HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-15-2002 Joint Meeting
THE AUGUSTA COMMISSION AND THE LEGISLATIVE DELEGATION
JOINT MEETING
AUGUST 15, 2002
COMMISSION CHAMBER
Present: Hons. Lee Beard, Tommy Boyles, Marion Williams, Bob Young, Bobby
Hankerson, Don Cheeks, Jack Connell, Henry Howard, George DeLoach.
Mr. Beard: We would first like to welcome everybody, our Legislative
Delegation and our Commissioners, to this meeting this morning. This meeting was
suggested some time ago by some of our Commissioners who felt like we need to get
together to form some type of working relationship between the Delegation and the
Commission and the Mayor. So I think this is our first meeting of that nature, and after
talking with the two Commissioners who join me on this, Commissioner Cheek and
Commissioner Boyles, we decided to make this kind of an informal meeting where we
can discuss a number of items that would affect especially the Delegation and the
Commission. And we hope that this will be the first of many of these meetings, that we
get together and work out whatever problems we have or any initiatives that we have.
We hope that we can get together and work those out in sessions like this. And this is
more -- I don’t think we have any one particular item on the table, or two particular items
on the table. We are going to more or less go into addressing a proposed process that we
will lend ourselves to as to how we would deal with future problems or future initiatives
that we may have that would affect this county. And I think for an example, we talked
about the agenda that was sent up some time ago, the Legislative issues that we sent up to
you some time ago. I think this is a very important thing here because we got some
feedback that this was not exactly the way that you wanted this presented, and we hope
that in this meeting you could kind of lay out the format that we could present to you that
would be more helpful for you to effect whatever we are doing that. And we know that
this is going to take a lot of time, not necessarily this morning, but this is why we are
saying we need more meetings of this nature, and maybe you can tell us even starting this
morning, I think would be a good point. We just sent you, and I know it’s mind boggling
up there at the time of year we sent all of this stuff up there to you. We didn’t have any
priority in this. We just sent it to you and maybe you can give us some ideas this
morning on how we can effectively send you issues and you can deal with them up there.
And I think we could start off with that and I’m going to let me Commissioner here talk a
little about that, because he and Andy Cheek, they kind of spearheaded this in a sense,
along with others, in doing this. So I’m going to ask Tommy to further make comments
on that because he’s been a proponent of getting these issues where they could be
effected. And we do realize the job that you have and come January it’s very difficult up
there and I know y’all are going, going, going, and I know it’s hard to deal with those
things. But we thought if we started now and kind of lay out an agenda and work on
agendas for ’03, then we would be in good shape once January come along. Tommy, you
have anything to add to that?
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Mr. Boyles: Thank you, Mr. Beard. Just a couple of things I would like to bring
up. I’m going to borrow this just a minute. We met back in December of 2001 and
talked about some things that the Commission wanted to see done. The Commission and
Mayor wanted to see done. And you’ll notice on this, by the time we brought it back to
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the Commission, this was dated January 30, and you’re already two or three weeks into
the session up there. And I will brag for a moment. I had the opportunity to work with
Sen. Cheeks last year, and I know when you get up there, I know the amount of time -- I
talked to Mr. Howard cause we stayed in the same hotel -- but talking about the amount
of time that it takes to get things in the proper form and to get them to Legislative
Council and to get them to do things, to get them prepared and properly presented. And
when you’re up there, as Sen. Cheeks told me so many time, you’re State representatives
up there. You’re concerned with issues that involve the whole State. And sometimes I
just wondered if we could do something to make it a little bit better for you to handle our
proposals and our projects for us. And that’s why back, I guess in April, I suppose, some
of us asked what had happened in the Session because we had some things that were
pretty important, we thought, and I think most of the Commission kind of realized a lot of
that was a great deal of our fault. And so we thought about creating a committee such as
this so that, as Mr. Beard said, we could work together. And that’s our entire purpose in
this. Thank you for letting me make those comments. I think that’s all that I do.
Mr. Beard: And now we’d like to hear from the Legislative Delegation as to
those things that we just mentioned or alluded to you. What are your thoughts on this
type of relationship and working together and doing this at a time, you know, getting far
ahead of the curve so that we won’t be talking about in December or January issues that
you do not have time to really address.
