McCaysville Police Department face major budget cuts
Community, News, Police & Government July 17, 2020
McCaysville, Ga. – The City of McCaysville Police Department (MPD) recently saw major cuts in the form of lay-offs and overtime elimination.
The McCaysville City Council voted unanimously on the cuts (with the exception of Larry Collis who has a conflict of interest and must recuse himself from voting on police related matters).
After an executive session, council returned with council member Gilida Carter stating, “We’ve been in here making some very, very difficult decisions,” and adding, “This has been really gut wrenching. We’ve worried about it. We’ve put time in on it, but we are going to have to make some changes.”
(L) Officer Gary Holloway (R) Captain Billy Brackett
Among the changes made by council were the elimination of the position of Investigator that was held by Captain Billy Brackett, also the elimination of MPD’s most recent full time hire Officer Gary Holloway, and eliminating overtime pay for Chief of Police Michael Earley by moving him to salary.
“We are definitely going to have to cut or the city is not going to have the money to go on over the next year,” Carter said of the motions being passed. “These gentlemen will have the opportunity to apply for unemployment. This is not firing. This is layoffs.”
Earley spoke during the monthly Police Update starting off, “I would like to ask the council why they lied to me?”
According to Earley, council member Collis had assured him two days prior to the meeting that everything was fine with the department.
Collis, who was visibly upset by the events, later in the meeting spoke up saying, “I would make the suggestion that those that voted for this fiasco forfeit their 911 service and show some solidarity.”
Of main concern to Earley is the dangers his officers would face working shifts alone. Earley informed the council that overtime would more than likely be unavoidable: “I’m asking the council, begging the council, don’t let my officers be out there by themselves during the night or during the day.”
“Well with the staff that you had, you had tremendous overtime. Why was that?” Carter questioned Earley.
“Cause calls keep coming in,” Earley answered back.
Earley spoke of the job that police officers do and the dangers of the job, “Police officers are willing to do what most people cannot or will not do on a day to day basis. They put themselves in dangerous situations that could end with them being hurt or even killed.”
He later likened the council’s move to that of the national political movement to defund the police, “You are creating that animosity that should not exist. You are putting that target on our backs. You are making it unsafe for us to go to work. Is it money? Are we trying to distract and deter for political gain? What is the reason?”
“For the people out there that are hypocrites, who say you support the police and pat us on the back and then stab us in the back saying we got too many police officers and we need to cut. You should be ashamed of yourself because you know you are doing this for political reasons,” Earley spoke to the council.
Council member Jason Woody replied to Earley’s questioning, “We are not defunding the police department. If we keep going the way that we are going right now, within six months we will not have a General Fund. It will be down to zero.”
Council members stated that every department in the city has cut their budgets and there have also been layoffs in these other departments.
The other departments which include, Administrative, Street Department and Water Department had already cut their budgets, with the Police Department stating that they couldn’t find any cuts to be made and were still requesting an increase.
As of May 22, 2020 the total fund expenditures for the City of McCaysville was estimated to come to $1,413,184.32 with revenues coming of $866,805.17, giving the city a $546,379.15 shortfall. Of these numbers the Police Department expenditures accounted for around 70 percent of the current revenue.
“Right now the money is not there. It’s not been there for awhile,” Woody said of the cuts and the city’s budget, “For every department, as the year progresses we will reassess, we will see what we can do to help alleviate the pressure off these departments.”
The McCaysville Police Department Statistics for the month of June were:
- 76 – 911 calls
- 90 – traffic stops
- 10 – citations
- 98 – warnings
- 75 – walk-ins
- 1 – arrest
- 139 – phone calls
McCaysville Department Budget Overview
McCaysville Police Department Budget 2016 – 2020
McCaysville Administrative Budget 2016 -2020
McCaysville Street Department Budget 2016 -2020
McCaysville Water Department (Water Distribution Only) Budget 2016 -2020
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Transparency obstructed at McCaysville City Council meeting
Community, News March 15, 2020
McCaysville, Ga. – Mayor Thomas Seabolt tried to bring to an end the reading of the monthly bills, as new councilmember Gilita Carter had done at previous meetings since taking office.
Carter had stated in a previous meeting: “I’ve been coming to a lot of meetings and it always comes up, about paying the bills. Well, I often sit there and wonder, what bills? Whose bills?”
Click Here to read about previous meeting concerning McCaysville finances.
Since taking office Carter has read each line item of the monthly bills aloud to the public, but Seabolt put a stop to this by asking for a motion before Carter could address the public.
Council-member Gilita Carter and Mayor Thomas Seabolt exchange words over the city’s transparency.
“I just don’t want to take the time to read everything because they’ve already been approved through payment in a sense,” Seabolt spoke to Carter of his reasoning behind not continuing to read the individual bills submitted by city departments.
After asking for a motion to pay the bills with no further explanation, council-member Sue Beaver gave that motion, with fellow council-member Larry Collis gave a second. When asked all in favor Carter abstained along with council-member Susan Kiker.
“In the basis of transparency and in the fact that I stated before, that no one ever knew what the bills were, I will at least give the total for each department,” Carter said before reading each department’s total bills.
Mayor Seabolt responded to Carter’s reading of the totals by saying, “If they want a copy they can ask for public records.”
This sparked a short exchange between Carter and Seabolt, with Carter ending, “I won’t read them individually any more, but for transparency purposes people need to know what the city bills are. Transparency is what I’m going to stand for.”
Council-member Jason Woody proposed having a print out of detailed monthly bills available for citizens at the regular monthly meetings.
Ultimately, Carter voted no to paying the bills to show opposition in how the City Council is handling getting the information to the public.
The department totals for bills in the month of Feb. are as follows:
- Administration – $3,828.24
- Police Department – $2,439.42
- Court – $519.60
- Street Department – $3,693.45
- City Park – $295.39
- Water and sewer – $29,889.85
Later in the meeting Carter proposed that the City put in place a system for filing expenditure reports and receiving reimbursement. Her proposal includes basing the City’s millage rate reimbursement on Federal standards and having clear cut forms so that reimbursement would be organized and uniform.
Another topic of financial discussion came about when City Attorney Cortney Stuart pointed out during the meeting that no resolution actually exists that requires spending over $500 to come before the council for approval.
This topic and the topic of expenditure reports are expected to be discussed by council in a workshop meeting.
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