12-02-1991 Regular MeetingDecember 2, 1991
The regular scheduled meeting of Mayor and Council was held pursuant to the
Charter on December 2, 1991 at Smyrna City Hall. The meeting was called to
order at 7:30 o'clock p.m. by presiding officer Mayor A. Max Bacon. All
,council members were present except for Bob Davis. Also present was City
Administrator John Patterson, City Clerk Melinda Dameron, City Attorney
Charles E. Camp, Fire Chief Larry Williams, Public Works Director Vic
Broyles, Community Relations Director Kathy Barton, Parks and Recreation
Director Sherry Reavis, Finance Director Emory McHugh, Library Director
Laurel Best, Communications Director Steve Ciaccio, Police Chief Stan Hook,
City Engineer Ken Hildebrandt and representatives of the press.
Invocation was given by Mayor Pro tem Jim Hawkins followed by the pledge to
the flag.
Pete Wood read a proclamation for Drunk and Drugged Driving Awareness Week
and presented it to Lt. Mike Brown of the Police Department STEP Unit.
CITIZENS INPUT: Nothing to report.
PUBLIC HEARINGS:
(A) Privilege license - liquor, beer and wine pouring - Howard's
Delicatessen, 652 Concord Road
John Patterson stated that Robert Martin is submitting an application for his
pouring license, moving the existing location from Four Seasons Mall to 652
Concord Road. This is a previously licensed location, formerly Western Steer
Restaurant, and meets all distance requirements. The police investigation was
favorable and there was no opposition.
Mr. Martin stated that Howard's Delicatessen has been doing business in Cobb
County since 1973 and during that time there have been no violations of laws
pertaining to sale of alcoholic beverages. Mr. Martin said his employees are
trained to ask for identification if there is any question regarding age of
their customers and knew he would be responsible for any violations.
Jim Hawkins made a motion the license be approved. Bill Scoggins seconded the
motion which carried 6-0.
(B) Privilege license - liquor, beer and wine pouring - My Brothers Place,
2731 South Cobb Drive
John Patterson said that Mr. Samuel Hamby is applying for a new license at
2731 South Cobb Drive for My Brothers Place Restaurant. This also is
previously licensed and was formerly the Sizzler Steak Restaurant. The police
investigation was favorable and there was no opposition.
Mr. Hamby said he had read and understood the ordinance concerning alcoholic
beverage sales. This will be a restaurant and lounge with live entertainment
Thursday through Saturday. Mr. Hamby said they plan to have an off duty
police officer to provide security and their employees would be instructed to
card all customers before serving.
Jack Shinall said he was pleased to see revitalization of some of the vacant
buildings in Smyrna and made a motion the license be approved. Kathy Jordan
seconded the motion which carried 6-0.
(C) Privilege license - package beer and wine sales at 777 Food Store, 1649
Smyrna Roswell Road
John Patterson stated that Mr. Jae Son Kim is applying for the package beer
and wine license at 777 Food Store and this license application was continued
at the October 21 and November 4 meetings.
Mr. Furmer Smith was present for the applicant and stated that Mr. Kim was to
have met him here tonight but had not arrived, and felt he could answer any
questions regarding the license. Mr. Camp stated it was customary for the
applicant to personally appear for the license hearing and since there were
concerns expressed previously regarding allegations of food stamp violations,
felt that Mr. Kim should be present.
After further discussion, Bill Scoggins made a motion the license be tabled
to the next meeting, with the understanding that it will not be further
December 2, 1991 meeting - continued
delayed. Wade Lnenicka seconded the motion which carried 6-0.
FORMAL BUSINESS:
(A) Certification of November 19, 1991 run-off election results
Election Superintendent Linda Smith read the results of the November 19th
run-off election in Ward 5, declaring Jack Cramer the winner.
Jack Shinall made a motion the results be certified. Bill Scoggins seconded
the motion which carried 6-0.
(B) Ordinance amendment - Section 16.2 - Regulation of conduct in city parks
John Patterson stated this ordinance amendment will expand the authority of
our park rangers to have jurisdiction not only within the parks but all
public facilities.
Bill Scoggins made a motion the ordinance be amended by deleting Section
16.2 b in its entirety and replacing with the following new section.
Section 16.2. Regulation of conduct in city parks.
(b) Powers of park rangers and police. Within all parks and public
facilities, the City of Smyrna Park Rangers shall have the powers of arrest,
concurrent with the powers of the Smyrna Police Department for violations of
any ordinance of the City of Smyrna, or State laws, and in addition, shall
have the powers to eject any citizen or park participant from the park or
public facility for violation of any rule or regulation of the Smyrna Parks
and Recreation Department.
Pete Wood seconded the motion which carried 6-0.
