Board of Supervisors Meeting   6/27/2022

Call this continued meeting.

Board of Supervisors this June 27th at 9 a.m.

This is, of course, in reference to budgets and agenda and closed session for today.

So moving on into public comments.

I have several people who have signed up.

There will still be opportunity to speak afterwards after the last person on here.

If you could, if you're an individual, please keep your comments to three minutes.

If you're within a group, you are allowed five minutes.

Going on to the first person, Mr. Reed is our timeskeeper today.

Good morning gentlemen.

Wisteria Johnson from East 5th Street.

I came forth this morning to briefly speak on behalf of

Using whatever extra money you have there, and my last figure was $999,000.

Of course, I know it's changed to go toward the upcoming school budget.

While I'm here, I want to quickly thank Mr. Ernie Reed of Central District for initiating the idea.

I want to also thank Mr. Robert Barton of the South District, who is a passionate educator.

In addition, I want to thank Mr. Tommy Harvey for doing what he has historically done for the Nelson County School System.

So I want to thank you, Jim.

And I pondered over the reason this decision was not unanimous.

And I think that's the reason I'm speaking right now.

To make a long story short, even if you just disagree, it surprised me somewhat that there was no offer of any portion of rent money to go to the school district.

I mean, I don't know the government

positions.

I don't know the budgets in detail, but I know that you are a product of the school system.

I know that even you served on some of the boards.

And the only thing I would say is that you just don't trust what the school system is going to do with the money.

And if that's the case, you have the power of accountability.

You can find out.

OK, so that's what I needed to say on that.

and I thank all five of you for your service to Nelson County.

Last word, please support the Nelson County School System.

Continue to support it, and as you've done in the past, and if there's extra money around, you know how the school system needs, please supply it.

Good morning, my name is Thomas, we're here 187 Jacks Hill Road.

First thing I'd like to do is congratulate Ms. McGarry, our new physician.

I hope you treat her with respect that she deserves.

I also would like to congratulate Steve Carter for the service he's done for 22, 23 years in this county.

We have without his leadership and served with him for 20 years and he's certainly made a difference in this county and he was a great favorite of mine and I think while Candy was going to really choose well, there's still big shoes to fill.

I agree with you.

On to the bigger things, the extra million dollars that was suggested that be given to the school board, leaving zero for reoccurring money, I think is a mistake.

I think we're setting ourselves up for a tax increase to cover any reoccurring costs.

And historically, we've always given extra money above and beyond what the school board

as needed.

You look around the other counties, Nelson County has funded the school board more than they have, other local counties.

And I think we should be proud of this.

But I don't think in these times that we need to be going overboard to reduce school populations.

I just don't think this is time to get extra money there.

Unfortunately, I have to leave

I hope you make that decision greatly.

Thank you.

Thank you.

David Hill, Sheriff's Nelson County.

Today to come before you this morning with some words in mind.

Most of you found this when you all see me.

Many localities have stiffed it up quite a notch to attract people, law enforcement, because those folks that want to serve today are few and far between.

Right now, looking at our roster in our office, there are 11 deputies that could easily give us another surrounding locality, making more money a year.

and it's quite a big increase that they can make.

Just south of here in Amherst County, they're starting to pay you without any experience at all, it's $45,262.

South of there, LPD, where the cost of living is much less than here in Nelson County, their starting salary is $50,000 a year, plus a $5,000 sign-on bonus.

LPD is also offering a lateral transfer for those that are

are currently in the field, for certified officers up to $61,588 plus a $5,000 sign of coverage.

North of here, our deputies could actually step down and go to work in the jail as a corrections officer.

Their starting salary is mid $45, $46 range currently.

The Albemarle PD,

Right now we have about six openings.

Two of those are in the school system.

That is just an area that it's been hard to fill.

You all have been gracious to give

So, if there's anything at all you all can do before the salary study comes out and the results come out, it'll be greatly appreciated.

The state has for compensation board deputies effective July 1, those that are not currently making the minimum of 42,000, that will be the start salary for the state paid positions.

You all have always gone above and beyond and have supplemented

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alright, that's all of who I had signed up on the event at this time.

I will now open the floor to public who have not signed up.

Is there anyone here who wishes to speak?

Okay.

Hearing no one else who wishes to speak for the public comments, I close public comments.

Moving on to the consent agenda for the minutes of approval.

As chair's recommendation, we approve as presented.

Do we have a motion?

Motion as far as our second?

