Audit Committee - Regular Meeting

This time, I'll call the budget committee meeting to order and ask for everyone to please register their presence.

Mary, you have four present.

Thank you. I will now ask that the emergency announcement please be played. And now I ask, is there any public input on items on the agenda? Does anyone wish to speak on items on the agenda? Seeing none.

Move on to item d, approval of the minutes. This is the approval of the January. They're in your packet. I have a motion to approve the minutes? Motion made by commissioner Bright, seconded by commissioner Anderson. Is there any questions or discussion on those minutes? Seeing none, I ask you to register your vote, please.

Mayor, you have four yeses.

Thank you. Item e one resolution 25 dash zero two dash zero zero one. Budget increase, civil defense, two thousand seven hundred and fifty eight dollars and ninety five cents. This is to accept an appropriate additional funding for the emergency management performance grant received from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. I have a motion to send this on from commissioner Anderson, seconded by commissioner Bright. Is there any questions or discussion on this? Seeing none, I ask you to register your vote, please.

Mayor, you have four yeses.

Thank you. Item e two, resolution 25 dash zero two dash zero zero two, budget increase, civil defense, $2,562.50 to accept an appropriate additional funds for Homeland Security program grant received also from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. I have a motion from commissioner Anderson, seconded by miss Hannam. Is there any questions or discussion on this? Seeing none, I ask you to register your vote, please.

Mary, you have four yeses.

Thank you. Item e three, resolution 25 dash zero two dash zero zero three, budget increase. General services, $127,972.40. And this is the appropriate funds to upgrade county security cameras and access control systems. I have a motion by commissioner Bright, seconded by commissioner Anderson. Is there any questions or discussion on this item? Seeing none, I ask you to register your vote, please.

Mayor, you have four yeses.

Thank you. Item e four, resolution 25 dash zero two dash zero zero four, budget increase. General services, $79,600 to accept and appropriate funds from the efficiency and conservation block grant, EECBG, for the purchase and installation of three HVAC units. I have a motion by commissioner Anderson, seconded by commissioner Brock. Any questions or discussion on this? Seeing none, I ask you to register your vote, please.

Mayor, you have four yeses.

Thank you. Item e five, resolution 25 dash zero two dash zero zero five. Budget increase. General services, $36,762. And this is to appropriate funding for the painting of the stairways and the stairwells in the county courthouse. Motion made by miss Hannam, seconded by commissioner Anderson. Is there any questions or discussion about this? Seeing none, I ask you to rest your vote, please.

Mary, you have four yeses.

Item e six, resolution twenty five dash zero two dash zero zero six, budget increase, general services, $19,324 to appropriate funds for the modernization building modernizing building automation system that controls the HVAC units in the in the county buildings. Have a motion by commissioner Bright, seconded by miss Hannam. Is there any questions or discussion about this? Seeing none, I ask you to register your vote, please.

Mary, you have four yeses.

Thank you. Item e seven, resolution 25 dash zero two dash zero zero seven. Budget increase, county clerk, $62,001 to appropriate funds for the use of a a fund balance for or an additional counter clerk to support the increase of customer transactions. I have a motion to send this on from commissioner Bright, seconded by commissioner Anderson. Is there any questions or discussion on this? I have a question from miss Hannah. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you, mister chair. I was just wondering if I might be able to ask a couple of questions, regarding this particular, position. Yes, ma'am. Hello, miss Gay.

How are you?

I'm well. Thank you. Good. I was just wondering if the if this position is one that needs to be filled, like is there a sense of urgency since we're so close to our budget process anyway, period?

There is a sense of urgency because I have a retirement that is going to occur on July 3. My chief deputy clerk, Tammy Bryant, informed me, I guess, this past August that she was setting a goal for July to be able to stay home and take care of elderly parents and a new grandchild and just more responsibilities. We're calling her to be home. And as much as I hate it, that that is the reason for this urgency. We need to of course, we'll you know, people will be moving around, sliding up in positions and everything, but it takes approximately four to six months training to get an employee ready to sit at the front window, especially if they're gonna do anything besides just printing decals for renewals.

It's pretty in-depth more so than I think what people realize. It not only involves, you know, knowing the state of Tennessee laws, but we also have to be familiar with laws in other states. We have to be able to, determine what kind of probate items might be needed in the situation for a death or an inheritance and things like that. Lien holders, what documents do they need? If someone is leasing a vehicle, if their company is leasing a vehicle. You know, there's a lot lot of factors that come into play, and it's just you know, it takes a while.

