NEWBERRY COUNTY
COUNCIL
MINUTES
JANUARY 3, 2007
Newberry County Council met on Wednesday, January 3, 2007, at 7:00 p.m. at the Newberry Opera House, 1201 McKibben Street, Newberry, South Carolina for a regular meeting.
Present were: Mike Hawkins, Chairman
William D. Waldrop, Vice-Chairman
John E. Caldwell, Councilman
Henry B. Summer, Councilman
John David Dawkins, Councilman
Henry H. Livingston, III, Councilman
Edgar Baker, Councilman
Wayne Adams, County Administrator
Gary T. Pope, County Attorney
Susan C. Fellers, Clerk to Council
Media: Heather Hawkins, WKDK
Cindy Pitts, Newberry Observer
Notice of the meeting was duly advertised as required by law.
Mr. Hawkins called the meeting to order and determined a quorum to be present.
Mr. Waldrop had the invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
Mr. Hawkins then turned the meeting over to Gary Pope, County Attorney, for the election of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman for 2007.
3. Election
of Chairman for 2007.
Mr. Pope entertained nominations for Chairman. Mr. Dawkins nominated Mike Hawkins. Mr. Waldrop nominated Henry Summer. There being no further nominations, Mr. Pope declared the nominations closed and called for the vote. Voting for Mike Hawkins: Councilmen Hawkins and Dawkins. Voting for Henry Summer: Councilmen Waldrop, Caldwell, Summer, Livingston and Baker. Mr. Pope declared Henry B. Summer Chairman for 2007.
4. Election
of Vice-Chairman for 2007.
Mr. Pope entertained nominations for Vice-Chairman. Mr. Dawkins nominated Mike Hawkins. Mr. Baker nominated William D. Waldrop. There being no further nominations, Mr. Pope declare the nominations closed and called for the vote. Voting for Mike Hawkins: Councilmen Hawkins and Dawkins. Voting for William D. Waldrop: Councilmen Waldrop, Caldwell, Summer, Livingston and Baker. Mr. Pope declared William D. Waldrop Vice-Chairman for 2007.
Mr. Pope then turned the meeting over to Henry B. Summer, Chairman.
Mr. Summer thanked Council for supporting him and thanked Mr. Hawkins for his hard work over the past two years as Chairman. He further thanked the Assessor’s Office, Auditor’s Office and Treasurer’s Office for their hard work over the past few days with collecting taxes.
Mr. Hawkins thanked Council for allowing him to serve as Chairman for the past two years.
Mr. Waldrop thanked Council for the opportunity to serve another year as Vice-Chairman.
5. Adoption
of consent agenda.
Mr. Dawkins moved to adopt the consent agenda; second by Mr. Baker. Vote was unanimous.
6. Additions,
deletions and adoption of agenda.
The following amendments were requested:
· Add first reading of 3 zoning ordinances (8.1, 8.2 and 8.3)
· Delete item 12
· Add the establishment of a Citizens Advisory Committee (7.1)
There being no further additions or deletions, Mr. Hawkins moved to adopt the agenda as amended; second by Mr. Waldrop. Vote was unanimous.
7. Consideration
of proposed budget reductions.
Mr. Adams advised that budget cuts were based on 5% across the board, for a total cut of $1,674,617, which equates to an 8.14% reduction in spending for County Ordinary operations for half a year. The debt service in the original budget was $891,438; this has been reduced by $734,861.
Two positions were cut out of the budget in the Health Department, those being the nurse and the interpreter. That is to take effect March 1, 2007.
If the Whitmire and Fairview 12 hour ambulance service is cut out, that would be a savings of $100,000.
If all proposed cuts are accepted, it would be an approximate $60 to $70 savings on a $100,000 owner occupied residence.
Mr. Adams also proposed the following provisos:
· Delete the County employees’ merit based pay raises until further notice.
· Consider employees paying part of the health insurance premium.
· Freeze all travel until further notice.
· Identify County owned property for sale.
· Consider the sale of the J.F. Hawkins Nursing Home and Springfield Place to a private company.
Mr. Dawkins moved to implement all of these excluding reducing the ambulance service for Newberry County from four ambulances to two and that we vote on that separately; second by Mr. Hawkins. Vote was unanimous.
Mr. Dawkins moved that the total County Ordinary in the sum of $1.674 Million be eliminated from the budget; second by Mr. Baker. Vote was unanimous.
Mr. Hawkins moved to cut the lease/purchase for the Haz-Mat Ambulance in the amount of $116,000; second by Mr. Waldrop. Vote was unanimous.
Mr. Hawkins moved to eliminate the nurse and interpreter positions from the Health Department budget; second by Mr. Dawkins. Voting for the motion: Councilmen Summer, Caldwell, Hawkins, Dawkins and Livingston. Voting against the motion: Councilmen Baker and Waldrop.
Mr. Waldrop moved to cut the 12 hour ambulance service in Whitmire and Fairview at a cost of $170,000; second by Mr. Baker.
Mr. Dawkins requested that Lynn Beasley with Newberry County Memorial Hospital address Council on this issue. Mr. Beasley asked Council to vote against cutting this service to the outlying areas of the County.
Mr. Baker requested that the hospital reconsider their policy about not going out of county with the ambulance service.
There being no further discussion, Mr. Summer called for the question. Voting for the motion: None. Voting against the motion: Councilmen Summer, Waldrop, Caldwell, Hawkins, Dawkins, Livingston and Baker. Motion failed.
