Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

I don't know. I'm just.

Good evening, my man. This meeting is called to order. All right. Mr. Green, can you please serve us with the pleasure of doing an invocation?

Sure. Attorney God, we're so grateful for another day's journey. We're grateful that you have closed us in our right mind. We pray that you'd be in the midst of this budget hearing, allow us to make good and sound decisions on behalf of the citizens that we serve. Thank you for every individual that represent the districts and every Employee that represent this county. I pray that you be our strength and our grace through all of these times in your son Jesus name You are a shepherd.

We should not want a man All right, please stand for the place of legends All right, now, it's great to see everyone. It's a beautiful Monday. General Business. Introduction, Mr. President James, Interim County Administrator.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At the last meeting, I was given the charge to reduce costs given the likelihood of the county losing millions of dollars of revenue as a result of adopting the military rollback as well as the property tax amendment. Gadsden County, like many counties, uses 65%, the majority of its budget, to fund personnel. Therefore, it is impossible to cut millions of dollars of costs without cutting personnel. With that thought in mind, you're about to see a financial presentation that reduces costs by reducing personnel. To do this, we asked each director, department head, to look at their staff to see how they could reduce personnel costs without compromising services. As a result, they have sent a number of recommended staff cuts to reduce the budget. In addition, We'll be cutting costs by closing offices outside of this building and moving them into this building, consolidating services. And as well as, Public Works has indicated they'll be returning a number of lease vehicles to Enterprise to cut the cost. With that being said, I'll turn this over to our financial CFO, Mrs. Rae Knight.

We're going to go through a PowerPoint that Mr. James has asked me to pull together to kind of show a summary of what we did. And so I'm going to try and walk you through it. Okay. At 9 mils last week, we presented you a budget of $72,409,510, which was 3.3% higher than the adopted 25-26 budget. Basically, all we did was reduce some operational costs and added in the FRS and benefits, things like that. Now we are presenting you with a budget at 8.553 mills at $69,384,141, which is $3,025,369 less than the budget that was presented at 9 mills on last week. It also is reducing revenues by $1.2 million by going from the nine mills to the 2.553, I mean 8.553. It is now the budget at 69,384,141 is 1.01% less than the adopted 2526 budget. So in our trim hearings, if this is what we move forward with in the trim hearings, we will be sending out a notice of taxes but not a tax increase. Mr. James asked me to pull together by department all of the kind of 25-26 adopted budget as well as the 26-27 adopted budget in a bar graph so we can show you what that looked like. For county administration, which includes all of those budgets that are bulleted there, the county commissioners, HR, Medicaid, indigent, hospital, pauper burials, public information, grants administration, and county administrator, it went from 4.5 million in 25-26 to just over 4 million in 26-27 in this budget we have presented to you tonight. Primarily there were there was one personnel cut in that and one reassigned Split duties in that grouping Pardon me, we hold it.

Are we asking? Yeah, yeah, we can we told until she finished up She's right now Okay in

The elderly affairs budget, which is only the elderly affairs budget itself in that department, it went from $755,498 last year to $666,554 this year. That included one position and two part-time positions. In building inspection, which is code enforcement, parks and recs, animal control, and the building inspection departments, it went from 1.745190 to 1240398. And that was one position, two positions, and one vacancy. Two positions and one vacancy out of that grouping.

Mr. Chairman, if you will. Yes, sir. Because like each department or whatever cuts are being made or considered, I think we need a little bit more information. I want to be clear of what you said as it relates to the administration budget. You said one has been cut and the duties have been combined and another one with two. And all of this, you're saying what we're seeing, but you're not giving details. If something has been cut, what has been cut? Who has been cut? Who don't think so you can So, I mean I want I'm asking like what what's been cut because I Will try to wait but I still want more details as it relates to what's been cut County Administrator We're gonna get into

positions, how we're doing this?

I'm not sure, because the attorney's not here to answer.

So you don't know who's been cut? Oh, I do, yeah, of course. Okay, it's public information.

Can we go through it first? Go right ahead, then we'll see. Finish, then he can answer those questions. Can you write those questions down?

Again, we can write them down, but even as we're going through. Can he write the questions? Oh, sure. Write your answers down. It's almost like this prison session is very generic. I mean, it's pretty, it's nice, but it's generic. It's not given detailed information. But thank you.

Well, hold up, hold up. It's given the number of cuts and the amount of money that's being cut. That we're projecting to cut. Yeah, projecting. We aren't seeing who's being cut or who's projected to be cut. That's not part of it.

Okay. And I guess I'm asking because she stated that there has been a cut. So I'm asking, what has been cut? Proposed? You didn't say proposed. You said it had been cut. So I'm asking, what has been cut? Because I'm not aware. I'll come back to that. I'll come back to that.

It's OK with me. I'm fine. Want me to move forward? Yeah.

I'll come back to it. Can you write down the notes so that I get it? I get it.

So. EMS emergency medical which is fire and emergency ambulance and emergency billing Went from seven point seven million to seven point million They are sharing positions with to cover the fire and the billing there was a vacancy in billing so they're sharing split funding positions within EMS to cover those two areas and In extension services, it went from $566,000 to $493,000. And that was proposed one position.

Extension services extension services that includes the extension office and the soil and water conservation Okay, cuz uh just for the record I think the extension paid half of each position themselves, right?

We pay for three of the positions and then there are about three or four people that we pay 35% of their salary.

Okay. Okay. I got you. So pay a portion All right. Thank you

um facilities that one has increased it has nothing to do with personnel it has to do with the increase in repairs insurance contracts and general maintenance that is going to be uh that is projected to take place for this coming year so went from 3 million to 3.15 million

So that went up. Pardon me?

So that particular... That one, that particular department, that department umbrella went up about $130,000. Okay. It's due to the increases in repairs, insurance, contracts, and general maintenance for extended services. So there was more insurance that is being charged at the buildings this year. They had raised the insurance rates on buildings and contracts. Some contracts have gone up, like the hospital maintenance, the cell tower contract has gone up. Custodial services has some contracts. And the jail maintenance, there's quite a bit of maintenance that we have to do this year. So that's why that particular fund went up. I'm sorry?

Yes, ma'am. Yes. Yes. OK, you can, yeah.

OK. The next one is growth management. It went from $789,000 this year, well, I'm sorry, $877,000 this year to $789,000. And that has one proposed vacancy and one proposed position. Other government and community. As you can see, that's about 14 or 15, maybe more, different budgets. And you can see in there, there were cuts in boys and girls, in summer youth, in economic development, And those are not positions in all cases. Senior citizens, we took the senior citizen and we combined that with the elderly budget. So we merged that into the elderly budget. Voting improvements, we normally set aside $10,000. We did not set any aside. Hospital endowment, at the last budget you received, had raised up $150,000, but we're not going to record that at $150,000. We're only going to record it at a standard rate every year of $650,000.

When you said development, I asked a question later on.

