Paulding’s Board of Commissioners voted last week after much wrangling between the chairman and other commissioners to grant a 3 percent cross-the- board pay hike to county employees in 2017. Lengthy negotiations between commissioners, department heads, and the finance office culminated in board members voting 4-1 for final approval of a $142.3 million budget last Tuesday night.
Paulding Fire Chief Joey Pelfrey had addressed the board earlier this month and asked for a 3.75 percent increase for local firefighters. Pelfrey told Paulding commissioners that the requested hike in pay would help to slow an exodus of employees leaving the county to work elsewhere. Pelfrey said the problem was not unique to Paulding but could be helped by the proposed increase. The approved budget included six changes made prior to the voting meeting last Tuesday.
About 750 employees will see the pay increase in the 2017 budget, which will also include funding for a maintenance contract for Veterans Park, a salary study, and funds provided to reimburse the Paulding DOT for use of grant funds on road projects.
But last week’s budget approval came under protest from Chairman David Austin that he was left out of the process the four post commissioners used Tuesday to discuss what they sought to add to the spending plan Austin first proposed in early June.
Earlier this month the board unanimously approved the "rollback" property tax rate of 6.188 mills, which Austin had sought to fund a $139.1 million budget he introduced on June 1. Commissioners Pownall and Collett proposed a higher tax rate of 6.5 mills to fund a proposed $141 million budget. But after hearing from the public, commissioners voted instead to approve the "rollback" rate.Commissioner Pownall said he planned to seek modifications to the existing budget to fund some of the additions he wanted. During their Tuesday morning work session Finance Director Tabitha Pollard told commissioners she’d increased the projected revenue for FY17 by $1 million partly because she believed she underestimated the amount of sales tax revenue that will be available. She also noted that $2 million can be used from reserves, also referred to as a fund balance. The county government received a local maintenance and improvement grant from GDOT in 2015 and can use that funding to reimburse the county DOT for road projects when the money is needed in 2017, Ms. Pollard said.
The total budget was $142,377,147, or a $3.2 million increase from Austin’s plan introduced June 1. Prior to the vote, Austin had listed several reasons for why he wanted to table the vote on the proposed budget.
“I didn’t see it myself today until 4 o’clock,” Austin said. Additionally, Austin told the other commissioners that legal costs had increased significantly this year compared to previous years and were “out of control” – a reference to the contrast caused by expenses tied to litigation involving the county and the airport authority.
Austin said he wanted commissioners to delay action on the budget until both he and more department heads had a chance to consider the changes.
He also accused the other four of violating state law by meeting together to discuss the changes without giving prior public notice. Both Commissioners Collett and Pownall denied Austin’s claim and Pownall termed Austin as “out of order” for making the statement and also characterized Austin as having “bullied” employees with regard to the formulation of the new budget.
Commissioner Collett asked Pollard how waiting through two more weeks would affect her operations and the county’s finances. Pollard responded that further delay in reaching last week’s vote would not reflect well with bond rating agency representatives. “We have ratings conferences for the next two days, and I’m going to have to explain why we don’t have a budget...and that’s going to be kind of difficult,” Pollard said.
Pollard told commissioners that by ordinance the county should have adopted a budget by their first August meeting. Commissioners did address budget issues during that meeting, but did not approve a 2017 spending plan until last week’s 4-1 vote.

Photo: R. Grant