LENOX — Streamlining relationships between the city and county governments and the possibility of a unified school system were just two of the topics covered during the second day of the City of Valdosta’s council retreat.

Held at the Lenox River Ranch, council ended the brainstorming session by unveiling a list of goals for 2010.

Before outlining the goals, Councilman Tim Carroll, District 5, discussed ways the city and county governments could work together better.

One of the flashpoints between the two governments is water and sewer, he said; in particular, providing water and sewer to new businesses or industries that come into the area.

In an effort to take politics out of the discussion, Carroll suggested a cost benefit analysis be done whenever an industrial prospect arises and water and sewer becomes an issue.

He suggested having the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority conduct the cost benefit analysis.

Carroll said he has talked to Brad Lofton, executive director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, and he is 100 percent in support of this.

A recommendation about using a cost benefit analysis when an issue arises would also have to be presented to the county, he said.

This keeps politics away from the prospective customer and lets them see who has the best product, best price and delivers the best services, Mayor John Fretti said.

“Are you saying we as a body or somebody on staff is putting us in a difficult situation?” Robert Yost, District 6 councilman, said.

Carroll said no but it does become a back and forth and it needs to be looked at from a citizen’s standpoint as a taxpayer.

If an industry wants to develop in the city, the city will be providing services, Yost said.

He asked if an industry is on the fringe of the city limits, was the city willing to let the county provide services.

“We’ve got to get beyond that attitude,” Carroll said.

Yost asked how it was the city’s fault if a business was on the edge of the city limits and requested city services.

“Explain to me how we are at fault,” Yost said. “I want to work with the county and I will sit down with them and they will get my upfront view on any topic if they would like to hear it.”

City Manager Larry Hanson said a private citizen has a right to request a rezoning, as do businesses, and a government, in turn, has a right to vote the measure up or down.

Councilman James Wright, District 1, said if the city desires to mend this relationship in a fair and unbiased way it would be naive to put the industrial authority in the middle of it. He suggested finding another agency to conduct the cost benefit analysis since the industrial authority is funded by both entities.

Fretti said the industrial authority was no longer funded by the city but solely by the county.

In the end, Carroll proposed an action item to forward a request to the county and Valdosta-Lowndes Industrial Authority to implement a cost benefit analysis method in which all disputes are handled in relation to infrastructure.

Later, Carroll brought up another hot-button issue, that of school unification.

He said he was not bringing up the issue to convince the council to be supporters of unification itself but rather to support the placement of a referendum on the ballot in 2011.

That way the citizens will be able to decide whether they want to unify the city and county school systems.

Carroll said he believes the only way to provide a top-tier school system for the community is to have a unified school system.

He stayed away from discussing the educational benefits of a unified school system but discussed the benefits it would have on the community itself.

“It’s common knowledge that only one school system is promoted by realtors in our community,” he said.

Everyone, he said, has seen real estate signs with county schools noted as a perk, which pushes newcomers to the area out to the county and has made others move out of the city.

Fretti said the proclamations were false advertising.

The push out into the county has created sprawl and undermines the stability and quality of existing residential neighborhoods within the city, Carroll said.

As more homes in residential neighborhoods are converted to rental properties the whole neighborhood begins to suffer, he said.

This has created a boom in the population of the county schools, forcing them to consider construction of a new high school and reevaluate millage rates, Carroll said.

A unified school system would level out and fairly distribute taxes, he said.

“I’m not saying the Board of Education is doing a poor job of educating our children, but this is not something we need to rest on their shoulders,” Carroll said. “We represent the City of Valdosta and all the citizens, if we agree that this is an issue just from a tax standpoint then we need to or could play some role.”

The voters will be the ones to decide whether or not to move this issue forward or put it to rest and they should have a right to vote on it, Carroll said.

To place the referendum on the budget 7,300 or 25 percent of registered voters signatures will need to be collected.

Mayor Pro Tem John Eunice, at-large, said he met with the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce, which spearheaded the unification movement, and the concern they brought up was that many people are wondering just how unification would take place.

State law mandates that the county school system is the only system in the county required by law to provide public education, Carroll said.

He said that the county school board would probably become the caretaker of the process if the referendum passes.

Eunice said many city residents may worry that they will not have representation if this does take place.

“The frustrating thing is the perception has been for years that there is an inferior school system and in my opinion there is not,” Hanson said.

Many of the members of council and staff send their children to city schools.

“We would not send our children to an inferior school system,” Hanson said.

Fretti said the county superintendent of schools does the discussion a disservice every time he says he will have to be the “daddy of both school systems.”

When people start collecting signatures, some kind of information needs to be given out explaining exactly what will happen regarding unification, Eunice said.

Councilman James Wright, District 1, said that the lack of development around many of the city schools, including the lack of sidewalks at Valdosta High School, can also serve as a deterrent.

Development in business, residential and the infrastructure level would provide a variety of options for parents and students, he said.

Students could walk to school and work among other things, he said.

“The Lowndes County School is in the middle of a retail district and that is the wrong environment for a school system,” Fretti said. “They should have never built next to the interstate.”

School boards build schools wherever land is donated, he said, and many times they don’t tell the city where these locations will be.

“We would help but they don’t try and build schools inside neighborhoods; they don’t listen to us,” Fretti said. “They build a school where they are given land because they can’t pay for it.”

Hanson said he knew of only two city schools that did not have sidewalks and until recently the city was not able to build a sidewalk going to J.L. Newbern Middle School because it was a state route.

The Parking Overlay District, which narrowly defines where people can park on their properties, has prompted a number of angry phone calls to the city, Fretti said.

The question now becomes whether or not council wants to continue with the ordinance, revise the ordinance or do away with it, he said.

Hanson said the information he has been getting from code enforcement is that the ordinance is working.

A person who receives a warning for a violation might naturally say someone else is committing the same infraction, Hanson said.

The ordinance needs to be followed as it is written and no mixed messages need to be sent to the marshals as to how to enforce it, Eunice said.

The city could look at narrowing the Parking Overlay District boundaries, Hanson said.

“We needed something in the districts to help curb the deterioration of our neighborhoods. I want it in my district,” Yost said. “In every area it’s helping.”

Council goals for FY 2011

• Schedule advertised meeting with state officials and allow council as a whole to attend to discuss issues of concern. An agenda will be developed in early fall with the meeting tentatively scheduled to be held in December prior to the beginning of the legislative session.

• Purchase necessary software to implement the Automated Publication/Data Base System to provide increased public information to citizens.

• Implement paperless utility billing.

• Conduct training for the Economic Development Commission, which will consist of the mayor and council, on the new Enterprise Zone and Opportunity Zone program. Implement a public information program to educate the community about the program.

• Implement a formal planning process for the midtown/Five Points district to include the civic auditorium, transportation, gateways and storm water with the involvement of adjacent property owners.

• Review all rates, charges and fees with staff making recommendations to the mayor and city council to include funding for the proposed transit system and the operation of the new municipal auditorium.

• Continue to pursue transit based on available resources and a review of financing options and recommendations of the Metropolitan Planning Organization and other involved jurisdictions.

• In conjunction with area farmers, the downtown community and other appropriate parties, plan a downtown farmers market to make the community aware of local growers and produce and provide educational awareness about healthy eating.

• Develop a plan for stormwater and wastewater related issues including projects, costs and timelines with funding mechanisms included.

• Recommend that the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority conduct a cost benefit analysis on all water/sewer expansions to serve new industry with the goal that the service provider be based upon what is economically best for the industry and most cost effective for the taxpayers.