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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCalled Commission Meeting July 24, 2006 CALLED MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER July 24, 2006 Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 11:30 a.m., Tuesday, July 24, 2006, the Honorable Deke Copenhaver, Mayor, presiding. PRESENT: Hons. Holland, Smith, Grantham, Brown, Hatney, Williams, Beard, Bowles and Brigham, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission. ABSENT: Hon. Cheek, member of Augusta Richmond County Commission. 1.Discuss the proposed mill rate. Mr. Russell: As part of our budget process we are required to adopted a proposed millage rate and we’d like to do that today. That proposal will then generate a series of meetings that will occur over the next two weeks with a proposed adoption date of August 10. As you know, we just received our digest from the Tax Commissioner. There was some minor growth there, but not really enough to be significant at this particular point in time. What we do as part of this process is today you will hopefully adopt my proposal as far as the millage rate goes. There will be two public hearings off site, the first of which is August 2 at 6:30 at Henry Brigham Sr. Center. The next is August 3 at Warren Road Community Center at 6:30. This will have the public to have an input. There will be a third public hearing August 10 at 4:00 in these chambers and shortly thereafter there should be a special called meeting to adopt a final millage rate. Back in November I made a proposal to increase the millage of 1.09 mills. It was upon those figures that we built our budget for this year. We are approximately seven months into that budget and now we are required by Georgia law to approve that millage rate. What we start today is a process. That does not mean that that’s the end result. It’s possible for the millage to go down over the next two weeks but would not be possible for it to go up unless we start the th whole process again. The Tax Commissioner has an appointment in Atlanta on August 16 to deliver our final numbers and that’s the schedule we’re working to at this point in time. There is required to be some time between the final approval to give him the time to work the numbers and get it to Atlanta to have the state approve it. Your sheet on millage rate by fund will show the mill rate for 2005 and the proposed 2006 mill rate. The county general fund net M & O was increased by 1.09. The urban service district net M & O remains the same at 8.184. There was some discussion to be had with that. Initially, we had hoped to lower that mill rate and charge for garbage outside of the tax process. After several months of discussion, it’s my recommendation that we leave that mill rate exactly as it is and charge the difference in the garbage which would be approximately $81 per household at this point in time. It is a little fairer in my mind and also allows us to transition into that process a little easier than what we would be doing and it is a little bit less of a bite as we move forward. The capital outlay fund remains the same at .791. Fire protection I have proposed a .5 increased millage rate which is because of the increased cost of fire protection. The homeowner of a $100,000 house would pay approximately a total of $55 more over a year’s period. We have built this year’s budget on these recommendations and any deviation from that would not be prudent. We will be increasing our tax rate but we are still 2.345 below the cap in What would be the general fund. We are below the cap in the urban services and the fire funds. appropriate would be a motion to approve my proposal, begin the public hearings, and move forward in setting a tax rate at this particular point in time. Mr. Hatney: So move. Mr. Grantham: Second. Mr. Bowles: I wanted to call to everyone’s attention some trends that I do see. I went back to June of 2004 in the Finance Committee minutes and noted that options were to be considered for the fiscal year 2004 projected shortfall of $4 million dollars. Back in December of 2005 the Administrator said that he would come back in July with some other reductions and I have yet to see anywhere where we’re reducing services and we’re not addressing the serious need of our deficit. I can’t vote for any increase in the millage rate until we address those issues to come up with a balanced budget. Mr. Grantham: I’ve tried to help maintain the tax rate at the level we have over the past several years, certainly I don’t want to increase taxes, not to any significant amount anyway. However, I feel it’s important that we follow this recommendation based on what was done by the Commission last year to have a balanced budget for this year. I feel that our Administrator and Assistant Finance Director have done just about everything they could in order to find the surplus dollars and dollars for us to continue the services that we have. I think we should have a workshop of this body on our services and what can we do to either improve our services or reduce some of the expenses that are involved. I’m going to recommend to the Administrator that that be done immediately so that we can get to the end of this year knowing what services we would be looking at, what type of activities we’re going to need to improve on and what cuts can be made within the operation of this government. Mr. Williams: We know that we have to balance this budget and I wanted to know if the sale of some property has helped us any. Mr. Russell: I’ll be doing a presentation in Finance today where we address some of those issues on the sale of property and dealing with some of the budget shortfalls we have this year. Mr. Williams: Concerning the property that we were selling on Reynolds Street, I need to know where that came in and how it affected us. Mr. Russell: That property will bring in about $450,000 to the general fund and that will help close the gap between the expenditures and the revenue coming in. That was taken into consideration as we did this. Mr. Williams: I know we have to do this and each year we keep doing a little increase. We still haven’t generated anything that will bring revenue in and we keep talking about change. We keep talking about how we need to do things and we keep doing things the same and expect different results. Mr. Mayor: The trend is what concerns me. I think it has to be a two-sided approach to it where we have to look at cuts along with some of the increases we’re looking at. That in my mind would stop the trend and that is my primary concern so we’re not sitting here next year dealing with these same issues. Mr. Hatney: The cost of doing business has at least tripled and we’ve got to have some money. Money is the only thing that will get us out of this and we have to look at ways to help us get more revenue. Mr. Bowles votes No. Mr. Williams abstains. Motion carries 7-1-1. 2.LEGAL MEETING ? Pending and potential litigation ? Real estate ? Personnel Mr. Brown: I so move we go into legal meeting. Mr. Smith: Second. Motion carries 9-0. [LEGAL MEETING] At the close of the legal meeting, the meeting was reopened to the public. 3.Motion to approve authorization for the Mayor to execute affidavit of compliance with Georgia’s Open Meeting Act. Mr. Holland: So move. Mr. Brown: Second. Mr. Hatney out. Motion carries 8-0. Mr. Shepard: I would ask that we add and approve the purchase of real estate from Ms. Sarah Coleman at 913 Talcot Street at a not-to-exceed price of $22,500. This is part of the Judicial Center condemnation and that the funding source be SPLOST accounts for that acquisition and thirdly, that I be authorized to prepare appropriate resolutions and documentation to make that acquisition legal. Ms. Beard: So move. Mr. Brown: Second. Mr. Hatney out. Motion carries 8-0. [MEETING ADJOURNED] Lena J. Bonner Clerk of Commission nwm