Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. Thank you.

Having said that, I think, Joey, you want to kick things off?

Yes, sir. Thank you, Chairman, and good evening, Commissioners. Tonight, we just want to do a basic review of what we discussed last week in terms of our operating budget. We also want to move on and present the capital budget. this week as well, that way to give you all time to review the capital budget. We also feel the need to add another work session, which we have tentatively scheduled that for May 26th, that way to give you all an extra work session to have the discussions that may be warranted or needed at that time. So with that being said, I'll pass it over to Lisa so she can present, do her presentation.

Good evening, everyone. Okay, so we're going to get started this evening with our second workshop. And basically what we'll do first is just a brief overview of Scott, can you help me out over there? There we go. We're going to do a review of our last meeting items. So just to give you a little refresher. uh... we did have this was what our requests were requested expenditures were fifty one million four hundred eighty two thousand seven oh one our projected revenues were forty seven six thirty one eight twenty seven and so that was a decrease from twenty six uh... the projected and uh... that the requested expenditures are three point three million increase from twenty twenty six those are the requested what's been passed by the department And then we did some reductions on those already. We had the $50,651,430 is our draft, and that's a $2.4 million increase. So we did reduce it a little bit, and obviously the revenues would be the same there. So our shortfall overall there would be $3 million. So what we'll go into now is the personnel request for fiscal year 27. This just shows a breakdown of what was asked by the departments. There's, as you can see, there's patrol deputies there, inmate work detail in the jail, those kinds of things, the DA, intake clerk, assistant DA, just all those various things in there that adds up to $1,049,530. Now, these are items that were not included in those numbers I just showed you. We did not fund these in the budget already. If you want to add these, it'll be an additional, you know, $1 million. So we just don't have the budget right now for them, but just wanted to show that to you so that you can take a look and see if there's any changes that need to be made. And then this is the solid waste personnel requests, including salaries and benefits. Just two changes there, basically, and it's not a whole lot. And if you're all familiar with the Solid Waste Department, they are an enterprise fund, and they are self-sustaining. So they don't take money from our ad forms, not from the general fund. So they, you know, do their own thing, so to speak. Right, John? And then here are, these two were actually two requests that we did put in the budget to fund. One was the coroner, and that was going from part-time to full-time, an additional $21,900. And the county attorney also had an increase requested of $1,000 a month. And I think her contract's up in June, is that right? August. August, okay. So then we'll, that's why there's not, there's just 11, it's not a full year. So that is funded in the budget. And I did want to just go over a couple of things with some accomplishments that we have during the year. We're very proud of the fact that our Two Rivers Gun Range has started being self-sufficient. I think you probably all are aware. I think it's been open since 2021 of October, and they are really showing steady financial improvement. they are getting to the break-even point, which is even better to see. And that's really in a short amount of time. So it's pretty self-sustaining not having to take funds from the general fund. So just wanted to highlight that and what a great job Ricky's doing out there. Just eliminating that general fund support, it reflects effective management and increased utilization, but it allows the public resources to be reallocated to other county priorities. And that is very important. And I just want y'all to realize what accomplishments they have. We're very proud of that. Okay, any questions on those items? I just wanted to briefly go through some of those.

Very quickly on the gun range.

Yes.

Since we're self-sufficient now, is that from efficiency or additional memberships and activity? Ricky, maybe that's a question for you.

Ricky, do you want to speak to that? I can pull the budget worksheet out and just go over that.

Um, the, uh, the difference I think is, um, we've, uh, sold a lot more things. Um, and of course we've, uh, um, when it comes to, uh, sometimes staff aren't able to be there. Um, we have, uh, people working it or a lot of times I'll work at myself. And so we're saving money every place that we can. And then we're redoing some of the things that we're selling. Um, and, uh, I'm looking at, the cost of those things and then how we could do it better and what what changes we can make for that so a little bit of each some of the membership things I know we had talked about the memberships and the memberships look like they're going down but what we did or what happened a little while ago is we the 30-day membership went away and So what ends up happening, those little 30-day memberships, those people are just coming regular instead of paying for a three-month, six-month, or a year. So some of those memberships, the actual amount of memberships are down. But we're making more money and there's more people coming. I don't know if that makes sense or not.

