The June 30 final budget hearing for the Fayette County Board of Commissioners resulted in passage of the $128 million budget for the 2017 fiscal year as expected, with no changes in the proposed budget numbers — but not without a bit of controversy.
The general fund budget will see a 2.9-percent decrease from the 2016 budget, from $50,549,920 to $48,082,211. Revenue is expected to exceed expenditures by more than $100,000.
That controversy, according to David Barlow, was Steve Brown’s plan all along. Brown cast the lone dissenting budget vote and explained why when he read a prepared statement early in the meeting.
Brown also warned about growth pressures that lie ahead in Fayette.
“We need to assess whether program and service levels can be sustained, along with the pay and benefit increases, without increasing taxes. I do not believe it can be sustained without future tax increases the way we are heading.
“Here is a warning which I hope we heed,” Brown said. “Forces are now aligned to considerably increase population and traffic in and through our county. Some will attempt to induce the philosophy that those increases will bring economic prosperity. In reality, the increases will bring more government expense, higher taxes and a dilution of our quality of life.
“If increased population and automotive traffic were the engines of prosperity, we would all be flocking to Gwinnett County,” Brown said.
“The state is receiving $900 million in road funds annually from the HB 150 gas and hotel sales tax. Leadership is not fighting for our share; thus, we have to scrape it out of our general fund which will mean increased taxes later on. I disagree with the budget fundamentals herein and will not support this proposal,” Brown concluded.
Barlow later accused his fellow commissioner of stirring up trouble where none exists.
“It’s difficult for me to sit here and listen to Commissioner Brown create controversy like he is prone to do,” said Barlow. “He’ll be blogging about it … he loves to backstab with his comments. But there is no controversy here. We have the finest employees of any county in the state.”
Barlow cited two screen names on The Citizen website that he claimed Brown used to make comments, but Brown maintained that he uses his real name whenever he blogs on local issues.
An unwitting subject of the discussion was Fayette County Water System Director Lee Pope. In his early statement about the employee pay structure, Brown singled out Pope for turning around the formerly troubled department, saying he had seen nothing like it in his experience in government and the private sector, and adding that Pope is among the lowest paid in the south metro Atlanta area for those in his position.
Brown has previously chastised Barlow publicly regarding the Water System, saying that Barlow defended that department’s previous leadership continuously during and after a 2013 water crisis that resulted in complete turnover of that leadership.
At the budget hearing Brown said that Peachtree City residents were using bottled water for all of their drinking needs during that time. When making his comments about Pope’s turnaround, Brown shared with the board a statement from Paul Lentz, who Brown said is knowledgeable about water issues and was extremely critical during the water crisis but now is very complimentary of the Water System, which has recently won awards for its performance.
Barlow blasted Brown’s insertion of the Water System into his arguments at the budget hearing.
“Commissioner Brown has used the Water System as his soapbox ever since I was elected to this board,” said Barlow, who will leave office at the end of this year. Barlow added that he wished he could be on the board to “browbeat” Brown for the next 30 months, charging that Brown has promised to only serve two terms and that time will be up by then.
“He’s got two-and-a-half more years to be on his soapbox and create controversy and I, for one, am getting tired of it,” said Barlow.
In his comments, Brown cited the recent one-time bonus and cost-of-living increase the employees received during the past budget year, and said there is no proposal to cover those increases permanently in the general fund.
“We should accommodate unexpected changes by prohibiting departments from spending all their allocations, holding back on permission to hire new staff or make other contractual commitments if indicators give reason for concern,” he said.
“Our budgeting should have a long-range perspective, but I feel as though this preparation reflects a ‘one year at a time’ approach. The greatest downfall of elected officials is the failure to consider the longer-term consequences of their actions and to insure the impacts of their budget decisions are understood over a multi-year planning span.”
County Manager Steve Rapson rejected the notion that his staff does not consider long-term ramifications during budget planning, saying that idea is “100 percent absolutely false.”
Much of the discussion centered around the possibility of a pay and classification study, which Rapson said was suggested in 2014 and 2015. The commissioners were split on whether that was a good idea. Ironically, both Barlow and Brown said they were not in favor of it.
Charles Rousseau amended his original motion approving the budget to allocate up to $60,000 for such a study. That amendment did not receive a second.
The budget was approved by a 4-1 vote, after which Brown moved immediately to adjourn the 53-minute meeting. It can be seen and heard in its entirety on the county’s website (www.fayettecountyga.gov/administration/BOC/county_commission_meetings.htm).
The budget includes a tax rate rollback, which means that the rate is reduced so that it brings in roughly the same revenue as the previous budget, even with increased property values. Rapson said it would be the second year for a full tax rollback for the general fund. From the taxpayers’ perspective that is equal to $1.4 million in unissued tax bills, he said, and over the course of the four budget cycles the county has rolled back about $3 million to taxpayers.
