 First and foremost, I want to welcome everybody here tonight and we are the Federation of Neighborhood. You know what I need to start there with? It's a little awkward for me to be doing this tonight. I normally wouldn't be about me, but the Federation of Neighborhoods, we have lots of board members going to watch an eclipse, you know, that little thing about, you know, eight hours away. So it was either I was going to be the moderator or this wasn't going to happen. And I think this is an awesome opportunity and I feel like even though I am here as a Federation of Neighborhoods board member, I still, my day job is reporting to these fine folks up here, so and folks out in the audience, but so I am here just to actually ask the questions. I will be reading Melissa Link's answers, but I am in no way shape or form the person that came up with these questions. It was a true board effort so that I can keep my day job. So I am Suki Janssen and my day job is the director of solid waste. So now some of you know why it's a little awkward for me to be up here, but I feel like I'm passionate about Federation of Neighborhoods. I love that we are packing the room tonight. We have had a lot of struggles after COVID getting Federation back off the ground and Federation who we are, we are the Federation of Neighborhoods and we present forums for residents to learn more about local issues. We are an independent and nonpartisan community organization in Athens-Clarke County. Our membership includes neighborhood associations and other community organizations and individual members. We need lots of members. Our forums are always free and open to the public. Please consider becoming an individual affiliate member and or encouraging your neighborhood association to become a member. We want to thank Sine for their support of this forum by providing this lab space that we're in tonight at a discount. So tonight we are hosting a candidate forum, not a debate. It is a candidate forum featuring candidates running in the competitive Athens-Clarke County Commission races in Districts 2, 6, and 8. The forum will begin with questions read by the moderator, me, and then we will open the floor to questions and answers from the Athens community. We like to keep things neighborly here at the Federation of Neighborhoods forums, so please be respectful in this space for people to hear about issues in their community. Also, when it comes to the question and answer portion, you all, we do ask that it's a question. And I'm a middle school teacher at heart. I taught for five years middle school and questions start with question words. Who, what, when, where, how? And so please make sure they are questions and that you are respectful tonight. You know, we've had kind of, you know, interesting times. Even in our department, people calling us in our department, interesting names that has nothing to do with solid waste. And it's all about politics and it's unfortunate because some of them are our neighbors and stuff and solid waste has nothing to do with a lot of that stuff. We just want to get your trash recycling and compost picked up. So if we could make sure we're respectful to each other and the candidates here tonight, I would appreciate it. And now on to the more important things, the panelists. I will be reading Melissa Lynx at the end, but I want to introduce the panelists tonight first. I'll just tell you their names and then we'll start with Jason and let them introduce themselves. But from district two, we have Jason Jacobs and we'll come back to him in just a second. District six, we have Rashi Malcolm and Stephanie Johnson. And district eight, we have Sydney Waters and Carol Myers. And so if I'm going to hand the mic off to Jason, and if you could just introduce yourself just a little bit more and why you chose to run for a seat in district two. Jason Jacobs came here to Athens to go to college back in 2002 and I never wanted to leave. I met my wife here. We started our family here. I think the big reason that I got into wanting to run, I just felt like, well, initially I wanted to have a choice. I think Melissa was running unopposed and I got in wanting to make a difference. And really focused on some of the issues that I felt I had that were being unheard, I guess heard, but not really being qualified. I felt like there were some things that I saw going around the town that I wanted to address and I would make the email and kind of go up the chain and then find the next person and they just weren't getting answered. Other things were being looked at that I felt like my voice was getting lost in the mix and having talked to a lot of neighbors, I felt that they had the same thing. So I wanted to get in and make a difference. I'm also a business owner. I wanted to look at some of the problems that we have as a community from a different perspective and really be more efficient with the uses, the resources that we have and be local in those solutions that we do have. And I'll really listen to those in my community and put their needs first. Try not to speak. My name is Rashi Malcolm. I'm also a local business owner. I own Rashi's cuisine. I'm the chef owner and I'm also the founding director for the culinary kitchen and bathrooms as well as farm to neighborhood. I got into this race. Really, it was a push from my daughter. It was a challenge. I'd sat on a lot of boards where I always ended up becoming part of governance because I took the leap of faith and decided that, you know, I didn't know a whole lot about the government about five, six years ago. I thought I knew. I didn't really know until I signed up to go on to the industrial development authority. And from there, I learned a lot and then worked my way up to chairman. And when I was taking my daughter around all around the state, I mean, we were following congressmen, senators, local elections. We were going to Republican meetings, Democrat meetings, different churches. She pointed out to me that when you go, everyone who's supposed to be in the same room, we're still fighting and arguing with each other. I'll tell a quick story. Even, you know, with Tim, she walked up to Tim and she said, well, maybe people in the room wouldn't be arguing if you fed them at night, you know. So when we got home at night, she said, mommy, she said, nobody's listening to each other. They're saying the same thing, but they're not listening to each other. And I said, baby, when you get old enough, I can't wait till you run the world because she wants to be a politician. She said, well, what are you doing? And so I decided to enter into the race. So that's me. Hi everybody. My name is Stephanie Johnson, and I'm running for district six commissioner. And I decided to, well, let me back up and say the conversation started in my household about two years ago. My husband and I are really engaged and we watch the mayor commission meetings every Tuesday and back to wait if you ever have trivia about Stephanie Johnson. I've watched most of the mayor commission meetings all the way back to 2008. And so I find myself well versed. I'm a former employee of the unified government. I worked in the finance department as well as the office of operational analysis. And I have more than 15 years experience in corporate America. So I decided to run because we're sitting there on the couch and we are debating some of the issues that are on the floor. And there are obvious questions that are missing. And you're screaming at the television. You're saying, well, someone please just ask this question. And so some of the big takeaways that I'm disenchanted with are the inefficiencies within the government, the fiscal spending, the lack of accountability, outcomes data. We have a number, several hundred non-profits that receive funding. And there is a very tiny portion of that large group that has to undergo any type of finance or compliance checks. Those things are really important to me, and it speaks to my background. I can view and see anomalies and operations as well as fiscal data. And so there was a conversation we had in September, October of last year and I was complaining. And if you've heard me speak before, you're gonna know what I'm gonna say next. My mom would always say, if you have a complaint, get it out and let that to be it, but I don't want to hear it again. Because what you need to do next is learn how to love it or figure out how to fix it. And so I started to ruminate over that and over the weeks decided, it's a shame to know how to do the job and not stand up for the test and not stand up and serve my community. And so that's why I'm running. I grew up here. I have family here. My church is here, and I'm invested. Thank you. Hello, everyone. My name is Sydney Waters. And yes, most of you know me as Mama said. Very few people know who Sydney Waters is. I am almost a 47-year resident of District 8. For a couple of years, I moved into Mariah Parker's district and I got redistricted back into District 8. I have told Carol I have no animosity towards her or what she has done whatsoever. I just want to be a different voice on the board, a voice of common sense. It seems that we have gotten so, so far out in building apartments, running people out with rent increases. District 8 is sort of overlooked with our government. All of the recreation centers are all within what I call the old city limits. We need something in District 8 for our youth so that high school and middle school students have somewhere to go after school to try to stay out of trouble. Yes, we have gangs here now. We have gangs with guns. This is serious. We have a bad drug problem in Athens and in District 8. Our infrastructure is falling down. I have owned a business on Barnett Sholes for 41 years. Kroger wasn't there. Aldi wasn't there. There was nothing over there but Golden Pantry on one end and a Fina gas station all the way down on the other corner in Georgetown shopping center and Pigley-Wigley. I have seen so many changes, but I've seen the most progress in downtown and west side. I think it's time for District 8 to have a little bit more and a voice of common sense. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, I'm Carol Myers, District 8 County Commissioner. And I have been serving in City Hall for the last four years. I'm very hardworking. Consider myself to have a lot of common sense. And I want to continue doing the work that I've been doing all along. I've been 40 years in Athens and 30 on the east side, just a little background information. I retired from a long career at Athens Tech where I was mostly teaching, but also in leadership roles at the end, raised two daughters there. I have three grandchildren, two of them who actually got moved out of Disturgate. And I've been civically involved since I got here. I was just remembering how my first canvassing was for the Mondale-Ferraro presidential campaign. That's a long time ago. Worked on different women's issues before I started having children. Then spent some time working in sports groups, coaching, those kind of things that you do when you have children. After they grew up, I got very involved in local politics, working with local to help others get elected. Mostly I just wanted to help them get elected because I had another job to do. And that took a lot of hours. So I wanted to get them elected, but I'm retired now. And I want to continue some of the work that I've did before becoming on the commission when I worked on different alternative transportation issues. And also I'm going to mention the Athens 100% Renewable Energy Initiative, because it is something that I'm very passionate about. It's a common sense approach to dealing with our climate issues, as well as helping people in their pocketbooks. And it's not one included in any of the questions that we're getting tonight. Anyway, I look forward to talking with you. Thank you, Federation neighborhoods. This is actually thrilling, because think four years back. What was going on? I was not knocking on doors. And I was not in public forums. If there was a public forum, it was on Zoom. So this is really nice to be here with real people. For sure. Thank you all. I'm going to put a different hat on. And I'm going to be Melissa Link for a second. So we did promise to read her statement that she sit in. So bear with me as I read it again. Melissa Link, Chris, make sure you put that on the video that I am not imparting my own opinions here. Thank you for allowing me to submit this statement. And I apologize I'm unable to be here tonight as I'm journeying back from a long planned eclipse chasing trip with my spouse and our widowed mothers. It's been a very difficult few years for our families. And we are extremely privileged to share this once in a lifetime celestial event with the woman who brought us into the world. I want to thank the many who have reached out with words of support through it all. Most of you know me very well and know that I stand for all I've accomplished in my 10th year on the commission. I'm more committed than ever to protecting our neighborhoods and standing up for marginalized peoples in these frightening times when our community and unity is increasingly targeted by anti-democratic legislators, predatory profiteers, and violent right-wing extremists alike. I affirm that this is no time to be silent to these matters and even indulge those who would disenfranchise and discredit our local democracy by trafficking conspiracy theory, bigotry, and lies to be complicit in the very forces that seek to elicit violence and pave the way for an autocratic theocracy that has already begun to enact its agenda via state legislatures across the nation. I will not triangulate nor will I check my tone in calling out the proto-fascist movement that hacks away at the foundations of our democracy and threatens the very lives of so many whom I hold dear. I remain committed to making day-to-day life better for the people of District 2, the diverse, in-town neighborhoods in which I've lived, worked, played, and served my entire 30-plus years in Athens. My record of service is long, and I began pretty much as soon as I arrived as a 22-year-old grad student in 1993 from the Lindenhouse Arts Center to the Human Rights Festival to ATHFEST, the Athens Arts Council, the Cultural Affairs Commission, Georgia Climate Change Coalition, Historic Athens, the Athens Land Trust, the Boulevard Neighborhood Association, the Boulevard Gardening Club, and more. I've worked hard to make Athens a better place long before I was elected to do so. I will continue to bring experience-effective, empathetic, proactive, and outspoken progressive leadership to the community, despite the often-violent, violent harassment and threats hurled at me from online trolls who cower behind keyboards. It's not lost on me that I am targeted even more viciously because I'm a woman who is unafraid to speak truth to power. I am proud of all I have accomplished as your commissioner, and while I don't always see eye-to-eye with all my colleagues, I regularly take the lead in compromise. I believe it is the secret sauce of democracy. On a clearly divided commission the past year, I've led the way in assuring Barber Street gets properly protected bike infrastructure, negotiated terms for accountability and sustainability, and strategic plans to prevent homelessness and increase affordable housing, and instigated for reasonably-regulated short-term rentals. During the incredibly perilous times of 2020, I served as the chair of the Clark County Board of Health bringing accurate data and scientific truth back to the commission to inform local policy to keep our community as safe as possible, despite the challenges presented by both the state of Georgia and UGA. Despite the, sorry, that was a really bad pause. Sorry that y'all. During unprecedented tensions, I also took the lead in negotiating a public safety and justice budget package that we are now beginning to see pay-off significantly decrease crime rates across the board throughout our community. I've long held a keen interest in the intersection of zoning, historic preservation, affordable housing, and cultural identity. I've called upon this to save the MacBurney House and several historic homes for perpetual affordable housing and in the traditionally African-American West Hancock Historic District, as well as establish a West downtown local historic district to assure our beloved downtown remains the unique cultural center that defines Athens for so many. I brought attention to the unjust destruction of Lentown over 60 years ago, paving the way for official acknowledgement and reparations for this nearly forgotten black neighborhood. I urged the inclusion of over 30 million in splost funding for affordable housing. And I also agitated to save the murmur trestle, insisting upon the public input process that restored much of the iconic original structure in the magnificent new Firefly Trail bridge. Lastly, I will be implementing this particular knowledge in the coming year as we undergo once every 20 years future land use planning process. I've repeatedly encouraged my constituents to participate in the process and I regularly attend the public meetings, engaging with citizens to help translate information and fully comprehend concerns from diverse aspects of our community to encourage affordable housing, environmental protection, economic development, quality of life and cultural preservation as we continue to grow. I believe this diversity is the greatest strength of our community and only by honoring and encouraging it can we assure a prosperous and sustainable future from Melissa Link. All right, thanks again for being here, you all. Wendy's gonna try to keep time for us. We're asking, I think, she's down there, so maybe try to flag you down and I will as well. We'll get, what we say, two minutes per question, roughly two minutes because we wanna make sure that the audience gets a chance to ask you all questions. So we'll go ahead and you know what, we'll start this question. We won't always go to you, Jason. We won't put you on the spot every time. So we'll go to Carol. We'll let Carol start this one. Commissioner Myers, you're gonna start this question off for us. The first question, both rental and purchased homes are becoming increasingly unaffordable for medium and low income residents. How should Athens-Clarke County address the affordable housing crisis? Yeah, it's kinda crazy out there with the housing at this point. I know about it on a very personal level. I have my daughter and son-in-law trying to get by on some low-income local work and rent in a house that costs an apartment for 1,200 a month with the two bedrooms. I was able to buy a house a couple of years ago, but I don't know if I could do it now because it's another 150,000 now. So it's very hard right now for renters and for homeowners and that's one of the biggest issues we need to address. One of the things I did and some of my people up here were like teasing me a little bit. They said, I didn't know it was an open book forum, but for me it's always an open book forum. That's why I need a lot of room at my desk in City Hall because I always come very prepared. And I do wanna mention that we have the Athens-Clarke County affordable housing investment strategy. So one of the things I'm gonna do because I know people don't like us to spend money on plans and then not use them. So my thing to do is I have all these plans at my desk at home and I'm looking at them. What are we doing with affordable housing here? One thing, there's really three parts to this. We have to identify funding and one of those ways to identify funding is to go in a local housing fund and that's something we're gonna have to address in our budget that we'll be working on shortly. We need to have $5 million a year in that bucket. We also need to build and preserve quality affordable rental homes and make sure that we are helping private and public entities to use the federal low income housing tax credit developments. And there's some more in here as well. Obviously this would take me a long time. The last part is to expand home ownership and help people stay in their homes. One of the things I found most interesting was that in Athens we think of home owning as something you're able to do if you have a lot of money. One in three homeowners in Athens makes less than $50,000 a year. In the last couple of months we were able to, I'm very proud of this, approve a program to help first time home buyers with their down payments. And this is money that was coming through the Athens Justice and Memory Project and out shoot of all our work with Linnentown and our ongoing commitment to reparations for victims of the urban renewal period of the 60s and 70s. And this is a program with First Athens Bank and Trust for a grant of $780,000. They're gonna make a loan program for low income people to stay in their homes, getting to put down as down payments. I'm gonna end up in there so I don't talk for 30 minutes here. Thank you, Commissioner Myers. Go ahead, Sydney. Do you need me to repeat the question? At any time, just let me know. No, just basically I have it. I see a problem with us creating more Linnentowns with rental increases going up and up and up. People can't afford the housing that they have so they move out because they can't afford it. There's no affordable housing for them to move to, but instead of us approving low income housing being built, we continue to build high rise expensive apartments, duplexes, triplexes, quadriplexes. I see this as basically trying to run a certain group of people out of town to create a more hub, if you would. More areas concentrating on housing so that instead of having cars, you will use buses to move around. I see this as getting rid of the classic city that we used to know how it existed. And I know that I bought a condo 10 years ago. The first house I bought in 1977, it took 36 years for that house to increase 300%. My condo has increased 300% in 10 years. Something's wrong there. We have a problem with creating an atmosphere of allowing parents and