HomeMy WebLinkAboutCalled Commission Meeting August 13, 2019
CALLED MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER
August 13, 2019
Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, August 13,
2019, the Honorable Hardie Davis, Jr., Mayor, presiding.
PRESENT: Hons. B. Williams, Garrett, Frantom, M. Williams, Davis, D. Williams,
Hasan and Clarke, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission.
ABSENT: Hons. Sias and Fennoy, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission.
Mr. Mayor: Yeah, we’re going to call this meeting to order. We’ve got some business in
front of us. All right, the Chair recognizes Madam Clerk.
3. Discuss Village at Riverwalk Commercial Development Road System and consider
request from Jordan Trotter Commercial Real Estate accepting Private Segment of Cabela
Drive (432LF) and River Shoals Parkway (150LF) and associated Improvements within its
Right-of-Way into Augusta, Georgia Public Roadway System. (Requested by the Augusta
Law and Engineering Departments)
Mr. Mayor: All right, Attorney Brown, I think you were working on modifying this
language on this. Yeah.
The Clerk: The agenda item. The analysis.
Mr. Brown: Mr. Mayor and Commissioners, this is just coming back to you for
clarification and consistency regarding whether or not the acceptance of this role would involve
any cost to Augusta and in one portion of the motion it was stated “no cost to Augusta” and in
the other portion it was stated “no construction cost would be attributed toward Augusta”.
Engineering stated that the state’s, that the correct reading would be “at no cost to Augusta”
instead of just “no construction cost to Augusta”.
Mr. Mayor: Are you suggesting an amendment to that?
Mr. Brown: Yes, we are.
The Clerk: A recommendation is to approve the modification clarification should
read the acceptance of River Shoals Parkway approximately 500 feet as public right-of-way
upon completion of the extension of River Shoals Parkway at no cost to Augusta.
Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair will entertain a motion.
Mr. Frantom: Motion to approve, motion to approve as stated.
Mr. Garrett: Second.
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Mr. Mayor: Motion and a second. All right, voting.
Ms. Davis and Mr. B. Williams out.
Motion carries 6-0.
The Clerk: Are we going to take the addendum?
Mr. Mayor: So, Madam Clerk, here’s our posture regarding the request to add this item
to the agenda. If there is support for that, then we’re also going to talk about this in the context
of the discussion around street lights. Just a couple of weeks ago there was a statement put out
that there is a substantial shortfall in street light fees. Many of you may remember last year that
we were at this same place and the Tax Commissioner allowed the street lights, he allowed his
bills to wait until we got that done but that has not effectively changed where we are so the first
matter that’s in front of us is do we have concurrence to add this to the agenda? Without
objection, okay. All right. So we’re going to have a full (inaudible) conversation about this and
the issue around street lights because you’re not going to get another bite at the apple if the Tax
Commissioner sends these bills out, you’re not going to get another bite at the apple. So, all
right, here’s how we’re going to proceed. Commissioner Kendrick, since this is your matter,
you’ll speak to it first but then we want to engage Finance and Administrator Sims.
Mr. Steven Kendrick: So first thing I want to address is just the initial request to place
the digest and deal with the digest today. The request to add it to the agenda today, this is not the
first time we’ve done this. The submission of a digest is a matter that doesn’t fit quite nicely into
two week timetables. The State of Georgia gives us certain guidelines as it relates to being able
to submit that to collect taxes. Short synopsis would be the Assessors’ office has until the end of
July to do a part of the work that’s his. Then that is passed on to the Finance Department for
them to do a portion of the work and then to us to contact you about coming together to set the
digest, I mean set the mill rate. Several times over the last decade that I’ve been here, we’ve had
special called meetings to do just what we’re doing today both here and with the School Board.
