A raft of government reforms instituted earlier this year in Clayton County to give its new commission chairman more authority may well be headed in reverse.
Commissioners are considering hiring a county manager — a turnaround from January, when they dissolved that job to give Chairman Jeff Turner more control over the day-to-day operations of the county. The move has surprised Turner, and it has opponents and supporters in the community.
With last year’s elections, Turner and Commissioner Shana Rooks swept into office vowing to create a more open and efficient government. Turner quickly began restructuring county government, hiring a chief operating officer and a chief financial officer. He also had the authority to resolve a two-year impasse with the county’s mayors over distribution of tax money and county services, immediately garnering their support.
The county’s seven mayors are among those who think bringing back a county manager would disrupt changes that have occurred during Turner’s 10 months in office. The seven mayors recently signed a letter asking commissioners to drop the county manager plan from Tuesday’s agenda.
“Why are we going back and reorganizing our government when it seems to be moving forward for the first time in recent years?” asked Jonesboro Mayor Joy Day, one of four mayors who opposed the county manager proposal at the Oct. 15 commission meeting. “We’ve been through the situation where we had a county manager. The (previous) county commission chairman’s hands were tied. … (Turner) should have time to prove his leadership.”
Clayton County isn’t the only place where the structure of county government is being questioned:
- Fulton's lack of centralized leadership has been cited as a reason for its dysfunction. Lawmakers have talked for years about elevating the commission chair's authority while making it tougher to fire the county manager. State lawmakers may take up both proposals in next year's legislative session.
- By contrast, DeKalb wants to scale back the powers of its elected chief executive officer in the wake of a corruption case against Burrell Ellis, who was suspended and removed from office by the governor after he refused to step down. Ellis, who still faces trial, has strongly denied wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, efforts to reshape recent reforms in Clayton have created a firestorm as county officials try to settle on which governmental management style works best.
Rex resident Jeffery Benoit called the proposal a “blatant attempt to take over the county.”
“The people voted (for) who they wanted as chair. The county manager would take the chairman’s authority away,” said Benoit, a retired Army master sergeant who has lived in Clayton for 20 years.
Not everyone in Clayton is against the idea of bringing back the county manager. The head of the local NAACP welcomes the return of a county manager.
NAACP President Synamon Baldwin said her organization has received complaints from county workers in various departments who say they’re not getting sufficient direction. The county manager’s job was originally created in 2011 to provide greater guidance to county departments, Baldwin noted.
“Clearly, the present chairman doesn’t have the skill set to manage a county this size,” Baldwin said. “He’s managed one department — the police department — but not an entire county.”
The fight over reviving the county manager’s job comes as hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars have been spent creating new jobs and instituting reforms. The new administration, for instance, launched an independent forensic audit of county departments shortly after taking office. The findings are expected to be released before year’s end.
Interviews with a wide range of citizens and county officials familiar with the inner workings of Clayton government indicate that a rift appears to have developed between Turner and Commissioner Michael Edmondson. Edmondson introduced the idea of restoring the county manager job, though he voted in January with Turner and Rooks to eliminate the job. Edmondson also introduced the idea of creating the chief operating officer job.
“We have a full-time chairman of the commission and we have a chief operating officer under the chairman, and they need to be held accountable for management of the county business,” said Morrow resident Jeff DeTar. “If they added a county manager position, that just adds another level of bureaucracy.”
Numerous attempts to reach Commissioners Gail Hambrick and Sonna Singleton were unsuccessful. Edmondson refused to talk to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Turner declined to speculate whether there’s a rift between him and Edmondson.
“I don’t know what prompted Edmondson to do it (introduce the county manager job),” Turner said. “I don’t see a need for it. The county has been moving in a good direction. It’s my hope he’ll pull it.”
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