County Council - Special Meeting

All right, the countdown is on. All right, it's 6 o'clock, so we'll call this meeting to order of the Edgefield County Council on March the 10th, 2026. This is our budget workshop, and we'll begin with an invocation led by Bruce Cooley, our finance director, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. If everyone will please stand.

Let's bow for prayer.

Our Father, we do thank you for this day, this evening, that we can gather together. We thank you that it is a day that you have created and ordained for us. And dear Lord, we just thank you that... We live in a country, we have the privilege and opportunity to live in a country that is free where we can assemble together like this. And dear Lord, I pray that you'd be with this council as they conduct the business of this meeting and future business as well. That you'd give them the wisdom that they need to make the correct decisions, even if they're not the popular decisions. And dear Lord, help us as a staff of this county to execute those decisions as they make them. Dear Lord, we thank you for all things, but we thank you most of all for your Son, Jesus Christ, who came and gave himself on the cross of Calvary, that through him we might be saved. And it's in his lovely and precious name we pray. Amen.

Amen.

Join us for the pledge. I pledge allegiance 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. Please be seated. All right, council, we're here tonight to discuss the FY26-27 general operating budget and special revenue fund budgets. So, as I said earlier, tonight is our budget workshop. And to remind council and our guest and anyone who is watching, at the workshop, we do not vote on any topic. This is a draft budget that council and the administrator are here to discuss. This is the less formal meeting. We may ask the administrator to make changes to his draft budget before we take it up for first reading at our April meeting, but only if we have a consensus to do that. First, tonight, we'll hear the administrator's report on the budget as he walks through the memo he provided us. Then we'll go through the budget page by page just to ensure we've covered everything the council wants covered. I'll be moving through the page by page pretty quickly as usual. So I'm sure council's used to that. Once we have the page by page look finished, then we'll ask for comments from those elected officials and department heads who wish to be heard. Just as a reminder for council, During first, second, and third readings of the budget, we can discuss any line item or any other topic in the budget you'd like to discuss. However, for the three readings, we won't be going through the memo again in detail except for first reading since the administrator needs to set the groundwork by going through his memo again for citizens who might not be watching or reading about this meeting. However, we will not go through the budget page by page again, but at future meetings, you can always bring up any page you want to discuss. And at the next three meetings, we'll discuss what the administrator recommends and what council wants to discuss related to the budget. Remember, during the three readings, we can vote to amend this budget at any time. So, are there any questions from council members on the process I've described for our meeting tonight or moving forward? Everybody good? All right. Then, if not, then I'll remind you that this budget comes to you, put together by staff, and comes recommended by the Budget and Finance Committee. I'll ask Mr. Talbert if he has anything to add since he's the chair of the Budget and Finance Committee. I haven't been made, Mr. Chairman.

Okay.

Thank you. We appreciate the work that you did, and I thank Mr. Moody for joining the meetings leading up to the final budget. Appreciate that. I do want to say that Mr. Cadell has spent a great deal of time working to bring us a balanced budget with some game-changing additions. I want to say a big thank you to him, and also a big thank you to Bruce Cooley, our finance director, for working to put this budget together for us, and of course, thank you, Mr. Talbert, along with the elected officials and department heads and any others who were involved in this budget process. With that preamble, I'll turn it over to the administrator so he can take us through the budget memo.

