Meeting discussionsStart with a topic.

Have a motion to approve and a second by Miss Hines. Uh, everyone please vote. I think she has to prompt us to vote. She got to sit down to do that. That'll teach you to get up, won't it? We got a motion by uh Mr. Pickings and seconded by Miss Hines. Vote by hand. Anybody approve? You're approved unanimously. Thanks for doing business in Smyrna. Thank you. Thank you for having us. All right. Item B, privilege package license request beer, wine, and Sunday sales retail package at 475 Windy Hill Road Southeast. Wendy Hill USA LLC doing business as Wendy Hill Market with Irvish Patel as agent. Uh, come on up and I'll turn it over. This is in ward five. I'll turn it over to Miss Wilkinson. Thank you, Mayor. Hi. Um, hello Mr. Patel. Thank you for being here this evening. Um, for the uh people watching at home, can you tell us where your business is located? It's a Texico gas station and convenience store on the Windel Road next to the Vulcan and u you've participated in all the requirements through the city and you know um you understand that the city's requirements and they take it seriously. Okay. Thank you. Um, okay. With well, and with that, I would like to make a motion to approve item 8 L 2022- 007. Have a motion. Do I have a second? Seconded by Mr. Lindley. All those in favor, please vote. That's approved. 70. Thanks for doing business here. Appreciate y'all. All right. We have four items on formal business. The first is item A, authorization to extend the contract with Designing Local 20 East Broad Street, Sweet 1010 Columbus, Ohio 43215 for public art consulting services for a term of one year effective April 23rd, 2026 and continuing through April 22nd, 2027 with compensation of services provided not exceeding $25,000 and authorize the mayor to sign and execute all related documents.

This group has done a great job for us uh executing our um public art plan. Um we we were doing it poorly before they got here. And I'd turn it over to Mr. Jones for any extra background. Uh Mr. Mayor, we originally entered into a contract with Designing Local a couple years ago in April of 2024. Uh as you said, to help us with our public art consulting services. Uh the agreement is was extended for an additional year. um is what we're requesting to April 22, 2026 through April 22, 2027. Um with the the extension term not exceeding $25,000 and staff recommends authorization to extend this contract and authorize the mayor to sign and execute the related documents. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Do I have a motion? Motion to approve by Mr. Lindley. Second by Mr. Pickkins. He beat you to it, Mr. Oglesby. All those in favor, please vote. That's approved. 70. I'm looking forward to them continuing to work with us. Item B, authorization to approve a one-year contract renewal with Russell Landscape for the city of Smyrna's annual landscaping contract. This is RFP23-017 for a term beginning July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027 in an amount of 1,343,18364 paid from general fund facilities and authorized the mayor to sign and execute all related documents. Mr. Jones, any background? Uh, mayor, this was a contractual agreement that was derived from RFP 23017. So this is between city of Smyrna and Russell landscaping. They do a great job for the city of Smyrna. It will allow them to continue to do the landscaping maintenance of all the city facilities, rideways, parks located within the city city of Smyrna, city limits and um and they will maintain that that maintenance responsibility. Uh we recommend approval of this one-year contract extension with Russell Landscape in an amount of 1,343,18364. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Any discussion?

I for one think that the city looks pretty good under Russell's um with Russ Russell's work. Uh if no discussion, I'll take a motion. Motion to approve by Mr. Welch. Second by Mr. Lindley. Everyone, please vote. We got them all. That's approved. 70. Item C, authorization to approve a one-year contract renewal with Smyrna Transfer Station LLC, GFL Environmental, uh, for the city of Smyrna's annual residential municipal solid waste disposal. This is RFP22-036 for a term beginning July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027 for the terms of the agreement and anticipated 7% CPI and authorized mayor to sign and execute all related documents. Mr. Jones, any background, please? Uh yes sir. This is a continuation from RFP 22036. Uh this contract does allow for a 7% increase based on the consumer price index and we recommend approval of this one-year contract renewal. Uh even with the 7% CPI increase, this contract is still less than the other quotes that the city of Smyrna received and recommend approval. Any discussion? All right, I'll entertain a motion on item C. Move approval by Mr. Gold, second by Mr. Lindley. All those in favor, please vote. That's approved. 70. And we'll move on to item D, our last item on formal business. Uh this is an authorization to reinstate quarterly topout bonuses for the seven employees who reach the maximum of their designated pay ranges as of December 2025 with recommended payment dates of April 2026, July 2026, October 2026, and January 2027 at a total annual cost of $20,86.66 or $5,2166 per quarter. Mr. Jones, any background, please? Uh yes, sir. Um, back in December of 2019, we had the similar issue where we had employees who reached the maximum of of their pay ranges that is uh allowed. Um, we issued top out bonuses which was an amount that was equal to what the pay range would have been and the distributed that quarterly.

