County FY 2017 budget remains in flux over raises, assistant county manager position
The Polk County Commission remains split on the 2017 Fiscal Year budget following another meeting where figures were proposed but failed to pass with a majority vote.
Commissioners split 3-2 during their July regular session on July 12 against an amended budget resolution proposed by Marshelle Thaxton that included raises for employees of up to 2.5 percent this year plus the back raises for four years between 2009 and 2012, but also included salary for an assistant county manager position, along with that of the executive assistant position held by Tessie Peyton prior to her retirement.
Thaxton’s proposal, Commissioners Jennifer Hulsey and Scotty Tillery both said, was unacceptable because it drew another $123,324 from the fund balance – money set aside to operate in case of emergencies - in order to cover the extra raises.
Their contention remains the county should use a reduction in force to do away with the assistant county manager and executive assistant position to cover the cost of the 2.5 percent increase in salaries for employees, and for several reasons.
“I still have a problem with the $75,000 assistant county manager position and this other position,” Hulsey said. “I don’t think we need it.”
Commission chair Stefanie Drake Burford said “I thought
it was about the raises,” which prompted a whole line of discussion about the intention of the previous budget amendment as the called session at the end of June was made because of the inclusion of the 2.5 percent raise for FY 2017, or to lose the position of assistant county manager between several of the commissioners.
“The budget was presented by the administration and we went through it with them and we had work session after work session, and no one ever mentioned giving 2 and a half percent raises to employees until the last meeting,” Thaxton said.
Hulsey and Tillery explained it had been discussed in previous work sessions back in May, when the board had discussed trying to find funding for the step increases missed in 2009 through 2012, and at least a 2 percent increase this year.
This was during the same May meeting where several county officials came asking for additional funds for their departments, including the Polk County Coroner, the Tax Assessor’s Office, and the Polk County Extension Service. (Find a link to previous cover- age of budget work sessions online in this story at Polkstandardjournal. com)
“It was on our list of things we wanted to do,” Tillery said.
“We couldn’t find the fund at all at the time,” Hulsey added.
Tillery then tried to explain why he voted the way he did, citing his own research on the position of Assistant County Manager in other counties, ones he said he selected at random.
That list of 12 – Polk, Tiff, Murray, Coffee, Habersham, Thomas, Baldwin, Bartow, Carroll, Paulding, Walker and Forsyth counties – range in population from 36,000 to 190,000, Tillery said.
“None of those except for one have an assistant county manager position,” Tillery said. “Carroll and Paulding don’t have an assistant county manager, but also their county clerk is their executive assistant.”
“Forsyth County has 187,000 people and it’s the first one that has that position,” Tillery said.
He also added that neighboring Bartow County has been operating without the position since the retirement of their assistant county manager, which county manager Matt Denton explained that because of organizational changes within the Bartow County government, they’ve been able to make their particular system of public services work without the need for an assistant county manager.
“It’s not that I’m against anyone having help, but I’m trying to justify in my mind as an elected official how we should have one and no one else does,” Tillery said.
“The only thing I can answer to that is having had one for so many years, that’s the way we’re setup to run,” Denton replied.
He added that “I would invite any of you to come sit up there with me for a day” to experience his workload.
Burford said that she appreciated comparisons of what other counties are doing, but that “unless they are structured exactly like our county, it’s like comparing apples to oranges.”
“Murray County has a full time commissioner and Paulding County has a full time chairman, who is like a county manager, and a full time administrator, and a clerk, and about 100 other people,” she said.
Tillery’s point was that Murray County ran with a sole commis- sioner and county manager, and said “Bartow County has one commissioner and one county manager. And look what Bartow County does.”
The point circled back to Tillery reminding the board that “when we get to a point in our budget meetings, and we run out of avenues with money…”
Tillery was interrupted by Thaxton asking “why didn’t it come up then,” with Tillery responding that all avenues of revenue had been pursued.
“Why did it come up in an amendment at the 12th hour after all those hours of work sessions?” Burford asked. “I’m the chairman of the board and I heard about it in a motion before the board.”
