February 5, 2025 • 54 mins
In this episode of Peachtree Corners Life, host Rico Figliolini sits down with City Manager Brian Johnson to discuss pressing local issues, including deer overpopulation and potential culling efforts, a school digital signage request, and Simpsonwood park. They also dive into the latest legislation affecting impact of tort reform on city liability, annexation, and drone regulations. Plus, hear how the city’s marshals uncovered an illegal nightclub operating under the radar. Stay informed on the latest developments shaping Peachtree Corners. Listen now!
Timestamped Topics:
00:04:09 – Deer Overpopulation and Potential Culling Efforts
00:14:41 – Digital Signage Regulations for Community Schools
00:20:00 – Navigating Lawsuits and Tort Reform
00:30:50 – Parking Lot Slope Adjustments and Liability Concerns
00:32:31 – Navigating Legislation Impacts on Construction and Annexation
00:38:33 – Regulating Drones in Public Spaces
00:44:24 – Uncovering an Illegal Nightclub Operation
00:51:37 – Discussing City Matters Behind the Scenes
Timestamped Topics:
00:04:09 – Deer Overpopulation and Potential Culling Efforts
00:14:41 – Digital Signage Regulations for Community Schools
00:20:00 – Navigating Lawsuits and Tort Reform
00:30:50 – Parking Lot Slope Adjustments and Liability Concerns
00:32:31 – Navigating Legislation Impacts on Construction and Annexation
00:38:33 – Regulating Drones in Public Spaces
00:44:24 – Uncovering an Illegal Nightclub Operation
00:51:37 – Discussing City Matters Behind the Scenes
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know, in our line of work, you know, local
government management, there's never a decision that's just easy with
you know, only one side and everybody is on it,
so you do.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Have some Welcome to Prime Lunchtime with Brian Johnson, a
monthly podcast featuring the city manager and your host, Rico Figliolini,
taking the conversation beyond just talk. It's about getting the facts,
discussing the issues, and asking honest questions of our city.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Hi. Everyone, this is Rico Figliolini, hosts of Patrecorner's Life.
I appreciate you joining us. We have Brian Johnson, city Manager.
Hey Brian, Hey, Rico, how are you good? Thanks for
being with me. As usual, we're going to be going
through a bit of information about new things that we
haven't covered before. So there's a lot of stuff coming
(00:50):
on in the city outside little things, big things that
every everything needs attention and everyone has an opinion, so
it's good to be able to go through this, and yeah,
it's good to go through this. But before we get there,
let me just say thank you to ev Remodeling for
(01:10):
being a sponsor of our show, as well as Vox Popular,
another company that is a tremendous supporter of ours as well,
and you can find their information and show notes below,
but we thank them for supporting us. Both of them
are businesses located here in Citypeachree Corners. One of them
does remodeling from designed to Build evremodeling ink dot com
(01:35):
and the other one, Voxpopuli dot com, does anything that
you need marketing and printing, object and printing from trade
shows to vehicle wraps, just you know, just check them
out links below. And if you're watching this on YouTube
or any of the other video channels like Facebook, subscribe
(01:57):
to us. I appreciate that. So let's get right down
to it, Brian. I guess the first thing we talked
about that would be on the list is something that
my Wifeieven was asking me about the other day and
I've had questions of it, and it's and I've seen it,
I mean, deer over population in the city of Pea
Street Corners. Not It's not been like this for the
(02:19):
longest time, I think, And so what are you hearing
what is allowed to be able to do? I know,
thinking of the herd was something that people, you know,
talk about, but what is the reality of what can
be done. It can't be done in a county park
because that's where a lot of them are.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yeah, so locally, So there's a couple of things to
consider here is you know, one, if you live anywhere
in P Street corners really near the Chattahoochee River corridor,
it is definitely as a protected corridor and serves really
as a place for wildlife to go up and down
(02:59):
because it's a water and so, you know, a lot
of people have seen deer in the past. But we
have noticed that the city that we've had a lot
more deer car interactions, if you will, in which the
deer loses that battle and we end up getting a
request to remove a deer, which you know can also
(03:22):
get complicated because some people have deer that die in
their backyard way off the road, and then they'll call
and say can you pick it up? And we can't
go on too private property to do that, because that's
you know, a gratuity if you will for but if
(03:43):
if it does get close to the right of way,
we will take it. So you know, even those aren't
even you know, as cut and dry as we would like,
but we have noticed that there's been a lot more
you know, deer collisions with cars, and unbeknownst to us,
but coincidentally, at the same time, Gwenet County asked the
(04:07):
State Department of I think Natural Resources or State you know,
Gaming Wildlife for one of the environmental but I think
it was dn R to do a deer population study
at Simpsonwood Park. And you know, in Petree Corners, we
have a couple of areas that are undeveloped that are
(04:30):
even more you know, of a great location for deer
to you know, stay around the back of Neely Farm
along the river has a big area for the residents,
the back of Riverfield where the Fields Club has a
really big area back there, the back of Waterside has
(04:51):
an area along there. And then you know, then you
run into Jones Bridge Park and then a stretch where
there's not a lot of an area, and then you've
got Simpson Wood Park. And so those areas are where
a lot of deer are you know, congregating, and so
Gwinett asks the state to do a study. The state
(05:13):
came back and said that there is a significantly you know,
you know, a overpopulation of deer in the area. And
they in turn asked and then they provided the county
with a lot of reasons why that's not good. You know,
everything from deer eating higher off the ground up you know,
(05:35):
under the trees. You know, it's got ecosystem of facts,
coyote attraction, even you know, the deer that are around
aren't all of them, aren't as healthy as they could be,
and there's a lot of these second third order effects.
They laid out and said, hey, we do this elsewhere
in the state. Would like to be involved in, you know,
(05:57):
deer overpopulation, you know, culling of the herd, and Gwinnette
in formed them that they can't do it at Simpson
Would Park because the county has a policy of no
hunting on county owned property. So we didn't know any
of this was going on until then the State of
Georgia approached us and said, hey, city, do you guys
(06:21):
own any property that would be large enough for us
to do, you know, set up a controlled hunt for
the purposes of culling the herd, And we don't specifically
own any you know. Again, I ran through the organizations
that really would be the ones that could say yes,
(06:43):
you could come out there or not. Club Neely Farm,
Hoa Waterside are the main ones. And so right now
there is a conversation between us the state some of
those entity ease of which we might end up being
(07:04):
a facilitator of some sort. We obviously wouldn't be doing it.
It would be the state. It might be we're merely
making the introduction, and then one of those property owners,
if you will, says it's okay, and and they coordinated
with the state, and we're just communicating to the residents.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Could be it's interesting that the county. I can understand that.
I remember that rule about hunting on county property, which
makes sense. You don't want that happening. But this is
a controlled thing. This is an environmental approach to something.
This is something different than banning hunting, because you don't
want people out there hunting. But this is something more
(07:45):
controlled that the state would be doing. Apparently that would
make that doesn't make sense to just say, well, we
don't allow hunting and that's it. How many accidents do
you know how many accidents like that have occurred in
the city. Are there any numbers there?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Oh, yeah, we have numbers. I mean, off top of
my head, I do not know. I would say within
the last six months, we're probably averaging probably one a week.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Wow, that many?
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Did they?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Do you even know the number when they say over population?
How many deer are there out there that they've numbered
in Simpson wud do you know?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I don't. I didn't see the report because again, the
only thing, the only time we got involved is when
the county told the state, hey, thanks for doing the
study and confirming what we had already thought or what
had you know, users of the park had told us.
But if there's anything that's going to be done about it,
it's not going to be done on our property.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
That's that's it. Because the overpopulation, I mean, they don't
have a a natural predator, right unless coyotes show up,
and god knows, coyotes have been reported at least on
next door with pictures and stuff, not too far from here,
like you know, Opharata, at some other places north of US.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I just saw one rico with my own eyes about
a month ago when I was walking my dog, because
you know, I live along the river, and I saw
one on an evening, you know, probably six I mean
it was really near sundown and saw coyote right along.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Wow, okay it was it was.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Running away from me. It wasn't you know, bothering. But yeah,
I mean so now there's some other things too, now,
you know, I know Mayor and Council have had people
approach them about this. You know, it isn't as easy
as we would like. Because for all the people who
(09:46):
are like, look, deer opposing a problem for motorists or
the ecosystem, the health of deer, you know, things like that,
attracting animals like coyotes or what ever. For all of
those who are like something needs to be done, there's
the other ones that are like, no, you know, let
(10:09):
nature take its course. There shouldn't be any hunting, you.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Know, that's the problem. Nature is not taking its course
because there are no predators here.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yeah. Well, but I mean, you know what you get
is and then we also struggle with deer feeders. We
don't currently actually have a regulation prohibiting them. Some people
have expressed to Council that that should you know that
they know of locations in which somebody is specifically trying
(10:43):
to attract deer. And when you have a lot of deer,
you don't just attract one or two anymore. Now you're attracting.
I know, there was a place at waterside that I
ended up talking to the the resident that was nearby
and was doing it. I rolled through their one week
in morning, you know, right as the sun was coming up,
(11:04):
and there was probably thirty to forty deer in the area,
and there was a big feeder, and you know, it's
just like, hey, this isn't you know, this isn't good.
