The Midway City Council took a major step towards improving fire service inside the city limits Monday, voting to pass a $3,247,300 budget based on total anticipated revenues of $1,635,000 in the General Fund and $1,612,000 in the Water Fund. However, city expenditures fell short of revenue by $601,950 for anticipated fire services, O’Steen said.
“So in the true sense of a balanced budget, we do not have a balanced budget?” asked Mayor Pro Tem Clemontine Washington.
“Yes, ma’am, because it is not a zero at the bottom, but it is still legally, it still qualifies…because you can budget to use fund balance,” O’Steen explained.
Surprise package
While the city did not provide copies of the final budget to reporters at the meeting and did not place a copy for the public on its website, Mayor Levern Clancy and City Clerk Lynette Cook-Osborne said it would be available in 72 hours “under Georgia law.”
The city did give The Current copies of the Statement of Revenues and Expenditures for the General Fund and the Water Fund on Dec. 9. However, those documents were still in draft form, would not have included any changes before the final vote, and were not the actual line-item budget.
The final budget summary was not projected on a screen or read aloud during the third and final public hearing on the budget, although Campbell O’Steen, representing the city’s accounting firm, did read off dollar amounts of some major categories during the open meeting.
Earlier Monday, Clancy told The Current in an e-mail that, when the council went into executive session during the previous meeting and said it had been to discuss the Midway Volunteer Fire Department, “We did not talk about the department, we talked about employees for the department.” The Current asked Clancy whether he was referring to past, current, or future employees. He replied that there had been “no need” for the city attorney and that the discussion “was for paid personnel.” Under the county’s publicly-offered five-year proposal, Liberty County Fire Department would hire personnel to cover Midway fire services.
Still unanswered is how Midway would pay progressively higher payments over the remaining four years. While new businesses like the Love’s Truck Stop at I-95 will be coming online in the next 18 months or so, it’s not clear whether sales tax from those businesses will bring the city enough revenue to cover the startup costs of a new fire station.
Public accountability
Over the past year, Midway has been slow to respond to The Current’s open records requests, as set forth in Georgia law. During Monday’s meeting, all council members, the mayor, and the city clerk, as well as O’Steen making the public presentation required by law, had copies of the summary budget. The only two people in the audience were reporters from The Current and The Coastal Courier. Neither were given copies of the final summary budget or provided when requested.
During the open meeting, elliptical discussions of specific budget questions were vague as to what changes or clarifications were being made. Without a copy of the budget in hand, it was not possible for the public or reporters to see what budget items the accountant and city officials were discussing.
Clancy said an undetermined number of new police cars would be paid for “half and half” from SPLOST and the General Fund.
O’Steen said the city also anticipates “an increase in revenues….mostly water charges and connect fees, things like that.” He did not specify whether that meant increased water bills, revenue from growth as new homes and businesses come online, or both.
The budget includes a 2.5% cost of living increase for city employees, as well as 5% increase in what the city pays for employee insurance coverage premiums.
“So you got the benefit package for the elected officials?” Clancy asked.
“Yes, sir, retirement,” O’Steen replied.
The city also budgeted for a new part-time assistant clerk of municipal court, which made for “a decent jump” in court expenses, O’Steen said, adding that the streets budget would stay about the same as listed in a previous draft of the budget.
“The big one will be fire,” O’Steen said. “…I think the current plan is a contract from the county to provide those services, so that’s going to be a big, big increase from what’s been budgeted before, to be able to provide those services.”
When the council voted to enter executive session, The Current asked whether the press would be provided with copies of that document, or whether the city would place a copy on its website for the press and public to access.
Clancy said, “That’s not my job.” He and Cook-Osborne said that, under Georgia law, the city had 72 hours to make public the budget it had already voted to approve. The Current and Coastal Courier then asked for the overall fund totals from O’Steen and had him confirm the $601,950 difference for the fire budget that forced the city to use the General Fund to balance the budget. However, O’Steen said, about another $200,000 would go to fire, bringing the total to over $800,000.
Under state law, local governments must use zero-balance budgeting. The General Fund is supposed to include rainy-day funds for emergencies or unexpected major expenses like replacing a vehicle or making a waterline repair.
Public records were in the room
While the Georgia Open Records Act does provide for up to 72 hours to respond to either verbal or written requests for public records, it does not require that 72-hour period to elapse in order to provide public records that are readily available.
And nothing in Georgia law provides for a governing body to pass a budget that members of the public and the press have not been allowed to review. If the public cannot access a copy of the budget, it cannot meaningfully participate in any public hearings about the budget. And if the press cannot access a copy of the budget, it cannot inform the public of how its elected officials plan to spend their tax dollars.
Clare R. Norins, director of the University of Georgia School of Law First Amendment Clinic, said in an e-mail Tuesday that “The Georgia Open Records Act requires the City of Midway to ‘produce for inspection all records responsive to a request within a reasonable amount of time not to exceed three business days.’ This means that records must be provided in less than three days (72 hours) if they are reasonably available sooner. This would include city documents considered and discussed during open session at a public meeting that can readily be produced. The three-day rule is not a basis for delaying inspection or intentionally frustrating public access. Indeed, a best practice is to make city documents that will be discussed in an open meeting available at the same time that the agenda for the meeting is posted.”
The Current also has asked the Georgia First Amendment Foundation and Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr’s office for comment on the matter.
Concerns about how to pay for full fire protection after the demise of the Midway Volunteer Fire Department contributed to dragging out the budget process. The city’s accounting firm representative told The Current that the city will have to take money out of the General Fund account to cover the first year of costs — exceeding $800,000 — if Liberty County is to provide that fire coverage. It also will have to replenish funds while forking over gradual increases in the remaining four years of the county’s proposed fire service plan.
Since most of Midway’s volunteer fire department quit, citing years of conflict with and inaction from city officials, some residents have said that their insurance companies have cancelled their coverage or raised their rates by hundreds of dollars. However, the Liberty County Fire Department continues to cover priority calls, just as it had when the MVFD was active, and not all insurance companies use ISO ratings to set their fire insurance rates. Homeowners can contact an independent insurance broker for help finding coverage.
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