Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 2009
THE JACKSON HERALD
PAGE 5A
Staff cuts proposed in City of Braselton budget
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
BRASELTON’S once busy
planning and development
department will lose half of its
staff starting July 1.
The move to trim three full
time positions from the six full
time positions in the department
comes as Braselton officials are
anticipating another tough fis
cal year with a sharp decline in
building permit fees.
“Obviously, planning and
development is actually funded
through all of our permitting fees
and those regulatory fees can't go
to other departments — because
their fees and revenues are not
there, we’re decreasing to meet
the revenues that we project for
them for next year,” said town
manager Jennifer Dees.
Dees presented the proposed
FYE 2010 budget during a pub
lic hearing on Thursday. No citi
zens were in the audience for the
meeting.
Braselton is proposing a FYE
2010 general fund budget of $2.6
million — a 14 percent drop
from the 2009 budget. The town
council will vote to adopt the
budget on Thursday, June 18, at
4 p.m.
Overall, Braselton officials are
expecting revenue to continue to
decline in the next fiscal year —
which starts on July 1,2009, and
ends on June 30,2009.
And one of the most notable
drops in revenue comes from
the town’s planning and develop
ment department, where fewer
new building permits have been
issued during the slumping econ
omy.
In the FYE 2009 budget,
Braselton expected $550,000
in building permit fees; in next
year’s budget, that figure plum
mets to $250,000.
Impact fees from new devel
opments in the town are also
expected to fall from $150,000
in FYE 2009 to $50,000 next
fiscal year.
Those funds are used to pay
for the bonds used to build the
library, and police and munici
pal court building — which both
opened in 2006.
The town’s urban redevel
opment agency bond payment
totals $485,580 a year, with
the police department fund
ing $295,000 of that amount,
according to Dees.
The remaining $190,580 will
be provided by the town’s gen
eral fund budget — although
Braselton is anticipating just
$50,000 in impact fees next fis
cal year.
“The way the law is written,
in the future, should we collect
impact fees in a year that are
more than what we need to pay
the bonds, those impact fees
can be used to pay back the
general fund that we’re using,”
Dees said.
Should Braselton issue more
building permits than currently
expected, Dees said she may ask
the council to amend its budget
during the year to account for
the additional revenue.
“We’ve had years when the
economy was so good and rev
enues were so high, that there
were projects that we could do
that we had not anticipated that
we would be able to do,” Dees
said of previous budgets.
But if the economy gets worse
— and dipping into the town’s
reserve isn’t enough — Dees
said she expects to return to the
council with a mid-year budget
adjustment to trim expenses.
The last time that happened
was in 2008, when all town
departments were asked to cut
their expenses by 10 percent,
she added.
With 2009 being a “tough
budget,” Dees said Braselton
officials should prepare for
“worse than we anticipate” in
the FYE 2010 budget.
“I hope that in January, I’m
sitting here and telling you that
there’s a lot more money than
we anticipated and asking you
to amend the budget,” she told
the council.
Among other revenue,
Braselton is predicting that
court fines stemming from the
police department will drop from
$425,000 to $350,000 next fiscal
year.
Meanwhile, revenue from a
three percent hotel/motel tax is
expecting to rise from $370,000
to $425,000.
And sales tax collections from
Jackson and Barrow counties are
budgeted at the same amount for
next fiscal year.
EXPENSES
Braselton’s proposed FYE
2010 budget doesn't include any
pay increases for town employ
ees or new positions, although
some additional overtime pay is
anticipated, Dees said.
Braselton currently has 41 full
time employees and seven part-
time employees. Of the three
employees leaving the planning
and development department,
two won’t work for the town
and another is being moved to an
open part-time position in anoth
er Braselton department.
At no time did town officials
ever consider adopting a property
tax in the proposed budget. Dees
said. Braselton doesn’t have a
town property tax.
“We’re living within our
means,” she added.
In the police department, while
the number of calls has decreased
— the severity of the calls have
increased, Dees said.
In the parks department,
expenses tied to repair and
maintenance of the Braselton
Mulberry RiverWalk and the
Braselton Park in downtown will
be shifted to the town's visitor’s
bureau authority.
The Braselton Library will
keep the same level of staffing,
but will benefit from two tempo
rary employees whose positions
will be funded by the Northeast
Georgia Regional Development
Center.
WATER/SEWER BUDGET
Braselton’s water and sewer
fund budget is predicting to have
a significantly reduced budget in
FYE 2010.