And it was not too far from East Jones Bridge,
so you start getting into them crossing it, so, you know,
but then others are like, I enjoy the deer coming
(11:27):
and feeding at my location and you know, don't take
that away. And so you know, it's unfortunate. But you know,
in our line of work, you know, local government management,
there's never a decision that's just easy with you know,
only one side and everybody is on it. So you
do have some who are like, don't do it. But
(11:48):
that is a problem. And you know, I wanted to
bring it up just because people are talking about it. Yeah,
what is going to be done? We are trying to facilitate. Again,
we don't own property that is an area that you
could do a controlled hunt. There are a few organizations
that that are in that position that may end up
(12:11):
agreeing with the state for them to come out and
do it once or twice during hunting season type of thing.
But it does appear that Simpson would Park is not
going to be one of those locations. So we'll do
what we need to, including if we have to facilitate
the removal of the meat, you know, because the controlled
hunt doesn't just stop with you know, there's a deer
(12:35):
that's gone down, then what are you going to do
with the carcass? You want to remove it. There are programs,
including ones that harvest the meat and donate it to
food banks and things like that. So we're working through
all of those. But we do, you know, scientifically, have
(12:56):
a deer overpopulation problem that does not have an actual
way of getting better.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
This is just a good argument for the city to
take off over two public parks in its city in
its city property here. So from what I understand, it
wouldn't be expensive. Either'd be really cheap to buy by
those two pieces of property, and city could directly control everything.
(13:23):
But I'm sure there'll be people against that also because
that's an expansion of government, which you know, if you
want control over some things, then you got to do
what you gotta do. But speaking about you know that,
let's segue into something else too, which which is a
small thing necessarily, but there's a pros and constituit too,
I guess, and that is that Simpson Elementary is looking
(13:46):
to do the same thing as Picnicville a middle school house,
which is a sign. I don't know if it's as
grand as that, but they want a digital display sign
possibly to go up at Simpson Elementary. Can you tell
us a little bit about that.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, so, you know, Simpson Elementary principle. And I don't
know if it was based on you know, PTA, you know,
encouragement or maybe the public school system, you know, maintenance spot.
I don't know, but anyway, she was the point person
to say, hey, we would like to take our current
(14:23):
main sign in which they put messages up there, but
they have to go out and put the individual letters
in or spell it out. She was like, we would
like to have a digital mesage, you know, turn it
into an LED display, a digital message board, which functionally
is you know, just on the surface, is a you know,
(14:43):
should be a no brainer. A school can have a
sign communicate with the community in a more you know,
really a more efficient way because you know, on a computer,
you can type in the message and it automatically goes
out there. You can change the messages a lot, so
you can put a lot more information. It makes sense,
(15:07):
But like all things, it's not so simple. You know.
Oftentimes you think signs, you know, okay, just where's the placement,
and you know, does it interfere with sight lines you know,
or cause a hazard to a motorist And that's the
only thing you have to consider. But on LED displays
(15:28):
a whole different you know, ballgame win, you're talking about
something that illuminates and illuminating you know, signage in which
also there's flashing for the fluctuations of it because you know,
things change, so it's not just turning on a static
(15:49):
light and then turning it off. Now you have all
of the different you know, displays doing things which you
know also can be a distraction of motorists. So you know,
we've got to you know, we're going to help them
navigate through this. But we do have it is in
a residential area with residents that live very close to
(16:11):
that sign, and you know we're gonna we're going to
end up having to consider the permitting of this in
a way that hopefully doesn't detract from the quality of
life of the residents, but yet provides the benefit that
we all know a digital message board would provide to
a very important community school.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Right so, poll Duke High School, Stem High School has
a digital sign grant that that's on future industrial Boulevard.
Pinckneyville has this sign and I, you know, and I
and I get it. It's it's kind of bright sometimes
when there's a white background too to the sign versus
(16:53):
a blue or or a different color background that is
way brighter. The lumin's on it. It's just so bright.
I'm imagining those things can be toned down a little
bit in a sign and it doesn't have to be
as bright as a because that's overpowering. Sometimes it just
depends when you can buy.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
And you know, this whole process went through with Pinckneyville
Middle and it wasn't wasn't without its detractors, either of
the people who do live there, you know, and say
that it's going to interfere with their ability to either
you know, enjoy their back or front yard, or you know,
could be a distraction to motorists. Those are things you
have to consider. It has it can be done yeah,
(17:34):
you know, but you have to regulate you know, also
hours of operation, and there's even regulation at the state
and federal level on certain roadways in which how fast
the signs can change, because if things start to get
to where it's not just a transition to a new message,
(17:54):
but things are flashing, that creates you know, distractions from
motor and that's considered a driving hazard. So yes, everything
from how bright to how quick you can change message,
to even hours in which you can have digital messages
on there all have to be discussed.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
And if it's you know, for the school purpose, right,
I mean, the great thing about digital is that you
can dim the lights a little bit, you can adjust
the hours on it, because no one's going to be
driving to school at six o'clock, seven o'clock in the
evening unless there's an event that night different, right, But
even still, like at a certain hour, it can be
(18:38):
shut off or it can be dimmed down where they
have to literally be within forty feet of it to
see the sign maybe.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
You know, so the end of the day, Look, you know,
I think everyone would agree having that ability a school
that's a very important community school and being able to
is it's going to prove. It's going to make them
much more up to inefficient when it comes to communicating
with the community, right, right, you just have to we
(19:06):
just have to navigate this very carefully. And but that
process is being done and of course mayor and council
are very supportive of this as long as we you know,
my directive is navigate the minefield that is the local
resident concerns and you know, you know, the good voters safety.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
The good part of this is that these are quality
of life issues that a city can address better for
its residents than a county can, I think on a
county level. So one good reason for having a citys
to be able to address some of these issues that
you know, really on a county level, someone voting on
it from the other side of the county or something
(19:48):
deciding what the effects are in our city wouldn't make sense.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Right.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
There is also let's let's the capitalist in session, which
is which can always be dangerous, but also.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
It is always dangerous.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Yeah, you never know what goes on there and the
cities that not just people are affected, the cities are affected. Right.
The biggest thing is tort reform. Right now that Governor
Camp is looking at Southwest. Pinet Chamber had a big
talk on tort reformed recently a few months back, and
(20:26):
one of the things I didn't know was that settlement
of lawsuits can garner a lawyer as much as forty
percent whatever settled for. It's not twenty percent, not twenty five,
paces like forty. I thought that was ridiculous that number.
Not only that, but you know, when you're suing someone.
(20:46):
Some lawyer told me once that when you're suing something
on a case, you sue everyone. Doesn't matter if you
think they're not involved, they're involved. You sue everyone and
let the judge decide who's involved or not, which draws
and a lot of different people, right, so the city
can be drawn into lawsuits that really may not be
(21:06):
you know, their fault per se. You know, And I
always thinking about lawsuits as a good way of punishing
those that need to be punished a little bit because
money speaks, right, but sometimes it could be carried away
to to crazy extent. You were sharing an example with
me about Milton. So once you talk about that a
(21:27):
little bit and talk about that and about what that
tort reform might look like for us.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, so you know, scenarios you just brought up Rico
are very common for us. We get named in a
lot of lawsuits. We have active you know, local governments
always have a multitude of active lawsuits at any one time,
at various stages of it. And yes, the shotgun approach
of suing everybody and then just letting the judge figure
(21:54):
it out is one where if it happens within our
corporate limits, we're more time and not just pulled into
it right now there. But you know, again, the ability
to sue and having legal rights and you know remedies
is important to have. So the you know, the the
(22:19):
dilemma is always where do you balance that against you know,
being overly litigious as many people are, and and you know,
I could tell you horror stories of the trip and
fall lawsuits we get where somebody literally just trips on
(22:42):
you know, the world is not flat, literally or figuratively,
and they'll sue us. Just because now that being said,
we do have a large call it, you know, geographical
area in which we are responsible, all the public right
(23:04):
of way, sidewalk streets, all of the property we own
a city hall or town green are all hours and
so you know, there is some things that you know,
the general liability insurance we have to carry because there
are things that can happen that we do need to
be protected. Now, there's an interesting case though that just
(23:26):
came up that contributed to the Governor's tort reform. That
is a big case that the City of Milton had
and it was a I guess a jury verdict not
too long ago. And this is a case where before
the city of Milton was created, when it was still unincorporated,
(23:49):
was that Fulton right, They an owner who had a
driveway coming out to one of the public streets put
a planter, which was truck tire turned on its side
and filled in with dirt and made into a decorative
kind of you know, you know, gateway peace to their driveway.
(24:11):
It was laid though in what was the edge, but
the public right of way it still was on kind
of call it the shoulder of the road if you will.
This is a two lane road. Well, then at some point,
not too long ago, a couple of years, I think,
but now the city of Milton is a city. There
(24:33):
was an individual college student who lost control of his
vehicle single vehicle accident, but hit this planter and died.
I don't know if it was the impact or his
filmed from the vehicle he died. His family sued City
of Milton, saying the City of Milton should not have
let that planter be in its right of way, and
(24:57):
prior to that, cities and counties I had always been like, look,
we're regulating the travel way, making sure that it's free
of obstacles, but there are impediments in the shoulder. Probably
the most common one are utility poles. You know, Georgia
(25:18):
Power using them as an example, is not going to
want to negotiate with every single property owner to put
a you know, utility pole on their property. So what
do they do. They come just inside of public right
of way, you know, place it as far away from
the road as they can, but it is still in
public right of way, and that way they only have
(25:39):
to negotiate with essentially one entity, a public entity that
owns this stretch of So now this the lawsuit. Milton,
through sovereign immunity and other stuff, won the first one,
and then on appeal the family was awarded a thirty
eight million dollar verdict. And right now there's it's being
(26:05):
hopefully taken up by the Georgia Supreme Court because of
the you know, bigger picture impacts that this could have
on any impediment in the right of way that then
the city, which should be of you know, should have
knowledge of. Then we've got to remove it or else
(26:25):
we're going to be you know, at risk for being
you know, liable for some lawsuits. So it's an example
where you know, again sometimes being overly litigious ends up
creating you know, situations, and if this appeal stood, cities
(26:45):
and counties would end up having to take a real
hard look at what it permits, how it permits it,
not just along the roadway, but I mean way out
of the roadway, all the way to the edge of it.
