Court. Court. Welcome, everyone. I'd like to call this meeting of the John Street City Council meeting to order this May 28th at 7.02 p.m. Thank you at this time I'll call roll. Please. Council Member Tunkey. Thank you. Council Member Skinner. Your Council Member Erimelli. Present. Council Member Coughlin. Present. Council Member D. Biasi. Thank you. Council Member D. Biasi. Thank you. Councilmember Elwood. Here. Thank you, Mayor. We have a quorum. Fantastic. Next item. Thank you. Could you lead the Pledge of Allegiance? It would be glad to. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the public for Next item. Mayor's opening remarks. None. Thank you. Thank you. The next item on the agenda will be minutes. You have the May 6th work session and council meeting minutes before you as well as the May 10th special call meeting. Anyone want to make a motion? Make a motion to approve the previous meetings minutes. All right. Thank you, Councillor Aramelli. Is there a second? Good. Thank you, Councillor L Wood. Is there a discussion on the motion? Favorite? Thank you. The next item is approval of the meeting agenda. Mr. Mayor? Yes, Larry. Councillor D. B. Yes, I'd like to make a motion or to move an item, G2 from the consent agenda to move it to M.3, please. Okay, thank you, Councilmember D. B. Ossie for that. Okay, M.3. Is there a second? I was second that. All right, thank you, Councilmember Schinner. And is there a discussion on the motion? Councilmember D. Biasi, you want to tell us, look just a little bit about why the move. Yes, absolutely. I think what some of our staff has done here in this particular program is actually fantastic. And I'd like to dive a little deeper into some of the details about the contract. And I'd like to get a little more clarification and highlight some of this because this is going to be something great for our town center as well as some other residents. Okay. All right. Any other discussion? If I could just clarify the motion. I just want to make sure I understand. So the motion is to move G2 off the consent agenda. Agenda make it M3 new business and the agenda otherwise remain the same as presented. Thank you. I make it M3 new business and the agenda otherwise remain the same as presented. Yes. Thank you. All right, all those in favor? And it passes, and I'm just going to move. Next item. Thank you. The next item is our amended consent agenda. You have ordinance 2456. This is to amend the fiscal year 24 budget for the Chattahoochi Greenway and Abbott's bridge road projects. You have an action item to approve intergovernmental agreements with Bolton County for various transportation projects. An action item to approve an amendment to the memorandum of understanding with the four-cythnarchotics task force. An action item to approve the janitorial services contract in the amount of $36,056 with American facility services. An action item to approve a construction contract with Oshmut construction in the amount of $2,2.106 million and CEI task order with a Cura engineering for $92,000 and a 10% construction contingency for Rogers Bridge and Bell Road Trails. And the last item is an intergovernmental agreement with Fulton County to accept $175 for water and sewer relocations for Rogers Bridge and Bell Road Trails. All right, fantastic. Thank you, Madam Clerk. And is there any motion about the consent agenda? I make a motion we approve the consent agenda as presented. All right thank you Councillor Erimelli for the motion is there a second? I would try to think how to clean up. I would like to make a I would like to second the motion to approve the consent agenda as amended. All right, and is there a discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? All right, ask unanimous. All right. Next item. Thank you. The next item is the introduction of the economic development director, Kim Alonz. We have interim city manager career for presentation. Good evening, mayor and council. It is my pleasure to introduce you formally to our new economic development director, Dr. Kim Alonz. formally to our new economic development director, Dr. Kim Allons. So Kim emerged out of a highly competitive search process where we had over 50 applicants both locally, regionally, and from neighboring states. So he really is here as a testament to his qualifications and background. I wanted to give you just a couple of those highlights so you can get to know him a little bit better. So educational wise, he got both his bachelor's degree and master's degree from the University of Georgia, his PhD in Public Affairs is from the University of Central Florida. Career highlights wise while he was with the Department of Community Affairs. He helped program and allocate over $25 million in funding. So he's very good with numbers, which is excellent for us. Then he went from there, moving to Florida, to serve as economic development manager for first the city of Orlando and then Wilton Managers, when he was in Orlando as a big highlight there. He helped revise the strategy and then lead major economic development initiatives for Orlando, Florida. Then