Remerton City Council Regular Meeting Agenda
Monday, Sept. 8, 2008 5:30 PM
City Council Chambers

Welcome Guests

Pledge and Prayer
Establish Quorum of Council
Approval of minutes from Thursday, December 27,2007 and August 11, 2008
Citizens to be Heard

NEW BUSINESS
   1. First reading regarding City’s Alcohol Ordinance rewrite-  Brian McDougal
   2. Consideration to establish a City purchase policy-  Brian McDougal
   3. Consideration regarding an amendment to the Zoning ordinance(section to remove the requirement for a minimum sized lot for application to apply for a Planned Development-  Brian McDougal

OLD BUSINESS
   1. Consideration regarding renewal of two Park Avenue Bank Certificates of Deposit-  Brian McDougal
   2. Consideration to hire a noise consultant to prepare a noise study/ordinance-  Brad Folsom
   3. Consideration to hire a Better Hometown Coordinator-  Brian McDougal
   4. First reading regarding an amendment to the City of Remerton Sign Ordinance regarding a provision  in the code to include Light Emitting Diode(LED) signage technology-  Brian McDougal
   5. First reading regarding an ordinance amendment to the City of Remerton Ethics Ordinance-  Brian McDougal
COUNCIL COMMENTS
ADJOURN

The Cast:
Council Members and Mayor from left to right facing council bench:
Sherry Wood, Ryan Gordon, Mayor Cornelius Holsendolph, Mayor Pro Tem Reginald Stacks, Lydia Day, Bill Wetherington.   (By law, these elected officials must reside within the city limits.)

The Crew:
City Manager Brian McDougal,  City Clerk Lisa Mashburn,  Chief of Police Mike Terrel,  Clerk of Court Lea Lacy,  Probation Officer Jessica Freeman, Fire Chief/Public Works/Utilities Supervisor Ron Woods,  City Attorney Brad Folsom.

Other crew members who may appear include 2 from the Court, 2 from Administration, 2 from Public Works, and 8 from the Police Dept.

Of the 20-22 member Support Crew (also known as those people who actually make the City work)  how many do you suppose live in Remerton?  Ten?  Five?  One?  No, the number is zero.  What does this mean?  Probably nothing, but it is an interesting statistic.

Remember the Kudos to Councilman Wetherington article from August? 

Apparently, many of the signs removed back in August may have been on private property, with the owner's permission.  Business owners who had purchased the signs were understandably annoyed that they were taken and assumed it was vandalism.  Some found out about Mr. Wetherington's mistake and may have been planning a confrontation at Monday's Council Meeting.

Mr. Wetherington found out about the mistake and has apologized to at least one business owner, even offering to pay for the missing signs. 

The business owner said that Mr. Wetherington related that he had been told by City Manager McDougal that Mr. McDougal had contacted the business owners about the offending signs.  That business owner had never spoken to Mr. McDougal.  Mr. Wetherington may have been misinformed, or he may have misunderstood.

It is admirable that Mr. Wetherington has accepted the responsibility for the well-intentioned blunder.

How different the world would be if more public officials sucked it up and admitted error. They might get more thumbs up instead of that other finger up.

City of Remerton Work Session
Tuesday September 2, 2008 5:30 pm
City Council Chambers

(Council member Sherry Wood was not present.  Police Chief Terrel was not present.)

The meeting was about  138 minutes long...36minutes devoted to feral cats.  The tape quality is poor, but generally audible.

Welcome Guests

CITIZENS TO BE HEARD - Joe Belson (aka Ed. or Editor) spoke about the Mayor Pro Tempore running the Council meetings as prescribed by the charter (see the article below).  There was no discussion, as City Attorney Brad Folsom had no thoughts on the matter after reading the article.

The second point was about Liquor Licenses being issued to non-Lowndes residents as is required by the Ordinance and the fact that although the Ordinance states all applications must go before Council for approval and then signed by the Mayor, this has not been done in at least the last four years.  Former Council member Scooter Hines was in the audience and confirmed this. (Click Read more below for what Ed. was trying to get at.)

-Property Owner, DDA Vice-Chairman and URA member Ashley Hill presented the Council the the GA Code section dealing with the apparent prohibition of City office holders serving on the URA.  The URA Vice-Chairman is a Council Member.

His repeated inquiry of the City Attorney had been unanswered since the formation of the URA back on June 16th, 2008.  He was making a final appeal to Council before taking the matter to the State for clarification.

