Who Pays the Power Bill? Habersham’s Shared-Office Utility Deal Remains Unresolved

Habersham County commissioners were scheduled to consider a memorandum of agreement on Oct. 20, 2025 that would address electric utility payments for the Health Department and Accountability Court at their shared building, 185 Scoggins Drive. The public agenda lists the item for possible approval, but it does not show whether the board acted on it.

The unresolved question is a practical one for a public workplace shared by two government-related offices: which office is responsible for paying for the electricity that keeps the building operating, and under what terms. A written agreement could clarify responsibility for future bills and create an administrative framework for the shared facility, but the public record described here does not disclose the proposed split or any payment amount.

The documented sequence begins with the commission agenda for Oct. 20, which identified a memorandum of agreement between the Health Department and Accountability Court concerning electric utility payments at 185 Scoggins Drive. By placing the matter under an approval item, the agenda indicates commissioners were asked to consider a formal arrangement; it does not establish that an agreement was signed, amended, rejected or put into effect afterward.

The proposed agreement involves the Health Department and Accountability Court, the two offices identified as sharing the Scoggins Drive building, with the Board of Commissioners positioned to consider approval. The agenda does not attribute a preferred cost-sharing formula to either office, describe negotiations between them, or state whether county officials supported or opposed the memorandum.

What is documented is a proposal scheduled for commission consideration. What remains unknown from the agenda is whether commissioners approved it or took another action, whether the parties executed a memorandum, and how electric costs would be allocated. No conclusion about an operating agreement or a final utility-payment responsibility can be drawn from the agenda alone.

The next public step is the release or review of minutes from the Oct. 20 commission meeting, or a later official agreement record. Those records would need to show whether the board acted and, if it did, the terms governing payment for electric service at 185 Scoggins Drive; until then, the proposed division of costs remains undecided in the public record.