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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCalled Commission Meeting August 19, 2014 CALLED MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER August 19, 2014 Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 1:30 p.m., Tuesday, August 19, 2014, the Honorable Corey Johnson, Mayor Pro Tem, presiding. PRESENT: Hons. Lockett, Guilfoyle, Mason, D. Smith, Williams, Fennoy, Jackson, Davis and G. Smith, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission. ABSENT: Hon. Deke Copenhaver, Mayor. Ms. Allen: We will now start our special called meeting. Mr. Johnson: Madam Clerk, you can let me know when you’re ready. Ready? The Clerk: Yes, sir. Mr. Johnson: Okay, we’d like to call the special called meeting to order. The Clerk: Our first item on the agenda is to approve the resolution adopting the 2014 mill rates. Ms. Williams. Mr. Johnson: Okay, Ms. Williams. Ms. Williams: I could, I think we can put this on the overhead. It’s the same that was on the (inaudible) which is the schedule of rates that were proposed and were advertised. The schedule is shown on the screen which would set a countywide general fund m and o net mill rate 9.788 mills, urban service district, 5.2 mills, capital outlay, .781 mills, fire protection, 2.139 mills and Blythe fire district, 3.356 mills. These are the rates that were advertised in accordance with the Department of Revenue regulations. Today was the date that was advertised that these rates would be set and we would ask you to go forward with that process. Mr. Johnson: What’s your pleasure, gentlemen? Commissioner Mason. Mr. Mason: Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it again, at least to the last three or four months that I have up here. It’s been stated that we haven’t raised taxes in the last seven years and I certainly haven’t voted for a tax increase since I’ve been up here seven years and one of the main reasons why that I have not voted for a tax increase is because for seven years I’ve been sitting here trying to get consensus that we get financial data and financial information on a quarterly basis and at a minimum, on a semi-annual basis, but we get our financial data when we’re in debt at the end. Who does business like that? That’s not the way to do business. If I know after the first quarter and Donna, I see your eyes, but you can keep them to yourself, if I know after the first quarter that we’re $5 million dollars in the hole we can put some plans of action together as to where we’re going to cut for the remainder of the year so that we don’t be at a deficit at the end. If I don’t that, then whatever you bring me is what it is. I hope moving forward with the new commission and new mayor in January that this is one of the 1 requirements that is put in place that you give financial data at a minimum of a quarterly basis if not more. You then have an opportunity to put plans of action and courses of correction together so that you can address whatever issues come up. You don’t need a PhD to figure it out. It’s not difficult. The second piece that bothers me about this whole thing is that for seven years, to be honest with you, I thought Fred Russell was still sitting there because it sounded the same and at the same time I’ve heard nothing new. So for seven years we’ve been in a deficit. We have not raised taxes in terms of the millage rate. Some have already identified other ways in which monies will flow into this government be it one week trash pickup for the same amount or more when you were getting two days a week. That’s not a decrease, folks, that’s an increase. I don’t care that you pick it all up on the same day. If you picked it up twice a day, I could get 180 gallons of trash picked up or twice a week. But you’ve gone to once a week, told me I’m picking up the same amount but only got the same 90 gallon trash can. Now I’m not a mathematician but 90 and 90 is 180 and 180 minus 90 is 90. So you can’t pick up 180 gallons unless you give me another can and if you give me another can, you’re charging me so again there’s an increase. So what you’ve got to be very, very careful about is the small writing and those what they call minute details which ends up getting into your pockets. If we haven’t identified a plan moving forward on how we’re going to do better futuristically, then next year and the year after next and the year after that we’ll continue to be in a deficit trying to figure out how we’re going to get out of it. At some point plans and courses of action have to be brought forward of not what are we going to do to cover this debt but how do we stop from getting into debt in the first place so that we don’t have this issue. That has yet to be addressed appropriately and so a lot of what you have stated as a community is well spoken of and taken to heart from this commissioner because you’re absolutely right in a lot of those cases. Now if you find your business in a deficit and then you go out and find a funding source to take care of your deficit like we’re trying to do as far as a tax increase, why in the world, and this is not a knock against any employee, but why in the world would I go around giving money away immediately. Money I don’t have. And again this is not a knock against an employee but I find it difficult to believe that a bonus is above and beyond. I don’t know that 2700 employees need a bonus or how many ever it was going to. I know some employees that need to give me some money back because I haven’t got the type of services that I need. I do know that. And we have some great employees and then we have some that are not so great. I have gotten memos on issues that are going on in various departments. Are you trying to tell me that they’re going to get a $500 raise and they’ve got all these issues going on? So for that reason and many more that I won’t go through here today, there is no way that I could support a tax increase. I haven’t supported one, I’m not going to support it today because we have not identified those things and for someone to sit here and say, well, this is what we must do because we’re in, we’re broke. No, it’s not. You can’t tax and spend your way out of a deficit. You just can’t do it and so I do what I do at home. I cut out those things that I can’t afford to get done until or unless I can do it. That’s basic economics. So it doesn’t take a rocket scientist up here and until we come up with Plan A, B, C and D of how we’re not going to find ourselves in this situation because you can still take away the emergency situation that happened. We’re still in a deficit. So I’m taking the emergency part out of that. That was God’s doing or whatever. We don’t have no control over that. But take that away. We’re still in a deficit. That means that we have not done the foresight, the planning. We, I’m part of that, we’re a team. We have not done that to the level that we need to and instead of putting it on the backs of you the taxpayer, we’ve got to make the hard decisions be it cuts, be it prioritizing where things go and be it like Sergeant Major came up here and said line by line and determining 2 where that fat is. Yes we said we want areas to cut, certain departments and I’m wondering what was truly done because as I go around and I take a look, you can see waste. You can see it and so we need to hold people accountable, that’s all of us up here. We need to hold everybody within this government accountable as well and we hope with this new administration and whomever the city administrator will be, they will do that piece of it because that’s part of why we’re where we’re at today because people have gotten away with murder, if you will, but the only people that die is the taxpayer at the end of day. So that’s my little diatribe. I do not plan to support this tax increase today and I hope it does not pass today because what that will force us to do which is what we should be doing in the first place is having the appropriate discussion, prioritizing, making the tough decisions and cutting where cutting is necessary before we use an avenue of first approach which is to take it from you because you don’t have no choice in the matter if six people agree that it’s going to be. Thank you. Mr. Johnson: Commissioner Lockett then Commissioner