Light agenda on tap for council meeting

The Commerce City Council’s first voting meeting of 2013 appears to have a light agenda mostly of housekeeping details.

The council will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the Commerce Room of the Commerce Civic Center.

It had been scheduled to vote on a recommendation of the city planning commission to amend its zoning ordinance to allow bakeries under “home occupations.”

Essentially, that would permit someone to start a home-based baking business without getting a commercial kitchen, although such operations are subject to inspection by the Department of Agriculture.

But the council agreed at its work session Monday night to table that issue pending an understanding of exactly where such license requirements kick in. Mayor pro tem Keith Burchett pointed out that a number of local residents bake a few cakes and pies for sale and questioned whether they would be required to get a business license and undergo inspections.

Items on the agenda for Monday night include:

•action on a three-year contract with Electric Cities of Georgia, which provides technical and marketing related assistance as well as lobbying help. City manager Pete Pyrzenski seeks approval of a contract not to exceed $110,000. The contract is new, but the city has utilized — and been paying for — Electric Cities assistance for years.

•approval of a six-month no-cost contract between the Commerce Public Library and a commercial fax service to establish a fax kiosk in the expanded library. Director Miguel Vicente said there is a significant demand for the service, which will charge $1.50 for the first page and $1 per page thereafter.

The council may also discuss whether to implement an energy excise tax to replace lost sales tax revenue from manufacturing firms taking advantage of a new state law. The law exempts manufacturers and agricultural operations from paying sales tax on their energy purchases but allows local jurisdictions to recoup their losses via the excise tax. Jackson County, noted Pyrzenski, has opted not to impose the tax.