The Mayor mentioned to me a conversation as it relates to the street lights and the deficit and this
body’s, I guess, not being able yet to talk about that issue. That is not nearly a part of the
timetable that we had in our office. When we get a street light file from Engineering, we apply
that street light file as is with our bills, however they send it so he’s correct in that last year we
held those bills to the last possible moment, got the information and thus produced a bill. But at
this time I’m not sure as to if there’s additional conversation on the agenda but we are close to
the point in which you have to give me, Engineering has to give me that information for us to
submit this digest and do these bills. Now if you engage in a long process as it relates to street
lights, it was going to create a huge issue as it relates to what’s required for billing in Augusta,
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Georgia. I (inaudible) that our bills are to be collected on November the 15. They are due.
The Tax Commissioner’s office does not have any latitude as it relates to the change of that. The
state law says that we have to give taxpayers 60 days which means that I have to send a bill out
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before September 15 in order to meet that requirement. I have printers and testing that I have to
get done thus I have to have something to my printers at least ten days prior to them wanting to
send out a bill because they have to send me information back in order to test. So the timeline
for you to get involved in a conversation about street lights while it may be ongoing and parallel
to what we’re doing, the digest information, millage rate information today, has to happen so that
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we can continue to do what we’re doing. Street lights is a different line. Street lights is a
different line. We can continue to do the millage rate that Donna’s going to present and Finance
is going to present today. That can happen. You can have a discussion on street lights. It just
can’t go beyond a certain date and I’ll have to have my folks come up here and tell me exactly
what that is. It’s not nearly as important as we setting that millage rate today though and the
School Board did theirs actually through a special called meeting last night. So that was the
reason for my request. It was not Finance Department’s request. It was mine because we need
to make sure we get those bills out and get them out correctly and leave enough time for us to
make any adjustments that need to be made.
Mr. Mayor: All right, Commissioner Kendrick, I’m going to ask you a series of
questions.
Mr. Kendrick: Sure.
Mr. Mayor: All right, so really today’s purpose is for the setting of the mill rate.
Mr. Kendrick: It is.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, all right. That’s very important for us to, again, from a calibration
standpoint. Number two, you just indicated, you indicated that, all right, so here’s a question.
When do your bills need to leave your office?
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Mr. Kendrick: They have to be in a mailbox on September 13 in order, because the 15
is on a Sunday, and I can’t send them out on Monday, so I’ve got to have them in a mailbox
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based on the people who print out bills, they’ve got to be out that Friday the 13. Go figure that.
Mr. Mayor: So as a practical matter, your bills need to go out not later than the second
Friday in September.
Mr. Kendrick: They are going out. They are going out because constitutionally for me
it’s what’s required. And so whatever data I have and information I have they go out that day.
The mill rate is an important portion of it because it allows us to calculate that bill and do the
testing. As you all remember, there is many districts, there’s mill rates for different areas and we
have to test those bills. So once those calculations are done, we get information from the
Assessor’s office, we get information from the State of Georgia, from this body and the School
Board. We put that all in the fancy computer and make it spit out the bill but those have to be
tested, those have to be run, we have to go back and check them by hand to make sure they’re
accurate and so we have to have that information in to that vendor to print those bills by the way
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we have described now September 3. Well, that means that we would have had to have that
digest approved by the state, the state had to have that digest approved by the end of August
which fits our timeline right now with no problem, but that digest millage rate set today is a
totally different line item than what’s going on with street lights.
Mr. Mayor: Right, we fully understand. So as a rule of thumb based on what we know
or at least what you’re telling us that as a practical matter this body should be setting the mill rate
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not later than the second Tuesday of August in order for you to implement that in your system in
order for you then to send out bills not later than the second Friday of September statutorily.
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Mr. Kendrick: Second Tuesday so they’re not out until September 13.
Mr. Mayor: I understand that.
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Mr. Kendrick: Okay, so I need information in my office by September 3.
Mr. Mayor: Okay. What I’m trying to do is identify when those dates this body needs to
act. It doesn’t need to be something that slides every year.
