I'll switch it up for you. We're recording. I'd like to call this meeting of the John Spirits State Council on Section 1 of this Monday June 17th at 5 p.m. Thank you, Mayor. Could you please leave the pletch? I'd like to. I'd like to leave this to the line of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands on one nation, on one country, on the individual, in the liberty and justice for all. Next slide. Thank you. Mayor Schermarks. and you can build this little, you can build everything in justice for all. Next slide. Thank you. Mayor Schermarks. Thank you. Thank you. The first item on the agenda is a Recreation and Parks Review of First Year. And we have air commats and for presentation. Good evening. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight on the first year of the Recreation and Parks Department. I'm gonna provide you some key highlights on projects, programs and partnerships. So I'll go ahead and get started with park improvements. It may seem like a long time ago, but the installation of lights at the Newtown Park LaCrosse field was a key investment because it expanded playing time on a highly desired synthetic turf field. Additionally, the department is excited to unveil the new wayfinding signs at New Town Park, and which is the initial installation of new park signage standards, which will really create a sense of place within our parks. And we also made advancements in the installation of public art. Here you can see the fern sculpture, and we also recently cut the ribbon on lyrical loops in Bell Bowles Park. Of course, those were projects funded by our partners, the CVB, which were made from Rogers Bridge Steel. Of course, we have our pickleball renovations here, those parks, those facilities get used all the time. Additionally, we have made significant investments over at Autry Mill Nature Preserve, specifically a long-awaited trail renovation, and then here we have the amphitheater renovation which is currently under construction. Aside from park facilities staff really works hard to create fun for everyone through park programming special events and cultural events. The fall 2023 season was full. We started off with the 5K race to Colleague Creek Park. Our annual Trunker Creek Halloween celebration with the police department. And also, of course, our wonderful second du Wally festival at the Highsman field. That year wrapped up with a joyful Holly Jelly celebration. As we started 2024, we ushered in a lovely new, Lunar New Year festival, again, back at Highsman Field. Additionally, we included a youth centered battle of the bands program, and I'm not sure if you knew, but the winner of Battle of the bands got to be our concert opener for our first concert at Newtown Park in May. We kept the fun going with the Easter Bunny Hop. It was relocated, but still a great time. And then followed that up with the children's market at Daffodil Days. And then back here to Town Center for our wonderful touch track that's a lot of fun every year in May. Of course course we're going to keep those events rocking and rolling throughout the summertime, so I hope you all can join us there. Aside from special events, park programming was expanded to include free additional free outfit, this is that Collier Creek Park, bike riding, clinics, and pickle ball lessons. Our seniors over at Park Place enjoyed expanded programming, including extreme trivia and Zoom Gold. Of course, we couldn't serve the community as well as we do without our amazing community partners. So last year we made progress towards expanding, existing, and developing new partnerships. For existing partnerships, we worked with the communication department for a policy shift that allowed the city to use our communication channels to share events and programs from our partners who have a facility use agreement with us. Additionally, we were very pleased to develop a or start up a new partnership over at Colleague Park with our new Athletic Association over there. So we're running all sorts of great athletics out of that park while leveraging the proximity of Shake Rack Park. Currently, staff is working with the full county school system on a pilot agreement over at Abbott-Till Elementary to try to use that facility as a public park outside of school hours. I will say we shared this same update with our PAC in the May 15th regular meeting. They were, they were supporting gratitude for the growth in the parks and championed by this council by setting recreation in parks as a strategic priority. They did encourage us to continue pursuing partnerships, especially with the full county school system. As we look ahead to the coming months and the year ahead, we've got a lot of exciting things going on. I'm sorry, I actually missed a whole part. I forgot to say that back in parks, we are working in the background to develop the construction documents for the makerspace and the Creek side park. Of course, both of those projects are out to bid right now. So later in June, we will expect the construction bids back on both of those projects. So pending bid results and council action both the makerspace and Creek side park could be under construction as soon as fall is this year. We will also be continuing to look for opportunities to activate the riverfront parcel at Colle Creek Park. This summer will hold a lot of events. I hope you all can join us for our movies, concerts, and of course our huge Independence Day celebration. As we move into the fall, we'll host our literary fair, which should be a wonderful time and a little bit cooler than our Juneteenth celebration that was still a lovely celebration this past weekend. I hope you were able to join us for that. We will continue trying to finalize the agreement with Ford County Schools for Abbot Hill Elementary, as well as continue to work with our other community partners such as the Johns Creek Arts Center and others identified in our Recreation and Part Strategic Plan. So I thank you again for allowing me to speak on our progress of the last year and I'm happy to answer any questions. All right, questions still? Thank you. Thank you Rico. A lot of progress. Every time I walk into the colleague, I listen, walk up to him and say, how much they're enjoying the park and so it's a lot of things happening and great job. I'm really excited about the pilot program with Fulton County Schools. Once that course successful, we'll have access to the other schools and probably a lot of sports programs we could come back and implement those. So, good job. Thank you. Thank you, Erica. And also especially for the policy shift with pushing out events of our partners. I really appreciate that. Thank you. Great job with all the stuff. I know you've been slightly busy this last year. So my questions are on the riverfront. I know we went out one time with the RFP and the responses were somewhat meek, I guess, one response and it was marginal, I guess. Any, what are your thoughts there as far as how to reinvigorate that RFP process or find another partner there? I'll have to work through honestly the environmental and just the challenges with utilities, getting utilities over there. So it is a great space. It's functional, but just getting it so that code compliance we can get people in the door would be our first challenge to navigate. Gotcha. So you're referring to just the sewer and all that, the potential lift station, all that side of it. Gotcha, okay, those are the costs. And can you