4/21/2025 Meeting Preview
You’ll see below some of the agenda highlights for our second meeting in April. I’ve added information from the council agenda memos and background on items that may be of particular interest, along with my thoughts on those issues. You can watch our meetings on the city’s Facebook and YouTube pages. Our meetings are on the first and third Mondays of the month. Workshop session begins at 6:00 pm; regular session begins at 7:30 pm; executive session, if necessary, takes place at the conclusion of the regular session.
You can access the full agenda packets here.
We welcome your attendance at our meetings and public comment is available near the start of the meeting, before any actions are taken. You can submit an e-mail with your name, address, and comment or remark to pcomment@collegeparkga.com no later than 7:30 pm on the evening of the meeting. The City Clerk will read your name, address and comment into the official record. If you have feedback for Mayor and Council directly, you can e-mail us.
WORKSHOP SESSION
There are a lot of items on this workshop agenda. In previous years, we’d limited the number of workshop items to three to give enough time for consideration of each issue as we only have 90 minutes between workshop and the regular session. I hope we’ll get back to this practice. Our last workshop went past 7:30 and with eight items on the agenda for this meeting, I would expect we might encounter similar time constraints again.
1. Presentation by Southern Capital Strategies for the City of College Park. Presented by Senator Jeff Mullis and DeAnna Harris.
2. Presentation: City of College Park, 2025 Post-Session Strategic Plan. Presented by Andrew Long, A.R. Long Company.
I look forward to the presentations of both of the lobbying groups who represented the city during this year’s legislative session. This will be the first opportunity I’ve had to meet any of them. They worked on behalf of the City of College Park to work against any changes to our charter from the state legislature and to ensure the senior homestead exemption made its way through both chambers so residents can vote on the issue this fall.
3. Municipal Court Presentation/ Questions and Answers
There is no supporting documentation for this item.
4. Presentation by Finance Director Terry Jackson to discuss the City's Financial Report as of March 31, 2025 (Unaudited Revenues & Expenses for Fiscal Year
2025)
I have been asking for a budget update for several months. The last one we received was incomplete. Mr. Jackson’s report indicates our revenues are exceeding our expenditures by nearly $14 million through the first three quarters of our fiscal year, which ends June 30. This is quite different from the last report we received, which showed we had spent $6 million more than we’d brought in through December 30, 2024.
Obviously that is a big change. I am curious about the performance of several different funds, including the general fund (from where most of the services you think of government providing are paid — i.e., police, fire, city administration, etc.); the sanitation fund (which seems to be spending a lot more money than it is collecting); and the Gateway Arena fund (it’s surprising to me that the arena is breaking even - it hasn’t come anywhere near close to that before), to name a few. This is a conversation that deserves careful attention and consideration.
5. Discussion: Mobile Workshop Sessions
This discussion stems from a conversation during our retreat in February. Bill Crane, who has been supporting the city with PR consulting services since last fall, suggested this approach would not only provide greater access for our residents to see their elected officials at work, but it would also give the governing body an opportunity to tackle any questions about the agenda in a more collegial setting. I think it is a good idea, although I don’t think we should rotate locations more than once per quarter. It could get confusing if we are constantly changing our workshop locations.
6. Discussion: Civility Pledge Update
We talked about expanding our commitment to the civility pledge at our retreat as well; the suggestions we came up with as a group can be found here.
7. Discussion: Public Comments
I welcome a discussion regarding public comment, as I think we can strike a balance between everyone’s First Amendment rights and decorum.
8. Discussion: Rules for Solid Media Relations
Another important discussion.
REGULAR SESSION
Please note the inclusion of general ledger (G/L) account numbers alongside each proposed expenditure in the agenda. This is a marked improvement in our agenda documentation and a positive step toward increased transparency, fiscal accountability, and public trust. I’ve been asking for this information to be included in our agendas for several months, and I’m pleased to see that we are finally back to our previous standard practice of listing the account numbers for proposed expenditures.
This level of detail is not just helpful — it’s essential for informed decision-making. It ensures that both the Council and the public can clearly see where funds are coming from and confirm that spending aligns with our adopted budget. I appreciate staff’s responsiveness in restoring this important element of our agenda materials.
By clearly identifying the funding source for each item, we’re enabling both Council and the public to better understand how taxpayer dollars are being allocated and ensuring that our decisions align with the adopted budget. It's a simple but powerful change that promotes responsible governance and helps us all do our jobs more effectively. Let's keep this up.
7. Public Hearings
A. Public hearing on April 21, 2025 for a request to rezone property located at 4570 Edison Drive, College Park from M2 (Heavy Industrial) to M1 (Light Industrial) to facilitate a subdivision. This item is requested by Lenise Lyons, City Planner. This item is located in Ward 2.
