The Power of Suggestion
Oconee Countians who were surprised to learn from stories on the front pages of The Oconee Enterprise and the Athens Banner-Herald this past week that the county is holding behind-the-scenes discussions about courthouse renovation should not have been.
A county that gets citizen authorization to collect $4.6 million in taxes for a “County Facilities and Expansion and Renovation Project” and hoards the money obviously has something up its sleeve.
That this is a government that prefers to consult with its citizens only after major parts of decisions have been made also is clear.
Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis is quoted in the Banner-Herald story as saying citizens will be asked for their opinions only once the commissioners have settled on the options.
The resolution for the five-year 2003 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax stipulated that voters were being asked to provide $4.6 million from the $25 million to be collected by the 1 cent per dollar sales tax for a host of county facilities project.
The actual language of the resolution stated the county would use the money for “the acquisition, construction, equipping and installation of expansions of the County Courthouse, the County Government Annex Building, County Libraries, and the County Code Enforcement Office, all to be owned and operated by the County, including the acquisition of all property, both real and personal, necessary therefor.”
The County posted the resolution on its web site once discussion of the 2009 SPLOST got serious this past fall. Voters on March 17 will be asked to approve a new SPLOST, again for 1 percent, but this time to run for six years.
In December of 2008, as required by law, the county ran an advertisement in the Enterprise, the legal publication for the county, indicating that, as of June of 2008, the county had spent only $167,217 of the $4.6 million.
At the Jan. 27, 2009, BOC meeting, County Finance Director Jeff Benko told the commissioners that even given their authorized spending for the current fiscal year, they still had $4,237,808 left to spend.
That document was not distributed to public, but I was able to get a copy by officially asking via an open records request.
The County is supposed to commit the money during the time period covered by the tax. The 2003 SPLOST is set to expire in November of this year, meaning the county has to make its decision on how to spend the remaining $4.2 million relatively soon. The next fiscal year starts on July 1, and the county is about to begin the budgeting process.
The resolution passed by the BOC is not what voters see when they cast their ballots. The ballot language simplifies the issue before the voters.
I asked last week, via an open records request, for the actual resolution behind the 2009 ballot issue. To be allowed to collect the tax for the extra year, the county also had to enter into intergovernmental agreements with the four incorporated areas of the county. I asked for these agreements as well.
The BOC approved these documents at its final meeting of 2008–on Dec. 16. As is usually the case, citizens were not given a chance to see these documents at the meeting.
The intergovernmental agreement was signed on Dec. 16, prior to the BOC meeting, and it stipulated how the county and Bishop, Bogart, North High Shoals and Watkinsville will divide up the proceeds from the SPLOST, if voters approve it.
The state will take 1 percent of the intake for administration of the tax. Of the remaining 99 percent, the county will get 85.8 percent and the cities will get the remaining 14.2 percent. The calculations are based on the population counts for the incorporated and unincorporated areas of the county from the 2000 U.S. Census.
The actual division is: Watkinsville (7.99 percent), Bogart (4.00 percent), North High Shoals (1.67 percent) and Bishop (0.55 percent).
The county is estimating that total intake for the tax across the six years will be $40.4 million, but any lesser amount received will be distributed based on the agreed-upon percentages.
The tax expires when $40.4 million is collected, or in six years. Given the current economy, the $40.0 million appears to be a very generous estimate.
The intergovernmental agreement–and the resolution passed by the BOC on Dec. 16-- spells out in detail the projects for the cities and the county. Since everyone in the county will be voting on these same projects whether they live in the incorporated or unincorporated parts of the county, the distribution is important to everyone.
I’ve copied this part of the agreement and put it on the companion web site for Oconee County Observations.
Streets, roads and bridges make up the largest category of expenditure for each of the four incorporated areas as well as for the county at large.
The intergovernmental agreement also stipulates that all projects listed will be funded concurrently, meaning that if the county only takes in 90 percent of the $40 million, or $36 million, each of the projects listed would receive 90 percent of the listed amount.
The intergovernmental agreement also stipulates that all facilities funded by the 2009 SPLOST will be available to all Oconee County residents, regardless of whether they live in the incorporated or unincorporated parts of the county.
The last day to register to vote is for the March 17 special election is Feb. 16.
Wayne Provost, director of Strategic and Long-Range Planning for the county, called the Dec. 17 meeting on the courthouse at the request of BOC Chairman Davis, according to documents obtained by the Banner-Herald and on its web site.
Provost said he did this because “citizens” raised the question at the Oct. 21, 2008, public meeting on the upcoming SPLOST.
That meeting in on my Vimeo site, and it shows that one citizen, Charles Baugh, president of Citizens for Oconee’s Future, did ask about the courthouse.
According to the memo from Provost, Baugh had a lot of impact.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
SPLOST Language Shows Oconee County Wish List
Two Front Teeth Not Included
Bishop will get a community shelter, roads, streets and bridges, and town hall renovations.
Bogart will get a "streetscape facility" composed of roads, streets and bridges, and sewer facilities.
North High Shoals will get water facilities, roads, streets and bridges, a town hall, and a community building.
Watkinsville will get public safety facilities and equipment, recreation and park facilities, roads, streets and bridges, and water and sewer facilities.
Oconee County will pay down its debt on its recreational facilities, on the county jail and on the emergency operations center. It also will add water and sewer facilities, roads, streets and bridges. It will get recreational, historical and scenic facilities, fire stations and equipment, and communication facilities. And it will get farmland protection.
What’s the catch?
Voters on March 17 must approve a 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax "for a period of time not to exceed six consecutive years" to pay for the things on the wish list.
The tax is estimated to raise $40.4 million. At least that is what will be stated in the ballot language that those who cast their votes will see before selecting either the Yes or No option.
The ballot language does not spell this out, but the state will get $400,000 just for collecting the tax. Of the remaining $40 million, the city and towns will get $5.7 million and the county will get $34.3 million.