Mr. Folsom said that he did not have direction from council to research the question.

- Mrs. Barbara Southall-Depasture (DDA and URA member) rose and pointed out that they were told Mr. Folsom would be at their disposal for legal matters.

There were questions from Council about whether the City would have any liability exposure  if the Code was not followed.  He stated that without further research it looked like it  could be an ethics violation by the member, not a problem for the  City.

The Council directed Mr. Folsom to research the matter.

 NEW BUSINESS
1.Financial Report/Summary of Revenue and Expenses - Lisa Mashburn-
2.Discussion regarding a draft copy of the City’s Alcohol Ordinance rewrite - Brian McDougal -
3.Presentation by USDA regarding Grant opportunities - Denise Carter, USDA Rural Development
4.Discussion regarding establishing a purchase policy -  Brian McDougal -
5.Discussion regarding an application to the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA) to fund construction of connections with the City of Valdosta - Brian McDougal.

6.Discussion regarding an amendment to the Zoning ordinance to remove the requirement for a minimum sized lot for application to apply for a Planned Development-  Jessica Freeman - The Zoning Ordinance drafted last year called for lot sizes of 1-3 acres for development.  Such lots do not exist in Remerton, so, the acreage requirement will be eliminated from the ordinance.  One runs into such problems when copy and pasting from the Lowndes County ordinance.  There are many more that were glossed over last year which will rear their heads, we're sure.

7.Department Reports
  a. City Clerk- Lisa Mashburn - The accounting software upgrades and data entry are 90% complete and the Audit is nearly ready to send to Council.

  b. Probation-  Jessica Freeman - Last month's revenue was down, but the students are back and it will go up.
  c. Police- Chief Mike Terrell - Was absent. - His written report to Council was delivered, not discussed.
  d. Fire/Utilities/Public Works-  Ron Woods - The electric garage door installation will happen soon.  There were no significant problems due to the storm.

  e. (min 54:17) City Manager-  Brian McDougal -
  f. (min 71:30) City Attorney- Brad Folsom - See Old Business 4, 5, 7 and 9.

OLD BUSINESS
1.Discussion regarding renewal of two Park Avenue Bank Certificates of Deposit - Brian McDougal - The Bank of Valdosta has the best current rate (4.5%).    
2.Discussion regarding a proposed Noise Study and Noise Ordinance Amendments - Brad Folsom
3.Discussion to hire a Better Hometown Coordinator - Jessica Freeman -
4.(min 90:42) Discussion regarding an amendment ot the City of Remerton Sign Ordinance regarding a provision in the code to include Light Emitting Diode (LED) signage technology-  Jessica Freeman - A draft Ordinance revision was submitted by Mr. Folsom.  Details were not made available.

5.(min 92:30) Discussion regarding an ordinance amendment to the City of Remerton Ethics Ordinance-  Brian McDougal - The minimum age to serve was established at 21, the member must have resided in Remerton for one year minimum, be a registered voter, and the requirement for an attorney was broadened to include residents of Lowndes County, not just Remerton.

6. (min 100:50 thru 136:00 - yep, 35 minutes on feral, freakin' cats!) Presentation/discussion regarding the Ferrell cat population-  Michelle Sullivan, Valdosta/Lowndes Humane Society - Former Council member Scooter Hines volunteered to organized a fund raising to keep the Catch, Neuter and Release Program.  Councilman Wetherington pledged a month of his City salary to the project.

7. (min 94:40) Update on the negotiations with the City of Valdosta to purchase water-  Brian McDougal - Remerton's response to the Valdosta Contract is with Valdosta.
8.(min 136:30) Update on the engineering (Looping/Valdosta tie in)  Brian McDougal
9.Update on the Codification of City Ordinances-  Brad Folsom

- (min 1:37:26)  City Solicitor William Whitesell spoke before the end of the meeting to clarify some information about the dismissal of noise ordinance violations. 

He stated that he was never comfortable with the constitutionality of Remerton's ordinance.  He recalled a phone call from Chief Terrell  about a meeting at Brad Folsom's office Chief Terrell was under the impression that City Attorney Folsom told those present (including representatives of the bar with pending citations) that the Noise ordinance was unconstitutional. 

