Join Me at our next Coffee on Jan 6, 2023

“The Good Cup”

9:30 – 10:30 AM

2181 Hillsboro Rd. Franklin TN 37069

Coffee with your Commissioner

Dear Neighbor,

Results are displayed in red print so you can read them quickly. Commissioners that were absent were myself. We still have a vacant seat expected to be filled by Chris Richards once the Williamson County Nov 8th election is certified.

This November 2022 Williamson County Commission meeting was held at the  Williamson County Administrative Complex auditorium @ 7:00 PM on Monday, October 10th.

This meeting was publicly broadcast on the local public TV stations as well as WC-TV accessible on the county website, as well as on YouTube afterward. Go to WC-TV to live stream. The meeting was broadcast on Comcast Channel 3, Charter Channel 192, AT&T Channel 99, and United Communications Channel 207.

Several citizens spoke during Public Comment including one soon-to-be Commissioner Chris Richards. Many spoke on resolution 11-22-40 regarding a potential historic tax overlay to provide tax relief to small businesses on Main St., Franklin. Several spoke on preserving our historic resources and a request for a demolition permit for national register properties. Go Here view public comment.

There are 41 resolutions under consideration in this month’s meeting. Here are some of the more notable ones. Seven of which are on the consent agenda.

FYI:

You can always go HERE to view the Williamson County Calendar.

You can go HERE to view the voting district map to verify which district you live in, which will determine which candidates you can vote for in this year’s elections.

You can go HERE to explore what county district or congressional district you are living in as well.

You can go HERE to register to vote in Tennessee.

Consent Agenda (The consent Agenda passed 22 YES 0 No)

11-22-24 resolution accepting roads in Falls Grove Subdivision into county road system.

11-22-25 resolution abandoning WC Right of Way road interest at a portion of Nathan Smith Rd

11-22-27 resolution authorizing the WC Mayor to enter agreement with Williamson Medical Ctr concerning ambulance services.

11-22-29 resolution authorizing the WC Mayor to enter an agreement with Wilson county concerning housing Wilson County juveniles in the Williamson County juvenile center.

11-22-30 resolution regarding Williamson County leasing property owned by the City of Franklin for Emergency Medical Services personnel at 200 Front St.

11-22-31 resolution regarding the Town of Nolensville leasing property owned by Williamson County at 7347 Nolensville Rd for the Nolensville Fire Dept.

11-22-33 resolution authorizing the WC Mayor to execute a memorandum of understanding with the City of Franklin concerning permitting the construction of a new special operations facility.

11-22-1 resolution for approved mid-year raise of 2 % for regular full and part-time staff for the 2022-23 budget year with $3,500,000 funding this expense from General Purpose School Fund. 21Yes 1 Abstain by Commissioner Jones

11-22-2 resolution for approved Five Additional paid Holidays for ten and eleven month full time classified staff for the 2022-23 budget year with $1,309,507 funding this expense from General Purpose School Fund. 22 Yes 0 No

11-22-3 resolution requesting $2,440,254 for the purchase of school buses for the 2022-23 school year. 22 Yes 0 No

11-22-4 resolution approving lease/purchase agreements or apple computers for digital learning. Principal cost will be $277,292 and interest of 2.34% and a yearly commitment of $71,746.42. 22 Yes 0 No

11-22-5 resolution appropriating $25,000 to provide on-call engineering services required to review septic systems with in Williamson County. Due to employee attrition on-call services is needed until staff vacancies have been filled. 22 Yes 0 No

11-22-9 resolution authorizing a grant contract with the state of Tennessee, TN Corrections Institute and appropriating $9,769 of grant funds into the Sheriff’s Office budget to be used for training corrections and jail-based employees. 22 Yes 0 No

11-22-10 resolution authorizing a grant contract with the state of Tennessee, Department of Safety & Homeland Security and appropriating $39,999 of grant funds into the Sheriff’s Office budget to be used for highway safety campaigns. 22 Yes 0 No

11-22-17 resolution appropriating $750,000 to the Solid Waste Department for assistance with relocating the Material Recycling Facility, specifically relocating the baler operations which require two new balers. 22 Yes 0 No

11-22-18 resolution authorizing a grant contract with the state of Tennessee, Department of Military, and TN Emergency Management Agency and appropriating $144,275 of grant funds into the Office of Public Safety budget to be used for preparedness and training of personnel for response to domestic terrorism. 22 Yes 0 No

11-22-19 resolution authorizing the issuance, sale, and payment of not to exceed $50,100,000 of General Obligation Public Improvement and School Bonds of Williamson County, TN and providing for the levy of taxes for the payment of debt service on the bonds. 18 Yes 0 No 4 Abstain by Commissioners Mary Smith, Graves, Sanford, Torres

11-22-20 resolution authorizing the issuance, sale, and payment of not to exceed $79,700,000 of County District School Bonds of Williamson County, TN and providing for the levy of taxes for the payment of debt service on the bonds and allocating educational Impact Fee Collections to defray public improvement expenses. 18 Yes 0 No 4 Abstain by Commissioners Mary Smith, Graves, Sanford, Torres

