Thank you.

Good evening, and welcome to today's Millage Public Hearing for our fiscal year twenty twenty-six.

We will have a budget hearing following this hearing during which members of the public will have the ability to address the board, and there will be an indefinite number of speakers that we're willing to take on these two topics only.

Again, we're here to talk about our millage public hearing and our county budget.

An unlimited number of speakers will be able to address the board on these topics, and you will have up to three minutes to do so.

Before we kick off our first hearing, I will go ahead and have our CFO, Buddy Tezar, come up to the podium.

He will be the one that will be helping us walk through both of these hearings.

Tonight is our second public hearing.

It's July 21st.

Uh, and then we have our third public hearing scheduled for our regularly scheduled board meeting on Tuesday, July 28th, 2026 at 7 p.m.

in this room.

For the sake of the audience, the millage rates that this commission is in charge of are on the screen.

We have the general fund, the fire district fund and the Cumberland Special Service District 2 fund.

We are no longer responsible for setting the millage rate for the Six Flag Special Service District.

All the millage rates that were proposed are going to be unchanged at the proposed level from FY25.

Down below, you'll have the overall net digest.

The overall net digest in 2026 grew 5.06%.

That is slowing down from where it was a few years ago in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

It was near eight and ten percent.

So we are in this area of moderate to cooling uh digest growth.

This is a lot of numbers, but this is what makes up the overall net digest.

It walks through every property that is assessed by our tax assessor's office and includes uh the exemptions below.

We'll get into the exemption primarily the floating homestead exemption on the next slide.

One of the biggest changes that we had overall was in our commercial digest.

This was a commercial revaluation year, and it grew at approximately 7.6 percent.

The year prior, it was at 0.26 percent, and historically, it's at 6%.

So this is slightly above the historical average and makes up for an outlier of last year.

Overall, uh, again, the net digest grew at 5.06 percent.

Here is the slide I was referring to earlier with respect to the exemptions that are available to residents of Cobb County at their primary homestead, assuming that they have filed their uh floating homestead exemption.

This is a real home in Cobb County in 2018.

It was purchased at 205,090 over the course of time, as you can see indicated by the gray bars.

It has grown once in 2021 to 317,000.

It was once again reassessed in 2024 to a total of 459,000.

That is actually very close to the average home price within Cobb County.

Now I use this real example to indicate the benefit of the general funds floating homestead exemption on your primary residents.

The lines indicate the amount paid by this resident on their property tax bill.

The general fund line is and has remained flat.

That is the uh benefit of the floating homestead exemption.

It locks in and provides an exemption for any amount of growth on your fair market value, so you're only assessed on the value of the day that you purchase the home and filed your primary homestead exemption.

Other uh millage rates that are assessed do not have this float, they increase as the market value increases on that home.

So again, the primary millage rate that this board sets is the general fund.

It is uh proposed to remain flat, so those who have the floating homestead will not experience uh an increase in their general fund portion of the property tax bill.

There will be a slight increase in the fire fund tax bill, but that is uh 2.97 mills, so it is much uh less of a dollar difference.

Um, again, in this example, the individual would have paid close to $1,500 without the float.

So that saves approximately $838 for that individual.

Again, the longer you stay in the home, the more beneficial that uh floating homestead can be.

But this is just a real life example.

Everyone's uh property tax bill will be different, so I encourage everyone to look at their property tax bill to make sure that they understand it.

Um you can find your estimate on the website uh provided below.

Uh and one last thing I do want to uh let everyone know that there will be a credit from the homeowner relief grant this year.

That's important because it will provide a credit on your bill for what is due, meaning that next year, when your bill, if it does not reflect that credit, if the state does not pass that law again, that credit will go away.

So all things being equal, it will increase because the credit is not being applied or may not be applied next fiscal year.

And again, that is from the state.

Um with that, I will end the presentation and request uh that you open the public hearing.

Okay.

Thank you, buddy.

For anyone who would like to address the millage public hearing, you may do so at this time.

Again, we'll take an unlimited number of speakers.

You'll have a total of three minutes for those of you who may not be aware of this process before you speak.

Please state your name, and then you can um proceed with your comments.

Again, we'll take our first hearing.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, sorry.

Hello, my name's Rebecca Foster.

Um very nervous.

I just had some things to say about the property taxes.

Um last year, my Cobb County property taxes doubled.

As a result, my mortgage payment increased by more than $300 per month after my escrow analysis in April.

Since refinancing in early 2022, my monthly mortgage payment has increased more than $500 due to rising insurance premiums and property taxes.

But by far, the April increase was the most drastic.

For homeowners dealing with divorce, job loss, fixed incomes, retirement, or wages that simply haven't kept pace with inflation.

These increases can literally price them out of their homes.

They once could comfortably afford.

That should concern everyone.

I'm fortunate I can afford the increase.

Many people can't.

A young family, a widow, a retiree living on social securities, someone recovering from a layoff, someone going through a divorce, they may have done everything right, bought a home they could afford, paid their mortgage on time and budgeted responsibly, only to watch their monthly payment increase hundreds of dollars because of rising taxes and insurance.

No one should lose their home.

They worked their entire life for simply because its paper value increased while their paycheck didn't.

That's why transparency, consistency, and fairness in the assessment process matters, not because homeowners don't want to pay their fair share, but because they deserve confidence that the value used to calculate those taxes truly reflect the real market value of their home, not simply the highest market conditions or an automated estimate.

I think it would be a huge mistake raising the millage rate on homeowners this year because we've already suffered so much last year.

Most of us, and then I know a great deal of the county were reassessed this year as well.

Um, and that would be a huge problem because going up 300 and over 300 a month, and when they get reassessed, is detrimental to some households.

Um can I leave this with you?

Because these are my full notes and I don't want to read them all.

You don't mind.

Thank you.

That's all.

Thank you, ma'am.

We'll take our next speaker.

Good evening, commissioners.

My name is Tracy Hedrick.

I'm a Cobb County resident involved in improving animal welfare.

I'm here today because I believe Cobb County has an opportunity to strengthen animal welfare by investing in prevention enforcement and shelter support.

This year alone, the Cobb County shelter has taken in more than 4,800 animals.

Excuse me, ma'am.

Are your comments pertaining to the millage rate?

They pertain to the animal services budget.

Okay, we're gonna have a hearing on the budget following this millage rate discussion.

Oh, sorry.

That's okay.

This is my first time here.

Okay, okay.

Always clear.

Okay, please feel free to come up when we have our budget hearing.

No problem.

It's okay.

Now you're warmed up, so you'll be ready to go.

Is there anyone else here to speak towards our millage public hearing?

Yes, thank you.

Uh good evening.

My name's Craig Harfoot.

Um, but this feels like deja vu speaking before Sam and the board in 2005, six, seven, when the housing wasn't being inflated, and then the gas prices went up, and then they shed jobs like crazy, all these big companies.

