New Walker County Commissioner Shannon Whitfield told an overflow crowd at his first regularly scheduled public meeting that he uncovered staggering debt left over from the 16-year reign of Bebe Heiskell.
He said Ms. Heiskell left $800,000 in the bank, but two bond payments coming up within days totaling $1,427,000. A $227,000 bond payment was due Jan. 15 and a $1.2 million bond payment due Jan. 20.
He stated, "We did not want to default on two bond payments. That would be like having two bankruptcies back to back."
He said, "We've got to get off TAN dependency."
The new commissioner said there was $3.5 million in immediate bills "and we don't have the money."
He said up to $8 million was needed to float the county through the entire year.
He said finance officers could hardly work for taking calls from people owed money by the county and opening letters with past due notices.
"I could see we had a pretty serious problem. Every day it got a little worse," he said.
Commissioner Whitfield said the Heiskell administration had been getting by through use of very expensive "pay day loan firms for government." But he said that carried very high fees for lawyers and others and was increasing the county's debt load.
Saying he has been working every day since going into office on Jan. 1, he said $660,000 has been cut from the annual personnel budget. He said a number of other steps have been taken to cut costs and more are being studied.
He said, "When a dollar goes out of here in the future it is going to be screaming after all the pulling and tugging."
Rather than having to go back to a pay day loan firm for government, he said officials of the Bank of LaFayette have come to the rescue. He said, after he showed bank officials the steps that are being taken to get Walker County's house in order, the bank agreed to a $2 million loan. After a bank board meeting on Wednesday, that was upped to $4 million.
Commissioner Whitfield said he hopes, as Walker County continues to pare the budget, that the bank will help even more later.
He said the interest rate charge by the bank will be no more than three percent. He said a New York firm had charged with county 4.5 percent on a Tax Anticipation Note (TAN) and one in Atlanta charged 4.25 percent. The $10 million New York TAN is with Rosemont Capital.
Commissioner Whitfield said he found there is no money left in the SPLOST (tax levy for special projects) account and, in fact, the county was having to shore it up because collections were $600,000 short of the outlay.
He also said that money coming in from taxes this year will be less than last year because Ms. Heiskell cut the millage rate. That brought a reduction of $654,000. He said appeals on the reappraisal cut another $275,000.
The property tax income last year was $11.4 million and the total county revenue was over $20 million.
He said he does not yet know the extent of the total county debt.
Commissioner Whitfield said he added TV12 news anchor Joe Legge to a new public relations post, and he said he has a job description that is two and a half pages. Among the duties will be keeping the public aware of the county's financial situation on the county website. He said results of ongoing audits will be posted. Those include the audit of county government and one of the water company.
He said he is getting the help of a retired human resources expert he met on the campaign trail.
Commissioner Whitfield said the county has only a single codes enforcement officer, and he hopes to add a couple more. He said he would like to see a zoned enforcement approach - especially in rundown areas such as in the north part of the county.
There will be a big savings, he said, by moving to a part-time county attorney. That will be Robin Rogers of Trenton, who also serves Dade County. He will be paid $125 per hour.There will no longer be a full-time county attorney with a full-time assistant.
One resident asked if the "Don Oliver kickback" was gone. Former County Attorney Oliver got a commission on certain county transactions, plus a $125,000 salary with benefits, a county car and cell phone.
Commissioner Whitfield said the meeting had to be held in the commissioner's office because Sheriff Steve Wilson told him it would be expensive to have it at the courthouse with all the security required. He said he will be looking for a larger location in LaFayette - possibly at the new library.
Some residents had to stand in a hallway outside the small meeting room.
Commissioner Whitfield opened the meeting by giving an invocation. He then led in the Pledge of Allegiance and the Georgia Pledge. Copies of that pledge were handed out to audience members.