Joining a growing community outcry, Chatham County commissioners on Friday voiced their displeasure with Chatham Area Transit’s approval of a weighty compensation package for its new executive director.
Commissioner Tony Center specifically took issue with what he described as the CAT board’s failure to advise commissioners of its intention to award Chad Reese with a compensation package some have labeled excessive.
Center — who requested that CAT board Chairman Pete Liakakis appear at Friday’s commission meeting — said he was caught off-guard by the decision, particularly after the commission had met just days earlier with Liakakis to extend CAT’s line of credit and discuss raising the authority’s millage rate.
“I am in no way questioning what you pay Mr. Reese,” said Center, who added that he learned about the decision in the Savannah Morning News.
“The question is how we were told about it.…I would have preferred to have been told in advance. It’s an important and sensitive item.”
Fellow commissioners Al Scott, Lori Brady, Dean Kicklighter and Helen Stone agreed.
On March 15, the CAT board voted 7-1 to award Reese a five-year contract worth $214,180 in salary and retirement compensation, plus $8,400 in benefits and $17,200 in discretionary bonuses, which totals $239,780.
Three commissioners sit on the CAT board: Priscilla Thomas, James Holmes and Stone, who cast the lone dissenting vote on Reese’s pay package.
But Liakakis defended the board’s vote, saying Reese has already proven himself worthy of the compensation package, which he said pales in comparison to other cities.
“Nobody was trying to hide anything to begin with,” he said.
In other business, commissioners unanimously approved, with little discussion, to move forward with setting Nov. 5 as the date to hold a referendum on whether to extend a 1 percent sales tax, known as SPLOST, to fund special projects.
Municipalities will be notified and a list of final projects to be voted on must now be approved by the commission by Sept. 5. The current SPLOST expires Sept. 30, 2014.
Only two community groups spoke Friday during a public hearing on the county’s proposed 2014 budget, which includes a millage rate increase recommendation.
Representatives from AWOL Inc. requested $50,000 in level funding, while Teinique Gadson of the Neighborhood Improvement Association requested $10,000.
A public budget workshop has been scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday at the Old Courthouse Building.
Presentations are expected from the Juvenile Court, State Court judges, the Board of Elections and Information and Communications Services.
In other business
• Commissioners voted 6-3 to install a gate and replace signage to reflect operation hours of 6 a.m. to dusk at the Montgomery Boat Ramp off Whitefield Avenue. Patrick Farrell, Yusuf Shabazz and Center voted in opposition.
• They also voted 8-1 to buy 15 new vehicles and two inmate transport buses for the sheriff’s office, totaling $542,375. Shabazz voted in opposition.