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Friday, May 31, 2019

The Case for a City Administrator

Hendersonville's late audit may be a good example of why Aldermen voted recently to hire a City Administrator.

Here's more on the audit situation:

Municipal audits are due within six months of the end of the fiscal year, which is June 30. On Tuesday, Kraft auditors explained why Hendersonville’s 2018 fiscal year audit was turned into the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office four months passed the Dec. 30, 2018 deadline.

Auditors attributed the problem to an extended vacancy in the assistant finance director position from late August, 2018 through March of 2019.
“The financial statements were unable to be issued timely to allow the users to assess the financial position of the City,” according to the audit.
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Wednesday, May 29, 2019

City Administrator Coming to Hendersonville

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted Tuesday night to add the position of City Administrator in 2020, just ahead of the Mayoral Election next year.

Tena Lee has more:

According to the ordinance passed by city leaders on Tuesday, the city administrator will:
-          Administer the business of the municipality
-          Employ, promote, discipline, suspend and discharge all employees other than department heads
-          Recommend to the Board the appointment of department heads as well as oversee and discipline department heads
-          Act as a purchasing agent for the city
-          Prepare and submit the annual city budget
The vote was 7-6 in favor of creating the new position.

The move means the City's next Mayor will take office with the benefit of a new position dedicated to handling much of the day-to-day administration of the City.

Current Mayor Jamie Clary, so far largely incapable of actually doing his job, opposed the move. It seems he'd prefer the current chaotic management of city government to being relieved of the most mundane tasks -- tasks which he's mismanaged throughout his brief, tumultuous tenure.

READ MORE>




For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Trashy FAQ

Tena Lee in the Hendersonville Standard does a great job of explaining what's going to happen with trash starting in July as the city moves to once a week pickup.

Residents won’t receive a new or different trash can. They can provide their own additional cans with a maximum height of 42 inches.
According to Clary, bulk items placed at the curb will be picked up the same day residents’ trash is picked up.
A pilot recycling program was implemented in the fall of 2017 that serves around eight different neighborhoods. However, bids haven’t been issued for a citywide effort.
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For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews

Thursday, May 23, 2019

More on Trash

The Hendersonville Standard has more on the move to once-a-week trash pickup:

Hendersonville leaders voted 10 to 1 on Tuesday to switch from a twice-a-week back-door trash collection service to a once-a-week back-door service.  The move is estimated to save the city around $2 million each year.

Recycling?

On Tuesday, Debbie Floyd, a member of an advisory committee appointed by board members to explore the issue of solid waste and recycling, said her committee gave a formal recommendation that the city implement curbside trash pick-up along with curbside recycling.
Floyd questioned why several aldermen seemed to be unaware of the recommendation.
The committee determined that if recycling is implemented citywide, the city’s tipping fee, or fee it pays to dump trash at a landfill, will decrease, according to Floyd.
Ward 2 Alderman Scott Sprouse said that he has heard from several residents who would like to keep the service the way it is.
“Of all the options [we’ve been given right now], not one of them includes recycling,” said Sprouse. “That’s not an option right now.”
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Saturday, May 18, 2019

Thoughts on Trash

So, starting in July, Hendersonville will have a new trash company and everyone will have new trash cans. Service will go from twice a week to once a week and there is some discussion (though no final decision) about adding recycling to the mix. For now, the only guarantee is that citizens will get less service and may also enjoy a savings in the rate they pay for garbage pickup.

Alderman Scott Sprouse and former Alderman Matt Stamper offer some thoughts on this new development:

From Sprouse via his aldermanic Facebook page --

Last night, the board voted to change Hendersonville's twice a week, back door trash service to once a week, back door service. Also, we decided to award the contract to a new service provider. I cast the lone no vote.
No options on the table included recycling. I wish at least one did.
Once a week collection is not frequent enough, especially for people who live where HOA rules prohibit them from leaving trash cans outside. We'll realize this better once summer comes, once it's 95 degrees or higher day after day, once traveling on the day we're to put the trash out means we have to wait a second week for it to be collected.
Also, I have concerns about changing the service provider with such short notice. On July 1, our trash will start being collected by a company that today has no local facility, owns no equipment here, and employs no one to actually provide the service. They have thirty-two business days to acquire that facility; purchase the equipment; hire, screen and train the people who will be driving the trucks and hauling the trash; and establish and learn new routes. We were concerned about another provider having time to ramp-up new service when this was discussed two months ago. We were concerned when we first voted three weeks ago. I don't know what changed last night to make those concerns go away.
While I disagreed with the decision, I will do what I always do. I will respect the will of the board and work to implement the decision of the majority to the best of my ability.
In addition, the reduction of service means the cost of service will be reduced. I will stand by my pledge to vote to pass that reduced cost directly back to the homeowners who pay the garbage fee.