he moved back to Georgia in 2023 to be with the city of Stockbridge. And while he was with Stockbridge, he helped them create their very first economic development plan. And then a big focus on how he could help small and local businesses to so building those relationships and helping thrive that economic development engine for them are all transferable and relatable skills and know he's going to bring to Johns Creek and has already hit the ground running both on our existing business community getting to know our partners as well as helping us attract or taint and find the best and brightest to join. So my pleasure. Introduce, go. Good evening mayor and council and members of the public. Kimmelon, second amendment director. I am very excited and honored to join the team here in Jones Creek. I am very excited to be here and it is an exciting time to actually be in Jones Creek with all of the exciting and transformative projects that you all have going on with the town center, Medley, Quickside Park. So I am very, very excited to be here and I look forward to working alongside our staff under your leadership to make sure that we are the premier city for health wellness and innovation. So thank you, appreciate it. I'll take any questions if you have any. No questions, just welcome aboard. Thank you, happy to be here. Okay, we're looking forward to it. Thank you, Dr. Lotz. Next time. Thank you, public comment. I, at this time, don't have any cards. Thank you. Public comment. I at this time don't have any cards. Okay. Thank you. Reports. We have the manager's monthly report. Interim City Manager Grere for presentation. All right. Included in your agenda packet is the report for the month of April. And as you can see, it was another busy month here in Johns Creek. On the public safety front in April, we sent six fire cadets off to the fire academy and have two police cadets progressing through that. Both departments have been successful since then in attracting some experienced folks to fill in our remaining vacancies so we're in good shape at the moment on the staffing front. Before we leave public safety, the annual police department banquet also happened in April where we recognize the best of that department. The picture on the back is of the D squad whose name squad of the year for the police department. There were several other awards given I know I can't name them all tonight, but I do want to highlight that Patrick Carroll was named our officer of the year for his energy professionalism and thorough work that he does. And Detective of the Year was awarded to Ray Miller for his outstanding performance commitment and special attention to detail, which comes in handy as a detective. Speaking of celebrations, we had a couple parties too. In the parks, we highlighted on the report the Daffodil Days celebration of Hope and Community here at City Hall. But we also had a great public safety foundation run at Collie Creek with over 100 runners joining aside the first responders in checking out that 5K track. Keeping on trails and connectivity, it was a great month for adding connections for us. We highlighted in the report the opening of the old Alabama trail that meanders along the road. But we also made some really good construction progress in April on Bice Road between Kingston Crossing and Twin Gate Drive. In arts and culture news, working through your strategic priorities, it was in April that our partners at the Johns Creek Art Center traded out our artwork that is on display here in City Council chambers outside of Council chambers and at Park Place. We also keep in the Council's initiative moving forward for the public arts or performing arts facility. We did several staff tours of existing facilities around the region. And then finally an economic development news. It was a great month for us. That's when Dr. Lanz agreed to join the team. And he started off April strong by actually attending the Greater North Fulton Springs War Rae. So he was out there networking and meeting his regional partners and counterparts before he even found his desk here at City Hall. So I'm taking that as a positive sign, as you can tell, he's very excited about the role and it's going to add a lot to the team. I'll leave it there for my highlights, but happy to answer any questions. Questions? This is regarding the permits permitting process. A few people have just come up to me and said they had some issues with permitting. They didn't know the work they were undertaking was needed permitting. Is there a way to simplify the process? Number two is, you may need a permit, but a very restricted permit. They don't have to run through the entire gamut of producing surveys and all that. If it means just they're adding a door or something, things like that. So what I was trying to suggest sometime back was to have a questionnaire kind of thing which will lead the process so that it doesn't, rooting things doesn't, don't bubble up to a director saying that it okay you don't have to do this, you don't have to do that. The point is that could be eliminated. So if you do a