Judicial services. Judicial services also went up from 305,000 to 395,000. They are putting a new implementation and software system in and new devices. So that's the reason for that increase. library services went from a million 294 to a million 110 and that includes proposed three part-time and three full-time shifts moving administration moving people from administration to branch libraries reducing the administration staff and Management services went up from 2.38 to 2.695. It's about $300,000. Mostly it's a dramatic increase in cybersecurity insurance, the security upgrades, the cameras that we've had to replace, the security systems, contracts for software, maintenance software, software upgrades, and system redesigns. As you probably don't know, today our server went down completely, locking all of us out. And it's because these upgrades haven't been done, so this is why this department is going up. It includes information technology, purchasing veterans, and probation, and OMB, Office of Management and Budget.

Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate you.

Let me see Public Works Public Works went from six point one million to five point five There are five vacancies there and there are also proposed For four positions That includes fuel systems roads and bridges paved roads vehicle maintenance and mosquito control and Constitutional officers, as you know, are the five elected officers and the courthouse facilities and security and E911 and emergency management prep. And that went from 14.6 million to 16.003 million. So it went up about $1.4 million. The only changes that were made for the sheriff directed from last meeting was just to bring them up to where they're supposed to be right now from the budget amendment that was implemented after the original budget was set. And then the other officers are personnel and operational expense increases. OK. Mr. Administrator, do you want to entertain questions at this point? We may.

All right, thank you.

Going back to the original questions, because again, this was very... generic, not detailed at all. Information is definitely in this big panther that I thought we were gonna actually go through, opposed to a synoptis of this budget. And so at the beginning, I heard 65% cutting of personnel.

No, 65% of the budget is personnel.

Sorry, 65% of the budget is personnel that there were sent recommendations. I guess I'm trying to figure out who is this team that's making the recommendation. That's the first question. Who's making these recommendations?

Each of the... You want to get that, Mr. James?

No problem. Okay, Mr. James.

Each of the department heads were asked to come and meet with Mr. James? and he asked them how they could find economies of scale within their budget. Some of them found that they have staffing that they don't really need because maybe services are down, maybe clients are down. Some of them had staffing that was vacant or vacancies that they didn't really need to fill. But each of them came individually and talked with Mr. James. And then the department heads made the recommendations to Mr. James.

Okay. And my original question was, when we first started this conversation, we were saying that, and I heard it very clearly, because I heard proposed cuts in most of the conversation that you stated, but originally you said a cut has already been made. And my original question was, what cut has been made? Special projects director. Okay. And that cut was made when? Today. Okay. All right. And so my concern becomes under... from proposed to actuality or reality, how we go from proposed to actually making these changes that has impacted or affected somebody's livelihood for 16 years that have worked for this county. And it does become a problem for me because not only do I want things to be done fairly across this board and for all employees, but when that employee is a citizen of mine that lives in my district, it becomes another problem. And so I guess I'm trying to figure out under how are we making these judgments as it relates to Where's the list of the checklist? This is why we got to give I don't have a problem with the hit me well if there's a checklist and we're saying we don't need this position because of the XYZ is not going to affect this one two three whatever Where is the process of just so somebody comes to work and gets terminated the same day with no warning? I almost want to cry because that's hurtful. It's hurtful. And it's not right. I understand that changes have to be made, but these are supposed to be projected or proposed cuttings. So my question becomes, when did we decide as a board? Maybe some board members knew. I don't know. But when did this board decide that we were going to implement these changes? Because at the end of the day, and I don't want to hear the day-to-day, that doesn't sit well. Because this is all five of our responsibility on this board, this budget, which includes everybody who works here. And I'm going to say this, and I know I get reelected in 2028, and somebody's probably going to be bold and say that Commissioner Greene didn't want to support the summer youth program. That's a lie. And if I wasn't a minister, I'd add a D word to that's a lie. But I become more concerned about people who already are working that has to take care of these children. Yeah, I wish we had a lot of money to continue the summer youth program. I do. But would I rather keep working employees day to day? Absolutely. This ain't making sense to me. And it begins to make me go back to thinking about the hearsay of the projected hit list. It's like it's being marked off. And I can't sit here like this ain't happening to our employees. I think as a board, you're right, that's a lot of our budget is employees. And we do have to find a solution. but people coming in to work the same day, going home the same day, don't have a job, that ain't the solution. And we have an interim. So I feel like we keep talking about, and I'm gonna move on from it, but we keep talking about Even with the interim, if the interim is going to be permanent, that's going to be up to this board. But I don't feel like we should be making these major changes without having more detailed input. We are now just getting the proposed possibility of the cuts, but there is no legitimacy on what positions are going to be cut and who's being cut and why. Like, give us reason. And if it makes sense, it makes sense.

Let me interject something. I've worked with a number of boards. Anybody who works here, you can't have five bosses. You only have one, and that's me. And so I have the authority to make the decision whether that person will or won't.

Wait, wait, wait. Back that up again. Hold up. You can't have five bosses.

Whoever the administrator is. You have five bosses. I'm saying they can't. OK. Yeah, they can't. I have five bosses. Right. But the people who work here can't have five bosses. They can only have one. Whoever's sitting here at this moment, whether it's Ed Dixon or Fresnel or myself, That person is the person that's in charge. And so that person has to bear the burden of making the decisions. So I bear the burden of making that decision.

All right, before Commissioner Holt, Commissioner Woods.

So I've looked at this thing, and one of the things that just jumps out, so part of our cut comes because we're going to give $1.5 million to the Constitutionals.

That's about the increase from the adopted budget this year.

So we're going to take the whole cut in the Constitutionals. You're going to have to revisit that. I mean, if we're going to get cut, I just honestly believe, guys, that everybody takes a little, and not us just take the 1.5. So to roll back, I'm going to get this straight. The rollback is, if we added, it'd be 72,409, right? Is that what you're saying?

72,409 is what we presented last time.

But if we roll back, that should just be 1.2 million less?

if everything stayed the same that would be 1.2 million less but it's showing 2.5 million difference no no you're you're jumping over to the uh presented as the 831 presented budget yeah the the one we're presenting right now has three million dollars off of that 72 million that was presented to you Remember, the $72 million was 3.3% higher than the adopted budget in October of 2025.

So in general, the rollback should put us right back where we were, is my understanding.

Well, the rollback is what you're missing out on is $1.2 million from the rollback.

Increase.

Increase, the increase. But let's just say— But if you don't have that and then you take this budget that is being proposed, it would be $69 million versus $72 million.

Okay, so I say, hey, I want to roll back. Would that put us at the same rate we are right now with the increases in the property?

it'd make you $122,000 less than what you received last year at the nine mills.

Okay, so I'm just trying to, I guess that Calhoun County mask catching up with me. And so I'm looking at 122,000 cut and I see the 1.5 million for constitutionals. And in my head, I'm trying to get it right because I get this, that we're going to have to. This person, that person, I get that. But that's where I am. And I do want to kind of understand more of the rationale with some of the reasons why we're going to take this road or that road. I mean, so I kind of, I do want to be a little more in debt. And I say that because we're cutting road and bridge, but road and bridge is already over every year. And so it's kind of like one of the things, I know you're looking at me, I'm the one saying rollback. So I appreciate it, Rose. I know what you're saying. You've been very honorable.

So I don't mean that to be looking at you. I take that.

