Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

commission to order. Um, Mr. Mosa has a medium and properly advertise. Yes, sir. I saw Mr. Down here coming. Would you be so kind to lead us in our prayer and our pledge? Please stand for the prayer and pledge of allegiance. Let us pray. Gracious and kind father, we thank you for this beautiful day and your bountiful blessings. We thank you for this beautiful weather. Father God, we pray that you would be with this August body as they deliberate the business of the community. Give them the wisdom and understanding. These and all the blessings we ask in Christ's name. And everybody said, "Amen."

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. Thank you, sir. Uh Dr. Bell will not be here. Moving right on to departmental reports. Clerk of course annual presentation. I didn't Am I Am I missing Miss Dixon? Uh yes sir. Miss D is in her standing her tonight. All right. Thank you.

How do you use the swing? Okay, good deal.

All right, chairman, commissioner, county administrator, and citizens of Liberty County. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this evening. My name is D. Young and I am here on behalf of the Liberty County Clerk of Court's Office to talk about how we're sustaining excellence, efficiency, and effectiveness at the Liberty County Clerk of Court's Office and the Justice Center and what we need to do to keep that excellence sustainable. Our office sits at the center of justice and revenue in Liberty County. The clerk of superior court, Miss Linda Dixon Thompson, also serves as the clerk of state court, juvenile court, and magistrate court. Every filing, fine, fee, and judgment flows through our team. In 2025, our office collected a total of 7,8,6644 handling cash, checks, a electronic payments across all functions. Of that total, $4,653,275 94 went directly to Liberty County with the remainder being distributed to various local state local and state beneficiaries. Simply put, more than 4.6 million was returned directly to the county while we supported four courts, multiple judges, and served thousands of citizens. Our mission is simple but demanding as we must constantly provide timely, efficient and courteous service to everyone who needs our assistance. We operate as a team and even though every deputy clerk has specific assignments, our teamwork is tested daily by heavy case loads, frequent court sessions, and lean staffing, especially in the intake division, the customer service frontline. It's also important to note that under OCGA, which

is our law 15652, our office is prohibited from practicing law or giving legal advice to citizens who often come in in stressful situations. And while we cannot provide any kind of legal counsel, we must still be able to guide them through these complex processes accurately, politely, and efficiently. Our office is divided into four divisions. We have intake, which consists of receiving and receiving, real and personal property. This is also to include our jury management. So, if you've ever received a jury summon, I'm sure you were so excited about that and to you were just ready to serve.

Um, the jur divisions, which is going to be your superior, state, juvenile, and magistrate courts. And then finally, we have administration, which is what I'm a part of. We currently have 20 full-time and one part-time deputy clerk that make up our office staff. So, our case loads. So, from 2024 to 2025, our office had almost $1.2 million or an 18.1% gain in additional revenue. And of that 2025 collection, over 4.65 million went directly to Liberty County. As I previously stated, our case loads are telling an even more dramatic story whenever you look at the chart and I put a booklet on or I um asked for a booklet to be placed on your desk. And if you flip the page, you'll be able to see those charts a little bit clearer. Overall, the case load saw a net of 109% increase in 2025 compared to 2024. And the magistrate court cases increase roughly 24.1% in just one year's time. Magistrate court currently handles civil claims of $15,000 or less and new legislation or House Bill 792 is to raise that limit to $20,000 which will also significantly increase the case load further in the coming years. Each file and each case means more data entry, more notices, more court appearances upstairs, and more follow-ups on the magistrate court deputy clerks. In a very, very short saying, it is our case load surge plus our revenue growth equals a staffing crisis. The case load surge combined with a

constant court time has created what I would describe as a case load overload. Once court personnel return from the courtroom, they must still input and scan all the information from that day's docket, including sentences, probation conditions, fines, and orders. And this has all led to heavy reliance on overtime. Between July 1st, 2025 and February 28, 2026, staff had worked around 356 hours of overtime, generating $18,348.88 just in overtime payments, and that was with four months left in the fiscal year. The anticipated overtime payout by the end of this fiscal year is approximately $27,523.32. Supervisors and administrative assistants have logged dozens of overtime hours just to keep up with court schedules and statutory deadlines. Overtime is a symptom of understaffing and it's not a solution. Overtime signals that our current staffing models has reached its limit and is no longer sustainable. And we're also experiencing turnover which is related directly to workload and stress. In the past three years or in the past year, three full-time staff members have been out on FMLA and maternity leave. Also placing additional strain on our office. In less than two months, two court division employees and one part-time intake employee resigned, including two who left without any kind of notice. They literally left on one day, sent a text message to their supervisor, and said they were not coming back. This does not include an employee who also passed away. separation notices and text messages from those specific employees cited mental health related stress and workload pressures as the reasons for leaving. One employee who did give notice moved to another county department with higher pay, less

workload, and a lighter court schedule. Every resignation of a trained deputy clerk slows service, increases an error risk, raises core overtime cost, and places additional strain on the remaining staff that is left in our office. This undermines the effectiveness in the office, and ultimately the quality of service provided to all, especially our Liberty County citizens. Instead of paying for chronic overtime, we proposed a targeted staffing investment that will pay for themselves and stabilize operations. It's kind of like the saying, work smarter, not harder. The current part-time deputy clerk position in intake is budgeted at 30 hours a week and costs $28,369.65 in salary and benefits. Converting this full-time 40 hours per week requires an additional $13,9962 annually for salary, FICA, and retirement, or as I will previously call it, the works. The overtime already paid through February is $18,348.88 88 and is on pace to exceed the full annual cost of this conversion by an additional $14,423.70. So that would be an additional 14,000 plus dollars in the county's pocket. In other words, by converting this part-time position to a full-time position, we can fully fund the change by reducing overtime while providing more stable coverage in one of our highest pressure divisions. This adjustment affects the intake division only and not our court division and delivers immediate trained capacity where it's needed the most because we already have an intake person that is part-time that is being trained and they could just transfer into a full-time position.

We're also requesting one new full-time deputy level position and that would be in our court division. The total annual cost including the works is approximately $49,922. And if you take that extra $14,000 that we were talking about a while ago left from the overtime payouts, that will leave us with realistically only needing $35,478 52 for this position. This position will focus on intake of the court filings and case proceedings, file preparation and courtroom support, deadline management and data entry, and going to court as needed. And by absorbing part of the case load surge, this role will help reduce burnout, prevent further turnover, and maintain timely, accurate court operations for citizens, law enforcement, attorneys, and our judges. And when you compare this, let's call it just a $35,500 investment to the nearly 1.2 $.2 million revenue increase that our office has seen in the last year. It's a small fraction of the new revenue that the office has already generated. Protecting that performance level is with a new position investment is both efficient and fiscally responsible in my opinion. Without this new position, we can reasonably expect more service delays, higher turnover, and greater risk of court disruptions and compliance issues in the future. And this new position is specifically and solely for the court division. These two staffing adjustments are not about a growing bureaucracy. They are about appropriate growth within our office to match the documented growth in case load and real estate revenues. Not to mention the growth that is expected in the county itself. These adjustments also support our three pillars that are that our presentation is based on today. So the excellence

which would be maintaining high levels of service and statutory compliance, efficiency, so using smart staffing instead of chronic overtime to get the work done and effectiveness in ensuring that the court functions smoothly for Liberty County citizens, law enforcement, attorneys, and judge judges. By investing in our people, we sustain a level of service that Liberty County already expects and receives from the clerk's office. We protect revenue, reduce risk, and support the mental and physical well-being of the employees who make the system work day in and day out. In closing, I want to emphasize that our office is very proud of what we've accomplished thus far. To reiterate, in 2025, we've collected over 7.8 8 million, returned more than 4.6 million directly to Liberty County, and supported four courts, handled a surge of real estate filings, managed jury duty, and served thousands of citizens with the current staffing levels. Today, I'm asking that you help us keep this excellence sustainable by your possibly thought on converting one of our existing part-time intake positions to full-time and two adding a new full-time deputy clerk position into our court division. These are modest, targeted investments with a high return for Liberty's justice system and our finance. This is not about convenience. It's about maintaining integrity, efficiency, and reliability of the court system. And as Michelangelo once said, the greatest danger for most of us is not that we aim too high and that we miss it, but that we aim too low and that we reach it. And I believe that the board has a very high vision and a very high aim for the Liberty County Court and our citizens.

And I thank you. And please let me know if you have any questions, concerns, and or comments. Go ahead, Mr. Chairman. I just want to make clear that for those in the audience, but you're giving your presentation on the budget for her budget hearing and requesting those two because we reviewed it yesterday for the clerk of superior court. what we'd asked is for them to give an update in terms of on their case load and everything and so okay she worked that in she worked into the report which is very good Miss Young and let Miss

Good job know that we we missed her Thompson but anyway you did a great uh presentation um but we did review the finance committee yesterday reviewed y'all's budget during our budget uh meeting yesterday and we did see where y'all had requested these two employees, one uh full-time and then moving this one to that was part-time currently to full-time. Yes, ma'am. That's okay. That was in your presentation today. And I believe that was your second request, which I noticed that. So, I don't have any problem right now in supporting that as long as the funding is there once, you know, we just had our our first meeting yesterday.

Yes, ma'am. And I appreciate the the load. Uh well the load case I don't appreciate it because people are getting in trouble on every account but at least some of them are paying I guess by the red. Yeah some of them are paying some of them don't you know but you never know. But you did a great presentation.

