County Commissioner's Office

County Talk
By
Lamar Paris - Commissioner

Part IV in a series

Q. Would the county and you be better off with a commission board so you would not have to work so hard?
A. NO !!   A sole commissioner functions as a commission board and the county manager all rolled into one.  Most people think a commission board would share the work load of running the county, but that is not correct.  Most commission boards do not run the county, but only meet once or twice a month.  They rely on the county manager or administrator to run the county. The board primarily sets employee and county policy and makes ordinances. So while my title is sole commissioner, I spend the vast majority of my time managing the county, not performing the traditional function of a commissioner.  

Q. Isn’t there a problem with many commission boards not getting along?
A.  That is an understatement.  Although there are a few boards that really do get along and work together, in this part of the state, friction and conflict has been the norm in most of the surrounding counties’ commission boards.  These boards end up wasting a lot of time and money in making their decisions.  Many commission boards cause the job of the county manager to be difficult, if not impossible.  If the county manager makes a decision that the public does not like, then the public goes to one of the commissioners, who in turn either talks to the county manager or waits until the next county meeting, where the board must decide what they really want the manager to do and the board then has the board chairman give the manager new instructions.  This occurs until the next complaint comes along and they must start all over.  This is why many county managers hold a job less than three to four years.

Q. So is it worthwhile for you to work the many hours that you do?
A. Although I do have to work much harder and do have the full responsibility of government operation, I much prefer that to wasting taxpayers’ time and money.  To make up for not having a board of commissioners, I simply try to make sure that the decisions I make on policy and ordinances are well thought out and are based on the council, advice, common sense, and opinions of many different facets of our community.  That is why we hold public hearings, have committees and boards, and generally try to keep our ear to the ground.

Q. I have been hearing about problems with the commission board in a neighboring county? Do you know much about it?
A. What you are currently finding in two bordering counties is that many members of the public have decided it is their job to make the decisions and not that of the commissioners they elected to perform that function.  This is causing a great amount of dissention in those communities and decisions are being unnecessarily delayed. Either current or past board members are actively contributing to the problem.    You can add another adjacent county into that mix. Their board spent nearly several hundred thousand dollars on a new courthouse plan and now with a newly elected board member, the board has decided not to build the courthouse at all, even though they seem to have the same crowding problems as most other counties.

Q.  Should the county vote on a multi-commission board again?
A. At some time that may be appropriate, but not now. What I find is that those who do not like you and do not agree with what you are doing always want the county to have a multi-commission board.  However, most of the time the problem is not with the form of government, but with the fact that certain people are going to be mad if they do not get their way. In this county, it does not seem to matter what party the commissioner is affiliated with, the same few people seem to always be the ones that are dissatisfied with who ever is in office, and that simply comes from the fact that they are not getting their way.  If there is one commissioner, they want three. If there were three, then they would want five, and eventually you end up with seven as in Fulton County where it is often almost impossible to make timely decisions.  This process usually contributes to taxes going up, red tape going up and efficiency going down.

Part V continued next week.

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