The actual resolution behind the ballot language spells out the maximum amounts that the cities and the counties will spend in specific areas, such as for county roads ($8 million) and farmland protection ($0.5 million).
That presumes the county will collect the $40.4 million, or an average of $6.7 million over the next six years.
The county currently has a SPLOST in place, due to expire in November of 2009. The average collected for fiscal years 2006, 2007 and 2008 was $5.4 million, and the current fiscal year, 2009, is likely to be below that average.
It is doubtful very many people will be paying close attention to these details.
In November of 2003, when the current SPLOST was on the ballot, 82 percent approved, but only 1,696 went to the polls, or 10.2 percent of the registered voters at the time.
In November of 1999, when the previous 1 percent SPLOST was on the ballot, 75 percent approved, but only 2,152 votes were cast, or 14.4 percent of the registered voters.
Across the state, research has shown that SPLOST votes get more support when turnout is low than when it is high.
So far, no one has done much of anything to encourage voting on March 17. In November, the county had 21,579 registered voters, and 79.7 percent of them voted in that election.
County Finance Director Jeff Benko gave members of the Board of Commissioners records on SPLOST spending at its agenda-setting meeting on Jan. 26. I obtained copies through an open records request.
Benko's report shows that the county has approved projects that will largely use up money in the 2003 SPLOST dedicated to recreation and culture, the emergency operation center and the jail.
The county as of the end of December of 2008 had about $1 million left to allocate for water and sewage projects, about $0.9 million left to allocate for roads and about $0.4 million left to allocate for the fire department.
And the county still has not allocated $4.2 million of the original $4.6 million set aside for county facilities. Talk about what to do with the courthouse has been behind the scenes so far, but funds from SPLOST are supposed to be allocated before it expires.
The fiscal year 2009 SPLOST budget, which Benko also released to the BOC on Jan. 26, shows only $185,474 allocated for county facilities, including $75,000 for a new roof for the library.
It is clear the county is going to be doing a lot of spending for county facilities from the current SPLOST once voters make their decision on the next one on March 17.
In addition to the 1 percent SPLOST sales tax, the county has a 1 percent educational sales tax, which was approved in 2006 and runs for five years, and a 1 percent Local Option Sales Tax, which does not expire. The state collects a 4 percent sales tax, bringing the total to 7 cents on the dollar for most purchases.
Bishop will get a community shelter, roads, streets and bridges, and town hall renovations.
Bogart will get a "streetscape facility" composed of roads, streets and bridges, and sewer facilities.
North High Shoals will get water facilities, roads, streets and bridges, a town hall, and a community building.
Watkinsville will get public safety facilities and equipment, recreation and park facilities, roads, streets and bridges, and water and sewer facilities.
Oconee County will pay down its debt on its recreational facilities, on the county jail and on the emergency operations center. It also will add water and sewer facilities, roads, streets and bridges. It will get recreational, historical and scenic facilities, fire stations and equipment, and communication facilities. And it will get farmland protection.
What’s the catch?
Voters on March 17 must approve a 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax "for a period of time not to exceed six consecutive years" to pay for the things on the wish list.
The tax is estimated to raise $40.4 million. At least that is what will be stated in the ballot language that those who cast their votes will see before selecting either the Yes or No option.
The ballot language does not spell this out, but the state will get $400,000 just for collecting the tax. Of the remaining $40 million, the city and towns will get $5.7 million and the county will get $34.3 million.
The actual resolution behind the ballot language spells out the maximum amounts that the cities and the counties will spend in specific areas, such as for county roads ($8 million) and farmland protection ($0.5 million).
That presumes the county will collect the $40.4 million, or an average of $6.7 million over the next six years.
The county currently has a SPLOST in place, due to expire in November of 2009. The average collected for fiscal years 2006, 2007 and 2008 was $5.4 million, and the current fiscal year, 2009, is likely to be below that average.
It is doubtful very many people will be paying close attention to these details.
In November of 2003, when the current SPLOST was on the ballot, 82 percent approved, but only 1,696 went to the polls, or 10.2 percent of the registered voters at the time.
In November of 1999, when the previous 1 percent SPLOST was on the ballot, 75 percent approved, but only 2,152 votes were cast, or 14.4 percent of the registered voters.
Across the state, research has shown that SPLOST votes get more support when turnout is low than when it is high.
So far, no one has done much of anything to encourage voting on March 17. In November, the county had 21,579 registered voters, and 79.7 percent of them voted in that election.
County Finance Director Jeff Benko gave members of the Board of Commissioners records on SPLOST spending at its agenda-setting meeting on Jan. 26. I obtained copies through an open records request.
Benko's report shows that the county has approved projects that will largely use up money in the 2003 SPLOST dedicated to recreation and culture, the emergency operation center and the jail.
The county as of the end of December of 2008 had about $1 million left to allocate for water and sewage projects, about $0.9 million left to allocate for roads and about $0.4 million left to allocate for the fire department.
And the county still has not allocated $4.2 million of the original $4.6 million set aside for county facilities. Talk about what to do with the courthouse has been behind the scenes so far, but funds from SPLOST are supposed to be allocated before it expires.
The fiscal year 2009 SPLOST budget, which Benko also released to the BOC on Jan. 26, shows only $185,474 allocated for county facilities, including $75,000 for a new roof for the library.
It is clear the county is going to be doing a lot of spending for county facilities from the current SPLOST once voters make their decision on the next one on March 17.
In addition to the 1 percent SPLOST sales tax, the county has a 1 percent educational sales tax, which was approved in 2006 and runs for five years, and a 1 percent Local Option Sales Tax, which does not expire. The state collects a 4 percent sales tax, bringing the total to 7 cents on the dollar for most purchases.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Oconee Commissioners Want More Budget Involvement
Smiling is a Nice Thing
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners tonight decided to move forward with its scheduled budget submittal plans for fiscal year 2010 but with a higher level of involvement of the commissioners compared with the past.
