HomeMy WebLinkAboutCALLED MEETING July 26, 2007
CALLED MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER
JULY 26, 2007
Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 4:00 p.m., Thursday, July 26, 2007,
the Honorable Deke Copenhaver, Mayor, presiding.
PRESENT: Hons. Holland, Smith, Harper, Grantham, Hatney, Beard, Williams, Cheek,
Bowles and Brigham, members of Augusta Richmond county Commission.
Also Present: Todd Boudreaux, Attorney’s Office; Fred Russell, Administrator; Lena
Bonner, Clerk of Commission.
The invocation was given by the Rev. Marion Williams.
The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America was recited.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams, thank you for that invocation. I kind of put you on
the spot on that one and we don’t have a Pastor of the Day for you but we’ll work on that. I
know that there are some folks that are going to have to get out of here at a certain point so I
think the first thing that we will do is take agenda item 3, approve the 2007 proposed millage
rate. Mr. Russell.
3. Approve the 2007 proposed millage rate.
Mr. Russell: Mr. Mayor, members of the commission, as required by law we are here
today to approve the millage rate that I have been building our budget on since last November.
As you know we’ve had many lengthy discussions last November about how we were going to
operate our government. And we did so and based that budget based on a proposed .34 mill
increase. The millage increase has served us well and will serve us well, I believe, if it is
approved today. While we’ve had some growth we still have major issues that are outstanding
out there. We have issues of our fund balance still being needed to move to a higher level. We
have increased costs that we’re still trying to overcome and still trying to deal with. As required
by law we’ve had three public hearings. The first two were held out in our community. One was
held in the Jerry Brigham Center and we have four people show up. One was held at the Warren
Road Community ---
Mr. Mayor: The Henry Brigham Center.
Mr. Russell: --- Henry Brigham Center! Thank you. I’m a little nervous. One day if
you play your cards right you too will have a senator, center, forget it. We’ll do better from this
end. We had three public hearings. Two in community centers yet to be named and one here
just a few minutes ago and while obviously there was some humor involved with that, they were
very serious in the nature that we had people from our community given the opportunity to come
out and speak about their feelings and how they felt about the proposed budget and the proposed
increases that we had. The first hearing had four people, the second fourteen and today we had
several people speak and some were able to hear that. They shared concerns about increasing
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taxes. They shared concerns about the management of our government. They shared concerns
about other ways that we could move forward and help bring dollars into our community and I
think these are very valid concerns. You have in front of you a document that one of Mr. Rhodes
today that spoke actually shared with us at Warren Road and was unable to speak at that
particular point in time. I think that we are all concerned about our government as we move
forward. We’re all concerned about the increasing costs of doing business and we’re all
concerned about the way we operate and find the most effective and efficient way of making sure
that we get the citizens the best bang for their buck for each dollar that they spend. I feel very
firmly that the increase that we had that I proposed last November that you approved us to build
the budget on and that I bring back for you, before you again today is an appropriate, a realistic
and an opportunistic increase in our millage rate. With the growth that we’ve had, with this
small increase I think we can continue to build on the foundation of financial stability that we
have. I think as we continue to work and provide the level of services that we do we’re taking
into consideration the things that need to be done for our community, the things that need to be
done for our employees, the things that need to be done and also being cognizant of the fact that
there are increasing pressures on us, pressures beyond our control, settle the state mandates that
we have to fund, increases in cost that we bear just like any other household. The staff has
worked very, very hard in the past twelve months to give you back and be able to prove our
physical responsibility. The .34 increase that we build the budget in is just a part of that physical
responsibility and not an overly burdensome cost as we continue to move our government
forward. We’ve discussed this we’ve talked about it we’ve argued back and forth. That’s pretty
much the only comments that I have.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Cheek.
Mr. Cheek: I’m going to make a motion that we approve the 2007 millage rate proposed
by the Administrator. For the record that would be County General Fund Net M&O 8.239,
Urban Services District Net M&O 8.058, Capital Outlay Funds 0.791, Fire Protection 1.616,
Blythe Fire District M&O 3.030. Mr. Mayor the reason I propose this today and accept what the
Administrator has said and asked for is because he did in fact come before us and asked for a
budget based on these figures. Our net tax increase while being a larger percentage is still a
dollar amount smaller than what is being requested by the School Board, a board who has the
privilege of overseeing the worst performing school district as a whole in the State of Georgia
and they continue to build in spite of having a decreasing population of students. Go figure that
one. We need to continue to allow our staff to develop in a way to where we can maintain our
streets, roads and ditches. I do know and it is a fact that while we try to embark on a course of
providing equal services for every street, neighborhood and citizen of this city some years ago as
the budgetary constraints have forced us not to fill positions and have limited resources available
to do the maintenance and upkeep of our community some commissioners have called under the
needs of their district for so called emergencies. Those emergencies are met by our staff which
further reduces the amount of available maintenance man power and capital for other areas to
where they are in fact getting less than their two cuts a year or two cleanings a year, their flowers
planted or trees pruned. I in good conscience cannot sit by and allow this condition to continue.
We allow us to go to a position of where people are getting the net services they are guaranteed
by the government of this city as favors rather than as a matter of routine maintenance then we
get back into “bubba” politics. I’m very concerned about that and I’d like to see equal service
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distribution across the city. The only way to do that is to staff and fund the city government in a
manner in which we can truly make Augusta the Garden City, care for it and upkeep our
equipment and capital assets without dipping into our savings. The Administrator has brought
that to us today and I urge the body to follow through with supporting that.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, we have a motion. Is there a second?
