Bibb County Commission chairman candidate Tom Wagoner said Thursday he’d make the most of his one year in office if elected.
Wagoner, a Republican who hopes to hold the county’s highest office before Macon and Bibb County governments are consolidated in January 2014, said in a news conference he plans to bring his business skills to cut the county’s budget by up to $1 million. He also wanted to build an interim animal shelter, saying that would cut euthanasias before a permanent $3 million animal shelter is finished in the next 12 to 18 months.
Wagoner did not say Thursday where the money for an interim shelter would come from or how much that shelter would cost.
Wagoner also took aim at incumbents without mentioning their names. He called for the county’s ethics code in its policy manual to be revisited.
“They break more rules on page 12 and 13 (of the policy manual) than anybody ever thought of,” Wagoner said of the ethics code.
Commission Chairman Sam Hart, a Democrat who faces Wagoner in November, could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
Wagoner also vowed to televise commission meetings and eliminate a three-minute period for public speakers addressing the commission, saying a chairman should be able to keep order in the meetings.
During a Thursday news conference, he was accompanied by one current commission candidate, Robert Abbott. Wagoner acknowledged he didn’t have the minimum three votes yet to change county policies to enact his plan, but said he could convince other commissioners.
“I’m a pretty good salesman. I’m a pretty good leader,” Wagoner said,
Current commissioners have struggled to cut even small line items in the budget, and a majority rejected calls by Abbott’s political opponent, Joe Allen, to televise the meetings.
To contact writer Mike Stucka, call 744-4251.
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