Gilland’s Fundraising Already Tops 3 Oconee County BOC Candidates in 2008

Hale Still Not Filed

Tammy Gilland, who qualified for the July 20 Republic primary as a candidate for Post 3 on the Oconee County Board of Commissioners yesterday, had raised more money for her campaign by the end of March than three of the commission candidates raised in all of the 2008 election year.

Gilland’s $4,685 raised in the first quarter of the year was just $651 less than incumbent Post 3 Commissioner Margaret Hale raised in the 2008 election year.

Hale has not yet filed for reelection, though she announced back in February that she intends to do so. The deadline for filing is noon tomorrow.

Hale listed $500 in contributions for the first three months of the year in her April 1 filing.

No candidates filed today for the Oconee County offices open for election this year–two Board of Commissioner posts and two Board of Education posts.

BOE incumbents Kim Argo and Mack Guest filed earlier this week, as did Commissioner John Daniell, who holds Post 2.

The Dec. 31, 2008, campaign finance statements filed by the eight candidates–all Republicans--who ran for the Board of Commissioners that year showed that they raised, on average, $8,863, and spent, on average, $8,958.

Daniell raised and spent the least, $3,211 and $3,167 respectively. Daniell defeated incumbent Don Norris, who raised $9,613 and spent $11,285.

Mike Maxey, who ran unsuccessfully against Chuck Horton, raised and spent the most, $21,030 and $21,030 respectively.

Incumbent Jim Luke came next, raising $15,953 and spending $15,900. He defeated Johnny Pritchett, who raised only $3,770 and spent $3,873.

Ester Porter, who ran against Hale in 2008, raised $3,606 and spent the same amount.

Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis raised $31,593 in his successful bid for reelection. Challenger Sarah Bell raised only $9,723 but lost to Davis by only 100 votes.

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Beyond the Trestle posted an interview with Gilland today in which she said stated her position on several issues. She said she favors of an economic development partnership with Clarke County.

Gilland Qualifies for July Ballot for Oconee County Commissioner

Only Non-Incumbent to File

Tammy Gilland became the first non-incumbent to qualify for the July 20 Oconee County primary today when she turned in her paperwork to run for Post 3 on the Oconee County Board of Commissioners.

Post 2 Commissioner John Daniell qualified on Monday, as did Kim Argo, who holds Post 3 on the Oconee County Board of Education. Mack Guest, Post 2 member of the Board of Education, qualified yesterday.

Margaret Hale, who is the current Post 3 commissioner, has until noon on Friday to qualify. She announced at the Feb. 16 town hall meeting of the Board of Commissioners that she intended to seek reelection.

Only two seats on the Board of Commissioners and two seats on the Board of Education are up for election this year. Each board has five members.

Gilland, Daniell, Argo and Guest have filed to run in the Republican primary. Hale has run as a Republican in the past.

Gilland indicated her intention to run for the Board of Commissioners on April 1 when she filed a campaign contribution disclosure report indicating that she has raised $4,685 toward her campaign. She noted on that report that she planned to seek the Post 3 commissioner spot.

Gilland had been accepting campaign contributions and was required to file the campaign contribution report.

A senior director in the Development Office at the University of Georgia, Gilland lives at 1010 Hardwood court off Elder road near North High Shoals.

To qualify, Gilland, as well as Daniell, had to pay the $594 filing fee, which is 3 percent of the $19,814 base salary for a commissioner. Daniell, the lowest paid commissioner, actually makes $20,998 because of cost of living adjustments to that base.

Argo and Guest paid only $54 as a filing fee, which is 3 percent of the $1,800 paid to members of the Board of Education.

State law sets the filing fees based on the base salaries.

Guest Becomes Second Incumbent to Qualify for Oconee County School Board

Malcolm joins 113th Race

Incumbent Oconee County Board of Education member Mack Guest qualified for the July 20 Republican primary ballot today when he paid the $54 filing fee to seek reelection to Post 2.

Tommy Malcolm qualified for the Republican primary that will select the party’s nominee for the State Representative in the 113th District, in which Oconee County is located.

