Despite tempers flaring on other issues—such as Manager Blaine Williams’ shocking resignation—ACC’s fiscal 2025 budget passed easily at the June 5 meeting. Commissioner John Culpepper, who did not attend many of the budget hearings, was the lone “no” vote.
The budget was a compromise engineered by Houle, Fisher and Mike Hamby. It added $4 million for affordable housing, as well as funding for police equipment, the library, deferred maintenance and a pay study for sheriff’s deputies and additional overtime for public safety employees to Girtz’s proposed budget. The last item is the result of a contract Girtz signed June 7 with county firefighters’ newly formed union.
Republicans urged the commission to lower property taxes, but the commission kept the millage rate the same at 12.45 mills (or 1.245% of a property’s assessed value). But because assessments rose an average of 7% last year, many homeowners will see their bills go up. The commission also dipped into excess reserve funds rolled over from 2024.
Resident Larry Jordan called Athens a “sanctuary-like city welcoming illegal aliens from all over the world, along with other counties dropping off their homeless here… Those counties know this liberal county will take care of them instead of using their own tax dollars for their own homeless population.” He called on the commission to cut spending, including the $3 million ACC currently spends on housing—which is mostly federal funds, not local tax dollars.
Elle Lewis, on the other hand, urged the commission to spend more on housing and less on police because violent crime is down. “Given that we know poverty is the most defining factor in crime in our town, I would suggest we start putting a lot more toward our schools and housing,” she said.
Sheriff John Q. Williams, deputies and their supporters made a last-ditch effort to get a pay raise for deputies rather than a pay disparity study, but the budget as approved includes the latter. Pending the results of the study, deputies could receive equal pay to police officers in fiscal 2026.
A discussion of an Athens Area Chamber of Commerce request for $1.9 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds for Athens Achieves, a new workforce development program aiming to link employers and job seekers, led to a sharp exchange between Commission Dexter Fisher in favor and Commission Ovita Thornton opposed.
Thornton favored Commissioner Link’s motion to table the chamber’s request. Link said she had questions about the data behind the chamber report and regarded it as incomplete.
Thornton noted that Mercedes-Benz, which has a factory in nearby Vance, funded the Tuscaloosa study. She called it “a little bit of an insult” to have two groups working on workforce development rather than collaborating. And she said the Clarke County School District should be contributing.
“How hypocritical are we?” Fisher said. Plenty of nonprofits have come forward asking for American Rescue Plan Act funding without providing data. Job creation will help reduce Athens’ 21% poverty rate, he said.
Culpepper said the plan is based on one in Tuscaloosa, AL, which the chamber participated in a tour of in 2022.
“Employers are struggling to find qualified workers in Athens and around the country,” Culpepper said. Many employers and employees are unaware of existing programs, he said.
“We have a lot of employers that are here. We have a lot of employers that are coming,” he said. “The key is we need to train the workforce.”
The county government’s own workforce development committee is expected to release a report later this summer, and the chamber funding leaves $2 million available for those initiatives. Chamber President David Bradley has pledged to supplement the initial government funding with private donations.
The commission split 5–5, with Girtz breaking the tie in favor of Athens Achieves. Commissioners Tiffany Taylor, Carol Myers, Houle, Link and Thornton voted in favor of putting the proposal on hold.
In other business, the commission delayed votes on an agreement with National EMS and Piedmont Athens Regional to bring more transparency to ambulance service, as well as a community benefits agreement for the Georgia Square Mall redevelopment. Those votes are now scheduled for Friday, June 14.
In zoning items, an affordable housing development for seniors on Atlanta Highway was approved. So was a halfway house on Peach Street, over the objections of neighborhood residents.
And the commission approved a resolution against gang and gun violence, in response to the murder of a 3-year-old in March and 53 other victims over the past decade. Too many young Black men are lost to gun violence in Athens, Commissioner Tiffany Taylor said. “We do care. We do see you,” she said. “I’m with you.”
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