DeKalb CEO Meets with Residents for Budget Discussion

DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis has been meeting with various neighborhoods and communities throughout the county, discussing his proposed 2011 budget. Ellis’ $563 million budget calls for increasing property taxes 11 percent, and also cuts more than 750 county jobs, to make up for $50 million in lost real estate and sales taxes.

Last night he met with DeKalb citizens at the Leafmore Creek Community Clubhouse. What follows is a breakdown of the event:

7:10 - Beth Nathan of the Civic Association Network introduces Ellis to the crowd of about 50-75 people in attendance.

7:13 - Ellis says he realizes these are difficult times, with prices rising, and would like nothing better than to give good news, but he is being realistic about the county's financial status.

7:20 - Ellis says this is a lean budget, and "yes, these are difficult times, and we have to ask government to tighten its belt before we ask other people to do so."

7:22 - Ellis begins taking questions. One resident asks about government pensions, and why these pensions are untouchable, unlike in the private sector. Pensions have become a huge expenditure in DeKalb County.

Ellis says the county does not offer 401k plans, and the public sector is lagging behind the private sector in this regard. DeKalb offers defined benefit plans to its employees, based upon the number of years in service. The county pays two-thirds of the pension, and the employee pays one-third. The county cannot, by law, change course in mid-stream for its employees.

7:30 - Ellis says many people believe the county offers 401k plans, which is not the case. Very few businesses offer defined-benefit plans, which have more stability and predicatbility than 401k plans. And Ellis says the county has no choice but to fund its pension plans.

7:33 - Another resident asks if watershed management is part of Ellis' proposed budget. The answer is no, as watershed management, airport management, etc., are fee-based, separate from tax-funded services. The resident simply says that there is a lot of wasted resources in water and sewer services, with a lot of idle trucks and equipment seen frequently seen on sites.

7:40 - Another resident questions why is it necessary to raise property taxes. Ellis says, "Let's have a can-we-talk" moment. DeKalb has a government of more than 700 employees, serving thousands of people. He says we're at a watershed moment, where if the county does not move forward with a millage increase or some other tax increase, the quality of life will suffer.

The county is topped out, by state law, over the amount of sales taxes it can charge. In 2012, voters will have a referendum for a one-cent tax for transportation projects. DeKalb is unlike Gwinnett and Cobb counties, which do not fund MARTA or offer any financial support for Grady Hospital, so there are several additional financial obligations unique to DeKalb and not to other metro counties.

7:50 - Another resident cites a recent Georgia State University report that said DeKalb's government is bloated, and recommended approximately 900 job cuts. Why isn't any action being taken in regards to the GSU report?

7:50 - Ellis says that from time to time, the county will bring in consultants to examine the county. But just because a consultant says something is definitive, it isn't. And he said the study acknowledged the difficulties to make apples-to-apples comparison to other municipalities. Other counties to which DeKalb was compared in the study have different constitutional positions that are not controlled by the county budget.

"You can't blindly follow an outside consultant's recommendation, but in the end we have drastically reduced the size of county government," Ellis says. "And we've done more than (any) other goverment in metro Atlanta."

8:02 - A new resident to Georgia - for only about 7 months - says he is retired and living on a fixed income. "It's not gonna be too long before I'm in the red, not in the black," he says. "Utility rates are based on usage, and I'm going to be cutting back in water usage, and that's revenue you're not going to get. You should be encouraging people to recycle more so you don't have two pickups during the week. These are just things that I've seen since I've been here."

8:06 - Ellis responds by saying he's always wanted to make government more user friendly, which is why he likes meetings such as this one, and he appreciates suggestions such as this one. He says DeKalb's sanitation department is one of the best in the nation, and by and large, the audience agrees. He says the county is evaulating how the county can reduce its sanitation expenses.

8:09 - Ellis says he understands we're living in an economic tsunami, and he would not be proposing any property tax increases if he didn't honestly believe it wasn't necessary. "We can't shut down the courts and the police, and we have to have clean water and proper sewage treatment, and so these are the issues we're wrestling with."

8:14 - Another resident is "dumbfounded" over the amount of trash residents put out on the street. "It would take about a New York minute for a private company to cut out one day of trash pickup, so why don't we do it ourselves?"

8:15 - Another resident says that Ellis is making all the right points about cost cutting, but why is the county ignoring the GSU report? Ellis says that just because a consultant sees the world through one prism, the county itself has to examine what is accurate and what isn't. "But it also doesn't mean we didn't utilize some of those recommendations" about cutbacks and reductions.

8:18 - The same resident complains about perceptions that county and public sector employees paid their salaries at the expense of public monies. "Why don't public sector employees treat our money as their own, the way we do in the private sector?"

8:20 - Ellis says that there is an assumption that "just because we're in government, we're trying to do bad things." There will always be "bad apples that give government service a bad name," but "we in county government are people just like you. We're just elected to mind the store. We don't treat county employees as any sort of protected class."

8:24 - Ellis says he cannot promise that the millage rate increase will ever expire. "No one is anticipating any sort of fast economic recovery," he says. "Part of the 'new normal' we're living in is the fact that I can't make the promise that the millage rate will ever fall."

8:35- Another resident says that years ago, fire departments used to be volunteer units. Is it not a possibility that some essential services could not be manned by volunteers? Ellis says that the county is tracking its volunteer times, and has employed more than 3,000 hours of volunteer time over the past year, saving the county $7 million.

8:48 - A resident asks, why can't we get out of our funding to Grady? Ellis says Grady has facilities in the county, and since Grady is now operating at a profit, DeKalb has reduced its funding. While the hospital is physically located in another county, the county has an obligation to continue some of its funding. And the state of Georgia should mandate that other counties and cities should fund Grady.

8:51 - The meeting adjourns, with Ellis engaging in one-on-one discussions.