Thank you. So earlier today, the Finance Committee, Councilman and Chairman Albert Talbert, Dean Campbell, myself, and Bruce Cooley met to discuss the budget, and the Finance Committee did recommend that budget to Council. So I'll move on to the budget memo. And I apologize it's six pages, but there's a lot to get to here. Over the past four years, the county has experienced strong residential growth. While this has resulted in additional revenues for the county, growth brings increased need for services. With this budget, the county will meet the ongoing needs of the citizens while ensuring fiscal stability. The Edgefield County employees are our most important asset. Last year, we gave them a 3.5% raise, the annualized consumer price index, which is a measure of inflation. Through January 2026 in the southern region was 1.9%. It was 2.4% nationally. A little over three years ago, we set a goal to increase employee cost of living wages at a rate a bit higher than CPI. to consistently close the wage gap surrounding counties. The implementation of the STEP program and merit increases beyond the COLA, or cost of living, would ensure that more experienced and high performing employees received additional compensation. We have included a minimum 2.5% cost of living increase in this year's budget, an average half percent merit increase at a range of 0 to 1 percent, depending on performance, and a 2.5 percent step increase for employees under the midpoint of their pay grade. We propose to continue the 401 match with a proposed match of up to $1,200 per participating employee. Competition remains high for qualified employees. We are proposing to fund one additional employee in human resources. As we are just coming down from elevated inflation, you will see those effects across all departments as costs for most goods and services are up substantially. Decisions by state government can also adversely affect our revenue. Just an example is the reduction by 42% of property taxes on boats with no provision from the state to replace that revenue. Just in county operations, this will reduce our revenue by approximately $65,000. Included with this budget is a capital project improvement plan. The development and approval of this plan is required prior to implementing impact fees. We plan to introduce an impact fee ordinance in the Meriwether and county line areas in the coming months to primarily fund an EMS substation. and recurring ambulance replacement in that area. There may be a small portion allocated for recreation. If approved, we will also ask that the City of North Augusta collect these fees on our behalf on new Edgefield County construction within North Augusta City limits. The purpose of impact fees is to reduce the burden on the county for capital needs caused by growth. We have had those conversations with North Augusta today and they seem amenable to that request. Based on the audited reserves as of June 30th, 2025, the general fund has a fund balance of $7,377,489 in unrestricted reserves. In fiscal year 26-27, the council will designate $844,092 from the fund balance. Our general fund operating budget for this year is $18,549,177. After utilizing the $844,092 from our reserves, the county will have $6,533,397 or 4.3 months of unrestricted reserves available, which is a good cushion for the county. Major highlights in this budget, a 2.5% cost of living increase. The proposed cost of living increase will be applied to individual salaries and the salary bands, so that will apply to new hires as well. a 0.5 merit pay increase based on employee evaluations, continuation of a 2.5 percent eight-year step program. The difference between the minimum of a salary band of a grade and the midpoint is 20 percent. By giving a 2.5 percent increase calculated on the minimum of an employee's salary band each year over eight years, an employee hired at the minimum would reach midpoint in eight years. This is separate from cost of living increases. Continuation of an employer match on 401 at 50% of each dollar contributed by the employee. The employer match this fiscal year may not exceed $1,200. The match amount will be revisited for each budget cycle. We have budgeted and are exploring a wellness program to cover employee to improve employee attendance and to cover employee attendance at county-sponsored exercise classes and supplement gym memberships to encourage employee health and reduce absenteeism. We've budgeted $20,000 at that. We are exploring those opportunities now, so we don't have a lot of details to report yet, but we wanted to put a spot in the budget for it. This year, insurance is proposed to increase 5%, but final numbers will not be available until August. That makes budgeting difficult, but that's the way it is. The creation of one full-time position in the general fund. Travel and training budget reimbursements will continue to follow the IRS mileage reimbursement and GSA per diem rate. We review those every December or January and adjust our form. an increase in the solid waste fee to $140 from $100 to account for inflation, higher workers' compensation rates, and a pay increase equal to the county employee increase for convenience center employees who are provided by the senior center, increased construction and demolition disposal fees, and new landfill cell construction, which covers most of it, at Three Rivers Landfills. This will increase tonnage fees by $10.30 per ton over five years. No millage increase proposed. As I go department by department by department, if you hear me say no significant changes requested, that does not mean their budget did not increase. It means there were no special requests outside of normal pay and inflationary increases. County Council, there were no significant changes. Administration, we recommend adding a human resources employee to assist the personnel director. Building and planning, no significant changes. Clerk of court, the clerk of court requested $15,000 for modification of the family court for safety. The request was also made for an increase of $2,000 in the printing budget. We recommend approval. As an aside, we are getting quotes for a new flat roof this fiscal year as it cannot wait. The coroner's office requested an increase of $5,000 for professional services and $1,200 in special contracts. We agree. In the veteran's office, there were no significant changes. In information technology, an increase of $5,000 was requested in computer hardware and IT services funding, and IT services funding for the law enforcement center was moved over to the IT department. The magistrate's office saw a reduction in salaries with the retirement of part-time magistrate Judge Mosley. In probate, there were no significant changes. In voter registration, no significant changes. They have moved into their new location, and that was fully funded with plutonium interest. GIS and increase in service contracts was requested for software licensing. For the assessor, the assessor's office did not request significant changes other than employee pay, and we are addressing that individually with them. Tax collector. The tax collector did not request significant changes. The treasurer requested an increase in part-time employee hours. We agree. The auditor did not request