Albany City Commission OKs budget at Sharon Subadan’s first meeting

ALBANY — Despite the reservations expressed by Ward I Commissioner Jon Howard and Ward II’s Bobby Coleman in a prebriefing before Tuesday evening’s Albany City Commission meeting, the commission voted unanimously moments later to approve the city’s proposed $264,705,870 Fiscal Year 2016 budget.

Coleman expressed concern over the $200,000 included in the Recreation and Parks Department’s budget that will be used as seed money to promote events at the Albany Civic Center, while Howard said he’s not comfortable with the plan to hold off on bringing back employees to fill vacant positions.

“We may be at the crossroads with our employees, and I’m not convinced this has been a well-thought-out process,” Howard, the longest serving of the commissioners, said. “This is a red flag for me, and it may not get my vote.”

But Ward IV Commissioner Roger Marietta and Ward VI’s Tommie Postell expressed satisfaction with a spending plan that includes a slight lowering of the city’s millage rate (from 9.94 to 9.853) and no specified usage of Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia credits that will continue to be returned to the city’s Utility Board through 2018.

“I’m extremely pleased that this budget does not include use of MEAG funds, and lowering the millage rate is just icing on the cake,” Marietta said in the prebriefing. “I’m ready to light the candles.”

New City Manager Sharon Subadan encouraged the commission to lower the millage rate to account for a small uptick in assessed property value in the city.

“In going through the budget, I see that there is a bit of an uptick in assessed property value — it would amount to around $204,000 — and since we have 157 vacancies in the city at this time, the money saved there can easily absorb the property value increase,” Subadan said. “In the spirit of showing that we’re willing to live within our means, I would like to recommend that you exercise your authority to lower the millage rate slightly to account for the increase in property value.”

When Howard said he had concerns about the city’s need to fill some of the 157 vacant positions, Subadan said she’d like to hold off on filling them until she’s been able to evaluate each position.

Coleman argued against using seed money to promote events at the Civic Center, saying, “I don’t think the city should be in the promoting business.”

Told by Assistant City Manager Phil Roberson that Recreation and Parks Director Joel Holmes wanted to use the funding as part of a “pilot program to see if the Civic Center can be more profitable,” Coleman said, “I’m always guided by four votes, but if we take that $200,000 and put it with the $200,000 the Utility Board will use for weatherization of (substandard) housing in the community, think of how much more we could do.”

The commission later voted to terminate its in-house weatherization program and turn over funding to the Southwest Georgia Community Action Council, which already has a weatherization program in place.

“I hope we will maintain checks and balances on the houses that this funding will go to so that we can get the most bang for our bucks,” Howard said.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the board:

— Granted special approval for WRB Ventures to operate an events center at 1308 Dawson Road;

— OK’d funding of four Community Development Block Grant Public Service Grants in the amount of $18,750 each to Strive2Thrive, Open Arms Inc., the SOWEGA Council on Aging and Communities in Schools;

— Signed off on Georgia Department of Natural Resources Historic Survey and Byrne Justice Assistant grants;

— OK’d the use of SPLOST VI funds for mobile cameras, printers and laptop computers for the Albany Police Department;

— Renewed the city’s contract with its federal lobbyist; and

— Approved bids on a new bucket truck ($95,065), maintenance and management services at the city’s wastewater treatment plant ($1,070,958), the purchase of transit buses ($1,919,812) and a contract for office supplies ($170,000).