But it's kind of one of them things, guys, for me, it is. And the reason why I really want to go here is because we are going to have some very hard conversations. They're coming. And we are fixing to every poll I see is 70% plus. Now, I did go to a meeting with the governor, and the governor, who's leaving, said that there would be some kind of consideration for rural counties. And so you may turn around in December and not have near the pain that we thought we were going to have. Or we could turn around and realize that we're just not feeling the pain, that we ain't even close to where we're going to be. And so this is, I mean, and I know this is a workshop and it's painful, but I do go back and as we are asking people in their areas to cut money, Man, people wanted to fight me over the insurance. When I said, we got to look at this insurance. We got to see if we can get it cheaper. We got to see if we can do it better. And man, employees was so mad with me. But I'm like going, you're going to lose people. And so that's all I got to say. Mr. Holt. Thank you, Commissioner Green.

Thank you, Commissioner Wood. Did the governor say he apologized for this mess? Because that's what he should have said.

He actually rationalized it.

He should have said, I'm so sorry.

You know, the thing, the problem comes...

I just want to know if he apologized.

The problem with Commissioner Olney was talking about how he's going to put millions of dollars back in people's pocket, and that's how they settled it.

Well, that's how they got those million, 1.3 million that come in to vote in the last election, the way he wanted them to vote, and he promised them a tax cut, and that's what he did. So that's why we're in this mess. I could not speak to... the the directors and a good thing about not being reelected I can just say what I want to say I love it and mr. attorney I need you to bring me some information to human resources as zero zero one human resources department personnel that's a minus ninety four thousand eighty four dollars mr. administrator why is that I'm going through this because we couldn't go do it before. I couldn't ask them, so I'm going to ask you. Why is that minus $94,084 there? Go ahead.

Part of that is the... I want to know all of it.

Can you tell me where you're at, Ms. Hall?

Oh, yeah. The first part of this big book that we should have gone through in June. Oh, I just took it out the front of the book, Tony. I was like, this is such a mess. It's not your fault, sure. It's the administrator's fault. It's right behind budget overview.

It's budget expenditures by fund. I'm sorry? It's budget expenditures by fund.

OK, so what's in that fund?

Where that comes? That $94,000 is mostly comprised of the difference in the salary. The HR director who was here before, which was budgeted in last year's budget, versus what the HR director is making this year. And it's also one specialist position was a vacancy on there that they had.

Okay, let's stop right there. That specialist position was doing what? Mr. Administrator, they were doing what? Because if we're going to cut, we need to know what they were doing.

I think that the vacancy was to help both Angela and Jeronda do all of the things that they needed to do in the HR, because there's a lot of things in HR that are not getting done.

Okay. I know. I've been over there. Okay, Mr. Administrator, what are some other things that are not getting done?

In HR?

Of course. That's where we are.

What are you driving at?

I want to know the specialists with some things that they were doing that you're cutting out. And I need to know what they were doing so that way we'll know what those services were.

I'm going through the whole budget. OK. Well, let's go through it line by line and we can see what we get.

I want you to answer. You went up there and cut Laura Bradley today. You fired that woman today. So now you fired her today. I want to know why these cuts are here today.

You want to go through? We just went through the cuts.

I want you to tell me.

I'm not going to get in an argument with you.

I don't blame you because you won't win.

We've gone through the cuts.

I didn't ask you for cuts. I asked you to speak to the directors so we could talk. I don't care what you do. But I'm saying I need to know what's included in that $94,000.

I don't know what you're looking for.

Well, it's money. There it is right there.

I know, but what is your point?

Well, the services that are being cut. We're telling people we're going to cut in these positions. Normally, when you, wait a minute, let me explain to you how budget really works, because she knows, but you didn't put, you didn't require anything to be put next to these. If you're going to cut $94,000, what you do is you put next to it what those services were, because that's what we've been asking for. What services are being cut?

The only service I cut today was special projects.

Well, you're the one who told them to do this, right? Yeah, all right then. What's the $94,000 for in personnel?

All right, the only project I cut, the only person I cut was special projects.

OK, so that $94,884 is not there. So that position, I just need to know what that person was doing. That's all. Because they're short-handed. There was no person in it. Okay, there was no person. Okay, see, stuff like that makes sense.

It was a vacant position, right?

Okay, but that's what you put by it.

Okay, if you look at, and I'm trying to find it. Page number? I'm trying to find it.

And that's on page 3? 3-2C. 3-2C. Okay, now, ladies and gentlemen, I'm looking. I'm looking on, what I'm looking at that list is on 3-1A, so they'll know where I'm looking at. Now, you see, again, I'm sorry. 3-2C.

2C, under which staff? It would be under general fund. It'll be under county administration, I believe.

County administration.

Okay. 3.2C. Let's go through it. Excuse me, sorry.

Okay, 3.2C, okay.

Which one is it if you if you look at to the salaries and wages you will see that the salaries and wages were cut by I don't have my glasses, but looks like 38 797 Yes. Okay, and then you have benefits of 18-something-something, 18,927 maybe? Okay, so that's where you're going to end up. That line that you're looking at, anything that's showing up in that last column, the variance column, are the things that were cut in that budget to get to that $94,000. Right, that's the number that was cut. But it doesn't explain. If you look alongside of it, it's got some explanations on the side.

That's on where it says total salary of the benefits that occurred, where it says that, $38,787.

Right. That just shows you. That shows you that it was cut at the $41,041.

Yeah, I can see the amounts. But you understand what I'm saying? On the comments, there's nothing.

The justifications.

OK. That's what we were looking for. What that cut, the $41,000, is mostly the difference in the salary between the old HR director and the new and the position.

Ms. Raynette, I'm not trying to put you on the spot. I'm just being honest with you. I'm looking at him to tell us why these numbers are here, because he's our employee. So I'm not looking at you to explain this. He's our employee, and we should have this information. Here. I went to each one of those that have a parenthesis around them or they have a minus sign in front of them. That was a cut. And so it was a cut that should be a justification. It's a reduction from last year's adopted budget. I know. I was an accounting major at one time before I got crazy and went into education. But what I'm saying, though, is this. Mr. Administrator, you brought a budget without definitions of the cuts. You cut a person without the board saying that this is going to be done. You've done this before. And I hope that's why you're interim, OK? You think it's rough? No, wait till I get out there at that podium. It's going to be something to play. But now listen to me, Mr. Administrator. I asked before, and so did Commissioner Simpkins. to go through this budget. What services are going to be cut? They're not here. If that was a vacancy, then that's fine. But you can see by the checks on the side of this paper, I'm going to ask you about each one. It would have been easy to ask the departments. They would have told me.

Well, I think it is.

I don't need a definition. I need to go to the next one, Mr. Administrator. On this, under that $40,000 on indigent hospital services, that's 001, $40,000 that's being cut. Tell me about that.

Typically, we put $50,000 placeholder in there every year in case we have expenses. We have not spent any in that line item.

There's no definition next to that either. Pardon me? There's no definition of what happened there either. OK. Let's go to the next one. $83,000 public information office.

That's because there was a vacancy in the public information place, the lead place. And all we have is a halftime media person in that budget. And then there were also cuts in contracted services. If you want to look at the specific budget, it'll show you that as well. OK, Mr. Administrator.

On that budget, if you don't mind. Yes, on point. That $83,000, that shouldn't have been all from general revenue for public office department. It's all from general revenue. Because I thought that part of that money came from another tourist development.