All that stuff's happening right now.

Gas is almost at four dollars, no end in sight.

The um the weather, the thing that produced Katrina that really made gas go nuts, and then people quit paying their mortgages.

All that exists in the Gulf of Mexico right now.

It's the weather and the sun.

Like I this, like I said, the whole deal is you're gonna see a big dern time downturn in 2000 2027.

And it's all related to the banks and the banking industry and the chamber of commerce.

It's like how can we make houses more expensive?

And then you take what the highest one sold for, and you equalize it and say our tax base went up, and we're keeping the same millage rate, and yet we're paying more taxes, and that's just the biggest problem.

And then in the I'll talk about budget, but uh everybody's if you increase the price of the house, then you increase the price of the insurance, and then the whole thing becomes when you spend enough money on energy, you have the collapse, and then the needle is just a weather event.

But it was all set up like this.

I the head of the Fed told everybody to raise energy prices before in 2007.

I was sitting there and I watched them say it, and it happened.

And I'm I'm here to warn you, you know, that all these things they're they're not gonna talk about in the media, and the banks get the houses back, they get to resell them again.

But you you I know you guys care about homelessness and all that, and you put it in the budget, but that's a band it.

But you gotta spend less money so the tax rate can be lower and people can stay affordable.

So, anyhow.

It's it's uh it's forward thinking, and it's just because the storm's coming, these things are gonna happen.

And and I know our county manager was here and saw all this stuff, and she probably heard me talking about it.

And um, and I'm just trying to give you a heads up.

I live here, uh you know.

I like y'all.

I don't want to see bad things happening.

Mr.

Harville, all your time.

But thank you.

We'll take our next speaker.

Again, this is for the millage rate discussion.

Okay, not seeing any.

I'll go ahead and close this public hearing, and buddy, you can.

I'm sorry, we do have one more speaker.

He's coming up.

Thank you, sir.

Watch your step.

Yep.

I just came because I'm concerned about my property tax.

Okay, sir.

Can you state your name before something?

Yes, thank you.

My name is Steve Hale.

Okay.

I'm a Cobb County native.

Okay.

And uh my wife and I bought our house, it's an old 1973 house.

We bought it in 1990.

So we've been there for 36 years.

Fortunately, I got the mortgage paid off in 2008, but I've been working and having to, you know, spend my time and effort and money maintaining and repairing my house and all that.

Well, now, you know, I'm almost 60 years old, and I'm struggling financially, and uh my property tax over the last several years has like tripled in cost, and I need that money to survive and then to use for retirement instead of just paying taxes.

So my property tax is killing me financially, especially um my son and I used to have a little lawn business.

Well, sadly, he was accidentally murdered almost nine years ago.

So I've been by myself ever since.

Now I just mow a few friends and family's yards because I'm not old enough to get social security or any of that stuff, so I'm just struggling financially.

That's my concern because I've spent 36 years, you know, trying to keep my house and even my friends in the neighborhood and helping them and all that, so that we have a good safe neighborhood.

Because all our houses are built in the early 70s.

That's my concern.

I just don't want it to kill me financially.

Thank you for sharing that with us, sir.

Okay.

I'm in Cobb County.

I was prepared to come up and complain about everything.

I'm not going to complain about anything now.

I was very impressed by the floating milletry.

And I benefit from that as a homeowner.

But I'd like to plea on behalf of those people who don't have access to the floating millage rate.

And their taxes are going up.

Property taxes on homes are going up as the value of their homes continue to go up.

They get reassessed at higher values, they pay higher taxes.

Property that don't have access to the floating millage rate.

And perhaps consider for a few years until the economy begins to improve, not causing their property taxes to rise as a consequence of the higher assessed values, higher home values in the neighborhood, and allow them to simply be perhaps taxed on the basis of the original price they paid for the home some years ago.

I think these people truly need help.

We heard several of them speak.

And I'm pleading on their behalf, those who don't have access to the floating floating millage rate.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, um, Commissioner Mormon Cupid and all Cobb County Commissioners.

Um thank you for having the public hearing, and I'm speaking on behalf of the people that can't afford their property taxes.

Kathy, can you state your name for the record?

Oh, sorry.

That's okay.

Huh.

Had a pre-senior moment again.

Okay.

Kathy Slough.

And um I'm I'm okay finding I'm not rich financially, but I'm okay because I'm 62 and holding, so I have the um school exemption and also the floating exemption.

But I think there's a lot of people here that may not have that opportunity.

Um some of my neighbors don't, I know.

So I'm just asking, we have a wonderful uh diversity, homeowners, renters in cobb, all kinds of people, all kinds of living accommodations.

So I'm just asking that you take everyone, like the gentleman here that is 60 and cannot have those exemptions into account when you're looking at property taxes and the millage rate.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Are there any other speakers here with respect to the millage rate?

Okay, not seeing any.

We will go ahead and close this hearing, and but I'll ask if you can please return.

Thank you.

And before you go into the next presentation, I just want to clarify um a comment with respect to access to the homestead exemption.

Can you differentiate the homestead exemption versus the senior exemption and how one would access the homestead exemption?

Sure, I I can try to.

The the best place to look for our tax exemptions is on our tax commissioner's website.

Uh there's actually uh on the top bar you look up types of property tax, and you'll see exemptions.

You can click that bar and it gives you every list of available exemption because there's more than just the floating homestead exemption and the school exemption.

There's veteran exemptions, there are disability exemptions, there's all the things.

Oh, I'm sorry.

That's okay.

Um, there's all different types of exemptions.

So the two that you asked about today were the floating homestead and the 62 and older.

But there are others as well.

There's disability and there's veterans, so I encourage everyone to go on that website and look at the different types of exemptions that could be available to them.

Okay.

With respect to your question, uh, for the floating homestead exemption, there is a link there.

Um whenever you purchase your home, it would be uh great benefit for anyone to immediately ask the real estate agent, work with whomever they're working with, themselves go to the tax commission website to make sure that that floating homestead is exemption is applied.

Again, that only affects the Cobb County Board of Commissioners general fund millage rate.

The floating homestead exemption does not apply to any other portion of your tax bill.

Um the second part of your question was with respect to the school board.

There is an exemption for those who are 62 and over.

Um I'm not familiar with that process with respect to what's necessary to be filed when it has to be filed, but I know there are instructions online.

Again, that applies to the school portion of your budget.

Um so I just want to make sure that we're clear on that.

Did that answer all of your questions?

Yes.

I do have another question.

Yes, ma'am.

Can you clarify also the assessment of home value?

Sure.

Um and the legal requirements around the assessment of home value.

I will leave the legal requirements to the tax assessor, but they do have to follow strict requirements with respect to how often and how they go about setting uh the fair market value for our homes, which is obviously the assessed value that leads to the taxable value.

But anyway, there's a process for them that they have to file.