Yeah, it does. Thanks for your efforts. Yes, sir.

What is a membership?

A membership, what's a...

The gun range membership, what's the cost?

The cost is for 90 days, $90, 180 days, $180, and then for the year, $300. So they save two months' worth if they go for the year. We have several that are yearly memberships, and those guys are pretty much the backbone of the place, and they bring a lot of other people in through word of mouth and stuff.

And they're really committed to the gun range, the ones I talk to, am I correct? Well, I didn't talk again to them. I'm wondering if it would be possible to raise it just a little bit to try to come out on top.

And that's something that we could also look at. Our day pass has always been $20, and that's from the very beginning. And we're now into 26, so that could be something that we look at. I know the credit card fees, they were an issue for a little while. The membership part, for the amount of people that do the memberships, I think that it's kind of a bonus or a reward to them having that membership at that price.

How many members do you have?

I should have looked at that before I came in, but I'm not very sure. I'd have to get those numbers for you.

Yes.

Second. I guess. I would say probably, last I remember, like 90. Okay. I apologize for not having that accurate number here tonight.

That's all I had. Anybody else? Thank you.

Good job. Thanks, Ricky. Okay. Moving along here to capital. I did want to tell you, commissioners, you've got some information over there. I'll explain to you what you've got. The little blue sheet right there is the laminated blue form is your SPLOST 9. That's a breakdown of the countywide projects. The top level is countywide level 1 and 2. And then at the bottom, well, sort of in the middle, there's the Camden County Capital Projects. Those in there are listed. That's where there's government buildings and offices, roads, streets, and bridges. They're split out. And then also upgrades and purchasing equipment, vehicles, and technology. This year we've got quite a number of vehicles being requested. So the thing to remember about these numbers is that For instance, if you'll see, look down to where it says the vehicles technology, do you see the $6.2 million? Oh, yeah, let me go see if I got that. I don't think I have that one up here. But if you'll see the $6.2 million, that has to be divided among six years. So if you basically do the math on that, it's a little over a million dollars. So that's kind of what we have to work with on that pot of money for vehicles and technology. So... And what comes out of that also, we have a capital lease on our, we have a lease with Enterprise right now with CCSO. And I believe it goes for two more years maybe. Is it two more years for the lease? So we have some ARPA funds that we are going to use through the rest of this year, December, until December, and then we'll have to take over that lease. So part of that money will come out of the SPLOST 9. So that's $144,000. So really that million dollars goes down a little bit to about $850,000. Also, let's see, there's government buildings and offices for 1.5, but remember that's six years, so you divide that by six, and then the roads, streets, bridges, and drainage, which can be paving and resurfacing is 6.2 million as well. So just an item, the ambulances are considered, when we review that, the county ambulances are at the top, they're number four in priority, and that's $4 million. that's also to be split among six years and it's about 570, I think 574,000 somewhere in that per ambulance. So that's, um, we'll have that money that's split, um, seven ways. Yeah. All right. So that kind of gives you, but this little sheet is like a cheat sheet. I use it every day to look at, you know, all the things that we can pay for out of those. And it's pretty specific. Uh, We have not yet. We do have, there's one on order, but I think it's partly SPLOST 8 and ARPA funds, and then we have another one. We're going to order two this year. Those will be SPLOST 9 specific, yes. Anything else on that? Okay. All right, so that's an explanation of the SPLOS. And just stop me if there's anything you want to ask about that. Y'all just feel free to stop me and ask a question. So this is the vehicle request, and I have that broken down by department. If you'll see up there, the tax assessor has requested two vehicles. Patrol division has 16, I believe, in there, eight patrols. Now, in the eight patrol cars, those are, I believe they've requested eight new positions. So if we don't get the, if anything happens with those, four of those new positions would be, the vehicles go along with that, so it would reduce that amount if they don't have those positions. But they've got two in investigations, one K-9, an F-250 for Marine Patrol, and then the Enterprise lease. That's the additional for that. for the rest of the year. The half is in the ARPA funds, and then this is the other half. And then we have SRD, which is your school resource deputies. They've requested two vehicles, and then the jail has requested two vehicles as well. Fire Rescue, a vehicle for the chief, EMA, a Chevy Silverado. Public Works has two, a Freightliner and a Dodge Ram. Fleet has asked for a Dodge Ram, a code enforcement has asked for a truck, and that is the total is 2.1 million on that, of which, so that's 6.2 million that I told you on the blue sheet, That divided is that 1.033333. That's what we have to spend, but keep in mind there are a few more items that can be also used for that amount. That will be our IT items. There is some technology and equipment. So this is just a listing of the vehicles. I thought it would be easy for you to see it that way, to see what the shortage would be. If you used all of that money for all of these vehicles, you would still be short $1 million. So we're going to have to do some cutting somewhere. and so that'll be up to you, but we just want you to see, get a picture of all the vehicles, and if you have any questions on, you know, the department heads are all here. If there's any questions you have on that to ask about their vehicles, feel free.

