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closeOn Tuesday evening, Macon Mayor Robert Reichert unveiled a long-awaited plan to lay off 31 employees and eliminate 36 open positions.
It appears he can do that, at least on an “indefinite” basis, without council approval. That’s the city attorney’s opinion and was the message the council itself sent in August when it failed to approve a measure that would have blocked any layoffs or furloughs without council approval.
There could still be a legal challenge, but at the moment it appears Reichert’s layoffs will go through without the council having any say over them.
Contrast that with this: The council’s Public Safety Committee also met Tuesday and heard a request from the Macon Police Department. The department wants to make its public information officer position a civilian one instead of using a sworn officer for the job, as it has in the past.
Ten of 15 council members attended that meeting. Eight of them spoke on the issue. Debate lasted quite some time, and in the end the committee voted for the change.
The matter will go before the full council for final approval next week, assuming the council’s Ordinances and Resolutions Committee votes to put the measure on the council’s agenda.
To summarize: If you want to make a relatively minor change to a single position in the Macon Police Department, you’ll need the city attorney’s office to draft an ordinance, you’ll have to get that ordinance referred to a council committee, the committee needs to debate it, then the committee has to pass it. The next week, another committee has to put the item on the full council’s agenda, and then the full council has to approve it.
Then you can hire a spokesperson for the department.
If you want to lay off 31 people across a range of city departments all it takes is the mayor’s signature.
EDWARDS: NO WELFARE FOR BAD PARENTS
Each year before the state Legislature goes into session in January, Macon area legislators sit down with local government and business leaders to talk about what everyone wants to get out of the session.
Generally that boils down to one word, albeit parsed into a lot of different wish lists: money. But this year’s session veered into some interesting philosophical territory this week as frustrations from state budget cuts, struggling local schools and a generation of troubled youths boiled over.
Bibb County Commissioner Lonzy Edwards, an attorney, preacher and son of a single mother, bemoaned the bad parenting that leaves so many children angry and under-educated. He started pushing state legislators to address the situation and called for legislation that would force parents to get more involved in their children’s lives.
“And if they don’t show up, by George, we ought to cut off their (welfare) checks,” Edwards said.
“You’re not serious,” replied state Sen. Robert Brown, who cautioned Edwards against assuming that problem children come from families on welfare.
“I am,” Edwards replied. “Why are we subsidizing a system that feeds the corrections system?
“Citizenship obligations ought to be assumed, first and foremost, at home,” Edwards said. “Come up with something.”
Marjorie Almand, who heads the local Bibb County Department of Family and Children Services that oversees food stamp and welfare check distribution, was in the room. Her frustrations boiled over a bit as she talked about the need for government-sponsored after-school programs to keep kids out of trouble.
“Why in the hell can’t we do an after-school program in Macon?” Almand asked. “We’re losing (children) every afternoon.”
But Almand also noted that, several years ago, her department ran a pilot program called “Education First” that sounds a lot like what Edwards was proposing.
Basically, DFACS monitored local families on welfare to make sure the children did their homework and parents went to teacher-parent conferences, Almand said. If not, they lost some of their welfare funding.
“We found that parents were responsive,” Almand told The Telegraph later in the week. “We sanctioned very few people.”
BIBB SCHOOL BOARD MORE TRANSPARENT?
The Bibb County school board is considering subscribing to eBoard solutions to put their board meetings, school system policies and other documents online for the public.
Diane Sandifer with the Georgia School Boards Association, which runs eBoard solutions, gave a presentation to board members earlier this week.
Among the state’s 180 school systems, 160 subscribe to at least one component of the online program. Other state agencies such as Bright from the Start and the state’s Board of Regents use it, she said.
Currently, Bibb just uses elaw, which gives advice on Georgia school law.
“It’s meant to be one place for you to go for everything to have good governance,” she said.
A year’s subscription is $17,343. The system would be able to post its strategic plans, news, calendar items, student performance and even individual board members’ votes for “transparency and very effective communication,” she said.
Bibb board members agreed it would be good to use but would require someone in the system to manually feed data into the program.
Forsyth County schools Superintendent Buster Evans, who formerly ran Bleckley County schools, is a top user of the program, Sandifer said.
“Forsyth and Buster Evans are using it and running with it,” she said.
NEEDED: THICK SKIN
During the recent education sales tax campaign, Bibb County schools Superintendent Sharon Patterson said she didn’t take some criticism about the school system’s leadership to heart.
Some opposers questioned whether to continue to provide an extra penny of sales tax to the county at a time when they argued test scores aren’t stellar.
“I take my work seriously. The community sees evidence of that,” she said recently. “I’ve been through two redistrictings and had death threats.”
Patterson said she got through those efforts just fine.
“The rank and file citizens know we are doing good work, or we wouldn’t have had the (ELOST) passed,” she said.
POLITICAL WHEEL TURNS ON HOTEL
Wednesday night brought a reunion of sorts for former Macon City Council members as the city’s new convention center hotel held a grand opening party.
Some of those former members lost their seats, at least in part, because of they supported building the hotel. Construction was backed by city bonds, and many voters wanted the city to build on the other side of the street from the convention center, instead of adjacent to the center where the Macon Marriott City Center hotel now stands.
But Wednesday night felt like vindication for those who supported the plan. People “oohed” and “aahed” throughout the party and agreed the Marriott is by far the city’s nicest hotel.
Former Councilwomen Willette Hill-Chambliss and Brenda Youmas were pleased, and neither would rule out another run for office. It seems the hotel has gone from political third rail to the hottest thing in town.
“We made the right decisions,” Youmas said.
“It was worth it,” said Hill-Chambliss, who probably took more political heat than just about anyone over the hotel. Current Council President Miriam Paris voted against the plan, then won Hill-Chambliss’ citywide council seat.
Former Councilwoman Filomena Mullis, who voted for the hotel in 2007 then didn’t seek re-election, also attended Wednesday’s party. She said the hotel is a “legacy” for the nine members who voted for it.
“It’s like you open a door and there’s your dream,” Mullis said. “You can just walk through.”
And former Mayor Jack Ellis attended the party, looking younger and lighter now that he’s nearly two years removed from office. He acknowledged the tense debate that surrounded the hotel deal and said he was glad “cooler heads prevailed.”
Then he leaned on an old adage about the legislative process resembling sausage production.
No one wants to watch that, he said. “But we kind of all like sausage sometimes.”
Telegraph staff writers Travis Fain and Julie Hubbard contributed to this report.
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