautiful Mary McCloud Bethune sisterhood, and I actually wore purple today on my shoes. I don't know why, but I decided to wear purple. So I think that's a sign. But we have so much excellence in our community, and our job and our mission is to share that excellence with our community. So our nonprofit organization has been teaching a trade, a skill, audiovisual trade. We have quite a few of our participants who are ready to graduate and start working in the field of AD. 
[1:26:34] We are teaching hygiene. We are teaching etiquette, how to act at home and abroad. We are teaching so much to the young people in our community. And as a result, we have seen the crime decrease in the College View apartments. which we are proud of, but what it shows us based on facts and statistics that our community needs knowledge. We're deprived of knowledge. We're deprived of love. We're deprived of that attention. And so that is the mission of Project Porchlight. I want to thank all of you, the mayor and all of 
[1:27:09] the council members, because at some point or another you all have been major contributors to our nonprofit. So I want to say thank you. Stanley Mohammed. Greetings. Peace be unto you, Asa Malika. My teacher, Donable Misdus Barakhan, said one day, 
[1:27:41] that his teacher told him to Mosaneebe Elijah Mohammed, Muhammad, one day, brother, there was a donkey in a ditch. Everyone who walked by, they threw a stone at that donkey in the ditch. And he said, brother, one day they threw enough stones, the donkey was able to walk out the ditch. So remember, brother, every knock is a boost. 
[1:28:14] And I'm saying that to all of you, Councilwoman McKenzie is doing a fantastic job. You know, the Pope has security. White people don't say nothing. Our white President Trump has security. You don't say nothing about that. you have kings and rulers who have security but you don't say nothing about that 
[1:28:44] but when a black person wants security your mind is at who does that even think he is or she is that's the racist mentality and you all have Uncle Tom's and those who actually want to do the bidding of their slave master will support that mentality you're not concerned about freedom of speech freedom of speech comes with responsibility i don't have freedom of speech to say i'm going to kill somebody 
[1:29:19] i'll be locked up but you have a freedom to speak your mind but when you speak with vitriol and reach her towards a woman who's trying to address the needs of her people see clover's Park is 95% black. This is a black city. And we love black people here. And she loves her people. And that's what the problem is with Ambrose Clay was in that position. Ambrose did a horrible job. 
[1:29:51] But I have none of you Uncle Tom's, none of you Caucasian racers ever come up here criticizing white leadership. See, you know what? Black leadership. But I'm sorry. racist white leadership is over. And you see black people rising. You had your time to rule. And you did a terrible job in ruling because this country is a result of the terrible white leadership 
[1:30:22] that we have suffered. And Uncle Tom's and Aunt your mama's plantation mentality love to actually do the bidding of white people. And every time I see black people up here speak for white people, that's exactly what you are. You are house Negro. Madam Mayor, that is all we have for public comment for those that signed up. 
[1:30:52] What time is left? There is seven minutes and 45 seconds left. All right, that's time for anyone who did not have the opportunity to sign up and wish to speak. They can be still at this time. Madam Mayor, City Councilor, City Manager, wonderful students of College Park. I'm Scott Morris, College Park's best maker. 
[1:31:25] I'm here tonight to talk about something that's coming up on the agenda, and I just want to make sure it's something that was thought about. I received three pieces of certified mail last week about 35-36 College Street and 0 College Street. Mr. Morris, we are going to have a public hearing on that, so you'll have the opportunity to speak on it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor of Council, Dyson Mayor, and Mayor Perfino and others. 
[1:32:00] I really introduce myself as Dr. Volmer Lamey, Achievo Adjanakou. I'm a practitioner of human culture, building the best possible community in honor of Mark and uplift the women, enlightening males, that all babies come from women and women brought up this response to all males being here on this planet. I want to announce tonight that we joined with the Mueller Company to purchase the Ramada Inn. 
[1:32:32] We're successfully closing the Ramada Inn on Old National Highway. And we are recommitting ourselves, we're rededicating ourselves to the community. We want to announce to the mayor council that we are committed to anti-human trafficking. We're committed to securing the area. We're committed to safety for our people who come in and out of the hotels. We're committed to beautifying that corner. We're committed to making a gigantic difference in College Park. That commitment comes with a heavy burden. 
[1:33:06] It's a heavy uplift. And so we'd like to ask the council to consider the three things that make this difficult. One, please be considered unfunded mandates. Unfunded mandates can make it very difficult to finish the project. One. Two, we'd like for Mayor of Council to be considered the airport, which is really a major magnet of human sex trafficking anywhere in any part of the city. And lastly, what makes this heavy is the House Bill 295 that Brian Kemp signed into law May 12, 2026, 
[1:33:46] giving power to property owners to seek money and financial gain from city government that they believe do not have the practice or policy of enforcing vagrant laws, looking for panhandling, enforcing vaguely laws for laudering, for illegal camping like tent cities, and for public drunkenness. What this is doing is it is forcing city government to now start to enforce laws against the homeless panhandling. 
[1:34:18] What this is doing is forcing the city of Atlanta has the biggest and strongest law enforcement. It's forcing both of the people who are in the city of Atlanta to now move to outlying areas. The College Park, which is apt for, is a major attraction to these people. I also have the modern station, which makes it even more difficult. But the biggest challenge the College Park has began to face that you may not see is invisible to you. It's all the effort that you're putting in to have a community-oriented police school. All the effort you put in to have your police men to team up with the community at the different festival. 
[1:34:53] Now we're seeing, well, they're being forced to now jail, lock-up, homeless people. And this is putting a blackout on your community or your police. It's making it difficult to maintain your confidence within the community. Thank you, sir. Thank you. You're very welcome, thank you, Mayor. Good evening, everybody. Excuse the way I'm dressed today with my wash day and I wash everything when I wash. 
[1:35:27] I'm really here for something else, but I want to make this comment. My name is Kelly Sutton. I'm on the board of Planning Commission. I'm also the chairman of the Apple Hall Life and Review Board. I am the director, executive director of the organization COCO, Community One Concern, Oblivetor Alliance, and also I am the senior evangelist of Go Back to God ministry. What I want to say is over the months I have seen the discrepancy and argument that is 
[1:36:06] going on in this city. I have been here since 2012. It started out great. And I noticed the victory that is going on. We cannot be positive and fostered with that cognitive mindset. That's the problem. We have to get our minds in line with what is right. Without it, it will be chaos. 
[1:36:38] There's no other way. So I say to the council members, come together. Be one. Expand the city. I know some don't like when right speaking is being approached. I've never been one that just let things go. I remember my first pastoral meeting. I objected to something. 
[1:37:08] my first pastoral meeting, the preside elder wanted to raise $1,000 for the bishop's vacation. He wanted to raise $1,000 for his birthday. I raised my hand as if I didn't understand that. And he said it again. And it was 13 churches in the district of the denomination that I was in at that time. That's $26,000 for vacation and birthday. 
[1:37:44] What about the needs of the people? So I have always been one that would be outspoken. My dad was one that was outspoken. It is time to wake up and be real. Forget the bickering and all that. Let's come together and live together. Change your thinking. That's what destroyed the world now. We're not thinking right. We're not putting God in our life. 
[1:38:15] Go to Deuteronomy chapter 28, 29 and 30. You will see the cause of what's going on. It's real. I've been in the middle of 1986. Wake up and let's get right. One minute, 18 seconds. All right. Good evening, Mayor, City Council, State Manager, Chief McCurry. 
[1:38:50] I want to just speak about the support I have for a project that's actually coming up for a new multi-family residential development here. And I want to speak about why I believe this is going to be a good project going on. I believe this is a- I believe this is a- Are you referring to the conditional use or conditional height permit? Is coming up as a public hearing? The project is a 3636. Yes, we're about to do a public hearing on that. So you'll have the opportunity to speak there. All right, thank you. 
[1:39:22] I'm going to ask who's going to speak for the next minute or so. They can do so. I'm going to turn it up to the child now. Sarah? My apologies. I'd already turned it off. I have a minute 18. I'll be very quick. My name is Hannah Corcoran, and I have no intention of speaking tonight. But after seeing what's going on with some incidents that we've already talked about tonight, 
[1:39:59] I would like quickly to say that when you sign up to be a public figure, you are signed up to have things thrown at you, to have people lie about you, and to have people make some threats about you. But I think, you know, what we have to consider is that you need to do unto others as you do, as you would like for people to do unto you. And you can't expect that not to come back at you. 
[1:40:29] I think that there have been requests for security here today that maybe security is not ever going to be enough for. When you throw something out into the universe, it boomerangs back to you and can result in paranoia, and there's no amount of security guards around you that can protect you from your inner paranoia. And that's all I'd like to say to you. Thank you. 
[1:40:59] Next item, legislative portion meeting in accordance with ordinance number 2024-01. Madam Mayor, if I might. Mr. Denmark? In my room as Parliamentary, I want to acknowledge that in accordance with that ordinance, Section 2-2-8, it provides that in a legislative portion of the council meeting that while presiding over the deliberation of the city council and the board for the city charter, 
[1:41:42] the mayor can not express opinions or otherwise participate in the debate on matters of the board of city council. I will interrupt and make that admonish because of what occurred at the last meeting, which I thought we all would like to avoid at this meeting. We have rules, parliamentary procedure that govern our meetings, and I will admonish the council to adhere to those rules so we can have an efficient and orderly meeting this evening. Thank you. 
[1:42:12] Mr. Denmark, before an item is sounded, I may speak. Is that correct? No, ma'am. I omitted a certain portion of the ordinance because it states that in order to ensure his or her neutrality while presiding over the deliberations of the city council, the mayor shall not express opinions. And so the way I read that ordinance provision is that those comments have compromised the 
[1:42:46] Cheers' neutrality and the right-wing of it in the deliberations. And furthermore, this portion of the council meeting has been designated as a legislative portion of the meeting. I would ask you to come back at the next meeting in reference to Judge Brown's ruling in that. I'm not going to argue about it here because we do have work to do and we have an entire audience to look up to who are here to speak at public hearings and the like. 
[1:43:16] But let's go ahead and move forward. First public hearing item is action on a request to approve a resolution for conditional hide permit at 3636 College Street and Zero College Street for a multifamily residential unit. This item is located in Ward 1. This item is requested by the Lynese Lyons, city planner. Good evening, Mayor and Council. 
[1:43:49] Horyu is a conditional height permit application to increase the maximum height of a structure from 35 feet to 65 feet to develop 261 units. Multifamily residential development. Fast findings, this property has fronted along both College Street and Princeton Avenue. Proposed development will occur primarily where the baseball field is located, extending 
[1:44:20] towards the rear to Victoria Street. From the street, the topography declines towards the center of the property. There are sidewalks provided on both streets and there are on-street parking available along College Street and a MARTA bus stop in front of the property along College with close proximity to the College Park MARTA station. The developer will have to comply with all fire and safety requirements at the time of construction. The proposed development is consistent with the comprehensive plan which establishes this 
[1:44:54] property as a transit-oriented development character area and it also has the transit-oriented development zoning which allows multi-family. There are concurrent variances for relief, other relief that will go before the BVA. And the proposed development should not unduly restrict light or air to surrounding properties. It's currently, I believe, a self-tower that's on one of the southern properties that's taller 
[1:45:26] than what is being proposed here this evening. As I stated, there are additional variances requested that will go before the BVA. One is to eliminate restrictions on ground floor residential uses and for certain sidewalk improvements along College Street. The applicant has not indicated that they will not be able to comply with the setback requirements. And so with that, staff is recommending approval of the increased height of fluxes in 35 feet, 
[1:46:03] 65 feet for a multi-family resident needs. I'll leave the applicant as well as here to also speak upon or ask this request. Okay, the applicant switches to speak. Good evening. 
[1:46:43] Good evening. You can proceed. Okay. Can you introduce yourself, please? No, no, I think it was pretty self-explanatory, and we just look forward to the opportunity to start moving with this project. Can you introduce yourself, please? Oh, I'm Jerome Russell, and I'm a developer and businessman here. 
[1:47:15] Yeah, definitely. Go ahead. This is Leah. She's from TSW. She's our planner. They're one of the top three planning firms in the United States. This is Eric Fisher, a partner at Barnes & Thornburg, and I'm Stephon Gretchen. I'm part of the development team as well. Do you have any questions or would you like to talk about the charging changes? 
[1:47:46] Yes. Well, the development is basically based on the transit oriented development code where the developer team here is proposing a multifamily development. Although we are asking for the conditional height permit, the actual development is three to four stories. If you're looking from the street side, it's only three stories because the site, as you all know, is actually depressed. It's lower than the state level. 
[1:48:18] So from the street side, it's three stories. And from the internal and some part of the building, it's four stories. We're asking for 65 feet. It's just to allow some flexibility because it might be hip-proof, you know, slope-proof. So it might go a little higher. It will definitely be just the three to four story buildings and it will respect the Atlantic of the downtown college park and provide the much needed residential people who support 
[1:48:53] downtown business and residential, other residential and office around here and provide affordable housing for the workforce who are working here in College Park. And we are happy to answer any questions that we may have for the development and the site plan. But we're here tonight just for the conditional high permit application. 
[1:49:25] All right. This time I'll declare the public hearing open. If anyone wants to see speed on this, they can do so this time. Madam Mayor, we want to give you 30 minutes of our. No one made a motion. So we're. Well, I think we're going to keep it. It's a penalty. Okay. I'll make that a motion. I already declared the public hearing, so 
[1:49:59] I mean, I think we can do it on the next one, but the public hearing itself is already open. Well, the mayor, what I was going to say, we'd like to put a time when it was about the hearing. I think we have to reopen and make a point like that so that we have just time. And I mean, that's my last one. Okay. Now hold on, Mr. Denmark. The public hearing's already been declared right by. Wait a minute. I mean, changing it at this point, I mean, it's a word. 
[1:50:32] I'm asking you, Mr. Denmark? I don't believe that anyone has been pregnant because no one is being cut off as a consequence of the 30-minute limitation. We're not even aware that it will take a full 30 minutes, so I don't think that the motion in that regard would be inappropriate at this time. Thank you, Mr. Denmark. Council Member Karn, you've made a motion to limit discussion to 30 minutes. And Council Member McKenzie has seconded. Any discussion on that? 
[1:51:03] Hearing none, we'll move to vote. All those in favor. Aye. That is unanimous. I'm going to accept the time. Okay, thank you. Yeah, perfect. Okay. No sign. No, she was a Claire, so I'm going to have a good time. Thank you. Demetrius Taylor, again, in the local department. I'm here to stand and say that I am for this particular development because, listen, we need the families. 
[1:51:43] We need the space. We need affordable housing. We've been on this for quite some time now about dealing with affordable housing, affordable spaces, And what we keep running into is, yeah, we need it, but not here, but not here, but not here, but not here. Then where? Okay, then where? Right now we have a wonderful space. We have a wonderful opportunity to make sure that this happens. We have the whole thing is to live, work, and play right here. We have a unit that's going to be right here at the College Park train station, 
[1:52:15] which is affordable for folks to get in and out of the city. Affordably, we won't have to worry about a lot of traffic. if you will, with cars and as far as we already have parking issues. So as far as residents are concerned, for those who were making this affordable, many folks may not have vehicles. So they will be able to take the MARTA and be able to be comfortable. One of the things about this development, we need to do something because again, we've been holding our hands and tying our hands with this and we have not had any development 
[1:52:47] since the Lottie Miller Boulevard. Okay, Lottie Miller Boulevard, which is still closed off because we can't even use the darn thing. We need this development. We need the families. Our educational system needs it. We need kids up in here. We need young people. Yes, I know we love our senior citizens. I'm a senior. I'm a major at age now, I'm 56. But we need kids. We need young families. We need folks up in here who want to make College Park a home. 
[1:53:18] We can't have any more Justice Smith and Mrs. Dent unless we get the Mrs. Dent and them to come in. They were young when they were here. You hear Rex Williamsers out there 45 years. We need more Rex Williamsers to come in when they were 20 and 30 years old to raise their families so that College Park can grow and to thrive. With this kind of development, yes, we don't want more apartments, but for what we need to do as far as having more residencies, more rooftops or whatever, so that we can get the better stores, the better things, the better development to come into Sixth West. This would be a wonderful, wonderful avenue to bring in some of the things that we need. 
[1:53:52] So I just say we need this. Thank you. Hi. Ms. Johnson again, mother of 14 and half of the living house. I would love to have Herman Russell, your group, come and build as a family. We have a lot of homeless programs here. I am very involved with volunteering and different programs here. But when they graduate from the programs, they have to go to Atlanta, DeKalb, and everywhere else to find somewhere to stay. 
[1:54:27] We are paying rent. We are doing all of that. They are learning here, but once they get it, they got to go out dirt, and they're leaving College Park. And this is where it started. When the projects closed down, they didn't have nowhere to go. They came to College Park. They took over Old National. You got families that are living in hotels. College Park do not have extended stay. You're looking at a product of it. Me. 
[1:54:58] I got an issue right now with the hotels because I had to move there from a five-year in Embarcadero. They just left me away. Cody left me in a – I've been confused ever since. You know, I reached out to you, Mr. Carnes, about that. I have saved numerous of families whose daughters have went into prostitution because they had to stay here. It was hard for them to find somewhere to live. 
[1:55:28] There are no family living things in College Park. It's so much that we are missing with the new people that come to College Park. I don't even know where to start, how to say it, because I've been in the education. But since I had to come here like this, get involved, it's dumbfounded for the stuff that y'all are fighting for. People are arguing about gift cards at an event. People are arguing about the trees being falling. 
[1:56:01] I got your husband calling me, person at me. I didn't even know it was your husband. Why? Everything is so personal. That's why I'm so confused up here now. I'm up here fighting for my kids. I done raised my kids. They graduated from the Banneker Cluster, one of the most notorious schools. I have a 30-year-old that is in Africa, don't want to come back to College Park. I have a daughter that's a GM of a hotel, never seen a hotel on the marquee. 
[1:56:33] Y'all arguing about the DMO, people getting back money and all that. What did the DMO do for College Park? So that timing and us being up here, it gets out of hand, you guys. And it all goes back down for the board taking accountability and responsibility to represent the citizens who put y'all in place. But, Carmen, you're cool? Please, we need that. Only thing y'all got in Cross Park is houses. 
[1:57:04] Y'all put up more gas stations. We need more. Y'all don't talk about our kids. Y'all over at Tracy Wyatt, they have things only during Christmas time, Thanksgiving, still giving out what the black family's about. Sweet potatoes, onions, celery, collard greens. Come on, man. That's why I can't be up here. I don't need to be up here, but I'm coming here to ask you why. I care about my kids I have raised in College Park. 
[1:57:37] Taxpayers in College Park. But come on, guys. Just get it together. You all represent us. I don't know how to come to you all, but I'm just coming to say, help us. You all are in position. I know election time is coming up. Y'all go get out there and do what y'all need to do for election time, and then you lose it. But we got to get it together. The prostitution, sex trafficking, it done went over the drugs. 
[1:58:11] The homelessness. Come on, y'all. We got kids around here just losing it. Mr. Gay gave away a proclamation of thug. What have thug done for us? And that's his son on old natural. End of the road. Ma'am, I'd ask you to just sort of focus on the actual soul. So whatever it is, Mayor, I can't stay on different subjects because it's ridiculous why I'm here. I want to come for solutions, not problems. 
