City, County Officials Discuss Service Delivery
A contentious meeting last Thursday with City of Monticello officials and Jasper County government officials resulted in little productivity on the Service Delivery Strategy that must be determined by October. The city of Shady Dale is also in the negotiations, but no one was able to attend Thursday’s meeting.
The meeting was held at Monticello City Hall, and hosted by the City Council. Guidelines said no public comments; only one spokesman for each governing body, and a time limit of one hour.
Immediately upon beginning the meeting, Commission Chairman Carl Pennamon said that the county objects to the guidelines. They are all there and all have opinions, and it should not be limited to one speaker per entity. The mayor was adamant that “we will abide by the agenda” and said we will have many more meetings.
Mr. Pennamon said he thought that at the last meeting, where the two groups went through the whole list of service, they were mostly in agreement. Mayor Bryan Standifer countered that double taxation is a concern, and the city wants to fix those issues.
Mr. Pennamon said the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) is the remedy to double taxation. Mayor Standifer then said he thought most of the LOST dollars were captured in the city of Monticello, and that council feels its citizens are being double-taxed. For example, Mayor Standifer said city taxes—those taxes paid by residents within the city—go towards paving county roads. Mr. Pennamon asked what services did the city plan to provide, and questioned if consolidation was the answer.
Mayor Standifer said consolidation is out of the question…it would hurt the citizens of Monticello. He went on to say the main areas of discussion are code enforcement and public works. He also said he thought the city was in better financial shape than the county.
At that point, Mr. Pennamon said he wanted to hear from the rest of the board. Commissioner Doug Luke said in his notes from the previous group meeting, he thought the only contention was code enforcement, courts and the library.
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“That’s where we thought we stood,” said Mr. Pennamon. “The only issues were code enforcement and the library.
Commissioner Bruce Henry said public works needs to stay separate. Commissioner Don Jernigan, said if the city is in better financial shape, then it can contribute more.
Councilman David Wease said we need to do what’s best for all. Please don’t talk about consolidation, he said, it scares his constituents.
Mr. Pennamon said we’re not trying to scare anybody; we believe it’s the best.
Councilwoman Cynthia Miller said that she hoped we can get along. “We’re here for the citizens.” She indicated consolidation is not something to consider because we cannot get along. She went on to say that the city had offered the county money to handle cod enforcement, and the county said no, not offering any discussion.
Mayor Pro Tem Stone Workman said that it is double taxation with code enforcement, public works, and the county attorney.
Mayor Standifer closed the meeting by saying let’s plan to meet again in about 30 days, maybe in Shady Dale. Next time, each entity should bring written proposals.
