We have CBS 46.
Yes, sir.
Warren Hadlock, 1210 West Smith Street.
I just want to reiterate what I said in the work session a little bit that I think it's good if you folks would really think hard and step back a little bit,
not get persuaded by the emotions of the moment and it's not a matter of not being principled.
But let's just see, maybe take another 30 days, as several of you have suggested previously,
and see what the wisest thing to do is. Maybe get a little more legal advice in the light of the meeting of some of you with ICE officials late this morning
since several of you did not have the benefit of being at that meeting, could not have, including the mayor.
And also that whatever you pass is not worded in such a way as to be affrontive to anybody, but really just as a way of standing up for all of our citizens,
some of the warehouses that I'm reading look a little bit like they're kind of aimed at ICE and I think we could make it more about positive than negative.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you very much. My name is Omar Shikay. I'm the Executive Director of Somalia American Community Center.
I'm here today to ask you to support us. We live here last time, last on the 29th. You guys heard about the emotion of the families that are impacted on this issue.
The city of Clarkston is built by immigrants. We have been coming here since 1980s.
Most of you were not here. I came here in 1984. Start the school here. Grow up here. This is a moral issue. This will not affect the city.
It will have no impact the city. All you're doing is standing up with our families. Most of the families are refugees. They haven't done anything.
This is going after them, going to their homes, going to their businesses. This is a moral issue. We need you to stand up with us. Please. Thank you very much.
Once again, greetings, Council Members. My name is Glory Kilanko. I'm the Director and CEO for Women Watch Africa, providing services to African and immigrant refugees from 23 African nations.
I thank you for giving me the opportunity to once more appeal to your conscience and to say that we have been having this conversation in order to prompt our elected officials to do what is right and just to protect its citizenry.
The mayor just called attention to the words of the pledge. And if we put that in our minds in the things that we do and in this conversation that we have had, we cannot have this conversation again from now to next year for us to come up with anything new.
The same information we have been given, the same legal justification and ramification that has been addressed by six lawyers in this room would not change anything as the situation stands now, particularly as the non-detainer policy that we are asking you to vote on and approve and make us go forward.
Claxton has been a place that has set a case in the state of Georgia. Even in the maps of Georgia, Claxton has more diversity than any other state.
And if we take into consideration the people, the community that we serve and look back to some of you, our elected officials who were in this room, this same room, last Thursday, who saw women and children cry before you all, sharing to you the pain that they are faced with as a result of separation of their families.
I think with that alone, even if you refuse to consider anything else, even if there is any other aorta of doubt in your mind, the fact that you saw real life, these people give you their testimony.
It should not take you time to vote yes and adopt this policy.
ICE can only tell you anything, but they would never tell you that what they are doing is wrong. Nobody tells you that what they are doing is wrong because they have to keep their job.
Their job is to enforce the orders that are given to them.
I come from a country where the world's most renowned Afro-Bitkin calls that kind of order, the order of zombie, that they only follow the order they are told without consideration.
But we put you in office for you to represent your constituency. And so for that reason, it's not an issue of having to follow an order but to do what is right by your conscience.
And so I want to thank you ahead of time because I know by the time I sit down, you'll be voting your conscience and you'll be voting to approve this non-detainer policy.
So let me begin now to thank you all, each and every one of you, as I look you in the face and take my seat and know that you're going to vote.
And we leave this room having handshakes and hugs thanking you for voting what is right. Thank you.
Thank you.
Again, my name is Stephanie Ali. I work with one of the local resettlement agencies and with the Coalition of Refugees Service Agencies in the Georgia Immigrant Alliance for Civic Engagement.
Thank you for allowing us to speak a little bit earlier. I don't want to go back over all my points. I think you heard those except for I do.
You just want to thank my fellow community members for backing up some of those points except for I did want to come up and just say that some of the points made at the end of the meeting at 5 o'clock directly pertain to our work.
And it was part of that threat of government funding. If it's not stopped can be held up can be put a stoppage on it. That did directly happen in 2012 to the refugee resettlement agencies.
And it was not a fun experience. Some of you guys were here for that. Some of you guys helped us live through that and a lot of you are new after that.
I myself am new after that. In fact, I directly came in because of what was going on in 2012 because of my experience organizing my experience advocating.
And what I have seen happen is, yeah, after four months we got our funds and it was hard for those four months.
But since we began advocating on our own behalves, organizing for each other, educating our community members on how to fill up a room and speak on their own behalf.
And making sure that they are leading the efforts like they did on Thursday night. We haven't had that same issue with our funds being held up.
In fact, we have days of the capital like we did that some of you guys came to and have come to consistently every year where we said the governor even make a comment on he's never seen that many people fill up the stairs of the capital.
That's the change that we saw from four years ago, from now it's five years ago.
So yeah, the government funding can be held up, but that happens when you're not standing up for yourselves and for your community members.
And that's exactly the opposite of what we're doing here tonight. We are advocating for what the city of Clarkston stands for, for who our people are, for who we care about.
So we are saying that we're not going to take things like that lightly. That we're going to stand up for our own people.
And we're not going to let things like that happen because like Attorney Quinn stated, like Jamie said that they're not legal and we'll fight them.
Mario said he'll even file the lawsuit himself be there or he'll be on the lawsuit.