Mr. Howard: I would say the first thing is to prioritize your wishes as soon as
possible, and at that time, we can look at those things that are prioritized, look at prior to
going into Session at the Legislature, perhaps. It is easier to move pre-Legislature, in a
sense, than it is when you get up there and we have the whole State, the whole State to
look at. If you prioritize them, not giving us 25, but give us the top 3 to 5 issues that you
want us to look at. That would give us time, give me time, rather, to look at them
constructively before we get up there.
Mr. Beard: Any of the others?
Mr. Cheeks: I’d just like to commend whoever had the idea we needed more
dialog. Our Chairman, Rep. Connell, has always appointed someone to be the go-
between to represent the City, and then the County when it became that, a representative,
and now a School Board representative. That person has always been the person we
looked to to carry the legislation. And sometimes that person didn’t do her job, just being
perfectly honest with you, cause we would be up there, like you said, in we’re in the
middle of February and hello, we get a phone call from one of y’all we don’t even know
what you’re talking about and we haven’t seen it except when we come down here in the
City-County Building and have a public hearing or go out in south Augusta and have a
public hearing and one of y’all show up or two or three of you come up and say that his
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what we want. I think that by doing this, and you get, like Rep. Howard has said, give us
a list. I don’t care if you’ve got 50 things, items on it, but I would think you ought to
prioritize them. But give to the Delegation, and I’m sure the Chairman is still Chairman
and he will assign priorities to someone to look into. In this case, I feel like it will be one
of the committee members who are put on this committee. And then it would be our
responsibility to apprise the other members of the Delegation and see what their input
was. And as Henry has already stated, the time for us to prepare legislation is in
November and December, not January. January, we have -- I don’t know how many
cities are in the state, but I can tell you how many counties are in the state, and every one
of them has got a wish list and they need every one of our votes. So it makes it a little
difficult. So if we had a priority list and be able to sit down and discuss it and either have
a live type thing from the members of the county government or city government or
municipal government, whatever you want to be called, Commissioners, councilmen,
saying five of us don’t like this idea but six of us like it or 12 of us like it, and give us an
idea of what y’all really want. I think the Delegation will want to do what y’all want us
to do. But again, as I’ve stated for my 30-plus years of serving in the General Assembly,
people that are elected locally are elected to run the government of the local municipality.
Not me. But when they need my help, I’m available, but I am not going out looking for
problems and trouble. I’m only going to try to help solve what’s there in existence. And
if you don’t tell me you think, not as an individual, but collectively as a group, how can I
help you, and I’m saying I commend whomever decided to have a group get together
prior to December and give us, as Henry said, the wish list. And that’s about what it is.
A wish list. You can make it a reality wish if members of the local Delegation are
informed and they know what you’re trying to do and why you’re trying to do it. And I
think you’ll get success from the list. There are no two ways about it. It’s hard to pass
legislation, including local legislation, in the short time frame we have to work. And if
we have it prepared, it’s much easier, especially if we have the legislation prepared. I
don’t think with as much time as it takes for the members of the House of
Representatives, as well as the members of the Senate, you’ve got to remember each one
of those people have numerous cities, numerous counties, boards of education, hospital
authorities -- and I could go on and on -- wanting local legislation. You can’t fill the
calendar up with total local legislation, so I think that’s why Henry has said prioritize
what you really need most so that we can concentrate on getting those out of committee.
You’ve got to remember, it’s not just passing it through us. We’ve are required to get the
signatures, but it has to be approved on by the local Affairs Committee. I think that’s
what y’all call it in the House, also. That’s what we call ours, local Governmental
Affairs, in the Senate. But whatever the name of the committee is, is immaterial. A
Senator or a House member chairs that committee. They first have to get through that
committee. And it’s just like any other local legislation. It has to clear both houses and
then be signed by the Governor. So it’s time consuming. So if y’all come up there with
25 on the wish list and the Board of Education has got 25, and every county and every
city -- and I’ve got nine -- I wouldn’t have time to even read them, much less get them in
and introduce them. That’s why -- I hope I’m not putting words in your mouth, Henry,
that you said, that you set priority of what you really want. And give us an opportunity to
see if we can get it passed. I mean I don’t think there is a member of our Delegation
since I’ve been theresince I started in ’67 that’s never wanted to assist and help
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Richmond County and the City of Augusta. We all wanted to help. Sometimes we’re
each trying to help in our own way, and we had no sounding board, to find out what the
people really wanted. By the people, I’m talking about the elected officials. But I again
commend you for calling a meeting and I would like to say that we need to get the show
on the road and get the wish list in front of us. We’re going to handle it, I mean if this
Delegation [inaudible] appointed by the Chairman, have legislation, then we need to see
what you want and try to get it perfected and get criteria so the total Delegation can have
input and know what we’re doing.
