County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

June 2nd special meeting of the Clark County Board of Commissioners for our budget discussion. Commissioner Moore, will you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? I alian to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And if uh Sharon, would you provide the invocation? Yes. Thank you, chairman and commissioners. Dear heavenly father, thank you so much for all your blessings and for our beautiful community. Thank you for allowing us to gather here this evening. Please watch over everyone in attendance and give our commissioners wisdom as they consider tonight's agenda. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay. In accordance with the state government ethics act, it is the duty of every board member to avoid both conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflict. Does any board member have any known conflict of interest or appearance of conflict with respect to any matter coming before the board this evening? If so, please identify the conflict and refrain from any undue participation in the particular matter involved. I'd like to remind everybody to silence her cell phone and devices. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented? Some move. Motion by Commissioner Waldrip. Second. Seconded by Commissioner Quinn. All in favor? Okay. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Motion by Commissioner Waldrip. Second by Commissioner Clark. All in favor?

Okay. Next, we will have a public hearing on the fiscal year 2526 county government budget. Is there a motion to go in public hearing? Motion. Motion by Commissioner Clark. Second. Seconded by Commissioner Shin. All in favor? We are now in public hearing. We do have a signup sheet if anybody would like to sign up, but uh number one on the list is Dr. Tracy Mancini. Thank you, Chairman Chadwick, commissioners, Manager Griffin, and county staff. I'm just here tonight to say thank you from Carter Community College, and among uh among us are our trustees who are here with us to say thank you for your ongoing support of the college and of the students that we serve here. among them many who graduated in the last few weeks. So, I wanted to let you know that we had 261 curriculum, degree, diploma, and certificate graduates and this year over 700 workforce and continuing education program completers at the college. So, we're thrilled that we're able to serve with our great facilities and improvements all of these students and the employers in the county. and we just want to thank you for that support which amounts to nearly 20% of our total budget at the college. So thank you very much and we'll continue to be good stewards of the public trust. Thank you Dr. Mancini. Is there anyone else that would like to speak motion to go out of public hearing then? The move motion by Commissioner Shen, seconded by Commissioner Walder. All in favor? Okay, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a

motion to pass the 2526 fiscal year budget, changing the proposed tax rate to 23.5 cents, up from 23 cents to accommodate the requested teacher supplement increase for our county's public school certified, non-certified teachers and coaches. Okay, there's a motion by Commissioner Quinn. Is there a second? I'll second seconded by Commissioner Moore. Is there discussion? I mean I I support all the things that he mentioned for the proposed doing the rate, but the problem I have is a two two and a half cent tax increase. If we had passed the same generated the same amount of additional funds last year, that would be a 5-cent tax increase. Um, and I mean I think the public is struggling with the rising cost of insurance, the rising cost of housing, the rising cost of flood insurance, which is very significant in our county. Um, the internet, entertainment, and not to mention, you have certain municipalities that are going up even more significant than the current motion on the table. Um, I I worry about our biggest concern in this county is affordable housing going forward. Um, and that would perpetuate the problem. Um, but that's as far as [Music] comment. Is there anyone else would like to speak? All right. All in favor of Mr. Quinn's Commissioner Quinn's motion, raise your right hand. All right. All opposed. Okay. That motion fails. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a a motion uh regarding the budget. Um, like I can make a motion to adopt the 25 2025

county budget ordinance as proposed, amending to include an extra $500,000 for a school system and setting the general fund tax rate at 22.5. Motion by Commissioner Shen. Is there a second? I second. Seconded by Commissioner Waldrip. Is there discussion? Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a comment. I mean, it I know there's been different opinions on the budget and we've hashed out a lot in discussions. Um, but this does give the schools an additional $2 million more than they received last year in capital. And it also gives the schools an additional $750,000 more than they received, I said that backwards, and operated at $750,000 in capital. um we are charged to fund the schools. The only requirement is to fund the capital. We do believe in education and would like to pay um the people more and we've allocated a additional $2 million in operating to help with that. It's the board of education's job to decide how they wish to spend that money. We we can't dictate to them what they do. Is there anyone else? I Commissioner Walbert, this has been a hard decision for all of us. Um, and especially in a very uh tumultuous situation when we've had a reval this year. Uh, we've thought long and hard about this. We have been talking um at nauseium amongst all of us um at various times in the last three weeks. This doesn't come lightly. Uh but the issue is is that we have a 27% turnover in county employees and our

