Budget surgery doesn't save Carroll chairman

"It was just an incredible amount of waste going on," he said. "We cut back, and we cut back pretty hard."

To an outsider, the story rings of tea party idealism, proof that governments can tighten spending without hurting taxpayers. It's a theme that resonates around metro Atlanta, where counties all grapple with diminishing revenues and higher demand for services brought on by the economic bust.

But in a crushing defeat, Chappell became another casualty in last week's primary runoff election, which also swept out 11 of 13 metro Atlanta incumbents.

His legacy in Carroll County — a semi-suburban, mostly-rural community off I-20 just before the Alabama line — offers lessons both in fiscal responsibility and in the political liability of wielding a budget ax. For replacing department heads, ousting a contractor and withholding pay raises, Chappell earned resentment in the county of 111,000 whose government is one of its top employers.

"Take 500 employees," said Trent North, a commissioner for 20 years, "then take their upset friends and family members, and you add that with the district commissioners who want to see you go, and their friends and family members. That's difficult to overcome."

Metro-area officials say things Carroll did to stay in the black with its $50 million budget would have little effect on budgets of hundreds of millions or more than a billion dollars. With far less housing stock, the county suffered nowhere near as heavy blows to its tax base from the foreclosure crisis.

Fulton, with a budget of more than $600 million, has far bigger problems with urban poverty, homelessness and HIV, with about 30 percent of its budget spent on health and human services.

"We're just in a different ball game, in terms of the magnitude and the range of services," Commission Chairman John Eaves said.

Last year DeKalb County raised its tax rate 26 percent to help plug a $60 million budget hole. Library and recreation center hours have been cut, with nonprofits taking over operations at some recreation centers. Staff vacancies are going unfilled, including 135 in the police department.

But in contrast to Chappell, DeKalb CEO Burrell Elliseasily defeated two rivals in July without a runoff, despite advocating for the failed transportation tax that stung other incumbents in the Atlanta region.

Ellis credited frequent community meetings, e-mails and website surveys to build public support for painful measures.

"Over and over again, we helped paint the picture of the recession to them," Ellis said. "We continuously asked people how they would like us to set priorities."

Chappell's precision cuts were often done with a heavy hand. He stirred bad blood when he ousted the former fire chief, who drew the chairman's ire when he requested more than $5 million in extra funds, including 21 new employees.

"I guess he felt like he was doing his job," Carrollton resident David Foster said, "but a lot of people didn't agree with it."

On election day, he lost every precinct to developer Marty Smith, who took about 68 percent of the vote. Smith accused Chappell of running the county "like a dictatorship," according to his campaign website.

Not everyone was dazzled by Chappell's fiscal management, seeing as how the previous administration had given him a cushion by raising the tax rate by 31 percent, the chairman-elect said.

"There wasn't any magic to it," Smith said.

Chappell was elected in a 2007 special election, after former Chairman Robert Barr resigned amid financial turmoil. Insurance premiums for county employees had shot up by millions of dollars, the reserve fund had been depleted to a tenuous $2.4 million and the county needed a $5.4 million loan to balance its books.

The new administration took a sweat-the-small-stuff approach.

The chairman ended a $320,000-per-year information technology contract, turning the job over to two county employees who cost just $100,000 per year. The move drew a political backlash when persons connected to the IT company and the fire department launched an unsuccessful recall effort against Chappell.

He also ramped up inmate labor, putting state prisoners to work on road paving, vehicle maintenance, animal control and janitorial duty and saving an estimated $3.8 million per year. He opened a purchasing office that, through competitive bids, reduced costs of everything down to toilet paper and paper towels.

His efforts took the rainy day fund up to almost $11 million, close to a quarter of the operating budget. Meanwhile, the county took control of the popular John Tanner Park, which the state planned to close, and opened a new park this year along the Little Tallapoosa River.

J.K. Taylor, a construction site manager who lives near Temple, took his children to the Tanner Park beach four times this summer.

"Sometimes, doing the right thing isn't always the most popular thing," he said. "With what he was handed and what he did, I would pretty much challenge any other commissioner of any other county to do that."