Tourist development has its own budget.

I know that. But I just thought that that was included, that $83,000. So that was all from general fund.

All from general fund. Okay. So now, where's that defined at, Mr. Administrator? Mr. Administrator, where's that defined at? Where's the definition of these? See, this is not a good budget because it doesn't have the explanations out here to the side. And I was thinking that, okay, we're going to go ahead and get to it now today because October 1st is coming up. But all the way down this page... $284,170. That was a cut. That's in county administrator, county administrator. I know you should be able to tell me about this when it's in your department.

What do you want to know?

Explain it.

I just told you what I cut.

Explain what's been cut. I just explained. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. She explained something. I told you. But there's only one position. Sir, you can stop talking now. You're the employee. Remember. Now, I'm telling you that this is supposed to be defined. That's how we decide. You got people at the house right now saying, Ms. Holt, what are y'all going to cut? Ms. Holt, why did y'all cut that woman? I have no idea. But what I am saying is this doesn't make sense if it doesn't have definitions next to it. You're giving us a general PowerPoint presentation of a budget.

We have all the items here.

No, you do not. No, you do not. You do not have a definition by these items. You do not have anything next to that animal control, that $185,121 cut. Now, that's all I'm asking for. Now, we have gone over this before. When I first got here, back in the early 2000s, we went through budget line by line because we had to make some cuts for that 07, 08 year. So you see what's happening. And I ask for these to please let us go through this budget. If something's happening over there at the VA office, we'll be able, that gentleman can answer. We're not getting any answers. We're getting a PowerPoint presentation. I know, because I used to give them and require them in math. So the same thing is going on with gas and economic development. So you're saying we don't need jobs? $297,184.48. OK, it goes on and on and on. Reserve for contingency has been cut $1,105,463. And I'm marking each one of these. I went through the whole thing. Now I have it. I'm going to take it home with me. I'm going to go do it again. And everybody wants to know this. I mean, now you have people really upset.

Many of the cuts that you're asking about, if I may, many of the cuts you're asking about were already outlined in the budget book that you were given on the 25th and also the one in June. But see, we didn't get a chance to go through them.

We had them. We couldn't ask questions about them because they said, the majority of the people up here said, well, you know, this, that, and the other. But we still didn't get a chance to ask the questions. And we still need to ask these questions. Mr. Woods, if you're there saying go to the rollback, we need to know what we're rolling back and why. And that's what I'm asking. It's not her fault. All I asked to do was speak to those administrators. I could have checked this all weeks ago. And I'll have some more comments in a few minutes.

Commissioner Green, then Commissioner Woods.

Yes. I just too want just more details on the actual cuts, and especially when it comes down to positions. And well, I guess I shouldn't be looking at you because you Again, you're not my employee. When it comes down to these cuts and these positions, we do need to, let me just say what I would do. How about that? Because I always try to put myself in other people's shoes. If I had the opportunity to serve as interim county administrator, I would publicly have a conversation, like a meeting like this, with my board stating these are the cuts that we are going to have to make, and this is why. I would like to hear your input on it. That is not day-to-day operation. I can't tell you, hey, do this, do that, or you fire this person or hire this person. That's not what we're doing. We're having conversation about what we need and what we don't need. And again, The explanation. So my question becomes now, with these cuts, Mr. Administrator, with these cuts, are these actual cuts or are these proposed cuts? Because as Commissioner Wood stated, which is my exact point, is whether this happened or not, we need to know. Because it may happen. But again, it may happen. Let me interject. No, don't interject me. Let me finish. It may happen. But if it doesn't happen, we've already released employees without cause. Could there have been another place that they could have fulfilled if these things were not needed in this department? So my question becomes, why did we fire someone for a proposed budget? And we're talking about the cuts that we need to make. I feel like every employee should be prepared. Absolutely. That's all across the state of Florida. Should be prepared. But at the same time, we should have something in place as a board saying, hey, give these people 60 days to let them know that we have to do this based upon what is going on. now let me check this off because we and i still don't know why why why this particular department or individual rather was and it is my business it's my business and it's my business for all these employees why because i love them simple and i know all day long It's real. Like, this is real. I'm not playing. I'm dead serious. I'm dead serious. Nobody ever has to like me. I'm okay with that. I come from a very large family. I don't need no friends. I'm good. But when it comes down to checking people off without cause, I just wanted to make sense. And I'm going to say that all day. You'll hear it again in the meeting tomorrow. Tell you now. It needs to make sense. We need to know what we're doing and why we're doing what we're doing. And I'm going to ask you in this meeting not to fire anybody else without it making sense to this board. And I'm going to say that openly. Because believe it or not, commissioners, we're going to have repercussions whether we're at will or not. And I'm going to say it. Even if we have to settle out, that's money we're still going to lose. I'm done for now.

All right, Commissioner Woods. Oh, Mr. Tierney first. So I understand each commissioner has strong feelings on the issue. But if we could please refrain from making determinations as to cause and not cause as to any potential litigation in the interest of protecting the board. Can't promise that.

Mm-mm.

You can get it. Commissioner Woods. So there's a balance here. And I realize that the balance has came to me. And I have the balance of people telling me about losing their homes. And they can't pay their insurance and their property tax. And I mean, I can't even go to the store. And that's what people want to talk to me about. And so for us, it's this thing that if we're going to cut $1.5 million because we're giving that to the Constitutionals right off the top, So who does go? And we can sit here and talk about who makes the list and who does this. I'd be glad for every commissioner up here to make that list. Because it's that thing that people are paying us to do. And it's easy to go, well, we don't want this one. We don't want that one. But the reality is it's going to happen. Now, is it a trickle down? Is it something that over the next year that you start, don't rehire people? I don't know. But this cut is gonna be so bad that, and I don't know what we're gonna get, if we get anything. It might just be a promise to a man, from a man who is leaving, who will not be here in two months, three months, whatever long it is. I do want to sit down, and I would hope that each commissioner, including myself, would have the opportunity to sit down, Rose, with you and the manager, and give their input. I think that's a great thing. I'd like to know if you feel like there's a way to cut this $1.5 or $2 million, then I'd love to hear it. I'd love to hear each one of the commissioners say this is what I think ought to be done. But guys, it ain't gonna be easy. It ain't gonna be easy. And if we're gonna get these, and I don't know how the board feels about it, but I think if we're gonna cut ourselves all these millions, I don't see how we're gonna cut ourselves to the point to where we're giving it away. And it has to be a conversation with all the constitutionals. And I go back to this because I'm already catching it about the gas tax. Somebody heard I proposed doing a gas tax. If it does, but I can tell you right now, the one thing, if your roads don't get cut and the potholes don't get fixed, they will call you for that faster than anything else. And every commissioner's up there shaking their head. But I would like to see us do that pretty quickly. I mean, I want every commissioner to be able to sit down and give their opinion. Lay it out there. Next.

You finished, Commissioner?