I'm kind of curious um Samaty may have this with the business that we can get it later. We got we got to hear the revenue side. We didn't get to hear the expenses side to see where those two line up. Can you speak more to that? The turnover. Can you speak I mean I know you said

so with the turnover ultimately in our office it is a lot and I've only been there personally for about three years. So, with the turnover, if you work in the court division, you're going to court. And if you look in um the books as well, I provided a lot more information than what really was on my PowerPoint. Um because I condensed it down to fit into the 10-minute frame than what I could have spent hours talking about because I deal directly with um not only administration, but I also deal with um our accounts payable. So whenever we are working and going to court, we're going to court not only two to three days a week, but then when there's jury trials, we're going to jury trials for week long. And you can never really judge how many jury trials you're going to have in a month, in um 3 months, in six months, or in a year. You can't say, "Oh, well, there's only going to be 476 people that commit crimes this year or 500 people that want divorce hearings." And you can't say that all of that is not going to affect people personally. And it does, especially those that do work in the court division and in intake, too, because you have a lot of people that are coming up to your window that are extremely upset because everything that's going on is your fault. They come into the office and they believe that it's your problem. Even though they committed the crime, they don't want to do the time. They didn't pay their bills. That's your fault. They're getting evicted. They're mad at you. You know, I'm sorry that you didn't pay your credit card bill and now this company's coming after you. That's not my fault. You are a product of your own situation and this is something that you have done. So, since all of that has happened, that takes a toll on people

mentally. And if you can't handle that or you can't do anything along that and you can't deal with that in a length of time, then sometimes the job is just not always a good fit and that's where the turnover comes in and some people just can't stand that. Are you able during the interview process to express to them what to expect so that they don't come in think it's going to be easy peasy? We tell them and the hard part is is you don't want to just make a job seem like completely negative where people don't think it

I mean if I told you whenever you come in for an interview that okay on your very first day you very well could have someone that is a murderer standing in front of you allegedly. You know they've not been convicted yet but they could be they might have or might not have done it. That takes a toll on you. I'll never forget my first day working. There was somebody who was apparently had um hurting a someone and it was a lot because you can't make faces. You can't cast judgment because that's not your job. And whenever you are going through that in an interview, you don't want to make it seem like it's absolutely the worst job that you've ever had because there are a lot of good days. And whenever the bad days come, you just have to take it and roll with it. But some people can't just let things go like all of us can. And you have to be able to build up that wall. But some people can't do that. And you try to eliminate that in their interview. But some people just need a job so bad that they're like, "Oh, I can do it." But then they can't.

I'm thinking and thank you for sharing. Um, I think you based on what you've said and what your trends are, you you may do better by being clear to them, transparent to them as to what they expect because by the time you get them in, you spent that time orienting them and getting them in through Lara's office, all that kind of stuff. Then you then you lose them. You have to gain. Um, we we appreciate, you know, what you guys do. That's why we we like these budget presentations. We get to hear what goes on behind the scenes a lot of times. So, yes, sir. So, thank you for for for sharing that um

uh with us. Um technology is is that helping you the use of technology? Is it helping you with the case load?

We do a lot of things with technology. I know one of the biggest things that has been talked about lately is like the conversion and the um integration with the sheriff's office and we have talked about that. We're not opposed to that at all. And it is what we can see is that a lot of things that go on in court though are not always paperless. So you have some courts that aren't paperless at all. And so technology is great if you are paperless, but until you have legislation that passes that says that you can go completely paperless and everything is e filed, then you still have to keep a paper trail. So like your state criminal and your superior criminal along with your magistrate court and still some of your real estate e filings, those still come in over the counter or there's still a paper trail with those. They're not completely online solely. So we still have a lot of pushing paper and work to do behind the scenes that yes, it does make it a lot more convenient because we do handle things that are online and technology is great and we are very advanced in our office compared to some offices that you might see that run at the same capacity that we do. But whenever you don't completely have everything that is efiled, that's where the issue comes in is that until you have everything that is solely efiled and solely online based, you still have so much paper and you still have so many things that are constantly coming in that you're just trying to keep up. State court, for example, we have a lot of things that every time they go to state court, they come back and you can see in the case the pictures of the cases whenever they come back from court, it's just cases on pong cases that have to get scanned into

the computer because they're not a paperless court. Uh you have what two vacancies and I recall that Samantha, you guys got two vacancies in your office then? Yes, sir. Um, we currently have filled all of our vacancies. Yes, sir. Let's pray that it stays. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, we'll hope that they'll stay there. Yes, sir. All right. Any questions for I don't. All right. Thank you so much for sharing with us. Thank y'all. Thank you for the inservice.

All right. Public defender annual presentation FY27 budget request. Joshua Brockington. Sir, I need to go behind the clerk from now on. We're complaining about the same stuff. I think whenever they get done talking to them, they just send them up there to our office. We're at the second stop after they've gotten good and whipped into a frenzy.

All right. Um, I'm going to start this presentation. Um, and I want to start actually by thanking y'all. Um, as y'all know, last time I was here last year, it was my first I think I'd been on the job about two weeks. Um, April 1st is actually my anniversary. So, I'd like to thank y'all for the privilege and the pleasure of serving as a circuit public defender for the Atlanta Judicial Circuit. It has been an experience and um I'm hoping that the progress that we've made can continue and we can become the model circuit circuit defenders office for the entire state. That is our goal. Goal. I like that goal.

What I have here is I wanted to describe um basically just what we do because as you've heard from the clerk, we heard about courts and everything else, but when it comes to public defenders, very few people understand exactly what all we are involved in. We are involved in the criminal process from the day of the arrest until the case is ultimately disposed of and then even after it has been disposed of. We work on visiting clients at the jail. Um we legal counsel at every stage of the criminal process, bond hearings, preliminary hearings and trials. We do litigation, trial prep. We investigate the charges, interview the witnesses, any alibis, go to crime scenes, review evidence like police and laboratory reports. Pretty much everything that law enforcement does, we go behind them and do it ourselves to do an independent investigation. And that's the best way to hold the government accountable and make sure that everything stays above board. Even after the trial is over with, we are also responsible for post-trial support, handling direct appeals, court of appeals issues, Georgia Supreme Court for anything that's convicted. So even once we try a case, we still are responsible for the post-trial assistance, too. So we really don't get rid of these cases for years on end. whenever we have a client, he's our client for a long time until we ultimately resolve it. We also do juvenile court and as well as accountability courts, the drug court, the veterans court program. Um, we are involved in all of those things. So, the public defenders are very integrated into the criminal justice system, rightfully so. We are the check to the balance. The next slide is to just kind of give the commissioners an idea of what we face on any given case. Um the entire brevity of the government comes down on the defendant whenever he's charged in a criminal case. That can include federals, state agencies, local agencies, even the prosecutors on you. Think about all those different agencies involved. Have the FBI, the DEA, the US Marshalss, ATF, ICE. We get reports and things from all of them. We

get several um cases involving state agencies. GBI, Georgia State Patrol, Department of Public Safety, Department of Corrections is very popular over in Tatnel County as you know. Um and the reason why I wanted to illustrate this is because basically every one of these agencies that's listed before public defender have one purpose and that's to arrest people. We are the only ones that kind of does he need to be arrested. So, I wanted to illustrate that we're the last line of defense for the general public. Um, any overreach by the government, we are the one that's supposed to catch that. And whenever you have the entire weight of the federal, state, local governments pressing down on you, that job can be quite difficult. We do our best, but you know, it is a quite overwhelming um obligation that we face to try to overcome these difficulties. I've made some changes in our office. Um, one of the things that I did early on was try to encourage interns and volunteers to come to our office to try to get them in. I want locals. I want folks that's going to go to law school and come back to Liberty County and live here and work for me for their career like I have. I've spent 16 years with the uh Atlanta Judicial Circuit Public Defenders Office and I don't ever plan on going nowhere until I retire. I love it here. This is my home. But I am the exception to that is the one thing that I've found since I took this job 12 months ago. I have had two attorney positions posted for that entire 12-month period. I have filled zero of them.

Um, and we'll get to a slide in a little bit that will explain some of that as to how we got there. But with the volunteers and interns, we're looking for local schools, any kind of programs, community, community members, anyone who wants to come in and try to help us out to see what we do to get involved. We try to welcome them in. And then if they need help for us to write them a letter of recommendation to get them into college or anything like that, we're also willing to do that and assist them. even try to give them some counseling if they have ambitions for law school. Like I said, I'm looking for locals who want to come back here and stay here. As far as recruitment, the staff that I have been able to hire, we've hired two support staff and administrative assistant for both Brian and Tatel County. They have been a godsend. We are adding one investigative investigator to our Liberty County office here that will assist the entire circuit and he's actually been hired and starting on May 1st. So, we're really looking forward to having that support staff. Um, we are also running two other support staff, administrative assistant positions here for the Liberty County Office that will be direct assistance to the assistant public defenders. Um, I told you I've been running two attorney positions the entire time and I have, but I've actually got three. Instead of leaving that attorney position posted for another 12 months, I'm trying to get some boots on the ground to help us where we can. So, I am currently in the process of repurposing one of those attorney positions to create two support staff. and I will come back and ask y'all for some more lawyer money once I can actually find some lawyers. Right now I got admin money and I can find admin. So that's what we're doing. We're doing best we can what we got. What we do have is two law students that are taking the July bar who have expressed interest in employment. One of those law students is actually one of our interns that worked with us last summer. He went back to law school, graduated law school, taken the bar, and then his intention is to come work with our office. That's that process that I'm describing. We want to catch them early, help them out, and then they want to come back and help us out and be loyal to us. We want that. We want that long-term commitment. I know no one wants to be a public defender for their whole career, but can I at least get two to five years?

