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Wednesday, May 14, 2014 – 1:00 p.m.
Courthouse Annex, 79 Jackson Street, Zebulon, Georgia
The meeting began with all 5 commissioners, County Clerk Jo Ann Wrye, County Manager (CM) John Hanson, and County Attorneys Rob and Tom Morton as well as three adults in the audience. By the end of the meeting, we were down to one adult in the audience, only one county attorney, and three commissioners, but the meeting was very informative.
1. CALL TO ORDER...................................................................................... Chairman Briar Johnson
2. INVOCATION…………………………………………………………………………..Ben Maxedon
3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE……………………………………………...Chairman Briar Johnson
4. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA - (O.C.G A. 50-14-1 (e) (1))
5. COUNTY MANAGER’S BUDGET OVERVIEW AND Q/A SESSION.................................................................. John Hanson
[Note from the Editor: There is a copy of the budget at the Pike County Board of Commissioners Office for the public to view. It is not as up to date with changes that have been made since it has been printed, but I applaud the BOC for putting this info out there and saving the paper from reprinting this document every time a change is made.]
The bottom line is that Pike County is looking at a budget increase for next year. $9,724,360 is the amount of the proposed budget. It is a proposed increase of $183,130 from last year. Commissioners discussed an array of topics that are not all listed here, but readers will get the general gist of the meeting tone and discussion that shows the care that has been put into this budget.
The Commission is looking to sign a contract with the school system for the school resource officers with an amount because we don’t have one now. CM Hanson praised the Board of Education and the Sheriff’s Office for working with the county on this.
This discussion went back to the discussion this morning about our ordinance that states that the county requires a contract or intergovernmental agreement with any entity that receives funds from the county. This is something that CM Hanson is looking into making this a reality here in Pike County. Magistrate Judge Callaway-Ingram was praised in the morning meeting for bringing a probation contract to the commissioners. Come next year, CM Hanson said that he doesn’t want to guess what is coming out of our budget and it will help avoid misunderstandings in the future too so everyone will know what is expected of each other.
This budget includes a 2% raise for all employees of the county but does not include that of the constitutional or elected officers. They will get COLA and longevity raises that are required by the state. Commissioners also asked CM Hanson to draw up a spreadsheet of our county employees to find out if there are any who are not receiving $10.10 an hour because this will effect our budget if any kind of a mandate comes down from Congress. [Note from the Editor: My words on the possibility of a mandate and not theirs.]
There is an extra $100,000 budgeted in the Public Works Department for next year. We are about $9,000 over in that budget right now because of the storms that have come through Pike County. We have paid $100,000 or $150,000 just to repair roads since January. There was a suggestion to use insurance money to offset the cost of gravel. There will be 2 new employees in the upcoming year too that will help with road work, etc. Commissioner Bass asked what it would take to address potholes other than putting gravel in them. CM Hanson said that a majority of the expense is not gravel going into potholes. He said that our roads overall need a whole lot of work like ditching and crowning and that working these roads will enable the gravel to be used more efficiently. CM Hanson said that this can’t be accomplished in one budget cycle. We have 184 miles of roads that need to be addressed so that we won’t be fixing the roads to be passable after a storm. We can get it started though and this is what we are looking to do.
SPLOST dollars will be available for our roads somewhere around December. The Courthouse was the Tier 1 project and the roads are our Tier 2 project. We can borrow money against the SPLOST, but then we will have to pay it back with interest. CM Hanson said that there has been a whole lot of work on the roads of late. We are looking at the possibility of buying a machine that will cut out potholes so we can fix them and they will not become potholes again. The county is looking at whether to work on some roads come July 1 but we will need to have the equipment as well as the material to fix the roads. CM Hanson said that as soon as we match the LMIG contract for Hollonville Road after the new budget year begins, we can get started on this. It is the worst road in the county and should be addressed before the winter. This will be addressed at a meeting very soon. CM Hanson said that our paved roads need work, but our gravel roads are as good as they have ever been. It is time consuming for Public Works to cut a square patch right now, but Public Works needs to right equipment to do this efficiently so we are not fixing the same potholes over and over.
Discussion of 8 hour day versus a 10 hour day. CM Hanson suggested having Public Works Director Todd Goolsby draw up a plan for commissioners so commissioners can make an educated decision on this. A question was asked about what the employees do on three days of rain in a row. CM Hanson said that there are a number of work activities that they can do including sharpening blades, etc. They don’t sit around and do nothing. [Note from the Editor: I applaud CM Hanson for advising the commissioners that he will look into this, but he wants to get Public Works Director Goolsby's take on the 8 and 10 hour work day before he makes a decision. This is why we have department heads--for their knowledge and expertise--and having a county manager of late promise to look into something and declare that the department head will have a say in it is a big deal for Pike County. This whole meeting made me happy with our commissioners and county staff, and I can remember a time not too far back that this simply was NOT the case!]
The Sheriff’s Office needs to replace three cars. There were 5 cars identified last year that needed replacement due to high mileage, etc. Two were replaced last year on a 3 year loan and three were discussed for replacement this year. The old cars will come to the County Commission to either be utilized for the county or sold on govdeals.com. One car will be bought from funds saved from inmate medical this year and the other two will be bought through loans. CM Hanson praised the Sheriff on food costs and the cost of the cars too. CM Hanson is working on a vehicle replacement policy for the county that may be ready even as soon as June 1.
6. COMMISSIONERS’ COMMENTS
The commissioners pretty well spoke throughout the entire budget hearing. They asked questions and asked CM Hanson to follow up on various items.
7. PUBLIC HEARING: FY 2014-15 Budget ...............................................Discussion and Comments
The public could speak either for or against the budget.
I spoke and said how much I appreciate everyone at the table today. Everyone is working together and asking questions without making assumptions about county business and working together for the good of the county. I appreciate CM Hanson taking down notes and following up on commissioner’s concerns because that has been a complaint in the past with requests being made and there being no follow up. I appreciate the work that Public Works has been doing on the roads with cutting out potholes and work on the roads in general. I am pleased with the suggestion that we get new equipment to help with repair of roads so we are not doing the same repairs over and over. I also praised them for adding the 2% raise for our employees. It has been needed for a while, but we had to have money in order to do this. I praised them for the attention that they are paying to our taxpayer dollars and for working together. I told them that this is the smoothest that county commission meetings have gone since I’ve been attending meetings over the past 14 years.
No one else was in the meeting to speak.
8. ADJOURNMENT
Motion to adjourn. 2:57 p.m. 3-0.
Agenda subject to change
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