2022 08 16 City Council

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County Road 129 (aka Layman Road) Area- Annexation Study Page 9 
Chapter 3 
 
Expenditure Estimates 
 
Before the annexation of any area, the City must be aware of the financ ial obligation involved through 
providing city services to the new citizens in the same manner and to the same degree as is customary 
throughout the City.  This chapter of the report will study the costs required for the  City of Athens to 
provide services in the proposed annexation area on a level  comparable to those within the corporate 
boundaries.     
 
Community Development Department  
As mentioned earlier within this report the unincorporated territory of McMinn County  is not zoned, 
nor does a building c ode enforcement program exist . Immediately upon t he effectiv e date of t he 
annexation the City of Athens will extend its zoning ordinanc e and enforcement of its building code 
program to the area annexed.  
 
Salaries, operation and maintenance, equipment, sup plies and other operational requiremen ts should 
not increase due to annexation at this time. The city should keep in mind, as the County Road 129 (aka 
Layman Road) Annexation Area  begins to develop the demands on th e existing p ersonnel level within 
the dep artment could pot entially increase . The city should be aware o f and take the app ropriate 
measures to determine the potential need of adding an addit ional building inspector, or codes 
enforcement officer to the Community Development Department within the future.         
 
Police Department 
Current needs for annexation area should not increase due to the area has no population at this time. 
So, no addition officers would be required to provide services to the County Road 129 (aka Layman 
Road) Annexation Area.    
 
Future needs are based on the following National data for requirements for number of police officers. 
The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics Local Police 
Departments Personnel Report dated October 2019 states that municipalities with a population of 
10,000-24,000 employ 2.0 full time patrol officers for every 1,000 population (margin of standard error 
0.04). With twenty-three (23) full-time uniformed patrol officers and two (2) uniformed patrol 
captains, Athens is very close to the Office of Justice Programs report with 1.92 officers per 1000 
population.  An additional quotable source is the 2018 FBI Uniform Crime Report.  The 2018 Report 
included an average of 2.3 police department employees per 1,000 residents in 1,634 cities between 
10,000-24,999 population ranges. Again, Athens would fall just under the average reported by the FBI. 
These numbers are a resource for comparison purposes, not a directive on employment. It is 
understood that ratios are not the basis by which a municipality should budget resources, but rather, 
such comparisons simply highlight communities of similar size. Given the small increase in population 
this annexation will bring about (less than 1% increase); the proposed annexation itself would not be a 
trigger for additional hiring of officers.  
  
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