The Board approved a motion to accept the submittal plan given it by Finance Director Jeff Benko with the stipulation that the commissioners could join in the discussions as they progressed.
Benko meets with the department heads as well as with the constitutional officers such as the sheriff to discuss budget requests in the process of preparing the county’s budget.
Commissioner John Daniell, who just joined the Board last month, initially suggested a more formal procedure in which the commission would create committees made up of at least two commission members to help develop the budget.
He made that request after being told at the Jan. 27 BOC meeting by Board Chairman Melvin Davis that the Board does not have a committee that deals with finances. "Mr. Benko, Mr. Theriault and myself" handle that, Davis said. Theriault is the county administrative officer.
Control over county affairs has been an ongoing issue with the Board. Davis chairs the commission but he also is the full-time administrator of the county. The other four commissioners serve in part-time positions.
Commissioner Chuck Horton said he favored more involvement of the commissioners in the budget, but he said he was not interested in getting involved in the day-to-day running of the county.
Chairman Davis only smiled at the comment.
In other action tonight, the Board approved a request by state Representative Robert Smith for a change in his plans for development of 12 acres of land in Porter Creek subdivision off Barnett Shoals road outside Watkinsville.
Smith developed the subdivision on part of what he said was the family farm. He came before the Board to ask for a change in his concept plan for the subdivision so he could split the 12 acres into six lots.
Three residents of the subdivision spoke against the change at the meeting, claiming that it would produce lots not of the same character as the others in the subdivision. After similar protests at the Planning Commission on Jan. 20, that body recommended against the change Smith was proposing.
Smith offered the BOC a different configuration for the development, reducing the number of lots from six to five. The Board approved that change.
Commissioner Horton spoke against the switch in the plans and was alone in voting against it, saying that he did not feel it was appropriate to approve a change that was offered at the last minute and was not formally part of the request.
County Attorney Daniel Haygood reminder the Board that it had done the same thing on Jan. 6 when it rezoned property on U.S. 441 for an office park with a concept plan when the developer had asked for a shopping center.
Horton made the motion to make the swap in zoning that night.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners tonight decided to move forward with its scheduled budget submittal plans for fiscal year 2010 but with a higher level of involvement of the commissioners compared with the past.
The Board approved a motion to accept the submittal plan given it by Finance Director Jeff Benko with the stipulation that the commissioners could join in the discussions as they progressed.
Benko meets with the department heads as well as with the constitutional officers such as the sheriff to discuss budget requests in the process of preparing the county’s budget.
Commissioner John Daniell, who just joined the Board last month, initially suggested a more formal procedure in which the commission would create committees made up of at least two commission members to help develop the budget.
He made that request after being told at the Jan. 27 BOC meeting by Board Chairman Melvin Davis that the Board does not have a committee that deals with finances. "Mr. Benko, Mr. Theriault and myself" handle that, Davis said. Theriault is the county administrative officer.
Control over county affairs has been an ongoing issue with the Board. Davis chairs the commission but he also is the full-time administrator of the county. The other four commissioners serve in part-time positions.
Commissioner Chuck Horton said he favored more involvement of the commissioners in the budget, but he said he was not interested in getting involved in the day-to-day running of the county.
Chairman Davis only smiled at the comment.
In other action tonight, the Board approved a request by state Representative Robert Smith for a change in his plans for development of 12 acres of land in Porter Creek subdivision off Barnett Shoals road outside Watkinsville.
Smith developed the subdivision on part of what he said was the family farm. He came before the Board to ask for a change in his concept plan for the subdivision so he could split the 12 acres into six lots.
Three residents of the subdivision spoke against the change at the meeting, claiming that it would produce lots not of the same character as the others in the subdivision. After similar protests at the Planning Commission on Jan. 20, that body recommended against the change Smith was proposing.
Smith offered the BOC a different configuration for the development, reducing the number of lots from six to five. The Board approved that change.
Commissioner Horton spoke against the switch in the plans and was alone in voting against it, saying that he did not feel it was appropriate to approve a change that was offered at the last minute and was not formally part of the request.
County Attorney Daniel Haygood reminder the Board that it had done the same thing on Jan. 6 when it rezoned property on U.S. 441 for an office park with a concept plan when the developer had asked for a shopping center.
Horton made the motion to make the swap in zoning that night.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Oconee BOC Vote Misreported
"Whoa" in Dictionary, But Not in Transcript
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 27 decided to move forward with the study of the feasibility of a local Transfer of Development Rights program, but it would be hard for readers of the local newspapers to know that.
Under the headline “Commissioners say no to TDR funding” The Oconee Enterprise reported in its Jan. 29 edition that the “board said, ‘Whoa’” to a request that it hire a consultant to help move the TDR program along.
The Athens Banner-Herald on that same day reported that the “commissioners this week stopped short of spending money on developing a transfer-of-development rights program for the county, though they remained open to the idea.”
The Oconee Leader did not report on the commission meeting at all in its Jan. 29 edition.
What the Board did at its meeting on Jan. 27, as I reported on my blog on Jan. 28, was vote to issue a request for proposals (RFP) for a consultant who would study how a TDR program could be implemented in the county.
The Board did not vote to spend the money on the consultant. The usual procedure is to get the bids and make a decision about moving forward based on those bids.
Here is the motion, formulated by BOC Chairman Melvin Davis, that the Board approved at its meeting:
“To authorize the (TDR Study) Committee to come up with a detailed scope of services for the RFP to get a competitive quote to present to you (the Board).”
The County put the video of the meeting on its Vimeo site on Jan. 31. I had made an audio recording of the meeting, and I transcribed it the day the Enterprise and Banner-Herald stories appeared to make sure what I had written was correct.
