Oconee County Board of Commissioners Candidates Differ, Agree at GOP Candidate Forum

Both Like Transparency

Oconee County Board of Commissioners candidates Tammy Gilland and Margaret Hale used the GOP Candidate Forum last week to showcase differences on approaches to regional development and similarities on views about the county courthouse and last summer’s redrawing of the county’s organizational chart.

Gilland once again said she favored cooperation between Oconee County and Athens-Clarke County on development.

Hale said the two counties already are working closely enough together and that the proposed regional plan is not good for Oconee County.

Gilland said she has come to the conclusion that the reorganization ordinance passed by the commissioners last August has worked.

Hale, who was a proponent of those changes, said the same.

Hale said she doesn’t feel that there is any need at this time to move the courthouse.

Gilland agreed.

Neither Hale nor Gilland said a move to a county manager form of government is needed.

“I do support regional economic development because Oconee County is not an island,” Gilland said. “We want to make sure Oconee County is at the table...I think it is very important that we remain competitive and that we work regionally with the communities in our area.”

“The regional economic development plan that was presented to the board for consideration,” Hale said, “talked about taking our economic office out of the county, merging it with Clarke County.” She said such a move ignored differences between the economic development offices of the two counties.

“I spent the last couple of weeks talking to a lot of people,” Gilland said. “They say the county government is running efficiently. It is transparent.”

“I see no need to change the government,” she added. “I know there is talk out there ‘that if you elect her, she is going to turn everything over. She is going to change the government.’ No, I’m not.”

“As far as moving the courthouse,” she said. “No.”

“I am glad the board moved toward transparency,” Hale said. “I can say as a commissioner that the information I receive is daily. It is on time. I know what’s going on. I don’t have to read an issue that’s in the paper.”

“I don’t see the need right now to move the courthouse,” she said. “If a decision comes that that has to be done, it will be done publicly.”

Local blogger Johnathan McGinty, who also writes a column for the Athens Banner-Herald, stirred the pot last week regarding the regional economic development proposal for Athens-Clarke and Oconee County.

McGinty, a proponent of the proposed regional development plan, in a June 18 posting on his blog Beyond the Trestle quoted Gilland as saying in an email to him that the argument that Oconee County would lose its economic development office is “a fear tactic” that isn't rooted in the reality of the existing proposals.

McGinty quoted Gilland as saying that she had spoken with several members from both the Athens-Clarke County Chamber of Commerce and the Oconee County Chamber of Commerce and that the location of the joint regional development office is negotiable.

The Oconee Athens-Clarke Regional Economic Development Task Force wrote on pages 8 and 9 of its May 21, 2008, report that it was proposing “merging the financial resources of the current economic development efforts of both counties...

“The merger of these bodies is an essential step to drive efficiencies, unify marketing efforts, re-engage at the state level, maximize individual skills, and provide a ‘one stop shop’ for state leaders and others interested in the region,” the report said.

“In order to develop a one-stop shop for business recruitment and development, the task force recommends that the new organization initially be physically co-located with the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce. As the organization matures, the board would decide if a different location or additional locations are needed.”

The GOP forum was the third such face-off of the candidates, and Gilland and Hale seem to have grown more comfortable sharing the podium and the questions.

In response to questions, Gilland presented herself as more cosmopolitan.

Hale presented herself as more folksy.

They shared a few personal stories, and they dealt with one issue explicitly that involved family. Each woman has a son and a daughter, though Hale’s children are grown while Gilland’s are still in school.

Moderator Blake Giles, editor of The Oconee Enterprise, asked, “Can you be fair and objective to all county government departments if you have a close relative employed in a specific county department.”

Hale’s daughter works for the Sheriff, and Hale answered by saying that the sheriff is an elected official who is answerable to the public, not to the Board of Commissioners. “He is in charge of the sheriff’s department,” she said.

“If I had a child that was working with a county department,” Gilland said, “it would be very hard for me to separate my motherly feelings from my professional feelings. I think my head would be telling me to go in one direction but my heart might be leading me to go into another.”

“If I found myself in a position where a family member that wanted to seek a position with the county,” Gilland said. “I think I would simply ask them to look elsewhere.”

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The full video of the GOP candidate forum is on the Oconee County Observations Channel of Vimeo.

Oconee County GOP Wants to Know if Republican Candidates are Conservative

And Vote Choice Too

Oconee Enterprise Editor Blake Giles–with Oconee County Republican Party Chairman Jay Hanley at his side–was very direct in his first question to each of the seven Republican candidates.

