Fulton County Clerk updates Court regarding possible voting by mail; primary postponed until June

by Barbara Atwill
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Fulton County Fiscal Court held their regular monthly meeting via video-teleconferencing, at 9 a.m. April 13, with Magistrates Jim Paitsel, Wade Adams, Hugh Caldwell, Shaun Parks, and Fulton County Judge/Executive Jim Martin connected.

Fulton County Clerk Naomi T. Jones, during the meeting, presented her Quietus – 2020 and said, “I have turned in all my money received for ad valorem taxes for calendar 2019 and I disbursed to the state correctly. This does not include other districts that will be checking my audit. My audit was started last week and it took me hours, upon hours, to email everything.”

Jones stated if the audit is as clean as she anticipates, next year she will apply for AUP (Agreed-Upon Procedures) Audit, which could result in a drastic reduction in price for the audit the next three years.

Jones provided the fiscal court with an update on voting in Kentucky.
“There was a discussion with the State Board of Elections. The Primary Election has been postponed to June 21 already. If the pandemic is still as active as it is now, they are trying to figure out how we can process the Primary Election,” Jones said.

“It has been suggested to possibly go to an all mail-out election. This will consist of a post card going out to every registered voter from the State Board of Elections. This will require the voter to go onto a website, or contact the County Clerk to request an Absentee Ballot. If this happens, we will have to look at the financial portion. We would not have the 44 precinct workers or the class, but, if we had approximately 30% turnout, we would approximately $6,000 in postage,” Jones said.

Judge Martin asked what will it would do regarding the contract machines and Jones replied nothing, as some of the scanning machines will still be used.
“Fulton County never has more than 20%,” said Magistrate Paitsel.

“I guarantee you, when people can vote at home, it will be higher than that. It will probably be the end of April before we know what direction we will go,” Jones said.

Magistrate Adams asked if the Clerk’s office has seen a drop-off on revenue since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
“Not very much,” Jones said, adding that when the pandemic first hit, it appeared everyone wanted to come and get their car tags because they didn’t know they were going to have the 90 day extension.

“We still don’t know how that will work across state lines. We have heard the other states will not ticket Kentucky residents going to work, or grocery stores, but we don’t know for sure. That being said, April will be our fall-off month. Everybody now knows there is a 90 day extension and they want to hold onto their money. We have already seen a decline in revenues,” Jones said.

“I am not receiving revenue for CCDW (Carry Concealed Deadly Weapons), transports, and everything we do, except the little bit of business we receive from the mail in taxes. This is all the revenue we are generating currently,” Fulton County Sheriff Derek Goodson said.

Bids for the Fulton County Road Department Materials for Fiscal Year 2020/21 were opened and read.

Two bids were received for gasoline from Midwest Terminal for 96¢ and $1.33 per gallon, as of April 13, and Heritage Oil for 15¢ over plant cost at Hayti, Mo.

Magistrates voted to accept and approve the bid with Heritage Oil.

Bids were also received for metal pipe from Yates and Sons in Tiptonville, Tenn., and Jones Steel, Inc. of West Paducah.

Yates and Sons was the successful bidder for the 12”, 30”, 36” and 42” pipe, and Jones Steel, Inc. for the 15”, 18” and 24”.

Limestone bids were received from Riverfront Limestone in Hickman and Vulcan Materials of Grand Rivers. with Magistrates voting to award the bid to Riverfront Limestone.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Fulton County Dispatch and the Fulton County Detention Center was discussed by the court.

“Going forward, this is an attempt to document the use of money for Dispatch, for work they do for the Jail for Audit purposes. We had $50,000 in the Detention Center Budget for this purpose. The agreement when negotiated comes to $27,000. This agreement will authorize us to transfer $27,000 during the current fiscal year out of the $50,000 in the budget, put $27,000 in the coming year budget, and then renegotiate annually after the 2020/21 budget,” Martin said.

It was announced Magistrates will meet for a Budget Workshop in the coming days, where required social distancing will be observed, per the Governor’s orders.

Discussion took place regarding the Clerk’s office to be opened for attorneys to come and conduct title searches.

Magistrates agreed to have acrylic windows installed above the Clerk’s counter and allow attorneys to set up two hour time slots to come in and perform the title searches needed.

The Clerk was directed to not allow overlap time for the attorneys to come in.

Brief discussion was held on a bill from Jackson’s Complete Contracting for installation of windows at the courthouse by Joe Jackson. Magistrates agreed to wait and discuss the matter further at next month’s meeting.

Fulton City Manager Mike Gunn, present for the meeting via video conferencing, told the officials the City of Hickman, the City of Fulton, and Fulton County are unified and trying to stay on the same page, during this time, which is a very needed plus.

He reported no employee, from the city of Fulton has reported being sick.

Gunn further reported the nursing homes and the detention center are big concerns, however they are doing well.

“A big thank you to area homemakers for making face masks. We have acquired hand sanitizer from MB Roland Distillery of Hopkinsville, in a joint effort by the County and Cities for employees,” Gunn said.

Magistrate Caldwell reiterated to the public, to not hoard supplies and save items for others.

The Court approved the minutes of the March 16 meeting, the County Treasurer’s Report, Transfers, and Bills.

Magistrate Paitsel questioned why payment is still being made to AT&T and Sentry Link for long distance.

“Have we not gone to voice over internet?,” he asked.
“We have on everything except four lines in Dispatch, which the State Police required us to stay with AT&T. These are bills we were paying before we were fully on to Gibson County. We are in the process with the four lines in Dispatch, in the coming month, we should be rid of those lines also. We will then be 100% VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol),” Judge Martin said.

The meeting was adjourned from open public session, into closed executive session at 9:47 a.m., pursuant to KRS 61.810(1)(c).

Upon return to public session, Magistrate reported no votes or actions were taken during Executive Session.