By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | The big story from announcements of people qualifying to run in city elections in Gwinnett came out of Buford. It was old news, but with a twist.
There Phillip Beard will have no opposition again in the city election. In November he will re-elected chairman of both Buford City Commission and also of its School Board. That’s no surprise. After all, he’s held those offices since August of 1975, longer than any elected official in Gwinnett, as of January 1, 2016, for 41 years and four months. And he’s held longer than any other elected official in Georgia, except for Cumming Mayor Ford Gravitt, who’s served in that capacity since 1971.
In 1975, Beard replaced East E. Robinson, who was in office for 29 years, who went into office in 1946. Robinson succeeded Earl Simpson, who went on the city commission in 1929, when the present system for Buford elected officials was put in place.
It should be mentioned that those serving on the Buford commission or school board do it without any pay. They see their efforts as public servants.
Some facts: when Beard went into office in 1975, the Buford city budget was $1.75 million, while the Buford schools budget was $310,000. Today the city 2015 budget is $109 million, while the schools budget is $42 million. There were about 5,000 people in Buford in 1975, with today’s population at approximately 13,000. The Buford schools had 800 students in1975, and 4,300 today.
Beard
What is Beard most proud of in his time in office? He replies: “Our schools. Four months after I went into office, we made a decision to shut down our police force and let the county police our city, which was costing us $400,000 a year with 23 officers, and concentrate on our schools. It’s estimated if we had a police force today, we would have spent well over $100 million since then for policing.”
Buford instead funnels its tax dollars to its schools, now taxing at 12.9 mills, compared to 20.5 mills for the Gwinnett School System. Plus, Buford residents pay no property taxes.
People in Buford also have benefitted from having low residential utility rates, set in 1973 and not changed since. Back yard garbage rates are $2 per month, water rates are a dollar a month, with sewer rates 50 cents per month. “We’ve never touched them,” says Beard, “since I have been in office. We make money with these rates.” Beard notes that commercial rates are higher, but still relatively low. The city also has the fifth lowest gas rate, cheaper than all the marketers of gas.
Beard adds: “We haven’t grown much residentially, and 3/4s of our budget comes from commercial tax dollars. However, a recent building flurry has 600 new homes going in the city, with prices starting at $400,000 and up to $1 million per house. These people often want to live here for our fine school system.”
A new element that will bring in the substantial revenue for Buford will be taxes on 4.4 million square feet of commercial warehouses now underway in 10 different buildings. “Our developers can rent these facilities for 25-30 cents per foot cheaper than in other parts of Atlanta.”
Most of Buford’s 9,000 acres is in Gwinnett, though 2,000 acres are in Hall County. As a result, Buford also gets SPLOST monies from both Gwinnett and Hall Counties.
Phillip Beard has a right to be proud of his accomplishments while chair of the two governmental bodies in Buford. He’s earned it.
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