ATLANTA – The Atlanta City Council is planning a vote Monday on whether to approve millions of dollars for the development of the controversial Atlanta Public Safety Training Center less than a week after law enforcement arrested three organizers of a bail fund for people protesting the facility’s construction.

The meeting is expected to draw dozens, if not hundreds of critics who plan to rally and speak out against the proposed project they’ve nicknamed “Cop City.” 

Monday’s vote on is whether the City Council should $31 million for development of the $90 million training center. The Atlanta Police Foundation is to foot the rest of the bill. The city’s agreement with the foundation also includes a “lease back” provision requiring the city to pay $1.2 million a year for use of the facility over 30 years, which the city said is less than the $1.4 million it currently pays annually to lease training space.

“We still have to make this investment,” Atlanta City Council member Michael Julian Bond told FOX 5. “It’s still necessary for the future of Atlanta.”

ATLANTA CITY COUNCIL MEMBER: ARRESTS OF ‘COP CITY’ BAIL FUND ORGANIZERS APPEAR TO BE ‘INTIMIDATION TACTIC’

In anticipation of possible reaction to the proposal passing, other offices at City Hall will be closed throughout the day. Officials also announced there would be a temporary ban on liquids, aerosols, gels, creams and pastes from anyone other than City officials and employees quoting “safety concerns” until further notice.

All in-person services will be handled online. Business is expected to resume as normal Tuesday, June 6.

The City Council meeting comes on heels of police arresting Adele MacLean, 42, Marlon Scott Kautz, 39, and Savannah Patterson, 30 on charges of charities fraud and money laundering. The three lead the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which has provided bail money and helped find attorneys for arrested protesters.

WHAT WILL ATLANTA END UP PAYING FOR THE PLANNED PUBLIC SAFETY TRAINING CENTER?

The arrests the three, who were granted bond by a judge on Friday, have led to reactions from many Georgia officials, including Atlanta City Council member Liliana Bakhtiari, who represents District 5, who questioned the timing of the raid.

“The execution of this raid, from its timing – just days before the Atlanta City Council is scheduled for a final vote on the controversial Public Safety Training Center – to the excessive means in which it was conducted, appears to be nothing more than an intimidation tactic by the state,” Bakhtiari wrote. “And in the words of Judge Altman yesterday, ‘I don’t find it real impressive.’”

Georgia Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock both also tweeted their concerns about the arrests, with Warnock saying the tactics “could have a chilling effect on nonviolent, constitutionally-protected free speech activities those of us in the fight for justice have been engaged in for years.”

The training center, which was approved by the Atlanta City Council in September 2021, has drawn opposition from the start. City officials say the new 85-acre campus would replace inadequate current training facilities and would help address difficulties in hiring and retaining police officers that worsened after nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice three years ago.

Local opponents, who have been joined by activists from around the country, say they fear it will lead to greater militarization of the police and that its construction will exacerbate environmental damage. Protesters had been camping at the site since at least last year, and police said they had caused damage and attacked law enforcement officers and others.

Tensions escalated in January, when officers shot and killed 26-year-old protester Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, known as Tortuguita. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has said officers fired in self-defense after Terán shot at them while they cleared protesters from the site. But the state troopers involved weren’t wearing body cameras, and activists have questioned the official narrative.

Several dozen people accused of involvement in the protests have been arrested since May 2022, including more than 40 who have been charged with domestic terrorism, a weighty felony charge that carries a penalty of five to 35 years in prison.

The public city council meeting is set to begin at 1 p.m. Monday. For more information, visit the Atlanta City Council website.