Hello how are you? I'm doing well how about yourself
good good thank you
I hope everybody had a good Memorial Day weekend
yes it's a little hot out there but that was good give it just another
minute or so so that we can have a few more people join us and then we will get the show on the road
Hello everyone. Hello.
Hello,
Hey Miss Rainy How you doing?
Oh well thank you. And you.
I'm doing good if we can hang on one more second, I'm bringing some folks over from the other room Good evening, Miss Burks. How you doing? Good. See you. Thank you for joining. And Great,
thank you
almost everybody
Hello Miss Sparks. This is my first time getting to see you face to face. It was wonderful to meet you. The same for you
Alright, Madam Chair, I believe everybody is yes, everybody looks like they are in. And so if anyone else joined after roll call, then I can definitely announce for the group.
Perfect, thank you very much. And with that, I will go ahead and call the meeting to order here at 6:02pm. A quick welcome to everybody. And thank you for giving your time this evening to all of the committee members who are here. And for those of you who are attending in the audience. Thank you for giving your time this evening to join us. Before we jump into our formalities for the night, I want to quick toss over to Mr. Marshall Freeman for a quick announcement.
Thank you Madam Chair. And so I feel like each meeting that we come together we seem to have something to celebrate and so tonight is no different. And so who has been our very first deputy chief to join the group. Then as you guys might remember at our last meeting went to Assistant Chief has now received another accomplishment today and has been named the interim police chief for the city of Atlanta. And so I'd like to take a second to congratulate chief Schierbaum, who has been a tremendous partner on this project and obviously seeing it through and and even again, it speaks volumes to him joining the call and continue to be a part of this process. And so just would like to say congratulations from us all and thank you for joining us you.
us Have you were prepared for us to embarrass you a little bit today?
It's all good man.
Thank you for that Marshall on again. Congratulations to Chief Schierbaum. With that I will go ahead and toss over to Madam Chair. Sharon I believe I just saw you miss Sharon Williams so that we can move through our Roll Call.
Sure I just want to say where's the champagne but Okay. Enough the name So Alison Clark Patricia cope present Sean Atwaters. Edge Shawn inner join you. Okay. Jerry Basin No, Jerry. Either. Anne Phillips here Shirley Nichols Shirley? Present. Wonderful Ophelia Lee conducting either Okay, Jacqueline Rainey here. Interim Chief, Deborah. Here. Thank you. Sharon Williams here. Lilly Pontiz. Sean Billingsley.
He is actually coming over from the other room now.
Oh, he is okay. Great. How is Turner? Now hola Shandra. Burks. Nicole Morato. Here. Amy Taylor. Um, yeah. Tory Tucker. Dustin Hill is not seeing him either. Okay. And yeah. James Macklemore. And Cher, we have for him.
Thank you very much, and I
Thank you give me also Sean Billingsley.
I did get you, Sean. Absolutely. Thank you.
Okay, with that, now that we have quorum met, I will move through very quickly so that we can adopt the agenda and approval of minutes. I would like to incorporate those into one motion if possible. So if there are any objections to either adopting this agenda or approving the minutes from our last meeting on April 26, please speak now. Otherwise, it will be considered unanimous consent.
Allison, I have one correction on the minutes. On the fifth page, my my first name is L spelled e and n and l y n and it's spelled li uni. Okay,
I will make that adjustment.
Yeah, it's correct on the on the first page, but on the fifth page is li e is
Okay, I will make that adjustment on page five No problem. Thank you. With that, if there are no other amendments to the minutes then I will ask that the minutes be approved with the adjustment on page five to properly represent Miss Rainey's name. Are there any other objections? All right. With that our minutes are approved and the agenda is adopted and we can move into the first piece of business for tonight which is our committee report which we will start with the educational partnership committee. Mr. Freeman Yes, thank
you Madam Chair. And so I'll do the educational partnership committee and then go into a Green Space Committee, just portion and so on the execution of partnership, as you will remember in our last meeting, we did take volunteers to sign up for the educational partnership committee and we did receive those those folks who have volunteered to serve additional time and we appreciate that very much. And so in between this meeting and our next meeting in June, we will convene our very first meeting for the educational partnership committee. And so at the very next meeting, imagine that we will have a committee report from the work and the focus of that particular committee. And then likewise as we move on to the second ask for this meeting, as we talked about breaking into committees would be around a green space committee that would be able to work. Bob Hughes has agreed to lead that committee in which we appreciate you Bob again volunteering more of your time. So Bob he was will run point on that committee for the green space but the focus will be able to continue to work on the trail connection and trail design, which is will be in conjunction in concert with some of the other nonprofits some of the other partnerships and obviously, some of the parks entities as well to continue to envision that space. Secondly, it will also work on some of the areas as far as sidewalks and then lastly, some additional items like bicycle lanes and so when we talk about how we continue to make sure that this space is accessible for everyone, that will be the focus of that committee. And so what we've asked for, Madam Chair, if we could volunteers that would like to volunteer for that committee could potentially submit their names. I would be happy to collect them and be the receiver of them if you'd like again, for you guys to submit names prior to if we can maybe set a date. I'm having to again, do whatever the committee deems appropriate but maybe at some point by the end of this week. We're the top of next week at the latest to be able to submit those names for those who would like to participate in that committee as well then that would be great and and moving forward. We would have a committee report at each of these meetings from each of the workgroups that have been assigned to these two different areas. Bob, any additional thing you'd like to add there or any color you'd like to paint on it? As you do so? Well?
It's going to be the coolest committee. So everybody sign up for it, you know, no one will take everybody. And secondly, whoever is on the Education Committee, if appropriate, we would love to volunteer time to teach young people how we go about planning and doing what we've been doing here. And so I would like to throw that offer out to that committee to consider as well. It'll be fun to do.
Oh, that would be lovely, and any. It's quite a gracious offer. Let me start there about any opportunity to provide more opportunity for community is even better. So I really appreciate the fact that you're willing to throw that out there.
Absolutely. It would be fun to fund that.
And as for the Green Space Committee, and getting that up and running, can everybody agree that by Tuesday, a week from today, May 7 To have your names into more Marshall Freeman, if you're interested in participating? You want us to share and your hand is raised.
Yeah. So I am interested in the committee and I thought it did anyone else who's interested if they could just say it now we can enter it for the minutes. And if that's fine, they need? That's fine, too.
Well, this is Shirley Nichols. I'm gonna volunteer for the Green Space Committee. So you don't have to send it in later. That's right.
Tori, Tucker, I would like to volunteer. Thank you
Nicole, and Amy wants to know, what kind of commitment this would really involve time and stuff like that?
Yeah, Bob, you're probably best suited to speak about the time on the Green Space Committee.
You know,
Want to be respectful of everybody's time but I think that you know, we can set good agendas and input. Being able to kind of outlay saw, kind of hourly we can do those zoom meetings in between these kinds of meetings. There's also probably a time where we'd want to get out and walk the property and look at some alignments of sidewalks, etc. And we can certainly coordinate that. Glad to do that on the weekend. I want to make sure that we're anytime that we're doing we're making it such that everybody who's got other obligations can do those obligations and and we still make this work so hopefully that's helpful. Amy, Nicole.
