Mayor and Council met for a Work Session June 01, 2010 at the Courthouse with Mayor Wayne Bullard presiding.

PRESENT:

Mayor Wayne Bullard, Councils: Mayor Pro Tem Adams, Ralph Clendenin, Bruce Cain, Terry Benjamin, City Manager Jonathan Sumner, Police Chief Terry Davis, Fire Chief Dwight Bennett, Director Donnie Warren, City Clerk Belinda Chappell.　

Mayor Bullard asked if there were any questions concerning the minutes. Councilman Cain stated he needed to add one correction to the Council meeting minutes. Cain stated he would like added to his report that he would like Council to revisit the pricing issue of the roll-off containers when the contract for Griffin Waste comes up again at the beginning of next year. City Manager Sumner stated that correction would be made.

Mayor Bullard asked if there were any questions concerning the bills. Mayor Pro Tem Adams stated she had a question regarding the bill paid to Tomlinson’s Body Shop in the amount of $991.62. City Manager Sumner stated the bill was for the repair of a citizen’s vehicle that was damaged by the Public Works Department. Sumner stated there were three quotes provided by the citizen and that Tomlinson’s was the lowest of the three. Mayor Pro Tem Adams was concerned if there was a Police report made at the time of the accident. Police Chief Davis stated he would provide Council with a copy of the Police report. Mayor Pro Tem Adams stated she was concerned with the increase in the Windstream phone bills for each department of the City and also the cell phone bills from Alltel Wireless seemed more expensive. City Manager Sumner stated that was the lowest price the City could get the telephone company to provide.

City Manager Sumner stated to Mayor and Council he had advertised in the legal section of the newspaper regarding the changes to the charter the three consecutive times required by law. Sumner stated one of the suggestions he had received from legal council was not to give the General Assembly any more information, than the City was required to, in terms of amendment material. Sumner stated he had crafted the charter which included the changes discussed at the Retreat. excluding the three substantive changes that Council had discussed at the May Council Meeting. Sumner stated he had modified the language for the three changes and reverted it back to what the original charter read. Sumner stated he put the three substantive changes in the form of a Resolution for Council which was included in their packet. Sumner stated a reading could be held on Thursday night at the Council Meeting and a second reading at the July Work Session, and if at the end of the second reading Council adopted the existing charter without the three modifications, that would then become the new City Charter. Sumner stated then a separate issue would be the passage of the Resolution, which then it would be submitted to the Legislative Delegation to drop as a bill in the General Assembly. Sumner stated he had reviewed the process with the City Attorney, and he could not find any problems with processing the Charter in that manner. Sumner stated to Council that nothing had changed from the previous way that Council understood it; it was just being handled in a different procedure. Mayor Pro Tem Adams stated she wanted to understand that Council would just be sending the resolution to the General Assembly instead of the entire Charter. Sumner stated that was correct. Mayor Pro Tem Adams stated she was concerned if the City Manager could get Council a revised copy of the changes that were made to the Charter during the discussion at the Retreat. City Manager Sumner stated he would get Council a revised copy of the Charter with the changes made. Sumner stated after Council had a chance to look over the revised Charter, there was time to make changes if needed before the July Council meeting.

Nick Valenti and Denise Rackley with Valenti, Rackley and Associates, LLC. presented Mayor and Council with the 2009 Audit. Valenti thanked the City Manager and Staff for their cooperation and hard work on gathering the information together for the Auditors. Valenti stated some of the findings from the 2008 audit to this year’s 2009 audit had been corrected. Valenti stated there were only two findings in the 2009 audit and these included: Inadequate segregation of accounting duties among personnel, and inadequate design of internal control over the preparation of the financial statements being audited. Valenti stated the cause for these findings were due to limited staff size and resources. Valenti stated the findings were not really notable but they had to be reported. Valenti stated one recommendation his firm had was for the City to have a policy and procedure for the customer deposits. Sumner stated that would be added to the policy and procedures manual. Sumner stated the deposits had to be returned to the State per State law, if not claimed within a certain period of time. Valenti stated the Audit looked much better than it did in the past year due to the Staff’s hard work and willingness to learn. Valenti stated he would answer any questions Council may have. Mayor Pro Tem Adams had questions concerning why the General fund was increased from the 2008 Audit to the 2009 Audit, and why other funds were down in Revenue. Valenti stated this was mainly due to interest income. Mayor Pro Tem Adams stated she was concerned if the section in the Audit for Public Safety, included the Fire Department, Police Department, and the EMS Services. Valenti responded that it included all three departments. Mayor Pro Tem Adams was concerned if an amount in the Audit was enclosed with parenthesis, did it mean it was a deficit. Valenti stated the parenthesis meant a difference in budgeted amount. City Manager Sumner thanked Valenti/Rackley, and Associates for doing a great job on the 2009 Audit.

