Augusta leaders consider city’s biggest budget ever: $1.156B

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - With all the chatter around SPLOST funds, millage rate and different departments using or abusing funding, we’re finally getting our first look at the Fiscal Year 2024 proposed budget for Augusta-Richmond County.

And it’s big – the biggest ever at $1.156 billion, an increase of 5.5%.

2024′s newest edition was an investment back into the workers of Augusta.

A 3% cost of living increase was added to positions in the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, Marshal’s Office, Richmond County Correctional Institute. It’s all in response to how many open positions there are.

Bringing starting salaries from lower $40,000′s to around $50,000.

It was presented by Interim City Takiyah Douse. “Historically, Augusta has had problems recruiting and retaining talent, and so, continuing to ensure that we invest in our human capital, is extremely important to me,” she said.

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But one spot that’s going back to the drawing board is the commission’s requested audit of city operations, commissioners saying 300k is too much.

“Industry research has shown that audits for governments of our size will generally land around the $300,000 mark,” said Douse.

It’s not the only area that took commissioners by surprise.

Commissioner Bobby Williams pointed out an increase to the mayor’s budget: more than $21,000 that the mayor was also not expecting.

“The increase caught us by surprise but no worries, it’s our intent to stay with the same budget that we received in Fiscal Year 2023,” said Mayor Garnett Johnson.

There are still shortfalls in garbage collection, the fire department, and street lighting, but the commission’s workshop on the budget is next week on October 26, where they hope to sort things out.

The hope is to adopt this by November 21.

The proposed budget also includes $285,000 for cybersecurity enhancements and $25,000 for the “Give Change that Counts” program.

The cybersecurity money could be important because the city is just getting back on its feet after a cyberattack that crippled some city services for weeks. A known ransomware group claimed responsibility for the breach, which required hiring outside consultants to deal with.

The “Give Change that Counts” program is how the city is dealing with a perceived panhandling problem. It’s a public relations campaign that will attempt to convince the public not to give money to panhandlers and transients. The money was approved Tuesday out of the city ’s budget.

Other new programs in the budget include:

• Expanded internal audit services, $300,000.
• Festival and parades, $50,000.
• Electronic plan review software for building inspection efforts, $200,000.
• Comprehensive zoning ordinance, $95,000.
• Litter patrol expansion, $98,780.

Among the biggest areas of year-over-year increase in the general fund in of percentage:

• General law enforcement, a more than $9 million increase, or 4.8%.
• Traffic mitigation, a $17,760 increase, or $19%.
• IT radio system, a $54,210 increase, or 5.1%.

Taking a big cut would be riverfront activities, getting a $41,670 decrease, or 33%.

Interim City Takiyah Douse said Sheriff Richard Roundtree initially asked for a $5 million increase to help salaries, but there’s no money in the budget for it.

That could be important because of the number of deputies fired for wrongdoing – at least 33 in three years. Some of those arrests were for smuggling contraband into the jail for inmates. Sheriff Richard Roundtree has said competitive pay is needed to remove such temptations.

The proposed salary package is targeted toward road patrol officers and investigators.

Increasing starting salaries from $48,000 to more than $50,000 would position the agency “as an industry leader with competitive salary packages for officers,” according to a budget package distributed to commission .

ABOUT THE BUDGET:

• Interim City Takiyah Douse said her budget reflects the five Augusta Commission budget priorities, which include homelessness, human resources, infrastructure, public safety and quality of life. The plan also includes data collected from Augusta citizens through .

“RCSO is the largest public safety agency in the region and recruiting and retaining quality officers is key to the safety of our residents and visitors,” the package states.

The Richmond County Correctional Institution would receive salary increases for work detail officers in an effort to recruit and retain qualified officers. These officers supervise eight to 12 inmates while they perform supplemental maintenance-related duties through the community.

The Richmond County Marshal’s Office began a litter pick-up program in January 2022 by offering probationers the opportunity to obtain community service hours through litter pick-up throughout the county. Despite the lack of existing resources, the office has been successful by properly disposing of trash, tires and bulk items, according to the budget package. The expansion of this program would include a deputy marshal and a corporal who would multiply the production efforts from twice a month to three times a week.

There was a lot of concern being discussed among commissioners at Tuesday’s meeting about employee health insurance. Apparently, there hasn’t been an increase in six years. This won’t impact the Fiscal Year 2024 budget, but it could be a problem for the following year.

There was also discussion about $300,000 was too much for the audits.

There’s a motion already floating around for a workshop on the budget because of the number of disputes. Commissioner Sean Frantom contributed to this, saying some departments are seeing increases to their budgets for 2024 but still haven’t used a significant portion of their 20223 budget.

READ THE BUDGET:

Other business

Approved on the consent agenda at Tuesday morning’s commission meeting were:

• A liquor, bar and wine license for the new Olive Garden restaurant at 804 Cabela Drive. The restaurant is expected to open next month.
• A request for the governor and lawmakers to continue efforts in the 2024 Session of the Georgia General Assembly to enhance Georgia citizens’ access to vital mental health services.
• Acceptance of a $40,000 grant from the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council for the Richmond County Juvenile Court.
• Approval of a bid for prefabricated modular dog kennels to Horizon Structures in the amount of $164,588.

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