Malcolm, a teacher who lists a Watkinsville postal box as his address, joins Hank Huckaby and Kirk Shook, who qualified yesterday for the Republican primary.

Incumbent District 113 Representative Bob Smith is retiring.

Kim Argo, who holds Post 3 on the Board of Education, qualified yesterday, as did John Daniell, seeking reelection to the Board of Commissioners. Both are Republicans.

Margaret Hale, who has announced she plans to seek reelection to the Board of Commissioners, has not yet filed. She also is a Republican. The deadline for filing is Friday.

Guest, who lives at 1070 Lake Wellbrook drive in Lake Wellbrook subdivision off Daniells Bridge road, currently is vice chair of the BOE.

Argo, Daniell, Guest and Hale were elected to two-year terms in 2008 as both boards switched to staggered terms for members. The terms they are seeking now are for four years.

Argo and Daniell Qualify for July 20 Oconee County Primary Ballots

Huckaby, Shook and Cowsert Also Qualify

Incumbent Board of Education member Kim Argo and incumbent County Commissioner John Daniell qualified for the July 20 primary ballot today when they submitted their filing fees at the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration office near the courthouse.

Elections and Registration Chair Pat Hayes said Argo and Daniell were the only two Oconee County candidates to file their paperwork and pay their fees before the 5 p.m. closing for the first of five days of registration. Both filed as Republicans.

According to the online real-time filing database of the Secretary of State, Hank Huckaby and Kirk Shook filed as Republicans for the State Representative 113 District now held by Republican Bob Smith, who is retiring.

Incumbent Bill Cowsert filed for the State Senate 46th District. Cowsert is a Republican.

Oconee County falls entirely within the 113 House and 46 Senate districts.

Argo currently is in her first term as Post 3 Board of Education member. Daniell is in his first term as Post 2 commissioner.

Board of Education Post 2 also is up for election. Mack Guest currently holds that position.

The term of Post 3 Commissioner Margaret Hale also is ending, and she has indicated she plans to run for reelection.

Argo paid $54 as a filing fee and Daniell paid $594.42. The filing fee for Huckaby, Shook and Cowsert was $400. Those fees are set by state law.

Argo lives at 1230 Bent Creek road near Hodges Mill road in the northern part of the county and Daniell lives at 1922 Elder road near North High Shoals. Argo is a teacher and Daniell is an executive with Boswell Oil.

Huckaby, 1041 Knox Ridge in Spartan Lane subdivision off US 441 in Oconee County, lists himself as retired. He formerly was the vice president for finance and administration at the University of Georgia.

Shook, who lives in Crawford, lists his occupation as a teacher.

Cowsert is an attorney from Athens.

Oconee County Utility Proposed Budget Includes Nearly $1 Million in Hard Labor Creek Debt Payments

Standard & Poor’s Knew

The Oconee County Utility Department is asking the Board of Commissioners to approve a balanced $6.4 million budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 that includes nearly $3 million in debt service.

Of that $3 million in debt payments, $924,000 will pay interest on the $19.5 million bond the county sold in 2008 as part of its share in the expenses of Hard Labor Creek Reservoir, which Oconee and Walton counties are partnering to build in southern Walton County. That bond will mature in 2023.

The $924,000 is up from the $764,000 the county paid on interest on the bond in fiscal year 2010, the first year that Hard Labor Creek financing appeared in the Oconee County Utility Department budget.

The county did not make any payment against the principal of the Hard Labor Creek bond in the last fiscal year, and none is included in the budget under review.

The proposed fiscal year 2011 budget also includes $1,188,060 in payments on principal on a bond originally sold in 1998, on another bond sold in 2004 and on bonds sold for construction of the Bear Creek Reservoir in Jackson County.

The proposed Oconee County Utility Department budget also contains interest payments on those bonds of $880,099.

The 1998 bond was refinanced by the county in October of 2009 to reduce the interest rate. The result was that the county will pay less both in interest and against the principal in the upcoming fiscal year than was originally planned.

Oconee is one of four counties involved in the Bear Creek Reservoir. Barrow, Clarke and Jackson are the other three.

