MINUTES  WAYCROSS CITY COMMISSION: PLANNING & INFORMATION SESSION  MONDAY, AUGUST19,2024, 5:001 P.M. WAYCROSS CITY COMMISSION CHAMBERS AITPENDLETONSTREE: WAYCROSS, GA)  CALLTOORDER:  The Planning and Information Session oft the City of Waycross was called to order on Monday, August 19, 2024, at 5:00 pm by Mayor James. The meeting was held in the Commission Chambers of City Hall. Present were Commissioners Diane Hopkins, Katrena Felder and Sheinita Bennett.  A. Invocation:  Commissioner Diane Hopkins  Invocation led by. James Smart, Director Public Works  B. Pledge of Allegiance  II. GUESTS:  Mr. Roy Lott, 612 Beville Street, Waycross Georgia, - spoke on the FY-2025 Budget  Mr. Stanley Evans, 1404 Roosevelt Street, Waycross Georgia, -spoke regarding his concerns about the FY-2025 Budget and the city moving forward with Beautification and Infrastructure needs as well as Ms. Melissa Ingle, 506 Elizabeth Street, Waycross Georgia, came to speak on the concerns she has with commission in her opinion using their position to hold up moving the city forward for personal Mr. Robert Hutto, 4057. Jamestown Road, Waycross Georgia, came to show support to his fellow co- workers and to the commission, by expressing a thank you to them both for there hard work and diligence but also to advocate on behalf of the younger employees the need to have better pay.  employee moral concerns.  gains.  III. TRAVEL/TRAINING SCHEDULE AND REQUESTS IV. PLANNING & INFORMATION SESSION  A. Bids:n/a  B. Discussion Items: **SEE. ATTACHED DISCUSSION NOTES***  1. Finance Update:  a. Utilization of 80K accumulated from ARPA interest, city hall repairs and upgrades.  Pagelof3    2. Infrastructure Update:  a. Prioritization of Capital gains projects. b. Transportation plan shared cost with County 150K.  Research and select purchase ofs side arm mower, ARPA, or financed.  3. Date for Comprehensive plan (3hrs) review dates: 16, 17,23, 24 September.  4. Watershed Protection Plan  Aferabriefdiscusion. The mayor opened up for a motion to place on tomorrow's agenda for a vote to place out for bid. There was no consensus with a vote of District-2, Commissioner Bennet-No, District 3, Commissioner Felder-Yes and District-4,  Commissioner Hopkins-Yes.  C. Privilege Licenses Renewals: n/a D. Privilege Licenses: E. Proposed Ordinances: n/a F. Proposed Resolutions:  1. A Resolution of the City of Waycross, Georgia, To Hold the City Commission Work Session Set for the Monday Before the First Tuesday in the Month of September 2024 on There was a consensus to place on Tuesday agenda for approval. District 2-yes, District 3- 2. Al Resolution ofthe City ofWaycross, Georgia for the. Adoption of Policies and Procedures and Program Design for Community Home Investment Program (CHIP) Grant Number 2024-19,T0Authorize thel Mayor to Sign all Related! Resolutions and Program Documents There was a consensus to place on Tuesday agenda for approval. District 2-yes, District 3-  September. 3, 2024; and for Other Purposes.  yes and District 4-yes.  in Connection with said Grant Award, and for Other Purposes.  yes and District 4-yes.  G. City Attorney Report: H. City Managers Report:  Announçed the City Retreat tol bel held on October 11th and 12th at City Hall, 4171 Pendleton Street.  Last Call  J. Adjourn to Executive Session  Page 2 of3    K. Adjournment  The meeting was adjourned at 5:34pm  CITY OF WAYCROSS  BY:  mllayw MICHXEL-ANGELO. JAMES, Mayor  ATTEST:  FuL  City Clerk  phhe  Page 3of3    ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** AUGUST 19TH-2024 WS  City Manager: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It is time we had a traveling training schedule on request, and we'll be going into the planning information session. We don't have any bids at this time. We'll go through the agenda items. I'II start with the finance update. As you know, we have maintained the Arpa funds for a while now. They've been sitting in the bank. They have been accumulating some interest. The interest, - was like ARPA has to be spent or appropriated. So, I'm asking the commission to do, -, some ofthe commission brought up that City Hall needed some repairs and some upkeep and updates. So, you: see, it's actually about 82,000. I put it on there, but it's actually 82,000., Ihad the team go through, - last week I looked at the cost for new floors, new carpet, new paint, things of nature. ", unfortunately, we can't do anything outside with this being a historical building without going through, a much higher cost. - but that 80,000 would cover a lot of needs here. Some oft the leaking that's going on in some areas that we could fix in this building. So, I'm requesting, - from the commission to get a concession on using that accumulated interest to do some repairs and City Manager: Let's move on to the infrastructure update. About four, four sessions ago, we presented the gains plan Project plan is about 48 water and sewer projects. And I had them grouped them into certain criteria, haven reflected on that and looking back at some of our past discussions and some things that slowed us down. I want to come to the commission today, and actually ift they kind ofcan give me some guidance on the prioritization. - two recommendations would be, -, that we only do one project per district. regardless of the priorities of the dean. - we seem to have issues every time we go down that road. -, it has hindered us sometimes in, - getting started on things. - extra 60 to 90 days in some cases. So, I'm asking now to go ahead and, - if they don't have that list, PI resend it. - we did send it back a while. - a while back. - and it's a lot of money on the on that list. Ijust want to kind of get some, some clear guidance on that, because I think it's important to move forward right now that we all agree on it as early as possible sO we can go ahead and figure these things out., that way there's no misunderstanding later on., Next thing, Mr. Mayor also, about four meetings ago, we introduced a transportation plan that the county had presented, and it was just a flier at the time.