Savannah City Government

SUMMARY/FINAL MINUTES

COUNCIL WORK SESSION

Mayor DeLoach called the 3:00 p.m. Council Work Session to order.  

City Manager Hernandez announced he received an email from Alderman Hall stating he would not be present at today's meeting.

Sean Brandon, Parking & Mobility Services Director presented the Parking Study Implementation to Council bringing them up to date with where staff is and inform them of future actions. He stated there were several public information sessions held all of which were well attended. 

Alderman Durrence expressed his concerns with resident parking and weekend sweeping. He suggested changing the metered parking spaces in his residential area to $2 per hour and increase the enforcement time to 10 p.m., enforcing parking on Sunday beginning at 2 p.m. and resident only parking in the evenings.

Mr. Brandon stated staff is in the process of doing "space recapture" which is a process where staff evaluates unused reserved spaces and putting them back into circulation. 

Daphanie Williams, Management Services Coordinator presented the Quarterly Capital Projects update.Ms. Williams stated there is a total of 298 Capital Improvement Projects of which 96 are SPLOST funded projects, with a budget of over $670 million, remaining funds are $431 million. She also informed Council that she is in the process of working with the IT staff  in putting an interactive report on the city's website that will include a complete listing of all projects and a snapshot of  each projects’ financial status. The initial phase of the CIP Website development (table and map view) will be on the website by the end of April 2017. The second phase will include Art GIS which should be done by the end of June 2017 along with the first quarter CIP status updates.

Ms.Williams thanked all staff that worked closely with her. City manager Hernandez commended Ms. Williams on a job well done as this was her first time presenting to Council. 

David Maxwell, Chief Financial Officer presented the Debt Overview portion of the presentation and introduced the City's Financial Advisor Courtney Knight of Public Financial Management.

City Manager Hernandez stated one key thing he would like Council to understand is that for a City our size and age it does not have a lot of debt and the debt it does have is short to mid term.

Alderman Shabazz expressed her concerns about the drainage issues in District 5 which has not had anything done to it in the past 5 years. She stated many studies have been done on the Springfield Canal and now need to be acted on as the City begins to move forward in its five year projection periods. 

City Manager Hernandez responded stating he understands her concerns but although the City has the capacity to borrow funds it does not have the capacity to pay it back. 

Alderman Thomas stated the citizens need to be made aware of where the SPLOST 6 projects are especially if SPLOST 7 will be passed. People want to see things happening not just signs scattered throughout the City. 

Melissa Carter, Research and Budget Director presented the FY18-FY22 Capital Investments portion of the presentation.

Mayor DeLoach adjourned this meeting.