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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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Wednesday, June 12,2024 – 9 a.m.
Courthouse, Main Courtroom, 16001 Barnesville Street, Zebulon, Georgia
Town Hall Meeting at 8:45 a.m.
ZEBULON - The Pike County Board of Commissioners met in the upper courtroom of the courthouse on June 12, 2024 at 9 a.m. for a regularly scheduled meeting. There was be a Town Hall Meeting prior to the 9 a.m. meeting (at 8:45 a.m.) for anyone wanted to speak to the commissioners about any issues that you may have.
The meeting was open to the public and was broadcast live on Pike County Times' Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/pikecountytimes.
[Note from the Editor: It will be nice when our county joins so many of the surrounding cities and counties to record and broadcast its meetings in a central place so citizens who cannot attend the meetings can watch at their convenience. Especially those who do not have a Facebook account because there are more people out there than you know who don't like Facebook.]
Click here to see the documents that have been uploaded with the agenda on the Pike County government page.
1. CALL TO ORDER ............ Chairman J. Briar Johnson
2. INVOCATION ............ Ricky Shepherd
3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE ............ Chairman J. Briar Johnson
4. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA - (O.C.G A. § 50-14-1 (e) (1))
5. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES - (O.C.G.A. § 50-14-1(e) (2))
a. Minutes of the May 28, 2024, Regular Monthly Meeting.
b. Minutes of the May 28, 2024, Executive Session.
Motion to approve the minutes. Approved 5-0.
6. INVITED GUEST
a. Employee Recognition for service to Pike County.
Ginny Blakeney – Probate Court Judge
Recognized for 10 years of service. She worked at the Commission office in accounts payable and then for the Pike County Industrial Development Authority before being elected as Probate Judge. Chairman Briar Johnson said she does a great job. She's been busy moving her offices, and she was out here on Sunday finishing the move. She was thanked for her service to our county.
Hannah Gardner – Sheriff’s Department
Recognized for 5 years of service. She started out in the jail and is now working the road. Sheriff. She is a sergeant and runs the shift. One of our K-9 handlers. To take that responsibility over and beyond.
7. REPORTS FROM COMMISSIONS, DEPARTMENTS, COMMITTEES, AUTHORITIES
a. Monthly Reports submitted from County Departments and County Authorities, including a Revenue/Expenditure Statement for all departments and a summary check register.
b. County Manager Report Update on County finances for the following funds/accounts: General Fund ........ $676,978.04 Fire Dept. Donations ........ $9,847.17 Cash Reserve Account ........ $104,252.63 Jail Fund ........ $29,834.11 E-911 Fund ........ $99,661.31 DATE Fund ........ $34,989.26 Juvenile Court Fund ........ $13,744.51 Residential Impact Fee ........ $332,690.41 Commercial Impact Fees ........ $35,333.46 C.A.I.P FUND ........ $217,331.65 General Obligation SPLOST 2022-2028 ........ $1,682,807.26 L.M.I.G. Grant (DOT) ........ $147,582.43c. County Manager Comment
Estimates from Public Works because of an issue with our lift for the vehicles at the shop. It can’t be replaced because more than 20 years old. 5 quotes from different vendors. Barnett Family Enterprises Inc. is a local company (out of Molena from their written quotes). Napa too (out of Barnesville according to their written quotes). Low is $10,900 to high at $20,800. We are looking at 14,000 pounds instead of 12,000. Also checked Summit and got a verbal quote. $13,470 for a 14,000 pound lift however, there would be a cost for installation. Barnett does a similar with installation for $13,859. The funds are there in Public Works to cover this expense. 14,000 pound $13,859.30 with installation. Motion to go with Barnett for $13,859.30.
[Note from the Editor: Kudos to the county manager for crediting the Roads Superintendent with gathering these bids. However, the written bids were gathered on May 28 and 29, 2024 so this really should have been advertised on the agenda and a written copy of the verbal and written bids should have been provided to the commissioners for review prior to the meeting/or at least at the meeting since it ended up on the CM Report. I understand that things can be busy and sometimes forgotten, but the habit should be to advertise items like this since the county has been sued for that in the past, and best practice is transparency on the little things so there is no question about advertising publicly on the big things because it's a habit.]
