Tensions run high at Garland’s special budget meeting

GARLAND — Tensions were thick in the board room of Garland Town Hall during Monday night’s special Board of Commissioners meeting, called to go over last-minute budgetary items that needed approval before the end of the month.

But before discussing the budget, the board opened the room to public comment.

Four people spoke during that time, two discussing the fire department, whose funding got cut in the town’s fiscal plan for the 2024-25 year.

Resident Wendy Taylor asked why residents inside the town weren’t paying the same rate as those outside the town’s limits, but still within Garland’s ETJ, were paying.

“In all fairness, the citizen in town should be paying the same rate,” Taylor said. “They’re in the same fire district. They get the same coverage that I get. They should be paying the same fire tax rate that I am.”

Her main question for the board was how to get those in the town to pay the same rate without having to go through the town, and instead have it go straight to the fire department.

The next person who spoke was another town resident who said he believed that the board should not be able to make choices with regard to the fire department’s budget since the majority of them have not been in the fire department nor were they ever chiefs.

“The fire department should run their own business in town. And they know what they need. They write a budget every year that goes to the fire board before it goes to the commissioners,” he told the board. “And that’s the way you guys have to get out of the fire business. You have no business being in the fire business. You may know what your citizens want. The firemen know what their citizens need from their service. And it shouldn’t be involved in this budget at all.”

The next two spoke to the commissioners, themselves, about what they believed the board could do better.

Former town mayor Winifred Murphy said that while the fire department was important, there were many services that were needed in town.

“As I just mentioned briefly to Commissioner Carberry and Commissioner Blackburn, we need a lot in terms of services that are not being provided,” Murphy stated. “I ride around, and I see lots of trash that’s out there beside the road, but we’re no longer providing pickup for furniture. We’re no longer providing things that we did provide.”

She mentioned that it was “not fair for citizens here who are already low income to have to pay at a higher rate,” especially when there is an increase in tax rates, but a decrease in services offered or the community.

She also mentioned that the board needed to bring in the citizens and engage them in the town business; that the board needed to be transparent first.

“It takes people like Tim Register and others that can help you make that decision and bring the citizens in and engage them,” she said. “And you cannot do that by not having minutes that are detailed. You cannot do that by closing us off to what is going on in the town.”

The last person who spoke was another long-time resident of Garland who agreed with Murphy.

She mentioned not having services, and, instead, having to drive “17 miles to Clinton.” She also stressed the need for residents involved to be involved in the meetings and having those meetings posted for residents to see so they know when public meetings are being held.

Lastly, she talked about the board needing to do more to bring revenue into the town as a whole.

“You got a whole town of people depending on you. That’s why they elected you — to stand up for them, not for yourselves,” she told members before sitting down once more.

And while tensions started running high during public comment, they got more elevated during the discussion of the 2024-25 fee schedule.

The board, while looking over the fee schedule, began to talk in circles. It started with a question of why the zoning permit for residential and commercial was both $100. Mayor Pro-Tem Timothy Blackburn pointed out that it didn’t seem fair that someone trying to build a deck onto their house was being charged the same as someone coming in to build a commercial property.

“The residential is $100 and the commercial is $100,” Blackburn stated bluntly. “So you will charge somebody $100 to build right behind their house, and you will charge them the same as commercial to build a condo?”

But the board agreed that they would need more research before they could accurately decide on the schedule.

Commissioner Anthony Norris brought up the idea of tabling the discussion until the next meeting so they could do their research, but Mayor Brown said there wasn’t another meeting until July 1 and this needed to be voted on and approved by June 30.

He did say that if the board agreed, they could vote on the fee schedule now and change it after July 1. After another discussion about going through all the proposed fees, the board unanimously decided to approve the plan now and change it later.

“Anyhow, let’s make a motion that we go with this, and if we need to change it we can do it in July,” Commissioner Smith said.

Tensions grew stronger during the last part of the meeting when the board held further budget discussions.

It started with a question from Blackburn who asked if the board could revisit the tax rate.

When the mayor said they could not revisit the tax rate, Blackburn then asked if they could rescind the tax rate.

But the mayor said the board could only vote on the tax rate one time a calendar year.

“You can change the fee or you can change the department allotment, but you cannot change the tax rate but one time,” Brown plainly stated.

After hearing that, Blackburn then asked how they were going to replenish the fund balance since they had been using the money to balance the budget for several years.

“If we’re going to get money out of the [fund balance], when are we going to put money back to it?” he asked the board.

The mayor said they did not need to replenish it all at once this year since there was over $1 million in the fund balance.

Blackburn then asked about the money going to law enforcement again, especially since he said they were getting $10,000 more this year.

Commissioner Jo Strickland spoke up saying she had misspoke during Thursday’s meeting and that law enforcement was not getting the full $10,000, but that she had taken $10,000 out of administration when making the cuts before putting it back in the administration fund — which is where law enforcement was now being funded from.

“I misspoke,” she said. “It’s not just for the Sheriff’s Department. That’s admin.”

They argued about the line item for a couple more minutes before moving on to the next issue, which was how much the board was going to get for its monthly stipend. Each commissioner is paid a stipend for work on the board.

During last Thursday’s meeting, the board said they were willing to drop their stipends down to $100 a month, but the final approval of the budget had the stipends only cut in half.

Blackburn argued that there was no time to vote on changing the stipends before approving the final budget, but Brown counter saying it was something he could’ve done because all it would have taken was him making a motion.

And then, the commissioners spoke about Thursday’s meeting and whether it was a budget workshop or a budget special meeting.

Brown said it had been changed to a special meeting after the commissioners voted to suspend the rules to allow them to vote. But Commissioner Norris, who was absent from last Thursday’s meeting, argued that there was no notice of the change of meeting.

“Also, at what point in time did it get changed to a special meeting?” he asked. “There wasn’t any notice or anything on that, that it was going to change to a special meeting.”

He continued by arguing that if that was the case, “then you can call any type of meeting that you want.” And that somebody can’t just show up and decide to suspend the rules.

“I think we need to leave this petty drama at the house,” Brown snapped back. He continued by saying that the commissioners had been nitpicking the budget ever since voting on it.

“Because ever since this budget was voted on $0.48 it’s been nitpicking ever since to figure out how it got to $0.48. And I think y’all are doing a disservice,” Brown said.

Turning to Norris, he said, “I think you did a disservice not showing up to vote for the fire department to get $26,000. If you didn’t agree on $0.48, you should have been here the other night when the tax rate was going to be voted you.”

After a few more minutes of heated debate about monthly work sessions that the commissioners voted for, it was decided to adjourn the meeting.

Other items on the agenda that were voted on was budget amendments to balance out the 2023-24 budget.