Schedule set for public input on county’s governing structure

The Charter Review Committee of the Barrow County Board of Commissioners held its initial organizing meeting last week and is now looking toward a series of upcoming public meetings.

The seven BOC appointees selected Ray Newman as chairman and voted to ask former Braselton mayor Pat Graham and Barrow County Republican Party chairman Ken Young to serve as at-large committee members.

The committee also agreed that it would review, and seek public comment on, all of the existing charter provisions – not just those addressing the powers of the BOC chairman, which precipitated the formation of the committee.

And it established the following tentative schedule of public input sessions:

•7 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, in Auburn.
•7 p.m. Tuesday, May 17, in Bethlehem.
•7 p.m. Thursday, May 26, in Statham.
•7 p.m. Tuesday, May 31, in Braselton.
•7 p.m. Thursday, June 9, in Winder.

Following input from residents of those cities, any Barrow County resident may speak for up to two minutes at each meeting.

The committee plans to have no other meetings before submitting its recommendations to the BOC on June 14.

Instead, it will conduct business immediately following the public input sessions and will finalize its recommendations June 9.