BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

GADSDEN COUNTY, FLORIDA

AGENDA

BUDGET WORKSHOP

August 22, 2013 – 4:00 p.m.

Present:               Doug Croley, Chair-District 5

                                Eric Hinson, Vice-Chair-District 1

                                Gene Morgan, District 3 (arrived late)

                                Brenda Holt, District 4 (arrived late)

                                Sherrie Taylor, District 5 (arrived late)

                                Jeff Price, Budget Director

                                Nicholas Thomas, Clerk of Court

                                Robert Presnell, County Administrator

                                Deborah Minnis

                                Marcella Blocker, Deputy Clerk

INTRODUCTION BY COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR
	Chair Croley called the meeting to Order at 4:07 p.m. Commissioner Holt arrived at this juncture of the meeting. Mr. Presnell said the re-appropriation for the jail locks were included, $400,000 was included and had to add an additional $120,000 from Medicaid funds, but was already appropriated, just rolled into the new budget.  Mr. Presnell stated that the budget was balanced.  He stated there were additional requests that would be addressed later in the workshop.  Did want to mention, at the last meeting there were additional requests for marketing dollars and trail park. Commissioner Morgan arrived at this juncture of the meeting. Mr. Presnell explained the requests were in budget but had been reduced.  Money cut from Senior Citizens and placed cap on employee raises, anyone over $75,000 not to receive pay raise. Chair Croley asked about the money budgeted for mowing and thought the privatization in the one district was to save month. Mr. Presnell explained it would increase services in the other districts but would not save money. Commissioner Morgan asked if the Senior center in Chattahoochee was being funded equally as Havana or the other Senior Centers. Mr. Presnell said had talked with Center in Chattahoochee and executive director in Quincy; Chattahoochee is funded and has been through Quincy budget. Commissioner Morgan asked what the funding would be used for in Havana.  Be used for building upgrades and van. Chair Croley asked if Chattahoochee back feeds from Quincy, does the other centers. Commissioner Hinson-no problem in not funding Havana Senior Center, but if they are not funded, he refuses to fund Chamber. Chair stated the County as a whole has a county senior center was supposed to be a county-wide service, that $50,000 has been going to support that center and asked if Havana was a separate center and received no funds from the Gadsden County Senior center funding. Commissioner Hinson said he was in support of a lot of things the Board had done and this was $10,000 and would possibly hurt the Chamber, hurt the attorney, hurt everything that they “are in concurrence with”.  Commissioner said he had given his word to Havana after they had decided it would be funded. Chair Croley asked if Commissioner Hinson was stating that the Senior Citizen Center in Havana was owned by the Town of Havana. Commissioner Hinson said that September 3^rd he will make a motion that there will be a new attorney, not fund the Chamber of Commerce if they do not fund the Senior Citizens. Commissioner Morgan stated Commissioner Hinson would not threaten him from this day forward on what he would do and what he expected of Commissioner Morgan. Chair Croley said they were trying to understand the perimeters of what was being asked for. Commissioner Holt said the Senior Citizens center in Quincy was originally built for the County, when the funding started getting cut, they couldn’t offer as much, a lot of places did not have a Senior Center and they would try to come into Quincy.  If anything was going to be funded out of reserves, that was good cause, but need to look at what services were already offered. Chair said he was trying to understand, there was a Gadsden center that supposed to be county-wise, have satellite centers, would it be logical for money to be funded to Gadsden and then distribute throughout to the other senior centers. Commissioner Holt said needed to find out what needs are, majority of funding comes from Department of Elder Affairs.  Commissioner Morgan said Commissioner Holt was correct and the funding agencies have very strict guidelines and run the risk of losing funding if guidelines are not met. Commissioner Morgan said there was a right way that they had to go about doing things. Commissioner Holt-Havana Senior Center can follow the law, have no problem, only problem have, cannot fund Quincy and fund others. Commissioner Taylor arrived at this time. Commissioner Holt said it was not their $5 Million, it belonged to the people they were serving. Mr. Presnell said there were only Quincy, Chattahoochee and Havana Senior Centers; one was on drawing board for Midway. Commissioner Hinson said he was perturbed about the situation. Commissioner Taylor apologized for her tardiness; she has taken an 8-5 job and just coming from her job and asked the Chair for a quick update on what she has missed. Chair explained to achieve some of the funding objectives, there were cuts across the board and Commissioner Morgan didn’t think Chattahoochee was receiving  equal support as Havana and therefore he wasn’t supporting Havana funding and set off a “conversation and with the use of the gavel, restored order”. Commissioner Morgan asked to clarify his position regarding the senior services, had no problem in funding senior services, but need to go through the Gadsden County Senior Center. Mr. Presnell-to balance budget, employee raises were capped after $75,000, no-one gets raise. Mr. Presnell-jail locks were re-appropriated-added additional $120,000 but not costing anything, dollars in current year budget rolling forward. Transportation fund balance does require subsidization of operational budget. Commissioner Holt asked what a good operational budget was.  