GCCMA Membership Meeting

Wednesday, November 10

Minutes

Kenneth Howard called the meeting to order and asked for a review of the minutes of the March meeting.  Motion was made and there was a second to approve the minutes as written.  Kenneth then asked the membership to review the September financial statement.  A motion was made and seconded to accept the financial report.  The motion passed.

Kenneth then presented the budget for 2011 and explained that a committee had been asked to develop proposals for a dues increase.  After considering several ideas, which he outlined, the committee decided to propose a flat $25 increase and the proposed budget reflected that change in dues.   Kenneth also announced that the committee had considered proposals for corporate memberships and sponsorships, but after much discussion in the board meeting, he would be appointing a committee to further flesh out that proposal before submitted it to the membership.  Kenneth asked for discussion, but there was none.  A motion was presented and seconded and the motion to increase dues to $25 was approved.

Kenneth then asked for the membership to review the new proposed district map.  He explained that the board felt it necessary to revise the map to make sure that the membership was more equitably represented.  The proposed change includes 6 districts instead of 5, with the Atlanta Metro area being broken out.  This would leave that district with no representation, but in the spring, the nominating committee would be submitting a proposed slate to include the new metro area.  Kenneth introduced each District Director and asked them to stand.  He then named the nominating committee as Lee Gilmour, Immediate Past President, Isaiah Hugley and Steve Szablewski as two previous past presidents.  Kenneth explained that this change would actually be a change to the constitution and bylaws and would therefore require a 2/3 vote to pass.  He asked for discussion and hearing none, motion was made, seconded and he called for the vote, asking for all in favor to stand.  Then he called for all opposed and there were none.

Kenneth then called on Paul Radford from GMA and Matt Hicks from ACCG to provide a legislative update.  Paul discussed the changes in leadership caused by the recent election.  He explained that the budget deficit would be the first course of action for the new governor and legislative bodies.  He also expressed fear that with more republican representation, bills that have not moved in the past, such as property tax caps, will be more likely to gain momentum, so everyone needs to be extremely cautious.   Paul also announced that local governments are working on pilot project with the Department of Revenue to compare occupation tax records with sales tax records to make sure that all are submitting their sales tax.

Matt Hicks said that the three top issues for the new legislative body will be budget, tax reform and immigration issues.  He said that a tax reform council has already been established and started working on a total review of the entire tax code in the state.  Matt said that ACCG has started a review of old, out of date laws that they might ask the legislature to repel.  An example of this would be 911 filing reports that serve no purpose, but are timely for local governments to prepare.

Following the legislative updates, there was a question and answer period.  One question concerned redistricting based on 2010 census numbers.  Those numbers should be available in early spring and redistricting will likely be handled in a special session in late summer.

There was also a question about the current working relationship between ACCG and GMA.  Both agreed that the groups are making every effort to work closely together as that is the most effective way to proceed.  Since cities and counties do have different legal responsibilities though, it is impossible not to have friction on some issues.

Kenneth then asked Andrea Arnold, the GCCMA representative on the ICMA board to give an update on the recently concluded ICMA conference.  Andrea reported that the conference was very well attended.  Items that she wanted to point out were guidelines for professional compensation which had been drafted by the Board of Professional Conduct.  She also announced that a change to the nomination and election process had been approved.  She asked members to go to the ICMA website to check out the resources offered, to sign up for the spring regional meeting and make donations.  She also mentioned that the speaker for the Thursday evening dinner is an ICMA official.

Kenneth then asked the members of the Carl Vinson Institute and GMA to leave the room while the membership discussed administrative services proposal.   At 5:30pm, the meeting was temporarily adjourned.  At dinner that evening, Kenneth Howard announced that meeting would be continued on November 11 at 10:15 am.

Wednesday, November 11 10:15 a.m.

Discussion on the proposals for administrative services contracts continued.  The final decision was to contract with CVIOG to do education and training and to contract with GMA for business management and conference planning.  

Also, since the 2011 budget had not been approved the previous day, a call for a motion to accept the budget was made.  The motion was made, seconded, and all approved.