So we know that we're not they're not legal and we know that you can come out of that better on the other side.
So I just wanted to put that out there and thank you again for giving us this statement and again just say my strongest point to my heart.
If we wait another month, if we wait two months, there are communities that ICE has already put out there on this list that are going to come because they're losing their protective status.
Patients, people from Sierra Leone, Ghana, Liberia are all going to have this happen to them this summer.
And it's important that we stand up and say we did this when the first community got hit.
We didn't wait for four more communities to get hit.
Good afternoon. My name is Stephanie and I'm a resident of Clarkson. I own a condo in the city of Clarkston.
And my concern is I would like to know if there's going to be a ordinance or bill introduced for secondhand smoking.
If you're a condo owner, one of my neighbors, the neighbor on the right of me, the condo is empty for the neighbor on the left of me.
He's a headless smoker and he also has five children from the ages of like approximately four or five years old, all the way up to like 12.
And the secondhand smoking is very, very strong. He smokes all day, all night, and it comes into my unit.
I've talked to the board association. They can't do anything because it's not an H.O.A. bylaws.
I've called Clarkson Police Department. They can't do anything because of his private dwelling.
Community officer Clarkson's talked to him. She tried to tell him, you know, secondhand smoking.
He still doesn't stop. I've talked to him four times myself, put notes on his door.
There's nothing he hasn't let up yet. He smokes all day, all night. And again, he has small children.
I was just wondering is there can be some kind of ordinance put in place where, especially if you have small children
for a secondhand smoke coming into other people's private dwellings.
I know it's not nothing done in the state level, but maybe in the city level something can be done
because it not only hurts me, but it also hurts his four kids.
And I don't even know if they have health insurance, but they didn't.
And they want Medicaid that comes out of our dollars because of his reckless behavior.
So if they were on Medicaid, that's taxpayer dollars.
So he's smoking causing problems to them. He's not even given them a second chance in life.
And if they choose a Medicaid as a health service, that no only affects our pockets, but the whole system.
So maybe if the city of Clarkson can be a pay setter trying to do some type of ordinance with secondhand smoke
for private dwellers, maybe we can be the pay setter, not just for the state of Georgia,
but also for the nation as a whole, because it just doesn't affect me.
But all across the world, people having to endure secondhand smoke inside their own home
because of somebody else's reckless decision.
And he smokes heavily all day, all night.
And my other concern is, I know that HOAs are private dwellings.
We have a board and they said HOA Home Association set the dues for condo and townhouse dwellers.
And my other question is, could there also be an ordinance on HOA dues caps?
So if HOA dues are $320 and the mortgage is 435, can there be some kind of cap
where the dues don't equal the mortgage?
And I know that's private, but maybe some kind of discussion can be made about that as well.
So I just have two concerns.
Thank you.
Good evening. I'm John back in to clear up some confusion. I now live on Orton Street.
I've been very concerned in the past couple of months with a lot of what I consider to be the abuse of the executive branch.
I think that they're overstepping. I think the courts will find that they're overstepping.
And I think that eventually we'll all be determined that this is all unconstitutional
and this nightmare will be over at some point.
I encourage the council to show some infestable fortitude and to support our residents,
which I'm a minority here.
And most of the people here are immigrants or were not born here.
And they have the same rights as far as I'm concerned that I do.
They should not be abused. They should not be living fear or terror.
That is not the US that I grew up in.
And I don't want it to be the US that other people grow up in.
I think that we have got to make a stand.
We have got to be clear that we will not stand for the abuse that the federal government is trying to push on us at this point.
Thank you.
Good evening once again.
My name is Prey Cobham. I'm a practicing attorney here in the state of Georgia.
I'm not going to repeat everything I said earlier today, but I will just say a few things.
First, I want to state that regardless of the threat that you mentioned that ICE made towards Clarkson or the city of Clarkson,
I'm urging you to pass the non-detained a policy because it's the right thing to do,
but also because it doesn't violate any law.
It follows and complies with what's required and it's providing comfort and it's providing assistance
and it's providing protection to the people here in the city of Clarkson.
There will be no new information to be found if you wanted to extend time to do more research because all the research has been done.
We've had six attorneys come up or speak.
We've had six attorneys do homework.
We've looked through this like we were back in law school, back and forth, trying to see both sides.
There's no more information.
Everything that's happening is time sensitive so it cannot be postponed.
So I'm asking that you please go ahead and pass this non-detained a policy.
Thank you.
All right. Thank you all very much. Any more public comment?
All right, we'll close the public comment portion, and we just have two items for administrative
business. First is the approval of the minutes for the March 30th special session and the
April 4th council meeting, and I'll open the floor for a motion on those.
I'll move that we approve the minutes for the March 30th special session and April 4th, 2017
council meeting. Second.
Okay, any discussion? Okay, all in favor of motion, raise your hand, say aye. Okay, motion
carries. All right, and I want to recognize now our city manager, Mr. Keith Barker, to
recognize some outstanding certificate of appreciation for our several of our law enforcement
officers here this evening. Mr. Barker.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. And so I'll just have a few introductory remarks, and I'm asking
I see Chief Hudson and Sergeant Hess coming to the front right now. We think it's important
that we recognize the excellent work that all of our employees do every day here in Clarkston,
but especially recognize the efforts of our public safety officials, our police services.
