Commissioner Opposes Chairman and Vote to Approve Minutes on Illegal Meeting

1/4/08 (10:00) A couple of events occurred during the County Commission meeting on January 2.  I’d like to explain them to you.

 

First, I did not vote for the re-election of Jack Smith as Fayette County Commission Chairman.

 

A couple of days before this meeting, I was asked my opinion of an article that had appeared in the Fayette Daily News.  I have been behind in my newspaper reading over Christmas and New Year; I had not seen it.

 

I called Cindy Morley at the Daily News to inquire about it and she was kind enough to give me a copy.  I read the article and the thought I had to support the reelection of the Chairman evaporated.

 

There were several issues that concerned me.  The first was this.  Commissioner Smith said,  “I have been told that this county commission has accomplished more this year than during any comparable year in recent memory”.  I think that this was inaccurate, unnecessary and immodest. 

 

One example cited as an accomplishment of this Commission was the final approval of Lake McIntosh.  The current Board had almost nothing to do with this success, and ironically, the day it was announced was the same day this Commission fired the person who actually was the most responsible for that success, Bill McNally.

 

Jack and Commissioner Robert Horgan praise this Commission for a defined benefit retirement system for county employees.  We don’t have one, yet.  But they are two Commissioners who are pushing this issue.  I think they are 100% wrong.  I think we should be looking out for the benefit of our citizens and taxpayers first, then the employees.

 

There is also the issue of Chairman Smith’s support to connect Fayette County to MARTA via a rapid rail system.  The County Chairman represents all of us on the ARC (Atlanta Regional Commission) Board.  Chairman Smith is quoted as “helping to steer us away from buses”, towards rapid rail. 

 

I don’t support this concept.  There is proof that it does not work to alleviate congestion.  We already don’t have enough money to fund all the roads that are supposed to be built.  Why transfer money from what works to what doesn’t work and as a result, we can afford less of what does work?

 

Many public officials believe that it is their job to persuade the public to change their ways.  In this case, they consider the private vehicle driven by the private citizen to be a problem for them to change.  I don’t.  I believe that it is the job of elected officials and “Planners” to figure out how to give the private citizen what he or she wants, not what the Planner or elected official thinks they should want.  I could not support his reelection to steer us towards a rapid rail system.

 

Then, later, I made a motion to table the approval of the minutes from the Commission meeting of September 5^th.  This motion “died” because none of the other County Commissioners would second it (Parliamentary procedure to support it for an up or down vote).

 

I made the request because I wanted to have the opportunity to discuss the issues involved with our Staff Attorney.  It’s a little complicated.

 

Here is the situation.  During the County Commission meeting of August 1^st, Eric Maxwell made a motion to discuss a legal matter in Executive Session (closed to the press & the public).  I asked if it were legal to have an Executive Session to discuss a legal matter if we did not have a County Attorney. 

 

We held the Executive Session.  I was troubled by it and wrote a letter to the Attorney General of Georgia to ask if we had held an illegal meeting.  The Attorney General responded that we had.  I communicated this information to the Commission.

 

In our meeting on September 5^th, Commissioner Maxwell asked to amend the minutes from the August 1^st meeting and the affidavit on the Executive Session.  He stated that he recalled that he had attempted to change the reason for the Executive Session from a Legal issue to a Personnel issue.  We amended the minutes and the affidavit to account for his recollection.

 

After that meeting, I had the opportunity to review the video of the August 1 meeting.  There was no change made in the purpose of that August 1 Executive Session.

Commissioner Maxwell’s recollection is incorrect.  You can review it yourself on YouTube (on the Internet). 

 

The Commission broke the law on August 1^st.  We should admit it. I think the official Minutes and Affidavit should reflect what actually happened, not what someone mistakenly remembers as happening.   

 

Peter Pfeifer

County Commission, Post 3