give us an update on our partner at OC, OC Park? Sure, yes, actually. So just as of this morning, we were speaking with the board. They intend to reinstate the 15 year old age group. We are also working with them to determine, basically, in the fall, they're working through some safety considerations. They're going to have to just add a couple of rules, just for safety. And then we're working on them with person reinvestment that will open up some opportunities for them to continue the 15 year old program, as well as allow the smaller fields to be prioritized to the younger age groups, which is really a benefit to the community and to our K-5 age groups there. Gotcha. Are they currently still within a 501-C-3? Are they still not profit or are they of the loss or status? I don't know for certain I believe they've lost their status and are working to be reinstated. Okay, that's good. And just one last question. Is there any item that you see in the parks that you think we really need to have besides parking at the pickable courts. But is there anything that you wish we would have had in the capital budget or in any areas that is needed and we sort of missed? I think most of the desires that we have for the parks have been included in the capital requests. I know lighting for OC Park would be a wonderful investment to make. It would save money and as well, it would save money in terms of maintenance and long-term utility costs there. And also just bring those life up to current standards. I would be a wonderful investment to make. Thank you. Very good. Eric, I had first-hand experience of you leading from the front. I saw you at 7 o'clock in the evening in a pretty hot day. You're standing next to all those parents, heated arguments going on about the ZOSI Park. I really appreciated that you could have sent anybody in your staff there, but you were there, which sent a very good message to the people there. And that's exactly what I said when I concluded it also that the Director herself is here. So I hope you will trash out some policies with them going forward. It is going to the case that they will always have he said he said or something of that I Wish they keep you in the loop they're doing anything Because the main thing that Bubble up that day was that there was not enough communication between them between the two groups So I hope if they're doing anything policy wise asking seeking for directors That goes through you. But I really appreciate what the lead you're taking in this entire process in your department. I will be working more with you. Thank you. I just have one quick question. When is the Fourth of July celebration? Is it gonna be on the third again or it will be on the third? It will be on the third. The third? All right, thank you for confirming that. And thanks for all your work. This is a great update. Appreciate it. No questions. Thank you for the update, Erica. Very good, Erica. Thank you. Make a lot of progress. That's fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. The next item on the agenda is the 2025 municipal elections. We have Assistant City Manager Bennett for presentation. Good evening, Mayor and Council. There's been a development that I believe may impact the direction that you have given us when it comes to the 2025 municipal elections. If you have been following the news, you may have read about some litigation involving how members of the Public Service Commission are elected. There was a legal challenge to those members being elected statewide. The litigation became protracted. There were a couple of elections that were missed, and because the judge stayed those pending the outcome of the litigation. This last general assembly session, the House brought a bill that was approved by the Senate and signed by the governor. That calls for a special election for certain PSC members at a specific time. Two of those commission members are required to sit for a special election or seats for a special election. On the same day is the 2025 municipal general election, which is the Tuesday following the first Monday in November 2025. That of course is your next municipal election date. And thinking back to when we began conducting our own elections discussion, one of the main drivers in doing that was to reduce the cost as Fulton County was increasing the amount that they were charging us to perform the elections. In this case, because PSC is a statewide elected office, the full county will have to conduct an election in 2025, which means that we can ride along with the statewide election, reducing the cost. In the memo, there are some historical numbers. In 2014, we paid just over $8,700, 2017, $39,000, and $18,614, in 2018. So seeing as one of the primary drivers at the beginning of this discussion was to save cost. The staff at this point would suggest an intent to move forward with having full and kind of conduct our 2025 municipal elections. In this particular instance, unless the council directs otherwise. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. Okay. So? Thank you. Thank you, Ron, for the update. And it's good that Fulton County is going to be doing it and the cost for the city is going to be much lower. So thank you for the update and I support that. Thanks. Thank you, Ron. The last time we left it, I think you were going to look for a superintendant. Were you able to do that or figure out how we were going to work with the other cities? So I guess the answer is no. We did not move that forward at that point in time. When we were looking at conducting our own elections. And do you know how much we've already spent on a consultant? I would have to look and see how much those legal fees are. I can get you that information. I do not recall it off the top of my head. And do you know if the other cities that we were going to be trying to work with have decided whether they're going to still go forward with? And so we're seeing. I do not. I know Ms. Greer may have had some conversations, perhaps the mayor with some of his fellow mayors, but I personally don't have any knowledge of whether any other cities are going to use Fulton this next municipal election cycle. Okay. Would you know, Miss Greer? So none of them have formally declared or voted on it as a body, but the inclination of the city managers and city administrators is that they believe with Fulton conducting an election, that it is highly likely that each of the bodies will work with Fulton County. But as I said, none of them have formally voted on it yet, given how far out it is. Okay, so for me, I'm still looking at going ahead because we still haven't addressed the service, how we're going to improve the user experience for the residents, and also from looking back at prior meetings, other councils, every time they get the MOU from Fulton County, they panic and want the city to look at other ways to handle elections and by then it's too late. So we don't do it in 25. I mean, we've already spent money and started the process. So it could just come with them giving us the MOU for this, maybe not being as cheap as it has in the past, or happening again in 27. So I would like to see us go forward. Thank you very much. Thank you for the update, Ron. This bill, the HB 1312, is it one time or are they going to have a sequence of elections every, every what, two years that they have, or every six years? Yeah, they're every six years and it will reset that six year term when they began