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Wednesday, October 12, 2011 – 9:00 a.m.
All five commissioners were present for this meeting as well as County Clerk Teresa Watson to take the minutes, County Manager (CM) Bill Sawyer, and Rob Morton and Tom Morton as legal counsel for Pike County.
District 3 Commissioner Tommy Powers was recognized with a certificate, plaque, and pin for more than 120 hours of training over the past several years to become a certified county commissioner through ACCG (Association County Commissioners of Georgia) with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at UGA. Commissioner Powers attended classes on finance, human resources, county law, economic development and ethics as well as attending district meetings, participating in leadership activities, serving on ACCG policy committees and completing a project summary in order to earn this honor. Congratulations!
1. CALL TO ORDER .................................................................................... Chairman Doug Mangham
2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE ................................................................... Chairman Doug Mangham
3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA - (O.C.G A. 50-14-1 (e) (1))
4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES - (O.C.G.A.§ 50-14-1(e) (2)) - September 27, 2011 Regular Meeting.
5. INVITED GUESTS
a. Proclamation declaring November 6, 2011 as Retired Educators Day in Georgia will be presented to
Mary Milner, Public Relations Chairperson of the Pike County Retired Educators Association.
Mary Milner won the Georgia Retired Educator Award this year for serving over 1,000 hours in Pike and the surrounding communities this year. She tutored, drove others to classes, and performed other volunteer work to earn this award. Bonnie Byrd Gardner is retiring this year after 4 years of service as the director. Congratulations to Mary Milner for this honor!
6. REPORTS – From Commissions, Departments, Committees, County Manager, Attorney
a. Monthly Reports submitted from County Departments and County Authorities, including a
Revenue/Expenditure Statement for all departments, and a summary check register.
Commissioner Bass commended CM Sawyer and Commissioner Jarrett for attending Water and Sewer Authority meetings in the past several months.
b. County Manager Report
• County Manager Comments: CM Sawyer advised that the finances are changing daily in Pike County. Said that the outlook was rather bleak 2 months ago with the commissioners giving the authority to borrow $800,000 but said that through a lot of hard work and efforts from many in the county, only $400,000 has been used and that may be all that we have to use this year. "We are moving in the right direction," he said.
• Update on County finances for the following funds/accounts:
General Fund $63,290.22 (last meeting $12,630.83)
Jury Account $0.00
Cash Reserve Account $2,677.37 (last meeting $2,677.37)
Jail Fund $33,892.45 (last meeting $32,056.37)
E-911 Fund $3,286.39 (last meeting $9,566.36)
DATE Fund $11,392.91 (last meeting $10,596.99)
Juvenile Court Fund $26,011.29 (last meeting $28,536.68)
Residential Impact Fees $270,619.09 (last meeting $268,206.37)
Commercial Impact Fees $12,118.43 (last meeting $12,117.38)
General Obligation SPLOST Tax Bond Sinking Fund 2011 ............... $129,322.52 (last meeting $38,663.11)
c. Commissioner Reports:
District 1 Carol Bass: Said that she attended training on Monday and Tuesday. Said that she really loved the law classes on Tuesday and learned quite a bit from these 2 days of classes. Said that she would like to discuss some of her ideas for Pike County from those classes with CM Sawyer and, after getting his input, bring her ideas to the Board. She said that she appreciated the opportunity to attend these classes.
District 2 Tamra Jarrett: Said that she is glad to be back at the meetings and appreciated everyone's thoughts while she was out. She reminded the CM that she had requested an Impact Fee Workshop to be held sometime soon.
District 3 Tommy Powers: Thanked CM Sawyer for the work that he has done on Pike finances over the past year. Said that the county is way beyond where it was last year.
