Town Of North High Shoals October through December Town Notes from Fred Johnson

So what happens when the Mayor does not want to attend to the town's business? Politics, like space, abhors a vacuum. So this is what happened, according to Fred, while Mayor Jeff Thomas did not attend the meetings of the council over the last months of his considerable tenure. Some meetings had quorums, others did not, but that never stopped the concerned citizen activists of this small town from attending to the needs of the people in this small crossroads.

From: Fred Johnson 

Date: January 17, 2010 2:24:24 PM EST

To: Fred Johnson ilovehighshoals@yahoo.com

Subject: TONHS October through December Town Notes from Fred

Dear Fellow High Shoalers,                                                                       January 17, 2009

Since our last meeting where a quorum was present in September we've tried to hold a half dozen meetings which all ended up being turned into work sessions on the city code.  This gave citizens a huge opportunity to participate in shaping the code.  This has been the story of our town over the last couple years, as you can see from the summary of attendance for the last two years.  We opened the process of making the laws of the city to everyone as we put together our meeting rules of order, charter, and town ordinances.   Not a single meeting was held without citizens from the town present, and most of the time they outnumbered the Council!  The Town Council pushed forward to get these things accomplished as well as a host of other actions which brought our town into compliance with county, state, and federal laws.  Way too many things for me to summarize here, but if you've been following my emails over the last few years you understand the necessary things the Town Council has done.

Although we have not been able to have an official meeting for lack of quorum since September, there's been a surprising amount of things accomplished by the city…an election, preparations for SPLOST, records organized, packages to soldiers in Afghanistan, new members sworn in, people trained, multiple citizen requests fulfilled, parade entered, insurance researched, and more.  And this work continued as Jeff Thomas resigned as mayor on December 7^th, 2009 making Violet Dawe acting mayor and as Eddie Cape resigned his council seat last week.  Acting Mayor Violet Dawe has been putting in long hours making sure citizens are being served and everything is ready for the new council to start fresh.  Violet and Carolyn have been doing a fantastic job getting the city in order and responding to citizen, county, and state requests to keep our town in good standing with all entities!  Stop by Town Hall sometime to say hi to them.

The December 7^th meeting turned into a celebration of the swearing in of our new council members; our clerk did a great job hosting the 17 people in attendance. David Lawrence and Steve Arnold were sworn in to be ready to take their seats at the Town Council meeting this Monday, the 18^th.  Clerk Pritchett arranged a ceremony with Judge Anglin present to administer the oaths.  After the swearing-in we had a bit of a party to celebrate their entrance onto the council.  Speeches were made, cards to troops were signs, packages were packed, and a nice time was had by all.  Steve Arnold and David Lawrence are off and running with new projects like insurance research and packages to troops overseas.  In the name of the citizens who participated in sending 10-20 packages overseas, the town has received thanks from the two young men targeted; they and the people they serve with are very touched by your actions.  After this effort the town was told of another town resident serving inAfghanistan; plans are being made to repeat the package effort and include him.

I am looking forward to being in the viewing stands to watch the new council.  Please keep trying to make at least a meeting a year; they very much appreciate your input and help.  We've had quite a few citizens step up to help our town operate, and everyone in town appreciates their effort.  And thanks for your support and feedback to me concerning these meeting notes.  I plan to stay involved by continuing to attend meetings and writing these notes to you.  But now there are multiple ways you can find information about the city.  Check out and participate in Steve Holzman's blog or check the town web site for information.

Thanks for your support of North High Shoals; I'll see you at the next meeting.

                                                                                    Fred Johnson

Unofficial Town of North High Shoals Council Meeting Notes

October 10, 2009

By Fred Johnson

Council Members at the Meeting:  Council Members Steve Holzman, Fred Johnson, Violet Dawe, and Clerk Carolyn Pritchett.

Citizens and Guests: Steve Arnold, David Lawrence, Mike Beall, Scott Wilson, and Sarah Donegan, and others

Public Hearing Turned Into Work Session started at 6:30 pm

·        Council Member's fielded questions about the code of ordinances and discussed people's concerns for an hour.

Regular Monthly Meeting Turned Into Work Session

·        With only three council members present the Council did not have the required four members quorum to have a meeting.  Council members used the time to review the city ordinances and answer questions.

Unofficial Town of North High Shoals Council Meeting Notes

November 16, 2009

By Fred Johnson

Council Members at the Meeting:  Council Members Steve Holzman, Fred Johnson, Violet Dawe, and Clerk Carolyn Pritchett.

Citizens and Guests: Steve Arnold, David Lawrence, Stan Brown, Scott Wilson, Mike Beall, Sarah Donegan, Horst Klein, and Mark Campbell

Public Hearing Turned Into Work Session started at 6:30 pm

·        Council Member's fielded questions about the code of ordinances and discussed people's concerns for an hour.

