SPLOST Division Is Discussed

Monticello Mayor Glenn Newsome and Shady Dale Mayor Don Heaton met with the Jasper County commissioners Monday evening to discuss a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).

The current SPLOST, which was passed in 2005, expires next March, and elected officials are hoping to pass a new one so the one percent tax continues, and helps to fund programs locally.
In the current SPLOST, the city of Monticello gets 21 percent of proceeds, and the city of Shady Dale gets three percent. The county gets the remaining 76 percent.

If the cities and county do not agree on percentages, then a SPLOST may still be considered, but the percentages would revert to the census figures and the tax can be collected only five years rather than the six years if an agreement is reached.

Mayor Heaton said that Shady Dale again wants three percent for water system improvements, and he said they will not support SPLOST if the county offers any less.
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Mayor Newsome said the city has a list of projects it wants to do with SPLOST, and it would like to get 25 percent of the proceeds. He pointed out that much of the revenue generation occurs in the city, so the city feels it is entitled to a larger share.

City Councilwoman Katherine Alexander said that most of the money is collected in the city, and that the traffic to collect that revenue has an impact on the city’s infrastructure, even though it may be a passive impact.

The city plans to use the SPLOST proceeds to improve water supply and treatment, parks and recreation, city infrastructure, and the hospital.

After the mayors spoke, Commissioner Carl Pennamon addressed the mayor of Shady Dale, and asked was their no room for negotiation. He said, no. He said that if the county takes away one percent, it would be taking away one-third of what Shady Dale was getting, and that was not acceptable.

He also said that the money would be used to improve water lines which don’t just benefit the city of Shady Dale but that run outside the city limits.

Commissioner Pennamon said, knowing how the tax systems works, the citizens of Jasper County would be burdened if property taxpayers have to foot the bill for some items being considered by the county for the SPLOST.

County manager Greg Wood said that the census figures show that Shady Dale has 1.7 percent of the population, Monticello 16 percent, and the remainder are in the unincorporated areas of the county.

Commissioner Jack Bernard said his position is the county should get 90 percent of the proceeds, with Shady Dale getting one percent, and Monticello getting nine percent.
Commissioner Alan Cox said he thought it should be divided according to the population.

Mayor Heaton said that the cities are in the county, and pointed out that Shady Dale provides a building for the fire department, and that 25 percent of the water line customers are outside the city.

Commissioner Mary Patrick said she thought each group should come up with a realistic list of what SPLOST would fund, put price tags on that list, and then come back together. She said rather than arguing about the percentage, the true needs should be determined, and then see how much each entity needs.

Commissioner Pennamon said, “we need to come up with percentages and all three entities have to come up with a plan. We’re the ones causing the problem,” he said, “We’re not looking at our constituents throughout the county,.”

Commission Patrick said, “there is a serious trust issue, after the way the last one was handled.”

Mayor Heaton said, “I’m hearing it won’t pass if roads are on there.” He said the last one left a bad taste in people’s mouth. He said as a citizen he would not support SPLOST, but as mayor he does.
Councilwoman Alexander said we’er on the fence about it even passing. “Most citizens feel overtaxed already,” she said. She said we must have a spirit of cooperation.

Commissioner Bernard said that it is better for all of us if we get along. he said he’s not happy with roads paved by SPLOST, and “if we don’t work together, it won’t pass.”

He said, give Shady Dale one percent, Monticell9o 16 percent, and the remainder to the county and just have a five year SPLOST.
Commissioner Cox said to get business you lower taxes. He said the county will lose less by giving more to the cities. He also said that there is no guarantee it will pass. He went on tot saw that we don’t have enough people in the county to bear the burden of taking care of such a large county.
Commissioner Pennamon suggested they adopt the same percentages as current—21 for Monticello, three for Shady Dale, and 76 for the county.

Commissioner Bernard said the county should get 90 percent. He said the county gave the cities more than their fair share last time, so this time the county should get the lion’s share.
Commissioner Cox asked why they waited on the new census numbers to discuss this, if the census numbers were going to have no bearing on the negotiations. He said, :”stick to census [numbers].”
Commission Chairman Charles Hill said, “if we want it to pass, we need to give the cities what they want.”

Mayor Newsome said it is “critically important that we’re together on this or it won’t pass.?

He reminded all present the T-SPLOST was going to be on the ballot, also. That is another special one percent sales tax to fund regional transportation projects.

After more discussion, Commissioner Pennamon said if we as a commission can’t agree, how can we expect to work with the cities.
As they wound down the discussion to have time to discuss the budget, the commissioners appeared in agreement that they would add the issue to the agenda for the regular meeting.

However, when they moved to the regular meeting room and were called to order, Commissioner Bernard made a motion to approve the agenda as it stood. Commissioner Cox seconded that. Commissioner Pennamon said, wait a minute I though we were going to add SPLOST to the agenda.

Commissioner Cox said he needs to run some numbers.
Commissioner Pennamon was incredulous, and said, so coming down the stairs there was a change in plan. What will people think about that…that they can’t trust the Board of commissioners. “It tells me and the people of the county that you can’t trust us,” he said.
Commissioner Cox said, “If Commissioner Pennamon is through grandstanding, I’d like to say I want time to run the numbers.”
The motion to approve the agenda did not pass, however, according to County Attorney Jim Alexander, the agenda stands as published if the motion to approve fails. Therefore, the agenda passed without the SPLOST issue on it, and representatives of the city left the meeting.

