Many Object to Proposed Ordinance

The Jasper County Planning and Zoning Board approved a recommendation to send the Special Event Permit Ordinance back to the Board of Commissioners last Thursday night, stating that if there is a need for such an ordinance, a committee will be formed to draw up an ordinance that is more suited to Jasper County.

The motion was made by Lee Holman, board member, stating that a board could be formed, made up of citizens, someone from the Sheriff’s Department, EMS, the health department and Code Enforcement if such a permit was needed.

The P&Z board had a full room of meeting attendees for the controversial discussion on the permit, and 10 of them addressed the board. All of the speakers were against the proposed ordinance.
The ordinance was presented to the BOC at their meeting last month to be passed as written. The board discussed the ordinance and decided that it was more a P&Z concern.

Just before the call to order of the meeting an additional page of the proposed ordinance was given out to all in attendance. The two added amendments included Section 27-019 and 27-020 which covered other exclusions and purpose. This page was left out of the copy of the ordinance that was presented to the BOC as an oversight, said Debbie Dammann, P&Z chair.
{{more}}
Ms. Demmann asked Raymond Rogers, Code Enforcement Officer, to give a background overview of how the ordinance came about. Mr. Rogers said its initial idea was brought about because of the number of movies that were being filmed in the county, that there had been about five shot in the last year alone in the county.

He said that the sheriff was unaware of events and the Emergency Services personnel were as well. He said that the reason to have notice of events was to have adequate public safety services available as a precaution.

He noted that the ordinance applied only to public events not private and Mr. Rogers contacted ACCG for a model to base a draft on. The ordinance itself was not intended to pass as written, but to pick parts of the ordinance to conform to Jasper Co.

There was a question as to why there was a $100 fee associated with the permit. The agreement was that the registering was not the problem, but the money associated with the registration was. Mr. Rogers stated that the money is for the permit.

Commissioner Mary Patrick was in attendance and asked if the ordinance did not cover private property in the county, what areas does it cover.

Monticello resident, Judy Watson stated that if it did pertain to movies primarily, then someone in power should know and communicate with others in the right places. She noted that roads are sometimes closed and that the most recent movie was in the newspaper. She finds it hard to believe that no one knew something about the movie when the newspaper knew.

She and her husband were both in attendance and had the same complaints as the majority in attendance. He asked when the “government is going to stop trying to rip us,” and noted that their immediate family was over 20 people alone. He said that he’d be at the P&Z office 365 days a year because of his family.

Mrs. Watson noted that there were more than two holidays a year and that the additional print out of the last two sections contradicted what section 27-07 stated specifically about events on private property.

Carol McElheney asked the board where the Sheriff was and if anyone from EMS was in attendance to stress the importance of this ordinance. She said that if it was so important, someone should be there to defend why they wanted the ordinance.

Board member Joe Lewis said that they (the Sheriff and EMS director) were still looking for the other two pages.

Gay Morrison said that the ordinance should be scrapped and rewritten and that Mr. Rogers came up with it himself. She thought it was just a way to seek revenue, and that the last two pages were added for this meeting to cover Mr. Rogers behind.

Charles Dennis defended Mr. Rogers saying that he was fair. He said that he had multiple dealings with Mr. Rogers and he’d never been lied to. He also noted that “everyone owns public property, so why are we charged to use what we already pay for.”

Charles Forsythe noted that the cost of plagiarized material and documents is costing the county money. He said that the ordinance may work in Athens, but something more suited to a rural county would be better here.

Patricia Womack Whitman stated that she lived in Hillsboro, which is unincorporated. She noted that a movie being filmed here brings in money and aids in projects such as refurbishing the Square. If we continue to charge, none of these people will want to come back, therefore we lose money for the county.

Skip Nowetner asked for facts. He said that on occasion his gatherings are over 100 people, some of which are interested in doing business here in the county. He asked if the ordinance covered private property or not. He noted that in the beginning of the ordinance it says to apply 30 days in advance and in the middle it says 60 days, so which is it?

Justin Owens, P&Z board member noted that they [the board] just received a copy of the ordinance themselves last week. He said that if you looked at his copy it was marked in red all over. That it would not have passed as written from the P&Z board. “The ordinance is a bit redundant,” said Mr. Owens. “We already have a special events application with no fee or time line. Most of the things in the ordinance are covered either by State law or under some other umbrella.”

Mr. Nowetner stated that it was presented by Mr. Rogers to the BOC, a county employee. A person who is neither appointed nor elected.
Mr. Rogers added clarification that the entire packet was sent to the BOC to be copied from P&Z. He noted, again that it was a draft that was to be reviewed to see if it were needed at all. He said that he was employed to protect the county and was asked to relay any suggestions for improvements, and that he personally has no opinion on the passing or not.

Mr. Nowetner said that his attack was not intended to be personal, but that the ordinance should have come before P&Z first, and taken to the BOC properly. He noted that someone went over the P&Z board’s heads, questioning whether or not there was a need for a P&Z at all. He noted that there should be a chain of command, and it was not followed in this case.

Mr. Holman said that this issue would have to be taken up with the county manager.