Newspaper Page Text
Reorganization of
Leisure Services
Remains a Concern
A March reorganization of Athens-Clarke
County's Leisure Services Department has
become a focus for criticism by some ACC
commissioners and citizens. Despite a provi
sion in the government's charter specifying
that the elected commissioners may "reorga
nize, combine, consolidate or discontinue any
department or agency." the reorganization
was undertaken by management without input
from the commission. "They did that whole
reorganization, and then told us they had
done it." Commissioner
Doug Lowry told
Flagpole.
"I would have
preferred some more
discussion," agreed
Commissioner Kelly Girtz.
The reorganization has brought complaints
from the citizens' boards that oversee Sandy
Creek Nature Center and the planning for the
rail trail from downtown across the North
Oconee River.
"We have experienced increased uncer
tainty and reduced staff support" for trail
planning, said a letter from the Rail Trail
Committee to Girtz and fellow Commissioner
Mike Hamby. "The change in IS staff support
will make it far more difficult to move forward
with the spending of funds to which complex
regulatory restrictions apply."
Monica Pereira, chair of the Sandy Creek
Nature Center board, lamented in a letter to
commissioners the loss of a volunteer coordi
nator at the Nature Center and the reassign
ment of knowledgeable staffers or the former
Natural Resources Division to "other units
with very different purposes and missions."
"And most sadly," she wrote, "we believe
the manner in which the reorganization was
earned out has lowered morale for all, and
created in our Board a regrettable sense of
distrust."
ACC manager Alan Reddish told Flagpole the
restructuring of departments "has been a deci
sion that has rested with the manager before
I came here, and it has continued to rest
with the manager since I've been here... I'll
leave it up to you to interpret [the charter].
I don't believe I've violated any provisions of
the charter." He also dismissed contentions
by some—including Lowry—that a longtime
Leisure Services employee was reassigned
for talking too freely with commissioners,
or for supporting commissioners' objections
to the long-planned Sandy Creek sewer line.
(Commissioners cancelled that sewer line last
year out of concerns about water quality and
sprawl development, a decision not welcomed
by some in management.)
That employee "would talk to us directly,"
Lowry told Flagpole. "When they got the
opportunity to get back at him, they did. Who
benefited from that?" But Reddish denied any
such payback. "I can tell you without a ques
tion, any thought he may have about environ
mental issues or sewer
lines had nothing to do
with... how we assign
tasks to people," he
told Flagpole. "When we
can't deliver the service,
then we need to be held
accountable for that. But we are delivering
the service." he said. "We re going to assign
the people we think best... Somebody has
to make a decision, and we have made them
within every department."
The reorganization was slated for dis
cussion by commissioners at their Monday
evening retreat this week, after Flagpole's
press time. Also up for discussion: the role of
ACC's environmental coordinator, originally
conceived as an kind of watchdog within the
government (a watchdog that, some feel, is
being muzzled).
John Huie
M&C to Consider
Public Art for ACC
Jail Expansion
The most controversial issue about ACC's
new jail plan seems to be whether to include
public art in the building's design—and
how much to spend for it. "You can spend
just as much as you want or as little as you
want on art," ACC Manager Alan Reddish told
commissioners at last week's work session.
“We have experienced
increased uncertainty and
reduced staff support.”
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Commissioners earlier agreed to spend up to
1 percent of SPLOST project construction bud
gets on art—but for the expensive jail, that
would be over a half-million dollars. Reddish's
staff has been working with a budget allot
ment of $250,000, under the assumption that
commissioners would not want to spend more
than that.
"I have no intention of spending $250,000
on public art at the jail," Commissioner Andy
Herod said. Other com
missioners agreed, but
defended including art in
public areas^of the jail—
perhaps a sculpture at
the entryway, a hanging
mobile in the lobby or a
bas-relief dividing wall.
Many people come to the
jail who are not criminals. Commissioner Kathy
Hoard pointed out—visitors, employees, even
accused persons who end up being adjudged
innocent.
Mayor Nancy Denson urged a design
that's "attractive and human-scaled, that
doesn't look like a jail cell from the 1900s."
Commissioners agreed to ask the ACC Cultural
Affairs Commission (which chooses public art
for county buildings) for budget guidance; ACC
spent $150,000 on public art for the Classic
Center and $78,000 for the new downtown
parking deck. 'They'll bring you an appropriate
piece of art, or several to choose from, based
upon the budget you give them," Reddish told
the commission.
The 790-bed jail could open in 2014, and
replaces a cheaply built jail dating to the
1980s. It will include a
video visitation room,
a kitchen for "plating"
food that is delivered to
the facility, and glass
walls and sight lines that
enable a single guard to
monitor an entire wing of
small cells.
Typically, half of ACC inmates are awaiting
trial—often for drug-related offenses, even
as officials like ACC Police Chief Jack Lumpkin
have complained that treatment alternatives
are few for drug and alcohol abusers or those
with mental health problems.
John Huie
Many people come to the
jail who are not criminals,
Commissioner Kathy
Hoard pointed out.
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