We have a very good tax assessor's office uh here in this county, and uh they make sure to comply with all necessary rules, regulations, and state laws as it provides to assessment.

But that is something that has to be done.

Um you just can't not assess properties.

So there is an assessor's department and they must assess properties, but they do so in accordance with whatever rules and regulations uh that are for them in their office.

And I would encourage anyone if they have any additional questions to reach out to that office.

Um I would hate to speak on their behalf, but they would be able to answer any of their questions.

Thank you.

And I don't necessarily want to speak on their behalf also, but something that I was surprised to learn several years ago is the legal requirement to have home assessed for their value for our tax assessment.

And not having homes properly assessed according to the state can result in significant penalty to the county, which could make us have to assess the home properties or come up with another way.

Well, which makes us not only have to assess the home properties for its proper value according to the state's methodology that they find reasonable, but then there will be additional fees tacked on top of it, which the county would have to pay.

So I know it is painful when you look at your home and you see the home value increasing over time.

Um we are unable to undervalue a home.

However, there is a process in place to appeal the home value with our tax assessor, and I encourage anyone who may perceive that their home is not being properly assessed to please look at the tax commissioners page to understand the process for doing that.

We can provide some relief through the homestead exemption.

There was a question about who is who has access to that exemption.

Anyone that owns their home and lives in it, meaning that's their homestead property, has access to that homestead exemption.

Um, if you have a rental property, the homestead exemption does not apply because you are not living in that rental property.

However, as was made clear, that exemption does not apply to anything beyond the general fund, which includes the fire fund and also the school exemption.

Again, I'm just reiterating what was said because I just want to emphasize it for those that are seeing their bills increase.

Um please take advantage of the homestead exemption.

Please take advantage of the school board exemption if you are 62 and above.

We do not have the ability to apply or modify that school board exemption, however, that is available again for those 62 and above in Cobb County.

Okay.

Were there any clarifying comments from the board?

All right.

Thank you for that diversion.

And buddy, you can go ahead and help us with our next hearing.

Absolutely.

So before I request uh that you open the second public hearing on the FY27 proposed budget, I will give a very brief presentation.

Uh as we've seen this presentation can go on and on and on, but we've uh we've given it once the 23rd, and we've given it once again on the 14th, so it is available online.

I will try to hit the Cliffs Notes version here for the sake of time, but also hit the highlights that will be relevant uh to this presentation.

So very quickly, we'll go over the agenda.

We'll hit a budget summary and the highlights within the proposed FY27 budget.

We will list the impact items and the budget recommendationslash required adjustments.

We'll get into what those mean when we hit those slides.

We'll talk about the additional items being proposed in the FY27 proposed budget for the general fund.

Uh and this will be the part I condense and kind of hit the highlights on, but we'll talk about uh some of the major changes by fund, and we'll talk and then we'll end on the schedule and then any additional information uh with respect to where all of this information can be found on our website.

So very quickly, uh this is the summary of the county's budget.

We have uh an increase proposed of 84 million dollars.

Uh again, that is countywide.

That is not the general fund, that is for all county funds, both operin the governmental funds and the business type funds.

So it will be an 84 million dollar increase for all of those funds.

We'll break down the highlights as to what makes up the majority of that 84 million dollars on the next slide.

But again, that is not within the general fund, that is total funds.

The general fund only makes up about 29 million dollars of that increase.

Uh we're proposing to add 59 full-time positions.

At the time this was originally presented, it was 29, but we were discussing how the fire fund would be handled.

Um the this board came to the decision to include or in the proposed budget an additional 27 positions uh for the fire fund.

So in total, there are 59 positions, full-time positions being requested within the fire fund, 23 of which are in the general fund, 27 in the fire, six within the stormwater utility fund, and those were contemplated when we started uh discussing the stormwater utility fund uh last year, and we also have the water and sewer fund with three additional positions.

So, very quickly, what makes up the 84 million dollars?

The line share goes to water and soup uh sewer capital, which increased 17.1 million dollars.

This is for the infrastructure uh for our water lines.

It increased 17 million dollars.

We have an increase in the water and sewer operations.

It's different from capital.

Capital is your larger expenditures.

Operations are the purchasing of water, chemicals, parts, sludge, you name it.

Uh that increased approximately $1.8 million.

Another large change, and this is unique, is the addition of the stormwater utility fund.

It's not necessarily much of a change with respect to year over year, but it's it's the origination of this in our adopted budget.

So because it was not adopted in FY26, it was zero dollars because it wasn't there.

We adopted in FY27 uh at 17.1 million dollars.

9.6 million of that is for stormwater capital.

Okay, but it's essentially going from zero dollars as it was in the 26 adopted budget to 17.1 million dollars.

So that is a large increase.

Next year it'll be uh net increase between whatever uh this board uh and water puts forward.

Within the general fund, we had the employee roster update.

This is the filling of vacant positions, this is the increase in pension and health care.

Uh this is the inclusion of any additional standby special pay uh for our public safety uh department and our sheriff's office, and also the increase of any and all statutory payroll costs, such as your workers' comp, your FICA, um disability, things of that nature.

So just to keep the services we have today with the employees we have today, it was an increase of 14.2 million dollars within the general fund.

Um, and that also reflects the full year cost and includes what the merit that was issued last year and the cost of living or the uh pay scale adjustment that was issued last year.

So we have to incorporate that uh when we move forward into the next year.

This budget proposes a 2% pay scale adjustment again that takes place in March, which is only for half the year.

Um, and then we have the merit, which is three percent uh in there again this year.

New to this budget is we have uh proposed a four percent increase in the stipend for Medicare eligible retirees.

Um we have our claims fund.

This is kind of confusing, it adds to the uh the total 84 million dollars, but in essence it's counted twice.

Okay, the general fund, the water fund, the fire fund, they pay for their employees' health care, they pay for their uh any of the claims, any of our insurance policies, they're all paid out of the claims fund.

So essentially the expense and the general fire and water fund are also recorded in the claims fund.

So, more or less you're you're looking at that expenditure twice.

Um, but for sake of how we have to present the budget, it does look like uh another increase of 11 million dollars.

I just wanted to be clear there.

We have our fire fund, which is proposed to increase 6.2 million dollars, which is a mix of the personnel that I discussed earlier, operating and some additional capital improvements to comply with their capital plan uh over in the fire fund.

We have impact items, which I will briefly touch on on the next slide, the total $8.1 million.

We have budget recommendations, which are recommendations of the finance office uh of $3.5 million.

Those are essentially things that we have to do, whether it's an old contract or something that we are obligated to pay for into the next year.

That's roughly $3.5 million.

This budget does propose an additional reduction in the water transfer of one more percent.

Currently, we're at 4% by reducing it an additional 1%.

The FY27 proposed budget will be down to 3%.

So we're getting very close to eliminating the water transfer.

And again, all of this proposes no change in the millage rate.