Williams. Mr. Lockett: Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Mr. Johnson: Mr. Guilfoyle after Commissioner Williams. Mr. Lockett: I’ll be brief. First of all I’m going to define a couple of words. A politician is a person that will tell you what he or she thinks that you want to hear. An elected official is going to give it to you straight and tell the truth and I’ve been up here almost five years and I’ve always said I’m going to tell the truth. Sometimes the majority agrees with me, sometimes they don’t. But I’m still going to tell you the truth. I’m a senior citizen. So if I lie to you and you ask me thirty days from now I’m (inaudible) what did I say but if I tell you the truth, I don’t have to worry about it. The state says we’ve got to have a balanced budget. The money has been spent. You know when you see the beautiful public library we have, you see the Convention Center we have, you see the new Jail Administration, you see all of these new structures we’ve got, the Judicial Center, all of those were bought and paid for using Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, that penny tax. But what a good many of you don’t know is we cannot use that SPLOST money for maintenance and operation. That puts a major drain on the budget. I agree with you. Proper foresight wasn’t done because we should have realized that before we constructed all those buildings that we really don’t have the money to pay for it and that is one of the problems that we have now and I think Ms. Davis during the process said something about a forensic audit. I brought that up several years ago. This government needs to be audited from bottom to top or top to bottom. We need that but I was unable to get five of my colleagues to say we need it. We do need it. We’ve got money right now in SPLOST, I requested over and over and over and month after month I get a little bit more on it. What do we have in SPLOST? How much money do we have sitting out that we can do things with? We don’t have those things but I do believe that the next budget that we’re working on pretty much now things are going to be done differently but at this juncture we have got to pay the bills. We’ve already spent the money. We just haven’t paid for what we got. And we’ve got to do it because the state said that you will have a balanced budget. Now you can be angry with me, you can throw stones at me but I’m going to make a motion that this is approved because we have no other choice. Mr. Johnson: Commissioner Williams then Commissioner Guilfoyle. 3 Mr. Williams: I’m going to second that motion that Mr. Lockett just made and I want to just remind all of us that if we don’t pass this, you’re going to be back down here and complain about the services that we’re cutting and the people we’re laying off and we don’t have the officers or the fire protection or whatever it is. Now I’m in Augusta like all of you. This is our home and we’re all in this together. I’ve been trying to hold people accountable since I’ve been here telling people that we’ve got to inspect what we expect. Nobody wants to do that but we’re at a junction now where we’ve got to move forward and I think Commissioner Lockett’s right. I think next year you’re going to see some things handled differently than it has been handled. But we are elected us to make the tough decision. You may not like those decisions but as long as they’re for the best for this community we’ve got to go forward. There’s no time to go back now. I think you’ve been saying a lot and I think we heard you. I heard the Interim Administrator say we heard you loud and clear. But this is a time when Augusta has got to keep moving forward. We can’t stop in the middle of the road and look back at what did happen. Now if you do an audit and somebody done something wrong, there will be some consequences for doing wrong. But I think we ought to do those things that are necessary so we’ll find out where everything is. I don’t mind putting everything on the table. But I’m going to second that motion and I’m going to vote for that tax because it’s the right thing to do at the right time. Now do I like it? No. Do I need to do it? I think we need to do it so that’s my comment and I’ll second that motion. Mr. Johnson: Commissioner Guilfoyle. Mr. Guilfoyle: Thank you, Mr. Pro Tem. I’d just like to let the people be aware that this millage rate increase does not include any raises for the Sheriff’s Department. It does not change any services for the city. It just brings us back up to balance, somewhat of a balanced budget. You know over these years, I’ve been on this floor for four years and we do have to change our ways as a body to work together instead of looking out for friends or family or whoever else works within the government and we’ve got to come up with solutions and put things into our budget to where we can actually look at the budget not one year, we’ve got to go back three, five, seven years and look at the departments that’s actually been increasing and let’s find out why. Let’s do the surgical cuts. We had tried that before like Mr. Lockett said you couldn’t garner six votes to do the necessary cuts. I’ve always learned one thing that if you have a problem, fix it and put something in place to where it doesn’t come back up again. It hasn’t been done in this government. The government employees, they try, they really do and the employees where the gentleman was talking on the lower spectrum, the employees that’s out there in the field in the ditches, hanging the signs, they’re the one if there’s a change in a department the upper, the management gets the duties, they get the increase in salaries but it gets delegated to the guy in the field and they don’t get nothing except more work and I have a problem with that. I know that with the new commissioners that we’re getting on board I look forward to working with them but I had one of my employees, I don’t normally say this but I am a private business owner. I know what it is to have a dollar, I know what it is not to have a dollar. I have to watch my budget every week to maintain, to pay my salaries, to pay my insurance, to pay my overhead, etc. My employees asked me two weeks ago are you going to increase the millage rate to give out taxes, I mean raises? And I kind of looked at them puzzled because I have some faithful employees since 2010 they took a 10% cut in pay. Today they are still taking a cut in pay but they’re grateful to have a job. They also lost their paid vacations, 4 paid holidays, their profit sharing. This is what we do in private business to have to sacrifice in order to continue. It’s very hard for me to do a tax increase knowing that I didn’t fulfill my due diligence in trying to save the taxpayers’ dollar. I agree with Mr. Mason things do have to change, things do have to work collectively as a body to get things done but again, you will not see me support this tax increase, never have, won’t happen today. Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Mr. Johnson: Commissioner Davis. Ms. Davis: Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. First of all thank you for being here and thank you for coming to the other public hearings that we had and ya’ll are being heard and emails and texts and phone calls are being heard as well. None of us of course want to do this tax increase and I have struggled with it for a year and a half and we’ve known about our deficit, we’ve known that our revenue has not been increasing. We have a hard time finding targeted cuts up here as a commission and as the makeup of this commission because you do have to get the six votes. We have a hard time when people come to me in my district and say well, our parks aren’t, they don’t have employees working at our parks, why do other parks, can you cut those employees and let them be self-sufficient? Other commissioners wouldn’t agree with that that works in their district so we do struggle with finding target cuts but I do think we need to work harder in that regard because across the board cuts don’t work either. We have some departments that are typically just personnel and benefits so when you cut those you’re not cutting out any kind of fat that maybe does exist in some other departments. I see a need for a property tax increase because of the position we’re in but I don’t want to support the 1.75 today. I think we