A Letter to the Editor

(This is a letter to the editors of the three weekly newspapers in Fannin County addressing the county's failure to codify and publish its ordinances. It was emailed to the papers on April 3, 2016.)

Dear Editor,

In 2001 the Georgia legislature passed a law requiring all Georgia counties to prepare and publish a codification of their “ordinances and resolutions” by January 1, 2002 and thereafter to update their codes of ordinances every year. Fannin County has complied with this statute only once in 14 years. In 2007 the county published a code of ordinances but has neglected to update the code since then.  

Over one year ago I brought this statute to the attention of Fannin County Commission Chairman Bill Simonds and requested that the county comply with the statute by publishing a code of ordinances and annually updating it. I also requested that the code be made available online to make it easier for Fannin County residents and others to access the county’s ordinances. This is a common practice for the vast majority of local governments across the country and furthers the interest of open and transparent government. Publishing a code of laws is a basic function of government, and the idea is not new—Hammurabi first thought of doing it over 3,000 years ago.

Simonds advised me that he was not aware that such a statute existed. This raises a question of how competent and informed our county attorney is since, apparently, she was either not aware of the statute or did not think it important to tell Simonds or prior chairmen that the county was required by law to publish a code of ordinances.

Two weeks ago I submitted a public records request to the county to find out what progress had been made toward publishing a code. Ms. Rita Davis-Kirby, the County Clerk, responded to me with an email saying that the county attorney has “been in contact with a couple different companies that offer codification services.” In other words, Chairman Simonds and Ms. Doss have done nothing to comply with the statute in over a year.

There are only three possible explanations for this lack of action on the part of Simonds and Doss: (a) they do not believe that Fannin County residents should have easy access to all the county’s ordinances; (b) they do not believe the county has to comply with Georgia law; or (c) Simonds’ administration of the county is so inefficient and disorganized that it cannot accomplish the simple task of selecting a company to codify and publish a code of ordinances in a reasonable time.

James L. Yacavone III

Update
I received another email from Ms. Kirby, the county clerk, since this letter was posted. Ms. Kirby said that there are no emails or other documents between the county and the county attorney's office and code service companies. She also wrote: "The County Attorney also informed me that there was no written documentation of her conversations with the companies that we will be looking at to update our current codified ordinances. We have been told that she has a meeting with them in mid April."

I think this makes it fairly clear that Chairman Simonds and Ms. Doss did nothing to comply with the statute from the time I first advised them of it 13 months ago until I submitted my public records request. When I submitted my public records request it either reminded them of the statute or convinced them that I was not going to go away. 

Since I submitted my request about two and a half weeks ago the county attorney has managed to contact some companies and arrange meetings with them by mid-April. This is further evidence that there is no excuse for it taking so long to comply with the statute.

I strongly suspect that Simonds wants this done before the election in May because it makes him look bad.