EDITORIAL: Outside influences guide Dougherty board

That the statement came from a highly placed city of Albany official made it all the more eye-opening.

During a discussion of governmental issues that have plagued smaller Southwest Georgia communities like Camilla and Arlington lately, the official said, “You know, that sounds a lot like the Dougherty County Commission.”

The Dougherty Commission, which has certainly taken advantage of past opportunities to take potshots at the goings-on of the Albany government, is deserving of such public scrutiny and a growing disdain, given its actions of late. The county board’s failure to name a replacement for recently retired, and well-respected, administrator Richard Crowdis has left many in the community wondering if the board has the ability to reach a consensus decision.

The fact that actions of board members — such as the juvenile altercation, sparked by very adult circumstances, between District 2 Commissioner John Hayes and then-Assistant County Administrator, now interim administrator, Mike McCoy — have brought a high level of ridicule to the commission table only adds to the growing clamor of dissatisfaction with the commission.

What may be more troubling, though, are reports that certain commissioners are now basing their actions and decisions on outside influences that reach all the way to the level of the state legislature, inside community churches and to friends and acquaintances who have no ties to this community. Taxpayers, it seems, are secondary to egos and personal agendas.

While three members of the board have openly thrown their support behind McCoy to assume the administrator position, and other commissioners have offered off-the-record pledges of support as well, the fact remains that every day that the permanent position sits unfilled is another day that the commission has failed in its duties.

Albany attorney Maurice King has already sent notice of his intent to sue the commission for up to $3 million on McCoy’s behalf for myriad reasons — the most damning and seemingly appropriate of which is retaliation — and if any board member’s memory is short enough to think King is bluffing, they need only think back a few months during the aftermath of the Hayes/McCoy brouhaha to the reported $50,000 settlement that they paid McCoy rather than face a hostile work environment suit.

If certain among the board members — especially those up for re-election — think they’re so beloved by the voters in their districts that they can be re-elected no matter their record of service, they might want to take another look at the county’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget. It’s a deficit budget that runs in the millions of dollars. Ineffective commissioners have certainly been elected and re-elected in the past, but it’s when their actions start worming their way into the pocketbooks of the people they represent that the electorate is most likely to turn on them.

Emboldened by a few high-placed supporters whose interests are nothing if not self-serving, certain Dougherty County commissioners have been convinced they, like the famed G-Man Elliott Ness, are untouchable. Perhaps. As they boldly continue to flout their self-proclaimed power and make a mockery of the governing body they were elected to serve on and misrepresent the best interests of the the taxpayers they were entrusted to advocate for, they’re also carving out their own special niche in this county’s history.

They should remember, though, that history is not so kind to officials whose actions in office are detrimental to a community rather than beneficial.