Thank you. Um, you can put me down sharing participate. Okay, and then
This is Nicole Miranda, thanks for the call. Thank you.
I'll get back to you. I'm just not sure if I can commit at this point. That's fine.
We'll still leave it open until May seventh. If anybody wants to get back with either Sharon or I both marshals collecting names. And so if you do want to get back to them by the seventh, please do so. I see. Ms. Ophelia has Ms. Ophilia Lee has joined us is that correct? Yes.
Correct. And also Hollis Turner
Good evening. Good evening.
Just to bring you to up to speed we were just discussing a green space committee and we are taking volunteers for that committee. You can respond right now on the call if you're interested in serving on that committee or until May the seventh you have an opportunity to respond and this is a committee that will be evaluating some opportunities for the green space including trail connection sidewalks, bike lanes, etc. And so if either of you are interested in serving on a committee that would do any of those functions, please make sure that you respond to Marshall Freeman no later than May 7. June seventh. I'm sorry, June seventh. Yes, thank you this year is fine by isn't one of the says
is when you have small children. It sure does.
I swear they both just got here and yes. Here we are. All right, ladies and gents. With that. I think that was everything in terms of volunteers for that committee. Again, you have until May 7 to resign. I will quick jump in here. Oh, Miss Cole was
I was just saying June the seventh right?
June, yes, I will get it together. I'm just gonna just plaster that right across the wall. So I will remember that.
I'll get back on my show as well, I check my schedule.
Absolutely. And then there are quite a few of us in the area that have been heavily invested in making sure that those pieces come together. So especially those of you that have been involved in that process, please seriously consider joining this committee. With that June 7, deadline, I want to make another quick announcement on what we are doing for public input all of you received prior to this meeting, the link where we can have individuals to subscribe so that they can provide feedback and receive updates from the committee, I need to make sure that you all are sharing this out to your networks. Tomorrow, the update that was sent to each one of you will go out to anyone who has signed up to receive updates, it will of course, go to each one of you to post or eblast, etc. However you communicate with your networks. But we want to get as many people as possible to sign up so that when we send out these updates, they are in direct receipt of it also. So that when we send out links to our surveys, they have an opportunity to participate and be heard in this process, hearing back from them allows us to incorporate that discussion into our meeting. So again, please make a point of sharing that information out. And if you haven't signed up yourself, please make sure that you do. The last little bit that I do want to make mention of is outside of the surveys. At some point, we will pull together a committee that will work towards arranging focus groups so that we can sit down and have more in depth discussion with various groups that are impacted by this project, and get their perspectives and of course, incorporate that into our feedback during these meetings. So as we move through that, just consider what level of participation you're willing to put in, and how we can move forward through that I did not hear back from any member of this committee outside of Sharon, with respect to the survey with information to be shared to the public. So if you have any questions, or areas of interest that you think need to be incorporated on the survey, please make sure you respond with that information. This is the absolute deadline to provide that information. Sharon I believe your hand is
Yeah, Madam Chair. I know it's kind of general there. I think that was reading a lot of the articles around this effort. And I think there's some misinformation out there. And I think it's time for the committee to go on the offensive. So as we think about strategic stakeholders that we want to sign up for information. I also think this group has a responsibility to reach out to especially the perceived quote unquote, opposition Maybe people just aren't sure about what we're doing. So as we think about who are some of these concerns, stakeholders, I'd like us to start thinking about being proactive and engaging some of these impacted groups or people who sit during haptics and making sure that we had the opportunity to sit down and help them.
Read and that is exactly what, ultimately our committee will look like some of the people that are willing to have that necessary engagement with these groups so that they can report back to the broader committee on what is being said, what is being heard and make sure that we have an opportunity to consider that in our discussions.
That's great, but I guess I'm sorry, no, I wouldn't offer that. You know, I'm very concerned about some of these things. And I'm happy that take the lead, maybe working with Marshall Allen and some other members of the Atlanta city government to reach out to some of these groups.
Absolutely, thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thanks all round.
Before we move into the security update, I have one area where I absolutely fell short today and I did not take a step back to introduce to the committee Ms. LaChandra Burks, who is the Deputy CEO, COO. For the mayor's office. She has now joined the team so she will be with us on these meetings. I am so sorry that we are so happy to have you. With that Chief Schierbaum I will toss to you to provide the security update tonight.
Thank you Madam Chair and again Good evening, everyone. We always want to thank you for the work you're doing for the women and men of the fire in the police department. Many of whom you will ever meet and also for the many neighborhoods of our city for the work you're doing. They will be beneficiaries of this input in the very near future. So always want to never pass the opportunity by saying thank you. I do want to do an introduction tonight with my new responsibilities will be occasions that I may not be present and still certainly be working on this initiative and I can't be present ensuring we have a representative from the police department that is here to answer your questions and to be part of this collaborative effort. Deputy Chief Tyus who was on the call this evening is our Deputy Chief over our Community Services Division which doesn't tell our SWAT and firing range resources that are very close by as well as our community outreach and community policing initiatives among many others. So I want to introduce Chief Titus this evening and let you know you will be representing the police department on any meetings that I cannot be present so Chief Tyus, would you like to introduce yourself before I give the or say hello before I give the security update?
Thank you for that gracious introduction Chief Schierbaum and again as I want to say congratulations on your well deserved appointment. As you said I'm current;y Deputy Chief of Community Service Division. I've been with the Atlanta Police Department about 20 years now. I recognize there a huge shoes to fill in this role, but I will be as engaging and as accessible as Chief Schierbaum has been so feel free to reach out to me and and I will definitely put my email in the chat for any ones that may have any questions or concerns or want to speak with me offline. So thank you, Chief Schierbaum. Thank you, sir.
