Bad Links?
Other glitches?
Notify Webmaster

Public only gets to observe at muffled Tyrone budget meeting

By LEE WILLIAMS
lwilliams@TheCitizenNews.com

Steven Chontos and about 20 other residents filed into the Tyrone Town Council budget work session 7 p.m. Monday filled with questions.

After attending the 13-minute budget session, he hoped to know more about the proposed 15 percent raise for Town Manager Barry Amos, Assistant Town Manager/Clerk Valerie Fowler and three other administration employees. But instead, Chontos left with the same questions.

The council talked quietly, without aid of public address systems, about the proposed $5.1 million budget that was characterized by town staff as the largest in Tyrone’s history, and possibly mentioned the raises, but he couldn’t say for sure. Chontos, who sat on a front pew, couldn’t hear them.

The average employee receives a 3 percent cost-of-living raise. Chontos said he doesn’t know if the council had a valid reason for giving such a large raise to Amos and Fowler to manage a town of 3,916 residents.

“I wasn’t able to validate that here because I really couldn’t hear what they were saying,” Chontos said after the meeting. “It was kind of tough to understand it. The room and the conditions that we were in.”

The raspy air conditioner blared on during the meeting, making it nearly impossible for residents to hear what was discussed, and the council did not use a PA system.

Moreover, the two charged with fielding the council’s questions about the proposed budget had their backs to the audience, so residents could not read their lips and try to figure out what was being said.

Nonetheless, Chontos doubts the council, Amos or Fowler would have said anything that would have swayed his opinion. He doesn’t believe the employees deserve a 15 percent raise.

“I don’t feel like that’s fair at all,” said the married father of two boys. “I myself had a bunch of questions regarding the performance of these people. How they are evaluated and what justifies that raise, and in my own mind, looking back over the past couple of years, I can’t see it myself.”

The council declined to take comments from the public. City and town council members are under no obligation to take comments from the public during a work session, according to the Georgia Municipal Association. But still, Chontos wished they would have because he feels like he was shut out of the process.

“We hoped that we would be able to have some input today,” said Chontos, who has lived in Tyrone for about 17 years. “We elected these people into office and we expected the service we were promised, which we haven’t been getting in the past. We were just looking for the opportunity to voice our concerns and make sure they were heard and understood, but unfortunately, we didn’t get that.”

Gail Onesi of Tyrone said she did not attempt to speak Monday. But she promised she would try to speak out at the final work session at 7 p.m. Tuesday, where the council is expected to vote on the budget.

Onesi said she too struggled to hear the council, but someone circulated a copy of the minimum and maximum salaries of employees of the town. She balked at them. She questions whether the five employees deserve a raise, especially in light of recent pay cuts at Delta AirLines and base closures at Fort McPherson and Fort Gillem. She said many people who live in Tyrone will be affected by those cuts.

If the Fiscal Year 2005-06 budget is approved, the tennis courts and basketball courts would be moved, which would affect the town’s bottom line. The biggest increases would come from the Public Safety Department, $114,098 or 41 percent, and Public Works Department, $91,441 or 33 percent, officials say.

Councilman Mike Smola, an accountant, said he is comfortable with the budget.

“People are concerned that it looks large,” Smola said after the meeting. “I think the big shift people are seeing this year is we’re spending a lot of money on capital projects: the library being the biggest one, soccer fields being a big one, moving the basketball courts and tennis courts being a big one, but it’s all in the interest of improving the city over the long-term.”

He doubts a 15 percent raise for the five full-time employees will pass. Smola said he is one of those Delta AirLines employees who had to give up 10 percent of their pay to help keep the company afloat. He knows about the upcoming base closures and knows that pay raises should be given out carefully.

“It’s in the budget, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to happen,” Smola said. “I gave up 10 percent.”

Smola said Fort McPherson and Fort Gillem will be closing and he indicated “there’s no way,” the council is going to approve a 15 percent pay raise.