Mr. Hatney: Second.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Bowles.
Mr. Bowles: Mr. Mayor, while I agree with what Mr. Cheek said at the same time that
we’re supposedly slightly increasing the taxes on our citizens the Board of Education’s increase
in taxes our tax values are increasing triple fold and in some areas over 100% in the last two
years so this is not a small tax increase. This is a major tax increase on our citizens. My concern
comes not with what, collecting the money but what we do with the money. We need, you know
we need to make sure these monies are programmed to clean up our streets, protect the citizens
and for God’s sakes give our Administrator a full-time assistant so he can accomplish some of
the things that we task him to do on a daily basis and fairly compensate our employees. With the
$4 million dollar surplus from last year I find that within reason to think that we could
accomplish that without raising the millage rate this year. And I’d like to make a motion to
amend ---
Mr. Mayor: A substitute motion?
Mr. Bowles: --- a substitute motion not to have a tax increase and leave it at last year’s
millage rate.
Mr. Harper: Second.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, we have a substitute motion and a second. Commissioner Grantham.
Mr. Grantham: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and in following along with Commissioner
Bowles comments, granted we do need the additional work done out in the districts. I feel like
that we’ve been getting the support of our staff in doing what they have the resources and
everything to work with. As Mr. Russell indicated even a couple weeks ago that we did pass that
.34 millage rate to balance the budget at the end of ’06 and now we’re coming after an
adjustment in our tax digest knowing that we’re having funds that are going to be recovered as to
what is now going to be done with those funds. That has not been identified. And with that you
know all we’re going to put that back into our reserve as we have used now for over three years
or are we going to take those monies and just put them in the general budget, general funds and
just keep spending. To me that’s important. I think that’s an issue we need to answer. I think
that’s something we need to look at as far as Mr. Russell’s comment when he said that he would
like to have a .34 but he could live with and settle with a .25. To me an illustration of that is like
me coming up to you and saying give me $20.00 but I can live with $10.00 and which one are
you probably going to give to me? You know, so my point is that I think we should continue to
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work toward our barebones we should continue to work toward cutting costs we should continue
to work toward reducing our work force. We have not done that as adequately as I think we
could have since we went on that charge a little over a year ago. We put some freezes on some
of the projects, we do need to look back at that and continue to work in that direction so I too
support the non-tax increase.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think we got mixed feelings up here about this
tax increase and uh, out of 159 counties and I’ve been watching this really close, out of 159
counties we are still one of the lowest when it comes to tax. That doesn’t mean that we ought to
just raise them because we are the lowest but you, you I think we’re forgetting something, the
accountability that somebody spoke about earlier. We have not done those things that were
cheap and make sure we don’t have to keep doing this. And I don’t think people have no
problem with raising taxes if you’re going to raise them and people can see something for the tax
that’s being raised. But every year we come back and we want to pinch it and pinch it and all
people hear is tax, tax, tax, and I think it unfair to do it that way and I advocated this my first
year not just this year, this is my last. But I advocated if you’re going to raise taxes raise taxes
and do something with the money that you collect. We sit here and we’re all here now with our
heads down like we don’t know what the problem is but we let certain things go that should not
have been able to just go by. We have not been good stewards of the money that we have
already taken. I’m in support of Commissioner Cheek’s motion. I want to make that known not
because I just think it ought to be done. I think it’s necessary. But I think something has got to
be done where we can make sure that the citizens know that we’re going to accountable and
we’re not just going to collect it, collect the tax and then not be reliable for making sure that it is
done the way that it should be done. We have spent monies; we’re talking about a freeze.
We’ve been on a hiring freeze for almost three years now.
Mr. Cheek: At least.
Mr. Williams: That we’re only going to hire the critical positions. Everything else we’ve
been pushing back. Well we cut the same services in the same area every time and that’s the
abandoned lots and the overgrown properties and stuff that grows up. I mean those things are
still are going unserviced. I don’t know what the answer is Mr. Mayor but I know we got to do
something. We can’t sit here in the middle of the water and say I don’t know what to do. It’s a
hard decision but we need to make that decision and be able to go on about the business. The
economic dollars we talked about. Mr. Charette got up and talked about the racetrack. We asked
for $2.00 out of every ticket sold that would come back to the city and they agreed upon that.
But we have not done anything but just talk about it and evidently that’s something we feel we
don’t need that’s economically impact and that’s fine with me. I said all I can say about that.
But we made provisions. We talk about doing some things that’s going to be creative to bring
some revenue in that we wouldn’t have to keep coming back every year pinching off the tax and
let the people hearing that word, tax increase and that’s all they hear. So until we do some things
that are going to generate some monies in this community and that goes for the Administrator
and I heard someone say he didn’t have a full-time assistant. Well, he’s got two assistants so two
of them ought to make one full-time person I think. So we ought to be able to have something
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done but here we are in the middle of the water, don’t want to go forward or back and we’re
going to have to go on and do what we got to do. You elected me to do that so that’s what we
need to.
Mr. Mayor: Okay. Commissioner Brigham.
Mr. Brigham: Mr. Mayor, I thought the Administrator (unintelligible) and I’d like to hear
(unintelligible).
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Russell.
Mr. Russell: Could you ask the question again, sir?