All right. Mr. James, then Commissioner Holt. Well, one of the things I want to say is that you said, well, Mr. James, I need you to see if you can cut the budget millions of dollars. We got to cut. We got impending. We are facing challenges fiscally. We want you to cut. And I think from the beginning, I said, this is not unfamiliar to me, actually. You said, well, we need you to cut. Because we want to have the resources to maintain the number of employees that we have. So I think the responsible thing to do, unless that person works directly with me, those persons who work directly for me, I have to make that decision. But for those persons who work directly with these directors and department heads, I think they're best prepared to make the decision because they know about what their roles are and what they're able to do and what they're able to do without. So I think we've taken a responsible approach to try to reduce the number of employees. Now, you guys got a better idea about how to do that? And maybe I should hear that, because in the past, when this kind of thing has come, if you don't have the revenue to support a number of employees, then you have to reduce the employee base. And that's simply what we're doing. Now, if things get better down the road, I've seen this before, that some of those persons who negatively impacted can have an opportunity to come back. But at this point, we can't see our way. So you ask me to basically see how we can reduce costs by millions. In order to do that, we have to reduce personnel. Now, you can question the director's decision or question my decision, but they are best suited to do it because they work day to day with these people. That's what I think. Mr. Holt first.

Thank you. Thank you. You're right.

You know my hand was up for you.

No, my hand was up a long time ago. I put it down because I got tired. Okay. Yes, it is this board's decision to decide on who is being cut at budget time. We decide on which departments, which positions we won't cut. That's what we do. That's why we are. You don't decide what people are cut. Sir, listen. We didn't tell you to fire anybody, OK? You don't have to. Sir, I'm speaking. So stop interrupting me. OK, now. We did not request you to cut anyone. We said. I have that authority. Sir, I'm still speaking. I don't care what you have. You have authority to be a male. I mean, just be quiet. OK, now. As I said earlier, this board has the authority to cut any positions up here we want in our org chart. Because under each director, there are positions. And the board can decide it doesn't want these positions, too.

You can.

So. So what you do is this. You bring it to us, and you say, these are the positions I feel that should be cut. All I'm asking for is a definition next to them. All I'm asking for, and it makes it a lot easier, commissioners, as we've had before, that the directors came up and they explained what they needed to do, and it was out there to the total public. And you didn't have to go back and try to explain each one of these. It makes it a lot easier. Sir, I'm not speaking. I'm still speaking. We may not want the positions, not the person. There could be a vacant position in there. Boy says, don't feel it. But the boy had some say-so. Right now, you're saying, oh, I have carte blanche. No, you do not. You do not. Now, the other thing is this. Is there anyone, do we have any COVID money left?

They answered no.

So we don't have a director for COVID. Did you cut that position? For COVID? Yeah. The lady was over COVID. Who was working in that department?

You talking about the health coordinator?

Yeah, that. I'm not sure. Let me finish. That's what they were doing was distributing the COVID funding. That's what was there before. That's why we got a health coordinator.

You're talking about opioid funding? Yeah, opioid funding.

I'm sorry? I'm sorry.

Go ahead. Opioid funding is that you have three or four pots of opioid funding. It's non-qualified. Yes. That position is handled, and those funds are handled by that person in that position.

Right. And are there any funds left in there?

There is around, yes. And you're going to have the core money, but the core money is pass-through money. So you're going to have $750,000 that's going to go in the door and out the door. Then you're going to have another $100,000 for the non-qualified that comes in on an annual basis. And you do have some that has accumulated over a couple of years that wasn't spent.

OK, so that $100,000, approximately $100,000, will be spent during what? During this fiscal year. OK, but I'm saying, would it go out to the organizations that are distributing? Yes. All right, then. That's something that can be done. We can meet on an annual basis and take care of that. We don't need a person to run that department.

There has to be monthly and quarterly reporting.

I know. I know. And that can be done split between another department. So that's a position that can be cut. There are several positions that I may feel that need to be cut. Commissioner Woods, Commissioner Green, and Commissioner Hampson. But we don't get to say so. So that's what I'm saying. We need to go through this budget. And we need, as I asked five months ago, let's just go through it and give it out to the people. That's for a skeleton budget. That's for a regular budget. Now, before also, Commissioner Woods, we have gone to the Constitution and say, can you take a 3%? We presented that to them before. So that would be nothing new. If we say, you know we're going to take this big hit, can you go across the board and give us a 5%? And start negotiating with that. They raised all kind of sand. But then they pretty much tried to cooperate. So I'm not talking to you. I'm really speaking to this board, because they're going to give the directions. But that's what we need to do. I know some of the funds are split between the state and us. We're only talking about our portion. If the state doesn't cut them, the state can give them some more money if they want to. Because if you wanted the Constitution to have more money, just send it to them. To the county, we'll give it to them. I mean, whoever's up here can give it to them.

On point to what you're saying, Commissioner.

Yeah, we've done that before.

I think that, Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Do you, for me, we did the 10%, and I don't think we took it real. And now it's kind of like when you have this thing. I did. No, but the public's not getting it. And now it's kind of like, oh, my. And I think it's, we're late in the game. And I'm not going to say that we're campaigning. I don't think that's the.

That's the only way to do it.

But it's the educational side of this is what this brings to us. And I like the fact that you have things that you want to see. that you could take this instead of that. I absolutely, but I don't know. I'm the new guy. I don't know, Mr. Chairman, if they terminated people in the past.

The county administrator in the past made cuts without board even knowing anything about it.

May I?

I'm sorry. Now, personally, I did not know that the person that y'all were talking about, I didn't know anything about that. But I'm just saying, but you asked a question. The county administrator in the past made cuts without board approval, anything. So to answer your question, this would be the first. There'd be almost unprecedented that every cut come to the board. Now, now. I didn't finish. So he asked a question. So I'm just saying it's unprecedented. So that's in the past. A few years ago, a lot of people got cut.

Ma'am, I was going to finish up. Yes, sir. Yeah, we have cut positions in workshops, saying we don't want the, can you combine those positions? Can you do and share responsibilities? Now, we've done that before in the past. So it's not that we haven't cut positions. We didn't cut people. Because we decided two or three times we didn't need a coordinator over here. We needed something over there. And the board got a chance to have some input. This budget right here has no input, really, from the board. None. It has no explanations in writing of these cuts. And I don't care what anyone says. I don't care if it's the attorney. It could be anybody they want to. You don't cut someone and start your statement off with, in order to make the cuts for the budget. That's why you cut that person. If you have a reason to cut them, you cut them. But you don't do it because we're saying that the board has to make these cuts, and then you come up with them. You don't ever start that conversation off that way. And that's going to be a fight. It's just going to be a fight. That's all we fought before.

Can I say something? Yeah, so my question is, how much time do we have? And I would love to let everybody have the opportunity to have a say.

Well, Commissioner Green first, then Mr. James.

I guess my question now is based upon the projected cuts, especially with staff. What are the projected savings? Mr. Administrator? Is it $3.5 million?

Three.

So we're going to say $3.5 million. Sorry? Three. Three? OK. And so how many jobs? Again, I just... How many affected? Yes. How many jobs, position, people? Are we talking about projective-wise? We're actually... It dealt with, I believe, 18... Not including positions that are not filled, just actual positions or individuals. 18 full-time. Five part-time. And do we have a plan to solidify those cuts if they become an actuality? What's the plan on making sure that the services are fulfilled, that our citizens are not shortchanged? And again, are those individual cuts or positions broken down in this packet? You have it all listed out.

