During the City of Baldwin’s Tuesday night work session, the council discussed whether or not they wanted to move forward with renewing their membership with Partnership Habersham. The fee for the city’s 2022 membership would be $2,500— and the council is wondering if those funds are better spent elsewhere.
The City of Baldwin needs to make a decision on whether or not they’ll continue to pay membership fees to have a seat at the Partnership Habersham table by Monday, and the council may be considering not renewing.
“I understand that their job, in general, is to be a bridge between cities and jobs and growth and things like that, but I’m really trying to see where that particular value [is],” Councilwoman Alice Venter said. “What is that they have done for us, where have they performed for us, and does that warrant us giving our taxpayers’ money to them?”
Councilwoman Stephanie Almagno said that she wondered if that $2,500 could be better used in the city’s budget, and that in her view, the membership didn’t provide a necessary service to the city.
“We’re Baldwin in two counties, and this is just Habersham,” Almagno said. “There’s not a Banks County component.”
Mayor Joe Elam, who is one of the more involved members of the council with Partnership Habersham, says that the goal of the membership is to make sure every municipality has “a seat at the table” with Partnership Habersham’s meetings.
“The partnership is much larger than our $2,500,” Elam said. “I would bet it’s not the money they’re worried about, as the opportunity to display some level of unity for the community as a whole.”
But Elam says the city’s current interaction with the group is presenting updates at monthly meetings and being involved with other meetings organized by members of Partnership Habersham.
“There’s some value in what they do,” Elam said. “Whether its value the council wants to support monetarily or not, that’s a decision that needs to be made.”
The council seems to be leaning towards terminating their membership with Partnership Habersham, but no official decision was made at the work session.
“What we receive from those meetings is access to business owners, access to UGA Archway folks, but I don’t think that access can only come through Partnership Habersham,” Almagno said. “I don’t see an immediate benefit for us.”
Almagno says that her opinion could be swayed, but when it comes down to numbers, she’d rather allocate those funds to other projects.
The council will make a decision on the membership at their upcoming regular meeting.