And, from Stamper:

Someone check my math. The old garbage fee (twice a week) was $4,690,907. You have to add tipping fee which comes from the general fund of 975,000 roughly. So $5,665,907. But the fee we pay is $293 on our property tax bill (see attached) for our trash fee. If it was all charged to the residents it would have been $354. Keep that number in mind.
The new contract is $2,553,107.88. If you add the tipping fee (which won't change) you are at $3,528,107.88. Now before we rejoice at a 45.573% decrease in the variable amount of this thing (37.73% overall decrease) and before you think those savings are going to be passed on to the residents keep one important thing in mind. Your service that you are paying for is being cut in half.
So not bad financially, a significant reduction in the cost for a 50% reduction in service. This ignores whether you like or don't like only getting your trash picked up once a week. But the part I'm not excited about (besides going to once a week) is that the push from some of our leaders is not to pass all of this savings on to the residents. Simple math would say the new garbage fee should be at the absolute most $220.37, let's round up since they use whole dollars and just have everyone chip in an extra 63 cents and you are $221. Keep an eye on the first reading of the budget and see if they move it to $221 or less. They really should in my opinion. If you go a dime over $221 you are subsidizing and paying for city services enjoyed by businesses and residents and making only the residents pay for them (not to mention a person with a home value of $150,000 pays the same fee as an $800,000 home). The trash fee is inherently regressive so abusing it would devastating to those with lower economic demographics.
Now this assumes a big change moving the tipping fee from the overall general fund and putting it on the homeowners. But assuming they do that the trash fee should not exceed $221. Any argument they give you that it should be higher than that is absolutely untrue and dishonest. It's a pass through and $221 would make it a straight pass through. If they decided to continue to pay for the tipping fees from the general fund the fee should be $159.47. Were I still on the board I would urge my colleagues to meet somewhere in the middle, perhaps $200. Notice the stormwater fee. In the past year you are looking at them pushing something everyone paid for onto the backs of residents through the trash fee, they've added a $72 stormwater fee to every resident and the reappraisals mean on the property tax itself (which is outside of these two fees) some folks are going to pay double what they paid last year.
Enough is enough on our residents. It's a triple whammy and it appears no one but me is standing up and saying something about it using simple math and facts. There is no denying the accuracy of anything I've said here. In the past two days I've been called about everything but a child of God for pointing out what is happening to us as a city. I'm not being dishonest, I've laid out plainly for all to see.

Stay tuned for what's next!

For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews


Thursday, May 16, 2019

Property Tax Assessment Appeals

Sumner County Assessor of Property John Isbell explains the property tax assessment appeals process after an assessment cycle many homeowners have found lacking in accurate information.

According to Isbell in the Hendersonville Standard:

Now that all assessment change notices have been mailed to citizens, the next step towards setting the certified property tax rate is the appeals process.
The appeals process allows anyone who disagrees with the new valuation of their property to have their situation re-evaluated.
Informal appeals can be filed until June 4 by calling the assessor’s office at 615-452-2412 or by filling out an e-form at wevaluesumner.com. The site also gives the date and time that members of the assessor’s office will be offsite to answer property valuation questions.
Isbell has faced questions in recent years regarding the way his office conducts assessments.

In 2016, delayed billing was noted as a problem:

Tennessee's Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury weighed-in recently and noted:


“We know of no other counties that have had this magnitude of a problem as it relates to the tax freeze and tax billing,” Mumpower (of the Comproller's Office) said. “And certainly not a reoccurring problem as you have seen here, which have included five consecutive years of delayed tax billing.”

Isbell also faced complaints about his use of a publicly-funded website for political purposes:

Log on to the Sumner County web page for Assessor of Property John Isbell and you'll find a link for more information about the recent property tax reappraisal.
That page is attracting criticism from Sumner County residents like Dan Wright who feel its content amounts to a political attack on the public's dime.
"Absolutely it's political yeah. From what I see it's political defense," said Wright.
The part Wright believes is political involves direct attacks towards County Executive Anthony Holt calling him a "Pro-Tax Increase Bureaucrat."
The page also accuses Holt of holding "secret meetings" and "wasting taxpayer dollars" and towards the end of the page accuses him of conduct that's akin to "the worst kind of public servant."

In the face of concerns over Isbell's inability to accurately conduct assessments, residents are encouraged to appeal in order to receive a fair assessment.

For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews


Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Sumner's Garrett Won't Call for Casada Resignation

45th district state representative Johnny Garrett, who serves Hendersonville, Goodlettsville, and White House in the Tennessee General Assembly, is refusing to call on embattled Speaker Glen Casada to resign. Casada has not denied that he and his former top staffer engaged in racist texts and also exchanged lewd, sexually explicit texts including one in which Speaker Casada inquired if a certain female was "legal."

While Garret calls the behavior "disturbing" he suggests he needs more information before making a decision and indicates he supports the investigation called by Casada into Casada's own behavior.

Here's Garrett's full statement:

I am disappointed and disturbed by the recent news reports from our Speaker’s office. Racism and vulgar text messages between our Speaker and his former chief of staff are regrettable and beneath the office of any public official. In fact, this is behavior should not be tolerated in any setting.
Public officials are held to a higher standard and we should, in every case, treat everyone with respect and dignity as we represent Tennesseans.
I am proud of the legislative achievements the House accomplished. The lawyer in me wants to make sure that we do not make a snap decision before all facts are known. The Speaker has called for an independent investigation into his actions and I fully support the investigation. I believe these actions are a necessary first step by the Speaker to retain order in the House.
This task will be difficult however; it is my hope that the Speaker and all parties will cooperate fully with the investigation so that the public’s trust will be restored and the caucus will decide how to proceed going forward.
Thanks district 45 for your confidence and, as always, it's an honor to serve you!

For more on news related to Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews