Politics

Towns to county: Tell us the price

By Bill Moss, Published: May 3, 2015

Wary that they will be hit with new costs after they wrap up budget deliberations, mayors urged Henderson County officials to release a new fee schedule as soon as possible.

“Let’s not wait too long,” Mills River Mayor Larry Freeman said. “We’re all working on our individual budgets right now.”
A meeting of the Local Government Council for Cooperative Action was the first chance town mayors had the opportunity to publicly question Tommy Thompson, the Henderson County Board of Commissioners chairman, and County Manager Steve Wyatt about their plans for fees for fire inspection and possibly other services.
State law requires local government to make fire inspections of businesses but provides no rules on who can conduct them. The city of Hendersonville does its own through the fire department. Certified contractors can conduct them. The county fire marshal’s office conducts them countywide including in the towns of Flat Rock, Fletcher, Laurel Park and Mills River. The fire marshal’s office first discovered last year that it had never charged Mills River for the inspections since its incorporation in 2013. That triggered a study to ascertain the actual cost, which dovetailed with the county commissioners’ orders to calculate the cost of all services the county provides.
“We’ve been asked to look at the services that not only county but the cities provide to get a snapshot of who does what and how that’s being paid for,” Wyatt said. “In the commissioners’ minds I think there are questions about who provides what and I anticipate they will debate it. This is really a long-term type issue. The municipalities and the county need to have dialogue and work through issues.”
But because the analysis is time-consuming, the larger discussion probably will not take place until after the county and towns adopt a budget. “It will probably exceed that time frame by months and weeks,” he said.
He signaled to the town mayors and council members last week one reason the fee schedule is not as urgent.
“We’re well aware of where we are in terms of timing for each of the municipalities and the county for that matter,” he said. “A fee can be implemented or changed anytime. It’s not like the tax rate. Once you set a tax rate you’ve set it unless the judge orders you to do something differently.
“We talked about simplicity of understanding and fairness of cost recovery. Again, as far as your concerns about budget, the board would have flexibility as to when that is implemented, if they make the change. My prediction is there will be a change.”
“We just want to make sure we treat everyone fair,” he said. “We don’t want to be out of line with anyone and we want to make sure that our services are what they’re supposed to be and that what we provide to you is paid for, bottom line. Even though you do pay county taxes there are some services that you get that others do not.”
“It is a work in progress. We can’t tell you what it is. We’re working on it and trying to make sure it comes across well.”

‘We pay county taxes’

Whether the county has plans to charge the towns for services like health inspections or animal control, neither Thompson nor Wyatt would say. Flat Rock Mayor Bob Staton said he and Vice Mayor Nick Weedman received assurance from Wyatt that only fire inspections are on the table.
“That would shock me to death,” Staton said when asked if he expected the county to send Flat Rock a bill for county services. “I don’t anticipate anything like that.”
Still, the mayors are hearing from alarmed constituents.
“Apparently some of our residents have already heard about (the county’s study) and they asked me to voice some comments,” said Laurel Park Mayor Carey O’Cain. “Laurel Park residents are already paying the county tax. We have our own police department, and we have our own maintenance department. We manage our own roads. We manage our own water and sewer in conjunction with Hendersonville. Our residents are saying why should we pay more for less county services.
“I think that we work very nicely in cooperation with the sheriff’s department and the city police,” he added. “If something is on the border, we go a mile into the city and they come a mile into our city. We support each other. Many of our residents have either heard or for some reason have an opinion (about the county’s plans) and we’re starting to get some serious phone calls.”
“We know everyone in the county pays taxes,” Thompson responded. “In the same token everyone doesn’t provide to the citizens what you provide within your town limits. That’s what we’re all trying to juggle what we need to do and how much.”
In an interview this week, O’Cain said Laurel Park residents don’t want to pay a second time for services the county provides.
“The comments that are coming from the residents is that ‘I pay county taxes. Why should I subsidize the county when they’re actually doing fewer activities for our community than they are for other communities?’ Those are the comments that are coming from our citizens and I agree with them,” he said.

Town parks ‘benefit everyone’

At the LGCCA meeting, Fletcher Mayor Bill Moore defended the town’s use of sales tax money, even if the allocation does cost Henderson County.
“We’re spending a million dollars a year on law enforcement,” he said. “We’re utilizing that sales tax money. Our budget is $450,000 a year in parks and recreation. That doesn’t do anything but enhance Henderson County. It enhances your recreation and what you folks are trying to do. You can concentrate on other areas of the county in recreation and their needs and not be concerned about Fletcher.”
Like Fletcher, Mills River has spent millions on capital improvements used by everyone, Mayor Freeman said.
“In Mills River, we built a park, we built a town hall and we built a library and we’re continuing to do more,” he said. “And it doesn’t just benefit the people of Mills River. It benefits the people of Henderson County and our park is a great example. It benefits everyone when we build something like that.”
Fletcher Town Councilman Bob Davy seconded Freeman’s point.
“If you didn’t have your park (in Mills River) and we didn’t have our park,” he said, “people would be coming to the county raising holy hell because there’s no facilities up north.”

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