Mr. Beard: Thank you, Sen. Cheeks. George?
Mr. DeLoach: I’d like to echo what Sen. Cheeks said. I’m a strong supporter of
home rule and I hope that most problems y’all can solve here, that probably come up.
But I realize a lot of your requests are appropriation requests. There are situations we’re
living in now, we’re short budgeted, and when we go to the Department Heads to ask for
you for different things, we need more information for, as Henry said, prioritizing. But
we also need a little more information as to why we are arguing for that fund or for that
appropriation. But I think it’s a good idea that we are having these meetings and getting
to know each other a little better. As Don said, I don’t know of anybody that doesn’t
want to help the local government when there is a chance to help them. We’re in a time
now, money-wise it’s short everywhere. But I appreciate it and look forward to working
with this committee.
Mr. Beard: We have Commissioner Williams here [inaudible] and we have the
Speaker and we’re going to give both of them an opportunity to put input into this, too,
and then we’ll make some final [inaudible].
Mr. Williams: Well, I just think, I just wanted to say, you know, I think it’s a
good move that we sit here and talk and we communicate more, communicate more
honestly, as to things that we like to see happen and things we like to see changed and
talk about changes. Change is good, but, I mean, change -- everybody don’t like change.
And I think communication is a big key. And start with this meeting, like this, and if we
continue to do this, I think we are going to have a better working relationship with the
local Legislative officials. I’m in support.
Mr. Beard: Mr. Speaker?
Mr. Connell: Thank you Mr. Commissioner. I’m very happy to be here. You’ve
heard from three appointees [inaudible] special introduction on the third party, seated to
your left, Mr. Commissioner. Mr. Howard has now been appointed Committee Chairman
in the House of Representatives. We are real proud and happy about that. I didn’t know
if you were advised of that or not, but if you would join me in giving Mr. Howard a
round of applause.
(A round of applause is given.)
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Mr. Connell: He’s the first Chairman we’ve had in the House in a long time.
Henry has already spoken, and I’m here to let you know that as Chairman of the
Delegation, I’m very happy to be here with your Commissioners and Ms. Bonner. As
you start having these meetings, I’ll be available if you need me for the couple of months
I’ll still be in office. I see Tommy is laughing over there. We’ve spent a lot of time a
few months ago and I’m very happy he’s been elected to the Commission. Henry is our
new Chairman of the Human Resources Committee in the House and I’m very proud of
him. I’m very pleased that you have started this work, begun a relationship between the
Commission and the Delegation. [inaudible] that you’ve been afforded, I’m sure
[inaudible]. Of course you have the new Delegation [inaudible] appreciate starting,
beginning this dialog and think it is important to the future of our community. It rests in
your hands and the committee’s hands the future of our city and county [inaudible]
working with the Delegation next year. I’ll be here and available, but I don’t think I’ll be
getting that big salary much longer. They promised me a dollar a year, but I haven’t been
getting that. But anyhow, I’m happy to be here and call me if you need me.
Mr. Cheeks: Mr. Chairman or whatever we’re supposed to call you today.
Henry, I went by to check to see if I could get my part of your salary for a chairmanship,
and they told me Jack had already gotten in ahead of me.
(Laughter)
Mr. Cheeks: So all that extra money you get for chairing that committee -- I’m
going to give you what I get for chairing my chair. Congratulations, first, and it is an
honor to be a chairman in the General Assembly, and you do have a good committee, and
I know that [inaudible] chairman.
