Citizen Group Initiated Discussion on Policy for Oconee County Web Site

CACOCWS Launched

The self-appointed Citizen Advisory Committee on the Oconee County Web Site (CACOCWS) decided tonight to break into four subcommittees to gather information before meeting again to discuss web site policy options and content.

Dan Matthews will examine what the county Parks and Recreation Department has done to develop its site, linked to the county main site but quite different stylistically from it.

Matthews also will examine how the Planning Department is using the existing county site to provide information to the public about planning issues before those issues come before the Planning Commission and the Board of Commissioners.

Tony Glenn will gather information on what the four incorporated areas of the county are doing with their web sites as well as how the Sheriff’s Office and the Board of Education use their sites.

Sarah Bell and I will attempt to gather information on the history of the county web site, the amount of money that is being invested in it, how it is managed, and what other kinds of resources the county has to support information technology.

Dan McDaniel will explore governmental web sites, with particular emphasis on those in Georgia, in an effort to find those that might serve as models for Oconee County. He also will help the committee develop ways to communicate internally and externally as it goes about its business.

The five of us met tonight for an hour at Jittery Joe’s in Watkinsville to outline issues we would like to explore and to develop ways to go about exploring them. We started our discussion at 7 p.m.

Two committee members, Oconee County Commissioner Margaret Hale and Kate McDaniel, could not attend because of last-minute changes in their schedules.

The committee is an outgrowth of an announcement I made at the Board of Commissioners meeting on May 4 that I was organizing a citizen committee to make policy recommendations for the county’s web site.

I asked the commissioners to join me, and Hale agreed. I also asked the chairpersons of the Democratic and Republican parties in the county to make nominations, and they did. I sought volunteers in a posting I made on this blog on Aug. 29. Finally, I asked the committee members to nominate a seventh member.

At the meeting tonight, we identified the following list of issues:

1. How might the county web site be used to make public announcements on issues of importance to citizens? What would the county need to do to maintain an archive of such announcements?

2. What is needed to make the site fully and easily searchable?

3. What types of public records might be made available through the web site?

4. What types of court records might be accessible?

5. What types of election and campaign records might be stored for electronic access?

6. Should there be a unified template for all county web sites, or should some of the departments develop sites that have their own style, characteristics and features?

7. What types of recreational information would be most helpful, how might it be organized, and how might the site link to other records on sports and recreational organizations in the county?

8. What kinds of opportunities might citizens be given to respond to or even contribute to the web site?

9. What policy should be created regarding government responsibility in providing information?

10. What kinds of links should be featured on the county cite? Should the site create an easy interface with sites of the four incorporated areas, the Board of Education, or the other elected officials in the county?

11. What can be done to provide for online applications for such things as building permits?

12. What needs to be done to provide the proper levels of security for the county site?

In launching the discussion, I said the committee needed to recognize that the county has very limited resources at present and that some recommendations might not be able to to be realized until county revenues recover.

The committee decided to create the subcommittees as a means of gathering information to further discussion of the issues on the list. The next meeting will be scheduled once the subcommittees have done their initial work.

The committee decided to encourage public participation in the discussion of these issues by creating a web site.

Information on access to that site will be provided here as soon as it is available.

Oconee Farmers Market Postpones Closing

A Tree-O of Four

The Oconee Farmers Market, originally scheduled to close this weekend after the Oconee Chamber Fall Festival, will remain open through the first part of November, depending on weather and what vendors have available, according to Debbie Beese, acting market manager.

Vendors will set up this weekend in the market’s usual space behind the Eagle Tavern, and they will be joined by vendors for the Chamber Fall Festival, now in its 37th year.

The Fall Festival will run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Red Oak Tree-o, a local band that played at the market earlier this summer, will be appearing again this weekend.

At its Sept. 25 appearance (pictured), the Tree-O had four members.

Gilland, Guest, Huckaby Top Fundraisers Among Oconee County Candidates

Compere Form a No Show

Tammy Gilland raised and spent more than $13,000 in her unsuccessful attempt to unseat Margaret Hale in the July 20 Oconee County Republican primary, according to finance records filed by the Sept. 30 deadline in the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration office.

Hale raised and spent just less than $8,000.

Hale got 52 percent of the vote to Gilland’s 48 percent.

Mark Thomas raised just less than $6,500 in his successful race to become the Republican nominee for Post 2 on the Board of Education. Thomas spent all but $800 of the money he raised.

Mack Guest, the incumbent Post 2 BOE member, raised $6,800 and spent about $1,000 more than that in his unsuccessful attempt to be the Republican nominee.