Mr. Kendrick: So the problem is it is going to slide every year. It’s impossible to put
that in a box. What happens is again when the Assessor’s office sends out their notices for
estimates, folks in our community have a chance to appeal that and the Assessor’s office can
give them all the way to July 1 to do that. But then after July 1 those appeals have to be put into
the system. Some people win, some people lose. So the law gives them to the end of July to do
that and so at the end of July when he’s finished doing that, he passes it off to Finance and it is
only at that point does the clock start, because Finance can’t work your millage rates until she
gets the information from Alveno or from the Assessor’s office. Now in the past the state did not
give Alveno that much time to fix those things. It only gave him until July 1 thus we used to get
them done a little earlier and it would cause problems on the back end. So they now give him a
little bit more time. He takes that time to do that work. It created this log jam and it will create
this log jam every year. Nothing will change unless the City of Augusta decides we want to
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collect bills at a different time. November 15 is not our day. That creates a whole host of other
problems because you’ve got 81,000 parcels in Georgia in Augusta who know that’s when their
bill is due so it creates a whole other set of problems so the state created this new window and it
creates this mechanism. You guys have been protected from it primarily for the last ten years
because we managed that pretty well until the State opened that window up and allowed him a
little bit more time and again, rightfully so, he probably needs that time.
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Mr. Mayor: All right, I’m going to go to the commissioner from the 6. I have not heard
anything yet, Commissioner Kendrick, that based on everything you’ve said, that doesn’t give us
an opportunity to set a date certain based on everything you’ve told us. Even with the extension,
even with the appeal process, you were very direct about the date, end of July, that information
comes forward to Finance. I’ve not heard anything that doesn’t allow us time to set a date
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certain that we can at least navigate to in this body. All right, commissioner from the 6, then to
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the 9.
Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor and to my colleagues, I had a
conversation, you know, a street light conversation will be coming up and just yesterday I spoke
with the Finance Director and she probably will verify one way or the other when you speak with
her, I was asking her what do we do at this point about the street lights? Her recommendation
was pretty much what we had to do last year for the sake of time and she would give us how we
would make up those shortfalls. Now if we want to do something different in terms of because
there were other plans out there too that people were saying that we just try to find a flat, you
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know the $85.00 and then one $107.00 and we find a way and we back out the millage rate in the
urban district and make that work across the board. Now whether time allows us to do that I
don’t know but if we’re going to do something different but we could easily, very easily do what
we done last year but we would have to make up that shortfall, you know, this late in the game
and whether we’re going to have the time to do that and make a change and get it to the Tax
Commissioner in a timely manner, that’s the challenge that we’ve got.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, I don’t disagree with that. All right, let’s speak to the issue of mill
rate and what’s being proposed and then we’ll hear from the commissioner, if you want to go
now, sir. If you’ll speak to this about what we’re doing.
Mr. M. Williams: I guess what concerns me is how do we get on track? We’re not the
only county in Georgia that has to deal with this every year so what are we going to do? How
are we going to get on track in order to not have this keep coming back for us time after time?
This is not our first rodeo when it comes to adding to or bringing the issue forward. So I guess
my question is what will it take for us to do through our attorney, through this body, to make
some changes or get those changes in place? Because it hasn’t gotten any better. It looks like
the State has always sent us something or told us something or changed something that we’ve got
no way to do anything but adjust it. So my question to the Tax Commissioner is what do we do?
How do we get on track?
Mr. Kendrick: So and to your point a lot of counties deal with this in the very same way.
It becomes a time crunch. What I’ll commit to and it is based on what the Mayor just discussed
at the end of Alveno’s potential window, Finance could potentially say that they could have the
information that they and our office and the Assessor’s office have to work on and without being
too deep in the information they are, information that they provide then they send it to us and
then we do our work and then Alveno does his work all in order to get Finance the right
information to crunch the final millage rate. Potentially I’d say there could be a window of time
that could be mid-August that we could say if you want to set an agenda item ahead of time this
would be the day for the millage rate. It might allow for us to do something different as it relates
to that. But you have the same problem, I won’t say problem, it will be the same delivery as
you’re going to get today. The presentation you’re going to get today from the Finance
Department is going to be the same presentation you would have gotten next week if I didn’t call
you here today. It’s not going to change it at all. It’s nothing new you’re going to see next
week, nothing new you saw today. I merely asked out of convenience for because you were here
to let’s look at it today. If you decided that we didn’t want to look at it today, that you want to
look at it upon the next cycle, we could and that gives us a little bit of a tighter, tougher schedule.