Mr. Beard: We, too, the Commission and the Mayor, would like to congratulate
you, Henry, on this achievement. We also would like, I personally would like to thank
Jack for his long tenure and service to this county, because he has done an outstanding
job. Let’s give him a hand.
(A round of applause is given.)
Mr. Beard: And we always respect the wisdom that he has brought back to this
county, and as they say, the bacon that he and the rest of you brought home to Augusta,
because all of y’all have done an outstanding job in seeing that we have become a focal
point as far as the State is concerned of getting things back to the county. And we
appreciate that under your leadership, Jack. You’ve done an outstanding job over the
years, and we still want you for your wisdom, so please feel free to participate even after
November. We know you’ve got a few more months.
Mr. Connell: At the same salary, a dollar a year.
(Laughter)
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Mr. Beard: Okay. And now we have our Mayor. Would you like to have some
comments?
Mr. Mayor: Thank you, Lee, I appreciate that. It’s important that we have this
dialog early, as everyone has said, because there are some issues which cost us money, if
we don’t get them dealt with, and I’m referring specifically to the Bill about evictions.
That costs us about $38,000 a year and quite a bit of chaos. So issues like that, we need
to get to you early, and we’ll try to get them to you already in the approved form so you
can introduce them into legislation pretty [inaudible]. We are certainly willing to work
with the other consolidated governments, as some of the legislation certainly applies to
just the consolidated governments and it might be easier to pass it. We’ll be glad to work
that angle of it, just getting some of these Bills through. But we do look forward to
working with you. We had a couple of items that were sent over by the Commission,
which I think, Mr. Chairman, we ought to get a feel for today to see whether these are
issues that the Delegation wants to deal with so we can get them back on our agenda if
they’re not going to go to the Legislative agenda, and that’s on the hiring and firing
power for the Administration. A couple of members of the Delegation said last session
that that is a home rule issue, not their issue. The other is respect to the future of the
Coliseum Authority. We ought to see whether they have any interest in dealing with that;
if not, we’ll --
Mr. Beard: Well, Mr. Mayor, I wasn’t going to get into that today. We said it
was an organization meeting and what I’m about to suggest now is that we meet back, if
this is agreeable with this group, to meet back in September and give Mr. Cheek and Mr.
Boyles and myself, with input from the Mayor and other Commissioners, if we could get
some type of prioritized list that we want to consider at that time, and then deal with
those with this committee. And I think hopefully if they will accept this sometime in
September, we can set a date now. Is that too early or too late to come back and let’s put
some things on the table that we need to discuss and see how you feel about that at that
time and everybody will have had a chance to kind of go over, you know, before the
session began? And I’m just wondering about some time in the latter part of September.
I notice most of you are saying October we should have what we want on the table. But I
think we need a time to go back and kind of -- and this committee of the Commissioners
get input from the other Commissioners as to what we want and how we want to
prioritize this and have it some time the latter part of September to bring it back to you
and we sit at the table and discuss it. This is what the committee had in mind when we
talked about it.
Mr. Mayor: The Administrator issue, the Delegation, these two members have
told me, and I think they’ve told the Commissioners, that the Administrator issue is a
home rule issue. And I don’t know that we need to put this thing off and spin our wheels.
There’s no sense in putting it on the priority list or even talking about it with the
Legislative Delegation if they insist that it’s an issue we need to deal with. Take it off
this table and get it back in the room next door.
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Mr. Beard: Well, I think it’s been said that it’s a home rule thing and that we
would have to deal with it here. So we would not have that. If that’s a home rule thing,
we would not have that in September when we meet back.
Mr. Mayor: I think they can tell us that today, Mr. Beard, whether it’s a home
rule thing.
Mr. Beard: Senator?