And so we have an officer of the quarter award, and we have some of those today.
And so with that, I'll turn it over to Sergeant Hess and Chief Hudson, and I believe they
have a few awards for a few of our members of our police force here today. Chief Hudson.
Good evening, everyone. We're going to start off with the first quarter 2017 officer of
the quarter. This individual who won it is Sergeant Sparks, which runs one of our day watch
shifts. I personally nominated him because he has been my go to guy, I guess you
could say. For those of you that don't know, I started in January here. And Sergeant Sparks
has really been a great asset for me personally. Some of the highlights is he's implemented
the current field training officer program. He's assist me with that as far as being
the final sign off the new officers that we hire after they complete the field training
officer program. They'll go ride with Sergeant Sparks. He'll give me a thumbs up. And
then from there, he'll also shadow them for a couple of shifts also just to
reassure that they're 100%. He's also stepped up, thought outside the box on several
different occasions. We recently had a Sergeant Promotion Assessment internally. He came up
with the written question aspect of the Sergeant Assessment, which he wasn't, didn't
have to do, but he already had the resources there. So he brought that to Chief Hudson
on his own and said this may be something we could use. He also sat on that board
and the Sergeant Jay, who was promoted to Sergeant, he came once again, thought
outside the box and came up with a training program for newly promoted officers
that we are going to run with from this point forward. He personally trained
Sergeant Jay for a period of two weeks to ensure that he was 100% ready to go
to take over the supervision. So thinking outside the box, stepping up,
going well above the standard for a Sergeant. And that's why I nominated me
the great reflection of the Clarkson Police Department.
Congratulations, Sergeant Sparks. Thank you for your service.
Sergeant Fonseca is going to be receiving a certificate of appreciation. A brief
synopsis of on April 27, 2017, at zero to 45 hours, Sergeant Fonseca was conducting
stationary area surveillance at North Lake Vet, located 935 Montrell Road. When
he heard an audible alarm, Sergeant Fonseca located the alarm at thrift
town. And when he turned to the parking lot, he noticed a black male suspect
walking away swiftly from thrift town. Sergeant Fonseca noticed the shadow
plate glass front window and knew that it was a burglary in progress. Once
the suspect saw Sergeant Fonseca, he took flight. Sergeant Fonseca knows
the suspect was cradling unknown objects in both hands. And Sergeant
Fonseca was able to exit his vehicle and order the suspect to stop the
objects. The suspect was cradling were numerous boxes of world royal rolled
coins totaling amount of $520. Sergeant Fonseca's quick thinking led to a
solid felony arrest in the city of Clarkson. Sergeant Fonseca's actions
not only reflect well on himself, but on the department and the city of
Clarkson as well. I recommend Sergeant Fonseca be committed for his
performances in this case.
So to think it's been a recognition for your
for those that don't know me. My name is Jason Elliott. I'm a detective in
the criminal investigation division for the Clarkson Police Department. The
reason I'm up here is the chief has given me this opportunity to
recognize a couple officers for an excellent job they did. I found in my
line of work as a detective. It's not very often that I get a case that
comes together so perfectly as this case I'm gonna explain. And that's in
part because of the patrol officer's hard work and attention to
detail when investigating this case. On December 29, 2015 at approximately
seven in the morning, Officer Hazelwood and Officer Conjure responded to the
1100 block of Wild Creek Circle, which is the Wild Creek Apartments for
a report of a burglary that just occurred. During the respondent
officer's initial investigation, it was learned that unknown male
subject unlawfully entered this female victim's apartment and had
been watching her as she got dressed in the morning. It was also
determined that the screen from the bathroom window had been taken
off and there were indications that the suspect had been watching the
victim shower prior to the burglary. The officers did an excellent job
with their on scene investigation by documenting and collecting
evidence to include a lotion bottle and a knit cap that did not
belong to the victim. The officers also collected late in
fingerprints from the point of entry as well as documented a
missing screen from the bathroom window and shoe prints underneath
that window. So approximately 14 months later, it takes a while,
but the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Department of Forensic
Services was able to provide or was able to match DNA collected
from that knit cap on scene to a suspect. Further investigation
revealed that the suspect had been charged with multiple similar
crimes in which he targeted female victims in Tennessee and
also in Florida. The suspect had even gone so far as to molest
a 15 year old victim in one of these cases. The DNA match also
led this investigation to the Miami area where a detective of
the North Miami Beach Police Department was notified of the
suspect's involvement in their similar burglary. The officer's
diligence and collecting the necessary evidence is what led to
the successful identification of this suspect. The officer's
diligence and documenting the scene properly by describing the
missing bathroom window screen and the footprints beneath the
window also make it possible for me to properly charge the
suspect with an additional charge of peeping Tom. Had this
information not been documented with the detail that Officer
Conger and Officer Hazelwood had documented. This incident may
have been looked at as just another burglary, as opposed to
having the serious elements of the sexual predator that it
has. This on scene investigation and subsequent
documentation should be an example for all of our patrol
division and CID to follow. I'd like to give my kudos to Officer
Hazelwood and Officer Conger for a job well done.
Here it does come back to the case of the burglary during the
course of due in the investigation of a burglary on the
29th of November in the year 2016. Your diligence while
following the specifications and materials on the case and
that led to the consequences I didn't think of as a serial
sexual predator.