[1:58:43] And that's all you bring in is problems. Y'all are too personal with these citizens. You're too personal with these citizens. Remember, you sent out the layout in the group for us to guide. I'm not going to die by it. I got it today. I'm not going to die by it. Because it's time to tell the truth. Thank you. Good evening again. 
[1:59:15] I am also here in support of this project. Sir, give me a word. Sir, I apologize. Andrew Hicks, senior. Thank you for allowing me to come and speak again. and I'm also here in support of this multi-family residential development. Let me tell you why I'm in support of it. This is a new quality residential product, like the new residential in the Hafeville area next door. The convenience for this project is that it's transit-orientated development just two blocks from the College Park water station. 
[1:59:45] This development will support our main street businesses, bring new local customers, being one block away. Some of our multi-family apartments are over 50 years old. we need some new quality development in College Park. This project attracts more Main Street customers without adding the lack of parking on Main Street. One block away from the public library, which is directly across the street from the Recreation Center and a fitness track. This will also help to take more cars off the street in supporting cleaner air and a healthier lifestyle. Thank you. 
[2:00:15] Thank you. Ma'am, please do your name for the record. Good evening. I am Tessa Ellis Ocasio. I live at 1894 Virginia Avenue, right around the corner from this project. I didn't want you all to sell it, so let's start with that. I was at home. I came up here because I am infuriated. 
[2:00:48] I got a lot of questions. How many units? How many affordable housing? I got it. I'm a teacher. I got that number. So my question is, what is affordable housing? 
[2:01:18] Is it going to be mixed income? Is it going to be, how are you doing this? community. Ma'am, if you would please try to speak into the microphone. Yes. I want to know how you're doing it. Is it going to be mixed income? Is it going to be a certain percentage? Is it going to be vouchers, 6-8? How are you doing this affordable housing? I would think it comes with a microphone to answer. It will be between 60 to 100% of median income. 
[2:01:57] That will be affordable . Okay. And so how many one-day roles? How many two-day roles? How many three-day roles? I don't know the mix, but it's probably about 30, 30, 30, it's spread out evenly over the unit. So what if we do that? We have to have this target over. The topography of the field is a baseball dugout. 
[2:02:32] Sir, can you please make sure that you're speaking into the microphone? The topography. The topography. The topography of the real estate is 15 to 20 feet below the street level. So the TOD zone is typically three-clothed commercial on the ground floor. 
[2:03:04] The ground floor for that building is subterranean. in the one who's pretty well. So it's inaccessible just due to the layout of the site. So in order to get up the street, we have to build about two floors subterraneously. And as our planner said earlier, from College Street, it would only appear to be a three-story building. And she also indicated it's three, 
[2:03:36] We have 143 towers on our site currently. And the next I made John's recent call on 9 or 2, I'm just being there. We want to go in our 65, I think we might not even do some entire 65 because we want to have some land within the nation. Are those towers solid? Yes. The towers that we currently have, are they solid? Are they blocking anything? Or can we compare those towers to an apartment building? 
[2:04:12] Are they blocking anything? Because the height is different, the height, but the width and whether they are blocking anything. Because the whole question was, is it going to block the sunlight? Is it going to block the view? Ma'am, we're trying. 
[2:04:44] We're just having some sort of technical issue. Well, a typical multi-family building are basically three to four stories high. Yes. 
[2:05:28] and also to make multifamily development work. You have to reach a certain number of units. Typically, it needs to be above 200 units to make it financially work. Otherwise, they won't go here because it doesn't make sense financially. We're providing housing, but we also need to make it work financially. So that's why we're keeping the parents off. And any of the housing going to be for seniors? 
[2:06:11] Have we looked at the fact that we have a school, we have a community center, we have parks and recs, we have a pool, all of that, considering... Because I think all those facilities are here to provide housing here. People who live in Kendall South and enjoy all those environments. And any of the people that currently live in the affordable housing right here, 
[2:06:42] will they be able to afford living in that community? Are we going to have vouchers to be able to move them into the new building that we're going to have? Like you said, this is workforce housing, 6% median income. So it's based on income. It's not based on the old housing. Right. City employees, primary police. 
[2:07:17] Sir, can you make sure that you're speaking into the microphone? No. School teachers, marketing people, we attract them to this. Thank you. I'm not for it. Thank you, Mayor. Tell this something again. I just wanted to say that I think that this multi-family housing will be great because College Park needs more affordable, clean, quality housing. 
[2:07:51] I've been in Bacchodeira 14 years and it was built in 1975. And man, some of the problems I have there, it needs to be get it out and redone. So I am for more affordable, quality housing. Thank you, sir. Good evening. Good evening, council members and community. My name is Darryl Webster. I'm a concerned member of Scholarly Stark. 
[2:08:22] I'm here to support the residential community program. I strongly feel it's a great idea. It's blocked from the main street corridor and the transit system. The transit, the main street businesses need an economic boost to survive. Also, there are multiple apartment companies that are 50 years old. So we do need development and it would break the community. I was going to admit in my development, so I really couldn't believe what he said. We need some new development as well. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much. 
[2:09:01] Randy Godfrey, 1966 Loud. So today we're not here to judge the quality of housing or if the housing should happen or not. The question is about height, right, and what that means to neighbors. One concern I have about this project, if you look at the layout, you can immediately immediately see that our public housing lies immediately to the west of this project. 
[2:09:34] And our public housing is also at a lower elevation. Every foot that we give up in terms of height with this particular development can negatively impact our housing, our public housing. It can leave folks looking at light on the other side. It can be in the dark. I ask that before we move forward with this decision for variants, that we consider a shadow study. 
[2:10:07] And I'm sure with this wonderful organization that you've chosen to move forward with, they've done many of these studies before. perhaps even allowing them to shape how units are stacked on top of each other in relationship to where our public housing units are. So I simply ask that before we move forward with any variance that we consider, ask for 
[2:10:38] that. I also am asking that with any variability in height, that we make sure that we consider our impact on our fire department and what the capabilities are there, right? How does this kind of density and height impact our fire station's ability to respond effectively to fires and other safety issues. 
[2:11:09] And again, thank you so much for your consideration. Thank you, sir. May I just want to address the height concern about the shadow. Well, we can definitely do a shadow study, but here I can explain. If you look at the site, our closest building to the public housing is more than 120 feet away. And the building is only 35, I mean, 50 feet. 
[2:11:41] So, I mean, you can just imagine, I mean, how big a shadow of a 50-feet building can pass across 120 feet away. So the shadow won't be a problem. And also there is a buffer zone between the public housing and this development. If you look out, there is a sliver of land which will not be developed, and all that area would be the trade area. So you will see trade. You basically won't see the development from down there. 
[2:12:14] And I think the second question I forgot is about. Oh, the fire. Yeah, yeah. The site plan is designed to abide by the fire codes and to make sure it's consistent with the fire department requirements. And I'm sure the fire department probably has already reviewed or will give recommendations about the fire compliance. 
[2:12:44] Sir? Good evening again, Madam Mayor, City Councilman. My concern isn't the height, shadows or anything like that. It's more fundamental, foundational. My concern is the acres and acres of impervious services that we're introducing. We already have an overtapped, outdated, strong water runoff system. A 10-minute rain shower driving on Hemphill, you're going to get washed away. 
[2:13:15] Drive down Cambridge or rugby, you're on a water slide. So my question to you, Mr. City Manager, is how does this tie into the overall repair of, upgrade of our stormwater rain office system? That's my biggest concern because we're already wading in the water. Thank you. Sir? Please state your name for the record. I'm Scott Morris, College Park's best neighbor. Thank you, sir. Mr. Hicks, did you want to respond? 
[2:13:48] Good evening, everybody. Hi, my name is Jeremy Sallie. I live at 1777 Harvard Avenue. I'm coming up here, and I wasn't planning to speak on this. I approve this, but also for clarity and this personal information. I am a stakeholder of the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs as well. So for me, just to put that out there as well, that I've seen the historical that I've seen in the cultural involved with the great things for Western Atlanta. But the bigger part to it is, as probably the only person here under 30 that will come up to you, 
[2:14:22] and who we're talking about with College Park going to be a better and more vibrant area of the Metro Atlanta area, the reason that we're having a conversation of if a more to a unit like this is preposterous to be very fair and frank, and showing the people we are with comparison to our Metro neighbors, We're looking at our pay field. We're looking at Thumbwood. We're looking at Stampley. We're looking at Smyrna. We're talking about this conversation. It's not going to be one. The FAA studies the local cap, which is the biggest part here, right? Plains are going to zap. Plains are going to crash here. We're A-OK. 
[2:14:52] And we're looking at who you try to involve and invest to do in College Park. Under 30, I look at myself here under 30, masters, educators, who want to come with me and the growth that I've gone forward that I see you reach the College Park. They want to stay in College Park. I was in the main region of why after coming back to Washington, D.C., working over there, of coming back to the metro line area, why College Park was important was because it was not the Marter Line. Where I live at Harvard, and Harvard Avenue, the pad, is one of the newest renovations, one of the newest units, particularly in College Park. And one of the reasons why without payment 
[2:15:22] was because we had the idea that I was right next to Marter. I walked. It took me maybe three minutes-ish to get right here, and I can guarantee you the one reason why we're having so many businesses on Main Street that aren't able to know are because we're worried about conversation about what we're not bringing to folks here in College Park. Why are we not having people under 30 coming in? Mexico and Atlanta has proven significantly over the pandemic. And if you're asking me, will it be that we're having this conversation and stuff? Because it's absolutely ridiculous. A very reputable company is coming in wanting to do better 
[2:15:55] for the city. Ain't a lot of people that are under 20, not under 30, that are coming here in this state. This is ridiculous. And anyone who has otherwise to say, so many other persons are coming here under 30. They're going to have conversations here. That is a problem going through. And I say this to say that I'm very much for it. I love to see more people that look like me, that are in my geographies, so to say. And not to see Main Street have so many empty buildings and empty businesses involved with it. There's no reason why we're not looking at why if I want to go up to the bar, right, 
[2:16:26] that I go to Peace Point, if I want to have really just any type of fun, really, to be very fair and frank, I've got to do College Park. Under 30, that should not be okay. And I don't understand if everyone over that age, they are a good state of their lives, but people tend to want to have reasons for them. And, well, at least up mid next year, I'm asking myself, why am I staying in College Park? Very fair and frank about that. As someone's about to turn 30, got a reward by the money for her work, why should I stay? That's on the council, that's on the mayor, that's on the good system this year to understand why people are leaving. 
[2:17:01] Be very careful with that, and I very much appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Tom Goldman, 1993, Cambridge Japanese. This project is partially being sold, as it were, to the council based on affordable housing. I heard you say your definition of affordable housing is going to be 60 to 100% of the median income. Check my math on this. 
[2:17:31] medium income in Collins Park, according to the internet, is about $61,000. Awful low. I mean sadly, awful low. Okay, that's $4,250, $4,300 a month. Rule of thumb is you spend about a third of your income on your housing. Are you willing to state for the record that you're going to rent some of these 40% of your project for in the $1,275 a month range. 
[2:18:05] I just don't believe that. I, again, correct my math. I don't think that this is going to be affordable housing as it is being sold. Thank you. The applicant want to respond? Good evening. My name is Mercedes Lucas. I live in Ward 3, I'm in property management and I moved to College Park about four and a half years ago. 
[2:18:38] I love a high rise. I moved from midtown Atlanta, love a high rise, love a mid rise. I don't feel like people come to College Park for that. We definitely need to have some affordable housing and we definitely need to have some things that attract younger people. but I'm just, it seems like we're trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. And if the variance was set, how it sets, and what I'm hearing is that the setback is over as well, 
[2:19:15] why couldn't this project be designed to fit the zoning that it's going into? That doesn't seem to make sense to me. It looks beautiful, but again, it just feels like round peg, square hole, and it just doesn't feel necessary. And so that's . Thank you. 
[2:19:49] I'm an instance in seconds. Good evening. I'm Sherry Godfrey. I reside at 196 Seville Avenue. I realize that this hearing is about the height variance, but I just want to reiterate, This project is something that widely was not wanted by the community. It's literally sitting on recreation space. It's also ironic that the next hearing after this is to discuss the comprehensive plan 
[2:20:20] that takes into consideration community input for the long-term development of our community. It doesn't seem like you folks paid any attention to the previous comp plan where green space was not going to be taken away for apartments. I think Mr. Coleman made a great point. I doubt these apartments are going to be running for $1,200. I guess we'll see. But regardless of the price point, I don't want to see parks taken away for apartments. 
[2:20:52] You have acres and acres available in Sixth West that for years haven't been doing anything. Erect apartments there. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else who's to speak? All right, it's time all the clearance will be clear and closed. Is there a motion? 
[2:21:31] Council Member Carr made a motion. What is your motion, sir? Motion to approve the act of minutes. All right, is there a second? Second. Thank you, Council Member McKenzie. Any discussion? Yes. Earlier the city manager wanted to respond to something and he was given the opportunity. Right. Thank you, Council Member. So actually what I did was I made notes kind of take back to my team. 
[2:22:04] The first one was what Mr. Dotsley asked about the tax on the fire department, what they didn't respond to that type of ice. And also he talked about a shower now, talking to the company about. And last but certainly not least, the gentleman asked about the effects on the storm water. What kind of effect would it have on our utility? So I'm going to take those questions back. So that's why I'm just fine, but thank you all. Councilmember Gay. Mayor, can I just want to say to the record that I have voted for this project, 
[2:22:35] which has been passed for almost two years. Your guys have gotten my whole cooperation. In fact, we really, according to my last motion, we were supposed to have this vote after that was a poll. That's what we came out of the day to say. And they say that, but neither the less. I want to be perfectly clear that all the war for and all of my decisions for this was in fact to replace the green space at Georgetown. 
[2:23:14] But when we close, and I've had to fight, I've had to fault y'all on this, even though you said it was no consequence to you all. But we've agreed it's going to wreck this bargain. You should close a minute for the city manager. But at closing, these postees are to go to Janestown Park. Am I right? Exactly. We're happy to build a ball field and we can paint screens today. 
[2:23:48] But I just want to say for the record that that is being why I have a conditions to pull this project for day one. And I'm looking forward to the closing day that I understand is on the 16th of this month, correct? The P-19 is 15. 15. 15. 15. So for those minors you've been conferred, Lance cannot have another team or council can become 100 recompense. We're looking forward to doing another ball field and 
[2:24:23] the war is over here. Okay. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor. Aye. Aye. That is unanimous. Next agenda item is a public hearing for Inspire Placemaking Collective. To give an update on the comprehensive plan draft, this item will be presented by Ekecio 
[2:25:00] Smith, Inspire Placemaking Collective Senior Project Manager. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, or good evening, Mayor and Council and City Leadership and Community. Tonight we would like to present to the City of College Park the second public hearing for the Comprehensive Plan update. Over the past several months, Economic Development and the City Planner have been working with Inspire Place Making Collective to update the City's Master Plan that will lay the groundwork for how the City can continue to grow and thrive over time 
[2:25:32] by directing infrastructure investments, guiding future land use, supporting local businesses, and protecting resources to ensure an equitable and resilient future. Our grant plan was adopted in 2021, and it must be updated every five years in accordance with Georgia state statutes. The comprehensive plan team will delve deeper into the plan update timeline, the community engagement strategies used, feedback updates, and any additional information before the final adoption in October. During this public hearing, we invite all residents, business owners, 
[2:26:08] and stakeholders of the City of College Park to please share your feedback that will help shape the quality of life and reflect community voices on topics including land use, housing, transportation, historic and cultural resources, conservation, and parks and recreation for our beautiful and unique city. If you have additional feedback that you would like to relay after this public hearing, community members, please feel free to contact Prompt Plan Update at collegeparkga.gov. 
[2:26:41] You can also head to the Comprehensive Plan website or the Economic Development page on the city website for more information or contact details. Also, feel free to stop by City Hall or give us a call. We're always available to answer any questions. Now, Inspire Place Saving Collective has their senior project manager, Nekesha Smith, here to present and answer any questions or concerns about the comprehensive plan update. Thank you all so much for your attention. Thank you, Hannah, and good evening, Mayor and Council. 
[2:27:19] It's a pleasure to be here again. We are almost at the finish line for our comprehensive plan, so I'm very excited. Again, I want to thank you as council members for supporting this effort, for hosting those public engagement meetings. I want to, again, thank your staff who have supported us throughout this effort. We think that there was awesome feedback that we received, and we hope that you like what we've laid out for you. Again, my name is Nakesha Smith and I'm with Inspire Place Making Collective. 
[2:27:56] And we are here to present this evening the 2026 update to the City of College Park comprehensive plan. You can go ahead and go to the project overview slide. And so we'll just do a quick recap of what is the comprehensive plan, why are we here this evening, and why do we have to do this. This is actually the document that is designed to lay out the future vision for the community 
[2:28:29] of College Park. One of the key things and themes that we heard in terms of the feedback that we received is that it's supposed to be an implementable vision. So you'll see that part of this document also contains an action plan at the end. So over and over we heard from stakeholders that they don't just want this to be a document that sits on the shelf. They really want this to be something that's implemented. They want the actions to be followed, and they want to see steps being made towards the future vision. 
[2:29:03] The plan contains various elements. So we look at economic development. We look at land use. We also look at housing and transportation. We look at character areas and infrastructure, and we also look at arts and culture, and many of these things are interconnected. There's not really a way to separate them. One thing usually affects the other, and so we try to make it very comprehensive in terms of the recommendations, because we know that it's interconnected. 
[2:29:38] Moving on to the next slide, this update is also a requirement of the Georgia Planning Act of 1989, and we are required to have this adopted by October 31st of 2026. So as our second public hearing, the next step in this process would be that we would transmit this to the state. They would give us their feedback and comments. We'll also take any final comments that we received from our website, from the community, 
[2:30:09] any additional input, and then we will come back to you once we receive those comments from this date for a final adoption hearing in October. That will be advertised and publicized once we have that date. So again, we don't know for sure right now. We are planning for most likely October 19th, but we'll know once we get, that would depend once we get those comments back from the state. How did we get to this process? 
[2:30:40] We started off with our project kickoff. We also did a lot of data collection and analysis, so we looked at a lot of sources from census data, previous documents and records that we have, and we also got, again, the public engagement and the public feedback. So all of that was combined to create the final plan that you see, the recommendations that you see. It was really a combination of both public input and also the data assessment and analysis. 
[2:31:17] Going on to the engagement timeline. You see here that that was a huge part of our process that we did for this plan and really should be a community plan and so we wanted to make sure that we did do a lot of outreach. You'll see the many meetings that we've had here. Since we met last time for our workshop, we did have a meeting with the planning commission so they also gave us some good feedback. I'll try to 
[2:31:50] advise you some of that feedback that we got from them throughout this presentation. Madam Mayor, one of the items that you had requested from the last meeting was you wanted to know a little bit more about the details of the engagement in terms of who participated, what was maybe the percentage of businesses versus residents. If you go to the appendices of that plan, you will see that we've done a full engagement summary. That engagement summary includes not just the feedback from each meeting, but it also 
[2:32:23] So you'll see the data broken down from all of the activities that we had on the project website, the mapping exercises, so you'll be able to see those percentages laid out there. In terms of one of the statistics that I have from the web, it was majority residents. And then in terms of business owners, we had a 24% response that were business owners. And again, there's further details in that appendices if you want to go through that. 