Thomas got 71 percent of the vote to Guest’s 29 percent.

Carter Strickland, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary for the BOE Post 2 position, spent a little more than $600, but he did not report raising any money.

In the race for the House District 113 seat in the Georgia General Assembly, Hank Huckaby raised more than $114,000 and spent just less than $64,000 in his successful campaign for the Republican nomination, according to records filed with the State Ethics Commission.

Kirk Shook raised nearly $16,000 and spent nearly all of it, and Tommy Malcom raised $9,000 and spent that amount. Both also were attempting to secure the Republican nomination to replace Bob Smith, who is retiring.

Huckaby is facing Democrat Suzy Compere on the Nov. 2 ballot. Compere reported in her June 30 filing that she had not raised or spent any money on her campaign.

The State Election Commissioner web site does not show a report for Compere for the Sept. 30 period, though the grace period for filing the report ended Thursday. Candidates filing before Oct. 14 will pay a $25 late fee, and candidates filing after that date will pay an additional $50 late fee.

Oconee lies entirely within the 113th District, which also includes parts of Clarke, Morgan and Oglethorpe counties.

Huckaby received 51 percent of the votes in the July 20 primary to 30 percent for Malcom and 19 percent for Shook.

The Sept. 30 filings are cumulative, covering the entire first half of this year.

Most of the money raised and spent had been reported in the June 30 statements for the candidates for the Oconee County offices as well as for the candidates for the 113th House seat.

Huckaby was the only candidate who really added significantly to his totals in the three months after that filing. He picked up an additional $19,000.

The 2010 races saw considerably more spending than in those same races two years earlier.

In 2008, Hale had raised $6,300 and spent most of that by the Sept. 30 filing deadline. Her opponent in the Republican primary, Esther Porter, had raised $3,600 and spent all of it by Sept. 30.

In 2008, Guest had raised $3,400 and spent $4,600 by the Sept. 30 filing period. His opponent, Ryan House, had raised and spent $1,850.

Smith ran unopposed for the 113th House seat in 2008 in both the primary and the general election.

Trader Joe’s Opening in Oconee County in Storefront at Rear of The Markets at Epps Bridge

One Mystery Solved
Trader Joe’s is scheduled to open its first Georgia store outside the metro-Atlanta area on Oct. 29 in a 12,100 square-foot storefront in one of three buildings that make up the Markets at Epps Bridge, 1850 Epps Bridge parkway.

The grocery will be just west of Ashley Furniture in space that was designated for Harbor Freight Tools. Harbor Freight Tools now has moved a few doors further west to space that was occupied by Golden Dragon International Buffet, which has closed.

Traders Joe’s will be in Building C in the complex, which is behind Building A, which houses the Five Points Deli, and Building B, where NewBalance and Fox’s Pizza are located.

According to the application for sale of beer and wine that Trader Joe’s filed with Oconee County Clerk Gina Lindsey on Aug. 30, the sales area for the new store will occupy 9,352 square feet of the leased space, with storage taking up most of the rest.

The total square footage for Trader Joe’s at 12,110 compares with the 55,696 square feet occupied by the nearby Kroger grocery.
The diagram for the store submitted with the beer and wine application shows a store with four and a half shopping rows offset slightly and two separate produce rows.

According to the beer and wine license application, no one connected with the business has been convicted of a violation of any state, federal or local alcohol laws in the last 10 years.

When Phil Wofford came before the Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Sept. 28 to answer any questions about his application for the license, it was something of a lovefest.

The commissioners said how happy they were to have Trader Joe’s coming to the county, and Wofford said how happy he was to be here.

“The reception has been wonderful,” Wofford said. “We feel loved.”

Wofford also said “if there is anything we can do for you, please let us know.”

The offer apparently only extended to Oconee County officials.

On Oct. 1, the day after the Athens Banner-Herald reported that the store would open on Oct. 29, I called Alison Mochizuki, listed in the Banner-Herald as the director of national public relations for Trader Joe’s and the source of the information in the story on the store’s opening date.

When I got an answering machine, I left a message asking Mochizuki to call me. I also called the main switchboard and was told that Mochizuki is the public relations department for the company and that she was the only one who could answer any questions I had.

I found a press release from earlier this year online that listed Mochizuki’s email address, and I sent her an email as well, asking her to call me.

I next called the number in the alcohol license application given for Wofford and also left a message.

By Monday morning, I had heard nothing from Mochizuki or Wofford, so I started calling again , leaving repeated messages. I also sent another email to Mochizuki.

