Bulloch County Commissioners meet for Day One of FY25 Budget Retreat

Bulloch Country Commissioners met from 8:30am to 4pm on Monday, March 11, 2024, for their first of two full days set aside on the Commissioners' schedule for their annual budget retreat. Over the two day retreat held at the Bishop Building at Paulson Stadium, they will hear 25 presentations from County-funded departments. The FY2024 budget was $60,605,872.

The department heads are addressing immediate needs and doing their best to project forward to the future needs of their departments.

At several points during the day, the Commissioners stressed that the County staff would have to balance the FY25 budget with no new taxes.

Kristie King, CFO for the County, also stressed her goal of completing this work as early as possible so she could release the budget publicly to give citizens ample time to review.

Day One included presentations from:

Finance
Human Resources and Risk Management
Government Buildings
Development Services
Tax Assessor and GIS
Tax Commissioner
SPLOST Presentation
Recreation
Engineering
Public Works
Development Authority of Bulloch County

031124-boc-1 — Area for citizens to view budget presentations

Below is an overview of each presentation.

Finance

Kristie King, CFO

Considerations for Fiscal Year 2025

Bulloch County Compensation Plan - Need to keep wages competitive with market rates to attract and retain capable, quality employees.
Retirement Plan - The new Defined Benefits Pension Plan became effective July 1, 2023, but there is still uncertainty as to the actual cost of the plan. We hope to receive the actuarial valuations report and recommended contribution amount from ACCG by the end of April.
Preparing for growth - Industrial, commercial and residential growth continues throughout the county.
Staying within our means

Capital Consideration for Fiscal Year 2025-2029

Aging facilities needed to be replaced or expanded
Aging equipment needed to be replaced - there are long lead times for ordering certain vehicles and equipment (ambulances, fire trucks)
Some facilities may be outgrown in coming years if additional staff are added
Strategic planning for new facilities to address population growth
Consider using operating funds for vehicle/equipment replacement to preserve SPLOST for larger facility and infrastructure projects

What Commissioners can expect to hear:

Most departments and constitutional offices will present
Additional personnel that will be requested for FY 2025
Any major capital needs over the coming 5-10 years
Concerns for continuing to operate at current level and plans to address expected population growth
We are talking about big-picture -- not line items/details
Where we are now compared to a year ago

Human Resources and Risk Management

Cindy Mallett, HR Director

Big Picture: Workforce needs, where we are, how to recruit and retain.
- A real issue and challenge. Many departments are having a hard time filling positions and then retaining them. The labor market and compensation contribute to this.
- Can be retention-focused by asking them are they satisfied? Happy with their roles? With their compensation? Total package including benefits?

We are also working on succession planning, ensuring the viability of our organization after longterm employees leave.

Flexibility and change is important, and growth is an overarching challenge.
Unemployment rate of 3.2% reinforces how difficult it is to find employees. Most workers who want to be employed are already employed. Some positions are very hard to fill.
In 2023, we received 10.6 average applicants per job.
Pay rates have improved. Employees are grateful that our pay rates have kept up with the market.
We compared 20 positions in our pay plan with other S.E. Georgia area counties, and on average, Bulloch is 6.4% behind in pay compared to other communities.
If you skip a year or two in pay adjustments and increases, it makes matters much worse down the road.
Competition from industry and other public entities plays a role.
Inflation has impacted employees, as well.
Changing expectation of candidates also plays a role. They have different expectations in terms of flexibility, innovation, and benefits.
An important question: How do we become an employer of choice?

In FY 2024, Bulloch County hired 80 full time employees. Nine of those -- or 11% -- are no longer employed. All of those left within 90 days of being hired. Many had better offers. Keep in mind, they have been looking for some time. With a limited hiring pool, it impacts hiring decisions, which makes it difficult to match appropriately to the position, which in turn impacts employee satisfaction.

Overall turnover rate was 17.3%, which is one of the highest turnover rates we have seen in some time.
Always looking for ways to improve benefits overall and increase employee satisfaction.
Focus on career paths and advancement opportunities.
Staying interviews -- ask employees why they are staying.
494 Full-time employees. 8.7% have 24 or more years of service.
Over 25% are 50 or older.
8 retirements have come from the new defined benefits plan.
- How do we transfer that knowledge and prepare future leaders?

Risk Management

Liability insurance and health insurance are increasing.
Safety and the importance of safety is a key, including accountability, which sends a message about culture.
Higher liability for property claims including auto accidents.

