---
date: 2007-03-12
title: March 12, 2007 Minutes
source: 2007-03/2007-03-12_March 12, 2007_Minutes.pdf
pages: 1
---

March 12, 2007

CITY OF STOCKBRIDGE MINUTES
HENRY COUNTY, GEORGIA MARCH 12, 2007

The Regular Meeting of the Stockbridge City Council was held on March 12, 2007 at 6:00 P. M. Mayor R.
G. Kelley presided and members present were Harold Cochran, Fred Evans, W.A.Gardner, Steve Moon and
Leila Turner.

Harold Cochran made a motion to convene; Fred Evans seconded, and passed unanimously.

Council Moon gave the invocation.

Fred Evans made a motion to approve minutes of February 12, 2007 City Council meeting; HaroldCochran
seconded; and passed unanimously.

Mayor Kelley welcomed guests.

PLANNING AND ZONING

SABRENA SWINGER, 105 JENNINGS WAY (FORMERLY CEMETERY ST) Mayor Kelley advised the
Council that Mrs. Swinger would like to rebuild her family home which was an 836 sq ft house. The family
home has been torn down and she is asking for a variance to rebuild the family home on the 836 sq ft
foundation. The current zoning requires a 1,500 sq ft house. Council advised Ted Strickland to have the
foundation inspected before they could make this decision.

Harold Cochran made a motion to table until Mrs. Swinger could be present and they have a report regarding
the condition of the foundation; Fred Evans seconded, and passed unanimously.

AMENDING SECTION 6.04.040 WATER AND SEWER RATE SCHEDULE ORDINANCE – Andy Welch
explained this ordinance would amend the rate schedule pursuant to studies done by Stantec. This rate
schedule will be consistent with Henry County rates but is lower than what Stantec has recommended in their
study but it is consistent with Henry County so citizens of Stockbridge will have the same billing rates and
fees as the people in the county. Mayor Kelley asked if anyone has any questions.

Councilman Moon asked if this document changed from the document they received last month. Mr. Welch
noted that they added one page but everything else is the same except the exhibits. The way this reads, is
it going to be consistent across the board with no exceptions, no loop holes or anything for residential and
commercial. Mr. Welch responded “yes” this deals with water and sewer rates. Councilman Moon said that’s
what he wants to make sure of because he did not read anything different but he is not assuming that there
is any commercial property that has a comparable rate of something we’ve done in the past there is no
grandfathering; everything will be as of the date this is due. If you use the water, you pay the rate. Mr. Welch
stated that he is correct; there will be no grandfathering once the Council adopts this ordinance. The
ordinance becomes effective immediately. So as of today’s date, everything due tomorrow those rates must
be paid at the new rate schedule.

Mayor Kelley reminded the Council that at the last Council Meeting they discussed giving lower rates to
hardship cases. These cases would have to make application at City Hall and be brought before the City
Council for approval. The reason the City has keep the rates as low as possible but this gives lower rates
overall instead of just to the hardship cases. This will be just to the deserving people who can’t afford the
new rates.

Council Moon said he agrees that we need to look after the senior citizens but the one thing he wants to be
careful of is when we start to look at the situation of a senior citizen if a senior citizen’s bill is more than the
minimum bill, meaning they may have eight people living in the house that is what we will have to be careful
about. We need to make sure those who need help get help but the City should not fund extra people living
with a senior citizen and getting water under false pretense.

Ted Strickland called attention to item “D” regarding the effective date of the ordinance. Mr. Welch explained
that the ordinance would take effect today but the ordinance has been set so the new rates would not go into
effect until November, 2007 giving the City plenty of time to advertise the new rates. This is the same time
period that Henry County is increasing their rate schedule. The ordinance will be on the books as of
tomorrow, March 13, 2007, and; therefore, that gives the public notice that the rates are going up and
everyone’s rates will go up uniformly.

Councilman Moon asked if we say public notice are we putting out a public notice. Mr. Welch responded
“no” we are not putting out a notice but if anyone wants to look at the rate schedules they will see that the
rates will go up in November. Councilman Moon said he figured what his new rate would be and he basically
would pay only $2.00 more and it’s not like it’s going to be a large increase. Is there going to be a letter or
something sent out to the public. Mayor Kelley stated that it could be printed on the water bills and the City
news bulletin “The Link” which is sent to every citizen in Stockbridge.
Fred Evans made a motion to approve the Water and Sewer Rate Schedule Ordinance; Steve Moon
seconded, and passed unanimously.

AMENDING SECTION 6.08.030 COLLECTION OF WATER CONNECTION FEES ORDINANCE- Andy
Welch stated that this ordinance basically states that the City will be collecting the connection and impact
fees at the time a customer applies for water service. This ordinance will amend the tap-on fees in “Exhibit
A”. It is based on the meter size and the tap-on fees are attached to the ordinance.

