Commissioners Debate Process
The Jasper County Commissioners spent the first half-hour of their regular meeting Tuesday debating how minutes should be taken, who should take them, and what should be included in the minutes.
The discussion was begun by agenda comments from Cathy Benson, Charles Forsythe and Mary Patrick.
Ms. Benson merely reminded commissioners of when a representative of the state Attorney General’s office spoke to the Jasper County Commission, in 2004. She said the commission was instructed to err on the side of giving too much information rather than not enough.
Mr. Forsythe also questioned the minutes, pointing out what he perceives as gaps in information provided. Mrs. Patrick commented on the inconsistency in the availability of the tape of the meetings. She said the minutes are the official record, and they should include some of the discussion that would show why a commissioner voted a certain way. She said the commissioners made campaign promises for more open government.
Mrs. Patrick went on to voice her concern about the agenda item allowing the county manager and Chief Financial Officer to sign checks. She said, “we have serious financial problems…. If you’re not at least looking over the checks, how do you know what’s going on?”
Commissioner Greg Johnson said the issue is efficiency factor. “Betty’s [minutes] are great,” he said. “Tammy [Fisher]—never had a problem with those.” He said he thought they should continue with good and adequate minutes, and suggested putting Ms. Fisher back recording the minutes.
Ms. Fisher brought a laptop computer to the meetings and was able to record more of what happened during the meeting than Mrs. Moon is, apparently. Mrs. Moon makes notes, then confirms her notes with the tape. Ms. Fisher also sometimes used the tape, but less often than Mrs. Moon, apparently.
County Manager Greg Williams said that the minutes have to be objective. He said including more is subjective. Then he asked the commissioners if they wanted to hire a court reporter to make a transcript.
{{more}}
Commissioner Carl Pennamon said he “thought we were doing a pretty good job the last two-three months of 2005.”
Commission Chairman Jack Bernard said, “moving back to Tammy, we worked with her over a period of time…” to teach her what should be included.
Mr. Bernard then criticized the newspaper, saying he had asked David Owens three times why he did not tell the review committee that the hospital made money. “It didn’t show up in the paper…that’s the only way people are going to know,” he said.
After the discussion, the commission voted to approve the minutes. Commissioner Johnson voted against approval, and Commissioner Pennamon abstained from voting on the minutes of the meeting where he was absent.
Commissioners approved a $600,000 loan from the Georgia Environmental Facilities Association to handle the cost of capping the landfill. The landfill capping is complete, according to a letter received from the EPD Tuesday.
After considerable discussion on withdrawing a motion, or tabling an action, commissioners voted against a motion to allow the Chief Financial Officer and County Manager sign checks. That was one of many items discussed at a retreat held last month in Covington. The motion was defeated Tuesday, but can be brought up again at any future time.
The commissioners agreed that items discussed at the workshop should be brought to a regular commission meeting so action can be taken on them.
Mr. Williams explained some of what they are interested in changing is included in the “enabling legislation.” Therefore, some changes cannot yet be made. However, other changes could take place now. For example, they talked about having one work session per month and one voting meeting. That should be on the next commission agenda.
Commissioners approved a text amendment to the Jasper County Development Ordinance. The “first reading” of the amendment was held at the last meeting, and time was allowed for public input.
The only significant change between the two readings was the change from a 28 foot roadway to a 26 foot roadway. The 26-foot was intended all along, explained Chris Anderson, Planning Director, but an error showed it as 28-feet.
Commissioner Pennamon asked about the commission holding a public hearing on the ordinance, but they did not. There was some discussion about when the commission should hold public hearings.
Another item on the agenda was to give the County Manager the authority to proceed with the bid on engineering and design of improvement to Hwy. 11 adjacent to the new high school. The engineering costs they were considering was estimated to be $10,000-15,000.
They discussed that to seek bids does not obligate the county to spend money. Attorney John Nix said he would not authorize it to go to bid if you don’t intend to spend the money. There was discussion about why the county had to fund the project. The county had received a letter from the school, some time ago, saying it could not legally use ELOST funds to pay for road improvements, so the county would have to foot the bill.
The actual construction costs are estimated at $100,000-300,000. They discussed getting state help, and why the county had to pay.
Mr. Nix told the commissioners of meeting with Jim Grubiak, ACCG attorney, about the county’s enabling legislation. He said Marvin Harkins in the firm with Mr. Nix researched and found what they think are all the pieces of enabling legislation. He left a copy with the county for the commissioners to review and help determine if the packet was complete.
During the commissioner’s items segment of the meeting, Mr. Johnson said he tried two times to get commission salaries on the agenda, but was unsuccessful. He said that in light of the recent budget cuts, and the concerns with the budget, he said he is opposed to raises for the commissioners. When we produce a better budget, he said, then I’ll approve raises for the board.
Mr. Johnson indicated the action should be taken before a new board is elected, but should not be taken this year.
Commission Yarbrough said, “That won’t be a good time either.”
Mr. Bernard agreed that 2006 is not the time to raise salaries, when so many budgets have been cut.
Mr. Yarbrough said “they’re not going to be happy. Every time someone else cut [fund to an agency] this board took up the slack. … They’d be happy for Public Works employees to walk to work. It’s wrong—it’s over 20 years wrong.”
He went on to say, “You sold your soul…we’re tucking our tails.”
Mr. Yarbrough said basically what we did was reaffirm what the last commission had done.
References to reducing overhead positions were made by both Commissioner Bernard and Yarbrough.
In other action, board members:
•Approved a two percent ac-cross the board raise for county employees.
•Accepted the resignations of two appointees to the Board of Assessors. Mr. Nix said he would file the proper resolution in the Clerk’s office on Wednesday, Jan. 18. The official members of the Assessor’s Board will be Cathy Benson, James Harrell, Gerald Bramblett and David Morrison.
•Heard concerns from the county manager about the curbside billing process. He suggested they may want to consider annual billing rather than quarterly.
•Heard from the county attorney that ADS is prepared to sign a curbside contract amendment. The only way ADS will include performance standards is if the county agrees to an extension. Mr. Bernard said no way would he agree to an extension of that contract. Mr. Nix or Mr. Williams will get with each commissioner and determine with which contract to move forward.
•Heard from Mr. Nix that the agenda item for closed session for pending litigation was not needed. (The county is named in two cases on the February 13 civil calendar for Jasper Superior Court.)
•Also received a report from Mr. Nix that the county’s insurance carrier had reached an agreement with Mrs. Betty Moon concerning a lawsuit that has been pending for years. Mrs. Moon was compensated $20,000. Mrs. Moon asked Mr. Nix to explain where the money went. He said, to her attorneys. The legal fees for Mrs. Moon were in excess of the settlement. Mrs. Moon said all along she was merely seeking an apology from the county.
Mr. Nix said the settlement required no action from the county commission, that it was a settlement between the carrier and Mrs. Moon.