“Are you a Conservative Republican,” Giles asked, with considerable emphasis on the modifier of Republican. “Why or why not?” he continued. “And how will your degree of conservatism affect your decision making” in the job being sought?

Giles, who made it clear from the outset that he was acting in his capacity as a Republican and not in any role of a neutral journalist, warned that this was a question “We’re asking all of the candidates” at the Thursday night event sponsored by the Oconee County Republican Party and by the Oconee Regional Republican Women.

Incumbent Post 3 Board of Commissioners Candidate Margaret Hale was the first to field Giles’ question, and she answered that she had worked hard to “streamline” government in the county, cutback on the number of county employees and decrease taxes in her time on the commission.

Challenger Tammy Gilland said “I do have conservative values” and that she feels it is important to limit and control government. She also said she wants to reach out to people in the community and give citizens a chance to have input about government.

Mark Thomas, seeking Post 2 on the Board of Education, said “I have been committed to conservative views” and that those views would be of value on the board. He said the county was conservative, and “I’m glad to be a part of that heritage.”

Incumbent Post 2 commissioner Mack Guest said simply “Yes, I think I am a very conservative businessman as well as board member.”

“Of course I’m a conservative Republican,” said Hank Huckaby, running for the open District 113 Georgia House seat. “I didn’t know there were any other kind.” Huckaby said when he was state budget director under former Governor Zell Miller he demonstrated his fiscal conservatism.

Tommy Malcom, also seeking the House seat, said “I guess I’d have to say I am a life-long conservative Republican.” He cited Ronald Reagan as inspiration, saying the former president showed “me what the United States really meant” and the importance of “looking out for the rest of the world.”

Kirk Shook, the third Republican seeking the House slot, said he has helped conservative candidates get elected in the past. He said he got involved in the Republic Party “because I believe in certain principles” and he feels it is important “to have our values represented” in elected offices.

(In the video clip below I changed the order of the candidates’ responses because I did not have the camera focused on Giles when he asked the question of the BOC candidates, who were the first questioned at the forum.)

More than 90 people attended the nearly two-hour event on Thursday, held at the Watkinsville Community Center on VFW drive.

The GOP forum differed from the July 3 candidate forum sponsored by the Oconee County Chamber of Commerce and the citizen forum organized by Russ Page and me on June 10.

The earlier forums included Republican and Democratic candidates, including Republicans running unopposed. The GOP forum included only the Republican candidates for the contested seats in the July 20 Republican primary.

The first two forums were designed, at least implicitly, to help people make decisions about which ballot to ask for on July 20 and which candidates to support. Since there is no party registration in Georgia, voters can ask for the ballot of either party on primary election day.

My analysis of individual voting records that I purchased from the Secretary of State’s office shows that 14 percent of those who voted in the July 2008 Republican primary had cast a Democratic ballot in the February presidential primary.

The forum on Thursday night was designed for those who have already made up their mind to ask for the Republican ballot.

Another question Giles posed to candidates for the BOE and to those seeking the House seat underscored the narrower focus of the GOP event.

“Who are you supporting to be the next state school superintendent,” Giles asked BOE candidate Thomas.

“Truthfully, I haven’t followed that race very much to this point,” Thomas said. He added that he had been busy with his own campaign.

“I believe the governor appointed this week our new state school superintendent,” Guest said in his response to the question, “and I’m sure he is going to do a very good job.”

Governor Sonny Perdue announced the day before the forum that he would appoint Brad Bryant as State School Superintendent to fill the term of Superintendent Kathy Cox, who resigned to take another position. Bryant has said he will run for election in November as an independent.

The Democratic and Republican parties will select the party nominees in the July 20 primary and, if necessary, the August runoff.

“Who are you supporting for governor and why?” Giles asked the candidates for the House seat.

Shook was asked to respond first, and he said lots of people had been asking him that and he had been telling them whom not to vote for, rather than whom he supported. He said he believed Jeff Chapman “would do a great job.” He suggested people take a look at him. “He has some great conservative principles,” Shook added.

Huckaby was asked to respond next, and he said he had “mixed emotions about answering” since he believed “in the secrecy of the ballot. We all have a right to make our own decisions.” Despite that feelling, he named Nathan Deal and Eric Johnson as the two people he thought could lead the state best, but he said he would support the party nominee regardless of who it is.

Tommy Malcom said he was undecided and wanted to wait to see what the candidates said in the remainder of the campaign. “Whoever the next governor is,” he added, “if I’m given the opportunity to serve as state representative and to represent you, I want to be able to work with them.”