[2:32:58] Going on to the next slide, there was a community vision that was developed, and we'd love your input on this if there's portions that you think should be tweaked. But essentially, that connectivity was a big theme, and so we wanted to make sure that The community vision statement included something about connectivity, that the city is a welcoming city, that residents have access to thriving local businesses and to the service that they need 
[2:33:29] and having those services close to home, not necessarily having to go to an adjacent community to, you know, get what you need in terms of services, entertainment, restaurants, et cetera. Housing is available for all incomes and for all stages of life, so from young to old and in between. And that city decisions will reflect the priorities that the stakeholders have outlined in this plan. Responsible stewardship and a shared sense of belonging was also something that was emphasized throughout the process. 
[2:34:05] I'll go quickly, Mr. Hicks, to try to stay on time through some of the chapter elements. Just briefly, we'll go through some of the highlights for each of these. Some of the key takeaways, first of all, for our natural and historic resources. Next slide, please. was that stakeholders really, really took pride in the fact that we have a historic district here. 
[2:34:38] It was something that they want to preserve and protect and make sure that we balance that as we grow as a city and also preserving our natural resources like our tree canopy. Councilman Guy I was not able to find the trees that you referenced, so if you want to let us know what area that is, we're happy to incorporate that. But our tree canopy was a topic that came up a lot, preserving it, protecting it. 
[2:35:10] It's historic, but also making sure that we have canopy and coverage not just in our residential areas, but also in our commercial corridors as well. Moving on to water supply. Thank you. One of the key takeaways from water supply, as we spoke about when we did the workshop, is just really that demand projection that we have for Clayton County for their highest peak day. about what happened in 2040. 
[2:35:42] We need to make sure that we have intergovernmental coordination, that we're keeping that on the radar so that we can make sure that we hit that target and that we close that gap in water demand. In terms of community facilities and services, many stakeholders emphasize the lack of medical facilities within the city with something that came up. Also, people enjoyed the parks and the recreation here 
[2:36:15] within the city, but there was some feedback that they didn't feel that it was as well maintained as it could be. When we had the meeting with the planning commission, they did kind of dig into that point a little bit in terms of knowing that we have maintenance contracts to obviously keep our parks updated. And so that was just something that was on their mind that, hey, if we have these maintenance contracts, but yet the perception from the community is that the parks aren't being well maintained, 
[2:36:47] that there is some disconnect there, and that's something that council and administration might wish to review in terms of trying to tackle that perception of the maintenance and the upkeep. We also only have two grocery stores that serve the city. that was the use that came up often that people would like to once again have better access to their day-to-day needs. Next slide please is broadband connectivity. 
[2:37:21] And essentially the city is doing well in this in this area that the access is reliable with the caveat that obviously if there's not power then your internet is no longer reliable. So just making sure that we shore up the power grid so that there's no downtime, particularly in this same age where there's a lot of remote learning, remote working. The internet is really, really important to have and to make sure that it's reliable. 
[2:37:55] And so we want to make sure that that power grid can sustain that so that people can be online as needed. Moving on to economic development, thank you. One of the key things we heard is that people want to have a livable wage, so not just to have employment, but to be able to be in an industry that is cutting edge and that has high wages, high wage industries. 
[2:38:26] Moving on to land use and character areas, there is a lot of vacant and undeveloped land within the city and so many stakeholders would like to see, you know, they would like to see progress in terms of development throughout the city. And again, going back to using zoning as a tool to not, right now there's a, there's the thought that, again, the daily needs are being separated, right? 
[2:38:58] And so they'd like to see maybe taking a look at your zoning code and revising that zoning code to see how we can make sure that we're bringing in the right uses and that those uses are in close proximity to where people can walk there and have easy access there. In terms of housing, again, affordability is a high priority and also protecting and preserving the existing housing character amid some of the incoming changes. 
[2:39:32] And that affordability includes obviously being able to purchase a home ownership, not just being able to rent. Moving on to transportation. Thank you. Moving on to transportation, one of the key issues that we found is that there's already a lot of projects that are actually already programmed in the pipeline, but we're not 
[2:40:04] building them. So out of about 31 projects, there was only two from the original list from last time that was completed. So we do have work that can be done there. Two. How many? Two. How many? 31. So we do have work that we can do there. We don't need to make new projects. We probably just need to reassess, take another look at that list, and then go ahead and make sure that we're implementing those projects. 
[2:40:34] Again, implementation was a big theme throughout this process. And then last, taking a look at arts and culture, just making sure that we're providing opportunities for our local artists, because that helps to reinforce the strong community identity throughout the city of College Park. And then moving on to community goals and work plans. So once again, it's great to have this vision, but if we don't have the actions behind it, 
[2:41:06] then it just becomes a plan that sits on the shelf. We came, we worked to create some community goals in each of the different areas. So you'll kind of see those summarized within each section. And then out of those goals are specific action plans that you'll find in the work plan section, if you can move to the work plan section. So those community goals are then tied to actual items 
[2:41:39] within the work plan. And this work plan is designed to help the city to work more efficiently. It helps us to focus efforts on what opportunities we wanna take advantage of, whether those align with the vision that we have in the comprehensive plan. It should help us in setting our budget, making decisions about what to spend both money and also time on. Some of these action items are just staff time items, right? So it's not necessary that we always have to put money towards it, but it does require 
[2:42:11] staff time. So making sure that we have focused priority on the hours that we're dedicating, the man hours that we're dedicating towards specific tasks so it should be aligned with what we have in our comprehensive plan. And we want to also celebrate some of the work items that have been completed. I had mentioned before that there was about 31 transportation plans that we have in the system that we only got to complete two of them, but there are actually many things that 
[2:42:44] we did complete over this last course of the comprehensive plan. We now have our Global Gateway Connector Bridge. We have our branding guide. There were improvements to various park facilities. And going on to the next slide, we had adopted certain protections for stormwater and making sure that we're in compliance with state code. So one change from the last work plan to the 2026 work plan is that we actually did put 
[2:43:21] an item key in there. We put symbols. So, you know, $1 means, you know, it's probably going to be under 100K or less. Medium would be two symbols, probably looking above 1K. And then three, you're probably looking at above 500K. So we kind of try to, obviously it's not an exact number of how much an item is going to cost, but we try to do that so that you can start to begin to target. 
[2:43:51] Again, we want this to be something that's used to guide funding and so you can start to look at that. And again, some of them might not have a symbol next to it. It might just say staff time. Maybe you want to try to target those things that are staff time. Let's try to get through those first and then from there you can work and prioritize the items that actually have to have the dedication of funds and financing to make in order to make them happen. Another thing you'll notice is that we also assigned specific departments 
[2:44:23] and a responsible party because we think that's very, very important in terms of having accountability to make sure that these actions actually come to fruition and that when we're here five years from now for another update that we have even more items that we can say that we completed on the chat list. And then I just wanted to go back to some of the updates that we did in response to 
[2:44:53] the last workshop. There was a change over time figure that we had in terms of the loss of housing units. We did go back and look at that and we looked at the, you know, we looked at the area and it was the exact same area. It did once again show that there was a loss of units, but again, we're not able to drill down necessarily to like the permit level. So, it's still in there. We did kind of put a little caveat to it that there could be a margin of error, 
[2:45:25] but if you're still uncomfortable with that, we're happy to just eliminate that paragraph completely. So you can kind of marinate on that and let me know. There was also a request to add some additional language on hospitality because that is a huge part of the economics of the city. And so we did add some new language within this latest update talking a little bit more about the hospitality sector. 
[2:45:58] The next thing that we added since the workshop on the next slide is that we did add information on the One Square Mile project. It was really actually interesting, so I'm really glad that you pointed that out last time. It was good learning about that and the history of that. It's actually a really, really cool project. So we did go ahead and highlight that and we added a paragraph on that in there. There was also a request at the last workshop to add in some of the transportation plans 
[2:46:29] that already existed. So we did go through and we put a section in of previous plans in terms of the transportation element. So you'll see that they're under the transportation connectivity and access chapter. The program trails, those were actually found in the transportation section, so we did add some trails there under transportation. And then lastly, once we get your additional feedback tonight, we will be transmitting 
[2:47:03] this to the state. So I'm happy to take any commentary, questions. We'll make sure that we get those in before we translate. Oh, okay, I thought it was public hearing. Okay. Well, you covered it. I feel like you all knocked it out in the park. Maybe my colleagues did something else, but I want to thank you for, you know, going back in, making the updates, and this is looking really good. Awesome. I'm glad you like that. 
[2:47:35] Councilmember Carter? All right, great presentation. Thank you, sir. I think the city manager, the district had discrepancy with the, what was it? Was that loss of housing? Yeah, the loss of units. So I did go ahead and put a caveat in the latest version that says there could be a margin of error. But if you're uncomfortable, I'll just take it out. It's whatever, you know. 
[2:48:05] Well, did you narrow it down to 30 minutes? We did go through and I actually you'll see a map there now and it shows the boundaries of the area so you will see an updated map now and it was you know the correct the correct limits. Okay sounds good I appreciate it. Your work plan documents. Yes sir. City Manager, can you get to the City Manager a full-size school page copy of that part of your plan? Absolutely. 
[2:48:36] I'd like to open the screen and be. Yes. Will do. All right. I appreciate it. Councillor Arnold? Thank you, Ms. Smith. Very thorough document. There were a couple of items that I did want to note on the record that you needed to make corrections or additions, if you will. Sure. On page 60, where we talk about the administrative and governmental facilities, 
[2:49:08] we're missing any documentation or commentary about the FAA building, which the city of College Park owns. On page 63. I'm sorry, the FAA building? Yes. Okay, FAA building. Got it. On page 63, there is nothing. We're talking about the park facilities, but there's nothing in the commentary or verbiage about the upcoming park on Godby Road. 
[2:49:45] Is that named already? It hasn't been named yet, but it's definitely planned. It's a planned park for Godby Road. I know that it was a part of the previous comprehensive plan as far as additional green space. So we want to make sure that we document and notate so that the constituents will understand that we are making progress. I don't want it to seem like it's still an item that we haven't tackled. Will do. Okay. On page 73, dismissing the free Internet service that's available at the Tracy Wyatt Recreation Complex. 
[2:50:26] I'm sorry, is that a program or it's just? It's a service. We're talking about broadband and accessibility. I think we talked about the free Wi-Fi that's available at the library. But we didn't add any commentary about the accessibility of broadband Wi-Fi services that are available at TWR State. 
[2:50:57] Gotcha. And then I think in the work plan on 171, there is an item about the airport with CID in reference to a project for expansion of sidewalks for Phoenix Boulevard. I actually had a conversation about that particular project. And it will, there is no grant funding, excuse me, there is no city funding for that project. 
[2:51:33] So I, that's one that is concerning. I would not like for it to be in the work plan if we are not going to fund it. Right now it's not budgeted, so that's something to just probably put a star by or add some type of notification. Are you thinking to remove it then or leave it the no pay? 
[2:52:03] I don't necessarily want to remove it because it's definitely a good project, but we definitely need to include some type of commentary that is going to take for the city to help fund the project in order for it to move forward. Mr. Hicks, did you want to say something? I did. So, I thought the sidewalk was a collaborative project. We still have to, at the end of the day, we have to pony up about $3,000 in order to move forward. 
[2:52:39] Okay, I made that notation there. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Councillor McGay? Okay. First of all, thank you for the comprehensive plan. It's very well written. Thank you sir. Thank you. Thank you. We get there. I ran a couple final suggestions. I didn't have a couple. We talked a lot about the improvements on 
[2:53:12] I'm sorry, could you repeat that? 
[2:53:42] Intersection? Sometimes when we call Main Street or Hospitality District we talked about네 Street These companies There were countries where countries could 
[2:54:16] We need a PID for that core. Because those companies on the other side, they wouldn't be able to contribute. Okay, so that's the other thing. I'm going to look right on that. I'm engaged in this company. It's interesting. I don't know if it's the picture of the college call. And I'm not saying this to be kind of spending. But it looks like lifting 1% of people . 
[2:54:52] It's about population size, 13,000 people. I'm standing in, lifting . I think I'm trying to find ways to reach out. But I will say, you know, instead of business leaders, it is worth noting that 1% of the community is supposed to improve on this stuff. Oh, it's fine. 
[2:55:23] Yeah. The next thing I want to say is that World Four had the largest power, and World Two is second largest. So congratulations, no. And last but not least, I still think that we highlight a lot more of the city's aspect that really are a lot more. 
[2:55:53] Okay. I mean, that's the length of the message. It's a new question. Oh, yeah, you know I'm obsessed with this. I'm flying. Okay, thank you. All righty. At this time, I'll declare the public hearing open. For those who need to speak on the comprehensive plan. Madam Mayor, may I make a statement, please? 
[2:56:25] Madam Clerk, go ahead. Thank you. For public comments, please state your name for the record prior to speaking. Thank you. My name is James Walker. You know, I really want to be a regular citizen and stay at home like normal people and trust my diets to do the right thing. But I had a unique viewpoint. Like I said, I'm James Walker, Ward 1. I'm an attorney, a board appointee to this comprehensive board. 
[2:56:58] The city has asked me to serve one. And tonight, my name appears on page 657. I think that's the right page number. You may have adjusted the pages of your packet. Not as a resident who came toward one town hall on the 25th, I believe. Not as someone who gave input on the plan you're hearing tonight. But I'm on there as a security concern. Not unless on that page, neighbors, volunteers, people who showed up are offense in the councilwoman's own eyes, 
[2:57:30] and that's to Mel McKenzie, is that we have been consistently and publicly critical of my leadership. That is the threat. So I'm going to talk about the comprehensive plan because on page three of it, started by every member of this dais, including Councilmember McKenzie, says that her values call on you to welcome and serve others professionally, provide meaningful opportunities for community participation, remain open to innovation and progress, and exercise responsible leadership in the stewardship of public resources. 
[2:58:05] That's page three of the plan. Participation, openness, stewardship. It promises one signature. and the night before this hearing, the agenda arrived and broke all three. A plan is a promise. The measure of a promise is what you do the night after you make it. Tonight is that night. Participation. The plan invites it. The council member's letter furnishes it. Page 17 of that plan tells you what residents ask for. 
[2:58:38] More than anything else, not a building, not a program, it asks for this. Trust follows through in a plan that the city completes, clear direction for boards and council, equal attention to all wards, not just one, and evidence that public input really matters, McKenzie. That's page 17. Now, 257 of that package, one West High Hall meeting and comprehensive plan on July 25th 
[2:59:08] was one of the 11 engagement events this plan brags about on page 18. Results showed up, some of us, they stepped outside to peacefully protest an anonymous Facebook account that has sent marks attacking and terrorizing people from this council. Councilman, Councilman McKenzie wrote to the city manager, listed nine of us down nine that asked for taxpayer funded personal security. I say it again, taxpayer personal funded security. 
[2:59:42] Her letter says, many of these individuals have consistently and publicly been critical of my leadership. Page 67. Read that again. Many of these individuals have been consistently and publicly critical of my leadership. The offense described is criticism. In that certain letter she writes, that she firmly respects every citizen's right to peace and assemble, and that her request is not intended to limit public participation. 
[3:00:12] However, you cannot name your quotes in an official city document as the reason you need protection, and then say you don't need to limit participation. The naming is delimiting, Mackenzie. The Georgia Constitution puts it this way, every person may speak right in public sentiments on all subjects. Georgia Constitution Article 1, Section 1, Paragraph 5. And the mayor puts it in this way in her preview of tonight's meeting. Residents should not ever have to wonder whether disagreement with an elected official 
[3:00:46] in a public meeting will be treated as most correct. So use the polls on public engagement as a basis for the current interest against the public that showed up to it. Sir, I'm going to ask you to make sure that you're not sure. And, Madam Mayor, this was not about the comprehensive plan. Excuse me, Mr. Hicks. I've got this. Thank you. Sir, please focus on the comprehensive plan, as that is the public hearing tonight. I am quoting specific pages in the plan, if you would allow me to finish. Madam Mayor. 
[3:01:16] This is not evidence of public district. This is a warning to anyone who thinks it's about giving. Second, it calls for openness. She told her the price that she had no connection to that account. She told her resident in writing that she did. Page 658, Distimination of False Bound-Castry Social Media. This is in her letter. Mr. Walker? Mm-hmm. Comprehensive plan, sir. I won't ask you again. I'm sorry? Please focus on the comprehensive plan. I'm quoting the plan, Madam Mayor. 
[3:01:48] Okay. If you, yes. Last December, she told the report that neither she nor anyone of her team is affiliated with Webster-Wallace. and handing the clerk text messages sent from Councilwoman McKenzie to a resident published this afternoon or last week in Speak Up. Her words are not mine. In comprehensive plan page four, she is responsible for management of public resources, transparent communication, and consistent focus on providing courteous and dependable and responsive service. 
[3:02:27] Transparent communication is in the comprehensive plan. Is it not? Justice Rendeck wrote that the remedy for speech you don't like is your speech, not enforced silence. What we have here is the reverse. An official feeding and anonymous account behind the scenes while asking for public money to be shielded from the resident responding and open. Counsel should weigh that before it votes on item 9.8. And then on page 17, the security policy contradicts what residents told the plan that they wanted. 
[3:03:00] Comprehensive plan page 17, stakeholders consistently favor community policing and neighborhood engagement over cameras and technology. And we trust God policies governance to bear with technology and privacy. Item 9 does the opposite. It is unbudgeted. It sets no cap per incident per year. authorizes the company of security assessments at private residents with no statement of who owns, what public money buys, or what happens to it when the office leaves when he officially leaves the office. 
[3:03:31] The city manager's July 27th email simply states, I will start disdumping. That is not a budget, that is a Brexit. And in the incident, he needs to justify it. includes males in the parking lot in April 2022 as city documents found in a resourcing event. Neither of which required bodyguards. The policy, the comprehensive policy, I'm going to see, or text, gets left and right. It says criticism, political disagreement, 
[3:04:02] and public comment are protected speech. Staying the road are not credible threats. Then the packet supported and knowns nine private citizens, including myself, for exactly that. Public name, best public property, period. I ask you, don't think that is my record, and is fined in the cap, an annual public disclosure of what was done, and a clear statement that every two women's government audit or procession, the Georgia Open Union Act secures 
[3:04:33] the open government and the system, and the system, to a free, open, and democratic society. The security plan can be discussed in the procession, the vote cannot. 7A, the plan test can go on green space, but 7A removed it without the public process. Page 17, again, of our site, you can look it up. The mission is such as it's funded parks, mutual, facility, and additional recreational amenities, as the families and children were doing the value of the government. Page 17, page 16A, Least Badger Stadium and Bill Evansville, 
[3:05:06] among the city's recreation of food. Tonight's item is Saturday at PIP. Sometimes it is 6.1 minutes at 65 feet from that field. And it gets there through a process that's just created last year to prohibit the Planning Commission for studying by all year. The plan supports transit or growth, and I'm not here to ask that. The way I end here to study is that your plan comes to equal attention to all words and a process that public trust does not square with World War II's battlefield going to add the verber who win, rob, 
[3:05:37] they guarantee you can use eyes on it. Great face is not a pay prover, until a better offer comes along. The fifth thing it calls for is stewardship. The money has to file the law, and the public has to see it. Stewardship has a simple, two-time test, that the money file the law, and can the public see where it goes. Two items that connect the agenda take that test, and each one serves in a different way. First, 780HC item 9E, performance is $36,000 to work that is already finished with no waiver of them council approved it. 
