Oconee County Board of Commissioners pass governmental reorganization unanimously

I have never been more proud of my home county government than this evening. I sat in the front row and even got up and spoke in favor of the Ordinance Providing for Organizational Structure, Allocation of Duties AMong Certain Officials of Oconee County and Meeting Procedure. The motion passed unanimously but not without some heated exchange and general gnashing of rhetorical teeth. Some people in audience need to remain quiet during the meeting as well, but that is for another post.

Chairman Melvin Davis spoke against it, and several other people got up to speak against it as well such as Kate McDaniel and Mary Mellein among several others. Charlie Baugh was one of the few to support it besides me. Commissioner Chuck Horton said he had been working on this since 2005. Davis said his count with 24% percent in favor and 76% against it, and Commissioner Jim Luke questioned where he pulled such numbers from before the vote. Commissioner Margaret Hale spoke passionately about how things are not really going to change, and Commissioner John Daniell read a pragmatic approach to the Ordinance in straight forward terms.

The main complaint of the people speaking against it was that they had not had an opportunity to address this issue. John Daniell entered a long time line into the record resolving the fact that there had been many weeks, months and meetings where the populace at large had plenty of opportunity to discuss and input their opinions on the Governmental Organization.

The sky had not fallen when I walked out of the meeting. Department heads will continue to deal with Administrative Officer Allen Theirault in the budgeting process of the Oconee County, Georgia government. County attorney Daniel Haygood rewrote some of flow charts to make sure various departments like the Senior Center would be involved. The following are photos from the meeting.