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Thursday, July 19, 2012 – 4:00 p.m.
Courthouse Annex, 79 Jackson Street, Zebulon, Georgia
ZEBULON - This meeting was attended by all five commissioners, County Clerk Teresa Watson, and Iterim County Managers Rob and Tom Morton. There were four people in the audience during the course of the meeting, one citizen, one department head, one newspaper editor, and one person from news radio.
1. CALL TO ORDER .............................................................................. Chairman Doug Mangham
2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE ............................................................ Chairman Doug Mangham
3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA - (O.C.G A. 50-14-1 (e) (1))
4. COUNTY MANAGER REPORT:
The Interim County Manager is keeping the Commissioners apprised of the amount of money that is in the county accounts and transfers are only being requested as needed to cover expenses so that interest can continue to accrue on what is left in the main account. $200,000 was requested for a transfer in yesterday's meeting. There is $1.1 million that remains in the main account.
The auditor has requested a meeting in reference to the year end. This will be scheduled either next week or soon after.
There was a meeting earlier today in reference to the LOST collection in Pike County. Commissioners Carol Bass and Don Collins were present for it. Mr. Morton advised that he had a draft proposal for the commissioners to review.
Mr. Morton asked if commissioners wanted to do something with the new county manager as prior to the scheduled meeting on the 31st. It could be advertised as a public workshop though no business would take place in order to avoid the appearance of impropriety. It could even be an informal retreat. Commissioners seemed to have a consensus that they would like to do this.
Consensus to have a workshop addressing animal control and county signs after the new County Manager is in place.
5. NEW BUSINESS
a. Discuss tax digest and adjust Budget Calendar accordingly to provide for setting tax levy for Pike County for FY 2012-2013.
The revised budget calendar with 5 year history will be going into the Pike Journal Reporter after today's meeting. There will be a Special Called Meeting to set the Tax Levy on August 22, 2012 at 5 p.m. The Tax Commissioner has requested an extension for the submission of the budget from the Georgia Department of Revenue. The extension will be from August 1, 2012 to August 31, 2012. It is expected to be approved. The final millage rate will be 12.630 which is a 0.48% decrease in taxes from last year. Click here for a copy of the budget calendar and the 5 Year Tax Levy.
Update 7.21.12:
b. Update on research for District Attorney/Law Library space issue in Courthouse.
[Note from the Editor: I am going to say up front that I am extremely irritated with this part of the meeting. Much of my irritation stems from the fact that former County Manager Bill Sawyer left out in the middle of this major project, and it appears that he did not have a meeting with all of the parties involved at the very beginning of this project to be sure that nothing was left out. After all, the very reason that we are renovating the courthouse is because the courtroom was in such poor condition which could have resulted in a mandamus against the county along with wiring, etc. that desperately needed to be brought up to date. The rest of my irritation stems from commissioners offering a knee jerk reaction with regard to expenses rather than being good stewards of our tax dollars AND using common sense at the same time. More on that in a moment.]
This item came up in the July 16, 2012 special called meeting. According to the post agenda, District Attorney Ballard contacted Mr. Morton to advise that there is no office space in the new courthouse for the district attorney. It was noted during this meeting that earlier plans did show an office for the district attorney that was later changed to a Law Library. The county is required to have a Law Library where where law books will be shelved and a computer will be housed. During this meeting, it was suggested that: "the District Attorney Office remain where it has been in the past, adjacent to the Grand Jury Room and then to move the Law Library to a space in the new addition near the stairs where a second elevator was removed from plans." From the Post Agenda: "The general contractor for the Courthouse renovation has already made a significant amount of concessions for those changes recommended by the judges, and there simply is no more wiggle room to absorb modifications." During this meeting, Chairman Mangham suggested that the Law Library should be housed in the Grand Jury Room rather than spending $2377 to finish out a space for a separate room with a lockable door for these materials which is available and could be finished by the contractor as they are finishing everything else in this project. Commissioners Tommy Powers, Carol Bass, and Doug Mangham voted to use the Grand Jury Room for the Law Library during this meeting in a 3-2 vote with Commissioners Tamra Jarrett and Don Collins opposing.
Th Law Library was discussed again in today's meeting because consensus of the court and the Superior Court Clerk is that a Law Library in the Grand Jury Room will not work. Commissioner Tommy Powers advised that he had spoken to Public Works Director Todd Goolsby about finishing up this project--putting up the walls, running the electrical and heating and air, putting in a computer line, etc. (and I would assume that this includes tying into the fire suppression system as well). Mr. Goolsby advised that Public Works could finish up this project if that is what commissioners wanted to do. Commissioner Powers believes that it can be done for less than the $2377 that the contractor would charge to do this project. Commissioner Collins disagreed with doing a modification on a renovation when we can finish it up with the current contract and supervisor and said that it would be easier to do when working on the main project than to do afterward. Commissioner Bass said that furniture was not budgeted in this project and that she wants to save money to buy furniture. Commissioner Jarrett said that even if the county does the labor, taxpayers still foot this bill.
Motion to allow public comment. Approved 4-1 with Commissioner Powers opposed. [Note from the Editor: Joy Walker has worked on this SPLOST project from the beginning and her efforts as the head of this committee--speaking before city councils and even holding a Town Hall Meeting--are a large part of the reason that this SPLOST passed. Kudos to the commissioners for allowing her to speak.] Ms. Walker said that it is going to cost nearly as much to have county employees do this as it would to have the contractor finish the project completely. She said that wiring needs to go in at the same time as the rest of the courthouse. She said that Public Works did a nice job on the desk (in the Courtroom?) but this is not the same thing. She said the commissioners promised that they would spend taxpayer dollars wisely and promised not to nickel and dime this project. David Allen, courthouse renovation project manager and director of the Planning and Zoning Department, was also allowed to speak. He stated that the possible contamination of a case with the Law Library being in the Grand Jury Room has brought this back to where it started. Ms. Walker said that if even one case is tainted because of misconduct by the Grand Jury, that it will cost the county for more than $2300. Motion to move the Law Library from the Grand Jury Room to a new room (which will occupy the space where the elevator shaft would have been in the new courthouse plans) and all work to be done by county employees. 3-2 with Commissioners Collins and Jarrett opposed.
[Note from the Editor: Yes, we can buy the needed materials and finish out the project, but I cannot see how pulling hourly employees away from their regular scheduled duties (which will have to be done after they finish these extra duties) and asking them to put in walls, electrical wiring, computer wiring, and tying into the fire suppression system is going to cost us less money than having the contractor finish up this project completely. If we factor in the time taken away from other projects that will sit by the side while our hourly workers do what should have been completed in the first place and the fact that we will have to buy the materials to do this project including the painting which really needs to be done at the same time as the rest of the courthouse, the costs cannot be that much less than the $2377 to do this all at once with a certified contractor who is renovating the entire courthouse. And I can't help but wonder if having another party work on this project will affect any sort of guarantee we have on the work that will have already been done at that point. While I appreciate the desire to spend taxpayer funds in a frugal manner, we need to spend these dollars wisely too. I sincerely hope that this comes back up for consideration where commissioners have some sort of cost analysis to compare whether we are really going to be saving money on this because unless it is a huge amount that we will be saving (and I would take a lot of convincing since we have had to do renovations on my own home and it is a major pain), it simply isn't worth it.]
6. ADJOURNMENT
Motion to adjourn at 4:23 p.m.
Agenda subject to revision