Mr. Brigham: I’d like to hear your assessment of the motion (inaudible).
Mr. Russell: Obviously my recommendation would be that the commission support the
first motion of the increase of the .34 mills as advertised. That would give us a County General
Fund Net of 8.239. It would also roll back the Urban Services Fund Net to 8.058. It would
provide a Capital Outlay rate of 0.791 a rollback fire rate of 1.616 because that takes advantage
of the increase fire insurance tax and a rollback in Blythe to 3.030. To go back to the original
taxing rates, as I understood the substitute motion would require a complete re-advertisement of
the process. We could, as we can lower these we can, but we can’t go back and do that with
those rates and take advantage of the growth. It’s my understanding without re-advertising and
re-beginning the process.
Mr. Brigham: Mr. Mayor, my understanding of the motion was that we would not, we
would take advantage of the growth and would tax at the same millage rate as we tasked staff last
year and I want to hear from the Administrator his assessment of that motion.
Mr. Russell: It seems to me that would, if you do not take into consideration the pole
that’s currently in transit, which we are trying to fill. If you do take some of the growth issues in
the increased costs price available there is a possibility with those two things not being
considered that we might break even. But those things being considered it’s my opinion that we
would go into the hole.
Mr. Brigham: (INAUDIBLE)
Mr. Mayor: Okay, go ahead.
Mr. Brigham: Mr. Mayor, I haven’t, I understand what he’s talking about. But what I’m
concerned about and I think what this commission is concerned about, we are not rolling back
the increase of digest. We are taxing at the same rate. I want to know if whether or not in your
opinion or Mr. Williams’ opinion we can live with that budget. I know we, does that generate
the same revenue that the .34 mills would generate if we had not had an increase in the valuation
of the properties. That’s my question to you.
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Mr. Russell: And my answer is it’s close but you’re not considering the unfunded issues
that are out there. And those un-funded issues would put us in the hole.
Mr. Brigham: I understand the unfunded issues very well.
Mr. Russell: And that hole would be about $4 million deep.
Mr. Mayor: Okay. Commissioner Smith.
Mr. Smith: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I don’t blame the taxpayers for being up in arms.
When we as a body can sit here and throw away a quarter of a million dollars on the demolition
of the Candy Factory and then another $78,000 of change orders on that and then throw away
twenty-five or thirty-five thousand dollars on a study for a racetrack, we’re throwing away a lot
of money. And if we all had to make a payroll on Friday it would make a difference if we were
spending our money and not the taxpayer’s money.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Cheek.
Mr. Cheek: Mr. Mayor, I just, let us examine what maintaining the status quo would
mean. Let us look not only to the east to North Augusta but to the northwest to Columbia
County. They are in fact cleaning their streets. They are providing the landscaping to make their
cities beautiful. They are staffing and taking care of their drainage issues through use of a storm
water utility as well as taxation but they are doing things to make their communities nice places
that people want to live. The status quo in Augusta and it doesn’t take a whole lot of driving to
walk only as far as just outside this building and look at the dilapidated sidewalks, look at the
trash on the streets, the unkempt flower beds, the grass that isn’t cut on the sides of the roads, the
drainage ditches that aren’t cleaned little lone conforming to clean water acts and other things
that we’re going to have to conform to or we will be held under court order for violating
emissions discharges in our streams and lakes. Gas prices continue to go up. Since I’ve been
here on the commission we have lost a million dollars a year to things like reductions in grants or
reductions in the fire tax that we’ve had to make up for. We’ve had indigent defense thrown on
us, which has cost us millions of dollars to come up with. We continue to have hiring freezes
where we don’t staff it. We have a state of the art line-painting machine, which requires four
people to operate. If one of them goes out sick we don’t stripe the lines because we’re one deep
in so many positions. The status quo means that we continue to limp along while our neighbors
continue to race forward. I tell you as a leader of this city I cannot continue to force the staff to
operate as a second rate government nor do I want my hometown to be a second rate city. We
has a body have go to get to a point to where we invest in the things necessary to make Augusta
the Garden City not the Weed Garden City which we have in a lot of our places. Where we can
attract business and industry because people want to come here to work, play and live not
continuing to be eclipsed by smaller communities who percentage wise are doing more with their
money and percentage wise are paying more taxes, the citizens are who are not complaining. I
don’t hear the public up in arms. This is a gross exaggeration of the true state of things. The
people are up in arms because their streets are dirty, the ditches aren’t cleaned and while a few
people continue to get preferential treatment in repeated cleanings and cuttings the bulk of the
community is not. We have got to establish equal services across this community. We’ve got to
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establish staff to maintain what we have in place and we’ve got to quit taking out of savings and
cutting into those accounts and doing the same things which are inadequate in the eyes of the
public and say we’re doing something.
Mr. Mayor: Okay. Is there any further discussion? We have a sub, Commissioner
Brigham.
Mr. Brigham: Mr. Mayor, I need the Administrator to explain to the commission that is
what we advertise is a rollback on Urban Services District and on the fire tax and how that
affects the overall tax situation if we vote for the substitute and also I am not in favor of Mr.
Cheek’s motion. I’m in a quandary because I’m not in favor of either motion given, as I
understand it. And I’d like to hear from the Administrator the negative side of the motion that I
really want to vote for and that is (inaudible) the same rate as last year.
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Russell.
