by Blake Proctor
The Bladen County Board of Commissioners met on May 3rd in a called session prior to two planned meetings to hear County Manager Greg Martin’s introductory fiscal vision for the upcoming year beginning July 1st, 2021.
Chairman Charles Ray Peterson called this preliminary budget workshop to order at 4:05 pm to an almost empty Courtroom #2. Commissioner Arthur Bullock provided the invocation, and Mr. Martin led attendees in the first of the evening’s three Pledges to the Flag.
Mr. Martin informed the Board that the major topics for review and discussion this evening were insurance proposals, charitable contributions, follow-ups from the small group meetings, and the Dublin Fire District tax increase request. Other topics of interest may also come up.
First out of the gate was the matter of the County’s property, liability, and Workers Comp (WC) insurances. The County has been insured with the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners (NCACC) for a number of years but went out into the private market to ”shop rates.”
No one can best the NCACC’s $387,891 premiums for property and liability, although Lacy West-Thomas had WC rates $61,000 lower than NCACC’s. The NCACC’s overall Multi-pool rates, however, still are $9,148 lower when considering the total of all three insurances.
The County has $6,425 available for charitable contributions to eligible non-profit organizations; however, at present, the eight organizations that have applied for assistance already have combined requests of $14,650. The Board will have its work cut out for it to allocate these funds in the new year.
The Dublin Volunteer Fire Department, serving the outlying District in the county as well as the Town itself, has a problem staffing the firehouse during weekday working hours. They have determined that the solution is to hire two part-time firefighters to man the station during those hours.
Based on their estimate of the cost to provide these services, they are requesting that the County approve a fire tax rate of 9.8¢ for the Dublin Fire District, an increase of 3.3¢ from the current 6.5¢.
Their reasoning is, first, that there has been no fire tax increase in some years, and all the other Fire Districts are presently at or near 9¢ now.
Secondly, they determine that the resulting decrease in the Insurance Services Organization (ISO) fire insurance rating due to increased fire protection will result in homeowner savings greater than the cost of the tax increase.
The 900-pound gorilla in Courtroom #2 was, of course, employee compensation: First, how much of a cost-of-living allowance (COLA) to give across the board in July; and second, the possibility of increasing minimum starting pay for all employees to $30,000.
Mr. Martin has computed that every one percent increase in pay will cost the county some $181,000, and any COLA given at the beginning of the year will then become the base on which COLAs will be given the following year.
Compounding the problem, Sheriff James McVicker has requested, as part of his department’s request, a 5% COLA for all Department employees; he stated that other area counties pay more and end up “stealing” his officers after he has spent tax dollars training and equipping them.
Commissioner Arthur Bullock, especially, has for many months been vocal about providing better pay for those at the bottom of the County’s pay scale, increasing minimum starting pay to $30,000.
Research by Mr. Martin has determined that the County has 41 full-time employees in nine departments who earn less than $30,000 annually. Documentation from the NCACC indicates that many other counties pay at the lower end of the pay scale for similar job descriptions.
Comments were made of perhaps giving all employees a 5% raise this year; the cost of that, including fringe benefits, would be $905,000, which would then be the base for any further increases in later years.
Commissioner Cameron McGill opined that perhaps a compromise increase could be given: Instead of a pay raise, employees could be given a 5% bonus; they would have more money, and the pay rate floor does not rise. He did not mention Sheriff McVicker’s request in his comment.
Time restraints resulting from the lengthy compensation discussion resulted in several topics being only marginally covered or not discussed at all: Barely mentioned were overall General Fund revenue projections of $47,110,247 with expenditures of $46,451,808, resulting in a General Fund Balance increase of $658,439. No details were discussed.
On the other hand, some animated discussion ensued regarding the surplus in jail operations resulting from the County’s contract with the federal government: After all inmate expenses were covered, the County had a surplus of $657,000.
Since this money must be spent on public safety, it was the Administration’s contention that $640,325 be used to help pay down this year’s $947,709 Jail Construction Debt Service cost, thereby freeing up the originally obligated $640,325 for general operations.
The remaining $16,675 in surplus would be for jail maintenance and equipment, reducing the need for that amount in the Jail budget in the upcoming year.
Estimated projections of income and outgo for other Funds, such as Water, Sanitation, and E-911 were distributed, but were not discussed during the meeting; there is no need, therefore, to analyze those numbers until they have been properly presented to and digested by the Commissioners at future workshops.
Chairman Peterson reminded the Board that there will be more workshops before the final budget is approved. The next such workshop will be at 5:00 pm, Monday the 17th, prior to the next Board meeting.
With no further questions pending, the workshop was adjourned at 5:37 pm.
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