That proposed budget is
expected to drop 39 percent
from $6.7 million in FYE 2009
to $4.8 million next fiscal year.
Water and sewer tap fees —
which largely come from new
developments — are expected
to be cut in half from $3 million
to $1.5 million.
While some developers have
prepaid their sewer and water
tap fees, Braselton officials
don’t expect any new large-scale
projects in the 2010 fiscal year,
Dees said.
However, that could change
if Northeast Georgia Medical
Center is ready to tap into
Braselton’s system for a new
hospital on Thompson Mill
Road.
“If they decide to move for
ward, that would make an enor
mous difference to the bottom
line of water/sewer revenue, but
we don't want to anticipate any
revenues that we can't depend
on,” Dees said. “We would rath
er set our expenses and our rev
enues as low as we feel good.”
Water and sewer charges are
also expected to drop in 2010,
although Braselton foresees
having the same number of cus
tomers.
One key point of savings in
the proposed water/sewer bud
get is the purchase of less water
from other sources.
Water purchases reached $1.7
million in the FYE 2009 bud
get, but the town is expected to
spend $950,000 in 2010.
The savings comes from new
town wells that can be permit
ted to pump 1.2 million gal
lons of water a day, Dees said.
A water system improvement
project that allows Braselton to
purchase water from cheaper
sources and move it around
town is another savings.
Museum work continues; Pendergrass store to be repainted
BYANGELA GARY
THE LATEST project in the
renovation of the Crawford W.
Long Museum is the repainting
of the Pendergrass building.
Lesa Campbell, who is over
seeing the renovation, gave
an update to the council at a
Jefferson City Council meeting
Monday night.
A contract was awarded
to BonaFide Construction of
Athens to paint the Pendergrass
store. The company has the
low bid of $18,650. Campbell
said the only other work to be
done is “interior work” on the
exhibits and other areas of the
museum.
In other business at the meet
ing on Monday:
•engineer consultant Jerry
Hood reported that the city
has received federal stimu
lus money for the parking lot
expansion at the civic center.
•finance director Amie
Vaughan reported that the
library’s budget now has to
be included in the city’s audit.
She added that the city will
apply for an extension on the
June 30 deadline for the audit
in order to get the library funds
audited.
•public works director Jeff
Killip reported on road proj
ects, including the John B.
Brooks Road renovation where
utility lines are now being
relocated. Other road projects
include: Martin Luther King
Jr. renovation, design has been
approved; Pendergrass Road
project, still no funds avail
able; Lakeshore Drive paving
project, bids to be opened June
23; and Hog Mountain Road
improvements, the county has
completed the clearing.
•Killip reported that the
Georgia Environmental
Protection Division agreed
to a request from the city to
have “level 4A” water restric
tions. This will allow the city
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•Main Street director Beth
Laughinghouse reported that
the next step in the streetscape
project is to get approval from
property owners for easements.
Plans are for the construction
to get under way by Sept. 30.
•Laughinghouse reported
that the Farmers Market will
start on June 27 and will be
held every Saturday at 7 a.m.
She added that 17 vendors
have signed up to participate.
•Laughinghouse reported
that the cast has been named for
the community theater's first
production, “Steel Magnolias.”
She also announced that the
city’s Freedom Festival will be
held from 5-10 p.m. on June 27
and that the town’s new walk
ing tour brochure is available.
•Annette Raymond, direc
tor of Court Appointed Special
Advocates (CASA) for the
Juvenile Courts, reported on
the program, which served 103
children last year. She added
that the program is funded
through grants and donations
and asked the city to consider
donating $1,000 to the effort.
“I think this is a very valu
able service that CASA per
forms,” she said. “We have
some success stories that we
are very proud of—mainly so
those kids go where they need
to go.”
•an update was given on the
effort to restore the Confederate
monument in downtown
Jefferson. A citizen group is
working on this project. They
hope to receive a $40,000 grant
from the Georgia SCV to pay
for the monument. The group
has also collected $5,000 in
donations.
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City of Hoschton files
Supreme Court appeal
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
HOSCHTON HAS filed an
appeal with the Supreme Court
of Georgia after a judge ruled that
the city must pay a development
company almost $230,000.
The city filed its appeal on
Thursday — less than a month
after Jackson County Superior
Court Judge Currie Mingledorff
ruled that Hoschton must pay
Horizon Communities, LLC
$191,631 for a new sewer pump
station, and $38,347 in attorney’s
fees and costs.
