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Note that some of these boards have incumbents
who are eligible to serve and may reapply, but
don't let that stop you!
Applications can be obtained from the Clerk
of Commission's office in Room 204 of City Hall
or from the ACC website: www.athensclarkecoun-
ty.com. For more information, call Jean Spratlin,
Clerk of Commission, at 706-613-3031.
Ben Emanuel ben@flagpole.com
Commish Retreat
Fly on the Wall Report
The food wasn't great, but the views from the
lodge at Amicalola Falls State Park made up for it
as ACC Commissioners held a two-day retreat last
month. Accompanied by two reporters (but no
county staffers), Mayor Heidi Davison and nine
commissioners (Carl Jordan was absent) decided
that second weekend in April that they like dis
cussing county policies from easy chairs instead
of behind tables, and vowed to do it more often,
perhaps quarterly at the Classic Center as well as
out of town once a year.
First on the agenda (after the Myers-Briggs
personality test!) were two perennial frustrations
of the Commission: first, that meetings often run
too long, especially when many citizens want
to speak on a controversial issue; and second,
commissioners feel county managers don't always
inform them about upcoming projects.
Commissioners are regularly frustrated by the
tension between themselves (who set policy)
and the managers (who carry it out, and oversee
county staffers day by day). Typically such con
flicts involve ACC Manager Alan Reddish protect
ing his turf. (Or—depending on your perspec
tive-protecting his employees from political
interference, rebuffing micro-management by the
Commission, or defending the provisions of the
Charter. A similar conflict
in Jackson County recently
resulted in the firing of
the county manager there.)
Commissioners, on the other
hand, felt that the unelected
managers are making deci
sions they aren't even being
informed about "If some
thing gets into their work program that isn't part
of what's been mapped out, then we need to
know about that," Mayor Davison said.
"It makes us look like a bunch of idiots"
when citizens call commissioners with ques
tions about a county project, and commissioners
know nothing about it, Commissioner David Lynn
said. That happened with plans for a proposed
block-long "plaza" beside City Hall to replace the
old bus bays, and it happened with a proposed
alcohol-serving ordinance that staffers developed
without input from either bar owners or com
missioners. (They still are planning on getting
bar owners' input, but commissioners wanted
some time with it first.) Mayor Davison said one
reason Reddish doesn't give commissioners more
information is that, at least in the past, commis
sioners haven't always read the information they
were given: "He is responding to the work habits
of people he has been working with."
One solution, commissioners suggested,
would be to ask ACC Auditor John Wolfe to serve
as a go-between from county department heads
to the commission, without going through the
manager. The manager's office will "hate it,"
predicted Lynn, but the charter of the combined
city-county government placed the auditor
directly under commissioners (and not the man
ager) in order to provide such oversight, he said.
As auditor, Wolfe regulaity studies county depart
ments looking for inefficiencies and problems. A
standing committee of commissioners will begin
meeting with Wolfe, initially to discuss fee-ex
emption "scholarships" at county parks.
As for over-long commission meetings, "I just
think we get abused," Lynn said, when people
who hadn't even planned to speak decide at the
last minute to address the Commission. "There
is no other community in the state that allows
more public input than ACC," he said, but com-
“We are in danger of having
established neighborhood
communities completely
falling apart.”
missioners may not make such good decisions
at two in the morning. At present, a citizen can
address the commission for three minutes at
either of the two monthly meetings at which the
same agenda items will be discussed. A citizen
can speak on any topic on the agenda (or, at the
meeting's end, on any topic he or she wishes).
One woman actually showed up at the podium
wearing pajamas, commissioners remembered;
she'd been watching the meeting at home on TV
and just had to add something.
The solution agreed on was to require citizens
to register ahead—by phone, or by signing in
before the meeting starts—to speak at the first-
Tuesday voting meeting. "At the voting meet
ing, I don't think we need people to come up a
second time," Commissioner George Maxwell said.
(A citizen could still speak at the earlier agenda
meeting without registering.) Some commission
ers doubted that anyone's mind will be changed
on the night of a vote anyway, and besides, said
Commissioner Alice Kinman, "the three minutes
in front of the microphone is not often the most
effective way people communicate with us." That
can be by phone or email, she said.
But commissioner Kathy Hoard said she has
spoken many times as an advocate before the
Commission before she became a commissioner,
and said, "I'm not tired of hearing from the
public. Who I'm tired of hearing from is all of
us [commissioners]." Commissioner Harry Sims
agreed, when a commissioner speaks two or three
times on the same subject, "you are filibuster
ing." Each commissioner is allowed to speak for
up to 15 minutes about each item that comes up
at the voting meeting; there is no limit to how
long a commissioner may speak at the agenda
meeting. But the consensus was to leave that
rule unchanged, and to limit public input at the
monthly voting meetings. "We're not going to do
any of this until we get the kinks worked out as
best we can ahead of time," Mayor Davison said.
Commissioners also said they'd like to see a
public-access feedback form or bulletin board
on the county's website, like
the Board of Education has
for school policies. "I think
that will really raise the level
of discourse," Kinman said.
And while that might attract
some postings from show-
boaters, "you can't silence
people's political discourse
because there's a few idiots," Commissioner Elton
Dodson added. Commissioners also said they'd
like to get all their documents electronically
(some already are, but others are on paper).
Also at their retreat, they discussed how to
limit property taxes in redeveloping areas, where
property values often skyrocket. "We are in dan
ger of having established neighborhood commu
nities completely falling apart," when longtime
residents can't pay the higher taxes, Kinman
said. ACC Tax Commissioner Nancy Denson told
Flagpole later that there are indeed citizens in
redeveloping areas who are being priced out of
their homes. Typically, she said, they are widows.
"When one income goes away, there's no way
they can meet their basic expenses." And prop
erty values (and therefore taxes) certainly do
increase when areas redevelop or "gentrify," The
Boulevard neighborhood has been hit especially
hard, she said, and since last year, many homes
in the Peter Street area have doubled ir value.
The Clarke County Board of Education has frozen
property taxes for homeowners over 65, and the
general government could do the same based
on either age or income, Denson said. Or, com
missioners could decide to implement a "circuit
breaker" that allows property tax credits on state
income taxes.
Yet this year's budget will be the tightest yet,
Mayor Davison said at the retreat "It's just hor
rible, because I have absolutely no flexibility in
that budget."
Commissioners deferred discussion of pos
sible changes in the Neighborhood Notification
Initiative (which notifies citizens of proposed
projects or rezonings in their area) until their
July mini-retreat. Economic development was on
the retreat agenda, but wasn't discussed.
John Hule jphuie@athens.net
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