And then Georgia Power is gonna you know, and some
other utilities. You know, you have traffic cabinets, yeah, signals,
you know, you see the green boxes there or whatever
(27:09):
color they are, but you know the boxes there that
are regulating the signal phase and timing of a signalized intersection.
Nobody hits that we have to bury every single one
of those, which will I mean.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Just but even the poles, I mean I think there's
a pole at by p Tree Baptist churchs that intersection
and the y. It was a pole in the middle
of a triangle thing. I think at one point. I
don't know if it's still there, but it's it was
knocked down once. I mean, there's there's plenty of those
types of things where cross get out of control for
(27:42):
whatever reason, they go slamming into a pole. It's like
one of those walk walk flashing Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
I was from Yeah, a pedestrian actuated crossings where you
hit it and it flashes.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yeah. So I mean is that. I remember even along
the median like Ptree Parkway. I think at some at
one point someone had told me that they they don't
do hardwood trees anymore. They do what they call breakaway trees,
because if a car hits it, it should break away
and not cause too much damage. Right, But if you're
(28:14):
hitting a hard oak wood tree, you're gonna that person's
gonna die. Now, these things will happen anyway. There was
an accident of p Street Parkway going south. I remember
seeing a car pretty much. It was great myrtle trees,
so those are considered breakaway. I guess it had jumped
the sidewalk and went right into that tree. It was burning,
(28:35):
there was some I think there might have been a fatality,
certainly injuries there and that was during last summer. I
think it was. These things happen all the time. But
if they're taken up tort reform, I would hope that
they're not just looking at the reward amount because thirty
eight million, you know, I mean that just seems to
be overly blown. But you know, how do you value
(28:58):
a life? But thirty eight million is just for a city,
for something like that, you know, do you value do
you know? Hopefully they adjust, I know it doesn't affect
the city, but like the outcome of payment to lawyers,
they should really restrict the amount of money being paid
out to lawyers. Guys that thirty eight million, without doubt
is at least thirty percent of that is going to
(29:19):
the lawyer, to the law from that suing. Which would
be interesting about tort reform because apparently most of the house,
most of the capital's made up of lawyers or consultants.
So it it'd be interesting if they actually do anything,
and you know.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Again they serve a purpose. But you know, we have
had I've had this in other cities. I've managed to
an attorney will get with somebody who's usually has a
disability that requires them to be in a wheelchair, and
they'll really it's not done right. It's essentially they'll conspire.
(29:57):
By that, I mean the person in the wheelchair will
seek out instances in which a local government is not
meeting code to the you know that letter, and then
they'll the attorney will reach out on behalf of his
or a client say you're in you know, violation of
(30:18):
American with Disabilities Act, and if you don't do something
within a certain period of time, we're going to sue.
And so then you know, you got now again, ADA
exists for a legitimate reason, absolutely, and you know all
that kind of stuff. But you know, these would be
people who I remember one of them. We had a
parking lot that had the handicapped spot and then you
(30:41):
have that hatched area next to it so that you
could load a wheelchair right. The slope of the parking
lot was two degrees off the you know, and required
us to dig up a full section of it just
to move it two degrees.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
YEA interesting, there's I think target and publics redid their
handicap and and and adjust that it's way different than
it used to be before and probably for some of
the same reasons, the elevation issue and stuff. And I
know the town's town green part where the ford of
the of Pain for paint, foot of Pain for paint,
(31:28):
the defencing had to go around. It allows only one entrance. Now,
this sign is they're saying, if you allow your kids
in here, whoever comes in here needs to understand that
you could get hurt if you're not, you know, doing
it the right way. And the insurance company had told
us right, had told the city that yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Mean it was like, look, you have created an obstacle. Course, yes,
and it's an advance it has advanced stuff. You can't
be letting. You can't have it unsecure. So we have
only one entrance. And then you know, if you're not
with you know, a parent or over eighteen years old yourself,
(32:07):
you're not supposed to be in there. And so if
you just ignore it and get hurt, then our insurance
feels like we're you know, we've we've mitigated our risks
because we you know, told them, hey, you know you're
not supposed to be here without you know, we also
have instructional videos on how to do these things. That
(32:27):
you can use and everything we can do, but there's
still some people who will do it. I mean again,
we live in a litigious society. We all get it,
but there are some things that we got to be
careful in this case that obviously the City of Milk
case isn't ours, but it will impact us greatly if
it is upheld.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Sure, like a lot of legislation that goes on there
that affects cities construction material, but things can be built
with whether it's deal or wood, and if it's a
may I remember that was a piece of less. At
one point, I think one city had that you couldn't
build something taller than three stories without using steel or metal,
(33:08):
and that was struck down.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Apparently it was because the you know timber lobby, Yes
in the state like Georgia Pacific was like no, no, no, no,
we don't want we want to still be able to
use wood, you know up to I think you can
go up to four two four stories with wood before you.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
While build code to steel. Yeah, why build something that
can last one hundreds? Yes?
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Right? And you know there's even some I mean this session,
you know right now, procurement law in Georgia is if
a project exceeds one hundred thousand dollars, you have to
bid it no matter what. And it hasn't been changed
since two thousand. Wow, and we've had inflation since two thousand.
It's really hard for us to find projects that are
(33:58):
less than one hundred thousand that are any and so
it just slows things up because then you've got to
bid it out and you have to you have to
award it to the lowest qualified bidder, and so you
run into, you know, problems sometimes where companies are underbidding
(34:18):
to get the job with the knowledge you're not going
to be able to finish it with that amount, so
they try to change order you to death.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Yes, yes, you.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Know, we'll get you to legislations real quick. Is to
raise that value to two hundred and fifty thousand before
you have.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
That makes that makes sense because I've seen projects where
they do come in and low bid and then you're
sort of forced to pay the rest of it because
you need it done. It's not like that go scratch
from scratch again. We'll hold them to it too, because
even with the bond or something, it's just not going
to happen. Yeah, some of the other legislation. I think
(34:55):
another piece was about annexation. So in brief, what would
that how would.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
That affec you know, so there's still you know, things
happening at the capitol that are removing a city's ability
to annex an area in which the people who live
in that area or own property in that area want
to get annexed into the city that other parties could
(35:20):
stop them. You know, there's legislation making it to where
you know, counties or in Georgia potentially almost could get
to the point where they could stop an annexation, which
you know in a state that allows counties to charge
a militrate just to the unincorporated. In Georgia, that usually
(35:42):
means that the county will lose a little bit of
money when they lose property because they lose the ability
to charge property tax to that entity. So counties are resistant.
So that's inhibiting cities to do it. Even the Gwenett
Delegation themselves, you know, which are the legislators that represent
a district that has some part of Gwenan in it.
(36:04):
They're discussing having a rule that's setting the Gwinnett Delegation
rules such that if there's an annexation bill. You know,
almost like if say the city of Pea Street Cornered
Corners wanted to allow a area contiguous to us to
vote on whether they wanted to come in, say a
subdivision or something like that, that everybody in the delegation
(36:29):
has to vote on having it move forward, not just
the ones that represent the areas of affected. So you know,
we could have a legislator that barely represents Gwinnett up
in like Brazleton or unincorporated area, and the county gets
with them and they're like, we don't want this to happen.
We'll lose a little bit of money. And then they're like, yeah,
(36:49):
I don't want it to happen. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
I think that's that's because of the trend of all
these places like Mulberry, right, that's the newest city in
Guinett County. Right, it's a trend of all these cities
coming into being, chopping away a little bit at that
county budget, and now the county has to you know,
fight for for for the budget that they need. Although
(37:12):
they get they have less area to cover except for
the emergency.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
But remember they're only losing a revenue stream in this case,
a millage that's charged only to unincorporated and that's their
own doing, like in other states that don't allow that,
say in North Carolina. Counties in North Carolina can only
charge one type of tax, and that's a property tax
(37:38):
to everybody in the county. It's what they can't then
create special you know, you know, focused taxes that only
go to unincorporated you know, in Gwinnett, Gwinette has a
county wide tax that even you and I who live
in p Street corners pay, and that's for the county
(37:59):
whe services like the courthouse, the jail, the health department.
But then they charge very specific taxes just to the
unincorporated area, parks and rec police, you know, code enforcement,
zoning administration. They don't have to do that. They chose to,
(38:23):
Oh we're going to and so that it's a little
bit of a self inflicted.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
But so the county charges for parks to the unincorporated
and but we have parks here in the city. But
we're not paying for that fee.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
No, we're paying. You're paying for.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
It, Okay, we all paying just like police.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
We allowed once we became a city, we allowed Gwinette
to keep charging that in our city limits in return
for them to continuing to operate the parks.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
All right, So yeah, so we should probably buy those
parks and just take over the whole the mills, all right.
So drone drone regulation, I think you mentioned there was
drone regulation. I know a lot of people that fly
drones around here, and certainly there are roofing companies that
will do the drone thing and check your roof and
(39:12):
stuff and show you where the damages and stuff like that.
