AT A CARES WORKSHOP OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS HELD IN AND FOR GADSDEN COUNTY, FLORIDA ON JANUARY 18, 2022 AT 6:00 P.M., THE FOLLOWING PROCEEDING WAS HAD, VIZ:

 

Present:               Dr. Anthony “Dr. V” Viegbesie, Vice Chair, District 2

                                Ronterious “Ron” Green, District 5

                                Eric Hinson, District 1

                                Kimblin NeSmith, District 3

                                Brenda Holt, Chair, District 4 – appeared by phone

                                Edward J. Dixon, County Administrator

                                Clayton Knowles, County Attorney

                                Marcella Blocker, Deputy Clerk

                                Sara Green, Deputy Clerk

 

CALL TO ORDER, INVOCATION, PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

 Chair Viegbesie welcomed everyone and called the workshop to order at 4:09 p.m. 

 

Mrs. Blackshear gave the Invocation.  Chair Viegbesie led in the Pledge of allegiance to the U.S . Flag.

 

CITIZENS REQUESTING TO BE HEARD (3-Minute Limit)

Anyone wishing to speak on agenda items or non-agenda items should schedule or notify the County Administrator’s Office before attending the meeting and will be asked to follow the Gadsden County Public Meetings Citizens Access Guidelines.  Also, public comment for Commission meetings can be submitted via email to CitizensToBeHeard@gadsdencountyfl.gov until noon on January 18, 2022.  Comments submitted after the deadline but prior to the meeting will be added to the official record, but the County cannot guarantee that Commissioners and staff will have adequate time to review comments prior to the meeting.

 

 Commissioner NeSmith read aloud the above statement.

 

GENERAL BUSINESS

 

1.

Discussion Regarding the Re-Approval of Funds for the Gadsden County CARES Act

 Mr. Dixon introduced the above item and said they were gathered to discuss the re-approval of the CARES Act Residual Funding previously approved on June 15, 2021 by the Board.  He said the total grant award was $7,967,316.  Two date $2,980,406.39 is remaining.  Of this amount $1,765,000 was earmarked for the broadband project utilizing Figgers Communication, Inc. (FCI), leaving a balance available for reallocation of approximately $1,360,000.  After the broadband project he broke down them numbers as follows:

Programs

Building Management System                                                                    $ 15,000

IT Enhancements/Licenses                                                                             25,000

COVID 19 Media Campaign                                                                             75,000

Granicus Website Services                                                                              87,000

 

New Positions:

County Operations Coordinator                                                                    65,000

Grants Coordination (Contractual Services)                                             50,000

Grants Monitoring                                                                                              50,000

Senior Housing Specialist/SHIP                                                                      45,000

Communications Tech/Motorola, etc.                                                        58,000

Budget Technician/OMB                                                                                  36,720

 

Projects:

Gadsden Youth Initiative                                                                                  60,000

Renovation of Public Works Vehicle Repair Area                                 200,000

Renovation of Public Works Common Area                                           100,000

Commission Chambers Redesign                                                               150,000

Architecture/Engineering for Shovel Ready Projects                         200,000

Total                                                                                                                $2,981,720

 

 Commissioner Holt said she was looking at the positions and did see the need for the positions and the shovel ready projects.

 

 Chair Viegbesie asked about the new positions and this was one-time money and the positions would be re-occurring.   

 

 Mr. Dixon said the positions were very necessary positions and were needed now more than ever as they begin the upward mobility. 

 

 Commissioner Green arrived at 4:18 p.m.

 

 Mr. Dixon said the question was about positions and they were needed.  The Senior Housing Specialist is needed and goal this year is to do 30 houses as opposed to 4 that was done last year.

 

 Chair Viegbesie said his concern was this was one-time money from the Federal government and he wanted to know how they would budget to continue the positions and how it would affect the other services provided.

 

Mr. Dixon said the Clerk informed them last year they had $2-3 Million in the SHIP Housing/Hurricane fund.  They made sure they got that into the marketplace but realized they did not have enough people to get this into the marketplace, nor the right kind of people to run other programs so they could feed the low income or those that needed the SHIP housing and other programs. 

 

 Commissioner NeSmith wanted to restate in representing the people of Gadsden County, they need to enhance the County’s revenue.  In order to serve the County properly, the revenue is needed to do so.  He said the Citizens deserve a $1 Million budget next year.  And

The

 

Chair Viegbesie asked they stay on task for this workshop as there was another workshop scheduled after this one, followed by the Board meeting.

 

Commissioner NeSmith said his comments was in-line with what the Chair said.  How could they fund the salaries if they did not enhance their revenue? 

 

 Commissioner Nesmith asked how many people were in the SHIP department and Mr. Dixon said there was a total of three.

 

 Commissioner Holt said after Hurricane Michael, FEMA recommended no less than five people in that department and she did not see any positions they could do without, they needed to adjust the budget. 

 

Chair Viegbesie said the positions would be recurring so they would need revenue to continue to carry the positions.

 

 Commissioner Hinson asked how much was in the General Revenue fund.  Ms. Daniels said in the General Fund the balance was $5.2 Million; in the unassigned fund was $3 Million.

 

 Commissioner Hinson said even though he understood what that meant by assigned and unassigned, could it be explained to the public.  

 

 Ms. Daniels said unassigned is revenue in the fund that is not restricted or assigned to any particular source; assigned meant it is assigned to a particular fund. 

 

 Commissioner Hinson asked how much should they have in reserve.  Chair Viegbesie said he could not tell specifically, but when the representative from Purvis Gray gave the range he felt was healthy for the County to have, it should be enough to carry the County for 30 days in the case of extreme circumstances.

 

 Mr. Knowles said Florida Statute provides that reserve for contingency may be provided which does not exceed 10% of total appropriations and the reserve may not be more than 20% of total appropriations.

 

 Commissioner Hinson asked Mr. Knowles to repeat

 

  NeSmith asked percentage of general fund is in reserve…Knowles said most recent audit on Clerk’s website says…

 

  Holt asked, if possible, to post general information and public could see it. 

 

  Holt asked to carry the $140,000 over to next meeting.

 

  Hinson said 1 question had about CARES-

 

  V said what has determined-remaining money to be used is   

MOTION TO ADJOURN

  Workshop adjourned at 4:54 p.m.

 

 

-
Status:

Markers:
Status:

Markers:
    0:00:00.0    

Place mini panel



Select format:   WMA/WMV   AAC/H264
  For mobile devices: Auto restore player panel
  Special mode for Android