real estate agents and other entities to buy homes and what used to be the R2 neighborhoods and renting. I know it's supposed to be only two unrelated, but you have three, four, five people living in a three bedroom house, and this is ongoing. So we are losing the classic city that we used to have for what is progress. Thank you, Stephanie. Would you please repeat the question? Yes, of course. Both rental and purchased homes are becoming increasingly unaffordable for medium and low income residents. How should Athens-Cart County address the affordable housing crisis? Okay, so if you see me jotting down notes, I note take all day. This is just my thing. And so when I hear something that I don't want to forget, I actually jot down the notes. So I jotted down three different things. The first thing is there is such something to say about the number of investors that we have allowed into our community that live out of state. And I think first addressing that, there has to, I do understand that we cannot supersede whatever the state's law is when it comes to controlling rental prices and housing increases, but as a local government, there has to be something that we can do at the government level to maybe create an ordinance that sounds something similar to the investor group, an aid member of the investor group needs to live on site. And I think the results of investor groups that can come into our community and purchase 100 parcels at a time, it is devastating, it's destructive, it increases the costs overnight of that property. And then that leads to the individuals that rent and or own being priced out of their property. If their owners, it's gonna be a matter of time before their taxes are too expensive. And if their renters, they can no longer afford the big hike in rent. The second thing that I wrote down is recruitment is a very similar, very similar equation when we're out as the economic development department or someone else recruiting businesses to our community, the same result happens. We bring in businesses under the guise of economic development which our community desperately needs, but there has to be a sweet spot where we are recruiting individuals that are coming into our community but not driving the cost of our property up because what happens is they stay and we end up leaving. So I'm not providing solutions, but I'm providing some things to think about, some things that I think about because I do believe they're all related. And the last thing is zoning. Affordable housing, you can't discuss affordable housing until you understand zoning. I'm going to admit, I know what I know and I also know what I don't know. I am not that familiar with the zoning laws, rules and regulations, but I've been watching meetings for seven months. And so hopefully I will be soon. What I'm getting to is that there are so many different narratives when it comes to zoning and how the result ends up with an affordable parcel. Our decisions haven't been that way lately, but it's something to think about. Recruitment of economic development opportunities, our zoning changes and or variances. And the last one is let's figure out how to regulate our investor groups that are coming in from outside of the state of Georgia. Thank you, Stephanie. Thank you. Thank you. Rashi. Oh, I have your microphone. Well, it's stressed. Do you mind? Yes, I do. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Of course, both rental and purchased homes are becoming increasingly unaffordable for medium and low income residents. How should ACC address the affordable housing crisis? So I had a three point, but I'm gonna start with zoning just because I'm gonna piggyback off of what you say, because zoning is important. We really do need to take a look at, you know, how we're permitting for these properties. I'm definitely a big component on let's get to utilizing a lot of these abandoned homes, let's utilize the community land that we own. I heard Carol mention about the $5 million investment, but people get scared when they hear that because they think that $5 million is gonna go to a Stephanie state of outside investors. If we're using our county land that we own, or AKA land banks, and we're investing our tax dollars in those homes, then it makes more sense to talk about the affordability and how we can build and who we can bring in and how we can partner what other additional finances that we could be able to bring into the county. So permitting, zoning, using the county land that we already have, and definitely we have a lot of abandoned buildings, both in the commercial sector as well as in the residential sector. We have people that there are programs out there, but people don't know so that they can keep their homes. We have a lot of constituents in district six as we've been going around talking to them, like, hey, I wanna be able to keep my home, but I don't feel I can because it's falling apart. Well, guess what? There are programs out there, but we're not doing a good enough job, whether it's the local government or as non-profits who receive funding from the local government, letting them know that these programs are actually available. You brought up the First American Bank with the down payment assistance. That's the same thing. There's probably a lot of people in this room who never heard that they could have an opportunity to get that funding, but then at the same time, constituents say, well, that's great. You got down payment assistance, but I can't afford the houses that are out here. So again, we need to look at how we're permitting. We need to look at when developers want to develop, how much red tape are we putting them through to build? And then we also have to consider that there is a such thing as the cost of materials, right? So the more we build, the faster we build, the more, as we saw in COVID, the more people are like, oh, I got you. You have to now buy me out of a project that I'm doing. I'm sorry, my time is up. Thank you, Rashi. Jason, we have to share. Okay. Yeah, I would agree with a lot of the different ideas here. One thing that I would like to focus on is incentivizing, especially local builders that come in. I feel like I've talked to some local builders in my community that have some great ideas to use some space and they run into zoning issues, and maybe putting some ADUs and cutting down the horizontal costs, maybe doing fourplexes and cutting down those horizontal costs to make it easier for people to get into that housing market initially. I think a lot of young people that work for us, they don't really have a lot of hope of getting in that housing market. And I do feel like there's a missing middle class or missing workforce housing that we're not really addressing. And if we could increase the inventory, obviously I think supply and demand would just say that some of those values are gonna come down. I think there's some pitfalls to that too that we have to address when you talk about increased traffic and things of that nature. But those are things I think working together, when you do have local builders with a stake in the community, they're gonna make much more informed decisions when they do build those homes for the needs of the community. Even looking around in our neighborhood, you see a lot of historic homes. They have two doors on the front. Well, that was what was needed then. They needed a multi-family home in that area to serve the need of that community then. I think we need to look at some of those zoning laws, make it a little bit easier, especially for local builders to come if you wanna keep some of the outside investors from coming in, maybe make it easier where you don't have to hold onto a loan, get an approval over 11 months before you even know if you can build something. If we can kind of fast-track some of those local stakeholders in building those homes, I think we could vastly increase in a quality way and still maintain the quaintness of Athens and still keep it kind of what it is while growing the inventory of homes and bringing prices down overall. Awesome, and I have a short paragraph from Melissa. So this is from Melissa to answer that question. We can continue to invest in the construction of affordable housing, but we also must acknowledge the pressure on evergrowing population of wealthy students puts on the local housing market in our in-town neighborhoods. We need to identify appropriate areas in the vicinity of the entire perimeter of UGA's campus to enable future student housing construction and we must identify appropriate areas throughout the community that are ideally suited for carefully designed increased density while protecting the historically black in-town communities from further student gentrification. All right, we'll go on to question two. How should Athens-Clarke County address homelessness? What is the desired result? What short-term and long-term funding might be available to address the problem? We'll start with Jason this time, Commissioner Meyers. So then we'll start with the middle folks. Well, obviously the long-term solution would be to solve it and have everybody in a home. I think our focus as a town needs to be on focusing on the root causes. I think a lot of times we address the symptoms. I think in efficiency of using the resources that we have, I had a chance to be on the Athens Homeless Coalition and there's some great minds in that space that really are working towards some good solutions. I feel like bringing them together and starting to use the resources we have here locally in a coordinated effort to address some of the issues that we have with homelessness is gonna be a big improvement. I think we gotta look at the efficiency with which we're spending these dollars. I harken back to the 2.2 million we spent on 52 tents. And if you've heard me speak about this, it was $2,000 per month, per tent. I just feel like we can do better than tents for that type of money and provide opportunities to lift yourself up as well. I think one of the parts of the plan, the strategic plan to prevent homelessness that kind of stuck with me was there's only $30,000 of the almost 5 million allocated to lived experience. I think that could be a huge resource for us to look at people who have lived experience in homelessness and use them almost like a mentorship to kind of guide those trying to come out in that way. Also think speaking about those root causes, we need to look at some mental health resources, substance abuse issues. We have to address those things of the why people are in the homeless situation as well as that working mom who's working a 40 hour a week job, but maybe is one broken arm or unexpected bill away from being out on the street. I think we have to really focus some resources on that in the prevention side of things. So I'd like to see a very effective and efficient use of the resources we have and the local knowledge that is really great in this town. People have been working on this on the ground and many for a long time. And I think going outside of Athens takes away from some