Finance Committee Meeting Minutes

Glynn County Board of Commissioners

4:00 P.M., Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Third Floor Conference Room

W. Harold Pate Courthouse Annex

Brunswick, Georgia

 

Present:

                        Committee Members:  H. Lynn, U. Keller, and T. Thaw

Staff:  J. Bruner, D. Chunn, F. Dees, M. Doering, Y. Horton, P. McNicoll, B. Rogers, B. Rowell, A. Sapp, S. Schaeffner, R. Shell, C. Stewart, W. Worley

Press:   M. Permar

Others:   Don Hyers, M. Smith, J. Witherspoon

 

1.      Consider approval of the Consent Agenda.

                       

a)      Approve the March 8, 2005 Finance Committee Minutes. 

b)      Approve the March 8, 2005 Finance Committee – Budget Presentation Minutes. 

c)      Approve the March 15, 2005 Finance Committee – Budget Presentation Minutes. 

d)      Approve the March 22, 2005 Finance Committee – Budget Presentation Minutes. 

e)      Approve the real property corrections to the 2004 Digest, as recommended by the Board of Assessors and/or the Chief Appraiser at their March 8, 2005 meeting. 

 

The following motion made by Commissioner Keller and seconded by Commissioner Thaw passed unanimously.

 

Recommend approval of the Consent Agenda.  (Vote: 3-0-0 )

 

2.      Consider increasing the FY04/05 budget for the Solicitor of State Court’s Office witness fees by $2,000.  

 

Ms. Yvonne Horton, Solicitor’s Office, presented this item and stated that there had been an increase of 8 of weeks of court scheduled in 2005 and they needed an increase of $2,000 in the witness fee budget.   The following motion made by Commissioner Keller and seconded by Commissioner Thaw passed unanimously.

 

Recommend increasing the FY04/05 budget for the Solicitor of State Court’s Office witness fees by $2,000.  (Vote: 3-0-0 )  

 

3.      Consider authorizing staff to mail a letter notifying the grantors of tax deeds held by the County, and that the County will allow them ninety (90) days to redeem the County’s tax deed by paying the face amount of the deed plus the cost of recording the quitclaim deed.  I further move that we also grant owners and fi. fa. defendants, who should have, but did not, receive notice of the amnesty, an additional ninety (90) days from the time we become aware of the lack of notice to redeem the property.  The County Attorney is authorized to quitclaim any tax deed outside the chain of title. 

 

Mr. Will Worley, Assistant County Attorney, stated that the County is holding approximately 525 outstanding tax deeds totaling $193,287.85.  He informed the Committee that the County had declared amnesty periods in the past with good results in clearing tax deeds and requested that the Board implement another amnesty period to redeem tax deeds by paying the face amount of the deed plus the cost of recording the quitclaim deed.  Chairman Lynn questioned what would happen to the deeds if not redeemed within the amnesty period.  Commissioner Thaw stated that the Board would have the option to foreclose on them.  The following motion made by Commissioner Thaw and seconded by Commissioner Keller passed unanimously.

 

Recommend authorizing staff to mail a letter notifying the grantors of tax deeds held by the County, and that the County will allow them ninety (90) days to redeem the County’s tax deed by paying the face amount of the deed plus the cost of recording the quitclaim deed.  I further move that we also grant owners and fi. fa. defendants, who should have, but did not, receive notice of the amnesty, an additional ninety (90) days from the time we become aware of the lack of notice to redeem the property.  The County Attorney is authorized to quitclaim any tax deed outside the chain of title.  (Vote:  3-0-0)

 

4.      Consider awarding the bid for the Clearwater Water & Sewer Improvements to the lowest responsive bidder, Southern Allied Contractors, Inc., Valdosta, GA, in the amount of $748,556 with funding for the sewer lines and lift station to be initially provided by a GEFA loan which will ultimately be repaid from developers and SPLOST IV, tier 2 and funding for the water portion of this work will come from the SPLOST IV, tier 1 project called “$4M Misc. water/sewer upgrades”. 

 

Mr. Don Hyers, Carter Goble Lee, presented this item and stated that the bids ranged from a low of $748 thousand to a high bid of $933 thousand.  He said that references had been checked and that CGL and staff believed that Southern Allied Contractors would be able to do a good job for the County.  The following motion made by Commissioner Keller and seconded by Commissioner Thaw passed unanimously.