I have a packet I developed for you.

Right. She has a packet that lists all the cuts here. Actually, I have it. We don't have it. Yeah, you don't have that yet. But you remember that from the beginning I said to you that, I don't really know why we are, Greg. You know. You don't know. Right. OK. Thank you. I just asked you a question. The question, because you said, Mr. James, you need to cut the budget because the impending shortfall of revenue. Who said that? At the last meeting.

OK. They said you need to cut the budget?

You've got to come back with some cost savings.

Right. So again, again, that's fine. Come back with the cost savings. Let us see the cost savings. We didn't say implement the cost savings.

Well. There's a difference. Right. The difference is. We are working from a sharp fall of revenue. And it would be irresponsible for me to say, hey, listen, we don't have the money, but we're going to keep the people. We'll end up broke. But we have the money now. It's in budget.

You going to take it out your general fund? As of right now, we have to come up with a plan before we just let these people go. What's the plan? Well, the plan. Let me finish.

I will, because you are talking. I don't want to be rude. So go ahead. We met with each department. I think the department heads were responsible in their actions. They took a look at their staffs, and they made recommendations. The message was, let's make recommendations to cut without compromising the quality of service. That's what they were given the task to do. And to be honest with you, I think they've done a really responsible job in doing that. And so that's all we can do. We can talk about how to get to millions, but the only way you can get to millions is you've got to reduce the size of the organization. As I said, this is not unfamiliar with me. I've done this a number of times. But what I need to say is, and I think I did say it from the beginning, you can do that now, but if things get better six months from now, many of the people can come back if we have the resources to do it.

Because I still have the floor. And that's fine. And again, don't have a problem with the recommended plan. that I would like, just like she just stated, there's a plan that y'all have. There's a book that y'all have that she's put together as a plan. I don't have it. As a board member, you got 18 four-time positions, five part-time positions that are being considered recommended to be cut. Recommended from by the director. I would like to see it. And even if I can't make a decision or say, oh, because there's day to day, at least we know what's coming. At least we know that these positions are about to be cut. Again, recommendations. So my problem become because there was implementation on today about the things that we're discussing now.

That's a problem. Hold on. No, no, no, no.

I'm going to let you finish. And I let you talk, and I'm still talking. All right, go ahead. So again, that's a problem for me. Because now it makes me feel like, what's the reason that this was implemented today, same day notice? We should not do business like that with nobody. Nobody. Even if they got a rap sheet. Well, here's the other part. So you're going to talk. OK, go ahead. So again, my question to you is, why are we implementing recommendations that this board has not seen? And I said to all four other board members, we all should want to see the recommendations because it has become personal to me, again, because, yeah, now this is one of my citizens. When one of your citizens come who depended on this for their day-to-day livelihood, maybe you understand how I feel, why I feel the way that I feel. But we should know. what these recommendations are. That's all I'm asking. We all know that things have to be done and some change is going to happen. But what's the plan? You cannot tell me that you're OK and you can go to bed and knowing that somebody's been here 16 years, depending upon this, and now has nothing. What do we offer? I mean, I just want to know. What are we offering anything? Have we talked about those people who have been here? Can we even give them opportunity to buy out? What other conversations are the input that we have had from the recommendations? That's all I'm asking. I'm not saying you should have, could have, would have. I want to be a part of this. And I feel like it is fair to this board for us to know what that package is.

OK, well, I think at this juncture, the board has to. I mean, I know this is unprecedented, as the chair has said, this level of involvement in making personnel decisions. I know this is unprecedented. No, it's not. No, it's not. Because a lot of times, it's not behind closed doors. Well, the chair said it's unprecedented.

Yes, the chair wasn't here. So he doesn't know. The chair been here for? He wasn't here. Those years that we were doing that, he wasn't here. So that's not true. Go ahead and finish. So I got my hands up next.

Well, yeah, the board can also, if, you know, you see the thing that gets me, you tell me, so, well, hey, we need to reduce costs. But you have the authority as a board to come up with an incentive package. That's your authority.

Can I? I'm next. It's just one point Commissioner Hopeford is here. I want to, again, I didn't know anything about the siege that happened today. It's my first time hearing that. Not from him. I don't think anybody called me and told me about it as well. It's, like I said, it's about six, seven months ago. It's going to be an ugly year based on what happened, what's coming down from the state. I had to look at it. I said, wait a minute. Let me make sure that Gadsden County is not the only person that's doing this right here. So I googled, how much is Walcott County projecting to cut in 2026? Right. 2026 and 2027, this is what they're projecting to cut, right? They projected the cut. They said the county had released a 160-page contingency plan outlining 5.5. million to $6.5 million in projecting shortfall that could trigger services reduction starting at the end of 2026, 2027. So that's, you know what I'm saying? So unfortunately, that's why I tell everybody, it's an ugly situation for everybody throughout the state of Florida. That's why we need to start having these meetings, going into the communities, and talking to people about things, educating communities. and hit at least 10 before the election come up. Because it's ugly. Because when you're talking about cutting some youth employment, that's really going to stress me out. I had to hold my tongue. Well, I don't want to cut it. I don't want to cut it. I'm just saying what you said when I looked at it and saw that. I just want to be clear. When I saw that, it's a lot of things that are going to stress me out, too, as well. But I had to let people know that it's not just a gas and candy thing. And I had to look at somebody. I was going to search Leon Cannon, but I said, I didn't want to search Leon, because my app is gorgeous. So I had to go to Walcove.

But you said a keyword. You did, but on point. Your keyword was projected. Right. But I want to hear this. Can you Google, or can you find out implementation? Not projected. Because we got to make those projections. Again, that's not the problem. That's not the problem here. Okay. And that's 2020.

Commissioner Hope, I appreciate it.

Yes, thank you. As I said before, in June, when I went into that hotel, Franklin County was the first one that said they had their cut budget ready. They already had it ready. Mm-hmm. Why, Culler County had put this out before the public. They knew. And they got ready. And I came back here and said, let's get ready. No, we don't need to do that. They're going to think we're going to cut people. No, we should have done it then. And that way, we could have looked at those positions. What I'm saying, though, is this. You cannot sit back this long and wait. And the other thing is, how are we going to go in the community and explain something when the explanations are not in the budget? We can't explain that. And you can't explain what services are going to be cut if they're not discussed in the budget. Because you can say, I'm going to take a person out of there, but we don't know how it's going to be remedied as far as those services are going to go. Because we are sitting up here two or three times a month. We don't know what's going on in those departments. And if you keep hold, I've never seen it, Mr. Chairman. This is one I've never seen. I've never seen a budget workshop where the department heads couldn't speak. I've never seen that before. When they could not come up, and we called them up, and even the constitutionals came in and sat in on the workshop when they knew we had to cut. So now we're saying they can't explain it, the administrator can't explain it, because he keeps talking to Ms. Randy.

Well.

I'm sorry, I'm still speaking. OK, so now the bottom line is, if y'all got this little cheat book, we should have had it so we could look at it. Because when you go out that door, we're still going to have to explain it today.

Back to defend it. Yeah.

