Columbus, Georgia

MINUTES

COUNCIL OF COLUMBUS, GEORGIA

REGULAR SESSION

JANUARY 14, 2003





The regular weekly meeting of the Council of Columbus, Georgia was called to

order at 9:00 A.M., Tuesday, January 14, 2003, on the Plaza Level of the

Government Center, Columbus, Georgia. Honorable John J. Rodgers, Mayor Pro Tem,

presiding.



*** *** ***



PRESENT: Present other than Mayor Pro Tem Rodgers were Councilors R. Gary

Allen, Wayne S. Anthony, Glenn Davis, Julius H. Hunter, Jr., Charles E.

McDaniel, Jr., Nathan Suber, and Evelyn Woodson. City Manager Carmen Cavezza,

City Attorney Clifton Fay, Clerk of Council Tiny B. Washington and Deputy Clerk

of Council Sandra Davis were also present.



*** *** ***



ABSENT: Mayor Robert S. Poydasheff was absent. Councilor Turner Pugh was

absent, but was officially excused upon the adoption of Resolution Number

30-03. Councilor Berry H. Henderson was also absent.



*** *** ***











INVOCATION: Offered by Reverend Precious Evans- Calvary Pentecostal Tabernacle

of Faith, Inc.

-------------------------------------------*** ***

***------------------------------------



PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Led by students from Double Churches Elementary School.

-------------------------------------------*** ***

***------------------------------------

PROCLAMATIONS:



?FOSTERING BETTER RACE RELATIONS?:



With Mr. Jim Jackson and Rev. Mills standing at the Council table, Mayor

Pro Tem Rodgers read the proclamation of Mayor Poydasheff proclaiming January 1

- 31, 2003, as ?Fostering Better Race Relations Month?, in Columbus, Georgia.

-------------------------------------------*** ***

***------------------------------------

MINUTES: Minutes of the January 7, 2003 meeting of the Council of the

Consolidated Government of Columbus, Georgia was submitted and approved upon

the adoption of a motion made by Councilor Allen and seconded by Councilor

McDaniel, which carried unanimously by those eight members of Council present

for this meeting.

-------------------------------------------*** ***

***------------------------------------

ZONING PUBLIC HEARINGS:



THE FOLLOWING ZONING ORDINANCE, WHICH WAS DELAYED FROM THE DECEMBER 10,

2002 COUNCIL MEETING WAS AGAIN SUBMITTED AND A PUBLIC HEARING WAS HELD AS

ADVERTISED:





An Ordinance - Rezoning property located at 4548 & 4350 17th Avenue and

1706 and 1708 44th Street from an R-4 District to a C-2 District.

(61-CA-02-Griglen)



Councilor McDaniel said he thinks this would be a big improvement for this

area, because this has been a hang out for people up there for a long time. He

said he understands that they are going to put a restaurant there. He said he

doesn?t have a problem with it, and said he knows this property well. He said

the property has been there a long time, and said he thinks something needs to

be done with it. He said he thinks this will be a definite improvement.



PROPONENTS & OPPONENTS:



A gentleman identified as Mr. Jordan, along with Ms. Karen Griglen then

appeared and said it will be a family restaurant with no alcoholic beverages.



Mr. Jordan then responded to several questions of Mayor Pro Tem Rodgers.



There was no one who appeared to speak against this proposed rezoning

ordinance.



City Attorney Fay then pointed out that this ordinance would be voted on

by the Council on next week

-------------------------------------------*** ***

***------------------------------------

CITY ATTORNEY?S AGENDA:



THE FOLLOWING TWO ORDINANCES WERE SUBMITTED AND THEIR CAPTIONS READ BY

CITY ATTORNEY FAY AND ADOPTED BY THE COUNCIL ON SECOND READING:







An Ordinance (03-1) - Rezoning property located at 6930 Buena Vista Road

from a C-3 District to an R-1A District. (64-A-02-Blackmon)

Councilor Suber moved its adoption. Seconded by Councilor Woodson and carried

unanimously by those eight members of Council present for this meeting.



An Ordinance (03-2) - Rezoning property located at the NW portion of 2485

Elm Drive from an R-1A District to an A-0 District. (65-CA-02-Fog G&H, LLC.)

Councilor McDaniel moved its adoption. Seconded by Councilor Suber and carried

unanimously by those eight members of Council present for this meeting.



*** *** ***



THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTION WAS SUBMITTED AND EXPLAINED BY CITY ATTORNEY FAY

AND ADOPTED BY THE COUNCIL AFTER SOME DISCUSSION:



A Resolution (28-03) - Amending Resolution No. 549-83, which allowed law

enforcement officers in the Department of Public Safety and the Muscogee County

Sheriff's Department and the office of the Marshal of the Municipal Court who

retire after at least 20 years of service to be granted full title to the

particular service revolver which they have used for the longest period of time

during their period of service, by including all law enforcement officers who

retire due to service related disability after at least 15 years of service.

