City Council Meeting Notes: Dec. 12
Here's a quick rundown of what happened at the Snellville City Council meeting on December 12, 2011.
If you weren't at the City Council meeting, here is a quick rundown of the major actions taken or news presented at the meeting.
1. Consideration and Action on Boards and Commission Appointments
Item: Appointments of Gina Foster to Board of Appeals; Christy Linksi to Planning Commission; Misty Palmer to Downtown Development Authority; Rick Rowe to Urban Redevelopment Agency; and Jonathan Cates, Kathryn Baldwin and Deborah Kepes to the Art Jurors group.
Action: This action was postponed until a later meeting.
2. Consideration and Action on the city attorney's engagement letter.
Item: The new city attorney Stuart Oberman, appointed November 14, sent a new schedule of fees to the city. His fee is $150 an hour.
Action: There was no motion on this item, and therefore it failed.
3. Consideration and Action on mobile stage
Item: The cost of the mobile performance stage is $103,263. This amount is expected to be taken from $108,000 allocated from the 2009 SPLOST monies for town green improvements. It is expected to be used for a number of activities held in the city. Councilman Tom Witts said the stage would pay for itself in five years, but mayor Kelly Kautz and Councilman Mike Sabbagh were against the idea and believed there were better ways to use the SPLOST monies.
Action: The motion passed, 4-2, with Kautz and Sabbagh voting against.
4. Consideration and action on resolution against crematory in Gwinnett County.
Item: A crematory is proposed for 637 Athens Highway, Grayson. The city council presented a resolution showing its strong opposition to the county application.
Action: This action passed unanimously.
5. Consideration and action on personal care homes.
Item: The city of Snellville wants to bring its zoning code on personal care and nursing homes in line with the city, and until that has been done, the city would like to issue a moratorium on additional businesses of this type for the next 90 days, or until zoning changes have been adopted.
Action: This action passed unanimously.
6. Consideration and action on amending city code on parliamentarian.
Item: Normally the city parliamentarian has been the city attorney, and this motion would change that to be an elected member of council chosen annually. This was introduced by Councilman Tom Wits.
Action: This action passed unanimously.
7. Consideration and action on election of Mayor Pro Tem.
Item: This motion would abide by section 2.28 of the city charter that allows the city council to chose the mayor pro tem. However, based on a charter change related to "home rule" in 2010, those powers are held by the mayor. See section 2.20b here, where it reads:
"All committees and committee chairpersons and officers of the city council shall be appointed by the mayor and shall serve at the pleasure of the mayor. The mayor shall have the power to nominate and confirm new members to any committee at any time."
Action: This motion (for council to chose mayor pro tem) was deemed improper by Mayor Kelly Kautz.
8. Consideration and action on opening an investigation into Councilman Sabbagh's appearance at Marietta City Council
Item: To open an ethics investigation into an appearance by Councilman Mike Sabbagh, where it spoke in favor of a local business man and said he was a professor at at Southern Polytechnic State University. Snellville Patch later asked Sabbagh about this, and he said that he was an adjunct professor at the university.
Action: Action on this item was moved to a later council meeting date.
9. Consideration and action on contract with GDOT on a right of way for the city's LCI project
Item: Right-of-way contract with Georgia Department of Transportation is scheduled to end on December 31, and the city wants to extend until June 2012.
Action: This action passed unanimously.
Grant
5:04 pm on Tuesday, December 13, 2011
"Action: The motion passed, 4-2, with Kautz and Sabbagh voting against."
I'd guess we'll be seeing this A LOT... Of course if Kautz continues what appears to be an intentional obfuscation and manipulation of the City Charter she might be able to eliminate the council completely . Shameful and sad..
Joy L. Woodson
6:58 pm on Tuesday, December 13, 2011
I put links in to the charter so that people could read the part about appointments and the mayor pro tem. Give it a read also.
Sharon Hetherington
11:24 pm on Tuesday, December 13, 2011
"All committees and committee chairpersons and officers of the city council shall be appointed by the mayor and shall serve at the pleasure of the mayor." The position of Mayor Pro Tem is neither a committee chairperson or officer of the council. Therefore, the appointment is not made by the mayor but by a vote of the council.
Joy L. Woodson
1:48 am on Wednesday, December 14, 2011
My understanding is that a mayor pro tem is considered an officer of the council. Similar to the chairperson seat, which is the mayor in this situation.