Thank you very much.
I would like to give Officer Conger another accommodation. My
time on patrol, I think I was his first supervisor when he
first came out of the academy. And he's probably one of my
hardest workers ever had. One of the hardest workers on the
police department at times. You know, I had to tell him
Bakerville home, you know, we were 12 hours shift now. And
he's one of the ones that like to stay on the road, not
calling me, you know, so he's a real hard worker. For
this brief incident, I'll give you a brief synopsis of this
incident while I'm recommending for this accommodation. On
December 22, 2016 at 327 hours, Officer Conger was on
routine patrol, foot patrol in the area of 3600 Monterey Creek
Circle, Clarkson Station Apartments. Showing area due to
recent rise of in and out of. While on patrol, he knows the
vehicle with his interior lights on unattended appeared. It
had been just entered. He continued to watch the vehicles
inside the complex and noticed a black male suspect going
between several vehicles, looking through the vehicle's
windows. The suspect fled the scene on foot when he
observed a potential victim approaching their vehicle. Officer
Conger chased the suspect on foot and apprehended him. He
later was able to determine that the suspect indeed entered
the vehicle he initially observed with the lights on. The
suspect was placed undercut under arrest for family in the
auto and loitering and prowling. Officer Conger's quick
thinking and great attention to detail led to a solid family
rest in the city of Clarkson. Officer Conger's
actions not only reflect well on himself, but on this
department and the city of Clarkson as well. I recommend
that he be commended for some forms in this case, that a
comprehensive accommodation be placed in this personnel file.
Thanks, Chief. Thank you, Chief Hudson. Okay, we're going to
get right into our new business. We just have two items this
evening. First is item F1, the Safe Play Area Ordinance, and
we discussed that at the work session. Councilman Burks, do
you want to say a few words on that? Yes, thank you,
Mayor. This ordinance came about as a result of a
concern that one of our citizens had. It is to make sure that
we provide a safe place for a child play area. And that is
designated where any daycare, nursery, childcare, kindergarten,
school, or similar business may have an area outside for the
kids to play. An example of that would be what you'd see on
Church Street where there's a used to be a daycare facility
and they have the playground on the Church Street and it's close
to the curve. So what this will do is make it where it will have
a setback of at least 50 feet. If they're unable to do that,
the alternative is to provide a setback requirement and improve
guardrail. So that way there's protection for the kids in case
someone drives up the curve or has some type of issue with
the vehicle. This will impact major roads. So if it's on a
major road such as Brockett Road, Norman Road, Church Street,
Ponce de Leon and Indian Creek that we can make sure that we
provide a safe place for
Our kids if they're in a daycare facility. So this is going to be in place. What we're going to do is discuss it at a community meeting and then follow up with that in terms of a vote with the council and allow the community the opportunity to voice their concerns or any suggestions that they would like at that particular time.
Thank you, mayor.
Thank you. Anything else from the council?
Okay. All right. And it sounds like we're going to no motion on this.
Well, I'll move to defer it to committee.
Okay. All right. So I'm sorry to refer to committee. Second. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor of motion, raise your hand and say aye.
Aye.
Okay. Motion carries. The safe plate ordinance is referred to committee. All right. Item F2, approval of the non-detainer policy.
I didn't, I forgot to have my notes, but I know we have councilman Williams sponsoring it. Who's the other council person sponsoring it?
Are you sponsoring it too?
Okay. All right. So I'll recognize councilman Williams and Berks to introduce this.
This is, I have to start off by saying this is a non-detainer policy that was actually brought to the council's attention by Gloria Kalenko of a woman's watch Africa and also have to give special recognition to project south attorney Asaday provided an enormous wealth of accurate and
relevant information as well as an actual legal memorandum to the council about this issue on top of the legal memorandum that was really good also by our city attorney Stephen Quinn.
I guess I want to start this off by dispelling a couple of things about this non-detainer policy and the best way to do that is actually to read a couple of things about the lawfulness of the policy.
The first numbered paragraph says city officials and employees shall communicate and cooperate with ICE with regard to reporting immigration status information.
So there isn't an effort, there is not an effort by this council to somehow not cooperate with the federal government.
So the complete opposite to plain language of the policy says that we will cooperate but it's to a certain degree.
And so the next paragraph says the city of Clarkson shall not detain or extend the detention of any individual at the request of ICE unless ICE first represents city of Clarkson with a judicially issued warrant authorizing such detention.
This again is perfectly, constitutionally permissible and actually authorized.
It is absolutely unlawful for a federal government to deputize local law enforcement agency in this capacity.
And the reason why this actually focuses on judicially issued warrants is because as attorney Azaday pointed out so well basically these are sheets of paper that law enforcement officials, federal government agents from ICE are going around
and using to try to detain people and we do not want our local law enforcement involved in detaining people or assisting in a situation where there has been no probable cause determination under our constitution.
So we want to start off with that.
The second thing that I want to bring to everyone's attention and we brought it to the attention at the last council meeting is that, you know, we met some of the council members met with ICE and there was a threat made of one,
if we pass the policy that we will be listed on a, I don't know, maybe a, I don't know if it's, you know, where this list is, but a list that would say, hey, look, you're going to be put on this list.
And then second, your federal funding or state funding could be affected.