Change in next year's budget adding in 2nd shift for the fire department in Department 80. $921,870. 2 part-time firefighters 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The CM provided commissioners with a copy of the new budget summary worksheet with this change.
Water and Sewer Authority did several projects with funding and received opportunity to partner with the City of Griffin that includes additional water sources. Now have access to water already there and have a contract signed with the City of Griffin.
ARPA Funds were set aside for broadband but the funds have to be committed by the end of the year so those funds will probably have to be used in other ways. Has spoken with Rep. Beth Camp about the matter. Perhaps use these funds for Water and Sewer Authority project for the Coggins Road connection for $390,000, water down Williamson-Zebulon $225,000, and a connection down in Hollonville for fire protection for $197,000 for a total of $812,000. Entire ARPA fund expenditures. 3.6 million is what we received. Is this the direction that you want to go? Do you want to approve the changes to the Water and Sewer Authority? It looked like the commissioners were in a consensus on this.
Discussion about ARPA funds for other projects too. $400,000 for the property assessment including the flyover. The flyover will be a recurring cost. 3 options presented. This is the full assessment value where someone knocks on the door of every single business and home in the county with boots on the ground. Supposed to be done 1/3 each year in a 3 year cycle, but this will get us back on a regular schedule. Tim Guy. Asking about how this works. Rogers. We are required to keep a chief appraiser and a set number of appraisers to handle the county based on the number of parcels of property that we have. Guy. This is so we can have everyone on a level playing field. CM Rogers said that the Tax Assessor Board is in a weird situation. The cost per square foot was discussed. We have a 28% sales ratio here in the county right now. This is telling them that homes are being assessed too low. Typically, they would raise that rate to get up to a 40% value so the county could roll back the millage rate. They raised it last year, and we got a black eye because the school didn’t roll theirs back as much as we wanted them to. So they discussed this, but they were not confident that the school board could or would roll back the millage rate because the school board might lose funding from the state. Our utilities are taxed at 40% unless they are below 36% so we are not getting the utility rate collection that will be lower, and tax payers are going to have to make this up. They decided not to raise the base rate. Click here to read "Board of Assessors Leaves Sales Ratio at $91 Per Square Foot" and read through Tax Assessor meeting write ups on Pike County Times: http://pikecountytimes.com/secondary/taxassessor6.3.24.html.
ARPA. 2 of the big funding mechanisms are the debt service for the $1.4 million. Parks and Rec for about $1.6 million. $358,357 currently in there for Parks and Rec. Do you want to keep the Water and Sewer Authority? Do you want to put more money to Parks and Rec? Need to have a decision by the next meeting. Johnson. If we go with ARPA for the Water and Sewer Authority, they will be in the clear next year because paid off. Parks and Rec Authority will always have some kind of expense, but it will be reduced. They will always be providing more activities than bringing in revenue.
Public Works. A lot of changes out there. Lost 4 individuals over the past month. Found out a problem a month or so ago. Passed it along to the Sheriff’s Office. They completed their investigation. And that investigation has been passed on to the DA’s Office. Doing very well with the current crew even though we’re down 7 employees. Rogers is proposing reorganizing Public Works to possibly not fill those positions.
Asphalt paving. The guys did a great job last week at Public Works, but it was hard for them. We are not confident in asphalt right now. Do we want to consider hiring an asphalt crew or contract out asphalt work? Rogers recommends going back to the basics where we do patch jobs but no big paving jobs. Tim Daniel. Agrees. We have a window to pave and a long list of projects to pave. Rogers. Contracting out with McLeRoy allowed us to get paving done, etc.
Ken Lalumiere is the acting Director over Public Works and Chris Goodman Roads is the Superintendent. He asked them to get info for a packet on roads that need to be paved. Individual roads and as a package. Tim Daniel and Tim Guy want to see numbers. Reduced budget based on pulling out those 7 people. Grass cutting could be contracted out as well with this reduction because we don’t have to deal with broken equipment, etc. Tim Daniel. We have had some complaints about driveway aprons because that wasn’t done on Concord Road. Asked Rogers to include that in the package. [Note from the Editor: A permanent department head has to be voted on by the commissioners just like a firing of a department head. And the CM still needs to be checking numbers, etc. on a regular basis regardless of who is in charge. That is one of our biggest departments in the county and would benefit from oversight from more than one person.]
