By Madi Sutter

The Mableton City Council unanimously approved several ordinances in its November 13 meeting, including an Ordinance Creating Chapter 8, Building and Construction of the City of Mableton Code of Ordinances and for other purposes. 

The approved ordinance also includes the city’s building permit fee schedule. 

The meeting began with the confirmation and swearing-in of the city’s inaugural Ethics Board, which was delayed from the council’s October 23 meeting.  Ethics board members are appointed from each district, plus an appointment by the mayor. [Clarification: the vote on the ethics board confirmation was 4-1, with Mayor Owens voting against it. Owens had raised the issue before the motion to approve had been made that a qualification issue had been raised on one appointee (unnamed during this meeting). The issue was the question of whether the appointee was qualified to vote in the City of Mableton]

The members of the Ethics Board are:

Ebony McCants: District 1

Tammi Daniel: District 2

Karen Clarke: District 3

Patricia Thomas: District 4

Brandon Mitchell: District 5

Graham Jagger: District 6

Joel Cope: Mayor’s appointment

Also discussed in the meeting was a second read of an Ordinance Amending Chapter 10, Article I, Planning and Zoning of the City of Mableton Code of Ordinances, Establishing A Mableton Zoning Code and Zoning Map and for Other Lawful Purposes. 

Rob Hosack of IBTS presented the changes to the ordinance made since the public hearing in response to comments received. One substantive change noted was to Section 2.03, Item 5, arising from a suggestion from the Mableton Improvement Coalition. The change allows individual district council members to approve site plans in their district rather than requiring a full committee approval upon initial review. After individual council member approval, the plans will come back for full council modification and confirmation during the next regularly scheduled consent agenda. 

Hosack said this change would improve efficiency and allow council members to be more directly involved with their district’s planning. The first read of this ordinance was conducted on October 9, with a public hearing held on October 23. 

Also passed unanimously during last night’s meeting were approvals of the use of Contract Business Interiors for furniture at the Administrative Services Building located at 1245 Veterans Memorial Highway and the installation of low-voltage systems at both the Administrative Services Building and 6116 Mableton Parkway.

Regarding city employees, the council also passed two ordinances confirming updates to the city’s classification and pay plan and the resolution approving the maximum accrual of rollover time to 320 Hours. 

The council members present during last night’s meeting were the following five: Mayor Michael Owens, District 2 Council member Dami Oladapo, District 5 Council member TJ Ferguson, District 6 Council member Debora Herndon and District 4 Council member Patricia Auch. 

The next city council meeting will be on Wednesday, December 11th, at 6:30 p.m.