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AND AWAY WE 60
Judging from the size of the audience. City Hall was the hottest
ticket in town the night of Tuesday, January 7, and the first meeting
of the new Mayor and Commission did not disappoint.
An excited standing room only crowd watched as Heidi Davison
was sworn in as Mayor, followed by new Commissioners
George Maxwell, David Lynn, Kathy Hoard, and returning
Commissioners Charles Carter and Tom Chasteen.
Traditionally, the swearing in of newly elected offi
cials is also witnessed by the outgoing Mayor and
Commissioners, who then give up their seats behind the
rail. However, former Mayor Eldridge scheduled his
administration's last session for the day before. Former
Commissioner Alvin Sheats did attend the January 7
meeting as a spectator.
Not surprisingly, Mayor Davison was a little wobbly
on the mechanics of conducting the session, prompting
Commissioner John Barrow to declare his first "point of
order" of the new year regarding the selection of
Davison's mayor pro tern. Several in the audience
laughed quietly and murmured to one another, having
seen Barrow repeatedly gaveled to silence in similar cir
cumstances by Eldridge.
Once the formalities were ironed out and the
Commission votes cast. Mayor Davison was handed her
first tie-breaker.
Under Eldridge, the mayor pro tern—one commis
sioner chosen annually to serve in place of the mayor in the mayor's
absence—was selected by his or her predecessor. The subsequent
Commission vote was treated as
a formality. But in keeping with ^
Davison's pledge for an open ^
government, that is no longer g
the case. z
O
Last year's Pro Tern, Cardee jo
Kilpatrick, nominated Harry Sims
for the position before George
Maxwell named States McCarter
as his nominee. Voting for Sims
were Kilpatrick, Carter, Chasteen,
Hoard and Sims himself. Voting
for McCarter were McCarter,
Maxwell, Barrow, Lynn and
Jordan. As Clerk of Commission
Jean Spratlin counted an equal
number of hands for each candi
date, the crowd again laughed
knowingly.
"The Mayor votes for Commissioner McCarter," Davison said.
Reading from a prepared speech, Davison urged the community
to get involved in government, and raised the issue of poverty in
Athens-Clarke.
"We have a 23 percent poverty rate here, and we have very low
unemployment, and that ought
to tell us something," said .
Davison. "The needs of the
poor need to be addressed. I
need your help."
"We've become a society of
consumers," she continued.
"Consumers take, citizens give.
I urge you all not to abdicate
your role as citizens."
The new Mayor and
Commission then heard from
its public for the first time.
Several speakers called for
revisiting regulations
regarding rural "conservation
subdivisions.'*Others spoke in
favor of traffic calming and
affordable housing, and
against the proposed public-
private partnership to build a
Classic Center hotel.
Back behind the rail,
Commissioner Tom Chasteen
said he, too, is now concerned
about conservation subdivi- Everybody say "millage rate”!
sions, and volunteered to chair
a committee on transferable development rights—a subject he pro
fessed no interest in when former Mayor Eldridge killed Commission
discussion on TDRs last March.
John Barrow argued that a moratorium on conservation subdivi
sions would do nothing to solve other, more pressing land use prob
lems, including the affordable housing crunch, the apartment glut,
the vulnerability of downtown to inappropriate construction, and
the wholesale clear-cutting of trees.
"This is not anti-development," Barrow said. "This is pro-smart
development."
Deputy Manager Bob Snipes. Manager Alan Reddish (foreground. I and r). Clerk Jean Spratlin. and
the new Mayor
Carl Jordan requested that the Planning Department get busy
revising the county environmental areas maps in order to apply the
local 75-foot development buffer
to all perennial waterways, and
asked staff to begin enforcing
the lighting ordinance.
Echoing the campaign plat
forms of several "newbies"
behind the rail, McCarter urged
the "oldies" to take heed.
"I want to encourage all you
oldies—that would be me—to
listen to these newbies,"
McCarter said. "They've been out
there with the voters. I've been
away for two years, and I'm
telling you, the further you get
away, the more you get isolated
from the real world out there,
and you become a representative
of the government to the people
and not the people to the government."
McCarter also said newly elected officials should not have to
vote for charter officers, such as county manager, on their first night
in office, and asked that officers' terms be changed to begin in July,
rather than in January.
New Commissioner Maxwell (I) and old Commissioner Sheats
In other business, the Mayor and Commission renewed the con
tracts of ACC Manager Alan Reddish and Auditor John Wolfe, and
renewed the.appointments of Municipal Court Judge Ethelyn
Simpson and interim County Attorney Holly Hilton.
Brad Aaron
6 FLAGPOLE.COM • JANUARY 15, 2003
BRAD AARON BRAD AARON