7.1 Establishment
of a Citizens Advisory Committee.
Mr. Livingston moved to appoint a committee to study the reliability of reassessment, the expenditures and make recommendations to deal with the issues. The committee should be made up primarily from taxpaying citizens of Newberry County along with the State Legislative representation, one or two members of the realty, possibly clergy, some of the citizen groups here. Second by Mr. Caldwell. Vote was unanimous.
8. Public
comments.
Mr. Summer established the following guidelines for public comments:
· Limited to 3 minutes.
· The public will not ask questions of County Council.
· County Council will not respond to the public comments. If they want to respond, we have comments from Council.
· One public comment per quarter.
Mr. Dawkins realized public comments needed to be orderly, but to say that someone can only speak at a Council meeting once per quarter, he couldn’t go along with that. Also, if a citizen wants to direct something to Mr. Dawkins, it is his choice to respond.
The following persons spoke about budget cuts, taxes and reassessment: Mike Bedenbaugh, Victor Terrano, Reba Lester, Charles Hatch, Donnie Berry, Nancy Dickert and John Chapman.
Tim Connelly expressed concern over the guidelines established by Mr. Summer. Mr. Dawkins went on record that he understands speaking limits, but as far as speaking once every quarter and a Council member may not respond, he would not obey that.
Ronnie Hydrick congratulated Buddy Livingston on his election to County Council.
8.1 An Ordinance to amend the Official
Zoning Map established pursuant to Zoning Ordinance #12-24-01 so as to rezone a
tract containing approximately 8.5 acres, designated as a portion of TMS Parcel
#739-38, from Rural (R-2) to General Commercial (GC).
Mr. Hawkins moved for first reading; second by Mr. Waldrop. Vote was unanimous.
8.2 An Ordinance to amend the Official
Zoning Map established pursuant to Zoning Ordinance #12-24-01 so as to rezone a
tract containing approximately 4.59 acres, designated as a portion of TMS
Parcel #340-3-9, from Rural (R-2) to General Residential (RG).
Mr. Hawkins moved for first reading; second by Mr. Dawkins. Vote was unanimous.
8.3 An Ordinance to amend the Official
Zoning Map established pursuant to Zoning Ordinance #12-24-01 so as to rezone a
tract containing approximately 29 acres, designated as TMS Parcel #450-4, from
Rural (R-2) to Residential (RS-2).
Mr. Hawkins moved for first reading; second by Mr. Livingston. Vote was unanimous.
9. Committee Reports.
No reports.
10. Appointments.
No appointments.
11. Consideration of acceptance of
bids for ground water testing.
Mr. Adams advised this was for testing required by DHEC at the landfill.
Mr. Waldrop moved to accept the low bid from Terry Environmental Services in the amount of $8,200; second by Mr. Baker. Vote was unanimous.
12. Consideration of approval of
Agreement for Engineering Services between the County and TRC Engineers, Inc.
for Pugh Road Bridge.
Deleted.
13. Executive Session (if needed).
No Executive Session.
14. Future Meetings.
The next County Council meeting will be on Wednesday, January 17, 2007, at 7:00 p.m. in Council Chambers at the Courthouse Annex.
15. Comments
from County Administrator.
Mr. Adams thanked all department heads for their work on the budget and thanked former Chairman Mike Hawkins for all the time he spent meeting on the budget.
16. Comments
from Council Members.
Mr. Summer thanked the departments for their work on the budget reductions and thanked Council for allowing him to serve as Chairman.
Mr. Waldrop thanked Council for allowing him to serve as Vice-Chairman.
Mr. Hawkins talked with the School Board, and the School Administrator assured him they were willing to look at their budget and hopefully will come up with some cuts.
Mr. Hawkins congratulated Mr. Summer on his election as Chairman and requested that he work toward cultivating a better relationship with the local newspaper.
Mr. Baker, with the permission of his attorney, made the following statement:
“As you all know, the County has sued W.E. Baker & Son, Inc. and me personally for money damages in connection with the building. Before suit was filed, we tried to reach an agreement with the County that would have allowed us to make repairs to the building, at our expense, but the County rejected our proposal. Since the suit was filed, we have continued to try to reach an agreement that would allow us to make repairs. The County allowed us to visit the site one time and do some work we recommended, which we did as soon as we were given an opportunity. We asked to be allowed back onto the property to evaluate the effectiveness of our repairs and to do some more work, if needed. Several months have gone by and the County has never given us that opportunity. By deciding to sell the property “as is,” the County has essentially prevented us from trying to help. We still want to solve this problem, if there even is one, but I have personally been excluded from the County’s decisions, and we cannot do anything more as long as the County refuses to cooperate with us.”
Mr. Livingston thanked the voters of District 3 for their support and looked forward to serving the citizens of Newberry County.
Several unidentified persons spoke again about the taxes and rescinding reassessment.
Mr. Hawkins requested that the County Administrator send Mr. Baker’s statement to the County’s attorney for his review and comment.
Tom Crooks spoke about Council’s pay increases.
Terry Cotney spoke in opposition to the guidelines for public comments established by Mr. Summer.
17. Vote
for Adjournment.
Mr. Waldrop moved to adjourn; second by Mr. Baker. Vote was unanimous.
18. Adjournment.
Meeting adjourned at 9:05 p.m.
NEWBERRY COUNTY COUNCIL
____________________________________
Henry B. Summer, Chairman
____________________________________
Susan C. Fellers, Clerk to Council