Washington County’s bank accounts are reaching a critical level.
District One Supervisor and Board Vice President Lee Gordon said the board would be lucky if it didn’t have to borrow money before the end of the year.
District Four Supervisor Mala Brooks and Carl McGee, District Three Supervisor, and Board President had words over financial reserves the county should but doesn’t have.
Chelsea Carter the County Administrator and Comptroller said currently the county was 3 percent under budget.
Brooks said she thought that was good.
But McGee told Brooks that no, in fact it was not good.
“Keep in mind we need to be at 8-10 percent,” McGee said, “We were at 4 percent but we’re steadily falling back.”
Under budget is good Brooks insisted, but McGee said it was horrible.
“Ms. Brooks, you’re on the finance committee, you know what I’m about to say,” McGee said. “This board won't have the flexibility it needs if there were some unexpected incident.”
Brooks asked McGee to be clear on the point he was making.
“So we don’t have any reserves,” Brooks stated, and then asked. “You’re saying the county doesn’t have any reserves?”
McGee reminded Brooks that she is on the finance committee.
Brooks asked Carter in her role of Comptroller if the county had any reserves.
McGee again reminded Brooks that she was on the finance committee, adding “you were in a meeting and made a decision to move funds around.”
McGee told Brooks and the rest of the board that for years the county was able to respond to whatever needs came up, there was a time when they went into budget session they were able to give raises.
With the budget session approaching McGee cautioned the board to be mindful when making requests or spending because a tightening up was going to have to happen.
“Three percent under budget is horrible.” McGee reiterated.
District Five Supervisor Jerry Redmond, attempting to lighten the seriousness in the room, said it was better than 6 percent over budget.
When the response was silence he changed the subject to garbage trucks going too fast and not closing the back end of the trucks.
“I was driving behind one of our Garbage trucks that was going about 50 mph with debris flying out of the back," Redmond said.
The discussion quickly returned to a tightening up when Gordon and McGee joined Redmond’s aside, suggesting that there may be too many workers per garbage truck.
Gordon’s opinion was to not fire workers but to move those workers to open potions in other departments in the county.
No motions were made, but the discussion became lengthy, with detailed ideas, about the practicality, and logistics of the personnel transfer.
With budget sessions looming on the horizon, an agenda item on the topic is likely to be numbered among the other expendable expenditures.