And we're we're recommending that we do the same thing. Um the last time that happened, we used UG uh to do a compensation study and um that study allowed those those scales to be adjusted. This upcoming budget year, we have a similar study with a company called Evergreen that will do those very same things. So recommendation is that we reinstate those quarterly topout bonuses for those seven employees and have those readjusted um as necessary once the study is completed later this year. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Any discussion or questions from council? Okay, we'll entertain a motion on item D. Move approval by Mr. Lley, second by Miss Hines. Everyone, please vote. That's approved. 70. Before we get to the consent agenda, I see we have some special guests in the audience, and I always love it when scouts come here to uh experience local government and uh and see how we do things. Would you like to come introduce them? Anything y'all want to come on up? Sure. Y'all come up with him. So, I get to be the honor of being their father and one of the assistant scout masters for my son Barrett and his troop, troop one, and then my daughter Alice and her her Cub Scout pack. Awesome. Um, so Alice, you have a question. You want to talk into the You want to talk into the microphone? You can adjust it. That thing can be adjusted down a little bit there. We appreciate you all coming tonight. Thank you. Thank you for having us and letting us step up here. Do you know the page that it was on? Barrett, do you have a question you need to ask? I just had this saved. No, it's okay. Listen, we're I had the little yellow strip of paper on here, too.

Um, so basically what you need to do is you need to ask how they got elected and how that vote happened. That's the question. So, step up and ask. Go do it. Go ahead. You can. Okay. So, step up and go. When you got elected, when you got elected, how were you voted in? How were you voted in? And what did that process look like? And what did that process look like? How were we voted in and what did that process look like? So, everybody up here runs for office every four years. And we have to go out and ask the people for their vote because you know how many bosses we have? About 60,000. Everybody that lives in Smyrna is our bosses. And so we go out and tell them what we think we're going to what we're going to do as a what our vision is for the city. And then they can choose whether they want to have us implement that vision or if they don't want us to do that. And they'll vote yes if they do and and vote us in. And and they'll vote no and vote us out if they don't. And that's how that's how that happens. Thank you. Sure. Thank you for the question. So, so I had to come here to discuss the con constitutional rights and the obligations of a US citizen. Con, we got a Go ahead. Latonia, do you have a question? Um, that was the question. Well, um, somebody get the recorder for Tony, please. We are very blessed in this country that we have a constitution and um the bill of rights are very explicit about what those rights are and um for the most part we we try to stay true to that and if for some reason we see that there are things that need to change because they weren't contemplated when the the constitution was originally enacted.

We have three levels of government. um executive um we're part of executive, you have judicial and you have legislative. And so because of that, sometimes when things weren't contemplated by way of the constitution, things like the judicial, whether or not it's case law or whether or not other laws are enacted, um we be were able to expand upon that. So we're very blessed to have a good framework and a lot of other countries don't have that and so at least we're able to look back at that. So those talk to us about our rights. Thank you. Yes, sir. Oh, well, um, you may you may notice there is a fancy little I don't have it on mine, but he has a nice little burgundy patch here. Uh, that is Camp Cred. Anybody that sees that number knows that Troop One has been in uh been established for over a hundred years at this point. The charter was 2014. And there's a cool little piece of paper hanging on the wall in the scout lodge that has the first uh scouts basically the first CEO of scouting signature on it. Uh it's it's a wet signature and it's very impressive to see. So uh for Atlanta Area Council, but pretty pretty close to being the oldest in the state. There there might be one or two other troop ones in the state, but probably not many. Y'all know we have an Eagle Scout on the city council. Which one? Mr. Lley, he's an Eagle Scout. Scouting, uh, the lessons of scouting stay with you throughout life. Uh, Mr. Gold and I came down and were part of your 100th anniversary at Troop One. Uh, so stay with it. Some good life lessons. You were there, too. Awesome. We appreciate you. I just saw you in the audience. I wanted to invite y'all up. Well, thank you.