Mr. Russell: Okay. What you approved, what was approved to advertise includes a .34
increase in the county wide general M&O. That millage increase as we’ve said over and over
again is about $11.90 on a $100,000 value. Urban Services we’ve been able to reduce that
slightly to 8.058 which is a reduction from last year. It went from 8.184 to 8.058. Capital
Outlay remained the same at 0.791, Fire Protection because of the increase in the funding from
the fire insurance tax, we were able to reduce that from 1.645 to 1.616 and the Blythe Fire
District once again because of the small amount of money that’s actually generated by the Blythe
Fire District it was reduced from 3.042 to 3.030 which hopefully lessening the net impact on our
taxpayers based on areas where we have been able to see some economies. The general problem
that we face we face every year is not in the Fire District, not in the Urban Service District but in
the General Fund that funds the general operation of our government. That’s what pays for the
lights in most cases, that’s what pays for the gas in most cases, that’s what pays for the majority
of our employees benefits, and it pays for those kinds of things that we get done. It’s also where
we over the past have had the most increases in un-funded mandates. As one of you mentioned
just a little while ago we’re paying about $4 million dollars now for indigent defense where upon
my arrival that cost was only about $600,000, just six years ago. Because of court cases that we
had no control over what so ever we’ve had to do that. In addition to that we’ve had to fund
other things in those particular areas. So the impact of the first motion, Mr. Cheek’s motion
would give us sufficient funds with the growth and this increase in the General Fund M&O to I
believe to come out in the black again and be able to add to our fund balance and be able to fund
those holes that we know are there. Those holes that we have ignored in the past but that we
need to go ahead and fund. Any reduction in that would in my mind put us in jeopardy of
breaking even again. It would also put us in jeopardy of meeting the needs of our community in
those particular areas. We based the budget and this is Georgia law and we do it this way. In
November on that .34 increase we were lucky enough to benefit from growth but we’ve also had
to fight the increased costs of doing business over that same period of time. My
recommendation is the .34 and take advantage of the other. As Commissioner Grantham said
that .34 generates approximately $1.1 million dollars. The .25 that I said I could live with,
generates approximately $769,000 dollars. Both of those go a long way in helping fill the holes
that we know are there. Without that we’re flirting with not being able to accomplish our goals
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in not being able to add to our surplus as you asked me for in the past and potentially not even
being able to break even.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, is there any further discussion?
Mr. Brigham: I’d like it a motion to clarify his motion whether is was to keep the
General Fund at the same rate as last year and do the rollback to the Urban Services District and
Fire Tax.
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Bowles.
Mr. Bowles: I just want to pay the same millage rate I paid last year. It’s pretty simple.
Mr. Cheek: You can’t do that ---
Mr. Mayor: Okay. If there’s no further discussion we have a substitute motion on the
floor and a second. Madam Clerk just for everybody’s clarification I think we know what we’re,
but if you could read back that substitute motion.
The Clerk: The substitute motion was not to increase taxes and maintain it at the current
millage rate.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, if there’s not further discussion commissioners will now vote by the
substitute sign.
Mr. Williams, Mr. Hatney, Mr. Cheek, Ms. Beard and Mr. Holland vote No.
The Mayor votes No.
Motion fails 5-6.
Mr. Mayor: I had a sneaking suspicion that it might go this way but I will tell you I
believe that in 2005 which incidentally was an election year we did a similar measure and passed
unbudgeted across the board raises which put us in the budget deficit that we have now only dug
ourselves out of. So I cannot vote in favor of the substitute motion. I vote no. Get ready for it
again.
The Clerk: The original motion was to approve the proposed millage rate increase as
proposed by Administration.
Mr. Mayor: If there’s no further discussion commissioners will now vote by the usual
sign.
Mr. Brigham, Mr. Smith, Mr. Bowles, Mr. Grantham and Mr. Harper vote No.
The Mayor votes No.
Motion fails 5-6.
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Mr. Mayor: I vote no on that motion as well. And I will tell y’all where I’m going with
this. I believe in times of prosperity that you should give some back but I think it’s sound fiscal
management to look to the future of this government and that’s where I’m going with this. So if
anybody would like to make a motion with regards to the .25 that was discussed in the last
meeting.
Ms. Beard: Mr. Mayor?
Mr. Mayor: Ms. Beard.
Ms. Beard: I’ll make that motion and I really felt that was where I wanted to be because I
have discussed all of this with our Administrator and he feels he will be able to at least manage
with that. But it would be awfully difficult taking everything away. So with that, yes, I would
like to make that motion.
Mr. Brigham: I’ll second it.
Mr. Mayor: Okay we have a motion and a second. Commissioner Cheek.
Mr. Cheek: Mr. Mayor, again it never ceases to amaze me and I know Marion and I have
heard over and over again about how we micro manage this and that and the other but how this
body can have a professional full-time Administrator and staff come forward with
recommendations and we again are going to vote to do consistently what we always do is just get
by. We’re going to give him something; tools to just get by with. So I think as a substitute
motion I’d like to offer that we rename the city the “Just Get By City” and let our streets
continue to reflect what they are maintain the status quo that has us limping along second to
every other second tier city in the State of Georgia. I think it’s a shame that we are satisfied with
so little for our community and our future and are so unwilling to invest in making Augusta the
bright city it can be. I am totally against us second-guessing the Administrator in his request.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Bowles.