Number one, I've never seen a list.
Number two, there's no evidence that anybody's federal state funding has ever been affected by passing a detainer policy like there's none that I know of.
But number three, just the fact that you would make a petty, empty, unconstitutional threat actually draws in the question, at least in my mind, the legitimacy of the raise that you're actually conducting.
Because if you're willing to threaten a legislative body of a municipality in this state in that way, it just, it paints a dark cloud and a dark picture over what else you're actually doing in the manner in which you're going about doing it.
So number four, the fourth point is, is that the executive order that is based on this has already been held unconstitutional.
It has already been held as violating the separation of power because the executive order is trying to do something that is actually reserved for our Congress to do, which is place requirements and mandates on the spending power of the purse on federal funding.
Fifth point, the agent, the government itself showed up at a hearing and admitted that this should not even be covering projects like streetscape, that it should be limited.
Now they did that in a way to try to subvert the constitutional challenge that was being made, but nevertheless they admitted that.
So we took all this information into consideration that was brought forth by various people.
We had a hearing last week, Councilman Moore was the chair over the hearing at the time, and we deliberated it.
Now it is true, and I have to say this in defense of some of the members of the council that when ICE threatens you like that, it makes you pause for a second, just to think about it.
No one held a meeting, no one determined that they weren't going to vote for it, but it did pause the process for a second because the meeting happened today at about 10.30.
And now we're meeting today at 5 o'clock or 7.30, so everybody started thinking like, hey, what's really going on?
But the facts are the facts, right? It's unconstitutional. It's a threat. There's no basis not to pass the policy.
I have to echo the sentiments of people who spoke today, and actually the mayor too, is that I think we have sufficient information, and I don't believe that any time another 30 days or 60 days or 90 days is going to bring us to a point where information is going to be brought to our attention that would change the overall dynamic of the situation.
I think this is a great policy for this community, but I also think it's a great policy for every city or locality in the state of Georgia.
I think it's a great policy throughout the country, and that's represented by the sweeping movement that is going on now where localities all across the country are actually implementing similar or like policies as this one.
So with that being said, I'll pass it over to Councilwoman Burks, and then we'll try to move for a vote on this issue.
Thank you, Councilman Williams. And again, I think everyone should applaud Councilman Williams for actually coming up with this and give him recognition for it.
That's one of the beauties of living in Clarkston is that we will step out and be the trailblazers, but for the right and the good for our community.
And so I'm very happy that he came up with this to make sure that we let our residents know that we have refugees in our community.
We have undocumented members in our community, but as a city, we will support our community.
And as one who attended the meeting, I was at the meeting, it's not a nice feeling to be put on a naughty list or be told that you'll be on a naughty list when you're a grown woman.
And so, but when you have that, you have to stop and think about what's really important and who is important.
And so that's probably one of the takeaways that was for me is to recognize that I live in a beautiful community with such a diverse background that we have to do what we have to do to protect them and to protect our community.
And so with this, this is step one in terms of how we deal with it, but step two is what are we going to do to educate our community?
And so we need to look at this in phases. How are we going to take whatever we do tonight and then move forward within our communities to work with our community leaders to educate our people?
How are we also going to make sure that you saw all these wonderful commendations from our police department who are willing to work and we have to recognize them for what they're willing to do and how they work within our community and how they are an advocate for our community as well.
And so I want to make sure that if people are in fear of the police, let's stop that and let's make sure whatever it is that we need to do to make sure that we have that community relationship, we do that as well.
So I know that we have people from Project Self that have said that they will help in terms of education. So we need to look at steps and how we're going to make sure that we take care of our community and educate our community as well.
Thank you. Thank you for the introduction. I will open the floor for a motion on this item.
I move that we approve this resolution by the City of Clarkston to adopt a non-detainer policy.
Second. Second.
Okay, any discussion?
I lost to discuss. Nothing more to add?
Just one thing real briefly for people that weren't at the earlier meeting. I do support this resolution but I do respect people that have reservations as well because I just want to make clear that Clarkston is not actually detaining people at the request of ICE right now.
We don't have a jail that we keep people under and as far as I know, ICE has never even requested a detainer but I still believe this resolution is an important symbolic step to represent that we are a welcoming community and that we will not honor these requests in the future.
Any more discussion?
Okay. All in favor of the motion, raise your hand and say aye.
Aye.
All right. Motion carries. Thank you all.
Thank God.
Thank you very much.
All right, so we just have a few, just last little items, just a report section and first of the planning and zoning rewards.
Shawana, Kaui.
Good evening. Can you hear me?
Okay.
Planning and zoning department has been very busy as usual and as we're busy, we had sign permits that were submitted to the planning and zoning committee in the month of April.
And we have four that were approved for the Nepali Bazaar.
That was a wall sign that said 1131 North Indian Creek.
Serene Cafe is at 4260 East Ponce and that was a wall sign.
The Exxon that's at 1051 Montreal.
And Wesson Studio, a photography studio at 4200 East Ponce de Leon.
That's it? Any questions?
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you, Shawana.
All right, City Manager's Report, Mr. Keith Barker.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor.
At first, I'm going to report on a couple of capital projects that we are in process of completing.
The first is the Friendship Forest Redevelopment Project.
We're doing that project in three phases.