need to look as a group at some more targeted cuts and have that agreed upon and also look at some other parts that were in the proposal but Donna, I do want to ask you something. Today we are just voting on this millage increase or millage rate, not the other parts in this proposal that was in your presentation, is that correct? Ms. Williams: The only item that is necessary today is to set the millage rate, the determination of where any portion of those funds were made can be made at a later date but the action that is requested is to set the millage rates as they were read. Ms. Davis: If action is not taken today, what position will we be in as far as our state requirements? Ms. Williams: I have a response to that question from Ms. Ellen Mills at the Department of Revenue and I will try to sum that up. She says that in most cases if the department, if the governing authority takes no action on the final adoption at the final meeting as stated and that was advertised and the five-year history and published in the newspaper that the county would only be required to advertise another five-year history and current digest and set another date two weeks from publication for the final millage rate adoption. She further states, and I’m a little unclear on this but I was unable to get back in touch with her, in some cases that the county governing authority can publicly announce at the final meeting, which would be today, where no action was taken, the specific future date, the place and time of the final adoption and that they can possibly accept certified minutes as a substitute for the new five-year history so as I read this there are two actions that could happen today. We can start this process over and do it two 5 weeks from now or an agreed upon date, place and time can be named today and entered into the official minutes to be submitted to the Department of Revenue as to a date that you will agree to adopt a final millage rate. Ms. Davis: So basically there will be another special called meeting and we would decide on that today when and where. Ms. Williams: That would be correct. Mr. Davis: Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Mr. Johnson: We have Commissioner Fennoy and Commissioner Donnie Smith, Commissioner Mason, Commissioner Williams. Mr. Fennoy: Yes, um, my name is Bill Fennoy and I represent District 1. District 1 is a very, very distressed district. District 1 is saturated with dilapidated houses. District 1 is saturated with streets with potholes, with grass that’s three, four, five feet tall, with houses that are half burned. In my district almost 35% of the people live below the poverty line. There is nothing else to cut when it comes to services and the needs of the people in District 1 and District 2. Now we can sit up here and talk about what we’re going to support and what we’re not going to support. I sit right here and I supported my fellow commissioners when he came and said that we need to have a memorandum of agreement between the Fire Department because the people in this area would get a cut on their fire insurance. The people in my district have no issues with the distance from a fire department or a distance from a fire hydrant. Had no problem with that. The people in my district had no issue with how many feet the garbage cans were from the street. But from the benefit of the city, for the benefit of the city, I supported this. Now we have some serious issues in Richmond County. Money is one of our biggest issues, or lack of. My commissioner says she can’t support 1.75. I can’t either. I think it needs to be the 2.14 because of the needs of the city. I ask any of you all to ride through Pickett Avenue and see th what you see. Ride up and down 12 Street. Ride through Harrisburg. Ride through Apple Valley. Ride up on the Hill and let me know what you see and then come back and say we don’t need the additional monies to improve the quality of life for all of our citizens. Usually when there’s a cut Recreation and Parks was the first to be impacted. The impact on Recreation and Parks meant less services for our kids. Less services for our kids means that they have less to do which means that the idle mind is the devil’s workshop which means that they’re going to create more activity for the Sheriff’s Department and when we cut we’re going to have to increase your budget in order to provide the services that we need in order to protect the citizens of this county which means that we’re going to have to hire more people in Juvenile Court because we’re going to have more juveniles in court. I can’t see, I cannot see, I cannot see leaving here today without a tax increase a minimum of 1.75 preferably 2.14. Thank you. Mr. Johnson: Commissioner Donnie Smith. Mr. D. Smith: Ms. Williams, I have a question. If we can’t come to a consensus today to try to get done, would it be appropriate for us to not adjourn the meeting and simply take a recess 6 and come back at a point in time in the next day or two where we can try to have some kind of working deal – Ms. Williams: I’m going to defer that to the attorney for a ruling but I believe if you recess this meeting you cannot convene your regularly scheduled meeting. I believe that according to the message that we received from the Department of Revenue if there is no consensus for a millage rate today, then the proper course of action would be to set a date that could be entered into the official minutes which we will advertise as to be the new date that we will set it and it does not have to be two weeks from now if it is entered into the official minutes of the meeting today. Mr. D. Smith: Well, it’s apparent to me that we have the same problems that we have been dealing with in my 18 months up here is that we have an argument about whether the fund, essential services or non-essential services and which ones we exclude from cuts and there has been no consensus about that. Mr. Fennoy just spoke very passionately on behalf of what some people would consider non-essential which is Recreation and there’s others in the community that would consider law enforcement as essential service so for all of you that are here in this room I want you to know that nobody up here takes this very lightly. Mary Davis called me this morning and said she hadn’t slept all night. She prayed to her Lord for guidance as most all of us did. And so when you give us criticism we hear it, we feel it. Nobody is sitting here wanting to do what we have to do but you came here and you said we want you as the government to do x, y and z and x, y and z cost money. Now you’ve got ten people that are sitting here trying to figure out how to pay for x, y and z on your behalf and I just want you to know that there is nobody here that takes that without very serious consideration. I pay my taxes too so this affects me and my mother and my brother and my sister that live in Richmond County. So, Ms. Williams, I don’t believe we’re going to have consensus. I guess we’ll take the vote in a few minutes but I just wanted to find out how we should handle that and then I just wanted to speak on about what is essential and what is non-essential. Thank you. Ms. Williams: I would ask Mayor Pro Tem if there is a consensus to do this at a later date, could we please agree upon that date and that time so that we can proceed with the process rather than starting this process over again as required and it would be a minimum of two weeks before we could complete it at that point? Mr. Johnson: Well, I think at this moment, Ms. Williams, it may be appropriate to go into recess. We have some information we need to discuss and I think it would be appropriate for us to discuss it amongst ourselves and bring it back to the floor so at this moment, before we take any more questions, let’s take a look at this and then maybe that would kind of put us in a position where we could make a decision back out here on the floor. This is a very, very important decision that needs to be made and we need to make sure that we’re on the same page so if I may, Madam Clerk – Mr. Lockett: A point of personal privilege. Mr. Johnson: Go ahead on, Commissioner Lockett. 