[3:06:11] And the cooperative positioning agreement, there is not one exception in doing the public's work being in the statute. Nobody? On the comprehensive plan, that's the last time I'm going to ask you. It is in the plan. I am talking about specifically things that are in the plan that they decide that they are not adhering to by doing what I am alluding to right now. If you want me to stop, I will stop. But I have more, and I will finish if that's okay. If you just stick to the comprehensive plan. And then tonight, well, I am in the comprehensive plan, so I don't know what else you want me to do, Madam Mayor. 
[3:06:49] I have said in everything in the plan, the plan for birth deserves grass-based, and I'm talking about stewardship, which is a problem, and they have not done that. According to the plan, have you read the plan? Do you know what the plan says? The BMO contract out of nine I is a serious one. I can relate that to the plan, Joe Carlin, if you would like while you're sitting up there talking. But again, this dice, if you don't want me to continue on, I will not. 
[3:07:20] But I am trying to rectify and reconcile the comprehensive plan, which we have sat here and gone over and over and mulled over. and I think it is just merely a brochure and not an actual plan when nobody intends to follow it, when they have signed things that are running contrary to that actual plan and everything that is happening tonight runs contrary to that plan. The city manages, none in its plans, ends with a plan, but the inner citizen will know that they are valued and that they belong. 
[3:07:52] None of us found out what that means on page 657. Residents didn't ask for this plan, didn't ask for a bill, they didn't ask for a process, the city was going through on and throughout. So that was the first test of that process and how's the score? Residents know for a tumbling, a councilman feeding an account, read somebody gifts, security with no budget and no cap, a bill for us, so without a hearing, hotel packs committed to wait the last two bills, five failures, one night. If this is the plan that the plan produces, as I think it's not a plan, it is a brochure. 
[3:08:26] So before you go into anything, I'm going to ask you to remember the words that are said by the order of the ordinance to freedom of public past. Do you want the Constitution of Article 1? Public offices are the trustees and servants of the people and are at all times amenable to it. Trusting, servants, at all times. That's what it's convenient, and not only will we agree with you, So that was time when you're ready to live by it, not before. A vision between 46 years and nothing if the council can keep it through Tuesday night. Thank you. 
[3:08:56] Thank you, sir. Do you want to ask your thoughts to speak on the comprehensive plan? Mayor, council, city manager, my name is Valerie Lee. I am the owner of the Wellness Spot and BB Consulting, and I am a proud resident now 
[3:09:28] of College Park, 1720 Rugby. I am, thank you so much for the comprehensive plan, but I do have a couple of questions and concerns for the businesses. I had some challenges getting to the plan. However, I would like to just ask some questions as it relates to the number of businesses that were reflected in the comprehensive plan. Do we have a number of businesses that were? I know that that was an issue before. So what I'd like to suggest is that we have representation from all of the wards with 
[3:10:06] businesses. I'm willing to help with that because I'm very concerned about businesses not really having a voice in this plan. Do we have a number of businesses that were in the plan that we discussed, that you met with? And if we don't, that's fine, but it's just a question that I have. I feel like I am speaking on behalf of businesses because I have had several businesses come to me and say, you know, these are some of the things that I would like as a business 
[3:10:38] owner. This young gentleman that spoke earlier, I wasn't even going to say anything tonight, but he really spoke to me. Number one, you're with the Russell, can you come up here? He's with the Russell Innovation Center. And that is a magnet for entrepreneurs and businesses. Hi, Jeremy, Sally again, 1777 Harvard Avenue. No, not at all. Just more about the Real Estate Center. It is used for, as a stakeholder, with Bridget's Sports Black Company, 
[3:11:10] is one of the epicenters for black entrepreneurship within the entire United States. One of the very few things that exist like this, most prominently here in Atlanta, Georgia, Georgia, focusing on the good in the metro area. They do a wonderful, absolutely wonderful job, and I only read about that because of the Russell construction company involvement, and obviously, the promise that the Russell can within the metro area. But I think going back to the point here where business-wise, as a young business owner who understands the need 
[3:11:45] to where things are happening. That is the question that concerns me from College Park. You know, you have the literal probably T code to public to, I think, North Carolina where you have public transit. You know, we talk about what causes for the growth of socioeconomics within the United States, as it has to choose Park Schools. But when you cross the street to Main Street, how many visitors are closed? How many of them replicate so many of the same institutes? And going back to the point we talked about demographically, how do you get folks to come in and really want to clear a task looking here? 
[3:12:21] And that's going to be something that's very important. Luckily, my work mostly in the top of the world. It is international. It is national. It does not require me to be in Atlanta. I'm a native here in the metro area, and just for family reasons, it's also the airports right next door. I just put three tickets, 11 minutes to sit in my house to do three check. That's my reason. What other reason do we have here? And I was focused on this because I don't care for the rants. I don't care for the conversation y'all got right now. That don't really move me. 
[3:12:52] And today, for why I'm doing my work, I don't care. But what does move me a little bit is I talk to my friends who, same like me, young, black, educated, good jobs, some with businesses, married much more. I'm the only one that lives in College Park. One of them could live on the South Side here. Why is that? When my friends here, they're all from here, from the East Side. Why are they not here? And that's the question I would love to ask every one of you here, what that proposal is. 
[3:13:24] What would make someone and their families to want to stay here for a job, want a good business? That's the wellness spot, want to stay. Why? And I can't get an answer to it. Why should I stop? And this is the one whose business wants to be. Is it required of Cospark residents? Seeing that Cospark tax payer, someone that loves what I do, and will they continue to want to do it? Why? And the big thing they're fighting, I don't care who's on what page, all this conference is planned. My first question was, okay, I saw the plan. 
[3:13:55] Where's the modern integration to it? Which work's been going forward? I know it was a question about rapid transit, probably another station, the green space. Cospark has plenty of land. Green space can be made, it is made. In construction, as I've been in a sport that has grown, we're looking at probably five or six professional teams coming in next year. There's always more room. Look at that. Space can be constructed, can be reconstructed, can be developed, repurposed. And with the comprehensive plan, I wonder what the base will be to that. 
[3:14:26] Going through the plan, the plans, apart from me, is important. Housing is important as well. As we look at the idea of buying a house, you know, a fun time coming around the road. of course, it's favorable on that side, but it may not just be just, you know, something like rugby, something like hershey, a townhouse. It would be something that would be very adequate, very much going forward. And my next question is, you have on the same hospitality side of things, just don't want to get out there now at this point. You know, you have two special teams, the world's business airport in the backyard, 
[3:15:00] and it feels like those are the UNT reasons why people come sometimes. I love the events that are in the playoffs, so people will continue coming until they're done, so I'll start back up, and you all get the flights. But from a business perspective, there's not much incentive. There's not much incentive as a young person to come in and just spend time here. I like going out with my friends. I like being out, having a good day with my girlfriend. I love these things across the board. And there are very few amenities that College Park has that allow for that. 
[3:15:31] I think there's opportunity with the confidence we have to make sure that's included. I am respectfully. We talk about, in respect to, of course, seniors and to many folks that are residents of College Park here that have been homeowner for years. At the same time, that is a progressing trend in Mexico, Atlanta. There's a lot of cases where people are trying to find where their next place will be. People that are educated, that have good jobs. South Park is not on that radar. Simply put, anyone that is saying otherwise, I would love to please go under, once again, under 30 to have that conversation. 
[3:16:03] You talk to the kid coming out of Tech, coming out of the state, Emory, where are they? They're not coming over here for the most part. So why? And that's a very serious question we all have to ask ourselves is why? It's important. Sorry about that. That is, thank you for saying that. I think you just explained why we need to make sure we have this included in the comprehensive plan, especially your age group. Workforce development, you have a lot of college students. 
[3:16:36] I personally employ a lot of college age students. And we have a hub here, we have an opportunity. We need to figure out why you're not coming here and what we need to do to change it so that you are here. Because we need this freshness here in College Park and we would be remiss if we don't make sure that we include that in the comprehensive plan. I'm willing to work with a focus group, with you, some young adults, some businesses from the different wards, so that we have a really good representation and people feel like this is a roadmap that I can follow 
[3:17:11] because I'm a business owner and I'm going to be here for five years, 10 years, 15, 20 years and on. And not just that, but legacy generational businesses that stay here in College Park. Thank you so much. And I will say, thank you, I will say we do have a list of all of the College Park businesses. We also have a list of the brick and mortar businesses. So we have sent the information out, but thank you so much, Ms. Fowler. 
[3:17:42] I'll connect with you and Jeremy so that we can get this focus group together. Things like this public hearing is exactly why we're doing this, so we can make sure it reaches everyone. So thank you so much for that input, both of you. Thank you. Does anyone else want to see? Let us call here. 
[3:18:12] All right. This time I'll clear the. Good evening. My name is Abdul Rahim Mohammed. I stay at 1777 Harvard Avenue. Kind of going off script. I heard it's public hearing today related to the Comprehensive Plan. So thank you all for allowing me to be here. Also to the great work that Aspire has already done. 
[3:18:46] Just wanted to kind of share a brief kind of my experience with being a resident here of College Park, as well as my experience with us serving certain positions with College Park. So again, I probably just kind of hard to follow, but you know, some of the stories that was just shared. But initially, real short and brief, I'm from East Point, Georgia. I went to Tri-City High School. I failed in love with art. 
[3:19:17] I ended up getting one of my first jobs, professional jobs here in College Park. So that was one thing that College Park actually set me on the trail to actually be the man I am today by providing me my first professional job down at Fulton County. Since then, I went on to develop a career in architecture. And being originally from East Point, Georgia, I decided to set up residency here and award for College Park. It was a great experience, just like the residents said. 
[3:19:51] that during the experience it makes you wonder like you know why, we know why College Park, why we would want to stay where everybody say it's the best secret in Georgia. You have to live here to kind of know that. But again, after knowing that and living the experience, as well as my profession, which is design, I sat back and kind of observed what was happening when I first became the residence here. I used to come to the city planning meeting before COVID. I used to come planning meetings, the zoning meetings, and I observed. 
[3:20:23] There was certain development coming at that time from development in Ward 4. One thing that I was put to the side professionally and was told is that, hey, you might not know the full story of how this development is developing, so as a young professional, sit back and just watch how College Park operates. I've been watching for over six years now. I have, like again, thank you, Madam Mayor, for appointing me to serve on the zoning board. So for, again, the public, just to put a name with a face, I am your zoning board president and chair. 
[3:20:59] But again, I am grateful to serve in the community on that behalf. But I've learned a lot even through that experience. I thought with being inside of the government, you would have a lot more say-so as far as how development is developing. and it still was a little bit of a gray area there. So to the planners doing a comprehensive plan, I always hung my hat on, hey, maybe just wait for the comprehensive plan come around. You know, this is the theme where all the communities put in all their potential projects. 
[3:21:34] You know, I was able to collaborate, again, with some of the STEAM council members on a few projects here in College Park. So again, thank you for that opportunity as well. But I haven't seen really many community-led initiative projects. And I was hoping that the Comprehensive Plan would really capture some of our thoughts. Because what I've seen is that a lot of projects are initiated and started across the table or across the board and not so much passed back over to the actual stakeholders, the community stakeholders. 
[3:22:07] And then again, I'll make this brief. I'll close it out. But just being a young design professional that was raised up by the Tri-State area, the greater Atlanta area, I'm just really looking for this comprehensive plan to really reflect some of our thoughts, our ideas, some of our professional recommendations. So again, thank you all for your time. Thank you, sir. Is anyone else with the speak on the comprehensive plan? 
[3:22:39] All right, this time I will be cutting the puppetry closed. 
[3:23:09] Next is consent agenda. First item is consideration of an action on request to approve purchase of uniforms via NTPgov, utilizing North America Fire Equipment Company as a uniform supplier at a cost of $57,500. This item is requested by Fire Chief Sterling Jones, and political service all worth. Item B, consideration of an action request to approve invoice from LEED's Online IBS renewal. 
[3:23:43] This item is requested by Charles McCrea Chief of Police. This is a budget item in the amount of $28,080.46. Contractual services, this will service all awards. C consideration of an action on a request for approval of an IGA between the city of College Park and Fulton County, Georgia for the provision of 800 MHD radio systems, accessing the amount of $155,390. 
[3:24:15] This item is being requested by Chief of Police, Jaris McCurry, and the fiscal service awards. Any consideration of an action request for allocated a total of $175,000 for the 2026 citywide festival, commonly known as Ward 4 citywide festival? $50,000 will be for Ward 4 community enhancement funds, non-capital. And the remainder $100,000 will be citywide events. This item is requested by Councilman Roger A. 
[3:24:47] Item E, consideration of actual requests to approve an additional funding for canoe construction for the ongoing renovation of the historic conservatory house located at 4320 Horsal Road. At the regional botanical garden, the amount of $2,100,000. This will be from forest product development fund. This item is sponsored by Councilman Roderick Gaye. Thank you, Council Member Gates. Motion. Thank you, Council Member Gates. Is there a second? 
[3:25:18] Second. Thank you, Council Member Gates. I see all those in favor. Second. Second. Second. Next item, regular business, 9A, consideration of an action request to approve mayoral legislative contract in the amount of $6,066 per month. This is a budgeted item for Tractual Services. This item is sponsored by Councilwoman Dr. Kameli. 
[3:25:48] Can they? Is there a motion? Motion. Thank you, Council Member McKenzie. Is there a circuit? Circuit. Thank you, Council Member Gay. Any discussion? Yes. I just wanted to, you know, this particular position, we have it on the regular agenda, But this is a position that all of us have, every single council member and the mayor. We have on our budget line for contractual services. This falls under contractual services. 
[3:26:20] So I wanted to clarify because on the last agenda I had put the exact same category and there was not clarity. People thought that we were taking that from the community enhancement budget. But Xavier Ross was receiving the exact same amount of funding for doing a whole bunch of work as Ms. Honesty McQueen will as well. So I just wanted to be clear. But I do have a question. 
[3:26:50] This is for Attorney Denmark. Okay. Attorney Ben Mark under item, under number 16 on this contractual services agreement. It talks about assignment and subcontracting. Okay? And what I want to clarify is so that it is known that any individual who has this position with the City of Commerce Park, can they subcontract under the agreement. 
[3:27:20] Well, the agreement does not provide for that. Okay. Because that's what it's saying. But I know we did have that situation earlier this year where we had, and I want this to be clear, that there is money in the budget for each council member and the mayor to hire multiple people. That's how Rachel has her job. So it's all within the same line item. However, you cannot subcontract, because when you subcontract for a $70,000 position, first of all, it's illegal. 
[3:28:00] But secondly, that position still has to come back before this council. So there's no way that a city manager could approve a subcontractual agreement for a legislative aide. And I just need everyone to understand. So if you've heard anything other than that, if you've heard that the city manager, Lindell Miller, or whoever may have been, approved a subcontract for the former mayor, L'Oreal, assistant, that is incorrect. 
[3:28:32] It's not true, and it would have been illegal. So I do want us to approve this today, but I want it to be understood that this agreement does not allow for subcontractors. If anybody wants another person, there's money in your line item. Mr. Denmark, illegal? Councilman McKenzie made that statement. 
[3:29:04] I guess you could ask her to clarify. Oh, no, I can. But I'm asking the parliamentarian, who's also our city attorney. Yes, ma'am. She's assuming that it would be in violation of the contract. Then I believe that would be the appropriate or the phrase I'll give a C elected to use. Illegal. Yes, ma'am. Her position is that a subcontract would violate the terms of the contract. 
[3:29:39] So therefore, it is illegal. You could have said unlawful, whatever term you prefer, but it's contrary to the law. What law? The contract is a legal document that binds the parties. The act of contrary to that could be beginning to be unlawful, illegal. So I will read exactly what number 16, under this particular professional services contract, says. under assignment and subcontracting. 
[3:30:10] It says the contractor shall not assign this agreement or any portion of this agreement, nor shall the contractor subcontract for goods or completed or substantially completed services purchased here under without the prior express written consent of the city. And for a $70,000 agreement, the city is not the city manager. It is a vote of three or more members of the city council. 
[3:30:44] And because there was a contract that was apparently put out that the, I did talk to Denmark Ashby, that contract was never approved by our attorneys. A person was given an email address, a badge, and the ability to park in the governing body's parking spaces unlawfully. That contract would have had to come back. And I want us to get this clear because we talk about being transparent. 
[3:31:16] Transparency means there's nothing wrong with simply bringing everything you do to this council. $70,000 contract. Subcontract means that you have to come back to this council. City managers, at that point, the city manager could only approve $10,000. That's $9,999.99. So I just need people to listen, read, ask questions, understand. 
[3:31:48] Transparency is not about us just talking about the things that we want to expose. Transparency is about doing the right thing, letting people know, and being accountable. And when you make a mistake, accountability also means, I made a mistake. I goofed. I didn't do it right. And so I would like for us to do things the right way. Any further discussion? Hearing no, we'll move to a vote. 
[3:32:18] All those in favor. Aye. That is unanimous. Item 9B, consideration of an action to approve East Coast Grady, the lowest bidder, to perform street resurfacing work under the Georgia Department of Transportation 2025 Local Maintenance Improvement Grant LRA, Program to Mill and Resurface Harris Drive, Embassy Drive, Adams Street, and Alexandria Way for $159,004.98. This is a budgeted item under streets resurfacing. 
[3:32:51] This item is to be requested by Brian Anderson, Public Works Director. This item will support all awards. Is there a motion? Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Karn. Is there a second? Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Arnold. Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor? Aye. That is unanimous. Item C, consideration of an action to approve vendor Georgia sewer and storm LLC identified as the lowest bidder to replace and repair 40 feet of 36 feet. corrugated metal storm pipe that has resulted in a roadway depression on Frontage Road in the amount of $109,974.35. 
[3:33:29] This item is being requested by Brian Anderson, Public Works Director. This is a budgeted item. This installation will support Ward 2. Is there a motion? Motion. Thank you, Council Member Carn. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Council Member Arnold. Any discussion? No, just a quick question. Council Member Carn? I'm sorry. State manager, I guess, from a conference, I thought it was a great job. So, I guess it was a question for the press. 
[3:34:04] I saw some of the leftover work draft with the typing stuff on the side. I guess I would try to just give you a little bit of one minute, you know. Because at the pressure, the bus service started like a long time, well, there's a convenience of residents. So I'm not worried about that. You guys did a great job. 
[3:34:35] I'm fine. What's your question, counsel? Fundage Road Fund. Yes. When I got back, I saw y'all with Gatlin. Gatlin's job pretty much done. It's looking good over there. But what was that underneath? It was some corrugated metal pipe commonly known as the TMP. And it's called 10-wheel. It's the old pipe in the 1920s. And in fact, during that time, it was the top of the line. And over time, they just failed. And it caused that road to breach. 