So very quickly, I will not touch on each of these items in the list, but I will explain what impact items are.

Impact items are essentially actions taken by this board during the course of this fiscal year that have an impact on next year.

So if this board makes a decision that will have a recurring cost, we have to account for that when building the FY27 budget.

So so far we've committed or are about to commit to $8.1 million of additional funding in the FY27 budget that we have to carry forward.

These are the budget recommendations.

Some of the things you'll notice on there is a risk allocation.

This is what I was referring to earlier, part of that $11 million in our claims funds.

We are self-insured, but we have excess property casualty insurance.

But for all those things we're self-insured for, we have to pay the claims.

We've had increased claims, but replacing anything that has been damaged has gone up in cost.

So the cost of claims and the estimated claims are higher.

So the amount that the general fund is estimated to have to bring into the claims fund went up approximately 1.3 million.

So those are the types of things that we have within the budget recommendation.

We also have our contributions, that's part of our House Bill 49.

Um that steps up $500,000 each year for I think we are on eight in a year two now, eight more to go.

But again, those are things that we have to account for within the budget.

Another quick example is the training center operation costs for both public safety and the sheriff.

They opened the training center, they have an indoor firing range.

It was paid for with SPLOSS dollars, but the maintenance and operation of that facility, the increased HVAC that's required for lead mitigation and all those things was not in the M and O budget, so we have to include the operating costs such as utilities and like I said, additional HVAC.

These are the proposed items, additional items for FY27.

This is within the general fund.

I will leave this here for a moment.

Um, but I do want to note at the bottom that anything that is italicized was added or amended after the original June 23rd, 2026 presentation.

So those of you who are tuning in to watch the June 23rd presentation or to catch up on it, this list would have looked slightly different.

Um I wanted to indicate any of those changes between now and then uh through italics.

And for the sake of time, I'm gonna move on if that's okay.

Okay.

We will get into the governmental fund breakdowns.

We kind of hit on most of that within our highlight slide, but again, the general fund went up approximately 29 million dollars.

As indicated in previous slides, about 8.1 of that is impact items, 14.3 of that is just the rolling of the roster, and additional 3.5 is the budget recommendations.

That leaves you know 3.2 million and some change within the budget that decisions could be made on, and that's what makes up the 29 million dollars.

Again, we have our claims and liability fund already described that, went up 11 million dollars, or it's proposed to go up 11 million dollars in our fire district fund.

We touched on that with the inclusion of the additional personnel operating capital and very minor changes within the rest of the funds.

One thing to note is the change in the six flag special service district fund.

There was uh a budget there in FY26, but the county is no longer uh responsible for the millage rate on the six flag special service district.

Uh we do have an interest payment that's coming due this year.

It's 120 some odd thousand dollars, so we have to budget that interest payment in FY27.

That's why you'll see the big decrease there.

Skip a slide, no.

Um again, very marginal increases.

If you want to touch on the street light district, this district is just to pay for the utility cost at the street lights within the street light districts.

Uh, that fund lost about 1.4 million dollars last year because of the cost of the bills uh to fund uh the electricity went up.

The board approved a uh streetlight district rate increase, I believe in November.

It has taken effect and revenues look to be trending right at the $8 million mark.

So we again we budget to essentially not make a profit, not make a loss to pay the utilities for those streetlight districts, and that's what's being reflected there.

The water fund and stormwater utility fund we touched on earlier majority that is capital infrastructure within the water fund.

Again, the $17 million increase reflects the fact that in stormwater uh in FY26's stormwater utility fund was not adopted.

It is now being adopted beginning October 1st of next year.

It's active, but it's not adopted.

Okay, this will be the first year it's adopted within this budget.

That's why it's showing such a large increase.

Um we have a few other funds, we have our transit fund, golf course fund, and sustainability waste and beautification, each with small changes.

But the total of all funds uh kicks back to that uh $84.7 million dollars uh we referenced earlier.

The stadium capital maintenance fund, uh, just to clarify, that is a uh contractual obligation that we have along with the Atlanta Braves with the stadium.

Each party is required to put in about half the cost of that budget per year.

So right now it's one or proposed to be 1.5 million dollars for the county next year and 1.5 million dollars for the Braves.

That will go on uh for a few years, but that goes to fund a trust fund that essentially pays for major capital uh at the stadium, whether that be HVAC units, elevators, escalators, you name it, um, but that money is being set aside for eventual capital repair.

Um we have our capital projects fund, uh, which is anything that's a multi-year capital project, specifically a lot of our ITS projects we put over there.

We have a raw water renewal extension improvement, water SDF fund, which is system development, and our stormwater capital.

Again, that's the capital funds that I refer to in the budget highlights that is just water or stormwater capital for the year.

Um, including the multi-year grants funds, uh, which is an estimate, and I don't want to get in the weeds, I'm trying not to, but for our JAG, our CSPG, um, any of our pass-through grants, that's what we have to budget for the estimated spend for our multi-year grants, uh, more or less all the multi-year capital grant funds totaled to an increase of 30.9 million dollars for the year.

So, with respect to the schedule, as I said earlier, we gave the initial presentation on June 23rd at 1.30 in this room.

We've had a few changes.

Those changes were reflected in the first public hearing and presentation on July 14th in this room at 9 a.m.

Today we had our second public called uh meeting for a public hearing, uh, and then we will have our third and final public hearing in this room next Tuesday at a regular schedule meeting, uh, followed uh thereafter by uh the budget adoption.

And for all of those who would like more information, you can jump on to the finance website.

You will find copies of this presentation, you will find copies of the budget.

Uh and any other additional information as uh it relates to the budget will be there.

Uh if anyone would like to learn more, I couldn't get into each and every fund, but I encourage them to check out our 25-26 biennial book.

It does a good job of explaining what uh each and every fund does within the county, so you can learn more uh about the operations that we do.

So, with that, uh I would request that you open the public hearing.

Thank you, buddy.

Similar to the protocol of our last hearing, we will take an unlimited number of speakers who can address the budget and the budget only, and you'll have up to three minutes to do so.

We'll go ahead and we'll take our first speaker, and just a reminder to please state your name before you begin your comments.

I would like to talk to number one.

I guess I should have been at that July 14th meeting.

Because my understanding during that meeting, the budget did include a requested head count for Cobb elections.

And by the way, I'm speaking on my own behalf, not that of the board.

Um it is a needed uh position.

We're one of the few departments who don't have a deputy director.

And I would invite all of you to just come and work one election to see the amount of burden put on the director of elections.

And if the director happens to have to be absent, it puts a burden on the rest of the staff because each department has a function that they're statutorily required to perform.

And yet, my understanding is my friend Buddy, who had it in the budget, it's now been removed.

And I'm curious why it was removed.

And uh number two, I would also like to point out that it is a great stepping stone for the people in elections.

And I would ask that you put it back in there.