7 Mr. Lockett: Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, exactly what are you anticipating doing if we don’t have six people that’s willing to vote for a tax increase? We are going to have to have six no matter what the millage is going to be. If we don’t have that, we’re spinning our wheels and lastly, we’ve known for a long time now that this is what was going to come before us today so why are we waiting until the midnight hour trying to reach some kind of consensus? Mr. Johnson: I agree, Commissioner, however, it’s been some changes of some minds here with a few. We do have some information here as it relates to the millage rate that I think we may have a consensus on so I don’t think it’s the mere fact that them not willing to, I think the amount is the issue right now so if we may – Mr. Mason: Point of privilege, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Mr. Johnson: We need to probably take a look at this and then at that point. It’s clear that some of ya’ll are not going to vote for it period and I don’t think we need to spin our wheels on that. However, for those that are willing to do it, we need to take a look at this to see if they’re willing to do it because there’s some that may not be willing to do the 1.75. Commissioner Mason. Mr. Mason: Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. I don’t really have a problem taking a recess however during these seven years I’ve sat up here and I’ve seen crises be manufactured and it always seems to come at the last minute. Now I’m not sure what you’re looking at down there. I’m not privy to any of that. As a matter of fact my statement was going to be before you even stated that but we do seem to have a lot of manufactured crises that come up at the last minute. There was a statement that was made earlier and I respect all my commission colleagues, we all have our own ways and ideas, our norms and values that we were brought up with, the statement was made that we must have a balanced budget and that’s an absolutely true statement. Absolutely one hundred percent true. But there is nowhere where it states it has to be done with a tax increase. Nowhere. Now if certain commissioners who have spoke very passionately about their districts, if you can show me where this increase is going to help the issues that’s going on in your district, you might have a difference of opinion in terms of my vote but there is nothing in this increase that shows any new services that can be done. Nothing new. There are no raises for our Sheriff’s Department. We’ll talk about that later. None of that is included in here. No new services so the complaint that you have is valid but you haven’t identified anything that is going to give you anything different than what you already have. Whether you get an increase or not so I want to be passionate about issues but I also want to be factual about issues and the facts of the matter are there are no new services that will help District 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 period. So it’s awfully difficult then for me to take that passion and change my mind with it when there haven’t been what I talked about before the foresight and the planning to do something different or we’re going to find ourselves in the same place again. So my question then to our Finance Director, Donna, is if I made a substitute motion to set the tax rate right where it is, right where we currently are, what would that do or what wouldn’t it do? Ms. Williams: Your estimated use of fund balance for the current fiscal year 2014 would be approximately $10 million dollars. 8 Mr. Mason: The estimated fund balance. Ms. Williams: Estimated use of fund balance as shown in our presentation would be approximately $10 million dollars, one-third of your balance. Mr. Mason: One-third of our balance. Ms. Williams: Yes, sir. Mr. Mason: And what else would be required in relation to that? Ms. Williams: I’m sorry? Mr. Mason: Is there any other requirements in relation to -- I hear you say the estimated fund use. So what would be required other than that? Ms. Williams: If all other revenues and all other expenditures were on target then that would be the end result is that your budget assumptions would have been validated. You would have spent $10 million dollars out of your fund balance, out of your reserves. Mr. Mason: And I think also what it would require would be for us to go back or begin what should have been begun well before you ever came into place and certainly well before I ever came into place and that’s planning and enforcement and accountability and until we have those three elements in place which I don’t see any plans for, until we have elements in place it’s extremely difficult for me to move forward putting a bandaid on a gushing wound. There is no way you’re going to take care of that injury in the manner that it needs to be taken care of so thank you. Mr. Johnson: What we need to do is to take a ten minute recess. We can talk about this, I mean just ten minutes to talk about what we have here proposed. You all can agree or not. We’ll come back to the floor and make a decision but it will be appropriate at this time to take a ten minute recess. Mr. Williams: Mr. Mayor, before we take that break now I had my hand up to address something and I want these people to hear this. This is very important. Mr. Johnson: I know, Commissioner Williams, and I want you to. I just want to make sure before we go any further we at least have this portion of it and we come back out and you’ll be the first hand that I’ll recognize coming back into it. We’re in recess. [RECESS] Mr. Johnson: All right, we’d like to go ahead and call the meeting back to order. Okay, Madam Clerk, we’re going to resume, Commissioner Williams, you had a question. 9 Mr. Williams: I had a comment, Mr. Pro Tem, thank you very much. I just want to say a couple of things. First of all you know everybody talking up here now about holding people accountable and let’s do the right thing. I’ve been preaching that ever since I’ve been up here about doing the right thing. Let’s make some hard decisions. We had not done that. When I’m thinking about this building and the money we wasted and still wasting in this building and we act like nothing is going on but we want to hold people accountable now when we’re talking about a tax increase. We had a company who came here and disrespected this commission so much they didn’t even appear before this body but we want to hold people accountable who had an architect and a design person to design a building that didn’t even make handicap accessible for us and we sit up here and think everything is fine. We want to renege on the tax increase because we need to do that, not because we want to do it. But if you’re going to hold people accountable, let’s just don’t start today. Let’s go back and start all the way and do what we need to do for this government as a whole. I served eight years before and I missed one meeting in eight years and been back two more years. I can’t tell you one conversation that this body as a group have had for economic development. Not one. Now you’re talking about you can’t put it on the back of the taxpayers but what are we talking about, what are we doing to attract people to Augusta to have to come in. I went to an event at the Radisson on Friday night and I met a couple from Savannah and they talked about how nice the hotel was but why is it so quiet? Why is nothing going on? I say you are not in Savannah any more. But we’re talking about doing what is right for this government and moving this city forward. We have got to raise these taxes but we’ve got to do some other things as well to attract people to Augusta then we’ve got to hold those accountable. We were at the meeting last week and I’m really upset about this because when you serve the enterprise and most people don’t know the inner workings of the government, the Landfill Director came into a meeting with us and want to lease some land for solar power, solar energy. I asked one question, where is the money going? To the Landfill? We shouldn’t have a government in a government. The money need to come back to this government. But nobody wants to talk about those kinds of things. You elect the people to make some hard decisions. Some of them you’re going to like and some of them you’re not going to like but as long as there’s a right decision, you have to abide by those decisions. (inaudible) to compromise and let’s drop the millage rate down and let’s