Incoming District 2 Dougherty County Commissioner Victor Edwards looking to break traditions

ALBANY — Dougherty District 2 County Commissioner-elect Victor Edwards is a big believer in second chances. After all, he is the recipient of a huge second chance.

Edwards, at 21, was the youngest person to be elected to the Dougherty County Commission. He served 10 years on the commission before being convicted of drug trafficking in 1993. Edwards spent 14 months in prison and has since created his own business.

He was elected to the board again earlier this year, ousting incumbent John Hayes for the seat, and will be sworn next month.

“I think the people of District 2 voted for me because they were ready for a change and wanted to bring more unity to the commission, ” Edwards said. “(The voters) want to remove the division between the county and the city. They want to get away from a racially divided commission. I think it’s more prevalent today because you have a younger generation raising children. There were several reasons I was elected, and I don’t think one is greater than the other.

“I think the Mike McCoy situation played a big role.”

McCoy was named interim County Administrator in late January upon the retirement of former County Administrator Richard Crowdis. The commission twice voted against making McCoy’s position permanent, leading him to file suit against the board — a case that is still pending.

“The biggest question is how do we get this all settled down and get back to doing business for the people of Dougherty County?” Edwards said. “I don’t see the commission as affecting one particular part of the county, because it affects all of us — industry, the school system and paying the bills. I think people said ‘this guy really needs to be back on the commission, Forget about what happened 25 years ago. He was a team player on the commission, and that’s what we need right now.’”

The commissioner-elect said many citizens regarded him as a visionary at a young age.

“I think they considered the wisdom and experience. How far can I go. Let’s bring back common sense to government and bring back creative thinking to government,” he said. “My biggest thing is common sense. How do we get back to being the Good Life City, a unified city and not separating the different entities because all of us are eating out of the same trough. We are continuing to chase industry, but we are forgetting the little guy and the middle class.

“But it takes money, we’re almost going to have to take government back from staff. Stall is running the government, staff is running the school system and at one time they ran the city and the leadership. Staff cannot run the government.”

Edwards wants to take established tradition and snap it under foot.

“I’m breaking tradition. Nobody remembers 25 years ago when Vic sat at the table the pay was just $250. Nobody remembers I asked for an increase to $600,” he said. “Everybody talks about SPLOST and T-SPLOST but nobody remembers we passed the county’s first sales tax. Everybody says ‘you can’t do this’, but we can do this. Part of the problem is we’ve allowed staff to run government.

“Right now things are out of order. Staff’s job is to carry out the wishes of the commission which is to carry out the wishes of their constituents, and not to tell me what I can and cannot do. That’s what’s holding us back.

Edwards has been given a second chance, and he’s not going to hold back.