The transcription shows that the conversation took several turns, with the Commissioners initially quite cautious about how to respond to the unanimous recommendation of the 16-member citizen Committee. Once Finance Director Jeff Benko told them there was money in the budget for the study, they became more positive.
According to the traditions of journalism, words that appear within quotation marks in a news story are supposed to be the exact words as spoken by the person to whom they are attributed.
The transcription shows, of course, that no one said “Whoa” at the meeting, and perhaps the Enterprise was simply taking a little license at that point.
The transcription also shows that the Board did not vote to “come up with the scope of the work,” as the paper reported, though that is pretty close to the final language of the motion.
The Board did not add, as the paper reported, that “The BOC is making no commitment.”
Commissioner John Daniell said that, and Commissioner Chuck Horton agreed. All they were stating is standard procedure.
The Enterprise reporter, publisher Vinnie Williams, was sitting in the second row at the meeting, just in front of me. Williams, may or may not have written the headline over the story, which is clearly wrong.
The transcription does show that Williams took considerable liberty in presentation of the direct quotes in the story.
The paper also reported that the Transfer of Development Rights Study Committee has 10 members. I confirmed through a telephone conversation on Jan. 30 with Wayne Provost, Strategic and Long-Range Planning director, that none of the 16 members originally appointed to the committee and listed on the county’s web site had resigned.
The county’s free circulation weekly, the Leader, has a closing deadline for stories that is nearly a week before the paper appears in mailboxes. It rarely covers meetings as a result.
The lead front-page news story in the Leader’s Jan. 29 edition was about the appointment of John Jackson as superintendent of Oconee County schools. The Banner-Herald reported that story in its edition of Jan. 23.
The story about the BOC vote on the TDR report in the Banner-Herald on Jan. 29 was only three paragraphs long and appeared beneath the financial markets reports in the paper on page A6.
The paper’s Oconee County reporter, Adam Thompson, did not attend the Jan. 27 meeting. The story quotes Commissioner Jim Luke as the source of its information.
As the transcript shows, Luke was initially very cautious about going forward with the TDR study, but he shifted and made one of the strongest statements in favor of the motion.
“I think I’m going to change my mind and suggest that we just go on and ask for a quote on services and plan on moving forward unless we discover something in that process that we don’t like,” he said.
The vote to do just that was approved unanimously.
A TDR program, if enacted, would establish development rights for areas of the county that are not now developed and allow the owners of those rights to sell them to developers in other designated areas of the county.
When the owners sell their development rights, they would have to put a restrictive clause on their property stating that it could not be developed in the future.
The developers who purchase the development rights from the "sending" areas would be able to use them in the "receiving" areas for such things as more intensive development, priority access to water and sewage capacity or development prohibited by current zoning regulations in the county.
News coverage of the county in local newspapers is not likely to get much better in this economic crisis. The Banner-Herald reported on Jan. 28 that it is cutting 15 jobs, including from the newsroom. Reporter Thompson will be covering Madison County as well as Oconee County as a result.
The good news is that every citizen can be a journalist, and the citizen journalism move around the country is becoming quite strong.
The Knight Citizen News Network has just releasee a handbook to help citizen journalists know how to gain access to government records and meetings. It is just one of many resources on the site available to citizens who wish to be journalists.
Oconee County already has quite a number of citizen journalists. I’ve prepared this list of those I know of.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 27 decided to move forward with the study of the feasibility of a local Transfer of Development Rights program, but it would be hard for readers of the local newspapers to know that.
Under the headline “Commissioners say no to TDR funding” The Oconee Enterprise reported in its Jan. 29 edition that the “board said, ‘Whoa’” to a request that it hire a consultant to help move the TDR program along.
The Athens Banner-Herald on that same day reported that the “commissioners this week stopped short of spending money on developing a transfer-of-development rights program for the county, though they remained open to the idea.”
The Oconee Leader did not report on the commission meeting at all in its Jan. 29 edition.
What the Board did at its meeting on Jan. 27, as I reported on my blog on Jan. 28, was vote to issue a request for proposals (RFP) for a consultant who would study how a TDR program could be implemented in the county.
The Board did not vote to spend the money on the consultant. The usual procedure is to get the bids and make a decision about moving forward based on those bids.
Here is the motion, formulated by BOC Chairman Melvin Davis, that the Board approved at its meeting:
“To authorize the (TDR Study) Committee to come up with a detailed scope of services for the RFP to get a competitive quote to present to you (the Board).”
The County put the video of the meeting on its Vimeo site on Jan. 31. I had made an audio recording of the meeting, and I transcribed it the day the Enterprise and Banner-Herald stories appeared to make sure what I had written was correct.
The transcription shows that the conversation took several turns, with the Commissioners initially quite cautious about how to respond to the unanimous recommendation of the 16-member citizen Committee. Once Finance Director Jeff Benko told them there was money in the budget for the study, they became more positive.
According to the traditions of journalism, words that appear within quotation marks in a news story are supposed to be the exact words as spoken by the person to whom they are attributed.
The transcription shows, of course, that no one said “Whoa” at the meeting, and perhaps the Enterprise was simply taking a little license at that point.
The transcription also shows that the Board did not vote to “come up with the scope of the work,” as the paper reported, though that is pretty close to the final language of the motion.
The Board did not add, as the paper reported, that “The BOC is making no commitment.”
Commissioner John Daniell said that, and Commissioner Chuck Horton agreed. All they were stating is standard procedure.
The Enterprise reporter, publisher Vinnie Williams, was sitting in the second row at the meeting, just in front of me. Williams, may or may not have written the headline over the story, which is clearly wrong.
The transcription does show that Williams took considerable liberty in presentation of the direct quotes in the story.
The paper also reported that the Transfer of Development Rights Study Committee has 10 members. I confirmed through a telephone conversation on Jan. 30 with Wayne Provost, Strategic and Long-Range Planning director, that none of the 16 members originally appointed to the committee and listed on the county’s web site had resigned.