-, having looked back at that as well, if they when you got the, - the comp plan, you had a transportation plan built on it already. So, I knowIsaid I would come back with this request. - at this time, Idon't think we need to do that. The 150 K. - because that comp plan had a very detailed, much, " abbreviated transportation plan, and we could utilize that for our decisions moving forward. However, if we need to, - as a reminder to the commission, we did budget that $250,000 for our own transportation plan. - so, we could just we: still could goi in with the county to do updated plan and pay half of that. Or we could use that data from the comp plan to kind of create our own transportation plan. But I want to bring this back up. We said we would bring back up a few minutes later on.  some beautification on City Hall.  City Manager: I pause for questions on that.  Mayor James: And responding to the transportation plan. You're making it clear that we had a  certain portion, we could have played along with them in order to do. City Manager: We still can, even ifthey would like to. No, sir. Mr. No. Thank you. Thank you.  Mayor James: Commissioner, do you have any questions on the State Transportation Commission? City Manager: Next thing, Mr. Mayor, this is a request for the purchase of a sidearm and I go into the financing a little bit. As you. know, we only have one sidearm lawnmower at this time. So that really hinders. - Mr. Smart and his team's ability to get canals and alleyways, and we discussed this in the past. - maybe potentially going through a splash or something like that. - but because we did have some, some great under bids for opera, some of our software came in at low bid. - we found  Page 1of6    ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** AUGUST 19TH-2024 WS  other ways to buy equipment at a lower bid. So, we did have some money left over. -, that I would like to go ahead and put a flier to that side arm more, because it does, it would increase our capacity twofold, -, without canals and alleyways.-, and the funding source would be some oft that Arpa money from the equipment that we had designated, or we could possibly finance it. - Mrs. Moore has found some quotes, and they range from about, It think, 185,000 250,000. So, I'm going through that right now and we can bring that back. - but we definitely need this, -, this equipment because we only have one machine now and it does go down sometimes. And you can see when it goes down because we definitely fall behind on that canal maintenance. - and this gentleman spoke earlier, - this last storm, because we had it running in full throttle. They did do a lot of good work and really helped out with the storm, but the additional machine will definitely go even farther. - now with that, it will require another personnel to, to monitor to maintain it. So, -, James and Marissa are working on the details of maybe moving that position over, -, or awkward position. -, because Iwill be pulling somebody from one of the other teams to, to manage moving forward. But I want to go ahead and give the, - conçession to go ahead and, - make that decision now so we can go ahead and take those steps, -, to get those bids out, to find the best, - site that we can find. Andl I pause there for any questions on that  matter.  MayorJames: Did you have a presentation that Mr. James may want to do?-.  City Manager: Do we have the quotes, James? Yeah! Go ahead and present those quotes for me James Smart: Mr. mayor, commissioners, - I spoke to several different people, companies that actually produce the bone mowers as we have, that cutt the canal system. And what I'm trying to look at doing our boom that we have now is actually a 25 foot, what they call ai machete cutter. And whatl want to try to do with this other side arm is to go with a 30-foot reach, which gives us al little bit better where some of the canals we can't reach all the way to the bottom oft them. This will help in it. And some, you know, we still won't be able to reach all the way to the bottom because oft the depth of the canals. But we have a, - what they call a more max machine that I've actually asked for prices on. It was $237,000. -, another one would be Tiger Maw, and it's sort ofbuilt the same as we have now,just a different company with it. You're looking at 292,000 to 300,000, depending on the length ofthe cut on it, and actually got aj price from, -, the Dixon New Holland overi in Blackshear on the same type of mower that we. have now. I'm not sure ifthey will makei it in the 30, but Iwill get back with him. And just the one that we're looking at, like we have right nowi is a 206. So, we are looking, and you know, everything will have to be bid out and we'll have to go there. Some of our stuffi is on a state contract, which will give us a better cost on that as well. We will have to pay what some of the farmers and stuff would have to do with that state contract. So that is a benefit to the city as far as saving money. Mayor James: Commissioner, do you have any questions for Mr. Smart? two -No, sir. three -no and COMMISSIONER HOPKINS: Thank you, sir. They work very hard and thank you. And I look COMMISSIONER HOPKINS: To try to get through to keep our city looking good. So, thank you,  really quick.  