Challenges

Staffing/workload
Technology
Large projects
Growth
Ideas vs. resources

HR Activity

1,108 active employees, full time and part time
4,657 personnel actions (hiring, termination, pay increase or promotions)
- .5 for every 100 employees.
- 1 per 100 is average
  - Would take 8 staff members in HR to get to average of 1 per 100.
We operate very lean
5 total employees in HR department, including Risk Management specialists hired last week.

Department Priorities

Next priority is a Human Resources Manager
HRIS specialists to manage technology
The department is not asking for any additional staffing in the current budget year, but probably will need to in coming years.
Planning professional development and training for HR staff and safety training, training for improvement of culture, and skills training for supervisors and employees
Workforce Development Study: Where we are going and where we need to make improvements

Government Buildings

Darryl Hopkins, Building and Facilities Manager

Staffing is a huge issue.
- Causing us to defer some of the work orders
160 plus buildings they maintain, including 34 parks and recreation buildings
Currently have two employees and three open positions
Facilities management plan will be completed in December and will help guide the department moving forward.

Elections

Were not able to make a presentation due to tomorrow being a Presidential Primary.

Chair Roy Thompson didn't understand why they didn't at least submit any information. He asked the County Manager to invite them one of their meetings after the primary election to present their budget requests.

Development Services

James Pope, Planning and Development Director

Advanced the department pretty significantly over the last few years. He is proud of how they have improved communication with the public.

Department Initiatives

Zoning Ordinance Revision - completed in 2023
Subdivision Ordinance Revision - completed in 2023
Stormwater Ordinance - completed in 2023
Statesboro-Bulloch Long Range Transportation Plan Update - ongoing 2023-2024
Bulloch County Comprehensive Plan ongoing 2024
Future Overlay Planning and Ordinance refinement 2025-2027

Average number of single family homes continues to increase. This has been impacted by increase in interest rates and lumber prices.

Building permits continue to increase
By 2030, the county will be over 100,000 in population.
Have over 1,700 vacant lots -- permits can be pulled tomorrow
Averaging 33 single family home permit requests per month
Anticipating 2024 zoning requests (compared to 66 in 2023)
Residential development is the largest source of permits
Online permit process has been very popular
Staff of 11

Impact Fees

Commissioner Ray Mosely asked about implementing impact fees. Tom Couch, County Manager, said they would need to do a study to determine what you want to include in the fees like roads, water and sewer. You also have to consider the rate of growth. Impact fees are not going to cover all of your future capital needs. They have to be joined with grants, TAD funds, etc. It is a viable source of capital funding, but it will not cover all the fees. For impact fees to work, you need to be permitting 800 to 1,000 permits consistently annually. It would cost probably $50,000 to complete the study.

Tax Assessor and GIS

Ronnie Newton, Chief Tax Assessor

No changes from last year. Not asking for anything new.

We have enough staff at this time. As growth continues, we will need increased staff in the future especially to meet the State mandates. They tell us how many appraisers we have to have. As growth continues, we need to keep focuses on that.

The thresholds for more appraisers is based on parcels, not individual population. We would need another 5,000 parcels increase before we would need additional staff. However, they do have an aging staff and will need to continue to train current staff and prepare them to continue the roles of the department.

Values are based on the market. 2024 values are set based on 2023 sales. Everything is based on sales -- if your neighbors sells their house, it impacts you.

Legislative Impact

Robert Fisher, Deputy Chief Tax Appraiser said there are three main bills that may impact property tax values here the most for 2025.

Increase of threshold for personal property is currently $7,500 and would increase to $20,000
Doubling the standard homestead extension from $2,000 to $4,000
Three variations of homestead tax freeze for homesteaded properties -- approximately 3% only that have made crossover. It would limit their increases.
A few bills on rollbacks are up in the air now.

GIS - Paul Conner, GIS Coordinator

1,596 new addresses were issued, which is a 16% increase from the previous year.
496 new parcels were split out form their parent parcels, a 29% increase from the previous year. Over the last 5 years, we have seen an 8% increase in new parcels.
Maintained 5,300 mobile home points, large flux of moving in and out of the county last year.
Converted 490 residential sketches from the CAMA system to GIS polygon files and georeferenced each home to actual location on the map by associated latitude and longitude coordinates.
Maintained and updated services that tie our GIS data to other software (Assessor's website, Tyler asset management, PnZ permits, etc.)
Created 29 new GIS applications for citizens and various departments' use
Created applications on the GIS side that helps citizens and departments. As technology arises, the more demand for information.
This past year we asked for a new plotter and purchased it.