The debt payments are by far the biggest expenses for the Utility Department in the proposed budget.

The Department expects to pay $932,000 to purchase the water it will sell, most of which will come from Bear Creek, and $800,000 in salaries for its employees.

To make the budget balance, the Utility Department has proposed increases in both water and sewage rates starting on July 1.

The minimum monthly amount a water customer would pay would go from $16.50 to $19. Base sewer rates would increase from either $15.48 or $12.48, depending on area, to $18.

The county also increased water and sewerage rates last year.

The BOC asked Utility Department Director Chris Thomas at the budget hearing on April 14 to try to find a way to reduce the base rate increase, but he said it was difficult given the kinds of data he has on customer water use to know how to do that.

Through the proposed rate increases and because of hoped-for increases in water sales now that the drought has passed, Thomas is projecting that he will have $5.1 million in water revenue, up from a little more than $4 million proposed in the 2010 budget.

The 2011 budget projects $800,000 in sewage revenue, up from $625,000 in this year’s budget.

On April 6 the BOC reduced the sewer capacity fees paid by commercial users to gain access to the county’s sewage treatment system, and Thomas is projecting a decline in revenue of $150,000 in that category.

When the county decided to join with Walton County in the $170 million Hard Labor Creek project in 2007, proponents said it would be paid for by new water sales, not by sale of water to existing customers.

Of the existing Board, Chairman Melvin Davis and Commissioner Jim Luke were advocates of the project, along with then-Commissioner Don Norris. Commissioners Margaret Hale and Chuck Horton voted against it.

A Standard & Poor’s rating statement on the Utility Department of Sept. 30, 2009, said that, “According to county management, given the $30 million of capital needs associated with the Hard Labor Creek project, the board (of commissioners) has recognized the need to raise rates to provide adequate coverage of operating and debt service costs.”

Oconee County’s costs for the full project are projected to be $49 million, but the $19.5 million in bonds had already been sold when that report was written.

Water and sewer rates “are currently in-line with the regional average,” the Standard & Poor’s report noted, and the increases “might push the rates to slightly above the average.”

The report did not see this as a problem because “county income levels are, in our opinion, very strong.”

If the $924,000 in interest payments for Hard Labor Creek were removed from the proposed 2011 Utility Department budget, it would be $5,462,000, or $222,368 more than the budget in fiscal year 2009–the last year in which Hard Labor Creek was not part of the expenses.

Consistent with the Standard & Poor’s analysis, the rate increases needed for fiscal year 2011 would have been much smaller minus the county’s decision to join Walton County on the Hard Labor Creek project.

County Attorney Presents Draft Ethics Ordinance to Oconee County Commissioners

Anyone Can Complain

Oconee County Attorney Daniel Haygood presented the Board of Commissioners an 11-page draft ethics ordinance Tuesday night that spells out ethical standards and sets up conditions for creation of a Board of Ethics to hear complaints about Board members.

The ordinance says, among other things, that commissioners shall not have an interest in any contracts or transactions affected by their actions, attempt to influence a county officer making country purchases, withhold information from county boards or departments or make unauthorized use of county property.

The draft ordinance states that anyone can initiate a complaint against a Board member. The complaint will be reviewed initially by the county attorney and, if it involves a commissioner, forwarded to a special master. If the special master determines that the complaint has merit, the master will appoint an ad hoc ethics board to hear the complaint.

Commissioners found in violation of the ethics ordinance could receive a warning, censure or reprimand, be made to make repayment to the county for any unjust enrichment, be asked to resign and be referred to criminal authorities for prosecution.

Haygood drafted the ordinance at the request of the Board and forwarded it to members along with a Draft Model Ethics Ordinance for Counties prepared by the Association County Commissioners of Georgia,

Haygood also sent to the board an analysis of ethics ordinances prepared by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia for Gwinnett County.

Following the presentation of the draft ordinance, the Board decided to schedule an open work session to discuss further the ordinance after the Board has completed its budget deliberations. The Board is schedule to vote on the budget on June 1.

