Bill to bring Walker County's form of government to vote has now passed state Senate, House

Republican Walker County commissioner candidate Shannon Whitfield, right, talks with David Roden, center, and Stanley Whitfield at an election return party at the Bank of Lafayette's community room on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, in Lafayette, Ga.
Republican Walker County commissioner candidate Shannon Whitfield, right, talks with David Roden, center, and Stanley Whitfield at an election return party at the Bank of Lafayette's community room on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, in Lafayette, Ga.

A bill to bring Walker County's form of government to a vote has now passed both the Georgia Senate and House.

The House voted on the bill, along with other local acts affecting other parts of the state, on Friday, passing it 150-0. The bill also passed the Senate on Wednesday, 52-1. The lone holdout, state Sen. Bill Heath, R-Bremen, said he only voted no because he didn't care for a different local act that was packaged with the bill.

Mike Cameron, the Rossville precinct chairman for Walker County's Republican Party, said the bill still needs to go through the Senate again before it lands on the governor's desk, but all the maneuvering is just a formality at this point.

"The bill's a good first step in bringing Walker County to a more responsible form of government," said Cameron, who helped draft some of the details on the issue.

If passed, voters in Walker County will be able to decide whether they want to move from a sole commissioner style of governing to a board of commissioners, which is the common form of local government. Right now, Walker County is one of the only counties in Georgia that has a sole commissioner making the day-to-day decisions.

Chattanooga's surrounding areas include two other sole commissioners: Chattooga County's Jason Winters and Murray County's Greg Hogan.

Voters would take up the issue in a referendum in 2018. If they approve the change, they will then vote on their first board in 2020. The board will consist of five members: four who are elected from their home districts, as well as a chairperson elected by everyone in the county.

One region would cover the north part of the county, around Rossville. Another region would run down the east side, much of it on Lookout Mountain. Another would be in the center, near Chickamauga. And the fourth would occupy the eastern part of LaFayette, running toward Armuchee.

Like in Dade County, the chairperson would run the day-to-day operations but would need approval from at least two other board members before spending amounts greater than $25,000. The chairperson would also submit an annual budget, to be approved by a majority of the board.

While the four regional commissioners would make $12,000 a year, the chairperson would make $500 more than the next highest paid elected official. In 2016, according to the Department of Community Affairs, that would have been Sheriff Steve Wilson, whose salary was listed at $103,000.

Cameron and some other politically active residents have pushed for a board of commissioners for years, in part out of frustration with former Commissioner Bebe Heiskell, whom they believed was racking up too much debt. In 2014, the blog LaFayette Underground started an online petition, asking the local delegation of representatives and Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, to put the referendum on the ballot, so they could vote on changing the government structure.

The petition earned 1,800 signatures, but the lawmakers did not draft a bill. Mullis told the Times Free Press in February 2015 that he didn't feel the concept was popular.

"In 15 years in office, I've talked to 10, 12 people about [the sole commissioner form of government]," he said at the time. "In 15 years. Does that sound like a mandate to you? Does that sound like a large, grassroots movement to you? Not me. Not one [of the petitioners] has had the decency, the courage, to sit down with any of us in the Senate delegation."

In October 2015, the Walker County Republican Party voted to put a non-binding referendum on the issue on the upcoming primary election ballot. This would allow them to take the pulse of voters. Last May, 75 percent of the about 6,000 voters who came to the polls said they supported switching from a sole commissioner to a board.

Mullis, Rep. Steve Tarvin, R-Chickamauga, and Rep. John Deffenbaugh, R-Lookout Mountain, then introduced the local act in Atlanta this year.

Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.

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