Second for Mr. Harvey.

Let's do a vote by acclamation.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any abstentions, objections?

Hearing none, passes unanimously.

Before the board considers the budget adoption and appropriation resolutions, I was kind of asked just to provide a summary of where we started at the public hearing to kind of where we are now.

So we had the public hearing on May 10th.

The budget had included an increase in the transient occupancy tax up to 10%.

This provided an additional $1.1 million in revenue.

We had $1.5 million in new money to the school system.

We had $881,750 of recurring contingency and $388,000 in non-recurring contingency.

We also included a transfer of recurring funds of $2,010,000 to the debt service reserve to provide a $75 million debt capacity for future capital projects.

So after the public hearing on the budget, we had a public hearing on the transient occupancy tax where the board table consideration of any changes to that tax.

So then we had to go back to the budget and take out the 5% that was included originally, and that was $1,150,130.

The budget maintained the $1.5 million in new money to the school division.

We then had to look at all the recurring revenue in an aggregate way to see how to address the $1.1 million in transient occupancy tax that was to be taken out.

So once that was done we had a balance of recurring revenue of $1,609,619 and the board maintains a $610,000 transfer to the debt service reserve which would provide a $54 million debt capacity.

A recurring contingency at that point of $999,619 and non-recurring contingency of $388,000.

At our next meeting on June 14th, which was the last regular board meeting, in discussing the budget, the board approved $2.5 million in new money to the school division, which reduced our recurring contingency to zero, maintained the $388,000 in non-recurring contingency, and then also the $610,000 in recurring

transferred to debt service reserve to keep that $54 million debt capacity.

And there are just a few things I would like to share with the board.

I know you all have thought a lot about the budget, but I just feel like just really need to caution the board and think about how we can address some things going forward with

The majority of these new funding to the school division are salary related items.

So we really need to think about how that impacts the cost of the five percent raises in the FY24 state budget.

You know, if you provide the two and a half million for all of these, the salary based adjustments they want to do is going to significantly bump up what that cost is going to be next year.

I'm just concerned about how the board may address that going forward.

Also concerned about how the board will address salary increases for county employees, either the cost of living adjustment or the pay study adjustments for county employees that we're in the middle of doing now.

There are also some equity issues between the minimum wage for school division staff and county staff if they raise theirs to $17 an hour.

Also with zero and recurring contingency, how will the boards sustain increases in economy-driven county operational expenditures, such as fuel and utility costs, regional jail operational and debt service costs, solid waste hauling, given we're going to have some likely declines in our economy-driven revenues, such as the local sales tax, recordation taxes, transient occupancy tax, meals tax, and building permits?

and just using fund balance to cover these recurring costs is generally not a recommended practice.

Sheriff Hill spoke to this a few minutes ago.

How will the board address current critical deputy and dispatch vacancy rates with direct 24% for the Sheriff's Department and 42% in our dispatch center?

And how will the board address costs of the new drug court once any grant funding received is exhausted?

and we have additional operational costs that we need to consider associated with any new capital projects completed in the near future.

So I'm just hoping the board has considered all of these issues that we may face going forward from a financial perspective.

I mean, I think everyone here wants us to have the best school division possible and to generate positivity and a good morale for everyone, but

From a fiscal perspective, we need to just consider all of the things you might be facing going forward.

So with that, this is the current budget adoption and appropriation resolution.

That's the appropriation one.

These resolutions contain everything I've just mentioned, which is the $2.5 million in new money to the schools, a zero recurring contingency, the $388,000 in non-recurring funds in the general fund budget, and the $610,000 recurring transfer to debt service reserve.

Sure.

You can have a seat for a second there.

I think one thing, this is a good point to discussion, as I've been cautioned by constitutional officers and county staff on what the future might hold if we pass this budget.

And one of those items that is very important is how do we support our staff?

How do we support our deputies?

How do we support our dispatch?

How can we do all these things over the next four years?

And the answer is we can't.

That's just a fact.

We can't increase the pay of the deputies.

We can't increase the pay of dispatch.

We can't pay any salary increases for the county in the future.

It's going to put us in a very tough spot.

And I just think it's important that this cautionary tale be told

Before we make any motions, I know obviously since the budget happened, some members of the board did change philosophy when we were deciding revenue from originally we were doing one and a half new million dollars to the school system, which is remarkable and a wonderful thing to do.

and we had a million dollars left over that we could use over the next four years for whatever other recurring expenses might exist or come up.

