Oconee County, GA Politics

Chairmans of the Board of Commissioners of Oconee County will come and go, and this is time for current chair G. Melvin Davis to go ahead and resign after the revelation of a second secret meeting in December of 2008 before the first one revealed at the start of this calender year. The whole stink about the attempted raises by the Oconee County Board of Education now threatens to smear the careers of not only chairman and Barberitos co-owner David Weeks, but also State Representative Bob Smith for being a turncoat if nothing else. To completely understand this local version of a secret cabal, you need a scorecard at the very least. Essentially Board of Commissioners chair G. Melvin Davis called meetings in December of 2008 without proper public notice and this is a crime for which he needs to do the time no longer as a public servant. Please step down now, Chairman Davis, and spare us any more of your public humiliation and embarrassment. There will be lots of finger pointing about wh...

One would assume Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman G. Melvin Davis would have learned from his near defeat after the secret meeting in Madison, Georgia last year that he would not repeat such an idiotic maneuver to do it again, but evidently he has not learned his lesson since he held another unannounced meeting to try to start the ball rolling on moving the Courthouse again. We need to let the Chairman Davis know this kind of behavior is unacceptable and once again call for his resignation. The following was written by blogger and UGA journalism professor Lee Becker about this asinine patterrn of behavior. From: Lee Becker < lbbecker@mindspring.com > Date: Sun, Feb 8, 2009 at 7:44 PM Subject: The Courthouse To: lbbecker@mindspring.com Dear Friends, The /Enterprise/ and the /Banner-Herald/ this week carried front-page stories about the secret county meeting in December to discuss the courthouse. (The /Banner-Herald/ today editorialized about this as well.) Thes...

Lee Becker once again effects positive change on the Oconee County, Georgia government with repeated and successful Open Records requests making more public and noticed. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Lee Becker < lbbecker@mindspring.com > Date: Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 9:51 PM Subject: County Agrees to Follow Open Meetings Law To: lbbecker@mindspring.com Dear Friends, Without admitting any wrongdoing in the past, Oconee County has informed the state's Attorney General that it plans to notify the public of meetings of its Drought Contingency Committee and of meetings of other advisory committees in the future in keeping with the state's Open Meetings Law. Documents provided by the county in response to an open records request I filed on May 13, 2008, showed that the Drought Contingency Committee met on Feb. 19, 2008, and approved an increase in water rates for residential users of the county. The county did not provide any evidence of advance notice of ...

I wrote a letter to the editor of the Athens Banner-Herald asking for the resignation of Oconee County Board of Commissioners chairman G. Melvin Davis. Davis has done even more to ruin the reputation of Oconee County than merely testifying for a convicted felon or having a series of secret meetings making plans to move the Courthouse from downtown Watkinsville . I think this is emblematic of a much bigger problem of good old boy networking and covering of their collective asses. I am no conspiracy theory nut, but I do think there is a battle going on here with the future of Oconee County at stake. The residents and business owners of this county are the victims of this clandestine planning and secret meetings. Davis needs to resign to accept responsibility for a system gone out of control. He is a very genuine and nice person, but we have to say enough. At the very least he should not run for re-election. Please people, let the newspapers and the radio stations and your neighbors. Th...

Why does our current Board of Commissioners keep doing the people's business without notice or input? It is time for these people to be sent home, and we need your help to do it. Read more about the following at the Lee Becker blog, and thanks to Charlie Baugh for letting us know Subject: A BOC Meeting We Aren't Supposed to Know About Dear Friends: In a meeting Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis has tried to keep out of the public eye, the Commissioners met on December 7 in Madison, Georgia, to discuss a variety of issues, including the Rocky Branch sewage plant upgrade, a County sales tax, and the sale of beer, wine and alcohol by the drink in the County. The meeting took place at the James Madison Inn & Conference Center. The Inn gave the County an invoice of $683.20 for the meeting, payable on the day of the meeting. Chairman Davis used emergency procedures to give minimal public notice of the meeting, which actually was planned at least three w...