Here's my question. No, I'm not finished. Because I'm going to say what I want to say today. Go ahead. And any other day. I don't need your permission either. Now, what I am saying, though, is this. We are going to have to explain this. I don't want to sit upstairs with the administrator and directors. It should be done right here in public so the public will know. They need to know. And it's a shame to go back in a back room and discuss the public budget, discuss the public services without putting it out front so the public can see it. If we can't afford WaysPro, whatever we're supplementing with them, if we can't afford Big Bend Transit, they need to hear it right here. This is why we redid this room.

I agree with you on that.

And it needs to be done right here so we can hear what's going on with Road and Bridge. We can hear what may happen to Veterans Services, what may happen to the senior citizens. Stop this backroom mess.

Yeah, but I don't understand why each manager would have to come.

Because they know the department. That's why. That's why. Hold up. I ain't going to hold up nothing. Let me finish. They know what they're talking about. You don't.

Let me finish why they would have to come and explain to you why they decided that they don't.

No, what they decided. They don't get to decide that. Well, they can recommend. Sir, you can say they can recommend and they can answer a question why that recommendation is there. We don't need to hear it from you because you can't explain it. That's all I'm saying.

All I'm saying to you is, is that wouldn't that be unfair for a director to come up here?

No, it wouldn't be unfair because, see, what you're trying to do is take over what they're doing. They know their departments. That's why they made that decision. And we got to sit here and argue with you.

Mr. Chair, I think if you could have one commissioner or one president at a time.

Yes, yes. OK, well, I wasn't finished. Let's respect each other. And also, too, whoever's listening, This is a budget workshop. This is a way people have dialogue, unfortunately. Well, some of them say. It happened the best. Back in the days, I was the same way. So I'm just letting everybody know. This is a budget workshop, and we are here to have dialogue. OK. More so than anything else. So Commissioner Holt.

But let me say this.

Don't interrupt when she's talking. Commissioner Holt, don't interrupt.

But let me say this. What I'm trying to say is this. You can't shield what is public record anyway. So whatever they're doing in their departments, that they can explain that. We can say, well, commissioners, we're going to cut. My recommendation would be to cut this position. I'm going to say, what were they doing? And then I can say, yeah, you know, that's a good idea. Maybe I don't think that's a good idea. Information is strategic. Because people want to know what their tax dollars are being used for. Like I said, when I called, when the lady kept calling upstairs last week, she couldn't get anyone. And she said, Ms. Hope, call. I called three times. I couldn't get anyone.

You have my number.

Sir, I said I called upstairs. She doesn't have your number. The general public needs to be answered when they call. Okay, so that's what they need. If they have whatever, she was trying to get somebody, but whatever it is, we need to answer. Somebody answer the phone. Okay, but bottom line, back to what I said. Let the experts in the field that know what they're doing answer our questions. Let us go through them. Let us make some recommendations, and that way we'll know more about what we're doing. But there's no way that those other small counties came into the hotel and had their stuff ready, and we didn't. And we didn't. So it's not you, Ms. Rainey. I'm right on the interim administrator, because October's around the corner. We still got to have public hearing. We still have to have public hearing.

I haven't. I haven't.

I don't want an explanation. I don't. It's just too late.

I'm next. OK. I have no idea what she's talking about. But this is what I'm saying. She's just talking. But the bottom line is this. We have done what we were asked to do. Each director has come in. They work with these people face-to-face, day-to-day. And they made recommendations on these are the persons, all the individual positions that we can cut. Now, that's all they can do. I mean, they work with them every day. So there will be no director standing up in front of nobody while I'm here explaining to them, well, I think I'm going to cut this person. And board members are going to say, I don't think you need to cut that person. We can't operate like that. But that's what you're saying. You want to say, you want to, you.

Let me, let me allow Commissioner Woods, then Commissioner Holt after that.

I do, you know, I think tactically that this is probably not the best way that it should have went down to deal with the problem. One thing is it's easy to talk about who's getting cut. And you can be adversarial to it. And that's why I think that commissioners ought to be putting down what they think ought to be cut. And then that way you can make your own way about that. The directors, I tell you right now, one of the worst times I had for 20 years standing at that podium right there. Commissioner, it was like, I mean, it didn't matter what you said. It was a fight. And they were doing everything they could do to knock you down. And I didn't even work for y'all. Yes, you did. But I did. I worked for everybody. You're right. And so it's one of them things that I'm hoping we can figure out how these directors can be less political into where it doesn't become where we put them up here and put them in bad spots. Because we got good people. But I can just tell you from the conversations that I have with them, they do worry about the list.

Yeah.

OK? They do. I thought you said that. And I don't know what list they're talking about, because I ain't seen one. Right. OK? But I can tell you right now that this is not going to be And we're talking about a million or two million or even up to three, depending on what we talk about with the constitutionals. Wait till we get six. Because they're talking about six is what it's going to be because we can't roll the businesses but 5%, right? And so when you're listening to what they're talking about, we're talking about $6 million next year.

Yeah. Six million. I said seven million on next year.

Now, the thing I would say is, and this is where I realize that I might be the vote as the super majority. I ain't going with the record of what we were. But I did ask her because I keep wanting her to convince me. And there are other rates that would keep us at least where we were. Now, if we get to that evaluation and it doesn't get us there, I don't have a problem with that. But I don't want us to sit there and say we are going to raise taxes. People ain't digging it. I can tell you right now, I get more arguments over it. But I do. I think for me, my takeaway, and I'm done, I'd like to see each one of us have the opportunity to sit at a table. and go through it. Commissioners come up with your 1.5, or 2, be willing to come up here and tell people what it's going to be. And I told y'all, I'll tell y'all, my million, I can do it right off the top of my head this file. You know, so.

Commissioner Holt, then Eric Henson after that, then Commissioner Green.

I was about to say, I'm still going to have the same questions about these items when I go down the list at the next meeting. So Mr. Administrator, if I get those explanations out there to the side, you can go write down each one of them. And it'll explain what those are. The other thing is that, as I said before, I'm willing to meet with them right here. And I could do my cut list tonight, too. No problem. But thank you.

I'll pass to Commissioner Green. Commissioner Green, then Eric Henson.

Sure. I was just going to, when you mentioned all color, I went ahead and put it up as well. I went to staff and operation. And what it says that they did, they focused their shift towards internal department consolidation and reassignments rather than immediate layoffs. In other words, instead of firing people, they found something that they can do that would be more productive and beneficial to that county. Thank you.

Yeah, and I was reading this. I'm not sure if you've seen it, but it's off of Channel 6 News. No, Channel 6, yeah. WCTV, I think. As of August, published August 20th. So which means they just laid out a plan a few days ago, too, as well. And they were saying that Watercolor County could see more than $6 million revenue drop. This comes from them now. It's not coming from Eric Henson. And it was talking about the amendment would increase the homestead tax exempt resulting in millions of dollars in lost revenue for the cities and county government. So keep on. And here, they was talking about really that they plan on executing something shortly. But maybe some of the positions may be positions that they haven't been filled yet, like you were saying. And you consolidate those positions. Again, it's a hard situation, because every year I always say this. And from the big shots, I get criticized for the big shots here. I always make, because my proposal, everybody got a little wish list. And I still like to see this, even though through the midst of hardship, I still would like to see, I know, because we're increasing everybody else's budget, right? Like you said, $1.4 billion. I would like for facilities and public works guys who are making under $50,000, I said $40,000 last year, but under $50,000, get 3% to 5% increase. Because at some point, they're That's just my humble opinion. We all want that. I know we all want that. I'm just saying, I had to get my little wish list out there because of all, if you can give the other constitutional officers a $1.7 million, I think the guys who had to working hard, and I think everybody in the county working hard, trust me. But I'm talking people who make it under, $40,000 to $50,000 a year should get 3% to 5% increase. That's just my humble opinion. So Commissioner Hope, then Mr. James.