Appreciate it. Madam Chair. Just for the security update. I wanted to update on to two situations, one of which you all were very well, which I'm very aware of which occurred on May 17. That was when the department with our partners wanted to remove a number of illegal structures that had been erected on the site that is planned for this training facility. In doing that there was a group of individuals that attempted to disrupt that initiative, we did make seven arrests on site and then unfortunately, we had individual or individuals that did deploy three Molotov cocktail type devices at our officers who were stationed up around the gate area. Because of that we did close traffic on key road. This is an action we we try to avoid doing. We want to make sure that our effort in the areas is not disruptive. But safety must always come first. And so the decision was made because of the tactics being employed, that we would have the ability to ensure the safety of residents going to and from their home or the whites traveling through the area. So we are officers will always assist in moving around we may have to have any type of temporary closure and we will try to move quickly to brief you madam chair so you can pass on to the members of this committee when we have to do that and but just please know it is something that we will not do less it's just absolutely necessary for the safety of the community and the first responders or any contractors of any working in the area. As I didn't know, to I press conference that day, and I think it's important to, to reiterate, these seven individuals that we arrested, do not have any community ties to those neighborhoods that are represented on this call. They were all from outside of the state of Georgia, section one who was from the city of Gainesville, Georgia. So we want to make sure that we pass that along, in the in the settings, also want to speak on our helicopter being over the air that know the air resource when it's deployed, depending on time of day. And the situation we understand that may be heard in the in the neighborhood, and inside certain homes. We weren't very mindful of that. And we'll only deploy that resource when we believe we have trespassers on the site, individuals that may be engaging in any destructive or criminal activity that is an air resource that we bring in our air asset to assist and guide the officers and our partner agencies who who are working in the area, we do try to limit that. And we'll continue to try to limit that. And just to reassure you, that we will do that when it's in response to something that would cause us to call in, in calling the helicopter. And then in addition to those seven arrests. Last week, kind of last Friday, we did an arrest of four additional individuals who were trespassing on the property. Again, my report shows that none of them were from any of the neighborhoods represented here. And we're individuals, two of which we believe to be a post project and two that just happened to to enter into the area. And we're engaging in some criminal mischief that was not associated with this particular project. We want to make sure that anytime we are in an in a space where we're deploying resources more than usual, that we work quickly to enforce the law. So you're aware, and to know that we are working to ensure that these efforts are as least disruptive as you all as they can be. Madam Chair, I'll certainly open the floor to any questions that you or members of the committee may have.
Thank you The floor is open. Thank you very much for that report. The floor is open. If you have a question please raise your hand and announce yourself as you speak. AmyTaylor I see Miss Anne Phillips has her hand up. Oh Amy, I will come right back to you.
Chief Schierbaum I read the article. It is a read cities and states that these protesters came from. I couldn't figure out in my mind why they were here. That you will ever I guess in your questioning of them. Find out whether they were being hired to come to do this or were they a part of say one particular organization and this is all that they do just go from state to state doing this? Or were you able to ascertain any information as to why they were here. Particularly in Georgia doing this? Yes, Miss Phillips
That's a good question and the bigger why behind this is certainly a part of the investigation and primarily the purview of the of the FBI and the GBI, you're assisting this investigation. Motives aside why you would travel here, might be there's a few ground rules that remain the same. This is property that is not a park this is property that is has always been used for training, that if anyone ever enters on it, it will be criminal trespass, if you damage burn build on it, that is criminal actions and well so regardless of the motive that brings them here. Our approach is going to be the same. You can't be on the property, you can't be committing crimes to try to, to further whatever agenda you may have. And I think as our investigating partners determine more of a why they will make us aware of that. But right now, motive aside, I would just refer you know, some individuals have taken social media to take positions of being opposed to certain public safety infrastructures. Others have taken social media to pose certain for reasons of green space which this committee has been doing a great job in educating around. Absent those motivations. We encourage everyone to exercise their First Amendment rights and do it peacefully and do it in a manner that adds to the conversation and contributes to this project and then absent that we will address any criminal activity that occurs occurs on the site.
Thank you for that question Anne and the response Chie Schierbaum Amy. Hi.
I'm in response to that whole situation. Those of us who live right here next to it, we had no idea what was going on. It was pretty scary. You know, I mean, the helicopter disruption was quite notable. Is there a resource that we can look at or some kind of notification system or something like something like that as going And we can look it up and go, Okay, there's a situation at the property, so we don't need to be too alarmed about it. Because you guys have it under control or whatever, just some kind of, you know, heads up, because it gets a little scary.
Yes, ma'am, I certainly think that that is an area we can improve in, and will improve. And we have tended to use our social media, our Twitter, Instagram, whatever, we do have these situations occurring inside the city limits. And we want to ask individuals to avoid the area and work around. So we will give on our public affairs team to ensure that anything occurring in this area can be communicated on that line. And for those of you that may not have social media, but I do is for you all to follow us on those three platforms. To determine Madam Chair, I don't know if we have an internal chain, that we can establish that once someone sees it on our social media or you receive a call from Chief Tyus. That that is something you can distribute to the group because we don't understand on everyone but maybe on social media, but to be able to establish that internal communication network. So when you do sit on our social media can be forcibly distributed, because we don't want any of our responses to be more concerning than what we are responding to. And to understand that when you see the helicopter it is for safety, the helicopter gives a perspective that is so unique, and it allows us to put the right resources in the right areas. So we do minimum minimize that disruption in the resources we bring to bear on the actually the right ones that are needed. So that's the vital need for the helicopter. And to know that we also will use it other means to be able to give us that perspective when they are when they are available. Thank you so much.
Thank you, me, and thank you to shabam. And we can absolutely establish that internal chain so that the information goes out. And I fully understand we won't know everything in real time. But there's an opportunity for us to be able to communicate with respect to what's happening. I can say just from my perspective, and my community and Amy, you're you, Nicole and I share a very similar perspective in that we are so close together. I guess it was May 17. That evening, we saw the smoke, you know, and you know, it's concerning when you see that I know a few years ago, we had that big tire fire and it makes you wonder what's coming next and what all is at play. But we also understood after after a short bit of time exactly what was at play. And we're hopeful that things do tamp down such that she sharp I mentioned whatever protests takes place happens in a peaceful manner. And it's not disruptive to those of us who are living right over here. That's not a desirable aspect of this at all. And so I think that, you know, I know you all working very hard to make sure that that changes. Do we still have trespassers on the society? Or do you think that they're mostly gone at this point?
That is an area that is something we check every day. Madam Chair, when we do encounter individuals are always be the opportunity to inform and educate any individual being arrested for criminal trespass has previously been advised not to be on the property lock the boundaries are and that if the do return, that will be an arrest right now. We do not believe anyone is on the property that can be changed, that could change and if we do encounter anyone, then if they've been forewarned an arrest will be made. If they haven't, we will provide them that do work. Thank you very
much. I see Miss Atwater says joined us this evening. Good evening, Miss Atwaters.
Do we have any additional questions for Chief Schierbaum? All righty, I don't see any hands up with that we can move into our due diligence update, Mr. Allen Williams.
About three items. Tonight, preservation, the acoustical study. And lastly, the stock site development permit public preservation. As we discussed in our last meeting, we engage the Master's class and voice chat along with professors to come out and scan to some buildings on key road that are on summer break now. So naturally get back to summer break or reengage students, professor from Georgia tag along with the Atlanta preservation center, and our design team to continue the study of the structures. So their politics back up in the fall and that'll kind of parallel with the architects, construction documents finalization at that same time. Also, I was wondering, remind everyone that I said he does not include the existing prison, because that is our lease area. So we talked about what remaining structure what restructuring will remain. We are not talking about the main principle. clarify that. Second only acoustical study. Amy, I don't think you were in the last meeting. But I thank everyone for allowing us to use your site on multiple sites from the sound monitoring equipment that helped out a lot. That work is continuing as a combination of data collection and modeling. And it's what's next for six months for all that data to be collected, collected and analyzed and put into the model. We have to do some oversight and oversight activities. To collect that data. So well take a while to come back with a model. analysis can be performed. Lastly, we site development permit. We have submitted to the count Canada for our site development permit. Our team of engineers and sultans have submitted their design to the camp candidate for their team engineers to review is a process and we need to get feedback and comments. And that process is ongoing right now. We're expecting our first round of comments come back the next several weeks. She asked yourself when is the permit expected I would probably say third quarter of this year. So it's a great collaboration of our engineers and consultants on the bottom on the landscape on the arbors along with our civil engineers, working with the Dekalb county engineers to come up with that. So that's the three areas we're working on right now in the preservation acoustical study, and also the status of the site and all the permitting. Does anyone have any questions?
