During his first term as chairman of the Chatham County Commission, Chester Ellis prided himself in brokering hefty amounts of state and federal funds to benefit Georgia’s fifth most populous county.
In an address on Thursday at Johnny Mercer Theater marking his swearing-in for a second four-year term as commission chair, Ellis reminded the audience of some 600 people of that track record for fundraising and new county construction projects and vowed more of the same.
But Ellis, a Democrat, gave no indication how the massive budget slashing promised by President-elect Donald Trump might soon test those fundraising skills and could spur a fierce contest for revenue among state and local governments.
In his 26-minute speech, Ellis instead trumpeted past successes in finding money for Chatham in federal and state agencies.
He touted his role in obtaining federal funds to keep open and expand Savannah’s Combat Readiness Training Center and the state money he said he obtained to build a child and adolescent mental health treatment center on Savannah’s southside.
There was money, too, from the Biden administration’s 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to help pandemic-stricken families pay their rent and utilities. There were outside funds totaling some $1.5 million for mosquito control on Hutchinson Island (“If we don’t control the mosquitoes there, we wouldn’t be able to sleep at night over here.”)
In all, during his first term as chairman, he and the commission brought in $1.7 billion in outside funds to Chatham County, Ellis said.
More of the same lies ahead, he suggested: “As we go forward, as we move to attain the goals which we have set, we have set goals, we have set benchmarks, and we are talking with all our local, state and national officials to get the resources we need to make Chatham County great.”
Chatham residents would “soon see” the new emergency operations center on Gulfstream Road near the Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport that will house a modernized 911 call center.
Four major road projects to relieve traffic congestion also are underway. And on top of the $18.5 million to create a new fire department for unincorporated parts of Chatham, Ellis said, there are plans to install a fire hydrant within a thousand feet of every house in Chatham “because that helps you save on your homeowners’ insurance.”
As for the environment, the commission is “working to get more revenue to help us with our climate change and our sea rise because that is a threat to all of Chatham County.”
Some details sketchy
In his remarks, Ellis didn’t refer to the controversies during his first four years in office, including the emergency operations center and the 911 call center.
There also were no details about the $1.7 billion in outside funds that Ellis said had gone into the county’s coffers during his tenure as commission chair. On Friday, in response to a request from The Current for specifics on the outside funds, he said he would provide a list.
Ellis touted the commission’s efforts to build a new courthouse on Oglethorpe Avenue and the ribbon-cutting “soon” for the $85 million building. He failed to note that he and the commission have presided over substantial cost overruns after approving the original contract in March 2021 at a cost of $71.5 million.
Ellis also boasted that of the first 600 new employees at the Hyundai Metaplant in Bryan County 347 were from Chatham County and now have jobs that “start at $75,000 a year,” Ellis said the figure came from the Savannah Economic Development Authority.
In July, however, The Current reported that agreements signed by the companies that will be based on the Metaplant site and in surrounding counties showed that only two of the eight publicly available agreements — Hyundai Metaplant and Hyundai Mobis — promise salaries higher than $58,000 for workers.
Imminent revenue battle?
Ellis’ omission of any mention of what the cost-cutting fervor soon to sweep Washington might mean adds to the uneasiness facing both state and local governments as a new administration gets set to take office in Washington.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has said that the new Department for Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which he co-chairs along with billionaire and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, will “send shockwaves through the system.”
Such budget-cutting zeal, if carried out, is expected to put pressure on Gov. Brian Kemp and state lawmakers over dipping into the state’s $16 billion surplus.
It also will put pressure on state and local governments to choose between finding new sources of revenue to fund building projects or scaling back expansion plans and services.
The Chatham County Commission oversees a fiscal year 2025 budget of nearly $750 million for the county’s 306,000 people. (In comparison, the city of Savannah, with its population of nearly 150,000 people, has a 2025 budget of $601.6 million.) How it will fare in a possible multifront battle for revenue is uncertain.
Commission members say a special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) has already been under consideration for months and may be put on the ballot this year.
In recent interviews with The Current, several members of the commission acknowledged that only a fraction of the county’s residents know what it does and how its responsibilities differ from those of the eight municipal governments the county encompasses. For most residents of Savannah, it operates in the shadows of the city’s mayor and council.
The commission also struggles for attention and credibility. Only two lawmakers attended a meeting last month hosted by the commission to discuss priorities for the upcoming session of the General Assembly. Two of the commission’s own members didn’t attend, either.
Others sworn in
In addition to Ellis, the commission’s eight board members were sworn in for four-year terms, along with the county coroner, David Campbell, a Democrat.
The eight board members were Wayne Noha (R-District 1), Malinda Scott Hodge (D-District 2), Bobby Lockett (D-District 3), Pat Farrell (R-District 4), Tanya Milton (D-District 5), Aaron “Adot” Whitely (D-District 6), Dean Kicklighter (R-District 7), and Marsha Buford (D-District 8).
Only three commission races were contested in November. Those races were all won by the incumbents: Ellis, Whitely, Kicklighter. Only Noha and Buford faced opposition in the May primary, when voters chose their political party’s nominee for the general election.
Hodge, Noha, and Buford are first-time commissioners.
As of Jan. 1, the base salary for commissioners is $25,000, and the chairman’s base salary is $57,500 following a a $10,000 salary increase approved unanimously by the commission in December 2023.