Tax Commissioner

Leslie Akins, Tax Commissioner

No budgetary ask for 2025. Second year in a row of no request.

New software completed last year. This was a 2022 budget request.

Tax office renovations will be needed at some point. We would like to add one additional person on the front end. That would be helpful, comparable to what the Tax Assessors office did. Akins noted that she continues to do many of the responsibilities in her office that she did before becoming Commissioner.

We do have an uptick in online tax renewals. It is much easier. That helps with customer service needs.

We will need one additional staff person in 2026. A satellite tax office in the lower end of the county is worth having a conversation about.

Have updated their website to provide many services online to citizens.

Personal Property Tax Sale

Every single person paid. Did not have to sell any properties.
2023 taxes due December 1st. Real property is at 93% collected. Personal property is at 96% collected.
2022 taxes: Real is at 99.4% and personal at 99.6% collected.

SPLOST Presentation

Tom Couch, Bulloch County Manager

Couch spoke on the state of our local county. We sent out an economic report at the close of 2023. Three out of four measures in that report are local measures. We feel this is a good measure of the local economy. Our local economy is very robust. Housing is doing good.

When you look at sales taxes alone, they began to explode before the pandemic and accelerated during the pandemic. With online sales like Amazon, we are beginning to collect income. This impacted it positively.

The County is currently in SPLOST 2019. This will expire in October or November 2025.

Need to think about the fact that we have two election cycles to put another SPLOST on the ballot in November 2024 or March 2025 at the latest. We may need to wait until March 2025. November would be ambitious.

Projected to collect $65 million, but on track to collect $85 million total from 2019 SPLOST.

Based on today's collections, it could go $100 to $125 million for the 2025 SPLOST.

The money pie is fixed. Will have two issues, internal and external. External negotiation among municipalities. It is going to be tough to fund everything or near impossible to fund all we need with SPLOST.

Between the workforce study and master facilities plan, there will be a lot of future demand especially with the growth. Both are to completed in late 2024. We are becoming a metropolitan community. We could have a small MSA identity in the near future.

In terms of debt issues, we need to look at what we can fund with SPLOST. We know of four major needs along with projected cost:

New jail pod - $50 million alone ($50 to $80 million if connected to BCCI)
Judicial Complex - $50
Indoor Recreation facility - a community-based facility
Stand alone elections building

This is not addressing fire, EMS, storage, park spaces. Nor does it take into account the need to keep pressure off general fund by using SPOST to purchase fleet, heavy equipment, information technology, elections equipment, economic development, solid waste, etc.

The City of Statesboro operates most of the disposal operation with solid waste. Financing of solid waste will need a closer look. T-SPLOST terms by 2027 or 2028. So we need to start thinking about if we are going to have another T-SPLOST. T-SPLOST does take care of many of our surface transportation needs.

Capital project: SE Bulloch Water infrastructure. Have to meet with Statesboro and solve the Service Delivery Agreement. He feels they are close to an agreement. Phase One up Old 46 with water and sewer and don't anticipate use of SPLOST funds. Can cover with grants and other agreements.

Have not carried a lot of debt in the past. But have some options on changing our financial model to include some debt service.

How does supply keep up with demand for new housing over the years? There is a misconception that all of the growth of Hyundai comes at once. This will take at least 5 years for them to get to full capacity. Rivian is a new company relatively. Hyundai joins Ford, Toyota, Honda, GM as market leaders. They are not going anywhere even if it requires retooling the plant to switch to combustible engines.

As we move forward with capital planning, we must keep in mind that we can't fund everything using SPLOST. We must look for alternative sources of funding as well.

Recreation

Dadrian Cosby, Athletic Manager

Tony Morgan, Parks Division Manager

Manage facilities in:

Statesboro
Brooklet
Stilson
Nevils
Southeast Bulloch
Portal
Register

Facilities need:

Pickleball Courts Complex: Now only 24 can play at a time. Blue Mile has pickleball courts in their plans. They would like to go ahead and expand by adding more lines in Brooklet and Portal.
Storage Facility: Need one climate-controlled facility. Now renting two 10x10 units monthly
Facility Signage across the entire county: Rebranded in 2022 and many signs still need to be updated.
Outdoor recreation complexes in South Bulloch, Portal and Register.
- More than just sports. Can include after school programs if they have centers in these locations.
- Indoor Recreation Center at Mill Creek Park that could house childcare programming, basketball courts, meeting and banquet facilities and staff offices.

