Putnam Committee Appoints Leaders To Start Budget Work

The Putnam County Budget Committee met for the first time approving the meeting dates and leadership of the body.

Members appointed Commissioner Ben Rodgers as the chair. Rodgers said the committee will start be reviewing general fund requests from department heads.

“Then that gives you any opportunities to ask any questions that you have,” Rodgers said. “We don’t generally make any motions or vote on anything until we’ve heard all of the requests or seen all the requests and we have a mindset of what our revenue is going to look like.”

The committee will meet April 28th at 6:00 and May 2nd at 5:30. Rodgers said he will share a calendar with the committee on a schedule to approve the budget at the next meeting.

“I look forward with working with y’all,” Rodgers said. “It’s going to be an interesting year. It’s election year. There is a lot of requests coming in. We just got to work through it and do what’s best.”

Mayor Randy Porter and Budget Manager Chelsea Qualls have the budget increases prepared for the committee. Porter said the county only lacks the school system’s asks.

“I’ll bring you the excel sheets,” Porter said. “We’ll go over the increases and y’all can decide that night which people you want to hear from and go ahead and schedule them for the meeting on the 2nd.”

Rodgers said moving forward, the committee will always try to schedule meetings on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday afternoons. Commissioner Chris Cassetty was appointed as vice-chair.