The county’s free circulation weekly, the Leader, has a closing deadline for stories that is nearly a week before the paper appears in mailboxes. It rarely covers meetings as a result.
The lead front-page news story in the Leader’s Jan. 29 edition was about the appointment of John Jackson as superintendent of Oconee County schools. The Banner-Herald reported that story in its edition of Jan. 23.
The story about the BOC vote on the TDR report in the Banner-Herald on Jan. 29 was only three paragraphs long and appeared beneath the financial markets reports in the paper on page A6.
The paper’s Oconee County reporter, Adam Thompson, did not attend the Jan. 27 meeting. The story quotes Commissioner Jim Luke as the source of its information.
As the transcript shows, Luke was initially very cautious about going forward with the TDR study, but he shifted and made one of the strongest statements in favor of the motion.
“I think I’m going to change my mind and suggest that we just go on and ask for a quote on services and plan on moving forward unless we discover something in that process that we don’t like,” he said.
The vote to do just that was approved unanimously.
A TDR program, if enacted, would establish development rights for areas of the county that are not now developed and allow the owners of those rights to sell them to developers in other designated areas of the county.
When the owners sell their development rights, they would have to put a restrictive clause on their property stating that it could not be developed in the future.
The developers who purchase the development rights from the "sending" areas would be able to use them in the "receiving" areas for such things as more intensive development, priority access to water and sewage capacity or development prohibited by current zoning regulations in the county.
News coverage of the county in local newspapers is not likely to get much better in this economic crisis. The Banner-Herald reported on Jan. 28 that it is cutting 15 jobs, including from the newsroom. Reporter Thompson will be covering Madison County as well as Oconee County as a result.
The good news is that every citizen can be a journalist, and the citizen journalism move around the country is becoming quite strong.
The Knight Citizen News Network has just releasee a handbook to help citizen journalists know how to gain access to government records and meetings. It is just one of many resources on the site available to citizens who wish to be journalists.
Oconee County already has quite a number of citizen journalists. I’ve prepared this list of those I know of.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Oconee Moves Forward on TDR Program
If Prompted, I’d Say...
Following the unanimous recommendation of the 16-member citizen Transfer of Development Rights Study Committee, the Oconee County Board of Commissioners Tuesday night voted to issue a request for proposals for a consultant to study how a TDR program could be implemented in the county.
A TDR program, if enacted, would establish development rights for areas of the county, most likely in the south, that are not now developed and allow the owners of those rights to sell them to developers in other designated areas of the county, most likely in the north.
The developers who purchase the development rights from the "sending" areas would be able to use them in the "receiving" areas for such things as more intensive development, priority access to water and sewage capacity or development prohibited by current zoning regulations in the county.
Strategic and Long-Range Planning Director Wayne Provost, who worked with the citizen committee and presented its report to the Board, emphasized that the precise rights of those who own undeveloped land would need to be established after careful study.
How the developer could use those rights also would have to be determined. As an example, he said, the county could decide to allow developers to use purchased development rights to build residential units above commercial properties, which is not now possible in the county.
"It is just a tool," committee member Wayne Jordan told the Board, "and there are other tools. It would be a tool in the kit to give us some generally desired balance between economic development and preservation of our farmland, of open spaces, of green spaces, historic landmarks, our natural resources, that we do want to preserve."
Despite the presentation by Provost, Jordan and several other committee members, including Russ Page and Albert Hale, all of whom urged immediate action, the Board expressed caution, citing Provost’s estimation that the needed follow-up study would cost between $30,000 and $50,000.
When county Finance Director Jeff Benko said there was money in the current budget to cover the costs of the study, the Board decided quickly to instruct Provost to prepare a scope of work statement that would become part of the request for proposals.
Earlier in the meeting the Board heard Melissa Peppers of accounting firm Treadwell, Tamplin and Company present the Fiscal Year 2008 Report.
At that end of her presentation, BOC Chairman Melvin Davis prompted Peppers to provide a simple summary of her findings.
"As an auditor, give us a general feeling about how you feel about Oconee County’s fiscal responsibility as effective June 30, 2008," Davis said.
"As of June 30, 2008, you were in a very strong position," Peppers said. "As we know, sales taxes will be down. We have questions about the overall effects of the economy. You have a fund balance which will allow you more opportunities than a lot of your surrounding counties."
Finance Director Benko followed this comment with a report on the most recent receipts for sales taxes collected in the county, and his report was more encouraging. Though receipts overall for the first seven months of the fiscal year are down from the first seven months of last year, in January the county received $13,115 more than it received in the same month a year ago.
The January disbursement actually represents tax receipts from November of 2008, and Benko said he found that encouraging.
Chief Tax Appraiser Allen Skinner next came before the Board to explain his work and offer his estimation of the likely change in real property value in the county. As property value goes up, county revenue increases, unless tax rates are decreased.
Skinner said he estimates that the value of real property–not including auto or personal property–in the county will increase but by less than one percent in 2008-2009. That compares with a 9 percent increase last year and a 17 percent increase the year before.
Skinner indicated that the state sets standards on what kinds of sales he can use to assess fair market value, excluding foreclosures and other types of sales, such as exchanges within a family.
In 2008, he said, 636 residences sold in the county, but he could classify only 318 of those as fair market sales. Of the 636 sales, 84 were foreclosures.
Commissioners Margaret Hale, Chuck Horton and Jim Luke were suspicious, arguing that the real value should be more reflective of what is actually happening in the market. Skinner’s response was that state low does not allow him to do that.
John Gentry, director of Parks and Recreation, also presented the Board on Tuesday night with a plan to create equestrian trails at Heritage park on U.S. 441. The Board put off a decision.
