Pike County Times
The Pike County Times, PO Box 843, Zebulon, Georgia 30295. Click here to donate through PayPal. Becky Watts: Phone # 770-468-7583 editor@pikecountytimes.com
 
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This online news website is owned and operated by Becky Watts. The Editor can be reached at 770-468-7583 or at editor(at)PikeCountyTimes(dot)com. Pike County Times is a website for citizens to keep up with local events and stay informed about Pike County government. It began on November 13, 2006 as a watchdog on county government and has turned into an online newspaper.

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REGULAR BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MONTHLY MEETING
Tuesday, May 26, 2015 – 6:30 p.m.
Courthouse Annex, 79 Jackson Street, Zebulon, Georgia

All five commissioners are in attendance along with County Clerk Jo Ann Wrye, County Manager John Hanson, and Attorney Tom Morton.

1. CALL TO ORDER....................................................................................Chairman J. Briar Johnson

2. INVOCATION……………………………………………………………………………Ben Maxedon

3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE...................................................................Chairman J. Briar Johnson

4. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA - (O.C.G A. § 50-14-1 (e) (1))

5. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES - (O.C.G.A. § 50-14-1(e) (2))

a. Minutes of the May 13, 2015 Regular Monthly Meeting.
b. Minutes of the May 13, 2015 Special Call Meeting.
c. Minutes of the May 19, 2015 Special Call Meeting

6. INVITED GUESTS - None

7. REPORTS FROM COMMISSIONS, DEPARTMENTS, COMMITTEES, AUTHORITIES

a. Monthly Reports submitted from County Departments and County Authorities, including a Revenue/Expenditure Statement for all departments, and a summary check register. There are no Department reports as they will be provided during the first Board meeting of June. Revenue/Expenditure Statement and Detail Check Register is included.

b. County Manager Report
▫ Update on County finances for the following funds/accounts:
General Fund ............................................................................................ $2,934,355.58
Fire Dept. Donations........................................................................................ $1,880.86
Cash Reserve Account................................................................................. $500,151.86
Jail Fund ........................................................................................................ $20,775.60
E-911 Fund .................................................................................................... $65,670.13
DATE Fund ................................................................................................... $35,897.42
Juvenile Court Fund....................................................................................... $16,884.19
Residential Impact Fee ................................................................................ $268,163.20
Commercial Impact Fees ............................................................................... $11,851.36
C.A.I.P FUND............................................................................................... $19,201.23
General Obligation SPLOST Tax Bond Sinking Fund, 2011...................... $319,327.28
L.M.I. Grant (DOT)..................................................................................... $157,785.22

c. County Manager Comments.

None.

d. Commissioner Reports.

District 1 Tim Daniel commended the IDA for opening dialogue between the commission and the cities.

Chairman Briar Johnson commended the American Legion Pike Post 197 for the Memorial Day Ceremony. [Note from the Editor: Click here to see the write up from this ceremony. Pike Post 197 did a fantastic job as always!]

e. County Attorney Report to Commissioners.

None.

8. UNFINISHED BUSINESS – None

9. NEW BUSINESS

a. Approve/deny purchase of upgrade for Harris Software System paid from Contingency.

County Manager Hanson explained that the county has used CSI software for all of our financials and payroll for a number of years. Harris bought out CSI and is not going to support the CSI softward anymore. The new Harris software is supported fully however, and the City of Zebulon is using this already and is happy with the upgrade from CSI to the Harris Software System. It’s more cost effective for us to change over rather than changing completely to another system. CM Hanson wants to approve the amount tonight only however because County Attorney Rob Morton may have some more changes on the legal agreement. County Attorney Tom Morton made a couple of changes already. $16,251.52 will come from contingency. The server will have to be replaced, but that is in the CAP program and is already in the budget because it has been planned for.

Commissioner Jenkins asked for clarification about why we are not bidding this out. CM Hanson advised that we are doing an upgrade rather than doing a complete conversion with a new company. To do a conversion with another company, it will likely cost us $30,000 or $40,000. The county called several other counties to see what they did and some of them were not happy with what they had so CM Hanson recommended just doing the upgrade because we aren’t unhappy with our service, but Harris Softward System is not supporting the old software of the company that they bought out.

County Attorney Tom Morton said that if the county is not satisfied down the road, there is a cancellation clause in the agreement. CM Hanson said that we can get some bids if that is what they want to do, but something has to be done by the end of the budget year if we go that route. We can last another year if we have to, but if there is an issue with the old CSI system, there may be a problem finding the right person to answer questions and help fix an issue. Hanson said that there could be a lag time of up to a week on some things. He also advised that this conversion will not take place for a couple of months. After much discussion on whether this needed to be bid out, Hanson said that the county could wait a couple of months on this if needed while he does some additional work on this. Our regular service annually is about $25,500 per year.

More discussion about whether it should be bid out or not. There are other people who provide services like this, but they are not the same system and some of the other counties are not happy with their products. Emphasis that this is an upgrade. Commissioner Powers said that he would really like to see this bid out. Hanson said that he can ask companies for written prices on this and do a cost basis for commissioners without sending out an RFP. This can be shopped before the end of the year and even moved into the new year if this is what commissioners want to do.

Motion to get a quote on additional options on purchase agreements. Approved 4-1 with Chairman Briar Johnson opposed. [Note from the Editor: I appreciate the effort to go over and above board on this with wanting to do bids etc, but this was a buy out from one company over another rather than a purchase of new software. IF the county goes with another company, there could be a cost to bring over all of our files into the new software--that won't be a problem with an upgrade--AND the personnel who currently use this software will have to learn to use new software--which I assume won't be an issue if we simply upgrade the CSI System to Harris.]

b. Approve/deny Georgia Forestry MOU. (memorandum of understanding)

If we have forest fires, this is the agreement for them to come into our county and fight forest fires. We upkeep the equipment that they have here in Pike County every year, and it is used here in the county. This basically updates what was in place last year. There is no cost to the county for this.

Motion to accept this MOU. Approved 5-0.

10. PUBLIC COMMENT- (Limited to 5 minutes per person) - None

11. EXECUTIVE SESSION - None

12. ADJOURNMENT

Motion to adjourn in memory of former Commissioner Don Collins. 6:52 p.m.

Agenda subject to revision.

[Note from the Editor: If you appreciate being able to read information from county meetings for free on Pike County Times, please make a donation to Pike County Times through the PayPal link at the bottom of the page or by check to Pike County Times at PO Box 843, Zebulon so I can justify the amount of time that I am spending away from family. It may not seem like much but sitting in a meeting and then typing it up takes a lot more time than you might imagine! Thanks for reading Pike County's only FREE newspaper.]

5.27.15
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