Mr. Presnell answered enough in reserves to fund operational deficiencies.  Gas revenue down. Chair said SCRAP and SCOP were separate funds and situation may improve.  Bond due to be paid out in 4 years.  Clerk said cash in transportation fund as of August 6, was $1,145,000.  Chair asked historically what fund had been.  Chair Croley said as economy improved, revenues would go up. ITEMS THAT NEED BOARD DIRECTION · Ambulance service in Midway · Request for $5,000 for Alzheimer’s Project and $11,000 for Habitat for Humanity. Chair asked about report on ambulance calls-where is bulk of calls from. Tommy Baker, Gadsden EMS Director, appeared before the Board and stated 85% of calls were in central area of County.  25-30% dry runs system wide. Eleven fire responders, 3 ambulance sites, could Midway and Havana be consolidated into one, looked into centrally locating one between the two. On 24 hour shift now.  Leon County working 6 day stretch, doing survey.  Chair asked if successful in moving to new site, could move ambulance from hospital. 24 hour shift designed to get rest but with call volume increasing making to harder for EMT’s getting needed rest. Midway not ready yet, logistical things needed to be done. Commissioner Morgan suggested trial run of 6 months and monitor moving ambulance to Midway.  Mr. Baker said if tried that on 6 month basis, who’s to say Greensboro, Gretna, would not want to try same thing. Chair asked if new trauma center at TMH I-10 & Thomasville Road would be receiving ambulance calls-yes. Commissioner Taylor said she agreed with Clerk; don’t put in Midway at this time, budget problem.  Wants to figure out how to do it.  Suggested having Midway employ someone with EMT training at fire station to help cut costs. Commissioner Hinson stated only one covers the whole east side of Gadsden County and have $5.3 Million, would take down to $5 Million. Commissioner Taylor said problem was if drew out $300,000 first year, would reduce $300,000 each year. Commissioner Hinson said if reserve was at $5 Million, would still have $5 Million every year.  Said Chattahoochee has no call volume, every blue moon.  He added that a lot of the seniors in the area are excited about the ambulance coming to Midway. Commissioner Taylor said the only way was to raise taxes and cut employment. Commissioner Holt agreed on the need, not on the numbers.  Added that logically, it made more sense to put one further away from a facility for better response. Commissioner Morgan said earlier they were to provide public service for the people. Chair Croley said didn’t know if ambulance was logistically needed in Midway, Havana, everybody needed access to ambulance.  Smart way to handle was to allow Mr. Baker run proper report, and make an informed decision. Chair Hinson asked for clarification from Commissioner Taylor. Commissioner Taylor said was not fiscally smart to agree with this but was voting with her heart not her head. Commissioner Morgan asked Commissioner Hinson to look at how long could provide services.  Reason in situation as a country was have continually spent money didn’t have.  This Board has put together a budget and worked very hard to stay within that budget.  Can’t make bad decisions now that will lead to worse decisions.  Mr. Presnell-if decide to do this, not permanent, not obligating for ten years, will vote on it next year.  Will relieve call problems in area.  Budgets get built each year. Commissioner Holt said if money not there, will not vote for in future.  Budget was not in trouble years ago, libraries, fire stations, etc. got built.  She asked Mr. Baker to see some good numbers. Mr. Presnell couldn’t get done in time for this workshop but report to come. Chair Croley-not supporting anything without seeing numbers. Alzheimer’s Project and Habitat for Humanity Commissioner Hinson said Tallahassee had GPS tracking system for Alzheimer’s project. Commissioner Taylor said just taken ¼ Million from budget, not in favor for this at this time. LEGAL FEES BUDGET $215,000 budgeted amount-under budget. Commissioner Taylor asked what retainer covered. Current retainer is $7750.  Not task based retainer but hourly retainer.  50 hours covered under retainer explained the calculation of retainer bill. Commissioner Taylor said should be a set rate over the 50 hours covered by the retainer.  Need to renegotiate terms going forward.  Chair reminded everyone the workshop was about the budget and was set at $250,000. Commissioner Taylor said one thing she asked for was the privilege of discussing the contract for the attorneys. Commissioner Hinson said would like to bring back at next meeting fees that Mr. Glazer has charged. Clerk Thomas said the County had given money to GHI earlier but unspent money was returned to County. Commissioner felt legal budget should be reduced to $150,000. Commissioner Holt was wanted to re-bid contract. Chair said Administrator has put $215,000 in budget, can reduce or can wait until receive RFP’s back. Commissioner Taylor asked when contract expires-June 30, 2014. Commissioner Taylor asked to be mindful because of trying to put ambulance in Midway. Commissioner Morgan recommended following the Administrator’s advice. Chair Croley asked if there was anything the department heads were missing, this was the time to speak up. Commissioner Holt said Probation has not been updated with software and interested in asking for $20,000 to see if worked. Presnell said just received first quote for software and was $18,000.
FY14 BUDGET OVERVIEW
PUBLIC COMMENTS
	Chair Croley called for public omments and there were none.
BOARD PRIORITIES AND DIRECTIONS
	Meeting adjourned at 6:11 p.m.