Dougherty Commission chair to seek re-election

ALBANY — No matter the successes and hardships he might have been a part of as chairman of the Dougherty County Commission for the past four years — and there were plenty of both — Chris Cohilas knows his tenure will forever be indelibly marked by the January 2017 storms that devastated the county to the tune of $1 billion.

Those storms, rather, their aftermath, were still on Cohilas’ mind Friday as he confirmed during a conversation that he will seek a second term as chairman of the county board. Qualifying for both the Republican and Democratic May 22 primaries starts Monday and runs through Friday.

“It tests your faith, it test your limits to go through something like that,” said Cohilas, who became perhaps the central local figure advocating for the community in the storms’ aftermath. “People generally fall back into a fight or flight response in extreme situations. I fight. It’s how I’m wired.”

Cohilas made no bones that he felt recovery efforts in the days immediately after the Jan. 2 and Jan. 22 storms were not being carried out in a manner that would most benefit citizens of the community. He, along with Albany Mayor Dorothy Hubbard, took action to become more actively involved in the recovery process, and many credit that action with speeding relief from both the Federal and Georgia Emergency Management Agencies.

Cohilas went so far as to appear on an Atlanta television station to appeal to the state for help and even flew — on his own dime — to Washington to appeal to federal leaders.

“I saw early on that a lot of people in our county were hurting and needed help,” said Cohilas, whose own home was severely damaged by the Jan. 2 storm. “I also saw that things were not being carried out in a manner that was most beneficial to our community. When you see that, you can either sit on your hands or get into the game.

“What I did, and what Mayor Hubbard did, was work to marshal the 92,000 voices in our community into a unified cry for help. The way you do that is you get on a plane and fly to Washington. Now, as we continue to go through the recovery process, the people in Atlanta know us. The people in D.C. know us. We have a seat at the table.”

As he talks about the challenges facing the commission, not the least of which is the $3 million deficit budget the board is operating under — leading some insiders to privately acknowledge that a millage rate increase is imminent heading into Fiscal Year 2019 — Cohilas maintains an air of optimism. One of his primary concerns, he says, is fostering a closer working relationship with the city of Albany.

“I think there are some systemic partnerships with the city that can be strengthened,” he said. “I think we have to look at ways we can work together to become closer partners on fire, EMS and public safety services. I think we can work together to improve the infrastructure of our roadways. I think we can make improvements on quality-of-life issues like the Flint River Trails System that will positively impact economic development and our citizens’ health.

“What people sometimes tend to forget is that we have some good things going on in our community. We have industry and manufacturing. We have Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany and its innovative programs; we have that biomass plant (on the Procter & Gamble Albany campus); we have educational initiatives like the 4C Academy and job readiness programs coordinated through the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Development Commission, Albany Tech and Albany State University. These are things we ought to be proud of.”

Cohilas acknowledges that the recent rift among commissioners over the naming a county administrator has been “disappointing.” But he said he expects the situation to work out.

“When you have commissioners with differing opinions — which everyone has a right to — things can stall,” he said. “But if we all remember that we have a strong process in place and we commit to that process, we can work our way through most anything.

“Hopefully, we’ll commit to the process. Frankly, we’ve wasted way too much time on this issue already.”

As he sets to qualify for the chair’s seat in the Democratic primary, Cohilas said he’s ready to broaden the scope of the Dougherty Commission’s influence.

“Sometimes when we focus on the things we don’t have, we tend to lose perspective,” he said. “I’ve been a part of consortium meetings for the region, and I sit in with officials from counties that have maybe 4,000 to 6,00 people. They have infrastructure and service issues that we don’t even consider. That’s why I think, going forward, we’re going to have to think more regionally.

“Our community does, whether we know it our not, have a huge impact on the other people in Southwest Georgia. We have to be leaders for the region as well as for our citizens.”