Only Non-Incumbent to File
Tammy Gilland became the first non-incumbent to qualify for the July 20 Oconee County primary today when she turned in her paperwork to run for Post 3 on the Oconee County Board of Commissioners.
Post 2 Commissioner John Daniell qualified on Monday, as did Kim Argo, who holds Post 3 on the Oconee County Board of Education. Mack Guest, Post 2 member of the Board of Education, qualified yesterday.
Margaret Hale, who is the current Post 3 commissioner, has until noon on Friday to qualify. She announced at the Feb. 16 town hall meeting of the Board of Commissioners that she intended to seek reelection.
Only two seats on the Board of Commissioners and two seats on the Board of Education are up for election this year. Each board has five members.
Gilland, Daniell, Argo and Guest have filed to run in the Republican primary. Hale has run as a Republican in the past.
Gilland indicated her intention to run for the Board of Commissioners on April 1 when she filed a campaign contribution disclosure report indicating that she has raised $4,685 toward her campaign. She noted on that report that she planned to seek the Post 3 commissioner spot.
Gilland had been accepting campaign contributions and was required to file the campaign contribution report.
A senior director in the Development Office at the University of Georgia, Gilland lives at 1010 Hardwood court off Elder road near North High Shoals.
To qualify, Gilland, as well as Daniell, had to pay the $594 filing fee, which is 3 percent of the $19,814 base salary for a commissioner. Daniell, the lowest paid commissioner, actually makes $20,998 because of cost of living adjustments to that base.
Argo and Guest paid only $54 as a filing fee, which is 3 percent of the $1,800 paid to members of the Board of Education.
State law sets the filing fees based on the base salaries.