Finally, on Monday afternoon, Mochizuki called me back, but I was in a meeting and could not take the call. I returned that call and left several more messages that afternoon.

On Tuesday I started over with both Mochizuki and Wofford. Mochizuki called me back about noon yesterday.

Mochizuki confirmed the opening date, told me the opening time, and then asked me to tell her “again” which media organization I represented. I told her I was a citizen who did a blog, and she said I had to talk with Customer Service rather than her.

Mochizuki then asked that I not quote her by name. I told her I would not agree to that.

She confirmed that the Oconee County store will be the first for Trader Joe’s in Georgia and outside Atlanta, where the company operates six stores. She also told me that the normal business hours would be from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

I asked her if the store would be localized in any way, and she said there would be paintings at the front of the story that were local.

I next called Customer Service, and someone named Amy answered. She would not give her last name.

She told me she could not confirm the opening date of the store other than that it would be by the end of the year. She said the opening would be posted on the Trader Joe’s web site when it was finalized.

I asked her if the store would be any different from the ones in Atlanta, and she said the stores were decorated locally. To whom the store makes donations is determined locally, she said.

She said there would be no local product differentiation, though the stores do vary somewhat by region.

The Banner-Herald story said the store would be located at 1850 Epps Bridge parkway, which is the address for the Markets at Epps Bridge shopping center. The story didn’t mention the Markets at Epps Bridge by name or any of the nearby stores.

The story did mention that the store’s employees dress in Hawaiian shirts.

Wofford was wearing a green, white and black print shirt with a complex design when he appeared before the BOC.

+++

I made a mistake in an earlier version of this report. I said that the Banner-Herald reported the opening date to be Sept. 29. It did not. The paper had the opening date right. I called Trader Joe's simply to confirm what the paper had reported. I apologize to Erin France of the paper, who was kind enough to point out the error to me.

Oconee County Board of Education Announces Wayne Bagley as New Member

One More to Come

The Oconee County Board of Education this evening officially selected Wayne Bagley from among three finalists to fill the Post 5 position on the Board left vacant when Tom Breedlove resigned on May 10 and moved out of state.

The announcement brings to an end a lengthy selection process that first saw the Board attempt to fill the vacancy from among the four announced candidates for other positions on the Board and then switch to an open competition that brought in 17 applicants.

The Board narrowed that list of 17 down to three finalists, Bagley, Michael Burnette and Glenn Townsend--on Aug. 9 and interviewed the three finalists on Sept. 2.

The official selection of Bagley this evening came after the Board voted to go into executive session at the end of its regular meeting, which started at 4:30 p.m. at the school system’s administrative offices at 34 School street in Watkinsville

Bagley and Burnette attended the meeting and stayed after the regular meeting ended at 5:30, though no official indication had been given that an announcement was to be made.

After about five minutes in executive session, the Board returned to the meeting room.

Board Chairman David Weeks asked for the agenda of the meeting to be modified so the Board could announce the selection of the Post 5 member.

Weeks then nominated Bagley, who was supported by the three other Board members.

Weeks told Bagley he didn’t know “whether to wish you good luck or to tell you to run for the hills right now. But you are on it. So congratulations to you.”

Superintendent John A. Jackson gave me a prepared press release as soon as the announcement was made, and the announcement was put onto the school system web site after the meeting.

“At the end of the day, Mr. Bagley represented the best of some attractive choices in filling this important position,” the news release quotes Weeks as saying. “We were thankful to have three strong finalists from an impressive field of applicants for the appointment.”

Bagley is vice president of development for Lassiter Properties, Inc. Based in Morrow, southeast of Atlanta, Lassiter owns and operates timberlands in the U.S.

Bagley holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree from West Georgia College.

Bagley will fill out the term of Breedlove, which runs through 2012.

At least one more new face will join the Board after the November elections. Mack Guest was defeated in the July Republican primary by Mark Thomas.

Thomas faces Democrat Carter Strickland on the November ballot.

Oconee County Commissioner Horton Pressed Chairman Davis to Explain Role in Preparing Document

Paper Organization a Higher Priority

Oconee County Commissioner Chuck Horton tried last night to get Commission Chairman Melvin Davis to engage in a conversation about a recent proposal before the Policy Council of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia that would have altered how counties change the powers of the chairman.

Davis refused.

While Horton was speaking, Davis shuffled papers on his desk, looked down, and at one point even turned his back briefly on Horton, the other commissioners and the public.

Horton asked Davis to explain his role in creation of the ACCG document. Davis parried.

