Baldwin County Commission Budget Workshop Meeting - September 10, 2024
Baldwin County Commission Budget Workshop Meeting - September 10, 2024
The Baldwin County Commission held a budget workshop on September 10, 2024, to review the proposed FY25 budget. The meeting focused on infrastructure, employee compensation, public safety, and capital projects. Key discussions included funding for a bluegrass festival and improvements to Mullet Point Park.
Discussion Items
- Budget Overview: Staff presented the FY25 budget, highlighting $20 million for Raven Bridge projects, $75,000 for park improvements, and $2.3 million for the central facilities renovation. Employee compensation included a 2.85% pay raise costing $1.9 million and the commission absorbing 10% of the health insurance increase ($1.4 million). Public safety funding covered new positions for the sheriff's office, ballistic shields, radios, tasers, and 40 new vehicles. The Crystal Corrections Facility will add 33 positions, with some starting mid-year. The budget also included $7.7 million in deflected capital costs, using fund balance and TIF warrant funds.
- Bluegrass Festival Funding: A $60,000 allocation for the Bluegrass Festival was debated. Commissioner Underwood expressed opposition, noting prior spending of $52,000 on entertainment and lack of transparency. Other commissioners suggested moving the funds to contingency, requiring the festival organizers to raise their own money. The commission ultimately agreed to remove the $60,000 from the event line and place it in general contingency, with the understanding that organizers must return for approval if funds are needed.
- Mullet Point Park Improvements: A $500,000 project for Mullet Point Park was discussed, including paving, parking, roof repairs, and gazebos. Controversy arose over $200,000 for unattended bathrooms, with Commissioner Underwood citing safety concerns and past issues. Commissioner Ball supported bathrooms, noting citizen demand. After debate, the commission decided to remove the bathroom funding and instead allocate the $200,000 toward improving the pier and boat launch, with bathrooms reconsidered in a future budget cycle.
- Employee Benefits: Discussion included health savings accounts and the tax advantages of cafeteria plans, with commissioners encouraging employees to participate.
- Highway Fund and Pit Location: A need for a new soil pit in North Baldwin was mentioned due to difficulty acquiring land from private owners, with current options being costly.
Key Outcomes
- The bluegrass festival funding ($60,000) was removed and placed into general contingency, requiring organizers to secure funding independently and return for approval if needed.
- Mullet Point Park funding was adjusted: $200,000 originally for bathrooms was redirected to pier and boat launch improvements, with the remaining $300,000 for other park upgrades. Bathrooms will be considered in a future budget.
- The commission directed staff to prepare the budget for final approval at the next meeting, with the understanding that the budget includes employee pay raises and health insurance absorption.
- No formal vote was taken on the overall budget; further review was anticipated.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments or press questions were presented.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning everybody. Let's just go and get started. Um I guess this will be our last one. Okay, so hopefully. Hopefully. I asked Commissioner Skip to do Commissioner Gruber to do the uh Pledge of Allegiance. I'm gonna do the prayer. Um please bow your heads with me real quick. Dear and the file, thank you for this day. As we discuss our county business and the and this for the citizens of this county, make us make the right decisions. Laura, please pray for the people in Kentucky right now for that active shooter, and just keep everybody in your prayers in Jesus' name. Amen. Please don't make requestations to apply the United States of America. One of the teams the first thing we uh put for motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. My goal for today is to start on page one, which is just an overview and a summarization of what's built into this uh proved at one point, but um and then those are the questions. So just want to give you all kind of just the overview of what's worth built in here. Um we met with all of the individually to get your goals on the budget. One of the most common one was infrastructure. Focus on infrastructure. So I wanted to point out where we we worked on that. Um 20 million dollars at Raven Bridge projects through highway fund rebuilt based on 75,000 park improvement projects. Um we allocated 2.3 million dollars for the central panics renovation, and the goal for that is just to improve the citizen experience. The you know the place they like to have the use of um just to go to flow. All right, so uh the second common thing was continued uh employee relations. Um and we found a happy medium and it's balance there. Um 2.85 percent polar that would that cost us 1.9 million dollars. Um that is preceded by last year's um 4.1 million dollar tiered salary increase is the process for me. Um thank you for those part that's helped us with obviously some paying what and also recruiting. Right uh we've been able to fill with decisions like that. That's great. And I had a conversation with partners, they said it's a lot better. I know Janet and several others that said that they seem to stay better. That was something that I always wanted, but to you know, recruit and retain and to keep them, you know. Chairman calls us. Yeah, that's so much more. That's right. Yeah, um the other uh great point to note is the commission is supposed to absorb 10% of the health insurance increase that we're gonna proposed out. Um and that is a cost of 1.4 million dollars, and again that is preceded by FY24's absorption of the nine percent uh cost increase in 924,000. We discussed last meeting about the percentage on that on the cold. I mean not the total, but the in uh the health insurance number 12 we we we don't have 10 percent um but we changed some coverages to which more uh the two percent, okay. All right, so that's the patient surgery stuff. Okay, they'll get basically 20 I followed up that it's one of those things where we do engage the patients more and we care that not to get straight doing the surgery, think surgery's gonna fix everything sometimes. So I'm supposed to do some doctors, especially because the special point would do for their surgeons. Question them. See if there's some like the rehab first. That's only probably going to specialists, they're surgeons. They're gonna want to take the surgery out every time. So it's way each employee board check, make sure it's no boxing for the open value.
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