The first phase is the removal of a lot of the invasive vegetation and clearing of the entrance and the path about 20 feet along either side.
I was down there today and it looks very, very different and not as scary and sketchy already.
And we're about 95% complete with that phase.
Second phase is that right now we are in the design phase where we're designing the hardscapes.
And that is the parking lot, the bathrooms, the new pavilion and the path.
And we should have those designs complete around July 1st of August.
And then we start that construction.
And then the third phase is the wetlands design.
Right now we're doing soil analysis to ensure that the soil is capable of maintaining a more robust wetlands area down there now.
We have a wetlands area there now, but it doesn't stay moist.
And so we're doing some things that will create a more robust wetlands area.
We'll introduce some wetlands vegetation and hope that we will attract some wetlands fowl eventually.
And so again, that's a permitting process.
And there's a design process, an analysis process.
And so that should be complete around July or August as well.
So we are well and away with that project.
And so far we're very pleased with our progress.
Secondly, we are about 95% complete with phase three of our three phase sidewalk program on East Pennsylvania.
If you noticed, right, lead it up to friendship fours.
You'll notice nice, brand new six foot wide sidewalks and brick pavers.
We've also even constructed a new area in Granite for the Marta bus shelter.
The bus shelter when complete will be moved back into place.
And so there's just a couple of it of punch-less items that we need to complete.
But we're happy with the process in the progress of that project as well.
I want to mention a special project that we have just started last couple of weeks.
We now are working with Segal Radio to produce a Clarkston specific radio broadcast.
We're taping those broadcasts every Friday afternoon.
Thank you very much.
Our own Shawana Kawee is the, our planning development director is the host. She's taken
advantage of her mass communication broadcasting, broadcasting skills from Clark University.
And also Terry Sanders, our special projects coordinator, is functioning as producer of
those shows. And so we've got, it's just amazing that those individuals have a lineup
of guests for the next six weeks or so. And so that broadcast on, you can access it by
going to www.cigarradio.org. Also it's going to be broadcast each Saturday at 7 p.m. on
radio station 1420 a.m. So please, if you take a moment to tune in and you, it's very
informative, a lot of great information, a lot of great guests in our own city staff
and elected officials will be involved as well are producing that show and hosting that
show. Then lastly, I'll finish quickly with a financial report. At this point in the
year we should be at about 33.3% of expenditures. We like to track our expenditures and make
sure that we are not going over budget. We are right at budget. We are 32.6%. It's a little
early in the year to track revenues because most of our revenues and property taxes come
at the end of the year. But you see that we unusually are tracking about the same
as revenues. And that's because we received the funding for the Friendship Force redevelopment
project. And you'll see under capital projects revenue we received that $1.4 million. And so
that's why you see an unusual bump in revenue. All other expenditures are tracking nicely
and revenues are tracking nicely. And so the budget is good. And so with that, that
completes my report. Thank you, Mr. Barker. All right, yeah. Good job, Mr. Barker.
A lot of great things. Good job, good job. Come more often. City Attorney's Report, Mr. Quinn.
I do have one item to report. The Cab County has officially approved and signed our IGA
to transfer the 40 Oaks property to the city of Clarkston. We have not actually received a deed
yet, but we have received their contractual commitment to sign the property over. Great.
Thank you. That's great news. That is good news. Thank you. All right. Good news. Thank you,
Mr. Quinn. All right. Council remarks and we'll start down here. Thank you all for coming
out. We really do support the community and really appreciate all feedback and the opportunity
for me to attend the meetings throughout the community to understand the dynamics of it
and had a meeting with ICE today that gives me another perspective on the dynamics. And
I'm glad to see that we're going to have a lot of people lining up with us when they
start taking our funding away. Appreciate that. I want to thank everybody for coming out also.
I did want to talk about something else. I'm going to reserve it really for Councilwoman
Berge to talk about. We did have a pet day and went really well and she'll probably end up
talking more about that since she was the main reason that it went off so well.
And I just want to say briefly, I was thrilled to attend the Feed Run at the same time. We had
the Clarkson Cultural Festival. I want to thank the city manager and the city staff and all the
volunteers, organizers who really made that day happen. It was really amazing, probably the
best turnout I've seen so far. Close to 1,000 people really went on Feed Run and almost all of them
ended up visiting our cultural festival so it was really awesome. And I want to mention
on the 27th of also, I want to thank Councilwoman Williams again for setting up the day,
even though you couldn't make it. And thanks to the vice chair of the committee for setting up
that meeting and which culminated into today's decision. And finally, I want to also thank
Councilwoman Moore for joining me for Eritrean American Day on the 29th, which is last Saturday.
And that's pretty much what I was saying. Thank you.
Thank you. I would like to thank you for the Clarkson at large, especially for those
who pushed this issue of non-detaining. I mean, it was a hard, long, you know,
this thing started on April 1st and ever since Gloria was spearheading for this,
you know, on the other. I would like to give them, you know, those attorneys that are,
you know, working for Pro Bono for this case. And I would like to thank for the, you know,
the council, you know, my people here for voting for non-detainer and asking Clarkson citizens
to be aware and always be here and be with us. And thank you for your support.
I'd also like to thank briefly just the people that came out today, the people that spoke
today and also the people that came out on Thursday and spoke on Thursday. It's really
great to see citizen engagement on this very important issue.
