by Janice Daniel
The Mayor and Council of the City of Temple met for their Regular Monthly Meeting on Monday, October 6th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. at the William Simmons City Administration Building, 240 Carrollton Street, Temple, with all councilmembers present.
The livestream started with Public Comments due to a glitch in the recording which left out the Invocation, Pledge of Allegiance and Councilmember comments and announcements.
Public Comments were dominated with citizen comments about the Temple Senior Center’s Saturday night dances:
The first citizen to speak was Mahaley Motes, Woodland, Alabama, having already started her comments, but the Temple City Clerk advised that she is responding to comments made in the September 29th, 2025 Committees Meeting by a Cathleen Dowdell regarding dances at the Temple Senior Center. Since that meeting was not livestreamed, StarNews is taking Motes’ comments down verbatim. “….. committed in this room, lies, misleading, uninformed, never researched or investigated, slanderous statements were allowed, even somewhat encouraged by at least one of you, presented and treated as facts. Needing at least 20 to 30 minutes to disprove 25 minutes of lies last week, I have three (3) minutes to summarize and state the facts. I only have time to address the most serious lie of the many told. The truth is so very far from what was allowed to be presented here a week ago. Prior to this committee unanimously voting for the cleaning to be paid for out of city funds, Alan and I personally carried the $100 cleaning burden for just shy of one year. Last week, Cathleen stated that we only paid her ‘maybe a couple of times,’ and stated that she cleaned the building for ‘maybe three or four months without being paid.’ When she made those statements I immediately knew, as well as she, that they were untrue. Even had I not been the one who paid her, upon hearing that lie, common sense tells us all that no one would continue to do a job that late on a Saturday night two times a month without being paid or without questions, a job they accepted solely for the money. Each week, before beginning to clean, I presented Cathleen with a $100 check. Her signature of endorsement is on the back of every one of these checks, and here they are. Cathleen did not, again, she did not do any cleaning after January 22nd of 2022. She quit for reasons I would be glad to explain, given more time. After she quit, we continued making cash payments to the person that replaced her. In total we paid $2,200 in cleaning fees, never failing to pay if a dance was held. I have submitted to Ms. Jacobson our proof of those payments, and you should have received copies. Without warning, last Monday, there was a public character assassination against Alan (Motes), a scam to make a monetary gain from whomever this Council would deem responsible for payment of the falsely-claimed non-payment. Alan and I, most certainly Cathleen, knew she had been paid in full, and now you and everyone watching know that she was paid. Without pause she sat here last week and knowingly lied directly to your face in public, broadcasted and permanently available on the internet, all for undue monetary gain, all while irreversibly defaming Alan in the process, better described as attempted theft, embezzlement if you will, all again at Alan’s reputational expense. As for the city, the legal or disciplinary consequences for an employee committing such a disgusting, serious, pre-meditated act is in your hands. As a business-owner, I know exactly what would happen in the private sector. It’s a 20-minute read. Anyone may have a copy. We will post it as well. And lastly, we do not, and have we never ever taken advantage or made a profit as was so strongly suggested last week. I’d be happy to prove that as well. It is, in fact, a provable, personal financial loss. If you have questions, I am here and happy to answer questions.”
Upon applause from the audience, Mayor Michael Johnson informed them that was not approved in public decorum.
Shirley Acres, Winston, said she has been going to these Temple dances (at the Senior Center) as long as she can remember. She said that one thing that bothered her last week was when Cathleen was talking about sawdust on the floors, at least two times. “As many years as I have been going there I have never seen sawdust on the floor.” Acres thinks Dowdell may have been referring to a Western theme dance where she personally (Acres) brought in a bale of hay. “But I worked and I swept and I cleaned – I even went out to the parking lot to make sure I had all that (hay) off the ground. There was none left behind, so I know that just didn’t happen.”
Nathan Defour stated that he has been the drummer for the Alan Mote Band “about eight years now, and through this time I have seen him and Mahaley take out of their pockets to pay the musicians. More than once I have tried to give the money back. They don’t do this for the money. They do this for the seniors, and I want to thank y’all for letting us have that dance for the seniors. For the seniors, it’s everything. It’s their recreation, where they get together to communicate and exercise. If you can help us in any way to keep these dances going, I think you will, ‘cause it’s up to us to take care of our older people. It’s in the Bible.”
Karen Johnson of Douglasville said “there was a comment made last week that only a few Temple people go to the dances, and that you feel like you’re supporting other people. That’s not really so. If it weren’t for us coming, y’all might not have enough people. I dance in Douglasville, Temple, Carrollton, Dallas. I love it. That’s my recreation. These are my friends. We look forward to getting together and we want to have fun. There are no drugs, there is no alcohol, there is great music, wonderful food. And if you haven’t come to join us here in Temple, you’re missing out.” Johnson thanked Ward 1 Councilmember Casey Russon for responding to her correspondence, and Russon replied, “I’ll be there on the 11th.”
Jerry Eckerton, Sr., said he has been a Temple resident 40 years. “Temple always had an open heart, an open village for people to come and enjoy what we have here. I have heard through rumors, that I don’t hardly believe, that people on the Council are against the dance at Temple. That is negative toward the city. The Senior Center is not only for Temple, but those nearby to come enjoy people and music instead of being on computers and phones. If we feel bad we go to a dance, and that’s where we get re-energized. That’s where we get healed at, with our friends and loved ones. We get our enjoyment because the Council and the City of Temple provides that. I just want to thank you.”
Dale Parrish of Temple, had a situation with water contractors putting in two water lines across his lawn, and one of them got right next to his house. He said he found out that the right-of-way comes up to within three feet of his house, which he found hard to believe. He said the city has fixed his lawn back, not exactly level, but okay. But he said he had to put sod down, and it was summertime so he had to water it a lot, and he felt the city should help out with his water bill. “They have helped some, but I feel like they should help me more than they have. All I’m asking is just to be fair. How would you feel if you were in my place, to turn it right around?”