Neither party can control the candidates who file to run in a primary, but they can try to make sure any candidates who might deviate from party orthodoxy are exposed. The GOP forum on Thursday night was designed to do that.

In addition, neither party is able to keep any legally registered voter from asking for a primary ballot. What the parties can do is work to make sure the party faithful turn out to vote in large numbers, thereby offsetting the effect of those who, in another state, might be registered for neither party or even for the other party.

At the end of the Thursday night forum, Chairman Hanley asked for help with a planned voter drive designed to do just that.

As of the end of the day on Friday, according to Pat Hayes, elections director for the county, only 198 people had voted in the first two weeks of early voting.

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The complete video of the GOP Candidate Forum is available on the Oconee County Observations Vimeo Channel. [http://www.vimeo.com/channels/oconeecounty]

Oconee County Commissioners Say Joint Athens-Clarke and Oconee Development Effort Off Table

Like It Like It Is

No one should have come away from the Oconee County Town Hall meeting on June 10 believing that the proposed economic development partnership between Athens-Clarke County and Oconee County is anything but dead, at least in the near term.

The first question–really a statement–at the meeting came from Tammy Gilland, who is running for Post 3 commissioner against incumbent Margaret Hale in the July 20 Republican primary.

Gilland said she favors regional economic development, but before she would support joining with Athens-Clarke County on such an initiative she wants three conditions to have been met.

She said the two counties will have to contribute equally to the partnership, Oconee County will have to wait to see who is elected mayor of Athens-Clarke County and to the commission in November, and the counties will have to give Matt Forshee, the new head of the Athens-Clarke Economic Development Foundation, a year or two to get settled in.

Gilland said she had talked with representatives of the chambers of commerce in both counties and they supported these three conditions. She said she wanted to know how the four commissioners present felt about her approach.

Commissioner John Daniell, who was chairing the meeting because Commission Chairman Melvin Davis was on vacation, said the purpose of the meeting was to talk about economic development in Oconee County not regionally, but he also said he favored a regional approach.

Commissioner Jim Luke said he was confused by the question. “The proposal that was on the table for a while called for exactly that, an equal partnership financially between the two counties. That was what a lot of the objection I heard was.”

“I think it is pretty much a dead issue,” he added. “I don’t think there has been any discussion of it in several months.”

“I was not in favor and I’m not in favor of it now,” Commissioner Chuck Horton said. He said he didn’t see that the proposal would produce a positive outcome for Oconee County.

“In this proposal, we would lose our economic office,” Commissioner Hale said. “The proposal planned for us to close our door, form a new board and move to the chamber in Athens-Clarke County.” That, she said, was unacceptable.

Hale and Horton said they were open to discussion of collaboration of some sort with Athens-Clarke County in the future.



Only about 25 people were in attendance at the meeting, and several of those were county department heads and other employees.

Following Gilland's comment and the responses of the commissioners, no one spoke up in favor of the joint economic development plan. Kenneth Mann, chairman of the Oconee County Chamber of Commerce, and Chuck Williams, a member of the chamber’s board of directors, were in the audience.

Williams even was a member of the Oconee Athens-Clarke Regional Economic Development Task Force that released the report in May of 2008 calling for the joint development initiative for the two counties. He has spoken publicly in the past in favor of the proposal.

The two-hour-long meeting covered a variety of development issues, from the expressed need for additional industrial sites in the county, to the future of the big box retail outlets on Epps Bridge parkway, to the role of the state in helping the county land large industry, to the fairness of the county’s decision to concentrate development in the north and to protect the rural nature of the south.

All four of the commissioners advocated development, at least in the north, and said that the county should be aggressive in pursuing it.

This caused Franklin Shumake to offer a warning near the end of the meeting.

“The vast majority of the people who are here tonight are here to promote economic growth,” he said. “But my own observations in Oconee County are that 80 percent of the people in this county, 80 percent of the voters in this county, are not obsessed with economic growth.

“They came into this county because it is a good place to live. They came into this county because it has good schools. They came into this county because it is beautiful,” Shumake said.

Shumake, who is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, told the commissioners to make sure they involve different types of people before they made decisions so they don’t hear only from those who want more development.

“Most of us like this place like it is,” he said.

Pinestraw Operation Gets Extension Despite Oconee County Zoning Violation

Toilet to Go Too

Customers will have about two more weeks to purchase pine straw from the retail and wholesale operation at the intersection of Hog Moutain road and U.S. 441 after the Oconee County Code Enforcement office extended the deadline it had originally set to close down the operation.

