Gray ready to become ‘official’ Dougherty commissioner

ALBANY — Next month, Russell Gray will be officially sworn in to start his first full term as the commissioner for District 4 in Dougherty County. He’d briefly dipped his toes into the dangerous waters of politics as an appointed member of the Dougherty County Board of Elections, resigned that post for an unexpected run for office and found himself getting a head start on his commission position on Sept. 17 when the man he will replace on the commission, Ewell Lyle, announced his immediate resignation.

Gray ran for the District 4 seat unopposed, part of a whirlwind turn of events that brought an avowed “non-political guy” to a seat on the county government.

“I think as you grow older, you become more observant of the factors that affect your quality of life and your children’s futures,” Gray said. “You become more interested in making things better and realizing how operationally things work or don’t work. I really started by helping set up the Merry Acres/Lake Park Neighborhood Watch Group. I started to liaise with city and county officials around the needs in our neighborhood.

“There’s always move leverage when there is a larger body of individuals behind it.”

The seed of politics, however, had been sown.

“I really didn’t have aspirations of getting into politics,” Gray said. “But I was asked at serve as the Republican representative on the Board of Elections, and I thought it might be a good way to serve my community.”

Gray’s stint of the elections board was brief — he attended only one meeting. In February he resigned from that seat to qualify to run for the County Commission.

“I think I hold the record for shortest tenure on the Dougherty County Board of Elections,” he said laughing.

Lyle’s early exit opened the commission’s door for Gray.

“I wasn’t looking for the fact that Commissioner Lyle was not going to run for re-election,” Gray said. “I talked to some folks in the community who had talked to Lyle, and he told them to start looking for someone (to replace him). My name was being thrown around.”

Gray said he had not intended to run for the seat but could not ignore the groundswell of support from the community.

“I am not a self-promoting individual. I don’t go out and seek recognition or publicity for what I do,” Gray said. “I like to stay behind the scenes for the most part.”

Gray will be part of a somewhat dysfunctional county commission that still lacks a full-time county administrator. Mike McCoy replaced Richard Crowdis as the county’s interim administrator after Crowdis retired Jan. 31, and McCoy has been the subject of an intense debate among factions on the commission. But with Gray and Victor Edwards (District 2) reshuffling the cards, filling that position will be a top priority of the new commission.

“There is no doubt the lack of a full-time county administrator has been a fly in the ointment,” Gray said. “Mike McCoy has proven himself through 19 years of understudy to Richard Crowdis. I don’t think there is anybody I would want in that position more than Mike, especially when you look at all of the insanely complex dealings that the county is having to manage from multiple storms to FEMA and GEMA grants.

“I think that Mike could be a national expert on that; he’s done a fantastic job managing it.”

Nothing like taking a leap into the deep end of the pool..