Would I just add one comment to that? If I could add next, just that, not at the point to which the site development permit, and everything is completed and approved, then we'd be happy to also share out that entire packet with this entire committee, and then also the public.
Thank you. The floor is open for questions. Please announce yourself before you see it Look at that, I guess you are off the hook. Allen really. I don't see any injuries this evening. There we go. There we go. Let's go quick.
Just to quickie I just do want to acknowledge that like the committee raised the concerns Starlight community, hey, you need to check the sound over in our community. And again, you know, the vendors and the consultants were responsive to community need, and that enhance the results of the data collection. So I just want to acknowledge that, again, we've got really good partners that we're working with. Thank you for that, you.
Know, if there is nothing else, we will skip forward to our next piece, which is just general discussion. If anyone has anything that they would like to bring up, now is the time, please raise your hand so that you can take the floor and but before I turn it over, I just want to make a quick mention to everybody. I know we've had several short meetings. And that is the nature of the beast. Right now we've covered a lot, very early on in this process. And I just want to note that we will continue to have our monthly meeting, some will be short. As we get results back from these various studies, some of those meetings will go a bit longer. But continue to bear with us. As we move through this process. I show our next meeting as being June 21 at 6pm. So we look forward to seeing you all there. And hopefully we have our committees pulled together and at least one of which will meet between now and the next meeting. That being said the floor is open for any general discussion items.
So Madam chair, the chair, yeah, there's a couple of things that have been weighing on my mind. And I just got back from vacation. And so I send out some emails to the committee members a little last minute and I apologize for that. I had asked Marshall Freeman to track publications around the efforts. And because I wanted to get a sense of what's happening in the media, sometimes it's hard to keep track of it all. So Thank you Marshall. You sent the information when I was out on vacation, but I forwarded the articles and I A tweet, etc. To all of you on the phone. And again, I think there's some misinformation. I'd like the committee to actually review the materials that I sent. And please take note of who's authoring some of these. I do want to bring to the attention there is a committee member, that is publishing information that is not representative of the collective. We are here to represent our communities and the collective effort. And I don't think any of these articles went through you, Madam Chair, I don't think they went through Marshall Freeman, I don't think they went through the city of Atlanta. One of them was actually written by one of our advisory members to this the Atlanta city council. And, and so I think we need to talk about that. And I think we need to talk about attendance, because there are a few people who have been missing a few meetings. And so I'd like to have that for our meeting in June to discuss.
Absolutely, and thank you for that feedback. And I think particularly with one of the items that you just mentioned going out to city council is something I mentioned before it can create confusion about what is the stance of the committee versus what is an independent stance and that is the very reason that we ask that the communication come through the committee chair, but that does not always happen. And so you know, I think to Sharon's point, take an opportunity to review that which is out there. The actual committee report will go out to city council as the committee's report and not an individual report on perspectives, right. We are all open to having our own perspectives but we have to represent them as exactly that. With that, Ms. Phillips I see that your hand is raised. So
just to confirm we are going to send some form of rebuttal concerning this issue sent to city council. And the second part of that question is Is there any truth to what she's saying regarding the the groundwater surveys? And when I say truth, I don't mean whether she's telling the truth, I'm saying is there any possibility that somewhere something was overlooked and we did not address it transparent?
I don't know, we can absolutely ensure that there is a rebuttal and I think that the committee update itself serves as a rebuttal because it speaks to exactly the work that we have done as a committee as a whole. But in terms of sending a DIRECT address relative to what has gone out there that can be crafted as well. As far as whether or not there's any truth to the comments that have been made and just just for clarity, transparency, we are talking about Lily Pontiz here and having sent these items over to city council and several of the articles that are referenced while I realized committee members are aware of that because you were in receipt of the email in the event that anyone watching has any question as to who we're talking about and what the situation is. It is Lily Pontiz. Can we communications and so to that, I would ask that, I guess maybe Marshall Freeman or whoever said okay, Marshall Freeman, if you can address whether or not there's any truth to what is out there and anything that may have been missed in the investigation that this committee needs to be aware of.
Yeah, I'm happy to jump in there. Thank you. And I appreciate the question and at least give him again, an opportunity for me to respond to that question. And what I will say again, for speaking for ABF, and on behalf of each of the architects, land planners and engineers that we have convened to work on this project. I think all along, if anybody took just two seconds, and Google until it looked at the folks that we have convened to do the work at the site, I think everybody would agree that it is a top notch, world class team that has been responsible for building and creating some of the most impactful projects that exist in the city of Atlanta and in our entire region. And so therefore, as we continue to do each and every bit of the work, we are obviously obligated to follow the laws of the city ordinances of the cap County, each and every single state ordinance and in law that exists and in the state of Georgia. And then the federal laws exist in the United States for how construction projects are developed. And so there is in no way shape or form, a time or an opportunity for us to ever skate ever. Again. Do anything that falls short. Have that I think every single opportunity that we have had to speak to the group and and do the design and architecture of all of these buildings in the property, we have tried to exceed what the minimum requirements have been established by the government for the project. And so even when we talk about doing LEED and doing all of the extra, you know, smart things for as far as charging stations and vehicles and things out there, we have went above and beyond every single time to make sure this is something that everybody can be proud of. And if we're going to attach our name to it, meaning the Police Foundation and my personal name, frankly, because that also means a lot to me out, never in my life ever put my name on the line for something that wasn't 100% proud of. And so that's just not how we wrote, We never did that for every construction project that we've ever laid in the city. And this would be no different for us. And so I appreciate the opportunity to respond.
So Marshall, you will be the one sending out to refute her claims, we the one or was it come from Bob or
I don't have any problem with that. We have a really good process. On our committe and we have the engineers prepare the document for report. We give it to the committee. We also give the committee time to look at it, read it and respond to the comments or questions. We immediately get our engineers together. And we take every comment and every question and respond to so anything that is after now is a repeat something we've already responded to. We've done it within both the environmental reports. We've just recently did it with the cultural report. We had a committee member who came back with a comment and a question. We responded not only to every comment and every question. We also amended our report and put it back on the public domain. So we're not taking any comment or question lightly. We're trying to answer every single one of them and to this today, there is nothing new that has been asked. And so everything that's out there now more so I may be wrong. We're spending a lot of time and making sure we're serious about answering your questions.
So in other words, you gonna refute this in writing tomorrow, no later than tomorrow. And the reason I'm asking is as I noticed, she said your council member but she did not indicate the name or names of the council members to whom it was being said. So my result was that she was sending it to all council members and you know, we have some that are still not on board with the project itself. And so I think that as quickly as we possibly can get that information to them. Just something in writing to them to, to prove to them that what she's claiming is not accurate, the better the better for us. She's escalated from here to here. And I think I don't want to speak for all of us the board but I think the majority of us have just about had it up to here.