Hospital
Jasper memorial hospital had asked to meet with the commissioners during a work session, but the commission felt SPLOST and the budget were more important, so the commissioners did not scheduled the hospital during the work session. They agreed, however, to allow the hospital to present during the regular meeting and give it more than the standard 10 minutes allowed for presentations and delegations. The hospital was allotted 30 minutes.
Jean Aycock, vice-chair of Jasper Health Services, made the presentation. She gave some history of how Oconee Regional Medical Center (ORMC) came into the picture, and gave a history of finances to present.

She showed the commission that with the funding the county allots for the hospital, it has been able to show a profit four of the last five years. However, without the county’s funding, a profit would have been shown in FY 2006 and none sense then.
She pointed out to commissioners that the hospital building is 60 years old. she talked about funding sources for upgrading or replacing the facility, and the need for the upgrades.
The hospital is in a position to borrow between $6-$8.5 million through government backed programs, but it needs to know it has the support of the county.

Commissioner Patrick asked does that mean they want the county to sustain funding for 30 more years.

Ms. Aycock said more importantly, with one board not being able to commit the next board, the hospital is more interested in a philosophy of support from the current commission and from the people of the county.

Commissioner Bernard said we should all support the hospital. He asked about the growth plan, and said that most of the wealthier folks in the county live in his district and Commissioner Cox’s district, and they leave the county for care. He said the geographic area you’re pulling from, the patients are from poorer areas.

Commissioner Patrick suggested physical therapy services need to be expanded, and more room is needed. The county manager asked about electronic medical records, and Ms. Aycock said they were moving to electronic records. She said many communities our size would be very envious that we have five primary care physicians in our community.

Feldspar Road
The commissioners were told with the increase in fuel rates, the low bidder, Reeves Construction, for Feldspar Road is asking for a $20,500 change. The county manager said that the additional funds would still keep them lower than the next lowest bidder for the job, so he hadn’t seen the need to rebid it.

The commissioners wanted to know when the contract was signed, and Public Works Director Will Brown said the contract was good for 180 days. He thought it would be the end of May. Commissioner Bernard said he didn’t like Reeves doing the county this way, but he said he didn’t want the county to shoot itself in the foot by not agreeing to this. He said re-bidding would bring in really high prices.

Commissioner Cox said I would rather pay $170,000 to someone else who will fulfill the contract. He said they fulfill contract or they default. He said they should have had an escalation clause in the bid.

The county requires a bid bond, so if the company defaults, the county would have to go after the bonding company who would then be responsible for getting the job done.

Commissioner Pennamon agreed that the bidder would live within their bid. After considerable discussion, commissioners agreed to ask Reeves to honor its contract as signed, and to let the county know within 10 days if it plans to do that.

Commissioners were asked to appoint Gerald Bramblett to the Alcovy Shores Water & Sewer Authority to fill the unexpired term of a member who resigned. the initial vote was 2-2 with one abstention. Juanita Gazaway, system operator, told commissioners they were really hurting the authority with their action, saying it could not function without another member.

Ms. Gazaway said she was recusing herself from any vote, as she is system operator and is not supposed to vote. She said the position had been advertised, but was not clear on where or how.
The commissioners voted on the appointment again, and Mr. Bramblett was approved, 3-2. During discussion, Commissioner Patrick made a comment about interesting e-mails that have gone around. She said it’s strange, and it has to be someone from that area.

Contact ordinance
The commissioners discussed a proposed “employee contact ordinance.”
The county manager gives the commissioners a summary and background on each agenda items. He said, “This ordinance was drafted by the firm that handles the county’s EEO [equal employment opportunity] claims to address issues arising in EEO cases filed against the county.”

Further background: “In the past couple years, there has been a spike in EEO claims filed against the county. One recently settled for $50,000. There have been some issues identified in these cases which can present problems for the county’s defense. This ordinance was drafted to address those issues.”

The ordinance required employees to report to the county manager each and every time they had contact with a commissioner. The employee could be fired if he failed to report the contact.

Commissioner Cox said all it talks about doing to anybody is firing the employee. “We don’t need to put employees on the chopping block,” he said. He also indicated the county manager has the authority to direct his employees to do what he thinks they should.
Commissioner Patrick indicated she thought the ordinance went too far, and said the Courthouse is already a “pit of vipers.”
The county manager said that employees sometimes relay inappropriate information.

Commissioner Bernard said he knows this affects EEOC cases, suits vs. county. He said the county manager needs our support.
Commissioner Cox said that as a citizen we can make requests like anyone else, not directives. The county manager has authority.
After extensive discussion, the commissioners did not adopt the proposed ordinance as an ordinance or a policy.
In other action at Monday’s meeting, commissioners:
•Approved an easement along Post Road for the City of Monticello to run water lines.

•Tabled action on joining the Chamber of Commerce. The commission had budgeted $250, and the COC was asking for $2,000. They said whoever was in charge last year said $250 was acceptable. After the motion was made to table, Commissioner Cox said he thought they could consider it in their next budget cycle.

(The county is changing its fiscal year from a calendar year to a July 1-June 30 fiscal year. They did a six-months budget to get through June, and are working now on the next 12-months budget.)
•Agreed to be the fiscal agent for Jasper County Family Connection.

•Did not approve using matching funds to purchase computers and a printer for the Extension service. The county’s share was $1,654 for two computers and a printer, and the commissioners that was excessive. Extension agent Kasey Reid said she thought the matching grant opportunity was a good time to replace the computers, and indicated the cost was for the ones that UGA recommended.

•Agreed to provided NACo. Prescription Discount Cards for employees at the BOC office and the health department.

•Learned the legislature shortened the time for early voting from 45 days to 21, which will save the county some money during election times.