{"id":223,"date":"2013-01-05T14:52:57","date_gmt":"2013-01-05T19:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/new-clayton-county-commissioners-fire-county-manager-fund-forensic-audit2.html"},"modified":"2013-01-05T14:52:57","modified_gmt":"2013-01-05T19:52:57","slug":"new-clayton-county-commissioners-fire-county-manager-fund-forensic-audit2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/new-clayton-county-commissioners-fire-county-manager-fund-forensic-audit2.html","title":{"rendered":"New Clayton County Commissioners fire County Manager, fund forensic audit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nA few new Commissioners on a five-member board is producing significant\nchanges in Clayton County.\nWhat changes will the new Lowndes County Commissioners make?\n<\/p>\n

\nTammy Joyner write for the AJC\n\nElection results usher in period of change for Clayton<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\n<\/a>\nThe new County Commission set the tone this week by ushering in a\nraft of changes aimed at creating better accountability in Clayton’s\nfinances while putting greater control in the hands of the new\nchairman. The board removed County Manager Wade Starr, a long-time\nkingmaker in Clayton politics, and will bring in a chief financial\nofficer to manage county finances.\n<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nThe balance of power clearly has swung to newly elected\nCommissioners Jeff Turner and Shana Rooks. Turner, who replaces\nEldrin Bell as chairman, and Rooks, who defeated Wole Ralph, teamed\nwith returning Commissioner Michael Edmondson to create a new voting\nbloc on the five-member board, and they appear intent on taking\nswift action.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThey hit the ground running,\u201d said Carl Swensson,\nchairman of the Clayton County Citizens Oversight Committee.\n\u201cThe former power triumvirate has been absolutely shattered.\nWe’re going to have good people in position where they can do the\nmost good for this county. You’re going to find a more receptive ear\nin the new structure.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nNaturally the remaining old guard took issue:\n<\/p>\n\n\n

\n

\nReturning Commissioner Gail Hambrick, who now finds herself outside\nthe new voting majority, questioned the board’s decisions this week\nto create two new positions and spring for a forensic audit, which\ncould costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cA lot has gone on,\u201d Turner told the commissioners in\ndefense of his request of the comprehensive audit. \u201cI need to\nbe comfortable about what’s going on in the finance\ndepartment.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\nSwensson applauded Turner’s stance. \u201cThey may have to spend a\nlittle bit more money to save some money,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nThe new Lowndes County Commission is now a five-member board\nwith two new members plus a new non-voting Chairman.\nIt can choose to do things differently if it wants to.\nSo far, it’s business as usual, with, for example,\n\nno indication in the agenda<\/a> of what property the\nIndustrial Authority wants to buy.\nOne could argue that real estate transactions are executive session matters,\nbut in that case, what is that item doing on the public meeting agenda?\n<\/p>\n

\nHere are a few ideas they’re pursuing in Clayton County.\nCurt Yeomans wrote for Clayton News Daily 27 December 2012,\n\nBOC’s Turner, Rooks pledge transparency in government<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nThey said a forensic audit of the county’s finances and resources,\nas well as the assembling of an ethics panel to oversee the behavior\nof commissioners are two of their top initial goals. Those steps\nwould help them do their jobs, but it would also improve the\ncommission’s transparency with the public, they indicated.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAnything that makes the citizens of District 3 and the\ncounty feel like they’re connected, their voices matter and they\nunderstand what’s going on in government, that’s what I want,\u201d\nRooks said. She added she wants to see television and live Internet\nbroadcasts of commission meetings so more citizens can see the\ngoverning board in action.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nHm, “like they’re connected, their voices matter and they\nunderstand what’s going on in government”.\nWould that be different from\n\nan unsigned letter informing 5,000 county citizens their voices were ignored?<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n-jsq\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few new Commissioners on a five-member board is producing significant changes in Clayton County. What changes will the new Lowndes County Commissioners make? Tammy Joyner write for the AJC Election results usher in period of change for Clayton, The new County Commission set the tone this week by ushering in a raft of changes […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,49,8,2,20,88,21,22,3],"tags":[986,8704,990,8721,8701,8699,988,8702,8710,12,7,8734,992,8711,8712,989,8700,6,987,991],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-elections","category-georgia","category-government","category-law","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-planning","category-politics","category-transparency","tag-clayton-county","tag-economy","tag-eldrin-bell","tag-elections","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-jeff-turner","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-michael-edmondson","tag-planning","tag-politics","tag-shana-rooks","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta","tag-wade-star","tag-wole-ralph"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-3B","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}