So do you have any questions.  four  forward to the. Rest of our staff. Thej jobl hasn't 90 days ands some hot season. Mr. Smart, for your leadership. Thank you, Commissioner.  City Manager: Thank you.  City Manager: Next, Mr. mayor, we're moving to the last meeting. I requested some possible dates for the comp plan. It's going to take about three hours. This is an annual requirement, and it has to be done before October. So, some oft these dates are. lined up with our meetings are already scheduled  Page 2of6    ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** AUGUST 19TH-2024 WS  meetings and some are offset. So, the convention can kind of look at those dates and see ift there's a time where everybody could bet there ideally, we would want to doi itl before one ofo our actual meetings. That would save some time. Ineed to let the southern region know as soon as possible sO Mayor James: So, these dates are very similar to our dates? Yes. The 16th and the 17th seem to be one of our dates. And then the 23rd and 24th would be a different week that the week after? Yes. It Mayor. James: The Commission's decision. 24, 23 and 24. So that would be al better time, because the  they can kind of coordinate their personnel to be here.  seems likei it probably would be more conducive for three-hour times for. 16th and 17th would be the. Week of our Actual meeting. MayorJ James: Commissioner Hopkins, It think it.  COMMISSIONER HOPKINS: Really rushes us to. Go. And we thank goodness that early, very early and very early. And Ithink it forces us to have the time to go through the plan that we have to do our meeting day. So, my preference would be 231 to 24. That's not many days. Is that correct?  MayorJames: That's correct. Okay. COMMISSIONER BENNETT: Yes, sir. MayorJames: And Commissioner Felder, ofcourse. MayorJames: Would this be an either or both? City Manager: An either or. Mr. mayor,you.  Mayor. James: 23rd on a Tuesday. And 20, excuse me on the 23rd is on Monday and the 24th is ona  Tuesday. Is there any. Preference ofthe commission on the 23rd and. COMMISSIONER BENNETT: Either one is fine with me, Mr. Mayor.  Mayor James: Ifeveryone's okay for the 23rd, would yous say 24? Yes, sir. So 23rd of September.  MayorJames: Wel have consensuses for all. City Attorney: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.  City Manager: Last thing on the agenda list, Mr. Mayor. The commissioner asked for the watershed protection plan to be put back on there for a vote. I know we can have a discussion, but typically we just want to go ahead and get a vote for a bid, and we'll bid it out as soon as possible. If that's the Mayor. James: Could we have? Do we have any. Presentation of any sort concerning this or. City Manager: No, it's the same, same, same plan we've been talking about. But I know they were-, it was mentioned to be that we. had to have concessions. So, I want to go and get that now to build it  desire oft the commission.  out and.  Page3of6    **DISCUSSION NOTES*** AUGUST 19TH-2024 WS  Mayor James: Then take it to vote tomorrow. So, what we need in order for work to be done tomorrow, to be the consensus on put it out for bids. We'll start with District two. No, sir. District City Manager: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. - next man, we don't have any privilege license renewals or COMMISSIONER FELDER: Clarification. Yes. I reached out to the city manager's To the staff regarding three items to be added to the agenda for today. And they're not on the discussion items.  three-yes, and District four-Yes. You dor not have ac consensus.  privilege liçenses.  Just to provide clarification why this is not on the agenda. City Attorney: Ididn't get an email on that. COMMISSIONER FELDER: Yes, your staffo did. got to talk to me about that, so I'm sorry. Yeah.  City Manager: Because you missed before. Commissioner, you can't talk to thes staff. You know, you COMMISSIONER FELDER: So, for clarification then when the staff sends out the agenda and there are items to be added to the agenda, you're saying to not respond to the: staff. City Manager: To reach out to me, I can put on to get some concessions from all y'all. And that was like a, you know, sol can get make surei it's added. And then we got to publicize it soIcan get like on COMMISSIONER FELDER: So when would you like to receive additional items to be added to the agenda? Once the agenda is sent out to all y'all, y'all can let me know at any point in time. Ijust don't know after the fact. You mean talking directly to one of the city employees? I'm trying to avoid that, Mayor James: Thank you. And II go to our city attorney for just a statement. For clarity, it is generally our. job as commissioner and mayor to talk to our city manager who talks to the staff.  thel Friday. It's kind of difficult at that point.  but anytime y'all want to, we'll addi it toi it. A simple phone call.  City Attorney: That is correct.  