Davis is a member of the General Government Committee of ACCG, which presented the proposal to the Policy Council. He also is chairman of the Policy Council, though he left the room on Sept. 20 when the provision was discussed

The Policy Council pulled the provision from the 2010 County Platform document after that discussion.

Davis will assume the presidency of ACCG in late April or early May, at the annual conference of ACCG.

Horton had put the ACCG proposal on the agenda for last night’s meeting and began by saying he was surprised a couple of weeks ago when someone tipped him off to the proposed change. He said he and commissioners John Daniell, Margaret Hale and Jim Luke immediately registered their objections.

In August of 2009, the BOC passed an ordinance that changed the organizational chart for Oconee County. The new chart has Administrative Officer Alan Theriault and Finance Director Jeff Benko reporting to the full five-member board, rather than only to the chairman, as had been true in the past.

Davis objected to the change, which passed with the support of the other four commission members.

Horton said he thinks the proposed ACCG policy, which would give the state legislature more control over changes in local government structure, is at odds with what was done locally.

“If you knew about this and had anything to do with it and didn’t notify us, I find that disturbing,” Horton said to Davis.

“If you want to make a comment, I would hope that you didn’t have anything to do with it,” Horton said. “But if you did, I wish you had told us. If you were supporting this or had anything to do with it, it does upset me.”

Davis busied himself with his paper shuffling until Horton stopped speaking.

“The only comment I would make,” Davis said, “is that, as you pointed out, the policy committee struck that from the policy platform and the president of ACCG is appointing, as I understand it, an ad hoc committee to review all sides of the discussion.”

Commissioner John Daniell said he thought the Policy Council did the right thing in striking the provision. The other two commissioners did not speak.

County Attorney Daniel Haygood said his interpretation of the proposed change is that it would not affect Oconee County under any circumstance.

The proposal was under the heading “Home Rule: Changing Duties of the Chairman” and followed another item in the document called “Districting: Home Rule.” Both are on page 14 of the document.

Haygood said he interpreted the provision as applying only to a Home Rule provision of the state constitution, though the document itself does not specify that, and both sections with the “Home Rule” title deal with general issues of local governance.

The “Changing Duties of the Chairman” provision said that the state legislature should pass legislation to stipulate that any changes to the duties of the chairman could not be made until a new chairman is elected, that one or more public hearings had to be held before the changes could take place, and that changes had to be approved by a vote of the citizenry that had been authorized by the state General Assembly.

Davis looked at Haygood and nodded in agreement as Haygood made his argument that the provision was more limited than Horton and Daniell stated.

Haygood said Oconee County last year had merely specified powers of the chairman and the Board that had not been specified in the past.

The whole exchange last night on the ACCG proposal took 8 minutes and 20 seconds and came late in the two-hour long meeting.

Earlier the commissioners gave a weak endorsement to an invitation from the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission that Oconee join with NEGRC to create a Local Agriculture Protection Guide.

NEGRC is looking for a single county from the 12-county region to serve as the pilot community for the project. NEGRC will select the county based on “demonstrated need for farmland protection, support of elected officials, and availability of staff to work with NEGRC.”

County Strategic and Long-Range Planning Director Wayne Provost lead a discussion of the request, which was supported strongly by local farm protection advocate Russ Page.

The Board expressed reservations about joining with NEGRC on the project out of fear it might lead to some restrictions on what the county does to promote development in the county in the future.

In the end, the vote was unanimous to make application, though Provost was told to come back to the Board if he felt any of the provisions were becoming onerous.

The Board also gave the first reading to an ethics ordinance and put it on the agenda for its next meeting, which is scheduled for Oct. 12.

I was the only person who offered public comment on the proposed ordinance.

I asked Haygood if a person filing an ethics complaint against a commissioner would have protection against being sued for libel or slander as a result of the action. This protection exists for a person filing a suit in court.

Haygood said it is his belief that the complainant would not have such protection. And journalists or citizens who wrote about the complaint also would not have the usual protection against libel that exists when they write about court documents and proceedings.

The BOC also reviewed and tentatively approved new bylaws for Keep Oconee County Beautiful Commission. The bylaws specify that the Keep Oconee County Beautiful Commission will work with a county department to prepare a budget for presentation to the BOC.

Esther Porter, executive director of KOCBC, had asked earlier that the organization be allowed create its own budget request and bring it to the BOC. At present, KOCBC is housed in the Public Works Department.

The BOC put the bylaws on the consent agenda for the Oct. 12 meeting, meaning they will be approved without comment unless a commissioner asks that they be brought off the consent agenda for further discussion.

With considerable enthusiasm, the Board put on the consent agenda the alcohol license application of Trader Joe’s, to be located at 1850 Epps Bridge Parkway.