It allows me a little less time to do the training but you could. You’ll see nothing new next week
or different than what she’s going to give you pretty much today. There’s nothing to advance
look at and so the mere thought was, and again this wasn’t done (inaudible). I talked with the
Clerk, I talked with the Finance Department, I talked with the Administrator, you’re all here.
The information was ready. Could we present it today? That was the theory, that was the
concept and I don’t put a lot of things on the agenda often times and so you’d have to put as to
my inexperience with that and not any of the staff because they were well aware and by the way,
most of them warned me that this might be taken as a rush job. It’s not. It’s a convenience job.
For our offices to do what we do they were very clear to me that this is probably not something
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that was going to be well received even though I said it’s the same information they’re going to
get next week. So just to be clear that they were very clear to me that this was not the normal
route. My sensibility said it’s the same info. Again that’s just me. I don’t know how you guys
usually do it.
Mr. Mayor: So, Commissioner Kendrick, you’re not being deemed. I think what we’re
trying to arrive at is based on this conversation and it’s happened, at least this conversation three
times, now let’s put some certainty into it and say on a date certain in 2020 on the third Tuesday
which just happens to be a full Commission meeting you’re going to present the millage rate and
we’re going to adopt it absent something supernatural happening.
Mr. Kendrick: If that works for her.
Mr. Mayor: Well, I’m not suggesting that it’s going to be on a full Commission day. I’m
just again I think we can do that based on everything you’ve said and the fact that you’ve said
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that your bills will go out before the 15, okay, and we’re fine with that. But this body also
needs certainty and I think we can do that working hand in hand together. All right, Mayor Pro
Tem.
Mr. Frantom: For me you know I think that I’m not going to support any changes. I
think we need to find the money from within. The change is on the table. I’ve heard that’s going
to affect my constituents in District 7 a lot in the Montclair area for a flat fee so for me I’d just as
soon we just go ahead and approve it today and move forward because I don’t think we’re going
to get anywhere with discussing it over the next three weeks.
Mr. Kendrick: The street light conversation is a separate conversation for what we’re
talking about. As long as you pass the millage rate whether or not you do something with the
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street lights I just have to have that file by September 3 and when that file comes to me I’ll add
it to it. What’s most important is that Donna’s information for street lights be approved so that
the seven day window will go by that we have to advertise it so that then we can then take it to
the State. We won’t take it yet but at this point it can allow you to have that conversation if you
guys choose to.
Mr. Mayor: That’s absolutely correct and I did not want us having a conversation about
mill rates in a vacuum and then two weeks from now you know everybody’s like oh, well, we’ve
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got to get it done. We shouldn’t do that. That’s my point. All right, commissioner from the 8,
I believe you had your hand up.
Mr. Garrett: I’m with a colleague over here. I don’t think I could support any additions
for the street lights either especially in my district where street lights are slim to none so you
know I’m curious to see what it would look like if we just held the mill rate flat this year and
then maybe we could use that to pay back some of the street light –
Mr. Kendrick: Donna’s going to tell you a little bit about exactly what happens when
you roll back the mill rate which is what’s (inaudible).
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Mr. Mayor: All right, let’s hear about that.