Mr. Cheeks: It’s not what the Delegation says, because we want to do what y’all
want us to do, and we want to do more than that what the people in this county want us to
do. I have two separate letters, and both of them are addressed to me, but Jack is
Chairman when I requested this and he had requested this. He has the same letters. He
doesn’t have his with him because he didn’t expect it to come up, but I did expect this to
be discussed today. The Legislative Council simply says we do not, or we did not, in the
Charter we prepared, the Legislature prepared to create the combined government, we did
not have an Administrator mentioned. And the Administrator of this government is
created by the local authority, on which one, two, three of you sit. The Administrator and
the Attorney. I have discussed this with the County Attorney, Mr. Wall, on numerous
occasions. And we have no authority unless we were to go back and change the rules by
which you’re playing the game. You have total authority by 2/3 vote to change that rule
that we passed in the local Legislative Act creating this. Now the only way we can tackle
that is if we were, and I say we meaning the Delegation, with a majority, were to decide
if y’all are not doing something and the people demanded it, then we could go back and
reopen it. But again, it’s my opinion, and it’s not in this letter, it would mean that the
people in this county would have to approve it, because they have to approve the laws
that we pass that you’re now operating under, and I don’t believe that we as a delegation
can just change what we have allowed the people to say and put into the more or less
what we consider to be the Constitution. I’m saying it’s up to y’all to do something
under 2/3 vote. Now if y’all were to tell us that you can’t do that and asked us, then we
can as a Delegation, according to the second letter I got, we can go back and we can
change it but we’re going to bring it back, have to bring it back before the people. I don’t
think we have the right to change the legislation, local legislation, creating the Act that
y’all are now operating under, which is the combined government. Because the people
voted on that, as well as the Delegation. I have it in print. I don’t necessarily think we
need to put it out. All I’m trying to say emphatically, understand the Delegation would
have to go back and revisit. And y’all can do it without that. Y’all can do it without
taking it to the people. We are going to have to take it back before the voters, the people.
Y’all don’t. Because we put it in there that by 2/3 vote of the Commission, you could
change any part of the governing authority that we set up. And we knew when we did
that, the governing authority that we set up was not perfect, that there was lots of errors,
and that’s why it’s put in there where y’all could change it without going back to the
people. We, the Delegation, have to go back to the people. I hope I’ve made that as clear
as I can make it, because we argued, beat this dog around last year for a whole session.
Didn’t get anything else done, I think, because we were beating this one issue around.
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And I think each person just about had their own version about how to do it that was
serving at the time. So we don’t need that again. Y’all need to address it.
Mr. Beard: I’m in total agreement with you. I think this qualify, whatever we are
supposed to do there, and that was one of the reasons we, most of us, understood that it
was a home rule thing and that we would have to deal with it, and there’s no need to
bring that to this group that’s trying to work on other [inaudible]. So I didn’t have any
intentions of bringing that to you today because I understood it was a home rule situation
and that we would have to deal locally with it. And I’m glad you qualified that today in
that letter, Senator. So can we get back maybe a time in September, the latter part of
September, that we can come back and the issues that would be germane to, affecting
this county, and we will try to, this committee, will try to organize so that we can put
these on the table and we can discuss them with y’all so that when y’all get up there in
January you will know, then you can direct us if we have them in the proper form, if we
need to get them in another form or whatever we need to do, and that was the whole
purpose of this meeting today, to get some type of organization going here and some type
of dialog so we wouldn’t be -- we would be a little proactive instead of reacting and
wasting, as you said, a lot of time on things we cannot effect in January. So could we
kind of set a date? I’m going to throw out some dates here. The latter part of September,
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maybe the week of the 23 through the 27 there? What’s today? Thursday. Maybe this
would be a good time.
Mr. Cheeks: Mr. Beard, if I may suggest. Most of us have a calendar we don’t
carry in our pockets, with our schedules [inaudible] It really gets cloudy, and I know
Henry is going to get more now that he’s chairman of a committee. He’s going to be at
more meetings than he realizes. So I would suggest that you say you want to have a
meeting in the latter part of September, and y’all check your calendars and I don’t know
who is going to coordinate this. Apparently you’re setting it up and you’re doing it and
that’s fine. But Henry needs to know and I need to know and George needs to know, and
we need to know and we need to see if we can meet and then see if y’all can meet at the
same time. We’re not going to set a date here this morning. We’ll have to go back and
look at our calendars and we need someone to coordinate through.
Mr. Beard: Ms. Bonner.
