About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (June 24, 2019)
Page 2, June 24, 2019, The Islander ^AGE 2 N County approves budget; makes board and commission appointments By Matthew J. Permar City defers MOU with county for SIU By Pamela Permar-Shierling Last week (June 19) the Brunswick City Commission deferred approving an MOU (Memorandum of Under standing) with Glynn County creating the Glynn Brunswick Special Investi gations Unit (SIU). The Glynn Brunswick Narcotics Enforcement Team (GBNET) was dis banded due to issues within the team from the Glynn Comity Police Depart ment. All issues have been resolved and new policies have been put in place to prevent similar issues in the future. A result of meetings between Brunswick Police Department and Glynn Comity Police Department, a new MOU has been created and signed by both Chiefs of Police. The Glynn County Commission passed the MOU at their June 6 meeting. According to City Manager Jim Drumm, the vote was deferred due to short staffing in the Brunswick police department. “We can’t meet the City’s staffing needs,” Drumm said, “so the item was deferred indefinitely.” • The commission also voted to sus pend L Street Liquors alcohol beverage license for 30 days and fine them $750 due to underage sale violations while the business was on probation by the city for previous violations. • The commission deferred select ing a contractor for the demolition of the Fourth Street school because the cost to remove the building’s asbestos had not been determined. Brenda Daiss, Planning, Develop ment & Codes Director for the city, described the building as a safety haz ard. A portion on the south side has collapsed, and the roof has collapsed taking several sections of wall with it. When asked what asbestos abate ment would cost Daiss estimated be tween $10,000 and $15,000 but no Request for Proposal has been sent out. Daiss did not know how long the contractor would hold the demolition contract price and said she would ask for an extension of the contract. J. Hiers Co., LLC submitted the successful bid at $97,000. • The commission held another bud get hearing prior to the regular meet ing to answer commission questions as well as questions from the public. Mayor Cornell Harvey asked City Manager Drumm about the URA (Ur ban Redevelopment Agency) budget amount of $300,000. Drumm said, “We won’t have the $300,000 unless the Perry School site sells.” The Perry School site is on Altama Ave. and was acquired by the city in a property trade with the Glynn Comity School System. The sale of this site is included in the city’s fiscal year 2020 budget for $600,000; $300,000 of those sale proceeds are budgeted to go to the URA. Drumm said he recommended giv ing the URA $100,000 ‘up front’ to do what they want to do with it. ‘We would review their budget,” Drumm said, “which they are cur rently working on. They didn’t prepare a budget because they didn’t know we were giving them the money.” Drumm said the city would treat the URA exactly like the DDA (Down town Development Authority). “They are the two arms of economic development,” he said. “The have dif ferent duties.” Mayor Harvey pointed out that DDA has two staff members. The remaining $300,000 balance of the $600,000 property sale proceeds is budgeted for a non-specific land pur chase or purchases. Mayor Harvey commented on the large number of blighted property within the city. ‘We have more rental than owned property,” he said. He said he wants an ordinance that will force landlords to keep up their rental properties. “They would have six months to improve the property or pay a higher property tax,” he said. Drumm said, ‘We have one addi tional code officer who does nothing but check on blighted properties.” City Attorney Brian Corry also said he was working on two ordinances to address blighted properties. Com. Johnny Cason said any ordi nances had to go both ways. The ordi nance needs to address what both the property owner and resident must do. For the first time the city budget included a Mass Transit Fund in case the city receives federal and state transportation grants totaling almost $400,000. The department would re quire in infusion of $43,000 from the general fund as well. A $423,000 expense to purchase buses is included. The budget includes $5 million in revenue from either bond or loan pro ceeds from the Oglethorpe Conference Center. The FY 2020 budget for the Conference Center is $6.4 million. Debt repayment for is budgeted at $359,000. To date $397,180 in SPLOST V dol lars has been spent on the Oglethorpe Conference Center. Almost $296,000 has been paid to the architect Gunn Meyerhoff and Shay. According to City Manager Drumm the budget reflects enough money that the Commission could move forward with the 20,000 square foot conference center recommended by the URA. No increase is planned for the mill- age rate,which is 13.219. Sanitation fees remain the same at $22.20 per month for residential customers. The storm water rate will increase from $3.96 per residential unit to $4.50 per residential unit. Residential customers are charged one residen tial unit per year so the annual resi dential storm water bill for 2020 will be $54. The fund is budgeted to collect $862,000 in revenue for 2020 and no cash transfers from the general fund are budgeted. The city commission will hold a spe cial called meeting Wednesday, June 26 at 6 p.m. to pass the budget. During their regular meeting last week (June 20) the Glynn County Board of Commissioners approved their budget for fiscal year 2020, which starts July 1, 2019. The fiscal year 2020 budget totals $132 million for all funds with an es timated general fund budget of $72.3 million. The general fund is balanced with out the use of the fund balance saving it for emergencies. County-wide revenues and expen ditures were reduced approximately $1.7 million between 2019 and 2020. Overall revenue growth for the county is projected to be flat although significant increases in Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) and Title Ad Valor em Tax (TAVT) revenues are reflected in the 2020 budget. A 97% collection rate is projected for property taxes. The reasons given for the flat rev enues include no new capital leases in 2020, a more accurate reflection of EMS billing collections, and changes to the tax districts to reflect police and EMS services. The largest use of a fund balance to balance the 2020 budget came in the fire protection fund; $616,000 was needed to balance the fire protection fund and this brought discussion from the commission as well as the fire chief. A reduction in the fire protection district revenue was due to all the insurance premium tax revenue going into the police fund as well as a reduc tion in the SAFER grant revenue col lections for 2020. Glynn County received this grant from FEMA which ends March 31, 2021. It was to cover the hiring of 15 new county fire personnel. In fiscal year 2019 the county’s cost for the grant was $172,000; the 2020 cost will be $242,000; in 2021 the cost will be $252,000 according to Tamara Munson, Interim CFO and Finance Manager. The grant was $2 million for three years; the county received $1.27 mil lion from FEMA over this period and matched $795,000. “There have been vacancies throughout the life of the grant,” Mun son said. Munson said the 15 firefighter po sitions must be eliminated at the end of the grant or the county would bear 100% of the cost which she estimated at $1 million a year. She did not know if the county would qualify for back to back SAFER grants. Fire Chief Randy Jordan told the commission that it always had been his intent to add 15 permanent fire fighters to the force. “The department is understaffed Turn to Page 12 County budget Big Green Egg The Ultimate Cooking Experience' Unleash Your Backyard Gourmet! No other outdoor cooker can match the quality and versatility of a Big Green Egg. Grilling, Roasting, Baking or Smoking - it truly is The Ultimate Cooking Experience! L BigGreenEgg.com CCOPYRK5HT BJG GREEII EGG ICC . Island ACE Hardware 1701 Frederica Road • St. Simons Island • 912-638-3800