Ms. Donna Williams: Good afternoon. First of all, there’s two sets of rules when you set
the millage rate. There are two different time frames, both of these set up by the State of
Georgia. The first one very quickly is that you always have to publish what is known as the
current year digest along with a five-year history of the levy and its digest. That newspaper ad
on the very quickest timetable that you can use by the State to approve a millage rate has to
appear in the newspaper one week prior to the formal adoption of the millage rate. So
approximately the shortest time frame that you can ever approve a mill rate is nine to ten days
because the government has to take a body then you have to secure the advertisement, you have
to publish the advertisement. That advertisement contains the information for when the formal
adoption of the mill rate will occur. So that’s the shortest window of opportunity. It always
requires you to compute what is called a roll back rate which is the previous year’s millage rate
minus anything that increased the digest due to the reassessment of the property. That is what
causes the roll back rate. If your proposed mill rate is ever higher than that computed roll back
rate, even if it is the same rate as you levied last year, that’s considered a tax increase. Now I
know that is counterintuitive to common sense but that’s the way the State set things up. So this
is what the five-year history and the current digest looks like. As you can see the 2019 digest
increased over the 2018 digest. I have dropped in the calculated sales tax credit millage rate as
well as what the roll back millage rate is. Once you drop those in, it according to this calculation
it says that the government is going to collect $817,841 worth of new revenue. Now before you
get all completely happy about that, please know that when we budgeted for this year we
projected a growth in the digest. So we projected $675,000 of that 841 that you see here sitting
on this table. So that is not all new money to be added to the budget. There are also a couple of
other things wrong with this picture. You’ve seen this before. That this assumes 100%
collection rate. These amount of taxes that are in that, this form that you just saw. That assumes
100% collection rate. It also computes it wrong for motor vehicles which is not as big a deal as
it used to be because your motor vehicle digest continues to decline because of the change by the
State to go to the TAVT. It also does not reflect any reduction in taxes collected because we
offer the early payment discount.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, hold on just one minute. Donna, I could be wrong on this but I
thought that in the most recent year and a half legislative session there was a true up in the
TAVT to get us back to level or at least partially back to level.
Ms. Williams: You are correct in that. That is a different calculation other than the
motor vehicle taxes and that’s a separate revenue line item in our budget and we did forecast that
with information from the Tax Commissioner’s Office and so we’ve got that budget on track.
This chart just has to do with the possible collections from your regular ad valorem taxes. Okay,
once you advertise that roll back rate, all you have to do is set the time and the place for the
hearing for the adoption. So that’s the roll back process. This is the proposed timeline, the
brand new timeline, for if the roll back rate that I have calculated and put forth to you in the chart
that you have, if you decide to go with those roll back calculations, the mill rates, so you would
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set the proposed rates today, it would appear in the newspaper on the 15 and in order not to
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have a special called meeting, then you would approve those on the 27 and that should be done
at one o’clock. That’s a committee meeting day, right, Ms. Bonner? So I have to publish the
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time and the date of the adoption. So this is for the roll back rate. Now if ever the governing
body decided not to take the roll back rate, even if they decided to take the same rate as last year,
they would have to go through this process. It requires a minimum of about 18 days to get
through the entire process because this requires three public hearings and they have to be at least
a week in between, you can have two one day and then one the next week but they have to be a
week apart and those have to be split after the advertisement. So for example if you wanted to
adopt a rate that was exceeded the roll back this would be the time and you would have to have
those three public hearings to advertise a tax increase. We are not proposing that you adopt
anything other than the roll back rate. In the column that you see in front of you for the
calculated roll back rate for 2019, you see what the difference is for the various millage rates that
the governing body sets. Countywide millage rate last year was 9.756. The calculated roll back
rate this year is 9.678 and that is a difference of 78 thousandths of a mill. As you can see, each
one of the roll back rates this year are less than the roll back rates for last year except for the fire
district in Blythe and that’s because it is a very tiny little digest and if you have one house that is
reassessed it makes that point moot but it is only one thousandth of a mill. These are all the
calculated roll back rates for each taxing district. This is our famous $100,000 house example
would be the difference of adopting the roll back rates for a house in each one of the districts.