Councilor McDaniel moved its adoption. Seconded by Councilor Suber and carried

unanimously by those eight members of Council present for this meeting.



*** *** ***



THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTION WAS ALSO SUBMITTED AND EXPLAINED BY CITY ATTORNEY

FAY AND DELAYED BY THE COUNCIL AT THE REQUEST OF MAYOR PRO TEM

RODGERS:





A Resolution - Amending Resolution No. 473-84, which established a list of

rural dirt roadways which may be maintained by Columbus, Georgia, Public

Services Department and further provided that no other roadways may be added to

the work schedule without specific approval of the Council, by adding

Chantileer Trail and Chaucer Drive to the list.



Councilor Allen said, as you are aware, there is a list of streets and

roadways that are basically dirt roads in the community, and said the City

grandfathered in this list in the early 80s, as far as maintenance. He said we

strap and add gravel for emergency vehicles, school buses and the postal

service.



He said these two streets that we are adding as part of this resolution

were omitted from that earlier resolution in the 1980s. He said this area was

developed in the 1970s, so all of these streets were a part of that subdivision

at the same time, but these two were inadvertently omitted. He said this is an

attempt, working with the City Manager to add those streets back to that list,

so there will be no confusion with our service, as part of that.



Mayor Pro Tem Rodgers said he would like to ask for a one-week delay on

this resolution. He said he would like to know how many streets have been added

to this list since 1984, since these have been grandfathered in. He said he

would also like to know the dates of the adoption of the resolutions, because

he is unaware of any being inadvertently omitted at that time.



City Manager Cavezza said since he has been here, he knows that there

haven?t been any. Councilor Allen said he don?t believe since he has been here,

there have been added as well.



City Attorney Fay said he only knows of one other street, which was in the

1980?s.



Mayor Pro Tem Rodgers said his concern stems from the fact that many of

these that were grandfathered in were unpaved county roads, but said he thinks

these are private streets that we are talking about here. He said he thinks

there is a distinct difference and he would request that one-week delay to at

least survey that difference to see what we are dealing with. He said if we are

talking about private streets, he knows there are a quite a number of unpaved

private streets in the City that would come up under this.



City Manager Cavezza said there are two categories, which are the unpaved

private streets and minimum maintenance streets that the Council brought

abroad, which they said they would maintain at minimum level. He said he will

get together all of this data and bring it back to the Council on next week.

He said we get a lot of requests to do this in this particular area, but said

we can?t do it, because we are prohibited by ordinance.



Councilor Allen said it can be proven by the records here at the

Government Center that these streets were a part of this subdivision, be they

private or public. He said these two streets are private and they were a part

of the subdivision when the initial resolution was adopted.



City Attorney Fay said according to Mr. Johnson that particular area was

developed in 1974. He said the only other two streets that he is aware of was

in 1986, which was a portion of Layfield Road and a portion of Valley Drive. He

said there might be some others that have been added.



Councilor Suber then asked if we are going to bring a list of all the

private streets or the unpaved streets. Councilor McDaniel said unpaved

streets. However, City Manager Cavezza said there are a lot of private

streets. He said we have three different categories, which are minimum

maintenance and are not paved, a lot of private streets, and said there are

some that were adopted as part of consolidation. He said we will bring all the

categories back so that we can understand what we are addressing.



Councilor Woodson asked that we also look at this information in a short

briefing prior to Council, in order to allow the Council to have some

discussion.

-------------------------------------------*** ***

***------------------------------------

PUBLIC AGENDA:



NO ONE REQUESTED TO BE LISTED ON TODAY?S PUBLIC AGENDA.



-------------------------------------------*** ***

***------------------------------------

CITY MANAGER?S AGENDA:



THE FOLLOWING PURCHASING RESOLUTION WAS SUBMITTED AND AFTER SOME

DISCUSSION WAS ADOPTED BY THE

COUNCIL:



A Resolution (29-03) - Authorizing the purchase of elevator smoke

detectors from Columbus Fire & Safety Equipment Company, Inc.



City Manager Cavezza said this is mandated by the State that we do this in

order to meet the Code. He said it requires installing conduit inside the

elevator shafts that are located in the Government Center, which includes the

five elevators in the tower and the two elevators in the wings.



He then went into further details in explaining how this process is done,

after which Councilor Suber then made a motion to adopt the resolution.

Seconded by Councilor Allen and carried unanimously by those eight members of

Council present for this meeting.



*** *** ***



?KATIE THE COW?:



City Manager Cavezza said the old Kinnette Dairies? site have been bought

out by a new company and said that we are going to have to temporarily move

?Katie the Cow?. He said they are going to have to re-grade that piece of

property, and said we will store ?Katie the Cow? away for awhile. He said we

will put her back and she will be within about 100 feet of where she is located

now.



