Clairmont Heights Civic Association

Meeting was held at the Avis Williams Library.  Notes are by CHCA board member Suzan Rowe: The meeting was fairly well attended for such a crummy night. There were representatives from Leafmore, Sagamore Hills, Druid Hills, Merry Hills, Oakgrove, Briarlake, Friends of the Library, Stand Up Dekalb and several county planning and financial officials.  We started with a "budget 101" segment - a brief analysis of what is in the CEOs proposed budget for this year.  Briefly, it proposed a $30.4 million tax increase; notes that the "rainy day" fund has been exhausted and that this budget is based upon the assumption that property values stayed flat from Jan 09 to the present and that commercial values stayed flat since Jan 08. The proposed budget would eliminate some positions, but the number is unknown due to the proposed voluntary early retirement program. It also proposes reduced services but is not specific as to what or how much. There is some discussion as to whether these measures are short-term or a long-term fix.

As you know, commissioner Jeff Rader has come out against the tax increase. His position is that this is not the time for such measures and that the county should look for deeper cost cuts instead. I'd say that most of those in attendance were in agreement - some vehemently so.  The general consensus was that there is a lot of "dead wood' in county government and that they're overpaid. There was fairly strong opposition to the early retirement proposal due to the possibility of losing the most experienced employees and because some younger retirees could hire in again after the crisis had passed.

If I remember the figures correctly, payroll for county employees has doubled in the past 10 years. There's a proposal to give each department a budget and let them staff within that budget. There's another proposal to follow the public sector model and start reducing pay and benefits (furlough days, paying less for healthcare, reducing pensions...). I also learned that the Dekalb County employees 401K fund matches 10.5%. I almost fell on the floor. Many employers have reduced their contributions to 3% or less or cut them entirely.

There were some solid suggestions for reducing other large cost items such as fuel and electricity. Jeff Rader mentioned that there is a proposal to hire an auditor for this purpose and that  he is looking into ways of exercising the audit authority of the BOC.  He also said that there's an effort underway to reduce personal the use of county vehicles, conserve energy at county offices, ... but these have not been well implemented or enforced. He suggested that Kathy Gannon's "green" commission initiative might address these issues.

There were two gentlemen there who argued that the library should not be subject to cuts because the demand for services has been greatly increased by the economic downturn. Two of the biggest user groups - seniors and job seekers - are already being seriously affected by cuts in other areas. Most attendees were in agreement about protecting the libraries, but there was a suggestion that the Briarcliff library be closed as a cost saving measure since it's very close to the Toco Hills location. Jeff Rader mentioned that there is a proposal to delay the opening of any new library for 6 months as a cost-saving measure, and the library advocates asked whether the savings might not be applied back to the general library budget. The commissioner suggested that it would be a good idea to send this request into the CEOs office.

One attendee astutely remarked that all of the items discussed only came to "about a dime on a dollar". Good point.  The biggest cost chunks are in things like schools, and the commissioners don't seem to have much influence there.