Mayor James: So, if we ever step outside of that and they can't respond to them because they're under his tutelage or under his auspices. So, Imean, they could respond. Buti ini reality, that's not true. City Attorney: The charter, right? The city manager does have the responsibility of being responsible for making sure that the agenda is set.. And so, any items that should be placed on the agenda should MayorJames: That was just a point of clarity because I remember when we first started out, we were told that we were supposed to always make sure that we didn't have any ideas or thoughts that we wanted to share with, share with the city Council. He in turn puts them on the agenda based upon the time frame we do it. And most times the books are going out and the agenda goes to the public that we are meeting. And so, they have to be aware of what we're going to do before we do that. City Attorney: There may be times when the city manager is unavailable out of town. He may designate one of! his staff to receive information that needs to go on the agenda. But if he hasn't done  bel brought tol his attention.  that, then thei information needs to come to the city manager.  Page4of6    ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** AUGUST 19T-2024 WS  MayorJames: Thank you. Commissioner Felder wants to speak.  COMMISSIONER FELDER: So, Mr. City Manager, ify you would, would you tell your staffi in the future that when they do send out the agenda to the commission, that they include you in it, so that when ac commissioner replies, all recipients willl Receive that reply so that you are aware Maybe.  City Manager: Your right Commissioner.  City Manager: Yes. We have no privileged licenses. No proposed ordinance is going to have two resolutions. - my policy on the city attorney, ifyou want to speak on those two resolutions. City Attorney: Mr. Mayor and commissioners, the first resolution is a resolution of the city of Waycross to hold the city commission work session that is set for Monday before the first Tuesday in the month of September, which is September the 2nd to hold that work session on the next day, September the 3rd, because September the 2nd is a Labor Day holiday. It's a holiday for the city of Waycross. It's a national holiday as well.. And instead of having the work session on that Tuesday, the resolution proposes that the work session be held on instead ofhaving a work session on that Monday. It proposes that the work session be held on Tuesday at 3 p.m., which is two hours before the regular  meeting starts at 51 p.m. Okay, are there any questions about that? MayorJames: Do you want me to get a consensus?  City Attorney: Yes,) yes,yes.  Mayor James: So, we have our meeting also, including our work session on the third of the month of September. So, I'I start with district two. So, we're not going to do Labor Day because we're not City Attorney: The resolution will be on the agenda for tomorrow for final adoption. The second resolution is a resolution ofthe city of Waycross, Georgia, for the adoption of policies and procedures and program design for the Community Home Investment Program. The Chip program for grant number 2024 119. And this resolution will authorize the mayor to sign all related resolutions and program doc-ents in connection with the 2024 Chip Grant Award. There are: several resolutions in the package that we got from the Southern Regional Commission, which is administering the grant from the Department of Community Affairs. There are about 11 different doc-ents that you'l have to sign, including resolutions, section three plan and, - and resolution with regard to making sure that the grant benefits moderate too low to moderate income individuals. Another document regarding language access, sO that persons who speak Spanish, for an example, will be able to understand the program. - there's also, - the standard agreement between the city of Waycross and the Southern Regional Commission to be the administrator or administrator, Is should say, ofthis grant. And instead of, - having each one of those resolutions set forth, - we have prepared one resolution that incorporates all of the resolutions, the forms, - the contract and the doc-ents that will put into effect this, - - 2024 Chip Grant. And sO by passing this resolution, - the commission will agree for the mayor to sign all of the necessary doc-ents in order to approve the 2024 Chip grant. Mayor James: Commissioner, do you have any questions. Of our city attorney for clarification before consenting? Yes, sir. Mr. District three. Yes, sir. Okay, sO let's go back to go back to that and find out. Is there a consent to give the mayors the ability to sign the 11 documents. Commissioner two-Yes Sir. Commissioner three- Yes. And Commissioner four-Yes. Okay. Thank you. City Attorney: With regard to the Cityattorney's report? I have no report. Mr. Mayor. Thank you.  going to be there. Yes, sir. Yes. Yes.  Page 5of6    ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** AUGUST 19TH-2024 WS  City Manager: Thank you, Mr. City Attorney. Mr. mayor, as far as my report received, my report and the email today to include the city reports. We did make a few modifications, but they're small and minor, one, as you'll see int there. ", the last thing to that in that report, you will see Id did put the dates for the retreat. So we did agree upon the left and 12th of October, -, for those dates. And that's City Manager: It's allowed one more time on the October for the actual city retreat will be the 11th Mayor James: Any questions of our city manager for years? Three and four. Are there any other  off my report at this time, Mr. Mayor.  and 12th. Iknow we had some confusion on ask me.  concerns or questions?  City Manager: Not that I'm aware ofMr. Mayor. MayorJames: All right. This meeting's adjourned.  Page 6of6