Russ Page
Commissioners John Daniell and Chuck Horton
Following the unanimous recommendation of the 16-member citizen Transfer of Development Rights Study Committee, the Oconee County Board of Commissioners Tuesday night voted to issue a request for proposals for a consultant to study how a TDR program could be implemented in the county.
A TDR program, if enacted, would establish development rights for areas of the county, most likely in the south, that are not now developed and allow the owners of those rights to sell them to developers in other designated areas of the county, most likely in the north.
The developers who purchase the development rights from the "sending" areas would be able to use them in the "receiving" areas for such things as more intensive development, priority access to water and sewage capacity or development prohibited by current zoning regulations in the county.
Strategic and Long-Range Planning Director Wayne Provost, who worked with the citizen committee and presented its report to the Board, emphasized that the precise rights of those who own undeveloped land would need to be established after careful study.
How the developer could use those rights also would have to be determined. As an example, he said, the county could decide to allow developers to use purchased development rights to build residential units above commercial properties, which is not now possible in the county.
"It is just a tool," committee member Wayne Jordan told the Board, "and there are other tools. It would be a tool in the kit to give us some generally desired balance between economic development and preservation of our farmland, of open spaces, of green spaces, historic landmarks, our natural resources, that we do want to preserve."
Despite the presentation by Provost, Jordan and several other committee members, including Russ Page and Albert Hale, all of whom urged immediate action, the Board expressed caution, citing Provost’s estimation that the needed follow-up study would cost between $30,000 and $50,000.
When county Finance Director Jeff Benko said there was money in the current budget to cover the costs of the study, the Board decided quickly to instruct Provost to prepare a scope of work statement that would become part of the request for proposals.
Earlier in the meeting the Board heard Melissa Peppers of accounting firm Treadwell, Tamplin and Company present the Fiscal Year 2008 Report.
At that end of her presentation, BOC Chairman Melvin Davis prompted Peppers to provide a simple summary of her findings.
"As an auditor, give us a general feeling about how you feel about Oconee County’s fiscal responsibility as effective June 30, 2008," Davis said.
"As of June 30, 2008, you were in a very strong position," Peppers said. "As we know, sales taxes will be down. We have questions about the overall effects of the economy. You have a fund balance which will allow you more opportunities than a lot of your surrounding counties."
Finance Director Benko followed this comment with a report on the most recent receipts for sales taxes collected in the county, and his report was more encouraging. Though receipts overall for the first seven months of the fiscal year are down from the first seven months of last year, in January the county received $13,115 more than it received in the same month a year ago.
The January disbursement actually represents tax receipts from November of 2008, and Benko said he found that encouraging.
Chief Tax Appraiser Allen Skinner next came before the Board to explain his work and offer his estimation of the likely change in real property value in the county. As property value goes up, county revenue increases, unless tax rates are decreased.
Skinner said he estimates that the value of real property–not including auto or personal property–in the county will increase but by less than one percent in 2008-2009. That compares with a 9 percent increase last year and a 17 percent increase the year before.
Skinner indicated that the state sets standards on what kinds of sales he can use to assess fair market value, excluding foreclosures and other types of sales, such as exchanges within a family.
In 2008, he said, 636 residences sold in the county, but he could classify only 318 of those as fair market sales. Of the 636 sales, 84 were foreclosures.
Commissioners Margaret Hale, Chuck Horton and Jim Luke were suspicious, arguing that the real value should be more reflective of what is actually happening in the market. Skinner’s response was that state low does not allow him to do that.
John Gentry, director of Parks and Recreation, also presented the Board on Tuesday night with a plan to create equestrian trails at Heritage park on U.S. 441. The Board put off a decision.
Russ Page
Commissioners John Daniell and Chuck Horton
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Oconee County Meeting to Focus on Finances
It's the Numbers
Financial reports, which should give some indication of the impact of the national financial crisis on the county, dominate the agenda for the Tuesday meeting of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners.
Melissa Peters from accounting firm Treadwell, Tamplin and Company is scheduled to discuss the Fiscal Year 2008 Audit Report with the Board.
County Finance Director Jeff Benko is to present the county Fiscal Year 2009 six-month financial report and the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Submittal Plan.
County Chief Tax Appraiser Allen Skinner is scheduled to give the Board an update on his work.
In addition, the Board is scheduled to receive the final report of an ad hoc committee studying the Transfer of Development Rights and to discuss the possibility of equestrian trails at Heritage Park on U.S. 441 in the south of the county.
County Clerk Gina Lindsey released the agenda for the meeting–officially the Board’s agenda setting session--on Friday.
Finance Director Benko told me on Friday he expects to have the state figures for sales tax collection in Oconee County from December before the meeting.
The figures for the last year have not been good. Revenues for four of the last six months and seven of the last 12 months have been down.
Even the first half of fiscal year 2008 (July through December of 2007) was not good, with four of those months producing tax revenue lower than the same month a year earlier.
For fiscal year 2008, Oconee County collected $49,178 less from the Local Option Sales Tax and $69,995 less in the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. Both are for one cent on the dollar of spending, but LOST has more exemptions than SPLOST.
The pattern of growth year-to-year had been steady for both taxes back to 1999, so the downturn in fiscal year 2008, if not reversed, could produce real problems for the county.
Voters in March of this year will be asked to approve a new SPLOST of one cent on the dollar, and the county has projected that, across six years, the tax will generate $40 million in revenue, or an average of $6.7 million per year, or nearly $1.2 million more than the tax produced in fiscal year 2008.
The county recently has approved two new, large, commercial projects, one on Epps Bridge Parkway and the other on U.S. 78, but neither is under construction, and both are years away from build-out.
The county will have to cover lost revenue for SPLOST and LOST with property taxes, or it will have to cut back on services and capital expenditures.
The county already is struggling with the possible loss of state funding for homestead exemption grants. Gov. Sonny Perdue cut $428 million for the current fiscal year from the state budget and the same amount from fiscal year 2010. Unless the legislature reversed the governor and funds these grants, Oconee County and other counties around the state will have to figure out how to make up the differences.
