770-679-5607
Executive order creates 17-member commission to review county charter
DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond has announced the creation of a DeKalb Charter Review Commission to conduct a comprehensive review of the Organizational Act that established the county’s current Chief Executive Officer and Board of Commissioners form of governance.
“The purpose of this commission is to study DeKalb’s current form of government to ensure the county is responsive to the ever-changing needs and demands of county government,” said CEO Thurmond. “It has been 40 years since the Organizational Act was initially passed in a public referendum. Jimmy Carter was president; annual interest rates were more than 18 percent; and Sony launched the Walkman. Now is the time to take stock of changes that are needed to create a 21st-century government that is transparent, efficient, and fiscally sound.”
During the 2018 session of the Georgia General Assembly, leadership in the DeKalb House and Senate delegations collaborated with CEO Thurmond to develop the purpose and framework of the commission.
The Charter Review Commission will be comprised of 17 members as follows:
- Three members appointed by the CEO with two members serving asco-chairs
- One member appointed by the DeKalb County Board of Education
- Seven members, each appointed by a member of the Board of Commissioners
- Three members appointed by the DeKalb delegation to the Georgia House of Representatives
- Three members appointed by the DeKalb delegation to the Georgia Senate
- Two chairs of the DeKalb delegation to the General Assembly who will serve as ex officio members.
- The Charter Review Commission will convene from April 1, 2019, to Dec. 31, 2020. A final report and recommendations will be issued by Dec. 31, 2020.
- All meetings will be open to the public, which will be given opportunities to address the commission during the meetings. In addition, a website will be dedicated to the commission’s work and deliberations, and all meetings will be recorded and broadcast on DCTV-23, the county’s official television station.
4 comments
Tom Clark Harrison
February 22, 2019 at 6:05 pm
Actually it’s only been 38 years not 40. The change to a CEO form occurred in 1981
Gaye Stathis
February 22, 2019 at 7:42 pm
Whoop Dee Frickin Doo. What a worthless waste of time and energy. Just like the $275,000 study of the billing problems with the DeKalb Watershed Management, it will be tossed in a drawer and ignored at the unilateral decision of someone who won’t have any “skin in the game” in other words, Thurmond in his lame duck final months of his current term. If he’s replaced by the voters, then the newly elected CEO won’t have a lot of motivation to act on a report generated by appointees of his predecessor and if Thurmond is re-elected then I would expet him to do what he’s done before: deny, delay and deflect.
Jerry Jackson Admin at REFORM DeKalb
February 22, 2019 at 11:09 pm
The Poor Leadership of DeKalb CEO Thurmond is dragging down all of DeKalb. … This County continues to have Audits and Reviews thrown out only to go with it’s own Flawed Plans … Water billing is still a Train Wreck … We are short perhaps 400-500 Police Officers … The 911 Call Center continues to be short of Operators placing all of DeKalb’s Citizens and Businesses at great peril … CEO Thurmond has appointed a Director of Public Safety along with an Assistant Director of Public Safety that do nothing to keep us safe, wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars … CEO Thurmond is leaving us with the worst roads in The Metro … DeKalb’s Roads are tracked up and down with pot holes due to very poor work habits and just simple imcompedence of contractors with little to no Supervision of DeKalb’s Engineers … DEKALB REMAINS A SEWER OF CORRUPTION !!! …
Jerry Jackson Admin at REFORM DeKalb
February 22, 2019 at 11:13 pm
What if any compensation will these 17 members of The New Commission receive ? … ain’t nothing free …