On April 6 Code Enforcement Director Steve Hansford sent Tyler McClure a letter saying he had until today to either file for proper zoning for the property on which he is operating or close.

As of 5 p.m. today, according to Planning Director B.R. White, no one has filed a request to rezone the 1.7 acres on which McClure is selling pinestraw.

Matt Brock from the Code Enforcement office told me this afternoon that Code Enforcement agreed to the extension because McClure has no place to move his business until the end of the month. Brock said his office did not want to put anyone out of work.

He expects the operation to be moved by June 28, Brock said, though he does not know where it will go.

In the letter Hansford sent to McClure on April 6, Hansford said that he had made a mistake when he issued McClure a business license on Dec. 23, 2009.

“I believed that the whole property was zoned Business-B2,” Hansford wrote in his letter of April 6. “However, only a narrow strip across the front of the property is zoned B-2 and therefore, for you to operate a business at this location the whole piece of property will need to be rezoned.”

The Planning Office and Code Enforcement are both located in the Courthouse Annex across the street from the courthouse. The front offices of the two departments face each other on the first floor of the building.

All About Pinestraw has operated from the site, which has entrances and exits from both U.S. 441 and Hog Mountain road, from trailers and vehicles. It has been serviced by a portable toilet.

The Oconee Enterprise, under the headline “Pinestraw truck devoured by file,” reported in its May 13 edition that fire destroyed a truck on the site of the pine straw operation on May7.

The story reported quite a bit of detail about the fire, based on comments attributed to McClure, and mentioned that a “small trailer” served as an office for the operation.

The story never mentioned that the rather unconventional operation was on land zoned for agricultural and residential use, though I had reported on that fact on April 17.

Oconee County Board of Education Changes Course on Plans to Fill Vacancy

Thanks, but No Thanks

The Oconee County Board of Education, having invited Carter Strickland to apply for a vacancy on the board less than a month ago, passed him over tonight and decided instead to open up the process to other applicants.

Board Chairman David Weeks tonight proposed the change in procedures for filling the Post 5 position vacated when Tom Breedlove resigned on May 10, saying that he had gotten a lot of feedback indicating that the board was interfering with the election.

Strickland is running as a Democrat for Post 2 on the BOE and is unopposed in the July 20 primary.

At the called meeting on May 19, Weeks proposed that the four qualified candidates for Post 2 and Post 3 be invited to apply rather than open up the position to everyone in the community.

The other three board members accepted the proposal. That included Mack Guest, incumbent Post 2 commissioner and a Republican candidate for that position in the July 20 primary, and Kim Argo, incumbent Post 3 commissioner and a candidate for that position in the July 20 Republican primary.

Argo and Guest subsequently declined to apply for the Post 5 vacancy, as did Mark Thomas, who has qualified to run against Guest in the Republican primary.

Strickland alone said he would be willing to drop out of the race and accept the vacant slot.

Argo has no one running against her in the primary and, unless someone qualifies to run as an independent, will have no opposition in November.

Guest now has to get through the Republican primary and, if successful, in November get past Strickland and any independent who might qualify.

Strickland has been critical of the board, indicating dissatisfaction with it motivated him to launch his candidacy.

At the candidate forum organized by Russ Page and me last week, Strickland accused the board of “ineffective leadership” but said that characterization applied only to “some members of the board.”

Weeks said that the procedures the board put into place last month were chosen because of “extenuating circumstances” resulting from the fact the election was underway.

He said, however, that he had heard from people in the community who said the selection procedure actually “was hindering the election process.”

Weeks tonight thanked Struckland for applying, “But at this point, I think--I feel-- that we need to let the election process play out.”

In other action, the Board approved a $53.5 million budget without discussion. The budget had not been released to the public at the time of the meeting, which began at 5 p.m. at the school central offices in Watkinsville.

The board also agreed that the four members present would not accept the $1,800 each is entitled to as compensation for serving on the board this fiscal year.

The new board member or members will have to decide on compensation separately.

The board will accept applications for the Post 5 position from June 15 to July 15, interview applicants in early August, interview finalists in early September and make a decision in late September or early October, according to Weeks’ proposal, which was accepted unanimously.

Weeks said the board wants candidates to be concerned about the entire system, not just parts, to be team players, to be unafraid of controversy, to understand that the superintendent actually runs the schools, not the board, and to be willing to stay in communication with the other board members.

