Tuesday evening, Centerville Mayor and Council held its regular monthly meeting. The primary item on the agenda was the presentation of the proposed Fiscal Year 2021 (FY 2021) budget. In April, Mayor John Harley had announced that the meeting wherein the city’s proposed budget would be discussed would be one that would be open to the public. Therefore, Tuesday, for the first time since April 2, when Governor Brian Kemp issued a statewide shelter-in-place executive order, the community was invited to physically attend. The meeting was also live streamed through the City of Centerville’s official Facebook page.
As the session got underway, City Accountant Carol Harrison facilitated a slideshow presentation that outlined the detailed breakdown of the proposed FY 2021 budget fund structure. The full slideshow, as presented, can be viewed on the City of Centerville’s official website or the city’s Facebook page. Harrison announced that the adoption of the FY 2021 budget would take place at the June 16 session.
“This budget is quite a bit less than last year’s budget, because we cut everything we could,” Mayor Harley said following Harrison’s presentation. “We’re not sure what’s going to happen in the next six months, so we wanted to be prepared for it and make sure the citizens don’t have any problems.”
A last-minute item that was added to the meeting’s agenda—by unanimous vote—was regarding an audit letter that the mayor announced had been received and needed council’s consideration. The letter offered pricing proposal options for a one-year or five-year contractual extension for Nichols, Cauley & Associates, LLC to provide auditing services for the city of Centerville.
Option one of the proposal would cover a single-year audit at an amount of $37,250. Option two presented a five-year extension that began with the aforementioned one-year amount to be paid for the first year, and incrementally increased through the year 2024, which at that time, the audit would be done at a cost of $39,480.
Councilman Cameron Andrews motioned that council only approve the one-year contract, citing that it would give them the opportunity to seek bids for future audits that may come at more reasonable prices. “We’ve had them for a long time,” Andrews said of Nichols, Cauley & Associates. “Not that they’ve not done a great job; they have. They’ve been impeccable, and I like them. I love the job that they do, but a new set of eyes on finances is always a good thing.”
After further discussion, council agreed, by unanimous vote, to accept the one-year offer and to put the job out for bid next year. It was confirmed by Harrison that Nichols, Cauley & Associates would have the opportunity to bid along with any others to be considered for the next audit.
The final order of new business on Tuesday’s agenda was the discussion of whether to award a Georgia Initiative for Community Housing (GICH) point to a housing developer. For mayor and council’s consideration, Director of Economic Development Kate Hogan presented a video that gave information on both Parkside Senior Village (a senior housing development planned for Margie Drive) whose developer is Investor’s Management Company (IMC), and Abbington at Galleria Mall (an affordable workforce multi-family housing development planned for the south side of Gunn Road) whose developer is ReaVentures.
Prior to the start of the visual production, Councilman Justin Wright explained, for those in attendance and the virtual viewing public, the background information of GICH and the meaning of awarding a point to a housing developer.
In part, Wright explained, “We have the option tonight to award a point toward the application of one project or another. We also can, if we so choose, award a point to no one. I think in some ways that might be safe politically, but it might be shortsighted. The reality is, the way the DCA is continuing to change their scoring, it makes it very, very likely that a project is going to be approved to the city of Centerville very soon.” He concluded with, “That being the case, it might be wise for mayor and council to exercise this point to display some preferences to what we think our citizens might most prefer.”
Hogan made it known that the video she was preparing to share with council regarding both projected housing developments had, for the last 24 to 48 hours, been available on the city’s website for public access. Additionally, for awareness purposes, Hogan provided a list to mayor and council, which she explained, contained all questions that had been asked by the public from the beginning of March until the morning of the meeting date.
Following the video showing, Hogan read a letter from the Centerville Housing Team that recommended the point be awarded ReaVentures for the development of Abbington at Galleria Mall. She read a second letter from one of the owners of Houston County Galleria (mall) that expressed a recommendation to award the point to ReaVentures as well.
Wright motioned that the award point be given to ReaVentures, and Andrews seconded. However, in the lengthy discussion that followed, Councilman Edward Armijo stated his disagreement of council approving the point award without first having a public forum and giving members of the community a say in the matter.
“What do the citizens prefer?” Armijo asked. “I’ve spoken to quite a few citizens within the last two weeks; within the last month, actually.” He went on to say, “The response I got back was that they’re not interested in the project at the mall, and they’re more interested in the senior citizen [housing].” Armijo further stated that council members should not make a decision on behalf of the public without first having a public hearing. “Whether we vote on it tonight or two weeks from now,” he said, “I’m abstaining my vote.”
Wright challenged Armijo’s response, asking Armijo to provide letters from the citizens who had voiced their disapproval of the multi-family housing development. Additionally, Wright said, “We all would have preferred to have a public hearing,” Wright pointed out, “but the deadline for these applications is June 18, and I don’t have it within my power to compel the governor to change his executive order limiting us from doing those meetings.”
Armijo’s feedback was also questioned by Andrews who argued that whatever citizens Armijo was speaking of had the opportunity to attend the night’s meeting and voice their concerns. “There are people in here that chose to be here tonight,” Andrews said. “We didn’t stop anybody from coming in this door tonight, so your argument about that, Councilman Armijo, isn’t valid.”
“Every citizen in the city knows where City Hall is,” Councilman Micheal Evans said, later adding, “I encourage everyone to contact all your local representatives and make your concerns known. I would like—as Council Wright suggested—to postpone this vote for the next two weeks, and give everyone an opportunity to call [us] and make your concerns known. We’re not going to accomplish anything tonight.”
Mayor Harley also stated that after speaking to several citizens, no one had come to him with objections to the housing project.
After further discussion, mayor and council agreed to table the motion until the June 16 meeting in spite the fact that it would only give them two days to get the letters submitted by the June 18 deadline. The meeting was then adjourned.
On Friday, June 5, Houston Home Journal received official information via email that a Special Council Meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, June 9 at 5:00 p.m. to further discuss the issue of awarding the GICH point.
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