County Administrative Officer Alan Theriault proposed that he put the materials provided by Haygood on the web for the public to view, but Commission Chairman Melvin Davis said he wanted to wait until after the work session to share the documents with the public.



I obtained the documents via an open records request and have placed them on Google Documents as public files.

Commissioner John Daniell has taken the initiative in pushing for an ethics ordinance since he joined the Board in January of last year.

Daniell also pushed another of his interests at the meeting on Tuesday night in proposing a special, town-hall style meeting to discuss economic development in the county.

Theriault was instructed to set up the meeting and invite not only the general public but members of the Chamber of Commerce and others interested in finding ways to promote economic development in the county.

Oconee County and Athens/Clarke County officials have discussed collaborative efforts at development in recent years, and Daniell has been a proponent of consideration of these.

He indicated that all such issues should be discussed at the as yet unscheduled town hall meeting.

Here are the three documents:

Ethics Ordinance for the Oconee County Board of Commissioners (Haygood)

Draft Model Ethics Ordinance for Counties (ACCG)

County Ethics Ordinances: An Analysis and Comparison (CVIOG)

Oconee County Utility Department Proposes Water and Sewer Rate Increases

BOC Questions Rate

The Oconee County Utility Department has proposed increases in water and sewage fees beginning on July 1 that–if approved by the Board of Commissioners–would increase the base fee for monthly residential water use from $16.50 to $19 and the base monthly residential sewer fee from either $12.48 or $15.48 to $18.

The increases are necessary, according to Utility Department Director Chris Thomas, to cover the increased costs for operation of the department, including the cost of retirement of debt for water and sewage capacity expansion.

Commissioners Jim Luke and Chuck Horton asked Thomas at the budget hearings on April 14, when the rate increase proposal was announced, to try to find a way of increasing revenues without increasing the base water rate itself.

Thomas said he would try.

Last year, Thomas asked the commissioners to approve an increase in the base water rate from $14.04 to $18.50, but the commissioners reduced the increase to the $16.50 figure. Thomas told the Board that he was merely seeking this year to get the rate increase he had asked for but been denied a year earlier.

The base rate is what the 8,700 commercial and residential water customers pay for the first 2,000 gallons of water used, and customers pay that amount whether they use 1 or 2,000 gallons.

For residential users, water rates increase in steps after that base rate. Under the proposal submitted by Thomas, residential customers would pay 5 percent more next year than this for water used beyond the base amount.

For example, customers using between 2,001 and 5,000 gallons per month would pay $4.10 per 1,000 gallons over the base 2,000 gallons, up from $3.90 at present.

Commercial customers would pay $5.15 per 1,000 gallons beyond the base 2,000, up from $4.90. The rate stays the same for commercial users regardless of amount of water used.

Sewer users now pay different rates depending on which sewage plant treats the waste, and under the new rate schedule the differences would be eliminated.

The base rate of $18 for residential users would cover treatment for 2,000 of sewage, with additional treatment at $3.70 per 1,000 gallons, up from the current rates of either $3.22 or $2.84.

Commercial sewage customers would pay $30 for from 0 to 2,000 gallons under the new rate, up from either $22.51 or $25.51. Commercial rates for treatment beyond that base level would be at $4.05 per 1,000 gallons, up from $2.84 or $3.52.

Thomas had proposed sewage rate increases last year, and those were approved by the Board as requested. Residential rates increased from $12.48 to $15.48.

The county only has about 1,200 sewage customers.

On April 1, 2008, the Utility Department increased water rates, but only for those using more than 5,000 gallons per month.

The overall budget for the Utility Department that Thomas proposed increased from $5,549,676 in fiscal year 2010 to $6,385,676 for fiscal year. That included an increase in service on debt of from $445,000 in the current fiscal year to 880,099 in the upcoming fiscal year.

At the April 14 meeting, Thomas said the increased debt was the result in part of the county’s decision to partner with Walton County on the Hard Labor Creek reservoir.

When the Hard Labor Creek reservoir was proposed, proponents said debt would be covered by the sale of water to new customers rather than by existing customers.