“The same way it came up today when we can suddenly take more out of the fund balance,” Hulsey interjected.
“And we shouldn’t take money out of the fund balance,” Tillery said.
Circling back to Tillery’s argument about why the position should be cut compared to other counties, Thaxton added in his own explanation.
“It’s because of our organization. We have a road department man who reports to Matt, and Matt gets the report and they work together, and he doesn’t make the decision to go out and pave this or the other,” Thaxton said. “I mean our people are not paid well enough to be a department head and take all the responsibilities… We’d have to change the organizational structure and then go back and setup all the departments with a department head who could run the show.”
Burford then took over, reminding the board that “We’ve had all these discussions about how Matt needs help, and who they are going to be and how much they are going to get paid, and then all the sudden there’s a motion to eliminate the job. It’s shocking, honestly.”
Tillery said he felt that board members might be taking the move too personally, and that he wanted it clear that his position is one in service to local taxpayers by ensuring the budget is being well tended, but also that employees of the county are being compensated fairly.
“It’s our job to get in our budget and find ways to pay the employees,” he said. “Our employees have been taking a beating. And as Commissioner Thaxton said before, we should have done this years ago. And yes, our department heads should be making more money. But I’m saying as a elected official, and this is my personal opinion, it’s my job to go in and find ways with our budget – and sometimes we have to make tough decisions. And sometimes that requires cutting out things we want to do.”
Thaxton pointed out that the county had $900,000 leftover in fund balance from FY 2016 it hasn’t used, and that “I’ll bet you a steak dinner right now that we don’t end up using one dollar of it, or very little, out of last year’s budget.”
Ward, who participated in the meeting by Skype while on vacation in Florida (see sidebar,) kept with his same message following the last meeting that Denton needs the help of an assistant county manager, listing all the organizations, authorities and elected officials he has to work with on a daily basis, not to mention overseeing 9 county departments, 30 different ongoing projects and interruptions of all kinds from local citizens to the commissioners themselves.
“I can speak for the development authority and I bet you that on average, over the course of a month, I bet you Matt spends around five hours working on nothing but development authority stuff,” Ward said. “And that’s just one authority.”
“And on top of all of that, he has to answer to the Board of Commissioners,” he added.
Ward continued to defend the need for the
position adding that “I wouldn’t expect any company to not have a second in command that is a $20 million company.”
Hulsey said she still was uncomfortable with the positions, and that “I would like to see us have a real discussion about our issues with it.”
Positions remained unchanged by the end of the meeting, with Hulsey and Tillery arguing that the reduction in force was necessary to cover the raises for county employees and that the fund balance shouldn’t be touched, and a trio of Burford, Thaxton and Ward advocating for retaining the position and using fund balance money to cover the raises for FY 2017.
With that, Ray Barber joined Hulsey and Tillery in voting down the motion to approve the budget amended with Thaxton and Ward voting to approve.
A motion was then made to continue on with the FY 2016 budget figures through the rest of July, unanimously approved before other business and closing the meeting.
Denton said that for now, the county continues to run as if the budget weren’t at issue. Business moves on until the new budget can be approved and figures for 2016 can be wrapped up. Until then, departments are operating off of the FY 2016 budget numbers, which have taken in most of the revenue and used up most of the expenses heading into the end of the fiscal year in June’s financial report.
However, moving forward, the county will have to figure out if all the raises are approved how it will cover the costs in the FY 2018 budget and further beyond. Denton said the proposed $123,324 taken from the fund balance to cover the additional funds needed for a 2.5 percent step raise for the FY 2017 budget for employees wouldn’t necessarily be available in the coming year.
The original proposed budget came in at $20.1 million in revenue and expenditures, which included requests from several departments for additional funding to help cover specific needs, such as the Criminal Investigation Division’s hours to cover their matching salaries with fellow officers who are in the patrol division of same rank, money to hire an assistant coroner, and more.
Burford said Friday, July 15, she intends to call a work session to solve issues between both sides prior to the August regular meeting.