Thank you for being here. Yes, sir. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next, Mr. Jones is a consent agenda. Item 10. Can you please read the short consent agenda for council approval? Yes, sir. Mayor, we have four items on the consent agenda tonight. Um, we have the meeting minutes 2026 059 is approval of the March 12 committee, the whole meeting. The u approval of the March 16, 2026 pre-consil meeting minutes. And we have the March 16, 2020 mayor and council meeting minutes. And lastly, we have uh an acceptance of rideaway. It's a deed conveying 200 2,286 square feet of land which will extend a portion of Smyrna Hill rideway at 790 Smyrna Hill Drive. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved by Mr. Lley, second by Mr. Welch. All those in favor, please vote. That's approved. 70. We're now to the citizen participation portion of our meeting. And it looks like we have three people signed up for public comment. Um the first is Lisa Lewis, 1220 Church, 2924 Davis. Come on up. Welcome. Glad you're here. I've lived in Smyrna for now more than I've lived anywhere else. I've lived here for 28 years. I have two places. Um, one is going to be when I retire, it's going to be my rental that I live off of. So, my grandparents did that. They had a duplex and they had one part that they lived in and the other part they rented out and that's how they retired. One of my grandparents. But anyway, I currently am living on Church Street and I work very late at night and I have two cars. I have a personal car and I have a work car. I also have a boyfriend who likes to visit.

Apparently, somebody who lives on Reed Street um decided that they did not want us parking on the street because it's uh it's kind of a shallow area. So, they had it marked off that if a fire truck ever came that they would be able to park pull over to the side and so that people could come by. Well, anybody with a double-digit IQ is going to know that if a fire truck is coming there, people are going to get out of the way. There is a space for people to be able to go through the um the uh funeral home parking lot. So, there there's no way a firetruck is ever going to need to be pulled to the side to wait for a car to come back through. And then also, people have been ignoring the sign alto together. I've had to come out and say, "Hey, there's no parking and I don't want people banging on my door because the sheriff's department the sheriff's department's been to my house at 8:00." Well, the police department came to my house at 8:30 in the morning banging on my door and I came home really late. I was out and I'm I can't sleep very well. I'm going through menopause. It's not fair to me to be woken up at 8:30 in the morning because my car is parked by my house where it's been parked for the last 15 years because one guy down the street has issues with us parking there. Um, and it wasn't even parked that far past the line where the no parking sign is. Um, but so anyway, recently I've got pictures of cars parking there and I've talked to them. There's people I don't know parking there. I'm not going to get banged on. I don't want my door banged on in the middle of the night.

And then when somebody has called me a nasty word because I said, "Hey, there's no parking there. They think I put the sign up there so that I could have all that parking." Um, you know, but anyway, there's six units there. There's not enough parking for three units. Um, we have each have a parking space in our parking lot, but if we have, you know, sometimes two people live in those units and we need enough spaces for everybody to have a second car there at some point. Right now, we have um a homeowner that is deceased, so nobody's living her unit right now. So, we had and we have extra space right now, but if anybody has a a partner or has to come home late, you know, there we have nowhere to park. It's not it's not okay. Is this in your ward? Good evening, ma'am. Good to see you. Uh I know we've had some uh internal discussions with Mark Wolf, who's our city engineer, uh and are working through that. As as she noted, uh there's been uh a number of issues uh from residents in that area. So, uh Mr. Jones and I will get with the and I have been knocking on doors and asking if anybody has a problem. It's only one person that has a problem. And you know, they've also said stuff about that they're not liking that more apartments are being built there. I mean, me, I've had to quit jobs because they require me to drive to work in the morning and I can't get out of the neighborhood or drive anywhere. We need something. I think what we really need in Smyrna is maybe an age in place um facility. This is downtown Smyrna is perfect for people like me who have aging parents. Where are we going to put these aging parents?

