A Superior Court judge has ruled that Hoschton must pay a development company almost $230,000 in a lawsuit centering on a new sewer pump station.
Judge Currie Mingledorff ruled Friday that the city must pay Horizon Communities, LLC $191,631 for a new sewer pump station, and $38,347 in attorney’s fees and costs.
Horizon Communities is building the Brook Glen subdivision, while another defendant in the case — Gary and Olsson Properties — is building the Wildflower subdivision in Hoschton. Ken Gary and Kelley Gary, also defendants in the case, are principles of the companies.
The Hoschton City Council will hold a called meeting on Wednesday, May 13, at 5:30 p.m. to discuss litigation and personnel matters during a closed-door meeting.
Hochton’s problems with a former sewer pump station on Jefferson Street dates back to at least 2004, when the city determined that it needed new, larger pump stations on Jefferson Street and White Street. However, the city didn’t have the money to build the new pump stations, according to the lawsuit.
In February 2009, the city council adopted an amendment to the Creekside Village rezoning request that said the $200,000 would fund general upgrades to Hoschton’s sewer infrastructure.
Judge's Ruling
Judge Mingledorff ruled that Hoschton doesn’t have an impact fee on new developments and can’t collect such fees. He also ruled that the city should have paid the recoup amount when the $200,000 was received in January 2008.
Mingledorff also noted that the BGPS has allowed Hoschton to open development in the area of Ga. Hwy. 53. Besides the $285,000 in sewer tap and connection fees already paid, the pump station could also potentially bring $3 million in future water and sewer fees to the city.
Abandoning the former Jefferson Street pump station also saved the city tens of thousands of dollars, Mingledorff wrote. If that pump station continued to malfunction and spill sewerage in the environment, the city was facing state fines, he continues.
Mingledorff further wrote that city planner Harmon’s actions were an “improper and illegal attempt to modify zoning conditions.”
That conduct — along with the council’s amendment of the Creekside Village zoning ordinance in 2009 — “constitutes bad faith and stubborn litigiousness” that authorized Mingledorff to rule that Hoschton pay for Horizon’s attorney’s fees and litigation costs, the judge wrote in his decision.
Horizon
There is no beginning or end of "this council". Three of the current councilmembers were not elected when the mistakes were made and the other three hadn't been elected when the stupid zoning matter was approved without the amount being specified for the builder to recover.
As to fewer services, I can't tell the difference except for reduced police presence - and that has more to do with them moving to the industrial park than the number employed.
I agree with you that the city needs to demand more of its share of county services that are being paid for and not delivered to us.
Soon, there will be a call to the citizens to run for three council seats that are up for reelection. The one true requirement of the candidate should be that they can bring about effective and efficient change, and solutions to the current (and anticipated) problems.
Even if you aren't running for a seat, you can still offer sound advice. So, I ask you - what are the answers? What are the steps to take to keep this ship from sinking? Thanks-
Step 2. Hoschton needs to get out of water/Sewer operations. They farmed it out for a flat rate for several years for less with much better results.
Step 3. Eliminate the planner etc just like everyone else it's an unneccessarry position right now.
Step 4. Stop the lawsuits in there tracks. The only one who wins with lawyers are the lawyers.Bite the bullets of the past and quit throwing away money(Hint Sewer plant)
Step 5. Stop trying to keep up with Braselton ...just live within your means.
It is truly sad that they now continue to make bad decisions on top of bad decisions. The way to help us out of this situation would be to to tax the developments that will profit from the sewage capacity and fire unnecessary people (this is unfortunate but necessary).
It will not be easy to save the city, but govenrment's first role is to protect its citizens.
Who would you consider to be "unnecessary people"? Or more specifically how much money would the city save by terminating these people? I think terminating would be tantamount to a band aid on a sucking chest wound. Easy to do, but not effective in the long run. From what I've read, there are 12 city employees, is $40-50K a year going to get Hoschton out of the red?
Then we have Johnny Hill making another 48K..has your water quality improved? Another no brainier ?
Add in an office person and one of the public works guys( Caught one pulled up under a tree sleeping the other day !)
Your talking about 135-150K per year. You could contract out the Water and Sewer operations for half that and STILL save money.
Of coarse the City Council will dispute that but look up the salaries that where printed in the paper. You Could cut personal and still IMPROVE city service.
Refer to the article on the pump station lawsuit and you can read why the Gary's are owed the money.
As for unnecessary people, those would be people the city can't afford to pay. If my household income used to be able to afford a home cleaning service and lawn service but my income goes down then I can't afford one or both services. It should be the same for government, but government uses the right to take your home if you don't pay their tax to keep government growing. I am fundamentally against this. I think most everyone that works for Hoschton does a great job its just that there is only so much money to spend.
big decisions:
You are correct about the band aid. There needs to be fundamental change in the way the city, all governments actually, is managed. That includes possibly that the city of Hoschton will no longer exist, That is sad, but bad decisions lead to bad results. Its been proven over and over again.
I'm not sure what you mean by "what's really going on." I know that 900 vacant lots are approved for a city that had only 600 homes. That's a 250% increase in homes for our small city. I know that no tap on fees were collected up front to off set the cost of a sewer system that will allow the developers and builders of these lots to profit. I know this city council has tried and is trying again to pass an increase in the millege rate to pay for that sewer system. I know that means property owners whose way of life is being altered for the worse will have to pay taxes to fund the profit of those that are "packing" people into our town. I used quotations for emphasis and to quote one of the councilman when they were approving the subdivisions.