I realize that we can ask for it later, but you know, I've been doing budget analysis for years.

And there's a couple of you who remember when I used to come to every meeting and attack the budget.

I haven't done that in the last several years.

But on this point, I stand strong.

Please put it back in there.

It's a needed position, and it makes sense to have it there because I know it won't be added later.

The other thing I'd like to talk about is the requirement for 1099 employees, which I'm not a Cobb County employee.

I was a 1099, however, and then all of a sudden, you're now taking taxes and you require us to be an employee.

Yet I just witnessed the huge amount of money that we pay in FICA in Medicare costs when in fact I'm retired.

I don't need to have more Medicare or FICA or Social Security dollars taken out of the little pittance that we have, which by the way, thank you for the increase in that.

But at the same time, you increased it, you decreased it.

And I know you have a lot of contractors who are 1099.

Ma'am, your time has run.

That's unfortunate.

Please reconsider that as well.

Okay, we'll take our next speaker.

Again, an unlimited number of speakers.

Good evening, Christine Rosman, Marietta.

Hey, um, actually, I wanted to piggyback on what um Debbie Fisher had to say because I go to the Board of Election meetings too.

And this does all tie into budget of what I'm gonna say, but um a couple of things is one is maybe you should pay them more because I attend more board of election meetings than the board members do, and sometimes there's only three people up there, sometimes it's four, rarely it seems like it's five.

So maybe you need to pay them more and then they'll show up or have a conversation with them about it.

Um also is that um I have been uh working as a volunteer with elections, and I have to agree there's a lot there, it's so detailed for everybody of what to do, and um when you have a brand new director that's you know basically wet behind the ears, this is a new job for her, um she might need the support of having um additional people because also I'm sure you know that um Georgia is one of I think five states that is being focused on for voter issues, voter fraud, and even though everything could be 100% clean in Cobb County, I think it would be respectful to the elections team to have sufficient support so that they can be able to do their job and to not you know not be overwhelmed, and um I think that's it, and well, there's a lot more I'd like to complain about, but I'm gonna stop now.

Thanks.

Okay, we'll take our next speaker.

Hi, my name is Nikki Healy.

I'm a constituent in District 2 of Cobb County.

I'm here to thank you for your commitment on improving animal welfare for our community.

As you know, our community is facing a significant pet overpopulation crisis, and investing in the people who care for these animals is an important step towards addressing that.

The proposed new positions in the budget will have a direct impact on the quality of care provided to thousands of animals that come through animal services each year.

And I'm truly grateful that you recognize this need.

As we continue working together to address pet offer pet overpopulation, I would also like to encourage the board to consider adopting community cat ordinances that support trap neuter vaccinate return programs.

During my previous role leading a municipal animal shelter in Florida, I witnessed firsthand the positive impact these ordinances had on both animal welfare and the shelter operations.

Communities that embrace evidence-based TNVR policies, see fewer kittens born outdoors, healthier community cat populations, and reduction in the number of free roaming cats over time.

I want to thank you again for your leadership and for your willingness to invest in solutions that improve the lives of both animals and the people of our community.

I appreciate your time and your continued dedication to making Cobb County a leader in animal welfare and hope you approve those positions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Good evening, commissioners.

My name is Julius Garsega.

I'm a constituent in District 2 in Marietta.

I am here today to express my support for animal services because the animals don't have a voice.

But just as important as the animals themselves are the dedicated people who care for them every day, and they need our support too.

Thank you for including funding for additional veterinary staff in the budget.

It's necessary, well deserved, and a fiscally responsible investment.

I want to take a moment to highlight a very real issue in the animal care field, which is burnout.

These workers face physically demanding work, emotional exhaustion, compassion fatigue, and the heartbreaking reality of caring for homeless animals every single day.

They regularly face emotional challenges, including neglect, abuse, pet overpopulation, euthanasia decisions, and limited resources.

Yet they should continue to show up because they care deeply about the animals in their care.

But even the most caring people have their limits.

Burnout leads to turnover and turnover is one of the most expensive problems any organization can face.

Every vacancy means additional recruiting, hiring, and training costs while increasing the workload on those who stay.

Investing in adequate staffing helps retain experienced workers, reduces long-term costs, and provides more consistent care for the animals.

It's an investment that both taxpayers taxpayers and the investment that benefits both taxpayers and the community.

The mental health crisis in this profession is so significant that organizations like Not One More Vet exist solely to provide mental health resources, peer support, education, and crisis assistance to animal care professions.

Burnout is not just anecdotal, it's a well recognized challenge across the field.

Supporting Cobb County Animal Services isn't just about funding positions, it's about investing in the people who make the entire system work.

When we support the staff, we improve outcomes for the animals and make better use of our taxpayer dollars.

Thank you for your consideration and investing in both the animals and the dedicated dedicated people that work for them.

We appreciate all of our animal services employees, the animal control officers, and the leadership of Director Hammond.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Lisa Pala Hebree, and I'm a constituent Marietta District 3.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak this evening and would like to thank the board for including funding in the budget for the much needed additional veterin staff for animal services.

Unfortunately, over the past few years, government operated shelters across the state, including Cobb County have experienced a dramatic increase in shelter intakes.

From 2023 to 2025, Cobb County Animal Services took in an average of over 600 dogs and cats per month.

So far this year, the average is around 630.

Upon intake, these animals need health assessments, vaccinations, and are most likely not yet spayed or neutered.

A dog or cat may already be sick.

Eye, ear, upper restroom infections are common, and they may be injured and need immediate care or even surgical intervention.

Adding a second veterinarian and supporting veterinary technicians to the animal services team will help better manage the demanding workload they have to ensure the animals are evaluated and receive adequate care in a timeline manner because early detection and treatment of an illness can potentially avoid more severe complications or the need for extensive and costly treatments later on.

This will also help more quickly diagnose and address highly contagious and life-threatening medical conditions like parvo or panleukopenia, and to perform more stay and neuter surgeries and assist with any training needs.

Um and I also would like to sincerely thank Director Hammond and his staff for their hard work and perseverance to provide essential care for so many animals in need in our county.

And thank you so much for your time and dedication to Calm.

And please approve these vital positions for animal services.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Kathy Slough, and I want to thank you for time for the public hearing number two.

I just have three items to talk about.

The first is uh I asked you to please stop hiring outside consultants.

I think we have a wonderful staff in Cobb County and Alts Department.

I think we have a wealth of information here, and we don't need to waste money on outside consultants.

I'm glad you dropped the 4% to 3% with the water transfer.

I am in support of having a uh deputy director for elections.

I have worked the elections for many years now.

It's a tough job, and it's very rewarding.

I really enjoy doing my civic duty giving back to Cobb County.

And lastly, I know firsthand about animal services because I'm from a rural community in Ohio where animals are treated like property, like a shoe or a piece of flooring.

My sister's a retired animal control service officer, and she didn't do it for the money.