The bond issuance in resolutions 11-22-19 & 11-22-20 will be used to fund the following:

General Obligation Bond, nov 2022

11-22-26 resolution to adopt the provisions of the “Jackson Law” in Williamson County, TN which would require county legislative approval of at least a 2/3 majority vote, for the planning of a new landfill or solid waste processing facility. 22 Yes 0 No

11-22-28 resolution revising the Williamson County Educational Impact Fee as in the table below:

21 Yes 1 No by Commissioner Sanford

Education Impact Fees, Nov 2022

11-22-32 resolution authorizing the WC Mayor to enter into a long-term lease agreement with Vulcan Construction Materials, LLC which is located adjacent to county owned unincorporated property and wishes to extract raw construction materials from this property.

18 Yes 4 No by Commissioners Lawrence, Mary Smith, Lisa Hayes Lenox & Stresser

11-22-34 resolution amending the rules, regulations and procedures of the Williamson County Board of Commissioners concerning rule 5.4 debating the subject. This resolution regards “calling the question” which is used to terminate the conversation on any particular resolution and to force a vote whether Commissioners who are requesting to speak have been heard or not. Presently, if a Commissioner “calls the question” a vote is taken as to whether to stop the conversation or not and a 2/3 majority vote is required. This resolution, if approved, will only require a majority vote. FAILED 3 Yes 19 No, Yes votes by Commissioners Aiello, Hester, & Tunnicliffe

11-22-35 resolution amending the rules, regulations and procedures of the Williamson County Commissioners concerning rule 8.1a appointment of committees. This rule states that committee assignments should be done in September each year. Because its difficult for the Steering Committee to meet and do this in election years, this resolution would allow this to happen in October of election years. 19 Yes 3 No by Commissioners Herbert, Mary Smith & Lisa Hayes Lenox

11-22-36 resolution amending the rules, regulations and procedures of the Williamson County Commissioners concerning rule 8.3 concerning rotating committees to determine that the Chairman will be a non-voting ex-officio member of all committees including the Human Resource Committee. 21 Yes 1 No by Commissioner Lisa Hayes Lenox

11-22-37 resolution amending the rules, regulations and procedures of the Williamson County Commissioners concerning rule 1 convening the Board of Commissioners. Rule 1 provides that the agenda & resolution packet shall be “mailed to” each Commissioner at least 6 days prior to each session. This resolution changes the wording to “provided to”, to reflect the current practice of receiving this information electronically via email. 22 Yes 0 No

11-22-38 resolution requesting states bordering the4 USA southern border to declare action must be taken to strengthen the border to address the immigration crisis that have resulted in an influx of illegal aliens and drug trafficking subject to the provisions and restrictions of Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3. not discussed

11-22-40 resolution of support for state legislation to create a tax classification bracket for certain commercial and residential historical properties in Franklin, TN regarding Main Street. The tax increase due to the property re-assessment of 2021 has caused property tax bills along downtown Main street to approximately triple from 2020 to 2021 and in some cases has caused a significant strain on small business owners who create the small town & unique character that downtown Franklin presently enjoys which contributes to tourism in the area and the subsequent tax revenue to Franklin & Williamson County. Too preserve the unique and desirable character of the Main Street Historic area this resolution asks the state legislature to create a special tax bracket for relief.

This resolution was amended to remove reference to Residences. This amendment passed 18 Yes 4 No by Commissioners Mason, Mary Smith, Graves & Williams.

The amended resolution failed 12 Yes 9 No 1 Abstain. No votes by Commissioners Herbert, Mason, Webb, Morton, Sanford, Nations, Tunnicliffe, Williams & Steve Smith. Abstention by Beathard

The Tax Study Committee is scheduled to meet to draft a new resolution to address the concern for small businesses on Main St, Franklin that originated Res. 11-22-40.

ELECTIONS & APPOINTMENTS

County Mayor Appointments

Beer Board 3yr term, exp. 11/25

At-Large member

Re-nomination of Tommy Randolph

Hospital Board of Trustees exp. 5/23

Filling unexpired terms:

Dana Ausbrooks resigning nominee: Judy Herbert

Bert Chalfant (passed away) nominee: Paul Webb

All nominations were Approved

County Commission meetings are normally held at the Administrative complex at 1320 West Main St., Franklin in the auditorium (East end of bldg) @ 7 PM and generally on the 2nd Mon. of the month. Meeting agendas are available HERE. There is no meeting in December, April, or August. July’s meeting is when the tax rate and budget for the upcoming year are approved.

 

Anyone interested in getting a better understanding of our county resolutions can come to the Budget Committee meetings held on 1st Mondays @ 4:30 pm in the Conference Room across from the County Mayors’ office. In this committee, any resolution with a fiscal consequence is discussed one week prior to being voted on by the Commission as a whole. All Committee meetings are open to the public.

 

All your feedback is welcome.

 

Best Regards,

Barb Sturgeon

Williamson County Commissioner

District 8