I do have a question. Yeah. It would be about the F-250 for Marine Patrol. I was just wondering, is everything okay with the truck they're currently using? Okay. All right.

Anybody else? Okay. So that's the vehicle request. And again, this is the summary there. That's the total vehicle request, the SPLOST allocation, and the funding gap there. And also... One more question, sorry.

Is the Marine Patrol separate from Cumberland Patrol? Okay, so we wouldn't be getting reimbursed for the truck. I got you. Thank you.

Okay, and then as I was speaking about earlier at the top, that priority four is for the county ambulances, $4 million. And so that is gonna be 800,000 for those. What happens with those, we do have different funding on those, cuz we have the ARPA funds, a little bit of ARPA funds. And there's just various funding for those. But that comes out to $571,428 is around the amount per vehicle. And give or take, I don't know, Jeannie can speak to that or the Chief can speak to that if you have any questions on those. Ambulances.

You said there's still $800,000?

No, that's not ARPA. That $800,000 denotes what's in the $4 million.

I thought you said a while ago.

Well, there's one ambulance that's on order. Do you all want to speak to that? Jeannie, do you want to come? Do you all want to speak to that?

Commissioner, I will say that last year all this ARPA money had to be encumbered, and this year it has to be spent. So all that money is encumbered already.

Okay. Just for the ambulances we have on order, Currently, there is an ambulance that's in North Carolina that is part of the ARPA in SPLOST 8. We are due to have another ambulance which is on order with the PO that is due to arrive June or July that is out of SPLOST 9. That is current ambulances that are en route to Camden now. There is ambulance 3 and 4 that we have letters of intent. due to arrive next year, and then ambulance four and five, which we also have a letter of intent for, to come in 28. So that is five of the seven ambulances we have committed for already.

Do you know off the top of your head where those ambulances are going?

They're going to replace the fleet that we have now with hopefully some potential growth for an additional ambulance online at some time.

And so these are two different ambulances, correct?

Yeah, yes, we have an ambulance coming from the ARPA ambulance, and then we have ambulance number one out of SPLOST 9.

Those are the two that are, sorry, you started with what we have already coming. So those two are already coming, or they're the two on the slide?

So the two on the slide, I'm not sure which two you're referencing. Is that for SPLOST 9? Okay, so one of the SPLOST 9 ambulances is already, we're going up to do inspection in June on that. There's a previous ambulance from SPLOST 8.

Thank you.

We're going to see that one in July.

Cool.