(C) Bid opening - bucket truck for Public Works Department
Bids were opened, read and recorded as follows:
Griffin Ford No bid
Southlake Ford No bid
Wade Ford $54,000 $56,871 (alternate)
Smyrna Truck & Body $56,472 $56,103 (alternate)
Jack Shinall made a motion the bids be turned over to the committee for their
recommendation back at the next council meeting. Kathy Jordan seconded the
motion which carried 6-0.
(D) Vehicle take home policy
John Patterson stated a vehicle take home policy is presented tonight to
govern the use of employee use of city vehicles to and from work and would
also govern those that could drive a vehicle to and from work. This policy
will reduce the number of vehicles being drive home, probably 6 immediately
and others later after council committee review.
Jim Hawkins stated that in general, no vehicle will be assigned to any
employee who lives 15 miles beyond the city limits of Smyrna. Any exception
must be approved in writing by the respective council committee and Mayor.
Any vehicle taken home must be parked in a secure area and only employees who
are required to report back at least twice a month are allowed to take a
vehicle home. City vehicles are not to be used for personal trips or non -city
business. City vehicles are not to be used for personal use and family
members not allowed to travel in them unless an exception is granted by the
respective council committee. The only exception is that minor necessary
personal business may be conducted while in route to and from work that will
not add to the length of the trip.
Mr. Hawkins said the entire policy is on file in the City Clerks office and
made a motion it be approved as presented. Kathy Jordan seconded the motion
which carried 6-0.
(E) Home occupation ordinance
John Patterson stated this ordinance amendment will allow the business
December 2, 1991 meeting - continued
license clerk to issue a home occupation license with certain stipulations to
guarantee that neighborhoods will be destroyed; i.e., no employees,
inventory, goods stored, manufacturing. Generally, licenses will be issued
only for an office -type business. There will be a $100 surcharge in addition
to the normal cost of the license. This process will probably encourage more
businesses that are operating from their home illegally to apply.
Jim Hawkins said there are quite a number of calls received during the year
about home occupation licenses and when they learn they must come before
council to receive their license, it is not pursued. It is felt that many are
continuing to conduct business from their home and this ordinance will
hopefully raise additional revenue and encourage those that do not have a
license to do so. Mr. Hawkins read the proposed ordinance as follows:
Certain classes only of home occupation licenses may be issued from the
Business License Office, provided it meets all other criteria of home
occupations, without the necessity of appearing before Mayor & Council, to
wit:
1) Computer work
2) Typing
3) Bookkeeping
4) Telephone use
5) Small arts and crafts
Provided, the following criteria are met.
a) To operate a business from an apartment, written approval of the
owner, not just the manager.
b) To operate a business from a home, written approval of the owner
thereof plus a letter acknowledging notice of intent to make application
for license of all other owners of a residence located within a three
hundred foot radius of the subject property.
c) An affidavit before a notary public for the State of Georgia
affirming and stating that:
there will be no outside storage of any kind, and
there shall be no vehicular or pedestrian traffic generated by the
business, and
no signs or advertisements of any kind shall be at the location of
the business
the license holder will be the only person to work from the
location licensed
no inventory shall be maintained on the premises
d) Any violation of the above or other conditions for a home occupation
license, will immediately render the same null and void.
e) Home occupation licenses may be granted for the current calendar
year, and shall be renewable from year to year, provided no violations of
ordinances have occurred.
f) Home occupation business license fees shall be equal to the regular
business license fee in the category most similar to the occupation
sought plus one hundred dollars ($100).
Jim Hawkins made a motion the ordinance be adopted, seconded by Bill
Scoggins. Vote on the motion carried 5-1 with Jack Shinall opposed.
(F) Pawn Broker, etc. fee adjustment
John Patterson stated the Finance Department is requesting an increase for
Pawn Shops, Car Title Pawn Shops and Check Cashing establishments. The
recommended fee will increase from $300 to $1,000 for pawn establishments and
from $200 to $1,000 for check cashing establishments. It is felt the
increases are warranted based on the increased operating cost for the higher
level of service required for these establishments.
Jim Hawkins stated that the pawn shops and car title shops and particularly
the pawn shops are all mixed together and require that our Police Department
go by and check their books on a periodic basis and for the cost of services,
the level of services, the city has to render to those types of businesses
that we don't provide to other types of businesses we felt that it would be
December 2, 1991 Meeting - Continued
fair to raise those fees for pawn shops, car title pawns and check cashing to
$1,000 each. Any questions or comments? There were none. Jim Hawkins made
the motion that the pawn shop fees, car title pawn shops and check cashing
establishments be raised to $1,000 each. Bill Scoggins seconded the motion.
Approved 6-0.