Um, as far as technological upgrades, we have transitioned our office to we are transitioning our office to paperless. My um administrative assistant, Miss Lynn, is here and she'll tell you that that is a process and they're doing all they can. But you take 20 years of documents and I don't care what kind of scanner you buy, it takes you a little bit of time to catch up on that. But they are making um headway into that. We are now scanning all documents on new cases, which is reducing storage cost and making access easier generally for um our employees and our attorneys. And those are a few of the things that I have control of that I have been able to change. The next slide is our county case statistics um for this year. And I would like to illustrate a few things as far as the case numbers. Um, in regard to Liberty County felony cases, that is this 361 and 257. When you look directly below that, you see a misdemeanor case count of 608 cases. Basically, what that tells me as a circuit public defender is that state court has officially almost eclipsed superior court in the amount of cases that we see for that. And when we get to the next slide, I'll show you why that's interesting. Um, just based on our budget, if you look up there at Brian County's state court open, you see 647. What that tells me is that for the 2025 statistics, Brian County had more misdemeanor cases than Liberty County did. It has officially crossed that threshold where it has surpassed y'all. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. That's just what our numbers show. Um, obviously Brian County Superior Court case loads are still staying low, but their misdemeanor numbers are just going out of this world. And we'll talk more about that on the next slide. Also, the other counties have stayed generally around the same. Tatnel County, um, we were able to hire an attorney, finally, a full-time attorney for Tatnel County. Um, she's my chief assistant. She's been doing great. I've spoke with the sheriff

as well as the county um manager from over there in Tatel County and they're tickled pink to finally have someone that is over there working those cases and getting those prison cases moved. So, we're hoping to see some significant um progress on those. As far as all the other counties, like I said, they've pretty much stayed in line. Um as the clerk said, now we have seen an increase. I think that goes without saying. You know, our our numbers increase every year. I haven't seen a reduction since I my 16 years of being here. my drawer always gets more full no matter how hard I work. So, and then this is the actual um budget. And for the first time ever, and probably for the last time in my tenure here, um I'm actually asking for a reduction from my ask for last year, which I know y'all don't never hear that. That's probably unheard of, but I I I want to explain why that is. Um, based on those state court numbers that I just showed you, you'll notice this year right there on Brian County, there's a zero right there on that state court contribution. Um, for the past 12 month, for the past 10 months, I have um been trying to get additional resources and office space in Brian County to accommodate for those increases in state court numbers. We currently have one attorney and one support staff in Brian County. Let's go back a number. Whenever I tell you we have one attorney and one support staff in Brian County, we see Brian County's numbers. They have almost as many cases, if not more, than Liberty County. In Liberty County right now, I have three on staff attorneys. I have three administrative assistants, an investigator, and I'm hiring a new investigator. That's what it takes for us to effectively do Liberty County. There's no way I can do Brian County State Court and Brian County Superior Court with half of that. what we can do is Brian County Superior Court. So, um, tomorrow, assuming y'all approve the budget, tomorrow, I will be dropping off documentation to Brian County, letting them know that we will no longer be able to assist them with their state court.

Um, there is another slide after this one that we'll go over. Actually, I'll go to that one first and then we'll come back so I can show you all the numbers. This is what I view as our next steps in my office. This is my vision for the office. I want to increase support staff salaries. Um, just like the clerk said, retention is much better than hiring and training these folks. Miss Glenn has been with our office for 16 years. It take me 16 years to get somebody that was half as good as her. So, if I can pay her an extra $5,000 and keep her, that's just the best investment that I could ever make. So, I want to get where essential support staff that allows our attorneys to effectively do their jobs. They help they help keep the jail population monitor, which I know we all like. That's how people get scheduled for court. If we have the staff that we need, they can look through those jail populations and schedule these folks for court. And they do so much more that I couldn't put on a list. Just like the clerk, I could have made this thing 20 slides with just what their dayto-day is. We could not do our jobs without them. Um, they're our only resource to help us balance out that scale that I showed y'all earlier. We have administrative assistants and investigators. We do not have a law enforcement agency that works for us. We do not have an an arm of the federal government that will come to our assistance. Everything that we do is with y'all's support, thankfully. Um the other issue is pay parody and attorney salaries. I'm not sure how many of y'all um have been paying attention to this legislative session, but pay parody was very um popular conversation this year between DAs and the PDs. I do anticipate that ultimately this will be passed and will go into effect. Whenever that happens, the public defenders that are state funded will have to their salary will have to be increased to meet equivalent DA salaries. Historically, DAs have been paid much more than PD. So, they're trying to fix that discrepancy. We have attorneys that are solely countyfunded.

Once those laws take effect, um I don't think it will obligate the counties to do it, but realistically if we looking at it from a common sense perspective, if we don't increase those salaries to mirror what the state's paying, someone's going to go find a state gig and take that job somewhere else and take that raise. So, um not an issue for this year. Like I said, I'm actually asking for a reduction this year. Everything that's on this slide is to prepare y'all for 12 months from now because come next April, I'm going to put together a plan. I'm going to come in here with an clearly articulable how I'm going to fix these problems. But today, I've got two open positions and asking y'all for more money whenever I can't fill the ones I got seems kind of just fruitless. So, I'm not even going to insult y'all's intelligence like that. But, I want to prepare y'all for what I'm trying to fix in 12 months. Um, the story I was telling y'all about was this right here. I had an individual contact me. He had 30 years of legal experience. He' been a 30-year prosecutor. Is very interested in coming to public defense. However, whenever I did the math and looked at my budget, I could pay him $85,000. When he started handing out his resumes, the Chattam County DA's office paid him at least 120. And I think they paid him 135 because in the end, he told me he was making more than I was. So, and this man's just an assistant just attorney. So, um, whenever they can pay like that, I'm never going to get that experience. I'm never going to hire that man. and it and it is what it is, but I would like to try to get closer if I could, but like I said, I don't think just throwing money at the problems the solution. We need to um facilitate locals. I don't want to be bringing people down here from Atlanta. They're not going to stay very long.

Would the workload though be the same? He may make more in Chattam County. They have a heavier workload than he would have here

perhaps. And I wouldn't practice law in Chattam County if they bought me a house and paid me to live in it. But um you know, that comes with its own set of headaches. I will say we had an attorney that worked for us that he recently left us went to private practice and is now at the Chattam County DA's office. When he worked for us he was making 70 at Chattam County DA's office now he's making 110. So even for I mean and that attorney's got two three years experience. So I mean across the board Chadam County is just throwing more money at their problems than anybody else can afford to do. But they also don't stay there very long because I know that work's got to be bad. So they have a very high turnover just like we do. Our turnover has hasn't actually been that bad. In the last 12 months, we've only had one attorney leave and I was able to replace him fairly quickly, luckily. But, um, he actually went to Atlanta to chase that money and after about two months moved back and now he's back in the area. So, they never stayed going very long. It's just very enticing.

Our salary surveys don't cover these type of positions. No. Um, how the state helps to set what salary ranges should be for Yes, sir. They do. Okay.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Um 72 has been kind of where the state's been at forever and what we're pushing for as the um Georgia Public Defenders Council is to get that closer to about 80. So it it's significant by the time you add benefits. So the one thing that I learned the last 12 months is whenever you give somebody a $1,000 raise, you just really gave them $2,000 raise. Nobody tells you that whenever you in economics class, but I've had to learn it the hard way. Um giving people a small raise cost a lot of money. So and that's the main difficulty on that. But this has none of this has passed yet. So, it's still and the legislative session just ended. It didn't pass this time, but I know they said next year we're going right back out there again. So, they're going to keep bringing this up and it's going to keep getting pushed. Eventually, it will one day pass because it it's what it's the fair thing to do. I mean, DAS and PDs have very similar jobs.

But what Chattam County is doing is a supplement there. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They're supplementing that state pay a lot. They're writing some big big supplements over there. Um, any idea what our neighboring counties do as a supplement? out. I know that um just comparatively Glenn County supplements theirs pretty good too. I've spoke with the CPD over there in Glenn County and they're doing similar to what we are but they um also have a lot more they don't do things that we do like juvenile court they had that kuruffle over there with that. So there's certain things, but all all the counties not all apples apples. It it's definitely not comes to

it's definitely not. And like I said, I mean, at this point, I don't even have a number that I would throw at you to insult your intelligence because I don't have any math to back it up. I just know that we're on a road to where we're not going to be competitive and I want to be able to put together those numbers. By the time I see y'all next year, I will have those surrounding counties numbers and I can tell y'all exactly where we fall as far as competition with those. Um, and like I said, I mean, so far my main problem is finding young lawyers who want to come down here and not go to Atlanta. I can pay them 70, they can make 150 in Atlanta. I mean, yeah, the cost of living is three times as much, but kids don't think like that. So, um, it's just the difficulty in recruiting them down here. And that's why I'm really making a concerted push for locals because I think they'll stay. That's where that's what I am and that's why I'm here. I ain't getting too close from granny's house. I got to eat. Um, and the last point on here is the state court agreements. Um, historically whenever our agency was set up, um, the state court agreements and that calculation, that formula that's used was created then. And I can go and tell y'all that does not work real good for 2026. What we did in 2005 don't apply to 2026's numbers no more. Um, we have several issues that have come up in state court that is causing great difficulties. conflicts. For instance, whenever my office goes to represent someone in state court and they have a codefendant, there is nothing currently in our state court agreement or budget which contemplates me retaining that person of conflict attorney. My office can't handle that. We can't represent both those people if they're pointing a finger at each other. So, what I have to do is take money out of our general budget to retain private counsel for one of those defendants in state court. Usually costs somewhere between $500 and $1,200 a piece. If you have 10 of those a month, it don't sound like much, but it adds up quick for something that's not currently contemplated in the budget whatsoever. We also have the administrative cost. Those same people that the clerk were talking about going down there in their office, those are

usually the ones charged with a suspended license or speeding ticket. They seem to flush the loudest. Most of our clients charged with serious crimes, they don't want to come to our office. The ones that want to come to our office and complain is the one charged with a speeding ticket. So the administrative cost, every minute that my admin sits at that window arguing with somebody is one minute she's not going through that jail list scheduling folks who's in jail for court. That is a cost. And additionally, the ethical requirements for misdemeanor as an attorney, whether a defendant is charged with a misdemeanor or a felony, our ethical obligations are the exact same. We have to treat those two cases that they're saying. One of them's looking at the rest of his life in prisons, one of them looking at 12 months and a fine. Don't make a difference to lawyers. So, whenever I showed y'all those case distribution numbers, I mean, we have to those 255 felonies, we have to treat those 647 misdemeanors the exact same. So, in what world does it make sense for us to leave one of them felonies sitting there at the jail while we trying to work out a suspended license? because we gonna get that suspended license worked out, but if it takes an hourong meeting at our office to do that, we just costed ourselves time at the jail. So, that's the main issue with the state court. And then whenever you look at the budget, um, and I'm going to be honest with y'all, between now and next year, I would like to go to each of the four counties that we're still doing state court for. Because I mean, if you look under the original calculation, Liberty County is paying pretty much the entire expense for state court. It's based on the amount and the percentage of the cases for misdemeanor that each county has. Liberty County had 647. Evans County had 65. That's 10%. They're going to pay 10% as much as y'all. That's how the math works out. But then whenever you look at this, I've talked to every lawyer I know. There's not a lawyer in Southeast Georgia going to come cover Evans County State Court for $19,000. There's not a lawyer in the world going to go cover Long County State Court for $21,593. Now, I could probably find one to cover

y'alls for 160. But even that, I mean, that's going to be paying the lawyer and then we got the administ and y'all are pretty much paying the bill for the other counties the way this calculation works. So, I would like and and I didn't want to rush this and come in here with some half-put together plan. Um, this is very close to what y'all paid last year. The main thing that pushed y'all's price up so much as I spoke to Mr. Mosley about at our meeting is the putting that zero there for Brian County State Court. But I just can't continue to facilitate those types of case numbers with two people whenever here we have eight and we're barely getting by.