 

Recommend awarding the bid for the Clearwater Water & Sewer Improvements to the lowest responsive bidder, Southern Allied Contractors, Inc., Valdosta, GA, in the amount of $748,556 with funding for the sewer lines and lift station to be initially provided by a GEFA loan which will ultimately be repaid from developers and SPLOST IV, tier 2 and funding for the water portion of this work will come from the SPLOST IV, tier 1 project called “$4M Misc. water/sewer upgrades”.  (Vote: 3-0-0)

 

5.      Consider approving

a)      approve an equipment lease agreement between Glynn County and Wachovia Bank, N.A. utilizing the ACCG Lease Program, in the amount of $1.7 million to finance the cost of the Radio-read Meter Change-out Program,

b)      authorize the Chairman to sign all necessary documents,

c)      adopt a resolution to authorize the Master Equipment Lease,

d)      adopt a resolution for Lease Addendum, and

e)      adopt a resolution for Declaration of Official Intent to Reimburse,

 

subject to the County Attorney’s approval.  

 

Ms. Phyllis McNicoll, Finance Director, stated that the Board had previously authorized the County to borrow $1.7 million to finance the costs of the Radio-read Water Meter program and requested that the Board approve all documents necessary to obtain the loan.  She stated that the County Attorney’s office was in the process of reviewing the documents.  The following motion made by Commissioner Keller and seconded by Commissioner Lynn passed unanimously.

 

Recommend

a)      approving an equipment lease agreement between Glynn County and Wachovia Bank, N.A. utilizing the ACCG Lease Program, in the amount of $1.7 million to finance the cost of the Radio-read Meter Change-out Program,

b)     authorizing the Chairman to sign all necessary documents,

c)      adopting a resolution to authorize the Master Equipment Lease,

d)     adopting a resolution for Lease Addendum, and

e)     adopting a resolution for Declaration of Official Intent to Reimburse,

 

subject to the County Attorney’s approval.  (Vote: 3-0-0)  

 

6.      Consider authorizing staff to pay the County’s share of taxes on these three parcels in the total amount of three thousand, four hundred forty dollars and ninety-five cents ($3,440.95), payable from the fund balance.   

 

Mr. Worley stated that the property was co-owned by the County and the St. Simons Land Trust and that it was initially thought that there was only one 2004 tax bill to be paid when in fact there were four.  Commissioner Thaw questioned why this was not discovered by the closing attorney and Commissioner Keller requested that the County Attorney present an explanation to the Board.  After further discussion the following motion made by Commissioner Keller and seconded by Commissioner Thaw passed unanimously.

 

Recommend deferral to the full Board of Commissioners the request to authorize staff to pay the County’s share of taxes on these three parcels in the total amount of three thousand, four hundred forty dollars and ninety-five cents ($3,440.95), payable from the fund balance.  (Vote: 3-0-0)

 

7.      Consider awarding the contract for the Airport Road Drainage project to Paul Krebs Construction Company, Inc., in the amount of $351,473 with funding provided from SPLOST IV. 

 

Mr. Jim Bruner, County Engineer, presented this item and stated that there was only one bid for the project but he stated that this was a reasonable bid.  Mr. Bruner said that local contractors had told him that they were too busy with other projects to bid on this one.  The following motion made by Commissioner Keller and seconded by Commissioner Thaw passed unanimously.

 

Recommend awarding the contract for the Airport Road Drainage project to Paul Krebs Construction Company, Inc., in the amount of $351,473 with funding provided from SPLOST IV.  (Vote: 3-0-0)

 

8.      Receive a recommendation on Solid Waste Billing.

 

Mr. Charles Stewart, County Administrator, recommended to the Committee that the curbside solid waste garbage service be mandatory and billed on the annual tax bill instead of on a separate bill sent by Finance.  Chairman Lynn suggested that curbside solid waste, recycling, and yard trash all be placed on the tax bill.  He stated that the tax billing is a better way to handle solid waste and it would minimize the waste problems.  After discussion Chairman Lynn agreed that yard debris pick-up should not be mandatory.  Commissioner Thaw questioned the staffing in Finance and the Tax Commissioner’s office and was told that the Finance Dept. did not receive additional staff when they started the solid waste billing and that the Tax Commissioner would need a new employee to handle the new billing item.  The following motion made by Commissioner Keller and seconded by Commissioner Thaw passed unanimously.

 

Recommend placing the residential curbside solid waste and recycling collection services on the annual tax bill in the Tax Commissioner’s Office as a special assessment with the following provisions:

·         New construction will be prorated and billed by the Tax Commissioner after a certificate of occupancy is issued,

·         Customers requesting additional services such as yard trash, backdoor service or additional carts will pay Southland directly for those services,

·         The special assessment will only be added to developed residential parcels,

·         Mobile home parks and multi-family complexes which receive commercial service will be allowed to complete a waiver that will allow them to opt out of the program,

·         A new tax clerk position will be added in the Tax Commissioners Office.

(Vote 3-0-0)

 

 

9.      Request that Chairman Lynn identify the Finance Committee items which should be included as consent items in the Commission’s Meeting Agenda.

 

Chairman Lynn identified all items except #6 and #8 as consent items.  Items 6 is forwarded to the full Board with no recommendation from the Committee and Item 8 is forwarded to the full Board with a recommendation for discussion purposes.