Building inspectors do that to some degree. So there's also
and people just individuals going around to town Green and
doing his own drone And so there's legislation up maybe right.
And part of that is probably because of all the
(39:34):
drone stuff and the unidentified UAPs up in New Jersey
that everyone went crazy on whether it's Chinese or Americans,
And now we understand the FAA allowed some of that
to go on. It's like one of the things that
just came out. So but who knows, right, could we aliens,
could we be foreign governments or our own I mean,
(39:54):
there's so many conspiracy theories that we're we're tracking nuclear
been the transportation into different places, and it's just like
you could go crazy. So what's going on with the
drone legislation here in Georgia.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Yeah, so this actually isn't bad, although by the way,
you know, you laugh about it could be anything, which
in a lot of cases you're like, really, but you
do have to give some of those like you know,
tin hat you know, tinfoil hat crowd, some a little
bit of you know, latitude, because we did have a
(40:30):
what is it, Yeah, what do they call it? Soup
stratospheric Yes, those yeah, yeah, you know, I mean so
there are some unique things.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
That yeah, and that one was very unique. That was
a huge one from Jazz.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
It was in the stratosphere purposely you.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
Know, going across and they had solar panels too. They
were powering with solar panels through so it was like
the whole big thing.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Yeah, I mean so but in this case, yes, is
Georgia legislator who with the whole thing that was happening
up in the coast of New Jersey and everything, was like,
we should give local governments better ability to control unidentified
aerial vehicles. And so in this case they the bill
(41:17):
is allowing the local government to regulate you know, drones
below four hundred feet.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Well, because the FAA takes care of drones of a
certain weight and hire, where if you have to launch drong,
you have to actually get a number for that drone.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
And have a FAA license.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
A pilot, you have to actually take a course. To
me as a commercial, Let's say I wanted to fly
my own drone as a business because I'm going to
shoot drone shots. I'm going to use it for the
magazine and stuff. I actually have to be licensed or
use someone that's licensed to do that.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
You do, that's a for our concerts, you know, we
use a third party, you know, a firm to shoot
video of it. And you've seen some of the video
we've had on that drone operator who does the filming
for it. He has a license and he has to
get a permit from the FAA to be able to
(42:20):
apply it.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
But only because I think it's by the FAA does
it by weight versus by height? There is a height,
there is a height, but it does by weight versus
because most of the stuff that a person like you
and me would buy is under that weight requirement. But
you're saying that that legislation would then cover even those.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Drones, Well, only if they're going to be over public
spaces in which there's a public gathering, which I believe
they define it as fifty people or more that are
that plan to be around each other for more than
thirty minutes, really, and so that's that would be where
(43:04):
all right now, we don't want there to be unidentified
drone activity that is where you get into because even
for our concerts reco even below a certain height, the
FAA regulates it because there's so many people.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
Right, But if I was and I've seen lots of
photographers do drones also because it's part of that thing,
they'll go along the river, which is it wouldn't be
a pot it's above a public place, but there's no
people there maybe or the night enough people like you
were saying, so that's a reasonable thing. I guess that's
not covered by that probably No.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
I mean, I think this is really more of public
space where there's a gathering of the public of more
than I think it was fifty people who are planning
on being there for more than thirty minutes. Then and
only then would the local government be in a position
to say you still need to ideent to fy who
you are if you're going to be flying below four
(44:03):
hundred feet, you're still above four hundred feet, is still
out of our control.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
So if it's a private party party off someone's back
yard and they have a drone they want to fly
it up and you know do that, that's okay, that.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
Wouldn't be yet because that wouldn't be on public property.
Speaker 3 (44:20):
Right, okay, private? All right, Well, I guess that all
makes sense.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Although I again, trust me, this wasn't our legislation. I'm
just telling you the unique things. I mean, every day
as I'm going through the bills that hit, you know,
just to see our lobbyist is giving me, you know,
a heads up on hey, how does this affect you?
I oftentimes have to tell them, hey, this wouldn't be good.
(44:46):
So if you're in a position to tell a legislator
or the bills author some cases to say, hey can
you tweak it? Whatever, we've we've had to have bills
tweaked that would have inhibit did our ability to have
innovation get tested here in Curiosity Lab because it was
a prohibition against certain activity across all sidewalks and we
(45:10):
were like time out, you know, we need to have
the you know, so we've we've had a curiosity lab
carved out of legislation before, and we've had the bill
language get tweaked before, and we've certainly done things to
you know, completely help you know, a bill to its
(45:32):
demise because it would have been harmful to us in
some cases just us or other cases just all cities.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
So interesting, interesting, surest time. Yeah, so many aspects of
of governing city and what you have, what you all
have to do. There is some good you know stuff though, too.
So let's celebrate something as well that the sheriff Department,
the Marshal Marshal Department. Sorry sure if Marshall the marshals
(46:04):
did find some interesting illegal things going on city piece
three Corners Sodana.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Yeah, so this is a good story that does reflect
the fact that when you're able to have more time,
resources and intimate knowledge of an area, you can oftentimes
uncover things that you couldn't were you not in that position.
(46:31):
Our marshals were able to uncover what was and I
believe they only had operated it one or two times
before he got involved, but a legal nightclub that was
operating essentially like speakeasies used to operate back in the day,
(46:53):
which is they found a location. I don't want to
get into the exact location right now because it's its
citations have been issued, but it hasn't actually been you
knowerated or yeah, in municipal court. But found the location
in which they could have a retail storefront. But then
(47:18):
the storefront was very call it shallow and small, and
then there was a door both through at the back
of that and a side door in which you know,
two thirds of this lease space was actually an illegal nightclub,
(47:39):
hookah lounge, you name it, but had not gotten anything permitted.
You know, they didn't have plans that reflected this, so
they were in violation of you know, a building permit.
They hadn't filed for business license, they didn't have a
license to serve alcohol, so the state's Department of Revenue
(48:00):
was involved. And they also the fire code had them
limited to like sixty people based on the square footage,
and they were you know, having two hundred plus people,
and our marshals intelligence you know network was able to
then uncover the underground you know call it you know,
(48:24):
marketing that this place was doing and they were running
a full on club, wow, but you know, like a
black market club and had it not been for the
Marshall's ability to you know, dig into this. You know,
they probably would have kept going and you know, oftentimes
(48:45):
the and there's no houses near this, so you didn't
have that aspect that could have come up. But the
danger of these kind of clubs, whether they're the ones
that move around periodically, are the ones that try to
keep you know, keep it quiet. Are there's a reason
that they're trying to keep it quiet. So these types
of clubs generally have people that enjoy them, at least,
(49:10):
maybe not a majority of them, but there are people
that only like to go to clubs that are kind
of secret because they're wanting to do things that the
law doesn't allow them to and that oftentimes can end
up in violence and other criminal activity. We may have
averted that happening at this one. But you know why
it was significant is there was a lot of money.
(49:34):
This is not an open the door and then there's
this big room with some tables and chairs. This is
a full on outfitted like remodeled night club. Wow, that
was operating like a skit. In fact, the name of
it was the Secret Lounge Last And you know, kudos
(49:55):
to them. Yes, there's from the City Attorney. You know,
Gwinnett County PD was supported this effort, but you know
it was our marshal, led by our marshals, identified by
our marshals, and you know, city was able to to
keep it from you know, continuing to operate. So there
(50:16):
are good things that may have verted a disaster here.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
That's great that it is great that they're they're doing
a lot of good work out there, and all the
technology that's coming in, I mean that certainly helps to
and you.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
Know, en Rico was talking about drones, why don't we
put up a drone to look at the traffic migration
in this area to kind of help build our case,
our evidence against the owner, because we didn't want the
owner to be like, you know, what are you talking about?
(50:51):
Or I haven't had anybody come over here yet ever,
So our marshals continue to use drones as a you know,
very effective law enforcement tools. So they definitely have their place.
Speaker 3 (51:04):
No for sure. And I've listened to some of the
stuff that some of the products and tools of the trade,
if you will, that they've investigated some really cutting it stuff,
So it's all good. I think the city certainly gains
by that. So you all, you know, I mean, listen,
(51:25):
you all do a good job out there. So well
we've come to the end of our time. We've covered
quite a bit, so Brian, I appreciate you doing this with.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
Me well always my pleasure. Appreciate you providing this communication
vehicle for you know, those who listen and watch can
learn about some things that aren't necessarily always We're not
necessarily always able to include in things like city council
(51:54):
meetings or whatever, because this is kind of the you know,
the day to day type of thing that you know,
oftentimes people don't realize goes on behind the scenes here.
So I appreciate you letting you know our citizens have
this opportunity to hear what is going on behind the scenes.
Speaker 3 (52:10):
Absolutely love doing this. I love getting the word out.
I don't always agree with everything that goes on, yeah,
but this the good part is that we can talk
back and forth about this and get out, you know,
the facts, and ask questions because I don't know everything,
so I'd like to ask lots of questions doing this stuff.
So I appreciate you doing this. Everyone else, certainly, you know,
(52:32):
subscribe like the page. You'll get notified when we have
more podcasts. We try to do this on a regular basis,
like every month or every five weeks, usually after a
city council meeting. This way we can discuss what just
happened let's say Tuesday of this week, or the sessions
like like that's going on in the capitol. So if
you have questions, let me know. If you have questions
(52:54):
for Brian, he can be reached at the city obviously,
go to the website Peachtreet Corners g dot gov and
you can find way to reach that. We'll put your
questions in the comments. If you're on Facebook listening to
this or x or YouTube by YouTube channel, and if
you're getting this off Apple or any of the other podcasts,
(53:16):
just reach out to Peatreecorners Magazine, Peachtrecorner's Life and we'll
answer those questions. Again. Thank you for our sponsors, ev
Remodeling Inc. And Vox Popular. You'll find their information in
the show notes. So thanks again, everyone, appreciate you being
with us.