And so that is basically how we got here. Like I said, the total ask for this year is about $2,000 less than it was next last the previous year. Next year I will be coming at y'all with a plan and I will not be asking for less money. Sadly, I'm probably going to be asking for more, but I'll have a plan as to why we need that and what we plan to do with it. So when you say I'm sorry whatever um you going to let put Brian County on notice that you can't serve the state court fees even when you say covering Evans at 19 is not a fair price right

so what's your discussion with them? That's what I'm gonna spend the next 12 months talking to them about because I've talked to most private lawyers to see what they would charge me if I wanted to contract that out because I figure that's one of the best ways. I mean, if you ain't going to be me, you're going to be one of them. So, what would they want? I mean, that's the start because I'm worth just as much as them if not more because the one thing you get with us is when you call us, we answer the phone because we're always at the office. Private lawyers in court a lot. So, um, that's my starting point. And I don't know what those numbers are yet. I can tell you in my heart I don't want to do state court for no amount of money because I'd like to focus on felonies, but I'm also not going to leave everybody hanging if we can get the money right

because I mean I know that it's easier for the counties if we do it. Otherwise, you're dealing with a private lawyer who's part-time job. He's going to treat it as such. That's why a lot of the counties went to us in the first place because when you consolidate it down, you get a professional service. And and like I said, we treat every case the same whether you felony or misman. You walk in our office, we just ask you which charge with felony or misdemeanor. your file goes in the same drawer. So, we look at every case the same. Most people that you contract for that, you're only going to get them their services that they there in court and they won't work outside of that for the most part. I just know that we had some um disparity on the superior court side, too. Yes, sir. With uh the counties Yes, sir. paying their fair share. Yes, sir.

These commissioners made it clear that Liberty County shouldn't have to pay somebody else's bill.

Understandable. I agree with that. I think they have been I think everybody's been paying since we had that issue last time because I went and told them the same thing. Me and Mr. Nelson both did. So, um and and one other thing I know nobody asked, I'm sure someone's going to back to the case numbers, 90% of those felonies that you see closed where it says felony closed, felony closed, felony closed. Um last year I told you about the $750 attorney fees that we were doing, those have been ordered on at least 90% of all those cases. Now, the collection, as I told y'all, was always going to be a slow roll out. We started doing this in about September or October. So, the last numbers that I got are from January. I have spoke to several of the clerks from the circuit and they have told me that they have been seeing the checks. I don't know what the numbers are yet. That's another thing that I will get y'all updated as soon as I get some real numbers and data for it, but I do know it's been ordered. And so therefore, no matter what, as I told y'all last time, we are trying to recuperate money that has historically just been left on the floor

has been hitting our books at Okay, Mr. F. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh uh first of all, I want to say again, uh welcome aboard. I know, uh you were over there for many years, but but now you're the head, and we definitely appreciate you. uh and your commitment, you know, to to public service cuz that that's definitely what you're doing because you and I both know you could go somewhere else and and make a lot more money. I got offer about 250. Trust me, I know. I know it. So, first of all, I I want to say thank you for that. Uh if we could go back to the uh the county case uh statistics.

Yes, sir. Oh, there you go. Right there. uh when we're talking about well, we'll start there with Liberty County and again, you know, like we said, we're looking at like the misdemeanors and and all of that, but but what really I focus on was with the juveniles. Yes, sir. Uh can can you just briefly discuss a little bit about some of the cases uh that you all have been dealing with and also what the process has been on the back side for juveniles?

Yes, sir. for specifically. Oh yeah. Um well, Mr. Kelly um represents our juveniles. They to be honest with you, he had a vehicle accident and historically in my 16 year career doing this, I've covered juvenile court probably about 20 times total. They usually keep me handcuffed in superior court for the most part. But um during my time in juvenile court, just an example that I know of, two Fridays ago, we had a 2:00 jury trial scheduled over there. It was for an incident involving an argument between a mother and a child. Um the child had been placed in defax custody down in Florida with a family member and when they brought him up, we talked about it. He ultimately entered a plea and has been doing great down in Florida. So, um I have covered juvenile court a few times here this year and for the most part, you know, they deal with the delinquency stuff. Um and the juvenile judges are great here in the Atlantic Circuit. They really try to help folks out. The reason why you see these numbers so low is because honestly I feel like a lot of them they try to help outside of all this because once you get your name in the court system, you kind of get a label for the rest of your life. And and I think they really do a good job on trying to minimize that. And our juvenile numbers historically are fairly low because um

I mean they they work with them so well. We do a lot of pre-trial stuff, a lot of pre-adjudication, a lot of do we really need to throw a label on this man? So, we do have like a pre-trial for the juveniles when we can. Um, they do as much as they can as far and you know, you can do um unsupervised supervision, those kind of things where you just basically I mean, because most young kids, if they're going to straighten up, I mean, you put the fear of God in them, you'll figure out pretty quick which direction he's going to go. And they do a really good job of doing that. Um, and I, you know, I've never had a complaint about our juvenile numbers. I've never seen anything crazy happen in there. For the most part, it's just um you know, good kids hanging out with bad people,

right? Okay. And then I guess that's what I was getting at cuz you know, but I do see you know whenever you're looking at Liberty County, I'm not a math major, but what is that about 60%. Oh, yeah. We're the lions here, right? Where the lions? Yeah. I was just wondering cuz I know in the metro Atlanta area they definitely had like the pre-trial especially for juveniles to kind of offset them instead of giving them time, you know, putting them to to work. And I don't think we have a formal pre-trial program, but we have um prosecutors and uh judges on the bench that are very pretty much understandable.

Yeah, exactly. that they'll like look at a case and be like, I mean, this is the first time I've ever seen. Now, if you've been in there 10 times, at some point they're like, you're going on probation if not to the Rwen before. Mama comes in here and says, this is out of character. He's been hanging out with this wrong crowd. Like, they're not real quick to slap a label on him and try to ruin his life. We we more try to see if there's anything we can do to help this to make it where this never happens again.

Right. Good deal. And then back to uh Brian County, you you're saying uh state court and also I see a zero with Macintosh County. So, you you're doing the same thing with them as well. Macintosh County has contracted their state court for a number of years now. I don't recall when that changed. It was before my tenure and I've never really done state court for the most part. So, but um yeah, Macintosh contracts with Mr. Oliver and like I said, I've got a um notice to take to Brian County tomorrow, but I wanted to do this first because and full disclosure, you know, I did meet with the uh what was his title? the county office space manager in Brian County a couple time three times to discuss whether or not accommodations could be made and we just the courthouse isn't growing was basically what I was told. So I mean we did make the efforts and I would have loved to have tried to continue to help them out but I just can't keep one attorney and one support staff doing these kind of numbers. First thing Atlanta told me about was get your Brian County's attorney's case numbers down. Her case numbers are twice as high as anybody else in the circuit.

Right. And and she's there by herself. So, uh, so I guess you're just on contract that out. No, they are. They are. Okay. Yeah, that's even better. And then I guess the last last question I have, Mr. Chair, whenever you was discussing about uh interns, what are are you looking for like collegiic college interns or I'll be honest with you, if they got a body and a pulse and a positive attitude, I'd love to talk to them. Right. because the reason why I was saying I I I don't know if he participated in the in the past with our summer internship program. We have some some kids as well that are might be fitting for you as well. So, we'll take them. There we go.

Like I said, ultimately what we really want is people that's more legal and if they want to go to the DA's office, I don't care. I would love for them to come work for us before they become they go be DAS, right? That way they got a more grounded idea of what this whole thing is because people who are career DAs or career public defenders, you got to do both. I went to the DA's office for about two years. I came right back. This is home for me. I didn't want to be over there. I learned my lesson, but I got to go look. Yeah. So, I think seeing the whole system in its entirety is priceless. So, I would love for anybody who's interested to come out and work. I mean, if I get more positions, we have more openings. We're always hiring locals. Like I said, I I try to focus on the people that have a local address and ties because I just feel like them the ones going to stay with us.