For a house in the countywide district, their total bill would go down $3.47. In the urban service
district, it would decrease $5.36 and in Blythe it would go down $2.99. This is the other thing
that we have to deal with. The tax cap that became effective in 1979 which you cannot exceed
that rate plus 7% growth. That’s the biggest that your millage rate, your gross millage rate could
ever get without a lot of legal issues. Because our sales tax credit continues to grow, which is a
good thing, and our digest continues to grow, which is another good thing, those things go hand
in hand make our gross millage rate go up. Our net millage rate can go down while your gross
goes up and consequently it moved us higher, closer toward our tax cap. As you can see in the
countywide district we are at 99.3% of our tax cap after taking a lower rate than last year. So
this is what it is. There is absolutely nothing that the governing body or me can do about this.
It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Like I said your sales tax collections are up which makes the
computation of that credit on your tax bill be a higher number as well. So by taking, I mean
essentially no action, nothing was done by any party but we got closer to our tax cap. Last year
we were at 96.3% after we took the roll back rate. The action that would be requested today
would be for you to approve the proposed mill rates which are the roll back millage rates for
each taxing district that is on that separate sheet that is handed out to each of you which was
included in the slide to allow me to advertise that five-year history of the digest and to schedule
the date of August 27 at 1:00 to be advertised, 11:00, you want 11:00? Okay.
The Clerk: Special called meeting.
Ms. Williams: 11:00 on August 27 to adopt these rates. As Mr. Kendrick said, after the
adoption of the rates and the Tax Commissioner and the Tax Assessor take all the information
and the entire digest package to the Department of Revenue for their hearing, their meeting to get
the digest approved which actually allows us to bill those mill rates and then September 15 or
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before, it winds up on the 13 this year, the Tax Commissioner’s office sends out the bills to
allow us to collect the revenue.
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Mr. Mayor: Okay. We’re going to take a series of questions, Director Williams, and I’m
going back to your third page in your presentation which is the current 2019 five-year history of
levy and based on the, all right, on this chart here, is the 2019 column, is that column projected
or actual? What is that column?
Ms. Williams: That is the actual digest from the Tax Assessor’s office.
Mr. Mayor: All right. So in light of that, and on your millage rate roll back chart and
let’s go back to that chart –
Ms. Williams: The copy of the sheet?
Mr. Mayor: That’s right, the single sheet. All right, the matter that’s before us is, the
column that says calculated roll back rate, that’s what you’re wanting this body to consider for
adoption.
Ms. Williams: Those would be the proposed rates.
Mr. Mayor: And from a revenue standpoint, what does that number look like?
Ms. Williams: We may have approximately $150,000 over the amount that we budgeted
in the General Fund depending on the rate of collections, depending on how many folks pay
early because the chart, the five-year history that says the 841, that’s at 100% collection, no
reduction for early payment discount which runs us four hundred four twenty-five.
Mr. Mayor: What does the data tell us? What are our annual collections on average for
the past five years? What’s our percent collections for the last five years?
Mr. Kendrick: Our five-year collection rate in Richmond County is 99.6%. So what that
means is when you measure, you measure the period of time and so five years ago the bills we
billed, we’ve collected 99.7% of that. We’re probably the highest in the State today.
Mr. Mayor: So it’s reasonable to believe that the 841 number is a good number.
Mr. Kendrick: It is after the five-year period to allow us to collect it. A one-year
collection rate is of course is not that high because people pay, they are delinquent at times. So
initially for 2018 right now we’re probably at 92 right now for 2018 and over the next four years,
by the end of the fifth year we’ll be at 99.7.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, so your one-year rate is effectively 90 plus percent.
Mr. Kendrick: It is.
Mr. Mayor: But you’re still one of the highest in the State.
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Mr. Kendrick: I’m not sure about that because most of the time we don’t usually look at
those. Most of the time they know delinquencies can vary so I’m not sure. It’s somewhere
between 90 and 95 for a one-year record.
Mr. Mayor: We’ve got the best Tax Commissioner in the State of Georgia and he doesn’t
know that. Don’t try that with me.
Mr. Kendrick: I don’t know what the one-year rate is. The five-year rate we know
because we’re forced to track that with the five-year history so we keep up with the five-year
rate.
Mr. Mayor: All right.
