Charter Review Committee Presents Recommendations to Commissioners

The committee given the task of reviewing Barrow County’s charter and making recommendations for changes to the board of commissioners has presented those recommendations.

Ray Newman, who chaired the charter review committee, gave commissioners the suggested changes at the board’s meeting Tuesday, June 14.

The nine-member committee voted unanimously to recommend the following:

• Any recommendation of this Committee acted upon by the Barrow County Board of Commissioners should take effect after the next General Election unless the Board of Commissioners chooses otherwise.
• A professional County Manager or Administrator form of government is preferred, with the Manager or Administrator having the ability to hire and fire Department Heads.  The costs associated with such form of government should be reviewed and the matter presented to voters in a referendum.   The Chair should have full voting powers; however, veto powers should be eliminated. 
• The number of members constituting a quorum should be changed to four, including the Chairman, or Chairman Pro-Tem in the absence of the Chairman.
• Any matter requiring official action by the Board of Commissioners should require four affirmative votes for passage.
• Section 11(b) of the Charter should be amended to read as follows:

“The board shall elect a Clerk whose duty shall be to keep a full and accurate record of all the actions and doings of the board of said county, which records shall be opened for the inspection of the public at all times during office hours and when the board is not in session.  The Clerk shall perform such other duties and keep such records as required by law or may be required of him or her by the board, and for the Clerk’s services, the Clerk shall receive an amount of compensation to be determined by the board, payable in accordance with current policy, and with the further provision that the Clerk shall not be a member of the board and shall be on a full-time basis.”

• Section 9 of the Charter (regarding payments) should be reviewed and rewritten to be in harmony with the present form of government.

Committee members were Newman, David Mann, Shirley Segars, Chris Bailey, Bob Akin, John King, Scott Hang, Pat Graham and Ken Young.

Newman said the committee set ground rules from the beginning that the process would be a review of the charter. 

“This was not a personal thing,” he said. “We were not going to be talking about personalities and people but about policy and that is what we have done.”

Commission Chairman Daniel Yearwood Jr. excused himself before Newman’s presentation, saying, “I’m not going to be a part of this. I’m going to leave because I don’t support anything that takes power away from the people.”

District 6 Commissioner Ben Hendrix, chairman pro-tem, conducted the remainder of the meeting, making a motion to ask the county attorney to review the committee's recommendations and draft any documents on which commissioners might act upon before the board’s next meeting June 28. At that meeting, the board will open the floor for public comment on the recommendations and will then take action.

The motion passed 5-1 with District 2 Commissioner Eva Elder voting in opposition.

The board of commissioners will meet at 7 p.m. June 28 at the .