The Anderson County Commission will have a special budget meeting on Monday afternoon. The meeting is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. Monday, May 6, in Room 312 of the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton.
During the special meeting, the Anderson County Commission will review the recommendations of the Budget Committee, discuss them, and then send the Commission’s recommendation’s back to the Budget Committee.
[Read more…]Information from WYSH Radio
The Anderson County Commission will meet for its regular monthly session on Monday, June 20, at 6:30 p.m. in Room 312 of the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton.
Commissioners will be considering appointments of commissioners to the newly-created Budget and Purchasing Committees brought about by the recent change in financial management systems. The Nominating Committee met this week and recommended that Commissioners Chuck Fritts, Whitey Hitchcock, Myron Iwanski, Theresa Scott, and Jerry White serve on the Budget Committee. The Nominating Committee members also recommended that Commissioners Tim Isbel, Angeleque McNutt, Steve Mead, Theresa Scott, and Philip Warfield serve on the Purchasing Committee.
The full Commission will discuss and possibly vote upon the Operations Committee’s recommendation to move forward on a project to refurbish the Glen Alpine Convenience Center in Clinton. The Commission will also discuss a five-year lease extension at a cost of $1,000 per month for the land housing the Wolf Valley Convenience Center in Claxton. [Read more…]
Myron Iwanski
Information from WYSH Radio
Monday night, the newly-minted Anderson County Finance Committee held its first meeting. The new committee was created when the county switched its financial management system from one based upon a 1957 statute to one based upon a 1981 law. The committee, beginning with next year’s budget cycle, will be responsible for many of the fiscal duties currently held by the county mayor and the Budget Committee, which is chaired and appointed by the mayor.
The new Finance Committee is comprised of four county commissioners—Chuck Fritts, Tim Isbel, Myron Iwanski, and Philip Warfield—as well as County Mayor Terry Frank, Director of Schools Larry Foster, and Highway Superintendent Gary Long. The committee’s first responsibility will be to hire a new county budget director and a new purchasing director as longtime county employees Chris Phillips and Pamela Cotham, respectively, resigned those positions, citing uncertainty brought about by the change in systems. No timetable has been established for those hires but Monday, the committee did agree upon job descriptions and lists of qualifications and responsibilities for both jobs, which will be advertised by the county’s human resources director. The hope is that one or both of the vacant positions can be filled quickly. [Read more…]
Terry Frank
The financial story of Anderson County in the last three years has been one of stability and progress. For the first time since 2006, Anderson County was removed from high-risk audit status in 2013, and placed on low-risk status. That held for 2013, 2014, and 2015.
As we closed out the books on 2015, our Accounts and Budgets and Schools cheered zero audit findings in our Comprehensive Annual Financial Report by the State of Tennessee’s Division of Local Government Audit.
Through partnership of our Budget Committee and County Commission, we saw three consecutive years of growth in fund balance, improved cash flow position, and a commitment to raising the bar on dipping into the fund balance by requiring a supermajority approval (12 of 16 members.) In 2013, we raised the supermajority requirement to $3.5 million, in 2014 to $4 million, and in 2015 to $4.5 million.
We kept new debt to a minimum, and for two consecutive years also modified existing debt agreements to save taxpayer money over the life of the bonds without extending the maturity dates of the debt. [Read more…]
Information from WYSH Radio
The Anderson County Board of Education will meet in a special-called session at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday night (May 26) in the boardroom on the fifth floor of the Jolley Building in downtown Clinton.
The board is expected to discuss a compromise put forward by its Budget Committee to seek 2 percent raises for county teachers instead of the 4 percent raises they initially called for in budget negotiations. Funding just those raises at 4 percent would require the equivalent of a 23.5-cent property tax increase, which is highly unlikely to be approved by the Anderson County Commission.
Budget deliberations are continuing, and adjustments are still being made to the system’s proposal for the new fiscal year that begins July 1, including a reported $800,000 in cuts made last week by school officials.
Following this evening’s special-called meeting, BOE members are expected to meet with county commissioners to continue working on the fiscal blueprint for 2015-2016.
Anderson County has scheduled budget workshops and meetings for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
There will be no motions made during the budget workshops. Instead, they will include only discussion and formulation.
The workshops will be held in Room 312 in the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton at these times: [Read more…]
A tractor with sweeping equipment helps remove snow from the Oak Ridge High School parking lot. (Photo by Julio Culiat)Â
Note: This story was last updated at 12:52 p.m. Some of these announcements continue to change. We will update this story as we can.
Oak Ridge Schools are closed today (Tuesday, February 24), and the City of Oak Ridge offices will open at 10 a.m.
Oak Ridge Schools said the Discovery Ed Livestream that had been scheduled for today has been postponed until May.
Anderson County Courthouse is closed due to weather. So is Roane State Community College. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Animal Shelter on Belgrade Road is pictured above.
The Anderson County Operations Committee has endorsed setting up a task force to examine the possibility of an animal shelter in the county, a press release said.
That should be good news for Oak Ridge, where there has been at least some concern about the housing of animals from outside Oak Ridge at the city’s animal shelter and the costs of doing so.
“Anderson County has had a strong, long-standing relationship with the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter over the years and continues that solid, working partnership,” Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank said in a press release. “However, as their shelter has moved more towards the housing and adoption of animals, the available contracted space for county animals has diminished. [Read more…]
Bob Corker
U.S. Senator Bob Corker is the first Tennessee senator to serve as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to his office and committee records.
Corker was elected chairman by committee members, and his appointment was expected to be confirmed Thursday during a meeting of Senate Republicans, his office said Tuesday.
A Chattanooga Republican, Corker also will be serving on the Senate Banking Committee, the Budget Committee, and the Aging Committee.
See previous story here.
Myron Iwanski
Note: This is a copy of a Tuesday email from Anderson County Commissioner Myron Iwanski to the Budget Committee and commissioners.
Budget Committee and Commissioners:
I think we were all pleased that for the fourth year in a row our year-end fund balance increased over the previous year. We owe a big thank you to our county employees for helping making this happen.
Four years ago, our fund balance was heading down to less than $500,000, and our credit rating was being effected. Beginning four years ago, by being more cautious with how we spend fund balance money and with the help of all our elected officials and employees, we increased the fund balance to the current $4,290,000.
One of the many things we did to turn this around was not giving our employees a salary increase for several years—except to cover the annual increases in health insurance cost. County-wide office holders, meanwhile, were given state-mandated increases in salaries.
I propose using a small portion of this fund balance to provide a small lump sum payment to those county general fund employees that did not get a state-mandated salary increase. [Read more…]