Councilman Moon said actually when you look at the three quarter and five eights meters there is only
$100.00 difference from the current charge but how do we plan to deal with high rises or what goes into the
Town Center because we may need more than a three inch meter. We are only adopting up to a three inch
meter and we have some developments close to that size. Do we need to think about those before we get
too far along? Mr. Welch advised the Council to adopt this tonight and amend it later if needed. He also
stated that a three inch meter is a very large water meter with an exceptional flow and will be safe with what
is in this ordinance and if the City needs anything in excess of this it can be addressed at that time. Mr.
Welch was instructed to find out if the three inch meter will be sufficient to handle future needs.

Harold Cochran made a motion to approve; Leila Turner seconded, and passed unanimously.

AMENDING SECTION 6.12.090 COLLECTION OF SEWER CONNECTION FEES ORDINANCE. Andy
Welch explained that this ordinance is just like the water tap fees, the City also collects sewer tap-on fees
and the impact fees that are collected at the same time. This ordinance amends the tap-on fees and the
impact fees and also provides Exhibit “A”, the fees that will be charged. You can see there again the meter
sizes, tap-on fees, water impact fees and the total collections. There is also a provision in this ordinance that
deals with the fact that there may be connections that are greater and there is a tap-on fee for meters that
are larger than three inches that will be set by the Mayor and Council at a future date after the Council gets
the report telling them what fees are appropriate.

Councilman Moon said when he looks at this ordinance he thinks the sewer fee is really high. He is asking
for the Council’s consideration of matching the sewer rate to be the same as the water rate for one year and
then after that one year to re-evaluate and decide if the rate needs to go higher. Mr. Welch said these figures
have already been calculated based on Stantec’s review of on-going impacts to the system. The City is
collecting a tap-on fee to actually cover the cost of tapping-on to the system, the cost of the new meters to
tap-on and the labor involved. Those costs have gone up over a period of time and the City is actually
incurring those costs and subsidizing if the City keeps the fees locked down. The other things are the impact
fees for system improvements so anytime the City has to make improvements to a line, items at the
wastewater treatment facility, etc. those impact fees go to cover the new improvements that are necessary
for the overall capacity of the system. If you are going to have impact fees, they are set based upon the
City’s capital improvement plan which is part of the Comprehensive Plan. Those impact fees are based upon
the City’s future capacity and development needs. As people move into the City and develop and build
businesses, they actually tax the system more and the impact fees cover those future and anticipated growth
that we expect for the City. It sets a range and the City’s engineers can blow out the top in terms of the range
but we always come down from what they say and go for something in between. It seems more fair and
equitable than to just go to the maximum amount.

Ted Strickland, City Manager, stated that in the future the addition to the treatment plant it is going to run
between $8,000,000 and $10,000,000 and new west sewer main going up Highway 42 will run somewhere
between $750,000 to $900,000. These additional fees will help defray these costs. Those are two items that
are going to have to be done in the near future.

Mr. Welch stated that the previous ordinance that was adopted the City has a provision that if there is a
demand for a water meter over three inches that will be reviewed after the engineers have finished their
study.

Fred Evans made a motion to adopt ordinance; Steve Moon seconded, and passed unanimously.

AMENDING THE DRUG AND ALCOHOL SCREENING ORDINANCE. This amendment will amend the
Code of Ordinances to make sure there is a “zero” tolerance policy for any and all employees employed by
the City of Stockbridge regarding drug and alcohol use.

Fred Evans made a motion to adopt amending the Code of Ordinance; Steve Moon seconded, and passed
unanimously.

AMENDING THE TO PERSONNEL RULES AND REGULATIONS TO PROVIDE FOR A DRUG AND
ALCOHOL POLICY ORDINANCE. Mr. Welch explained that legal staff has prepared an amendment to the
Personnel Policy to reflect the policy change regarding “zero” tolerance policy for any and all employees
employed by the City of Stockbridge.

Steve Moon made a motion to approve ordinance; Harold Cochran seconded, and passed unanimously.

SIZEMORE GROUP – Jim Connolly discussed Phase II of Town Center. Mr. Connolly observed that the City
recently purchased the old library property and has decided not to go forward with the Gramm and Horvath
property acquisitions as an inclusion in the Town Center. This created several questions. They have a
Phase I and II, infrastructure and there was a Phase IIA and IIB infrastructure including the Horvath and
Gramm properties. Mr. Connolly asked the Council is they want to go forward with making amendments to
the plan realizing we have made a massive change to the plan by removing those properties and including
the library in the acquisitions. As a part of this, we would be looking at the parking, parks, building, and
configurations and how they would now function. The Horvath property had a connection from East Atlanta
Road to North Lee Street and now there is no longer a connection because it has been taken out of the plan.
He wants to go forward and study what should be done with the property on North Lee Street. The Phase
IIB plan for Gramm and Horvath has shown connections directly from City property to directly into the Horvath
property. The would like to study how to take out the curb cuts and show a plan that would be reasonable
that the City has at this time.

