Warring Factions on the Henry County BOC

Warring Factions on the Henry County BOC

It has not been a secret for sometime that there has been friction between the Chairman of the BOC Mr. Tommy Smith and the Board of Commissioners and the County Manager Mr. Walker whom they hired.  The question has been about the powers and authority of the Chairman verses that of the County Manager.  There is an excellent article in the Henry County Herald over the matter that as promised will be in two parts because it is such a long extended piece.  It looks as though the Chairmanship is being reduced in power by the BOC and the County Manager.  There have been vocal exchanges such as the one by 5th District Commissioner Mr. Bruce Holmes on December 16th when he said the following: Quote “Having a title does not make you a leader,” said Holmes. “In the last two years, I have not seen any leadership from the chairman, nor have I seen any vision. The entire region thinks we’re a joke of a county with everything that’s going on in Henry County.
 All I’ve seen over the last two years is different employees being attacked and intimidated, and I guess that’s the reason why the chairman seeks to have executive powers — so he can fire everybody.”  Mr. Holmes may have to remember all that and prove it on the witness stand at the Superior Court of Henry County where Chairman Smith has filed a suit against the BOC.
At the BOC meeting of the 16th it was voted 5-1 to ask the Legislature to decide about the duties of the Chairman and the County Manager.  The problem will be where will the authority come from to decide the matter the Court system or the Legislature.  The Legislature cannot override the outcome of a court proceeding.  That is why the BOC is trying to manuveur itself in this fashion.  If they wanted to avert a lawsuit why didn’t they suggest this in the first place?  Again trying to manuveur around the system.  There will be a lot of hard feelings about this case especially in the districts of the county.
There is one key element of the whole process that the BOC has forgotten.  They were elected by their respective districts to serve in those districts. Mr. Smith was voted in by the majority of the voters in the entire county to serve as the Chairman of the BOC.  They may not like the man, but personalities do not get the job done.  The BOC tried to manuveur against Mr. Smith right after he took office by trying to get Senator Jeffares to limit his authority and he ended up looking wrong in the Senate.
Remember that personalities do not get the job done.  Mr. Smith has done the best he could with little support since he took office. He knows about the behind the scenes talks and dealing with the government of the county and he knows that they don’t want him in office because he does not conform to what they want.  Remember also that there will be others in those districts who can replace each and every one of you come election time.  The people are being left out of this whole affair. They are the ones who decide what will happen in that building on Henry Parkway in McDonough.  The people know what is happening because they are not as dumb as some would like them to be.  They know that there is a group out of the northern part of the county who want to build a coalition to try and take over and create a lifestyle like they have in Clayton County. They know about the special private meetings on the subject and those in Henry County don’t care for
 it.  This is Henry County not Clayton County.  If they love the style of Clayton County then move to Clayton County and leave the people of Henry County alone. That is why there has been such turmoil in the City of Stockbridge for several years now.  It is because those who want it to be like a city in Clayton County or Fulton County and the people don’t want it.  Jeff Turner was a good police man in Henry County and he probably is what the people of Clayton County want for a Chairman, but he has no authority in Henry County.  But there will be changes soon to what is happening because the people of Henry County are getting enough of this infiltration of people who want to disrupt the government of  this county. But the people here haven’t seen nasty and ugly yet.  What happened at the meeting of the 16th was just a child’s play to what is on the horizon.  People are tired of all this and when it all comes down there will be a lot of new faces in
 the governmental complex of this county.

A Fed Up Citizen of Henry County

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