Thank you. Yeah, it gets a little tricky with those ambulances. Okay, so... Let's see. Moving on to, there's a couple of urgent needs that we wanted to bring up to you as far as capital items that are pretty urgent. And I will have Chuck White come up and speak to that, for the coroner's office anyway. Okay.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, commissioners. As you may or may not know, and I won't go into details, the coroner is currently working on an active incident at this time. Coroner's office is a public safety function, and because it is, Camden County Emergency Management is fully integrated as we are with fire, EMS, and our sheriff's office. So Camden County's current morgue refrigeration unit is over 30 years old. Let that sink in for just a minute. The system recently experienced a catastrophic cooling failure while housing a deceased individual. This case involved a jail death requiring potential forensic review by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Emergency actions were required to relocate the deceased to preserve forensic integrity. The event exposed a dangerous single point failure in a mission critical county capability. And it was only through the support of Fire Rescue for me, and I'm looking at Chief Boyette over there, right, and pulling in some strings with the Southeast Georgia Health System in Brunswick that we were able to cobble together an immediate and urgent response that preserved the integrity and the toxicology for this deceased individual. This could have gone the other way for us. This facility is obviously well beyond end of life. However, through the great work by Alex for our facilities crew that came in and have done some very, very major repairs to the system, that system can now continue to work, but I would not be relying on it as our primary. I would rely on the existing unit as basically a surge up plus capability while investing in a turnkey unit, which is $25,000, and I'm telling you that is great pricing for a unit like this. Outdoor capability, it will be sited, it will be powered, it will be operational, and you would be set for Camden County for a growing population for the next 15, 25 years in terms of your capability. So I strongly recommend that we consider investing in a morgue addition kind of a replacement but it really does give us capability that also gives redundancy should the existing one fail again for the future and it will fail. And I'll answer any questions if you have them.

Chuck, is this going to have some type of alarm on it if the temperature gets

Yes, sir. The way this was quoted is that it would provide remote sensing, alarm capability, and that can go to more than one pathway to more than one individual to ensure that we're getting the alert that the system may be offline or losing its integrity.

Does that estimate include install?

Yes, sir. It does.

One other question. I talked with Kevin. I think he said he already had like 128 bodies this year. Is that correct?

Yes, sir. So, you know, if you look at the statistic and the analysis for deaths, all-cause mortality for Camden counties, you can look at any county in the state of Georgia, right? even though it may tell you flat. Flat doesn't denote the fact that flat is in direct correlation to an increase in population. So flat at 45,000 is a lower number than flat at pushing 60,000 in terms of population. And this is more critical too because, and I want to add this so everyone understands this, we're having to hold bodies longer. in our morgue, and there's a number of causations for that. One of the big ones is there are a lot of people that are not from here anymore, and so there's not the immediate family, the funeral home, the notification, claiming of the body with no other external issues associated with it. That is now not the norm for us, and that means it takes longer. You're working out of state through several different avenues. All of that takes time, and so you may be, in fact, holding a body longer. What does that do? That adds to your count to your capacity issue, and your current capacity issue is five. Five. Sir?

What would our increased capacity be when we...

So this unit would provide you 10. You could surge a little higher in it, depending on what you're doing, but with the addition of the existing one at five, you're at a solid 15 in terms of what's called a kind of a gurney operation, which you've got a part-time coroner, which by the way, That's a challenge in itself. This is a full-time position in my professional opinion. But as part of that, the fact that he operates independently, he's got to be able to move these deceased by himself. And that means you're doing it in a gurney rolling operation, which means you're using more space because you're pushing that gurney into a standing floor environment as opposed to you're using a different type of a rack system or something like that.

That makes sense. Thank you. And I do believe he's requested to become full-time as well.

Yes, sir. I think so.

And it's only going to cost $25,000 for that?

That is correct, yes, sir.

All right, any more questions?

I'll make this statement. I think the failure of the existing unit in discussions I've had with Wayne is I have a better understanding what the coroner actually does on a day-to-day basis. So to upgrade the unit, bring him on full time, that's going to satisfy a lot of these issues we've dealt with here recently, which could have been a lot worse than they were thanks to your efforts and the other people involved.

Yes, sir. Absolutely.

That's all I have.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you, Chuck. All right. Next, we're going to one other high-priority item, and that is a septic tank over at Fire Rescue. I believe it's Fire Station 12. Alex, do you want to come and speak to that? He's going to give us – we've just had a lot of things going on with the septic system, and he's going to explain to you what's been going on and the need for this –

All right, Commissioners, the septic system at Station 12, just to bare bones it, in the past year, this year, we've had to pump it out four times, and we're in the fifth month, and that's $500 to $600 a pop. What are you feeding them over there, Chief? So the issues that we're having is the drain fill for the septic tank I don't know if it's not sloped right, but it's a gravity fed system. So when we get a lot of rain and stuff like that, I guess the ground gets saturated where the drain fill is and the water has nowhere to go. So we have to get a septic company to come out and pump it out. Fortunately, we hadn't had a bunch of rain here lately, but when it does, I get a call from fire rescue.