Speaker 2 (53:33):
You've been listening to Prime Lunchtime with Brian Johnson, the
City Manager of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, with your host Rico Figlioni.
The show is part of a family of podcasts produced
by Peachtree Corners Magazine and Mighty Rockets. To find more
episodes of this show or our other podcasts, visit Living
in Peachtreecorners dot com or follow us on Facebook at
(53:57):
Peachtree Corners Life
Speaker 1 (54:04):
Po
You know, in our line of work, you know, local
government management, there's never a decision that's just easy with
you know, only one side and everybody is on it,
so you do.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Have some Welcome to Prime Lunchtime with Brian Johnson, a
monthly podcast featuring the city manager and your host, Rico Figliolini,
taking the conversation beyond just talk. It's about getting the facts,
discussing the issues, and asking honest questions of our city.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Hi. Everyone, this is Rico Figliolini, hosts of Patrecorner's Life.
I appreciate you joining us. We have Brian Johnson, city Manager.
Hey Brian, Hey, Rico, how are you good? Thanks for
being with me. As usual, we're going to be going
through a bit of information about new things that we
haven't covered before. So there's a lot of stuff coming
(00:50):
on in the city outside little things, big things that
every everything needs attention and everyone has an opinion, so
it's good to be able to go through this, and yeah,
it's good to go through this. But before we get there,
let me just say thank you to ev Remodeling for
(01:10):
being a sponsor of our show, as well as Vox Popular,
another company that is a tremendous supporter of ours as well,
and you can find their information and show notes below,
but we thank them for supporting us. Both of them
are businesses located here in Citypeachree Corners. One of them
does remodeling from designed to Build evremodeling ink dot com
(01:35):
and the other one, Voxpopuli dot com, does anything that
you need marketing and printing, object and printing from trade
shows to vehicle wraps, just you know, just check them
out links below. And if you're watching this on YouTube
or any of the other video channels like Facebook, subscribe
(01:57):
to us. I appreciate that. So let's get right down
to it, Brian. I guess the first thing we talked
about that would be on the list is something that
my Wifeieven was asking me about the other day and
I've had questions of it, and it's and I've seen it,
I mean, deer over population in the city of Pea
Street Corners. Not It's not been like this for the
(02:19):
longest time, I think, And so what are you hearing
what is allowed to be able to do? I know,
thinking of the herd was something that people, you know,
talk about, but what is the reality of what can
be done. It can't be done in a county park
because that's where a lot of them are.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yeah, so locally, So there's a couple of things to
consider here is you know, one, if you live anywhere
in P Street corners really near the Chattahoochee River corridor,
it is definitely as a protected corridor and serves really
as a place for wildlife to go up and down
(02:59):
because it's a water and so, you know, a lot
of people have seen deer in the past. But we
have noticed that the city that we've had a lot
more deer car interactions, if you will, in which the
deer loses that battle and we end up getting a
request to remove a deer, which you know can also
(03:22):
get complicated because some people have deer that die in
their backyard way off the road, and then they'll call
and say can you pick it up? And we can't
go on too private property to do that, because that's
you know, a gratuity if you will for but if
(03:43):
if it does get close to the right of way,
we will take it. So you know, even those aren't
even you know, as cut and dry as we would like,
but we have noticed that there's been a lot more
you know, deer collisions with cars, and unbeknownst to us,
but coincidentally, at the same time, Gwenet County asked the
(04:07):
State Department of I think Natural Resources or State you know,
Gaming Wildlife for one of the environmental but I think
it was dn R to do a deer population study
at Simpsonwood Park. And you know, in Petree Corners, we
have a couple of areas that are undeveloped that are
(04:30):
even more you know, of a great location for deer
to you know, stay around the back of Neely Farm
along the river has a big area for the residents,
the back of Riverfield where the Fields Club has a
really big area back there, the back of Waterside has
(04:51):
an area along there. And then you know, then you
run into Jones Bridge Park and then a stretch where
there's not a lot of an area, and then you've
got Simpson Wood Park. And so those areas are where
a lot of deer are you know, congregating, and so
Gwinett asks the state to do a study. The state
(05:13):
came back and said that there is a significantly you know,
you know, a overpopulation of deer in the area. And
they in turn asked and then they provided the county
with a lot of reasons why that's not good. You know,
everything from deer eating higher off the ground up you know,
(05:35):
under the trees. You know, it's got ecosystem of facts,
coyote attraction, even you know, the deer that are around
aren't all of them, aren't as healthy as they could be,
and there's a lot of these second third order effects.
They laid out and said, hey, we do this elsewhere
in the state. Would like to be involved in, you know,
(05:57):
deer overpopulation, you know, culling of the herd, and Gwinnette
in formed them that they can't do it at Simpson
Would Park because the county has a policy of no
hunting on county owned property. So we didn't know any
of this was going on until then the State of
Georgia approached us and said, hey, city, do you guys
(06:21):
own any property that would be large enough for us
to do, you know, set up a controlled hunt for
the purposes of culling the herd, And we don't specifically
own any you know. Again, I ran through the organizations
that really would be the ones that could say yes,
(06:43):
you could come out there or not. Club Neely Farm,
Hoa Waterside are the main ones. And so right now
there is a conversation between us the state some of
those entity ease of which we might end up being
(07:04):
a facilitator of some sort. We obviously wouldn't be doing it.
It would be the state. It might be we're merely
making the introduction, and then one of those property owners,
if you will, says it's okay, and and they coordinated
with the state, and we're just communicating to the residents.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Could be it's interesting that the county. I can understand that.
I remember that rule about hunting on county property, which
makes sense. You don't want that happening. But this is
a controlled thing. This is an environmental approach to something.
This is something different than banning hunting, because you don't
want people out there hunting. But this is something more
(07:45):
controlled that the state would be doing. Apparently that would
make that doesn't make sense to just say, well, we
don't allow hunting and that's it. How many accidents do
you know how many accidents like that have occurred in
the city. Are there any numbers there?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Oh, yeah, we have numbers. I mean, off top of
my head, I do not know. I would say within
the last six months, we're probably averaging probably one a week.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Wow, that many?
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Did they?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Do you even know the number when they say over population?
How many deer are there out there that they've numbered
in Simpson wud do you know?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I don't. I didn't see the report because again, the
only thing, the only time we got involved is when
the county told the state, hey, thanks for doing the
study and confirming what we had already thought or what
had you know, users of the park had told us.
But if there's anything that's going to be done about it,
it's not going to be done on our property.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
That's that's it. Because the overpopulation, I mean, they don't
have a a natural predator, right unless coyotes show up,
and god knows, coyotes have been reported at least on
next door with pictures and stuff, not too far from here,
like you know, Opharata, at some other places north of US.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I just saw one rico with my own eyes about
a month ago when I was walking my dog, because
you know, I live along the river, and I saw
one on an evening, you know, probably six I mean
it was really near sundown and saw coyote right along.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Wow, okay it was it was.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Running away from me. It wasn't you know, bothering. But yeah,
I mean so now there's some other things too, now,
you know, I know Mayor and Council have had people
approach them about this. You know, it isn't as easy
as we would like. Because for all the people who
(09:46):
are like, look, deer opposing a problem for motorists or
the ecosystem, the health of deer, you know, things like that,
attracting animals like coyotes or what ever. For all of
those who are like something needs to be done, there's
the other ones that are like, no, you know, let
(10:09):
nature take its course. There shouldn't be any hunting, you.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Know, that's the problem. Nature is not taking its course
because there are no predators here.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yeah. Well, but I mean, you know what you get
is and then we also struggle with deer feeders. We
don't currently actually have a regulation prohibiting them. Some people
have expressed to Council that that should you know that
they know of locations in which somebody is specifically trying
(10:43):
to attract deer. And when you have a lot of deer,
you don't just attract one or two anymore. Now you're attracting.
I know, there was a place at waterside that I
ended up talking to the the resident that was nearby
and was doing it. I rolled through their one week
in morning, you know, right as the sun was coming up,
(11:04):
and there was probably thirty to forty deer in the area,
and there was a big feeder, and you know, it's
just like, hey, this isn't you know, this isn't good.
And it was not too far from East Jones Bridge,
so you start getting into them crossing it, so, you know,
but then others are like, I enjoy the deer coming
(11:27):
and feeding at my location and you know, don't take
that away. And so you know, it's unfortunate. But you know,
in our line of work, you know, local government management,
there's never a decision that's just easy with you know,
only one side and everybody is on it. So you
do have some who are like, don't do it. But
(11:48):
that is a problem. And you know, I wanted to
bring it up just because people are talking about it. Yeah,
what is going to be done? We are trying to facilitate. Again,
we don't own property that is an area that you
could do a controlled hunt. There are a few organizations
that that are in that position that may end up
(12:11):
agreeing with the state for them to come out and
do it once or twice during hunting season type of thing.