[3:35:05] So they put in some RCP, which will last about another 34 years. Next one more door open? Yep. Okay. All right, Mr. Chair. I'm wondering if you think you're saying that those things in the sidewalks are going to go with them. Yes, additionally, Superintendent Raymond Cotton recognized that he saw a lady pushing a baby. So he decided why the contractor was there to go ahead and add 75 feet of sidewalk with ADA ramp to make it more accessible. So we're going to do that too as well. That's just nice and appreciate it. 
[3:35:37] Absolutely. Any further assistance? Council Member Furley? This was just a general comment. If not for you, Mr. Anderson, it's more for the city manager and her staff when we're putting our packets together. especially as we are publicizing information inside of these documents. This is, I think, the second or third time that I've seen a taxpayer ID number that has not been masked inside of our documents. 
[3:36:15] Because we are releasing this information to the public, I am requesting that we start to make sure that every time we are including W9 information, that we mask the taxpayer ID number. Okay, thank you. Senator Bray? I just wanted to make my pitch to get some of our school work done. Next agenda, we meet with y'all and send me an ask about storm water, but particularly on Lakeshore Drive. 
[3:36:53] We got a storm water creek that only needs purpose time. So I brought that to you at the last legal review, I believe. On Lakeshore Drive. Okay, it's $450,000 storm water creek that we did, but it's been taken over by and basically purpose time. Brian, we talked about putting a herbicide on there where you and I did a ride through. 
[3:37:23] We're talking about that area where the grass grew up inside the creek. We sprayed some Daiquat in there. And if it doesn't take another couple of days, we're going to go ahead and do some mechanical removal. But we just, but if that's our question it took, but if it's gone, we'll go ahead and we'll take care of it. We'll make sure it's removed. And to the mayor, I'm sure you're so proud of us. That's a stormwater basin that's got a lot of inertia that you can literally fall in. 
[3:37:55] But I'll point it out to you. We'll do it right here. Thank you. Sure. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor. That is unanimous. Yes. Item D, consideration of an action on request to approve the purchase and replacement of a 90 ton train air cooler at City Hall in the amount of $151,959. 
[3:38:30] From Victor Max Air Mechanical LLC to the statewide contract, this is not a budgeted item. This agenda item is being a question from Public Works Director Brian Anderson. I will support Z Hall in the community. Is there a motion? Motion. Thank you, Councilmember McKenzie. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Councilmember Carnie. Any discussion? Moving to a vote. All those in favor? Aye. That is unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 
[3:39:01] So, the item E consideration of an accident on train US Inc. Cooperative agreement under Omnia contact and payment for the City Hall HVAC system in the amount of $446,705.31. Assignment request by City Manager Michael Hicks. Is there a motion? Motion. Thank you, Council Member Kinsey. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Council Member Corn. 
[3:39:32] All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Discussion, Council Member Corn? Just real quick, City Manager, this was, is this some of the work that was already done? Like, . Well, yes sir, this one predates me to work the other day, I don't think it's time to pay them for the work that our previous people had already approved. The units, any size of the units. Yeah, right. Yeah, because I know that tonight is, yeah. 
[3:40:03] I don't think it's all tonight. All right. Sounds like we need it. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll do two of those. All those in favor? Aye. That is unanimous. Item F, consideration of an action on request to approve a special event permit from Shandaker Wheat to host Love on the Green to be held on September 26, 2026 at Charles A. Phillips Park from 8 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. 
[3:40:33] 8 a.m. This item is being requested by Deputy City Clerk Pliny Brown. This event will be called in Ward 4. Is there a motion? Motion. Thank you, Council Member Day. Is there a second? Second. Thank you Councilmember Carden. We had talked about today. They're not going to be on a parking lot. It's going to be a break. We're going to have to go back to the board. We have to go back. 
[3:41:05] Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor? Aye. That's unanimous. Item D, consideration of an action on request to approve an ordinance established under no left turn at Main Street Academy at 2861 Lakesport Drive. This item is being requested by Chief of Police, Charles Macquarie. This will serve as word for this is a budgeted item at no cost to approve this department. 
[3:41:37] Sarah Mostert. Thank you, Council Member D. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Council Member McKenzie. Any discussion? Is there no one already there? No sir, the community and the officers that were working at the beginning of the school year has requested for a no left turn sign. Yes, sir. Yes. 
[3:42:08] And at York. . In the ordinance that I read, she said that there are two . Ordinance . And one of them was the target . On the old national? I wanted to know, city attorney, can we look at taking that out of the order for One, I think that I took a move and that was really a target. 
[3:42:43] And second, there's a meeting of that, but I can't die. Could we take it out of the audience? Please, we need to counsel to take out the audience. You want to approve the team to get out of the vision that we're doing? Yes. I read your orders and you wrote them for this. But in your order you point two locations that already have no left terms and I said, you pointed out two locations, one of them is the target of the old national. 
[3:43:16] The old target. Can we strike back from the order? That language? Yes. How do we do that? You would have to bring it back as an amendment to that particular order. . If you want to pick it up, . Well, there may be some other . 
[3:43:48] Probably W. Great industry, maybe. It would only apply to that. One. Can we do a new witness to the class with one left turn? Yeah, yes, definitely. Okay, that one. That one. Because you still got it in the board, but it's the move that no one exists. Yes, but. Well, that would be a clear advice to you. Yeah, we, we, we, listen. We'd have to bring that back. Yes. Any further discussion? 
[3:44:18] Hearing none, we'll move to the move. All those in favor. Aye. That is the end. Item 8, consideration of an action on a resolution adopting the city of College Park elected official security policy. This item is sponsored by Councilwoman Tracy Arnold. Is there a motion? Motion. Thank you, Councilmember Arnold. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Councilmember Carr. Any discussion? Hearing none of the questions? I'm opening my mouth. Thank you. 
[3:44:49] That was quick. I was trying to give Councilman Arnold the opportunity because I didn't notice that she was sponsoring this. But again, there have been a lot of things that have been said during this meeting and a lot of chatter. And first of all, I want to thank the College Park Police Department and the brothers from the Nation of Islam who are here today in support of making sure that Jeff McKenzie can fly his plane tonight and know that his wife is safe. 
[3:45:21] I do want to ask if Chief McCrary would come forward. I have a couple of questions. So, Chief McCreary, on the morning of July 25th, I was inside of, it was a Ward 1 meeting being held. The meeting hadn't started yet, but I was inside of the municipal courtroom. You called me that morning. 
[3:45:51] Would you like to kind of repeat, without saying anything specific, but what was the purpose of your call? I believe, did you text me? No, you called me to ask me where I was. This is the Ward 1 meeting on July 25th. Yes. And your question was, where am I? Where's my car? Right. Okay. Right. I did ask you where you were at the time. I know you were planning to have your Ward 1 meeting. We were having a job fair, and then we were being told it was supposed to be a protest happening. 
[3:46:26] Right. So kind of just wanted, what I wanted to do is where I'm going with this is that Jamel McKenzie did not call the police department about a protest. I received a call from my chief of police, and can you kind of share some of the things that you instructed me to do? I instructed you to park in the back so that you wouldn't have to have any face-to-face interaction with anyone. We wouldn't have any confrontations. We wouldn't have any complaints of nasty looks. 
[3:46:56] So I instructed to the park in the back of the police department, and I attended the meeting. Officer Portrait attended the meeting, and it was a peaceful meeting. And also, Deputy Chief Durden was there as well. Right. He was there, but he was also attending to the job. Right. You know me. I'm the kind of person. I like to bounce around just about everybody in this room except for three or four people have gotten a hug from me at some point. So I'm just bouncing around. I like to, I love to communicate. I'm a social, social, social, okay? 
[3:47:28] So I love to communicate. I love to hug people. And so after the meeting, I wanted to do that. And what was I instructed? Oh, I grabbed your arm and told you to get back here. Okay. And that really brought even more concern. So the next day, just stay there for a second. The next day, I called Chief McCreary. I wanted some more understanding on exactly what was going on that evening. Now, for many of you that may not be aware, I was elected on November 7, 2023. 
[3:48:03] The night that I was elected, the election, when I won, it was challenged that night by my opponent. And then there was a recount by Colton County, and I won again by the same exact amount of votes. But within two weeks after that, there were things put on Facebook that said, recall her. So the recall plan was put in to planning before I ever was sworn in. 
[3:48:36] I also had threats that were made to me. Chief McCrary was not the chief at that time. I reached out to, but I think McCrary got involved in that. But it was definitely Chief Rogers. We actually had a person that threatened me and my life and my opinion by the words, and they did it publicly. I filed a police report at that time, and on the advisement of my attorney, my personal attorney. Since that time, I have had numerous threats. 
[3:49:10] I have not filed a police report every time, but I have certainly called whoever my city manager was. I've called the chief of police. I have had my signs, my campaign signs, not my campaign signs, excuse me, my community meeting signs, excuse me, trying to advertise that there's a community meeting. I've had the signs burned and thrown on the golf course. In addition to that, I wanted to celebrate my community with holiday signs, which this 
[3:49:44] This is still in court right now. And my signs were being pulled up. I even had a police officer, it's illegal, Ms. Cochran, to pull up a sign, especially on city property. We're not talking about signs that were pulled up. This is what simply said, happy holidays. And pulled up and thrown down, and every time we put it back up on city property, they got pulled down. The ones that were in the right-of-ways or wherever they were, and the officers put my 
[3:50:18] signs up. I don't put my own signs up. I'm trying to go somewhere with this. I'm a female. So maybe a man, you know, Councilman Karn, Councilman Gay, they may feel differently, but even they have had threats made on them. Councilwoman Arnold and I, this is new for us. And no, we did not sign up. I don't mind people criticizing me, but I didn't sign up to have threats made on my life on a regular basis. 
[3:50:51] I did not sign up for a group to be formed. The group Speaker College Park was formed on October 19, 2023, because I came down here in a council meeting, and I was speaking in public comment and I was talking about having my campaign signs pulled up. By the end of that evening, the clip was put on that website and it has been a Stop Jamel McKenzie from winning a smear campaign ever since. 
[3:51:23] I've asked the mayor to speak to the people in that group on January 19th or 18th, 2024 before because they are her supporters, at least when it first started. Now you've got people that just get in for the entertainment. She said, I can't do anything about it. They won't do what I asked them to do. But yet, a Webster-Wallace fictitional bot is formed and posts on the very same group that I posted. I don't post, there's a speaker. 
[3:51:56] Because I'm not going to go somewhere where anything that I put in there, it especially is going to be it doesn't even matter because it doesn't matter what I put in there. They're going to have a problem with whatever gets done and I'm okay with that. Okay? They have the right to do that. But I post in everything College Park because that is a neutral environment for me. I don't know Webster Wallace. I don't want to know Webster Wallace. I do know Demetrius Taylor and he's always had his own opinion. Okay? 
[3:52:27] But I feel if you're asked me to condemn a fake bot, why are you not asking someone to condemn all of the attacks that go not against me, but against members of this community? I'm looking at one right now. He was the brunt of attacks at the last council meeting, just a young man trying to work. I have every single contractor practically that has come on to work for one Ward 1 because we are moving in Shake-In and we are doing some work in this city. 
[3:53:05] I got Ms. Johnson who she had a problem with. But everybody knows if you got a problem with me, if you come to me correct, you can talk to me. I'm going to sit. I listened to what she said. I agreed with a lot of what she said. And what I didn't agree with, I still listen to. But the key was, my concern is education and youth. Okay? Our seniors and a lot of other things. But that was something that she was really concerned about. And we're doing something. 
[3:53:35] We have an educational initiative that's never been done in this city. We have a Read to Succeed program. We have Project Torchlight in the housing authority. You want to know one of the reasons why the crime stats in Ward 1 have gone down? because of Project Torchlight is in that community. So we're working on getting rid of crime. And I know I got a lot to say because there's been a lot said, folks. So when Chief McCreary, I called the chief the day after, and I asked her, 
[3:54:10] because I was like, what's going on? What was all this about? You know, we're being ushered off the back, and, you know, it made me nervous. and she let me know that the police department had received some information. There was things being put online. Now I've had several residents call me and say that a particular attorney that maybe came to this meeting tonight and had something to say about the comprehensive plan called people throughout this city and asked them to come and protest against me 
[3:54:41] at my own community town hall meeting for the comprehensive plan. It could have been held any other time, but it was meant to intimidate. It was meant to intimidate the persons who were supporting Ward 1 and wanted to come out to speak and learn for the comprehensive plan. So the very person who was counting us tonight over their issues with the comprehensive plan was one of the issues with the comprehensive plan. 
[3:55:14] Oh, yes. And so after I speak to the chief and she lets me know, and like I said, then I've had other citizens that say, oh, yeah, we will call too. We got a call on Friday night from a certain attorney. We're probably running for Ward 1 or May May or something here, some political stuff. That's what they said. They said, but we didn't go because we're tired of the mess. We're tired of the relentless attacks. They're typing right now while we're speaking. 
[3:55:44] Go look. They're on the city website. They're on the Facebook page. They're in their group. Okay? So, my mama taught me, protect yourself. Okay? Do the right thing. Protect yourself. I understand the territory. I understand the assignment. So after I spoke to chief, and we also had a meeting with the attorneys around July 15th, we had a meeting in legal review with the chief of police, 
[3:56:16] and we discussed the fact that we're getting ready to go into probably the nastiest campaign season that the city of College Park has ever seen. And it was important that we turn up security. This is not just Jamel McKenzie. Tracy Arnold, and I don't mean to bring her into anything, but she is sponsoring this legislation. I write a letter to the city attorney and the city manager regarding my conversation with the chief of police. 
[3:56:48] I have never, and if you all need to read because reading is fundamental, read my letter again. My letter does not say that I was threatened by anybody or that anyone posed a threat. My letter just said these are folks that were there, and it's just a habit. They just like critiquing me. I wasn't scared of those people, okay? But I've had citizens. I've had people from outside of College Park call me McKenzie. 
[3:57:21] You better get some security. because even though those people may not put a hand on you, the things that they keep on saying will incite violence against you, and you need to protect. I've had legislators call me, state legislators call me. I've had people from other cities and states say, you better get some protection. So I write the letter to Mr. Hicks. 
[3:57:51] I'm saying, and the attorney, this letter was written January 27. It's not libel. I didn't accuse anybody of anything. I just told them who was in the room. And guess what? If you Google, if you go on Facebook, and you're going to speak up, and you put any of those names that are named, you will see numerous posts where they did exactly what I say. So they can't say they didn't do it. I just simply said what was going on. 
[3:58:21] Now, I didn't know it was going to get put in this packet. We kind of wish it hadn't. But you can't cry over spilt milk because I did file something with the city manager. Because this is not the first. This is not the second. I've had to file police. I filed another police report this weekend. And why do I do it? Not because I'm against my residence. But I will tell you this much. All day long, Jamel McKenzie loves herself. 
[3:58:51] And I would tell any person, any person, whether you like me or not, if you find yourself in a position, and like I said, my letter, read the letter again. Because I have contractors, we have entrepreneurs. They're always talking about what's in the comprehensive plan for businesses. Well, what about the business owners that want to do business with the city of College Park, but they find themselves being targeted on a regular basis? 
[3:59:21] by a group of people who may be disfrontal because they don't like what they see up here or who they see up here. But I'm here. And guess what? I don't plan on going anywhere. I'm not going to be intimidated. I'm not going to be scared. I'm not scared. But I will not be stupid either. I got a husband who loves me, a son who will hurt somebody over his mama. And I got parents that are 91 and 92 that pray for my behind every single night. 
[3:59:53] I have a congregation. I am a pastor. I don't live this life with what I can get away with. I trust in God, and I believe God. He sees what I do. And that's why I'm not a Webster Wallace. But I'm not going to condemn a fake bot until I see somebody condemn a group that continues to attack the contractors of this city, the council members of this city. Now the city manager's attacked. 
[4:00:24] The city attorney's attacked. If the clerk said, they've attacked the clerk. Enough is enough. Again, y'all can keep on doing it. But I will advocate all day long for anybody and everybody in this city who is being unfairly targeted to be able to feel safe and secure. Because I understand what you're going through. So, I just want to explain that this was not about, this little letter was not about trying to put anybody on fire straight. 
[4:01:03] This same group also says Jamel never files police reports. Oh, yes, I do. I call the police. I call the chief of police directly. And McCrary knows. Chief McCrary knows. She probably gets, you get tired of me probably. But I'm not trying to hurt any of my citizens. I'm trying to make sure that Jeffrey, Captain Jeffrey McKenzie's wife, gets home in one piece. And while she's in her home, she can have peace and he can have peace knowing that his wife is safe and secure. 
[4:01:41] So I want to thank all the persons that are listening that may not be in this room for all of your calls, the love letters that you have sent, the outpour of support. I want to thank those of you that came down and spoke. I did not ask you to, but some people were so grieved. They said, this has got to stop. This has got to stop. Somebody's having a good time looking at this. And no, I did not take a picture of the maker. Somebody else did. 
[4:02:12] I was appalled. We are at a retreat that the city of College Park is paying for us to be at. And all of us, and I'm not going to name the names, but a lot of people that are in this room were in that place on that night. And our mayor is sitting up there drinking at the bar with men all over her. I was opposed as a married woman to see another married woman. You're not sitting with the married woman. You're too good to sit with them. Let me come back. You can't sit with the council members. 
[4:02:43] You can't sit with the city manager was there. The city clerk was there. We were all together. I didn't take a picture, but somebody did. And they sent it to me and a lot of other people. That was January. That was January. I had nothing to do with any of it. But there is, as my new friend, Ms. Corcoran has said, karma. 
[4:03:15] What you put out there, it's going to come back. If you don't straighten things out, things are coming back to you. And I want everybody to understand that. There's a Carmite law. We're getting ready. I'll save my comments for the DMO for that item. When you put out good, that's why I'm not worried, y'all. Because I've created so many jobs and so many opportunities for people. People want to fight against the contracts. 
[4:03:46] Ward 1 has hired more persons in the history of College Park to do business with the city of College Park. And the majority are people who live in this city. I was talking to somebody about education today. I have interns. I got more interns coming. I'm training young people. College students. Because we've got to get these young people involved. Jeremy Sally said it. 
[4:04:17] He's under 30. What does College Park have to offer for people under 30? That's why most of my team is either under 30 or in their 30s. Because I understand I'm a dinosaur. So some people may come down here. I'm like, oh, yeah, that sounds good. I'm not thinking like a young person. I'm 64 years old. Okay, Councilman Burgoyne. 
[4:04:49] Tell us how you really feel about it. I definitely understand. Chief, hold on before you go. I do think it's something that is needed. I know we spoke earlier about the safety measures that elected officials in the past that we had to implement. So, yeah, that's all real. So, yeah. Yeah, so keep track. 
[4:05:26] Any further discussion? All those in favor. Do it further. Do it further discussion. Council member Arnold? Oh, no. Yeah. That was a lot, but I do need to make sure that I make a statement and comment of me sponsoring and asking for this legislation. All my colleagues, including the city attorney, recall us having a conversation at our very first retreat at Lake Linear. 
[4:06:06] And I shared a very personal situation of what happened with one of my family members when people are gaslit to the point where they take action. My concern at that time was that we did not have any security in place for the elected official. Because I know firsthand what could happen. I've had family members that shot, stabbed, and these are individuals who actually work for the public. 