So when they go to replace it, they're going to regrade it and make sure? Right.

Get it done the right way this time. And get a pump to help pump it out, like a grinder pump and then a sump pump to pump it out into the leach field.

So the health department's looked at this with you? Yes.

Okay. If we approve this, how quickly do you think you can get it done? It all depends on the contractors.

I did want to mention to you all as well that several years ago, we were looking into hooking up to the city line, and it's pretty expensive. It was $238,000 back then, and Alex said the increase on that would be a lot in three years' time. So that's not really – we just wanted you to know that due diligence has been done to see what all the avenues are, you know, in creating this project. And this is really the most cost-efficient way to have this done.

Well, part of that cost is the DOT right-of-way. just to permit that would be 15 grand on paperwork. And they have to borrow under the highway because the septic system is on the school side. So 50,000 is, to me, is reasonable. In the best of the world, we could tie it to the city so it doesn't get rid of it forever, but for the cost difference, we need to go with this as far as I'm concerned.

Any more questions?

on that. So this is, with the draft budget we've put together, this is already funded or this needs to be funded?

I've got to check on that. Y'all go ahead and let me check on that.

I think it's included.

It's in the capital, yeah.

So it's not something you've cut?

No, it's not extra. We just wanted to present those two needs as they were urgent and sort of move them to the top as things that we wanted to fund for this year that we don't want to just leave those out and we don't want those to be cut because they are urgent needs.

Yeah, because we had to bump it out three times in January when we was having a bunch of rain.

Thanks, Alex.

All righty, on to the next one. Let's see, we've got, okay. We did wanna, and I may have John come up if he wants to speak to this. We did have, we were not recommending approval of any of the requests on the solid waste. We did have a fire out at the landfill and it did destroy one of the trucks. So we're gonna have to replace that. We have a rental vehicle right now. And John's been very creative, and I think he's come up with a plan for that. But these were the items that we did cut. John, did you want to speak to any of those?

Good afternoon.

The capital items that we have here are the water truck, the roll-off truck, and the early fire detection system was something that we needed because we were having the fires with the early detection system. With the water truck, we don't have a backup. We don't have any spares for the water truck. When it goes down, we out of business. So therefore, we needed to get a second water truck in order to stay in compliance with EPD. As far as the roll-off truck, it's the same condition. When we're down, we have to outsource. We have to get a private vendor to come in, and we have to spend that money on top of that. The John Deere is the little tractor that we have to take in the back where no other vehicle can go. So we use that to go back and check the leachate systems and the gas systems back off in the woods. The computer closet... I got a chance to show the chairman that computer closet that we don't have, and it's in urgent need, and I've been in talks with the IT director trying to get something set up out there. Scale house camera system, something that we desperately need. We've been behind the power curve for a while, especially now that we're going to invite Brantley County to bring in their C&D so we don't have to get out the scale house to go inspect those particular loads. That camera system would do it for us. The Ford Escape and the Ford Explorer, that's for the office staff. The Ford Explorer is for Cyrus moving up. We're going to take his vehicle and actually use it in the interface of the landfill. Flooring and doors, you know, I had a time trying to get in the building the other night when we had the fire. Those doors are antiquated, and those flooring, it needs to be replaced. It's way overdue. I'm sure it's about 25, 30 years. These are things that we need. Are there things that we can do without? Absolutely. And if I had, because we, well, unfortunately, we had a fire on Friday, and We burned down a vehicle about $650,000. But do I have a way to pay for it? I've come up with some solutions. I've shared it with the administrators. And there is a way that we can keep this there and continue to pay for the new vehicle that we have now. We have a lease program. that it costs about 10 grand a month. However, I'm proposing that we pay the 50 grand a month and we have money in there from the GFIL loan that we were planning to pay that off early. So that was a five-year plan. So instead of doing that, we'll take that 50,000 and we'll pay for that articulator for 12 months. and cover the cost and then push out the GFIL loan for another 12 months, and then we'll begin that process from that particular point. Questions?