process where you ask a question, okay, if you need this requirement, then you do this. So I don't need to have a as build survey if I'm just changing a door at the end of the process. So things like that, if you're doing something like that, I'd like the application process which I recently went through to be simplified. So that is something which I suggested to you folks. I hope you can work on it. Be happy to work with our community development director and our assistant city manager, Mr. Bennett, who works directly with them to review if there's a way to simplify our processes or maybe a decision tree to understand where permits are needed. Yeah, because you know, a lot of people come to all of us and saying, hey, we have this issue, we have this issue. Best way to avoid it is simplify and make it transparent. This is part of what are the simplification process champ advocating. Any other questions? One quick clarification. You said GCIC ordered completed. What is that? Is there something we should be celebrating? So what's it? What is it? To maintain our certification and compliance with the Georgia criminal information center, GCIC, we have to go through a number of, yep. She's just hooked his head around the door. He can correct me on my acronym later, but to make sure that we are up to speed and qualified in all of our processes, so he's a big part of that process is our lead point person. It is a milestone, it's something we go through, but it is not unusual, nor do we normally throw confetti for it. Okay, thank you. Any other questions? All right, thank you. All right, next item. Thank you, Mayor. Have a few announcements. Planning commission will meet Tuesday, June 4th at 7 p.m. There's a zoning public participation meeting Thursday, June 6th at 7 p.m. The Arts Culture and Entertainment Committee will meet Thursday, June 13th at 7. And then we are back here on June 17th for a 5 p.m. work session followed by a 7 p.m. council meeting. Okay, thank you very much. I'm sorry, Mayor. May I clarify that last day, June 17th? 17th that I write it down. No, you're right. I apologize. Sorry. It's been a day. Okay. All right. Any other announcements? All right. Next slide. Thank you. Nothing under old business. The first item under new business is ordinance 2457. This is the Mending the John's Creek zoning map for RZ 24002. It's 6350 hospital parkway and we have director song for presentation. The New New Marien City Council, the Resoning Request, RZ20, BOR002 has come before you with a recommendation from Planning Commission at their most recent meeting on May 7th, recommending for Council to approve a deferral and remain the rezoning back to Planning Commission for their meeting on September 10th. I'll give you quick sort of synopsis or summary as to how we got to this point. The actual application was to be heard by Planning Commission on April 16th. They did, the applicant did request a deferral at that time. There wasn't much information as to the exact issue as to the deferral. It had to do with an issue pertaining to the applicant and the property owner. And at the meeting on May 7th, the Planning Commission meeting and both instances, the Planning Commission did not open the public hearing up to the public. There was an informal presentation made at the time. It was May 7th, the four of us basically. The May 7th referral was related to more information that we received. Essentially, it was revealed as an issue that there was 80,000 cubic yards of access there on the property, on the subject property, unbeknownst to the property owner at the time, which has a significant cost impact for the project. And because of that, the applicant wanted more time to go back and work with the property owner directly, again based upon the significant cost related to the development. So with that, again, they did ask for the furl. However, planning commission is only granted an opportunity to provide one 30-day furl, which they did in April to the May hearing. And so they couldn't approve another deferral. They had to make a recommendation to City Council and hence the reason I am here before you tonight. Essentially requesting for a deferral of this case to date certain September 10th for the plan. Sorry, the regular schedule of planning commission meeting. All right, thank you, director Saun. Council. I have a motion unless someone has a question. I just have one question. If I may. Were there a lot of members of the public that came out? There was one. There was none that came out in April. There was one homeowner from St. Seven Oaks that came out in May. I spoke to her and gave her the explain the process where we were going. I was going to end up most likely if it's approved by City Council. She was fully aware of it. Give her additional info where she could go on the website to find additional information. Do some research and if she has any questions, you could reach back out to us. Thank you. All right. I move that we defer and remain rezoning RZ24002 to the Planning Commission meeting on September 10th, 2024. Aye second. Thank you, Council Member Kauffman