County manager government better than what’s here now

The ballot proposal would be a huge change in Barrow County and merits a lot of thought and reflection. At the end of the day, however, the idea deserves voter support.

There is no perfect system of local government. No matter what kind of government is created, it will be flawed because it is run by human beings. And while we might like to think of government in some ideal sense, the foibles those elected and appointed to public office will always govern the overall success or failure of a government.

A little review.

The current move to change Barrow County’s government stems from the controversies that have come from current BOC chairman Danny Yearwood. It’s impossible here to really capture the level of ineffectiveness and useless controversies of the Yearwood administration and the temperamental chairman himself. Although the board has faced some issues not of its own making, the BOC has been needlessly embroiled in bad decisions and controversy. Most of that can be laid at the feet of Yearwood, who has proven to be less than what was needed for the job he was elected to do.

Indeed, it’s almost impossible to imagine a scenario where anyone in Barrow County would have both the technical skills and the political acumen to run Barrow County on a day-to-day basis. The job is too large and the county’s leadership pool too shallow. If there’s someone out there who does have the skills, they certainly aren’t running for the job.

So the fundamental issue here is really much bigger than Yearwood. Before him, there was BOC chairman Doug Garrison whose administration was also embroiled in controversy. But the Garrison years were troubled by at least one thing that serves as a cautionary warning about the impending proposal for a county manager.

Unlike Yearwood, whose hands-on efforts have proven inept, Garrison was largely hands-off, turning over the day-to-day duties to a hired county administrator. But that unofficial experiment with hired management was also a disaster. The administrator got caught up in the glories of the job, hired too many people too fast and raised local government salaries to inane levels. Many of today’s problems, in fact, stem from that hubris of government largess and the lack of BOC oversight.

Still, there is much to be said for having a hired county manager over having an elected chairman running the county. For one thing, the county government has grown so large and complex that very few laymen would ever be able to figure it out. That’s what Yearwood has faced, a depth of complexity that far exceeds his managerial abilities. A trained manager should have the kind of skill set needed to manage hundreds of people and millions of dollars.

But perhaps an even bigger advantage of the manager form of government is that it encourages better candidates to run for BOC seats, especially the chairman’s seat. Having a full time manager takes a lot of pressure off the board. It sets a higher level of professionalism than the current crazy quilt system, a direction that more people are likely to want to be a part of.

That’s especially true in the chairman’s position. As a full-time job, few qualified people would ever run for that seat. But as a part-time position, more qualified people would seriously consider running.

If the current proposal to change the government passes on Nov. 8, several quality people will likely consider running for chairman, including former Braselton Mayor Pat Graham and chamber of commerce CEO Tommy Jennings.

That would change the dynamics of the Barrow BOC. With a stronger, better-quality chairman in place, stronger, better-quality candidates are likely to run to replace the current pile of deadwood that dominates that board.

The manager system, however, isn’t foolproof. As other nearby counties have learned, for a BOC to be successful, it has to hire the right person for the manager’s job and the board has to make darn sure that person is doing what he or she is supposed to do. Just because a manager is hired doesn’t mean the BOC turns off the lights and goes home. The board still has to be engaged with what’s happening in county government.

But even with that concern, Barrow County will be better off in the future if it moves to a county manager government today. There is no prospect that the current system will ever work in the future for Barrow County, but there is some hope that by professionalizing the administration, better leaders will step forward.

It’s not a silver bullet or a magic formula. But a county manager system of government would be better than the broken, ineffective and embarrassing government that rules Barrow today.

Mike Buffington is co-publisher of the Barrow Journal. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.