Mister Chair, do I still have the floor?

You do.

One other question for for you, Gay. In looking at current staff, do you have anybody else that's imminent maybe in, getting ready to retire? Anyone else that In the next year or two, are you are you expecting more retirement?

Two people that, one will be eligible by age and another person by years of service to the county. So, you know, there could be more coming down the pike also, and that is part of the reason that I am so intent on cross training all the time because, you know, you never know when an emergency might occur. A couple of months ago, we had someone that had to have an emergency appendectomy. We were able to put someone else right in that position to do her job while she was out. Employees who are out sick for an extended time.

So we're constantly training and and keeping people, able to fill in wherever needed just just for day to day situations that occur. So that also becomes beneficial when retirements, take place also.

Okay. And, one last question. As you're explaining all this to me, it seems to me like you're already looking at succession planning, like how you're going to potentially, anticipate anticipate who's going to be your next to to retire and how much training is gonna take place there so that, you know, you'll know whether you're moving, you're shifting, you're doing something else. Would that be a correct assumption?

Yes.

Thank you. You're welcome. You know? And I I do want to say while I have the floor, mister chair, that I think Gay's office is doing an awesome job. This is the first time in years I've seen her stand here and ask for a budget increase.

Thank you. Any any other questions? I I I do wanna say one thing. I have day to day firsthand knowledge. And and the question is, Gaye, have you have you increased numbers and your staff?

No. We have not. Matter of fact, we've kind of decreased. I had two part time couriers on staff and you know, that would run to the bank and the mall and the drive through and all those things. So after COVID and people didn't want strangers coming into their offices and things like that, I did away with those positions, and we needed a part time counter clerk more so than those couriers.

So that money was used to train another counter clerk in a part time capacity. And then the, courier services, we just kind of absorbed. Laurie and I do that. We have you know, whoever's available that can do that run for us that day, we we kinda shift that to whoever's available. And it it's good for me. I enjoy doing that because it helps me to stay in a constant communication with the drive through clerks and the clerks at the mall office. Because, otherwise, if I don't schedule that, sometimes I might go a week and think I've not been down there to check on things. Is there anything that they need? You know, how are things going there? So

So you haven't increased your your number of employees in ten years, and and I'm gonna get an estimate here just off of what I see. Your calls for service has probably increased by 30%, 40% maybe, even more maybe.

Yes.

What I'm seeing that the that that stands in that hall and how many people you're seeing. Right. Just the population of the county growth and everything else.

It's it's been unbelievable. I think the statistics that I use from 2017 fiscal year, our transaction count has increased by 89,000. Our revenues have increased by almost 8,500,000.0 in that time. And, you know, the majority of those we send to the state. So there's a a graph at the end of the presentation that, our IT and accounting department took the figures that I supplied to them and kinda put it on a graph so that you could easily see how those things had increased.

The mayor had asked me earlier about a kiosk. The kiosk are great if you have your postcard and if you're not ninety days past due. Those that's a wonderful tool for us to use. The past year, we've had 7,700 people that have used the kiosk. Our online transactions were 36,187 online transactions that we did.

So people really take advantage of that online system because it's so convenient for them. But by doing that, we still have to have a person print that decal, put it in an envelope, seal the envelope, and put it in the mail. So even with people utilizing electronic means of transactions with us, it still takes that human touch at the end.

Thank you, Gay.

Mhmm.

Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. Seeing none, I ask you to register your vote, please.

Mary, you have four yeses.

Thank you. Item e eight, resolution 25 dash zero two dash zero zero eight, budget increase. County clerk, $20,840. And this is to appropriate funds from the other state revenue vehicles reserve to update and replace the credit card machines, the barcode scanners, and signature pads allowing more payment options for our customers. Have a motion to send this on from commissioner Anderson, seconded by commissioner Bright. Is there any other questions or discussion on this? Seeing none, I ask you to register your vote, please.

Mary, you have four yeses.

Item e nine, resolution 25 dash zero two dash zero zero nine, budget increase. County clerk, $4,830. This is to appropriate funds from the electronic insurance verification revenue reserve to create two new workstations and purchase new license plate cabinets. Have a motion to send this on from commission from from miss Hannam, seconded by commissioner Brock. Is there any questions or discussion on this? Seeing none, I ask you to register your vote, please.

