3 bills to consider tweaking county government
by Andy Phelan
andy@dekalbchamp.com
It seems as if the debate of whether to change the form of DeKalb County’s government is so old that even Socrates once considered the merits of the question.
“To have a CEO or not,” they have asked repeatedly since the position was created by founding father Manuel Maloof some 25-plus years ago.
In the late ’90s, then state Rep. Doug Teper tried doing away with the CEO and hand over power to commissioners, but it failed. He later ran for CEO against Jones and lost.
In 2004, state Rep. Fran Millar (R-Dunwoody) introduced legislation that would have stripped the CEO of the power to preside over commission meetings. It never escaped the clutches of the local delegation, which is predominately Democrat, and never saw the light of day.
But now thanks to two lawmakers, one a White Republican, and the other a Black Democrat, the question of whether the CEO form of government best serves the people is gaining new life.
The strong CEO, weak commission system that runs county government is the only one of its kind in Georgia, and one of only a handful throughout the nation. The CEO not only runs the day-to-day operations of government, but also sets the agenda, presides over board meetings and has the power to hire and fire department heads at will.
Some say the power is akin to Gov. Sonny Perdue presiding over meetings of the General Assembly or President George W. Bush over Congress. The separation of powers Americans hold so dear in their national government – executive, legislative and judicial – do not exist in local government.
Rep. Mike Jacobs (R-Atlanta), who prefiled a bill for the '08 Legislature, and Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Ellenwood) who moved a bill through the Senate in 2007, would both allow commissioners to run their own meetings. State Rep. Kevin Levitas (D-Atlanta) has also prefiled a bill this year that would cut the CEO’s pay and, among other things, allow commissioners greater investigation powers into the operations of government.
All three proposals would put the power to set the agenda and run meetings with the commissioners.
“For a county of more than 700,000 people, it’s obscene the amount of power vested in one person,” said state Rep. Mike Jacobs (R-Atlanta), who represents the Brookhaven area. “The system was built for Manuel and what he wanted to do. The system was wrong under Manuel, wrong under Liane Levetan and it’s wrong under Vernon Jones.”
He launched a community meeting recently vowing that something would be done next legislative session to change how county government is run from Decatur.
One of the reasons Jacobs is so confident is his House Bill 899, which would vastly curb the powers of the CEO, including killing the veto power and any tie-breaking vote, is being introduced as general legislation – meaning it could bypass the local delegation that would likely kill any bill of its kind on arrival.
Jacobs bill is the strongest of the three proposals. It’s possible Jacobs is more likely to get a majority 91 House members from around the state to vote for his “County Chief Executive Officer Accountability Act” than just the 10 needed in the county delegation.
That’s just not right, said House Delegation Chairman Stan Watson (D-Decatur).
“What they’re trying to (Jacobs and Millar) is escape talking to the Democrats,” said Watson, who is running for CEO in 2008. “The General Assembly should not decide what the form of government should be for DeKalb County residents.”
House Speaker Glenn Richardson could rule Jacobs’ bill would have to be local, not general legislation.
But Watson said he would accept Jones’ SB 52, which passed the Senate in 2007 and received five of the needed 10 votes in the House, if slightly amended.
“I do not have a problem with the presiding officer running the meetings as long as he or she is elected countywide,” said Watson. “I would also eliminate the super districts (The board, in its current form, has seven elected officials – five commissioners and two super district commissioners).
Watson said he would replace the two slots with representatives from Dunwoody and Brookhaven – one of which threatens to become a city and the other considering plans to become a township.
Although Sen. Jones did not return calls seeking comment, he held several community meetings throughout the county seeking input from residents before forming his bill.
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