Bibb County Commission Chairman Sam Hart left for Washington, D.C., on Tuesday between the government’s committee meetings and its night meeting. That put Joe Allen in charge — for the first time in his 19 years as a commissioner.
Allen, the vice chairman, seemed proud of how fast the county business got done, and he beamed as he signed a county ordinance cracking down on the city’s illicit massage parlors.
Separately, Chief Administrative Officer Steve Layson pointed out some unusual wording on the commissioners’ agenda: “Consideration of adoption of County ordinance respecting Massage Parlors.” Layson said that was meant more as an ordinance considering massage parlors. Commissioner Lonzy Edwards said the ordinance, in fact, disrespected the massage parlors.
For the record, we’re told that Hart’s at a National Association of County Officials leadership conference.
Sign of the times
Bibb County commissioners turned down a request to put a sign in a county right-of-way for the Central Georgia Inpatient Hospice Home, which is being built on low-lying land near a sharp curve on Peake Road. Commissioners said the business must explore other options first.
Porcine parking
The big Boat Crawl at Fish N’ Pig is coming in two weeks, and Bibb County hammered out an unusual deal. County officials have helped the restaurant make the most of its limited parking areas, but they say there just wouldn’t be enough and don’t want people parking illegally along the busy and dark Moseley Dixon Road. So instead, the county’s providing free parking inside Claystone Park, and a Fish N’ Pig-sponsored pontoon boat will serve as a short distance water taxi across Lake Tobesofkee. Layson told county commissioners if they began charging for parking for the event, they’d continue the problem of people parking along the road.
The restaurant is hiring an off-duty deputy to keep people from parking on the roadside.
Embedded politics
Macon and Bibb County governments have been fighting over who provides and pays for which services (“service delivery strategy”), and a special purpose local option sales tax vote coming July 20.
Commissioners have begun integrating talks about SPLOST and SDS into many conversations, such as the county sheriff’s budget hearings. But each week, the conversations get a little stranger.
To cooperatively apply for some U.S. Department of Justice grant money, Macon and Bibb County need to agree on how to split the money, which serves people in the city and unincorporated parts of the county. It’s been a 50-50 split. Macon Chief Administrative Officer Thomas Thomas e-mailed his county counterpart, Layson, with a proposal: 80-20, in the city’s favor.
Edwards was not amused: “Get in there and straighten it out, Layson. You deal with him.”
An emotional moment
In the last 10 years, Houston County Commission Chairman Ned Sanders has presided over heated meetings and budget woes. He’s been strong over the last year as two of his close political allies have been laid to rest.
But he lost it Tuesday when making a presentation to change the name of a street.
Tuesday morning, in the commission’s chambers at the courthouse in Perry, he helped Operations Manager Tommy Stalnaker in announcing the changes, including three-tenths of a mile of Old Perry Road being renamed Bennie F. McGee Court, about one-tenth of a mile of Ga. 127 renamed Jerry Davis Road, and a part of “Old Old Perry Road,” as Sanders called it, being named for longtime county employee Van Herrington.
“I’ve seen him out there in those big old boots he wears,” Sanders said while presenting a duplicate sign of Van Herrington Court to Herrington and his family.
Then, Sanders turned red in the face, and the waterworks began.
“We’re honored by everything you do,” he said while shaking Herrington’s hand, struggling to hold back tears.
Seems Sanders is a softy after all.
Wanted: A superintendent who aced English
Bibb County school board member Lynn Farmer wants to make sure that Bibb’s next school superintendent is a great public speaker and coherent writer.
Farmer said she and another board member traveled to an education conference recently attended by superintendents from across the state who spoke to the crowd.
“She and I were appalled,” Farmer said of some of the state’s school leaders who were not so eloquent.
Farmer asked that a national search firm find a superintendent for Bibb who can deliver a message and send an e-mail with subject/verb agreement.
Phil Hansen, the PROACT search firm’s chief operational officer, said applications and face-to-face interviews will weed out candidates with that problem.
“We’ll try to give you a candidate who speaks English,” Hansen assured her.
School administration not top-heavy, McGee says
The Bibb County school system does not have too many administrators in its central office, school officials said while reviewing the budget.
On Thursday, school board member Ella Carter asked if the central office was top-heavy, a perception that some of her constituents have.
“Did administration make any cuts?” Carter also asked during a budget work session.
According to the school district’s 2011 proposed budget, the office of the acting superintendent is spending about $50,000 less than last year, while general administration is budgeted to spend $44,759 less in 2011 than it did in 2010.
“I would have to say that perception is not correct,” interim Superintendent Sylvia McGee said.
According to the school district’s organizational chart, there are seven assistant or deputy superintendents, 22 directors, three coordinators, a community relations worker, a director of risk management and a campus police chief.
An additional five assistant, deputy assistant or coordinator positions are now unfilled and may be on hold, given state cuts.
During its budget work sessions, the school system has not presented, and The Telegraph has not analyzed, the number of central office administrators in Bibb County compared with school districts in Georgia of comparable sizes.
Staff writers Mike Stucka, Marlon A. Walker and Julie Hubbard contributed to this report.
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