I appreciate that, Ms. Phillips. And so what I would also say to that is what I also again feel like would be helpful is again counsel hearing from this body on again as you guys have obviously developed the report which Madam Chair hasn't fully distributed counsel but I think them hearing it directly from you all I think would be important because to get you speaking versus me speak right you guys are speaking cuz you've been involved with this entire process and you have seen it throughout and you understand what we're doing and so I do think that will also be helpful.
What I will do, I am actually well on this call with you all for putting the report into an email so that you all
will see the full report for
city council, but I will craft a separate letter that addresses this concern. I don't want to incorporate it into the report and make it part of the report. Our report will stand on its own documenting the work that has been done to date, but I will craft a supplemental letter that can be distributed alongside that addresses the claims that have been made and where the committee stands on that front. And then I would distribute that to each and
Madame Chair, just just to kind of fine tune that. I may pick a friendly amendment. Could you please send out your the letter that you're going to be drafting the supplemental letter to the committee prior to being sent I think is what you intended to say. But I just wanted to make sure we were clear that one and number two to kind of complement what both Marshall and Anne were saying. Again, I think there needs to be either the city's public affairs person, but he pro active communication on behalf of our efforts. You know, I loved what Marshall had to say about that we do have top class engineers, etc are working on this project. We are engaging community input. You know we are looking at environmental concerns. I think there needs to be something proactive sent out as well. And then maybe you're saying no, and then we need to make a formal motion on that. I'm happy to do it. Sounds good.
If anyone feels that that's necessary, more than happy to take the motion to move forward. I have no problem preparing the letter and sending to committee. That was in fact my intent, Sharon. In my earlier statement that the letter would go to committee first in terms of making a motion Are you suggesting a motion for all of our like development partners etc the EPF to to also craft something of a
a
No madam chair that that the Atlanta Public Affairs Office would address would issue a public statement, so that we can proactively communicate to the media about how positive and community engaged, this effort has been to date.
began moving to those channels to see what we can make happen. And then I will send a response back to the body as a whole so that we can make sure that we're all informed on what the process will be going forward, and all the different channels that we can use to make sure that our committee's message and appropriate reporting is made available. Because I do think that there is there's definitely two forms, there's misinformation, and then also just a lack of information. Right now, I was approached by somebody this past weekend, who was completely unaware of some of the work that we've done to date. And I understand that they will be unaware. Up until this point, we just again, while I ask that people sign up to receive the updates, so we can start blasting that information out wide and far, and make sure that people do know what good work we are doing. This committee has come together and really rallied on some important issues. And so I'm proud to serve alongside each and every one of you. And I'm proud of the work that we've done to date. And I think that we can continue to push forward. But I certainly think that we need to do better with respect to the narrative. So we will certainly push forward with that. A q&a. Thank you all for your input. Are there any other questions, comments, concerns? General gripes?
One more so we said that the name Lily Pontiz so I want to give the members time preview the articles but her her name has been on a number of the articles. She has written a number of the articles under her name and I think we just need to address the membership. She should someone like her be a member of this committee
I see your hand raised
Madame Chair, I wanted to ask if you have received information from Lilly saying that she does not want to be a part of this committee. Have you received any information from her personally or letter to say that she no longer want to be a part of this committee?
No, not at all up until today. I mean, she's been a participating member of this committee. I think prior to today, she's missed only one other meeting. So she has been here she communicates between meetings. She's asked for various reports and updates coming out of the development team as well as the APF so I don't I do not get the impression impression that she does not wish to be a part of the committee
there My only concern with this is I'm just not happy with people speaking for me our as my community and I don't even know what they're speaking about, or I'm in disagreement with what they're saying. I just think that's that's just out of alignment for me. I think she's out of line. I'm sorry.
No, don't apologize. Everyone has a right to their perspective. And so I appreciate you sharing that story. I think one of the things to consider is takes me back to a conversation we had during one of our initial meetings, and I took quite a beating from some interesting press articles, you know, in that the committee has a voice and that voice needs to be a unified voice. And that voice needs to be representative of the community or the committee perspective and not the individual perspective. And I think that's where a little bit of the challenge comes in here. Especially when I consider that the letter to city council went out while Miss Pontiz was serving as Secretary of this committee and it would stand that the Secretary of the committee would send out communication on behalf of the committee and this is what we were attempting to avoid early on by having communication travels through the appropriate channels so that we make sure that when a when the committee speaks that it is in fact the committee. Now if you the individual have something that you wish to say and again, you're always welcome to have your perspective. You're always welcome to say what you need to say but you need to be very clear that you are not speaking on behalf of the committee or in your capacity as such. And I think that the confusion that is out there. I don't appreciate it because I know that we've gone through this process. And I think that all of us have put in a lot of work and a lot of effort to make sure that we were being very considerate and very thoughtful in the way that we're moving through this process. And so I think that our communication absolutely must reflect that. And so on that front I will make sure that what I send to you all as a committee is respectful of that. I ask that you review it as soon as you get it because I think that we need to move most immediately, I think and put it best and saying that it needs to go out tomorrow. We need to put this together and we need to make sure that the committee's perspective is known and any other independent perspectives need to stand on their own. And the one last thing that I will say for this evening relative to that is I said this before our committee remarks are requires us to be able to be neutral in our perspective. Yes, no matter whether you were in support of the project, or if we're opposed to the project. Our committee works under the understanding that this project is moving forward and we are to advise on the many factors that impact our communities and those that we are engaged with to make sure that as the project moves forward, that we have a voice and anything that is outside of that does not belong as a part of this committees operation. And so I know we had this discussion before when the minutes came up. There were you know, articles to be included in the minutes that were not discussion items for this committee and I took exception to the way that that particular scenario was handled because at the end of the day, what comes out and what is representative of the committee's has to be the committee's voice and so I want to make sure that we do a better job of that and make sure that we do a better job of standing independently with our perspective, regardless of what happens relative to literally pundits and our communications or anyone else on the committee that chooses to do so. So far. We've only had one. With that, are there any other questions, comments, concerns? General gripes,
I just have a question. This is more personal than anything, because I'm facing a similar situation with the Atlanta Planning Advisory Board. Somehow or another. Millennials tend to think that they can write whatever they want to write and all of these little newspapers and they're supposed to be able to do that. And of course they do have that right. But ultimately, what is our alternative as a board, and officially we are a board since we are a BACE board where it says the city council established it. And so you have a person who's become rogue and doing what they want to do. Do we have any definitive resolutions as to what we do about a person or people in these situations? Marshall, I don't know whether you've you've ever had to deal with something like this or not, but there should be something written somewhere that can protect us as the reason I'm saying the word "protect" She has written several other articles that some of you may not have seen. She has been deliberately cautious. In naming names of us members on the board, but it's so secret as to who we are. She's when we do stuff like that. You have to be concerned about how you're impacting the reputations of those people on that board. And I don't get the feeling that that's an issue in their minds when they do that. So I have requested a meeting with the city's Inspector General, simply because I need to know but if any of you have heard anything as to what we can do in a situation like this, I'd love to hear
one thing that I can say is that our bylaws of course give us room to move. And so if it is the committee's perspective that an individual is harmful to the operation of the committee or even, you know, we haven't we have the opportunity to move based on on costs or without cause if this committee determines that anyone should not serve on this committee going forward, so options exist within our own structure. If then you are looking at a scenario where what the city allows them, we will certainly have to pursue that through the city and I don't know, you know, who on the committee would be best to speak to that and I don't know Brian is with us this evening. He may be a good person to speak to that as well and give us options through the city in terms of how we handle that because one thing that we did not put in place is that media policy that we discussed earlier on these other ethics causes to be considered I'm sorry, just Ms. I think that was yeah,
I just I wanted to suggest that we take a look at our bylaws and who else are they saying? And on June 21. And come back after we take a look at the bylaws and see what can be done with the situation because I think the bylaws will address what Anne is saying.