Yes, sir. I I appreciate it. So I but I would definitely get with um y'all about the summer internship program. See if we can't opt into that expeditious. We'd love to have we're having interviews on Saturday. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you so much. Questions from Mr. Proin. Um I you know uh commissioners you you know that they always come to us early early because of their budget cycle. So that's why we have to entertain Yes, sir. his presentation. Now you you did a good job. Now, he did kind of put us on notice that it won't be the same presentation next year. So,

that's why I'm here. And I actually I actually told him next year my plan is and I was going to do it this year, but next year I'm going to make my whole office come so that way they they can hear the spill and I'm going to use them as some exhibits over here because I want y'all to actually put a I want y'all to put a face to some of these folks that's struggling so hard with some of these case numbers. Yeah. Tell them bring some uh tissue, too. There we go. That works. There we go. We like props. There we go. There we go. All right. Where are those numbers? Uh It's on uh be our portion

Liberty County broccan. Somebody isolate me the Liberty County numbers that we're responsible for. I I know we get reimbursed. So I think that's that's where you headed. um we'll approve the entire budget, the 1.6 million, but the the right hand column, the one second to the end, um the 636,000 is our share net of those other county buildings. And the other counties go through the same process we're going through in the circuit. Yes. Okay. For for the most part, if they'll answer my calls, y'all, Mr. Mosley always contacts me. So, this one right here is always scheduled for me. I got to

just make sure they pay their bills. I got I got to chase them down. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Do we make the motion with contingency of of them? Well, they going to approve it. I can promise you that. They got Okay. All right. Chain a motion. Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, make a motion. Second, Mr. Approve. Thank you again for coming in service. I think it's a good idea you being live stream so taxpayers get to hear kind of what these funds Yes, sir. how they addressed. Yes, sir. As and sir. And they hear you also say, "My budget's lower this year, but I'm not promising you that next year." Correct.

And like I said, for me, it's more like whenever I come before y'all with that ask and that plan, I want to have a plan so I can lay it out just like this. I mean, I've got two open positions right now. If you had two lawyers, I'd hire them ask y'all for more money, but as long as I got two open lawyer positions. I mean, that's what I need. I need two licensed attorneys. I don't need more money. I don't think that's going to help the problem. I need the applicant. All right. All right. All in favor, show your hands, please. Thank y'all so much. Thank you. If we can do anything for you, let us know. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you. Mr. Chair, when Miss Richardson come up, can we take care items E F and G while we're at it, while she's up?

EFNG. Yes, sir. All of them are on her purview. We'll think about it. Why should Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem.

Usually finances stuff is all grouped together, but it's it's fine either way. Um, good evening. Uh, the first item on the agenda for finance is the February 2026 financial statements. Um, through the end of February, we have collected in general fund 63% of our uh total anticipated revenues for the year. Um, right alongside that, we have spent 61% of our total expenditures for the year. Um, February was a was a good month of collections for property taxes. Um, and as I come back next month, March is was an even better month. Uh, we currently have 4.75 months of operating expenditures in our unreserved fund balance. Um this compared to where we were last February um it's up 2025 we reported four months of operational expenditures in our fund balance. Um if we look at the departmental uh budget to actual report there are a few um that are currently showing under over budget for the month of February. Um the risk management department is where we pay our annual uh retirement contribution. It's a one time a year um that's causing this department to show over budget, but it actually will not be once we get to the end of the year. Uh the judicial administration, this is our cost for court reporters. Um and it fluctuates throughout the year. It's based on the the timing of the court cases and um that sort of thing. But they're certainly increasing as we've heard from um uh the two court representatives. Yes. Um so for our

upcoming budget year, we're actually proposing to increase that um just to cover uh where we are actually on cost. Superior Court, this is skewed for the year um due to some payments made for the law library early in the fiscal year. The jail is currently showing a ahead of schedule um for their inmate food contract. Um and this the jail has um we collect a jail construction staffing revenue and sweep that in to cover some of their budget periodically throughout the year. So in March um this was done so it should it should level out and they should not be over budget um next month. Um animal control is it's coming down. Uh still showing ahead of schedule a little bit for February, but it is coming down and leveling out. Um but this is for um food supplies and um other supplies. The

Steve have a a plan for that? I mean, is that a it is what it is or is that something that we can do as a county to to maybe lower those costs for food supplies? Is this something that's epidemic among all animal control offices or unique for Liberty? I I know he shared, Mr. chair and members of the board that in times past he was getting uh grant funds to help in those areas, but he said because we were doing so well that they weren't as generous and in helping us out. Let them know we're not doing as well. Not in this area. Yes.

Turn the faucet on again. Um the road department, sorry Clinton, uh is currently showing ahead of schedule or over budget for equipment repairs. Um these occur, you know, without warning and have to be uh to to be repaired immediately to keep our services rolling. Um recreation is showing ahead of schedule for temporary employees. This is another one where we have revisited it um in our upcoming FY27 budget. Um it has um just it it needs some it needs an increase truthfully and um but let's see if we move if we turn the page to solid waste. We currently have revenue uh exceeding our total expenditures for the month um of about 670,000. Um this represents collections of 63% of our revenues for the year and we've spent 50% of our total expenditures. Um there are currently no single departments showing ahead of schedule for solid waste. Um let's see if I look at that. The same is true for our um special revenue funds. Nothing is showing ahead of schedule for uh this month of February as well. And sales tax. So for February, we collected 1.1 million for sales tax 7. Um and we have spent a total of 25.1 million on our splast seven projects.

We've collected 39.2 million in total revenue. No 30 Yeah 39.2 2 million um in Splast proceeds, which is cumulatively um we've collected about 7 million more than what we originally budgeted for, uh for SPLAS 7 and T-Lost. Um, as you guys are aware, um, this splot ended and then our new T-Lost um, took effect recently for collections. Um, but we had a little bit of funds trickle in for the month of February, about $10,000. Um, and to date we've spent, let's see, Tesla 30 35.3 million on our T-PLS projects and we brought in 59.8 for Tesla revenues. And that concludes my finance presentation.

The increase in fees we did for the solid waste. Mhm. And when I see the the 49 that's depreciation. So the revenues certainly are um increasing um for the for the rates that are charged by the department as well as those assessments um based on that recommendation from the Colbertson study. Um it's going to take a number of years to kindly catch up enough to start paying general fund back for those monies that were fronted. But there certainly is an increase a drastic increase in our collection.

Those funds come from the tax collector's office. Is it a special line item? It's it's a it's a separate check actually that goes into that solid waste cash account. Yes, sir. All right. Mr. Chairman, those mobile homes, they just are due I think this month. That's correct. Yes, ma'am. We haven't received those yet. So, that'll be coming. Yeah, that'll probably be a couple month lag time, but those are in the works, too. Yes.

And and and as Commissioner Thrift mentioned, that's where we're going to aggressively go after all those delinquent uh mobile home for the assessments and the other fees. So, so we met and with the committee and we're going to aggressively go after those that are delinquent. I guess while we're talking, so we're I know we did a increase on the um water bills, too. When was the water last year? That went into effect uh July of last year. Last year. Yeah. Um, and I'm I'm only saying that because I know some other governmental agencies. Um, did not do that in a timely manner and it's something that will catch up with you because if you don't take it and use it, do your maintenance,

then you'll have those maintenance costs and then you'll have to all of a sudden try to recoup that from taxpayers and Yes. and they are not happy when that happens. So, absolutely. So, make sure ours is on track. Okay. Thank you. Any question for Miss Samantha? Oh, next one. Real quick. I'm sorry. Just simple. Uh uh Miss Richardson, where was I? Uh when we was talking about the undesated fund balance, uh we're up to 4.7 on average. What for one month? I can't remember. What is it? A little bit over five.

Cost like five and a half million to operate for one month. Yes. 5.5. Maybe a little less, but around. Yes, sir. Oh, and and then Mr. Chair, uh what she was saying about uh recreation. Yeah. Because uh we had we just recently had our our district uh recreation department uh competition and we have 75 entries that's going to state on next week. So,

wow. Our recreation department is definitely growing. Uh and and the kids are are really doing a phenomenal job. So, I mean, they were out there and they they would have made you Liberty County proud. Just let you know. Straight to the state. Break the state. Break the state. Thank you. Next item. Do you want me to go? Yes.

Continue. Okay. Yes, sir. Um the let's see the 2026 if we um the 2026 estimated roll back millage rate starting with uh the house bill 581 last year um the state took off the the assessment notice portion where it calculated your tax. However, it added you will have to estimate your your roll back millage rate including on your assessment notices. Um, so they are requiring us to go ahead and put something on the on the assessment notice for our upcoming millillage. Um, and as you guys know, we don't have the digest. So, um, we're proposing that we include last year's millillage just because we don't have any better information. So, that is what um, you guys have in front of you is just last year's county portion of the millage rates. So this um will need to um go for a approval this evening to comply with the uh state standards

with those Mr. Chairman with those um and I was going to ask you how you calculated that um but anyway last year yeah last year's but with the other two municipalities Warville and Fington will they be able to collect? Yes, ma'am. They're they're on here. So the county assesses a tax for those. Yes, ma'am. Walter Hinesville because they're taxing agencies now. Yeah. So, we won't be able duplicated services. We have to roll those back. Yes, ma'am. Okay.

Mr. Chair, I guess another question is uh did we uh discuss this or reach out to ACCG or any of the other counties to see if it is the same process that they're doing? So Keith Keith and I spoke to um the chief assessor in Cobb County recently and we actually called um a lady at the state do um just for guidance. They said there is legislation that might change the assessment notices um awaiting Kemp, you know, to make a decision at the state level. Um but they are going ahead with their process as well because our assessment notices have deadlines in early May. So, um, but yes,

and and speaking of that, Mr. Chair, be continued. Yeah. And that's that's what I was going to say. I I don't know if we if we and I guess our next workshop or something, just reach out to ACCG. They they were very helpful to kind of kind of help explain all this new legislation that that is in the process now. And like I said, even with me being on a policy committee during this entire uh session, I'm still confused. Sure. So I I know everyone in all 159 states are confused, but I I know Well, I'm sorry. Counties. So I know if we reach out to them, they better hide or any of them. We can do it.

Thank you. This is You ready for a motion? Yes, sir. Chair, sir. So move. that we um use the 2020 last year's race now. So that just so the other tax agents got to do the same thing that we're doing. Yes, sir. Okay. But well, we don't have to wait on them for filing, do we? For the digest submission, it's um the county Well, the county they have to adopt their millage rate prior to us being able to adopt ours. Um but yes and the BOE as well. Yeah, some of them are experienced at it, some of them aren't.

Yes. All right. Are they calling you as a resource? Yes, absolutely. I kind of All right. All in favor hand. Thank you, Miss Samantha.

