County Commissioners Do Not Reappoint Planning Commission Chair

When the Oconee County Planning Commission meets in September, it will have to start strategizing for selection of a new chair, as the Oconee County Board of Commissioners has turned down current Chair Maria Caudill’s request for reappointment to the Planning body.

At its regular meeting on Aug. 4, the Board of Commissioners selected incumbent Planning Commission Member Chuck Hunt for reappointment, but selected Nathan Byrd, a minister, over Caudill.

Hunt and Caudill are the only two members of the 12-member Commission whose terms expire on Sept. 30, and Hunt also had asked for reappointment.

Byrd was among the 10 others not currently on the Planning Commission who had applied for a four-year appointment to that body.

The Board of Commissioners does not actually select citizens who apply for appointment to its various committees at its regular meetings, though that is when the formal vote is taken.

The actual decision on these appointments is made, as a personnel matter, in executive session at the end of the agenda-setting meeting the week before.

At the meeting on Aug. 4, the Board of Commissioners also appointed a new member to fill a vacancy on the Animal Services Advisory Board and four members for the Recreation Advisory Committee.

For more on the story, with a video of the Board of Commissioners meeting, please go to Oconee County Observations.