Yes, madam chair this to Sharon. And Miss is correct on the bylaws. Say that we can we can control our membership and you can turn a member at will or not, but they have to be given notice. So I forgot how many days notice precisely I think it's 10 or 14.
It's a 10 day notice period for any committee member. Okay, thank
you. So it's a 10 day notice period. So, you know, if the committee wanted to vote on this, this week, or wait until next month, after you've had a chance to read all the articles? You know, we can do that. But we certainly have the provision within our bylaws to do so Madam Chair? Yes.
Absolutely. And if if someone is making a motion or is moving toward that, then the 10 day notice will be supplied. You can do so during this meeting, you can do so in a follow up communication. If that is the general feeling of any committee member and then you move through the process, the entire committee would of course, be notified. And then, you know, we can either address at the next meeting address via a special meeting, vote via email if needed. So this committee will be the determinant on how we move forward with respect to the bylaws.
Okay, well, we're BACE board and that means that it is established through the city council. And I'm trying to deterine whether even though it's in our bylaws, whether we have some obligations as a BACE board or some steps that we need to go through. Because as the BACE board, it's always appointments. And in all of our cases we were appointed by a specific person, this council member or commissioner or somebody. So I'm not quite clear in my mind yet that there is not some step that we need to go through as far as reconciling what we do what we want to do. With the BACE requirements, if that makes sense.
That does make sense. I don't believe there are any additional steps. That being said, I will craft an email again this evening to go over to Brian who's counsel representing us as a committee and I will get a direct response so that we understand exactly what is required. I will make the committee fully aware and then from there, you all can determine if there are any additional steps you want to take. And if I need to supply the notice, let me know I will make sure that goes out.
Madam Chair, would it be helpful if we had a motion from the current stakeholders to provide perhaps additional guidance or strength as to how the existing committee feels about Lily promises presence on this advisory? I would require a motion and the motion would be something to the effect of we would like to term her membership on this committee. In accordance As for the bylaws and city ordinance,
if a Motion is made and a second, we will, we can accept that this evening, what we won't be able to do is move into a vote, and we can have any discussion that committee would like to have, but we won't be able to move into a vote on it until that 10 day notice has been given. And so absolutely, with a motion on the table that moves the process forward, I still think, to Anne's point that we would consult with counsel just to make sure that everything is as it should be, which obviously is something that would not happen on this call. But that consultation would take place. But I guess the short version is in order for the first steps to take place if this is the will of the committee a motion should be made. made and seconded.
So then, let me be clear on what the motion would be not making yet but I just wanted to people are clear that we're saying that we should be determinate upon its membership on the committee in pursuance in accordance with the bylaws and in consultation with the city's Council. Your motion and
putting it forth for someone to carry okay. Anne I wasn't sure and if you wanted to carry it or not.
Anne you're muted.
You know if that's what you want to share. But I agree with Allison, that before we can even get started. We do have to have a motion that has been moved and seconded by aspiring. So that's fine. Why don't you move it and then I'll sit employ that
symbol, Madam Chair.
All right, and second.
All right, thank you very much. So the motion and Sharon we please read the motion to me.
for a motion to permanently relieve on its membership on the committee in accordance with our bylaws in consultation with Atlanta City legal counsel
okay the motion as stated by Miss Williams has been made and seconded accordingly a 10 day notice period will commence as soon as I have an opportunity to get this letter drafted and out to Miss Pontiz. I will try my best to get that going tonight. If not first thing tomorrow, she will receive it alongside all committee members. Additionally, during this time, I will make sure that we consult with counsel and move through the appropriate steps and then committee will come to a vote. As of now I guess we will set the date is June 21. Meeting is there any objection to setting it as June 21 For you all looking to come back to the table in 10 days time.
June 21. First, but then let's leave it as June 21. For our follow up, however, the 10 days notice will of course go out giving Miss ponics advance notice since she is not on this meeting tonight and of course because of our last due in fact require it.
And Madam Chair, may I recommend that at the center, both regular mail and certified mail for protection.
That's absolutely. All right. Well, with that we will start moving this process forward. Are there any other questions, comments concerns? At this juncture,
we just clarify the vote here. We don't necessarily do a roll call, but either vote by exception if there's anyone who would like to to not approve this vote.
we cannot take a vote on whether or not we are terminating right right. So at this point, no vote is to be taken. She has to be given proper notice per our bylaws and so, the motion is made the motion is second now it starts the process of notifying Miss panics. And then our meeting on June 21 we can revisit and have whatever necessary discussion and vote at that time. Again, thank you. Absolutely. Amy Your hand is raised. Amy
So, so the motion is to give her notice or the motion is to terminate her.
motion is to terminate and that motion has been seconded our bylaws however, require that she be given 10 days notice of any such action. And so even though the motion can be made and we cannot move any further until she has been given that 10 days notice and that period has expired. So what this does is set the wheels in motion it is a the committee is interested in terminating Lily Pontiz. We have a second on that we cannot vote on it as a committee tonight. We can vote on it after she has been given an opportunity to be notified. And that notification is 10 days.
Does she have this will she be given an opportunity to speak against us? Absolutely. You know, I mean, because she, this just feels like you know, kind of, I mean, I'm not I'm not saying that this is wrong, but it doesn't feel right either. I feel like this process is is witch hunting at this point. Even though it's I get it. I understand everybody doesn't want her speaking for them. I don't want her speaking for me either. But it just it seems I don't know it doesn't seem right. To me.
sorry. Again, no need to apologize for your perspective, I think that I would ask of you to maybe even elaborate on what does not feel right, with respect to the process. But I will also say that, you know, the process outlined by the bylaws would have us to make a motion, have that motion, seconded provides a written notification, it is a requirement of our committee to do so. And so to the degree that Any committee member chooses to move forward, it does not mean that the vote ultimately results in her removal that will be there for the committee to determine, unfortunately, this evening, she is not on this call, to be able to speak. And she has every opportunity to do if she were present tonight, she would be able to speak just like any of the rest of us. That being said, nothing would happen tonight, no matter what either. Even if she weren't present, she will be given that 10 days written notice no matter what, after which point she has an opportunity to speak before this committee. So because we're not taking a vote until June 21. She can speak about June 21 meeting she can speak before the meeting should you so choose, if we were to hold a special meeting in 10 days time, she would have an opportunity to speak as Any committee member would.