She did it for the love of dogs and cats and all animals.

I I know most of you and a couple of you have dogs or cats, so I thank you for putting animal services in the budget for our four-footer friends and all the problems and all the animals and the people need working those tough jobs.

I I had an example today.

There was a cat in front of our home, and fortunately that cat had its name on pudding and its telephone number.

So I called that number and it was within our complex, and she lets it roam during the day, and then it goes in at night, but at least that person had the name and a telephone number on there.

I'm the owner, or rather, I had a rescue dog from uh from mostly muds, and I just lived in the big dog house.

Now I'm on my second rescue dog from mostly mud, and I wouldn't trade the rescue dogs for the world.

Well, the first was a docks, and the second is a chihuahua min pin.

But animals are very important in Cobb County, and animal control services is a much needed and all the staff and all the animals.

Thank you for caring about us, and you all have a good night.

Thank you for your time.

Good evening, my name's Craig Harfoot.

The um the stormwater fee.

The whole seven, what is it, $18 million isn't going to fix the stuff.

Only a little more than half of it is.

That ain't right.

And then you're adding staff just to collect it.

Which brings me to why are you having a lawsuit and spending money on that with the school board because of the collecting the property tax and giving them their cut of it.

Seems like that might be an AI job and not a bunch of staff people to figure it out and spend all that money to sort it.

And um the insurance, you know, like everybody here, our insurance rates keep going up because you raise the values on the houses.

Now, why, you know, you made a nice explanation of why you um the state made us do it.

Well, the state's all lobbied by banks, Chamber of Commerce, and the whole thing is they don't want anybody to actually own their house and live in it.

I mean, the whole thing is real.

It's like cowboys and Indians.

Let's run the Indians off and sell it again to the next batch of settlers, you know.

So that, you know, as counties, you know, this is a national problem now.

It's not just us.

We need to get, you know, the homestead exemption on an entry-level house when they did the income tax and property tax.

Nobody with entry-level houses paid any taxes.

The millionaires had million dollar houses, they sold them.

They weren't gonna pay the taxes, or they made deals with the state.

But the whole thing is skewed, and it's why you got homelessness.

Now, I think everybody here cares more about animals than I have animals.

We love them.

But when I was growing up, there was an SBCA.

The county didn't run the animal shelter.

It was private.

It needs to be private again.

And you need to be hitting up all the animal lovers to support it, not the county dollars.

I mean, these are the kind of things that make sense to me.

That why, you know, it's like when you give money to must ministries.

You know, they're perfectly capable of raising money, you know.

There's rich people, they do what they want, but you like to tax us and give it to these little pet projects, and right there you'll save millions of millions.

I mean, our budget's over in the billions now.

And they're the only way to get it under control is spend less money.

Thank you.

As our next speaker is coming up, I just want to recognize the speaker that we had during our millet that wanted to address the cat matter.

I just want to encourage you to um feel comfortable coming up and addressing us.

Okay.

Hello, my name is Ryan Cohote.

Um, just after listening to that guy, it sounds like he wants value out of the the money that Cobb County taxpayers are paying.

Um I drove here tonight for the reason I've driven here many times before because for years Cobb County's animal welfare has quietly fallen on volunteers like me.

Um he mentioned the funding.

They're not raising the funding.

It's not gonna happen.

Spain neutral is an investment in the community.

I've gotten approximately 400 of this county's cats sterilized at my own expense.

Um I have a hundred traps around Cobb County that uh individuals are using.

So I talk about the cost of doing nothing, I've been paying it.

Uh here's what doing nothing costs.

Your shelter took in 7,558 animals last year.

That's 21 animals a day.

And each of those has a cost.

Uh that's about 570-ish dollars per animal per intake.

Um at that pace, the new building you've approved isn't a solution, it's a reservation.

That building is gonna fill up.

Um, you guys aren't doing anything about all those animals on the streets making your future shelter animals.

Every kennel in it is already spoken for by the animals that haven't been born yet because nothing upstream will have changed, and the animals on the streets will keep breeding, and the side effects landing hardest on Cobb's poorest residents.

So when I go help people, it's not in the rich neighborhoods, it's in those poor neighborhoods, it's in the trailer parks, it's in the low-income apartments.

Uh meanwhile, your neighbors are pulling away.

In 2013, Fulton County spent 2.4 million dollars on animal services.

Today it's over 9 million.

That's quadrupled.

Cobb County and their shelter.

That's nearly quadrupled, and their shelter contract alone is bigger than Cobb's entire animal budget.

Fulton passed Cobb's current present spending more than half a decade ago.

Cobb isn't just behind, it's standing still, and we're all paying the price.

Now, some of you may believe uh it isn't county government's duty to pay for spaying and neutering, fine, but it's Cobb County's problem.

The moment a stray lands on taxpayers' porch and she calls your number, you're paying for that animal.

You've certainly chosen to pay at the most expensive point in its life.

$571 at the impound instead of the $80 before the litter ever existed.

Um, some other counties for size and pounty, uh Paulding, as conservative as it gets, they already treat span neuter and TNR as infrastructure, not charity.

And the one service this budget never fails to deliver is the last one euthanasia.

That's not service, that's a disservice, and it's a choice.

So when does this end?

Is driving an animal wagon around giving away free animals really cobb's most creative solution?

Ended next week.

The three things that would do that a working voucher program for residents, a county sponsored trap neuter return program that helps volunteers helps help you.

And surgical space built into new facility.

So Cobb County finally starts solving Cobb County's problems.

Good evening, commissioners.

My name is Cheryl Gould.

I'm a Cobb County resident and voter.

And I want to be straightforward about why we're here.

We've heard that this budget adds three veterinary positions for animal services.

And although we really welcome those positions, they are still reactive.

They don't really address the animals until they're already in the building.

As Ryan said, last year, 7,558 dogs and cats came through that building.

The budget in front of you spends money catching housing and euthanizing animals, but almost nothing on preventing them from being born on our streets in the first place.

The people that are doing that prevention.

Oh, yeah, I'm sorry.

The people that are doing the prevention work are volunteers.

And for years, ordinary residents of this county have trapped, transported, and paid and paid to sterilize cob animals out of their own pockets.

I'm one of those people.

I do TNR.

We're actually performing the public service that this budget declines to fund by really supporting this prevention.

I know these people, they're tired, they're broke, they're running out of options, even when you know their will remains strong.

A county of almost 800,000 people cannot run its overpopulation policy on the exhausted generosity of a few dozen private citizens.

And right now that's exactly what Cobb County does.

Meanwhile, our neighbors made different choices.

Surrounding counties do run public spay and neuter days.

They have voucher programs, they trap neuter and return.

As Cobb County residents, we pay the same metro taxes and we get none of it.

But we're still paying the full price of the overpopulation and shelter costs in euthanasia and cats multiplying in our own neighborhoods.