I'll make it quick. Ms. Attorney, is there any state statute or ordinance or anything that says that we cannot request constitutional officers cut or to cut them?

So it depends on a concept, Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. It depends on a constitutional officer. The tax collector and the property appraiser, which I brought that before the statutes, their budgets are set by the Department of Revenue.

What happens if we don't fund it? What if we fund it or do not fund it at what it was last year?

You have to fund it at the level that the Department of Revenue sets. The only thing you can do is you can petition the Department of Revenue to review their budget based on the budgetary concerns. But the Department of Revenue maintains a discretion to set that budget.

OK, well, bring the statute.

I did. I'll bring it in. I did provide everybody a member. I did provide everybody two copies at the last meeting. That's different now for the clerk's budget, the supervisor of election who's present in the room today, Sheriff's budget, the board maintains discretion. Obviously, you have funding obligations there also. But the firm statutory existence with a third party agency, Department of Revenue, doesn't exist in the same. But for those two, those are concrete.

The reason I ask for the statute and all that, so one year we did not do raises on this side of the street. And across the street, they did raises. for those same positions and there was a big argument about that we cut back and um the others did not so that's what i'm saying it needs to be explained to them by the way some of the other counties um mr chairman you made that point of But they ran two budgets. That's what they did. But see, they did it early enough. And the commissioners had input. Now, what color county? We'll tell you that. They went in and they said, these are some things we want or don't want. And so that's what they did. But in our case, we got to have clarity as to what is going on there now so we can make some decisions. We can just pick stuff off the budget and say, like I said about the, I said COVID, but it was really of opioid. So when I say that, then to me, that doesn't make sense. But then if that's the case and we're able to combine some positions to do that, then why not? So those are some things that I'm saying. I may not be correct, but we need to make sure we know what's going on with them so we can make those decisions. And I like the idea about us bringing back some cuts, because we've done that before. Commissions have brought back recommendations for cuts, for cuts in even services that were no longer needed. We were putting money into line items that we weren't providing the services in that account. So those are some things that we looked at where we could put somewhere else. So, but that's what I'm saying. But thank you. I think you did a good job, Mr. Regent. Mr.

Chair. Mr. County Attorney. Just for reference, I don't want to say a statute. I'll say the number. For the record, the statute's 197.087. Okay. 195.087. Have you been narrowed down to that section for me? Thank you. It's section one of 195.087. Okay. Great.

Thank you. And for County Administrators, Inter-County Administrators to speak, And some of the suggestions from Wakola, it was brutal.

Yeah, they put them out there.

It was very brutal. And I refused them a call with the department that there was someone closing down and merging. community input in. So it was tough. It'd be hard for me to swallow those kind of cuts, but they had to make those decisions.

And Franklin County did the same.

Yeah, they had to make those decisions. Unfortunately, it's not a Gadsden County problem. Again, it's ugly. They're going to get worse. It's a state of Florida issue. They're going to hurt us. All right, so you can conclude right here. We'll let you finish off. Unless the commissioners want to say anything. So we can stop at two hours right here, so we can go ahead and prepare.

Well, I do agree that it's a very difficult situation. I haven't seen any more challenging fiscally than what's approaching. And I do appreciate Ms. Holt saying that you did a good job, Ms. Renick. I think all the beads we had together, I think you are doing a good job with that. I'm glad for her to say that. But I just want to make sure that all the meetings that we've had with directors and all of the, you know, the process itself, I think they gave an earnest opinion about it. And they've tried to go about what is a very difficult situation and made some very difficult decisions. I just want to make sure we're clear and we're all on the same page. I don't want to do this, nor anybody else. But the reality of it is the funding is going to be reduced, and we're going to have to make some really big decisions here. So if you have, commissioners have recommendations on cuts, I certainly would like to hear those if you've got some things that you think can help us. But we're doing the best we can here in a very difficult situation to try to help keep us afloat. That's all I can say. All right, well.

Mr. Chairman, what is the recommendation?

What do we need to do? Can y'all bring it? We've got a few more meetings, right? Go ahead.

We are out of time. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. We're out of time because we have to, by Wednesday, we have to post a tentative budget. Right now, the only budget I can post is the 9.0 budget at 72, whatever it was. I can't remember. I don't have it in front of me. That's the one I can post. And then it would come to the public hearing. And then at the public hearing, Yes. Then is when you would have further discussions. And then at that point in time, we will have three days to change that budget. That has to be posted in the newspapers.

Yes. I mean, we have another public hearing, right? I'm assuming that what we normally do, go ahead and post what we have now. Then in three days, I mean, when we come back in public hearings, then we can make those adjustments.

So we're going to post the 9.0 at 72.9. I'm thinking it was 72.9. Find my PowerPoint here.

Yes. 72. And then once we make some adjustments, then we can make some adjustments based on that. 72.409.510. OK. Yeah.

So that's the only thing I can have ready by Wednesday unless I am directed to put this one in at 8.557.

Yes, ma'am.

The problem is if we don't stay with the rollback, that will dig into the fund balance.

All right. Do anyone from the public wish to speak to anything? I just have one. OK. OK. Commissioner Woods.

You know, we talk about these budgets, and then you never realize the impact. And so today I spent the morning with Senator Simon and Gallup Franklin, our representative. And part of the presentation from the school system was talking about those kids that we send for the summer work program and how it's helping jumpstart the technical. Wow. And for me, I sometimes get heartburn from your program. I mean, I don't want to lie to you, but then we don't really communicate well enough that when I heard them say that today, that GTI is growing. Because some youth employment. Because those kids are coming out there, the ones who have interaction getting in those programs.

Now, I must say, Commissioner, I ain't trying to make you feel good. You really make me more emotional than that.

You really make my day. But it's that thing, as we start talking about cuts, it's easy to say, hey, we're going to cut this. The other thing is, to the administrator, it's a tough job, and I appreciate you and the staff and all y'all working hard. and uh but i do i do immediately want every commissioner to sit down with y'all and have a voice never do i want to quiet anybody's voice up here and so as fast as you can make that happen guys

So we'll know what we're looking at, what's going on with those. And maybe Senator Simon and Senator will send more money. That way we can find some of you who they just send the money. They ain't doing nothing.

Another thing, Commissioner, before we adjourn, it's just something to think about. It's in the future now. I'll listen to the former mayors of Atlanta. She was talking about she brought in a technical training And they're right. Maybe that's something in the future that we need to start thinking about, how we can bring in something technical so our kids can be able to reach those needs.

I do owe my constituents an explanation. I have been online, but I had a previous obligation prior to this meeting being scheduled. So I have been in attendance on the meeting online. Good job. Meeting adjourned.