GAINESVILLE – Hall County Commissioners and members of the Gainesville City Council sat shoulder-to-shoulder Tuesday evening in a special called meeting at the Public Safety Complex for the purpose of signing the Service Delivery Strategy.
Georgia law (HB489 passed by the General Assembly in 1997) requires counties in the state to coordinate with the municipalities in that county for the purpose of avoiding the duplication of public services and associated waste of taxpayer dollars.
“The intent of the bill was to eliminate conflicts between local governments,” Gainesville City Manager Bryan Lackey said. “Ironically, I think, it perhaps caused some conflicts between local governments, but it has a good intent.”
Lackey went on to explain that counties are required to update their Service Delivery Strategy (SDS) every time the county updates their Comprehensive Plan. That action took place Monday at a special called meeting of the Hall County Commission.
Hall County Administrator Randy Knighton followed Lackey to the podium and explained that HB489 sets specific standards for the ratification of the SDS.
“There’s a specific criteria that must be met for approval based on population,” Knighton began, “the county and any city above 9,000 and then 50-percent of the cities within a certain population range (over 500).”
Seated at the front of the room were Mike Miller and Bill Andrew, Mayor and City Manager respectively of Flowery Branch - population roughly 7,000. They had come to sign the SDS and commented that at their present rate of growth they will probably surpass the 9,000-resident population threshold the next time the SDS is negotiated.
Lackey said that when the county and its cities can reach accord on the SDS on their own without mediation it saves the taxpayers a lot of money. “If we were to move into the dispute resolution process easily it would cost the taxpayers of this community over a million dollars to hire the consultants, the attorneys…perhaps even millions of dollars…not only that but the relationships would be severed at that point.”
“In fact I think we’ve done the opposite of that; I think the process we’ve gone through has built relationships now that can be a building block for us to move on into the future,” Lackey added.
He then added one caveat. “I think there may be some of the cities in Hall County that perhaps will not sign off on this and come to an agreement.”
(Hall County has been in an extended dispute with the City of Lula over a waste treatment agreement. Click here to listen to Lula City Manager Dennis Bergin explain his city’s side of the issue while a guest on WDUN’s Morning Talk program.)
“(But) it’s important for those property owners in those cities to know that even though those cities don’t officially sign off they will still the benefits of the tax equity component of this,” Lackey added. “So they’re not left out…and I think that’s an important note we need to make here tonight.”
When called for a vote both the Hall County Commission and the Gainesville City Council gave unanimous approval to the SDS.
FY 2018 GAINESVILLE BUDGET, MILLAGE RATES RECEIVE FINAL APPROVAL
During the voting session of the Gainesville City Council - which followed the above story of the Service Delivery Strategy agreement - council members needed to take an eleven-minute recess to wait for the advertised public hearing start time on the proposed FY2018 budget and millage rates.
Once the advertised start time of 6:00 p.m. for the public hearing arrived Mayor Danny Dunagan reconvened the meeting.
No one indicated the desire to comment on the budget nor the millage rates for the city and the city school system; with that the council voted unanimously to approve the measures.
The $34.1-million budget goes into effect on July1st; the millage rates stand as previuosly announced.