Mr. Kendrick: And if we didn’t collect it, Donna would –
Ms. Williams: I’d cut his budget.
Mr. Kendrick: Yeah, cut my budget.
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Mr. Mayor: You know matters like this, unfortunately, commissioner from the 6, I
don’t get a chance to vote on it but it certainly in light of what we know and in light of the things
that we’re not going to be able to do in 2019, I am not opposed to allowing it to remain flat and
adopt the roll back rate.
Ms. Williams: (inaudible).
Mr. Mayor: Well, if you message it that way it is.
Ms. Williams: No, sir, by the law. By the way the state calculates it –
Mr. Kendrick: And the state is very clear on that. They will not allow municipalities and
governments to collect on increased value without allowing taxpayers to know that is a tax
increase. There was a time in Georgia in which governing authorities would hold the millage
rate and then they would ask the Assessor’s office to do more in value and they’d collect more
monies and do a back end tax increase. They don’t allow that any more. If you accept additional
monies because of increased value, you have to call it a tax increase. They are very clear on that.
The announcement has to say tax increase. Three times.
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Ms. Williams: Further clarification. The amount of the difference is 78 thousandth of a
mill. That’s about $325,000, $340,000.
Mr. Frantom: Explain what you just said. Did you say a flat rate and what it would be,
increase, is that what you just explained?
Ms. Williams: About $340,000 at 100% collection. The difference between –
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Mr. Mayor: Over five years.
Ms. Williams: Yeah and then you would be going through the process for that amount of
money you would be advertising to the citizenship that you were increasing their taxes.
Mr. Kendrick: In other words her wise counsel is saying you don’t do it for $78,000. If
you’re going to do a tax increase, it probably should be something that would allow you to take
care of issues. $78,000 is not going to allow you to take care of many issues for what you’re
going to go through.
Mr. Mayor: Just write about it in the paper. Three times bad. All right, the Chair
thth
recognizes the commissioner from the 8 then the 6.
Mr. Garrett: Let’s just say we went that route and held it flat. What would the increase
on a hundred thousand dollar house be?
Mr. Kendrick: $2.00 in cash but $100,000 in trouble. What I mean is the imagery of
taking that even though the amount is small, the public attention is going to be huge. It’s going
to be huge just to take $78 extra thousand dollars. You went through this several years ago. You
did this several years ago and it’s a tremendous undertaking that although it’s not my choice, it
trickles down to my office.
Ms. Williams: And us.
Mr. Mayor: You still have the floor. Continue. The Chair recognizes the commissioner
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from the 6.
Mr. Hasan: Mr. Mayor, Ms. Williams had a motion up here that she would like for us to
accept. Can I see that if you don’t mind? Is this what you’re suggesting to us to do today?
Ms. Williams: Yes, sir and the time would be at 11:00.
Mr. Hasan: Motion to approve the proposed mill rates for each taxing district,
advertise the required five-year history of the digest and to schedule the date of August 27,
2019 at 11:00 for the meeting to adopt the rates proposed.
Mr. Frantom: Second.
Augusta-Richmond County Georgia
Schedule of Proposed 2019 Millage Rates
08/13/19
Millage Rate by Fund Calculated rollback Rate 2019
County-Wide General 16.332
Sales Tax Credit 6.654
County General Fund-Net M&O 9.678
Urban Services General 11.185
Sales Tax Credit-Urban 6.023
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Urban Services Dist.-Net M&O 5.162
Capital Outlay Fund 0.772
Fire Protection 2.112
Blythe-Fire District M&O 3.300
County Bonds 0.000
Urban Services Bonds 0.000
Urban Services Bid District 5 0.000
Urban Services Bid District 6 0.000
Mr. Mayor: I’ve got a motion and a second. Voting. All right, the Chair recognizes the
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commissioner from the 8.
Mr. Garrett: Ya’ll are going to come back to us in a few weeks begging us for a street
light fix, are you?
Mr. Mayor: No. No.
