BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
2 MAY 2025
Chair Commissioner Matt Rubelsky opened the meeting noting prayer and pledge had already been offered. In absence of the County Executive (CE), no CE announcements were made. The Chair then asked for a motion on the 7 March 2025 minutes. A motion to approve was made by Commissioner Matthew Hopkins, seconded by Commissioner Evan Baddour and was approved unanimously. The Chair asked if there were any public comments and there were not.
In previous School Committee meeting, same day, handouts were provided for school, highway, and county general fund. Amendments for school were approved at that meeting and the Budget Committee, with a motion from Commissioner Matthew Hopkins, seconded by Commissioner Evan Baddour, to combine Fund 141 and Fund 143 was made to combine for consideration and was then approved unanimously. A motion to approve the combined amendments was made by Commissioner Matthew Hopkins, seconded by Commissioner Shelly Goolsby, and was approved unanimously.
Per the Financial Manager (FM) Beth Moore-Sumners, she addressed the Highway Fund 131, noting time urgency to start building improvements, and recommended fund movement within the Highway Department budget of $18,844. Chair of the Highway Committee agreed with the urgency to get the information to the next full commission meeting so as to start the improvements timely. Motion by Commissioner Matthew Hopkins, seconded by Commissioner Terry Jones, was made to approve the amendment and the motion was approved unanimously.
A motion to approve the County General Fund 101 amendment was made by Commissioner Matthew Hopkins and seconded by Commissioner Shelly Goolsby and was, after the following discussion, subsequently approved 6 – 1 with Commissioner Evan Baddour voting no. The 101-amendment covered County Clerk’s Office changing a full-time person to parttime and data processing equipment purchase; Juvenile Services amendment was based on the judge’s request for part time employee for additional help; ambulance service which included hospital past due invoices being recouped; state grant for salary supplement and the sale of the cardiac monitors replaced by a different model (Note discussion following.); and archives. The replaced heart monitors were sold on Gov.deal and per the FM did really well, much better than anticipated, i.e., $77,902. With a failed motion to move those funds to the 171 Capital Project line, discussion ensued about placing a cap on funds in line 171; other funding going into that line at year end; unallocated funds such as the $77K now available for approval by a small PoP board; policy dictates last approval by full county commission; FM discussed several options such as leave in 101, earmark in 171, available to all, and possibly won’t have a 171 Line in next budget process. Per Commissioner Terry Jones he had sent email asking this “discussion” be placed on agenda for today’s meeting and now would have to be addressed under new business. Per FM funding has not yet been deposited so can be considered as shown in amendment and that the CE can write a resolution to provide at the next full commission for consideration.
Commissioner David Wamble asked for clarification on state grant funds which reimbursed ambulance service equipment cost which unlike other grant funds did not designate how you then applied the reimbursement funds. In a previous discussion Commissioner Gayle Jones had asked about a training trip for two in London and was told that was paid by a state grant. While several questioned the use of the reimbursed grant funds being used for training rather than applying to now or future equipment costs, several others supported training and the excellent results from that training. Commissioner Joseph Sutton said this is an audit question and move on.
No Old Business. New Business – Commissioner Terry Jones said he would like to have brought up in the next budget meeting that the 171 line item be defunded to below $50K. He further said he would want all department heads capital projects be approved through their respective county committees and that the full commission should have the last vote on capital projects. He expressly stated not a concern on current county employees but for all future elected members he thought that would be appropriate. The FM said she would contact the State comptroller to determine f the county could convert the 171 line back to the 101 Line.
A motion was made by Commissioner Matthew Hopkins to adjourn, and with Commissioner Evan Baddour providing the second, the motion was approved unanimously.
ATTENDEES: Members of the committee – Chair Commissioner Matt Rubelsky and other commissioners Evan Baddour, Matthew Hopkins, Joyce Woodard (for James Lathrop absent), Terry Jones, Shelly Goolsby, and David Adams / Other commissioners in attendance Joseph Sutton, Gayle Jones, David Wamble, Carman Brown, Annelle Guthrie, Tracy Wilburn, Roger Reedy, Tim Risner/ Others in attendance Financial Manager Beth Moore-Sumners and staff, EMS Director Bill Myers, member of the Public