I'm going to need to see that one written down. Excuse me? I'm going to need to see that one written down. What's that? How that works. Rather than paying $10,000 a month, we want to pay $50,000 a month. Absolutely. So run that by me. Help me understand one more time.

Well, in our proposal, when we done our fee structure, we put a plan in there to pay down the GFA loan. It's a 20-year plan. And it was $15,000 a month to do that. And it was recommended to knock it down for five years at $50,000. So instead of doing that, we take that $50,000 and pay for that articulator. Buying it. Buying it, yes, sir. 12 months. And right now we're currently leasing that, and then the money that we are putting in the lease will go towards the purchase.

So basically what he's doing is he's taking that money. He was paying extra to pay it off early. I understand. Okay, got it.

I just had to hear it one more time.

Okay.

Anything else?

Well, with this being an enterprise fund, we can always – If we have to, we can increase the tipping fees even a little more to help cover this.

Yes, sir. I think what we have in place now we're going to present next week will cover that cost, sir.

Anything else? Thanks, John. Thank you.

Thanks, John. He does, John's very creative. He can come up with a lot of good ways to get what he wants. Anyway, so moving along. Let's see, where was I? let's see, that was, okay. Basically that was all we had there. What I want you to do is review the requests we have there. If y'all wanna go through those, this is the spreadsheet that you have. I don't have that up there because this was gonna be way too small. Nobody would have been able to read it. It would have been teeny tiny. But y'all do have a copy of that that has all of the items that are requested in blue. If you look at the blue column, the 2027 requested, those items there. And then the funding option to the right of that, to the right of the blue boxes, is where the funding options are. So some are SPLOST 9 eligible, some are Capital Improvement Fund. And the ARPA, the ARPA is just for the lease for the rest of this year. And then, you know, just the various different things there.

What's the shared assets?

That might be something that, is he still here? Sheriff Chaney can speak to about the shared assets. I don't understand that as well. I haven't dug into that yet. Can you explain how the shared assets, what those are?

Good evening. So shared assets, that's when we own interstate or anywhere in the community that we're actively proactive investigations and we seize drug money to those terms, and that's where it's called seized assets money.

So that's free money?

Sir?

So it's free money?

I wouldn't say it's free money because the people out there working it, so it's not free money.

Oh, yeah, okay.

But no. You're taking it from the drug dealers. We're taking it from the drug dealers, putting it back in use to the citizens so it's tax-free to the citizens and we use those items. You have to use them on certain things. You can't use them on anything. You have to go by certain guidelines by the federal government. Nice. Thank you. You're welcome.

Right, and that's why we've put those different items over there under the funding request, because there are certain items that can be funded special ways, and that's why we've included those as well. So that will give you, you know, you all can review that this week, and any questions you have, feel free to email or call. I did want to make a note to the There are a couple more sheets in there if you want to see the Tiffany was able to make a say. The one that's stapled together is kind of a shortened version of the spreadsheet and Just to show you, it doesn't have all the future years out because this is really our five-year. What we gave you is really the five-year, and it kind of goes on out through 2031. But really, all you need to see this year is the 2027 requested. And let's see. So that's that sheet. And then the other one she did give us was a SPLOST. She did break down the SPLOST-9 for you. And that's, what that is, is the slide that I showed you with the total vehicles. And then the one at the top is the rest of the items that were requested. For instance, IT, generators, that kind of thing. So just so you can see everything that's been asked. And then the last page is the, this is a total here, if you'll see this page, of all of your The summarize of the spreadsheet, for instance, the SPLOST 9 eligible is 5.7 million. So that does show you there what's been requested. And then the ambulance is 800,000. But that's in the top tier. Remember, that's up top. So that's each of the categories and the funding. Any other questions that you might have? But you've got a lot of homework to do this week. Lots of reading. But, you know, it's not really a whole lot. It was a lot putting it together. But it's really, you know, just simple numbers. And the money is what it is. So, you know, all the requests are important. If you want to talk to anybody, any of the department heads about some of their requests, I'm happy to do that to explain the needs that they have or any other questions you have. I did want to show here, what I've got up here is the dates for the remainder of our budget sessions. We've got, so as Jerry mentioned, we have a, next week we have another budget work session. It will be on Monday because the regular commission meeting is on Tuesday. And then we've requested another session. We think we may need one more on the 26th of May. Now, if we get it all wrapped up next week and we don't need that, that's fine. But we just wanted to allow some more time for y'all to digest this and discuss any other things you might want to do. And also, so then after that, in the month of June, we do have the, those are the required public hearings. So those dates are up there as well. And let's see. the adoption date will be june 23rd so that just plans out the rest of june so you can see those meetings there and that's all i had to present um unless you have questions or you want to ask any department heads about any items any capital items any operating items they're all here thank you um

