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VOL. 117 NO. 6 Millen, Ga. 30442 LEGAL ORGAN OF JENKINS COUNTY SINCE 1903 Wednesday, August 9, 2023 • 750 Public hearing on SWMP packs the courtroom DEBORAH BENNETT Millen News Editor The courthouse courtroom was packed Tuesday afternoon for a public hearing on the Jenkins County Com missioners’ Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP), and those attending came packing plenty of questions. Chairman Horace Weathersby ex plained that the hearing was for public comments and questions concerning the SWMP only. However, many of those who chose to speak publicly were eager to express their concerns about the proposed landfill. Cheryl Tatum addressed the group with numerous concerns about the SWMP. She questioned why several sections in the document contained references to a Keep Jenkins Beauti ful website when she had been unable to find one. References to a “manned recycling center” were a source of her concern as well. “Manned recycling stations are too expensive. Bulloch County tried that and it was just too costly. They now have unmanned centers,” she said. Tatum also questioned references to “zoning” in the SWMP when Jenkins County has no zoning. “That needs to be re moved,” she said. SEE Tatum expressed her SWMP, opinion that the document 7 Cheryl Tatum is shown addressing the Jenkins County Commissioners with her concerns regarding the county’s draft a Solid Waste Management Plan during a public hearing held Tuesday. A tree fell on the home of Alice Farr in Perkins. Fortunately, there was no damage to the inside of the home and no one was injured. Storms create havoc for Planters EMC DEBORAH BENNETT Millen News Editor As storms moved across Jenkins and Screven counties Monday night crews with Planters Electric Membership Corporation were out in the aftermath restoring power and clearing fallen trees. At the peak of the storm, the cooperative had 3,000 meters affected by the outages. Jenkins County had ap proximately 250 meters out of power, and Screven County had around 2,700 meters out. “At one point during the storms, a large Oak tree fell on a main feeder near Sylvania causing the en tire Sylvania substation to go out,” said Randy Hill, member services manager. SEE Planters’ crews worked through the STORM night Monday and were still restoring r BOE announces 9.3% tax increase DEBORAH BENNETT Millen News Editor The Jenkins County Board of Edu cation (BOE) announced this week that it is has tentatively adopted a millage rate which will necessitate a tax increase of 9.36%. School Superintendent Dr. John Paul Hearn released the following statement. “Each year, the Board of Tax Assessors is required to review the assessed value of taxable property within the county for property tax purposes. When looking at assessed values, the tax assessor looks at the trend in prices from recently sold properties and uses that as a guide to determine current values. For us in Jenkins County, our most recent assessment saw property values rise sharply. When this happens, Georgia Law requires a rollback millage rate to be computed so that the new rate will produce the same ggg total revenue on the new Dnc . , but, tax digest that last year s rate would have produced ^ The Millen Community House has been getting some repairs and renova tions in recent weeks. City Council discusses millage rate at meeting DEBORAH BENNETT Millen News Editor Millen City Council discussed during its regular meeting Aug. 1 the possibility of rolling back last year’s millage rate of 7.219 mils to 5.528 mils for fiscal year 2023-2024. Jeff Brantley, city manager, re ported that this was the maximum the millage rate could be set without it being considered a tax increase. This rate would generate approximately $295,000 in revenue for the city, which is $2,500 less than last year. Councilman Giovonni Shumake expressed concern since the city ended FY 2023-2024 with a nega tive $104,000 balance. It was noted that the city has raised utility rates to compensate for the negative balance. SEE Mayor King MILLAGE RATE, Rocker remarked, 3 Shining a light on the Open Meetings Act SHELLIE SMITLEY thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com Editor’s note: This is part two of a two-part series on Georgia’s open records and open meetings laws. It is published to help local government agencies and entities, as well as the general public, understand how to follow the law. Public policy in the State of Georgia requires that all state agencies conduct business in the open and maintain records that are available to the pub lic. Georgia’s Open Meetings Act requires that state and local govern mental bodies conduct their business so the public can review and monitor elected officials and others working on their behalf. The law requires that government meetings are open to the public. The law also requires govern mental bodies to provide reasonable notice of all meetings. Which entities must transact business in the open? Under the Open Meetings Act, each of the following must transact busi ness in the open: city councils, county commissions, regional development authorities, library boards, school boards, planning commissions, zon ing boards and hospital authorities. Most meetings covered by the Open Meetings Act must be open. Whenever the minimum number of members are present at a meeting, enough to make the proceedings of that meeting valid, the meeting must be open to the public. Even meetings conducted by telephonic, electronic, wireless or other virtual means must be open. Any official action of any type taken at a meeting that is not open is invalid and may be set aside if an action is brought promptly. When are meetings exempt from the law? The Open Meetings Act provides exceptions that allow certain closed meetings and some confidential ac tions. However, a government entity may close a meeting only if a specific statutory exception applies. Addition ally, a meeting can be closed to the public only by a majority vote taken during a properly noticed and open meeting. The most commonly used exceptions are for personnel matters (but only for discussion and delibera tion by the governmental entity, not for votes), attorney-client discussion of actual or potential lawsuits or claims and discussion of real estate transactions. In a closed meeting, an agency may take preliminary votes regarding real estate, but a transac tion does not become binding until a public vote is taken. How must government provide open access and adequate notice of meetings? The public must be given full access to all open meetings and may make video and audio recordings of all open meetings. In addition to mandating open meetings, the law requires that agencies provide notice to the public in advance of all meetings, even emer gency meetings. The law requires that in the case of regular meetings, agencies post at least one week in advance, a notice containing the information about the meeting in a conspicuous location at the agency’s regular meeting place and on its website, if the agency has one. Special or emergency meetings that are not held at the regularly posted time and place require more rigorous notice procedures. At least 24 hours in advance, notice must be posted at the regular meeting place and oral notifi cation must be provided to the news paper that serves as the legal organ for the county. In counties where the legal organ is published less than four times a week, notice also must be given to any local media outlets that make a written request to be so notified. Such outlets must be notified at least 24 hours in advance of the SEE called meeting. OPEN MEETING ACT, In those rare 3