Pike County Times
The Pike County Times, PO Box 843, Zebulon, Georgia 30295. Click here to donate through PayPal. Becky Watts: Phone # 770-468-7583 editor@pikecountytimes.com
 
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This online news website is owned and operated by Becky Watts. The Editor can be reached at 770-468-7583 or at editor(at)PikeCountyTimes(dot)com. Pike County Times is a website for citizens to keep up with local events and stay informed about Pike County government. It began on November 13, 2006 as a watchdog on county government and has turned into an online newspaper.

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BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS SPECIAL CALLED MEETING
Wednesday, June 12, 2013 - 5 p.m.

ZEBULON - Tonight's meeting was the second of the day with all five commissioners, County Clerk Jo Ann Wrye to take the minutes, Interim County Manager (CM) Rob Morton, and Financial Officer Kay Landers there to discuss the upcoming 2013-2014 budget for Pike County.

Interim CM Morton requested an Executive Session for discussion or deliberation on the appointment, employment, compensation, hiring, disciplinary action or dismissal, or periodic evaluation or rating of a county officer or employee county-wide as provided in O.C.G.A. § 50-14-3(6). Motion was made to amend the agenda. 5-0. Motion to go into Executive Session. 5-0. 5:02 p.m. Back in session. 5:24 p.m.

County Manager Comments:

[Note from the Editor: The 1st reading on June 4th had $8,690,026 in the General Fund with $9,724,360 as the total amount. Click here to read about the June 4th budget meeting. A copy of the budget can also be viewed from this link.] Interim CM Rob Morton provided commissioners with a revised summary last week rather than completely reprinting each time because of the number of pages in this document. He told them that he sat down with Public Works Director Todd Goolsby and Financial Officer Kay Landers about LMI grant project. This is a 2.3% increase of $148,834.50 is related to the county’s match on LMI grant. 4 roads are listed on the project for repaving at a 30% match so the state of Georgia will give our county $315,299. This $148,834.50 has to be in the budget if we plan to do this next year. However, we can escrow this money up to 3 years and essentially put the project on hold in a designated interest bearing account to reduce the increase on our final budget so we can get closer to paying off the court indebtedness and can use the SPLOST funds from the road portion of the SPLOST project to pay the match part of the LMI grant and the county would not apply for the LMI grant next year because they would require a 30% match for each year. This would reduce the budget by $58,376.50 though it would also stop (for now) the paving and resurfacing of these roads until the 2014-15 budget year: Twin Oaks, Dripping Rock, Ethridge Mill Road portion and Sullivan Road. Public Works Director Goolsby said that this is not what he wants to do, but if it’s what we need to do to take care of this budget, he will support this. The county has to pay off financing on the Tier 1 project Courthouse before we can use the leftover SPLOST money to pay the 30% match on the LMI grant.

This would help reduce the current budget numbers from $198,835 over last year’s numbers, a 2.3% increase from last year. If the $140,000 is taken out from the LMI grant, a county-wide 2% raise for employees is an option. [Note from the Editor: It was stated in past discussions about the budget that employees have not had a raise in 5 years.] There was also a discussion of needing at least part-time help in the county commission office due to the workload there. That would be about $16,800 for a 30 hour position there. $63,625.34 is the amount of the 2% raise with FICA, etc. across the board with the exception of elected officials. [Note from the Editor: The question needs to be asked what the 2% raise across the board is going to be for everyone because the BOC prepares the budget and distributes at least part of the money needed for each budget to all of the departments.]

Other suggestions to reduce the budget include a $1,400 reduction on employee pay that was found of late and possibly reducing the county manager pay from $70,000 for the first year to $60,000 with the possibility of negotiations for the next year. Family coverage for the county manager is budgeted for about $10,000 and can be reduced to single coverage instead. Then $37,418 would be the only increase for our incoming county manager.