Mr. Cheeks: And I can say we have these dates open and Henry can say I have
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these dates open and we’ll look at the latter part of September from the 15 forward and
then she can say all right, six of you have such-and-such a date, would you all agree to
meet that date and we can say yes. It’s going to take a few phone calls back and forth
because we are never going to have six days that each of us have 11:30 free unless we
make an effort to do just that.
Mr. Beard: Good suggestion, Senator. Ms. Bonner will coordinate that process
for the last couple of weeks in September to get us a date that we can meet. Any other
comments?
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The Clerk: On behalf of Mr. Cheek, he asked that I apologize to the Committee.
He was unavoidably detained at work and he couldn’t make it this morning, and he
wanted to offer his apologies and he looks forward to meeting.
Mr. Beard: And we have joining us late Commissioner Hankerson. Is there
anything you’d like to ask before we adjourn?
Mr. Hankerson: I just appreciate we are coming together and we are having
dialog today and getting some things done. I don’t have any comments. I was upstairs,
I’m trying to get sidewalks in my community.
Mr. Beard: Good luck to you.
(Laughter)
Mr. Beard: Any other comments? Again, we want to thank you for coming. I
think we’ve made progress here and I think we open dialog we all can work together and
come out with what is best for the City of Augusta. Thank you again.
Mr. ??: Excuse me a minute.
Mr. Beard: Yes, sir?
Mr. ??: I’m still confused. That’s nothing too unusual. You’re chairing this
meeting. Are you chairing every meeting? I mean who is going to be the coordinator for
council or for the committee or what? We need a chairman or we need someone who
will say we will meet or not? Ms. Bonner don’t need that responsibility thrown on her.
She can tell us these are the dates y’all have chosen. And we need somebody to say we
are going to have a meeting such-and-such a day.
Mr. Beard: We can elect a chairman now.
Mr. ??: I’m just saying somebody needs to be delegated.
Mr. Beard: I was chairing it for this particular meeting. Now whether you want
me to continue doing this or not.
Mr. ??: It’s fine. You can continue chairing.
Mr. ??: That’s fine, but we don’t need outsiders making motions in our meetings.
If you want a motion made, I’ll make the motion, you be the chairman, but we don’t need
people not sitting on this committee of six.
Mr. Beard: Right.
Mr. ??: Be telling us who and how to run our meetings.
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Mr. Beard: That said, we now can make that choice of Chairman now of this
committee, and I think it would be better for the entire committee to make that. I just
chaired this committee for this particular meeting because somebody needed to bring it
together, and we’ll open the floor for a nomination for chairman.
Mr. Boyles: Mr. Acting Chairman, I guess -- I feel like, I feel like, I feel like
since the emphasis of most of this is going to be on the Legislative Delegation, I feel that
a member of the Delegation should act as Chairman. That’s just been my feelings all
along, and I’ll nominate Sen. Cheeks.
Mr. ??: I’ll second.
Mr. Beard: Are there any other nominations?
Mr. ??: I thought that you had been nominated.
Mr. Beard: I have no problem with it, Senator. All I want to do is get us together.
The only reason we were doing it, because we are going to have to get the agenda
together, and that’s why I thought, we thought it should come from the Commission, but
it’s coming from the Assembly, it’s okay, either way. And we have the nomination of
Sen. Cheeks for Chairman of this delegation, I guess we could call it delegation. All in
favor, let it be known by the usual sign of voting. Opposing?
Mr. Cheek: Let me suggest this, then, said you’ve said I’m Chairman. I would
like very much for one of you three, you, Andy or Tommy, to be the person I’m going to
contact. Y’all are going to be talking amongst your three and you three are going to be
talking to every member, and then we come together, the total delegation as a body, from
the Commission side and the Legislative side, to sit in our meetings. But our meetings
will be conducted by those that have been appointed, until their replacement has been
appointed if one of them wants to get off. And with that, I think that’s the way we would
operate. And whoever y’all designate, and I know I’m going to keep in touch with Henry
and I’m going to keep in touch with George, and tell them what you are telling me,
whoever, but I’d like for it to be coordination and not from three of you. [inaudible]
Mr. ??: [inaudible]
Mr. Cheek: I second that, then. Then you and I will coordinate.
Mr. Beard: Okay, that’s fine.
