Failur to communicate
Communication.
Or lack of communication.
It is a problem that plagues the world and Jeff Davis County is no exception.
Monday afternoon at the Big House the Jeff Davis County Commission and the Joint Development Authority (JDA) of Jeff Davis County, Hazlehurst and Denton held a joint meeting sparked by a lack of communication.
The JDA requested the meeting after members learned that the commission had cut the JDA’s share of proceeds from the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) without informing the JDA about the cut.
JDA Chairman Bo Reese opened the meeting by telling the commissioners, “We were surprised to see that y’all were going to cut our share of the SPLOST by 4 1/2 percent. We’re trying to get an understanding of why we were cut or an understanding of the process, because we didn’t know anything about it.”
Commission Chair Hank Hobbs replied by saying the cut to the JDA was no more than the cuts to other county departments (the road department was cut 6%). He said the commission tried to avoid litigation with the City of Hazlehurst about plans to cut the city’s portion but they had to go into litigation with the city and had to make up the difference somewhere. Plus, he added, they have the jail project to pay for.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Actually, the county did not go into litigation with the city over division of SPLOST proceeds. The litigation involved the proceeds from the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST). And SPLOST proceeds cannot be used to make up for reduction in LOST funds as SPLOST cannot be used to pay operating expenses, only for capital projects.]
Hobbs added that the JDA had gotten $400,000 in SPLOST proceeds but had no projects to show for the expenditure.
Reese disagreed, saying the JDA had several works in progress, the principal one being to refurbish the former Hazlehurst Mills property on Currie Street with plans to market the property to potential new industries.
“Well, we didn’t know about that,” Hobbs replied, in another instance of lack of communication between the two entities.
Hobbs also pointed out to Reese that, in recent years, the actual SPLOST proceeds exceeded the expected proceeds, so the JDA may wind up getting its usual share.
The groups digressed from the purpose of the meeting when Commissioner Vann Wooten brought up other facilities needs of the county, specifically the Sheriff’s Department’s need for training facilities and needs for the road department which is now operating out of a double-wide mobile home.
The groups ended the meeting with Hobbs apologizing for the county not informing the JDA of the proposed cut and adding that both groups needed to do a better job of communicating with each other.