employees for the county have not been addressed for salary or cola. Um so this minimal I perceive it to be minimal um increase from budget neutral is primarily directed towards keeping our county moving and we're doing our best with the school system. But we have a 27% 20 sorry 24 24% turnover in the county employees. Uh whereas the teacher turnover at this point attrition rate is 7%. So, there's many more things that we could talk about and I'm hoping that some of my commissioner um compadres will bring up other points as they see pertinent to this discussion. Um, but I I think that this is a solid um motion on the table for a 1.5 uh cent not percent 1.5 cent increase over budget neutral. I refer back to All right, Commissioner. Yeah, just a just a moment please. the as county commissioners, uh I perceive that we are first and foremost responsible to our constituents for um trying to let them keep as much money as they can in their pocket and we'd have a lot of responsibilities. Um the re-evaluation is is going to be tough on some people. Um and you know we've heard we've heard that and uh revenue neutral is our goal and was our goal. Um and though unfortunately um we got as close as we could get and uh

meet the re the needs of the community college and uh the school and uh the other departments and our uh employees of the county. And uh 1.5 cents uh is is is is a number that uh we believe will be beneficial for seeing those needs met but also keeping uh as much money in the taxpayers's pocket as possible. Is there anyone else? We're we're all up here for the same reason and that is to do the best we can for the citizens of our county. And we may not always agree uh in which direction we should take the county or or decisions that we need to make as far as our budget is concerned, but we we vote with our convictions. And um my the proposed budget amend or motion that I made would have covered the raises for the county uh employees in order to keep as many of them as possible since we do have such a high turnover rate. but would have been something um as as a token of great appreciation to our teachers um for what they do for our students on a day-to-day basis. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Quinn. Uh it's uh probably the hardest year as a commissioner trying to get uh six other people to agree. I wanted I was hoping to get seven to uh go along with it, but uh it's give and take and everybody's heart's in the right place. Uh this uh budget does give our employees a 10% raise. Our county employees have been underwater for a while. Uh it does give an extra 500,000 to the school system. So that's 2 million more than last year. We've asked them to use a million out of their $3 million fund balance to get to a number

where we can do a little more next year. here and hopefully we're at a number where we can agree on what this funding for the schools will be for the next two or three years. Um, you know, I, uh, I think about that young family growing up down east trying to stay in her home, trying to keep the taxes low, or a widow that maybe had a commercial fisherman husband trying to stay keep her taxes low so she can stay in her family home and trying to look out for the schools. So, that's where I'm at. Anyone else? Commissioner Ch. So, one of the comments. So, I mean, right now, unfortunately for the county commissioners, we're statutoily required to pass a budget by the end of this month. Um, and we have to go with the information that we have at hand. The state, unfortunately, does not play by the same set of rules. And unfortunately for the community college and the school system, they do not know exactly what they're going to get yet. Um there are different bills floating around. The House has passed one, the Senate's working on one. Um if the House gets their way, um starting out teacher pay I think will rise. I think they said at that meeting the other day, uh Celeste shared with us we'd be third second or third in the southeast as far as starting salaries. Um a majority of the starting out teachers are funded by the county portion of the money that we're talking about appropriating. and we may have to come back and address the number we talked about today. Um, and that was some of the things that we also thought about. Um, I think Commissioner Quinn did a good job of saying that, you know, we all have different opinions. Um, and there was no consensus amongst this board tonight on what would go down. And we had to negotiate heavily and we all had to give up on certain issues, some more than others, unfortunately. And you

hate that because whoever doesn't get what they want works just as hard as you do. Um, and it really comes down to getting a majority to agree. U, which sometimes isn't pretty. And Commissioner Chadwick's found out sitting in the middle seat is a lot more difficult than the ones to the right and the left and he's been he's been he's been worn out. Um, and so I sympathize and very appreciative for all the hard work you've done this budget cycle. Um, I'm very appreciative to Sharon and D and Lori for all the information that they've tracked down and gotten for all the new commissioners and the old commissioners and I am sensitive to all the requests that we've received. But unfortunately, we're not like the federal government. We can't print money. Um, and you know, this tax increase we're doing right now is more than I've done in a lot of years sitting up here commissioner in one year because that one and a half cent if we' have raised this revenue last year is three cents. So the values have gone up, the rate came down. It's an equation. Rate times value equals taxes. When these municipalities raise your rate, you need to look and see what revenue neutral was and figure out if they raised your taxes or they didn't raise your taxes. I think as elected officials, we all should be held accountable and if you're not happy with our decisions, you should send us home. But I thank you for having the confidence in us to serve you. And I appreciate uh the citizens of the county and the staff of the county and community college, the school board, the sheriff's department, and all of our other departments. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Chairman Mansfield. Certainly we respect the school board and Richie Pal probably one of the finest superintendents in the state and uh we got a great county manager uh and Sharon and and D or finance person and uh it's kind of like when you hire a financial adviser and they give you advice uh and if you don't follow their advice you know you just wasted your money hiring