significant changes. In our countywide budget, we are assuming the group insurance may increase by 5% for employer premiums. We propose to continue $20,000 for internships for several county offices, five in the fall, five in the spring. Our internship program has been very successful, especially in the treasurer's office and at animal control. Emergency management. Funding for firefighter training continues at $10,000. And funding for tower leases for the radio system of $35,000 has been added. That had been paid out of plutonium interest, but it's time to absorb that into the general fund budget. Request for an additional employee is not recommended. For the sheriff, the sheriff's office is requesting a desk officer for the new law enforcement center and four deputies. We propose to revisit this request in the fall. The sheriff is also requesting an additional HR person, which we agree with. They will be based in administration. There were substantial increases for water and electricity for the new law enforcement center. There are substantial increases for boarding inmates. Higher inmate count equals greater cost. Federal reimbursement should begin to cover, it is actually starting to cover the eight new detention officers. The reimbursement rate has picked up significantly over the last few months. The last eight new detention officers that we hired prior to the detention center opening. On the detention center, the sheriff requested four detention officers. We propose to revisit this request in the fall. The reason we may be able to reconsider some of the Sheriff's Office personnel requests in the fall is that there is a lot going on that may affect our financial position, including property reassessment, new housing additions to the tax rolls, tax policies moving through the Statehouse, and the growth of our local option sales tax. Right now, we're in a lean time. I did promise the sheriff that we will have a couple of re-evaluation meetings starting in the summer and going through the fall. In animal control, the sheriff did not request significant changes. They did increase funding for interns in that department. County maintenance, no requests. Parks, Recreation, and Tourism. The genealogical library falls under PRT, specifically tourism, led by the recreation director. The salary for the librarian has been included in this budget. When we brought her on, it was in the administration budget. So that is the change. An increase in funding for summer camps, which were incredibly popular last summer, has been included. That funding may not be needed. Some of our corporate partners have begun to donate substantial amounts of money to fund our summer camps this year. Road fees, roads and bridges. Funding for a $340,000 motor grader is included. This will be partially funded with $160,000 reimbursement from FEMA, which we have received for roads and bridges efforts during Helene, and from the sale of a used motor grader that we have, and from existing monies in an equipment escrow from selling other surplus equipment. We expect probably about $80,000 to have to come out of their actual budget. The rest will be covered. economic development. We are continuing our payment to the Economic Development Partnership, $80,000 this year. The Industrial Park Special Revenue Fund had a balance of $654,000 at the end of January, and this year's 1% monies have not come in yet, so that will increase. emergency medical services. Last year, we increased millage by 12.5 mils for operations to the EMS Special Revenue Fund and 3.75 mils to debt service for the construction of a third station. We are actively seeking alternative funding for the third station through grants and state assistance. We have added a 12-hour fourth ambulance, which will transition to 24 hours once a new station is built. solid waste fee. There's a 6% increase in payments to the Tri-County Solid Waste Authority rising to $1,006,229 primarily due to tipping floor repair costs and the increase in tonnage fees from Three Rivers. The budget includes a 2.5% increase in pay for convenience center employees I just learned today for the convenience center employees that their workers' compensation rates have been reevaluated, and they will be going up substantially as well. The solid waste fund is beginning to trend negative. Three Rivers Landfill is increasing tonnage fees by $10.30 over five years. The C&D tonnage fee, construction demolition tonnage fee, is also increasing. For these reasons, we recommend increasing the solid waste fee from $100 to $140. This is a significant increase, but $140 to dispose of all of your household trash for a year is still an incredible deal compared to some sections of the state where it is almost double that. Victim's Bill of Rights. The Victim's Bill of Rights Fund provides for sheriff's office assistance to those who are victims and their families. A portion of the fines and forfeitures are returned to the county to fund this budget. However, in recent years, the funding has not adequately supported this position. We will need to transfer $62,342 from the general fund to the Victim's Bill of Rights Fund. Piedmont Technical College. This year we recommend holding our payment to $90,000. ABB Library requested an additional 10,500 in professional services to total $237,175. We agreed with this amount but will reduce the building repairs by $2,000 as the building was just renovated. Today we received a request to consider taking the Edgeville and Johnston library employees of ABBE into the county workforce. This would reduce our contribution by the value of salaries and fringe. The one issue I see is that their pay grades are lower than the county employee pay grades, so this would have to be adjusted up. I have no recommendation on this request at this time. Miscellaneous. We recommend continuing to fund the following at the following levels. Beckman Center, $2,000. Senior Center, $3,000. Clemson Extension, $900. And $1,400 for 4-H. And the Upper Savannah Council of Governments, $20,619. The public defender has not requested a change. The solicitor's office requested a 32.5% increase totaling $110,000. We recommend a 5% increase. We will be meeting with them later this week. The delegation requested a $2,000 increase toward their administrative employee. In looking back, we have not increased our contribution to that position in years, so we recommend approval. Opioid grant. We have established a standalone budget for the opioid settlement, much like an SRO budget, school resource officer budget, to accept grant revenue and spend it on an approved program. We are using $173,760 this year from our guaranteed funds. We have been very successful at having grants approved lately. And we expect this to continue at about that funding level. There are new settlements to be finalized. A special thank you to the Finance Committee, the Chair, Albert Talbert, Dean Campbell, Finance Director Bruce Cooley, and Office Manager Taz Potts for organizing the budget and making my many edits. Thank you to Council for your questions and input. Thank you to all elected officials and department heads for your input and willingness to compromise. And a special thank you to our assistant administrator, Hart Clark, for his assistance.