But it does appear that Simpson would Park is not
going to be one of those locations. So we'll do
what we need to, including if we have to facilitate
the removal of the meat, you know, because the controlled
hunt doesn't just stop with you know, there's a deer
(12:35):
that's gone down, then what are you going to do
with the carcass? You want to remove it. There are programs,
including ones that harvest the meat and donate it to
food banks and things like that. So we're working through
all of those. But we do, you know, scientifically, have
(12:56):
a deer overpopulation problem that does not have an actual
way of getting better.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
This is just a good argument for the city to
take off over two public parks in its city in
its city property here. So from what I understand, it
wouldn't be expensive. Either'd be really cheap to buy by
those two pieces of property, and city could directly control everything.
(13:23):
But I'm sure there'll be people against that also because
that's an expansion of government, which you know, if you
want control over some things, then you got to do
what you gotta do. But speaking about you know that,
let's segue into something else too, which which is a
small thing necessarily, but there's a pros and constituit too,
I guess, and that is that Simpson Elementary is looking
(13:46):
to do the same thing as Picnicville a middle school house,
which is a sign. I don't know if it's as
grand as that, but they want a digital display sign
possibly to go up at Simpson Elementary. Can you tell
us a little bit about that.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, so, you know, Simpson Elementary principle. And I don't
know if it was based on you know, PTA, you know,
encouragement or maybe the public school system, you know, maintenance spot.
I don't know, but anyway, she was the point person
to say, hey, we would like to take our current
(14:23):
main sign in which they put messages up there, but
they have to go out and put the individual letters
in or spell it out. She was like, we would
like to have a digital mesage, you know, turn it
into an LED display, a digital message board, which functionally
is you know, just on the surface, is a you know,
(14:43):
should be a no brainer. A school can have a
sign communicate with the community in a more you know,
really a more efficient way because you know, on a computer,
you can type in the message and it automatically goes
out there. You can change the messages a lot, so
you can put a lot more information. It makes sense,
(15:07):
But like all things, it's not so simple. You know.
Oftentimes you think signs, you know, okay, just where's the placement,
and you know, does it interfere with sight lines you know,
or cause a hazard to a motorist And that's the
only thing you have to consider. But on LED displays
(15:28):
a whole different you know, ballgame win, you're talking about
something that illuminates and illuminating you know, signage in which
also there's flashing for the fluctuations of it because you know,
things change, so it's not just turning on a static
(15:49):
light and then turning it off. Now you have all
of the different you know, displays doing things which you
know also can be a distraction of motorists. So you know,
we've got to you know, we're going to help them
navigate through this. But we do have it is in
a residential area with residents that live very close to
(16:11):
that sign, and you know we're gonna we're going to
end up having to consider the permitting of this in
a way that hopefully doesn't detract from the quality of
life of the residents, but yet provides the benefit that
we all know a digital message board would provide to
a very important community school.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Right so, poll Duke High School, Stem High School has
a digital sign grant that that's on future industrial Boulevard.
Pinckneyville has this sign and I, you know, and I
and I get it. It's it's kind of bright sometimes
when there's a white background too to the sign versus
(16:53):
a blue or or a different color background that is
way brighter. The lumin's on it. It's just so bright.
I'm imagining those things can be toned down a little
bit in a sign and it doesn't have to be
as bright as a because that's overpowering. Sometimes it just
depends when you can buy.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
And you know, this whole process went through with Pinckneyville
Middle and it wasn't wasn't without its detractors, either of
the people who do live there, you know, and say
that it's going to interfere with their ability to either
you know, enjoy their back or front yard, or you know,
could be a distraction to motorists. Those are things you
have to consider. It has it can be done yeah,
(17:34):
you know, but you have to regulate you know, also
hours of operation, and there's even regulation at the state
and federal level on certain roadways in which how fast
the signs can change, because if things start to get
to where it's not just a transition to a new message,
(17:54):
but things are flashing, that creates you know, distractions from
motor and that's considered a driving hazard. So yes, everything
from how bright to how quick you can change message,
to even hours in which you can have digital messages
on there all have to be discussed.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
And if it's you know, for the school purpose, right,
I mean, the great thing about digital is that you
can dim the lights a little bit, you can adjust
the hours on it, because no one's going to be
driving to school at six o'clock, seven o'clock in the
evening unless there's an event that night different, right, But
even still, like at a certain hour, it can be
(18:38):
shut off or it can be dimmed down where they
have to literally be within forty feet of it to
see the sign maybe.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
You know, so the end of the day, Look, you know,
I think everyone would agree having that ability a school
that's a very important community school and being able to
is it's going to prove. It's going to make them
much more up to inefficient when it comes to communicating
with the community, right, right, you just have to we
(19:06):
just have to navigate this very carefully. And but that
process is being done and of course mayor and council
are very supportive of this as long as we you know,
my directive is navigate the minefield that is the local
resident concerns and you know, you know, the good voters safety.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
The good part of this is that these are quality
of life issues that a city can address better for
its residents than a county can, I think on a
county level. So one good reason for having a citys
to be able to address some of these issues that
you know, really on a county level, someone voting on
it from the other side of the county or something
(19:48):
deciding what the effects are in our city wouldn't make sense.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Right.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
There is also let's let's the capitalist in session, which
is which can always be dangerous, but also.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
It is always dangerous.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Yeah, you never know what goes on there and the
cities that not just people are affected, the cities are affected. Right.
The biggest thing is tort reform. Right now that Governor
Camp is looking at Southwest. Pinet Chamber had a big
talk on tort reformed recently a few months back, and
(20:26):
one of the things I didn't know was that settlement
of lawsuits can garner a lawyer as much as forty
percent whatever settled for. It's not twenty percent, not twenty five,
paces like forty. I thought that was ridiculous that number.
Not only that, but you know, when you're suing someone.
(20:46):
Some lawyer told me once that when you're suing something
on a case, you sue everyone. Doesn't matter if you
think they're not involved, they're involved. You sue everyone and
let the judge decide who's involved or not, which draws
and a lot of different people, right, so the city
can be drawn into lawsuits that really may not be
(21:06):
you know, their fault per se. You know, And I
always thinking about lawsuits as a good way of punishing
those that need to be punished a little bit because
money speaks, right, but sometimes it could be carried away
to to crazy extent. You were sharing an example with
me about Milton. So once you talk about that a
(21:27):
little bit and talk about that and about what that
tort reform might look like for us.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, so you know, scenarios you just brought up Rico
are very common for us. We get named in a
lot of lawsuits. We have active you know, local governments
always have a multitude of active lawsuits at any one time,
at various stages of it. And yes, the shotgun approach
of suing everybody and then just letting the judge figure
(21:54):
it out is one where if it happens within our
corporate limits, we're more time and not just pulled into
it right now there. But you know, again, the ability
to sue and having legal rights and you know remedies
is important to have. So the you know, the the
(22:19):
dilemma is always where do you balance that against you know,
being overly litigious as many people are, and and you know,
I could tell you horror stories of the trip and
fall lawsuits we get where somebody literally just trips on
(22:42):
you know, the world is not flat, literally or figuratively,
and they'll sue us. Just because now that being said,
we do have a large call it, you know, geographical
area in which we are responsible, all the public right
(23:04):
of way, sidewalk streets, all of the property we own
a city hall or town green are all hours and
so you know, there is some things that you know,
the general liability insurance we have to carry because there
are things that can happen that we do need to
be protected. Now, there's an interesting case though that just
(23:26):
came up that contributed to the Governor's tort reform. That
is a big case that the City of Milton had
and it was a I guess a jury verdict not
too long ago. And this is a case where before
the city of Milton was created, when it was still unincorporated,
(23:49):
was that Fulton right, They an owner who had a
driveway coming out to one of the public streets put
a planter, which was truck tire turned on its side
and filled in with dirt and made into a decorative
kind of you know, you know, gateway peace to their driveway.
(24:11):
It was laid though in what was the edge, but
the public right of way it still was on kind
of call it the shoulder of the road if you will.
This is a two lane road. Well, then at some point,
not too long ago, a couple of years, I think,
but now the city of Milton is a city. There
(24:33):
was an individual college student who lost control of his
vehicle single vehicle accident, but hit this planter and died.
I don't know if it was the impact or his
filmed from the vehicle he died. His family sued City
of Milton, saying the City of Milton should not have
let that planter be in its right of way, and
(24:57):
prior to that, cities and counties I had always been like, look,
we're regulating the travel way, making sure that it's free
of obstacles, but there are impediments in the shoulder. Probably
the most common one are utility poles. You know, Georgia
(25:18):
Power using them as an example, is not going to
want to negotiate with every single property owner to put
a you know, utility pole on their property. So what
do they do. They come just inside of public right
of way, you know, place it as far away from
the road as they can, but it is still in
public right of way, and that way they only have
(25:39):
to negotiate with essentially one entity, a public entity that
owns this stretch of So now this the lawsuit. Milton,
through sovereign immunity and other stuff, won the first one,
and then on appeal the family was awarded a thirty
eight million dollar verdict. And right now there's it's being
(26:05):
hopefully taken up by the Georgia Supreme Court because of
the you know, bigger picture impacts that this could have
on any impediment in the right of way that then
the city, which should be of you know, should have
knowledge of. Then we've got to remove it or else
(26:25):
we're going to be you know, at risk for being
you know, liable for some lawsuits. So it's an example
where you know, again sometimes being overly litigious ends up
creating you know, situations, and if this appeal stood, cities
(26:45):
and counties would end up having to take a real
hard look at what it permits, how it permits it,
not just along the roadway, but I mean way out
of the roadway, all the way to the edge of it.
And then Georgia Power is gonna you know, and some
other utilities. You know, you have traffic cabinets, yeah, signals,
you know, you see the green boxes there or whatever
(27:09):
color they are, but you know the boxes there that
are regulating the signal phase and timing of a signalized intersection.
