Barrow Journal

A spending plan for fiscal year 2011 that was cobbled together over the past week by the Barrow County Board of Commissioners came unraveled Tuesday night when the county’s new CFO announced that incorrect figures had been provided by her department at a budget session the previous day.

The commissioners came into Tuesday night’s meeting thinking that after two budget meetings of the full board, they had managed to close enough of last week’s $6.3 million budget gap to enable the finance staff to generate a balanced budget. The preliminary budget was to have been presented Tuesday night and was to have included no tax hike. But a series of mistakes and misunderstandings by county staff left the budget incomplete.

CFO Rose Kisaalita told the BOC that she had come to them empty handed because data provided by her staff at Monday’s budget session mistakenly included a 5-percent cut of all departmental expenditures, including payroll. [Full Story »] 

After a 40-minute closed-door session Tuesday night, the Barrow County Board of Commissioners voted to accept the resignation of Lyn Clement, the longtime director of the Department of License & Permits.

There was no public discussion of the matter, and no one explained why it was necessary for the board to vote on Clement’s retirement.

The motion by Commissioner Larry Joe Wilburn simply stated that the board of commissioners “accept Lyn Clement’s retirement as discussed in executive session.”

The vote was unanimous, but Eva Elder was absent from the meeting.

With the public vote following an executive session to discuss personnel matters, it appears that the retirement may be a settlement.
[Full Story »]