Mableton council approves Cobb County GIS agreement, hires finance director and OKs several vendor contracts; zoning moratorium set through March 13

Mableton City Council on Feb. 26 approved a package of personnel appointments, intergovernmental arrangements and vendor contracts intended to support the city’s launch of planning and zoning services and to modernize records and permitting systems.

The council — presided over by Mayor Pro Tem Keisha Jefcoat — voted to authorize the mayor to execute an intergovernmental agreement in substantial form with Cobb County for GIS and zoning services, confirmed Karen Ellis as the city’s finance director, and approved several technology and consulting contracts. Council members also adopted a resolution placing a temporary moratorium on acceptance of zoning applications until March 13, 2025.

Why it matters: The actions institutionalize temporary technical support while Mableton builds internal capacity for planning, permitting and records management. The approvals include software subscriptions and outside plan-review capacity that the city said it needs before the newly created planning and zoning functions go fully live.

Key votes and approvals

- Intergovernmental agreement with Cobb County (GIS and zoning services): The council approved a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute, in substantial form, intergovernmental agreements with Cobb County for GIS and zoning services. (Motion moved and seconded during the meeting; outcome: approved.) [Transcript evidence: 1758.1549–1811.2101]

- Appointment of finance director Karen Ellis: The council approved the nomination of Karen Ellis (formerly with the City of Milton) as Mableton’s finance director. City Manager Bill Tanks praised Ellis’s experience, saying, “She’s already taught me a few things that we could do, and I consider myself relatively smart, but it's nice to have people running that are smarter than you.” (Motion moved and seconded; outcome: approved.) [Transcript evidence: 2085.01–2279.725]

- Plan review and engineering services agreement (vendor referenced as COI/Quarry/Core in meeting documents): The council authorized the mayor to finalize and execute a plan-review and engineering-services agreement in substantial form with the firm identified in the meeting materials for use as needed while the city builds in-house capacity. The city manager described the service as “complimentary services for our zoning service” to review plans, land-disturbance permits, plats, as-builts and special reports. (Motion moved and seconded; outcome: approved.) [Transcript evidence: 2867.5151–3015.525]

- Cloudpermit subscription for permitting, licensing, inspections and code enforcement: The council approved a subscription and agreement in substantial form with Cloudpermit for permitting, licensing, inspections and code enforcement services, with a first-year cost of $28,000. The approval was presented as a contingency option in case another permitting vendor (GovPilot) could not be deployed. (Motion moved and seconded; outcome: approved.) [Transcript evidence: 3027.05–3158.91]

- Laserfiche Cloud records-management contract (MCCI / Laserfiche Cloud): The council approved an agreement with MCCI for Laserfiche Cloud document and records-management services. The first-year cost was given as $26,000 (implementation and training); recurring cost after year one was described as $13,000 per year. (Motion moved and seconded; outcome: approved.) [Transcript evidence: 3158.91–3362.77]

- Readiness assessment and consulting proposal with Metric 1: The council approved a readiness assessment and consulting engagement with Metric 1 to conduct a gap analysis of the community development program and identify operational improvements. (Motion moved and seconded; outcome: approved.) [Transcript evidence: 3444.1602–3606.2952]

- Moratorium on acceptance of zoning applications: The council adopted a resolution placing a moratorium on accepting zoning applications and requests until March 13, 2025, to allow staff time to complete transitions and staffing needed for the new planning and zoning processes. (Motion moved and seconded; outcome: approved.) [Transcript evidence: 3739.875–3817.3901]

Discussion and context

City Manager Bill Tanks and staff told the council the approvals were intended to give the city flexibility while it hires permanent staff (including a chief building inspector/engineer) and stands up planning and zoning operations. Tanks described the plan-review contract as an a la carte option the city can use while it develops in-house capability. Staff emphasized that Laserfiche and Cloudpermit are cloud-based subscriptions to replace paper-based systems and centralize records and permitting.

Several items were presented as following previously discussed work-session topics or as nonfinancial/branding items (for example, the city tree resolution discussed separately). The meeting record shows these motions passed after the council’s routine “ayes” without a roll-call tally recorded in the transcript.

What the council did not decide tonight

The council did a first read on a separate ordinance to create a new Chapter 11 (Environment and Natural Resources) of the city code (soil erosion, sedimentation and pollution control); that was a first reading and requires a subsequent meeting for adoption. (See separate article.)

Provenance

Evidence for the votes and approvals is drawn from the council meeting transcript between the executive-session closing and the moratorium resolution (transcript timecodes cited above).