Update 10.18.11:
District 4 Don Collins: Clarified some misconceptions that he had to the public about the closing of the landfill. Said that there was a meeting back in 2002 when then-Public Works Director Cathy Lynn advised that the county was one inspection away from closing the landfill. Said that he attended a meeting on October 6, 2011 with the EPD with Chairman Mangham, CM Sawyer, Public Works Director Todd Goolsby. Commissioner Collins clarified some misconceptions that he had about the closing prior to this meeting. First, Pike County cannot close the landfill because it has to remain open for 30 years instead of 20 years. Said that the county was successful in the negotiations because--with a letter--the county should be able to go from monitoring the wells every year to a sampling of the wells every two years. He said that the participants were advised that we can sample the water throughout the site with less expensive wells until we get to the edge of the migration at the edge of the landfill. Overall, he said that the meeting was successful because it should save the county some money and the county now knows what is expected of it. He also said that he talked to former Public Works Director former Public Works Director Cathy Lynn who clarified that when she resigned, she left a letter that should have been signed by the county commissioners to the EPA that would have successfully closed the landfill but did not remove the stipulation that it remain dormant for 30 years or the groundwater monitoring. Mr. Sawyer is going to find out if the letter exists.
d. County Attorney Report to Commissioners: None.
7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: None.
8. NEW BUSINESS
a. Approval/denial of request from Downtown Development Authority for use of the Courthouse
grounds on Saturday, 11-5-11, for their annual Sale on the Square. Staff recommends approval.
Motion to approve. 5-0.
b. Approval/denial of request from Ben Maxedon, American Legion Post 197, to use Courthouse
grounds on Friday, 11-11-11, for their annual Veterans Day Ceremony. Staff recommends approval.
Mr. Maxedon asked if there was a way to automatically renew this request without coming before the Commissioners every year and was told that there was not because one Board's decisions do not bind another. Motion to approve. 5-0.
c. Approval/denial of City of Meansville Volunteer Fire Department Intergovernmental Agreement
and Mutual Aid Agreement. County Manager and Fire Chief recommend approval.
Motion to approve. 5-0. [Note from the Editor: The following is items that are included in the Pike County/City of Meansville Mutual Aid Agreement.
This Intergovernmental Agreement was signed on October 4, 2011 by the Meansville City Council. The two parties have agreed to work together under the Georgia Mutual Aid Act with the following stipulations: Section 1.01-Both agree to respond to fire and medical calls with automatic aid of firefighters and equipment as needed inside the Meansville City and in the county; Section 1.02-The agreement can be changed, revised or modified at any time by a written agreement of both parties; Section 1.02-The agreement may be terminated by either party at any time with 30 days prior, written notice; and Section 1.04-All similar prior mutual aid agreements are null and void. Pike County also agrees to pay $5,000 to the City of Meansville which will match that contribution with the next payment being due and payable on or before January 15, 2012 and January 15 of each following year. The City and County agree to cooperate with each other in addressing insurance carrier ISO ratings. The County agrees that the City of Meansville will be covered under the County's medical response license so Meansville can respond to medical emergency calls. Note from the Editor: I sincerely hope that this means that Meansville will be training with Pike County. We need everyone to be trained to follow the same procedures and protocol on a fire and on a medical call.] The Memorandum of Understanding that will address additional matters has not been signed yet to my knowledge and will need to be approved by both the City of Meansville and the County Manager with the approval of the Board of Commissioners.
d. Approval/denial of auditor-recommended Budget Amendment to FY 2010-11 for year-end
adjustments.
Auditor and staff recommends approval.
Motion to approve. 4-1 with Commissioner Carol Bass voting against it. (See below for more.)
9. PUBLIC COMMENT (Limited to 5 minutes per person) – None
10. EXECUTIVE SESSION: 9:23 a.m.
a. County Manager requests consultation with county attorney, or other legal counsel, to discuss pending or potential litigation, settlement, claims, administrative proceedings, or other judicial actions brought or to be brought by or against the county or any officer or employee or in which the county or any officer or employee may be directly involved, as provided in O.C.G.A. §50-14-2(1), Magistrate Court.
Back into Regular Session at 9:31 a.m.
Commissioner Bass asked that the Budget Amendment to FY 2010-11 be revisited. There was a problem with one of the amounts not being in the correct place so it read as a decrease rather than an increase and this was the reason she voted against this before the Executive Session. She suggested making the motion to include this correction. Motion to approve contingent upon correction to the line item. Approved 5-0.
11. ADJOURNMENT
Revised 10-7-11
BOC9.14.11.html [Click on this link for the write up from the 9.27.11 meeting.]