City of Summerville Council Meeting – September 2016

The regularly scheduled City of Summerville Council meeting was held on Monday, September 12th at 6:00 pm. The meeting began with a call to order, roll call, the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance. Mayor Harry Harvey then addressed the guests and visitors and made general announcements and comments.

Susan Locklear, director of Main Street, presented the highlights of the last month’s activities. Locklear discussed several September and October events coming up. The City has many fall activities planned for every Saturday in October through mid-November. Sum Nelly Arts and Crafts Fair will be held on October 1st, there will be a $20 charge for vendors. More details can be found on the City of Summerville website and will be covered here at All On Georgia.

Updates from the Water Treatment Plant, Wastewater Treatment Plant, Public Works and Utilities, Recreation Department,Summerville Police and Fire Department and the City Attorney were given.

The Council discussed the tearing down of the old City garage building on Henry street and replacing it with a 40 ft x 50 ft metal building to be used for records storage and equipment maintenance. This project is not to exceed $35,000. This discussion included updating the process of storing data digitally and how to determine which materials will need to be stored in hard copy format for historical purposes.

The Council discussed the lack of comprehensive attendance policy for City employees. “The current Attendance Policy at the City of Summerville does not have any guidelines for employees to follow. It doesn’t mention any given number of days that an employee can be late or absent. We need to come up with an attendance policy that is fair to the employees but also gives our Department Managers leverage to deal with employees that have absentee problems,” said councilman Joe Money. The Council voted to let the city manager look into the attendance issues. Councilman David Ford commented the the department managers should have a say as well on attendance.

Terry Tinney from the Public Works Department stated that the five year safety study on the gas lines has been completed and this moves the Highland Avenue sidewalk project one step closer to breaking ground. He also told that the crosswalk on Highland had been put in.

The final approval made on the Fairway Recreation Center were approved by the council and the architect was instructed to release the plans for the bidding process.

There was no decision announced on the City Manager position after the matter was discussed in executive session. The announcement is expected to be made Monday September 19th at 6 pm.

The final decision has came down to two candidates, Tony Carroll of Summerville, current interim City Manager and Brandon Douglas the Assistant City Manager of Acworth.

Click here for Tony Carroll’s Resume. Carroll is familiar with current issues in the City of Summerville such as the chicken house gas main extension on Mahan Road and the downtown sidewalk replacement project. He has had “extensive management experience in all City departments with the exception of the Police and Recreation, which would be no problem to manage.” Carroll is a 1984 graduate of Chattooga High School and holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Kennedy Western University.

Click here for Brandon Douglas’s Resume and Cover Letter, sent to Mayor Harry Harvey. Douglas is the current Assistant City Manager of Acworth, GA and holds a bachelor’s in Political Science and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Georgia College and State University.

The resumes and the qualifications of the two candidates differ in many areas. The Summerville City Council will announce their decision at a special meeting on Monday Sept 19th.