for the motion and thank you for the second, Council Ermeri. Is there discussion on the motion? None all those in favor? All right, it's deferred. Thank you. Thank you Mayor. The next item is the announcement of the Mayor's nomination for City Manager position. All right. This one to say a few words to present the nomination. The appointment of a new City Manager is an important milestone for any city. And I could not be more pleased to be here tonight to present this nomination per the city charter for this important role. For several months, we've been conducting a national search to make sure that we find the very best talent. to make sure that we find the very best talent. That process was a rigorous, very comprehensive screening that went to great lengths to evaluate the candidates on leadership, team building, and executive management capabilities. It was really no surprise that at the top of that evaluation list was one of the key people here in our city that was already on our team. Someone who has been driving much of our success during the last 10 years while she has been with our city. I know that this is the right person to continue our success not only as the most livable city in America, but also to continue leading our talented city staff as a high performing team. I have no doubt that this person will do everything possible to implement the council's strategic priorities. And to continue our improvement at City Hall, whether in communications, customer service, or with the many projects we have in front of us, all of this ultimately to improve quality of life and to do business in John's Creek. Therefore, it is my great honor and privilege to nominate Kimberly Greer to be our next city manager. And with that, Council, as today is simply the announcement of this nomination, I look forward to our discussion and vote on this nomination at our next meeting. And with that, Madam Clerk, exciting. If I may, Mayor, and I thank you for your nomination. And just to be aware of our upcoming ratification, I would just ask and request that we can please see a spreadsheet of all of the applicants. I mean like you said this is a very important hire and we've had four city managers in our 18 years. So just like every other vote that we've taken, we never vote unless we have all of the information. So my ask would just be that you provide us the same level of information that you had and show us the spreadsheet from the consulting group that had all of the applicants on it. And therefore, you know, after we have that information, I think it'll make it much easier for us to ratify your nominee. I'll be glad to to and as you know, I've supplied everything. I think aside from that one document, but I'll certainly provide that as well. None of those have typically been provided in the past, but I've tried to err on the side of being more transparent, fully transparent, and I'll be happy to provide that as well. I will have to ask probably that it come from the search firm because there were restrictions on it from a technical standpoint, but I can talk to them tomorrow about making that happen. All right. All right, with that, next item. Thank you, Mayor. With our amended agenda, the next item on the agenda is the action item. This is to approve a construction contract with precision 2000 and 2.9 million in a task order with WK Dickinson and the amount of 94, 468 for the town center stream restoration and trail project. And I believe Director Haggard is here. Sorry, I can't talk this evening to answer any questions for you. I'm sorry, I can't talk this evening to answer any questions for you. Yes, I'll hear your own light all the TV. Sorry. I don't know which way to look. I just need you to ask some questions. I'm happy to answer them. I don't know if you need to introduce to the project or. No, and I appreciate you giving us a little time today and some insight here, Director Hagger. So I did not want this particular project to sort of be buried within the Kitsan Agenda. It is such a strategic importance to this council in storm water and everything that the challenges that John's Creek face with storm water throughout the city. And you've done some, you know, yourself and your staff has done some really good things here. And I would like them to be highlighted if you will a little bit here. The $400,000 grant funding that you receive from the EPD. That's amazing to yourself. This project, because it touches at the northern end of the city, and it touches the town center that we're building, and it clean up of that stream and the restoration of that and the removal of the siltation, it's critical. Also, I did want some clarification on the permits that you granted. You granted a nationwide permit from the EPD. And I'd like to understand that better because as we go forward with stormwater projects, if you will, how can that permit? Is it usable in other parts of the city? And just wanted to explore this a little further some of the solutions that was put forward to the BZA January 16th was was you and I I love to hear more about it and how some of