By Angela Reinhardt
With the first round of public hearings behind them, with all meetings drawing lower-than-anticipated public attendance, the Citizen Advisory Committee on Commission Structure (CAC) will spend the next month whittling down the multitude of options for a multi-person commission format until just three remain.
“Although there were very few formal comments from the public during these initial meetings, there was considerable informal discussion before and after each meeting that was instructive and helpful for CAC members. We will continue to encourage comments from the public at future public hearings, and also we would like to receive comments and questions by e-mail and mail,” said CAC Chair Phil Anderson.
“The public hearings provided a great deal of information to the CAC that we will use in formulating our recommendations to the voters,” Anderson added. “…[They] were good starting points for better understanding the public's need for more detailed information about the multi-person alternative forms of government that the Citizen Advisory Committee is considering…My hope is that future public hearings will be of even greater interest to the voters and provide them with all the information they are seeking.”
While the majority of the “formal comments” made by the public, totaling fewer than five, proved to be substantive, the general public seemed to have more questions than suggestions regarding a multi-person commission structure.
“This is still in the spirit of learning,” one man at the final public hearing last Thursday said just before asking Jon Aldridge, a CAC member acting as MC for the evening, why a county administrator was such a popular format in Georgia when the administrator position seemed to be more of “an appendage.”
Another man asked Aldridge to explain the difference between an administrator and a county manager, another popular commission format in the state.
However, the most standard concern among members of the public who have expressed their opinion to the CAC regarding Pickens’ possible move to a multi-person commission seems to be the cost.
It is agreed amongst members of the CAC that moving to a multi-person commission will certainly increase the cost of government, but as CAC member John Foust said in a telephone interview, “We can’t know how much it’s going to cost until we decide what form we are going to have.”
Andy Robb, a former candidate for sole commissioner here, told the CAC at Thursday’s hearing that he would like the group to come to the October hearings with detailed information regarding the additional expense of a multi-person commission, including the percentage of that cost in relation to the current county budget.
As for telling the CAC what form of multi-person commission he preferred (a question the study group asked public hearing participants to address), Robb said he was unable to make a suggestion because he didn’t know what the cost of each format would be.
“It’s like asking us to go to a car dealership and buy a car with certain options and I don’t know what they cost,” he said.
If you’re interested in the process and would like to put in your two cents to the CAC regarding commission-structure make-up but are unclear about multi-person commissions, there is still time to get in on some Commission-Structure 101 and to make an informed comment.
A very informative, easy-to-understand chart outlining strengths and weaknesses of the basic forms of Georgia county government structure (presented at the second and third hearings by Dave Wills, Government Relations Manager for the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia) is printed on this story’s continued page and is now available on the Pickens Progress website, www.pickensprogress.com. Click on the link for a multi-person commission for the chart and other relevant commission information.
The Structure Subcommittee, using information gathered from the public and data compiled by the Research Subcommittee, will now “formulate what they believe to be three feasible multi-person alternative forms of government for further investigation and discussion,” according to Anderson.
“This is where the hard work begins,” said Structure Subcommittee Chair John Foust.
The Structure Subcommittee will present these alternatives to the full CAC at their next meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m., Monday, August 24 at the Pickens County Administration Building. The meeting is open to the public.
The CAC will then, as a whole, thoroughly analyze the three alternatives at meetings that will be open to the public. Following their analysis, the CAC will recommend a single alternative that will be presented to the public for final comments and discussion and public hearings in late October.
The final CAC recommendation will then be made.
You can submit comments to the CAC at the following addresses:
PickensCAC@gmail.com
OR
Citizen Advisory Committee
Pickens County Commission Structure
PO Box 2162
Jasper, GA 30143
“With the public's help, our goal is to recommend and educate the citizens on the best alternative multi-person form of government for the voters’ consideration in the November 2010 General Election,” Anderson said. “I'd like to thank all the CAC members for giving freely of their time and talent to do this challenging and important work for the citizens of Pickens County.”
Voters of Pickens County will decide if they would like to move to a multi-person commission in the 2010 General Election.
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