From The Mayor’s Desk

I am happy to get back to providing monthly updates on the City’s activities. I have in the past not submitted articles during election season due to the possibility of the articles being perceived as political in nature.

First off, I’d like to thank all of the candidates who ran for office this year. This year’s campaign, much like the 2009 elections, largely steered clear of ugly personal attacks and stayed focused on the issues. The next round of elections in 2013 will be for three council seats and four year terms.

Secondly, many thanks are due to those council members who will not be serving on this council. Both Kathryn Williams and Shirley Sessions have represented our community as elected officials for many years and we all thank them for their hard work on behalf of our community. We look forward to honoring them for their service at the first Council meeting of the year.

I have asked each of the incoming Council members to prepare a list of their top priorities for the next two years. We will work over the first few months of the year to come to a consensus on a few goals that we all want to see accomplished along with a timeline and some measure of accountability so that we can see these through to fruition. This will all be done in a way that allows for citizen participation in the process as we have always sought to ensure.

Several projects that were budgeted in the current fiscal year still need to be completed. As you know, the City’s budget cycle runs from July 1 to June 30. These include the expansion of the fire bay to accommodate the additional equipment we have acquired for our increasingly busy little island, the paving of the bike path through Memorial Park, and several road paving projects. We hope to see that work is done on these projects prior to the beginning of the spring and the arrival of the tourists.

Our Audit was recently finalized and can be viewed on the City’s website. We were very, very pleased with the results of the Audit as we continue to work through the downturn in the economy which has been ongoing since late 2008. We were able to add over $100,000 to our fund balance this year. We hope to continue to build this account while at the same time providing quality services and maintaining a low property tax rate. At the same time, funds from the county-wide Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax have been flowing into the City and will allow us to continue to invest in public safety, infrastructure and recreation.

Many of you may recall that when the Census results were issued last year, many with the City objected to the supposed decrease in Tybee’s population. We are at this time determining whether or not it is worth City tax dollars being expended to challenge the results. I will provide more information about this process soon. One of the reasons this is so critical is that the next Local Option Sales Tax (the 5^th percent of the sales tax that we pay on most goods and services) distribution calculation will be made soon. This tax is a 10 year long county-wide tax which is set to expire soon. In the past, a City’s population determined what percentage of the tax proceeds it received from the County and we expect that this will once again be a primary driver of the calculation method. The difference between having 1.2% of the County population and 1.4% is very significant when we are dealing with potentially over $1 billion in county-wide collections, hence the importance of the 2010 Census results.

Please don’t ever hesitate to contact me should you have any questions or suggestions. I can be reached on my cell at 844.8427 or via e-mail at buelterman@hotmail.com. Mayor’s Night In will be on Tuesday, January 10 from 6-8 PM at City Hall. Please contact Clerk of Council Jan Leviner at 786.4573 ext. 103 for an appointment. Thanks!