Thank you, Mr. Cadell. So before we move forward, council, any questions so far for the administrator on the budget memo?

I do have one or two, of course. The ABVP. I know when we had our luncheon or our dinner with them, they spoke of aching coming out. Is that the reason for this? Is there a reason? What's the reasoning here?

I think ABBE is, in general, poorly funded. And I think this is employee driven. They believe they will be treated better by the county. ABB employees in Aiken County are employees of Aiken County. And I think the Edgefield County employees are probably pushing this. But that's a guess. Again, I don't have a real opinion of it yet because I haven't worked the numbers, but I'm going to have a conference call with Mary Jo Dawson, who leads ABBE, and we'll see what's involved here. And it could be something we want to just say no to, or we want to proceed with, or we want to say let's explore it leading up to next budget year. But we'll know soon.

So Aiken County does this. Do the other counties, are they doing it this way?

They do not. They are ABB employees. Okay. And just for reference, there are three full-time employees in Edgefield County and three part-time.

And one more solicitor's office. We just did a bunch of work for them. 32.5%. I mean...

We did build them a nice office complex in the courthouse annex at substantial cost.

So we don't know what the 32.5, where that number, I mean, is there any, this is what we're going to do with it, this is why we need it?

It's not obvious within their budget request what they're asking for the money for. That's the meeting. It was scheduled for... Earlier this week, but it had to be put off until Thursday.

So they may not even need the 5% increase, I'm just saying.

That would be up to council.

That's all I have.

Anybody else have anything for the administrator?

I will say Representative Hickson will be happy with the raise for the delegation request because he called me today and asked me what we were doing, and I told him, so he's happy.

He made that request personally.

I figured he would.

That's for Jeannie, right? Yeah.

I would agree with that.

We haven't done anything there in a long time either. There's been no movement there.

Anything else from council before we go to the page-by-page?

Chairman, I hate to do this, but I think I may not have replaced your budget in your book with the 108-page version. I would just ask everyone up there to tell me what the page number on the last page of your budget is.

It's up at the upper right-hand corner.

I got one.

That's right. Mine says 147 of 152. And? 108. 108.

Mine says 108.

Mine says 108.

Okay. So, we have extras. So I need to go to that one. I made a mistake, but I was prepared for my mistake.

Are we going to yours or mine? The 108.

This is the 108, isn't it?

