Wednesday, July 17, 2002

A recent letter from Mike Wheat's campaign referred to the commissioner's job as being a part-time policy-making position requiring only three or four meetings a month.

I had never thought much about what our commissioners actually did, so I made a few phone calls. I was a little surprised. Please don't take this as an attack, but if former Mayor Wheat thinks being a county commissioner is a policy-making job requiring a few meetings a month, I have to question his qualifications for the job.

I would encourage him to call and talk to any of the county commissioners, the county manager or stop by the commission office and ask what the job entails. I would also encourage voters to think twice before voting for someone who apparently hasn't done the minimal amount of research I did before he applied for the job.

Fayette County has a commission-administrative form of government. The commission is responsible for both legislative (policy making) and executive functions of government.

The statements from Mike Wheat's campaign did a great disservice to all of our commissioners. We have a community of almost 100,000 people and just based on the time they have spent answering my questions, talking with citizens is time-consuming.

I was told the county chairman serves on seven or eight different committees and boards as part of his or her job, some requiring monthly meetings in Atlanta to represent the county. Some of the other commissioners also serve on local committees and boards as part of their job. The commissioners have to attend conferences and overnight meetings on occasion, too.

Prior to going to one of those "three or four meetings," the commissioners visit properties, talk with individuals and companies coming before the board, do research on various issues and address legal matters. I would have a serious problem if our commissioners showed up at a meeting and voted without doing some research on issues involving the future of our county, not to mention huge sums of taxpayer's money.

Based on what is involved in helping with my company's budget, the county's budget process alone must take a phenomenal amount of time. I simply don't remember all the things I learned they do on a daily basis.

I hate to do this to our already busy part-time commissioners, but I would encourage anyone who wonders about the job to call and talk with them before swallowing the view of the job presented by Mike Wheat's campaign lock, stock and barrel.

I would again encourage Mr. Wheat to look into the job a little closer and learn a bit more about how it works and what is involved, unless he already knows and is just trying to dupe the pubic into thinking that's all the job entails to create an issue. If I'm not mistaken, the pay raise system was put into place way back when to avoid just what Mr. Wheat is trying to do, which is to politicize the issue.

Apologies to the Mike Wheat campaign if stating my opinion is construed as an "attack." I perceived your campaign's statements inferring that Commissioner Dunn and the commissioners didn't earn their salaries as an attack and felt the need to learn a little and respond.

Lisa Brown

labrown1@bellsouth.net

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