Mr. Bowles: Mr. Mayor, I think that the Administrator like most financial people has
given us a conservative budget and if you look in the detail of his budget from last year he brings
up thirteen properties to be auctioned off and that’s going to generate a tremendous amount of
funds coming into the city this year as well as next year. Then you look at the buildings that we
have coming on line at the end of this year that will be on the tax books for next year it’s you
know it’s crazy to think that we aren’t going to generate income this year. I mean you look at
um, you know we’re talking about things this body does. You look at the garbage service we
forced on people that live out in the old county where they live 300 yards away from each other
yet we never determined how we’re going to bill for it. So I mean we could say a lot about this
body. But I think we’re foolish not to think that we aren’t going to generate positive cash flow
next year with the growth and all the building and construction we have coming on line.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams.
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Mr. Williams: Yes, sir, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Bowles brought a very interesting point to mind
about property. I remember when we sold this property and it was going to get us out of debt
and we was going to be all right and we even waited to auction off the surplus cars that’s going
to help this city so much and now I hear we’re going to do that again. If it didn’t work the first
time and sure enough it won’t work the second time but the same thing. You got to do
something different. I’m disappointed I don’t like raising them but I think we ought to be
accountable and give the Administrator what he needs to work and make sure he does what he’s
supposed to do with what we give him. I’m just disappointed I don’t think if you look around
you’re going to find the same scenario that’s been happening in this community. It’s still
happening all over. We ain’t made much change as far as the government’s concerned about
providing services for people. And that’s what it ought to be about, providing the services for
the people, and growing and economic development. But that has not worked. But I’m just; if
somebody can answer that about the sales of the land we had all this stuff. In fact we sold a
piece of property that wasn’t even on the list and that helped us out I thought but uh, nobody can
explain that unless Mr. Russell’s got some ---.
Mr. Mayor: Okay. Commissioner Grantham.
Mr. Grantham: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You know, I feel like what we’re doing is taking
the options that our Administrator has given us and he gave us two scenarios in which to work
with that would balance this budget and would be able to move this government forward, move
this county forward. And now that we’re talking about the .25 we don’t seem to have the right
esprit de corp that we had when we were talking about .34. So you know it bothers me too to the
point that we still have not addressed what our tax digest has done for us on the increase. In
addition to that with our Tax Assessor sitting here we do have additional tax digest funds that
may come in if I’m correct in making that statement. And the final word has not been given on
that particular subject. So you know we do have a chance to do things. We do have a chance to
do it right and I think that by showing the taxpayers that we are fiduciary responsible in trying to
get by with as small an increase as we can do then we’re going to take and continue to make this
government work and operate efficiently as we possibly can. That’s what we need to do.
Mr. Mayor: Okay. Commissioner Hatney.
Mr. Hatney: Mr. Mayor, thank you. What concerns me is that we sit here and we chit
chat for almost an hour now over a simple .34 and you guys don’t have to accept that. I accepted
what you said so and I didn’t comment about it so just accept what I’m about to say. For years
now we have been as far as I’m concerned robbing Peter to pay Paul. That’s what poor folks call
it. And here we are bragging about ourselves being the second largest city in Georgia and
ourselves the Garden City and anywhere you enter into this town you come in through trash. It’s
amazing and our public safety officers are paid probably worse or anywhere else in the State of
Georgia and South Carolina. And to ask me to put on a bulletproof vest and start me off with
less than $35,000 a year is crazy. And that’s even cheap. My concern is that this government
should have the courage to increase the taxes where we can take care of some of these things that
we are basically getting by with. To play Russian roulette with the livelihood with taxpayers I
think is dangerous and that’s what we’re doing here. We’re penny anteing, the 25-34 is nothing
but nine, .9, is that right, somewhere in that area? It’s not enough to even argue about. I mean in
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reality we should be increasing the taxes by a millage and a half so we could increase some of
our services and increase the pay of our public safety workers. And I’m not talking about the
poor folks we’re talking about these folks whose livelihoods are in danger every time they go to
work. But we sit here and it just concerns me that we come up with all these old excuses and we
bring up stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with nothing other than the fact that we just don’t
have the courage to be straight forward in believing and knowing that Augusta actually
absolutely cannot function as it ought to progressively as it should without money. Nobody
shouldn’t think about, Augusta’s probably one of the few cities and maybe I’m sure but all of
your water money, water sewer goes to, what do you call that?
Mr. Russell: Enterprise.
Mr. Hatney: Enterprise which I don’t have no problem with that but I thought it was
crazy to set it up with a 100%, you should have done it 80/20 or 75/25, there’s all kinds of ways.
But none of this money goes into the General Fund. Now our General Fund is the fund that’s
suffering, not the rest of them. To sit here and we cut back on bus services you know we got
trash piled up everywhere because we laid off employees or didn’t fill slots that are vacant. It’s
just crazy. It’s just a sad day in Augusta when we’re supposed to be those persons looking out
for the best interests of the entire City of Augusta. We’re not really doing that because there are
areas in Augusta where you don’t see trash. But the majority of Augusta is trashy particularly
when you come in enter in and coming in any basic direction. And that just concerns me that we
know that we need money yet we’d rather penny anti and it’s just crazy and in fact, I don’t like
neither one of the motions. I thought it was cheap to come up with a .34. You said last it’s
money to start with.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, we have a motion and a second.
Mr. Russell: Mr. Mayor, can I clarify the motion before ---
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Russell.