City Manager Sumner stated to Mayor and Council a document had been prepared to explain the policies and procedures of the Utility Department, the Finance Department, and the Public Works Department. Sumner stated the manual was a consolidation of procedures that staff undergoes in order to provide the service to Council and the public. Sumner stated there would be modifications made to the manual on a regular basis as time passed due to the changes made to software and if any new employees were hired. Sumner stated there were no new policies included in the document, the policies were existing policies combined into one document. Mayor Pro Tem Adams stated after reviewing the document, it explained the day to day operation of the City. City Manager Sumner agreed. Sumner stated this was important to have, in the instance someone was out sick for a long period of time; other staff could step right into place and continue business. City Manager Sumner thanked office staff Belinda Chappell, Paula Stone and Kimberly Williams for the hard work they put into the Policy and Procedures manual.

Chief Davis stated to Mayor and Council he had researched surrounding cities on their fees for beer and wine license and found that the City of Hahira was on the lower level of the price of beer and wine license. Davis stated he and the City Manager came up with the recommendation of charging $400 dollars for beer, $400 for wine, $2000 for liquor, an extra $1500 by the drink, and a fee of $250 for an application fee to be paid at the time the application is turned into City plus the cost of advertising for the beer and wine license. Chief Davis stated if Council chose to adopt the new fees, it would come into effect May 31, 2011. City Manager Sumner stated a letter could be sent to the business owners who sell beer and wine to make them aware of the new fees. Mayor Pro Tem Adams stated she would like a copy of the recommended fees for beer and wine licenses. City Manager Sumner stated he would get Council a copy before the next meeting.

City Manager Sumner stated to Mayor and Council that State Law required that underage drinking be regulated, and that offences carry their own penalties. Sumner stated that Council could have the power to determine what penalties should be imposed, should the State Law be violated. Sumner stated the City of Hahira Police Department would be the department to discover those violations and reporting them to the State agencies. Sumner stated the City would have our Municipal Court Judge to hear the case and to determine the fine. Sumner stated there were penalties for the first, second, and third occurrence and also a provision for license suspension within those three occurrences. Sumner stated this was very similar to what the City of Valdosta had. Sumner stated it was there for Council to review and if any changes or modifications were needed, it could be revised, if not, a Public Hearing could be held at the next meeting to have a first reading.

Councilman Clendenin stated to Mayor and Council the costs for having the site available to the residents was twice the amount of what Council projected in the budget. Clendenin stated if the increase in the cost continued, he felt the City was going to have to start charging the residents for the use of the site. Clendenin suggested maybe charging $5 dollars per bag or other ways to charge the residents. Clendenin stated he was open for ideas. Sumner stated the cleanest way would be to require the residents to purchase a permit to use the site, but that was up to Council to come up with a method of how to charge the residents to help decrease the cost the City had to pay for the dump fees. Mayor Pro Tem Adams stated if the City was going to charge residents $5 per bag, that would cost more than what the County charges for an annual permit, and then our residents would just use the County site. Adams stated the $5 dollars a bag was not feasible. Mayor Pro Tem Adams also stated she was concerned with why the residents were using the site to take their household garbage, when the City offers that pickup service. City Manager Sumner stated this was due to residents producing more trash than one polycart would hold. Mayor Pro Tem Adams stated that the City Ordinance stated if a resident had more trash than one polycart would hold, they were to call City Hall to request an additional can and would be charged the additional fee per month. Mayor Bullard stated he understood that there was not supposed to be any household garbage dropped off at the site. City Manager Sumner stated that change could be made. City Manager Sumner gave his recommendation to Council, Sumner stated he recommended the residents purchase a permit that would be good for one year and charge them $50 dollars for the permit to use the site. Mayor Pro Tem Adams was concerned if the residents would be dumping household garbage at the site. City Manager Sumner stated the County took household garbage. Sumner stated he felt if the residents were going to be charged for the permit, they should be able to take anything to the site, including household garbage. Mayor Pro Tem Adams suggested the City charge the same as the County for the permit. City Manager Sumner stated he would research the options and report back to Council.

Public Works Director Warren stated to Mayor and Council the City needed to purchase a new meter for the Hahira Elementary School to try and get the right amount of pressure flowing through the meter. Warren stated the meter was more expensive than most of the meters that had been purchased because it was a compound meter. Warren stated changing out the meter should correct the amount of water that needs to be going through the meter.

Public Works Director Warren stated to Mayor and Council a transfer switch had went out on a generator and it needed to be replaced.

There being no further business to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 7:45 P.M.

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Mayor, Wayne Bullard

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City Clerk, Belinda Chappell