Mayor Johnson announced one addition to the agenda before it was adopted. In announcements, City Manager Lisa Jacobson, said that Temple Recreation Department, under Direction of Ingrid McKinley, has won multiple awards, five (5) District 4 awards for their outstanding special event programs, and one state-wide award, “Agency of the Year with Under 10,000 People.”
There was a standing ovation and applause for this announcement, which seemed acceptable with the mayor this time.
Consent Agenda was approved 5-0, and consisted of the following:
1. Adopt a resolution for the Supplemental Agreement of acceptance of grant funding in the amount of $500,000 for the sidewalk project, with an 80/20 match, the city’s portion to come from SPLOST 2021.
2. Authorize a resolution for a special one-time holiday season payment to eligible full-time and regular part-time employees of the city.
3. Authorize the issuance of RFPs (Request for Proposal) for repairs, paving and striping at the Senior Center and Recreation Department parking lot at 240 and 280 Rome Street.
4. Adopt the policy “Discarding of City Property” to be included in the City of Temple’s Personnel Manual.
5. Authorize Public Works Director Josh Smith to sell four (4) vehicles from the city fleet, three (3) on GovDeals and one (1) through the Enterprise Fleet Management equity program.
6. Authorize the replacement/rebuild of the SBR blower, not to exceed $22,000 with funding from the Water/Sewer Operating Budget.
7. Approve the cleanout of SBR Tank #1 in an amount not to exceed $20,000 with funding from the Water/Sewer Operating Budget.
8. Adopt the budget amendments to the FY2025 Capital Budget.
9. Authorize the Mayor to sign the easement documents from Atlanta Gas Light, Accepting $2,482 for temporary easement rights along 184 Carrollton Street to improve their nature gas pipeline systems.
Under New Business there was a Proclamation read by Mayor Johnson, recognizing October, 2025 as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. The Mayor said that even the shortest lives are valuable, and the profound grief of those who suffer this loss should not be trivialized.
Ward 3 Councilmember Alexis Boles put before the Council Troy Hollingsworth as the candidate for the Ward 3 Planning Commission seat vacated by Troy Curtis on 7/15/25. Boles said Hollingsworth is a dedicated community member, a local realtor, and a resident of Temple for 21 years. For the last 4 years he has also run a small business called Vinny & Luna Lawn Care. He and his wife are the parents of four children and six grandchildren, three of which they are raising together, and they attend all their sports and school activities. Hollingsworth was approved by Council 5-0.
Item 3 was a request to extend the current Moratorium on new residential developments for an additional one-year period while the city works to establish the location(s) of water loss and continues to pursue a second water source. Ward 2 Councilmember Howard Walden said that everything regarding the city’s water problems are the same as they were nine months ago, and he didn’t see that it would be any better in a year. “Why not do 90 days or 6 months?” he asked. He suggested the water committee should be having discussions with the Carroll County Water Authority, and also said that committee’s update was the same every month. Councilmember Boles, a member of the committee, said they have been providing reports about looking for a second source of water.
Ward 5 Councilmember Richard Bracknell said he prefers a 90-day moratorium over a year in order to focus on what we need to do.
Councilmember Russon said that it is important to understand why the one-year moratorium is already in place. It was put there based on the city’s current water system’s ability to serve current and new water use, which will “exceed what we can provide.” He said the city asked the committee to find a solution, and the problem is infrastructure. Councilmember Bracknell said they are just “kicking the ball down the road.” Russom reminded Council that when they contacted the Carroll County Water Authority, they were given two choices: build a water tower or find an alternate water source, which “we can’t do in 90 days.” He asked, “Why review every 90 days when we know a solution is not yet available?” However, Bracknell insisted that 90 days would keep the problem on everybody’s radar.
City Manager Jacobson reminded everyone that, if the city’s misses the deadline on the current moratorium, there are several development waiting to get started. Mayor Johnson suggested further negotiation with Carroll County, and Russom said they has asked to do that at some of the committee meetings. Councilmember Walden said, “The Authority has water, they are in business to sell water. I don’t see why we’re not talking to them. Villa Rica produces their own water and purchases also from Carroll and Douglasville.” Jacobson said “when we first heard the county had excess water we started working on projections.” Mayor Johnson said Temple got news from the county last week, and has planned a meeting with them on January 25th, but “their tone was not nearly as welcoming on addition of more (water) to Temple” and added that the negotiations would be based on the immediate numbers, not future estimates.
Councilmember Russom brought up the other issue of millions of gallons of water being unaccounted for in the city. He said he had information that some contractors were using fire hydrants for their own needs and this use is unmetered. Councilmember Walden said the city has just over five million gallons of water per month that is paid for by the city but not billed out to anyone, and this certainly needs to be investigated.
Ultimately the Council agreed on a six-month residential building moratorium to take place when the one-year moratorium ends, with a vote of 5-0.
Recreation Director McKinley requested the purchase of a new Gator to replace the one at the rec dept. which has stopped working and would cost $6,000 in just parts to repair. She presented a quote from Sun South for $9,087.67 for a new one, using SPLOST ’21 funds. She said they laughed at her suggestion of a trade-in value of the old one, but maybe they could sell it for parts. Purchase of a new one was approved by Council 5-0.
Mayor Johnson announced the Public Hearings for the fiscal year 2026 Operating and Capital Budgets will be held as follows: 1st Public Hearing on Monday, November 17th, 2025 at 6:00 p.m., and 2nd on December 1st, 2025 at 6:30 p.m., followed by formal adoption of the budgets.
After an Executive Session, the Council adjourned the Regular Session.