The Columbia County Commissioners held a meeting Sunday morning Nov. 7 in Athens, Ga. to discuss issues such as the fund balance, special-purpose local option tax list and the Augusta University Healthcare hospital construction project.
The board convened at a Hilton Garden Inn at 9 a.m. All the county commissioners were present at the meeting, referred to as a Planning Advance in its agenda and minutes documents, as well as county manager Scott Johnson, deputy county managers Glenn Kennedy and Matt Schlachter, executive assistant Janeabeth Wells and county clerk Patrice Crawley.
One of the issues addressed in the meeting was how to control legacy costs, which are ongoing costs incurred by the county. Board of Commissioners Chairman Doug Duncan explains one way to keep legacy costs down if the county is doing well on its budget is to give staff a one-time, 2% bonus on their salary instead of increasing their salary.
“If you increase salary, you increase the legacy costs,” said Duncan. “We discussed where we sit financially, and if we were going to do a merit increase where would we stand. We had a discussion, but a decision was not final.”
Johnson noted the SPLOST list as an example of county issues that will be addressed in future public commissioner board meetings,
“We have a very early stage SPLOST list, but we’re about to start having open meetings for the public to give us input,” said Johnson. “But we don’t want to have open meetings for the public to give input on SPLOST until the commissioners have at least seen it so they can say, ‘Hey, I don’t want to do that,’ or ‘hey, I want to do this.’”
During the meeting, Johnson stated that his staff will confer with Augusta University to discuss their plans to build a hospital in Grovetown, and that the board must approve final funding if there is any excess of SPLOST collections.
“They’re starting to move that project forward,” said Johnson. “We’re certain that it’s going to come in higher than the $30 million that we have set aside for it. It’s just a matter of how we go about funding.”
Johnson mentioned the possibility that if the funding required for the hospital project goes over the allotted amount, the county may assist by bonding, or financing the extra amounts with the expectation of reimbursement.
Some worry has arisen among Columbia County residents regarding the Planning Advance being scheduled on a Sunday so far out of town.
“My big thing is, it’s nine o’clock, on a Sunday morning,” said Harlem resident Lee Muns, who has expressed concern on social media about the implications the planning advance has about the county’s transparency. ”This kind of thing has got to stop. They do it every year.”
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County spokesperson Cassidy Harris, who was also present, said the meeting was held out of town during the weekend to accommodate the commissioners’ schedules during the week.
“It provides a better opportunity to have everyone’s attention focused on the items needing to be discussed,” said Harris. “Going out of town limits distractions and ensures that everyone is committed to being in the same place at the same time for as long as is needed and not having to get up and leave for other appointments.”
According to Johnson the meeting is held annually, usually in the fall months between late October and early November, for commissioners to discuss issues anticipated on upcoming agendas, calling it an “open-dialogue workshop.”
“Once a year we’ll put together a topic or an agenda and we’ll take the conventioneers somewhere where there are limited distractions,” said Johnson. “They can focus on these issues, and we’ll lay it all out there, what’s on our plate before us that we’ll be dealing with in the next couple of months or the next year.”
Johnson said that the members and accompanying staff met Sunday morning at approximately 7 a.m. at the county government building and then were taken by a county van to the scheduled meeting location in Athens.
Duncan also reiterated that the time and distance of the meeting was, and is, primarily about limiting distraction, describing the event as an opportunity for commissioners to better know one another. He said that the total costs included the rental of the meeting room and Mellow Mushroom pizza for lunch. He placed the total cost at about $150 for both, and the cost of the gas for the van.
“As long as I’ve been in office, somebody’s always going to think there’s something nefarious,” said Duncan. “We don’t go to football games, we don’t eat steak, we don’t spend the night. People always say they want government to be more like business; well this is a best business practice.”
Johnson also said that no votes or actions were taken on any of the issues discussed in the meeting, and that everything discussed is scheduled to be addressed in public board meetings in the future. Documentation of the meeting minutes do not indicate any votes were taken.
Harris has confirmed that no media was present at the meeting, but that its agenda was emailed by Crawley to everyone on the county’s agenda distribution list on Nov. 5. The minutes for the meeting are included in the packet for the Board of Commissioners meeting scheduled for Nov. 16, which can be found at https://www.columbiacountyga.gov/county/commissions/agenda-and-minutes.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering Columbia County with The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
