Demorest The Hear! ofHabersham City of Demorest City Council Work Session Work Session Minutes Demorest Municipal Building Thursday, January 3, 2023, 6:00P.M.  ATTENDEES  Shawn Allen, Councilman John Hendrix, Councilman Jerry Harkness, Mayor Andrew Ferguson, Councilman  Mark Musselwhite, Interim City Manager Thomas Mitchell, City Attorney Megan Chastain, City Clerk  The. January 3, 2023, Demorest Work Session was held int the Demorest Municipal Building located at  125 Ivy Street.  AGENDA ITEM1 1: INVOCATION AGENDA ITEM2: CALL TOORDER APPOINTMENTS to the agenda.  Mayor Harkness opened the meeting by leading in prayer.  Mayor Harkness called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Harkness requested to add DDA/PARK  AGENDA ITEM 3: APPRECIATION ANNOUNCEMENT: DPD/DWD/DSD Mayor Harkness asked to table this agenda item until Regular Session.  AGENDA ITEM 4: CONSIDERATION OF TRAVELERS  Mr. Musselwhite spoke about how our insurance policy is increasing and is up for renewal January 31, 2023. Dulcie with Travelers presented. The premiums are up 33% but the majori increases are the property and auto. The property values increased from $6 million to $8.3 million which is basically the addition oft the school building and then there are some increases to the police department, fire department and City Hall coverage amounts. The increase in values went up 30% but the premium only went up 36%. There isal large increase in auto. Last year the auto schedule was 30 units at $1.2 million with 22 of those units being over! 5 years old. We had 10 units in 2022 which included the newi fire truck. The cyber liability was not renewed because some deficiencies in the cyberapplication but iti is being reviewed to make sure the information provided to Travelers was correct. Mr. Musselwhite and Ms. Chastain are meeting with ACG Thursday, January! 51 to go over the Cyber Liability Application. Dulcie said 2022 was great and hoped that we would piggy back with a great 2023 and then we have the liability claims showing closed that we should be in a good position to get some competition on some rates. Mayor Harkness asked if we had insurance on water towers. Dulcie said she would verify and then get  back with us.  1/Page    AGENDA ITEM! 5: CONSIDERATION OF HEALTH INSURANCE  Brett Fowler with Turner Wood and Smith presented. He quoted out our insurance and Cigna came back the most competitive. They matched the plan design that we have exactly except they lowered the office visits and ER. They came in 15.75% less than current rates which is $78,000 plus they are giving a $15,000 implementation credit to help with transition. Turner' Wood and Smith is recommending we switch from Humana to Cigna. We have our dental and vision packaged with Humana right now but they are recommending we package our vision with Cigna. Iti is about $70 more a month but Brett says it makes sense to package it all together. They are recommending the dental be packaged with our life and disability carrier whichi is Lincoln Financial. Packaging it will save $180 a month which will offset the vision. There is no increase inl life and disability. The bundled-up savings accounts for $95,000 over all with the three upgrades. Ifapproved, the start date will be February1, 2023. Councilman Allen said he  was comfortable with what was presented. AGENDA ITEM 6: COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS Mayor Harkness assigned the below appointments: Councilman Allen - Finance Councilman Bennett - Police & Fire AGENDA ITEM7 7: ANNUAL REAPPOINTMENTS Interim City Manager- Mark Musselwhite Public Works Director Bryan Popham Police Chief Robin Krockum Fire Chief- Jonathan Knight City Engineer Ben Turnipseed Magistrate Judge - Robert Sneed City Accountant- - Ed K. Burton, LLC City Attorney Thomas Mitchell City Clerk Megan Chastain  Councilman Hendrix and Councilman Ferguson - Water, Streets & Sewer  Mr. Musselwhite spoke to make his recommendations to Council regarding annual appointments. They  were as follows:  Mayor Harkness asked ift there was any discussion about the reappointments? There were none.  AGENDA ITEM 8: DDA/PARK APPOINTMENTS  Mayor Harkness asked Thomas if he, Councilman Hendrix and Councilman Bennett could be on the park committee. Mr. Mitchell said that as long they are conducted as an on open meeting and are operating asap park committee and not a council meeting then it is okay. Mayor Harkness said Councilman Bennett serves as a DDA member and Councilman Allen serves as the city council liaison as appointed. Mr. Mitchell said it was unclear but appears that once a council member is appointed, they stay on DDA until they are no longer a council member unless they want to step down. Mr. Mitchell said he would check further into it. Councilman Bennett said that if Councilman Allen wants to step down, he would stepi in.  Councilman Allen said he still wanted to serve.  2Page    AGENDA ITEM 9: CONSIDERATION OF DPI CONTRACT (PRINTER) Mr. Musselwhite asked that we table this agenda item until next month. AGENDA ITEM 10: CONSIDERATION OF DISPOSITION OF PRISON VAN detail. Mayor Harkness recommended we table this agenda item until April. AGENDA ITEM: 11: CONSIDERATION OF STREET REPAIR: 2023 LMIG  Bryan Popham had a conversation with the warden and he said there was a possibility that we could get the prison detail back in 2023. Bryan recommended that we wait until we know further details with the  Mr. Musselwhite presented the documentation we plan to submit for 2023 LMIG funds. Initially, Bryan's recommendation was' Walnut Street but he said that was a typo and that he meant to recommend Ohio Street instead. Ohio St, Double Springs Road, Arlington Street, and Cross Street are the streets Bryan  recommends we repair with LMIG.  