Spring 2024 Season Stats

Baseball/Softball: 74 teams county wide
Soccer: 52 teams
Brooklet, Stilson, Nevils: 52 teams - Baseball, Soccer and Softball - with only 8 fields. Stacking three deep in time slots.
Statesboro: 66 teams for 17 fields
Portal: 9 teams in Baseball/Softball with no fields. Great relationship with BOE, allowing Rec to use a side field at the school and sometimes the HS fields as well.
Esports coming as well
In the Rec Centers, they could do Adults 50+, summer camps, and other instructional programming.

Playground Expansion Needs

Memorial Park (renovation and expansion)
Fletcher Park
Register
Portal
New South Bulloch Park

Tennis Center Needs

Shade structure
Lighting

Ball Field Lights

Lighting upgrades needed at:

Brooklet baseball fields
Stilson
Nevils

Other needs:

Field drainage
Fence replacement
Parking lot repairs (Mill Creek is 30 years old)
Playground shade

Mill Creek has seen over 40,000 games played to date. Phase 1 and 2 field lighting upgrades have been completed. Upgrades will allow them to be more competitive in recruiting tournaments.

Splash in the Boro Needs

In 20th year of operation
Renovation or replacement of the playground play structure (original piece put in in 2004)
Mat Racer slide refurbishment (Built in 2009)
Trio Slides (20 year old amenity)
Pump and Filter replacements
145,000 to 155,000 visit annually. 75% of visitors come from outside of Bulloch.
- Must keep fresh for visitors to repeat
- More slides is a top request from visitors

Ag Center Needs

Connect the two arenas
Paint is starting to peel and aging facility
Paved driveway around the arena.
Signage on 301 South. (Currrently no official signage.)
New stall barn for smaller ag shows and allow them to house larger shows
Smaller arena would allow them to host multiple events at the same time
R/V parking ratio is 4 to 1. 218 stalls and only 54 hookups
- It is now 2 to 1; need more hookups
Has large economic impact
- More than 10,000 visitors and competitors from across the country visit annually
More personnel will be needed to manage growth
GS students now fill many of the part time positions
Need better wages and benefits to fill positions
Four open positions with few applications

We are unique in a sense that we have become a destination place. This vision was set in place many years ago and has had a major economic impact. Our reputation for having quality facilities and programs is known across the country.

Three main areas that greatly impact the local economy include:

Mill Creek Park - constructed in 1993, bringing thousands
Splash in the Boro - constructed in 2004 and brings over 100,000 annually
Bulloch County Ag Center

Not just recreation. They provide a service for the community as a whole. They are not just sports. They bring the entire community together from all walks of life.

Engineering

Brad Deal, County Engineer

No budget request at this time.

Three staff members currently. Thank you for adding a position of Assistant County Engineer last year. Ron Nelson filled that position and brings a lot of experience from his time at GDOT.

Growth Challenges

More roadway intersection and safety concerns
Roads/bridges structure and capacity deficiencies
Dirt road improvements and paving
Drainage impacts: new stormwater ordinance in place

Capital Improvement Project

Dirt Road Paving
- 18 projects in current CIP
Design Phase: 10 projects
Recently completed: Antioch Church Road
Next to begin construction: Two Chop/Banks Creek Church Road

Intersection/Roadway Improvements

10 projects in current CIP
Design phase: 2 projects
Currently in construction: Public works entrance at US 301 North
New Project: Lanier Drive Roadway and Intersection improvements

Resurfacing and Restriping

Annual resurfacing 10-20 miles of county roads
Annual restriping of 50-75 miles of county roads
Paved shoulder widening on narrow roads (safety benefits, but drives costs up)

Pavement Preservation

Lower cost treatments which extend pavement life
Includes crack sealing, chip seals, microsurfacing
Keeps out moisture and sunlight
Not a new thing, but plan to use it more frequently
570 miles of paved roads; Would need to do 38 miles per year or $6 million per year - preservation will help meet these needs

Right of Way Acquisitions

Experimenting with consultant right of way acquisition services on larger projects
Reduce the time and effort for ROW, delivering the project more timely
Frees up staff to work on other items

Public Works

Dink Butler, Director Public Works

Department is 9 employees short. One fleet/mechanics needed approved last year, but have not been able to fill the position.