in 2025. So as far as if we say we go with Fulton County for 25, in 31, how does that line up with the municipal elections in 31 and going forward. Because is, are we gonna have to eventually hold our own elections anyways if we want to? Right, so there wouldn't be a statewide PSE election, actually district five, that member is required to sit for an election on January, on November 2026, that wouldn't affect us. Our next election will be 2027. So, 2027 would be the first election. There wouldn't be a PSC seat up. And if there were no other statewide elections, then we would have to bear that full expanse of having full and conduct our election or conduct our own in 27. I believe so, yes sir. What I'm trying to do is line up our elections, municipal elections with the PSE and potentially other Fulton County elections or national elections so that I Hate to give up all the knowledge that we've been trying to gain for a one-time deal, basically. That's right. I think you're right when you do the math. I mean, since we have elections every two years, once you get to that 2031, we would have a state YPSC election. Gotcha. Okay. I'd like to hear everyone else's thoughts before I come back on that. Bob? I think that's wrong, goodness. If you're not going to spend some $500,000 in immediate future. But I don't think we should be going at such break-knit speed now, preparing for the 2027 elections, but rather we can not take the foot completely of the pedal, but to continue along this direction to keep building on our experience and what how we can do it better so that we'll be better prepared. So I think we probably will be acting a little earlier next time around. We've got some time. Thank you. Thank you, Ron, for this update. So I wanted to make sure I understood one thing. If the statewide elections happening, anyone that wants to cast a ballot in that statewide election for public service commission who regulates utilities and gas prices and things like that, they would have to go cast a ballot at their typical Fulton County precinct, like they always do. And then if they want to vote for mayor or the three council seats that are up, they will have to go vote at the city location and cast a second ballot. Is that correct? If John's Creek conducts its own election. Thank you for clarifying. The polls. That's what I meant. Right. If we decide to break from the way we've done it in the past and right along with Fort and County, we're on the same machine. We use the same spaces then. We have to find a different polling places. So we would have to encourage, when we're doing get out the vote, campaigning encourage and educate voters if they're actually comfortable twice, which is very counterintuitive. It certainly would have to give notice and let people know that we have a city location and then the statewide location. I have a friend who ran for city council in Gwinnett County and the municipalities there always run the elections and he ran for city council and it was the same time that the county referendum was on the ballot for Marta And there was a significant drop of like 50% and he kept having people call him hey you aren't you on the ballot I went to go vote for you you weren't on the ballot and he's like no I was but people weren't going to the right location to vote and people didn't feel comfortable butting twice So I just think that's something that's very important for us to consider as we make this decision, in addition to cost. And I don't know that we lose anything if we decided to lay this potential holding the election ourselves in 2027. I understand this. I think I've been working in the same location, what? No. No, we have to, the way the state law, in the same spring set as similar situation to the way the state law is, you have to have a separate polling location. You cannot be in the same physical polling location as Fulton County. And we're going to have different machines or different paper ballots for counting. Because it will be a city ballot and there'll be a state ballot. True, I thought like we have currently for governor and all these people at the same time. If Fulton County runs everything, everything is to together. If we run our own and they run their own, then it's separate. Understood. Does that include? I would go forward with the Fulton County. I don't think we could justify expanding 500 and to 1.2 million dollars to hold it. $2 million to hold it given the, I mean, it's speculative at best if that were going to have the process set down and agreed and educated to all the residents at this point. I just think that wouldn't be a fiscal injustice quite frankly. And I do think, thinking about this issue with it, I mean, this has occurred the three elections before. I think this was, I was able to ride the ballot in 2017 for like 30K or 40K, something like that. So how do we mathematically, like, so my use case was controlling cost for a consistent expectation that we could budget accordingly. That's why I pushed incident runoff voting, even considering us not doing it every two years to really have the best bank for our buck for the elections. But I, thinking from a fiscal point of view, I don't think we could justify this. And we would have to consider this because it is a nominal fee at best. Like right, like it's going to be 10 to 30 K that's going to cost for us to conduct our municipal elections through Fulton County. So what, what happens when this occurs in the future? through Fulton County. So what happens when this occurs in the future? So if we're running our own elections, are we going to pay 500K or whatever. Let's say 300 to 1.5 million. Let's throw out the range. If Fulton County has the ballot, are we going to jump from polling spot to polling spot and potentially mess up the voting experience? So that's a variable that we may have missed and think about this and that. Further makes it a difficult decision, but I can't justify to the taxpayers to spend 500K to 1.2 million of our own money. If we can get over 20. If we get over 20. Yeah, and I also, I would agree that we can't justify for this go round. I think we still continue, yeah, maybe for 2027. But it sounds like there's consensus on a flare if you want to say anything else. Thank you. Thank you. Do we know when the other cities are going forward with this type of vote? Whether they're going to go with Fulton County or not? Do we have any idea? Same. So I have reached out to all the other Tickamangers and City Administrators in North Fulton and none of them expected to take this issue up for several months at least, if not the early part of next year. So it's probably safe to say they're going to roll with Fulton County? That is the best guess of each of the managers and administrators, but they cautioned it with, hey, we don't make the votes. Just trying to help you understand where our tea leaves might be, given that this is an issue that your council needs to discuss as you prepare for your budget. Right. So in this situation, I mean, I'd have to agree to go with Fulton County. It, it, it, it, it, it doesn't make sense at this moment in time. I do 100% believe that we have to have control over our own elections. But in this situation, because it's sort sort of a this just was thrown upon us I would I would say let's this year. Let's keep it simple. Let's roll with With full county All right, Ron. I think that gives you your answer. Thank you very much Thank you, and thank you to you