Forest Park council adopts water‑efficiency plumbing code, keeps millage rate unchanged; pension purchase rules eased; charter vote unclear

Forest Park’s City Council on Sept. 15 voted to adopt a water‑efficiency plumbing code requested by the regional water authority, approved keeping the municipal millage rate unchanged after a public hearing, and approved a technical amendment to the city’s defined‑benefit retirement plan that will allow employees to purchase partial years of prior service. Council consideration of a proposed amendment to the city charter (Section 2.15, “Inquiries and investigations”) was recorded in discussion but the meeting transcript contains conflicting statements about whether the measure received the required vote at this meeting, and the official outcome is not clearly recorded in the meeting record.

Why it matters: The plumbing code change implements water‑use rules the Metropolitan North Georgia Water District has asked municipal governments to adopt; the millage action confirms the council will not raise the tax rate even though rising property values required the city to advertise the proposal as a tax increase; the retirement plan amendment affects how municipal employees may buy back prior service and could change pension cost calculations and employee retirement timing.

The council adopted a text amendment to the Forest Park Code (Title 8, Planning and Development — Building Regulations and Code Enforcement, Section 8‑2‑21) to add a water efficiency subsection requested by the Metropolitan North Georgia Water District. A staff representative told the council the district “is in charge of creating [standards] to preserve and protect the water resources within all 15…