of the specific things that we have to deal with as a community. I'd like to look again for more localized solutions from a lot of people working in the industry. So I went back and forth a couple of times about this question and I'm just gonna be straight up honest, how do we solve the homeless problem? I could put out as many thoughts and processes as possible. I am not an expert in homelessness. I do believe it's about, like we treat the symptoms, we constantly treat the symptoms, but we never actually get to the root of why we have the issues we have. There are a lot of towns around this country that have been able to, and organizations that have been able to pretty much help alleviate homelessness in their areas. And I know that the homeless coalition that has been put together has been talking and working with those groups. Again, a lot of these organizations are open to the public. So you can sit in, you can listen, you can watch the feeds when they have these meetings. I know that they have another discussion at the work session tomorrow, so I'm very interested to see what they're coming up with. But I would definitely have to be honest and refer this to the experts in homelessness for us to be able to address it. I don't want to just be one to just spit out and talk because that's just, it's not my wheelhouse, but I'm definitely up for learning more about what the homeless coalition comes up with. Because, as Jason stated, they have a lot of wonderful people who have been doing this for 25, 50 years before the issue became what it is, what we see today. The homeless coalition staff in the room watching you right now. Go ahead, Stephanie. Okay, I think before we can talk about homeless and how to fix it, we need to understand what the Unified Government's plan is. Do they want to fix the problem, like eradicate it? Or do they want to manage it? Because both of those are two different silos of challenges that leads to setting up a plan to execute, to hopefully find success. But that has never been identified. So we don't know what we're doing. Are we trying to fix it? Are we kicking the can? Or are we trying to manage it? And I think it's a very expensive can that we're kicking. I think there are several pockets of people that are part of the homeless population that, well, let me go back and say, there is a federal program ran through the CDBG home or the Housing and Community Development Department that actually monitors a home program and the homeless program. And they are required to go out, I'm not sure if more than annually, but at least annually and count the population and capture those numbers and report back to HUD. So for years, they've known a general amount of the number of homeless individuals in our community. I'm gonna pause right there. We're gonna file that away, but I'm gonna come back to it. We have a number, let's talk about our homeless populations. We have individuals who are addicted. We have individuals who are mentally challenged. We have individuals who are unhoused, that an unhoused meaning that this individual has a full-time job and probably a few children. And they live out of their house because they can no longer afford their mortgage or their rent. But they are hard-working individuals like everyone, you all in this room and that is heartbreaking. And then we have a population in real life that wants to continue being homeless. So after we decide if we're gonna fix it or manage it, we need to decide which buckets and pockets and different silos that these individuals fit in. And what I'm gonna get to next is we have accountability courts that our chief judges and the superior court judges, they actually monitor. We have a veteran's accountability court. We have drug court and we also have, I think there is a DUI court. Stephanie, if you could wrap it up real quickly. Oh, I am so, so sorry. Sorry. That's sorry, I'm sorry. I don't know how to close it out, that's what my thoughts are, thank you. I tend to look at where we started with the homeless. Our government invited them here. I don't know if they ever considered the effect that this would have on our town and on our taxpayers. We need to look at the people who have come here for a hand out and those who have come here for a hand up. We have both. I have sat in the Kroger parking lot at College Station Road and watched the van come through and let the second shift out and put the first shift in the van and go through all the parking lot and through publics doing that. This is basically pimping. These people are not homeless. I know for a fact, because they have told me so, they can make three to $400 a day standing on a corner, begging. If you notice that they used to have nice signs a long time ago, but they've discovered using a piece of cardboard works better. My store has been feeding the homeless for since the early 2000s. We get to know them. They tell us their problems. Some of them have great, great drug problems. Some of them are just trying to make it day to day. But our main thing is we have them. What are we gonna do? But my main concern over the homeless is the taxpayers who have lost their homes and don't have any place to go either. I think our taxpayers are our first concern. You go to Greenville, South Carolina, you don't see this. They have handled their problem. There are solutions. I do not think that our government is actually looking for solutions. Well, we're gonna have to differ on that. I think the government's looking for lots of solutions. And I wanna address a few things here. One is the idea that Athens-Clarke County is inviting people in. Athens-Clarke County is a hub for services. I'm gonna bring up an interesting point because at our commission to find option that we put forth when we passed the homelessness ARPA funding. One of the things that we requested that the mayor and the county manager do was to follow up and reach out to communities in the region and they've done that. And they've reached out to governments and hospitals within 60 miles talking to them about not bringing, drop coming and bringing people here. One of the things I just learned interestingly was that other places that have services like Covington, Georgia are also dealing with exactly the same kind of problems we have because people go to where there are services. So that's one thing. A second thing I'm gonna pull back a little bit, actually maybe I'm gonna pull in because when people talk about homelessness, one of the things that no one is saying upfront is that people complain about they're being homeless people on our streets. And that's an issue and people see people in the woods and everywhere else. And it makes people feel uncomfortable. It also sometimes affects people's where they are and where they're living here. One of the things that I feel very proud of is that I have developed relationships across this county with different people working in the homeless support services so that the street outreach people who are working with Advantage Behavioral Health when there's an issue I can tell people to call the police but I can also reach out to the street outreach people because I've developed those relationships. I've talked with people who are working in the recovery community. I've talked with the homeless providers. One of the things that I'm able to do as a retired educator is be a very full-time commissioner who spends a lot of time building relationships with different people across the community. I also wanna join, here I am with my homework again, the strategic plan to reduce and prevent homelessness. I wanna say right away, I don't think this is a government plan. This is a plan that many people in this community worked on, including the homeless providers. These are their ideas come forth. We are using them and implementing them. If you wanna find out what's going on with the next use of funds for homelessness, we will be discussing that tomorrow at the work session where we will talk about the people who the different organizations have that put in things for all different kinds of services. So some of them are to deal. I need you to, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know. And it's really awkward for me, Commissioner Myers. I'll put the rest on Facebook, Facebook Live. Sorry, and I do wanna cover Commissioner Link's statement as well for this question. So this is Commissioner Link's statement. We end homelessness by putting people in homes and providing them with the proper support to stay in those homes. These homes and the support needs to come in all shapes and sizes. Six months ago, a long overdue strategic plan to reduce and prevent homelessness was adopted by the Mayor and Commission. It lays out six goals and 10 strategies, most to be initiated or overseen by a reformed and properly staffed homeless coalition of dedicated and diverse experienced organizations. The plan includes five million in initial funding, but the long-term success of this plan is fully dependent on support from the community at large, including faith-based organizations, varied nonprofit entities, and service organizations, educational and healthcare institutions, neighborhood organizations, as well as for-profit entities, including major employers, financial institutions, developers, and landlords. All right, I think I made it. My two minutes are less, right? Okay, all right, we'll go on to the next question. And Rashi, you're gonna be the first one. We'll let you be the first one this time, Rashi. What, if any changes, and I can hand, oh, I can hand this over, what if any changes are needed to ensure public safety in Athens-Clarke County? What funding and from what source could be used to implement any of the changes that you want to discuss? So for me, public safety is more than about just police on the streets. Public safety is about our infrastructure. It's about our way of life. It's about how we feel about our community. It's the way we communicate within our community. Because again, if you have an issue with your neighbor and you do let out, now you need to call the police. We've heard up here many have mentioned about the mental health in our community. So I will start by saying that I feel like we have put in place so many coalitions and nonprofits and boards. And we have so many different initiatives and programs that are all bringing in money, which is why you hear about, well, we have all these nonprofits and they're getting all this money and the government is funding all these things. I think that what we need to do is start utilizing what we already have and not always continue to start new initiatives. We need to start utilizing partnerships within our community for what we have. If you want to talk about not having to always go out and find funding or having your funding feel stretched, then we need to start working together. There are so many different organizations that are here that are providing, it's not the exact same service I do not want to offend. It is not the exact same service. Many of us are looking at the, and I include