Columbus, Georgia

Minutes



COUNCIL BRIEFING



Meeting

May 18, 2004



Members Present: Mayor Pro Tem John J. Rodgers and Councilors R. Gary Allen,

Wayne Anthony, Glenn Davis, Julius Hunter, Jr., Charles E. McDaniel, Jr.,

Evelyn Turner Pugh (arrived 8:43 a.m.) and Nathan Suber. Also present were

Mayor Robert S. Poydasheff, City Manager Carmen Cavezza, City Attorney Clifton

Fay, Finance Director Angela Cole, Clerk of Council Tiny Washington and Deputy

Clerk of Council Sandra Davis.



Members Absent: Councilors Berry Henderson and Evelyn Woodson were absent.



Guest: Mr. Peter Bowden and Mr. Lee Brantley.

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The meeting was called to order at 8:40 a.m. in the Council Chambers Conference

Room, Plaza Level of the Government Center.



Muscogee County Prison Policy:

Regarding an ordinance on first reading on the City Attorney?s Agenda, Mayor

Poydasheff pointed out that this ordinance is just to bring the policy in line

with what we already have. He stated that the administration felt that in the

best interest of everyone, we should incorporate the policy into the ordinance

for conformity to what the Council has already adopted.



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Convention & Visitors Burea:

Mr. Peter Bowden, Executive Director of the Columbus Convention & Visitor?s

Bureau, came forward and immediately recognized the presence of Mr. Lee

Brantley, Chairman of the Convention & Visitor?s Bureau Board to present the

proposed changes to the organization, as well as the board.



Mr. Lee Brantley, Chairman of the Convention & Visitor?s Bureau Board, first

recommended some changes in the structure of the board. He recommended

changing the size of the board by narrowing the members down from fourteen to

nine members and to focus those nine members on areas that are stakeholders.

He proposed that the members consist of one-third hotel/motel representatives,

one-third being attraction, retail and restaurant representatives, and

one-third would be a broad range with one strong financial representative. He

then requested title changes for Mr. Peter Bowden, who is currently the

Executive Director. He proposed changing Mr. Bowden?s title to President ?

CEO, and changing the title of the President of the Board to Board Chair.



Councilor McDaniel asked how would they accomplish reducing the board size, at

which time, Mr. Brantley replied that as those members serve their two

consecutive three-year terms and those terms expire, the positions would not be

filled.



Councilor Turner Pugh expressed her concern with boards that are funded by tax

payers? dollars, that do not have regular citizens that are not affiliated with

any specialty group as members. Mr. Brantley then addressed those concerns, by

stating that he believes that the one-third would accomplish that. Mayor Pro

Tem Rodgers added that the concern raised by Councilor Turner Pugh is that we

want to insure that we preserve three at-large seats.



At this point, Mr. Peter Bowden, Executive Director, made some comments in

reference to the proposed make up of the board.



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Forrest Road:

City Manager Cavezza recalled that we have been dealing with the Department of

Transportation to get them to call off the widening project on Forrest Road;

so, that they don?t consume a bunch of yards, but DOT is not going to do that.

He determined that in view of Macon Road being widened and the anticipated

traffic, Macon Road is going to assist in taking off some of that traffic from

Forrest Road. He said that we are hoping that DOT would assist the City with

funding in improving the intersections of various roads, and that is the

direction we are going in.



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Williams Road and Veterans Parkway:

City Manager Cavezza advised that on Williams Road and Veterans Parkway, we

have been trying to get DOT to authorize a turn lane coming north on Veterans

Parkway, but DOT has turned us down again; this makes about the third time DOT

has turned us down.



There is also another project that City Manager Cavezza recalls off of Williams

Road at the Visitor?s Center, where we wanted to tie the road coming out of the

new development into the Visitor?s Center Road; therefore, we would only need

one curb cut. He maintained that DOT turned us down again, but we have gone

back with a rebuttal.



Deputy City Manager Richard Bishop added that we are under design and very

close to completion with the improvement for Williams Road and Whitesville

Road. He projected that we would be going out for bid some time during the

summer.

Streetscapes:

City Manager Cavezza pointed out that we are starting streetscapes on Broadway

starting at Country?s Barbeque and working our way up.



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Whittlesey Road:

Councilor McDaniel inquired about Whittlesey Road between Whitesville Road, at

which time, Deputy City Manager Bishop confirmed that we are waiting on the

environmental study to be completed, which is projected to be about one year

away.



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Meeting adjourned at 8:56 a.m.





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Sandra T. Davis, Deputy Clerk of Council