Okay. The next item on the agenda is the county's five-year CIP plan. Um we've discussed this at the retreat in March um as well as um a little bit uh yesterday at one of our budget workshops. Um but this I provided a printed out copy for you all just for your review um that to comply with state standards uh we do need to vote this tonight as well. Yeah, we discussed this yesterday for those of you who were here and prior to that time our CIP committee met with our staff and once again I'll I'll allow them to speak to the presentation from finance.

Yes sir, Mr. Chairman, CIP finance committee met and um per the recommendation from our finance director and our bondsman that we would approve to use these funds um for these expendered items. Oh, I thought we had them on. You didn't put them on the screen. Oh, no. I just printed them out for you guys. Items. It would cost the county quite a bit more to go back and redo the loan uh on the health department. It's very um unusual to come in under bid, I guess, or under under budget

with the amount that was borrowed for the health department. So we have those funds left over and we've seen items in the CIP that had been sitting there for several years or so that we're able to use these funds for. So where did you yesterday when somebody dire straight MS? Yes. He needs these items. Oh that's for the road department I do believe. Is his item on there? Uh yes ma'am. Yes. That's the first first item. Yes. Solid waste. Any questions? If not chair entertain a motion all recommendation of finance office and our CIP committee

is there a second motion in a second we approve this any further discussion all in favor show hands please all right let's get that do we need a second vote on the CIP itself versus the recommendation from the CIP committee or will one suffice yes is that the this out where we've removed some of those and we're pay is that why we need to approve this just the whole plan for the next five years. Next five years. Okay. I'll make a motion that we approve the CIP uh capital requirements this board has put in place to hopefully um save and be able to uh meet the needs of our county departments. Is there a seconded motion?

Second. Motion second. We approve the CIP capital requirements list. Thank you all for your hard work on that. Yes, sir. And I would uh uh I want to mention that some of these items are able to be paid for through Spllos Tesla, not necessarily in the budgeted item. Yes, ma'am. Correct. Thank you. So, let's appreciate the folks of Liberty County for supporting Splice and Tesla. Yes, sir. Coming to our rescue again. And Mr. Chair, uh just for the record as well, uh from my understanding, this is a lot of documentation so we can make adjustments doing on that five year. Yes. There we go. All in favor, show your hands, please. Motion passes. Thank you so much. Thank you.

You're on a roll, Mr. Sam. Uh, now let me find my place here. Engineering. Is that right? Yes, sir. Mr. Law.

Good evening. Hope everybody's doing well. Those are good. We've had a lot of things going on this month, so I'll try to hit through these pretty quick and uh go through it. The uh main trail subdivision, uh we should be putting that out for bid uh during late May, so we got all the funding ready for it. We're ready to go on that. Um the um Butter Blunt Road, Commissioner Blunt made a great progress on some easements and right away this weekend, which is great. So hopefully we'll be seeing a little bit more activity on that one. So all legal kudos to Commissioner Blunt.

So that one's kind of been stalled a little while cuz we're waiting on it. Uh Free McGrave Road. Uh we've got those road that those improvements out. Uh waiting on the contractor to get started. All the contractors all the contracts are uh executed. He had some surgery, so he's a he's trying to get back on his feet a little bit and get it going. So, we'll be back on that pretty quick. Uh, so he's doing good there. Uh, Sunshine Lake Road contract's pretty close to finished. Uh, asphalt's down. Got a lot of things done. Uh, few little minor things I think he can finish up and he'll be in good shape. Jones Creek Pavilion, I think everybody got to get out there this past week and see that it looks really good. And that's only about 10% of the landscaping that we have in the contract. So, we have a lot more coming and a lot more to do out there. So, you'll see more as that goes along, but it's a a stark difference from what it looked like this time last year.

Um, live oak road drain, live oak drive draining, not drainage, but uh, paving. We're waiting on the contractor to kind of give us the schedule and getting out there and get that done. Um, the EMS building. real quick. Uh I notic on here it it still had that original bid price for the for the whole ghost good stuff or was I looking at the wrong thing? Yeah. No, you're that's further up. Yeah. And I didn't put the new contract price on here and I apologize. I just want to make sure.

Yeah. No, I'm glad you said I'm glad you said that cuz I I was reading through this earlier today. I was like something just seems wrong. So, I'm glad you noticed that. So, couple extra zeros that need to be deleted off of there now. Yeah, there you go. Got it. I will have that fixed before the next meeting. Thank you, sir. Um, we have been working on a big topo out there at the airport, Mid Coast Airport, and uh, that is finished finally. Uh, that was pretty intense uh, stuff going through the woods getting that done. Mary Todd Road. I've requested a uh update from the guy doing the um appraisals.

Yes. So, we should be pretty close to finished. So, I'm just trying to find with him. And I talked to a couple people today had not heard from him. So, I'm trying to make sure that he's gotten in touch with everybody. Okay.

Um Allan's no uh Bington Ferry 17 and Lewis Razer Road. That roundabout is getting pretty close. Uh we have our preliminary field plan review. The actual review in the field is on May 7th. Uh we'll start over at the DOT office in Savannah and we'll come back over and we'll actually walk the site. Uh by the end of this month, we'll end up staking out the center of the road so everybody can see where it goes and how it fits. Um so that you know once we get it done, you guys can kind of go walk it and say, "What are we doing here?" Um, but it it it is coming along pretty good. We're about to get that one to a point where we can start going to uh final construction plans.

Yes, sir. I know sometimes you have to make things a little inconvenient.

How much are we going to not trouble traffic? So that that's going to be about a six-month construction process somewhere around there. Um during the construction, the the first phase of it when they're building most of the roundabout, they'll be able to keep traffic on 17 going well because we won't divert off of 17 while they're building the bulk of the roundabout because it goes in the triangle. Now, once we start doing the part that encroaches on 17, we're going to reroute through the roundabout. So, there will be a period of time that's going to be we we'll get some we'll get some phone calls, we'll get some complaints. Um, but that should be a relatively short period of time. And then once that's done, then you'll just be going right into the roundabout and using the roundabout. Now, uh, you know, we're we are putting a roundabout on a roadway that everybody's used to driving 55 miles an hour down right through that area and they're going to have to slow down and it's going to be a different pattern for them. So, there'll be a learning curve for all us local people that drive through it every day. My wife is already complaining to me about it about where everybody keeps running the stop sign. Well, when we have deaths there, too. So, you know, it's it's a safety issue.

Would will DOT um adjust the speed limit at since we're doing a roundabout in the middle? Oh, yes, sir. That's part of my design. So, what'll happen is you'll slow down to 45. And then as you get into the roundabout, you've got to be down between 20 and 25 to go through the roundabout. So, you've got to slow down significantly. So what you'll find is, you know, the curve as you're if you're coming from Riceboro toward Midway, you know, you're kind of going around the curve this way, you'll kind of go sharper into the right ditch and then you'll turn back around.

And if you're coming from Midway going to Riceboro, you'll dip down and then turn right. So you'll do a little bit of a twist that's purposely made to slow you down before you get to the roundabout. This would be more like the one in Macintosh County at 99. No, sir. No, sir. That's a little bit more elaborate than what we got. Yeah, that that's by the the the bies. That's a multi-lane roundabout. And this is definitely a two-lane roundabout. This is a baby roundabout compared to that. Why do the babies cost so much?

I think every parent asks that question. Good one. Good one. Good one. Um, just as long as we um, you know, do the signage and I'm I'm a fan of the electronic signs that say Yes, sir. There'll be message boards that'll be up there kind of telling people what to do. Um, yes, sir. I I've I did what I thought was a pile of signs on my plan and I was told that I have to have more and I'm like, how in the world I'm going to draw those on the plan? Okay. So, just not enough room on the paper. Uh, but yes, sir. This it's going to be loaded down with signs

and uh we'll have uh rumble strips as you approach. There are certain things that you got to have that kind of warn you that you're coming. So, all right. That's all for me tonight. What's that? I don't I don't even get to use my comeback and ruin my night. He's He's going to wait till you walk halfway to your seat and they call you right. Ju just um FYI um from the recent Hampo the um bypass phase 2 has been assigned a do I call it a DOT number a project number what's that Jeff you want to that's good make that announcement those two that one and the um Flemington

Yes sir um we are in the process of trying to thanks to Tesplot and thank thanks to some additional funds being dedicated in Tesplot to the Heisville bypass and to the Wallace Martin Realignment. Uh we've been working with G dot and we've gotten or in the process of getting a project number assigned for Wallace Martin interchange and they just they have just assigned a a project number to the Heisensville bypass which means the phase two of the Heisville bypass which means that they're eligible for federal funding. So we we're now ready to compete for those funds. Yes sir. Thank you sir. Welcome.

Music to our ears. Okay. Uh, property and casualty. M, Mr. Brandon, you've been very patient with us, sir. Thank you. It's good to see everybody again. You got a good reason to be pat. Your dad's here. There he is. Us remotely. Oh, man. He didn't trust you. Bobby could have handled it by himself. Now I know. Um, all right. So, we're we're meeting here again to basically go over the We able to get that up on the screen. Yeah. The uh coverage summary.

We went over this last month or last week, excuse me. And uh basically, we needed to get the two buildings added, the EMS and the health department. Um those were the two we were needing to get a price on. The health department was an additional 65,000 and the EMS was 14,000

and that is baked into the 841 in the total property premium there. Um, having the sprinklers and all that on those really helped the premium come down. Um, everything else is basically we've we've went over it last last week. Is there any questions as far as that? So the 65 that's for a year's worth of coverage, correct? Okay.