Mr. Russell: --- and I, Ms. Beard I assume what you said was you wanted to have the
County General Fund M&O at .25 mill increase and the others as advertised.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and second. Commissioners will now vote by the usual
sign.
Mr. Hatney: What does that mean?
Mr. Russell: It means that all those others I listed would be as they were advertised. The
Urban Services M&O would be ---
Mr. Hatney: The only one that would be affected would be the what?
Mr. Russell: The General Fund M&O would be reduced from a .34 increase to a .25
increase, yes sir.
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Mr. Mayor: Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign.
Mr. Smith, Mr. Harper and Mr. Cheek vote No.
Mr. Williams and Mr. Hatney abstain.
Mr. Holland not voting.
Motion fails 4-3-2.
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Russell, can you enlighten us once again and I know we went down this
road before when we had a vote the first time. What would happen if we do not approve
something today?
Mr. Russell: Turn out the lights and go home. I mean excuse me for taking a few
minutes of personal privilege but it’s your responsibility to pass the budget and we greatly
appreciate you working hard on it. We know that it’s a hard thing to do but that’s what we’re
here to do today and we need to pass the budget. You could pass it as recommended you can
lower it but we need to move forward.
Mr. Mayor: We need to revisit this issue. Commissioner Hatney.
Mr. Hatney: Mr. Mayor, I do think that we need to pass this budget as it was
recommended and I do make that motion.
Mr. Williams: Second.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Cheek.
Mr. Cheek: Mr. Mayor, I’m glad the motion has been made. I, for one, am, and I’ve
been here, this is my eighth year, to seeing us limp along seeing us going in the red seeing
everybody complain about going in the red and put that onus on staff and then do nothing about
it but continue to put us on a marginal position to where we may or may not go in the red and
then say we’ve done something by saving two or three dollars. We have got to put the staff in
the position to take care of this city. The trees are falling and killing people because we don’t
have staff to maintain them. I mean there’s case after case after case that we can talk about
where we need to maintain this city and as the State of Georgia there are some things this
municipality can not afford not to do and we have been affording not to do them unless some
commissioner calls and gets a special favor to get it done in his district on a regular basis across
the board. And we’ve got to get to a point where we have preventative maintenance, scheduling
and planning across the board on an equal basis in this city and we’re moving. As we maintain
this posture of getting by further away from a professionally run organization and more towards
a “bubba” run organization and that concerns me deeply.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Bowles.
Mr. Bowles: Thank you. I would just like to correct Mr. Cheek. The trees aren’t falling
because they aren’t being pruned. They’re falling because they’ve outlived their life expectancy.
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The oak trees that are falling are Darlington oaks, which have a sixty-year life expectancy, and
they’ve been planted over 80 years ago.
Mr. Cheek: Mr. Mayor, for clarification, can the record reflect that the trees that are at
the end of their life expectancy should normally be pruned ---
Mr. Mayor: And, and let me just make, let me just make the comment that it’s been said
up here why things don’t get done and I think we’re seeing a great example of it as we’re
speaking to this issue. Basically the art of compromise, we’ve got two sets of folks that don’t
want to dig out of either position or to compromise to meet in the middle. Commissioner
Grantham.
Mr. Grantham: Mr. Mayor, I’m going to make a substitute motion that we go back to the
.25 for the General Fund budget and leave all the other recommendations as the Administrator
initially put in as read.
Mr. Smith: Second.
Mr. Mayor: We have a substitute motion and a second. I believe everybody’s had a
chance to speak to this issue. Commissioners will now vote by the substitute sign.
Mr. Williams, Mr. Harper, Mr. Cheek and Mr. Holland vote No.
Mr. Hatney abstains.
Motion fails 5-4-1.
Mr. Mayor: Okay. Well, we’re going to sit here until we get a budget passed. What’s
that? Excuse me.
Mr. Hatney: The original motion was to accept ---
Mr. Mayor: Excuse me. We have an original motion to vote on as well. Commissioners
will now vote by the usual sign of voting.
Mr. Smith, Mr. Grantham and Mr. Harper vote No.
Mr. Brigham and Mr. Bowles abstain.
Motion fails 5-3-2.
Mr. Mayor: You know let me just say that if we do not get a budget passed today it is so
irresponsible to the taxpayers of this community. We’re down to the wire, certain individuals
have to leave here at 5:00 o’clock and I, you know here again I think that there is a compromise
on the table but if we do not get this passed I think it shows complete irresponsibility to the
people of this community. Is there anybody that would like, that would care to make a motion?
And realizing here again that there are certain individuals that are going to have to leave that
more than likely if this is not passed within the next ten minutes just consider the message that
that sends to the citizens of Augusta. Commissioner Smith.
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Mr. Smith: Mr. Mayor I’d like to make a motion that we accept the
Administrator’s plan B at 2.5 (sic).
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion. Is there a second?
Mr. Grantham: Second.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. And I would encourage commissioners to
strongly consider this. This is in a time of prosperity giving some back to the taxpayers but it’s
also putting us in a position where we can move forward. Commissioners will now vote by the
usual sign.
Mr. Williams: Mr. Mayor? Commissioner Cheek ---
Mr. Mayor: Excuse me. Mr. Cheek.
Mr. Cheek: Mr. Mayor, I’m going to make a motion that we accept the Administrator’s
original recommendation.
Mr. Mayor: A substitute motion?
Mr. Cheek: A substitute motion.
Mr. Hatney: Second.
