The late news from north and south Camden.

Well, I lit out for Woodbine about 2:00 this afternoon. I had not eaten and Aunt B's was closed soI went on a spy mission to that new "Western Buffet." The short version is don't even think about it. I wouldn't slop a hog with that mess unless I was really mad at it.

Anyway,I got on up to Woodbine and dropped by Judge Gillette's office on a two-fold mission. One was to renew my long expired license to carry ( a weapon, for you Libs). Man, the price of that sucker has gone up. It was $45.00 when I got my first one in Camden in 1994. It's up to $70.00 now. Secondly, I picked up the paperwork to qualify later in the week for the District 4 commissioners race, if no one way more qualified runs. So far - so good.

Then, I went to Katie Bishops office and got her to let me look through the file where they have bits and pieces of different iterations of the county charter from years gone by, but no whole copy of the charter. You heard me right - our county goverment apparently does not have an entire copy of the current charter they operate under. However, they have made inquiries of the Secretary of States Office hoping they might be able to find one and send them a copy.

Update on 4/27 at 11:22 AM. I just got an e-mail from Katie Bishop. While the file I saw yestewrday was bits and pieces of various bills to amend the charter, the full charter was not there. However, the current version is now on the county website in it's entirety. Here''s the link Katie has e-mailed to me.
 http://www.co.camden.ga.us/archives/49/CH000RL%20-%20PART%20I%20%20RELATED%20LAWS.pdf

This is apparently a recent addition as Steve Howard told me a few weeks ago, right after Berry's anouncement, that it was not yet on there.

Note the short and sweet version of the way to fill a vacancy.

As it stands now, they are awaiting the Secretary of State's office to send them a hard copy of the official document witht the seal on it. They currently do not have one.

Thanks, Katie.

At any rate, it appears that there is no provision in the county charter for holding a special election to replace a deceased, incapacitated, or resigned commissioner. At about 4:30, I was sitting just outside Katies office talking to County Attorney Brent Greene about that very subject. In walked Steve Berry. I told him what we had been discussing. Steve said that he had personally written the last revison to the charter regarding vacancies and that I was absolutely right. He had deliberately omitted any provison for a special election to save the estimated cost of $30,000 for a special election.

Well, let's look at the present case. When Steve resigns effective 31 August, a new guy or gal, appointed by a mjority vote of the remaining commissioners will serve for 15 months untilt he normal end of Berry term on 31 December 2012.  The way the charter is currently set up, that is perfectly legal. Had Berry resigned effective the end of this month, his replacement would have served 19 months without being voted in by the citizens of District 3. Would you folks just as soon see it stay this way, or would you prefer a special election within 90 days of the vacancy occuring?

At 5:00, they had the workshop on the budget deficit. It turns out that that was because Commissioner Zell has to be on a plane to Minnesota tomorrow morning and will miss tomorrow nights meeting. 
Here is the situation:  Oh, hell, it's late - I'll tell you tomorrow.

Oh, it turns out that today, Zell, Weaver, and E.B. Herrin qualified to run. I learned from a reliable source that Charlene is NOT running. 

Then I tore down to the St. Marys City Council meeting. More on that tomorrow.

Hasta manana.

4/27: Gordon Jackson confirms that Sears is not running.

http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2010-04-26/story/candidates-begin-filing-paperwork-county-offices

I think that that is an ideal job for Charlene. I know she will do well and do good. She is obviously already well into it as she missed last night's budget workshop citing a work conflict.

Speaking of the budget workshop, here is the situation.

County revenues from FY 09 to FY 11 have dropped by $3,000,000.

After all department heads submitted cuts, there remains a $391,307 deficit to fully fund the FY 11 budget.

Here are the options presented by the county administrator.

Option 1: A 0.25 mil tax increase.

Option 2: An across-the-board 3.6 salary reduction.

Option 3: Draw down $200,000 from the fund balance and have an across-the-board slary reduction of 1.6%.

Option 4: Reduce the fund balance by the entire $391,307 and have no salary reduction and no tax increase.

Needless to say, Rainer was lightning quick to jump on board with Option 4. Everyone else was quick to reject Option 1, but said it was narrowed down to a choice between Options 3 and 4.

Here's my take on it.

Under no circumstances should a budgetary shortfall be taken out of the hides of the employees. That is not their problem as employees- only as fellow taxpayers.

Rainer and the thankfully defunct Terrible Troika's long practice of raiding the fund balance to keep from having to face up to the need for gradual tax increases has gotten us to where we are now.

Let's take a look at Option 1 in some detail.

Let's assume for the moment that we are looking at the effect of a 0.25 mil increase on a 40 y/o homeowner with no exemptions whatsoever (i.e., worst case scenario.) Forevery $100,000 of appraised value he would only pay the quarter mil on the assessed value of $40,000. Ergo, the tax on every $100,000 of appraised value would be $10.00. (A quarter mil is 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed value).

So, the increased tax on a $100,000 home is $10.00; a $250,000 home, $25.00; a $500,000 home, $50.00.

Personally, as a taxpayer, I would have no objection to a 0.25 mil increase as an alternative to any of the remaining options. That seems the far more prudent and reasonable course of action, yet there clearly does not currently exist on our CCBOC either the individual or combined courage to look the voters in the face and explain that to them. I know the usual jackals will attack me for that, but how many of you agree with me?

The St.Marys City Council meeting was largely uneventful. There was an announcement by Barbara Ryan with a cameo appearance by Doug Vaught that they have landed a movie to be filmed entirely on location in St.Marys. I forget the title but it is about a hurricane. It will star the "distinguished" actor, somebody Scott, the son of the late, great George C. Scott.

Cookie Johnson used her entire five minutes. Covered a variety of issues, but mostly characterized as a recitiation of the burdens of still being a de-facto, ex-officio, councilwoman-at-large. And of course, the usual attack on the mayor pro tem.

A couple of folks got up and spoke of the inevitable downfall of St.Marys if the new alcohol ordinance with a provision for open containers in festival zones is passed.

Oh, and at the end, as usual, Bob Nuttier demanded to know all sorts of data on the city's debt service. He said he had cut short a trip just to be there. As usual, he refused to give his full address as required. Apparently, he got in late and slept in the cargo shorts and rumpled old dress shirt he was wearing untucked over deck shoes with no socks. The day's growth of unshaven beard  topped off the expression of disdain for the mayor and council that he was striving for. At the rate he is going, I fully expect him to show up in no more than a dirty jock strap before the year is out.

That was pretty much it. I left when they went into executive session. I'm sure that the T&G will have whatever happened after that.