do something else. Let me tell you something. Every time you talk about a tax increase it affects the people the same way. We even talk about a quarter mill, a half a mill. Every time we talk about a tax increase it affects the same as if it’s a ten thousand mill. It’s the same effect on people’s mind. If you’re going to raise taxes, let’s raise them and get them up. The charts show that out of 159 counties we are one of the lowest and if people are moving and they are moving. If they’re moving that means somebody is moving in unless they still own them houses and if they still own them houses they’re still paying the taxes on them. If you want to grow, you’ve got to do those things to grow. Augusta is shut down at 10:00 o’clock at night. There’s no place to even eat in Augusta unless you go to the Waffle House. Something wrong with that if we’re supposed to be the second largest city. Well, we was the second largest city. But the things that we’re doing and the things that we say we’re doing, we talk all of this talk. People talk about let’s don’t, let’s get us all sing a great church song, let’s all sing together. But because we got districts, because we’ve got people we represent that don’t have all of the services, you have to stand up for those people who elected you to stand up to make sure you get those things. Commissioner Fennoy is right. The people in south Augusta regardless of what color they are, they think they are not as good as the people in west Augusta regardless of what color they are because of that stigma we 10 done put out there. We need to start to look at what’s going to be better for this city as a whole, not just one side, not just one group. I wasn’t in support of the bridge to go across and they’re still coming back for that bridge right now. I told someone my grandson will be the Mayor before I’ll vote for a bridge to go across there. But something is wrong when we don’t do those things that we’re required to do and we’ve got to do. I’m not going to drop down at that 1.7 (inaudible) pass, I’m not supporting that. I don’t want a millage increase but we’ve got to have one so let’s do it and get it over with and make sure we hold everybody accountable for what we vote for. Now ya’ll should not just come down today because of the millage. You can be here every time. They’ve done built this chamber and you can be here every week to hear and see. Don’t just take Sylvia Cooper’s word because Sylvia Cooper’s going to get some things crossed up. You need to be there for yourself. So Mr. Pro Tem, I appreciate that but I wanted the people to understand we’re not just up here because we ain’t got nothing to do, we just want to impose a tax on somebody or do the millage increase. We need to do that and I agree we need to hold accountable and make sure we spend the money wisely. We need to make sure every contract, we give every contract to the lawyer to negotiate and then he bring it back to us. That ain’t his job. His job is to make sure it’s legal. His job ain’t to decide what we do and what we don’t do. My colleague said to listen to the department head. You’ve got department heads and I listen to them but I inspect what I expect. The department heads don’t have to face you. You don’t call the department heads. You don’t email the department heads. You call the elected officials and when they make a decision like your garbage and I agree that your garbage should not be twice, paying the twice a week service and they’re only getting once a week service. That was wrong. Six votes did that. We need to move forward with the city of Augusta. We need to make Augusta a thriving place. We need to make Augusta a destination place where folks want to come in here and we’ll have revenue coming in and we won’t just be depending on the backs of the taxpayers. Every city in the world is doing something. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just look across the street, look across the road and see what another city is doing and do that same thing. We’re shut down in this city. Talking like we’re big but walking like we’re little. That’s all, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. I’m, we need to move forward and there’s a lot of work to be done. We’ve got other stuff on the agenda. We need to go ahead and vote for this millage and get it over with and then hold the other people accountable. Everyone. Mr. Johnson: Okay, Commissioner Guilfoyle. Mr. Guilfoyle: Yes, sir. Mr. Johnson: We have a motion and second on the floor. Mr. Guilfoyle: I hear, you know, about holding people accountable. Let’s do it. Let’s, I’ll make a substitute motion, let’s hold 2013 budget and fill it in with the reserves and the necessary cuts. That’s what accountability’s about. Mr. Mason: Is that a motion? Mr. Guilfoyle: That’s a motion. Mr. Mason: I’ll second that motion. 2013 mill rate. 11 Mr. D. Smith: There, point – Mr. Johnson: Hold on. Hold on. Ms. Williams, you had a comment. I think one said budget and one said mill rate so – Mr. Guilfoyle: Hold it to 2013 budget and we’ll fill in the rest with necessary cuts as well as the reserves. Mr. Johnson: Go ahead, Ms. Williams. Ms. Williams: We are now over eight months into operating the 2014 budget so we have gone along at a level of anticipated expenditures which were set in your 2014 budget in, that started in January so while we can go department by department to, obviously we know what the 2013 budget was, what are you going to do if you have contracts or services that were added, I’m just, are we going to discuss that at a later date or I need a direction on how to – Mr. Williams: That’s what they call hold accountable. He don’t have a clue. He just throwed that out there. Don’t worry about that. Mr. Guilfoyle: Donna – Mr. Williams: That’s the stuff we do up here. Mr. Guilfoyle: Yeah, that is the stuff we do up here, Mr. Williams. Mr. Johnson: Hold on a second. I think at this juncture it’s totally unclear. First of all 2013 budget is, that’s, we’re talking about 2014 at this point and what we have spent thus far this year, correct? Ms. Williams: You’ve spent eight months of it at 2014 budget that was adopted. Yes, sir, you have and that does not address the use of the reserves for this year -- Mr. Johnson: Exactly. Ms. Williams: -- which were approved. If you’ve approved something, say, I can’t think of a good example right now, if there has been some departmental request for an increase, if there has been a person added in that department that was approved during the budgeting process and you’re fixing to drop back to 2013, does that person go, do they go home immediately or, but right now you’re budgeted to spend $10 million dollars out of your reserve and going back to the 2013 budget does not fix that. Mr. Guilfoyle: How about the 2013 tax budget then? Would that be better? It just, we got it -- Ms. Williams: We are budgeted at – 12 Mr. Guilfoyle: 2014 at this time. Ms. Williams: We are budgeted at the same millage rate that was levied in 2013. That’s how we got where we are. Mr. Johnson: I think that’s trying to put a bandaid on a bullet wound. It’s not going to work at this point. Commissioner Donnie Smith, you – Mr. D. Smith: I want to try to clarify what my colleague Mr. Guilfoyle is trying to do because I’m confused. Donna, if we were to do what Mr. Guilfoyle proposes, the Sheriff’s Department was exempted to the tune of $900,000 from the 2.4% reduction in the 2014 budget. Would then we have to go back and take $900,000 away from the Sheriff’s Department to comply with Mr. Guilfoyle’s request? Ms. Williams: The answer to that is at this point I’m not sure. Mr. D. Smith: Mr. Guilfoyle, that is not your intent, is it? Mr. Guilfoyle: My intent is actually getting to where our expenditures and our revenues are the same and for us to do our due diligence and do the necessary cuts, look for each department, find ways to save and come up with new ideas and that’s basically in a nutshell. I know that we’re going to have a budget session coming up in a month and a half – Ms. Williams: Correct. Mr. Guilfoyle: -- but I just don’t want us to get blindsided again like the past three years. We don’t have a lot of people show up for budget sessions. That’s where I have a problem. Ms. Williams: Your 2013 budget for law enforcement was $57, 932,280. The 2014 budget is $56,594,910. So you have immediately increased the Sheriff’s Department budget with no offsetting revenue source. Mr. Guilfoyle: I know you have a funding stream for that. Mr. Johnson: Donna, -- Ms. Williams: Yes, sir. Mr. Johnson: Let me say this. Mr. Guilfoyle: Let me just retract my motion. Mr. Lockett: Your substitute motion, a motion’s been on the floor for like 45 minutes. 