And uh I I guess the question I have too is so I know in years previous years we had an issue like you said when the pre premiums went kind of skyhigh. So if if we have that that issue again, will we just drop back down from the 50 million to the 25 million or we can look at all our options? Yeah, we'll we'll look at the options to add that extra 25 million based off the property market during that time, right? And to see if it's feasible to do that,

right? Because and I mean I I get what you all are saying, but I also always remember when you all said that if it's if it's a disaster big enough, it doesn't matter if we have $25 million worth of or 50 because FEMA's gonna come in anyway. So, I just, you know, I dealing with insurance companies sometimes, you know, and I know you all have been great to us, but, you know, sometimes we we get overinsured for stuff that we don't we don't need. So, I just want to just make sure definitely since we're dealing with taxpayers money that, right, that's not what we're doing here. Yeah, that extra 25 gives you a little more cushion just to kind of do what you want to do rather than FEMA coming in. And

Well, I I staff will take one more look. Y you all took one more look and this is still the recommendation. All right. All right. Chair entertain a motion then. So move. Second. Second that we uh renew this uh property and casualty coverage for our county. Got to ensure that our county facilities are covered. It would not make a good news story if we had a disaster or something happened outside of the FEMA stuff and then we didn't have our coverage. So trying to as Commissioner F said be good stewards of of the citizens property too,

right? And that's the thing everyone knows about insurance. Insurance is something that you have to have but you never want to use. So hopefully you know uh you know we we've been dodging a bullet the last couple years and hopefully it it'll stay that way. So, all in favor, show your hands, please. Motion passes. Thank you so much. Thank you for your patience. Thank you. By day. Oh, I think he's gone. All right. Who's in there? I was going to say Lmeig, but it's not Lmeig. It's L. Mr. Blair. L is a cousin to LIG.

You knew you couldn't get rid of me quite as easy. So this year we have uh u the L program is out. Um we are able to apply for redways that uh fund just like Elmeigg. Um the amount of funds that we'll be receiving is $538,975.79. Uh there say that again. Did you say it too fast? 5 538975.79. So um typically we said we divide that six ways. I gave up

for seven sometimes. He said last week that we do six. Now we do have uh we got the funding set up for the trail subdivision and we've got other subdivisions to kind of start taking. We also have two of our roadways uh that are in pretty bad shape. Um one being Hometown Road and one being County Line Road. We've got some Elme money already established for Elmeigg uh for

County Line Road. And we're trying to get that ready to go out for bid here pretty shortly, but it's going to be short of what we have to be able to accomplish everything that we need for County Line Road. So, Homesttown Road, I think we were at $2.2 $2 million of what we need to do to fix the Homestead Road. We're close to $2 million what we need for uh County Line Road. So, we've got some pretty big needs on those two roadways. Now, we've also identified several of these subdivisions that we've been trying to take over. I don't know that we want to go with those with this kind of money, but I kind of need to get what you're where you guys would like to go so I can apply for this because I need to submit for this before in it June 15th.

Yes. June June 15th. Yes. So June 15th. So I need to go ahead and do it pretty soon and I'm going to be gone a lot in May. So I was trying to hit it and try to do it a little bit before. Well, you can apply my portion to County Line Road. Yes, ma'am. And that's not a whole lot. So, if any other commissioner would like to to um Well, the chair said he was going to give up his share. Yeah. Yeah. So, divide that six ways. 538 divided by six is what? Right at 90 something,000. Right. 90,000. How much? 90. Yeah. I need two. How much? My math is not doing great.

Almost 2 million. Might have to do half the county. I was close. It's $89,829. Okay. So 90. Okay. All right. Anybody else? You want yours? Whichever one mini you got to tell me. I know. Well, you have you were supposed to come back.

You You said you know which roads I wanted. So, I mean, we could either put Oh, you go ahead and start with one of your uh sidewalks. We could do that. Okay. That's what you were saying. Sorry. All right. Um let's get a walk. Let's do the Unice Road one first. Not Unice. No. Varna. Barnett. That's what I was trying to say. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I said that wrong. You know, I'm constantly amazed that we have, you know, I know what's that call where Varno is. It's been there for a while, but it's not a old neighborhood. Just amazed that sidewalks weren't part of the plan when they put the neighborhoods in back in those.

Back when those neighborhoods went in, there was not a requirement. Actually, a lot of those neighborhoods went in before we even had requirements for curb and gutter. When I lived in Point South, we didn't even have ditches at first. I remember when they dug the ditches. Mhm. Yep. Yeah. I'm little. Let me uh let me get with you and Samantha and see where I am with projects that I had made some promises to, but certainly I'm willing to help out. Okay. I appreciate Mr. Chairman. Timmy, you want to do part of yours toward uh butter blunt or you guess you got it covered some other way. Yeah. No, sir.

All right, Gary said it's about you said it's about 90. Yeah, I'll uh give half to um Homestown and other half to um county line. Thank you, Commissioner. Well, I've always been freehearted uh like that. If y'all recall, I gave a bunch of money to uh the trails. We recall a whole bunch.

Hey, the only one. And you know, I'm not speaking for Commissioner Walden, but we're ready to uh knock out the uh we have one last comment we're fixing with DOT on the uh turn lane for Macintosh Lake Road, which is one of his projects he asked me for. I mean, it do we want to just contact him, see if he wants to put that toward that or how do we want to try to do that? I'll catch him tomorrow. Okay. You're talking about for his 90,000? Yes. Yes. Yeah. So, he had some money set aside for the uh and we had some elig money set aside for the intersection improvements at Macintosh Lake Road

in 84 and we're just about finished with that permit ready to get it out. So, if we can use that, that'd be great. So, since I'm so liberal, you want me to uh give you his money? No. Well, that is his district, right? Yeah, it's his district. Yeah. And so I was trying to do is make sure I had something that covered him as well. I think he'd want to go with Yeah, he would. I tell you, I'll go ahead and set it up that way. And if if you guys want me, we can always change what we're doing. I'll talk to him tomorrow. Okay. Just let me know. I will cuz I I won't turn it in tomorrow. I'll wait until next week. Just let me know.

Okay. All right, I think that covers everybody. All right, next. Anybody? I'm good. I'm going to be get in the background because we got two more things. Well, that's a good question. I don't know that we've ever if we've done them that way or not. You've just kind of always told me and we fill out the application, the chairman signs it, and we send it in. That's fine. So, you know, you guys tell me how you want to do it that way. Authorize him to complete the application. Yeah, that would be best. I'll

move second. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Show your hands. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Public hearing for road abandonment of Drum Point Way. Say public hearing. Yes, sir. Chair entertain a motion going second. Somebody second that please. Second. All in favor? Show your hands. Okay. Did anyone sign up? Sir. Um, Mr. Chair, for point we have Mr. Dustin McCain and Destiny is the president of the HOA. Okay.

And Mr. Michael Roberts who's also he's representing uh property owners on Sunshine Lake Camp Road. Did I say it right? Okay. So, Mr. here. Uh it's requirement of uh road abandonment. We have um we have advertised it. We have sent letters to the property owners. Um we've also you guys uh pass an intent uh to consider resolution. And the last and final part uh you have to host a uh hold a public hearing uh and then close the public hearing and make a recommendation. I mean, u make a motion. And then the other part of that, as I was reading the notes from Kelly, is Trent, we supposed to um discuss any cost that may be associated with with the uh property abandonment.

You caught him off guard. The note from Kelly. Oh, I didn't know. Yeah. Yes, sir. So, so that's the procedure, sir. Uh so, the floor is open. So, Mr. McCain. Um, M. McCain would be for drum point, right? So, you just happen to be here. You want to come and say something about the subject at hand?

Transporting the bench. So, um I know since I've lived here since 2010, um everybody who's always lived on that road had told us that it was the responsibility of 26 of us property owners to take care of that road. Since I've lived there, I've never seen a Liberty County vehicle down there to cut grass, uh storm cleanup, pothole repairs, anything. So, I know I've personally cut the grass on the side, the rest of our neighborhood, we've chipped in to uh fill in potholes and everything else. And talking with the older people that have lived there since 70s and 80s, same thing. There's never been a there's never been any road work done. And um you know, we feel like that we're the ones that have taken care of that road ever since it was paved. And that you know, we would like to have our road back because we put up a fence uh not a fence, but a gate Um, and I guess that's what kind of caused it to come to light because as far as we know, we've always on that road and I wish we would have known that because we wouldn't have been taken care of all this time.

Um, so, you know, like I said, we'd like petition to have our road back. Okay. All right. Thank you, sir. Was there anyone to speak against uh the abandonment? No. All right, then. Um, let's just go ahead. Uh, Am I going to have two public hearings? I'm going to do Wow. Okay. Chain a motion to go out of public hearing back in regular session. So move. Second. All in favor. All right. Now chair take a motion to approve the abandonment of Drum Point Road. All right. Thanks, sir.

Motion that we allow the property owners of Drum Point to obtain the roadway.

Correct. Is that second? Second. Second. All right. Now, now you're going to put Mr. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McCain. I think I hear kind of engineers coming back. Did Did we Did we work that out? That piece? Okay. Okay. So, um, on this one, um, there's not any evidence of any money changing hands. If if any, it was like $10 or $1. So, it's not anything significant of anything. So, but if I'm not if I'm reading the way this goes, right, you've got to agree to abandon the roadway first, then you can do a motion to transfer.

But you can't do the transfer without the abandon. All right. Well, we have the transfer. Now, let's go back and do the abandonment. We'll just make Yes, sir. All right. We just make a motion we abandon drum point. Drum point. Second. Somebody second. So, we had a motion on so we need to take that motion off the floor. Does he need to receive that motion? Rece it. I mean, rescend it. Rescend it and then put them in the right order. Okay. All right.

Add that to the agenda. And the It says abandonment here. Yeah. If you going to Joe, are you going to transfer tonight? It it'll be uh authorized the county attorney to do the transfers. How you how we can do that emotion? So if you will do add to the agenda authorization county attorney it's on the agenda here that's going to be a second that's going to be a separate judgment item only abandoned abandonment not the transfer portion can you can you say real estate transfer

can you say public hearing for road abandonment and transfer I think you can Yeah, you do amendment and transfer. We can't do it all together, right? Say separated. He said separated. All right. Uh, receive the motion first.