Watering Hole Pass. Culdesacs are beginning this week.
West Jones. Working on culverts, etc.
School Project. Will meet with them next week.
Continuing to move forward. CM asked for direction on Public Works. Briar Johnson. Not opposed to contracting. But 6 or 7 years ago, that county manager (John Hanson) recommended getting into paving, and we did a good job with this. Is the savings enough to warrant this?
Discussion of open and closed cabs on tractors. We need to protect our guys with closed cabs. Are you planning on replacing Todd Goolsby? We might get someone with asphalt experience. Rogers. Asphalt vs. Contracting. There are some savings inhouse. When we had people who could do the job. Was the extra savings with possible problems? Thinks that creates issues by pulling people from other projects. If the director has asphalt experience, they need to be managing the department and not physical labor. Also need someone to be an asphalt superintendent. Also seasonal position for a specialty job. Rogers. Think you gain by contracting out. It takes 3 people to run that machine so it’s hiring a crew. Johnson. We are still looking to do small jobs. We can wait until next year to make a final decision if we need to. Johnson. About $5,000 for a cab? Rogers. It’s more to include heating and air. Heat, dust, etc. Johnson. There is protection with a closed cab from yellow jacket nests, etc.
d. Commissioner Reports
Tim Guy. School Road off of Hwy 109. Exposed culvert. Not sure of the name. Concord-Hollonville Road. What about the guard rails? 74 Bridge discussion for later.
Proctor. If we bid out paving, we need to deal with shoulders as we pave. [Note from the Editor: This is a very good point. Same with putting aprons on driveways so people aren't trying to get on the road from their driveways with a big drop from the asphalt to their driveway.]
Johnson. Early voting now through Friday. Tuesday, June 18 is election day.
Accepting applications for Regional 4 EMS Regional Council.
Next Friday is Employee Appreciation. We usually close county offices. Elected officials make their own decisions. [Note from the Editor: Pictures from Employee Appreciation Day are on my Facebook page pinned at the top of the page. Thank you to the Georgia Cattlemen's Association for doing the cooking!]
July 4 and 5 fell on Thursday and Friday. Last year, we closed on the 4th and allowed the employees to have Friday off. We should make a decision now instead of waiting until the next meeting. Tim Guy. Thinks that we should do the same as last year. Rogers. This is a policy decision. Motion to have off Thursday and Friday the 4th and the 5th. The elected officials can do whatever they want to do. Approved 5-0.
Said that the commissioners appreciate the department reports that we get. I think it’s very important. We normally have 14 or 15 and only have 10 this month, but we do look at these and appreciate these.
e. County Attorney Report to Commissioners: None.
8. UNFINISHED BUSINESS - NONE
9. NEW BUSINESS
a. Consider four appointments to the Pike County Parks and Recreation Authority to fill four expired three-year terms, set to expire June 30, 2027. Applicants have met criteria.
Cory Brinson, Becky DeGraff, Matt Wood, and Brian Hammock. Rogers. Met everyone. Recommended reappointing Brinson, DeGraff, Wood, and appointing Hammock to the board. Motion to go with the county manager recommendation. Approved 5-0.
b. Consider one appointment to the Pike County Family and Children Services Board to fill an unexpired five-year term, set to expire December 31, 2024. Applicant has met criteria.
Mandy Cloy. She was here and had to step out of the meeting. Rogers recommended her for the board and said that she was here for the meeting today even though she had to step out. Motion to approve. Approved 5-0.
c. Discussion of the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) bridge replacement of the existing State Route (SR) 74 bridge over Elkins Creek.
GDOT is wanting to close the bridge for repairs. There will be a bridge detour right there. Tim Guy. Question about a fence to keep people out from under the bridge.
10. PUBLIC COMMENT (Limited to 5 minutes per person)
a. Roosevelt Willis to address the Board regarding contracted labor.
Said that he has lived in Pike for over 70 years and has paid property taxes for more than 51 years. Said that he has been in the dump truck business for more than 28 years and doesn't understand why the county contracts with outside companies before it does Pike County companies.
He said that he talked with Tim Daniel about this a couple of months ago. Asked to compare between his company and Cadenhead. Said that the numbers were lopsided and that Commissioner Daniel took it to the county manager who said that he didn’t see anything wrong with those numbers. [Note from the Editor: Roosevelt Willis had a thick packet of open records in his hand that I will comment about in a moment.]
