About The Banks County news. (Homer, Banks County, Ga.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (July 30, 2008)
WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2008 THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS PACE 5A Citizens question Baldwin council about finances E ~ mal1 olerts available f° r website BY SHARON HOGAN everal Baldwin residents questioned Baldwin City Council members about the financial state of the city at Monday's council meeting. The first resident to speak, Linda Caudell, said, “I am concerned about two articles in the paper (The Banks County News) this week.” One of the articles Caudell was referring to ran on the front page of the July 23 edi tion and the headline read ‘Baldwin in the red for '07.' The article stated the city ended 2007 with a negative $178,000 net balance for the general fund. Addressing Interim Mayor Ray Holcomb, Caudell asked, ‘‘Can you offer a report to the citizens each month to let us know how the budget is running?” Caudell did not receive an answer to this question. Caudell also questioned Holcomb about the firm that is overseeing the city’s sewer and water plants not being on the agenda for Monday's meeting. ‘‘We will have a meeting in August on this, a public hearing,” Holcomb said. Holcomb said, ‘‘We will not be elaborating on the budget tonight, our finance manager (Betty Harper) could not be here. I am very disap pointed in the way the paper brought out this audit.” Caudell said, ‘‘I am very con cerned about these issues, but I feel like we need a city manager. I think if you took a poll in here tonight you would find that this is what everyone wants.” Caudell said she was not saying Harper is not capable of this. “But she is not doing her job,” Caudell said. Caudell said, “What I am trying to say is, I have been in business myself and I don't think you (the council) should have to go down and run the city everyday.” Caudell said the council should be a mutual board and shouldn’t be running the day to day operations of the city. Caudell said, “Ray, we've had a city manager in the past.” Holcomb said, “There is no yes or no answer to this.” Caudell said the city is paying several people to handle the finances and they need to look at using these salaries to hire a city manager. BY SHARON HOGAN The Baldwin City Council approved spending an additional $683 for repairs to the pump at the raw water station at Monday’s council meeting. Interim Mayor Ray Holcomb said the council had previously approved an estimated cost of $10,405 for repairs to the pump. When they start ed taking the pump out for repairs additional problems were found, Holcomb said. “They will have to replace the external casing,” Holcomb said. “This is the reason for the additional cost. This is the pump that gets the water from the river.” OTHER BUSINESS In other business: •the council unanimously approved payment of an invoice to Engineering Management, Inc., Lawrenceville, for $29,040 for work on the Park Avenue water line project. The invoice will be paid out of grant funds for this project. •the council approved a resolu tion authorizing the adoption of the Banks County Hazard Mitigation Plan. “This is a plan that all coun ties and cities have to go through for disaster,” Holcomb said. All city officials have to go through special training for this. Holcomb said, “This is necessary for cities and counties to receive federal mitigating funding,” Holcomb said. A copy of the plan will be on fde at city hall for review. •the council unanimously approved the surplus of a 1999 Ford F-350 Dually diesel that the fire depart ment has been using for medical runs that do not require the crash truck. Baldwin Fire Chief Joe Roy asked the council to approve the surplus sale of this truck and take the money from the sale of the dually and buy a smaller vehicle to run the calls with, to be more cost efficient. Council member Jeff Murray said, “We’re not going to have to come up with any additional money on this.” Holcomb said the city should be able to sell the truck for more than was spent to purchase it. Holcomb said the truck would be listed on govdeals.com and. Holcomb said, “Look at the sala ries of the other cities.” Caudell said the City of Baldwin has always had a city manager. Holcomb disagreed with her on this issue. Caudell said, “It’s not working for the council and the mayor to run the city.” Holcomb said all the problems with the audit have been addressed with the auditors. “There are six issues with the audit and we are $4 million in debt,” Caudell said. Caudell also said the citizens were never told that the city was $178,000 in the red last year. Council member Beverly Holcomb said the city is in debt from the 1970s on bonds. R. Holcomb said the bonds being referred to were 50-year bonds. B. Holcomb said, “We are paying for a sewer plant that is not even operating that was built in the 70s.” R. Holcomb said again, “We are going to set up a meeting to discuss the finances, but Betty could not be here tonight because she is in class.” Council member Jeff Murray said, “One thing we have done since I came on, we have started a bud get committee with Beverly, Betty Harper, myself and the newly-elect ed mayor. We met with the auditors last week and went over the audit and asked questions about the audit and Betty couldn't be here tonight to discuss this.” Caudell again asked, “Can we have a financial statement month ly?” R. Holcomb replied, “We'll look into that.” Murray said, we meet quarterly on this and we look at every line item on every budget. “The council does it quarterly. Betty probably does this monthly,” Murray said. Caudell then asked each council member individually how they felt about a city manager. Each council member said they did not have a problem with a city manager, but they were concerned with the funds to finance this position. Council member Robert Bohannon said, “I think a city manager would