As recently reported in the Progress, Sole Commissioner Rob Jones has announced that chances of him running as chair of a multi-person commission are slim – virtually non-existent.
A multi-person commission, he feels, isn’t the best choice for Pickens County residents. Jones argues that more commission members will mean higher taxes, more red tape, less expediency, less transparency. And multi-person commissions, he said, make it easier for board members to sidestep the chopping block of accountability whenever they screw up.
Jones, no doubt, has popularity on his side. We can’t recall one negative comment about our second-term commissioner during the dozen or so Commission Advisory Committee meetings over the past two months.
In fact, CAC members have been overwhelmingly complimentary of the county’s Big Cheese. Such sentiments echo well beyond the CAC meetings we’ve witnessed, with some folks even citing Jones’ upstanding business ethics as an electrician prior to entering public office.
Clearly, the county’s referendum-proven interest in a multi-person board isn’t personal. But the interest in making a change is apparent.
The July 2008 primary election showed 78 percent of Democrats and 59 percent of Republicans saying they would like to investigate alternative forms of government.
The Citizen Advisory Committee on Commission Structure, formed in April and now studying the multi-person commission format, will use their own research and input from other Pickens citizens to determine which format is best-suited for this county.
Pickens County voters will decide if they want to move to a multi-person commission in the November 2010 election. [Best remember the outcome is not pre-ordained. County voters have voted no on such a proposal before.]
Despite the striking 2008 primary figures, Jones’ popularity, coupled with his public declaration that he’ll likely be no part of a multi-commission board, has some dangerous potential for confusing the issue at hand.
As a result of our “benevolent dictator’s” announcement, throngs of voters possibly in favor of a multi-person commission might rethink that choice simply because they’d like to keep Jones around.
“…if Pickens voters decide to remain under the sole-commissioner format,” Jones said, “I will serve as long as they let me.”
But what if you change your mind, Rob? Or, God forbid, there is some unforeseen tragedy and you leave office mid-term? Where does that leave people who voted to remain under a sole commissioner just to keep you in office? Visions of a North Georgia Huey Long come dancing into our heads. (Not you, Mr. Commissioner, but who might follow)
On the question of the corruption possible with a single authority figure (“Absolute power corrupts absolutely”), Jones said it’s easier to throw away one apple you know is rotten than, in the case of a multi-person commission, to figure out who among five (or three or seven or eleven) apples is rotten before you give them the boot.
In the words of Dave Wills, the Government Relations Manager for the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia, who spoke to the CAC in May, “The sole-commission format can be the best or worst form of government depending on who you have in office.”
Agreed. And to be clear, we’re not endorsing a sole commissioner or a multi-person commission. Some members of our editorial board remain undecided on the issue.
We do feel, however, your vote on this should not be based on Jones’ decision to leave the public sphere if voters opt for more voices in the county’s decision-making process. Nor should the decision be made on some short-term issue or minor glitch that may pop up in presenting an alternative.
And remember the fact that almost every other county in the nation uses a multi-member form is no reason to believe it will be best here. That’s an argument straight out of a teen comedy -- “Everybody else already has one.”
Your decision on whether or not to move to a multi-member commission should be based solely on what you believe is best for this county. |
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