Commissioner Tamra Jarrett felt like it will not be beneficial to postpone the LMI grant. Tommy Powers is ok with skipping a year because he doesn’t like the idea of increases. By waiting, are they going to be that much worse in a year? Todd said that they have done a lot of patching getting ready for resurfacing. [Note from the Editor: It wasn’t said specifically, but it sounds like at least some of this work will need to be redone if we wait to do it later.] Commissioner Carol Bass said that we are kicking the can down the road and that it will have to be paid sometime. Interim CM Morton pointed out that this is an opportunity to use SPLOST money instead of raising taxes if the money is put in escrow so a raise could be given if that is what they want to do. This is 5 miles of resurfacing and we did do some resurfacing last year. Interim CM Rob Morton did say that there is no penalty if we skip a year with the LMI grant. [Note from the Editor: This isn't going to be popular but needs to be said. Part of the reason that Pike County has so many needs this year is because we cut and cut our budget the past couple of years and put off as much as possible because we didn't have it and we didn't want taxes to be going up. We could put things off again this year, but we are going to have to pay for our needs at some point down the line whether it is keeping our buildings from crumbling apart, resurfacing our roads, replacing worn out or outdated fire equipment, or replacing public safety vehicles with over 200,000 miles on them. I don't want my taxes to go up either, but if I am facing a choice of paying a little each year for upkeep or paying nothing now and a whole lot more later, I am good with paying a little more this year.]

Commissioner Carol Bass said that she thinks that the Commission Office needs some help and was urging to find dollars that could pay for line items for that. She was looking at positions that are unfilled in the county. It was pointed out that new mandates are in the Sheriff’s Office budget for 2 positions even though the Board of Education would be paying for 10 months of the new resource officer position.

A 5% increase on ACCG insurance is figured into the budget though we haven’t received a quote from them yet. The board discussed whether to go ahead with this as a 2nd reading. Carol said that we discussed this before but the numbers didn’t change. She wanted to go ahead make some more cuts tonight. Tamra Jarrett wanted to have a 2nd reading next week.

There is also the possibility of doing away with a holiday for a furlough day for a savings of about $16,000 to be determined by the department heads deciding which day to furlough in their department. Rob said that he would rather not do this, but it was looked at last week.

Can’t give good numbers on any kind of an increase until the Digest is finalized and it isn’t yet. But looking at this now, it would be an increase of about $40 to $45 per household. [Note from the Editor: Appraisals on homes and property across the county is down this year which means that the tax digest is also down which affects the overall budget.]

Carol Bass said that if the county asked all of the departments to cut 1%, would that help offset this budget some. Would it be doable? She said that she is looking for a way to finance some of our needs in the county.

Discussion about putting a part-time person in the commission office as a stand alone issue costing no more than $16,800 was not a consensus of the board. Chairman Briar Johnson and Commissioner Tommy Powers said no on this. [Note from the Editor: Commissioner James Jenkins didn’t come out and say no out loud but it was obvious that he was torn on this.] Commissioner Powers said that he wants to see the bottom line on this budget first. Commissioner Tamra Jarrett said that she wasn’t sold on that in the beginning but she is convinced that having someone in there would be a help in that office. Chairman Johnson said that he doesn’t deny that they need someone in there but would like to look at other things like 2% raise for employees and resurfacing roads.

Commissioner Carol Bass commended Commissioner James Jenkins for working to help reduce communications dollars in our county. AT&T costs us $5,093 per month for our 70+ lines in the county. It is $183.12 for one business line. James said that the only way to save money is to bundle our lines together. The county has put this info out to try to bundle this, but we haven’t heard back from them. Rob Morton suggested that the budget process needs to start long before January of next year so the county can look at saving money next year. It needs to be an almost year long process. We are running out of time looking at some of these things. Other ways to save included not putting $6,000 in the budget for the EMA grant when the county is going to do $6,000 of work as an in-kind donation.

The budget has to be completed by June 30th. Until it is approved, this is a work in progress that can be changed at any point. The 2nd reading will be at the next meeting on June 25th so there will have to be a called meeting for the 3rd reading during the final week of June to approve this budget. [Note from the Editor: Pike County Times will be on vacation from middle of next week through July 1st so mark your calendars according if you want to know what happens with this budget.]

Motion to adjourn at 6:25 p.m.

6.12.13
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