Mr. Kendrick: I can tell you this. We have decided amongst the Finance Department,
the Assessor’s Office and our office to try to lead an effort to talk about that earlier and not wait
until, even though again it’s not really our lane, we will help in trying to get that arranged and
help with that project because each year, you’re right, it’s going to come up and it sits in our
office so we’ll help try to arrange that. We’re committed to that.
Mr. Mayor: Will you also commit to having a conversation revisiting the 2009 and 2010
conversation about uniform taxing districts?
Mr. Kendrick: Now I would but Finance, she’s stabbing me in the back right now. It is a
philosophical, it creates a lot of issues on one hand that you do uniform taxing across those
districts. There’s a lot of caveats and things that Augusta could look at but when you peel back
that onion, it creates a lot of issues in the Finance Department.
Ms. Williams: It creates a lot of issues for the governing body and we’ll be happy to go
through that conversation. Some of ya’ll have been privy to seeing that before and know some
of the problems and some of the pitfalls.
Mr. Kendrick: But I would add it does not mean it’s not supposed to be on the table.
Ms. Williams: That’s correct.
Mr. Mayor: Decide whether you’re going to tax businesses appropriate or not. The
nd
Chair recognizes the commissioner from the 2.
Mr. D. Williams: Could you tell me roughly how much we miss each year in
uncollectible taxes?
Mr. Kendrick: Uncollectable?
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Mr. D. Williams: Yeah, people that don’t –
Mr. Kendrick: So the delinquency rate for 2018 now is, it’s about 8% that are still left
delinquent. It would be 8% of $160 million dollars. I’d have to do the math there but we don’t
consider it uncollectible. It just hasn’t been collected yet. Our five-year history is 99.7 and so
there is time and there are methodologies we use to collect those. They are not just collected
immediately.
Motion carries 8-0.
Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes Attorney Brown.
1. LEGAL MEETING
A. Pending and potential litigation
B. Real estate
C. Personnel
Mr. Brown: Mr. Mayor and Commission, we would request a motion to go into
executive session to discuss real estate, personnel, litigation and records exempt from
disclosure under the Open Records Act.
Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Mayor Pro Tem.
Mr. Frantom: So move.
Ms. Davis: Second.
Mr. Mayor: Voting.
Motion carries 8-0.
\[EXECUTIVE SESSION\]
Mr. Mayor: All right, we’re going to reconvene. All right. The Chair recognizes
Attorney Brown.
2. Motion to authorize execution by the Mayor of the affidavit of compliance with
Georgia’s Open Meeting Act.
Mr. Brown: Mr. Mayor and Commission, we would request a motion to close the
executive session.
Mr. M. Williams: So move.
Mr. Frantom: Second.
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Mr. Mayor: Voting.
Motion carries 8-0.
Mr. Mayor: The Chair is going to recognize the attorney for the stating of a motion and
then recognize the Mayor Pro Tem.
Mr. Brown: The first motion, Mr. Mayor, would request a motion to authorize the
Administrator to continue and renew security system coverage for a premium that does not
exceed a 2% increase.
Mr. Frantom: So moved.
Ms. Davis: Second.
Mr. Mayor: Voting.
Motion carries 8-0.
Mr. Mayor: Attorney Brown.
Mr. Brown: Concerning the matter of Ronald Blanton, case number 0604-WC-09-
0500361a motion to adopt a resolution to authorizing a settlement of all claims by Ronald
Blanton in the sum of $400,000.
Mr. Mayor: Mayor Pro Tem.
Mr. Frantom: So moved.
Mr. Hasan: Second.
Mr. Mayor: Voting.
Motion carries 8-0.
Mr. Mayor: Madam Clerk, I believe that’s all the business that’s before us.
The Clerk: Yes, sir.
\[MEETING ADJOURNED\]
Lena J. Bonner
Clerk of Commission
CERTIFICATION:
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I, Lena J. Bonner, Clerk of Commission, hereby certify that the above is a true and correct copy
of the minutes of the Called Meeting of the Augusta Richmond County Commission held on
August 13, 2019.
________________________
Clerk of Commission
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