(RIGHT) - County Chairman Ben BrandonBy DON PITTMAN
(RIGHT) - County Chairman Ben Brandon
Two meetings of the Dade County Commission occurred last Thursday, one to review a beer license for the Breezy Top convenience store, and the other brought forth issues over Home Rule Authority, among other items.
During the early meeting an appeal by the owners of the Breezy Top and their attorney was heard by the board. The owners who are immigrants to the United States, through local attorney John Emmett, explained to the board that there was some confusion regarding the licensing regulations in Georgia.
“Certainly there has never been any intent not to abide by the law,” Emmett said. He explained that the Patel family had bought the store and were under the assumption that the license would transfer to them. They own another store in Alabama, and that is how the license statutes work in that state.
The commissioners discussed the case for about 15 minutes and determined that the communication break down might have occurred because of a language barrier. Because of the confusion, it was decided that enough time had passed to satisfy the suspension and the Patels could immediately go to the Alcohol Beverage Control Board for a new license. Commissioner David Young made a motion that they could reapply immediately, and it was pasted by the board.
The ABC Board will meet again in two weeks to consider the application and appeal. After a 40-minute break, the second meeting began at 5 p.m. and the first item discussed by the commissioners was the review and approval of the year–end budget amendments.
In order for the county to operate on a zero variance budget, which is required by law, certain amendments needed to be approved to bring the 2007 budget into compliance. After all changes were discussed and approved, a positive net balance of $230,173 was recorded.
Many departments were under budget, but there were a few that went above expected amounts in expenditures. Among them were the county administrative expenditures, and the Dade County jail expenditures. County administration ran nearly $330,000 over budget while the jail went over nearly $80,000. The commissioners pointed to workman’s compensation insurance as the cause of the administrative overages.
County Clerk Don Townsend said that the budget came within three percent of what was originally projected.
The commissioners had a brief discussion about direct deposit through the Bank of Dade for county employees, before moving to the most controversial issue of the evening.
The next issue on the agenda was the appointment of Hazel Doyle to the Board of Assessors, but it was revealed by County Attorney Robin Rogers that County Executive Ben Brandon had not signed the order to make her appointment official.
Brandon said that he wanted to take time to consider the matter before rushing to sign the order. Brandon made it clear that he did not agree with the Home Rule Authority that had been used by the other commissioners to force the issue of Doyle’s appointment.
“Y’all have overturned the will of the voter,” Brandon said. “I will not take it lightly.” Rogers explained, when asked by commissioners Sarah Moore and Lamar Lowery, that Brandon needed to sign the paperwork in a ‘reasonable time frame.’ Brandon said that he had been reviewing the paperwork for about a week and he didn’t believe that to be unreasonable.
Commissioner Moore asked if Rogers could prepare a Writ of Mandamus to force the
County Executive to sign the order if Brandon refused to sign the order directly.
Rogers promised to prepare the order at Moore’s request, but he also said he would work with Brandon to get the order signed in short order.
As a segue into the next item for discussion Commissioner Moore, who was clearly upset by the chairman’s refusal to sign the document, went on to say that Townsend was having to do three or four jobs, accusing Brandon of not fulfilling his obligation to the office. This comment opened the floor into discussion about filing a job vacancy in the administrative office. All the commissioners agreed it was a good idea to fill the position since the money was already budgeted. They made a plan to hire someone to fill the assistant clerk position in the office as soon as possible.
The commissioners also discussed the Georgia Heritage Preservation Grant, the Georgia Better Back Roads Grant, the Scrap Tire Grant, and the Soil and Sedimentation Control Grant. They heard from Dan Latham, an expert on courthouse preservation grants, and agreed to allow him to write up future grants to help bring the Courthouse up to National Historic Registry specifications.
The Dade Sentinel
http://dadesentinel.com/article.php/20080619095344376