(G) Commercial Sanitation Grid
John Patterson stated that during these trying economic times it is always
the desire of government to shift the burden of financing of services away
from the home owner and taxpayer to user fees just as was represented by the
fee increases for pawnbrokers. One way of doing that is to increase the
commercial sanitation fee in order to have those people that enjoy that
service pay for the service. Historically, the taxpayers of the City of
Smyrna have subsidized the collection of garbage in the City of Smyrna and
this will be a move to remove that burden from them. The sanitation fund as
a whole has operated in the red with tax monies subsidizing them for a number
of years and you will recall that the County decided to make a move toward
full costing of services and have the sanitation fund stand on its own.
Similarly so should the City of Smyrna, therefore, we present to you for your
consideration this evening a modified commercial sanitation grid. This falls
within Mr. Hawkins Finance and Administration Committee.
Mr. Hawkins stated that overall there are three types of garbage service,
residential, commercial and apartment. Overall if you lump all three
together, those services are about breaking even or barely paying for
themselves and it looks like the day is upon us that we're going to have to
be careful that all fees or services rendered by the City have an offsetting
fee to make them either a revenue producing or at minimum to pay their own
way. That is the situation we find ourselves in overall in the garbage field
for a number of reasons. We had asked Mr. Patterson and his staff to come up
with a fair rate that will be charged to commercial and we're not at this
time ready to have any serious discussion about single family residential
rates; we're proposing for the time being that they stay the same and in
asking our staff to come up with this grid it was our instructions to them to
come up with something that was as close to the outside rates that a
commercial hauler would charge the average business outside the City. I'm
not an expert on garbage grids but they assured me that this grid would be
right in the ball park. At the present time a business inside the City would
pay somewhat less than what the average commercial hauler outside the City
would charge them, so this will bring this fee up to be about equal to what
they would pay to a private hauler. I don't know how to begin to read this
grid, I'll just say that its on file for anybody that would like to look at
it. I'll entertain any questions or comments on this.
Mr. Scoggins stated he has one or two questions that we discussed the other
night. Each time that we come before the citizens and we even discuss any
kind of increase, whether its thirty-five cents or fifty cents, the next day
invariably someone will call and ask me why we went up on their garbage. I
would like to have it clearly understood tonight that this is not an increase
for any residential garbage fee, sanitation fee, it is strictly commercial.
This is the way I understand it.
Mr. Hawkins stated this was true but that he couldn't say that in the near
future we're not also going to have to do a review of the residential garbage
because it is losing at the rate of about $2.50 per household now. I just
don't think that this Council, since we have a new Council coming on board in
January that will take up that issue then; it may be that we want to
continue to subsidize that loss with taxes, it may be that we want to make
that a break even or profitable situation.
Mr. Shinall asked if the $2.50 figures were based on any transfers out of the
sanitation department.
Mr. Hawkins stated these were figures presented to him by our Finance
Director.
Mr. Patterson stated this was incorrect.
Mr. Shinall asked are there not any transfers out of the sanitation
department?
Mr. Patterson responded there were none.
Mr. Shinall asked not to the computer system?
December 2, 1991 Meeting - Continued
Mr. Patterson responded no, the analysis that was performed has no overhead
burden to it. It is just strictly operating capital and personal services.
Mr. Shinall asked as far as residential rates?
Mr. Patterson responded yes sir.
Mr. Shinall argued that these were not the rates negotiated with Chambers
Development and asked why we needed to raise our commercial rates.
Mr. Hawkins explained that if we don't there would be a heavier impact on
residential rates at the first of the year. If we're going to have to make
up the losses in garbage it is only fair that we collect it from both sides
not just the residents.
After a lengthy discussion, Jim Hawkins made a motion that the new commercial
sanitation grid by adopted. Bill Scoggins seconded the motion. Motion was
approved 5-1 with Jack Shinall opposed.
COMMERCIAL BUILDING PERMITS: None
RM AWARnS'
(A) Computer Equipment - Communications Department
Pete Wood stated that we received the bids at the last meeting. Three bids
were received. The bids ranged from $12,335 to $6,056 which was the low bid.
The bids were referred to the Committee, we talked with the Director of the
Communications Department and ascertained that the low bid's equipment met
our standards and needs and we therefore recommend that the bid for the
computer equipment for the Communications Department be awarded to Computer
Solutions Company at the delivered price of $6,056. Kathy Jordan seconded
the motion. Motion was approved 6-0.
CONSENT AGENDA:
(A) Approval of November 18, 1991, Minutes
(B) Budget Adjustments
Bill Scoggins made a motion that the items on the consent agenda be approved.
Pete Wood seconded the motion. Motion was approved 6-0.
Council Input:
Mayor Bacon stated that he would begin tonight. He announced that John
Patterson has resigned as City Administrator effective December 6, 1991, to
accept the position of City Manager of West Valley City, Utah. Mayor Bacon
stated how much he appreciated the fine job John had done for the city during
the past six and one half years. Mayor Bacon presented John with a crystal
jonquil and wished him the best of luck.