Michelle Couch
12:04 pm on Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Joy, you are new to Snellville. The City Charter has always been followed, even when it stripped away Mayor Oberholtzer's powers several years back (something Miss Kautz was a part of). Now she wants to ignore the very charter that she helped create! SHAMEFUL!!!!
Gary Custar
7:01 am on Wednesday, December 14, 2011
But Joy, you and Kautz conveniently, and purposely, leave out the part of the Charter that deals specifically with the election of the mayor pro tem. It does not require your 'understanding' to make clear. It is obvious and specific and it makes the other portion of the Charter regarding 'officers' not applicable to the mayor pro tem. Tell me how you or Kautz could interpret the following otherwise. What part of "By a majority vote, the city council shall elect a councilmember to serve as mayor pro tempore" is too difficult for you to fathom?
Directly from the Snellville City Charter:
Section 2.28. - Mayor pro tempore.
By a majority vote, the city council shall elect a councilmember to serve as mayor pro tempore. The mayor pro tempore shall assume the duties and powers of the mayor during the mayor's disability or absence. Any such disability or absence shall be declared by a majority vote of the city council. The mayor pro tempore shall sign all contracts and ordinances in which the mayor has a disqualifying financial interest as provided in section 2.14 of this Charter.
Grant
8:40 am on Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Gary's got it right Joy ,
Your "understanding" it or not is irrelevant though it is written in quite plain English "Section 2.28. - Mayor pro tempore.
By a majority vote, the city council shall elect a councilmember to serve as mayor pro tempore."
The charter is quite specific and unmistakable in regard to the procedure of ELECTING a council member to the position of mayor pro tem. Kautz & her appointed lap dog are simply ignoring section 2.28 and weakly claiming section 2.20 over rides it when in fact there is no such provision in the charter.
I hope the council will continue to take action against this apparently illegal appointment .
Gary Custar
9:26 am on Wednesday, December 14, 2011
You know the sad part, Grant? Kautz and her hand-picked city 'attorney' are, as far as I know, the only two lawyers sitting on the dias. Why does it take citizens who are not lawyers to point out the impropriety she is trying to get away with?
These two are either ignorant of the law, which should call in to question her ability to be the mayor, or they are both willfully disregarding the law, which should call in to question her ability to be an attorney.
Grant
12:05 pm on Wednesday, December 14, 2011
gARY WRITES
"These two are either ignorant of the law, which should call in to question her ability to be the mayor, or they are both willfully disregarding the law, which should call in to question her ability to be an attorney."
Bingo...I dont think foir a second Kautz and her appointed "yes man" are ignorant of the charter. I do think they believe themselves to be above it and assume the citizens and council members to be too stupid to challenge them . I'll go with "willful disregard " and a complete lack of respect for the office, the City Charter and the citizens of Snellville.
Shameful
Michelle Couch
12:06 pm on Wednesday, December 14, 2011
The City Charter has always been followed, even when it stripped away Mayor Oberholtzer's powers several years back (something that Miss Kautz was a part of). Now she wants to ignore the very charter that she helped create! SHAMEFUL!!!! I continue to pray for the City of Snellville. It is in very shakey hands and I am fearful for its future.
Gary Custar
11:48 am on Friday, December 16, 2011
Joy, under heading #8 in your recap of the Snellville Council meeting, you state that Patch asked Sabbagh about his claim to Marietta City Council that he is a professor at PolyTech. You state Sabbagh said he was an adjunct professor at the university.
However, in the recorded video of the Marietta Council meeting, Sabbagh states "he is a college professor across the street"...... An SPSU spokeswoman said he had not been associated with SPSU for five years.
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank.[1] In many English-speaking nations, such as the United Kingdom, professor is reserved only for senior academics holding a departmental chair (especially head of the department) at a university, or an awarded chair specifically bestowed recognizing an individual at a university. In the United States and Canada the title of professor is granted to larger groups of senior teachers in two- and four-year colleges and universities.
An adjunct professor is a part-time professor who is hired on a contractual basis rather than being given tenure and a permanent position. An adjunct professor is a part-time professor who does not hold a permanent position at that particular academic institution.
Gary Custar
11:48 am on Friday, December 16, 2011
Even given Sabbagh may have at opne time been an adjunct professor, he portrayed to Marietta City Council that he is currently a professor at PolyTech, a claim the PolyTech spokesperson denies, stating he hasn't been associated with the institution in five years.
One wonders what else Sabbagh is obfuscating.
Sharon Hetherington
11:31 am on Monday, December 19, 2011
If anyone would like to meet with a City Councilman to discuss this and how we can help, please email me at sharonhetherington@hotmail.com.