this is going to work together the actual process to Stabilize the creeks and to move forward with that. Okay, so I'm not the expert, but I can tell you a little bit about it. So the methods we're using are, there's a very number of different ways we're going to try to beef up this stream, so it doesn't erode the banks. Some of that is very, very large, boulder-type rip wrap at the turn. A lot of it is plants and landscaping and things to try to hold that side wall in. We're fixing some of the outfalls of pipes into the creek up in that area. I guess I don't have all the expertise, but I know there's at least five or six different tools, I guess, in that toolbox we're using. And there's the step down pool. There's one of them where we're dropping water and then it's going through a rock barrier and then kind of flows over it and that slows down the flow. Permit wise, again, I'm not the expert, but there are multiple permits we pulled. One was the Army Corps of Engineers. That's your nationwide permit you mentioned. That you have to pull that in order to touch the actual stream itself, which we are touching the stream bottom. Then there are EPD is the buffers. The first 25 feet is a buffer variance so that we're allowed to go in and kind of rebuild that shoulder of the stream. And then the city has its own buffer beyond that. Yes, so we had to go to BZA to get clearance to go in that next buffer and build the trail component. And so yes, this can be translated to any project, but it takes time and money. And that's where some of the challenges are. It took us about a year to 14 months to pull these permits to be able to do this work on this stream. That makes sense. No, and do any of these because you've gone through the process do any of these permits can they be used? For other streams or further down streams to Just stabilize the banks right so a permit is very specific to what you apply So you have to do the plans and then send them in for the permit approval So the same methods could be used, but you'd have to start that permit process on that next stream from basically from scratch. You'd have to have those plans submitted to get the permit, and it would still take you that 12 month timeline. Because every stream has different flow rates of water and characteristics, and in this case erosion was different than it might be in different creeks Siltation all those factors go into these permits and what they allow us to do Director Haggard Generally speaking that's a 12-month minimum like with the experience of the core and the EPT That's what we yes, that's what it yesterday. That's the rule. It is taking us, yes. Director Haggard, quick question. Downstream, there are some residences which are very severely impacted by this, John's Creek. I think my fellow member is applying to that. So if a citizen, we personally went and saw it, it was almost till their deck. It got washed away. The erosion control is a big thing. So if they do it on their own, put some reprep there. So there are rules that allow you to do certain things. There's a length of impact you're allowed to do by hand, putting, say, reprep in. Again, I'm not the expert, but I've heard my team talk about you can go 100 linear feet and do it without having to pull a permit, which can't do five in a row because then you exceed that 100 feet. So maybe it's one backyard but not five backyard. So it gets hard when you try to do a bigger scale project. So if an individual resident comes to us, we can do a good thing. They're welcome to call and our team can give them that direction. Or the Can you just tell the element folks can? And remember also that we talked recently about the idea of staff coming back to us about maybe a grant program that would enable, you know, whether it be a single resident or hopefully rather maybe residents along the entire corridor stormwater to maybe look at doing some of these more innovative things to tackle some of these more difficult situations. So basically this is a first step like restoring upstream so that downstream can. You'll prove it on down. Yeah, exactly. Part of it is what lessons, what lessons can we learn from this? Because this is a, I look at this as extremely successful. And helping what's creekside, you know, clean up on in the citation. What processes can we standardize on and move that process forward potentially to individuals or potentially to build a program around something like stabilizing a stream bank? If I listen to the expert, Mr. Raver, it sounds very similar to some of the items we've talked about in the past, with the rip wrap, the geofabric, the sloping, the, the, the, he, he talks about a taco-type look of fields folded in and planting the, the trees within the geofabric, the stabilizing. I like, I'm, I'm liking the fact that these are the processes that was talked about in the past, and it's being implemented here, and that the EPD has acknowledged the permits, and potentially we can expand some of this I'm hoping. I'll see what you say, right? Chris, I will ask you, you had talked about how the water is coming over and then it