“Don’t run out of stock,” Horton told Philip Wofford, who represented Trading Joe’s at the meeting.

Oconee County BOC to Discuss Recent State Proposal to Change How Counties Define Duties of Chair

Trader Joe's Also on Agenda

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to take up at its agenda-setting meeting tomorrow night a proposal that was pulled from the platform of the Association County Commissioners Georgia on Sept. 20 and that would make it harder for county governments to change the duties of the board chairman in the future.

Commissioner Chuck Horton asked that the item be placed on the agenda because “this has real strong implications not just to Oconee County but to every county in the state.”

Horton joined Oconee County commissioners John Daniell, Margaret Hale and Jim Luke in asking the Policy Council of ACCG to remove the proposal from it platform, and the Council did so.

In a paragraph headed “Home Rule: Changing Duties of the Chairman,” the proposed ACCG county platform said that the state legislature should pass legislation to stipulate that any changes to the duties of the chairman could not be made until a new chairman is elected, that one or more public hearings had to be held before the changes could take place, and that changes had to be approved by a vote of the citizenry that had been authorized by the state General Assembly.

The Oconee County BOC changed the county’s organizational chart in August of 2009 so that County Administrative Officer Alan Theriault and Budget Director Jeff Benko report to the full board, rather than only to Davis, as had been true in the past.

In the new chart, all other department heads report to Theriault, rather than to Davis.

The BOC had not approved the organizational chart that existed before the change, and it is not a part of the enabling legislation for the county.

Davis opposed the changes, which were approved unanimously by the other four members of the Commission.

ACCG President Lamar Paris and General County Government Policy Committee Chairman Roger Boatright will name a committee to further discuss the issue, and it could come up again in the future, according to Beth Brown, ACCG director of communications.

Horton (right) said he wants to talk about what happened and about the implication of the ACCG platform for the county.

Both The Oconee Enterprise and the Athens Banner-Herald have written about the Macon meeting, focusing on the disagreement of Daniell, Hale, Horton and Luke with the proposal.

Neither of the papers indicated exactly how the proposed change got into the draft of the ACCG County Platform.

Brown told me in a telephone conversation today that the proposed policy change came from the General County Government Committee of ACCG and was joined with recommendations from the five other committees to form the ACCG County Platform.

Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman is a member of the General County Government Committee.

Brown told me she didn’t know where within the committee the proposed change originated.

I sent Davis an email message at 10:40 this morning asking:

“Is it correct to say that you initiated the ACCG platform proposal on Home Rule that was subsequently pulled from the platform? That seems to be the assumption, and I wanted to give you the chance to clarify.”

Davis wrote me back at 6:40 this evening saying:

“Please give me a call in the next couple of days so we can discuss. I recently had a similar conversation with Erin from the ABH.”

Erin France was the author of the story today in the Banner-Herald about the ACCG proposal.

If Davis told her the answer to my question, she didn’t report it today.

Davis also is chairman of the Policy Council, though Brown sent me an email message saying that Davis “left the room during the discussion of the entire General County Government section” of the Platform.

Hale also is a member of the General County Government Committee, but she told me tonight she did not attend the last meeting of that group in Savannah in April and learned of the proposed change only just before the Sept. 20 Policy Council meeting in Macon.

The agenda for the meeting tomorrow night, which will begin at 7 p.m. at the county courthouse, contains a number of other interesting items.

The county is scheduled to take up an invitation from the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission that the county join with NEGRC to create a Local Agriculture Protection Guide.

NEGRC is looking for a single county from the 12-county region to serve as the pilot community for the project. NEGRC will select the county based on “demonstrated need for farmland protection, support of elected officials, and availability of staff to work with NEGRC.”

Oconee County has a farmland protection program and has set aside money in the current Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax to fund it.

County Strategic and Long-Range Planning Director Wayne Provost will lead the discussion of the NEGRC solicitation.

In addition, the BOC is scheduled to give first reading to a proposed County Commissioner Ethics Ordinance.

It also will discuss revised by-laws for the Keep Oconee County Beautiful Commission, which has asked the county to remove it from the Public Works Department and let it report directly to the BOC.

It also will review two in what has become a long list of alcohol license applications. One of those to be reviewed tomorrow night comes from AA Trading Group on Macon highway.

The other comes from Trader Joe’s on Epps Bridge parkway.

Part of the suspense for the latter is whether “Two Buck Chuck Wine” will be offered. Some Trader Joe’s stores around the country offer a bottle of Charles Shaw wine for as low as $1.99.