them. So we we've had a lot of back and forth amongst all the commissioners and burning up Sharon's ear. Uh, and this is where we're at. So, uh, there's a motion. Commissioner Chuck, Commissioner Walder, I'd like to make one last statement, and I'm self-elected as the rookie commissioner here on the board to to make a a real um statement, although we are um appear to have some difference some differences in our assessment about what this um budget should look like. I will tell you it's not I haven't felt this much sincerity and I have been a Marine for 24 years in a common cause with open dialogue and I will tell you Mark uh Commissioner Mansfield did a great job of of giving Chris some credit chairman credit but I will tell you the phone was off the hook. we all had each other's ear. Um, it doesn't help those that didn't get what they wanted, but I will tell you this is a very cohes cohesive board as far as I can tell. And uh, as a rookie, I wanted to say I am proud to be in Carter County with this group of professionals. and uh and we're grateful to have an a a new mix of team um at the headshed with uh manager Griffin. So, I'm self-elected as a rookie, but I I I really have felt good about the open dialogue and and how hard this was to make a decision and and chairman um Chadwick did a beautiful job of orchestrating it as far as I could tell. Thanks. Is there anybody else? I just briefly

say, Mr. Chairman, thank you. Um, I just like to thank the the the work that's gone into this budget. Uh, it's been a lot of 11th hour effort gone into this to to bring it to fruition. I stand firm behind my motion. Um, I would have I would have liked to to gone actual bud uh revenue neutral, but I feel like as a as a compromise to accomplish what we need to accomplish and to help everybody. I think I think this is a reasonable effort. Um, it's been a lot of discussion as just as Commissioner Wal just stated, it's it hadn't been an easy decision to make. Um, but I would like to uh thank the the rest of the commissioners for their hard diligence effort. Uh, and the staff as well. We we've taken the manager and and the finance officer to to great task. Um, and they they've done a a tremendous job. So, I feel like everybody's, you know, has been say stated several times, not everybody's going to get absolutely everything they want. Um, but we try to accommodate as best we can and I feel like uh we're going to be fine. Countyy's going to be fine this year. We've been fine all the rest of the years. Um, we it's a great place to live. People are still coming. Uh, so we've got a lot to be thankful for. Um, so u with that I'll turn it over. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Commissioner Shen. All right. Motion by Commissioner Moore. All right. just to uh say some of the reasons I my thoughts the way way they were on this vote. I look at uh tomorrow's county when it comes to um our education when it comes to the our teachers um the

employees of this county making sure that we've got the best that we got in this county. Make it a beautiful county. make it to where um our kids has good place to to be at and to learn. Uh good places to work and the college does an excellent excellent deal with that. Uh our our public schools excellent. Um, I do feel that our our board's done a good thing with with what they what they had to work with, but I just feel we could do more when it come to um the um helping out the teachers and uh when it comes to the uh to our schools and to our our employees. That's going to be my deal. I'm looking, you know, I want the best and we've got to stay and making sure our taxes is where our our people in our county can afford that. I understand that. But in the meantime, we also the same people will say we want the best and in order to do that, it's going to cost a little bit. And uh that's where I was at and it's where I'm I'm going to be at with that. Uh I appreciate our county. I appreciate the hard work and appreciate the schools and appreciate this county and their employees. We got some good employees. Yes, we do need to stop the that turnover rate and the only way we can do it is to help them out. But uh tomorrow when it comes to uh my grandchildren's um education, I want the best and that's the way I the way I see it. It's the way I went the way I went with everything. And um I thank you and uh Commissioner Joe. Thank you, Commissioner Morris. Anybody else? All right. Motion by Commissioner Shen, seconded by Commissioner Waldrip. All in favor? All opposed? All right. Budget

passes. Thank you, Sharon. Thank you. Okay. Big beautiful bill. Well, yeah. I don't know if it was that or not. Uh continued budget discussion. I guess we don't have that anymore right there. If there's anything further to come before the board, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. So move. Motion by Commissioner Shen, seconded by Commissioner Waldrip. All in favor? Thank you for coming. Thank you.