1/20/15 Commissioner Meeting Canceled The regular Board of Commissioners’ meeting scheduled for Tuesday, January 20, 2015, has been canceled. The next regular meeting is scheduled for February 2, 2015.
Water Contract Update After MANY citizen comments regarding concerns over the future financial liabilities that Polk County would incur if we went ahead with the proposed Inman-Campobello Water District contract the Local Government Committee (LGC) of North Carolina was given the document to review. This was primarily due to Ray Gasperson's prodding of county attorney Jana Berg who agreed they needed to approve it. The LGC reviewed the document and responded that that they would NOT approve the contract as written so a meeting was set up for January 8th at the LGC offices in Raleigh to nail down what the LGC would or would not approve related to the contract.
At the last commissioners mtg. Tom Pack suggested a delegation of two (himself and Keith Holbert) go to this fact finding mtg, but when Ray Gasperson suggested that he also wanted to be there and would indeed go Tom, much to his dislike, was forced to open the meeting up to Ray and the other commissioners. County attorney Jana Berg, Clerk of Court Beth Fehrmann, Finance Director Sandra Hughes and County Mgr. Marche Pittman also attended the mtg. in Raleigh.
Still waiting on an article by Leah Justice in the Tryon Daily, but here is what the local democratic newsletter wrote about it from the recording of the mtg. (available for $5 from the clerk of court):
"Members of the LGC confirmed pretty much everything Commissioner Gasperson, Renee McDermott, and other citizens had told the majority.
The LGC said that the majority's proposal was, indeed, a financing agreement, one the LGC could never approve. They criticized that financing agreement for failing to state the amount to be borrowed, for failing to state any interest rate, for failing to state when and how the borrowed amount must be paid back and for failing to establish any means for getting the money to pay off the multimillion dollar debt to Inman-Campobello...
The LGC was astonished by how much money has been sunk into the water system with so few customers to show for it. (More than $8 million for approximately 130 customers.) The LGC immediately understood that if the majority charged Polk water customers what it actually costs to provide them water, it would be an astronomical amount, an amount that none of the customers could afford.
The LGC also recognized that the majority has no plan for ever making the Polk water system pay for itself, without millions of dollars of subsidies from County taxpayers, most of whom will never benefit from the water system.
One LGC member, Biff McGilvray, gave an example: He said that under the majority's proposed water contract, farmer A, who gets Polk system water, would see a huge tax increase when the debt to Inman-Campobello came due to pay for the majority's debt. And he said that right next door, Farmer B, who doesn't have access to the Polk water system, would also see a huge tax increase, to pay off the debt, even though he's gotten no benefit for it.
The LGC said that was unfair to Polk County taxpayers. Indeed it is.
And the LGC saw that Polk County hasn't even set up any Enterprise Fund, to collect funds to pay for the upcoming debt. The LGC added that, that's probably because the majority's proposed water contract doesn't provide for any stream of income to pay into an enterprise fund. All of the revenues from the majority's proposed contract are paid to Inman-Campobello. None at all comes to Polk County.
What kind of way is this to do Polk County's business?"
As previously state, we had serious concerns about this contract and it is good to see that the LGC agreed. The LGC is a non-political body who exist to protect small counties like Polk from making BIG mistakes (financially) and I for one am glad they are here to "save us from ourselves"!
The LGC is a non-political body
Undeterred, the majority plans to press on. The citizens need to watch them carefully, and fight for transparency and common sense.
Water Contract Update After MANY citizen comments regarding concerns over the future financial liabilities that Polk County would incur if we went ahead with the proposed Inman-Campobello Water District contract the Local Government Committee (LGC) of North Carolina was given the document to review. This was primarily due to Ray Gasperson's prodding of county attorney Jana Berg who agreed they needed to approve it. The LGC reviewed the document and responded that that they would NOT approve the contract as written so a meeting was set up for January 8th at the LGC offices in Raleigh to nail down what the LGC would or would not approve related to the contract.
At the last commissioners mtg. Tom Pack suggested a delegation of two (himself and Keith Holbert) go to this fact finding mtg, but when Ray Gasperson suggested that he also wanted to be there and would indeed go Tom, much to his dislike, was forced to open the meeting up to Ray and the other commissioners. County attorney Jana Berg, Clerk of Court Beth Fehrmann, Finance Director Sandra Hughes and County Mgr. Marche Pittman also attended the mtg. in Raleigh.
Still waiting on an article by Leah Justice in the Tryon Daily, but here is what the local democratic newsletter wrote about it from the recording of the mtg. (available for $5 from the clerk of court):
"Members of the LGC confirmed pretty much everything Commissioner Gasperson, Renee McDermott, and other citizens had told the majority.
The LGC said that the majority's proposal was, indeed, a financing agreement, one the LGC could never approve. They criticized that financing agreement for failing to state the amount to be borrowed, for failing to state any interest rate, for failing to state when and how the borrowed amount must be paid back and for failing to establish any means for getting the money to pay off the multimillion dollar debt to Inman-Campobello...
The LGC was astonished by how much money has been sunk into the water system with so few customers to show for it. (More than $8 million for approximately 130 customers.) The LGC immediately understood that if the majority charged Polk water customers what it actually costs to provide them water, it would be an astronomical amount, an amount that none of the customers could afford.
The LGC also recognized that the majority has no plan for ever making the Polk water system pay for itself, without millions of dollars of subsidies from County taxpayers, most of whom will never benefit from the water system.
One LGC member, Biff McGilvray, gave an example: He said that under the majority's proposed water contract, farmer A, who gets Polk system water, would see a huge tax increase when the debt to Inman-Campobello came due to pay for the majority's debt. And he said that right next door, Farmer B, who doesn't have access to the Polk water system, would also see a huge tax increase, to pay off the debt, even though he's gotten no benefit for it.
The LGC said that was unfair to Polk County taxpayers. Indeed it is.
And the LGC saw that Polk County hasn't even set up any Enterprise Fund, to collect funds to pay for the upcoming debt. The LGC added that, that's probably because the majority's proposed water contract doesn't provide for any stream of income to pay into an enterprise fund. All of the revenues from the majority's proposed contract are paid to Inman-Campobello. None at all comes to Polk County.
What kind of way is this to do Polk County's business?"
As previously state, we had serious concerns about this contract and it is good to see that the LGC agreed. The LGC is a non-political body who exist to protect small counties like Polk from making BIG mistakes (financially) and I for one am glad they are here to "save us from ourselves"!
The LGC is a non-political body
Undeterred, the majority plans to press on. The citizens need to watch them carefully, and fight for transparency and common sense.