myself, many of us are looking at the challenges and issues that surround our community, and we all just want to do our best. So how do we fix public safety and how do we fund that? We start first by becoming a community again. Is that my time now? Oh, okay. I was like, I'm in my groove. But we start first by becoming a community again. We start by knowing our neighbor's names again. We start by looking out for our children. We start by knowing our teacher's names. This is how we start with public safety. This is how we, those things are free. You didn't have to go and look for any government funding or ask for taxpayers' money for those things. And so for me, that's where we need to start. We need to start back with collaborative efforts. And I think that's the first step to changing our public safety and funding there. I'm gonna try to speed talk this one, okay? And I apologize, so with public safety, there's a four-prong approach that I think is effective. And I remember when I was a little girl that in our neighborhoods, and I lived in six, five different neighborhoods in District 6 alone. And I remember when I was younger that police officers actually drove through your neighborhood on a regular basis, and then sometimes they would get out and they got to know us and they got to know our parents and they knew if we were doing something we weren't supposed to. They checked on us and they essentially helped our parents raise us without directly doing so, but their presence was enough. I think if there was something to improve in our public safety departments, it is the accountability. There is, there are some issues, and I always say it's the few that create a problem for the many. Our public safety professionals, they have a difficult time being motivated in having high morale to go into the job when they're all getting scrutinized by the actions of a few. So very quickly after an event occurs, start with accountability, go through the process of doing an investigation, and then the third component is actually make a decision on the investigation and make sure it involves a citizen, that citizen is made aware of the results. Oftentimes I hear that we never knew what happened. We reported it, there was an investigation. I think bridging all of those communication gaps makes everyone feel included and also a part of the situation. And then at the end I hope that getting out of the car, learning the neighborhoods, learning the parents and getting to know the students and what they're capable of will restore public trust. The last thing I wanna communicate when it comes to public safety, it's not just police or fire, it's all five. Probation, corrections, sheriff, police and fire. There is a gigantic discrepancy in the amount that they are being paid as a starting salary that needs to be fixed. At the end of the day, when they all go out to do their job, they do not know what they're going to encounter when they go to a door. And that's something that, unless you go through Citizens Police Academy, which is phenomenal, you don't really grasp the whole totality of what that means. There's still fear and that fear should not be mitigated or reduced by eight or $10,000 from one department to the other. That in itself is creating our own short staffing. And that's all. You made it. You made it. Great job, Stephanie. I held my breath. The first step for public safety does it cost a penny. It's telling them, you're doing a good job. A good pat on the back. Morale is low within our public safety fire department, police department. Our police are operating at 67% of employees. They try to be around 250, 256 officers that they are not at that point yet. For a city the size of Athens were actually rated for 350 police officers. This would put an officer in the neighborhoods as Stephanie was talking about. I remember when I moved here in downtown, the police presence was very, very evident. You felt safe. A police officer came through my neighborhood of University Heights routinely. Now you never see an officer drive through. We are hurting in so far as our support of our public safety. Our firefighters, I talked with one today, a family of four. His insurance cost $17,000 a year. He may make a good salary, but not when you're paying out $17,000 for insurance. I think we need to step back and look at what we are offering to those people who are the first we call on. We may run them down a lot, but who's the first we call the police? I know we are the first. I know we are planning very high rise apartments that we do not have a fire truck to reach. We're putting the cart before the horse. We need to be sure that our fire equipment is up to date and that our salaries welcome officers to come here. Thank you. Public safety. I am 100% in support of our police department, our sheriff's department, our fire department, and the firefighters union as well. I want to make it clear here that the mayor and commission have been supporting those three departments as well over the past year. They received 37% of the Athens-Clarke County budget. That's just under $60 million. It's by far the most money that goes to any section of the community. We've also committed to giving our public safety employees raises over these years and that's paid off. Yes, we did have a problem and we still do have a problem in the police department, but it has improved tremendously. There's just some new stats that are out just this month. Right now we have 30 new hires in the police department and we're down to a 10% vacancy. We need to do the same thing for the sheriff's department where there still is a 26% vacancy. We really need to support them because without having the people in place you can't do the job. We know that. There's also a perception that there's more crime and there is more crime in certain areas and we've had some horrendous incidents in recent months. There's no doubt about it, but the police department also shared with us statistics in the last couple of months in 2024 that crime is down 10% here in Athens. This is a PowerPoint that they shared with us. I'm going to put it on my Facebook page tomorrow. There's a perception and it's our role as commissioners to make sure people understand what's going on and how we are supporting our public safety officers. But there's real problems here and the real problems really were epitomized by the tragic, tragic death of Baby Dro back a month ago, a three-year-old who was hit in gun and gang violence and this gun and gang violence is something that we as a community have to face and it's very much tied into lack of opportunity and youth development, lack of opportunities to productively engage people. We have a delinquency prevention initiative with the Boys and Girls Club has this actually and that Commissioner Fisher and I serve on to help address these issues, but we have to look them in the eye and see how we can come together, the community, the nonprofits, the government, the religious groups and so forth. Finally, I want to bring up one other thing that we don't think about, but I have to do this for my advocates on the east side who have been knocking on my door since day one and before I got elected and that is to improve our EMS service because safety is also about what happens when you have an emergency, when you feel, when you're having a stroke, a heart attack or there's some kind of, you know, your chainsaw goes into you right now and I hate saying this, but this is a final thing. There are paramedics on every ambulance in Madison County and Oglethorpe County. That is not true here in Athens and we need to do something about it. And Jason, remind me again. Yeah, public safety. And then we're going to go to audience questions after more of the answers. What if any questions are needed to ensure public safety in Athens Park County and what funding and from where would you recommend if you made those changes? I thought there were some great ideas here. I really liked a lot of them. I think my focus would be on community policing. I think that was addressed. I think that starts a little bit with affordable housing as well. I'd love for our police officers, our EMS, our firefighters to be able to live and work in the communities that they serve. I think that's a good way to forge those relationships so that, you know, they know the lay of the land before they even get there and they can help address some of those problems. I think technology is huge. We should utilize some technology and especially for those emergency services of fire and EMS cameras, you know, and different things that we could have up that would, I guess, take a less human resource than when we talk about funding. It would be something that's permanently there that maybe allows them to get to the problem faster and with the proper resources necessary. Obviously, any sort of increase in funding and incentivizing more police officers, especially veteran police officers to come this way, I think would be great because I think sometimes when you rely on cadets coming up, they might make the mistake that you talk about the one bad being scrutinized and put on the rest of the force. So some of those things, I think, would be huge. But yeah, community policing and really being involved with everybody and the youth development, I think those are all great points and I think it's not a one-size-fits-all. I think all of these things could really contribute to having a better public safety. Thank you all. I'm going to read Melissa's statement and then we're going to open it up for questions from the audience. Melissa said, ACC has been significantly increasing investment in public safety initiatives for several years, not just in needs of our police force and correctional facilities but in preventative measures such as mental health initiatives, youth development, accountability courts and community outreach. These measures are paying off in indisputable statistics show that crime is down significantly in all categories across our community. The one category where it is down only slightly, which is 3% is shootings. This is obviously attributable to the pervasiveness and permissiveness of firearms in our society and we must do more as a community leaders as a democratic society in general to pressure elected state leaders to enact well-registered gun laws in the state of Georgia and throughout the U.S. The realities of a militarized citizenry mean that our officers require intensive and expensive training and risk as they face the increased likelihood that any tense situation could erupt in gun violence. I believe the state of Georgia should increase financial support for local police forces, particularly in communities impacted by gun violence. And that was from Commissioner Link. All right and we already have, I mean we've got people already with their hands up in the back and what we're gonna try to do one more time and then you'll be first sir in the back. We do want this in a form of a question and if you've already asked one question we'll go to somebody else with their hand up that