By Jonathan Copsey / STAFF

Roswell Councilman Jerry Orlans has accused his opponent in November’s election, Lee Fleck, of outright lying at worst, and stretching the truth at best.

The city is perfectly fine when it comes to paying to maintain all of its assets, said Orlans, and the budget that was passed earlier in the year provides more than enough funding for the operation of the city. This is in direct contradiction to claims Fleck made last week that, because of cuts to the city’s capital budget, city property cannot be maintained at their current levels. The deterioration, said Fleck, will cause “property values to decline.” Orlans protested that this was ridiculous, specifically pointing out water services and roads. 

“The water and sewer lines are totally separate from our general fund,” he said. “They are funded entirely from water charges.” Roswell’s water department owns a few lines, but most Roswell residents have pipes and service owned and operated by Fulton County. The city has no control over that. Streets were fully paid for, continued Orlans. City projections and studies call for roughly $2 million in funds to be used toward the worst streets, on a rotating basis, over 20 years. This year, the city has been able to save a little money simply because costs are less  than in previous years due, in large part, to the failing economy.

Even city buildings, such as recreation and parks structures, are fully maintained. claimed Orlans. He said just last year a study was commissioned to determine what should be done and how much should be spent on maintaining city buildings. 33 buildings were looked at and a recommendation was given.

“The first year’s suggestions [of the study] we are doing this year in the budget,” Orlans said. “I don’t know how much more you can do.”

Fleck was very critical of increasing “social expenditures and discretionary spending to highest the levels in the history of Roswell,” an allegation that befuddled Orlans.

“We don’t have any health and social expenditures [in our budget] the way Fulton County does,” said Orlans. “I have no idea what he’s referring to.” The only thing Orlans could think of that would even come close to such spending is the special events budget, which was increased from $50,000 to $60,000 in the recent budget. “We partner with charities and organizations to do events in the city. The motorcycle ride on 9/11 to honor the fire department? We had police there. That costs money. For a 10k run, and other organizations in the city that we partner with, they fall under special events.”

He said such things used to be paid for simply out of contingency funds, but in the last two budgets a separate fund was created to keep better track of how much was being spent.

Fleck countered that, while this is true, there were several expensive events that were not covered in the special events budget – such as the Roswell Criterium. These events had to be paid for from other sources. “They did not monitor their expenses as they had committed to do so,” Fleck said. “While the intent was good, in practice it did not materialize.”

In the end, Orlans is happy with the budget he and his fellow council members passed with a 4-3 vote in July.

“Expenditures are higher than income, if that’s what he [Fleck] is talking about, [but] we don’t run a deficit budget,” said Orlans. A deficit budget, the councilman explained, is when the city does not have enough money to cover expenses. Roswell has its reserves fund for just such occasions.

Not so fast, said Fleck. There may be money in the reserves now to cover expenditures, but by the city’s own estimates, come 2014, that money will be all but gone, through excessive use of reserves to cover operating costs.

“They [the city] are not using the money as they are supposed to,” Fleck said. “They’re not complying with their own fiscal policy.”

“We try to always pass conservative budgets,” countered Orlans. “We’re the first city and one of two cities [in the state] with a AAA bond rating.” This is the highest bond rating possible available to municipalities. When bonds are floated, the higher the bond rating, the lower the interest rate. It means the city is a safe bet. This can only be accomplished through maintaining a reserve fund, which, as well as keeping the bond rating high, provides a much-needed cushion of security during that time between passing a budget and taxes rolling in, which can be up to six months – especially this year, with property tax income still up in the air. 

“Because we live in such a great city, one that has been rated as one of the best cities in the country, then yes, I feel good about that,” Orlans said. “Something must be going right.”