Based on that information and possibly further consultation (don't know) with Mr. Folsom, City Solicitor Whitesell dropped the four counts against Flip Flops that had been scheduled to be heard on August 26th. 

Mr. Folsom left the meeting before Mr. Whitesell spoke.  There seemed to be some differences between the gentlemens' explanations of the events.  Listen to minute 79:00 of Mr. Folsom's Old Business 2 discussion.

Adjourn - finally...after nearly 2.5 hours.

Click here to listen to the audio.

You may have noticed that Remerton has gotten considerably louder over the past few weeks. At least between the hours of 10:00PM and 3:15 AM.

Since January of 2002 the Remerton Noise Ordinance has been some comfort to the citizens and usually enforced when bar bands got a little over enthusiastic.  But in the last few weeks the City Attorney and City Solicitor put their heads together and have voided the provisions that applied to commercial establishments, believing it would not survive a State court challenge.

That's right, as far as enforcement goes, the Remerton police can no longer effectively respond to a noise complaint about a  bar or restaurant even if it is heard on Green Street or Alden on the other side of Baytree Road.  Yes, people on Alden also complain about Remerton's bar noise.

There is a new ordinance in the works. Don't get cocky, though.  If you happen to be driving with your 1000 watt speakers blaring the latest hit single on your three minute trip through town, or your weekend party gets too rambunctious, parts of the ordinance still apply and will be enforced. 

But all is not lost in the battle to get some sleep.  A little know recourse is to call Lowndes County Dispatch at 245-5270 and ask for the Lowndes county Fire Marshall.   Please don't cal 911, that's for life and death type emergencies.

Explain to the dispatch officer that Remerton no longer enforces it's noise ordinance and you wish to have the county Fire Marshall respond.  The Fire Marshall will measure the sound level at 100 feet (Remerton's was 250 feet) from the source and give one warning if it exceeds the County noise level limits.  A second justified complaint will result in a citation and the establishment will have to respond in Lowndes County Court, not Remerton's. 

Another advantage to this option is that the Fire Marshall will be on hand to observe whether the establishment is complying with the fire code maximum occupancy certificate.  Overcrowding is illegal, dangerous and frequently accompanies overly loud music.

This is the place for Reader's Comments that may not fit a specific current article.

                        

We'll keep it on the Home Page or the RECENT ITEMS listing at the upper left of the Home page.  And, it will always be available from the ALL ARTICLES menu button.

Who is the King (or Queen) of Remerton?  We don't know.  Use the Comments to propose your candidates for the most influential person in/on Remerton.  When we get a few names we'll put it to a vote with a poll.

The Mayor and all members of City Council took this oath as required by the City Charter:

The Charter establishes the role of the Mayor Pro Tempore (currently Reggie Stacks) as follows:

This is straight forward, unambiguous language.  The mayor pro temp presides over council meetings and assumes the duties of mayor when he is incapacitated. If he takes over the role of mayor a new presiding officer is elected by council.  That implies that one cannot be both the Mayor and the Mayor Pro Tempore (or presiding officer) at the same time.

According to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, to preside means 1. To hold the position of authority; act as chairperson or president.  2. To possess or exercise authority or control.

The Mayor Pro Tempore is still a councilmember, and nowhere in the Charter does it say he relinquishes his voting rights. 

City Mgr. McDougal, Council member Sherry Wood and Mayor Holsendolph presumably became very familiar with the existing Charter last year while they were crafting the unsuccessful proposed new charter.  And, we would expect that in the eighth month of their terms, the new Council members would have had time to read and understand what they had sworn an oath to support and defend. 

The duties and powers of the Mayor are defined in the Charter as:

Our current Mayor Pro Tempore is Mr. Reginald Stacks.  He has not been doing his duty as defined in the charter and it may be time for the Mayor and Council to do as they solemnly swore and "...support and defend the charter..."

During the discussion of taking advantage of water from Valdosta the straw man of Remerton losing its Charter by not providing enough services has come up once again. 

How about losing its Charter due to a flagrant, long-standing disregard of the rights, responsibilities and rules established in this State granted Charter? 

Isn't the Charter what gives the six elected representatives of the people the right to tax, fine, imprison, confiscate property and enter into binding contracts in their name, among other things? 

Did we miss the part that says they only have to follow the parts they find convenient, and make up new, contradictory stuff as they go along?

What do you think?  Please use the comments. 

(Click here or at the City Charter button on the left menu for the full city Charter.)