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HomeMy Public PortalAbout20070614CCMinutes2007-6-14 City Council Minutes Mayor Pro Tem Sessions called the Consent Agenda Meeting to order at 6:30 PM. Present in addition to Mayor Pro Tem Sessions were Council Members, Crone, Williams, Doyle, Wolff and Pearce. Mayor Buelterman was out of town. Also present were City Attorney Hughes and City Manager Schleicher. *** Mayor Pro Tem Sessions listed the Consent Agenda Items as: Council Minutes for May 24, 2007 DOT Outdoor Sign Permit-Transferring the campground sign into the City’s name. Resolution to authorize John Redmond on the Fund 1 account. Council Minutes for April 12, 2007 *** Ms. Schleicher shared the Transportation Enhancement Grant with Council. She said it is consistent with the DCA Study that was done last spring. She said they are trying to bring back the old look of Tybee by putting Palm trees in the median between 14th and Tybrisa. She said they want to go from parallel parking to angle parking which would take the four lanes down to two lanes, which would calm traffic for pedestrians. *** Ms. Schleicher said Mr. Brown was working on a Georgia Emergency Safety grant for the warning sirens that were discussed at the previous meeting. She said they would be located at four places on the island to provide better coverage. *** Ms. Williams discussed what to do with injured birds that show up from time to time on the island. She said she doesn’t know if there are funds available through grants because so many of the birds are protected by law. She said that would help purchase equipment and line up people to help. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions said even if a grant is unavailable we need to find a line of communication. Mr. Crone suggested Oatland Island might be able to handle the injured birds. Mr. Wolff said Oatland Island doesn’t have anyone to help yet but the Friends of Oatland Island are in the process of trying to raise funds for a wildlife rehabilitation center. He said they will need $250,000 so it will take them several years. *** Mayor Pro Sessions closed the consent Agenda Meeting. *** Mayor Pro Tem Sessions called the Regular Meeting of the City Council to order at 7:00PM. City Officials present at the Consent Agenda were still in attendance. *** Page 1 of 4 Reverend David Laughner of Chapel by the Sea Baptist Church gave the invocation and everyone recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. *** Mr. John Major and CFO John Redmond gave the final audit report to council. Mr. Major said the report will be online at the city’s website. He said all of the findings were fund related and came about because of changes mid year 2006 in the SAS Standards. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions commended former CFO Jan Fox for the successful audit. The Audit Committee members are, Chairman John Major, Freda Rutherford, Samuel Adams, David Birdwell, Jim Anderson and Sue Off. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions thanked the committee members for their hard work and a job well done. *** Mr. Henry levy said we are required to adopt a Master Plan every five years. He said the previous ones made no consequence. He said a good master plan should tell you where the problems with traffic, safety, infrastructure, attractions are and how to solve them. He said they should give details. He said everyone knows we have a traffic problem on Butler Ave. along with a safety problem. He said the firm hired to do our Master Plan should tell us specifically what the options are for solving these problems. He said there should also be a cost estimate for fixing the problems along with resources for grant money. He said he is concerned because of hearing platitudes from the experts. Ms. Schleicher said we are still in the early stages of the Master Plan. She said we conducted the first open house which Mr. Levy attended. She said there will be opportunities for statements and action plans at the end of the process. She said the first meeting is to get public input on what the problems are and after that it will be finding solutions. Ms. Schleicher said Mr. Levy has become a member of our Stakeholder committee to make sure we stay on track. Ms. Schleicher said all stakeholder meetings are open to the public. *** Ms. Sandi Postle gave a Tybee Neighbors Update and wished everyone a Happy Flag Day. She said Tybee Neighbors is requesting a Citizens Advisory Committee be established for the Police Department. She announced the viewing of the Tybee Treasures video on June 20th at 4:30PM at the Cafeteria. *** Ms. Denise Vernon announced the 120th Birthday Celebration for Tybee. She said the plans are underway and it will be held on October 20th and 21st 2007. She said the Tybee Island Fine Arts Commission is coordinating the event but it is sponsored by the City of Tybee Island and the Georgia Shrimpers Association. She said the event will be anchored in Memorial Park with events and activities being held throughout the weekend all over the island. She said there will be a free jazz concert by the Skylight Jazz Band on Saturday night on the lighthouse grounds. She requested free Parking Island wide for the birthday celebration. