December 3, 2024, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

I attended the December 3, 2024, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

Commissioners Gohagan and Skelton were present. Commissioner-Elect Steve Dougan was also at the meeting.

The commissioners started off the meeting with an explanation that the recent budget amendment for the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office would have to be rescinded. That amendment had attempted to transfer money from the CLERF to the Bad Check Fund and money cannot be transferred out of the CLERF. It has to be spent directly from the CLERF with the approval of the CLERF Board.

The first agenda item was “Resolution 120324 – Camden County Board Member Appointment Policy.“

This new policy stated that newly appointed county board members should appear at the Commission meetings for their appointments when appointed so they can be sworn in to their new board positions.

This new resolution was approved unanimously by the Commission.

The second agenda item was “241203 Sign Material Bid Opening.”

There were two bids from Custom Products Corporation and MD Solutions. The Bid Request was placed in the newspaper and the county contacted multiple companies.

The Commission tabled the bids for review by E-911.

The third agenda item was “241203 Printing Bid Opening.”

This Bid Request was placed in the newspaper and three vendors were contacted. Only one bid was received and that bid came from Lake Printing.

The Commission also tabled this bid for review.

The fourth agenda item was the “November 2024 tax abatements” and they were unanimously approved by the Commission.

The final agenda item was “Annual NACo Membership Dues.”

Presiding Commissioner Ike Skelton stated that the annual dues for membership in NACo (“National Association of Counties”) is $855. Skelton said he had attended a NACo event in the past and was kept off of a steering committee because they accused him of being “abrasive and rude.” Sounds like it was an interesting convention.

The Commission voted unanimously to pay the annual dues and give Commissioner Skelton a chance to either change or confirm NACo’s impression of our presiding commissioner.

That was the end of the agenda items.

In Old Business, the County Treasurer asked if the Commission would address the LEST-2 issue since there was a quorum for this meeting?

Commissioner Gohagan said that he had talked to the Sheriff and thinks establishing the trust should be simple math. Gohagan suggested that they could at least set it up and start separating the LEST-2 collected from this point on. The commissioners had been unable to get an official dollar figure from the County Auditor (in his role as Chief Budget Officer) that would let them know, once and for all, how much LEST-2 money should be in the trust. Gohagan wanted to start putting money in the trust on December 15 with the incoming October sales tax funds because that was what the voters had voted for. The County Treasurer agreed with Gohagan.

Commissioner Skelton asked if they could get something set up for the Thursday meeting? He felt it would be as simple as passing an ordinance to establish a fund for LEST-2. Skelton asked County Attorney Green to draft just such an ordinance and Green agreed that he would prepare it.

Commissioner Gohagan said that, at a minimum, the Commission should establish the LEST-2 fund and wait for the County Auditor to figure out the amount of backdated LEST-2 sales tax that was owed to the fund.

After that issue was discussed, Commissioner-Elect Dougan brought up the matter of Tranquil Woods Road.

(Tranquil Woods has been an issue of contention in the past few months because the residents believe the county government had promised to pave their gravel road. When they were informed by the Commission that the commissioners intended to follow the existing county policy regarding paving of gravel roads, there were accusations that the people living in that area had once again been misled by the county.)

Dougan said that he does not want to handle county business on Facebook. He explained that he got involved because Commissioner Skelton had told him Tranquil Woods was going to paved next year. Dougan later became aware that the road was not going to be paved because the county already had an existing policy for new road paving.

Presiding Commissioner Skelton stated that the county’s policy makes it clear that the county would pay for the labor and equipment if the community paid for the asphalt material. (The cost has been estimated to be approximately $1 million.)

Dougan commented that Commissioner Gohagan had asked for an email from Dougan about Tranquil Roads. Dougan asked why he would send an email asking for Tranquil Woods to be put in the budget if the other two commissioners didn’t want to approve paving it?

Commissioner Gohagan told Dougan that he would support him if Dougan made a commitment to having Tranquil Woods Road paved. However, Gohagan felt that if the Commission decided to pave the road, the Commission would first need to rescind their current paving policy. They would then need to amend their 2025 road plan.

Dougan mentioned that he was interested in considering Tranquil Woods for paving in the next budget year. He was also concerned about the low water crossings in the county.

Presiding Commissioner Skelton stressed that he avoids “putting his finger on the scale” when it comes to road paving decisions. This was also why he does not attend Planning and Zoning meetings. He preferred to let the existing policies and boards make the decisions. That’s the purpose they were intended to serve and he felt that it was a more fair process.

Dougan didn’t want to send any requests for road changes to the other commissioners or change any road policies before he was officially in office. He was resistant to making changes if the road plan had already been established for 2025. Dougan mentioned that he would be open to making more of these decisions regarding the roads for the following budget years.

And that was that.