September 6, 2012 Hamblen Budget Committee To Meet Today at Helen Ross McNabb Center

The Hamblen County Budget Committee--composed of all 14 commissioners--has a special called meeting today at 4:30 PM at the Helen Ross McNabb Center. The Committee will tour the current facility from 4-4:30 just prior to the meeting. 

[A public notice of this special called meeting was published in the local newspaper on Sunday. That's good because the last time the Budget Committee had a special called meeting to consider the McNabb and Morristown Hamblen Hospital Foundation's requests for donations of public money, there was no notice in the newspaper.]

Helen Ross McNabb Center, a local non-profit, is asking the Hamblen County Commission to give it $100,000 of public funds to help build a new building.

The point person for the request appears to be the local newpaper publisher/editor Mike Fishman.

[Fishman, along with Denise Terry Stapleton, recently requested and received a donation of $51,000 for the McNabb building from Morristown Utilities Commission round-up funds.]  See Fishman at MUC here. See the MUC vote on the donation here.

At its August meeting, the Hamblen County Commission did not vote on the McNabb and MHHS Foundation requests, instead sending both requests back to the Budget Committee. See post here.

Fishman was at the Hamblen County Courthouse on Tuesday with other McNabb personnel.

June 26, 2012 Hamblen County Commission Approves Revised School Budget, All County Budgets, Tax Rate, and Non-Profit Funding

After extended back-and-forth between the Hamblen County Commission and the Hamblen County School System, the School Board went back to the drawing board, revised its budget, and presented a new budget document to the Hamblen County Budget Committee at 4:30 on June 21, 2012.  [See video below]

A few commissioners still had questions about the estimates, costs, and square footage of the next West High building program. In addition, several commissioners have expressed concern in earlier meetings about the school system taking "leftover" money from construction projects and then spending that money on other projects as it wishes. It appears likely that the school board's handling of yet another school construction project will come under close scrutiny as bids are taken for new West High projects and work begins.

The Hamblen County Commission then met in regular session at 5:00 PM (video below) and approved the school budget, the county budget, the county tax rate, and funding for numerous non-profits.

June 15, 2012 Commission Adjourns After Public Comments Since There Is No School Budget

June 14, 4:00 PM. Hamblen County Budget Committee approves county portion of budget without a school budget. Moves two-cents of tax rate to county debt service--dedicated for West High.

June 14, 5:00 PM. Hamblen County Commission meets in special session to vote on complete  county budget on first reading, hears public comments, and then adjourns because, without a school budget, there is no complete county budget to approve

There is no school budget because the Hamblen County Budget Committee gave tentative approval to a school budget on June 12 at 4:00 PM but later that same day the Hamblen County School Board approved a different budget at 7:00 PM. Video of each meeting is here.

June 12, 2012 County Commission Gives Contingent Approval to School Budget; School Board Rejects County Plan

After yesterday's joint meeting of the Hamblen County Budget Committee and the Hamblen County School Board, the County Budget Committee met at 4:00 PM today to approve a school budget.  

Commissioner Stancil Ford made the motion laying out the county's position on the school budget.  The motion passed 10-3 (NO: Paul LeBel, Doe Jarvis, Nancy Phillips) but was to take effect only IF the School Board met a few hours later and revised its budget in line with the county's proposal.  Click on arrow for video.

The School Board met three hours later (7:00 PM) but proposed and passed a different school budget, thus rejecting/modifying the county's plan. School Board member Carolyn Holt made the motion which passed 7-0. Click on arrow for video.

The Budget Committee is scheduled to meet again on Thursday, June 14.

The original plan was for the Budget Committee to finalize the entire county budget (county and schools) and then recommend the county budget and tax rate to the full Commission which was to meet in special session on Thursday and pass the complete county budget on first reading.

In light of the dueling budgets, whether the county will be able to pass a budget and tax rate on Thursday is unclear at this point.

June 11, 2012 Hamblen County Budget Meeting with School Board

The Hamblen County Commission Budget Committee is composed of all 14 members of the full Commission. The Budget Committee has been meeting to go over the Hamblen County budget for the past several weeks. 

At its May 31 meeting, the Budget Committee voted on the Hamblen County Schools budget, recommending a 5.1% or $3,495,000 increase in school funding for FY 2013 year.  Despite the nearly $3.5 Million increase, the school system left that meeting upset because the nearly $3.5 Million increase is $272,000 shy of the increase that the school board wanted and expected.

After the May 31 committee vote on the school budget, Director of School Dale Lynch apparently met with County Mayor Bill Brittain and Finance Director Joey Barnard and appeared at the June 7 Hamblen Commission Budget Committee meeting (video above) to ask for another meeting/ work session with the Commission.

The joint meeting/work session will take place tonight at the Courthouse (Chancery Courtroom) at 6 PM.