So here's what we're asking of the board before July 28th.

Number one, keep the three veterinary positions, but recognize that's a floor, it's not the ceiling.

Two, direct that direct that the new animal services building be designed with high volume spay and neuter surgical capacity.

Do that now while it's still on paper rather than trying to you know retrofit it after the fact.

And number three, create a dedicated prevention line in this budget.

Subsidize spay and neuter for the public, like our neighbors have.

So the problem finally shrinks instead of compounding.

The speakers after me will show you what your current policy looks like.

Your time has run.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Cheryl Hatcher.

I'm a citizen of Cobb County, Marietta.

I am an active voter and a homeowner and a taxpayer.

And I wanted to speak to your adding additional vet and vet tax to the to the budget and why that is a good idea and how it will save you money in the long run.

Two years ago, or three years ago, um we had seven kittens dropped off in our neighborhood.

But I couldn't ignore them.

Two of my neighbors couldn't either.

So we um did what was we thought was right.

We called Cobb County services.

They were so overwhelmed, they told me they couldn't do anything to help me, not to even bother bringing them in.

They um gave me some rescues.

I called the rescues, no help.

So that was um that was three years ago.

The um there was no vouchers, there was no um, there was no options whatsoever.

So I called the volunteer rescue organizations again.

They were full up, they had too many babies already in their in their care, and they could not take them.

So last year that went from seven, I'm sorry, two years ago, the seven kittens now turned into 15 cats, and we actually even adopted out seven of those, um, seven beyond the 15.

Um that um they the cats are gonna be what cats are, and they're gonna have more kittens.

So over the two years, last year it became 35 cats.

We finally reached a T and R group that could help us, and they were able to take catch 35 cats and take them in and get them fixed.

This year, we have no kittens.

We have gone from 35 last year to no kittens this year.

Imagine the savings that has given uh the county just with doing that, and we also had out of the 35 that we caught last year, um, six of them were pregnant.

So add that into the numbers, right.

The um the the thing is is if you hire these additional workers, they can make that difference.

They can help the TNR and take away the problem of having too many animals in the shelter, and it's it's a good way to do it.

It's it's a caring way to do it.

So um I'm I'm just grateful that you have that on the um on your budget.

Um, I want to point out that I tried to do the right thing, and the county couldn't help me.

I really believe that this budget change will make a difference and it will help all the county, not just our neighborhood, but everybody's neighborhood.

So um I I want to thank you for this.

Um, I know this is a budget decision, but I'm trying to make it clear that it's not you're increasing it, but in the in the overall, it's going to decrease your costs.

It's going to decrease my cop my county's costs, and that's always a good thing, right?

Ma'am, your time has run.

Okay.

Thank you.

Good evening, commissioners.

My name is Rebecca Sussman, and I'm a Corb County resident.

I chose this country, and my son chose to serve to serve it.

Last year, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, and what happened next is why I'm at this podium.

When he left, I did what a lot of proud, slightly heartbroken parents do.

I found a way to fill the quiet.

His empty room is now a foster room, and it has been occupied ever since by animals from this county's shelter system.

Animals that had nowhere else to go.

My son signed up to serve his country, but I've discovered that there's another army, unpaid, unfunded, and unofficial serving this county.

The fosters, trappers, and rescuers who absorbed the overflow of a shelter that took in 750, 7,558 animals last year and killed 1,237 of them.

Here's what you learn inside the volunteer army.

Every crate, every bag of kitten formula, every surgery is paid for privately.

Every kitten surge, and it's as predictable as the calendar, the same exhausted people brace with the same flood, and the flood is entirely preventable.

It exists because thousands of animals in this county are never spayed or neutered because COB, alone among its neighbors, offers its residents no public way to get it done.

My son's service is voluntary, but the country doesn't pretend volunteers replace a defense budget.

It funds the mission.

COP does the opposite.

Our money, our spare rooms, our sleep.

So I'm asking this board to fund the mission, keep the veterinary positions, build surgical capacity in the new shelter, and create a public spay new to program like every county around us.

Give the volunteer army what every army needs.

Supply lines.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Kelly Sullivan.

I am a Cobb County resident.

People have told you what's happening in their neighborhoods.

I am going to tell you what it costs Cobb residents.

But first, why it matters.

We are given dominion over these animals.

Dominion is not indifference, it is responsibility.

One, the money.

Cobb's own shelter director has said publicly that no vet will perform spay neuter surgeries at what the county calls market rate.

The county zone agency can't buy a spay at the county's price, so how will a retiree with strays on their porch?

Commissioner Kelly Graham confirmed as much in writing the county's $125 pet voucher program.

Couldn't find local vets willing to take it.

And residents weren't willing to travel for it either.

They probably can't afford to.

Her answer was to ask constituents to lobby their state reps for a mobile clinic funded by license plates, not fix the county's problem.

It gets worse.

This shelter has adopted out unaltered animals, some of which come back pregnant.

The shelter is restocking itself.

That's not a staff failure.

Staff can't perform surgeries.

This budget won't fund.

That's a budget failure, and the budget is yours.

Two, the choice.

This budget pays to catch animals, house them, and put them down.

You approved a new shelter twice the size of the current one, a bigger bucket.

But it's surgical size suite for owned pets and shelter intake only, not size to fund the touch the real problem.

Thousands of unowned animals.

We see it on Facebook posts, found, found, found.

Strays animals reproducing in our neighborhoods right now.

You can build the biggest bucket in this state.

And it won't matter while that tap outside keeps running and drowning us in this over pet population problem.

Every county around us funds away for residents to turn that tap off.

Cobb is the only one that won't.

Three, the investment.

One unspayed cat can have 200 kittens.

And here's the math that should decide this vote.

It costs Cobb $571 to impound one animal.

It costs only $70 to prevent the entire litter from happening.

Spay neuter is not new spending.

It's the cheapest investment on the table.

And it pays for itself in the animals that never ever arrive.

Cobb is stretched because the money isn't there, not regionally, but here.

Cobb should be closer to seven and a half million dollars.

We're not even at 5.2.

This isn't deCab having more money, it's Cobb choosing to spend less on what it has.

So on July 28th, I am asking that this county needs more than $5 million.

Enough to actually fund the prevention.

Keep the vet positions, we appreciate those absolutely.

Size the new surgical suite for the community it's meant to serve, not just what walks through that door, and fund public spay neuter for cob residents.

Your time has run.

Thank you.

Hi again.

Good evening, commissioners.

I'm Tracy Hedrick, and I'm a Cobb County resident involved in improving animal welfare.

I'm here today because I believe Cobb County has an opportunity to strengthen animal welfare by investing in prevention enforcement and shelter support.

This year alone, the Cobb County shelter has taken in more than 4,800 animals.

Those numbers don't capture the many stray animals and litters that never enter the shelter system.

A few weeks ago, my husband and I spent the whole weekend trapping a stray mama dog and her young puppies here in Cobb County.

