Baldwin mayor to veto council action

The vote to allow the waiver for the police chief passed in a 3-2 vote.

Council member Robert Bohannon made the motion to approve the waiver and Rodney King seconded the motion. Council member Beverly Holcomb also voted in favor of the resolution. Council members Jeff Parrish and Sandi Rudeseal voted in opposition to the resolution.

On Tuesday, city attorney David Syfan said the city charter allows the mayor to veto any ordinance and any resolution.

This item has been the topic of numerous council meetings over the past several months. The main issue with some of the council is the fact that Baldwin Police Chief Daren Osborn, who lives in Hiawassee, drives his city vehicle 36 miles to and from work. The policy allows for city vehicles to be driven 25 miles to and from work.

ANOTHER VETO

On another matter Monday night, the mayor said he plans to veto action taken by the council on another issue. The mayor is opposed to the approval given, in a 3-2 vote, to hire Omega Technology Group, Cornelia, to fix the technology problems at the police department.

During the meeting, Bohannon made a motion to approve a bid of $1,714 from Oemga Technology Group, Holcomb second the motion and King voted in favor of the motion. Parrish and Rudeseal voted in opposition to the motion.

The council received three bids on the IT work at the police department. SurePoint IT Solutions, Cleveland, submitted a bid of $720 and Ansley Communications Group, Inc., Cornelia, bid $1,373. Presley reported that he was instructed by Neace to get a bid to fix the IT problems at the police department.

“My recommendation is that we take care of everything and move forward,” Presley said. During Thursday’s meeting, Presley carried the council members through the police department and pointed out the issues with wires and cables hanging out of the walls and ceilings, switches lying in the floor and bunches of wires piled up in the floor.

“I found the server sitting in the floor with a box on top of it blocking the vent,” Presley said.

Presley reported that all the cabling and looping slows the server down.

Bohannon asked Osborn if spending $500-$700 would help the problem at the police department.

Osborn said, “It would not make much difference.”

Parrish said, “I think this, the wires hanging out of the walls and ceiling, is something than can wait. This is not a budgeted item.”
Presley advised the council that he is aggressively pursuing collection of some $57,000 in past due taxes that is not in the budget that could be used to fund this project.

King said, “The only thing I have to say is we were getting this for free and we were going to get a switch donated.”

A Baldwin resident had previously been handling the police department IT issues and was going to donate a switch to the city for use at the police department. Rudeseal reported that when Osborn approached the council about going paperless at the police department she asked Mike Devincentis, owner of SurePoint IT Solutions, to look at the IT issues at the police department and make recommendations on what needed to be done. However, it has since been determined that the current program used at the police department cannot handle going paperless.

OTHER BUSINESS

In other business at Monday’s council meeting:

•the council unanimously approved the city’s 2010 Christmas tree lighting event for 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 2, at the city park next to the police department. The rain date is 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 7.

•the council approved pursuing a 50/50 matching Department of Community Affairs Immediate Threat and Danger grant for work on the Regency sewer lift station. Wastewater treatment plant supervisor Chad Conard presented the council with a bid from Griffin Brothers, Maysville, for $67,327 for repairs to the lift station that were caused by sewer gases. Syfan advised the council to include a provision in the motion to pursue the grant that states any engineering contract work would have to come back before the council. Presley reported he is also looking at some other grants that could possibly help offset the city’s 50 percent match of $33,664.

•the council met in closed session for approximately 20 minutes to discuss pending litigation. No action was taken.

•Baldwin resident Ray Holcomb asked the council to consider doing something to honor former council member Mitchell Gailey for his work on the new city park. “This was Mitchell’s dream and he died before it was finished,” Holcomb said. Holcomb, a former council member, advised that before he went off the council a discussion was held about possibly putting up a plaque or something at the park to honor Gailey. “I know you might not have time to do something before the tree lighting, but I would like to see you do something,” Holcomb said.