Community Corner
Oconee County Rep. Quick Planning Legislation To Make Development Authorities More Transparent
Rep. Regina Quick wants authorities to post key documents on their web sites, including agendas, minutes, and member contact information.
Regina Quick, who represents part of Oconee County in the Georgia House of Representatives, has asked legislative counsel of the General Assembly to draft legislation that would force independent governmental authorities in the state to be more transparent.
Quick refers to these groups as “shadow governments” and said she wants the legislation to specify that these bodies, if they already are spending public money on a website, must post agendas, minutes, contact information of members, and core documents on those sites.
Oconee County’s Industrial Development Authority is the most prominent and active of the county’s development authorities, and it does post the minutes of meetings, but not the agendas, contact information or core documents on the county’s web site.
The county also is a member of two joint development authorities, one with Barrow, Clarke, and Gwinnett counties and another with Barrow, Clarke, Elbert, Jackson, Madison, and Oglethorpe counties.
Both have web sites that contain almost no information about the authorities.
For more on the proposed legislation and on the county’s development authorities, go to Oconee County Observations.
Pictured: Oconee IDA Chair Rick Waller.