WR Council discusses waiving tap fees for previously built local development

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Returning to City Hall for the first time as a quorum since the turn of the New Year, council entered their chamber with a shorter meeting than usual, with only six items on the docket and ending with an executive session.

When council returned from their executive session Monday evening, however, they returned with three new items for the agenda: the first, an appointment for a new, more long-term interim police chief; the second, a change to the city’s classification plan; and finally, a “discussion regarding development.”

When mayor and council finally found themselves at their last item, Mayor LaRhonda Patrick presented it to the surrounding councilmen.

“There is a development currently that is almost complete in the City of Warner Robins,” Patrick said. “It is a project which is joint with Houston Healthcare, Central Georgia Technical College, Houston County Development Authority and the Board of Education.

“It’s regarding student housing. The city received a letter from Houston Healthcare and Central Georgia Technical College that the city waive the tap fee for this developer for the water services.”

When a developer wishes to build a new structure within the city of Warner Robins, there are multiple steps within the ordinance, many of which must fall within a precise order. For the purposes of this item, three of those processes are key:

Before any of the following document can be given, a developer must pay the city a “tap fee.” This fee is paid to the city so that the structure can “tap in” to the city’s water and sewage infrastructure.

After the tap fees are paid, the city can then issue the developer a building permit. This document allows the developer to begin building their new structure.

Finally, after the building has completed construction and all has passed all its inspections, and all documentation is in order, a certificate of occupancy is issued to the structure, allowing for the building to be used, whether it be a home or for commercial use.

In this instance, that is not the order in which these processes transpired.

According to Mayor Patrick, Houston Healthcare and Central Georgia Technical College were requesting — on behalf of the developer who will later transfer the ownership of the property to these entities — that the tap fees be waived. The waiver would mean that the City of Warner Robins would deny receiving $43,910 in water tap fees.

According to Mayor Patrick, Houston Healthcare and CGTC said their request comes after some sort of verbal “promise” was made by a former elected official, who she later confirmed to be former Mayor Randy Toms.

“There was a conversation in which it was indicated that a person from the city was in a meeting, and it was stated that the city would waive the tap fees, but it was never an act of council, it was never in writing,” Patrick said.

Council responded to this with several questions. Councilman Charlie Bibb — who The Journal conducted an investigation over after finding his address received a document labeled “Theft of Services,” after his custom-built home was completed without tap fees being paid — responded by saying he has “a big problem with this.”

“We have an ordinance that says you can’t get a building permit without paying a tap fee. A tap fee should have been paid up front,” Bibb said. “That falls back on the city, and it seems like we have a major problem in our city with people getting building permits and not paying tap fees. I personally have been raked over the coals the last year by [The] Houston Home Journal for this very thing. This is not right, at all.”

Councilman Derek Mack came with a response immediately after, adding, “I don’t understand why we should be in the business of waiving fees that everyone else has to pay.”

As discussion came to a close, Councilman Clifford Holmes suggested to council they wait to respond until next Tuesday, when their following meeting will be held, giving them plenty of time to consider the request.

As of press time Tuesday, it seems that mayor and council will wait until next week to make their final decision.

Speaking to Mayor Patrick after the meeting, she seemed to agree with one of Bibb’s earlier statements: that this request for waiver speaks to a larger issue within the city, where developers, many of them for-profit groups and individuals, have received building permits and even certificates of occupancy without ever paying tap fees.

“When this item was brought to me, it was indicated that the person who preceded me mentioned in a very large group meeting that the fees would be waived — the tap fees for the City of Warner Robins would be waived,” Patrick said. “Then, when it came to get a [certificate of occupancy] our team, trying to operate on a system where everyone is treated the same, they realized there was some fees that were not paid. Thus, there was not CO issued.

“I believe this is a larger issue as a whole. The difference here is that the entities asking us to assist are Houston Healthcare, everyone understands the impact of them being here for our entire community, as well as Central Georgia Technical College. In other instances, the requests are not coming from community partners. The requests are coming from developers that are for-profit. This makes it a little different to me, enough so that I came to council for them to decide what they’d like to do.”

It is currently unclear how the building permit was issued to the developer without tap fees being paid, or who authorized it. Patrick said that she has been working, since her entrance into office, to resolve permits being issued prematurely and put back in place the order of operations.

The city’s investigation into the premature issuance of building permits remains ongoing.

When asked, Patrick could not say whether Mayor Toms may have issued more of these promises to other individuals, nor could she fully confirm that the promise she spoke of earlier was actually made.

Finally, Patrick clarified that her goal in bringing this item to council, and subsequently to the public, was to ensure transparency was practiced in her administration.

The Journal attempted to speak with Councilman Bibb for his comment on how he felt council should proceed, but he denied comment.

The Journal attempted to reach out to former Mayor Randy Toms for his comment as well, but he could not be contacted prior to this story’s printing.

Falling back to a previous item, mayor and council welcomed a new interim police chief to the city’s fold: formerly retired Snellville Police Chief Roy Whitehead.

Following the meeting, Whitehead spoke briefly with The Journal.

“I already know that this is a good community, that the department’s got a lot of really good men and women. I’m looking forward to the opportunity of working with them,” Whitehead said. “The goal is to meet with the men and women of the department, to listen to them and see what it’s going to take, or see what it does take to help them and facilitate them to do their job, and work better with the community.”

Whitehead will not be seeking to fulfill this position full time in the future, and will instead serve for six months to a year while the city works to find a police chief, this one permanent.

Former Interim Chief Wayne Fisher, who served in his position for three months, said he feels perfectly fine with the situation.

“As always [I plan] to serve the City of Warner Robins and the police department to the fullest capacity, whatever’s needed at that point and time,” Fisher said.

The agenda and supporting documents for this meeting can be found at the city’s website, or by going to wrga.gov/agendacenter. Mayor and council’s meetings are typically scheduled on the first and third Monday of each month, exclusive of federal holidays.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 17, due to a schedule change. Pre-council will begin at 4:30 p.m. in the Carolyn Robbins Room at City Hall. The regular council meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the council chambers of the same building.

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