hasn't had a chance to ask a question. So the gentleman in the back, go ahead and say it loudly so we can pick you up I think on the microphone. Let's be entaped. I'm not shy, thank you. And probably I'll just pick up a little bit louder to help my 71-year-old here. Appreciate all of you being here. My question is to Stephanie and I'd like to first of all congratulate all of you. I don't think I've had the questions in advance like maybe somebody else did to think about... Stephanie, my question is how many commission meetings as an auditor have you sat through and over how many years and how do you think that lives to your experience as far as your hopes to represent the six district? Okay, over the six years from 2015, well 2014 in that office, the Office of Operational Analysis through 2021 I think I missed two commissioner meetings. I attended every one and when we were I was required to attend the voting meetings but I oftentimes also went to the the agenda-setting meeting as well as the work session because there is just so much to learn and how that translates to my experience is that not only I had my day-to-day job of working eight to five and the capacity of the internal auditor, the management analysts and the budget analysts I learned a lot about all three areas you know data analytics as a management analyst the budget, I was one of the four individuals that wrote five years worth of the budget document that's a 450 page document that there's only four of us and then I transferred over to the auditor's office and then we began reviewing our departments our programs and our agencies and it was based on what was approved by the mayor commission but what I learned more about the operations is the inconsistent practices between the departments but just generally the operations of the government is a lesson in itself Thank you Stephanie Yes ma'am This question is for Carol The housing strategic plan why is the down payment 18% the down payment assistance 18% versus 20% I don't know the answer to that Maura but that is something that I would find out and get you an answer back Well I spoke to Alejandra twice and I asked her to speak to the mayor and missionaries in reference to that down payment The 18 versus 20% I do not know the answer to that Maura I spoke to her about I will follow up Thank you for that and I will follow up and learn more because that's what I try to do as a commissioner I don't know the answers to everything and I find them out when I don't know Thank you No, that's not a no That's a You want to ask me how many hours I've been in meetings in the last month I'm not sure what she covered or not but let's make sure where you have questions please Commissioner Myers, thank you and she'll get back to you on that answer Somebody else have a question Anyone? Yes, sir Say that they were supporting a racist sexual orientation or whether they are immigrants or not I've lived in communities around here that are very unwell so I'd like to know Excellent everybody Jason, we'll start here Do you want to start here? What your position is on the 2019, was that an executive resolution? Thank you, thank you Thank you for the question You know that was in 2019, here we are in 2024 I think we as a city should make it clear that we're just following state and federal law, that's what we're tasked to do I think this community has always been very welcoming, especially to those coming here to enrich this community Absolutely, if you're coming here to enrich and make a better life for yourself, you're more than welcome but I also think we should make it clear that we're following the state and federal laws of what we're required to do I don't really understand I'm sorry and I'm not trying to be funny I barely heard the question and I don't really understand There was a resolution in 2019 that was a statement by the mayor and the mayor about being a welcoming community to everybody with diverse backgrounds I don't remember the exact and I apologize but that resolution has come into question in recent weeks and so I think that's what the gentleman is asking is if you support that resolution Okay, well Athens is a welcoming community I'm an example of that I was born in Hartford, Connecticut culturally Jamaican I've come here, I've worked here for 30 years my mom's American, she brought us here we've worked very hard on several businesses, lots of property I think that's a testament to how welcoming Athens has been it's afforded me a lot of opportunities being here in Athens and being able to network and getting to know the community and so I guess I'm agreeing with you Jason that we are a very welcoming community and I don't want to see us I don't want to see that go away if that is the specific question because I want to make sure I answer your question but if that is the specific question no, I don't want to see it go away because people like me won't be here so thank you I just want to make sure I understood the question was do we support the mayor-related resolution that was introduced in 2019 is that the question? Here's my question in a nutshell I do not I support some of the language tangentially, however I don't support the way that it was introduced to the full mayor and commission I was at that meeting, I was sitting right there and it was introduced as a general resolution just like the number of resolutions that we see let's just say that the leisure services department they did something phenomenal it was reduced the significance and the subsequent events that occurred was reduced and was not communicated I don't think many commissioners would say that they agree not publicly but if you watch the meetings intently like I do it does not appear that they do agree with how they were duped and how they now have to face the consequences for something that they had no part in I am not against inclusion I'm not against people from various backgrounds I travel the world and I love it and so I welcome people here there's a process to get in and out the country I support that process Thank you Stephanie Sidney My family moved here from Auburn, Alabama I didn't feel any animosity at all when I moved to Athens, Georgia I have never known Athens to be a biased city that's why we became the classic city I believe that the resolution has run its course I believe that we have we have reached tilt on the different populations that need our help we come here for our help and we need to be able to treat them fairly with dignity and help them with their problems I have never known I I've lived in the neighborhood where we had every race languages when I was on the school board in our schools we had 88 different languages I think that speaks for the diversity that Clark County has will have and how we accept one another Yeah, thank you You know what I'm going to speak directly to this, I wasn't on the commission in 2019 the mayor and commission voted for it 100% I believe it's available to watch online and I've read I have seen pits of it recently and it looked like everyone was very supportive and it actually was a very heartwarming place in City Hall where many in our immigrant community spoke up they were concerned this was a time when families were being separated because of immigration status when there had been a shooting and I think it was a Walmart in Texas specifically aimed at immigrant community okay that's a resolution then if I will say this directly if I was on the commission in 2019 I would have signed that resolution and I want to make it clear why it's important because right now if you're in City Hall you see a lot of people holding signs that say repeal 2019 resolution it was something that came from our mayor this was voted on by the whole commission not just our mayor some people who are no longer on the commission some people who aren't so I support the mayor and I support the commission and what they did but let me also make it clear that a resolution is a statement of value it carries no legal weight we do have a sheriff I believe he's in here or he was before and he is following the rules as they are dictated by the state and by the ice as well and I think we'll continue to do that I know we will continue to do that I just want to make sure it's really clear that I am proud that Athens is a welcoming community for UGA students for seniors retiring here for the film industry for the LGBTQ community for people with different perspectives of view and for our immigrant and Hispanic community as well and I will not back down from that thank you thank you commissioner Myers and I think we have two more questions three more questions hold on we have four more questions wrestle maybe five we'll see if we can get through them all here you all wrestle Broderick commissioner Hewell and I'm sorry I do not know you in the back oh yes I do yes I do and you will be yes Gallagher we'll get to you too go ahead wrestle sorry last year 21 people died on Athens Rose it was a record we passed a vision zero pledge but have not really followed through with much action you know it took 23 years to get one third of the mile protected lane on Prince Avenue I hope we don't have to wait 23 more years for another one third of the mile but seeing the Barber Street bike lane get shot down was certainly disheartening questions what's your plan to address vision zero are we going to attack this problem with all these people dying on Athens streets no yeah I think that's a good point I think we do need to have safe streets and again I kind of pointed to it with a little bit of that technology I think that we could definitely you know I grew up in a smaller town inside of West Palm Beach and it was about a three mile circumference around a lake and family members friends anyone who came there we had our own little police department in that township and they were they didn't do much of anything there wasn't much to do but one thing they did do is hand out speeding tickets and you made sure you came stopped stop sign and that was just a reputation for that town nobody used it as a thoroughfare and everybody drove safe and felt safe on the streets so to me you know having some stringent laws in place or we already have the speed limit laws but maybe addressing some of those speed limit issues and having the right technology in place that not only would help traffic deaths I think in different congested areas but also EMS fire police I think that would really help and be kind of a dual prong solution to a couple of things we've discussed up here today I would just say any death on our streets regardless you know and I've said this before you know self-defense you know but any deaths on our streets is unacceptable and I think that any lengthy period to address any type of death especially transportation death and I think all of us at one point or another mention about our traffic issues and our infrastructure issues all of those need to be addressed immediately not as you said earlier kicking the can down the road you know they need to be addressed today right now you know but that's not