*** *** ***



COMPREHENSIVE PLAN:



City Manager Cavezza said on last night at the South Columbus Senior

Citizens Center, we had the final meeting on the Comprehensive Plan for

Planning Districts 12 & 13.



He said what they will do now is to take all of this input and put it into a

packet and then go back out to the groups to show what we thought we heard them

say, and then we will bring it to the Council in a Work session and go from

there.



Councilor Hunter said he was pleased with the turnout and thought that the

meeting went well, and he looks forward to see what we can come up with.



*** *** ***



VISION UPDATE:



City Manager Cavezza said on January 16, 2003 at 4:00 p.m. at the Legacy

Hall in the Performing Arts Center, there will a vision update and said we will

talk about One Columbus and branding. He said we would lay out some information

on branding and allow people an opportunity to make comments on that. He said

there has been a lot of talk about the City paying all the money and said that

has never been the intent. He said the multiple ownership of buying into this

product is the key and said if we don?t get a lot of people buying into it,

it?s not going to work.



*** *** ***



HOTELS ON VICTORY DRIVE:



Councilor Woodson said on last year, she had spoken with the City Manager

about putting a committee together about the hotels on Victory Drive and then

asked that he go ahead and set that committee in place so that we can start

working on that.



City Manager Cavezza said he has spoken to Mayor Poydasheff about this

matter and said that he supports that. He said we are going to do that as part

of the South Columbus Revitalization Task Force. He said the Mayor is going to

talk about that Task Force at the Civilian Military Council meeting this month,

and wants to have a press conference to kick all this off.

-------------------------------------------*** ***

***------------------------------------

CLERK OF COUNCIL?S AGENDA:



THE FOLLOWING ITEMS WERE SUBMITTED BY CLERK OF COUNCIL WASHINGTON AS

INFORMATION FOR THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL:



(1) Memorandum from Clerk of Council Washington, Re: Airport

Commission.



(2) Memorandum from Clerk of Council Washington, Re: Board of

Historic & Architectural Review.



(3) Letter from Mr. Donald Bowles requesting that a public hearing be

called on his rezoning petition, located at 4201 Reese Road.

(1-D-03-Donald Bowles, Inc.)



(4) Letter from Ms. Ollie Johnson regarding her reappointment to the

Cooperative Extension Advisory Board.



*** *** ***



THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTION WAS SUBMITTED AND EXPLAINED BY CLERK OF COUNCIL

WASHINGTON AND APPROVED BY THE

COUNCIL:



A Resolution (30-03) - Excusing Councilor Evelyn Turner Pugh from the

December 10 & 17, 2002 and January 7 & 14, 2003 Council Meetings.

Councilor McDaniel moved its adoption. Seconded by Councilor Allen and carried

unanimously by those eight members of Council present for this meeting.



*** *** ***



THE FOLLOWING TEMPORARY STREET CLOSING APPLICATION WAS SUBMITTED AND

EXPLAINED BY CLERK OF COUNCIL WASHINGTON AND APPROVED BY THE

COUNCIL:





Application of Mr. Brian Laverty for a temporary street closing of

Veterans Parkway from 18th Street to 19th Street, on January 23, 2003, from

8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (noon), in connection with the ?John B. Amos Center

Groundbreaking?.



Councilor Allen moved the approval of this application. Seconded by

Councilor Suber and carried unanimously by those eight members of Council

present for this meeting.



*** *** ***



MINUTES OF THE FOLLOWING BOARDS WERE SUBMITTED BY CLERK OF COUNCIL

WASHINGTON AND OFFICIALLY RECEIVED BY THE COUNCIL:



Board of Tax Assessors, Number 49.

Employees? Pension Plan, Board of Trustees, November 6, 2002.

Historic & Architectural Review Board, September 30, 2002.

Historic & Architectural Review Board, October 15, 2002.

Historic & Architectural Review Board, November 11, 2002.

Taxicab Commission, November 6, 2002.

Taxicab Commission, December 2, 2002.

Zoning Appeals, Board of, December 4, 2002.



Councilor Allen made a motion that these minutes be received. Seconded by

Councilor Woodson and carried unanimously by those eight members of Council

present for this meeting.



*** *** ***



THE FOLLOWING NEW ZONING PETITION, RECOMMENDED FOR APPROVAL BY THE

PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION AND DENIAL BY THE PLANNING DIVISION WAS SUBMITTED

BY CLERK OF COUNCIL WASHINGTON AND AN ORDINANCE AND PUBLIC HEARING WAS CALLED

FOR BY COUNCILOR ALLEN:



Petition submitted by Donald Bowles, Inc. to rezone approximately 9.7

acres of property located at 4201 Reese Road from an R-1A District to an R-3B

District. (1-D-03-Donald Bowles, Inc.)



