Now that the City , they can concentrate on finding a new City Manager.
Please read my articles "" and "".
Those articles point out a program that I suggested to the Mayor and Council before I left and then wrote of. Basically, I suggested that the City have a selection committee composed of City Managers from other Cities to look through applications for the job.
They would then pass three names on to the Mayor and Council. A similar plan was proposed by Mayor Vaughn and the Council approved when . I have several further suggestions to the plan:
1) The selection committee should not meet in .
2) No elected officials should attend the meetings. The Human Resource Director can attend to help coordinate certain information.
Why those two addendum? There should be no possibilities of involvement by anyone from City Hall in their selection process. I think that this is a clean effective process that will assist the Mayor and Council in selecting the right person. I hope that they get on this right away.
Good News: The Governor signed the bill passed overwhelmingly by the Legislature that will increase fines for elected officials who violate the Open Meetings law. It also clarifies some matters and also addresses the Open Records law making it cheaper (10 cents per copy) to obtain records. I also and you can access that column.
Elsewhere, I hope that you are following articles on Patch and the MDJ about the proposed increase in sales taxes for transportation. I last week where five proponents spoke in favor of the tax and complicated plan.
I will present their views later on and continue to bird dog this issue. By the way, the proponents spoke for 45 minutes, me for 6 where I tried to present the other side. I suggested to the Mayor that Powder Springs hold a debate on this issue where both sides can have equal time. If this happens please attend.
WATER MEETING
On May 8, 7pm, , the City will host a meeting on . They will explain why rates were increased. You can speak up then or forever hold your peace.
Thanks for reading,
Tom Bevirt
With the addition of the stormwater tax of $36/year and the addition of fixed water and sewer fees of approximately $86/yr, homeowners are now paying $122 molre per year in city services. The Storm water fee will most likely increase by $12/year over the next 2-3 years. Combine the increase in water/sewer/stormwater fee's with the recent increase of $20/mo from GA Power for the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Burke, GA, power and water/sewer/stormwater, P.S. citizens are now paying $362 extra per year for these services.
Also to Mr. Bevirt’s comment- The Council is starting the search a new City Manager. The job will be advertised soon and six weeks will be allotted to receive applications and start interviews. Our expected hiring date is July 1st, if a qualified candidate can be found by that time. We plan to hopefully use the resources of our surrounding cities, HR Directors, Managers and Mayors to assist in the initial selection process. The use of private citizen’s in the initial selection process is probably not possible due to confidentially HR issues during the selection and interview process.