Outdoor lighting rule no longer has grandfather clause
Who you gonna call?
If you have a ghost problem, the answer was Ghostbusters.
If an owner is violating the new Gilmer County short-term rental ordinance, well, commissioners and staff did not have an answer ready.
Gilmer County resident Mark Silver asked commissioners this question during the public comment section of the board’s works session July 16.
“There is nobody to enforce this ordinance,” he said.
Silver lives in the Goose Island development and said he knows of 16 short-term rentals in his neighborhood. None of the homes have signs required by the new Gilmer County ordinance, and he has not received any ‘neighbor letters’ required by the ordinance from those close to his home.
Calls and emails to the county have gone unanswered, Silver said. He went to the county offices and said he was told no enforcement was in place.
Gilmer County Chair Charlie Paris said he was checking into an answer for who would enforce the ordinance. He said it was just 16 days old in terms of implementation.
He conceded it was “unacceptable” there was no answer as to who should receive the complaint.
As far as the ordinance, Paris said the short-term rental board would hear the complaint and then determine the punishment which ranges from a warning to suspending the short-term rental license.
Mary Abernathy said she was on the short-term rental board and would be happy to work with Silver. She said she would help call a meeting of the board, which has yet to meet, if she was given the contacts for the other members.
Paris said the board should have met by this time.
Gilmer Planning and Zoning Director Jim Smith, who is responsible for portions of the implementation, said he did not have the contact information either.
Paris told Silver he would have an answer by the end of the day.
In a special called meeting Tuesday, July 22, Abernathy used the public speaking portion to tell commissioners the problem is larger than they may believe.
Between the meetings, Abernathy said she investigated the sample of addresses provided by Silver.
“I was really probably as close to becoming violently angry as I ever have living in this county,” she said.
Stories about homeowners considering selling their homes because of problems with short-term rentals which are flaunting the law were the cause of her ire.
She estimated of the properties she looked at half were not on the roles or had not complied with the ordinance.
“I just encourage you to do something,” she said.
County Attorney David Clark said it would take a while to weed out the bad actors.
“It just needs someone knocking on the door and shutting them down,” he said.
A consensus was reached to hire a short-term rental enforcement person. Abernathy said she was available immediately and Paris asked her to stay to discuss the possibility after the meeting.
Outdoor lighting
If it passes the next vote, Gilmer County residents will have a structure for solving dispute between neighbors about outdoor lighting.
Commissioners passed the first reading of the new ordinance following a public hearing at their regular meeting July 17.
At the public hearing, John Veilleux spoke in favor of the ordinance. He said he has a neighbor who lives in Gilmer County part time, but keeps their outdoor lights on full time.
In response, Veilleux has said he has put up blackout curtains throughout his home.
During the discussion, commissioners discovered there was a grandfather clause in the ordinance which would cause it to only apply to lighting installed after the ordinance passed.
The clause was removed before the first reading.
According to discussion, the ordinance would provide a framework for neighbors to solve their differences about outdoor lighting, but one of the neighbors would have to take the dispute to the magistrate judge.
Security software
Gilmer County commissioners voted to have SentinelOne monitor their computer infrastructure for any attacks and have ETC respond to the attacks by mitigating the software or hardware in question.
Cost for the service would come to $29,232 for the year.
Gilmer County resident Kimberly Reckles objected to the commissioners using SentinelOne during the public comment period July 16. Her chief complaint was an executive order issued by President Donald Trump to have the Department of Justice investigate the company.
The order names Chris Krebs, who was part of the previous Trump administration and said the 2020 election was the “most secure in American history.” He is the founder of the company which was bought by SentinelOne.
Paris pointed out Krebs has since left the company and said SentinelOne has prevented several attacks on Gilmer County’s system. He also pointed out before he was chair of Gilmer County, he spent his career working with computers.