and Allison for all the work that you've done And don't don't throw any of that away. It's still going to be interesting. Never. That's not a cycle. Thank you, Mayor. The next item is the Community Development Department and Fire Department V Schedules. Director Song is, oh, I'm so sorry. I'm getting ahead of us. Thank you. The next item is actually going to be fiscal year 20. I give everyone a heart attack, sorry about that. Millage rate for advertisement, we have director Campbell for presentation. I thought I was the only one excited to talk about the military. So tonight represents the first step or initial step in the 2024 millage rate process. What we're asking for tonight is council consensus on the rate with which to advertise. So the staff recommendation is to advertise the current military of 3.646 for the upcoming 2024 process, which continues this and it's in the adopted budget as 3.646. And that's also the assumption for the FY 2025 budget that's being drafted. The public hearings that we've got scheduled would be the first one on July 8th, 11 AM, and 6 PM, and then the third public hearing and consideration for adoption would be a part of the meeting on July 29th at 7 PM. And all of this is again contingent on receiving the tax digest from the information from the county. My last correspondence with them on last week is that we should get it sometime this week, early this week. So we're hoping it comes by the Wednesday deadline that would allow us to publish within the dates that I've just described. So with that, I'll pause and ask if there are any questions. Just a comment on, Director Campbell, can you send over the PT32 whenever you receive it to elect the officials? Yes, I can. Thank you, sir. Dolly? I don't believe it comes down to the P. Oh, no. Thank you, Ronnie. I would go with the cities I just said. Related to 3.64. Thank you, Ronnie. I and five with that as well. Thank you. Good over here. Thank you. Ronnie, yeah, this three point six four six. Is it because of the timeline you have to fit in all this public hearings and all that or in ideal situation, would you be going off the tax dodges, once the tax dodges comes in and then? With a 3.646 represents the rate, so the staff recommendation is to advertise the currently adopted rate where you will set from publication perspective the amount as we go through the public hearing process. Once we get the tax-trugest information and then figure out the fiscal impact that will then inform your decision on whether or not you adopt that rate or some other version of it. I'm good with that. I support the staff recommendation. Thank you. Just a question on, we can't advertise until we have the digested end right because we'll have to communicate it. It's a tax increase. That is correct. Yeah, so likely if we keep it here, assuming there's a rollback, it would have to be communicated that three point. All right. Yeah. Just making sure we're clear there. And Ron, I would also be interested in PT 132. And 32 or 32. 32.1, I think. I had it. 32.1. Don't discriminate against me for my administrative dyslexia or whatever I have. But I would also like to see a rough of what that looks like. Just I just want know if it's a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea to see a good idea So you have an ally. Thank you. I want to party with you. All right. Okay. Sorry. I'm going to backtrack a little bit again. Community Development Department and Fire Department V Schedules. Director Song is here and Chief Coons is also here to answer questions if they arise. Good afternoon, Council. First, I want to acknowledge the special, essentially, the subject matter experts. It's not at the tables right there over there. So we got cellgator, chief building official, chief goons, and our far marshal, Chris Clinton here as well. And they can answer any questions after the presentation. But yes, thank you for this opportunity to bring this item before you. We've had the same fee schedule since 2007. There was a minor update that took place in 2016, which changed a couple of administrative items related to public notices, minor land disturbance permits that were included or added in terms of a new additional fees. Since then, there were some attempts to provide a new value calculation system for a building permit. But that just sort of was presented, then in this way going anywhere. But with this opportunity with the House Bill 461 that was adopted by the governor. It essentially requires the cities to correctly ascertain whatever the cost of the regulatory fee associated with a regulatory action that's taking place specific to the building permits. And with this opportunity, we want to take advantage of it by essentially looking over our fee schedule once again. And with that, what we did find was, in addition to community development, I do want to sort of touch on fire department. Fire department has provided non-emergency critical services without collecting fees since the corporation the city. And what I mean by the non-emergency services, these are related to commercial development and businesses for construction inspections, fire alarm, and sprinkler test inspections, elevator shaft inspections, and plan reviews. When we took on this task, we wanted to be sure that we took a conservative approach, and what I mean by conservative approach is to ensure that any revised or new fees does not adversely impact the cost of services to our residents while we're delivering these services. At the same time, we also wanted to make sure that these services that are provided are not subsidized by the residents themselves. A lot of these services are performed for commercial and on residential uses. Excuse me. With our analysis, we looked at four specific items. The first item was equity and compliance, I think is speaking with their council member. Instead of equity, I think the proper term is fairness in this particular case. One thing to point out with building permit fees specifically for John's Creek is always been based upon the construction valuation cost provided by a builder or developer. A lot of times the residents are forthcoming. They provide us the actual code that they receive from their contractors. When it comes to builders and developers, they're the ones who are formulating that cost. And who better understands this process than them, who deal with it on a daily basis. So we're proposing that the valuation system be replaced with the most recent ICC, their International Code Council, building valuation data. The BVD, the Building Valeration Data, is used as a benchmark to determine building permit fees and aids in determining if a provided construction valuation is underestimated. All municipalities in North Fulton, except for us, use the ICC BVD valuation system today. In terms of the fire department, the proposed fee schedule will not again impact residents as all fees to be charged or associated with new commercial and institutional and other non-residential uses. The proposed fees will reduce the overall subsidy of such services being paid by John's Creek citizens unless in the reliance on the general fund to support regulatory activity. In terms of the rational nexus, essentially, it's a cost for service. This is not a uniform tax or a fund by any means. It's a cost related to the service that is tacked on for actual building permit review, fire services, and so forth. It's a cost for usage. The fees are associated for