7/24/2019 Fairfield County Council District 7 Constituent Newsletter - November 2015

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Faireld County Council District 7 Constuent Newsleer

November 2015

Greengs, Resident of Faireld County Council District 7,

I hope this newsleer nds you well; and I want you to know that I am very grateful to you for allowing me to ser

and represent you on Faireld County Council. I take great pride in being your Council member, and I always take

this role very seriously.

When I sought out this responsibility, I commied to you that I would always do my very best to advance Council

transparency and to be as open with you as the law would allow. Since being sworn in as a member of Council, Iv

worked connually to live up to these promises, and I hope Ive done so sasfactorily. In an aempt to do even

beer, Im going to begin periodically sending around newsleers like this one, out into the District. Since I cant

send the newsleers to every home in District 7, Ive randomly selected addresses to send them to. To maximize

the number of District 7 residents wholl have an opportunity to read the newsleer, Ill be posng a copy of it tomy Facebook page (www.facebook.com/smithforseven); and I hope youll help out by sharing it with your

neighbors, family, and friends, who live in District 7, as well. Your help is much appreciated!

FY 2015 -2016 Budget Set: On June 8, County Council voted 4 -3 to set the FY 2015 -2016 General Fund

Budget at $27,003,068.29. Though I voted not to approve the budget, as I didnt think spending areas were

examined extensively enough to nd addional cost savings, I do believe Council and Sta did a good job in

revamping the Countys overall budgeng process. For the rst me in a long me, Council required Sta to

explain each individual line item in the budget, ensuring a more transparent and understandable budget as a

result. Another reason I voted not to approve the budget was because it included a $5 road maintenance fee

tack-

on for every vehicle registered in the County. While I am not opposed to a road maintenance fee in theoI was not in favor of it in the context of the budget proposal, as, again, I didnt think enough had been done to

nd savings in other spending areas.

Millage (Property Tax) Rate Lowered: At Councils September 28 meeng, a resoluon was passed to lower

the Countys millage rate by 4.8 mills. I voted to approve the resoluon, and am glad that Council was able to

lessen the property tax burden on our Countys home and business owners. While the savings dont amount t

a large sum of money for most of us, its that much more that well get to keep in our back pockets.

Porons of Recreaon Plan Approved: On October 12, Council decided to move forward with recreaon

projects in Winnsboro, Dawkins, and Miord. Winnsboro will gain a new walking trail and the addion of

lighng at the Drawdy Park football and soccer eld, while Dawkins and Miord will soon be geng newrecreaon and community centers. The Dawkins and Miord parks will both have indoor half basketball court

as well as outside walking trails. Council chose to move forward with these projects at a cost of $1,719,954.

They were originally included in a consultant-driven plan esmated to cost over $4,100,000, although the

County only had a total of $3,500,000 budgeted for recreaon as part of a 2013 IPRB Bond. I voted to approve

moving forward with these projects, even though I was opposed to the overall plan, as I was glad Council was

able to come together and compromise on not pushing forward with the enre plan, which I considered to be

severely ill-conceived and what would have been a very poor use of taxpayer dollars without proper

opportunies for cizen input. While I do see and understand the need for more recreaonal opportunies in

some of our Countys outlying communies, I think the vast majority of Faireld County residents would be

much beer served to have one or two large, rst class, mul-recreaonal facilies that could be enjoyed and

ulized by all.

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Together, Lets Move Fairfield Forward!

Strategic Planning Started: County Council voted to move forward with a strategic planning eort at its

August 10 meeng. Internaonal company, T.Y. Lin will be assisng the County through the strategic planning

process, and the plan will take around a year to complete. The plan will be centered on and has the ulmate

goal of posively posioning Faireld County to take advantage of the regional growth expected in the comin

decade, structuring community and infrastructure improvement acon plans for implementaon. The plannin

process will include a minimum of 6 public input-gathering meengs, and I hope you will be able to aend at

least one, and share your thoughts with the planning team. I voted to approve moving forward with the

strategic plan, and I will do my best to get the word out on when and where the public input-gathering

meengs will be.

Council Seeking Permanent Administrator: Since July 2013, Faireld County has been without a permanent

full-me County Administrator, and has operated under an Interim Administrator ever since. On October 12,

Council voted to procure the services of an administrave search and recruitment rm to help us in nding a

good, qualied person to ll this role. I voted to approve this measure, as the County Administrator posion i

arguably the most important job within Faireld Countys government, and we need stability in this role. I can

assure you that I will do my very best in helping Faireld County nd and select the best possible candidate fo

this posion.

Employee Performance Evaluaons Being Conducted: To my surprise, aer I was sworn in as a member of

Council, I came to nd that the County hadnt conducted any performance evaluaons on its employees in

quite a few years. Actually, a member of sta once told me he couldnt remember the last me performance

evaluaons had been conducted. I shared this news with some of the other Council members and, aer

discussions on the maer with Administrave Sta, employee performance evaluaons are now being

conducted for all County employees on an annual basis. Faireld County has a lot of very good and talented

employees, and I greatly appreciate their service to our cizens, but theres always room for improvement; an

we should now be able to beer and more expediously improve our County services by knowing what areas

to focus and provide further employee training on.

Coming Vacancy on Behavioral Health Services Board: District 7 will soon have an appointment vacancy on

Faireld Countys Behavioral Health Services board, and Ill need to nd a District resident to ll that role. Sinc

the Behavioral Health Services board is currently on a mission of improvement through expansion, I'm lookingto bring someone to the board who has a strong desire to help others, who believes in rehabilitave services,

and who understands scal responsibility and its importance and role in successful planning and goal

aainment. Please let me know if you're interested in this role or if you know of someone who may be. To

learn more about Faireld County Behavioral Health Services, please visit www.faireldbhs.org.

Thank you for taking the me to read over this newsleer! If you have any quesons or concerns about somethin

in this newsleer, or about anything else, ever, please dont hesitate to contact me by email at

wbsmithj.fcc@gmail.com or by phone at (803) 718-3877. To ensure you will receive all future communicaons,

please email me your contact informaon.

It is truly my pleasure to represent and serve you on Fairfeld County

Council, and I very much appreciate your connued support!

Please remember to share this newsleer.