And keep in mind, this board historically, we usually try not to raise taxes.

We really try not to.

But as it's set up, we would have to raise taxes next year.

And that would be a burden on those who are going into whatever this economic downturn cannot go to bear.

Now, I don't obviously speak for necessarily the majority of the board, but these things are important.

And if we do make a motion for all this, just know we will not be able to do anything else in terms of increasing recurring revenue unless we raise taxes.

Well, I do beg to differ because we do have other revenues available to us.

One of the recommendations that I had made is that we take it out of our non-recurring reserve, which is a possibility of maybe about $9 million.

Whether we need debt capacity to be able to borrow up to 75 million dollars

We're all deeply concerned about and I'm really sympathetic towards and those are areas that we could look at for revenues at this time.

It's true that it is as can be brought up that using non-recurring revenue is not a sustainable way to run the county and I certainly appreciate that.

Well, unless we were to reduce our debt service in terms of this budget, that's something that we could decide to do at any particular time.

And I think it would be enlightening and helpful for the public to either attend more board meetings or review prior

I do think, I like to look at this budget similar to how we look at our household budgets.

And I think once we start in our households, we start accepting expenses that we know we're dipping into our savings account.

You're dipping into your 401k or whatever you want to call it to pay your monthly expenses.

to do that as a county I think is bad policy for the taxpayers of Nelson County to start dipping into savings.

We as a board have made have set priorities and if we want to revisit the priorities of capital and debt service that's another meeting but we have all five unanimously agreed to the debt service and the priorities that we have for swimming pools

The Department of Social Services building and different things like that.

If we want to revisit those capital projects, we can.

But we all agreed that those were things that were important for Nelson County moving forward.

Barton?

The idea of

We're incapable of raising salaries in the police department or other members of the government.

It's misleading.

There are two sources of revenue in order to meet those needs, and they should be met.

However, the thing that should be on the schools

What we talked about before is the significance of the needs of the schools at this present time.

And we can help that situation.

And then later, we can dip into the capital.

I mean, $75 million is not what we're going to spend on recreation.

We have money available.

to meet the expenses that come in.

And the capital of the savings account, yes, but there are times that it's necessary to reach into your savings account and to meet some of the dire needs of your community.

So I think one thing to mention, we don't have $73 million for ability to do things.

We have a debt service capacity, which is half a million, $600,000.

Right.

I'd like to address something here, if I might.

Go for it.

And given the amount of salaries that are committed for what we now have as vacancies and other vacancies that still need to be filled,

is basically giving the schools an amount of funding now to be able to fill those vacancies.

I think that it's most realistic to understand that that is actually could be considered a savings account for the schools.

They can draw into that to be able to fund themselves

And at the end of the next fiscal year for the schools, they're going to have monies left over that we had committed, that they had committed that are unspent because of those positions not being filled.

Now, in the past, we've had relationships with the schools that have

that have not brought clarity to how that money is going to be spent.

And I really do think that we have an opportunity here for the school, you know, for the school budgetary system and for the county budgetary system to work more closely together.

Because what that can do is it can provide money for the schools for the following year to roll over, which can

either reduce or possibly flat fund the school for the following year despite revenue increases.

Now, the decision in terms of how that money gets spent is really one that the schools have the freedom and the autonomy to make.

But working more closely with the county on how the revenues are being spent is something that

It's going to be critical next year at this time, when we look back at this, to be able to say that we did the right thing last year.

We did the best that we could for the schools.

They have been able to hold on to a significant part of that to be able to apply for its, perhaps staffing next year or whatever the priorities are that the schools might have at that time because it's really impossible to say what they would be.

But, you know, so I see this increased budget to do two things.

One, to, of course, provide vital

but also to increase the relationship between the schools and the county going forth to be able to determine the very best ways to go across to do this.

And I've already spoken to my comments on the recurring contingency and what that can mean.

But I do think that

In giving the schools this additional funding, it also puts something in the school's ability themselves to fund themselves for the future.

One thing, two comments I have.

One, I might have misunderstood what you said Mr. Reed, but this is what I took and you tell me if I'm wrong.

But I felt you were saying that you want to fund the schools and then at the end of the year, any money left over, they could use it to do whatever after that.

But just make sure you're aware and correct me if I'm wrong,

It would become our money at the end.

But one thing I do want to mention is after our initial vote to increase the school budget to $1.5 million over previous year's funding, I was contacted by employees in the central office, school board members, and staff to thank us for that money that allowed them

And we were presented a balanced budget with raises, and a lot of things were accomplished in that budget after 1.5.

