Present*:
Mayor J Max Davis, District 1 Councilwoman – Rebecca Chase Williams, District 2 Councilman – Jim Eyre, City Clerk – Susan Hiott, Interim City Manager – Marie Garrett, Interim City Attorney – Bill Riley, * District 3 Councilman – Bates Mattison, joined later

The meeting got under way with a review of the City Charter by Bill Riley. The first topic was a discussion on Term Limits.

"We’ve looked at that [Term Limits for the Mayor] and term limits are only of course for the Mayor, there’s been some discussion of having 2 full terms instead of a partial term and a full term for the Mayor. After some research we think that probably we’re going to need to have that passed at the Legislature rather than by home rule since it is an election matter”, said Riley. “If that’s something that you [Mayor Davis] desire we can certainly get it into this years hopper and see if we can’t get it through if that would be the desire of the Council on that.”

According to the "Let's Talk Trash" schedule, the last public outreach meeting on Sanitation will be held this weekend.

Saturday, Feb 2, 9 AM
Chapel Hill Middle School
3535 Dogwood Farm Rd
Decatur, GA 30034

At the 1.22.13 City Council Meeting, Mayor J Max Davis brought up Sanitation (Trash, Recycling, and Yard Waste), where Bill Riley explained that the City has pursued an IGA with service levels to remain as they are today. There is a kink in that plan, however. As many of the Brookhaven Citizens may already know, Dekalb County is considering countywide rate increases for Sanitation Services. Bill Riley explains, "I would anticipate that when they [Dekalb County] make a decision on what they are going to do, they will come to the cities and offer either once a week or twice a week for Garbage pickup...whenever they do it, it will go to all the cities at one time...they will present a couple of options and the cities will vett and choose the option and build the IGA around that." 

The meeting began at 7:30 PM with a full City Council and Administration present, who were joined by 16 citizens and media. The Invocation was delivered by Rabbi Hayyim Kassorla who also gave a brief history of Congregation Or VeShalom.

Announcements included an explanation and details of the January 24th City of Brookhaven Town Hall meeting at Marist School by Interim Deputy City Manager, JD Clockadale. "Essentially the Town Hall is built to give some brief presentations by Mayor, City Council and various departments, but it's really designed for citizens to provide input and/or get questions answered by those who are running the city on a day-to-day basis." The event will introduce the Mayor and City Council and the City’s department heads. They will provide departmental updates and processes, present updates on the City’s ordinances, future plans, and will also provide time for residents to ask questions of the Mayor, Council and staff.

The First Town Hall Meeting by an elected City of Brookhaven official was held on Wednesday night in the Recreation Building at Ashford Park. Jim Eyre, City of Brookhaven Councilman for District 2; along with the Mayor and fellow Councilpersons, have been hard at work building the foundation on which our new City of Brookhaven will rest. 

The meeting began with a presentation by Councilman Eyre - providing a snapshot of what has transpired during the first 30 days in the life of our new city. "With the city being in existence for 30 days now, I want to take an opportunity to let you know where we've been...we've gotten official business out of the way, we've passed codes, we've passed ordinances, we've passed resolutions, that set us up as a city...now we can start looking forward to the fun stuff [park master plans, etc.] - we've got the building blocks set." 

After Jim completed his presentation, he took questions from the audience and had a great open exchange of information and ideas. One of those questions was, "How much money has been spent so far?" Councilman Eyre answered, "We've asked that question. We're supposed to be getting a budget report shortly. While we have been constructing the real budget, we just signed the vendor contracts this week and Marie [Garrett - Interim City Manager] is getting a summary of those." Councilman Eyre, assured the attendees that he too is anxious to get the summaries and is pushing to have those as soon as possible. In terms of the actual full budget, Councilman Eyre explained that the Brookhaven Fiscal year was established to run from January 1st to December 31st - and that the 2013 Budget will likely be established in mid to late February each calendar year. Additionally, Councilman Eyre noted that there will be public meetings once the budget is nearing it's adoption date.

Councilman Eyre to hold two Town Hall Meetings 
Now that the City of Brookhaven is up and running, Councilman Eyre would like to take a few minutes to let you know what has been accomplished and, more importantly, hear from you as to your thoughts on the city.  Along those lines, Councilman Eyre will be holding two Town Hall meetings. Dates and Times are below.

Additionally, The Brookhaven Post has compiled a list of accomplishments thus far for items approved or acted upon by the Brookhaven Mayor and City Council. Perhaps this list (found here) will provide a point or two you would like to discuss with Jim in person at one of these meetings.

The Brookhaven Post will be covering both events.