Nobody hits that we have to bury every single one
of those, which will I mean.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Just but even the poles, I mean I think there's
a pole at by p Tree Baptist churchs that intersection
and the y. It was a pole in the middle
of a triangle thing. I think at one point. I
don't know if it's still there, but it's it was
knocked down once. I mean, there's there's plenty of those
types of things where cross get out of control for
(27:42):
whatever reason, they go slamming into a pole. It's like
one of those walk walk flashing Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
I was from Yeah, a pedestrian actuated crossings where you
hit it and it flashes.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yeah. So I mean is that. I remember even along
the median like Ptree Parkway. I think at some at
one point someone had told me that they they don't
do hardwood trees anymore. They do what they call breakaway trees,
because if a car hits it, it should break away
and not cause too much damage. Right, But if you're
(28:14):
hitting a hard oak wood tree, you're gonna that person's
gonna die. Now, these things will happen anyway. There was
an accident of p Street Parkway going south. I remember
seeing a car pretty much. It was great myrtle trees,
so those are considered breakaway. I guess it had jumped
the sidewalk and went right into that tree. It was burning,
(28:35):
there was some I think there might have been a fatality,
certainly injuries there and that was during last summer. I
think it was. These things happen all the time. But
if they're taken up tort reform, I would hope that
they're not just looking at the reward amount because thirty
eight million, you know, I mean that just seems to
be overly blown. But you know, how do you value
(28:58):
a life? But thirty eight million is just for a city,
for something like that, you know, do you value do
you know? Hopefully they adjust, I know it doesn't affect
the city, but like the outcome of payment to lawyers,
they should really restrict the amount of money being paid
out to lawyers. Guys that thirty eight million, without doubt
is at least thirty percent of that is going to
(29:19):
the lawyer, to the law from that suing. Which would
be interesting about tort reform because apparently most of the house,
most of the capital's made up of lawyers or consultants.
So it it'd be interesting if they actually do anything,
and you know.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Again they serve a purpose. But you know, we have
had I've had this in other cities. I've managed to
an attorney will get with somebody who's usually has a
disability that requires them to be in a wheelchair, and
they'll really it's not done right. It's essentially they'll conspire.
(29:57):
By that, I mean the person in the wheelchair will
seek out instances in which a local government is not
meeting code to the you know that letter, and then
they'll the attorney will reach out on behalf of his
or a client say you're in you know, violation of
(30:18):
American with Disabilities Act, and if you don't do something
within a certain period of time, we're going to sue.
And so then you know, you got now again, ADA
exists for a legitimate reason, absolutely, and you know all
that kind of stuff. But you know, these would be
people who I remember one of them. We had a
parking lot that had the handicapped spot and then you
(30:41):
have that hatched area next to it so that you
could load a wheelchair right. The slope of the parking
lot was two degrees off the you know, and required
us to dig up a full section of it just
to move it two degrees.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
YEA interesting, there's I think target and publics redid their
handicap and and and adjust that it's way different than
it used to be before and probably for some of
the same reasons, the elevation issue and stuff. And I
know the town's town green part where the ford of
the of Pain for paint, foot of Pain for paint,
(31:28):
the defencing had to go around. It allows only one entrance. Now,
this sign is they're saying, if you allow your kids
in here, whoever comes in here needs to understand that
you could get hurt if you're not, you know, doing
it the right way. And the insurance company had told
us right, had told the city that yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Mean it was like, look, you have created an obstacle. Course, yes,
and it's an advance it has advanced stuff. You can't
be letting. You can't have it unsecure. So we have
only one entrance. And then you know, if you're not
with you know, a parent or over eighteen years old yourself,
(32:07):
you're not supposed to be in there. And so if
you just ignore it and get hurt, then our insurance
feels like we're you know, we've we've mitigated our risks
because we you know, told them, hey, you know you're
not supposed to be here without you know, we also
have instructional videos on how to do these things. That
(32:27):
you can use and everything we can do, but there's
still some people who will do it. I mean again,
we live in a litigious society. We all get it,
but there are some things that we got to be
careful in this case that obviously the City of Milk
case isn't ours, but it will impact us greatly if
it is upheld.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Sure, like a lot of legislation that goes on there
that affects cities construction material, but things can be built
with whether it's deal or wood, and if it's a
may I remember that was a piece of less. At
one point, I think one city had that you couldn't
build something taller than three stories without using steel or metal,
(33:08):
and that was struck down.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Apparently it was because the you know timber lobby, Yes
in the state like Georgia Pacific was like no, no, no, no,
we don't want we want to still be able to
use wood, you know up to I think you can
go up to four two four stories with wood before you.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
While build code to steel. Yeah, why build something that
can last one hundreds? Yes?
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Right? And you know there's even some I mean this session,
you know right now, procurement law in Georgia is if
a project exceeds one hundred thousand dollars, you have to
bid it no matter what. And it hasn't been changed
since two thousand. Wow, and we've had inflation since two thousand.
It's really hard for us to find projects that are
(33:58):
less than one hundred thousand that are any and so
it just slows things up because then you've got to
bid it out and you have to you have to
award it to the lowest qualified bidder, and so you
run into, you know, problems sometimes where companies are underbidding
(34:18):
to get the job with the knowledge you're not going
to be able to finish it with that amount, so
they try to change order you to death.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Yes, yes, you.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Know, we'll get you to legislations real quick. Is to
raise that value to two hundred and fifty thousand before
you have.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
That makes that makes sense because I've seen projects where
they do come in and low bid and then you're
sort of forced to pay the rest of it because
you need it done. It's not like that go scratch
from scratch again. We'll hold them to it too, because
even with the bond or something, it's just not going
to happen. Yeah, some of the other legislation. I think
(34:55):
another piece was about annexation. So in brief, what would
that how would.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
That affec you know, so there's still you know, things
happening at the capitol that are removing a city's ability
to annex an area in which the people who live
in that area or own property in that area want
to get annexed into the city that other parties could
(35:20):
stop them. You know, there's legislation making it to where
you know, counties or in Georgia potentially almost could get
to the point where they could stop an annexation, which
you know in a state that allows counties to charge
a militrate just to the unincorporated. In Georgia, that usually
(35:42):
means that the county will lose a little bit of
money when they lose property because they lose the ability
to charge property tax to that entity. So counties are resistant.
So that's inhibiting cities to do it. Even the Gwenett
Delegation themselves, you know, which are the legislators that represent
a district that has some part of Gwenan in it.
(36:04):
They're discussing having a rule that's setting the Gwinnett Delegation
rules such that if there's an annexation bill. You know,
almost like if say the city of Pea Street Cornered
Corners wanted to allow a area contiguous to us to
vote on whether they wanted to come in, say a
subdivision or something like that, that everybody in the delegation
(36:29):
has to vote on having it move forward, not just
the ones that represent the areas of affected. So you know,
we could have a legislator that barely represents Gwinnett up
in like Brazleton or unincorporated area, and the county gets
with them and they're like, we don't want this to happen.
We'll lose a little bit of money. And then they're like, yeah,
(36:49):
I don't want it to happen. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
I think that's that's because of the trend of all
these places like Mulberry, right, that's the newest city in
Guinett County. Right, it's a trend of all these cities
coming into being, chopping away a little bit at that
county budget, and now the county has to you know,
fight for for for the budget that they need. Although
(37:12):
they get they have less area to cover except for
the emergency.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
But remember they're only losing a revenue stream in this case,
a millage that's charged only to unincorporated and that's their
own doing, like in other states that don't allow that,
say in North Carolina. Counties in North Carolina can only
charge one type of tax, and that's a property tax
(37:38):
to everybody in the county. It's what they can't then
create special you know, you know, focused taxes that only
go to unincorporated you know, in Gwinnett, Gwinette has a
county wide tax that even you and I who live
in p Street corners pay, and that's for the county
(37:59):
whe services like the courthouse, the jail, the health department.
But then they charge very specific taxes just to the
unincorporated area, parks and rec police, you know, code enforcement,
zoning administration. They don't have to do that. They chose to,
(38:23):
Oh we're going to and so that it's a little
bit of a self inflicted.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
But so the county charges for parks to the unincorporated
and but we have parks here in the city. But
we're not paying for that fee.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
No, we're paying. You're paying for.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
It, Okay, we all paying just like police.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
We allowed once we became a city, we allowed Gwinette
to keep charging that in our city limits in return
for them to continuing to operate the parks.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
All right, So yeah, so we should probably buy those
parks and just take over the whole the mills, all right.
So drone drone regulation, I think you mentioned there was
drone regulation. I know a lot of people that fly
drones around here, and certainly there are roofing companies that
will do the drone thing and check your roof and
(39:12):
stuff and show you where the damages and stuff like that.
Building inspectors do that to some degree. So there's also
and people just individuals going around to town Green and
doing his own drone And so there's legislation up maybe right.