[4:06:43] and one of my children's cousins murdered. So this is very personal to me when people get to the point where they start acting out. And so when you say a credible threat, a credible threat is when two years ago we have someone call in and make a threat against the mayor, the city mayor, and an appointed official that the police department was able to verify, but the citizens don't know about it. 
[4:07:18] A credible threat is when you have other elected officials or people are going to their homes. They're defacing their property. They're receiving individuals that are following them as they are out in the community. So what makes it more credible? Does it make it more credible when someone is injured or dead? It's too late, Damon. 
[4:07:50] So, yes, I was the one who actually talked to Ms. Gibbs about my concerns. I went to my personal mentor and talked to her, who is a former sheriff of Fulton County, because I was concerned about how elevated the community or some individuals have become in the community. I don't want to see any of my family members injured. 
[4:08:22] My mother can't run out of the house if someone is after her. I've had someone on my property, I didn't report it to the police, but people just walking on the property and they've caught on camera. So yes, I proudly ask for us to consider having enhanced safety measures for ourselves. We have way too much going on, not just here in the city of College Park, but around this 
[4:08:55] country where you have elected official after elected official after public personality being injured and killed. So some of the things that have been asked for when it comes to this legislation, which I don't disagree, no, we shouldn't have a blank check. So then let's put a cap on it, a maximum of $65 an hour. 
[4:09:25] I think that's the going rate for security. No more than 10 hours a month. For all five of us to have security coverage for a maximum of 10 hours a month, $39,000 a year. For those who might be upset about the $39,000 because it's not budgeted, Think about how you've participated in some of this behavior. People would not feel threatened if others had not been on their personal property throwing trash and teepees. 
[4:10:08] Again, things that you have not heard about, but they have actually happened here in the city of College Park. And I'm appalled to even have this type of conversation because we know better. We should be doing better. We are asked to be better people, yet the people who are asking us to be better are not doing better themselves. In order for this city to move forward, we all have to work collectively. 
[4:10:44] I love College Park. I have an investment in the city just like everybody else. Our property values are probably the highest that they've ever been. And we have a couple of properties in the city of College Park, over a million dollars worth. But do you think it's going to continue to hold that value if the citizens, this is the citizens that live here. 
[4:11:14] This cannot continue to happen. If we want to have developers to come to the city, if we want to see our city thrive and grow, if we want to attract young people, businesses, schools, we must demand that those who are trying to tear down our city, that they stop and they stop immediately. Those are my comments. 
[4:11:45] Thank you. And Councillor Bernard, any further discussion? I might as well add to the conversation. Councillor Brigade? I don't want to make light of anything that my colleagues did, but what I want to add to is that I'm more concerned about . I come to the city attorney, city manager, and numerous occasions about trying to find a way to stop defamation and slander. I mean, things are not true, not protection of the Constitution, but just straight lies. 
[4:12:18] I mean, it was just Saturday when Facebook administrative began her tirade about the federal. And it was just not true. I asked her to take it down. So I come to the city manager and city planning. I think I don't want a security guard. I don't. I would like to use my mind to put the reputation on it. Because then, the explicit lies that I put out on that table for me. 
[4:12:52] It proves to prove that they're not correct. And that's what I want. I know. So, Mayor, may I respond? Mr. Hicks? So, Councilor Gaye, I'd like you to kind of reconsider that. Here's why, because Councilman Gay and I were looking at his water slide. And you remember the gentleman who got out of the car screaming and was walking towards you and me? And the police happened to be out there and clearly got to stop. So, I mean, you know, let's look at a hybrid situation. 
[4:13:25] Maybe part of the kind of security and the other part is what you're talking about. Well, I don't want to minimize that sense of security. And I don't take proof granted that the people that won't come out and kill you because being gaslighted, that's the end of this, and established in World War I, like I never seen it. I know. I mean, I knew they were racist, but I didn't know. I thought they were overt racist, but I didn't know it was direct racist. I'm not worried too much about me and Michael Hicks because what the lady did say, 
[4:13:56] it's just hard to protect somebody all the time. I just personally want the reputation for myself to be better. Even if you've got to hire an attorney that deals with reputation alone, that's why I need help better. Fair enough? Fair enough. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll move on. All those in favor. 
[4:14:27] Aye. Aye. That's unanimous. Next item, consideration and approval of destination marketing organization services agreement with destination must visit Tourism Alliance. Is there a motion? Motion. Thank you, Council Member McKenzie. Is there a second? Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Gay. Any discussion? Council Member Carr? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. 
[4:14:58] So, I can. So, council, we have looked at this contract a couple times. And the city attorney and I asked you all to look at it one final time before we do. And you guys came back with one particular edit. And instead of the 25 board members, you talked about six board members, for the DMO and six board members, and each one of you get one, and the GICC is the sixth person. 
[4:15:29] Is that agreeable for all private needs? Sign with me. Sign with me. Sign with me. It is, but additionally- Okay. Yes, that's- Let me pivot to you and then I'll come back. Yeah, definitely agree. Well, the 25 board members in the contract are obviously not actually board members. 
[4:15:59] And while it's a notion, And it's just superficial. It's just . If DMO is very important to us in its permanent situation. . Well, it's a one year contract. One year contract. One year. That legislature has made DMO contractual services a bit more permanent, I just say it that way. 
[4:16:29] So this is very important to us, obviously, and they still could, you know, you've done an excellent job serving for the county when I was county commissioner, and we've got a good relationship. But I think it, I believe that it's going to be in the city's best interest to be a full part of this, your DMO's existing corporate structure. I understand you have five board members, is that correct? 
[4:17:00] Right now? Okay. Do you have any questions for the guest station? Yes. Good evening, Mayor, Council, City Managing Attorney. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for having us here. So is it five members covered on your board? We have seven. We have seven. Okay, out of the last meeting, you have to be five board meetings. 
[4:17:32] Yes. Yes, at our last meeting. Our board has met with seven. So you've increased your board from five members to seven since the last time you met? Yes. All right, okay. I wasn't aware of that. Okay, so now you have seven board meetings. Mm-hmm. Okay, well, we expect some efforts. I think you guys are very qualified to serve some of our interests in GMO. But we have to be full, legitimate partners in this project together. 
[4:18:03] And that means full board of directors and an equal number preferably of board of directors. We have, obviously, five of us up here. our DICC director is always, always a voting board member of our boards, and it comes to our money, our funding, our future, and our plan of the BMO, you know, expenditures, and so on and so forth. 
[4:18:34] So as the same with both BMOs, we go through kind of two incarnations of BMOs, And we both, both of those incarnations have voting board members that we have appointed. So I do expect that, for me, that would be a deal breaker for me. There's no way I'm going to hand over the decision making process. And in terms of who chose the purse strings without the city being involved in it. And involved doesn't mean superficially involved. 
[4:19:05] That means equity is on the board. And this board and the program board, again, I don't really, don't get any of that if there's no authority here at all. And just the suggestions I really need to hear when I'm telling you, Page 24 of 96. Down here item I, post item I, The program board shall serve only in an advisory capacity and 
[4:19:39] shall not constitute the governing board of the DMO or exercise the judiciary authority over the DMO corporate governance or operations. The program board shall provide destination specific advice. Well, I think you guys are a qualified group and really complicated but we're not signing up just beyond the destination advice. We have to be a part of that board, not the body, but our point is easy. 
[4:20:13] And I think a fair number would be 66, but you're standing the board and I don't want the next time we meet you have more board members from five to seven to more. I don't know if that's in the plan during the work, but that doesn't give me a whole lot of confidence that you're increasing the board before we come to an understanding and agreement. But right now it's your board and you do it however you want it. If we're going to be a part of this, I would expect our board members to be voting board members on the actual real board. 
[4:20:50] other board and performance board, I'm sorry, program board. I mean, like I said, we didn't have that back tonight. But we've absolutely got to be included into the board of directors with identical equivalent of parties. So that's kind of where I am on it. Councilmember Carnes, I hear your concern, but I have two legal points I need to just have you filter with your comments. One is that the state required to have an independent 501c6, but that entity cannot be independent 
[4:21:30] if you have members of its board also being appointed by the entity for the city, the city entity, that is supposed to be the people that they're contracting with. Secondly, the IRS would prohibit our board members from giving up fiduciary responsibility on the board. This happens to be the company. Your previous BMO had an advisory board to which you didn't have voting members. 
[4:22:03] The city council people could come, so we changed the language to make all of the members on the program board voting and have an input in it, but it is advisory because of the nature of how the system is set up. I did what you told me after the meeting. I went and worked through some language to give you some input, some people, some way to make a difference because of the problems that you had expressed before existing with the previous DMO and not having enough input from enough of the stakeholders 
[4:22:34] in order to effectuate what you think was a benefit to the city. But you can't just do it by having a board of an existing entity that's supposed to be independent, be comprised of other people who are selected by you guys. Our previous board did not have advisory members. They were voting board members along with the rest of the board. I'm sorry. The executive board was not not a SPA member. Okay, the executive board didn't make the decision. 
[4:23:06] It was a voting board, and the entire board voted and made the decision in terms of . But that group, if I'm not mistaken, was created by the city in the beginning. That entity was created by the city, and then it expanded its jurisdictional boundaries. So the city had created the board because they were the entity forming the entity. That entity was created by the state of Georgia and allowed us to appoint board members of the DMO legislation 
[4:23:37] so that we didn't make a decision that we wanted to have board members say loud and be able to be done as it is with other DMOs throughout the state of Georgia. And then they changed it to make the DMO a 50, require that the DMO be a 501-66 in that last wave of all that crazy legislation. And you're saying this gives us more input in decision making than previous? No, I'm not saying it gives you input into the decision making process in a significant way. 
[4:24:08] We increased the number of meetings that were being held. We increased the areas in which they would have advisory input. So all of that was an effort to try to deal with it from an independent standpoint. The times have changed since the ordinary one was formed, and the new regulations do not allow for that interconnectedness on the board. Everybody on the program board has a vote, and I think that we're fine with the number 
[4:24:40] you recommended, City Manager Hick, 66. And if you think you need more, a few more, fine. We just didn't need 25 people. That was the problem. It was going to be unwieldy. Okay. You just asked 25 program boards. That's what you wanted? No. No. What actually happened is we wanted fewer. We wanted fewer people because we wanted to make certain that it was an appropriate-sized board for the size of the city, for the mission that was involved. 
[4:25:11] And so I think we came back with about 12 to 15 people in our negotiations. And so it came to you with a previous version of the contract that the city had sent over with 25, but we had not accepted that. So the compromise is great. They all need to vote yes to have the meetings. And Council Member Tarnes, you also indicated that you wanted the ability to get financial information and more information without stonewalling what was a previous problem you had, 
[4:25:42] We had people hiding behind all these different types of fields. So we put that in there, that you can get that information and be presented at each of the meetings. So we did tighten up some of the holes, but we can't put it on the board of an entity that exists totally independent of the city. I get to the recognition and I definitely do appreciate that, but there's a big difference between one coach and decision-making. Our board members will have suggestions. 
[4:26:14] Your board members will make suggestions. And there's a big difference. Now, the city of Tennessee. Not quite anymore. I mean, OK. No, city of Tennessee. I'm talking about our city. OK. OK, so are you saying this new legislation changes the entire makeup of the board and then all of this ? I have a . Councilman, it would not be possible for the city of College Park to put board members on the board of the 501 and 6. 
[4:26:51] You just can't. The whole theory is that you're going to enter into a contract with an independent entity. And so the law says you have to let go in contact with an independent entity. And you can't have an independent entity when you have members on their board. And so I understand that we've had a difficult experience with the prior DMO. And right now we don't want to go down that same road and make that same mistake. So now we're trying to excite a greater degree of control. 
[4:27:22] But we're constrained by the limitations of the law because we cannot compromise the individual 501c6 by saying, by saying we're going to have voting board members on the 501 C6. We just cannot do that. And if we did, and for some reason we all bumped our heads and said, let's just do it, whether the IRS is going to blow it up anyway, it's legally not going to work, despite what we might want. But I'm telling you that we cannot do that legally. 
[4:27:55] Well, we've just seen tonight, I think, that a 501 C6 could add voting board members, last meeting and five meeting added to so a 501 26 can add two they can add their people they can add our people they can do their company their board yeah they can have a thousand people on their board they can govern themselves after they see fit let him finish please And I agree on this same page. I agree on that. My point they can put on who they want, whoever they see fit. 
[4:28:28] Now, if I had a 501 C-60 and I'm coming into a city and I'm going to do this as a big deal, let's say that we can have a point now that I would make sure I would accommodate where the inclusion is there on your board per your decision. I think we see this as a big opportunity for college. I hope that your corporations use it as a big opportunity for your company. And we're not trying to come in and take over anything by any aspect. 
[4:29:03] Yeah. We just want to see some equity. And I think I'm just saying, we're not looking to take things over. We're saying slide over a little bit. We're going to be partners on this. But partners with definitive decision making as well, if it's per your choice, that's fine. We have a vibrant city. We have lots of residents that are active and involved and want to get involved. I think you all are aware of that. I think you believe that. And we want to make sure one of the reasons that we're looking at a different outfit is to make sure that this being able to address our concerns. 
[4:29:41] From our perspective, the type of hospitality and promotions that we want to see from our residences to the credit and coming from where we would like to see the strong tour and promotions and marketing and how much and so on and so forth. As opposed to a board of directors that would make decisions where, again, They can listen to our program board all day long and they can answer the day. 
[4:30:12] They can get some advice and speak and then the actual board will make a decision. So, if you're able to add board members. Council member Carnes, they... Okay. If you are able to add board members, which clearly you are, and again, I mentioned I just wanted to say that we had appointed board members and the law does not allow for that completely. Again, which I understand where we can't say this company, you're at this company, and this is what we would like to see, but this is what I'd like to see. 
[4:30:51] And if you get appointed board members, I want you to think of it more inclusively here right now with what you're trying to do with us. Because I think we want to do the same thing. We want to be successful as a college partner. Last time I checked, I think we were one of the only clients, is that right? Because at the last meeting, that's what we told you. We are focused on top part. Okay, that's the case for your 501 C6. I think it would be unreasonable, but you are looking at making some decisions on your 501 C6. 
[4:31:23] If you can do that, which I would say you can. If we're completely restricted from doing that contract, that is the case. So I always thought the contract can work stipulations into it and if both parties agree, then you got something. Whether it needs to be this party's option to exercise that agreement and stipulation or the other party's option to exercise agreement and stipulation when you come to the middle and 
[4:31:54] you come to the middle ground or something. I just thought we could work something out along those lines. But having a complete board that makes the money decisions, that makes the hospitality marketing decisions, the final decisions, the final decisions without us having any concrete board members, and really kind of a voting manner that's going for us. And when I say ours, for us having board members, if you take a look at our page, but your only client, and take a look at expanding your board. 
[4:32:28] This is why we're having a discussion about this. I think you understand what I'm looking for. A little bit of equity where you got to see you're bringing in your only client here. You are able to obviously expand and move your board around. We just want you to, you know, because Coach told, we know it can be done, because you're doing it. So I think you understand what I'd like to see in terms of why you're demanding. I just believe it in that. Does that make sense? 
[4:32:58] Ms. Perkins-Sicker? I hope it makes sense. Yeah. Hold on. Ms. Perkins-Sicker wanted to respond. All I want to say is I hear you loud and clearly that this is a national organization who has a contract in College Park. It's not going to be the only contract. And so having a board that reflects what they are doing as an entity is they need to be independent to get decision making. However, I wanted to correct something. The city, actually the city council approves the annual budget. 
[4:33:31] They approve anybody we bring in to hire as a partnering agency that's not already in our proposal. The city council actually reviews on an annual basis the performance of this entity and you don't have to go forward with a contract with them for any other period of time beyond that year. So if they're not doing with the input from your advisor, actually it's the program board, 
[4:34:03] what you need done in College Park, you can get rid of them. We have agreed to waive all of the statutory protections that locks us in under the new law. We've given you more flexibility with regard to making decisions about which entity you want to go forward with. But I don't encourage you, and I think your city attorney is back, to start meddling with the board composition of a national organization who's doing a program here so that program 
[4:34:34] board is locally focused, reviewing all the plans. And these people are going to work with that group. They want the contract. They want the contract to go on for longer than a year, and it's not going to go on for longer than a year if you're not interested, if you don't think that they're doing what you need them to do. And we think that all the quarter we will do. Mr. Morgan, were you finished? Yes. Okay. And I hear what you're saying, Mr. Tucker, but compared to the last VMO situation, I mean, we weren't all the way happy with it, but it looks like we got less flexibility. 
[4:35:08] You don't appoint your staff, you can appoint your staff, and you are a national board. Yes, with one client right now, I understand that. If you have the flexibility to expand your board, to accommodate your client, right now we're your only client. I get that. Now, in my head, my best scenario would be I would like a six in six board member situation. And even if you choose all six, I would like to choose six from the local community on that board. 
[4:35:41] Now, if that was doable, as you expand and with it, eventually you're going to have other clients besides us. Right now we're the only ones, and I heard you say you're going to have other clients. Is that correct? I'm fine with that. Here's the thing from you, I'm just talking from you. Your other clients, is this a 12-member board, six and six? any of your other clients, we can speculate our board members don't have anything to do with your other clients. They can just be the fix to make decisions anywhere else, any other state, any other entity that you have or deal with. 
[4:36:16] My concern is just making sure that our dollars and our decision making on our DMO funds are covered by local folks who either you select or however we do it. So, I mean, I understand what you're saying. We don't want to control when you get the GMO in Chicago what decisions in our board. We don't have a dog in that tight. We would not be involved in any of the board's decisions, but ours. So, I'm just trying to figure out if we could come to some kind of a happy meeting here where I could feel a little bit more comfortable. 
[4:36:51] So, what can you give us? We have done the most we can. member within the legal constraints with regards to independence. And so what you have is the ability to control the dollars. You have the ability to control the people. You have the ability to control who is going to do this on an annual basis. We're not willing to give up what we already know we have a problem with, with a board that the IRS will say, well, where did you get these people from with our client dictated that? 
[4:37:26] And then the state saying, well, you're supposed to be independent. That doesn't work. not the same type of unity that you all created originally. At the City of College Park, you created an entity before. That is not this. Your controls are on the manual budget, the monies that are going to be used, the people who are going to be there, and annually looking at what we've done. So we're not willing to do the board. So I hate to lose your support, but I've been truthful with you. 
[4:37:57] I understand that. I'm interested. And he said, if our program will work in control of people, exactly how can our program work in control of people? No, you have the ability in the contract, the city council has to prove anybody that we add in a major role that's not already in the proposal. Well, actually, after you hire somebody, you hire someone, we can give some advice to that. But it is a . It says key personnel. 
[4:38:27] Okay, so key personnel is when we put together our proposal, we said it's your dedicated team. That's the dedicated key personnel for the city of College Park. And I just really want you to hear those additional quarterly meetings. When we were here last time in front of you, you all were very specific. And Councilwoman Arnold added, if you are open to doing that program advisory board after your comments, we took all of those notes. We weren't just nodding our heads and saying yes. You took all those notes to be able to infuse those comments into the product you have in front of you with your legal team. 
[4:39:00] So that was mutually beneficial. I've never asked for a program advisory board. I asked for a board collaboration. It's not legal. But it is legal for a final one. You can appoint an expansion board member. We know that for a fact. All I'm saying is we've got a wealth of residents in college parks. And if you're going to expand, you know, and if we cannot put board members on, if you expand it from 5% of those two wouldn't have to be college parks residents. 
