EDITORIAL: The nature of boards and authorities will not change soon

Promises, promises. Rep. Nikki Randall has been in the Legislature long enough to realize that her colleagues will promise the moon if her vote is needed on legislation they want passed. That was the case in 2012 when the Bibb delegation was striving to get House Bill 1171, which led to the consolidation of the city of Macon and Bibb County, through the General Assembly.

Now Randall wants the delegation to revisit some of the issues as promised. Both the city and the county had hordes of boards and authorities. You name it, we have a board that oversees it or an authority that controls it. Randall would like the power of appointment of those boards spread out. Most of the appointments come from the mayor's office. Some have to be approved by the commission, some do not.

There doesn't seem to be a big appetite from her colleagues who made the promises to reopen the discussion. Rep. Bubber Epps, R-Dry Branch, chairman of the local delegation, said there wasn't time this year to look at the issue. Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, wants to hear from the folks at home before making any decisions. Here's the translation: Fuhgeddaboudit.

In politics you need something to bargain with and, quite frankly, the Democrats in the General Assembly have no chips on their side of the table. The Republicans aren't going to deal because they don't have to.

Our concern isn't political. If such appointments were nominated by the nine commission members, how would that work? Randall does have a point. Many of the same people end up on various boards and authorities. Part of the reason may be the shallow depth of the pool of people who are willing to give up their time for free only to be vilified in the public space. Ask any Planning & Zoning Commission member.

This story was originally published January 27, 2016 at 9:43 PM with the headline "EDITORIAL: The nature of boards and authorities will not change soon ."