Millage rates are set for Gilmer County to begin collection.
At a special called meeting on Aug. 24, Gilmer County commissioners approved the recommended school tax rate for collection and then set the 2020 General Maintenance and Operations millage and the 2020 General Obligation Bond rate.
Gilmer County Schools sets the school tax rate. For 2020 the millage rate will be 13.963. This is down from the 2019 rate of 14.248.
For the county the commission accepted the rollback rate for the 2020 year which is 6.783. This is down from the 2019 rate of 6.898.
The county bond millage rate was reduced from 1.5 to 1.25.
All three rates were approved unanimously.
Commissioner roles
As the last item on the agenda, Gilmer County Chairman Charlie Paris brought up the roles and responsibilities of the Gilmer County Board of Commissioners.
The discussion came after a lengthy meeting dealing with the river outfitters.
Post Commissioner Karleen Ferguson said most counties have a county manager the elected commissioners can communicate with regularly.
“There are only three of us, so two of us can’t get together or talk about anything outside of these public meetings ever, because we make up a quorum at that point,” she said.
It is a challenge, she said, because she doesn’t feel like she can go to the outfitters and express her opinion because it is a day-to-day operations thing, which is under Paris’ control.
When she says things publicly at the meetings the newspaper takes it and rolls with it from there, she said. Executive session is very restrictive of what can be discussed.
“I just have my frustrations and I’ve been called out several times on things that I shouldn’t be getting involved in that are day-to-day,” Ferguson said.
Paris said he preferred the elected executive form of government to that of a hired county manager, because it involves more accountability.
He said it is made more difficult when he calls a department and asks them to do something and they tell him another commissioner has asked them to do something else.
Paris went on to read off the duties of the whole board, which included approving or denying many decisions, setting policies and appointing certain positions.
“The chairman is a little short list, but quite important, I believe,” he said.
His list included managing the day-to-day management of departments, implementing the budget and hiring and firing.
“I wanted to get the full board’s agreement as to what these really were,” he said.
If there were any disagreements, he wanted to bring them up now and discuss them.
Ferguson said she didn’t disagree with any of them. Her problem comes with hearing from citizens and wanting to help them.
“If it is referred to me and my solution is not one you agree with, then certainly, let’s have a special called meeting,” Paris said. “Let’s hash it out.”
He ran for chairman because he wanted to make changes in the day-to-day operations, Paris said. He is very opposed to the county being run by committee.
Post Commissioner Hubert Parker said he does not want the day-to-day duties and he has found Paris to be very responsible.
In the end there was consensus to keep the duties the same.