Willis said that in the past 16 months, the county paid more than $273,000 to truckers to haul for the county. Said that only about $12,000 of that went to minorities and more than $115,000 of that $273,000 went to Cadenhead Enterprises. They haul for Pike almost daily even while Pike trucks are sitting idle. Hourly tickets turned in. Said that almost every ticket from Cadenhead had 9 hours, and I don’t know how because Public Works has a work schedule from 7 to 3:30. How can they get almost 9 hours daily? One company being paid $115 back to February. Everyone else being paid $105 daily back to April.
He said that the commissioners were elected by the citizens to serve the citizens, and that they need to investigate these matters and see if they can be corrected. He ended by reading Matthew 25:40, "Verily I say unto you, in as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these, you have done it unto me."
[Note from the Editor: Let me start with a few items of note. First, Pike County has 3 dump trucks. Pike County Public Works "has no copies of dump truck logs on a daily record" and does not have GPS on our vehicles. Full stop. That... needs to be addressed immediately because GPS and oversight could have prevented much of what was recently investigated by the Sheriff's Office and sent to the District Attorney's Office because there would be a record of where our vehicles have been. As a taxpayer, I am concerned that GPS tracking wasn't discussed for the upcoming budget. Even something that is not super expensive would provide accountability for our tax dollars and possibly prevent future incidents. Business as usual is not acceptable now that we know there is a problem. BREAKING NEWS: Sheriff's Office Completes Investigation of Pike County Public Works
Second, it seems logical to me that our county trucks should be running before we pay others $105 an hour to work for the county unless there is a reason that our trucks are not running due to costs, etc.
Third, hours of operation at Public Works are from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and some of these invoices are for 9 and 10 hours in one day. (More on that in a minute.)
Now to the open records that Mr. Willis spoke about. (I am also providing a note of full disclosure that I know Roosevelt from when he was a commissioner, and he has had to endure the same things that current commissioners and the county manager are dealing with from me as I watchdog our county commission meetings.) A deep look through these records is concerning to me as a taxpayer and as the resident watchdog for our county commission.
Here is a quick overview of what I saw as I looked through these open records that were provided by the county in response to an open records request for "Independent haulers for Public Works Department for the last 16 months to include hourly rate and total sums payout."
Favors Enterprise, Inc - $800
Haulin Dirt T - $6,870
Hurt's Trucking - $9,809
Willis Trucking - $10,527.50
AB Edge Enterprises - $20,000
English Trucking - $40,393.75
H&M Hauling - $70,822.50
Cadenhead Enterprises, Inc. - $120,452.50
When looking through these documents, I saw where loads were being paid to everyone at $100 an hour in 2023. However sometime in 2024, some of the haulers were getting paid $105 an hour while others weren't. And one hauler got paid $115 an hour starting in February of 2024. I'm not sure why some are getting paid differently than others, but that doesn't smell good. It should be examined and changes made to ensure that everyone is being treated the same with regard to payment.
Then the number of hours needs to be examined. The hours for most of the haulers were under 8.5 hours, but there were invoices for 9 and 10 hours for a day on many of these invoices. Now there may be more than one truck hauling, etc. I have not asked for reasons behind what was paid to whom and why at this point, but the commissioners should care enough to make sure that this is handled appropriately.
As a watchdog, my job is to point out that there IS a possible problem here and ask the commissioners to ask the county manager to look into the matter and report back to them with his findings as soon as possible because there are some issues with how payment is being made at the VERY least. Then there is the problem of how to track when, where, and even whether our trucks are running at all that needs to be addressed as well.]
11. EXECUTIVE SESSION - NONE
12. ADJOURNMENT
Motion to adjourn. 10:18 a.m.
[Note from the Editor: If you appreciate being able to read information from county meetings for free on Pike County Times, please make a donation to Pike County Times through the PayPal link at the bottom of the page or by check to Pike County Times at PO Box 843, Zebulon so I can justify the amount of time that I am spending away from family. It may not seem like much but sitting in a meeting and then typing it up takes a lot more time than you might imagine! Thanks for reading Pike County's only FREE newspaper.]