City To Increase Utilities Slightly

Members of the Monticello City Council voted to increase base fees on utilities by no more than $6.10 per month during a called meeting Tuesday.

The council voted on this officially Tuesday, although it had been already discussed in the budget meetings as a way to generate some revenue for the FY2015 budget. The fees will be shown on the bills dated July 31, 2014.

The base electric meter fee will increase from $12.20 to $14.20, the gas meter fee will increase from $9 to $11, the water meter fee will increase from $22.95 to $23.50 (with the sewer fee remaining 100 percent of the water fee) and the garbage fee will increase from $13 to $14.

The council voted 4-1 for Police Chief Bobby Norris to be the employee budgeted for FY2015 to stay on hand to close the Monticello Police Department. This position was budgeted for in the upcoming year to handle the transition into using the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office in the city. The Chief will stay employed after July 1, 2014.

The council also voted to offer severance pay to those with the MPD. The council voted unanimously to offer those employees life and health insurance coverage along with full pay through July 2014.

David Dyer informed the council that the rail spur that is going into the industrial park had a winning low bid to do the wok from Southworks Construction of Valdosta. Mr. Dyer told the council that the low bid was $274,90 with no cost to the city of Monticello. The project is going to be financed through an Employment Incentive Grant from the Department of Community Affairs and will take about 90 days to complete after all of the paperwork is completed, according to Mr. Dyer.

The council voted 3-2 to approve the ordinance between the City and the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO). Councilman David Wease, Councilwoman Katherine Alexander, and Mayor pro tem Bobby Jacobs voted yes, with Councilmen Larry Thurman and Cornell Williams voting no.

The agenda listed that this was a second reading, as the first reading was done by the city attorney at the June 10 meeting. There was some confusion between council members and citizens as to whether this was a change or addition in an ordinance or if this would amend the city charter. Mayor Standifer clarified saying, “this is an ordinance, not the charter. It’s between the city and the sheriff’s office.”

Councilman Williams voiced a concern saying, “what the lawyer read last week had to do with a charter change. We just had the first reading last week,” he said. “When did we vote and discuss a change for the contract? When did we discuss changing the charter?”

There was also some confusion as to the time line and whether there was enough notice and advertising to fulfill those required by law. It was mentioned in the meeting that both Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Wease spoke with the city attorney and received two different answers.

The council voted unanimously to sign the previously approved contract for the Downtown Streetscape Project for sidewalks.

The council heard a presentation from Steve Edwards with Advanced Disposal on the possibility of privatizing yard services. He told the council that Advanced could pick up yard waste at a cost of $2 per account and that 60 percent of the cities have gone this way. He said that they could pick up yard waste along with the garbage. The only variance would be that the citizens would have to go by industry standards including bagging leaves, and tree limbs cut and placed at the curb with dimension restrictions.

Councilwoman Alexander asked what other cities have gone to privatizing and how it was going, to which Mr. Edwards said “Lilburn, Gwinnett, and Norcross.” Thus, leading Councilman Wease to question which cities, more like the size of Monticello had privatized. Mr. Edwards told the council that he could get them a full list.

Ms. Alexander said that the council would have to compare numbers to see if it would actually save the city money. She said that the $2 fee didn’t have to be passed on to the citizens. She said that the comparison would be looking at equipment and maintenance, fuel and liability.

Mayor Bryan Standifer presented the council with the final numbers on 147th Street as it has been paved. He encouraged everyone to go and to look at the newly paved street and how much of an improvement it was for the city.

The council also voted on the annual contract for the Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia contract which allows MGAG to act as purchasing agent for the city when gas is available at a reduced price.

There were several concerns from citizens presented at the meeting including the advertising of the called meeting, the council not allowing citizens comments, and council members not representing the wants of citizens but rather their own personal views.

The council did amend the agenda to allow citizen’s comments after the business of the meeting, although the law only requires the meeting be open to the public, not that the public be allowed to comment.