Airport

David Cambell, Airport Manager

57 based aircraft
4 Corporate hangers
47 T-Angers
6 shade hangers
64 confirmed aircraft would come in if we have space
Staff - 2 full time, 3 part time
Need 1-2 more, possible budget year
Inmate labor helps save funds with grass maintenance and janitorial services

Operating Budget Needs

Training and some furniture replacement

Capital Projects

Installation of new AWO/updated electrical service - $50,000
Paint existing Beacon Tower - $22,000
Foreign object and debris (FOD) removal system - $8,000
Apron rehab - $4,300,000
- 90% Federal funds, 5% state funding, and 5% local ($215,000)

Transportation

Robbie Seamons, Assistant Public Works Director

Paved Roads - 573 miles
Rural (Dirt) Roads - 590 miles

Paved Roads

Potholes/Cuts repaired - 1,076
Mastic - 32,500 feet (43,200 lbs)

Rural (Dirt) Roads

Grading - 3 routes (260 miles) taking 30 working days (1 1/2 months)
Ditching - 3 routes taking 360--480 working days (18-24 months)

Capital Improvements/TSPLOST

GPS/GIS inventory, trip hazards, tear outs and replacements ($10,000 per year for 7 years)
Pavement Preservation Project
Mastic, asphalt, crack seal ($200,000 per year for 7 years)

Solid Waste

2023 numbers:

21 convenience centers
19,621 tons of bulk waste
2,578 tons inert
355 tons tiers
Top 9 of the 21 centers totaled 11,670 tons
Other 12 combined were 7,951 tons
Currently running 2 routes; Each route 11/10
Tonage numbers are up 10% for the first half of the year and projected to be even higher for the last half

For 2025, hope to run 3 routes each with 7 convenient centers.

General Fund Request

Staffing increase request of 3 personnel for 2025:

Solid Waste Superintendent
2 collection equipment operators

Staffing increase request of personnel for 2027 and 2028:

1 Solid Waste Rolloff driver (2027)
2 Solid Waste Rolloff drivers (2028)

Uniforms for all personnel

$350 each, increase of $3,000

Tipage

Disposal Fee Increase and Volume Increase plus $250,000

Capital Improvement Projects

Rolloff trucks and grapple trucks

Yearly replacements

Additional Rolloff Trucks needed 2027/2028

One additional needed 2027
Two additional needed 2028

Convenience center upgrades: $260,000

Fleet Maintenance

2023 Numbers

Currently maintaining 320 vehicles/equipment

Pickup trucks - 120
Fire Apperatus - 35
Ambulances - 15
Rolloff and Grapple Trucks - 13
Average age of fleet is 9 years
Number of Work Orders Processed: 110 monthly

General Fund

Oil and Grease, increase of $6,000
Uniforms for all personnel, increase of $1,750

Capital Improvement Projects

Mobile Column Lifts: $180,000
Heavy Equipment Service Truck: $215,000
Fleet Maintence and Fabrication Building: $3,420,000

Service Improvements/Expectations

Not included in this year's budget, but concerns Commissioners have brought forward.

Recycling

Major costs to get back into recycling: $1.5 million, removing less than 1% from local waste stream
No large scale end users in our area
Directing citizens to small scale local recyclers and events

Rural (Dirt) Roads

Service roads more frequently
Grading: 30 working days (1 1/2 months)
Ditching: 120-180 working days (6 - 9 months)

Issues that will need to be addressed to accomplish

Equipment delivery/supply time frame
Additional employees
Get up to full staff of current positions
Staffing, weather, major storms, supply chain and repair issues

Development Authority of Bulloch County

Benjy Thompson, CEO Development Authority

In 2022, industrial growth exploded.

Five major projects include:

Aspen Aerogels, February 2022: 250 jobs; $325 million investment
AJIN Georgia, November 2022: 630 jobs; $317 million investment
revalu US, December 2022/September 2023: 121 jobs; $210 million investment
SECO Ecoplastic, January 2023: 456 jobs; $205 million investment
Hanon Systems, May 2023: 160 jobs; $40 million investment

New project commitments since February 2022

1,617 jobs
$1.097 billion investment

HMGMA and Suppliers

Through February 2024:

15,446 jobs
$10 billion investment

FY 2025 Budget Request

$625,000
Continue planned ramp-up of funding to $750,000 in FY 2026

DABC Reserves

$8.7 million
reserved for future land purchases and projects

Gateway Industrial Park was purchased in 1993 and filled in 2023; it's a long process normally in economic development.

Commissioners focused on no tax increase for FY 2025

Chairman Thompson asked, "How are we going to accommodate all the budget request without raising taxes?" Tom Couch, County Manager responded, "Not everyone will get what they want. All of the growth is going to happen over the next four or five years. Everyone in County Government understands the political sacrifices you all made to raise property taxes. We will work to meet the needs the best of our ability to meet as many of these needs without a tax increase."

The next steps will find our final tax revenue from the Tax Assessor.