AGENDA ITEM 12: CONSIDERATION OF PLANS OF ODE  Howard Bell with ACG Solutions presented quotes for thet following: New Cabling Phase 1, Paxton Access Controls and Computers/Network Relocation. The plan is for City Hall to close down on a Thursday at 3:30PM to disconnect the network, computers, phones and then be closed the following Friday for the network team to rebuild the network at the new location and then reopen City Hall Monday. Howard said he also added some time in the quotes just in case there has to be some work done on Saturday. Howard pointed out that the network location is not at fixed quote. They will work by the hour until the network is up and running. Howard reiterated that he has built ini infrastructure that can be extended for the future. Howard presented two camera systems (NVR & DW). The main difference in the two is the imagery, data and storage. The total of all of the quotes with the best camera system is $33,040.75. Mayor Harkness asked that ACG give a camera quote for the gym to add it to the camera system.  Council agreed that we need to protect the building. AGENDA ITEM 13: CONSIDERATION OF COMMUNITYYARD SALE  Councilman Ferguson suggested a community spring-cleaning yard sale the first weekend in April. Council agreed that we would set a date to aim to have the yard sale in April and have Bryan look at AGENDA ITEM 14: CONSIDERATION OF CLEANING SERVICES FOR MUNICIPAL BUILDING/CITY HALL Mr. Musselwhite presented two proposals for cleaning the Municipal Building and one proposal for cleaning City Hall. Council agreed that this was more of an administrative decision.  repairing the restrooms.  AGENDA ITEM 15: ANNUAL SPLOST EXPENDITURE REPORT  Mr. Musselwhite presented the Annual SPLOST Expenditure Report we have to advertise ini the  Newspaper each year.  AGENDA ITEM 16: EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK  Mr. Musselwhite stated there was an issue with holiday pay in the employee handbook. Chief Krockum stated that if al holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the city honors it on Friday or Monday but officers end up having to work on the honored day as well as the actual holidayl but are only given 12 hours PTO for the honored day. Councilman Hendrix stated that his view is that if you work and its's a holiday, you should be compensated. Mr. Musselwhite said het felt thisi is something that should be addressed in the future. Councilman Hendrix stated that the handbook: says that everyone who is employed by the city should have aj job description including the city manager and that it states thati the city manager is also  3Page    responsible for reviewing any and their own. Mayor Harkness said there is a lot of issues with the city handbook and asked Mr. Musselwhite to review it and try to geti it up to date and where it needs to be including. job descriptions. Mr. Musselwhite brought. Juneteenth to the table and recommended council continue following federal holidays which would include recognizing Juneteenth as a holiday. Councilman Allen said al lot of other communities around us have addedi it as al holiday. Mr. Musselwhite also referred to number 11 on page 14 of the employee hand asked council to delete county government while working at the city. Mayor Harkness asked council how they wanted to handle handbook changes? Councilman Allen suggested we talk about it next month as it will give more time to  solidify.  AGENDA ITEM 17: UNITED CONTRACTING & ROOFING INVOICE  Mr. Musselwhite presented the invoice from United. He said there are: still tarps on the roof but. Jeremy says they are close pending rain. He said that. Jeremy stated that we do not get the full warranty until he isp paid ini full. Councilman Hendrix stated het felt like we have been considerate time and time again and before we write checks, we: should have a walk through and then we should get a time period to make sure there are no leaks. Mr. Musselwhite is aware that there will be a walk through once he confirms in  writing that they are 100% complete.  AGENDA ITEM 18: FOURTH OF JULY FIREWORKS/ENTENTERTAINMENT  Mayor Harkness said after last month's discussion about the no noise fireworks, he reached out to Pyrotecnico but they were unwilling to quote it for us and even if they could quote it out, it wouldn't be for the Fourth of. July but they said they could: set us up with someone. Harkness reached out toa company in Florida and they quoted a similar 15-minute show for around $80,000 and they were not available on the Fourth ofJ July. Based off of council's authorization last month, he asked if he could go ahead and sign the contract and pay the down payment. Council agreed. Mayor Harkness asked that  there be an entertainment thread: started on entertainment.  AGENDAI ITEM 19: CONSIDERATION OF MOTION TO ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION AI motion was made by Councilman Allen and was seconded by Councilman Ferguson to adjourn and re- convene in Executive. Session fori the purpose of discussion of personnel. This portion of the Work  Session adjourned at 7:16 p.m.  A motion was made by Councilman Allen and seconded by Councilman Hendrix to come out of Executive Sessiona andadjourn The motion was unanimously carried, and the Work Session adjourned at 7:30  p.m.  DEM SEAL    Demorest CitylClerk  dA  4/Page