JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF) – The Campbell County Commission met Tuesday night in a recessed session to pass the budget and tax rate for the upcoming fiscal year and make a final decision on whether to renew a five year contract with Friends of Campbell County Animals (FCCA) to operate the county’s animal shelter.

The vote on the animal shelter was closer than expected, with a narrow majority of eight commissioners voting ‘yes’ to renew FCCA’s contract for another five years at more than double the current amount committed to the shelter.

FCCA warned the commission early on that the $170,000 provided by Campbell County each year was less than half the cost of operating the shelter and animal control program. The county came back with an offer of $325,000, but FCCA insisted on $380,000 or the group would pull out on June 30.

Finally, Commissioner Scott Kitts offered a motion at last week’s meeting of the animal control committee to take the additional $55,000 out of the county’s fund balance in order to meet FCCA’s demand. Committee chairman Dewayne Baird, who had handled the negotiations with FCCA up to that point, was the only committee member to vote ‘no’ as Kitts’ motion was approved.

Tuesday night, the full commission met to finalize the 2022-23 budget and tax rate and vote on the animal control contract. Baird, although he had opposed the $380,000 amount, made the motion to approve the contract “on behalf of the animal control committee.”

Baird pointed out that he did not object to the amount, but to the fact that beyond this year, Kitts had no answer for where the additional money would come from in the following four years of the contract.

“We need to get it up and running for the first year, then we can figure out how to come up with the extra $55,000 to keep it running,” Kitts replied. Commissioner Rusty Orick said the commission can’t depend on taking the revenue from the fund balance going forward and if other sources aren’t identified, the county would have to raise taxes to fund the contract.

“The hotel/motel tax revenue is trending in the right direction. I recommend approval of the contract,” Mayor E. L. Morton said.

The discussion continued for several more minutes before Baird moved to call for the question, ending debate. His motion passed with only Orick and Kitts voting to continue the discussion, and the commissioners then voted on the contract, approving it by a vote of 8-4 with three members absent. Baird took the unusual step of voting against his own motion, as did Ralph Davis, Whit Goins and Scott Stanfield. Butch Kohlmeyer, Lisa Lester and Michael Douglas did not attend the meeting.

Before the debate over the shelter contract, the commissioners voted unanimously approving the 2022-23 tax levy at the same rate of $2.0659 as the current property tax rate. They also voted 12-0 to approve the budget, which totals $19,635,415 in the general fund, $2,639,837 in the solid waste/sanitation fund, $3,372,564 for the ambulance service, $1,208,915 for industrial/economic development $4,556,263 for the Highway/public works fund, $44,202,089 for the General Purpose School Fund, $15,154,526 for school federal projects, $4,902,795 for the Central Cafeteria fund, $4,939,901 for debt service and a combined $2,685,115 for capital projects. In total, Campbell County will spend $103,459,110 in the upcoming fiscal year.

The Campbell County Board of Education also scheduled a recessed meeting Tuesday to approve some end-of-year budget amendments, but failed to meet a quorum for conducting business when only five board members showed up. Chairman Johnny Byrge recessed the meeting until Thursday, June 30, at 5pm. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 06/30/2022-6AM)

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