If there's my boyfriend just moved his Oh, by the way, my boyfriend is an Eagle Scout and so are all his brothers and this year his mother died and he got his pin back and I just that was the saddest thing um to witness and my mother is a um is a Navy brat so she's lived all over the United States. Um but anyway, I what I would really like to see is an age in place where people who aren't driving aren't working anymore. people of Smyrna that are like my age. When we have these aging parents, where do we put them? It'd be nice if they could have they don't want to go into an old folks home or whatever. They want to be able to walk around in a village like this. They want to be able to do their own grocery shopping, but maybe they can't afford the maintenance on their houses. They're aging. Their homes are aging as well. So, it would be nice if they had like a place in downtown Smyrna where they could go and they could live and they could walk around and they could, you know, they don't want to be a burden to others, especially these um the baby boomers. And I'm going to be the same way. I mean, my grandmother's hundred years old and still lives by herself, but she has money and she has people, you know, coming to her house to clean and she has uh, you know, if she ever needs any groceries, there's people who will do her grocery shopping for her. these people. There's a lot of people don't have kids that are want to take care of them or they're still working. So, I think maybe we should look into instead of having these millennials making apartments for them, let's do some age in place kind of situation.

Well, let's get your parking situation figured out first. All right. So, you're you are with staff and we got all we'll be reaching out to you to figure that out. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Next we have John Terry, 3269 Concord Circle. Good evening everyone. See if I can work this out. There have been height differences for the the public commenters. Uh Mr. Mayor, city council, uh Smyrna neighbors, thank you for your time this evening. My name is John Terry and my wife and I have lived in Smyrna for seven years now. I teach high school world history and I'm the proud parent of Smyrna's sweetest two-year-old. With all due respect, I'm here tonight delivering a message from a brand new local chapter of Indivisible, the national progressive organization. We are called Silver Comet Indivisible and we represent progressive citizens in central and southern Cobb County. On Saturday, March 28th, nearly 1500 demonstrators gathered peacefully on our beautiful village green to hear from local leaders before heading to Atlanta Roads West Sidewalk to protest the Trump administration. We were just small a small part of the over 8 million no Kings protesters worldwide, the largest mass uh demonstration in US history. We are incredibly proud of our team of volunteers who maintain safety, security, and organization at this event. We want to thank Smyrna City leadership and police department for their support of free speech and free assembly in our beautiful and diverse city. While these sacred rights are guaranteed in the United States Constitution, as we were just reminded a few moments ago with the scouts, we've seen time and again in cities like Minneapolis, Memphis, Chicago, and other locations across America the Department of Homeland Security targets that they are not to be taken for granted. We are grateful to live in a city where we can safely and securely exercise these rights without fear.

While we protesters were united by our rejection of an authoritarian federal government, its weaponization of immigration customs enforcement or ICE against our friends, our neighbors, and our family members, its rudderless foreign policy and destructive foreign wars, and its lack of basic decency and morality at the highest levels. We are proud of our positive, joyful, and welcoming No Kings event here in Smyrna. Folks who are interested to keep the momentum going can look up our new group, Silver Comet Indivisible. We also want to speak directly to the mayor and city council of Smyrna on behalf of our community organization. We ask you under no circumstances to cooperate with ICE to terrorize our community members. They come to sow discord and terror, not security. We love our neighbors and we want all Smyrna residents to live without fear, to enjoy life in our city, and to have free access to our schools and public spaces. As a historian, I can say with confidence, all of us have to make choices. So, please make the right choice. Thank you. Appreciate you being here. Thank you. Last is Linda Lancaster, I believe. Say again. Langston. Langston. Oh geez, that man, you realized I said that before I put on my glasses. 1710 Napa Valley. Yes, sir. Welcome. Good evening, Mayor. I just just was checking to make sure I wasn't losing it. Good evening. I voted for you, by the way. This is the best meeting I had all day. Thank you. Okay, this is my problem. My name is Linda Langston. I live at 1710 Napa Valley Court, Smyrna in Cumberland Town Houses, right off of Spring Road. I'm sure you know where that's at. And the neighborhood, I've been there 22 years. And for three years now, I have begged the city of Smyrna, Mark Wall, Shane, anybody I could talk to to please do something about a no parking sign on Shannondoa Valley.