Guest, who was not able to attend the candidate forum last week, today sent me a copy of a statement he said he had asked board member Mike Hunter to read at the forum.

When I asked citizens present at the end of the half-hour session for BOE candidates if they wanted to ask another question or hear Hunter’s summary of the statement, no one asked to hear the statement.

In the statement Guest sent to me today, he said he was in Colorado at a business meeting with one of his largest clients at the time of the forum. Guest is the founder of LAD Logistics, which has warehouses, a logistics center and offices in Watkinsville.

He said that “Despite what some would have you believe, we are clearly on the right track.” He cited upgrades to technology, infrastructure, classrooms and athletic facilities in the system as examples.

Oconee County Board of Education Candidates Give Cautious Answers to Tough Questions

Monday Meeting Maybe

Board of Education candidates stepped carefully around a series of pointed questions from citizens at the Oconee County candidate forum last week, which might not be surprising given that two of the three candidates present as well as two others in the audience are engaged in discussions about an open position on the board.

The Board of Education is scheduled to take up that vacancy at its regular meeting, scheduled to start at 5 p.m. Monday night at the central office board room on School street in Watkinsville.

Incumbent Post 3 BOE member Kim Argo, who participated in the forum, could be voting at that meeting Monday on whether to appoint Carter Strickland, another of the forum participants, to the open slot on the Board. Board member Mike Hunter and Board Chairman David Weeks were in the audience.

Citizens asked about the recent replacement of top school administrators, whether the board was cutting administration adequately given the cuts to teaching, and what the board in the future will do to make sure schools are sited properly.

The language used by the citizens was direct.

The responses from the candidates were guarded.

Citizen Robert Wyatt said that “To the outsider, there seems to have been a lot of turmoil and turnover in the Oconee County school system in the past two years,” which is the time when the current Board of Education has held power.

Wyatt gave as evidence “the flap over increased compensation for board members, the land purchase and new superintendents and principals.”

“What do you see as the cause,” Wyatt asked, “and how would you go about fixing it?”

Argo, incumbent Post 3 BOE member, said the administrative turnover had been normal. She acknowledged that “there has been some turmoil,” but she said it also was normal for five members to have some disagreement. She said she had learned from the experience.

Carter Strickland said he thought the problem was that there was not enough disagreement. “They vote as a bloc. There doesn’t seem to be any discussion on issues that I can tell.”

“Some of the things that have been done brought me to a boil,” Strickland said, “and that is why I’m here.”

Strickland said the problem has been “ineffective leadership by the board–not by all members of the board--but by some members of the board.”

Thomas “said people moving and changing jobs” was to be expected. He said, however, he would commit himself to “open communication with the teachers, the administrators, the students and the parents and have everybody part of this process.”

If there is turmoil, Thomas said, the solutions will be much easier if all of these people are involved.

Post 5 BOE member Tom Breedlove resigned on May 10, and, at a specially called meeting on May 19, BOE members Weeks, Argo and Hunter, along with incumbent Post 2 member Mack Guest, decided to invite the four candidates who have filed for Democratic and Republican primaries on July 20 to apply for the Post 5 position Breedlove vacated.

So Guest and Argo were inviting themselves to apply, along with Strickland and Thomas.

Thomas, who had filed to run against Guest in the Republican primary, and Guest himself, subsequently declined.

Guest, who said in advance he could not attend the forum, which Russ Page and I organized, because he had to be out of town on business, was not at the session on Wednesday.

Argo, who is unopposed in the Republican primary and, unless someone files as an independent, in the general election in November as well, also declined to apply for the open spot.

Strickland, running unopposed as a Democrat in the July 20 primary, said he was interested.

Strickland told me on June 7–two days before the candidate forum–that his reason for applying was quite simple.

He said he is a Democrat in a heavily Republican county, yet he really wants to be on the board. He said he’d take the appointment if it is offered to him.

Pam Hendrix, another citizen who asked a question at the forum, also was pretty sharp in her criticism of the board, which has announced teacher furloughs as part of its Fiscal Year 2011 budget. The board is scheduled to vote on Monday night on that budget as well as deal with the Breedlove vacancy.

“I’m kind of tired of hearing we need to cut teachers,” she said. “It doesn’t seem like anyone ever considers cutting administration costs.”

Thomas said administrative operations need to be evaluated. Argo said she favored cutting administrative costs rather than spending for the classroom. Strickland said there should be “no sacred cows” when it comes to cost cutting.