B. Public hearing on April 21, 2025 for a conditional use permit for a data center for property located at: 4570 Edison Drive, College Park; also known as assessor parcel 13 0037 LL0449. This item is requested by Lenise Lyons, City Planner. This item is located in Ward 2.
Both of these items are in relation to a proposed data mining facility in an area of the city that is surrounded by industrial users (see below). It will not impact the quality of life of our residential customers, but it will bring another large-scale power consumer to College Park. This could, down the line, give us the opportunity to lower residential power bills.
Proposed CleanSpark Data Mining Center Location
8. Consent Agenda
As I’ve noted before, “[a]ccording to the Georgia Municipal Association’s Handbook for Mayors and Councilmembers, a consent agenda can be a useful tool when a governing body has a lot of business to cover. It typically includes noncontroversial items or those previously discussed and needing final approval, such as permit issuances, street closures, or bill authorizations. While a consent agenda can save time, it should never be used to bypass public participation or stifle open dialogue.”
We regularly utilized consent agendas in 2023. The items on the consent agenda were part of the workshop session for discussion and then approved in the regular meeting. Any member of the body could pull an item off of the consent agenda in the regular session for individual consideration. This process ensured each elected official understood the business at hand before a vote. This hasn’t happened with the use of consent agendas in 2024 and so far in 2025.
However, the items on this meeting’s consent agenda actually are part of what has been approved in the FY2025 budget, so I’m optimistic we’re turning a corner in this regard. Some items on previous consent agendas have either not been budgeted at all, or they have had funding sources that were not entirely clear.
A. Consideration of and action on a request for approval of an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) between the City of College Park and Fulton County, Georgia, for the provision of 800 MHz radio system access in the amount of $139,920.00. This item is being requested by Chief of Police, Connie Rogers. This is a budgeted item (G/L Account #100-320052-6170). This will service all wards.
B. Consideration of and action on a request for approval of a Quote from Motorola Solutions, Inc., for quality communications equipment and services for the Police Department vehicles radio system installation, in the of amount of $23,528.36. This item is being requested by Chief of Police, Connie Rogers. This is a budgeted item (G/L Account #100-322354-7590). This will service all wards.
C. Consideration of and action on a request to repair Sanitation's 2020 Freightliner vehicle #459 (Boom Truck) in the amount of $32,080.27. This request is from Sanitation Superintendent, Cedric Hand. This is a budgeted item (G/L Account #540-4300-52-5700). This will continue to support all Wards.
D. Consideration of and action on a request to approve the Esri Small Local Government Cloud-Base Enterprise three (3) years agreement with ESRI in the amount of $49,500.00. This item is requested by City Engineer, AB Woldehana. This is a budgeted item (G/L Account # 1001575-52-5510). This will support all Wards.
9. Regular Business
A. Consideration of and action on a request for approval of the revised Mayor and Council Departmental Budget Meeting Schedule for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 as well as an opportunity for general policy direction by elected leadership. This item is requested by Director of Finance, Terry Jackson.
There was some miscommunication last week about the start of the budget workshops, but if the schedule is approved at this meeting, we’ll start discussion this coming Wednesday, April 23 for the FY2025-2026 budget.
B. Consideration of an action on a request for to approve the emergency replacement of the dishwasher in the main kitchen of the GICC. Based on the urgent response staff is recommending Don|Build as the vendor. Their cost is $158,600.87. This item is requested by Yanous Barner, Georgia International Convention Center, Gateway Arena & College Park Historical Golf Course Interim Director. This is a non-budgeted item (G/L Account #555-4970-54-7640) This request is in Ward 2
We discussed this matter at our March 17, 2025 meeting. You can see the video here. One of the concerns that Councilmember Gay brought up was that this purchase was classified as an emergency expense, and therefore had not gone through the procurement process. It appears the supporting documentation from the March 17 meeting and the supporting documentation from the April 21 meeting is largely the same, so I think we’ve got the same issue. The difference now is that the quotes from some of the vendors have gone past the thirty day mark and may not be honored. Staff is now recommending the lowest quote, when at the March 17 meeting another vendor was recommended.
For a purchase as large as this, I believe it is imperative we follow our own guidelines. This should go through the formal procurement process.
C. Consideration of and action on a request for the City of College Park to host Sista Strut October 4, 2025 in support of breast cancer month. The 3k event will commence on the Convention Center Concourse. This item is requested by Yanous Barner, Georgia International Convention Center, Gateway Arena & College Park Historical Golf Course Interim Director. The City's expense if $5,500 which is a budgeted item (G/L Account #5564970-52-6000). This event will take place in Ward 1.
Other than the agenda transmittal, there is no supporting documentation for this request.