Okay, so so. So really, it seems more likely that she's being given notice that this is our intent. And she has an opportunity to speak up for herself before our next meeting where we will vote on
it. Yes, that's where we are exactly where we are.
I mean, that seems more fair to me. I mean, I realized that that she's been slightly difficult for some people to deal with. And but regardless, I think that as long as she's given a chance to stand up and say something, even though she's kind of already done that. But anyway, thank you.
No problem. Thank you for your feedback and at the end of the day, no matter who was impacted by this, anyone that finds himself and selves in this position always has an opportunity to speak in response to what is being put before them. It has to be put before them before they have an opportunity to speak to it. And so yes, she has said quite a bit publicly to date, but she has not yet responded to this action. This action is now in motion. Notice will be received and then as mentioned before, she'll have an opportunity to respond as we move through this process. So if that still seems fair to you, that is the process that is I think our bylaws and so that that's the way we are moving. Okay, cool, thanks. No problem. Are there any other questions or concerns? And not necessarily relative to this topic, the general discussion is still open. I see a hand raised with this time, Nicole, go for it.
Thanks, Alison. Yeah, this isn't necessarily 100% relevant to something I'm kind of sensing the inner, so bear with me. Um, I think just and I appreciate, you know, as having time to kind of read everything and kind of go over. I would say, as somebody you know, that maybe is falling in this category. Like, I would hope that people kind of, uh, you know, be a little conscientious of some biases on you know, generational differences and things of that nature. Just want to I know, we're all have different diverse backgrounds and everything which is good. I just want us to be cognizant of how that might, you know, just we have unconscious biases. So
thank you, Nicole.
Doing the millennial thing. of hauling that stuff
We're in the same place.
Exactly. All input is welcome here. And I think at the end of the day, you're calling it out in the right place. And that's what's really important here is that we're having this discussion, I see Miss Rainey, your hand is up
in reference to what was just said to you, or we may have differences and but what makes one person's input more important than another what it should be able, we should be at a point where we can discuss differences in collaboration, and not have all this nonsense going on. And I don't feel like that has anything to do with whether I'm black or white, or Asian or whatever, or I'm older than you are, or I'm younger than you are, we should be able to discuss these things and not have this unnecessary stuff going on. Because we we were appointed to this board to get something done. That's it. I'm just disgusted with what you know, I don't like stuff like this, I don't like this kind of.
Oh, you're muted Jacqueline come back
I don't like this because it seems like it's back handed that stuff going on. But then there's a pretense that nothing is happening. And the meetings and I don't like that. I think that's wrong. And if we're going to have disagreements or differences, we should be able to discuss them openly in the meeting. And not try to accuse people of doing certain things and, you know, nobody, nobody of any other race can tell. me how I'm supposed to feel as a black woman as a black person. So I wouldn't try to do that to any other race either. So that kind of nonsense. shouldn't even be a part of this. You know, because when I read that letter, I thought this stuff is ridiculous. It's fine to know our history, and learn about things that happened. But we don't drag that stuff into our future. We're trying to live and go forward with our lives. So I'm all about moving forward. That's all I have to say.
Absolutely. I appreciate that Ms. Rainey. And I think that one of the things that we have to do as a committee is make sure that we do a better job of controlling the narrative and I know that we are a group of volunteers serving here to work together towards a common cause. I'm just making sure that our communities are represented as this project moves forward and make sure that the project is respectful of our communities, which today, every time we put something forward, I have to give the ATF the developers so much credit for being responsive to what we have put out there and so you know, I think that we have created a space where everybody has an opportunity to speak No, no matter your perspective, you have an opportunity to speak and the important thing is that you come to this table and have those conversations so that we as a committee can make sure that we have an opportunity to answer for what's being put before us. And sometimes we'll get our way. Sometimes we will not get our way. And we have to accept that and move forward and understand that. We got to do the work of this committee at the end of the day. And so, again, with a group of volunteers that it's very hard to move through that PR piece and make sure that we correct that. But I am going to take that on as another focus to make sure that we are represented appropriately as we move forward and this committee is going to move forward. It seems that this motion so that we can address the behavior that is of concern today and then ask that all other committee members continue to be respectful of the process, respectful the work that we are here to do, and make sure that our perspectives differing as they may be, have an opportunity to be heard because it matters that all of these perspectives are here. We just have to be respectful of one another. Is there anything else this evening? Okay, I'm sure you guys hear my one year old screaming in the background at this point. Hopefully it's not too loud. He's upstairs putting on a show. So one thing that I do just want to point out if you think about what time we finished our discussion tonight, and then move into our general discussion and how much time was spent on this topic. that's of concern to me. This committee has got to be in a place where our time is used for the purpose of the committee. We shouldn't be spending time addressing administrative matters when it yes, this has to happen. I mean, this is where we are right now. But we need to be at a place as a committee where we are doing for work without disruption. And so our focus is to come back to that by whatever means necessary. So we will all continue to follow up in the coming days. You will see quite a bit for me in the next 24 hours. Please read what comes before you respond as needed. And we're going to keep moving through this process. And one thing I will say to each and every one of you is thank you for your input and never apologize during these meetings for having whatever perspective you may have. It is your perspective. It is representative of either yourself or your community. That's why you're here you're here to have your perspective so please do not apologize for your point of view. With that, thank you all oh and Anne's hand is up is just one last question for Bob.
And Alan, and maybe Marshall. How soon before we can do another walkthrough of the site to see what the progress has been.
I will answer that one I will take from from my perspective. And we can definitely organize that. Now. The only thing I do think is that there is still not anything to really see at the site, Anne, from when we walked the last time. It's essentially still looks the same today. All of the work that everybody's been doing has really happened on paper, right and and planning and so there's unfortunately not anything to really look at there. But again, happy to do it anytime and even if that's something that I can meet, you know, anybody at the site, whether it's one or two or five or 50 of you guys I'm happy to do it anytime. Oh no, no, no. I didn't mean.
anytime soon I meant say before it gets wintery, wintery, far enough along that we can take a tour and just kind of see what has
been done. Yes, absolutely. Yep. I've definitely will say that. Let's definitely look to do that. Maybe at the latter part of the summer that would be great.
Are there any
what Marshall said to say, sometime before we start construction, but is not beastly hot?
I want to throw one thing out there relative to what Ann just said, in terms of getting out there. From a security perspective. This committee knows and I don't know, you know how much it's known in the general public. But you know, there was a nice nasty gram that went out to my community as a whole about me and my service to this committee about even the committee's work, which you know, I am, according to this note that went out to my community, I am anti black, I am opposed to the Muscogee Creek people I am. I'm a whole lot of terrible things. And apparently 100 years ago, I was up to some bad stuff. I didn't know I was here for that. But here we are. But the reason I bring that up here on this forum is to say, Are we safe and secure when we go to the site, when we consider that, you know, even individuals are being targeted, you know, hearing to be targeted in my community was quite upsetting. But at the end of the day, it's a choice that someone or some individuals ultimately made. And so what, what does it look like for us to be able to go out to the site, given all of the activity that has taken place?