Mr. Cheek: All in favor, say aye. There are no nos. That’s the way I like
elections.
(Laughter)
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Mr. Hankerson: Am I permitted to ask a question?
Mr. Cheek: Sure.
Mr. Hankerson: I just wanted to be clear with it when you said the total
delegation, Commissioners are invited to the meeting, so I wanted to make sure that if
I’m invited that I won’t say anything out of order, from what I heard this morning. So
will we be able to make any input or make any comments? Explain that because
[inaudible].
Mr. Cheeks: I think if you’ve got something you want brought up, you need to
bring it up with your three Commissioners first and then they should bring it to us, not an
individual in the audience. If we do, we’ll never get to the business. If the Delegation
has got something they want to bring up to take back to y’all, we should get it from the
Delegation, they should bring it to us, the three of us, and then we bring it to y’all. We
don’t need to be back and forth at each other. What have you got, 12 Commissioners out
there? Ten? 12? What is it?
Mr. Beard: Ten.
Mr. Cheeks: Ten? And what is it now, 6, 7, 8 of us? You’ve never going to get
anything accomplished. Six people that have been appointed run your meeting. We
certainly want input from everybody because if we don’t have input, we haven’t done
anything. But we don’t need, when we’re sitting there debating -- yes, we like to hear
input, but you’re not going to have a vote. So six people that are sitting here that’s got a
vote, that’s what going to happen if y’all come up here and say we want to create a new
bathroom down the street, that is not a problem. We don’t have that. That’s y’all’s
problem. And I just would say that’s out of order. But if you want to talk about your
government and how it should be running and what’s going on, we’ll listen to you
forever. At least I will.
Mr. Hankerson: I just want to make sure I’m hearing the same thing. I’m hearing
two things from you. First you’re saying that we come and we speak to the delegation of
anything concerning the meeting and then I’m hearing you say, in a paradox, that you’re
saying that if we want to make some comments. I just want to know -- I don’t have -- I
mean I just want to make sure that if I attend a meeting, and my presence, am I supposed
to be muted, I won’t make any comments or anything while I’m there, then I make that
decision whether I want to come to the meeting or not, if I’ve got nothing else more
important to do or just rely on one of the delegates to tell me. That’s the only thing. I
just want to know because in the previous meeting --
Mr. Cheek: [inaudible]
Mr. Hankerson: Let me finish. In the previous meeting that I’ve been attending,
since coming on in January, we’ve had a right to -- whether it was a right, it was allowed
to make a comment and say well, we’re not on the committee, but, you know -- so I just
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want to make sure cause I don’t want to be out of place. And if I’m here, I want to be
productive, and if not I’ll be somewhere else. So I want to make my decision whether I
would attend as being a part of the Commission that you said we were invited. So I’m
just saying that to be clear, so I’ll be right, cause I don’t want anybody to embarrass me if
I get ready to say something.
Mr. Cheek: It will be my responsibility to notify the press, [inaudible]. The press
will be invited and then it’s up to Lee to invite the County Commission. It’s up to me to
invite the Delegation. Now I also want comment, but we are only going to take up at
these meetings issues that we have set forth and put on the agenda. There will be an
agenda after today. And we’re not going to discuss anything else at that meeting other
than as information. Not to take action on. If you want to discuss it, we can discuss
anything you want to discuss, but the committee is going to have a calendar and as
agenda and we’re going to abide by it. As far as listening to anyone else discussing
anything else they want, I would never tell a person they couldn’t speak. But I don’t
think that we want to take action on something we haven’t looked at, something we
haven’t had prior knowledge of, and I don’t think I want to put my five members and
myself in the position of having to pass judgment on something that someone stands up
in the audience, regardless of who it is, and just brings up in the [inaudible] sky, I have
no audience what they were going to talk about. I’m not going to ask my members to
commit themselves to do anything on that. We’ll say we will take it under advisement
for a future meeting. Am I real clear?
Mr. Hankerson: You are my Senator now, Senator. I respect what you say.
Mr. Cheeks: Thank you. [inaudible] I hope that meets well with everyone. If
not, meet me after the meeting.
[MEETING ADJOURNED]
Lena J. Bonner
Clerk of Commission
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