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by Sarah Brown – Managing Editor

The Cordele City Commission met on Tuesday September 5, 2023 at 9am at the Cordele City Hall Courtroom with Chairman, Commissioner Vesta Beal Shephard, Commissioner Isaac H. Owens, Commissioner Royce Reeves, Sr., Commissioner Wesley Rainey and City attorney, Tommy Coleman in attendance. They went straight into department heads starting with the Finance Director who went over a few items, financial summary cash allowance half of the 2 million was for the new fire truck. For achievements the customer relations clerk position has been filled. As well as a few of the members of the finance staff have completed the accounting one course which is the first step in completing the finance officer certification. They also mentioned that property taxes will be mailed out in October and will be due in December. We then heard from the Fire Chief, Todd Alligood with their goals and achievements, they have plans to paint the outside of station one in October, they also hope to complete a structure to house ladder three which will be an extra ladder truck for them which should happen in the next month. Fire prevention month is coming up from October 8^th through the 14^th which the theme being “Cooking safety starts with you.” They will present programs to schools and they will also conduct the smoke detector blitz October 7^th that was originally scheduled for June. They conducted the push in ceremony for ladder one which is now in service and they officially appointed Frank Bullington as Deputy Chief. Engine one and ladder one attended a 9/11 ceremony at the High School that was hosted the ROTC. They also have two firefighters that are attending basic firefighter certification. We then heard from housing and urban development director who spoke in regards to their goals and achievements, the sewer pump and line project is now complete. Next we heard from Municipal court who didn’t’ have much for goals and accomplishments. We then heard from Police Chief, Jalon Heard who gave both the goals and accomplishments for Code Enforcement and the Police Department. The code enforcement team met and they created a list of goals and accomplishments that include; making the city more attractive to both the residents and those who come through or to visit in Cordele. The aim is to attract new business and residents to the city. They also plan to schedule training opportunities that are code enforcement related. They will also inform and educate the public on codes and regulations. They will be utilizing social media to announce code related issues. In terms of accomplishments they have comepleted their office space and are working on door hangers with the top code violations that the officers ahave been seeing. The door hangers will be placed on doors with the violation they have noticed along with contact information if they have any questions. Moving forward to the police department’s goals and accomplishments, they have hired one new officer, and one in the hiring process along with two cadets who should be graduating this Friday in Tifton. They have two events scheduled for National Faith in Blue week with the first event being the coat drive that is currently going on and they will be partnering with Northern Heights church on October 7^th to distribute the coats to the city. As of this morning they have collected over 100 coats. They will also be attending the national faith in blue worship service on October 8^th at Cross Culture Church. They are also increasing the in house training for the officers according to the cities needs. Sgt. Amy stokes was transferred to the detective division and started her orientation. They also held an award ceremony where Stubbs, Wells and Hope Sanders were promoted to Cpl. Many officers and captains also received the act of Valor for their acts during the Tyee Browne incident. Public Works Director did not have any updates. UC&T Director said that they got back their testing for certain chemicals in the water and it came back negative. Which means that they will no longer need to test, which will save over $200 a month.

Agenda item number one was to consider and approve an Alcohol License: Owner – Mrugeshkumar Patel, Name of Business – 7 th Street Cordele Inc, 1702 South 7th Street, Cordele, GA 31015. Beer & Wine Consumed Off Premises. Chief Heard approved the application on September 12, 2023. This was properly moved and second, approved unanimously.

Agenda item number two was to consider and approve the Second Reading of An Ordinance Amending the Zoning Code of the City of Cordele to Provide for Notice of Hearing before the Board of Zoning Appeals; Repealing all Ordinances in Conflict Herewith; and For Other Purposes. This was properly moved and second, approved unanimously.

Agenda item number three was the First Reading of the Revised Ordinance Regulating Mobile Food Vendors within the Corporate Limits of the City; Repealing all Ordinances in Conflict Herewith; and For Other Purposes. This was properly moved and second, approved unanimously.

Agenda item number four the Addendum to the Agreement and Acceptance between Granicus and the City of Cordele, Georgia. This was properly moved and second, approved unanimously.

Agenda item number five was to consider and approve the Safety Cloud Proposal from HAAS Alert Service for the Fire Department. Background Information The Fire Department is requesting to enter into an agreement with HAAS Alert. HAAS Alert sends alerts to oncoming traffic via their vehicle system or popular mobile navigation application such as Waze that emergency vehicles are approaching and/or on the side of the road. This was properly moved and second, approved unanimously.

Agenda item number six was to consider and approve the Agreement between the Fire Department and ImageTrend for Reporting Software. Background Information The Fire Department Fire/EMS reporting tool is not working. ImageTrend is free reporting software offered by the State Fire Marshal’s Office with preloaded incident reports that will load directly into NFIRS. The attached agreement is the annual fee for the CAD interface with ImageTrend. This was properly moved and second, approved unanimously.

Agenda item number seven was to consider Appointment of Milton Holly to the Board of Zoning Appeals. This was motioned but not second, meeting moved

Agenda item number eight was to discuss Old Boys and Girls Club Building – 212 N 2^nd Street. This discussion was brought up by Jay Waters who runs the program, and the issue with the building they are leasing. They were not automatically able to renew their lease contract and Waters wanted to ensure that it wasn’t due to something that he did. There were some issues with Waters renting out the building for other purposes rather than the program, which was clarified to be a way they brought money in for fundraising.

The commissioners and chairman got into a dispute over the last agenda item as Deriso was said to be of relation to Waters, and the reason they got the building. This opened a “can of worms” between the commissioners causing chaos in the courtroom with name-calling, gavel slamming and the meeting being adjourned early.

We did not hear from the City Manager as the meeting was adjourned early.