Review of the 2024 City Budget
The Good(?), the Bad, and the Outgoing Faction's Political Move to Lock It In.
The City is currently “considering” its 2024 budget and will hold a final vote to approve the budget as an ordinance on Monday, December 11 at 7:30 PM at the regular December City Council Meeting.
The City Charter of Sugar Hill requires the City Manager to present proposed Operating and Capital Improvements budgets to the Mayor and Council no later than ninety (90) days before the beginning of the fiscal year, which is January 1.
If the City followed the Charter, the proposed budget has existed since October 1. They could have discussed the budget in front of, or better yet, WITH the public in October or November as they worked out the details, perhaps at a work session. But, they didn't breathe a word of it during that time. They released it to the public about eight (8) weeks later, right before Thanksgiving. They’re holding the final vote on the budget on Monday, December 11.
Generally, the Mayor and Council simply listen to a rambling, mostly incoherent speech from the City Manager and simply vote (always unanimously) to approve the budget. As of Monday, December 4, at the Council Work Session, the City appeared to be on track to do the same thing this year. However, that was the day before the current block of elected officials lost their majority at the City Council runoff on Tuesday, December 5.
Late last week, the City released the City Council meeting agenda which shows that the City Council intends to approve the 2024 Operating and Capital Improvements budgets as an ORDINANCE. As such, it could only be amended or repealed by passing another ordinance, which can be vetoed by the Mayor. A mayoral veto requires four (4) votes out of the five-seat Council for an override.
This would expand Mayor Brandon Hembree’s power over the budget, as neither group within the Council has four votes to override his veto. It will also entrench the desired level of spending of this current City Council faction on their way out the door, in defiance of the wishes expressed by the majority of voters in the recent elections.
What’s In the Budget?
Let’s start with the overall amount - $49, 860,000.
The City justifies all of its expenses, regardless of the amount, with a reference to the City’s credit rating. Government credit ratings are rarely lowered. That is due in large part to their ability to extract additional funds from taxpayers.
The City also justifies its spending by citing “unqualified” ratings from past audits. An unqualified rating simply means that the financial statements have been thoroughly examined, and the auditor believes they are an accurate representation of the City’s financial state for evaluation by elected officials, the State of Georgia, banks, citizen journalists, and residents.
The City boasted that this is a 15.6% decrease over the current FY2023 operating budget. The City admits this has to do with moving around what remains of the $9,192,882 ($4,596,441 in 2021 and the $4,596,441 in 2022) the City received from the Federal government as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the bill passed by Congress in 2021 for "Covid relief".
It’s not that unusual for the City’s budget to go up and down from year to year as they get an influx of cash and spend it. Even with the ebb and flow of the budgets, since 2019, the budget has increased 27%.
It’s also worth noting that the budget amounts approved just prior to the beginning of the fiscal year are just the beginning amount of the budget. Money tends to get moved around as the year progresses, resulting in budget increases. One of the primary reasons is the City’s tendency to acquire real estate during the year, which almost always requires the City to dig into its reserves and amend the budget.
A High-Level Look
A top-level look at the proposed budget shows that even though the budget overall has decreased, almost every department within it has increased.
There are also some new departments and funds listed in the budget. The Marketing Department is now a standalone department where it had previously been a part of the Economic Development Department. The new Riverlands Authority, a development authority that will focus on the development of the 155 acres of City-owned land near the Chattahoochee River, now has a budget of $80,000 taken from the City’s General Fund.
The City provides a high-level report of some of the larger budget increases, and a few things were mentioned at the first presentation of the budget at the December Work Session.
These are the larger increases, and the City’s explanation of some of what they intend to do with the extra money.
It was not included in the City’s written documentation of the budget, but the City’s first verbal presentation of the budget mentions plans to buy a fleet of new, GPS-equipped golf carts for the Sugar Hill Golf Course.
The Details
The City also provides a detailed line-item budget with the amended 2023 budget amount, actual expenditures for the year-to-date, and the proposed budget amounts for 2024. The City now includes this document on the website because I asked for it every year and shared it with the public. However, they have been removing it from the website around the beginning of the year.
There’s a lot to pick apart, but certain things emerge as particular areas of concern. My top picks as areas that need closer examination and some aggressive budget cuts are consultants, travel, “public safety,” and the Eagle Theater. I’ll be discussing other items as the year - and the spending - progresses.
Consultants and Travel
Every year, I examine the overall amounts the City spends on Travel and Consultants, two classic areas of government waste from the federal level right down to the City of Sugar Hill. In response to that criticism, the Mayor, Council Members, and City Manager repeat on a loop that they are required to budget by department. The employees do submit their budgets as departments and they are tracked as departments and funds in accordance with accounting standards. But, theoretically, we have a Mayor, Council Members, and City Manager who are in charge of managing the overall government, and they are allowed by law to look at this budget six ways from Sunday and tell their department heads to cut spending.
That hasn’t happened since I started observing this government in 2019, and it doesn’t seem like it happened this year, either behind the scenes, and definitely not at a public meeting.
The amounts shown here may actually be a bit conservative, because the City does not provide detailed expense breakdowns of the Capital Improvements Projects, just an overall dollar amount for the cost of each project.
Public Safety
The verbal reports publicly given by Chief Marshal Diane King at the monthly City Council meetings indicate that the Marshals are functioning significantly as a public relations entity. However, within the last few months, the City Marshals have begun traffic stops within the subdivisions. They are not issuing tickets at this time and Open Records Requests with both the City of Sugar Hill and the Georgia Department of Public Safety reveal that as of October, they did not have permits or applications for permits to operate speed detection equipment to write traffic citations.
The increase in the Public Safety Department is to hire another Marshal (the City currently has seven) for overnight duty, and to purchase another vehicle and equipment. Last year, the City grossly exceeded its vehicles and equipment budget. The City of Sugar Hill Marshal expenses are not offset by any sort of revenue (at this time).
Eagle Theater
Another department of concern is the Eagle Theater. So far this year, it took in less than half of what it costs to operate it. Interestingly, it seems to make good money on concessions. It’s the shows that seem to be holding it back.
The City plans to spend an additional $265,700 on the Eagle in 2024…on alcohol if they’re serious about making money.
Eagle Theater Revenues
Eagle Theater Expenses
The City’s Ordinances Regarding the Budget