Hoschton is asking the state
supreme court to overturn the
lower court’s decision, which
would require that the city imme
diately pay the development com
pany.
The city contends in court
documents that the lower court
couldn’t issue the order because
a lawsuit was filed against the
“city” and not the individual
council members in their official
capacities.
Hoschton also claims that the
lower court made an error in using
a zoning condition to make its
decision, and determining that the
city and its officials engaged in
“bad faith” activities.
“The case arose from efforts by
the City of Hoschton to provide
sewer service for new develop
ment and difficult questions of
how to pay for the infrastructure,”
according to the city’s court fil
ing.
In June 2005, the city approved
Horizon’s request to rezone prop
erty for a new subdivision, called
Brook Glen. City officials and
company representatives dis
cussed a new sewer pump station
that would serve Brook Glen and
several other developments in the
area.
Horizon agreed to build the
new sewer pump station in the
Brook Glen subdivision, provided
it could recoup a portion of its
investment in building the sewer
improvements by sharing the
costs with other developers and
receiving payment from the city
through future sewer connection
fees and tap fees.
One of the 2005 zoning condi
tions allowed the developer to
recoup a portion of the invest
ment from the sewer pump station
“from subsequent development
on a lot tap basis on or before
June 6,2010.”
Hoschton claims in court docu
ments that the city and devel
oper didn’t agree on any particular
repayment plan when that zoning
condition was adopted.
The city contends that Horizon
can’t get its entire investment costs
prior to June 6,2010.
“The time to test the Mayor
and Council’s exercise of the dis
cretion does not arrive until after
the condition expires on June 6,
2010,” the city contends in court
documents.
Hoschton further says that there
have been no “subsequent devel
opments” besides the Brook Glen
subdivision using the sewer pump
station.
After the city approved the
2005 zoning plans for Brook
Glen, Horizon began discussing
arrangements with developers to
connect their projects to the sewer
pump station.
Horizon or its representatives
— Ken Gary and Kelley Gary
— can’t collect sewer tap or con
nection fees, the city contends.
“Mr. (Kelley) Gary, however,
attempted to exact monies from
other developers and sought exor
bitant fees to ‘allow’ them to tie in
to the pump station in the Brook
Glen Subdivision,” the city says
in court documents.
One of the developers later
asked the city for a zoning vari
ance to allow additional residen
tial lots after Gary said it would
cost $200,000-250,000 to connect
to the sewer pump station.
The developer of another proj
ect, Creekside Village — formerly
known as the Elite Development
— came to the city and agreed to
pay $200,000 to help with sewer
system upgrades rather than pay
the “exorbitant” or “stiff’ fee Gary
was seeking, the city contends.
However, that same develop
er testified in court that in order
to receive zoning approval for
his mixed-use project, his com
pany would have to pay the city
$200,000 as a sewer connection
fee.
Judge Mingledorff ruled in
May that Hoschton doesn’t have
an impact fee on new develop
ments and can’t collect fees, such
as the $200,000 it received in
January 2008 for the Creekside
Village project.
Hoschton claims that the
Creekside developer asked city
officials what it would take to get
access to the city’s sewer system.
City planner Wistar Harmon
said he would “have to contrib
ute to the general upgrade of the
aging system and requested an
amount of $200,000,” according
to court documents. The devel
oper immediately agreed to that
amount.
“It was a zoning requirement
for the City to be able to provide
sewer service to a very dense
development and the actual con
dition in the zoning approval has
been amended to reflect that real
ity,” Hoschton said it in its appeal.
“If builders of homes on lots or
other users purchase taps or con
nections they will have to pay the
connection fee required at that
time.”
Hoschton says it has never
denied that Gary can recoup
some of his investment from sub
sequent developments using the
sewer pump station his company
installed.
But, the lower court viewed
those governmental functions by
the city to provide sewer services
as evidence of bad faith, Hoschton
claims in its appeal. The city also
says there is no evidence that
Hoschton interfered with any
agreement.
In deciding to appeal the lower
court’s decision, the Hoschton
City Council also agreed to “com
municate and cooperate” with the
National Bank of Georgia in its
inquiry and status of the case.
Records obtained through the
Georgia Open Records Act show
that Horizon owes the bank $2
million in property loans.
The bank contends that
Horizon’s portion of any court
award or settlement should not
be disbursed without the bank’s
authorization.
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