Some it shouldn't be a concern.
It's a concern. And I saw that when you when you share that with me, and my concern is as a volunteer. I mean, I'm a taxpaying citizen. I'm not here to get attacked by people who are trying to bully their way because they have an ideology that we all should have to believe in, then we don't understand what they're talking about that that's kind of mental illness bordering borderlining that so I'm just concerned about all of our safety on this phone too, because they have our information that you know, this whole propaganda stuff. I just think that we just need to be careful because I'm a volunteer, and I'm not trying to get caught up in a lot of craziness that that I don't understand. I'm a community person paying taxes trying to have a better community. That's that's what we're here for. And all of these craziness assistance is crazy. It's out of hand. So that's my
it's
Absolutely, it's unnerving to be in that position. And I hope that no other committee members have to, you know, be in that position where you have to have a level of concern for for your home, your safety, your community, etc. It's not fair to anyone on this committee and at the end of the day, we are advising on something that has been put in play by City Council. This is not something where we decided what would happen we are the people who have been charged with making sure that our voices and our community's voices are being heard. And so it's a little concerning that we would find ourselves on the receiving end. It's certainly misplaced, but it doesn't change the fact that you know, some of the the propaganda some of the narrative relative to changing this has been placed on this committee, so hopefully, it can be a safe space for us to be able to move about and do the work that we're charged to do. That's it. I see. Amy Nicole, I'm not sure which one of you by the hand is raised.
I just had a question. As far as an update on like actual when groundbreaking is going to be
we don't have a date. Right now for groundbreaking. And I did share on the last call that as we continue the activity on the site. And once we do start that, Nicole, it's, again, a very unfortunate thing. But as much as I would love to polish that timeline, and give that completely to the committee and make that completely public. I do feel like for the safe. And the safety and the concern for the workers have actually done the work. At this point, given where we are, I would not feel comfortable publishing that timeline. And so I will just tell you that we still are on track to, again, move into the permitting process. As you heard Alan talked about earlier, we have already again, began to work for the land to surface permitting, which we plan to have in q3. And then we'll be moving to permitting, and then look to still have a facility up by the end of 2023.
Marshall Do you have can... Would you feel comfortable about just giving us like a ballpark? Like you know, like maybe follow or you know, so you set
up by 2023?
No, like facility open ended. 2023 has been and so when I looked again after we received the last to service permit from it back and we share that information with the group. Then we can have some you know some conversations about a little bit more in detail about timeline.
Thank you both for those questions. Marshall. Thank you for your response. I see Ms. Sharon Williams, your hands raised.
Yeah, just one final thing on language that this isn't just craziness. These are eco terrorists. And these are acts of terrorism. And it's not just propaganda, and it's they're breaking equipment. They are threatening 74 year old men, they are threatening people in their homes. These are people who don't even live here and trying to tell us how to live. So I think this is I want us to use that that terms eco terrorism and I'm somebody cares deeply about the environment. I have solar panels I recycle. I do everything I can. And these people are terrorists. I sit down Chair.
Thank you very much. I appreciate your comment here.
Madam Madam Chair, if I could just say again, I know that as we're wrapping up the comments, and I know we're almost out of time here. But I would again just like to re emphasize to everybody and just restate as I do, every single meeting, how much I appreciate you all, I think the entire committee, you guys have been phenomenal partners to have along this journey and throughout this process. And so I do apologize. And I will, you know, again, publicly stated for the record that I do feel bad. And I'm sorry that you guys also have to go through some of the things and concerns and safety concerns in which you've expressed this evening. Because it should not be like that, again, when we're all trying to pull the rope in a direction in which we design and develop a facility that is seen as a plus and a positive for each of your communities in each of your backyards. And so it's sad that we have to be in this place. And again, I apologize for that. Because when we asked you guys to serve on this committee, I would not have dare imagined a year ago that we would be sitting in this place today. And so again, I'm sorry for that. But I do appreciate everybody's help and hard work. And so just thank you all for this.
Thank you for that commentary. And again, not sure you're the one that really needs to apologize, but it's it's it's appreciated that you are willing to take that position on our behalf. It's unfortunate some of what has happened and some of the ways that some of our names are being treated, but this is unfortunately the nature of the beast. But I think we're a lot of strong willed people that are going to stand up and keep doing the work that's before us so much appreciate it and appreciate Every single one of you that serves on this committee, all of you doing the work in the background, all of you doing the work right here up front, it's important that we can all come together and have this forum. And so we need to keep pressing forward, we need to make sure that the communities are represented. And we are lucky enough to have, you know, a partner in this in the APM. And in this development team that has been very responsive to date. And again, no, we won't get everything that we want out of this. But at the end of the day, we're being heard. And that's important. And I actually argue we've gotten most of what we want. So the process is moving along the way that it should. So thank you all, I see any one of you, and race,
Hey, I just wanted to this is Annie just wanted to reiterate the meaning behind all of this, because I think we all have different views on this project in the beginning, whether you were for or against it or whatever. That's not why we're here. And I just want to put it out to you guys and to the public. We're all here for the benefit of this community. And we are trying to make this project, the best thing that it can possibly be for everybody involved, we are not anti anything. We're just trying to make this the best it can be and make at least most of the people happy in the process.
So I'm satisfied to
say that because I feel like this whole large portion of this meeting has been, unfortunately negative. And I just wanted to say, again, we are here for the positive. We're here to make positive change for the community and hopefully, all all the people that are involved.
Absolutely, thank you. And that, again, is the purpose of this committee. We are charged with one responsibility, and it does not involve our perspectives on the project. That being said, I don't know that I agree that the meeting has been overwhelmingly negative. And I say that just because it's necessary discussion, it is business that must be dealt with because of a situation that is before us. But what it is, is allowing us to build on what we are going to do going forward that make sure that this committee moves in the way that it was always intended to move. And so I think it's it's it's a refocusing and making sure we put down a proper foundation so that we can move forward the way that we need to go. With that, if there are no other questions, objections, gripes, concerns, or otherwise, we have made it to 728. We are two minutes out from our end time, which I promised you all a short meeting. So I'm sorry, I like a lot a little bit. I didn't know I was lying, but here we are. That being said, if anybody has anything else to throw out there, I will accept one additional comment. Otherwise, I am going to call this meeting adjourned. Do we have any comments, concerns, gripes, etc. Thank you to say,
thank you, everyone. Thank you. Hi,
I have a motion to adjourn before you all say goodbye and disappear on me. motion to adjourn Madame President. Hi, can I get a second says that call. Thank you. Thank you, Pat. Thank you very much. Shirley we are adjourned. 7:29pm And please keep your eyes open. There will be some emails coming. Thank you all.
