A move to adopt proposed bylaw changes by the Atlanta Regional Commission board that has raised the ire of some Fayette County leaders was postponed for a month.
The matter was scheduled to be voted on last Wednesday but it was reset for the Oct. 22 meeting, at 1 p.m. at the ARC offices in Atlanta.
Fayette County Board of Commissioners Chairman Steve Brown and Tyrone Mayor Eric Dial, the two local elected officials on the ARC board, both expressed concern about a possible consolidation of power by the ARC chairman under new guidelines, but Brown has been perhaps the most vocal in the entire region about the issue.
Brown has repeatedly voiced his objections to possible changes that would “allow us to drift into a system that will pick the regional winners and losers,” as he wrote in a recent letter to ARC leaders that included his own proposed changes to the bylaws.
“Accountability is paramount,” he wrote. “I truly believe that the regional government, in conjunction with the state legislature, needs to begin looking at significant structural governance changes for the ARC to promote openness, transparency and accountable representation.”
ARC board membership includes the commission chairman from each member county as well as one mayor from each county appointed by his or her peers. About one-third of the board also consists of unelected citizens.
Perhaps Brown’s biggest problem with the current configuration of the ARC board is the fact that community improvement district (CID) leaders or employees are eligible to be board members.
“The whole purpose of a CID is to enhance the properties they own and manage. It’s a self-serving kind of proposal,” Brown said last week. “How can you [let a CID member serve on the board] where it benefits him or his employer directly?”
Brown outlined a number of his own proposed bylaw changes in his Sept. 17 correspondence with ARC leaders, including:
• At-large members cannot be CID board members or employees.
• Officers (president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, parliamentarian) must include at least 3 public members.
• Chair is limited to two terms.
• Chair does not make all committee appointments.
• Citizen input allotment is a minimum or two minutes per person.
• Any public member can self-appoint to two standing committees when not in conflict with law.
• Eliminate the governance committee and establish an executive committee.
• Ethics committee chairman is elected by committee members.
• Chair of Aging and Health Resources Committee chosen by that committee, not ARC chair.
• Chair of Community Resources Committee and Strategic Relations Committee chosen by ARC board, not ARC chair.
• Quorum for Transportation and Air Quality Committee is 50 (not 40) percent of membership.
Brown said his opposition to the recent ARC proposals has grown a bit of late, with the Metropolitan Atlanta Mayors Association coming on board.
“When they put the bylaws up and decided to do it in a short period of time, I think it started to wake some people up,” he said. “They’re looking at this thing now and they’re thinking that this is not going to be good.”
Another ARC regulation that had caused consternation with citizens of late was the list of rules regarding public comment at board meetings. A new policy was adopted last week that only slightly modified these rules, although the new plan allows the chair to arbitrarily determine at any given time that public comment can be eliminated at a specific meeting due to time constraints or for some other reason.
Brown considers this another inappropriate stretch of the chair’s authority.
“If one person says no to public speech, then we don’t have public speech?” he wondered. “That’s ridiculous.”
While the new public comment policy passed, seven people voted against it, including Brown and Dial.
But some will continue to fight against further consolidation of power with the ARC chair, which could include the ability for that single person to choose who serves on nearly every committee.
Brown repeated a line he has used often to illustrate the results of the passage of such a proposal:
“He will pick the regional winners and the regional losers.”
