LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
3 FEBRUARY 2025
Chair Commissioner Evan Baddour asked that the minutes of August 2024 and November 2024 be considered with a motion. A motion by Commissioner Erin Curry, seconded by Commissioner Caleb Savage, was made to approve both minutes and were then approved unanimously. No prayer or pledge were offered due to being provided in same day Public Services meeting.
First Agenda Item – Resolution of the Giles County Commission in Support of Revenue Sharing Proposal in State Legislature. Re Senate Bill 0462 and House Bill 1187 which would return state and County government to its pre-2002 historical revenue sharing. A motion was made by Commissioner Caleb Savage, seconded by Commissioner Terry Jones, to approve the Resolution. Commissioner Savage asked if there was a specific percentage being considered in the bill, with the CE noting that would be negotiated in committee. The Chair said this Resolution could be, if approved, provided to the full commission and then to the State Representative. The CE said a unanimous decision would be helpful in expressing the Commission’s strong concurrence.. Commissioner Matt Rubelsky asked about doing something with other counties, and the CE said he was coordinating with south-central counties. Commissioner Tracy Wilburn said that the amount or percentage would probably not exceed what was taken away in current sharing percentage. The CE mentioned that in the 2002 change the state also increased the sales tax rate. Motion was approved unanimously.
Second Agenda Item – Rule change for Full Commission meeting times. Based on some citizen requests, this change which would have the full commission meet at 9:00 a.m. all year, rather than the current meeting times which are for 9:00 a.m. for six months and 5:00 p.m. for six months. A motion by Commissioner Terry Jones to approve the 9:00 a.m. all year was made, and was seconded by Commissioner Evan Baddour. Discussion then followed with several commissioners saying leave as is; others change to evening time of 5:00 p.m.; and others saying 9:00. Reasons for the particular support were to allow citizens who work first shift to attend in evening and also to consider running for a county commissioner and still be able to keep a “day job”; not evident that time incurs more attendance with attendance being more on controversial issues; dislike changes during year which leaves some unsure about time; if do this, should you change the smaller (seven people – 1 per district) committee meetings if use the criteria for this particular choice; and never going to make all commissioners (or citizens) happy so split times seemed good compromise. Another motion to stick to the 9:00 a.m. but did not receive a second. After lengthy discussions the Chair declared no further action would be taken.
Third agenda item – Resolution supporting public notice of boards/committees receiving county funding. This Resolution included Beer Board, Adult Oriented Establishment Board, Regional Planning Commission, and Public Records Commission, meetings that the CE confirmed are already publicized per guidelines that exceed statutory requirements. A motion to approve the Resolution, including the Agri Park, E911, and the addition of Fire & Rescue was made by Commissioner Gayle Jones and seconded by Commissioner Evan Baddour. Commissioners raised the following questions: Where does it stop (in terms of adding additional organizations and with several being non-profit); some agreement on those brought under the budgeting umbrella (those counties funded and with service for the whole county); some like libraries have a type of Maintenance of effort which must be maintained to receive funding/resources. Another motion by Commissioner Caleb Savage and seconded by Commissioner Gayle Jones, was made to remove the term “all” from Section 1 which begins with “All county committee meetings” and to be specific in identifying the organizations including adding the Fire and Rescue, and approve the amended resolution. At this time the CE said all the county government meetings are currently being shown on the county’s website, and the county exceeds state publicizing requirements. He mentioned the 10 days notification time is based on the newspaper’s publishing deadline, whereas the state requirement is 48-hours. On being asked about the posting of the full commission meeting minutes, the CE said that’s already accomplished, instituted about 8 months ago. Some of the confusion about what was or was not posted on the website seemed to be that a mobile device might not allow some of the full commission meeting minutes to be accessed. After the above discussion the motion and second were pulled. The CE agreed that he would publicize meeting times for GCFR, Agri Park, and E911 boards on the county calendar.
Unfinished Business – Reducing the total number of commissioners was on previous minutes but the proponent chose to postpone that discussion, and in keeping with the CE recommendation, to do that in July after the budget discussions. Commissioner Joseph Sutton asked if that would need to wait until after the next census, with the CE saying if you redistricted you would have to wait until the next census, but if reducing the number of representatives by district, i.e., now Giles has three commissioners elected per district and that could be reduced to two, for example, then you do not need a new census (you would however have to wait for another election cycle to implement the change.)
New business – the CE noted that the new equalization sales tax took effect Feb 1st. This tax in Districts 1-5 equalized the county’s local sales and use tax rate to make it “equal” to the sales tax rate everyone pays in the city of Pulaski, since 2008.
ATTENDEES: Members of the Committee – Chair Commissioner Evan Baddour, Other Commissioners – Gayle Jones, Annelle Guthrie, Terry Jones, Judy Pruett who first sat in for Shelly Goolsby (late arrival), Erin Curry, and Caleb Savage); Other Commissioners in attendance: Roger Reedy, Matt Rubelsky, James Lathrop, David Adams, Joyce Woodard, Tracy Wilburn, David Wamble, Rose Brown, Joseph Sutton, Tim Risner, Matthew Hopkins, Carman Brown / Other in attendance: County Executive Graham Stowe, Director of Schools, Vickie Beard, Financial Manager Beth Moore-Sumners and staff Shana Woodard, and public
