Budget blowout done mostly under wraps

The city council in Peachtree City recently approved a $56 million annual budget for the fiscal year 2025. It was one of the worst demonstrations of municipal budgeting that I can recall.

We finally elected a few candidates to the city council who claimed to be “conservatives,” and the expectation was that the city would have a robust debate on the budget process and what constitutes appropriate spending. It was blocked at every angle.

Instead, we received a thorough beating at the hands of a pompous few who thought steamrolling the constituents was more entertaining. Knowing the players, we got what most predicted (see: https://thecitizen.com/2024/06/24/uncompromised-council-to-slap-you-with-another-big-tax-increase/).

During the budget process, Council Members Suzanne Brown and Clint Holland raised several pertinent questions (see: https://thecitizen.com/2024/06/21/council-member-brown-sees-no-move-toward-cutting-expenses-or-taxes-for-peachtree-city/). However, their concerns were met with disdain as Mayor Kim Learnard and Council Member Frank Destadio dismissed them, indicating a lack of transparency in the process.

Council Member Laura Johnson was AWOL for most of it, simply deciding to vote how the mayor wanted her to (you will find out why further down).

We can definitely accuse Interim City Manager Justin Strickland of putting on airs during the budgeting process. As Learnard would frequently state, the council members should do whatever Strickland tells them to do, and he certainly accepted that charge.

You’ll get a copy when I say you can

Strickland did not hesitate to tell the public about his expertise in budgeting. Truly, when it comes to the alarming rate of adding new employee positions (17 new employees in 2025) and increasing departmental budgets across the board, Strickland is second to none.

Strickland was so confident in his budget proposal that he did not think it necessary to give the council members a copy until after several of the mandated budget meetings had passed.

In an email, Strickland told council members, “I thought the first budget workshop went very well this past Tuesday [June 4].” However, the council members did not receive a copy of the budget until weeks later, wasting mandatory budget hearings and keeping the elected officials and the public in the dark.

Imagine being a council member and having to wait until almost the last scheduled budget meetings to receive a copy of the proposed budget. The first couple of meetings were dog-and-pony PowerPoint presentations in which Strickland and Learnard kept uttering “uncompromised excellence” while presenting nothing of substance, not even the budget.

Did Strickland and Learnard drop the proposed budget late on purpose, or were they just negligent? Arguments could be made both ways.

One thing is for sure: the city government increased the cost of nearly every fee, license, and permit and even added some new fees, and they just approved another considerable property tax increase.

Most notably, Strickland and the staff did not make a single effort to find ways to reduce costs; it was easier to just add expenses and raise taxes.

The Georgia Municipal Association has some best practices for a good budgeting process. Interim City Manager Strickland and Mayor Learnard ignored all of them.

Insubordination and downright bullying

Keep in mind that the annual budget is the largest decision the city council will make in the entire year. It’s the one decision that has the greatest impact on the constituents.

I wrote a lengthy column on just how deceitful the budgeting process was in Peachtree City this time around (see: https://thecitizen.com/2024/07/11/council-nastiness-behind-the-scenes-of-massive-peachtree-city-budget-battle/).

I gathered the emails of the city council and the interim city manager related to the fiscal year 2025 budget through an open records request. I use whole sections of their correspondence to show just how unseemly some in our local government behave. The public can request those emails.

Suzanne Brown genuinely tried to work on alternatives to the proposed spending increases from Strickland. She made some simple requests for pertinent data related to the budget.

Strickland flatly turned Brown down, saying, “Councilwoman Brown, I could put together alternatives for City Council to consider but it would take my time to do this. I am adding all of council on to here [copied on the email] as I feel this is a significant request that would need to come from City Council itself as a mandate,” (“Requested budget items and data, for study, and consideration,” June 25 email).

So, Strickland does not allow a copy of the proposed budget into the hands of the council members until after several budget meetings, drastically restricting the time to actually review, discuss, and propose changes.

Next, Strickland cannot provide Suzanne Brown with the budget comparison data. Strickland then seals the deal by saying that two of the three council members who want to steamroll the budget through without changes would have to agree to release city budget data to her, and they refuse to agree.

In past iterations of the city council, Strickland would have been terminated for such insubordination.

The emails from City Hall also reflected a significant amount of bullying by Learnard and Destadio toward Brown and Holland (see https://thecitizen.com/2024/07/11/council-nastiness-behind-the-scenes-of-massive-peachtree-city-budget-battle/). Honestly, it was disgraceful behavior toward their colleagues.

The fiduciary obligation to the taxpayers is never mentioned

The city manager, Learnard, Destadio, and Johnson repeatedly want more spending, more employees, and more facilities. Not one of them pointed out a single area where the city has built efficiencies or reduced spending. They do not care.

Clearly, inflation does not impact the local government. They simply raise the taxes and fees, and we are not offered a choice of whether to pay them or not.

The city has way too much in its fund balance. Its revenue projections are always significantly underestimated. But do not worry; they always find a way to spend the extra funds.

When the city keeps expanding its boundaries through annexation, it also expands its service area, increasing costs, which results in significant tax increases (and generally reduced service levels, too, across the board). Only the residential real estate developers win.

Council Member Brown is the only member of the city council who wanted a full millage rate rollback.

Johnson got her money from Learnard with another $450,000 splash pad project. The council members never reviewed any plans or approved any such expenditure based on a plan. This is just good old-fashioned pork barrel spending in exchange for voting for the largess from Strickland and Learnard.

We are stuck with the fake conservative Johnson for three more years.

Another knockout blow on the way

Strickland and Learnard have already assured everyone that the carnage is not over.

Stormwater utility increase alert: Watch out for the stormwater fees to go up in the future. The utility is projected to be almost $39,000 in the red.

The mayor’s new pickleball facility has now become a fiscal year 2025 priority (see: https://thecitizen.com/2022/09/19/mayor-pickle-ball-says-battery-way-park-bathrooms-can-wait-while-local-taxes-skyrocket/). Now, the government will be competing with a large new private pickleball facility on the way.

Tax increase alert: There will most likely be another facilities bond ($7.5 million) added to tax statements in the future.

Tax increase alert: In future years, the city is considering moving the very expensive 911 Call Center service in-house instead of using the county service.

What used to be one of the “biggest bang for the buck” communities in the nation has fallen off the wagon and cannot get back up. There is no end in sight for the constant increases.

There is a city election in 2025

The 2025 election is turning into an emergency triage operation — stop the bleeding.

The most recent stick-in-the-eye for the taxpayers was the city council and staff members deciding to have out-of-town meetings in Northern Atlanta to discuss the budget and other items away from the lowly taxpayers. However, the taxpayers have to foot the bill for all of their accommodations and meals while they dodge us.

Nothing says, “We don’t care about the taxpayers,” like more spending, more employees, and more facilities year after year, followed by an out-of-town junket telling us we cannot stop them.

[Brown is a former mayor of Peachtree City and served two terms on the Fayette County Board of Commissioners. You can read all his columns by clicking on his photo below.]