Free speech, both in and out of public meetings, has become an issue among the members of the Fayette County Board of Commissioners.
Amid ongoing questions about the correct procedure for handling agenda items and charges of bias relating to the agenda, the most recent salvos have been launched regarding a TV news interview conducted last week.
The Citizen received an email chain that began with a message from Chairman Charles Oddo dated March 11, in which he referenced Commissioner Steve Brown’s interview with WSB-TV about Lake Peachtree. He noted that as he, the county manager and county attorney have been in discussion with Peachtree City about the lake, none of them knew in advance about the interview.
“In any situation regarding any county subject, not just Lake Peachtree, independent actions by individual commissioners on our board can cause harm, and possibly put the county in difficult legal situations,” Oddo wrote.
“Protocol in the past has been for the chairman to speak publicly on issues pertaining to the county. It would be appropriate to direct such requests for county positions to the chairman, and the chairman can respond or have the most appropriate person respond. I would ask each commissioner to use care and to follow the protocol we have adhered to the previous two years and allow the chairman to speak on behalf of the county.”
Commissioner David Barlow responded the same day giving Oddo his full support.
“In the past there was no problem allowing the chairman to be the official spokesperson,” he wrote. “My understanding is that egotistical narcissistic individuals have a difficult time being a team player.”
Brown responded by email Tuesday morning, blasting both men and charging that the protocol suggested by Oddo did not exist the previous two years when Brown was chairman.
“Commissioner Barlow’s snide remarks aside, it is never a good idea in a free nation espousing democratic ideas with guaranteed protections of free speech to attempt to censor or prohibit anyone from expressing themselves,” he wrote.
Brown pointed out that he has given news interviews in and out of elected office for years upon request, and that in his first two years as commissioner he received no complaints from then-chairman Herb Frady about his op-eds and interviews on any subject, including the T-SPLOST referendum in 2012. He added that in the most recent interview he did not offer any personal opinion on an official county position.
“I do not believe in censorship. I am never going to submit my writings or conversation points to Chairman Oddo or anyone else for review and editing. Chairman Oddo did not elect me nor does he have the power to violate my First Amendment rights. In fact, I wish he would stop attempting to trample my rights. He is a board chairman with limited duties, not a dictator,” Brown wrote.
“I do not have to present official notification to the staff (below me on the organizational chart) to speak to anyone, nor do I have to give such to the board chairman. You are probably confusing Fayette County with the former Soviet Eastern Bloc nations.”
Brown said that when he was chairman he made no attempt to control the speech of any other commissioner, and in fact he encouraged such conversations. He called Oddo’s remarks “a bit hypocritical seeing how the open format of conducting meetings from the previous two years is being totally ignored in exchange for bias and selective enforcement of the rules.”
Brown noted that there were no complaints related to public expression during the past two years, whereas since January of this year that has not been the case.
“If you cannot deal with people talking on subjects that have been thoroughly discussed on blogs, newspaper articles, public meetings and elsewhere, then perhaps you should consider altering your situation,” Brown concluded, addressing the final remarks directly to Oddo. “Leaders cannot be thin-skinned and free societies do not tolerate censorship.”
This latest dispute comes on the heels of Brown’s recent claims that agenda items are being handled in an inconsistent way that suggests bias against certain issues or even certain commissioners, while Oddo says that is not the case.
The controversy began during the Feb. 26 meeting when Brown attempted to introduce a resolution addressing the county’s position on state transportation funding.
During that discussion, which included several attempts by Oddo to stop Brown from talking, Brown was not allowed to present certain supporting materials because they were placed on the dais shortly before the meeting and other commissioners had not been given a chance to review them in advance.
Brown has maintained since then that this practice is not uncommon and there was not just cause to prevent him from entering those items into the discussion.
Brown sent a March 6 letter to the rest of the board addressing policy and procedure changes implemented by county staff but not approved by the commissioners, and he followed that up March 10 with a memorandum requesting a discussion at the April 3 retreat regarding “eliminating bias in the meetings related to presentation and materials on agenda items.”
“We have already experienced conflicting opinions from the chairman related to information entered after the submission deadline and who and when can an elected official and staff present an agenda item,” Brown wrote.
“Every commissioner and staff member should be able to present their agenda item before the Board of Commissioners. Additional documents on the dais are acceptable and should not force an item to be moved to the next meeting.”
Brown also raised his concerns in recent correspondence with local GOP leaders.
“As you know, we are having some issues with changing rules for delivering agenda items from meeting to meeting. This development in addition to some other issues have caused reason for real concern with where the county government is heading,” he wrote.
“I have asked for one set of rules, fair to all, for delivering meeting agenda items and was told by the new chairman that such things would be handled on an ‘issue by issue’ basis. That is biased and unwarranted censorship and it is wrong.”
Brown made his feelings known more than once during the March 10 regular commission meeting.
An item regarding a grant application for Promise Place was changed shortly before the meeting because the organization learned it could apply for $30,000 instead of $20,000. Brown said he would vote in favor of the change and his support of Promise Place did not waver in any way, but called the late addition to the dais “selective enforcement of the rules or changing them as they go along.”
At that time Oddo and county manager Steve Rapson both suggested Brown’s issue would be a good item to discuss at the retreat.
Brown repeated his concerns at the start of the discussion regarding the passive park at the Justice Center, and it was brought up during the commissioner comment period at the end of the meeting, when he made another plea for consistency and “a level playing field.” Ognio also reiterated his concerns about how the process has been handled lately, and Oddo responded that the situation will improve.
“I want to assure Commissioner Ognio and Commissioner Brown that I am doing my best, as I know they are,” said Oddo. “The process will be refined, and it is something we will discuss at the treat so we get past the procedural discussions. There is no intention on my part, ever, to irritate anyone up here.”
