The Americus City Council met on Sept. 19. Pastor Courtney Moore addressed the Council with concerns over infrastructure. Moore stated multiple attempts over several years to reach Council member Charles Christmas, of District four, had been unsuccessful. Moore stated his mother lived in the district, stating his concerns were about; “the stormwater drain, the sinkhole. It seems as if that side of town is about to cave in.”

Moore stated fairness was important. “If Council persons are not in agreement with serving all constituents, [they] should step down. I’m a taxpayer in this community. I’m a citizen here in this community. This sink hole has been an issue for years.” He clarified that it was the one at Bessie Mays Circle and Bill Cross Street. The sink hole has recently undergone repairs, which are still to be completed.

Moore also asked about the storm water account funds. “Are the funds that are given by the taxpayers into the storm water account, is it specifically supposed to be used for storm water?”

Kinnamon replied that was correct, with a caveat. “We have something referred to as transfer accounts, transfer funds, just like we do from gas and water, sewer, other departments where transfers are made from those enterprise funds to support the administrative services that are required to administer those programs.”

He told how stormwater requires supporting services from other departments. “So for example, the personnel, legal, collections, all of those types of things, and the transfers are within the legal limits or legally authorized.”

Kinnamon gave an example. “Monies are moved from the gas account, for example, similarly to the general fund, to offset the expenses that are incurred by that department for all of the various services that the other departments of the city provide to that department, because that department does itself not have legal, personnel and all of those functions within that department.” He mentioned a separate concern was delinquent stormwater fees.

Moore asked if the $285,000 transferred from stormwater into the general fund was being used for storm water.

City Manager Diadra Powell responded. “The transfer is being utilized for storm water purposes. I think what the mayor is alluding to is, for example, you have the city manager, you have the public works director who is over storm water. You have our HR department that manages hiring and firing.” She also noted a couple of City Clerk are over the entire City. “The stormwater fund does not have any HR, any city manager, the public works director is the individual who manages that fund. He is in the general fund.” She also noted the street department, which is part of stormwater, was in the general fund as well.

City attorney Jimmy Skipper commented. “You can’t take one line of that thing and just read it out of context.” He noted that the text referenced storm water management services.

Public works director George Allen gave updates on the sink hole repair at Bessie Mays Circle in response to Moore’s questions. “The defect in the pipe itself has been repaired. The hold up is with the sidewalk and putting the top back on the, on the catch basin itself, and repairing the roadway.” He stated they had plans to finish the project, but had currently been occupied with other projects. Moore inquired as to the cost of the repairs. Allen gave an estimate of around $7,500.

Moore commented. “So we got a 20 year hole, and it took $7,500 to repair it, and it’s still not repaired. That’s how it looks. The street’s still caving in.”

When asked for comment on the situation after the meeting, council member Christmas declined.

Council member Daryl Dowdell stated difficulties with putting Moore on the agenda. “I had to go around and around just to put you on the agenda.”

Powell also addressed delinquent storm water fees that were owed to the storm water fund. “We have a lot of individuals who have outstanding stormwater bills with us that are in the $100,000 range, there’s no way for us to collect that.” She explained the issue was due to properties that were generating storm water fees that were vacant. “A lot of them are lots that, that don’t have a person who’s living in them, but somebody owns that particular property.” She told how storm water fees are collected. “If they don’t have water, and if they don’t have water and sewer, which come hand in hand, and if they don’t have natural gas, we have no real way to collect. We can’t put the fee on the. . . the actually property taxes because it’s not a tax, it’s a fee.”

She also noted the cost of repairs. “One repair, depending on what it is, could cost us $2 million.”

Representatives of Mauldin and Jenkins spoke, giving the comprehensive financial report. “So first and foremost, the opinion, we were able to issue an unmodified opinion, which is the cleanest opinion in auditing you can receive. So congratulations for that.”

She gave figures. “Total cash and investment for governmental activities and business type activities, this is the government as a whole, was 22.4 million.” She stated it was as of December 31rst, 2023. She gave total equity as 46.4 million. She stated that of that $46.4 million, $31.8 million was net investment in capital assets. She stated the total general fund balance was $3.8 million. She stated that the splost fund had a fund balance of $6.1 million.

She noted that budget expenditures were higher than budgeted. “Actual revenues came in $114,000 less than budgeted, and actual expenditures were $434,000 higher than budget.”

The representative noted the business funds. “All the business type funds, with the exception of the theatre fund, had positive cash flows from operations.” She stated the theatre fund had about $4.5 million in cash flows from operations. She noted the situation with the theatre fund was ongoing. “So from year to year, it has been experiencing losses. And so in 2023 they, the general fund, transferred $200,000 to help buffer some of that loss.”

Council member Kelvin Pless made a motion to approve the millage rate ordinance for 2024 at 11.12, which reflects no change in the millage rate. Clemmons seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.

The council was informed about the water treatment plant project. Kyle Holder gave details. “We’ve band-aided it for many years now. It’s exceeded it’s life time.”

Holder stated the situation risked failure, detailing the various worn parts. “So if it fails, that’s what happens, what will happen to the waste water plant.” Holder stated they desired to be proactive.