The three items he has is to study the plan, study the circulation and the North Lee Street property. They
will need to study modifying the road alignments as the roads cross East Atlanta Road. With City Hall moving,
it shifted a little and the properties were overlapping onto Horvath. There were certain plans that the City
Council voted upon there were buildings overlapping. At this point, that would not be prudent to be designing
on property the City does not have. They would like to study a little further about how to actually cross the
road. We had intersections that might not line up crossing the east and west sides of East Atlanta Road.
There needs to be a study on the west side as well.

Mayor Kelley suggested the Council table this discussion tonight because this matter is new to the Council
and they haven’t though about it and need time to review the matter. Mr. Connolly stated this is not an add
service, this is part of Phase II and this is only getting release to go further with that Phase if the Council
wants to at this time.

RESOLUTION – HENRY COUNTY COUNCIL ON AGING – authorizing Mayor Kelley and Clerk to sign
agreement to provide home delivered meals, in-home personal care and/or senior center services to eligible
elder citizens of the City of Stockbridge. Mayor Kelley said this program has been working real well for the
Citizens of Stockbridge and he recommends continuing the program.

Harold Cochran made a motion to approve continuing the program; Steve Moon seconded, and passed
unanimously.

FLINT CIRCUIT COUNCIL ON FAMILY VIOLENCE – authorizing Mayor Kelley and Clerk to sign agreement
to provide services for residents of the City of Stockbridge. Mayor Kelley recommended continuing this
service also.

Harold Cochran made a motion to approve; Steve Moon seconded, and passed unanimously.
AGREEMENT BETWEEN CITY OF STOCKBRIDGE AND CHARTER COMMUNICATION, LLC. Georgia
Municipal Association audited Charter’s operations within Stockbridge and found an underpayment of
Franchise Fees in the amount of $4,632.67. Charter requires an agreement in order to settle the
underpayment. Mayor Kelley asked Andy Welch if he was familiar with this agreement. Mr. Welch responded
that they have reviewed the agreement and it will settle this matter and get the money owned the City.

Harold Cochran made a motion to approve the agreement and authorize Mayor Kelley and Clerk to sign the
agreement on behalf of the City; Leila Turner seconded and passed unanimously.

VETERANS WALL OF HONOR – Thomas M. Starnes, Vice-Chairman, has requested each of the four cities
in Henry County consider a grant of $10,000 each for two years. Mayor Kelley had the City Clerk to contact
Hampton, Locust Grove and McDonough to find out what they doing for this cause.

Hampton Will budget for 2008 (amount undecided)

Locust Grove Will budget for 2008 (amount undecided)

McDonough $5,000 budget for 2007

Mayor Kelley recommended the Council appropriate an amount in the 2008 budget. This is a worthy cause
and the Council can discuss and determine the amount when budget planning begins. Mr. Welch advised
the Council they could table the matter and pull it from the table during budget planning for 2008 and set an
amount at that time.

Steve Moon made a motion to table until budget planning begins for 2008; Leila Turner seconded, and passed
unanimously.

CONFERENCE CENTER – replace carpet in ballroom $26,416.00. This was a budget item in the 2007
budget.

Harold Cochran made a motion to approve; W. A. Gardner seconded, and passed unanimously.
BRANDI’S SPORTS CAFÉ, KATHY AND RAYMOND REED, 3271 HIGHWAY 42, SOUTH (PARKLAND
PLAZA) is requesting an alcohol license to serve distilled spirits. They were approved for beer and wine
September, 2006. All documents have been filed and fees paid.

Harold Cochran made a motion to approve; Fred Evans seconded, and passed unanimously.

EXECUTIVE SESSION

Steve Moon made a motion to adjourn from Regular Session and go into Executive Session to
discuss personnel matters, pending and potential litigation; Fred Evans seconded, and passed
unanimously.

Fred Evans made a motion to close Executive Session and reconvene Regular Session, Harold
Cochran seconded, and passed unanimously.

Andy Welch advised the Council that they need to make a motion to authorize Mayor Kelley to sign the Task
I, II, and III subject to the City Attorney verifying the document to make sure it is consistent with the Agreement
between Sizemore Group and the City and if so, the Mayor can sign and if not, then it needs to come back
to the Mayor and City Council for additional review.

Steve Moon put this in the form of a motion; W. A. Gardner seconded and passed unanimously.

Harold Cochran made a motion to adjourn; Leila Turner seconded and passed unanimously. Meeting
adjourned at 8:15 P. M.

Respectfully submitted,
Merle Manders, MCM R. G. Kelley
City Clerk Mayor