fire, with the time and resources required for the fire marshal, deputy fire marshal and other staff of the department to provide plan review inspections and non-emergency related services for commercial developments and businesses. In terms of revenue impacts, The North Pole Tundra House Creek currently has the lowest building permit fees compared to the seven cities that we reviewed as part of analysis, which is Milton, Alfredo Sandy Springs, Roswell, Brookhaven, Dunwoody, and Duluth. Of the five cities in North Fulton, we're the lowest, if with the proposed fee schedule will fall right in the middle. One thing to point out is this, the other North Fulton cities, except for John's Creek, applies an impact fee. So the impact fee, which I didn't know about this, is when it comes to a single family development, the impact fee is actually placed on each individual lock, not one development. And so when you take into consideration of that, it's the building permit fee in addition to anywhere between $3,500 to $7,800, that's tacked on for residential, and $3,750 to almost $20,000 for commercial development. Those are fees that we do not apply. If a new fee schedule was to be adopted for fire department, they will also fall in the middle of the group for fees collected when compared to Milton, Alfa Reda Sandwich Springs, Roswell and Broke Haven. If the proposed fees existed today, the department would have collected an estimated $57,175 in revenue in 2022, and $75,575 in 2023. Even with the proposed revision, an addition of a new fee schedule for the respective departments, the city will continue to maintain a competitive advantage of lower fees. In addition to John's Creek being a desired place to live, work, and play. Again, I just want to stress this would lessen our dependency on the general fund to provide particular services to specific users. Another point that I want to point out is transparency. Currently, the way our building permits or our fee schedule in general for our community development is laid out, it's very confusing, and we do get a lot of calls asking about how these calculations are made. So we want to make that the understanding of the fee schedule much easier for residents in particular. And so a lot of our fees we've converted from a tier system to a flat fee. And also by providing the BVD, the building valuation data, which is also provided on the ICC website. It's updated on a six month basis based on national averages. That specific chart, the matrix that's provided on those systems, which I provided as an attachment, is very easily to understand as well, until applied. So with that, the attachments are provided. The fees shown in the red are additions or changes to the current fee schedule. The leachions from the fee schedules are not shown, but I gave you the comparison with our old ones so you can make that reference. And so staff is recommending for the adopted fee schedule or the proposed fee schedules to be adopted for a community development and also the fire department. As it provides fairness, transparency, ease of use, reduced reliance on the general fund. And then lastly, for us to be compliant with House Bill 461. Now I'll be happy to answer any questions you have. All right. Ben, I just want to thank you. I think this is great that we're making a step to get this back in equilibrium. Thank you, Ben and thank you, Chief Coons. Even with this new fee, we are still the lowest in the neighboring cities. So a couple of questions, Ben, like once this passes, what would be the effective date? Effective date for the? We would need some time to have this added or actually fine tune in the system since everything is done online. So we would have to troubleshoot and make sure that based upon the appropriate permit that the appropriate fee is calculated correctly. I would say probably a 30 day window would provide enough time for us to make sure that our systems up to date And is it and we're able to administer the fee correctly? So that's all going to be for the new applicants who's going to be applying like correct And will there be any tool online for them to just Do the calculation on what would be the fee? What we could do also as part of this if it was to be approved We could go work with communications to come up with a simple video That would provide for that calculation and understanding or better understanding of the fees and how the fees would be minister That would definitely help. Thank you, Ben. Sir, how's that work? You could develop a calculator through a machine learning model. Yes, yes. So just with the future. And we're taking volunteers to just with that process as well. I'll want to grace on that. Stacy? No, I don't have any questions. Thank you very much. Thank you. Eric. So I appreciate the conversations we had earlier and I was asking, do we have a comparison? I know that we were talking about briefly as far as, if someone wanted to add a deck. Yeah. The old fee versus the new fee, do we have any sense of what that is? I know that one of your experts and I had gone, yes, hey, conversations. I don't know if he had finished that. I like to call on a friend and since he's got a lifeline. You have to be in the limelight. I have to, don't I? Well, it was fortuitous that we actually were looking at that just as you walked in on us. So, and much to our surprise, because we thought it was going to be higher, it appears that it's going to be lower. Anywhere from 25% lower or even higher than that. Just a quick analysis proved that it was more of an issue with how we currently calculate permit fees, which is on a tiered system. And it heavily weighs the first tier from the last tier. So you pay more upfront for something smaller and then it gets cheaper and cheaper as it gets added on based on valuation. So this system doesn't do that. So actually people with much smaller projects, lower valuation pay even less. So it really appears that the folks that are actually going to be paying less are going to be the residences themselves. It's great, yeah. Not commercial, but the residences, yeah. But I think that makes a lot of sense too, because as we talked, as John's Creek builds out its commercial developments and we become more resident centric with changes in different properties and projects. It's good to hear that the residents are not going to be negatively impacted on some of this. Certainly, that's wonderful. Yeah, I like you. Mm-hm. Stay there. Never know. Never know. I like three things about this that it's now a little more predictable. How they're going to be the permits are going to be charged. I'm sure the machine learning model will help. The next thing which is the good part of it is the citizen is not bearing the costs of all these fire inspections we these folks do. All this while they've been doing it for free. Use of pay model is always the right one. The one thing which actually, part of the sentence of this HB461 is, but no local government is authorized to use regulatory fees as a means of revenue for general purposes. My understanding is that means we are not going to use this to pad out revenues. Right. What are the guardrails against this? I want to say there are specific guardrails. One thing for sure that we've looked at was when we did our analysis looking at the revenue against expenditures. And the expenditures as listed out in HP 461 are inclusive of salary, benefits, vehicles, maintenance of the vehicles, even less a mileage