John Patterson thanked the Mayor and Council for the six and a half years of
enjoyment and stated it was very difficult for him to leave the City. John
stated he would really miss the people of Smyrna and the community.
Each council member individually thanked Mr. Patterson for his leadership
during the past six and one half years and wished him the best of luck in his
new appointment.
Councilman Lnenicka asked Laurel Best to present a Library report. Ms. Best
stated the November circulation increased by 21% and the really significant
number was over a 44% increase in adult non-fiction books. We are currently
hosting the Showcase Smyrna Business Seminars and invited all to attend.
Yuletide Reading Club sign up will begin December 16 for children aged 3 - 12
and if you complete the required reading there will be a movie pass for the
Cobb Cinema 6 (two for one movie pass) and a free sundae from Dairy Queen.
Councilman Lnenicka asked Ken Hildebrandt to report on activities in the
Community Development Department. Ken stated that although building is slow
right now in the City his staff is remaining busy. His staff is working on
the on -going apartment inspection program and thus far have inspected 330
units and 112 of those units have been shut down due to housing code
violations. Since 1989 we have inspected a total of 2758 units, so this is
an on -going program. We are also performing a storm water study that is
required by the Environmental Protection Division. We are locating all the
December 2, 1991 Meetina - Continued
storm water outfalls in the city and testing for pollutants in some of the
creeks and this is another program that will last through 1992. We will be
working on the implementation strategy for the Comprehensive Plan that the
Council recently adopted. Michael Hughes, Cobb County, will be present at
the next Council meeting to discuss the plan and our department will be
responsible for developing policies and procedures and ordinance amendments
and that is mandated by the Department of Community Affairs.
Bill Scoggins asked Sherry Reavis to present a report on the Parks and
Recreation Department. Sherry stated that the Mistletoe Market was held at
the community center this year and they have booked the building again for
next year. This was sponsored by the Marietta Cobb Junior League. One of
the things we have coming up is the lighting of the Christmas tree. This
year it will be at the Village Green at 7:00 p.m. on December 9. The
festival of music will be presented in two shows as we have so many people
who want to participate in this event this year. Photos of children with
Santa Claus will be available at the Community Center from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.
for children ten years of age and under and the photos are free.
Bill Scoggins asked Kathie Barton to report on her department activities.
She mentioned that we are sponsoring a "bring one for the chipper" program
which is recycling of Christmas trees. This is a new tradition as everyone
is now being asked to recycle their Christmas tree instead of just throwing
it away. We will be chipping them and offering the chips back to the
individual if they want them, this event will be January 4, 1992, ONLY
starting at 8:00 a.m. and it will be at Southern States Transfer Station not
at the recycling center. We will present all who bring their tree in for
recycling with a seedling, type of tree unknown, and your chips and of course
there are also still jonquil bulbs for sale. We will not be accepting trees
at the recycling center. Wade stated he had received his new phone books and
asked about the recycling of phone books in Smyrna. Kathie stated that
normally Southern Bell would notify us in advance of when the books would be
distributed so that we could arrange for recycling. We will be taking the
phone books at the recycling center.
Bill Scoggins urged everyone to attend the Christmas tree lighting December 9
at 7:00 p.m.
Jack Shinall asked Vic Broyles if there was anything to report from the
Public Works Department and Mr. Broyles responded there was nothing to
report.
Kathy Jordan asked Larry Williams to report for the Fire Department. Larry
stated that the new station was open.
Pete Wood asked Stan Hook to report for the Police Department. Stan
mentioned that we are involved in a couple of community relations programs.
We have adopted Brown Elementary School which involves fourteen officers who
have volunteered to participate in this program. The second program is the
adoption of Explorer Boy Scout Post. He also stated there has been a reward
offered in the Faye Baltimore slaying, which remains unsolved or not closed
since July. We met with the family of Ms. Baltimore who live in Kentucky and
discussed the possibility of offering a reward for information. With the
approval of the Police Committee we are able to use $5000 of the MCS money
with the additional approval of Tom Charron, the District Attorney of Cobb
County. That was our part of the reward with the family putting up $5000 so
we are now offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest
and conviction of the person who killed Faye Baltimore. I also received a
called from Apollo Industries today and they will probably increase that
reward offer in the hopes that we can close this investigation.
With no further business, meeting was adjourned at 8:58 p.m.
December 2, 1991 Meeting - Continued
A. MAX BACON, MAYOR
BOB DAVIS, WARD 1
JACK SHINALL, WARD 5
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CHARLES PETE WOOD, WARD 7
MELINDA DAMERON,
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AMES M. HAWKI S, WARD 4
KATHY BROOKS JORDAN, WARD 6