[4:39:36] Counseling Carr, would you not get it? I just want to, I've been trying. He's not, you're not hearing this, Counseling Carr, and I love you. I appreciate you. Okay. I have run nonprofits. I have a 501c3 organization, not six, okay? What they're saying, Jill, the way this thing works, Councilman Carr, is we cannot control destination must visit, okay? We have no control over their 501c6 or their board. 
[4:40:10] A board is being created specifically for the city of College Park. That is the board that we will have input on through our appointees. Legally, we cannot mandate to this organization who they put on their own board. But we can appoint who they will put on the board. See, Destination Must Visit is their own organization. If you read the contract, they are creating a subsidy under Destination Must Visit, which is going to be called College Park Visits, whatever it's going to be. 
[4:40:51] That is the organization that we have control over. Destination Must Visit is going to receive the $2.5 or whatever million dollars that we get because it has to be given to an independent 501c6. But the way the day-to-day operations go for the city of College Park, that's where our board gets in. Now, I'm sure that if you have some specific person that you'd like them to consider for their board, they may consider it. 
[4:41:21] But we cannot legally mandate that they put anybody on destination must visit. You're going to have the same problem. If we don't go with them, you want any 501c6 that wants to keep their 501c6 and not lose their IRS certification is going to tell you no. Okay, so understand, you're asking us, and you're actually sitting up here asking us to violate legal 501c6 DMO laws in the state of Georgia. 
[4:41:53] Well, I think what I was asking is, were you able to defend your board? Do you plan on expanding the board more? Not at this time. Not at this time. Okay. So it's going to be seven throughout the contract? Or are we going to get the next meeting and then maybe more next year? Right. It's a fair question. We appreciate you asking. It's for the foreseeable future. Any major governance changes as per the contract you all will be informed of. 
[4:42:27] We'll get the notice that they're formed of. For the foreseeable future, our board decides to stand at 7. All right. And the final money decision will be the board of directors. Your board of directors, your governor. Is that correct? I'm sorry, sir. Would you mind repeating that? I'd like to call for the vote. I know Councilman Arnold wants to say something, but this is going on and on. I'm just calling. Wait, wait. Just call on. Not in the middle of this question. You see that? I'm not being interested. Just close. My obligation is to look out for the best interest of the residents of college. 
[4:43:02] And I make no apologies whatsoever about that. So I understand that maybe the little key is the one that's my right answer. I understand that we cannot appoint more than I get, but you can. That's my thing. So I'll leave it at that point. Professor Arnold? Yes. So through all of the discussion, I believe I heard that the document that we have in our package is not the most recent version. 
[4:43:32] It is not the most recent version, only because the point that was left unresolved was the composition of the number of people on the board and what was suggested by the city manager and your city attorney was six and six on the program board, and we didn't have an investment to that. Okay, if that's the only piece that was being changed, then I still have an item that is still questionable for me, which is exhibit two, item number two, the last paragraph. 
[4:44:07] No sooner than 45 calendar days following receipt of city funds, the DMO shall disburs the funds in accordance with resolution number 26, 2016-18, consistent with resolution number 2026-18. This shall be an annual funding disbursement requirement in perpetuity of the time of the agreement. Prepetuity is a long time. 
[4:44:39] Yeah, that doesn't mean to care. It's limited by the time of the agreement. the agreement so any obligation here under is tethered to this agreement. Probably that word probably should not have been used in perpetuity because it gives you a impression we're talking about getting in the time. But clearly we would not be able to bind future councils have an obligation that lasts for a hundred years. Then why can't we remove it? I brought it up last time. We certainly can. And related to the term of the contract, it should say for the duration of the contract 
[4:45:12] That would have been the easiest and clearest thing. Well, this has been a sticking point for me for quite some time. We can remove that very, very easily. And that is on our list of little cleanup edits. There are some places that are missing periods. There are some places that are missing nomenclature. It is on our, we agree with you, Councilwoman, and in writing, we have little edits, about six of them, or actually 12 of them, and that is one of them. So when will we see the final agreement? Councilman, if it's the pleasure of the council, I'm hearing two issues right now. 
[4:45:49] There may be others, Councilman, they have spoken here, but I've heard this issue with the term perpetuity, and then I've heard about the board composition, the number for the program board. Those are the two issues I'm hearing. If it was a pleasure to counsel, you could prove the contract subject to those two very minor revisions. I'd like to- Hold on a second. Just to consider her. I'm here for the opportunity. Okay. 
[4:46:20] Counselor Gay. Yes. As it's working at, we'll call them again. Are we ready to be comfortable that there are no changes having made all that? It's not ever so are we confident that they're not making any changes that affect the contract, the resolution, or the ordinance? It's baked in here. I mean, the resolution and the ordinance are in. 
[4:46:53] They're defined as contract documents. They're attached. In many things throughout, it says subject to the ordinance and resolution. It was agreed to be bound by the ordinance and resolution. You have a measure of control in this document that you did not have. You have a 96-page contract that governs the relationship. They're not getting in a contract, and they put back on qualified expenditures for the OCGA. 
[4:47:25] Qualified expenditures that we had covered by in the contract. Well, I mean, we agree that we obviously didn't have no choice, but to be bound by the provisions of state law and how these funds can be extended. And so it's pretty basic, and we don't have any discretion. There's not a gray area, so we're just going to have to do something. I'm not even saying that that we do it. I'm just saying state law says that there are qualifying expenses that may include capital costs and operating costs under OCGA 481360. 
[4:48:02] I just asked if that would affect you. Are there any issues with that? No, I don't think there are any issues with that. No, sir. Okay. I'd like to amend my motion with a substitute motion, and that is that we accept the contract work the destination must visit, 
[4:48:33] but we accept it with the changes that we have mentioned, which is the board composition that we remove perpetuity from the agreement and get rid of periods that shouldn't be there. Hold on, is there a, who may be the next second? She's amended. I just amended the motion. I'm clear about that, so I need to hold on, hold on. Council member Gaten, your seconds still stand with that amendment. 
[4:49:09] It stands with, on the record that there were no Objection to any qualifying expenditures. All right, Councilmember Kern. I've got one additional thing about it because I would like to get this wrapped up tonight. Okay. The six and six expectations, that was based only on the actual existing board. 
[4:49:40] Now, if we're talking about the program board, there's no need for us to sit and sit on the program board, because the members from your side, the actually existing board members, would simply our program's board authority anyhow. So the program board, if that's our only yard that we have, then it only needs to be our seven, which would be one from the five elected members and traditionally as our GICC director on the program board. 
[4:50:13] So there wouldn't be a need for six and six. That would for your board if we're going to share a little more further. But since legally we cannot do that, the program board would just be our six if it's only for College Park and only for our College Park business and our College Park funding and our College Park direction. It would only be a six-member program board, which would be six of five pointings in the convention to the director, going like that. If you were going to do your board, I would say that would be my point. 
[4:50:53] So, Councilman, I mean, you brought up a point earlier, I just want to remind you of that because it's really important to us. Like, we have, obviously we can't start work until we get the approval from the spot, right? So, with that, I mean, we haven't been able to meet business owners. We haven't been able to meet hoteliers, none of that. Giving us those additional six or however many it's going to be, that allows us to also include other members of the community that are stakeholders, 
[4:51:28] because when we say we want to have additional folks that we get the opportunity to appoint, we want to be able to bring in folks that have additional interest for College Park specifically. So when you do that and you eliminate us our opportunity to add six more business donors, employers, innkeepers, ancillary support services to tourism, Now we're back down to having a really small group of people that only changes every once in a while. Well, I understand. And what I said, we are the stakeholders. Now, if we were to add the additional people from our community, from our purview, in terms of hotels and whatnot, fine. 
[4:52:06] But you have the solid picks that make the final and final climate decision already wrapped up. So, again, I'm talking equity here. If you want to recommend, we want to select the party members and we want some business expertise from the city of 14 College Park. We were going to do that with those sticks. I think we can accommodate that a lot better because we've been here for quite a while. But we're okay with you just keeping your sticks too. 
[4:52:36] Either way you want to, but the other sticks were going to be College Park people on the program board. But if you also note, the program board requires us to run names. Can you guys still be on the delegate on board, Joe? Well, the program board allows us to let them have, that's our decision making per view. Well, we need all 12 of those decisions because you have the ultimate decisions that could speak even our 12 of you have. Can I, can I, can I, can I please? 
[4:53:06] Okay, I don't think Councilman Kahn is getting Councilman Kahn. Their board is the, they have their own board, right, for their organization. What they're saying is they're going to take people from their organization that are going to also work with our appointees. It's still going to be a joint. We can't have six appointees. Even the former DMO didn't just have our appointees. They had people from their board on that, and then they had an executive board that didn't even have our appointees on it. 
[4:53:38] And that, let me tell you, because I know, that board, their executive board was determining how our money got spent. Okay? Not our board. Okay? So don't forget for a second now. Okay? They had an executive board that determined we have more power now through the board that we're talking about forming than what we had before. Okay? Unfortunately, there's seven member boards, ultimately, that's based on the suggestions of our board. 
[4:54:10] So I get the end of the court and we're aware of that. Again, if your board see prestige our board, which I'm fine with, if your, our board see 6, we should have 12 flights for appointees and we can select our business, stakeholders that accruciate to GMO parks and hotels, restaurants, or homes, restaurants. Or you select all the things collaboratively. That's exactly, that's what, those are the provisions in the contract. 
[4:54:41] Okay, now we're talking. That big board, that was the. That big board, it was your individual appointees, but then the rest of them were all local college park, little people, shop people, small businesses. Who selects those of us here? The process is that we're supposed to send in names of people that we would like to suggest. You're supposed to send in the names and we're supposed to form the program advisory board from those names. 
[4:55:13] So they're local. Okay, so you send in names and we send in. I don't see anything in the state of the United States. The last thing I would say, I would prefer us not to have any board members from the ATL department. But I don't know. There's no dumb questions here. No, I'm just saying you're going to have at least one or two here. Oh, no, you can't. Got that. 
[4:55:43] No board members or former board members. Okay? I mean, is that the answer? Right. No kind of board member. That way? That line? Okay. All right. I'll do it. With the exception of GFCC. Okay. Okay. Thank you. But I want to make this clear for the record. Regardless if they got sticks as well, let's be clear. Their board makes the final decisions. There'll be no different than what we got already. We got board members that go there and they have a quadsday, they cannot make any decisions. 
[4:56:13] But we can't control the stick. We can't control the statement. Mr. Penzi was incorrect. There's no board that makes the decision. Their board makes the decisions regardless of how many additional board members should be. They board makes the final decision, Joe. There's no different board that's going to create and govern us. Now just be clear on that. The board makes the final decision. The board makes the final decision. I get it. But. There's enough controls in the face. 
[4:56:47] Okay. I believe we did. I believe we did. I believe we did. All right. Any further discussion? No. Hearing none, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Custom Bernal, will you vote? It's not on high school. I mean, you can't. Okay. Any opposed? Aye. All right, okay. And it's not because I don't support or believe that they honor a contract. 
[4:57:19] I just have an issue with the ordinance that I was not consulted on from the beginning. I already made that clear to my power. All right, so Council Members Mackenzie, Karn, and Gay are in favor. Council Member Arnold is opposed. The most impressive. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next agenda item J, consideration of an action on request to approve the selected vendors for ITB 27-52, 
[4:57:53] The materials and selected vendors are Gresco, Irby Utilities, pardon me, I'm going to have Gresco for $898,244, 50 cents, Irby Utilities $23,590, 550, Stas Energy $21,300, and Wesco $16,027, all totaling $959,167, took through the master agreement, sent to a legal review. This item is being requested by Hugh Richardson, And this will service all for you. 
[4:58:25] Is there a motion? Motion. Thank you. Council Member McCartan, is there a second? Thank you. Can you, Council Member Gay, any discussion? Yes. Okay, Council Member McCartan and Council Member Gay. All right, well, I guess this is something that's going to happen to do. Do we get it annually or in the two years or whatever that is? Yeah. How does the same of the materials going up now? It's a lot of ways now. You know, things like aluminum is going up pretty quick. What kind of finish? It's gone up pretty good because of the tears, I think. 
[4:59:00] But the conductor has gone up, I think it almost doubled in the last few years. Okay. We've got a new management budget. The spending manager, I think, you know, still doing well. It appears like this is going up. How about utility rates are still going down? I don't know if they're a little fuzzy, so that's what we're working in. That's all I have. 
[4:59:30] Council Member Gay. Director, how much of the activity has to be ordered? All of them? I'll be ordered, yeah. You're going to get an order here like you're going to order them. Yeah, we'll go ahead and order it probably in the coming week, and I think most of the deliveries of this will be for the end of the year. So my final question, I didn't raise the list extensively, but how many decorative for the city do you have? Well, I mean, we're ordering 120 different decorative lights here. 
[5:00:08] And that's on this order? Yeah. That's for you? Yes. 120? Yeah. Any further questions? No. Any further questions? Councilor Burrard? So I have a question in reference to some comments that were made earlier in reference to the comprehensive plan and we were talking about the power outages. How does any of this additional or does it, any of these items help to support our power, 
[5:00:40] these power outages, these glitches that we did, or does any of this help with that? Well, I mean, it's basically a standard thought for our repair and maintenance of our power lines. We have a couple of projects already underway to improve restoration of our power. Automated switches is what's going on right now. They're not in place yet, but it sure has been great we have in place last weekend. last weekend, so yeah. 
[5:01:11] Yeah, okay, so one of the things, one of the conversations I had with a city manager, which is a concern, is that we have, you know, a large population of seniors. And some, well I won't just say the seniors, but we do have some individuals whose lives truly depend on having consistent power, right? So is there anything in this report that's going to help stabilize that, 
[5:01:41] or can we also look at where we have a robust notification system so that people can plan appropriately when we have these power outages or glitches? I don't know any way to improve that. based on that last storm we had, we didn't see it coming. We just got the power restored as quick as possible. And there was no priority. We just got the circus on as quick as we could. 
[5:02:14] Mr. Hicks, I would like for us to think about whether or not, if there are any tools that may be able to support how we notify. I know that we sent out a notification used in the way the galpin. But do we need to get connected to something like the National Weather Service? Yeah, I've got some updates in my city management report. Okay. I'm going to talk about it. Okay. All right, thank you. Thank you. 
[5:02:44] Thank you. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll move forward. All those in favor? Aye. That is the next. Okay. Next item, city is starting to report. No, excuse me. City manager's report. Okay, so the hour spent for our move is being here. I want to talk a little bit about the weather that we had this past weekend. I tell you, this one kind of snuck up on all of us. 
[5:03:19] We had our emergency management meeting this morning at 9.30, And we talked about how did this storm get past us. And so according to the chief, the heating getting alerts from the National Weather Service. He talked about asthma. He looked for notifications from asthma. So we were very reactionary on this particular one. But as you guys can see, they did a yeoman's job on attacking the issues, okay, and trying to get those done. So I asked you, Richard, then, once we have power out of this like that, 
[5:03:53] Do you look at FIFO or LIFO? That's what he did. So he said, we go through FIFO. We look at firsthand, firsthand. Whichever power goes out first, that's what they try to restore. So I'm going to kind of hold him to that one. Okay? But they gave me the data from Falcon. We sent out Falcon. Remember, we used to have Code Red. We got rid of Code Red, and we partnered with Fordham County because that was free. So we used something called Falcon. And we had 5,685 people registered, 169 of them only confirmed, 
[5:04:29] 113 was unreachable, and 5,423 did not respond. They got it, but they didn't respond back. Okay, so now I talked to my team about a heavy campaign, okay, a marketing campaign. We talked about putting QR codes on every city on building, and particularly the recreation center, so that you can scan the QR code and register for FALCO. We've got to find a way to get more residents involved in those days. Secondly, we talked to customer service. 
[5:05:01] Talked to William Scott. William Scott, I know you normally put leaflets in the mail if we needed to, but they also got a software that they push out to the residents telling them, hey, your bills are late or it's time for you to pay your bills. So we're going to partner with that. It's called Paymentors. Okay, so that's two ways. The third way is, I got with the IT department, and I said, listen, we got C-Click fixed. Okay, we got C-something, C-something. There has to be a way for us to notify residents of C-Click fixed, and there is. 
[5:05:34] Okay, so we're going to start using that for notifications. So that's three ways. Okay, and the fourth way is, on our website, you can line up for Falcon on the... We talked with Gerald. Gerald will push that out to social media. Hey, go to the city website and go ahead and register for file code. We even had a conversation about, hey, what about our intercom system, our citywide intercom system? Do we want to push that out when we know we got bad weather coming? 
[5:06:06] So that was some discussion about, well, if we do that, if we're not. We don't want to get into a situation where people hear that so much, they don't take us serious no more. So I just gave you about four or five different outlets on how we're going to try and market getting people to register so we can get them on. Hugh Richardson mentioned to me that on that website, they would see 561 calls to the call center about an hour being out. Again, so the power department had a different website you could log into, log in trouble, and you could also call the after hours number. 
[5:06:45] Our EOC, our Emergency Operations Center, is almost ready. Okay, we're going to give all of you guys a tour of the EOC Center over at the Public Safety Building. Right now we can watch all the city cameras, and we also got a space for our Power Department so they can watch the weather. Okay, so it's almost ready. We talked about that, Reggie from IT and Chief Jones, we talked about we're almost there. And as soon as we get some of the case worked out, we're going to give you guys a few of that. 
[5:07:18] My cinematic report, I think you guys got an email saying that you're going to get some back-to-back reports this month because I tried to set it up with the council meeting, but that's not working. So I still want to go back to the end of the month and let's just see you guys' cinematic report. I just sent out one. I'm asking you guys to take a look at that. Department heads have worked really hard on trimming down, just giving you the meat of the matter. So please just look at the city management floor. I don't know what you mean. Let's see. 
[5:07:51] A couple of things. We are fully staffed now. All 14 departments have department heads. We have no more interim. I mean, that just does rise up to the problem. We have department heads. We have everybody in place. And our department of the month is commentator. So Gerald Walker is no longer interim. Commentator has been moved. We've gone through the interview process. And Gerald is a top candidate. 
[5:08:22] So we're going to play this video in just a second. My last point I want to make is, I think I talked about College Park Elementary being one of the lowest-performing schools in Portland County. And we've got 14 magnificent department heads. And we're going to partner with College Park. We heard from Ms. Ballard, and Ms. Ballard's going to give us some dates. I've already got the volume for all 14 department heads. 
[5:08:54] So imagine us going over there on Friday. Imagine the kids seeing the fire chief. Imagine them seeing the chiefs everywhere. Imagine those people seeing jail. Okay, so we're going to go over there and we're going to work in a pantry and we're going to stock some books. We're going to leave some tea here. I mean, imagine them staying up here first. So we're going to partner with College Park Elementary and we're waiting on this batter to send those back to the kids. So, really happy about that. Madam Clerk, I'll be here. Please be here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 
[5:09:24] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's a great video, too, by the way. Thank you. Hi, my name is Lisa Maykaston. I'm a freshman. Hold on. I'm rolling. Here we go. 