And part of that is probably because of all the
(39:34):
drone stuff and the unidentified UAPs up in New Jersey
that everyone went crazy on whether it's Chinese or Americans,
And now we understand the FAA allowed some of that
to go on. It's like one of the things that
just came out. So but who knows, right, could we aliens,
could we be foreign governments or our own I mean,
(39:54):
there's so many conspiracy theories that we're we're tracking nuclear
been the transportation into different places, and it's just like
you could go crazy. So what's going on with the
drone legislation here in Georgia.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Yeah, so this actually isn't bad, although by the way,
you know, you laugh about it could be anything, which
in a lot of cases you're like, really, but you
do have to give some of those like you know,
tin hat you know, tinfoil hat crowd, some a little
bit of you know, latitude, because we did have a
(40:30):
what is it, Yeah, what do they call it? Soup
stratospheric Yes, those yeah, yeah, you know, I mean so
there are some unique things.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
That yeah, and that one was very unique. That was
a huge one from Jazz.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
It was in the stratosphere purposely you.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
Know, going across and they had solar panels too. They
were powering with solar panels through so it was like
the whole big thing.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Yeah, I mean so but in this case, yes, is
Georgia legislator who with the whole thing that was happening
up in the coast of New Jersey and everything, was like,
we should give local governments better ability to control unidentified
aerial vehicles. And so in this case they the bill
(41:17):
is allowing the local government to regulate you know, drones
below four hundred feet.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Well, because the FAA takes care of drones of a
certain weight and hire, where if you have to launch drong,
you have to actually get a number for that drone.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
And have a FAA license.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
A pilot, you have to actually take a course. To
me as a commercial, Let's say I wanted to fly
my own drone as a business because I'm going to
shoot drone shots. I'm going to use it for the
magazine and stuff. I actually have to be licensed or
use someone that's licensed to do that.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
You do, that's a for our concerts, you know, we
use a third party, you know, a firm to shoot
video of it. And you've seen some of the video
we've had on that drone operator who does the filming
for it. He has a license and he has to
get a permit from the FAA to be able to
(42:20):
apply it.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
But only because I think it's by the FAA does
it by weight versus by height? There is a height,
there is a height, but it does by weight versus
because most of the stuff that a person like you
and me would buy is under that weight requirement. But
you're saying that that legislation would then cover even those.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Drones, Well, only if they're going to be over public
spaces in which there's a public gathering, which I believe
they define it as fifty people or more that are
that plan to be around each other for more than
thirty minutes, really, and so that's that would be where
(43:04):
all right now, we don't want there to be unidentified
drone activity that is where you get into because even
for our concerts reco even below a certain height, the
FAA regulates it because there's so many people.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
Right, But if I was and I've seen lots of
photographers do drones also because it's part of that thing,
they'll go along the river, which is it wouldn't be
a pot it's above a public place, but there's no
people there maybe or the night enough people like you
were saying, so that's a reasonable thing. I guess that's
not covered by that probably No.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
I mean, I think this is really more of public
space where there's a gathering of the public of more
than I think it was fifty people who are planning
on being there for more than thirty minutes. Then and
only then would the local government be in a position
to say you still need to ideent to fy who
you are if you're going to be flying below four
(44:03):
hundred feet, you're still above four hundred feet, is still
out of our control.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
So if it's a private party party off someone's back
yard and they have a drone they want to fly
it up and you know do that, that's okay, that.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
Wouldn't be yet because that wouldn't be on public property.
Speaker 3 (44:20):
Right, okay, private? All right, Well, I guess that all
makes sense.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Although I again, trust me, this wasn't our legislation. I'm
just telling you the unique things. I mean, every day
as I'm going through the bills that hit, you know,
just to see our lobbyist is giving me, you know,
a heads up on hey, how does this affect you?
I oftentimes have to tell them, hey, this wouldn't be good.
(44:46):
So if you're in a position to tell a legislator
or the bills author some cases to say, hey can
you tweak it? Whatever, we've we've had to have bills
tweaked that would have inhibit did our ability to have
innovation get tested here in Curiosity Lab because it was
a prohibition against certain activity across all sidewalks and we
(45:10):
were like time out, you know, we need to have
the you know, so we've we've had a curiosity lab
carved out of legislation before, and we've had the bill
language get tweaked before, and we've certainly done things to
you know, completely help you know, a bill to its
(45:32):
demise because it would have been harmful to us in
some cases just us or other cases just all cities.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
So interesting, interesting, surest time. Yeah, so many aspects of
of governing city and what you have, what you all
have to do. There is some good you know stuff though, too.
So let's celebrate something as well that the sheriff Department,
the Marshal Marshal Department. Sorry sure if Marshall the marshals
(46:04):
did find some interesting illegal things going on city piece
three Corners Sodana.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Yeah, so this is a good story that does reflect
the fact that when you're able to have more time,
resources and intimate knowledge of an area, you can oftentimes
uncover things that you couldn't were you not in that position.
(46:31):
Our marshals were able to uncover what was and I
believe they only had operated it one or two times
before he got involved, but a legal nightclub that was
operating essentially like speakeasies used to operate back in the day,
(46:53):
which is they found a location. I don't want to
get into the exact location right now because it's its
citations have been issued, but it hasn't actually been you
knowerated or yeah, in municipal court. But found the location
in which they could have a retail storefront. But then
(47:18):
the storefront was very call it shallow and small, and
then there was a door both through at the back
of that and a side door in which you know,
two thirds of this lease space was actually an illegal nightclub,
(47:39):
hookah lounge, you name it, but had not gotten anything permitted.
You know, they didn't have plans that reflected this, so
they were in violation of you know, a building permit.
They hadn't filed for business license, they didn't have a
license to serve alcohol, so the state's Department of Revenue
(48:00):
was involved. And they also the fire code had them
limited to like sixty people based on the square footage,
and they were you know, having two hundred plus people,
and our marshals intelligence you know network was able to
then uncover the underground you know call it you know,
(48:24):
marketing that this place was doing and they were running
a full on club, wow, but you know, like a
black market club and had it not been for the
Marshall's ability to you know, dig into this. You know,
they probably would have kept going and you know, oftentimes
(48:45):
the and there's no houses near this, so you didn't
have that aspect that could have come up. But the
danger of these kind of clubs, whether they're the ones
that move around periodically, are the ones that try to
keep you know, keep it quiet. Are there's a reason
that they're trying to keep it quiet. So these types
of clubs generally have people that enjoy them, at least,
(49:10):
maybe not a majority of them, but there are people
that only like to go to clubs that are kind
of secret because they're wanting to do things that the
law doesn't allow them to and that oftentimes can end
up in violence and other criminal activity. We may have
averted that happening at this one. But you know why
it was significant is there was a lot of money.
(49:34):
This is not an open the door and then there's
this big room with some tables and chairs. This is
a full on outfitted like remodeled night club. Wow, that
was operating like a skit. In fact, the name of
it was the Secret Lounge Last And you know, kudos
(49:55):
to them. Yes, there's from the City Attorney. You know,
Gwinnett County PD was supported this effort, but you know
it was our marshal, led by our marshals, identified by
our marshals, and you know, city was able to to
keep it from you know, continuing to operate. So there
(50:16):
are good things that may have verted a disaster here.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
That's great that it is great that they're they're doing
a lot of good work out there, and all the
technology that's coming in, I mean that certainly helps to
and you.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
Know, en Rico was talking about drones, why don't we
put up a drone to look at the traffic migration
in this area to kind of help build our case,
our evidence against the owner, because we didn't want the
owner to be like, you know, what are you talking about?
(50:51):
Or I haven't had anybody come over here yet ever,
So our marshals continue to use drones as a you know,
very effective law enforcement tools. So they definitely have their place.
Speaker 3 (51:04):
No for sure. And I've listened to some of the
stuff that some of the products and tools of the trade,
if you will, that they've investigated some really cutting it stuff,
So it's all good. I think the city certainly gains
by that. So you all, you know, I mean, listen,
(51:25):
you all do a good job out there. So well
we've come to the end of our time. We've covered
quite a bit, so Brian, I appreciate you doing this with.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
Me well always my pleasure. Appreciate you providing this communication
vehicle for you know, those who listen and watch can
learn about some things that aren't necessarily always We're not
necessarily always able to include in things like city council
(51:54):
meetings or whatever, because this is kind of the you know,
the day to day type of thing that you know,
oftentimes people don't realize goes on behind the scenes here.
So I appreciate you letting you know our citizens have
this opportunity to hear what is going on behind the scenes.
Speaker 3 (52:10):
Absolutely love doing this. I love getting the word out.
I don't always agree with everything that goes on, yeah,
but this the good part is that we can talk
back and forth about this and get out, you know,
the facts, and ask questions because I don't know everything,
so I'd like to ask lots of questions doing this stuff.
So I appreciate you doing this. Everyone else, certainly, you know,
(52:32):
subscribe like the page. You'll get notified when we have
more podcasts. We try to do this on a regular basis,
like every month or every five weeks, usually after a
city council meeting. This way we can discuss what just
happened let's say Tuesday of this week, or the sessions
like like that's going on in the capitol. So if
you have questions, let me know. If you have questions
(52:54):
for Brian, he can be reached at the city obviously,
go to the website Peachtreet Corners g dot gov and
you can find way to reach that. We'll put your
questions in the comments. If you're on Facebook listening to
this or x or YouTube by YouTube channel, and if
you're getting this off Apple or any of the other podcasts,
(53:16):
just reach out to Peatreecorners Magazine, Peachtrecorner's Life and we'll
answer those questions. Again. Thank you for our sponsors, ev
Remodeling Inc. And Vox Popular. You'll find their information in
the show notes. So thanks again, everyone, appreciate you being
with us.
Speaker 2 (53:33):
You've been listening to Prime Lunchtime with Brian Johnson, the
City Manager of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, with your host Rico Figlioni.
The show is part of a family of podcasts produced
by Peachtree Corners Magazine and Mighty Rockets. To find more
episodes of this show or our other podcasts, visit Living
in Peachtreecorners dot com or follow us on Facebook at
(53:57):
Peachtree Corners Life
Speaker 1 (54:04):
Po
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com