reimbursement, and so forth. So when you're taking all those costs today, we thought that with the proposed fee schedule, as mentioned, there's going to be decrease in a lot of the permits that we already deal with on a regular basis, weeds of doing an actual sort of an audit of it, to the end of it, at the end of it, when we look at it, the cost in itself, the revenues that we take in will not exceed the expenditures in terms of services that are provided. So with that simple sort of math, with the information that we have today, we are ensuring that it will not add to the intended purpose of this bill, which is to add to the general fund to be used for other services or other purposes. I guess future counsels are allowed to find out that no new expenditures will be incurred. Yes, most of that funding. And we have the buckets in the accounting in place, thankfully, with the help of finance, where we could provide that sort of calculation at the end of the year once this fee comes into place. And we'll have a better understanding of the rationale between the revenue to expenditures. Thank you. Thank you. I have no questions. I appreciate all the work you all put into this. Thanks. Thank you. I mean, the fire is an easy no-brainer. The permits as well. I am trying to understand that like, why do some of the neighbors use impact fees and permit fees? Why not just have it consolidated? Like, is it saying, oh, we only charge this for, is it like a shell game, three card monies? Like, I don't understand, like, why would you differentiate the two? Because it's essentially the rest in the same. So the impact fees apply to new development. And so the impact fees is looking at it more from a global and more of a comprehensive scale as to what impacts literally what that development have, meaning against infrastructure, parks, other facilities that by bringing an additional residence, in this case I'm using the example of a new subdivision, let's say, or multi-family. And what their impact would be to the public realm. And so because of that, that's why they tacked it on in addition to building permit fees. Because building permit fees still accounts for the actual services that are provided based upon that permit, which is review and inspections. I mean, like it's resident friendly, it adds clarity. It applies the, you know, Aachim's razor principle. Let's keep it simple or simpler. I don't know if it'll ever be simple. So yeah, I absolutely support it. But Mayor Pro Temp, Tonki did get me thinking we should probably be definitely communicating when that change in effect goes through that way from a transition period, people aren't caught off guard with new fees like. So, set a date when we plan to switch over and then communicate via our correspond channels that we're doing it as such. Yeah, and if you don't mind, if Council would like to move forward with the recommendation, I think we identified July 8 as the next meeting. What I'll do is I'll go ahead and update the memo. Specifying July 8 as the date and then adding the 30 days as transition period. And Ben, if you could work in Ockham's razor in the press release, I'd be fine with that. Yes, sir. We'll try my best. It's a good, it's a good, simple. Now I think it's good. Thank you, Dan. One, you got another question? No, no question. Grand thing, I've been talking to you about having a decision tree. Thankfully, the machine language is coming in handy again. Thank you. Great job with your seminars on the permits and all that. That's great. Thank you. It was all Salon's team, so I appreciate that. And we did great, get great feedback. And again, I'm sorry, not to prolong this, but I want to thank fire. They put a lot of effort and time into this and the comparison and the analysis and they do a lot of work that again, they're doing it for the benefit of the public. But at the same time, I think it's time that they're able to charge a fee for those who are really appreciate your support. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. I agree. Thank you. Chief, one second. I'd like to publicly recognize them. I have a business in other county. 2010, we started the business. We haven't had a single fire inspection. And here you guys do it twice a year. Fantastic. Good. Very good And here do you guys do it twice a year. Fantastic. Good, very good. All right. Thank you. The next item is the Jones Bridge Road, a Douglas Road construction contract. And I believe we have T-Sploss Manager Sanders for presentation. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm here tonight to request construction authorization for the Jones Bridge Road at Sargent and Douglas intersection improvement projects. And this request primarily consists of the construction contract with some construction, a construction engineering and inspection contract with Atlas, and a 10% contingency to be approved in this totaling of roughly $4.7 million. And these funds will provide a number of improvements to this intersection and allowing these intersections to be operate more efficiently and improve the safety. So at this time I'm prepared to walk you through the concept and highlight each of these improvements that we intend to make. Okay, well I'll start with first I'll orient you with where we are. So this is Jones Bridge Road. I'm hoping this actually points. There we go. Oh wow. So this is Jones Bridge Road running south to North. North is on the right side of the screen. If you follow that you get to McGinnis-Vary Road into the south, which is the left of the screen is towards Abbott's Bridge Road. We have intersection Sargent Road and Douglas Road here. I hope this was a more of a red pointer. But some of the things I want to highlight are that we are going to extend the two lanes that exist to the south of the road or south of the intersections. Right now there are two through lanes in each direction. We're going to extend those all the way through Douglas Road. Next we're realigning the intersections to provide a more favorable angle. This will help with the efficiency of turning movements as well as improve the safety. And in addition to that, it will actually expand the distance between these two signals, which allows us to optimize the signal timing, but also allows a little more storage room for the left turning movements onto sergeant and Douglas Rhodes. Next, we are clarifying a lot of the lane assignments. Right now, if you've ever driven through this intersection, there are a lot of different movements that people can make, a lot of different conflicting points that can be made. So we're trying to clarify using overhead signs and additional lanes that will allow people to know exactly where they need to be, queued up to get to their desired locations. And primarily this is coming from Douglas Road. We're actually adding a second right turn lane. Yes, so there's a separate right turn lane using the existing asphalt that will allow people to go, it continues south on Jones Bridge Road, as well as one with when they're turn right they'll easily queue up to be able to turn left onto Sergeant Road. And likewise in the northbound direction we're also clarifying a lot of those north, although it's left turn lanes because people have the option to turn into Kruger and into onto Douglas Road. And lastly we are providing the pedestrian connectivity by extending the trail that is already existing to the south and tying in with the trail that we just finished