This is the second of four work sessions. I think with the two other work sessions that are coming up, it gives us sufficient time to go through that. The budget's come up with comments. So we have two more sessions to do this. And I think it gives us ample time. I know I'm going through it. I've got several comments. Some are just clarifications. Maybe not cuts, but clarifications on how this is presented. And I know the other commissioners do, too. So I appreciate your effort and staff's effort to get us where we are. I think it was... We've got a good system going here. I think it's going to work out. But my point is we've got ample time for us to vet this and bring it out at the next meeting or the second. I think everything needs to probably be at least pinned down on the next work session. It gives us one more for any final adjustments. And that's my take. And if you guys have any questions or comments or suggestions, I'm open.

My only question is, do we have a digest number? We didn't have that.

We're working on that. Yeah, I did give you that. I will plan to work really hard this week to get that number for you. All I've been told, Brian does not have those numbers yet.

I will say that there has been a glitch in the system in terms of wind gap. So Brian, as well as the rest of the state, is working on that. So that's the reason why Brian has been able to delay in the numbers. So they're definitely working on that for sure.

And that's through wind gap, not just us. That's exactly right, yes. Just want to make it clear, it's not our issue. It is our issue, but it's not our fault. We just have to go through wind gap.

Uh, how is, I see where the governor signed SB 33 and then there's HP 581. How's that going to affect us next year?

Uh, in terms of the floss and the L host, uh, that was revenues. Yeah. Um, We are definitely looking at that, and we're going to be meeting with elected officials, I guess you would say, and discussing how. This has been a long discussion, obviously, all year on this property tax issue. So we were waiting on the governor to sign that bill. So the ACCG will actually be putting out more information on how to work those numbers. So I will have more information for you on that. Right now, I don't.

Okay.

I don't think that information is going to be available before we have to approve the budget. So I can tell you there's a lot of work going on.

Right.

A lot of discussions.

Right. I'm just worried about our ability to actually raise revenue next year. Oh, absolutely. You know, systemic increases this year.

We need to be aware of what this proposed legislation can do to us, and we are definitely on top of that one. it could change the whole complexion of how we budget, how we operate. So it's a critical item. You know, you've got two sides of the coin. Okay, get rid of property tax or not. Then you have a sales tax. Well, that's recessive tax. That's part of the discussion. So until we get more information, we're kind of stuck with where we are, but I get your point exactly.

And I will say that that changed, as you're well aware, that whole bill changed a lot.

Well, and we see with lost being down, right, that people are buying less. Yes, absolutely. I don't think it's as reliable.

One of the drawbacks on the whole sales tax issue is, Property tax is one thing, but sales tax, if we have a deep recession, that directly affects us. Now, property tax does too, don't get me wrong, but the sales taxes, that could be a great thing, but it could be a bad thing in a deep recession as far as revenue goes. So it depends on what side of the coin you're on.

Just for clarification, there was over $5 million worth of capital requests this year?

Yeah, I think that was the number. Let's look.

And we only got a million set aside for SPLOST.

Yeah.

So we need to worry about this year.

Mm-hmm.

I will say that that $1 million is just out of that one particular fund. We do have that other fund.

So help me get the full picture here. Out of all of our funds, how much is available to go towards these items? Where is that sheet? Is that here with the funding source, funding options, that's the fund? But I guess what's the total?

Well, I don't think I have a total. I don't know how to explain that. What I wanted to tell you was, that's why I gave you the SPLAW sheet, if you'll look at that.

But this is the total SPLOST over six years.

