The Citizen’s Advisory Committee on Commission Structure, formed in April of this year, is holding its final two public hearings this week and next week to discuss the current draft of legislation relating to Pickens’ possible move to a multi-person commission.
The CAC recently selected what it feels is the best multi-person commission alternative to the current sole-commissioner form of government in Pickens. CAC members, volunteers from across the county, made their selection based on extensive research and on input gathered from Pickens residents.
Ultimately the CAC selected a commissioner-manager form with four part-time commissioners elected by-district, one part-time chair elected county-wide and a full-time, hired county manager to handle day-to-day operations of the county, including hiring/firing of department heads. The county will be divided into four voting districts.
CAC members spent the last week hammering out enabling legislation for approval by the Georgia General Assembly when it reconvenes early next year. The public is invited to review the current draft (available in its entirety by clicking here) and to attend one of three public hearings presenting an informal roundtable discussion of the draft language.
The legislation includes specifics about definitions of power, commissioner salaries, educational requirements, commissioner districts, and other details. Several of these specifics will be touched on below.
The three public hearings will be held:
Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. –Chamber of Commerce, Jasper
Thursday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. – Hill City Elementary School
Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. – New Lebanon Presbyterian Church.
Following the CAC’s final selection, October 8, CAC Chair Phil Anderson and legislative subcommittee chair Evan Moorehouse used enabling legislation utilized by Dawson County as a guide to create the legislation Pickens residents will vote on in November 2010. Dawson County was selected as a guidepost because its form of government is the most similar to the one selected by the CAC. Dawson County transitioned from a sole-commissioner to a multi-person commission in the late 1990s.
“We had a good starting point,” with the Dawson County document, Anderson said.
CAC members then met twice last week to tweak the draft. Several suggestions were made before the meeting by Dave Wills, Association of County Commissioners of Georgia’s Government Relations Manager. The CAC discussed Wills’ suggestions in great length at the two meetings.
Wills, longtime commissioner in Webster County, suggested education qualifications be set for all elected candidates for commissioner. But Anderson said the CAC does not believe an education requirement for elected commissioners was in the county’s best interest. According to Anderson, the CAC was of the opinion commissioners are elected based on issues, not qualifications.
Current draft of the legislation only requires that part-time commissioners be 21 years old, having resided in their district for 12 months or more. The Part-time chairperson is required to be 25 years old, having resided in their district for 24 months or more.
Wills also suggested the nixing of minimum qualifications for a hired county manager, referencing several county mangers not professionally trained who risen from the ranks and become highly successful and well respected.
According to Anderson, however, the CAC strongly disagreed with Wills. They felt the public needed to be “reassured that there is not just going to be anyone who could serve as county manager.”
Minimum qualifications for county manager as outlined in the draft are a bachelor’s degree in public administration and four years experience in city or county management as well as any other qualifications the commission board deems necessary.
Wills also felt the CAC should reconsider a mandatory change of auditing firms after four years time. According to Anderson, Wills did not see why a county should be required to choose a new auditor if the board is pleased with the firm.
But Anderson, who served as county manager in Dawson, said he and CAC member Bill Murphy, one-time president of National Association of Counties, have both had “bad experiences,” with audits when firms worked with a county for a long period of time.
“Instead of doing a thorough audit, they dust off the old one,” Anderson said. He agreed with the CAC the county should be required to change auditors after each fourth year.
Anderson said the CAC considered one and two year terms for auditors but ultimately settled on four because, “it takes a couple of years to receive the full benefit of an audit….the curve starts to drop off after the fourth year.”
Language was also added to the draft to include a $100 per month bonus for commissioners who complete ACCG’s commissioner training, and another $100 a month for ACCG’s advanced certification.
According to the current draft, part-time commissioners’ salaries will be $10,200 per year, and the part-time chairman’s salary will be $13,200 year. These salaries were determined from a survey of nearby Georgia counties. The high and low numbers were averaged and rounded to the nearest 50 dollars.
The salary for the hired county manager would be determined by the board of commissioners, but it is thought that pay would be something close to the current salary for sole commissioner, presently just over $90,000.
The draft also requires a minimum of one commissioners’ voting meeting monthly with a work session to precede each voting meeting. The work session must be held seven days ahead of the voting meeting to “give the public time to mull over what went on in the work session,” Anderson said.
Commissioner Rob Jones now holds one commissioner’s meeting each month in which he informs the public of and approves decisions he has made during the last month. No work session is required with the sole-commissioner form of government.
It was also included in the legislative draft that the county manager may not hold any other county or elected municipal office, and the board chair, not the manager as previously reported, will be responsible for submitting a county budget to the board.
According to Anderson, having a non-elected official like the county manager submitting the budget to an elected official is “a contentious situation from the get go. There is a better chemistry if elected officials are working together,” he said.
The preamble to the legislation being considered by the CAC acts as a kind of narrative-style table of contents and gives some idea what else is included in the draft.
For the full version of the draft legislation, visit www.pickensprogress.com.
The CAC was formed after more than half of county voters in the July 2008 primary voted in a non-binding referendum to indicate they would be interested in moving to a multi-person commission government in Pickens.
In the 2010 general election, voters will decide in a binding referendum if they would like to move to the multi-person form of government suggested by the CAC or if they prefer to keep the current sole-commissioner form.
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