Bringing More Transparency to County Government

My View by Jim Yacavone

(August 12, 2016)

The King is dead. Long live the King. Those are the traditional words uttered when an old king dies and a new king has been named to take his place. Here in Fannin County, the old king—Commission Chairman Bill Simonds—has not died but done the electoral equivalent by losing the election to a new king, Stan Helton. Helton takes office in January. 

Helton has promised to make county government more open and transparent. Those have not been Simonds’ strong points. It seems he has never understood that the reporting requirements are different in private industry than in elected public office. In private industry the only person Simonds had to report to was his boss. As commission chairman he has the duty to report to the citizens and his fellow commissioners and keep them fully informed of county matters.

During the primaries Simonds defended the transparency of his administration by saying that his door is always open implying that all a citizen has to do to be informed was drop in and ask him.

This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the public’s right to know about the activities of their government. The public has the right not only to have questions answered but more importantly the right to be informed without having to ask questions. This means that the chairman, as the county’s administrator, has an affirmative obligation to disclose timely information about county’s affairs and plans—all of them.

Under Simonds there have been too many times when the post commissioners complained that they did not have access to information or were not informed of matters. All too often the public learned of some action or omission by Simonds after the fact.

Helton seems sincere about changing all that. He has vowed to have a more open and cooperative approach to running the county, one where the post commissioners and the public get to weigh in on important decisions. To do this he will have to work hard to keep the post commissioners and the public informed of matters large and small in county government.

One positive step in that direction would be to make better use of the county’s website, Fannincountygeorgia.org.

Helton can start with a simple thing like posting email addresses for the three commissioners. There are no email addresses for the chairman or the two post commissioners on the website. Thus is there is no way for citizens to email their questions and opinions to their elected officials.

In this age of the internet that’s ridiculous. Email has become one of the most important ways for people and businesses to communicate. Just ask Hillary Clinton. Maybe the commissioners don’t know how to use email or, perhaps, they can’t be bothered with what the public thinks. That certainly is the impression from the lack of email addresses on the county’s website. Hey, guys, it’s no longer 1950.

One significant improvement would be to use the website to livestream commission meetings and post videos of the meetings for review. In that way citizens who cannot make it to meetings can actually see or review them. Many local governments the size of Fannin County or smaller do that in the interest of openness and for the convenience of their citizens. It is not difficult or expensive to do with today’s technology.

There are other ways the county’s website can be used to provide more information about what is going on in county government. Other counties and cities make better use of their websites. Why not Fannin County?

That’s my view. What’s yours?