something we have to wait just to get on the commission that's something we could be advocating for as constituents and should be and need to be that's my position okay really quickly I just want to make sure I make this extremely clear when I said I am I support a welcoming community I do I did also add to that that I follow rules and policies and guidelines to get into the country and to another country and the only thing I said was I support others doing the same thing so I like people of all backgrounds colors it doesn't matter I don't want anyone to miss quote me and say that I was against this I do support that but when it comes to vision zero I think there are some pockets in my district district six where there are no bike lanes there are no sidewalks at all and when I say it's been that way since 1982 and I cannot believe that some of these areas have not made it to the list so those are things that I'll be paying attention to thank you I tend to have a problem with concentrating on on spending money on what applies to one percent of our population until we start creating more bike lanes we need to be working on the pipes that are under those streets we have we have created so many new bedrooms in in Athens and we have not replaced the pipes there are whole sections of Athens that do not have septic they bed they beg for it I know families families in district eight on a street that when they chose not to have if you want sewer you could have it if you did you didn't have to sign on that was 50 60 years ago and now they're being told it's going to cost a hundred and forty thousand dollars upfront for five families to get on sewer plus an additional five thousand dollars you know is I don't see this as being very friendly to the taxpayers so I am not a big supporter of increasing more bike lanes when I see bikes crisscrossing lanes running red lights that gets me I'll be honest with you I also want to make clear that I in no way look down upon the homeless or look down upon any unbedded resident in our community we all we have laws for a reason we have families that have lived in Athens 30 40 50 years who are unbedded immigrants they live by the law they're always looking over their shoulder I understand that but that's because they came here under the law and as you live like everybody else does there is no problem I welcome all thank you and Cindy if you see me running a red light on my bike please call the police okay listen you know I think about it there's some times but anyway back to the question at hand I want to address a couple of things right up front if we are talking about bike infrastructure in Athens right now that money is not coming from the general budget it's coming from our T-Splos 2023 and our Splos 2020 program that we're voted on by the people of Athens the mayor commissioner commission cannot not do those projects another thing and I'm not pushing for this because I am a cyclist I want cycling to be safe but I also want people walking to be safe and we can take all the money that's splos and just put it on sidewalks because I don't think there's any that's limited to bikes so when people say oh you're making all that money you're putting all that money on to bikes that's a choice we're making as elected body and that's a choice that I want to make but we as an elected body have power to direct where we're spending the money on bikes and a sidewalk I do want to mention in our local safety plan that we just approved at the last March meeting intersection crashes are where 75% of crashes go on so right now we're actually just approved some money for intersection and some of my fellow commissioners in here one of them in the back, Commissioner Hull put forth with Commissioner Wright an increase of funding for that so we could address all the identified intersections that for this year we need to continue addressing the question at hand making sure that we have money to go for those intersections I also wanted to address equity because in our new residential transportation plan and also in Athens in motion those projects are ranked to give projects that are in places where there are more people walking, fewer people owning cars and more people living in poverty that's one of the criteria that's used in the ranking that we do when we spend money, thank you. Thank you, Broderick. I do want to give a little bit of context to the owner of March earlier but I do have a question but respectfully reparations is prepared for a direct harm to the people who are harmed and the justice and memory project is not going to directly to descendants of Lenin Town so I think I'll be careful I'm supporting the website I understand, but the website too and so I understand why we can't do direct payment because of the state the tool involved which is something that also needs to be addressed but my question is related to disparity studies that was done in 2022 when that disparity study was completed in 2023 it showed that there is significant disparity, racial disparity in terms of utilization of women owned minority owned businesses and black owned businesses with that new disparity study and the findings the local government is pursuing avenues to rectify to bring more balance if you candidates are part of the elected officials who want to carry that work out what does that look like to be supporting that work? Rashi wants to go first and I'll go first because I know Broderick specifically has been working on community benefit agreements with new industries and businesses that come in and new development and so one of the examples is that is the mall redevelopment they had put in a 70,000 square feet percentage block of space that is dedicated directly to minority and women owned businesses that is one of the examples and so to continue those conversations especially as a woman on minority owned business it is very important to me to be able to see that there are spaces made for women and minority owned businesses when we have these developments come in but not just the developments that we have that come in but also ones that we create and that's why I'm constantly pushing for you know rehabbing a lot of these abandoned buildings and making shared spaces and being able to create spaces that right here in Athens we can utilize and none of those have anything to do with changing the density why because those buildings already exist and those opportunities would further exist if we make them readily available tell people what is out there there are programs out there that will take our young women and our young minorities out of school and will train them to be contractors you know that will bring them in to not just do the construction jobs but also be the leaders of those jobs to be able to have their own businesses I know people say I harp on business and you know it's about a living wage but that's how we get there we make what we already have in place available and have people know what we have and encourage our kids to get in these programs or our house list to get into these programs or I really don't like that word when we keep saying our poverty is stricken but having those who have challenges how about that having those who have financial challenges to know about what's already readily available so that they can be able to have what we call the come up and then also people being able to create their own lane there are a lot of people in this room who have ideas and they would love to be able to see them come to fruition and whether you know it or not whether you go to the colleges or you go to some of these non-profits or you look for some of these grant programs there are opportunities available you just have to be told where they are whoever I think Stephanie looked at her mic she's ready to go okay so my take is a little different from stems from my experience working in the finance department between 2010 and 2014 and a half and at that time they actually had a minority business enterprise employee I think they had two at the time so I do support it that's the short answer however what I've seen it what I've seen to happen is it be the most underutilized position in the entire department so what I remember about this position and what I remember later on when I was required to review it is that this particular role is to actively that person who holds that job is to actively go out into the community and seek and look for and recruit minority businesses like Rashi said lift businesses up encourage them you know maybe partner with businesses who have a vacancy to maybe move them into that space this is an aggressive everyday out in the streets almost you're just talking to businesses and you're looking for places to plant your minority small business owners so that they can flourish you're also supposed to provide training at least three times a year I know for a fact none of that was happening so I think it's a great program but there is no oversight and it seems to be the most or the least excuse me important I've not been in touch in the last two years but that is my that's my more than 10 year experience when it was started they took it away in 2012 and then recently when diversity equity inclusion and I'm so sorry became popular they brought it back okay I just want to say that what we're doing with this disparity study and as Broderick news that this was this disparity study had to be done so that we could implement programs in Athens Clark County the Government Operations Committee which is made up of five of the commissioners I am not on there the chair is right over there in the doorway we just I believe sent this back to the GOC to further refine so one thing I would welcome from anyone here are ways that we can do that and I'll be looking at more closely to make sure something concrete comes out of there because the whole point of this disparity study was so that we could address minority and women owned disparities in how we do the hiring Athens Clark County I will be greatly disappointed if we don't have anything to move forward on thank you in 1983 not one bank in Athens Georgia would loan me $29,000 to start Mama Sins Pizza I had to go to a Coney County and a Coney State Bank welcomed me and gave me that loan I owe them my livelihood I understand what it is to want to start a business and you just keep getting doors shut in your face I uphold anybody who has the guts to step out to open a door to people to give your to do your sales and services to sit down on anyone who wants to do this is totally unfair and called for and illegal I support any program that can help anyone to become an entrepreneur I would tend to agree with that as well I'd like to see more entrepreneurship programs out there especially for our youth I think a lot of times when we look at the way we school our kids were kind of schooling them to maybe go on to secondary education what about the focus on being an entrepreneur and looking into your own community and seeing a need and figuring out a way to fill that need and monetize it to create a job and make your