I've been attending the Sullivan County Commission meetings since January and I'm beginning to get a feel for how they are run. I was pleasantly surprised in January that the meetings were mostly businesslike: I had really only seen clown-show clips like Joe Carr and Joe McMurray slapping the table about Juneteenth being a "woke" holiday.
The place was packed again this month. They were there to honor a retiring Constable, and the winners of the Sullivan County School's Earth Day poster contest. There were three public comments: one against allowing bitcoin in the county, and the other two about the property reassessment. I was disturbed that these citizens just did not understand the process or the law. I appreciate why the Commission only listens to their comments and doesn't attempt to educate them, but I was struck that the Commission has as much need to educate Sullivan County citizens as Democrats do.
Most of the resolutions were included in the Consent Agenda, which means they were all voted on together and needed unanimous approval of all Commissioners present. They involved selling two county-owned delinquent tax properties, a new traffic light installed by the state but maintained by the county, to accept funds to repair the Nellie Pratt Swinging Bridge, to establish the Keep Sullivan County Beautiful program in affiliation with Keep Tennessee Beautiful, an easement for Kingsport Power, to create a process to approve grant proposals being submitted by county departments, to move some money around for the Highway Dept while waiting for state reimbursement (if I understand that one correctly), to move some other money around for the Sheriff's Dept that is reimbursable from the state, and to appropriate some Opioid Settlement money to the Sheriff's Dept for their Corrections Facility - Mental Health Division. This all passed unanimously (seven Commissioners were absent).
Item 1 was needed to increase funding to the Planning and Codes Department to pay engineers to sign off on plans. This is a liability issue. This year, they've seen a boost in the volume they're managing, which means they've already tapped their budgeted funds. It was mentioned in the discussion that fees had been increased and that said increase should cover the $12,000 appropriation (but there's nothing in the resolution about that). This passed unanimously.
Item 10 was brought by Carr and Vanover and was to adopt the property tax freeze program as provided for in Tennessee law for property owners 65+ making less than $45K/yr. When this was brought up, Carr abruptly moved to withdraw the item. I find this extremely concerning IF I'm understanding. I believe this program has been in effect and it would greatly impact those who have previously been able to take advantage of it. It might be a different program than the tax relief program, however.
Items 13, 14, and 15 were not in the agenda packet. All three were moved to first reading, so they will come up again next month.
The June Commission meeting was moved to June 26, and the August meeting to August 18 (a Monday).
See ya next month!
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