And as Councilman Williams said, Saturday we had our pet wellness day and it was a great event.
We had more than 55 cats and dogs that we gave free vaccinations to from the city
and as well as we donated both Councilman Williams and I donated the microchips
for the pets that were there. So what does that mean? That was just a start.
We understand the importance of education and one of the things that really came to light in
terms of dog bites and everything else is that when you have a child that's seven years old,
is equivalent to the same height as a medium to a large dog. And so having a very active
child and a maybe less trained pet is a bad combination. And so what we want to do is look at
one of my favorite phrases is to educate before you legislate. And so making sure that we educate
our community, look and have our committee meeting and also see where in terms of ordinances,
that's one of the things that we're going to talk about. What makes sense? What do we have?
What do we need to change if we need to add anything? And also one of the things that
came up in terms of the mayor, he brought up the signage and the fencing and everything else.
So we'll look at all of those things and we want input from the community because
where are we seeing these dogs and animals? I see them all next door where people are saying
this person's dog is loose, but where are they so that when we have to put the right signage
or whatever we have to do, we're doing it with something that makes sense in terms of where
and what we're doing. So I'm going to encourage you to come out when we do have our committee
meeting to give your concerns, to talk and let us know. And thanks again for coming out
and making it a very successful event. And we're looking forward to getting funding
for additional grants so that we can do more education with our community.
And I have to say the idea came from Tracy Bishop. So I have to give recognition
from our community. And that's one of the things that I love to do is that if you come up with an
idea, we're willing to work with you. And if it makes sense as a council, we will listen to your
concerns. Thank you, counsel. Mr. Mayor, can I make one other announcement?
It might be two. So this is about a party. So May 26, we're having our annual
Mylum Pool Opening Party from 10 until 2. So please come bringing kids as optional.
It's going to be free for everyone. We're going to be cooking hot dogs and hamburgers and maybe
veggie dogs for our council member and mayor. We're going to be having games and raffles.
We're going to be giving prizes. We're going to be giving some passes, pool passes, daily passes,
and then some big seasonal passes for a family of four. So you can come and swim family of four
free all season. Also, I'm this close to trying to arrange for free tennis lessons
for kids here in Clarkston. And so that same day, we hope to have sort of a tennis activity day
where kids can have an opportunity to learn about tennis, learn about the summer program,
and maybe just sign up for the program. And we're trying to work with the United States
Tennis Association to get free tennis rackets, free balls. And if I can convince the city
council, maybe the city of Clarkston will underwrite the lessons for the kids for all summer. So
May 26, the tennis probably started at nine and the pool party at 10 to two. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Great. Thank you all very much. So just the mayor's report, just a few things I want to report on.
A few miscellaneous items first. The young woman who spoke earlier about the smoking,
secondhand smoking issue. I appreciate she reached out to me a few weeks ago and I spoke
with the city attorney about this idea of a nuisance ordinance and whether that applies.
And so I don't think Stephanie is still here, but so we'll we'll definitely talk about it.
I think because that's really concerning that someone smoking that much that it's actually
impacting a larger circle around them. So I appreciate her coming out to public comment
and reaching out to me and appreciate everyone, really everyone coming out tonight because,
you know, if if we don't hear from y'all, if we don't know what's going on, then, you know,
we won't know. And so you have to speak up, you have to advocate, appreciate glory and Project
South and all of our attorneys and all of our activists and advocates for being here. You're
a valued part of this community and you're really helping make Clarkston a truly compassionate
and welcoming community. Just some random things that I was thinking of because I really appreciate
our officers and the diligence and the diligence that went into that 14 month investigation.
But something caught my my ear and I've heard it over the years that when Clarkston detectives
submit evidence to the GBI crime lab, there is a delay. And so I would love to just get
some more information, you know, about how long these delays are. Clearly it has nothing to do with
what we're doing. We're sending off the evidence. But is the GBI crime lab so backed up that it's
taking months and months and months to get evidence to put someone away? Where in the meantime,
they could be out perpetrating more crimes. And it sounds like, you know, they this
this person that we identified may have indeed done that. So I really would love to get to
the bottom of why the GBI crime lab is taking so long. I thought I heard that they got a
increase in funding this last legislative session, but I could be wrong. So that's pretty concerning
because I'm sure that our detectives would love to have as much information and expedient
process as possible. We've had a vacancy on the Planning and Zoning Committee for
over three months now. The charter stipulates that the mayor should appoint and the council approves
the Planning and Zoning Board members. I've spent two months now that I've put forward
a nomination and it's still not showing up on the agenda. And so I really want to encourage
the council members to just have an up or down vote. If you don't like the person
who I'm nominating for the PNZ, say something, recommend someone different,
or just have a vote and just vote it down. But leaving this vacancy with no action,
you know, I mean it's not going to hobble the Planning and Zoning, but we have a resident
who is very eager, who applied, went through all the hoops to, you know, came to the council
meeting two months ago and spoke and introduced herself. She's a young woman. She has policy
background and she wants to get involved more in the city, you know, city government.