Well, it is, but what you do is you can use that money. Anything that's on their SPLOST eligible is going to be something that you can get off of this blue sheet. The top is level four is the ambulances. Those will obviously come from there. And then at the bottom, you've got in that center section where you've got Camden County Capital Projects, you have 6.2 to split between vehicles, technology, and equipment. And then... Are there ARPA...

But that's got to last us the full six years. It does, right. Are there ARPA items already encumbered on this list that I'm looking at? So these ARPA funds, $144,000 has already been spent.

Yeah, that Enterprise, which is $144,000, has been encumbered.

That's for the leased vehicles at the CCSO, yeah.

That money is not available? No. No. Okay. Capital improvement funds, that $1 million, that has to last us six years. That's what you're saying?

Capital improvement is not the $1 million. I believe it's $563,000. So on the capital items, yeah, there's not a lot there either.

And the unincorporated fund, the $350,200, that's how much we have available to spend on these capital items this year. Is that how I'm reading that?

Where are you seeing that number?

I'm looking at this sheet. Oh, yeah. I'm trying to get an understanding how much from each account we can spend on all these capital projects.

Well, the unincorporated fund remains in the unincorporated area.

Correct. Yes. These totals here are the expenditures requested. These are not the funds available. But I can work on the, if you want a listing of all of that, I can, yeah, I can do that.

Yeah, yeah. most important and what we can fund it out of which account. Okay.

Well, when I look on the sheet, I think the 144 is already accounted for the ARPA. That's the ambulance. Then the capital improvement, 1.4 million is being requested. We have 563,000 unincorporated. That one I'll get for you. And the SPLOST 9 is for the ambulances. And then the SPLOST 9 eligible is where you're really going to have to do some creative thinking there. That's the one where we have that much, but only a million

Gotcha, you got a million of that and five million requested. That's the big one.

And then the jail and stuffing fund, I'll have to look at that and the shared assets. So those three items I'll get for you.

All right, I understand better. Thank you.

Well, I'll just make a final comment. Any questions, comments? If there's anything that is important for us to do as a board, it's this. It's all about the money, so we've got to make sure we make it right as best we can. It's difficult. Cost increases... You know, lower sales tax revenue. I mean, we're at a critical point where we've got to do the right thing here as a board and get into the weeds and the details and see how we can make this thing work. And I don't feel confident that we won't have to have a millage rate increase, but don't quote me on that because I can't say, but my gut feeling is we're going to have to do something. We don't know what something is yet, so I'll leave it at that for right now, but...

Well, no, I think you bring up a really valuable point. We took the rollback rate last year. We did. And so what that does is that means we're only going to take in as much money as we took in the year prior. It's not lost on anybody that prices have gone up. Even if we can get back to the millage rate that we were at before we took the rollback rate, I'd be proud of us as a board.

We've actually taken the rollback the last three years.

Well, that's part of our problem as well is now we're coming back and we've ran out of cushion.

Well, looking back, we probably should have maybe increased a little bit at a time over the past three years, but we didn't. It is where we are.

And there's other funding things, too. We had grants. Those ARPA funds lasted us a long time. We've had those since COVID. So they're running out this year. We can't use them anymore. I mean, they're gone. So anytime you have grant funding and that goes away, hurricane money or whatever, or COVID, but when those go away, then you've got to look to other sources for your funding.

So we have to ask you every meeting, where's our fund balance?

What is a cascade machine?

That's what I know, but it's not been calculated yet.

What is a cascade machine? I'm looking at this vertical one. For $64,000. Oh, okay, this is y'all? Never mind. I'm just kidding. Oh, no, please.

So the Cascade system is for filling our SCBA bottles. Right now we have one at Station 11, a very small one at Station 17. So this acts for a third one to be placed on the south end for those units and also to use for our training. Okay, thank you. Because filling 15 bottles for 15 recruits gets very time-consuming with the small systems we have.

And they're graduating soon, correct?

They are. They graduate on May 27th. Awesome.

Anything else? Comments, questions?

Yeah, I think we're all definitely going to need some more time with this. Yeah.

Thank you all. Great work. I guess we'll call it adjourned.

Thank you.