A new lease agreement between the Creek County Home Finance Authority and the Board of Creek County Commissioners for the property located at 230 East Hobson was signed at the Tuesday, July 6th BOCC meeting.
The property is the site of the Creek County Election Board. CCHFA Chairman Greg Pugmire explained to the Board that the County has paid $1,500 a month to lease the property for the last 18 years. The HFA recently met and discussed a proposed rent increase to make the monthly rent payments more consistent with market value. “We think it would relieve some income issues for the Authority,” said Pugmire.
The agreed upon amount was $2,100 per month for the fiscal year 2021-2022.
There was discussion of the HFA and Industrial Authority’s costs and revenues, with Districts #1 and #2 Commissioners Newt Stephens and Leon Warner, respectively, agreeing that the entities’ revenues should be comparable to the market value, as they greatly benefit the community
Warner then expressed interest in finding “a more feasible location” for the Election Board next year. He said that with the last election and the pandemic, the space has been outgrown.
The rent increase was unanimously approved by the BOCC.
The Board agreed to sign Inter-Cooperative Agreements with the Rural Road Improveent Districts (RRID) near South 231st Drive and South 299th West Avenue in District #3.
Another discussion ensued to consider hiring additional personnel for the Emergency Management Department. Stephens said, as stated a few weeks ago, that this area needs an additional employee to assist Emergency Management Director Covey Murray with paperwork and work overflow. “We were hoping Jana [Thomas, Purchasing Agent] could assist him, but with the additional duties [she’s] taken and the ARPA monies, it is too much.”
Warner said he sees the need for an extra person, especially if another pandemic were to occur. “We would need to find the right person for the position; [Murray] would be directing them on their duties.”
The Board decided to pass this item for two weeks to review job descriptions with Murray and to be ready to start the application process.
It was unanimously approved to sign Creek County Treasurer Don Engle’s Investment Policy for fiscal year 2021-2022. The policy could be modified at any time, which would be beneficial, said Assistant District Attorney Andrew Goforth, considering any potential investments the Board may choose to make, and with final rules regarding ARPA funds unsolidified.
Engle introduced the idea of using Certificate of Deposit laddering to gain more interest on ARPA monies the County has received. He said that putting $575K or $1.75M in CDs and spreading the maturity dates out over the next year would be the best way to earn interest on the funds right now.
Stephens asked Engle to prepare a spreadsheet with applicable information for the Board to review at an upcoming meeting.