construction on to the north of this project. So with that, if you'd like any more clarification of the improvements or have any questions, I'm happy to answer. I'll just ask, I think a simple question. So basically everything that we're seeing in this project scope area, we'll have a sidewalker trail within it. In gaps, we'll be. Yes, no more gaps. And there will be a continuous trail throughout the length of the corridor. That's great. That's great. I have a few questions. So is this the dark area right here? Is that where the median currently just like people start queuing to turn left on the sergeant road right here? So it expands that turn lane. Yes. So any of the dark areas are basically new asphalt or expanded asphalt. So that is one something I failed to highlight previously that there will be a second left turn lane also using some of that mediums existing medium space. So we're essentially instead of forcing the one lane here we're pushing that out. Correct. So it won't have that. It comes out a racetrack really like as it is now like. Yes. Then this one is for people taking right that want to take it left. Yes. They can Yes. If they want to give a cell phone to us. Yes. That's pretty normal. Well done. Yeah. Is, uh, why wouldn't people take two in different lanes, but no, that makes sense? Are the lights going to be sequenced a little differently because if, um, if you're coming down Jones Bridge and there's so many people making that right hand turn from Douglas and cutting over to the light, is there any way to sequence the lights there a little differently? Yes, well there will be, the sequencing will be optimized to provide a safe travel. But I guess for the people just turning right, there is one path that the right, outermost right turn lane is separated, will be separated by a smaller curb. So they're going to, it won't be forced or allowed to come it merge over. So we're taking away the ballards? They are yes or it's going to be more of a smaller curb but there's a second bright turn lane that will not have that separation. That makes sense. Got you. Got you. Okay. Any other questions? Sorry. Thank you, Wendy. You said you're going to have the overhead science, right? Right. Are we planning to help someone the the Douglas Road in Sergeant 2 or just on the Magnus Vary? I believe I know they're on Jones Bridge. I believe there's some up on there will need to be some on Sergeant. Sorry, Jones. Sorry, Douglas. So again, just like the way we are doing from the Douglas to the Jones Bridge on the Sergeant, like are they going to to be two right turn lanes, or just one? No, sergeant will be more of a traditional intersection where there's one right turn lane of through to get to trodder in a left turn lane. Can we do like one through or right turn option? We can add that in the middle lane. I don't think it's necessary, but we can look at the widths might allow for that, but I don't know if it's necessary. So the reason I said he's like on the right most lane, they can just on the Jones Bridge heading to the Magnificery. The other one is like someone looking to make a left on to the Douglas, probably they can be in the middle lane. It's not designed for that right now but we can look at that. Just like what we're doing from the Douglas to Douglas to the Jones Beach. Sergeant to the can be do the similar. Yeah I don't it's dedicated and we're expanding it to two but yeah. No I don't know if the traffic count really needs that because the number of cars turning from the Douglas to Jones might be much more higher in count compared to the Sergeant to the Douglas. Okay. I see. I like the word 400. No, just, if it's not there, if it's a possibility then. We can look at the traffic supports that we are showing a second. It looks like a second left turn lane from sergeant. So I think that's where the more the turning movements are. Yeah, like you were showing it at the. Yes. You could have both like a left straight or right? We have a left it looks like a left through and then a separated right. I'm talking about this one. This one is a straight and left right. Oh, that's just a dedicated right. It's very dedicated, right? Yes, dedicated. And it'll have, I mean, there'll, let's see, I can't see. It's very small, I apologize for that. Yeah, so we did a traffic study to optimize the lanes and the left through left and then the right is what operates best at this intersection. We didn't widen it another whole lane with, which is what it sounds like you would need to do some of what you're describing. There's a need for it to- If we need it in the future, that's a new project to widen Sergeant Road. It's a different- No, just talking to one lane, just like what we're doing on the other side of the street. So we're doing all we can in the footprint that's shown there. Understand. No, I'm good, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mindy. Regarding the Fulton County Water Main Line, when you guys do projects like this, does that mean we won't have the same issues that Atlanta is facing now with all the water main breaks? Or is it updating it to prevent us from having those issues? Well, yes, I mean, it is largely improving the capacity of it as an addition to just getting new pipes in there. But really, anytime you have any construction, there's a risk of hitting a water feature or a water pipe. Are they putting, do they put devices on it to, I guess, no one to check it. I don't know if there's technology or no when it needs to be replaced. So I will tell you our water line infrastructure is much newer than City of Atlanta. So that puts us a step ahead right off the bat. And Fulton County and our part of the county, we talked to them all the time. They're trying to, when we come to a road project, they're trying to upgrade their facilities at the same time. So that's what happened on Haynes Bridge, that's what's happening on Barnwell. Anytime we touch one of their older pipes, they're trying to replace it at the same time we do work. So we won't have breaks in the future. So I don't think they have a wholesale change here, but we are doing some impacts where we have to conflict with them. And so they'll put in new pipe where they, where those conflicts are. Thank you. I'm going to just a real quick thought here. From the right hand side up there, where there's a dedicated bike lane and where the road widens where it's double lane there, the bike lane sort of disappears and then reappears, I think on the other side of Sargent or somewhere near Douglas. Is there a way you can just put, share the road stickers down in that area for that one lane? Because they're not going to jump from the road to the sidewalk back to road. So, because of the speed, 45 miles an hour posted speed, the stickers on the road are not the preferred method based on the guidelines. They say it should be 35 miles an hour slower. So what we use instead are signs. So yeah, we will make sure there's a sign that says share the road as you go through here. Yeah, because there's a stretch there that there is no bike lane or not going back and forth. Yeah, there is no bike lane or not going back and forth and It'd be especially in those intersections. There's a lot of moving parts would be great to You can't put the sign if you can't put the stickers in a road because it's not best practices or is it because they wear out to her? It's best practices. It's the guidelines in the the manual for uniform traffic control to