13 Mr. Johnson: Substitute motion. Let me say this. Let’s just be realistic here. I understand that this is a pill that nobody wants to swallow. We’ve been back and forth, back and forth. Where we are now with $10 million dollars spent, we’ve got to replenish those funds. You can’t even begin to talk about 2015 budget if you’re already $10 million dollars in the hole with 2014. The one good thing that can be done that nobody has addressed or said since we’ve been here is in 2015 you can, you can roll back, you can do a tax roll back. Ever since I’ve been up here since 2008 we have actually not, have not stayed the same. We did a tax roll back. That can be done. Those requirements that my colleagues have been talking about of accountability, we have done everything possible on this commission to try to not only cut back, ask every department to cut back, we even did a reorg of the government to consolidate some of the departments and we tried to save money there. We don’t have a Public Works Department any more. That was divided up into Engineering, the Environmental Services and Parks and Rec because we tried to consolidate and we RIFed some employees. Some people lost their job. Some of them retired early. But I think at this point it would be prudent to go forward looking at potential cuts in departments. We have implemented a 2.4% budget cut in all departments except the Sheriff’s Office so I think this will just be an opportunity to try to replenish the funds that have already been spent and then look at a positive future for 2015 that looking at opportunities where we can cut more fat, that we can generate revenue and then at some point come back and do a tax roll back. But I tell people all the time when I get these phone calls about service, I can tell you one thing, you may not have an increase in service but if we don’t do something with this millage rate, you will have a decrease in service. That’s a promise. I do know that and I’m going to use this analogy and then we’re going to move forward. But imagine on your budget somebody dropped five kids off at your house and tell you to take care of these five kids with no additional income, no additional assistance and you’ve got to maintain those five kids on your current budget. That’s what we’re dealing with up here. We’ve got to feed five mouths, we’ve got to clothe five children and provide health care for five kids with no additional revenue. I agree with Commissioner Williams. We need to figure out some kind of ways to generate some more revenue. Economic development. We’ve done some great things here in Augusta. Some great things are to come. We’re breaking ground on the outlet mall out here on Riverwatch Parkway that’s going to generate $200 million dollars in sales tax revenue. We’ve got to continue to look at more opportunities like this. This is not an easy fix but you know what, real leadership make tough decisions and they are not always popular. So I want you all to know that and I’ve been dead set against it just like I said with the excise tax because it’s a temporary for a permanent problem. We’ve been fortunate. We’ve kicked that can down the road long enough. We’ve got to pick it up now. That’s the position we’re in so we have a motion on the floor. We do have a second. Commissioner Mason, then we’ll call for the vote. Commissioner Mason: All right. Let me kind of bring some clarity to my position. The reason why I seconded Wayne’s. My second was I was hoping it would be a motion to set the tax rate at last year’s level because that’s what we’re here to do is to set a rate. What that would have done would have given us a rate. It may not have been a rate that you’re looking for, the rate, but that would have gave us, we would have been able to do what we came here to do in terms of setting the rate. You have really taken on money from reserves until the end of the year if we had to to balance the budget because you have about four months to deal with that. And there’s a number of different ways that this can happen. Spending freeze, hiring freeze, I mean there’s other options that are available. We can sweep our operating accounts, see where that 14 money is because you’re not $10 million dollars in the hole first of all until the end of the fiscal year, is that not correct? Ms. Williams: That’s right. Mr. Mason: Okay. So you’ve got to take all of this into consideration when you’re making decisions especially in terms of millions of dollars. We’re not balancing your own checkbook that may have a few hundred in there. We’re talking about millions of dollars and how to best operate within that framework. So you can take better control and probably much less from the reserves at the end of the day so I’m not really willing to, certainly I’m not willing to compromise on just passing it and then maybe come back and give them some sort of rollback or something like that when the fact of the matter is these are the type of discussions that should have taken place that would have prevented us from being where we are so my thing was was not from the same budget as last year but setting the tax rate the same as it was last year and then us moving on from there. That’s just another option and you want to be able to look at, any good business would look all options available to see what’s the best avenue of approach or plan of action to get you out of the situation that you’re currently in and keeping in mind I still have yet to hear about what’s going to prevent us and now I know that’s not what we’re here for today but we ought to be, what’s going to prevent us from being in the same situation because every year that I’ve sat here for seven years I’ve been brought a deficit and so I’m wondering when are we going to address that of how we’re going to keep ourselves from getting into a deficit versus trying to figure out how we’re going to cover the deficit. Mr. Johnson: Ms. Allen, you had a comment? Ms. Allen: Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, members of the Commission, as well as our citizens of Augusta. You know, each one of our commissioners, they are exactly right. This is a tough decision to be made and no one takes it lightly and the citizens have made some very good astute comments on some of the things that we as a government need to improve upon. Commissioner Mason is right. Some things we need to do a little better job as it relates to planning and forecasting and things of that nature when it comes to the budget. But unfortunately right now this is where we are. 2013 is when the time should have been discussed as it relates to the cuts that we’re looking for in 2014. And what our citizens need to understand at the end of 2013 is when they set the budget for 2014 operations. So when that budget was set for the 2014 operations, in order for it to be a balanced budget, it included going into our reserves to take that money and of course as Ms. Williams stated earlier, we had the ice storm which was something that none of us could have predicted was going to happen. So that was another $4.5 million dollars that was taken out of, luckily that we had a fund that we can take that money from. So you’re exactly right. Every commissioner is right in regards to the accountability. That is something that we definitely need to look at and definitely need to look at the tough decisions that we’re going to have to make for the 2015 budget but what we have to keep in mind that what we’re talking about today is to balance what we’ve done already and what we’re looking at for 2014. Those decisions were made back at the end of 2013 for what we’re looking at today. So we have to make those tough decisions in order to balance that budget. The Mayor Pro Tem is exactly right. There can be different changes or different decisions made and next year when we start doing it or we can even look at it in the next four months like Commissioner Mason’s 15 talking about for the 2015 budget when we start talking about 2015 