*** *** ***





BOARD APPOINTMENTS:



CIVIC CENTER ADVISORY BOARD:



Clerk of Council Washington said we still need a nominee for someone to

succeed Ms. Jasmine Houston and Mr. Jim White, whose seats on the Civic Center

Advisory Board were declared vacant.



Clerk of Council Washington pointed out that Mayor Poydasheff is

nominating Dr. Brian McCluskey for Ms. Jasmine Houston?s position and that

Councilor Henderson has nominated Mr. Robert Anderson to succeed Mr. Jim White,

and said that they may now be confirmed.



Councilor Allen then made a motion that they be confirmed. Seconded by

Councilor McDaniel and carried unanimously by those eight members of Council

present for this meeting.



*** *** ***



HOSPITAL AUTHORITY:



Clerk of Council Washington pointed out that we still need two additional

nominees for someone to succeed Ms. Ola Mae Washington on the Hospital

Authority. There were no nominations.



*** *** ***



MEDICAL CENTER HOSPITAL AUTHORITY:



Clerk of Council Washington pointed out that we still need two additional

nominees for Mr. Kenneth Crooks and Dr. Kenneth Goldman?s position on the

Medical Center Hospital Authority, from which the authority will select

someone. There were no nominations.



*** *** ***



PERSONNEL REVIEW BOARD:



Clerk of Council Washington pointed out that the term of office of Ms.

Agnes Lowe on the Personnel Review Board expired on December 31, 2002 and that

she is eligible to succeed herself; however, she does not wish to be

reappointed. Councilor McDaniel then nominated Stephen Hyles.



She also pointed out that the Council must appoint someone to fill the

unexpired term of Wayne Anthony, who has been elected to the Council seat.

Councilor Anthony then nominated Mr. David Edwards.



Clerk of Council Washington said she would bring these two nominations

back on next week for the Council?s confirmation.



*** *** ***



REGION 9 MH/MR/SA BOARD:



Clerk of Council Washington pointed out the term of office of Ms. Bennie

Newroth on the Region 9 MH/MR/SA Board expired on December 31, 2002 and that

she is eligible to succeed herself; however, due to the conflict with her

schedule and the board meetings does not wish to be reappointed.

She said the Council would need to nominate someone for this seat.





BOARD OF TAX ASSESSORS:



Clerk of Council Washington pointed out that the term of office of

Ms. Beatrice Breaux on the Board of Tax Assessors expired on December 31, 2002

and that she is not eligible to succeed herself. She said the Council would

need to nominate someone for that seat.



*** *** ***



UPTOWN FA?ADE BOARD:



Clerk of Council Washington pointed out that on last week Councilor

Henderson nominated Mr. Fred Green for Mr. Bernie Quick?s position and

Councilor Suber nominated Ms. Patricia Love for Mrs. Sally Rowe?s position, and

said that they may now be confirmed.



Councilor McDaniel moved that they both be confirmed. Seconded by

Councilor Suber and carried unanimously by those eight members of Council

present for this meeting.



*** *** ***



TREE BOARD:



Clerk of Council Washington said the Council can begin making their

nominations to the Tree Board, if they so desire.



Councilor McDaniel nominated Ms. Joanna Wilkins for the Environmental

Advocacy Group representative.



Councilor Allen nominated Ms. Susan Kleto as the representative for the

Forestry Professional.



Councilor Hunter nominated Ms. Gloria Weston-Smart as the representative

for the Keep Columbus Beautiful Commission, and Mr. Milton Anthony for the

Public Utility representative.



Councilor Anthony nominated Mr. Hal Averett for the residential developer

representative.



Councilor Davis then requested that his nominee of Mr. Bill Green be

withdrawn from the developer?s position and replace that nominee with Mr.

Kenneth Henson.



*** *** ***



ATMOS ENERGY:



Councilor Suber said he and Councilor Turner Pugh have been receiving some

telephone calls about the recent editorial concerning Atmos Energy with the gas

prices going up and a lot of people not understanding that they cannot go

directly to the company. He said the City Manager has said he will contact

Atmos Energy and publish the numbers on the screen and said hopefully, we can

get this resolved quickly.



*** *** ***



Mayor Pro Tem Rodgers asked if there was anyone present in the audience

who was not listed on the Public Agenda, but had an issue to bring before the

Council, they could be heard at this time. There was no one who wanted to be

heard.



*** *** ***



With there being no other business to come before this Council, Councilor

Suber then made a motion for adjournment. Seconded by Councilor Allen and

carried unanimously by those eight members of Council present for this meeting,

with the time being 9:32 A.M.



*** *** ***







Tiny B. Washington, CMC

Clerk of Council

The Council of Columbus, Georgia