One action at the Putnam County Board of Commissioners’ first meeting of the new year shuffled $1.8 million from one internal account to another – following 17 years, an economic recession, the closing of Georgia Power’s Plant Branch, a lawsuit, and a state attorney general’s opinion.
A second set of actions – essentially organizing the government over the next couple of years – took all of an hour and a half. And half of that time was taken in a closed-door “executive session” with county attorney Barry Fleming, which resulted in no action on a real estate matter and on County Manager Paul Van Haute’s contract and compensation package.
This second set of actions to organize the county government, while typically routine, stood in sharp contrast to the week’s national headlines about the Republicans’ inability simply to select their leader/speaker in the U.S. House of Representatives.
However, the Washington troubles over deals and power shifts in the new rules under which the House will operate for the coming two years could draw some attention to the watered-down versions seen at local levels.
Here, the November elections were held without a hitch. Check.
The election results were taken at face value. Check.
The transition of power to a new commission was peaceful, even boring. Outgoing commission chairman Billy Webster attended the meeting, but he was sitting in the audience, observing along with other everyday citizens. Check. Incoming chairman Bill Sharp appointed District 2 Commissioner Dan Brown as vice chairman. Check.
Sharp, as he is allowed to do under the legislation creating the Sinclair Water Authority, also appointed District 4 Commissioner Jeff Wooten as his replacement on the board of the SWA board. Check.
The full commission, under state law, made some appointments or reappointments, including: County Attorney Barry Fleming and County Clerk Lynn Butterworth, with County Manager Paul Van Haute still in contract negotiations.
The full commission, with informal but no doubt heavy involvement from individual district commissioners, appointed two new members and reappointed three sitting members of the Planning and Zoning Commission: Maurice Hill, District 1; Charles Hurt replaces Martha Farley in District 2; Harold Jones, District 3; Shad Atkinson, District 4, and, on the nomination of Sharp, John Mitchell moves up to chair the zoning board.
As for the $1.8 million accounting change, the money comes out of the remnants of the sales taxes collected for the SPLOST 6 account which was restricted for ad valorem tax relief. They will now be shifted to the unassigned fund balance account, under authority of a state attorney general guidance. The voters approved the sixth special purpose local option sales tax in 2005 and collections ran through 2010.
The county had passed on funds to the city, according to its estimates of project costs. However, in the last year of collections of the tax, both the county and city had completed funding for their project lists, but the collections kept coming in. The county kept all of the extra collections and the city sued, and lost. Some of the excess collections were spent in 2012 and 2013 to cover budgetary dips following the closure of Plant Branch and the loss of sales-and-use taxes on its coal piles.
With the county no longer having a state court solicitor position, its victim and witness funds were turned over to the District Attorney’s office.
The commission also voted to create a study committee on short-term vacation rentals, with nominations due by Jan. 16, from commissioners.