budget. And unfortunately those tough decisions have come now to roost. I mean everything that we did not do in the previous years has hit us now. So we have to make those decisions so I want to make sure that everybody understood the decision that we’re basing today is based on what the decisions that were made at the end of 2013 were for our budget in 2014. Accountability is something that we will be looking at and making sure that we come back with some ideas and how we will make some different changes in our budget. And it’s going to be for our commission to make those tough decisions. Mr. Williams: Call for the question, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Johnson: All right. The question’s been called for. Mr. Guilfoyle: Madam Clerk, can you – Mr. Lockett: Roll call vote, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Mr. Guilfoyle: Can we hear the motion please? Mr. Johnson: We have a request for a roll call vote, Madam Clerk. The Clerk: Yes, sir. Substitute motion, Mr. Guilfoyle and Mr. Mason, was to adopt the 2013 budget rate with necessary cut and usage of the fund balance. Mr. Johnson: He retracted it. Mr. Williams: He retracted that. The Clerk: He didn’t amend the motion. He talked about it but the motion – Mr. Johnson: It still stands? The Clerk: Yes. Mr. Johnson: All right. Commissioner Guilfoyle. Mr. Mason: -- tax, tax rate, millage rate not the budget. Ms. Williams: For the general fund only? Because as you see urban service district rate is almost three mills higher in 2013 than it was in 2014. Mr. Williams: Messing up again. Mr. Mason: Here we go – Ms. Williams: You need to be specific. 16 Mr. Guilfoyle: Madam Clerk, let me just retract that substitute motion and that way we could move forward. Can I do that? The Clerk: No, I’ll let the parliamentarian, but the motion belongs to the floor now so but I’ll let him address it. Mr. Mason: Can I do a point of, with the parliamentarian because while he’s getting ready to make a ruling on that, first thing that should have happened when they called for the question was there a readiness to vote versus going directly into the motion. We’re going to vote on whether the question would be called or whether discussion would continue on, is that not correct? Mr. MacKenzie: Yeah, I agree with you. A call to vote is actually a non-debatable motion. I think there was some lack of clarity on which motion was being called to vote. Once a motion is made and a second is made then the motion belongs to the body; however, if the body would like to make a motion to either vote on that item or to unanimously decide not to take action on that item you can do that and it sounds like there is political will to do that that can be done by the chair to say is there a will to withdraw that motion from this body? If there’s no objection to that, you can go on to the primary motion. Mr. Johnson: Is there a will to withdraw that motion from the body? It seems to be a consensus, Madam Clerk. We’ll go with the original motion. The Clerk: The original motion was to approve the resolution adopting the 2014 mill rates. Mr. Johnson: And Commission Lockett called for a roll call vote. The Clerk: Yes, sir. Ms. Davis. Ms. Davis: No, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. Fennoy. Mr. Fennoy: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Guilfoyle. Mr. Guilfoyle: No, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. Jackson. Mr. Jackson: No, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. Johnson. 17 Mr. Johnson: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Lockett. Mr. Lockett: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Mason. Mr. Mason: No. The Clerk: Mr. Donnie Smith. Mr. D. Smith: No. The Clerk: Mr. Grady Smith. Mr. G. Smith: No. The Clerk: Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams: Yes. The Clerk: That motion fails 4 to 6. Mr. Williams: So, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, what do we do now? Mr. Johnson: Well, what we need to do first we’ll hear from Donna and then we will have the Tax Commissioner if he’s still here -- Ms. Williams: He is. Mr. Johnson: -- to come up and speak to what that means from the state and then at that point it would be appropriate to set a date forward on the record that we will meet to discuss adopting and approving a millage rate on the record so Ms. Williams. Ms. Williams: What we would ask for now is to set a date and a time to advertise for the next meeting where the final millage rate would be adopted. That needs to be entered into the official and certified minutes for us to provide to the Department of Revenue. Mr. Johnson: Okay, Ms. Williams, what time, what type of time frame are we looking at to have appropriate hearings? Is that a week or two weeks? Ms. Williams: We’re at your mercy. 18 Mr. Johnson: Because if we do that just say hypothetically by next Monday that means you have to set those meetings up – Ms. Williams: That is correct. Mr. Kendrick can tell you, he has an appointment this Thursday, Friday? Friday at 9:00 a.m. in Atlanta so if the final millage rate was adopted prior to that time and all the certifications and forms would be signed then they could keep that date and we would go forward with no other consequences. However if it cannot be done before that date, then obviously there’s going to have to be some changes made on his behalf and I can let him address those. Mr. Johnson: Also as far as the public hearings if we do anything different from the 1.75 then we would still have to have time for the hearings, correct? Ms. Williams: According to Ms. Mills’ email that if we name the date, the time and the location of a final adoption, that we don’t have to start over. Anything other than that or a higher millage rate than what was proposed then we start the process completely over with a minimum of two weeks’ span. Mr. Johnson: Okay, if we can hear from – Ms. Williams: Alveno says three weeks. Mr. Johnson: For them? Okay, Steven, if you can I guess come up and tell us exactly what we’re faced with over the course of the next couple of weeks here. Mr. Kendrick: Good afternoon. We talked about this I think a few weeks ago when you guys set the initial budget. There are a few things you want to take into consideration by not adopting the millage rate today. First there is not a deadline that was put in by the state in where a county has to send out tax bills. What happens traditionally in each county is their governing authority of course sets the millage rate and then after that the county has a tradition in which taxpayers understand when their bills are due. And in Richmond County everyone knows their bills are due November 15. Well, by statute we are required to give taxpayers 60 days in which to pay those bills. So traditionally we send out those bills at least by September 15 every year. If we do not send out those bills by September 15 and understand that if the millage rate is not th set so that we can attend our meeting on Friday, the bills cannot go out by the 15 for testing purposes then that changes the scenario. So I’ll give you a scenario of what happens if we change that. If the bills go out on October 1 they are then by statute required to be due on December 1. Now for mortgage companies who traditionally pay about 40% of the tax bills we send out for taxpayers, that causes us some level of confusion for them because they are used to Richmond County’s process and they know when they need to pay those bills for people’s escrow accounts. That’s one. Number two, the school which Mr. Ross will talk a little bit about has a great need for those bills to go out in September because they need the cash from those to do their operations. They’re not quite like we are as it relates to how they spend their monies. But lastly if a December 1 date is considered the due date if we mail them out October 1, there is a state statute that requires Richmond County to have a penalty date on December 20. So that means that the due date being the first of December, folks will have a penalty date of 10% in less 19 than three weeks after that. Most of our taxpayers aren’t used to that. Most of them are used to a much longer time period for them to, even if they are late, they understand that they don’t get that 10% penalty until about six weeks later. But we’re going to cut