Regular Monthly Meeting Turned into Work Session until 8:45

·        With only three council members present the Council did not have the required four members quorum to have a meeting.  Council members used the time to review the city ordinances and answer questions.

Unofficial Town of North High Shoals Council Meeting Notes

December 7, 2009

By Fred Johnson

Council Members at the Meeting:  Council Members Steve Holzman, Fred Johnson, Violet Dawe, and Clerk Carolyn Pritchett.

Citizens and Guests: Steve Arnold, David Lawrence, Mike Beall, Judge David Anglin, Horst Klein, Heike Mueller, Allison Arnold, Dave Evans, Amy Lawrence, Ty Lawrence, Owen Lawrence, Cory Tiller, and Jessica Tiller.

Public Hearing Turned Into Work Session

·        Council Member's fielded questions about the code of ordinances and discussed people's concerns for an hour.

Regular Monthly Meeting

·        With only three council members present due to the resignation of Jeff Thomas as mayor and Council Member Cape not attending, the Council did not have the required four members quorum to have a meeting.

Unofficial Town of North High Shoals Council Meeting Notes

December 14, 2009

By Fred Johnson

Council Members at the Meeting:  Council Members Steve Holzman, Fred Johnson, Violet Dawe, and Clerk Carolyn Pritchett.

Citizens and Guests: Mike Beall

Public Hearing Turned Into Work Session

Council Member's fielded questions about the code of ordinances and discussed people's concerns.

TOWN OF NORTH HIGH SHOALS

Town Council Attendance

2008 & 2009

Total Meetings	Violet Dawe	Steve Holzman	Fred Johnson	Jeff Thomas	Eddie Cape
1.      1/14/08 R	present	present	present	present	present
2.      1/29/08 WRO	present	present	present	present
3.      2/11/08 R	present	present	present	present
4.      3/3/08 WRO	present	present	present
5.      3/10/08 R	present	present	present		present
6.      4/14/08 R	present	present	present	present	present
7.      5/12/08 R	present	present	present	present	present
8.      6/14/08 R	present	present	present	present	present
9.      7/14/08 WRO	present	present	present
10.  8/11/08 R				present
11.  9/8/08 R	present	present	present
12.  10/13/08 R	present	present	present	present	present
13.  10/27/08 R	present	present	present	present	present
14.  10/20/08 WC	present	present	present
15.  11/3/08 WC	present	present	present	present
16.  11/10/08 R	present	present	present	present	present
17.  11/17/08 WC	present	present	present	present
18.  12/1/08 PHC	present	present	present	present
19.  12/1/08 R	present	present	present	present
20.  12/8/08 R	present		present	present	present
21.  1/12/09 R/WC	present	present	present
22.  1/12/09 PHC	present	present	present
23.  1/19/09 R	present	present	present	present
24.  2/2/09 WC	present	present	present	present
25.  2/16/09 PHC	present	present	present
26.  2/16/09 R	present	present	present	present	present
27.  3/9/09 PHC	present	present	present		present
28.  3/9/09 R	present	present	present	present	present
29.  4/13/09 R	present	present	present	present	present
30.  4/27/09 WO	present	present	present
31.  5/11/09 R	present	present	present	present	present
32.  5/26/09 WO	present	present	present
33.  6/15/09 R	present	present	present	present	present
34.  7/9/09 WO	present	present	present
35.  7/13/09 WO	present	present	present
36.  8/3/09 WO	present	present	present	present
37.  8/10/09 WO	present	present	present	present
38.  8/17/09 R	present	present	present	present	present
39.  8/31/09 WO	present	present	present
40.  9/14/09 WO	present	present	present
41.  9/21/09 R	present	present	present	present	present
42.  10/1/09 WO	present	present	present
43.  10/5/09 WO	present	present	present
44.  10/21/09 WO	present	present	present
45.  10/21/09 R	present	present	present
46.  11/16/09 WO	present	present	present
47.  11/16/09 R	present	present	present
48.  12/7/09 WO	present	present	present
49.  12/7/09 R	present	present	present
50.  12/14/09 WO	present	present	present
	98% attendance	96% attendance	98% attendance	52% attendance	34% attendance
	Violet Dawe	Steve Holzman	Fred Johnson	Jeff Thomas	Eddie Cape

R – Regular or Called Meeting (Total 25)

WO – Work Session on City Code of Ordinances (Total 14)

WC – Work Session on Charter (Total 5)

PHC – Public Hearing on Charter (Total 4)

WRO – Work Session on Rules of Order (Total 3)