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions thanked the committee that is putting the celebration together. *** Ms. Schleicher said the city passed a nepotism ordinance as a way to avoid situations where we have people supervising their relatives in a department. She said Chief Price requested hiring Page 2 of 4 Adam Thran as a part time animal control officer for the summer. She said Adam’s father works part time in the evidence room at the Police Department. Ms. Schleicher said in the spirit of the ethics ordinance that comes into effect in July she would like to announce that she is making an exception to allow Adam Thran to work for the Police Department as a part time animal control officer. She said the likelihood of Adam and his father working together is very slim. *** Ms. Schleicher announced that the City has been awarded the Georgia Land Conservation Grant for $206,460. She said it will be used towards the purchase of the Buckley property. She said she hopes this eventually will lead to the Rails and Trails extension to Tybee. Mr. Crone asked specifically what we can use the property for. Ms. Schleicher said we can use the property for a bike path and hopefully with DNR approval a boardwalk with educational opportunities. She said we can’t build a bathroom or a baseball diamond but we can use it for education and put footpaths on it. She said Mr. Wolff found the Grant and Mr. Pearce helped her with Marsh Vegetation wording for the grant. *** Ms. Schleicher announced that the City will be closing public bathrooms at 9:00PM starting immediately because of vandalism and damage that has been done at night. She said there will be signs posted with the bathroom hours. Ms. Williams said Tybee gets such bad publicity about the bathrooms and what they don’t understand is they are cleaned and 15 minutes later they are trashed. Mr. Crone said he is working on a project for the media to inform everyone about the realities of bathroom maintenance on Tybee. *** Mayor Pro Tem Sessions opened the business meeting and called for a motion on the Consent Agenda Items as listed earlier. *** Mr. Crone moved to approve the consent agenda, Ms. Williams seconded and the vote was unanimous. *** Ms. Williams moved to approve free Parking Island wide on the weekend of Tybee’s Birthday, Mr. Crone seconded and the vote was unanimous. *** Mayor Pro Tem Sessions and Council said they would look into appointing a Citizens Advisory Committee at a later date. *** Ms. Williams said council reactivated our Downtown Development Authority last month. She said the Economic Development Committee will have a meeting on Monday, June 25th at Ocean Plaza at 7:00PM. She said they will have a guest speaker, Lisa Sundrla from the City of Savannah. Ms. Williams said Ms. Sundrla specializes in revitalization and helping the economies of small businesses. Page 3 of 4 *** Ms. Williams announced an opening on Planning Commission due to Susan Hill’s resignation. She requested anyone interested getting their resumes to Vivian Woods on or before June 25th. *** Ms. Doyle said last month she was able to send about $1700 to feed the firefighters in Waycross due to the generosity of the people of Tybee. *** Ms. Doyle said she spent 3 to 4 hours at the Tax Assessors office in Chatham County. She encouraged everyone that is unhappy about their tax assessment bill to appeal. She said the deadline for appealing is June 29th. Ms. Williams said everyone should look at the reason for reassessment because there could be an error there. Mr. Brown said everyone should also look at the square footage number to make sure it considers only heated space. *** Ms. Williams moved to approve for 2nd Reading the Text Amendment to create Chapter 34 Article 6-Shuttle, Transportation Services, Mr. Wolff seconded and the vote was unanimous. *** Mr. Crone moved to go into Executive Session to discuss Real Estate, Personnel and Litigation, Mr. Pearce seconded and the vote was unanimous. *** Mr. Wolff moved to go into Regular Session, Mr. Pearce seconded and the vote was unanimous. *** After a discussion on workshop dates Council decided on July 2nd from 10:00AM to 2:00PM at City Hall. *** Mr. Wolff moved to adjourn, Mr. Pearce seconded and the vote was unanimous. ______________________________________ Mayor Jason Buelterman _____________________________ Vivian O. Woods, Clerk of Council Page 4 of 4