Chuck Williams, president of North Georgia Bank, said “there have been allegations in the past that previous school boards have made siting decisions on schools” without considering the total costs to county tax payers.

He wanted to know if the school board candidats would give consideration to existing county infrastructure and costs to taxpayers rather than simple academic goals when it considered future school locations.

All three said county infrastructure should dictate where future schools go.

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The video of the full meeting is on my Vimeo site.

Oconee County Board of Commissioners Candidates Discuss Views of Teamwork at Candidate Forum

Infighting and Involvement

Melvin Davis’ name will not be on the ballot for the Republican primary in Oconee County on July 20, but comments at the candidate forum on Wednesday night indicate he is very much a part of the election.

And Board of Commissioners Chairman Davis’ presence in the election is likely to increase if former Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Russell Lee runs as an independent against incumbent John Daniell in the Post 2 Board of Commissioners race in November.

I spoke with Lee by telephone today and asked him if he intended to file as an independent in the June 28 to July 2 window set by state law.

“I prefer not to say” was his response.

The Board of Commissioners voted 4-0 in August to redraw the organizational chart for the county to give all five members equal supervisory responsibility over the county’s administrative officer and budget director.

Davis, who previously alone had supervisory power over these two top administrators, strongly objected to the change. Because the chairman of the Board of Commissioners votes only in the case of a tie, Davis did not cast an official vote on the ordinance redrawing the organizational chart.

Margaret Hale, who, with Daniell, pushed hard for the change, is being challenged by Tammy Gilland for the Post 3 slot, who, with Lee, has a strong Chamber of Commerce base.

Gilland accused the current board of “infighting” and said her experience in communication and mediation would help create a “more team-oriented environment” so the board could be more productive.

Hale responded that four of the five commissioners were happy with the changes the board made and that the result was more “transparent” government.

Daniell said the changes mean that “information flows more freely” and that the board is much more involved in decisions than in the past. “It has been a totally different atmosphere,” he said.



If Gilland were to defeat Hale in the primary and Lee were to defeat Daniell in the general election in November, the balance of power in the commission could shift back toward Davis.

Keith Bradberry qualified to run against Daniell in the July 20 primary but withdrew for health reasons a few days after filing.

Approximately 80 people turned out at the candidate forum, which Russ Page and I organized on behalf of Oconee Citizens for Responsible Growth and the Friends of Barber Creek, respectively.

The forum was broken into three, 30-minute sections. The first was for Board of Commissioners candidates.

In addition to BOC candidates Daniell, Gilland and Hall, the forum was attended by Carter Strickland and Mark Thomas, seeking Post 2 on the Oconee County Board of Education, and Kim Argo, seeking re-election to BOE Post 3. Thomas and Argo are running as Republicans, while Strickland is running as a Democrat.

Incumbent Post 2 BOE member Mack Guest told me in advance he would not be able to attend the forum because of a business commitment and indicated he would send a representative to answer questions. I learned at the beginning of the meeting that he chose instead to ask BOE member Mike Hunter to read a statement he had written.

At the end of the half hour period devoted to the Board of Education, which I was moderating, I asked audience members if they wanted to hear from Guest or ask an additional question. I did not hear anyone ask to hear from Guest, so I recognized another questioner.

Suzy Compere, Hank Huckaby, Tommy Malcom and Kirk Shook, all seeking to be elected as state representative from the 113th District, also attended and answered questions from the audience. Compere is running as a Democrat, and the other three candidates will compete in the July 20 Republican primary.

Voting for the July 20 primary actually began on Monday, and Pat Hayes, Oconee County Director of Elections, told me at 4:30 today that 129 persons voted this week. The office closed at 5 p.m.

As of June 1, the county had 22,203 voters registered, according to Hayes. Since this is the first time the county has had an election in which only two of the five commissioners and two of the five members of the BOE stood for election, it is hard to know what to expect in terms of turnout.

The county moved to staggered terms with the November 2008 election, when Daniell, Hale, Guest and Argo were elected for two-year terms.

If Lee or anyone else wishes to qualify to run as an independent, they must turn in a nomination petition signed by 5 percent of those who were registered in November of 2008, Hayes said. That means the candidate must have 1,020 petitions signed by certified registered voters.

Once the petition were submitted, Hayes, her staff and the Board of Elections and Registration would undertake the certifications process.

Voters have until June 21 to register to vote in the July 20 primary.

The video of the candidate forum is available for viewing at my Vimeo site.

I will summarize some of the comments from the other two sections of the forum in another posting.