community better I think that as entrepreneurs that's what we look to do my wife and I were the same way trying to get a loan back in 2010 wasn't easy and we were able to through the SBDC get some help in making a business plan an excel sheet that really put us on the path to success and allowed us to open up our business which has been open now for going on 13 years before teen in August down in this community and I'd like to encourage anyone who wants to get into the entrepreneur any program that helps in that entrepreneurial spirit I think is really good for the town absolutely alright Commissioner Huell yeah so this is an election obviously and here in Clark County our elections for local office are non-partisan but we are aware of course that there are parties and just as a brief background I promise it's going to lead to very short answers to my question a huge thing has changed in Clark County in recent years where we see tens of thousands of dollars funneling into local elections where it used to be 10 maybe $15,000 money to win for commissioners and this money is coming from all over the state who knows where actually in part because while some campaigns are raising $30,000 we have packs that have been forming we have been sending out mailers and doing push calling and phone banking and things for candidates the fun thing about packs is you don't know who gave the money to the pack and that money is from un-disclosed numbers of people it's un-disclosed amounts but you do know when you get something like a mail or a mail who paid for it so this question is there are packs in this community that we've seen who knows what they'll be called this time around like neighbors who are a better community or happens to be unsafe or keep happens classic and my question for each of you because the answer obviously is no you're not going to take money directly from the pack but no packs no packs be circulating literature or doing work in support of your campaign I have no idea I'm not in politics I just got into this to try and make my community better so I honestly do not know I think you mentioned we're unable to work with packs is that correct donors people that donate to me that's who's giving my money family members friends are we going to have an argument yes the question I have no idea Malcolmfordcommissioner.com if anybody would like to donate it is very hard to get money for campaigns so I don't know any packs you know so I'll just say that we are running a grassroots campaign here mailers are $3,000 so if anybody would like to donate to my campaign just hit the donate button and we thank you okay so I've been called a walking conflict and I embrace it because some people say you're not democratic enough or you're not Republican or you hang around Republican people so for people who are not from the people you see in my images are people I grew up with and oops by chance they might be a Republican oops and by chance they might be a Democrat I have no idea about packs I can't speak to it I raise every single dollar and here's the joke every single day I wake up you can ask my husband I'm asking somebody for money and so I'm step46 great idea step46.com every single day I am electmamasid.com I I am running on on a very very slight budget I even had someone give me 75 cents the other day at my store I said thank you very much anything helps Jesse this is nonpartisan and it's nonpartisan for a reason who my vote for for president has absolutely nothing to do with my local government I will look at what the needs of my district are and vote accordingly all of my campaign literature will have on it paid for by the committee to elect re-elect Carol Myers and that's my answer Miss Gallagher is next sorry Tim she had already had her hand up earlier and I do not have a timepiece are we run we're overtime I imagine we are already overtime and I would say maybe just five more minutes because our good friends here at TNA have to clean out after all of us and they don't want to stay here forever tonight so yeah excellent okay so as you may already know additional collaboration between county government CCSE and UGA is almost I feel sometimes not existent what steps are you prepared to take as a commissioner to ensure that the court issues mentioned here today public safety homelessness in the court of a housing are addressed through collaboration with CCSE and UGA it's a great note to end on so this will be the last one and I want to thank you ahead of time you all thank you a few people left didn't get that in anything I can that's the answer anything I can I feel like first and foremost you have to have a conversation I know you're going to have differences with each of those organizations about how things need to go but we need to work together and figure out the needs of one another and ways to fulfill those needs especially the fractured relationship with the university I think is that's such a huge resource for a bunch of different things that we've talked about I mean they have an entrepreneurship school that they've started so I mean how are we not utilizing some of those things to accomplish what we're talking about they have services as well that we should be utilizing they use some of our services so I feel like that should be a more symbiotic relationship when you're we're not at what's good for them is good for us what's good for us is good for them and I feel like we need to get there CCSD same way I feel like need to collaborate with them as a city to what their needs are and what was the other organization you mentioned there you have it I really do think there is a fractured relationship and there's too much contention and we need to come together and figure out ways that we can work together to accomplish a lot of the goals because I don't think we can't do it on our own and they can't do it on their own so I do I do feel that that relationship needs to be more symbiotic than it is right now I'm happy to answer this question because I'm already involved in a partnership with all of us so the board member for the chamber of commerce we are as a business industry already collaborating with CCSD the local government as well as UGA on a lot of these programs and so the entrepreneurship program is already in you know our classic city high school already has like the you know the catering programs that we're a part of as well as you know I mean they have mechanics so anything you can think of and as business owners we are now actually heavily recruiting students as interns so that they can get that practicum experience as well as the education and then when they come out if they choose not to go to secondary school with somebody brought out they don't have to they can go straight into the workforce and so I think those collaborative efforts are already going on and I think that more people need to encourage it and they need to also push for if they don't see any of their local officials or if they don't see UGA or somebody from the school board speaking out against it you really need to ask them why and tell them to sit in on the meeting because we are making things happen with our kids in this community and wish more people would see it I support collaboration I don't know how easy it will be but it's something I'm really interested in learning out learning how to bridge the gap I've been a witness, a flower on the wall for many small private meetings and I could not understand why the playmakers the top of the people the top of their respective organizations just would not get along and I thought in different pockets they would but when it came to the bosses the bosses the president or the manager it was very unsuccessful and I could never figure that out if it's a liability issue I'm not sure if it's an ego issue I don't know what the answer is but I do support collaboration I think it's healthy and I think it provides exposure when I was in high school I was allowed to go on campus to the French lab laboratory and I became very fluent in French in my last three years of high school because of collaboration back then so I do support collaboration I would like to see that Athens is here because of the University of Georgia the fact that the two entities the government and the university don't get along very well truly amazes me I do not understand it the fact that the University of Georgia and Clark County School District don't get along very well I know when I was on the board we begged to have people from the university in our classrooms and it just never worked when I was on the school board we had a hard when I was on my first year we passed our first Esplast we had a hard time getting approval working with our local government to build our new schools to renovate new schools so what the animosity between all three entities is I have never understood but I do I am only one vote but I will do what I can to increase a more pleasing let's get together attitude hi I heard this the people say the university doesn't get along we all don't get along with the government and such I heard something at another forum recently so I went and asked our county management office do you guys ever meet UGA? Yes there's a group of them that meet every week or two I did not write it I don't have my notes here they meet very regularly we meet with the school board I have met with the school board to work on our youth development work yes we could have more meetings yes we always can do things better there's always room for improvement but I think we also as commissioners have a responsibility to nurture that positive relationship as well there was a traffic light out on college station okay I was able to well actually no let's take that back parking lot on college station you might be wondering what's going on there I reached out to the community liaison Allison McCulloch to ask her about that that was not a problem reaching out to her I'm on campus I was on campus last week working with UGA students on a sustainability board and have been working with them in many other occasions as well likewise we recently with a fellow commissioner at the Clark County the career center learning about what they're doing so that we can collaborate with them as we work forward with our workforce development perhaps we should do a better job explaining what we are doing to build these relationships they are happening we can always do better and I will be working for that as we move forward but we have a responsibility as commissioner it's not always someone else's fault each of us individually as commissioners can make a difference to improving those relationships thank you thank you all thank you Jason thank you Rashi thank you Stephanie, Sydney and Commissioner Meyers let's all give them a hand for being here tonight and I know I wasn't the best moderator but I gotta keep my day job I'm not quite ready for retirement so you're bearing with me and please join us at Federation of Neighborhoods you can join online we have membership and look forward to the next forum so thank you all for being here as well