Marshall County Fiscal Court declined to pass a resolution Tuesday on a proposed Calvert City annexation project, after affected property owners turned out to the regularly-scheduled meeting to express discontent.
Several property owners from the Lone Valley Road area of Calvert City attended the meeting to question plans concerning the Calvert City wellhead protection district, prompting Judge-Executive Kevin Neal to recommend tabling any action on the resolution that would grant Calvert City zoning authority to the land outside city limits for the purposes of maintaining the city’s wellheads and working toward infrastructure improvements to facilitate future economic development. The court voted in April to draft the resolution; the county took on the task of notifying affected residents – about 29 total in the area – about the intended resolution.
Since then, Neal said he’d received a number of calls for information on which the court did not have answers.
“In general, the main response I got was that they would rather have a town hall meeting with a presentation that would be presented to the landowners first, so that they would have been aware of what the plans were,” Neal said. “… I think that’s something that should take place first, as far as notifying the property owners that are going to be affected in the county. … There was a lot of questions that the fiscal court, I feel, wasn’t in a position to answer because the city would have to answer those questions.”
The court requested Calvert City host a town hall meeting for those residents to answer their questions address concerns before the court took further action on the proposed resolution.
“Because Calvert City understands the value is for the protection of property owners in that building section area and the property owners are not jeopardized at all, we’ll be glad to explain those methods to them and help them understand there should be no fear in the process,” said Mayor Lynn Jones.
The court also made changes to the proposed ordinance that would establish management operations for the county’s E911 service. The court held the first reading of an ordinance April 21 that would dissolve the existing seven-member board and put all day-to-day operations management and general administration into the hands of the 911 director. Those duties would include preparing annual budgets, scheduling employees and ensuring all staff maintain required licensing and certifications, among other administrative duties.
Since then, commissioners have expressed concern on the makeup of the ordinance. District 3 Commissioner Rick Cocke said he had spoken with county fire chiefs who were concerned they were losing a place at the table under the proposed setup.
“I think that the agencies that are listed on this paper … there’s eight entities that use 911, and I think they deserve a seat at the table,” Cocke said. “… I would think that these agencies that use 911, these agencies are the most qualified people in this county … I would think they would be more capable than this body of managing those … I just, I heard loud and clear from the dispatchers themselves, from law enforcement, from firefighters, that they just want to be represented, and I certainly think they need a voice.”
Neal said the ordinance, however, mandated the director to report to the Marshall County Alliance – a panel of representatives from each of the county’s emergency response agencies – meetings, which Neal said gave everyone representation as it related to center operations.
“Every agency is at the table with the Alliance meeting,” Neal said. “I am not for a bureaucratic increased board to 22 to 15 members that’s outside the scope of the security policy. … It just made sense to put that where the director goes to the Alliance meeting, where the fire chief(s) and every agency that is there is got a seat at the table.”
Cocke also questioned terminology within the ordinance as it related to personnel decisions. Cocke said he felt that the ordinance should include the “with the approval of the fiscal court” in two places that designated the Judge-Executive as the management or decision-making authority.
“My first concern is that by adopting this ordinance what it’s doing is, I certainly think, that it’s dissolving a board that exists presently and replacing it with the appointing authority being strictly the Marshall County judge-executive,” Cocke said. “I would certainly think that if this body, the Marshall County Fiscal Court is tasked with funding this 911 service, which I think we certainly need to do regardless of which option we choose, I think that statement under A administration should read ‘Marshall County judge-executive with approval of the fiscal court.’”
Neal said as a county agency it fell subject to the county administrative code, which already designates the fiscal court as the decision-making authority.
“If you look at the county administrative code, all those employees actually have the appeal process with the fiscal court,” Neal said. “The fiscal court has the final say on county employees. … The administrative code is clear in itself that the fiscal court has final say of hiring and firing of employees: not me. The employees that I have, obviously they’re my appointments, but the county employees they are to be governed by the fiscal court, and that government is outlined in the administrative code.”
County attorney Jeff Edwards will add “with the approval of the fiscal court” to the ordinance before final reading and approval.
The ordinance puts control of the Criminal Justice Information System/LINK/NCIC in the hands of the Marshall County sheriff. According to the Kentucky State Police user agreement, management control of the system must be in the hands of either a single law enforcement agency or a governing board of directors, of which the majority must be comprised of law enforcement personnel.
Under the previous organization, the county had established a board of directors to manage this part of the service through an interlocal agreement. That agreement expired in 2010, Neal said, and a new one had not been passed, leaving the county open to losing its access to the Criminal Justice Information System.
While the county ordinance dissolves the seven-member board previously in place, Neal said the sheriff was within his right to set up an advisory board should he choose.
The court voted at its March 21 meeting to task management of the system to the sheriff. District 1 Commissioner Bob Gold introduced the motion; Commissioner Rick Cocke seconded prior to unanimous approval at that meeting.
The ordinance also allows for a three-member grievance board to be set to deal with inter-agency grievances and issues not related to personnel. The board would be established for each individual grievance from members of the Marshall County Alliance.
In other business, the court:
- Heard proposals from Jonathan Elementary third-, fourth- and fifth-graders on potential land development projects at Mike Miller Park as part of the group’s Discovery learning program;
- heard reports from Scott Brown, the county’s ABC adminstrator on alcohol tax revenues for the first quarter of 2017, which totaled $57,229.59. That number was down from the $72,852.63 of the previous quarter;
- set a meeting for 5 p.m. May 15 with the city of Benton to reach an agreement on mutual exchange of services such as mowing and road work;
- voted to lease a 2017 Jeep Cherokee Sport from Parkway Chrysler at 15,000 miles of driving per year for a period of five years at a cost of $356 per month with a residual buyout of $5,960 on a county fleet vehicle;
- voted to give county employees Aug. 21 off for the anticipated solar eclipse;
- approved annual reimbursement in the amount of $270,530 from the Administrative Office of the Courts for costs related to Judicial Center operations;
- approved tax rates set by the Marshall County Board of Health at 7.25 cents per $100 of assessed property value for the 2017-18 fiscal year; and
- Neal signed a proclamation designating May 5 as the 25th annual West Kentucky Paralegals Da