Mr. Cheek: May the record reflect that the prosperity that we are enjoying is less than a
year old and therefore may statistically be a nominally more so than a trend.
Mr. Mayor: Okay we have a substitute motion and a second. Commissioners will now
vote by the substitute sign of voting.
Mr. Brigham, Mr. Smith, Mr. Bowles, Mr. Grantham, Mr. Harper and Mr. Holland vote No.
Motion fails 4-6.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, we now have the primary motion. Commissioners will now vote by
the usual sign of voting.
Mr. Williams and Mr. Harper vote No.
Motion carries 7-2.
Mr. Russell: Thank you, lady and gentlemen, I appreciate it.
Mr. Mayor: Thank you. Okay, now that we have that out of the way we’ll go agenda
item number one.
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Mr. Brigham: Mr. Mayor, can we go on to item number two. I think we can get
unanimous consent on this.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, yeah, can we go ahead, we’ll do Item 2, Madam Clerk.
The Clerk:
2. Ratify Georgia Heritage Program grant application in the amount of $21,550 for
Augusta Richmond County Public Library for the rehabilitation of the Appleby Branch
Library.
Mr. Mayor: Can I get a motion to that effect?
Mr. Cheek: So moved.
Mr. Smith: Second.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. If there’s no further discussion
commissioners will now vote by the usual sign.
Ms. Beard out.
Motion carries 9-0.
The Clerk:
1. Receive a report from the Judicial Center Subcommittee.
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Kuhlke.
Mr. Kuhlke: Yes. Mr. Mayor, commissioners, I put, I had put in your package a report
from the Judicial Committee and I’m going to be very brief in going through this report. I hope
you’ll take a chance to read it and if you have any specific comments in regards to this report
we’ll be meeting next Tuesday and feel free to call myself or the Administrator, Ms. Beard,
anyone on the committee. But I would like to report to you that the seismic study has been
performed, the TOPO and utilities survey is being done and the committee’s been working very
hard with the architect on the pre-design services that we will be getting. What I’d like for you
to do is on Page 1 the real need of this starts at Task A and it goes to Task B and so on. Just for
your information Task A is getting the staffing numbers from the Administrator for the 2010-
year program. And we’re going back and starting at the 2002 program that was developed.
We’re not reinventing the wheel but we are going to get the staffing numbers from the
Administrator. Task B is to prepare the plan for 2025. Task C is once those two programs are
put together then we’ll do an assessment to see if we can build the two 2010 needs with the
current budget and that will be brought back to the commission for explanations and approval.
Following that we’ll go to Task D, Option 1 and that task is what the total cost will be for the
2010 functional spaces together with the Clerk, Solicitor, DA, courts and so forth. Option 2
would be whether to maximize dollars with the existing budget, which may just be courtrooms
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with a second phase that would take care of the DA, Solicitor and so forth. And Option 3 would
be a mixed use within existing budget to get the DA, Public Defender and Solicitor into the
facility with a second phase to fill the balance of the needs. Task E will be the layout for the
2025 campus needs. So I just wanted to report that to you. I asked you to read through it and if
you do have any questions please feel free to call and I’ll invite you to our committee meeting
next Tuesday at 3:00 o’clock if you’re available.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Cheek.
Mr. Cheek: Just a quick question. Bill, coming from the commission I think that I think
we may have directly or may not have directly asked for a cost benefit analysis to be done on the
relocation of the Solicitor, DA, and Indigent Defense from a leased facility into a city owned
facility being the Judicial Center. From what I’m hearing what’s being presented here that is the
back door option of including them after we build courtrooms. Correct me if I’m wrong but I
think the concern of the body and the government is to get these people out of leased facilities
and into a Judicial Center and perhaps adding courtrooms. There’s been a lot of discussion about
just how many courtrooms we need versus the original plan. I think that it’s important to have
that kind of information because we lease buildings or have for instance the Solicitor’s office in a
sick building. And to me the benefit to the city of a Judicial Center would be to bring those
people together first, one to save money on leases that we run and two to consolidate those
efforts and three maybe build a couple of courtrooms there and then let the additional annex of a
2025 plan be or second part of the campus additional courtrooms as needed.
Mr. Kuhlke: And to answer your question, Andy, the uh, under Task D Option 3, that
will be what we’ll come back to you. As far as the cost benefits I think probably the
Administrator can furnish you with what we’re paying rent outside of it. I would like to say this
that we’re going to do that because that’s the message that we got from y’all at the last reporting
period that we gave you. The thing that we’ll probably give you at that time is that’s probably
going to be maybe a little bit more expensive in the long run because if we move courtrooms to
Phase II then from a security standpoint and so forth we’re going to have a little bit more to deal
with. But we’re coming back to you with that information anyway.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: Thank you. Hey Bill!
Mr. Kuhlke: Hey, Marion.
Mr. Williams: Bill, I want to ask about creative funding. You know and everything’s
coming down to money you see how long it took us to pass the budget that I didn’t support but I
mean it’s just everything comes down to money. Have we did any type of creative funding
whether it be bonds or anything else so we can build what we need while we’re building? Have
any thought been given to that as far as the committee?
Mr. Kuhlke: That will be, let me ask Bob Woodhurst that. Bob, that will be in uh, what
phase will that be?
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Mr. Woodhurst: The creative funding?