So obviously we have to at some point get into the actions on these items.

You know, I think us giving the $1.5 million, which we had budgeted for a long time ago, was already unprecedented and a great thing for us to do for the school system.

We can still make any amendments if we want to from two and a half million to one and a half million or whatever that dollar number might be.

Most of what has been talked about today has been the negative aspect of the additional million dollars that we made available to the schools.

And not enough about the thing that

got us to make that additional knowledge, which was the crisis that exists within our schools and the schools across the nation.

And then it was really significant that the three to two vote had some pain in a way that

Really, nobody wants to be, as I said many times.

My whole life, I lived with no money in the bank.

I know what it's like not to have any money.

And I think we have to recognize the importance of doing what we had already done.

in the previous meeting, and making it clear to this community that we are willing to go out of our way to do what's best for the children.

And I think we ought to think about that.

It's not a bad thing we've done.

I want to go out of my way and make sure deputies have a living wage in this county.

And I want to go out of the way and make sure that dispatch is getting the pay they so deserve for the emergencies that they deal with on a day-to-day basis.

We're not CC.

You're playing politics.

No one wants policemen and sheriff's deputies.

and people work for the county to not get a fair living wage.

I mean, I want to do that.

Maybe, you know, I want to step into that contingency money to get that money.

We're not talking about that.

We're talking about the children of Nelson County.

We're talking about the school system.

Now, it is political.

We need to meet the needs that the sheriff talks about.

We need to meet the needs of the people who work for this county.

Mr. Chairman.

Okay.

We have a motion from $2.5 million to $1.5 million to the school systems.

Do we have support?

There is a second for Mr. Harvey.

Any discussion?

So, we have not made a motion to approve.

We've made a motion to amend.

We have made a motion to change the original.

I'm making a motion that we revert the funding to 1.5 million and whether that's a new but a new motion or an amendment, I don't think I can amend the motion that's been approved.

You have a motion that was adopted, but not an acceptance of the current budget.

So, someone needs a motion to approve this, and then we get a motion to amend it.

And then that'll help.

Okay, so.

Yeah, is there, I don't see any reason why we couldn't do that.

Yes, I'm in my motion as such.

All right, Mr. Harvey, are you good with that?

Second.

We have a second for Mr. Harvey.

Any more discussion?

Mr. Harvey?

Yes.

Mr. Barton?

No.

Mr. Carr?

Yes.

Mr. Reed?

No.

Yes.

All right.

So we have adopted the budget.

Okay.

Do we have a motion to appropriate Mr. Parr's original budget adoption?

So moved.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Second for Mr. Harvey.

Any discussion?

Excuse me, wait.

Just a moment of faith.

You know, I think

You know, some of this money is already, you know, was thought that would actually be appropriate, you know, and we left this meeting on a couple of weeks ago with that impression.

And obviously,

There had been a plan that you would come to this meeting with this idea of being able to do this, which is disturbing to me because as a member of the board, I would have thought I would have been, you know, we would have talked about it.

Now we've already adopted the budget, now we're out of appropriations.

That's in reference to the budget adoption that has already been done, that has been cast, the budget has been adopted.

We are now into the appropriation, which is the part where we appropriate this money as we accordingly to the prior motion.

Call the question.

Mr. Barton, it is your vote.

Yes or no?

No.

Okay.

Mr. Barton?

Yes.

No.

Yes.

Alright.

So, adoption appropriation has been done.

At this time, we will go on to closed session.

Uh who's got a copy?

Uh Candy, is there anything you need to edit or anything at this time?

I'm sorry.

Um I can go back and make the changes to the resolution as well.

Can we get it?

What's that?

Yeah, we're going to do that now.

All right, let's read a motion to go into closed session, if you could.

Motion.

What do you need, Mr. Harvey?

You need a break?

All right, Mr. Harvey needs to go to the bathroom, so we'll give it a minute.

Couple minutes.

I think you just make a motion to reconvene.

Second?

Any discussion?

Any discussion?

Mr. Harvey?

Yes.

Mr. Barton?

Yeah.

Mr. Reed?

Yes.

from the chairman of the school board to Mr. Rutherford.

And seeing as we've gone into closed session and everyone left from that side of things, I've decided not to share my seven page document that I had written up to address that.

All those in favor say aye.

Any abstentions or objections?