Okay. Does someone second that? Well, who who did the second earlier? second. Yeah. Okay. Right. All right. All right. All in favor again. All right. Receive. Now, a motion to uh

abandon. I make a motion that we go through the process of abandonment on point way which is located in the eastern part that's already second commissioner blunt am I helping you out any further discussion in favor I I just got one quick question what would be the process if if if these particular uh owners ers move or or new owners want us to bring back and have us own that piece of road.

They would petition petition petition to see if if it meets the requirements and all that. That's right. Okay, cool. I just wanted that to be, you know. All right, it's fine. Um motion to transfer make motion that we transfer the drum point to the citizens of drum point. Don't you? Oh, I thought we Oh, you person came. All right. I'm sorry. All in favor of the abandonment. Yep. Thank you for your help. Now I'll take a motion to add that to the agenda.

Add transfer to the agenda. Okay. Motion to add the transfer drum point to our agenda. Um good second. Somebody second. Second. All in favor? Show of hands. We'll make that uh for the matter of record item uh H under new business. All right. I'm sorry. I thank you. Make that motion that we allow the transfer to take place for Drum Point.

Is that second motion in a second that we allow the transfer you approve the transfer of Drum point to those very fine citizens on that road who've been taking care of it. They said for all this time any further discussion all in favor show hands please. All right transfer

I got All of the emergency service has to go to 911. So that we don't want nothing. All right. Now, now that we have we need to do the same for Yes, sir.

Well, let's go ahead and do amend the agenda. Item J then will be the transfer of Sunshine Campground Road. Can chair have a motion to that effect, please? Some move. Second. All in favor, show hands. All right. Let's start now with the abandonment. Is anybody here to speak against or against that? Um, Mr. Chair, we have Mr. Michael Roberts and he's here for sure.

He's here to speak on behalf of the property owner. And for the record, Mr. Chair, I want to say it publicly is that there were some concerns. This piece of property is the last part of the road. And some people would think it was the first part of the road. This is the last part of the road. And it's for that property owner to to assume all of that that property on the end of that road. Yeah, there's there was a uh I guess it was a campground at some point, like a fishing camp,

and the homeowner wants to take and abandon the roads. That way, we can make it into three lots. That way, we could put uh a big house on it and then a cabin on it and then future later on maybe put another house. But having the roads go through there and we can't do anything. So, I've already talked to Coastal EMC, uh Xfinity, Comcast, everybody's in and wanted to move it out that way. You can put the house in the there a lot of nice oak trees back there, but man, there was so much individual lots that you really couldn't do anything with it without taking the roads out and re putting everything back the way it needs to be far as having three lots. So, it's going to be a nice nice place, good owners that want to one individual has bought the entire corner.

Yes. Yes, sir. She they they bought that section where all the lots are and they also bought the a the agricultural track to the right of it. So, they're they're they're invested in the community and uh they're going to be good people. Allowing it to go back to the the new property owner will stop no any traffic public traffic. No, there's no there's no public traffic once it's up there at the very end. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you, sir. Commissioner Blunt. Well, no. Technically no. Yeah. Chair Taylor the motion uh to go because we came out to vote go back into public hearing for make a motion.

Come on. The abandonment and transfer being quiet sunshine. Being quiet today. All in favor? All right. We heard the statements from uh Mr. Roberts. Roberts. Thank you. I'm trying to see his name. All right. Now a a motion to abandon make a motion we abandon the roads and Sunshine Lake pertaining to this property as described. Second.

Very good. All right. All in favor show hand. Now a motion to transfer. Make a motion we transfer. Second. All in favor show hands please. All right. It's been exercise. Yeah. Motion to come out of uh Oh, we did that all wrong. Keep it moving. That's good.

This can be complicated. the record that we tried to the to the neighbors. Hey, we all had good intentions. That's all that matters. Legal names in there, I believe. Uh funding recommendation for CIP. Did that? Yes, Samantha. We did that. We confused and we did that. did everything. You don't H H I need a We're just waiting on Jeff. Thought Jeff was already up at one time.

Good evening, chairman, members of the board. Hello, sir.

Uh Liberty County has been asked to amend its alcohol ordinance. uh specifically the distance requirements from certain uses from uh alcohol alcohol places that sell alcohol and uh I was asked to uh put together something for you to consider. So I've done that tonight and uh and looking at your ordinance is is fairly old and it it kind of treats alcoholic establishments as oneizefits-all. A bar is treated the same way as a grocery store that sells beer and wine as as is a convenience store. So, I've attempted to try to break it out and and make it a little bit kind of break it up and compartmentalize it so you you have different standards for an a bar versus a grocery store or a convenience store that would sell alcoholic beverages. So, does everybody have a copy of the ordinance that I've yes provided to you?

If if you want me to, I can kind of go through it with you and just kind of tell you what's uh being recommended for that. Um, currently, as I said, your ordinance has one sizefits-all. It applies to whether you're running a store, a grocery store or a bar. Uh what I'm proposing is that you separate uh the types into two different types and really two subtypes of the of the second one. The first one would be on premise consumption. That would be a establishment where you go and you you drink at that establishment. It's it's a it's either a bar or restaurant. And what I'm suggesting there is that no original license for premise for on premise consumption shall be issued unless the building is at least 150 ft away from any area's own residential, which is what you currently have. Uh within 300 ft of a governmentrun alcoholic treatment center building. That's the state law. You don't really have an option on that one. and within 300 feet of a church building or other place used exclusively for rel religious proceedings or within 600 feet of any property line of any library, mortuary, school or college college campus. So all of that's just the way it is now for for just an on premises consumption place like a bar or restaurant. So the second uh category would be off premises consumption and that would be for grocery stores and convenience stores or just a simpler simple package store. So under item B there, off- premises consumption. Uh this would be for a liquor store sale of distilled spirits. No original license shall be issued for the sale of distilled spirits for off premises consumption in a building that is located within 300 ft of a governmentr run alcoholic treatment center. That is that's state law. You don't really have an option on that one. And then the second part is within 300 feet of a church building or place used exclusively for religious proceedings or within 600 feet of any property line of any library, mortuary, school, or college campus. That's not too different

than what you currently have. But if you flip over to the next page to uh the second section of that, that's the area that applies to just beer and wine. And that's a little bit less restrictive than the distilled spirit says. S says, "No original alcohol, no original license shall be issued for the sale of wine or malt beverages for off- premises consumption within a building that is located within 300 ft of a governmentr run alcoholic treatment center." That's state law. No, not option. Or within 300 feet of any property line of any school or college campus. That's also state law. So what we're taking out of the beer and wine would be the distance requirements for residentially zoned property and churches. So that makes it easier to locate a convenience store or a grocery store that would be wanting to sell beer and wine.

The mortary that's that's local. Pardon me. Mortuary. That's that's that's the state of that's local. The mortuary is that's local. That's that's already has already been in your ordinance. I'm not interested. We just like dip that in the bud too. I mean why like a cemetery? Well, I mean, it's it's it's it's a place if if you're if you're located mortuaries have solemn moments where people are gathered to uh you know, pay respects to to the deceased and if you got people hooting it up next door, it's not you just want to have a little bit of distance between them. I guess y'all haven't been to a repass. Yeah, they might they might some places it might go from one to the other, but provides a little more distance. I just want that.

I mean, I I I get it. I'm I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. But uh I I guess another thing is with the residential you were saying 150 feet. Is is that from the property line or from That's from the building. That's from the building where the where the alcohol license would be to the nearest residential zone property line. If you had a big enough piece of property, you could be on the interior of that property and and still meet the 150 ft distance from the from the neighbor. And that's on premise. That's that's for No, that's for uh Yeah, that's for on premise. That's that's where we left the residential distance for the off- premises. We don't have residential distances anymore. If you approve this

Okay. So, basically, it's okay if if I open a store, liquor store, right? A liquor store. There's no residential, right? Yeah. No, no residential districts on a liquor store. If I open up a a lounge there, a lounge, then you do have a distance from the residential use. That's right. What is that? I'm just trying to figure out the purpose. The distance will be 150 ft to the nearest residentially zone piece of property. It's still not honorous. I mean, it just provides some some minimal distance requirement,

right? I I just know uh like in the future when whenever you're looking at growth like I know there's certain builders who build you know commercial and residential on top. Mhm. So that that might be something that we might have to look at later on too. Well that's for residentially zoned property. So if you're in a mixeduse development then you so loans. So it's a mixed use. You're good. Right. Okay. That's right. This is for information tonight. This is first reading and we can have second reading and act act whenever you see fit. Well, you may as well come on back if you're schedu.

All right. Now, since I have just been all over this agenda administrative report, you can you can get that. That's my that's my fault, Mr. Chair. Uh Mr. chair uh and members of the board, our health department, EMS buildings are progressing along pretty uh pretty good. Uh they're looking at in both cases both buildings being finished sometime in midmay and as I would like to encourage the chair of the board to consider uh doing a review of the buildings before uh they get to about the 98 90% level 99% level do a tour of the buildings. I would be glad to do that.

If you and the members of the board if y'all like that I talked that to talk with Mr. Brown and he is he's open to coordinating that. So, okay. Yes. Just let's get that on. Very good things for people who have been inside.

Okay. Uh also we uh advertised for generator bid. We'll be bringing that to the commission at our next meeting. Uh, and also as Commissioner U. Frasier mentioned, we will have our SCUP interviews uh on Saturday, uh, this coming Saturday from 8:45 to 12:00 p.m. And the last thing I want to mention is, uh, we did receive, uh, five or six applications for opioid settlement grant. Uh, chairman appointed the date committee, which Commissioner Gillard, uh, Commissioner Thrift, and asked Commissioner Blunt to serve on that committee. Am I on any committee anymore? You can have my spot. No, I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm just wondering I'm I'm I that committed thing don't work too well for me.

It's all good. Seriously, you want it, Justin? I'm I'm good, man. And I'm good. And he's asking that committee to uh uh review the applications and bring back a report to our um April the 29th work session. So that's only where I'm invited. That's that's been my that's all I have, Mr. Chair. That's all for good order. All right, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, sir. We have exhausted our agenda. All right. At this time, chair a motion to adjurnn. So move second. Oh baby.