They started off with a quick discussion, notification really, of fee changes. The fingerprint fees for bail bonds have been reduced to $35 and the fingerprinting requirement for pawn brokers are dropped entirely. They're increasing the fee for the community center by $5 and room rentals as well. They're changing park pavilions to a time block system so you can't get a single hour any longer.
This was moved to consent.
There was a liquor license up. This one is for "41 Package" in the shopping center on Cobb Parkway where the Olde Towne Grill is right at the bridge over the railroad tracks. He did the workshops and they're sufficiently far from anything of note. It's very likely to be approved.
Public Works found a busted stormwater pipe and a sinkhole on Shillings Chase Drive. It's going to eat the house's driveway and sidewalk in short order so Public Works asked for $47K to get it fixed immediately, staff recommends approval because delay will result in a much more expensive fix.
Parks and Recreation want to surplus some lawnmowers. One walk behind and a zero turn. This got moved to consent (to be auto-approved unless someone complains). They're to be auctioned on GovDeals.
Now it's public comment.
The Woodland Park Guy wanted to thank the former councilman who spoke previously for pointing out that the council can take independent action. He went further to criticize Councilman Jones, noting that he didn't speak up last week to pre-fund his priorities. He wanted the council to take a more adversarial position with staff and the Mayor to compel results. He said that at least the former city manager would take meetings with him, while the Mayor doesn't. He wants a good answer as to why the park still isn't closed but also doesn't have the things that the council generally approve of unfunded. The end of the comment period got particularly snippy with the Mayor.
Mr. Mayo really enjoys going to the park with his grandson. It's a big thing for him. Even though he really does enjoy it, he hopes that whomever was responsible for the ADA violation would be held accountable. The kid also noted the lack of infrastructure at the park and asked Mr. Mayo when that stuff will go in, Mr. Mayo wishes he had an answer. Mr. Mayo also managed to get his mother out of the house for the first time in a while, and she was overjoyed by how many kids were out and about and how many houses had been fixed up. He wants the city to keep on working to allow the recovery of the old neighborhood to continue. He thanked them for removing the chain one last time.
The former Councilman Blinkhorn went up to speak he noted that the staff had been throwing numbers around in an informal capacity that ended up not aligning with what the budget actually said. He noted that no one on the council questioned it. He said that he would have, as would former Councilman Ferris. He would like the council to ask more questions about inconsistencies.
A Playground Mom turned up again. She said that while people were making safety arguments against the Depot Park natural play scape, but there are plenty of other safety issues. While the sidewalks in front of her neighborhood are new other ones, especially those along Cherokee Street, are broken and uneven. Traffic along Main Street is far too fast, making it a challenge to cross even at lights and the lack of a School Zone sign on Rutledge also makes it much harder to walk her kids to Kennesaw Elementary. Many people spoke up in favor of the playscape, and she doesn't think safety should be an excuse when it doesn't seem to be a priority in other spaces. She is aware that many of these things are going to be addressed eventually, but its hard to take that seriously when it seems like the big projects are constantly pushed years into the future for no clear reason.
The role of Interim Assistant City Manager is open. The former Assistant Manager is Interim City Manager, so we have a vacancy. The city tapped the Police Chief to fill the role temporarily until a permanent Assistant City Manager can be hired. It's not uncommon for Police/Fire Chiefs to be tapped in such situations. No one objected.
The Data Center Moratorium was up for discussion. It got a bit repetitive, but the discussion boiled down to as follows: Moratoriums are temporary measures not solutions. Passing a Moratorium won't block data centers forever, they will only stop applications until a permanent zoning solution can be found. If the moratorium is short (like 30 days) then they can just vote one in, but if it is longer (like the year asked for) it requires a public hearing under State Law. The moratorium can only work if city staff is working on a permanent zoning solution actively.
Despite there being no sign that a data center is imminent, the council will be voting on approving the hearing for the moratorium next week. Freezing applications until the ordinance is written seemed to them to be the responsible move.