Mr. Kuhlke: Well, not the creative funding but we haven’t been asked to do the funding
part of it. What we are going to come back to you with particularly when we go to Phase I and
Phase II to include everything in there we’re going to give you some estimates on what that’s
going to cost over and above what we’ve got available funds right there. But I think y’all will
have to come up with the creative financing.
Mr. Williams: Well, and I remember at our last meeting the last time we talked about
this we talked about building a 10-bedroom home and only having money to build a 5-bedroom
and I said you would just give me five bedrooms if I requested ten you would come back and let
me know I don’t have the sufficient funds to build the ten. So I can either say Bill I don’t want
to build a house at all if I can’t have my ten bedrooms. You can’t just give me the five because
that’s all you can do for that. I’m just trying to find a way because I want to make sure that the --
-
Mr. Kuhlke: Well, let me and you may, you may commissioners already know this is
that Judge Overstreet has already come back to the committee and reduced the number of
courtrooms from 15 to 10 which is going to give us some flexibility has we go forward.
Mr. Williams: Okay, well, and we just got this and I think we’re going to look it over but
I just wanted to put those questions out there so we can kind of be looking at if we need to do
that creative funding whether it be through bonds or whatever maybe looking at some other
courts that’s been built and how they’ve been built and whether or not we can use that model
here. I just think we need to build this thing one time and build it right. Now you know I wasn’t
here when you when you and Willie voted to build (unintelligible) Bill and I think that’s
something we don’t want to repeat. We don’t want to go back that road no more. We want to
make sure when we do this building that we’re going to do a building that’s going to be for the
long term and that’s going to be a substantial building that will be able to serve us like we need
to be served because I think this is going to be a, I mean it certainly should be a real nice
building but I just think the funding and how we build it it’s going to be a big process.
Mr. Mayor: Okay. Commissioner Hatney.
Mr. Hatney: Mr. Kuhlke.
Mr. Kuhlke: Yes, sir.
Mr. Hatney: When you mentioned I think that the judge had reduced the number of
courtrooms from 15 to 10 will in that particular proposal would that give adequate spacing then
for the Solicitor and the DA to be included in the initial proposal that you’re going to bring back?
Mr. Kuhlke: That’s what this, when we come back to you that’s what these tasks are
going to tell you.
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Mr. Hatney: Okay.
Mr. Hatney: The question I was confused about initially, I think you answered that you
had not even decided on what kind of material you was going to use ---
Mr. Kuhlke: We haven’t.
Mr. Hatney: --- and until you come up with that I don’t see how you can come back with
a proposal on what it’s going to cost to build.
Mr. Kuhlke: The two key ingredients in coming up with looking at our budget one is
going to be how much square footage we got in the building and the other is what quality we
build.
Mr. Mayor: Okay.
Mr. Williams: One other question, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: Let me get Commissioner Brigham and then I’ll come back to you.
Mr. Brigham: I make a motion that we receive this as information.
Mr. Grantham: Second.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: Thank you. Bill, the other question I have is that if we include the ---
Mr. Kuhlke: Excuse me I didn’t, Fred was saying something to me.
Mr. Williams: That’s all right. I was just trying to figure out something. I was trying to
figure out if we include in the two other (unintelligible) that we left out, that means the architect
has to refigure, redrew ---
Mr. Kuhlke: Not now. We are at that point and if we, when we get to the mixed use part
of it which will include the District Attorney, Solicitor, Public Defender and so forth we may
come back and we may not be able to put ten court rooms in there. We may eliminate some of
those courtrooms so as we go through this process it’s going to determine how many courtrooms
we can get in there to satisfy some of these other requests.
Mr. Williams: Well, and my question was I was leading to how much money have we
spent in architectural stuff to this point not what, have we ---
Mr. Kuhlke: We’re using an awful lot of that information.
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Mr. Williams: Well, and that’s why I want to know what kind of dollar amounts have we
spent just for with architectural.
Mr. Kuhlke: We spent about uh, a little better than $550,000.00 with the architect
Marion and I think I gave the commissioners a copy of all the expenditures ---
Mr. Hatney: --- $573,000 ---
Mr. Kuhlke: 573.
Mr. Williams: Well, I thought we did some additional work though and I guess ---
Mr. Kuhlke: We haven’t paid them anything since we’ve gotten started over.
Mr. Williams: But we’ve done some additional work we just haven’t paid them.
Mr. Kuhlke: That includes the additional work that they did. That’s the total figure, the
573.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, we have a motion and a second. If there’s no further discussion
commissioners will now vote by the usual sign.
Ms. Beard out.
Motion carries 9-0.
4. Legal Meeting
a.Pending and Potential Litigation
b.Real Estate
c.Personnel
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Boudreaux, did you?
Mr. Boudreaux: Yes, Mr. Mayor, we do have several items of Pending and Potential
Litigation and Real Estate matters to consider in legal session.
Mr. Mayor: Can I get a motion to go into legal?
Mr. Hatney: I move we go into legal.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion. Is there a second?
Mr. Brigham: Second.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign.
Ms. Beard out.
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Motion carries 9-0.
[LEGAL MEETING]
5. Motion to approve authorization for the Mayor to execute affidavit of compliance with
Georgia’s Open Meeting Act.
Mr. Hatney: I so move.
Mr. Grantham: Second.
Mr. Cheek and Ms. Beard out.
Motion carries 8-0.
[MEETING ADJOURNED]
Lena Bonner
Clerk of Commission
CERTIFICATION:
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 July
26, 2007.
______________________________
Clerk of Commission
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