be fine, it would take a lot off the council.” Council member Rodney King said, “I am all for it.” R. Holcomb said, “I would love “If it doesn’t bring what we want we don’t have to sell it.” Baldwin resi dent Andrea Harper said, “Can we have some assurance that you won’t spend any more than what the truck brings.” Holcomb said, “We will not. We hope to spend less.” to have a city manager if we could afford it.” Baldwin resident Elsie Sumner, Crooked Pine Trail, said, “I would like to see a running financial state ment and our debt on paper. It is going to be all of us that are in this pot with this debt.. .1 am so for a city manager, I cannot begin to tell you how much. We (Citizens for a Better Baldwin Group) have offered, if you will recall, to get involved with you all with a planning committee to help you. We have offered to help and if you all could take another look at this and see that there are those of us who are really, really concerned with what is going on in our city.” Sumner said she thought a com prehensive land plan is in order for the city also. “If you don't have that in place, there are those of use who are will ing to help,” Sumner said. “I would hope that you could cut here, cut there and cut everywhere and ask us as citizens to do something to help. Every city needs a city manager. It would take a great load off the council.” Sumner said, “In the hiring of the water company, that we are paying $87,000 per month. I'd like to know how you arrived at that figure or how they arrived at that figure.” Sumner asked if it is contractual and has it been signed for this year. R. Holcomb said, “It’s an open account that can be terminated with 90 days notice from either party.” Holcomb said that as for the plan ning committee, the citizens have discussed, “I was hoping we could wait until after the election so the new mayor can be part of it.” Holcomb explained that Woodard and Curran, the company hired to run the city's water and sewer plant, is an engineering management group. Sumner said, “There is one more city in the state of Georgia that has this water management group. Do we need this? Can you revisit?” Holcomb replied the city will be having a public meeting in August on this. Resident James Sumner said, “I want to state that I, too, believe that we can't afford not to have a city manager to run this city. I know ya’ll do the best job you can. But you need somebody completely responsible.” •Holcomb introduced the four can didates who qualified to seek the mayor’s seat in the city election in September. Mike Kelley, Thomas Loudermilk, Jerry Neace and Mark Reed qualified during last week’s qualifying period. Sumner said this would be like a company without a chief executive officer (CEO) to run it. “Who would run it? The department heads? No,” Sumner said. “I think you do a good job, but it is not the same as some one overseeing it. OTHER CONCERNS •Andrea Harper, 501 Willingham Avenue, asked the council about the city's comprehensive plan. B. Holcomb said, “We are working on that now. We have one that will be up in 2010.” Harper asked if this would be something that a committee could help with. “Please call on us if we can help you on the comprehensive plan, we’ve got to get those grants,” Harper said. “You might also want to look at a zoning board to look over the ordinances,” Harper said. R. Holcomb said one of the prob lems with enforcing the ordinances is that they are outdated. •Caudell also questioned the coun cil about a store that is located beside The Steak House in Baldwin. Caudell said, “Does the store beside The Steak House have a busi ness license?” R. Holcomb said they do have a license. City clerk Brandy Kyle said, “They have a surplus store license.” Caudell asked, “Are they allowed to hang stuff outside?” She said she didn’t think it looked good for the city. “Is there no code enforcement for that?” Caudell said. Holcomb said there is nothing in the ordinance that says he can or can’t hang stuff outside. The prop erty in question is currently zoned highway business. Holcomb read the list of business es allowed under the current code. “The code doesn't say anything on this,” Holcomb said. Caudell said, “Is that not a call that you and the council can make?” Holcomb said the council would need to take a look at this. Caudell questioned the council about the city's code enforcement officer and his salary of $35,000 per year. “Does he do much code enforcement?” Caudell asked. Murray said he tried to keep him busy on this. “He's also the assistant police chief and the building inspector,” Murray said. Code Enforcement Officer Shawn Rhoades has three jobs with the city with a total salary of $35,000, Murray said. •the council met in closed session for 50 minutes to discuss litigation and personnel. No action was taken. The council will hold their monthly work session meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 7, in the courtroom at the police department. Be sure to sign up to get an e-mail alert every time something is added to The Banks County News website. The new website, www. BanksNewsTODAY.com, is updated several times each week with the lat est information about what is going on in Banks County. Updates are often posted on a daily basis. “This gives our readers the ability to find out the latest about what is going on in their community,” said nations. Retests will be included in the second round of AYP determina tions, which are usually released in September. Erwin said he expects the gradua tion results to increase to meet AYP following the August recounts. He also added that it was more difficult for schools to make AYP because of the state's tougher math cur riculum, more rigorous tests, and heightened requirements for high school students. Considering the higher standards set for meeting AYP this year, Erwin said he is satis fied with the system's performance. Banks County Middle School’s eighth grade math