Mayor, you have four yeses.

Thank you. Item e two e 10, resolution 25 dash zero two dash 10, budget increase, juvenile court, $220,000 to reappropriate the opiate abatement grant funds to continue services with the Helen Ross McNabb in support of our journey court for at risk children. I have a motion to send this on from commissioner Anderson, seconded by miss Hannam. Any questions or discussion on this? Miss Hannum?

Mister chair, I have one question. Is this a recurring grant, or is this a onetime grant?

Good evening, miss Hannah. This is a three year grant with no match.

Are you do you still have a question, miss Hannah? Okay. Seeing no other questions or discussion, I ask you to register your vote, please.

Mary, you have four yeses.

K. Item e 11, resolution 25 dash zero two dash zero twelve, budget increase. Juvenile court, $100,000 to accept and appropriate funds from the safe baby court yearly grant awarded to support coordinator position and the salary supplements to the juvenile court services director for the oversight of this program. I have a motion to send this on from commissioner Anderson, seconded by miss Hannam. Is there any questions or discussion on this? Seeing none, I ask you to register your vote, please.

Mayor, you have four yeses.

Thank you. Item e 12, resolution 25 dash zero two dash zero thirteen, budget increase. Highway, 1,500,000.0 to appropriate funds for asphalt hot mix to allow the highway department to pave additional roads for the county. Have a motion to send this on from commissioner Anderson, seconded by commissioner Bright. Is there any questions or discussion on this? Seeing none, I ask you to register your vote, please.

Mary, you have four yeses.

Thank you. Item e 13, resolution 25 dash zero two dash zero one four, budget appropriation, Blount County Sheriff's Office, $687,141 The appropriate federal opiate funds for the fiscal year 2520 through '27 for eligible expenses in the Blount County Sheriff's Office. I have a motion to send this on from commissioner Anderson, seconded by commissioner Bright. Is there any questions or discussion on this? Yes, miss Hannah.

Thank you, mister chair. This appropriation, are these funds already in a fund for us to to move? Have they have we already collected those, or they'll be coming later?

I'll ask the finance director to answer that question, please.

Yeah. Thank you, mister Mayor. Miss Hannam, the, the money has been received. It's opioid funds we've already received. Just looking to appropriate it.

Any other questions or discussion? Seeing none, I ask you to register your vote, please.

Mayor, you have four yeses.

Item e 14, resolution 25 dash zero two dash zero one five, budget decrease, Blount County Sheriff's Office, $229,047. This is decreased funds originally budgeted during the fiscal year '25 with local revenue sources that are eligible for the use of these federal opiate funds. Do I have a motion to forward this on to the commission workshop? Motion is made by commissioner Bright, seconded by commissioner Anderson. Is there any questions or discussion on this? Seeing none, I ask you to register your vote, please.

Mary, you have four yeses.

Thank you. Item e 15, resolution 25 dash zero two dash zero one six. Budget increase from the animal center, $14,000 to appropriate SMAC f reserve fund balance to help cover expected operational cost. Motion to send this on from commissioner Bright, seconded by commissioner Anderson. Is there any questions or discussion on this? Seeing none, I ask you to register your vote, please.

Mayor, you have four yeses.

Thank you. Item e 16, resolution 25 dash zero two dash zero one seven, budget increase elections, 110,000 to appropriate funds for the convenience voting centers due to increase the number of registered voters. Do I have a motion to send this on to commission workshop? Motion made by commissioner Anderson, seconded by commissioner Bright. Is there any questions or discussion on this?

Seeing none, I ask you to register your vote, please.

Mary, you have four yeses.

Thank you. Item f one, Blount County Sheriff's Office grant application, $200,000 to apply for a fiscal year twenty five Bureau of Justice Assistance grant to purchase a virtual training simulator that provides different scenarios during training. No matching funds are required. I have a motion to send this on by commissioner Bright, seconded by miss Hannam. Is there any questions or discussion on this?

Please register your vote.

Mary, you have four yeses.

Thank you. I have item f two, consideration for approval draft for for the Blount County government finance department policies and procedures. Do I have a motion to send this on for approval by the commission? Commissioner Anderson makes a motion. Miss Hannum seconds. Is there any questions or discussion on this? Seeing none, I ask you to register your vote, please.

Mayor, you have four yeses.

Thank you. Seeing nothing else on the agenda, do I hear a motion to adjourn? So moved.