Commissioners address concerns surrounding their budget

Sep. 11—WADESBORO — Commissioner JD Bricken and County Manager Leonard Sossaman updated fellow board members and the public on Anson County's continuing efforts to right the county budget at the September 5 Anson County Board of Commissioner meeting.

County Manager Leonard Sossaman began the discussion by updating county commissioners on grants awarded for county water and sewer.

"I just received a letter today (September 5) from DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) about a 5 million dollar grant from ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) so this five million dollars will now come in and we can use it to retool our water filtration plant," informed Sossaman. "We can continue to provide good drinking water and what we have to do now is have our consulting engineers complete the plants specifications and submit, then we can probably start work once he gets approved, hopefully by May 1 of 2024."

Sossaman thinks it will probably be an 18- month project to complete. Most of the county's focus is on filtration units.

"As well as what is called a super P, which stands for super pulsator, we are thinking that once we do that we may be able to jump above that 16 MGD million gallons per day to 20 MGD, which would be very good for our future growth," said Sossaman hopefully.

"As you know the board approved and we received the three hundred thousand dollars for an asset inventory assessment for our water operation as well as another 100,000 for our sewer," Sossaman reminded.

"What I am working on now is getting a calibrated master plan put together. After that is done, we are putting in an application next Wednesday to the state for another $350,000. We are advancing on several different fronts when it comes to utilities," Sossaman apprised the board.

For his part, Chairman JD Bricken was very encouraged by the awarded grants soon to be appearing in the budget.

"That is all great news, I sure appreciate that update," enthused Bricken.

Following the County Manager's update on water and sewer grants, Bricken addressed the board and public regarding additional outstanding financial matters in his Chairman's Report.

"We have had a lot of concern about our budget from the public and obviously we'd like to give you a follow up," began Bricken.

With concern evident, Commissioner Bricken opened his report reminiscing on the promises he made as a candidate.

"The first question in the Anson Record newspaper that was asked of me when I was running for commissioner was if elected, what would you do to get the county budgets done on time?" Bricken remembered.

"I immediately met with our previous manager, (Barron) Monroe and our previous finance director, who at the time did not indicate that there were any problems with our budget. They did not tell me or members of the public, about all the problems going back several years," Brickman stated with dismay, as he outlined how, once elected, he had hit the ground running.

Commissioner Bricken went on to remind that both position holders later resigned.

"Next our previous interim Finance Director, who appeared before the board to assure us the delayed audits were soon to be complete, resigned," Bricken recalled.

"After that we hired our current Finance Director (Holly Berry), at which time we made it clear we would do whatever it takes to support her ability to get our budget up to date. She has worked tirelessly in gathering purchase documentation, implementing proper budgetary requirements, insisting departments follow strict policy and searching for years of missing data. Remember she can only summarize the information that these departments provide," he cautioned.

Now that Leonard Sossaman has come on board, Bricken feels that the county has grown under his command.

"He (Sossaman) is currently authorized to spend up to $150,000 on whatever accounting services he feels necessary to complete our audits. Our manager and current finance director are working together with several senior advisors and consultants, including the retired finance director from Wake County, the retired finance director from Cumberland County, and the retired manager from Harnett County," detailed Bricken.

Other praiseworthy moves that Berry and Sossaman have made are hiring Potter and Company, one of the largest CPA firms in the Charlotte region and Thompson and Price, another area CPA firm. Both of these accounting firms specialize in providing audit services.

"In addition to our late audits, another concern of the local government commission, who regulates the county governments to ensure compliance, is our low tax collection rate," mentioned Bricken delicately.

"If you noticed in the April 19, 2023 Express Newspaper, there were over 3,000 delinquent tax accounts, and that's been every year," stated Bricken matter of factly.

"I'll start by assuring you, I'll sure everyone, I have no desire to raise your taxes," stated Bricken unequivocally.

Though desiring not to raise taxes, Brickman did want to express to the public how vital a revenue source tax income is to the county.

"I will say however, that it is not fair to those who do pay taxes that so many have been allowed not to. The highest revenue source for the county budget comes from property tax. We just need to implement the same collection procedures as other surrounding counties. The average collection rate in North Carolina is 98.4 cents, and we were obviously nowhere near that," Bricken lamented.

"We have given our manager and tax collector full authority to collect taxes, just like everyone else. Many of these accounts have been delinquent for over ten years," reminds Bricken. "Although this board is definitely headed in a new direction, we are still dealing with some of the issues of the past."

Bricken went on to cite that in addition to lax tax collection, commissioners were informed at the audit update meeting that the county has over 500 million dollars backlogged in deferred maintenance. During this same meeting, advisors from local government recommended the county hire two qualified finance office employees, which has been provided for in the budget.

In addition to delinquent taxes, the county has ignored the North Carolina state rate increase guidance for drinking water and wastewater. For this reason, the state has not issued Anson County grant money for its aging system.

Bricken reports that state officials shared with him — "The state does not want to invest in a county that does not want to invest in itself."

To that end, the county increased the water bill by approximately $2 a month, which has already resulted in the award of a five million dollar grant.

"Just last week Representative [Mark] Brody notified us there is an additional six million dollars in the budget to improve our system capabilities," reported Sossaman.

Bricken also informed the board of the county commissioner's fruitful conference in Raleigh.

"We spoke with our advisors who said they are confident in the new direction our board is heading, and they approve of the changes we are making to properly manage our budget. We are making great progress, it took many years to get us in the situation we are in now and obviously, that cannot be solved overnight, but we are making a lot of headway, we are making a lot of progress. We are really pulling out all the stops, trying to get our budget up to speed," promised Bricken.

"I want to let you all know we sat here for three meetings and we heard a lot of things, a lot of concern. We are listening to y'all and we are responding back to you. We are doing a lot better and we are going to continue to try a lot harder," Bricken continued.

"I am looking forward to paying my property taxes; I just want to receive the bill. When will statements be mailed out?" inquired Commissioner Lawrence Gatewood seriously.

"They are actually scheduled to go out in late August, if not early September at the latest," responded the County Manager.

"One thing that I will point out, is in the reorganization of the sheriff's office, we have about a 50 million dollar budget, the reorganization cost was about 500,000, which is 1% of our budget," Chairman Bricken stated.

"Listening to the people and being concerned that the people have the right information, it would seem like it was a lot more than that based on what people were asking us and telling us. I certainly do not have any regrets of increasing our public safety in the county to the tune of 1% of our budget so I just want to make that known," declared Bricken.

"Whenever we had the senior advisors from the NCACC and also Sharon Edmondson, one of the directors at the LGC, they recommended that we do what is called a peer review of our tax administration department," reminded Sossaman.

" I just got word last week from David Baker, he is actually retired from the Department of Revenue, and his team within the next month will be here two or three days to start and finish that peer review and then they will make recommendation in terms of training and collection procedure. We have stepped up our efforts for some delinquencies and I know they are going to recommend other avenues that we can use," suggested Sossaman.

"We are just trying to get in line with all the other counties, they all have policies in place, I know I have no desire, and I know most of the board would agree with me, to raise taxes. If we can get those 3,000 tax accounts to pay their tax, or even a good majority of them, we will never have to raise taxes and we would just get the money that we hope that we would be able to collect. Everybody has to realize that these property taxes are what build our tax base that we can afford to bring this county along. I just want to make it clear that we are doing everything that we can... that does not mean that everything is great, it just means that we are doing everything we can and things are getting better and they will continue to get better," Commissioner Bricken optimistically concluded.

Reach Lauren Monica at 704-994-5471 or lmonica@ansonrecord.com. To suggest a correction, email editor@yourdailyjournal.com.