And so I don't want there to be this long wait period for anyone who wants to get involved
with our, you know, committees and with the government. That's a good way to sway people
from getting involved. You know, in that same vein, I appreciate Councilman Williams and the
Public Safety Committee. You know, they've had many, many meetings over the last
14 months. There's two residents as part of the Public Safety Committee, but I just haven't seen
any, I want to make sure that the other committee chairs, every council member is a
chair of a committee, that one, we're having meetings and that two, when people are applying
to be the resident member on those advisory committees that we're responding to them.
I'm aware that some people have applied, other people are considering it. And so I think
who would everyone as each council member as a chair, just to respond in an expedient manner,
if they're not a good fit, let them know, don't leave months and months on end
of not saying anything, because that's a good way to, you know, dissuade people.
I have kind of a nitpicky thing, Mr. Barker. It's about using Roundup on the railroad
right-of-ways. You know, we've got to, we spend a lot of money to pay, to mow and to try to
maintain the railroad right-of-way. Some folks may not know this, but the railroad will not cut the
grass in Clarkston. And if we didn't do it, it would be, you know, six feet high.
And so I appreciate that, you know, that one, our residents are supportive of us, you know, taking care of CSX's property.
But every, you know, like quarter around this time and around the fall, there's a nice gray dead strip along the curbs.
And if you've ever noticed the work crew that we consult with, they just spray roundup in there.
And so if you go down the tracks right now, it's just a dead patch of a dead strip right along the curb.
European countries have banned roundup.
California just got approved a month ago to put a cancer warning on roundup sold in their state because there are several studies.
And many different countries in America that are linking higher rates of non-Hochkins lymphoma to when exposed to high amounts of roundup.
And if anyone has ever witnessed around three o'clock in Clarkston, people cross the road tracks all day long.
And I'm not saying they're going to expose to large amounts of roundup, but let's just, you know, try to be as sensitive, environmentally sensitive as we can.
Probably the biggest impact is the runoff if roundup is sprayed and if it rains, you know, that day it's going to all run downstream.
And some of you all may not know this. I've said it many times. I think it's kind of cool, but Clarkston is on the eastern continental divide.
All right. So, you know, millions of years ago, the continents collided.
And that railroad track is where the continents collided and formed North America.
So all the water that hits, that rains, and goes into the stormwater drains on that side of the railroad tracks,
eventually goes into the south fork of the peace tree creek to the Chattahoochee down to the Gulf of Mexico.
All the water that lands on this side of the railroad tracks eventually hits the Oak Mowgli River and then the Altamaha and then the Atlantic Ocean.
So we literally impact two different bodies of water, major tributaries.
Everyone downstream, people who fish, who recreate, we have an impact on those streamsheds.
So, you know, I mean, I don't want to get too micromanagy, but, you know, maybe we could just do an edger or something instead of the spray.
Two things, one event or one very nice meeting that I had.
We've been receiving international delegations to Clarkston for the past 12 months or so.
Several of the council members have met with members from Portugal delegation.
We had a Middle Eastern delegation from Algeria, from Mali, from Egypt, from Jordan, from Palestine,
from several other Middle Eastern countries come and to Clarkston and meet with me just for about an hour over at the coffee shop over there on Monday.
And it was just a really good conversation. They were very interested in things that Clarkston's doing.
You know, how do you have so many different ethnicities and religions and, you know, we're maintaining a good amount of peace and prosperity.
And so they're very interested and we're continuing to see delegations from international countries, particularly ones that are seeing an influx of refugees.
They want to learn from what we're doing in Clarkston.
The number one thing I always say is the mayor hasn't done anything Clarkston has done that.
It's the advocates, it's the resettlement agencies.
It's all the people that work with all of the immigrant and refugee communities and the larger Clarkston community that make Clarkston so compassionate and so welcoming.
And so hopefully when, you know, as they keep coming, we'll connect more and more of the groups who do work here to share their experiences and best practices.
And then finally, I want to also announce another community event on May 20th right there at the Adams Center.
So if everyone knows Refuge Coffee, there is a big concrete wall there and you may have noticed there's been some painting going on.
All right, so the city is sponsoring along with several other organizations sponsoring a community mural project.
Shannon Willow, one of our local artists who has done many murals around Clarkston already is getting the base level ready.
And so on May 20th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., excuse me, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 20th is a Saturday.
It's a community mural day. So anyone, children older, it doesn't matter what age, can participate in actually helping paint and be a part of completing the mural project.
It's a great, I think, beautification project and a great way for us to engage our residents and all of our community members.
And so I encourage you to come out for that.
Again, thank you all very much for coming this evening.
We have one final item. It's called the executive session.
And so it's sort of a private session.
So I'm going to open the floor up for emotion on that.
And once you go into executive session, we're going to have to politely ask you all to leave.
There's no more business on the agenda.
So we're going to come back into session, but we'll probably just adjourn right away.
But if anyone wants to visit or talk afterwards, you know, I think I don't know how long this is going to take, but we'll be around after the executive session.
And is it vital, Gloria, what is it?
I just want to say thank you to you all.
Okay, thank you.
I just want to say thank you to all of you on behalf of the community.
Thank you for all you have done.
And thank you to the Army for the community.
Thank you that you have given us the strength to make this work.
Thank you.
Thank you all for being here.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
All right, we're back and that's all the business we have this evening.
So I'll open the floor up for emotion on German.
I'll move to adjourn.
Second. All in favor of sound?
Aye.
Motion carries, meeting adjourned.