that in half if we change that and so what will happen those who are late on December 1 will have a very short time before they incur that 10% penalty. Now that doesn’t mean that you don’t have the authority to do exactly what you may do here today but those things affect others including the taxpayers and I think you need to consider that as well. Now as it relates to the school system Mr. Ross can talk a little about that if you’d like to hear from him. Mr. Johnson: Okay, thank you, Mr. Kendrick. Mr. Alveno Ross. Mr. Ross: Good afternoon, commissioners. Just briefly the variance that occurs between this body which (inaudible) FY January 1 to December 30 is in conflict in terms of cash flow needs for the school board who runs an FY of July 1. They are currently into their 2015 budget year. Because of the nature of their operations and I’m certainly not here as their official representative of the school board, as this delay continues it will invite, present issues of financial challenge for (inaudible) purposes for the Board of Education and most of you are familiar with what is referred to as a TAN, a Tax Anticipation Note more commonly referred to on the front page as school board borrows money to maintain its procedures. We were scheduled after getting the extension, this digest is due on or before August 1 to the Department of Revenue; however, it is not uncommon that we requested the extension based on the procedural actions that were taking place and the Department of Revenue granted us the extension until September 2. We were principally on target and we were scheduled down to appear this coming Friday at 9:00 a.m. with the Department of Revenue subject to what action will take place today. Certainly we will do our due diligence to what’s required of my office to give notice to the Department of Revenue and all those extending parties. I realize that this is a difficult decision, gentlemen, so I’m not here to make a point of view of that matter but I hope that you will weigh into your considerations of some of the factors that I just shared with you. Mr. Johnson: Thank you. I think at this time, Madam Clerk, it would be appropriate to come up with a date for the next meeting and it be entered into the record. What’s the will of this commission? Mr. Lockett: Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Mr. Johnson: Yeah, go ahead, Mr. Lockett. Mr. Lockett: Is there a willingness to reconsider? Mr. Johnson: I’m fine with that. Mr. Lockett: I mean after hearing what the Chief Appraiser had to say and the Tax Commissioner had to say and the problems that we will incur if we don’t. 20 Mr. Johnson: Well, we had six no votes up here so I guess it will be upon the six commissioners who voted against it to reconsider based on the information they just received. Commissioner Davis. Ms. Davis: Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, when you say the vote to reconsider, is that the vote to reconsider the motion or just to reconsider opening it back up for discussion? Mr. MacKenzie. Mr. Johnson: That would be the motion I think, am I right? Mr. MacKenzie: The next motion would be to reconsider the item that’s already been voted on which would be to set the millage rates and do a motion to reconsider that. If you get six votes you’re back on the floor to discuss it again. Mr. Johnson: We need six votes to reconsider. Ms. Davis: Commissioner Lockett, you made the motion to reconsider? Mr. Lockett: Yes, ma’am. Ms. Davis: And that’s to open it up for more discussion. I’ll second that. The Clerk: No, ma’am. His motion was to reconsider adopting the 2014 mill rate for that but the meeting hadn’t been adjourned so you could still make a motion regarding another mill rate if you so choose. Mr. Johnson: Commissioner Donnie Smith. Mr. D. Smith: I’ll make a substitute motion – The Clerk: It would be an original motion. Mr. D. Smith: I’m sorry. Mr. Johnson: It would be a primary motion. The Clerk: It would be a primary motion. Mr. D. Smith: Okay, I’ll make a motion that we open the discussion back up – Mr. Johnson: -- the meeting back up for discussion. Mr. D. Smith: -- so that we can discuss an alternative millage rate. The Clerk: Go ahead on and make a motion. Mr. D. Smith: I did. That’s – 21 Ms. Davis: I’ll second that, Donnie. Mr. D. Smith: That we open the floor back up so we can discuss the millage rate. The Clerk: Okay. Mr. Johnson: We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, vote by the usual sign of voting. Commissioner Williams. Mr. Williams: We’re going to vote to talk about it some more? Is that what ya’ll are trying to do now? I mean we need to make a decision now. We were sent up here to make a decision and we need to make a decision. But to put it back on the floor to talk about it, I done talked about it enough. I know what we need to do and we need to do that but to talk about it, I’m not in favor of talking about it no more. Mr. Johnson: Well, we have a motion and second on the floor. Vote by the usual sign of voting. Mr. Fennoy, Mr. Johnson, Ms. Davis, Mr. Jackson and Mr. D. Smith vote Yes. Mr. Lockett, Mr. Mason, Mr. Guilfoyle, Mr. Williams and Mr. G. Smith vote No. Motion fails 5-5. st Mr. Johnson: Madam Clerk, I’d like to set the date. It would be the 21 of August. That’s this Thursday. Mr. Lockett: Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Mr. Johnson: 1:00. Commissioner Lockett. Mr. Lockett: I would appreciate it if you would canvas this body to see who might be available for that date because some of us have other commitments. Mr. Johnson: Okay. Well, if you want to, and that’s fine, if you want offer an alternative date, that’s fine. I’m just -- Mr. Lockett: All I say is that date that you just said is not a good date. I’m not being particular. Mr. Johnson: Well, the reason why I said that date, let me say, is because I know he’s meeting with them on Friday so we could have potentially got this out of the way before he meet with them and may be good. Mr. Lockett: Today would have been a good day. 22 Mr. Johnson: Well, I agree with you. It should have been done today. I mean you’re just kicking the can even further but if you guys want to offer an alternative date, I’m open to do that. Mr. Mason: Is there committees Monday? Mr. Johnson: It is. Mr. Mason: Then we need to do it all at the same time and maybe that will force us to get something done. Mr. Johnson: Committees start at 12:45 so if you guys would be good with 12:00? The Clerk: We have legal meeting at 12. Mr. Johnson: So we’d have to do it about 11 or 11:30. Is 11:30 good with you all? Commissioner Williams. Mr. Williams: Thank you. Madam Clerk, I thought we at least might mention about moving legal to after the Commission meeting and stop holding the people up while we’re doing legal to have committee. Now the lawyer work for us, we don’t work for him. We need to make a decision, one of those tough decisions, to tell him when we have legal meeting. He don’t tell us. That’s what this body does. So we need to move the legal meeting until after the commission meeting and that’s when we talk about legal. If we got this thing important, we need to do that. Mr. Johnson: Madam Clerk, you had a – go ahead. The Clerk: Yes, sir, the legal meeting was adopted by ordinance with this commission. So it’s, you’d need to repeal that ordinance and then in fact you will repeal holding your legal meeting at 12 Noon. But of course you know if you – Mr. Williams: So if you put it on the committee agenda does it get it repealed? Tell me what process I need to do. Is that what I need to do? The Clerk: You can put it on the next agenda, yes, sir, to repeal that ordinance. Mr. Williams: Let’s put it on the next agenda then. That way we’ll start driving this train ourselves because it’s been running loose. th Mr. Johnson: So we have the will, 11:30 Monday. That’s the 25. That’s 11:30 a.m., Madam Clerk. The Clerk: Monday, August 25th at 11:30 a.m. Mr. Johnson: Okay, that’s it. We don’t have to have a motion on that, do we? 23 Ms. Davis: So move. The Clerk: No, sir. Mr. Johnson: No motion? The Clerk: No, sir. He said you had the authority to set that meeting. Mr. Johnson: Okay, well, this meeting is now adjourned. [MEETING ADJOURNED] Lena J. 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 August 19, 2014. ________________________ Clerk of Commission 24 25