The problem is particularly difficult for this current fiscal year, since Oconee Countyhomeowners already have received their property tax bills and the county has based its budget on what property owners will pay plus the state contribution.
The state exempts from state, county and school taxes $2,000 of the 40 percent assessed value of residences as a way of reducing the property tax burden for homeowners.
Homeowners can expect to get bills for between $200 and $300 if the county does not get the state reimbursement for this exemption and cannot cut its current budget accordingly.
It is a relatively small amount, but the county also learned this week that it is going to have to spend an additional $30,000 as its part of the boat dock for Bear Creek Reservoir. The full county expenditure is expected to be about $60,000, Jeff Benko told me on Friday, and the county had been expecting the state to pick up about half that amount.
These circumstances make voter approval of the SPLOST tax at the March 17 election all the more important.
Voters in the county have a good record of approving this tax. In 1999, 75 percent of the voters who turned out approved the tax, and 82 percent approved the current SPLOST in 2003. In 2006, 79 percent of Oconee voters who went to the polls approved a five-year tax of one cent on the dollar for educational purposes.
All of these were approved in special elections, when relatively few voters go to the polls. Only 1,696 people voted on the current SPLOST when it was approved in 2003.
Currently there are 21,579 registered voters in Oconee County, and at the general election in November 17,208 voted.
Its no accident that these issues are put on the ballot when few people go to the polls.
Political scientist Changhoon Jung studied SPLOST votes in Georgia that took place from 1985 to 1997 and found that the lower the voter turnout rate, the higher the likelihood that a SPLOST referendum will pass.
Jung, formerly at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia, is now at Auburn University.
The financial crisis, of course, makes it difficult to offer predictions based on what Oconee County voters or voters around the state did in different circumstances.
Melvin Davis, chairman of the Board of Commissioners, reassured citizens in his column in The Oconee Enterprise of Jan. 8, 2009, that "Oconee County is in excellent financial shape at this point in time."
He said that he believed the county will "weather our current economic situation" but that the county "must continue to carefully analyze current data."
Tuesday night’s agenda should offer the rest of the commissioners and citizens a chance to review some of those current data.
Davis, left, County Administrative Officer Alan Theriault at BOC SPLOST meeting of Nov. 20, 2008.
Financial reports, which should give some indication of the impact of the national financial crisis on the county, dominate the agenda for the Tuesday meeting of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners.
Melissa Peters from accounting firm Treadwell, Tamplin and Company is scheduled to discuss the Fiscal Year 2008 Audit Report with the Board.
County Finance Director Jeff Benko is to present the county Fiscal Year 2009 six-month financial report and the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Submittal Plan.
County Chief Tax Appraiser Allen Skinner is scheduled to give the Board an update on his work.
In addition, the Board is scheduled to receive the final report of an ad hoc committee studying the Transfer of Development Rights and to discuss the possibility of equestrian trails at Heritage Park on U.S. 441 in the south of the county.
County Clerk Gina Lindsey released the agenda for the meeting–officially the Board’s agenda setting session--on Friday.
Finance Director Benko told me on Friday he expects to have the state figures for sales tax collection in Oconee County from December before the meeting.
The figures for the last year have not been good. Revenues for four of the last six months and seven of the last 12 months have been down.
Even the first half of fiscal year 2008 (July through December of 2007) was not good, with four of those months producing tax revenue lower than the same month a year earlier.
For fiscal year 2008, Oconee County collected $49,178 less from the Local Option Sales Tax and $69,995 less in the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. Both are for one cent on the dollar of spending, but LOST has more exemptions than SPLOST.
The pattern of growth year-to-year had been steady for both taxes back to 1999, so the downturn in fiscal year 2008, if not reversed, could produce real problems for the county.
Voters in March of this year will be asked to approve a new SPLOST of one cent on the dollar, and the county has projected that, across six years, the tax will generate $40 million in revenue, or an average of $6.7 million per year, or nearly $1.2 million more than the tax produced in fiscal year 2008.
The county recently has approved two new, large, commercial projects, one on Epps Bridge Parkway and the other on U.S. 78, but neither is under construction, and both are years away from build-out.
The county will have to cover lost revenue for SPLOST and LOST with property taxes, or it will have to cut back on services and capital expenditures.
The county already is struggling with the possible loss of state funding for homestead exemption grants. Gov. Sonny Perdue cut $428 million for the current fiscal year from the state budget and the same amount from fiscal year 2010. Unless the legislature reversed the governor and funds these grants, Oconee County and other counties around the state will have to figure out how to make up the differences.
The problem is particularly difficult for this current fiscal year, since Oconee Countyhomeowners already have received their property tax bills and the county has based its budget on what property owners will pay plus the state contribution.
The state exempts from state, county and school taxes $2,000 of the 40 percent assessed value of residences as a way of reducing the property tax burden for homeowners.
Homeowners can expect to get bills for between $200 and $300 if the county does not get the state reimbursement for this exemption and cannot cut its current budget accordingly.
It is a relatively small amount, but the county also learned this week that it is going to have to spend an additional $30,000 as its part of the boat dock for Bear Creek Reservoir. The full county expenditure is expected to be about $60,000, Jeff Benko told me on Friday, and the county had been expecting the state to pick up about half that amount.
These circumstances make voter approval of the SPLOST tax at the March 17 election all the more important.
Voters in the county have a good record of approving this tax. In 1999, 75 percent of the voters who turned out approved the tax, and 82 percent approved the current SPLOST in 2003. In 2006, 79 percent of Oconee voters who went to the polls approved a five-year tax of one cent on the dollar for educational purposes.
All of these were approved in special elections, when relatively few voters go to the polls. Only 1,696 people voted on the current SPLOST when it was approved in 2003.