We had to bring in a trapping expert before we were able to catch her, and she had been roaming the street for months after being abandoned, and she was living under a shed where she had made a home for her babies where she was nursing them.

She was surviving on food from a neighbor.

They're now safe at the shelter.

The situ this situation illustrates how much time, money, and effort it takes to respond after animals are already born instead of preventing the problem in the first place.

Cobb County does not have a public low-cost spay and neuter clinic for dogs and is the only one of Georgia's four most populous counties without one.

Instead, residents with dogs rely on the West Georgia's Spay Neuter Clinic, which is in Douglas County.

This public clinic is 40 minute 45 minutes away from my own home in Cobb County District One.

Appointments fill within a day or two of their schedule opening, and the wait for a female dog or cat spay is about two months.

And for a male dog, it's one to two months' wait to be neutered.

While the clinic participates in Cobb County's voucher program, appointments must be booked in person at the shelter.

This creates another barrier for residents, and voucher funding is not always available.

I respectfully ask the commission to make prevention a priority by expanding affordable span neuter access.

That could include funding practical solutions, such as strengthening partnerships with the West Georgia Spain Newter Clinic to expand surgery capacity, exploring a mobile clinic to serve Cobb County.

As the county plans for a new animal shelter, I also encourage the commission to consider incorporating public low-cost spain neuter services into its long-term vision and budget.

Every litter prevented needs fewer animals entering our shelter, lower long-term costs, and less suffering in our community for people and for animals.

Helping individual animals matters, but improving systems helps thousands more.

Both are essential and both are worth investing in.

Finally, I encourage the county to continue investing in animal services right now by funding the proposed veterinary positions.

Thank you for your time, your service to Cobb County, and your consideration.

Good evening.

Thank you.

I'm Patrice Ernest, and I'm a resident of Cobb County, a retiree and been a resident for 25 years.

And I'm here today because actually because I saw a picture.

I saw a picture of a sweet little black cat with a pink collar and a bell.

And I learned very quickly that that cat had been euthanized.

That cat was brought in to the Cobb County Animal Services as a lost cat, but it was there to see its death.

And I really just as a retiree and a and an advocate really got upset about that.

I I it's just it's not acceptable.

It's just not acceptable.

Um I want to share that I see so many of the um uh the rescue programs here and the volunteers, and I've seen online the urgency that they have to try to get animals out of the shelter before they're euthanized.

The work that they do, and I applaud you all.

Thank you so much for the work that you do.

But I also know that Cobb County, my county, it leads the Atlanta region in the number of euthanized cats.

That that's unacceptable.

Unacceptable.

We should not be eighth in the state of 159 counties on euthanizing cats.

The people who have spoken today have a solution.

They're talking about TNR, trap, neuter, and release, trap, neuter, and release.

You've heard statistics about how cost effective that is.

And as a Cobb County taxpayer, I want to see my money go into successful and important and ethical correct solutions to what is a problem.

Again, thank you for your time to hear me just as a resident.

I'm not affiliated with any of these programs, but y'all keep doing that good work.

Thank you so much.

We'll take our next speaker.

Good evening, Chairwoman Cupid.

Board of Commissioners, Ms.

County Manager.

My name is Sam Heaton.

I'm here tonight, uh representing the Cobb County Retired Employees Association.

Uh I spoke to I think most of you earlier this year talking about the stop and increase, and I wanted to say thank you for putting that into the budget for this year.

Um just a little bit of history on the stop, and in 2012, this board approved a process of doing away with where they pay the county.

Used to pay for the retiree supplemental insurance once you went to Medicare.

And the option then was to go to a stopping process where the county didn't pay the employee a stop and at first a lot of people were unhappy with that, but it worked out very well.

Um and uh the agreement then was uh every three to five years they would reevaluate to see if that stopping was keeping up with the cost of insurance.

Uh that happened that started in 2013 and 2015, it was reevaluated, and a stop and increase did occur at that time.

But since that time, since 2015, there has not been a stop and increase.

And during that time, of course, medical insurance has gone up uh 48% based on the insurance uh rating.

So uh first of all, thank you very much for putting it back in.

Uh and I do want to remind you that not all retirees uh get the stopping.

You had to be a retiree of Cobb County and go through the via benefits program that HR represents here or supports here, uh, and then you go through via benefits to get your stop and uh so that's only about 1,800 folks of our retirees that do get the stopping.

But um I just want to say thank you.

Uh we'll probably be back again next year to try to inch away at this a little bit, but thank you so very much.

I do appreciate it.

And uh thank you for what you do at sitting back here and having spent uh 30 plus years here, it's reminiscent to to kind of see the same thing uh going on and on and on.

And thank you for what you do.

Thank you to the county employees uh for what they do too.

So thank you very much.

We'll take any additional speakers again.

Are there any other county?

I support everything that was said about animal services.

Please give it full consideration to everything they requested, including increased in the financial support.

But I also want to be sure that all of us understand that the number one concern, number one concern, this would animal services, I would say might be number two.

Number one conserved concern is safety of the public without safety of the public, without keeping crime down, we have nothing.

I saw the budget increase for Cobb County police.

I would request that you find a small amount of money in every other item on the budget and have it add up that will enable twice the amount of increase from two million to four million or five million dollars to increase budget for Cobb County police.

They deserve it.

We deserve it.

They do a fabulous job in keeping crime down in this county.

We owe them everything without having such safety.

We have nothing.

So I don't believe that they're recognized financially at the level they should be recognized.

And so I'm asking that you perhaps find a small amount of money in every item in the budget and just reduce uh that small percentage to increase the total uh item in the budget for Cobb County police, Cobb County Police to increase the budget allocation to them at least twice what has been proposed, if not more.

Thank you.

We'll take any additional speakers.

My name is Jane Harris, and I am a constituent of uh district three, and excuse me.

I became involved in animal rescue about I guess about nine years ago.

I lost a uh beloved kitty.

Has Jane help us and just pull that microphone.

A little bit here.

Okay.

People always think I'm a child when they hear me anyway because of my voice.

But um I never found, but the silver lining up at loss are all of the beautiful people that I met uh in rescue and at the um at the shelter.

I volunteered to drive transport and went rescues, pull kitties from the shelter to to try to find them homes and to take care of them.

I drive those kiddies from the shelter to the rescues.

And there I just I can't say enough about the fine people that work in the rescues.

And whenever I have been to the shelter, the people there are so passionate about what they do.

They care so much about the animals.

The people at the shelter work so hard.

And I know they could use more staff.

And if there's anything you find left over anywhere, I know they'll put it to good use.

We'll take any additional speakers.

Okay, not seeing any, we'll close the public hearing.

Commissioners, do you have any comments or questions for our CFO before we close out tonight's meeting?

All right, thank you all for being here tonight and sharing your comments with us.

Our meeting is now adjourned.