We're going to the 108 one?

Yes, we want to use the 108.

We have the right one.

Y'all have the right one. I don't.

It should be being...

You gentlemen got your copies earlier. That's right, we did. Okay, thank you.

Yes. We gave them a chance. A chance. I like 108 better than 152. Is that what you had? 147. Of 152.

And just to clarify, there are a number of pages and budgets that the county takes no action on. We simply removed those items just to make it a little easier on you and renumber the pages. Okay. Any more surprises?

Not yet.

Okay.

All right, so, counsel, what I'll do is, and you know the procedure, but I'm saying this for people who may be watching and don't understand. I'm going to go through this, as you know, pretty fast, because we've all had time to look at our budgets, and there may be a page you dog-eared or you underlined something you had a question on. So, just stop me, and we'll stop, and we'll talk about whatever you want to talk about on that particular page, and then we'll keep going. But I'll keep going until you stop me. So, everybody ready? All right, so I'm on, if you see at the upper right-hand corner, it says page one of 108. So page one, page two, page three, page four, page five, page six, page seven, page eight, page nine, Page 10, page 11, page 12, page 13, page 14, page 15, page 16, page 17, page 18, page 19, page 20. Page 21, page 22, page 23, page 24, page 25, page 26, page 27, page 28, page 29, page 30. Page 31. Page 32. Page 33. Page 34. Page 35. Page 36. Page 37. Page 38. Page 39. Page 40. Page 41. Page 42. Page 43. Page 44. Page 45. Page 46. Page 47. Page 48. Page 49. Page 50. Page 51, page 52, page 53, page 54, page 55, page 56, page 57, page 58. Page 59. Page 60. Page 61. Page 62. Page 63. Page 64. Page 65. Page 66. Page 67. Page 68. Page 69. PAGE 70. PAGE 71. PAGE 72. PAGE 73. PAGE 74. PAGE 75. PAGE 76. PAGE 77. PAGE 78. Page 80. Page 81. Page 82. Page 83. Page 84. Page 85. Page 86. Page 87. Page 88. Page 89. Page 90.

Page 91. One question. Yes. On the set-off debt gear, no money has been collected this year. Is that a one-time payment we get before the end of the fiscal year? We got $10,507 last year and nothing so far this year.

Yes, sir. That happens, as I understand it, along about the time of the tax filing deadline, I guess post-April 15th, and we get that slug of money.

Good.

All right. That was page 91. 92. Page 93. Page 94. Page 95. Page 96. Page 97. Page 98. Page 99. Page 100. Page 101. Page 102. Page 103. Page 104. Page 105. 106, page 107, and last page 108. All right. That's our page-by-page flip through, so I appreciate you all enduring that, just in case. All right. Council, before we go to the next part of the agenda, any other questions or comments before we hear comments from any elected officials or anybody? All right, if not, I'll call on our elected officials, if there are any who would like to speak tonight.

Really?

I mean, okay. And have a dissertation.

And plus, he's got two scheduled meetings throughout a year. That's true.

Appreciate it. All right. I think the only department head here would be you. Well, and Doc. Doc would be here. So, anything from our department heads that we need to discuss? Okay. All right. Nothing from elected officials and nothing from department heads. So, council, one more chance.

Anything from you guys? I just think we need to explain to the public that, you know, you hear comments, at least I do, online all the time about they spend money just here and there and get rid of all of them and all that. I mean, we get bills just like everybody else. And this man right here, he has to balance our budget. When bills come due, we have to pay them. We can't use a little plastic card like people can at the house and get farther and farther in debt. And it's just like the $140 waste fee. I know people think that that might be a lot. Myself and Albert are on that committee. We're going to spend $342,000 in a couple weeks out there at the Tri-County place on Weaver Road fixing, what, 16 inches of concrete. Trash is expensive, like Dean has said before, and it's something that we have to get rid of. Whether you have your own service that comes and picks it up, it's still your trash, and we still dispose of it. And that's basically all I've got to say. Anybody else?

All right. Hearing none, then, Counsel, if there's nothing else on the agenda, I would certainly entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Dr. Kenney makes a motion. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Talbert seconds. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. All opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Appreciate everybody being here and doing that.