scores are among the top 10 in the state. Most middle school subject areas and subgroups are far above that of the state and the region. The students with disabili ties subgroup at the middle school scored higher in many areas than the majority of other schools' overall student subgroups. Schools that miss AYP two years in a row are put on the needs- improvement list. Those schools by the authority for expenses incurred in promoting the county and enter taining industrial prospects which shall be paid from the industrial development funds.” The specific figure was not included in the draft document. Abernathy said the DA decided that there is no tracking authority on the one mill tax that is collected for development authority purposes. “We want an acknowledgement signed off on how the money is used,” Abernathy said. Abernathy said the DA has been in existence for 20 years. “Not a lot of growth during this time in development,” he said. The DA recommends that the coun ty hire either a part-time or a full time person to work on economic development in Banks County. The DA approved a motion at their meeting on July 16 of $200,000. At a called meeting on July 21, the authority voted to kill that motion. Abernathy said the DA is asking editor Angela Gary. “This is a new venture for us and we appreciate any comments and input on the process.” To sign up to be notified when the site is updated, go to the top of the page and click on “email alert” and sign up. The new BanksNewsTODAY.com site will also allow viewers to add comments to articles. Input on the new website may be sent to the edi tor atAngieEditor@aol.com. must offer extra tutoring for strug gling students and give parents the option to send their children to another, higher-performing school. Schools on the needs-improvement list for several years in a row face more severe sanctions, like having to replace teachers and enter into a contract with the state on improving performance. Regardless of the graduation recal culations, Banks County High School will not face any consequences as it is the first year of not making AYR A news release issued Friday by the state Department of Education explained it was hard for all schools to make AYP in 2008 for two rea sons. First, the percentage of stu dents who had to pass state tests, such as the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test and Georgia High School Graduation Test, in math, reading and English went up for all grade levels. Also, students were doing more rigorous work and taking more rig orous tests in 2008, particularly in mathematics. the county to help determine the fig ure that the authority should set aside for this position. Hart said at Tuesday’s meeting he had some issues with the wording in the agreement. “I think we need to look at the wording of the whole contract,” Hart said. Abernathy said the county’s attor ney, Randall Frost, was the one who drew up the agreement. Cain said, “As far as approving it today, I would rather do it when all three board members are here. I don’t have a problem with it, but I would really like for all three members to be here.” Commissioner Joe Barefoot was absent from Tuesday’s BOC meet ing. Abernathy said the DA would take up the language issue at their next meeting to be held at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, August 20. Cain said, “We can take this up at the next commission meeting.” / \ We Need an Effective State Senator We need a State Senator that can do the people’s business then go back to a job like most everybody else. We do not need any more Professional Politicians anywhere in America, especially Georgia. Jim Butterworth will be that EFFECTIVE State Senator. The Nancy Schaefer Campaign has paid large sums of money for attack ads against Jim Butterworth. She has tried to hide the fact that she is paying for the attack ads. Get out your magnifying glass and read the small print in last week’s paper. It says “Paid for by the Candidate” at the bottom of each of these attacks. Why did she not bring this issue up earlier in the campaign? Because she knows the people of Georgia do not want or need a legislature like we have in Washington D.C. Does Nancy Schaefer want your government controlled only by retired rich people or others who don’t have to work? Schaefer is attacking Jim Butterworth because he has a job! Jim Butterworth has served on the Habersham County Commission for the past three and a half years. In this time, he has been vice chairman and now is chairman of the Board of Commissioners. He has missed one meeting in all the time he has been in office. This is the best record of any current commissioner. Habersham County is the home county of both Butterworth and Schaefer. In the election held on July 15, Butterworth received 3315 votes from Habersham County. Schaefer received 1401 votes from Habersham County. This says that Habersham County people believe Butterworth can be effective. Again, this is the home county of both candidates. Some State Politicians are crying out for large pay increases for the state legislature. They want the pay increased from the current $17,000 per year to $52,000 or even $70,000 per year. Check out this May 2008 article on the internet: http://georgiaunfiltered.blogspot.com/2008/05/state-legislators-pay-increase-would.html Is Nancy Schaefer one of these big spenders? These big spenders say it would only cost 12.2 million dollars I per year in additional tax money to fund the new higher salaries. Enough is Enough. These legislators are out of touch. Four dollar gas and three dollar bread seem to mean nothing to them. Send all these professional legislators a message on August 5. Vote for Smaller More Efficient Government Vote for Jim Butterworth on August 5 th Paid for by Citizens to Elect Jim Butterworth Baldwin council gives approval for repairs to water station AYP... continued from page 1A Brown... continued from page 1A