my MUT CD It does it describes striping and we did a lot of research back when we talked to you before about the policy. And it basically said 35 mile an hour and slower, makes sense to put the stripe on the road. When you get to higher speeds, the signs are all that they recommend us to use. Because I can't give you all the reasons of talking my head, but that was the guidance that it gave us. And so we have shared the road signs all over the city now on these corridors that we put in the policy. Okay. Thank you. Chris, can you just point out how flow of traffic coming from Douglas, going down Jones, please? So you're saying the flow of traffic coming off Douglas? Douglas going towards Jones and then the next thing you can explain me from Jones going towards Douglas. Okay. So this is Douglas Road. Right. Come down here and take a right and you go down Jones Bridge. If you're coming north, you can get into this left lane that becomes too left turn lanes to go on the Douglas. And then it would take her back to one. And she could, on the actual top of it. So how have we mitigating the fact that, suppose if you want from Douglas, you want to turn on the Sergeant. Those people will have to cut through two lanes. So if you're leaving Douglas and you want to turn this stuff to the down zone south, you stay in the right most lane, you have basically a free flow movement. Okay. And you can just go south. You know, if you want to get to Sargent, yes. You would come to the signal at the stop bar on this side of the big ring island. You'd wait to take the safe right turn, like you would have been, you'd be single as intersection. You'd make that right turn and then you get into the left turn line to go left. So yes, you'd have to cross two lanes through movement, but now we can take into this sharp angle and make it 90 degrees so that cars can much easier look left and make that safe right turn rather than kind of looking back over the shore if they think today that short-right. So the point where I'm thinking of being able to get over there. I do agree. What I'm saying is how do we stop guys who are in the extreme right lane on Sargent Road on the Douglas Road and prevent them from cutting across towards Sargent? Are they silent right here? Oh, there's an island right here? Oh, is that an island? Yes. What's that all about? There will be a village currently. So that's where I missed that. You could go to a little island. So you couldn't possibly get over here and say you get right here at the end. And I can't say the cars won't do that, but. The old, as what he was suggesting, those ballads, it'll be a curb concrete. Yeah, I think you can't get across. Okay, thank you. And are you extending the traffic pattern down on Jones Bridge so that when they're heading north, the two dedicated lines are coming slightly almost to Osea Library. Yeah, these two lines will come all the way through the year before they go back to one. From Jones Bridge. Currently how much of the currently the two lanes are right now the two lanes are existing. Right now one of them goes on through and the other one I believe turns left here. So we're adding some some striking the capacity so that they can safely separate And get through here Thank you very congested intersection. Yeah, I do provide that separation And you're having the one-headed signage right for the leans correct Anything else, Bob? I'm good. Here. You might have said at the beginning, and I'm sorry if I didn't know it, once the expected construction time length. The construction time we expect to be one year, so next summer would be. Summer of 25, you hope that it might be open. All right. Hope it goes well. Thank you. I hope that it might be open. All right, hope it goes well. Thank you. No more questions. This is exciting. This is probably, is it military? Is it military? It's not quite, but no, it is. Because it's, you know, 141, the Saperidge is always intersectional in this issue, but this is quite possibly up there from our top regional, both congestion and safety risks from the intersection. I know, like since I've been on council, it's been, you know, a thorn in our side, you can't do anything with timing. So this is a very good improvement, but it's also staying constrained where we're not infected. And essentially making the intersection better rather than us having to wipe it all the lane. So it's just excellent project from top to bottom. Well done, y'all. I do have a financial question, we're taking T-splots one, approximately $2.4 million from the new road. So is now the new road been deemed infeasible and we are never going to pursue that in the future? Or I should say never. Highly, highly unlikely that we would ever pursue that. Correct. We needed to do those funds in order to fund this project. So- And does that zero out? That the new location? That does, correct. Okay. Chris, one last question. What you called the big green island? Will it be green? It will be green. It will not be concrete. It will not be concrete. Okay. All right. Great. Thank you. All right. All right. Right. Thank you. All right. Does that give you everything you need? I think. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mandy. Thank you. I can send it to you. I can send it to you. I can send it to you. Yes. One quick. Director Chris, you remember we were actually at a public hearing meeting in the city hall. Did you get any input from them into this? Did any of their ideas make it to the drawing board? Yeah, so the public, we gave them two options at the time, one had a roundabout in it. There was mixed reviews on that roundabout being very complicated and two or three lanes wide, so they chose this alternative with the public fleet feedback. And one of the problems they saw was the right turn on the sergeant goes pretty fast. It kind of slanted in a way that the cars don't yield to pedestrians. So our improvement will actually tighten that curve a turn a little bit to make them slow down to turn right on the sergeant. Again, based on that feedback. From the sergeant, again based on that feedback. From Jones to Sergeant, turning right. Jones turns right on the sergeant. And yeah. Okay. So sorry, that was a catalyst for one more question from me. I'm sorry, it was on consent agenda. This is Councilmember Aramelli's fault if anyone's. But so like roundabout obviously what it disrupted, daily flow, there would have been closures. Do you all anticipate probably minimal disruption to ongoing daily, so another advantage for this project? Correct. Correct. Okay. All right, that's it. State's on the set for by-appending. All right. Thank you. All right. So that concludes our scheduled items and we do have a need for an executive session. There, hey mayor. I move we adjourn to executive session where we will discuss land, legal and or personnel matters. Good sir. All right. Fantastic. Okay. Any discussion? All is in favor? All right. And do you think we can get in there by 615? Well, fine, no. Of course. Time. We are. Any motions? 16 Of course Time we are any motions make a motion via John order the Exegregation session. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Armelia. Is there a second? I was like it Councilmember L Wood is there discussion on the motion? Seeing none all those in favor And we are adjourned and we handled one personnel Thank you Mayor. At this time while we're swapping the water water water water water water water water water water water water