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Commissioners OK county enforcement of Sylva ordinances
By Justin Goble
Commissioners Monday night (Dec. 1) unanimously approved an interlocal agreement with officials from Sylva that allows the county to conduct most inspections within the town.
The agreement will allow the county to administer Sylva’s zoning, flood plain and erosion and sedimentation control ordinances and to continue to do the town’s building inspections.
With the exception of building inspections, those enforcements were the responsibility of former town Planning Director Jim Aust, who resigned in October.
According to county Manager Ken Westmoreland, the town will adopt the county’s fee structure, which will help defray the cost of enforcing the ordinances. When asked by commissioners if enforcing the ordinances would take any more personnel, Planning Director Linda Cable said it would not.
Commissioner Tom Massie, who represents Sylva and the rest of District 2 on the county board, said he thought the agreement was a good thing.
“This has the benefit of reducing the duplication of services,” Massie said. “It makes good sense for Jackson County to do this.”
In other business Dec. 1:
– Westmoreland announced that the driver’s license office now located behind the old Courthouse will be moving to its new office at the former Southern Lumber site on Thursday, Dec. 18.
The office is moving to make way for construction of a new library atop Courthouse Hill.
Westmoreland said it hasn’t been determined whether the office will be open at its new quarters on Dec. 18 or Friday, Dec. 19.
– Auditor Mitch Crisp produced the county’s audit report for 2007-08.
Crisp said the report showed the county had grown its general fund over the fiscal year, keeping up with the county’s expenditures.
“It was a healthy year,” he said. “There was 38 percent of total expenditures in and out of the general fund. The growth kept pace with that.”
The county also had a tax collection rate of 96.3 percent, which Crisp said is in line with counties of comparable size.
“Tax collection doesn’t just stop at the end of the fiscal year,” he said. “As time goes on, that number will go up.”
Commissioners unanimously approved a motion to accept the report.
– Commissioner Mark Jones, who serves on the Jackson County Crime Prevention Council, requested $434.40 in match funds for the JCCPC.
Jones said the money would be a 20 percent match for $2,172 from state officials. Jones said that money would be divided out among organizations that the JCCPC works with.
“We’re trying to spread it out as evenly as possible,” Jones said.
Commissioners unanimously approved the match funds.
– Sylva’s Marie Leatherwood and Cullowhee’s David Galloway again spoke out against the Economic Development Commission.
Leatherwood said Commissioners Jones and William Shelton in particular have been misinformed about the EDC’s financial dealings, which have been harmful to the county.
“These people have very little knowledge of the true state of affairs when it comes to the EDC and (its property-holding offshoot) the Jackson Development Corp.,” she said. “Ignorance is not always bliss I find, because too often we become dupes of the people with much more comprehensive information than we have. Shelton and Jones said they were waiting for the 2006 audit for EDC to be returned from the Local Government Commission to make up their minds. Chairman Brian McMahan had planned a ‘dog and pony show’ with a scenario showing a government auditor had audited EDC and said it was ‘A-OK.’ ”
Leatherwood said she thought the 2006 audit would show no wrongdoing since the majority of the EDC’s financial misdealings took place between 2001 and 2005.
Galloway agreed, saying he thought the county is trying to hide the truth about the EDC’s finances.
“As sitting members of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners, you are telegraphing signals that the documented wrongdoings, as defined by the state and county documents, are to be kept under the rug,” he said.
County finance officer Darlene Fox said the county had received the EDC’s audit for 2006 late Monday afternoon. Officials are expected to discuss that document next month.
– Tuckasegee resident Mary Jo Cobb told commissioner members of her community have not been asked to help Legasus write a development agreement for their development atop Cullowhee Mountain.
During a community meeting in September, Legasus officials said they would be coming to the community to seek input on the development agreement. However, Cobb said they have not followed through with that promise.
“We are willing to work with them,” she said. “They had said their development agreement will be far better than the county’s steep-slope and subdivision ordinances. I’m starting to believe that was just a canned statement and a public relations move.”
– Commissioners cancelled their regular third-Monday meeting, which was set for Dec. 15. Their next meeting will be Monday, Jan. 5, at 6 p.m.
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