kind of goes down in a lower area and it sounds like may be a weir of some kind. That's one of the methods, right? Is there, I would imagine a lot of silk collects in the trough. Are we designing that in such a way that it will be easier for us to clean out and maintain? So the the challenges I'm not and I can't I don't know The technical I don't believe we're allowed to do that in the stream, but we're building that into the Creekside Park Pond okay at that beginning so that if it does get that far we can clean it out Before it gets into the full pond and on the wetlands. A real goal is protecting everything downstream. So if it gets straight a little bit from the creek to the top of the pond. It's more like a forebay. It's a forebay. It was just clean up the forebay. So maintaining the forebay not permissible or? No, we will be maintaining the 4-way, but on this pond, the stream itself doesn't have a 4-way because it's a flowing thing. Sorry, the first place you can do a 4-way is at the top of our pond here, Crecite Park. So they're doing everywhere they can. So we're trying to stop the erosion and anything that does follow will catch at the 4-B clean it out there. So it double protects downstream. Larry, any other questions? Fantastic. No, I appreciate your time, Director Haggard. Thank you for being here tonight and answering the questions. Like I said, for the start, I didn't want you to go as buried in the consent. Good stuff you're doing and let's do more of it. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Thank you, Director Hagger. I'm sorry. I believe you need a vote on the item now so you've removed it from consent. You mean you actually want us to- Sorry? The city's been- oh, okay. All right. on the item now so you've removed it from consent. You mean you actually want us to- Sorry. The city's been- Oh, all right. All right. We don't have a motion. I'd like to make a motion to approve M.3 as it was written and presented. All right, thank you Councilmember D. Biasi. Is there a second? Aye second. Thank you Councilmember Yermelli foriasi, is there a second? Aye second. Thank you, Councilmember Yermelli, for the second. Is there a discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? All right, very good. Thank you. This evening we have nothing under other business. We have another opportunity for public comment. Hello, Mr. Mayor. I'm Mr. Mayor, I counsel. My name is Sandra Pastorello and I know I know many of y'all because I come to a lot of your meetings. But I want to thank Chairman D. Biasi for allowing me to move the item so that I could speak after Chris came up here. First what I would like to say is I'd like to thank Chris Haggard and his team, especially Ricky Forney. My house goes along Jones Bridge and has been very impacted by the Jones Bridge expansion. However, the transparency from his team and from Ricky has been amazing. I could come up here and bulk and have a million other things to say, but the team has just really, really done a great job. Ricky consistently has made himself available to myself and shared all the significant and milestones as the project has progressed. And I know that we're only halfway there, but I know that the city is committed to continued beautification across our city as well as the positive impact that's going to happen from the traffic flow. And the sidewalk connectivity to allow all of our pedestrians to be able to walk and use Johns Creek and the health and wellness that we want to strive for each and every day. So with that said, Chris, I promise you that I will be back up here at the end of this, hopefully with the same comments and certainly bringing other residents as well. The last thing that I'd like to bring up is I am very excited about hearing about the nomination of Kimberly Greer. I had the privilege of being part of Leadership John's Creek in 2017, and that is when I first met Kimberly. So she and I led our team, and we led our team to build the K9 facility that's over at Colley Creek. So that was our project, which we were very, very excited about. And working with Kimberly was a pleasure and we developed a friendship from that moment on. But her attention to detail, her commitment to the city and knowing an area that we could make a significant impact was just great to be part of. So I've enjoyed coming to your meetings that happened before City Council and listening to the things that Kimberly is able to share and coming to you as council and being able to share from a city perspective. So I'm very excited and hope that everybody will be able to have a nomination for Kimberly. So with that said, thank you very much. Thank you for public comment. Thank you for the only one in the audience. So I think we're next item. Mayors comments? No comments. I just appreciate the meeting. Executive session. I think we've handled all that. Okay, there's no further items on the agenda. First motion. Hey, Mr. Mayor. I think it's good time that we adjourn. Good, sir. All right. Any discussion on that motion? Seeing none, all those in favor? And we are adjourned. Thank you very much.