Currently there are 21,579 registered voters in Oconee County, and at the general election in November 17,208 voted.
Its no accident that these issues are put on the ballot when few people go to the polls.
Political scientist Changhoon Jung studied SPLOST votes in Georgia that took place from 1985 to 1997 and found that the lower the voter turnout rate, the higher the likelihood that a SPLOST referendum will pass.
Jung, formerly at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia, is now at Auburn University.
The financial crisis, of course, makes it difficult to offer predictions based on what Oconee County voters or voters around the state did in different circumstances.
Melvin Davis, chairman of the Board of Commissioners, reassured citizens in his column in The Oconee Enterprise of Jan. 8, 2009, that "Oconee County is in excellent financial shape at this point in time."
He said that he believed the county will "weather our current economic situation" but that the county "must continue to carefully analyze current data."
Tuesday night’s agenda should offer the rest of the commissioners and citizens a chance to review some of those current data.
Davis, left, County Administrative Officer Alan Theriault at BOC SPLOST meeting of Nov. 20, 2008.Thursday, January 22, 2009
Oconee's Epps Bridge Centre Gets Federal Permit
Piping and Filling OK with Corps
Another piece fell into place on Tuesday for the developer of the proposed $76 million Epps Bridge Centre on Epps Bridge Parkway when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted a permit for piping and filling of streams and wetlands on the site.
The Georgia Environment Protection Division still must grant a variance for developer Frank Bishop of Atlanta to allow him to disturb the 25 foot buffer on the half mile of streams on the site.
Bishop also is waiting for the Georgia Department of Transportation to issue contracts for construction of the Oconee Connector Extension, which will provide access to the shopping mall.
The state rejected bids that were submitted in December and will accept new bids in March.
When the Oconee County Board of Commissioners approved the requested rezone for Epps Bridge Centre in Oct. 7, it stipulated that the county will not grant any permits for the project until the state had let contracts on the roadway project.
The Corps of Engineers has not yet posted its decision on the permit application on its web site, but Billy Birdwell, chief of Public Affairs for the Savannah District of the Corps, told me in an e-mail message today that he had checked with the Regulatory Division and that the permit was issued on Jan. 20.
In the application for the permit filed in late December of 2008, Bishop asked for permission to pipe 2,678 feet of perennial streams and fill 1.06 acres of wetlands and ephemeral drainages of wetlands.
To offset this destruction of the streams and wetlands on the Oconee site, Bishop proposed to restore streams and wetlands on property he purchased and converted to a mitigation bank off State Route 15 north of Greensboro in Greene County.
Construction of the mitigation bank in Greene County also required a permit, and the Corps issued that permit on June 6, 2008.
Bishop told Oconee County officials he passed over land in Oconee County for the mitigation because it was more costly. Two mitigation banks are now being created in Oconee County.
Although the Georgia Environmental Protection Division requires that the applicant must have a Corps permit before it can grant a variance for the buffer, it issued an advisory and solicited public comment on the Bishop application on Dec. 18, 2008.
Among the local individuals and groups that submitted comments and asked for a public hearing were the Upper Oconee Watershed Network and Georgia River Network.
"In order to meet water quality standards, the construction site should be redesigned to retain more of the natural areas and to include adequate sediment and stormwater ponds to improve water quality before stormwater exits the property and enters the McNutt Creek," April Ingle, executive director of the Georgia River Network, wrote in her letter.
The proposes shopping mall is designed to include a movie theater, restaurants and large and small retail space, including for major anchors.
Another piece fell into place on Tuesday for the developer of the proposed $76 million Epps Bridge Centre on Epps Bridge Parkway when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted a permit for piping and filling of streams and wetlands on the site.
The Georgia Environment Protection Division still must grant a variance for developer Frank Bishop of Atlanta to allow him to disturb the 25 foot buffer on the half mile of streams on the site.
Bishop also is waiting for the Georgia Department of Transportation to issue contracts for construction of the Oconee Connector Extension, which will provide access to the shopping mall.
The state rejected bids that were submitted in December and will accept new bids in March.
When the Oconee County Board of Commissioners approved the requested rezone for Epps Bridge Centre in Oct. 7, it stipulated that the county will not grant any permits for the project until the state had let contracts on the roadway project.
The Corps of Engineers has not yet posted its decision on the permit application on its web site, but Billy Birdwell, chief of Public Affairs for the Savannah District of the Corps, told me in an e-mail message today that he had checked with the Regulatory Division and that the permit was issued on Jan. 20.
In the application for the permit filed in late December of 2008, Bishop asked for permission to pipe 2,678 feet of perennial streams and fill 1.06 acres of wetlands and ephemeral drainages of wetlands.
To offset this destruction of the streams and wetlands on the Oconee site, Bishop proposed to restore streams and wetlands on property he purchased and converted to a mitigation bank off State Route 15 north of Greensboro in Greene County.
Construction of the mitigation bank in Greene County also required a permit, and the Corps issued that permit on June 6, 2008.
Bishop told Oconee County officials he passed over land in Oconee County for the mitigation because it was more costly. Two mitigation banks are now being created in Oconee County.
Although the Georgia Environmental Protection Division requires that the applicant must have a Corps permit before it can grant a variance for the buffer, it issued an advisory and solicited public comment on the Bishop application on Dec. 18, 2008.
Among the local individuals and groups that submitted comments and asked for a public hearing were the Upper Oconee Watershed Network and Georgia River Network.
"In order to meet water quality standards, the construction site should be redesigned to retain more of the natural areas and to include adequate sediment and stormwater ponds to improve water quality before stormwater exits the property and enters the McNutt Creek," April Ingle, executive director of the Georgia River Network, wrote in her letter.
The proposes shopping mall is designed to include a movie theater, restaurants and large and small retail space, including for major anchors.
A stream on the site; photo scanned from the application.
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