[5:09:54] Three, two. Hi, I'm Ashley Leong. I'm the communications coordinator for the City of College Park. And I... Actually, we need you for a field permit! Sorry, one minute. Do you want me to start? Alright, we'll do. Okay. Okay. Now, what am I talking about? 
[5:10:25] Oh, hi. My name is Keisha Gadd, and I'm the City of College Park Communications Department. department and we like to... Sorry. Hey, Cheese. You have an event now? Okay, I'm coming. Sorry, gotta go. Be back. You gotta kinda see what they're doing. Hi, I'm Gerald Walker, Director of Communications for the City of College Park. What is it? Sorry. 
[5:10:58] Me and Friends League, they just called. Okay. Good. We gotta go. We attempted to do our interviews, but of course, something came up. Behind Every Great City is a team working behind the scenes to keep its residents informed, connected, and engaged. For the City of College Park, that team is the Communications Department. 
[5:11:32] Each day, our department manages a wide range of responsibilities designed to tell the city's story and keep our community connected. We create content for the city's website, collegeparkda.gov. We also compose and distribute the city's press releases, where we engage with local television, radio, and print outlets when important stories or issues require the city's response. 
[5:12:03] Creative, connected, always on the move. Meet Keisha Gass, Communications Manager and the Communications Department's representative at citywide meetings and events, ensuring that the voice, vision, and communications initiatives are properly seated at the table. From planning major events and managing departmental projects to working with community partners, Keisha is the liaison who helps bring people, ideas, and information together. She led the way in 
[5:12:36] the rebuild and installation of a new electronic screen or LED in front of City Hall on Mainstream. And by the way, one of her passions is showing off the great things many of our departments are doing. From editing videos dealing with police recruitment or community awareness to capturing street work from our public works team, she's quite efficient in her storytelling. And when the unexpected happens, she's part of the emergency management team, helping make sure information is disseminated to the community. 
[5:13:13] College Park is a city on the move, and a city where many movies are thin. Who ensures that filmmakers follow a standard? Well, let's meet Ashley Leon. She serves as a communications coordinator, supporting the department through a wide range of creative and administrative duties. She helps manage the city's social media presence, ensuring content is organized, delivered in a timely manner, and aligned with ongoing initiatives. 
[5:13:44] Her strategic mindset keeps events and activities running smoothly behind the scenes. along with event coverage and website management, Ashley plays a key role in issuing film permits for the city, helping facilitate safe and efficient production activity. Ashley is proud to contribute to the team's success and ongoing growth. If you want to shoot a film in the city of College Park, we've got to go through Ashley. Something that is all aglow along Main Street in front 
[5:14:19] College Park City Hall is the newly rebuilt LED message board. Would you like to know who designs most of the graphics that serve as an informative way to get the word out? Meet Denae Casey, the City of College Park's graphic media specialist. As the creative force behind much of the city's digital content, including graphics, logos, marketing campaigns, and website designs, Janae helps shape how the city connects with the community. 
[5:14:50] Janae's excellent creativity supports all city departments. She's developed the city's brand standards and style guide, ensuring high quality presentation of the city's images. Simply put, Janae is a formidable component in the design, vision, and the eloquent standards of the City of College Park. via graphic design, brand growth, web and social media standards. Thanks for what you do, Janae. Thank you. 
[5:15:23] I'm Gerald Walker, Director of Communications for the City of College Park. My journey with the city began in 2007, and today my role encompasses every aspect of telling the city's story. I write press releases, manage and enhance the city's website, and have helped rebuild and modernize our government television channel, TV23. Our communications team manages TV23 programming and the streaming of council meetings, 
[5:15:54] while also providing professional photography, videography, and storytelling. We oversee the city's social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, along with our digital content and cloud-based resources with Dropbox and Flickr. Before joining the city, I spent 20 years with CNN, where I traveled around the world covering major events including the enemy square riots in Beijing, China, the Gulf War, 
[5:16:24] hurricanes, and presidential relations. I also managed 219 CNN affiliate stations throughout the southeast and southwest. It is an honor to bring that experience, perspective, and journalistic responsibility here to deliver accuracy and pass-out in telling the great story of the city of College Park. Yes, we are the storytellers. We are the information connection between City Hall and our community, 
[5:16:55] and we are proud to tell the story of the great city of College Park and we are honored to be recognized as the Department of the Month. How about that? Next is report of mayor and council. All righty. 
[5:17:26] So I wanted to echo all the sentiments of our residents, my colleagues, and thank the entire team for your work that we did. It was a really, really tough, challenging situation. And I think what we saw is teamwork makes the dream work. And despite the fact that people were dealing with outages for several hours, they weren't doing that for several days. 
[5:17:57] They weren't doing that for several weeks. We have seen things in the media about folks in Indiana having to deal with power outages for two weeks because of Darinco. That's not the situation in College Park. We have an amazing, dedicated team that works tirelessly to ensure that our residents are safe and that they have the information that they need. So thank you so much to the entire team for all of your work this weekend and each and every day. And to our residents, again, you've heard Falcon multiple times during this conversation. 
[5:18:34] And if you have not signed up for Falcon, please do so. You can Google it. It's available through our website. It's available through Houston County. But that is how you are going to get emergency alerts. Everyone will agree, this storm came up so quickly, and it was so incredibly fast. Just watching it out from a window, I was just amazed at how quickly things were moving outside. 
[5:19:04] I was wondering whether or not it was actually just a thunderstorm because it was so intense and so rapid. But again, our team stepped up to the plate and thank you. Thank you for that. I know it is not easy and I know that we had hiccups, but we're working on those and looking forward to being better even – being even better next time. I want to thank the Assistant Secretary of Community Development of the United States Housing of Urban Development, 
[5:19:36] Assistant Secretary Kurtz. He was in town on two separate occasions. One, I attended a meeting with HUD and lots of practitioners in the space of homelessness and advocacy for those who are experiencing homelessness, and I had the chance to be in the room and listen to some of the challenges that HUD is going through, some of the good things that are going on, 
[5:20:08] and some of the opportunities that we have to partner with organizations to ensure that we are working together to bring down the number of people experiencing homelessness in our community. And I got several takeaways from that and looking forward to following up with some community partners to see if we can make a dent in that area. And then Assistant Secretary Kurtz was actually in Comiston last Friday where they broke ground on a housing community. 
[5:20:42] It is going to be 90 homes that are going to be available starting at under $200,000. They're going to start in the ones. And that is because of the partnership. It's a public-private partnership with Smith-Douglas, the contractor. They are, I think, the 36th largest contractor in the country, but they are Georgia-based. And they are working with the Department of Community Affairs, the housing, U.S. Housing and Urban Development, and the city of Thomaston to bring affordable housing to the community. 
[5:21:14] Because it doesn't happen by chance. They knew when they broke ground how many units, what it was going to sell for. There wasn't any speculation. I think we heard a lot of speculation earlier today. But what they have done at Thomaston, we can't exactly do that here because we, as a metro Atlanta community, don't have access to the Rural Workforce Housing Initiative, which is how the Department of Community Affairs put in $2.5 million for the infrastructure for that project. 
[5:21:46] But there are other levers we can pull. And that's the point, is that we have to be creative when we are thinking about how we are incorporating our entire community. We've got this comprehensive plan draft, and we are seeking to be an inclusive community by 2040, I think 60, whatever it's over here, where we have housing at all levels for all different stages of life. And so in order to be that community, we have to plan. 
[5:22:21] And I think the Thomaston example, and I want to congratulate Mayor, Economic Development Director Taylor. They've done a fantastic job, and I was really excited to be invited and to see what they're doing. But it is part of a plan. It is intense, directed work that takes time. And so I'm excited for them, but also excited for us, because I think the example that they have put forth and other communities have put forth are ones that we can emulate. 
[5:22:57] And I want to say that I agree with my colleague when she encouraged people to read, to review. because I take serious issue with the idea that there has been a legal behavior in which I or anyone who has engaged in a contract in assistance to me has this allegation that it's been out there. 
[5:23:32] So I want to encourage you. I have the contract itself right on my website, mayorbianca.com. And you can see that the subcontracting portion that was part of that contract said you needed permission. And if you were to communicate with the city, that was through the city manager. And that's exactly what happened. Now, I get that there's some business history going on, but you can see it all right there. 
[5:24:02] And I would encourage you to look because I think, I'm sorry, Council Member McKenzie, I'm speaking right now. But I've got the floor. Thank you. So, I would, I take issue with it because I do not believe it's factually accurate. And I also take issue with the idea that people feel at liberty to, one, use a public meeting where we are to do the people's business 
[5:24:41] to engage in any commentary on what I or anyone else does in their private time. And we have a lot of things that we have to focus on. I believe it is asinine to spend our time creating AI-generated images to tear people down. 
[5:25:16] It is disappointing. It is also telling of who people are. because, as Maya Angelou said, when people show you who they are, believe them. And I just want to take the time to thank my kitchen cabinet 
[5:25:50] Because I think it is always, always fair to question the decisions of your elected representatives. That is democracy in action. When we stifle public comment, when we stifle public engagement, we lose our money. because you are our bosses. 
[5:26:22] We need to hear from you. That should not cross a line in a place where someone is in fear for their safety for doing this job. And I will always be clear about that. And people have the right to peacefully protest without fear of retribution from their government. 
[5:26:53] There are people who would seek to bury us, but they did not know that we were seized. Council Member McKenzie? Wow, thank you. I like the fact that you used my quote from the last meeting. There are people that tried to bury us, but they didn't know we were Steve. That's Keone McGee, Commissioner M. Day, actually said that to us a few weeks back over at the Southwest Center. 
[5:27:28] I do want to say I definitely echo the mayor's sentiments in terms of some of the things that we've been saying going on. Mr. Higgs, I've seen you, I've seen this group make AI misrepresentations of you and everybody on this council. I've been everything from a leprechaun to whatever it is, to millionaire, which I don't mind you calling me a millionaire because you've been blessing me because more finances are coming in my household. So thank you, Lord, for that one. 
[5:27:58] But I think that what goes for the goose should go for the gander. And it's been very clear through this meeting tonight that there needs to be a stop on all sides. We're neighbors. We're elected officials. I think it's been clear tonight that all of the records in College Park, it's going to impact our home values, our property values. What kind of businesses we get here in this city? you know, the quality of life for our people. 
[5:28:35] So when we speak, let us not speak out of both sides of our mouth. Let us realize that the same stones that we throw are the same stones that will ricochet and hit us as well, especially if we're speaking in hypocrisy. So at this time, I'd like to pray my belief. And this community is pitched on the back and the road of the 16 young men of college. 
[5:29:21] And so, let us always remember you never to forgive. And not just to remember not to forgive, but to be present and to continue to show that we children lay down their lives, that we can enjoy the dreams that we have. This is Dr. Jamel McKenzie with my September 8th report. Tonight's report is dedicated to the gentlemen from the city of College Park who gave their lives during the Vietnam War. 
[5:29:53] And our theme tonight is love. Good morning, friends. Here's your friendly announcer. I fear you. Do every time and day what I'm about to say Would mean the world's disaster 
[5:30:24] Would change your joy and laughter To sin and pain It's that song in me of love today. Don't delay, send yours in right away. 
[5:30:54] Can't go around, take a minute to come. Stop 15, before it's gone too far. And the Ward 1 team is taking that same love into our community through several educational initiatives. One with Promise Career Institute, the Read to Succeed program, and Hersha. 
[5:31:26] I'm so happy to be here. I am so proud of each of you. I was glad that I got the opportunity to see the activity that you did. There was so much energy and excitement in this room. And I did also hear the coach say, you know, they'd like to see that same energy when you get out there and you're doing your exercises. And so I want to encourage you to take that because it's all going to pay off. There are not a lot of ladies and people that look like you in golf still, which means that you represent a minority that can really be a major force. 
[5:31:59] Don't ever think that because of your sex or your color or your educational or economic background that you can't be great. Because greatness does not start with a title or a location or economic or how much money you make. It starts right here in your heart. And the love continued as we partner with College Park Elementary School this year. I want to thank school board member Doug and Principal Whitaker and Assistant Principal Smith and Food in the City. 
[5:32:32] We were able to combine our thriving event with their curriculum night for parents and teachers. It was a great time. I want to thank all of our community organizations. The Atlanta Barber Institute came and gave haircuts to our young men. Ignite, Destination College Park, all of the organizations, DeMarco's gave a wonderful gift to our young people, and Josh Powell came out and encouraged our students. 
[5:33:04] You know, it takes the village. Ward 1 Announcements. We are currently taking applications for our 2026-27 Youth Civic Advisory Board and Youth Council. Applications are due by September 10th, so get them in. Join us for our Ward 1 Community Meeting on September 26th in the Public Safety Building. 
[5:33:35] You can submit questions at OneWardOne.com. We're looking forward to sharing with you. I want to thank our amazing public works team for putting up our new historic college park signs. And speaking of signs, we have the opportunity to take a site visit with Karen Jeremy of Destination College Park and the Historical Society to the city of Lawrenceville. 
[5:34:05] So look at some of the things that they're doing with their parklets and their downtown corridor. More things to come. This is Dr. Jamel McKenzie, and we are building College Park better every day through love and positive community engagement. Councilman Bricard. All right. 
[5:34:38] A couple of things. City manager, the intersection at Sullivan Road and Old National. Chief, Chief. You got us some information on that intersection. I'm assuming did you send that to everybody? You're aware of the double A and? On O National and Seller? 
[5:35:08] I believe I did send it to everyone. Well, just for a fresh memory, That intersection has doubled the absence and an additional fatality as well. Year for year compared to last year before that meeting was put in the middle of Old Nashville. That is a serious issue that people are trying to U-turn there and backing up and U-turn. It's a disaster intersection at this point. 
[5:35:40] So, City Manager, I want us to reach out with GDOT. I want to get that piece removed. Also, the businesses to the left are starting to lose significant amounts of business. Some of the businesses in the service merchandise class are losing 30% of their business drop over the past year. Because people can't make that left turn and we don't want to starve out shops and retail. We want to hang on to all of that that we have in all the Long Road National Court doing. 
[5:36:13] This was done without our permission, without our ask from us. And I just do not believe that this would be done in another city where they would have come in and talked to the council, they would have talked to the mayor, they would have talked to the Chamber of Commerce, the South School, the Chamber, the Air Force, the National Emergency Association. But I think that obviously has to be removed. And I think GDOT's intention was to make things a bit safer, but apparently it kind of went to have a direction on that intersection. 
[5:36:47] So if there's no objection, I want to take that, at least that piece removed there. A couple other things. I want to thank a special patient to Inspire EDU Family Workshop. This is a community-based organization that partnered with Ward 2 Resonance to provide free laptop computers. But that's not what's so important. It's much more important that there was a full-day course and tutorial on how to maximize the life-changing utility of a personal computer. 
[5:37:23] A lot of people, most folks in the US only use 20% or less of their computer's features and software. So they taught them how to open it up fully. If you're only using 20% of something and there's 80% somewhere in that box, you want to maximize that. So that was a wonderful event we gave out, say 25 laptops here. So we want to thank you to our EDU. We held a wonderful Labor Day community event on yesterday. 
[5:37:54] It was a major undertaking and very welcoming for our residents. Gave folks an update on the camp preconductment project. We're moving forward with things there. I definitely appreciate the help. I know it was an off day for staff, but I had some other folks come in and do some work for my local folks. I got them on board to help out with a little bit of work here. The pockets of blight in our community. 
[5:38:25] We talk about that a lot. There are pockets of blight in our community. We looked at a blight tax earlier this year, but there were some concerns with that first post. And what I wanted to do on the next meeting, We were going to the 25 times blight tax, which is with some of the other cities, Atlanta, Stockbridge and so on and so forth. And we wanted that to be a strong tool in our arsenal for unacceptable situations. 
[5:38:59] Now, some of our concerns at that meeting earlier this year were this would be a blight tax for unacceptable commercial property homes. No homeowners and homesteaders, no seniors who can't afford to fix their roof. I would never want to tax residents out of their homes. The few houses that need repair are not our life problem here. And we know what the life problems are. I don't have to say that. 
[5:39:29] We all know that. But we have got to face this issue head on and we have to eliminate this life in a more permanent manner. I think that does that in addition to the surety bond that we discussed and talked about. And city attorney, I understand you're going to be working on something that we can legally do with a combination of both. So that we have to make relocations and whatever and repairs that some stronghold will not do. We have a bond that covers those types of things as well as if they have an overdue water bill, 
[5:40:04] the utility bill of the thousands of dollars. We need to be covered and we cannot any longer accept these substandard conditions that would never, never be allowed to exist in some of the other cities. There's just a few pockets of blight, but I see it as a public safety issue, y'all. We've got to get on it. We have absolutely got to do something about that. A couple other things I had. The DMO discussion, it was very long, but I think very necessary. 
[5:40:39] And I do not mind working to negotiate the place in Austin in the best possible position contractually that we can be in. City Manager, I want to thank you and your team, Hugh Richardson, for the work with the storm. You guys did a great job. I know it was difficult all over this area. It was a quick, sudden storm and it came up kind of as a surprise pop-up storm. 
[5:41:12] But especially thanks to the Public Works Department for the cleanup hall this week that's coming up as well. And with the GMO, I don't mind when it comes to negotiations, but that's just what we have to do. That's not just a, all in all, I think we got a good staff. We got a great staff. And we got a great city manager. I think we're making good progress. 
[5:41:43] And if you can ignore a lot of the noise, you can just see that we are moving forward with things. So we want to keep moving forward. That's all I have is the end. Council Member Arnold. Thank you. I'm going to keep it short and sweet. The QR code is here. The newsletter will be coming out in the next couple of weeks with all of the updates. But I do want to make a couple of announcements. First, I want to thank the city staff, Mr. Hicks, the power department, and public works, who are still doing work, right? 
[5:42:20] I think there will be for quite some time to get up a lot of these downed power lines and the trees that are falling. So thank you, because you all did risk time extremely fast. I think that the first communication we received in our community, that it was going to be 30 minutes to two hours, but it was more like the 30 minutes or maybe a little bit longer, but still I know that wasn't the case for every community. but thank you for the hard work. 
[5:42:52] I need to make a couple of notes, and that's one in reference to the open application for Learning Innovation Alliance for the Business Made Easy Incubator Program. For those who have great ideas, want to start businesses, or want to turn their side hustle into something that's real for them. It's a 12-week program that is supporting businesses in College Park. 
[5:43:25] I started out with an idea out of Clayton County to push economic development and to stand up new businesses. This organization has a goal of standing up 10 new businesses for the city of College Park. So if you know of anyone who's interested in getting their idea up and running, please have them to go to the city's website where they can get more information and apply for that program. 
[5:43:58] And, of course, we have our Ward 3 Town Hall meeting that is coming up on September 17th at 630. It will be at Princeton Court and it is open to all Ward 3 constituents. Those are all of my announcements for this evening. Thank you. Councilmember Gaines? Actually, I don't have any comments, but I want to come to college. I won't be able to make an executive session. So. 
[5:44:28] All right. Is there a motion to enter your executive session? I'd like to make a motion to enter executive session for the purposes of personnel, real estate, cyber security, and litigation. Sir President? Sir President. Can you stop over for? Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll receive both. All those in favor? Aye. That's unanimous. We'll go into executive session at this time.