By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
MAY 17, 2019 | The ramifications abound now that Charlotte Nash has said that she will not seek re-election as the Gwinnett County Commission Chairman in the 2020 elections. Consider:
Gwinnett will see a major change in governmental leadership for the first time in nearly a decade.- It’s likely that several department level managers will retire, and new people will fill their ranks.
- The next chairman of the commission will most likely be a Democrat, while there may be a major swing toward Democratic domination in most elected offices.
- Mrs. Nash’s announcement in May of 2019 gives plenty of time for potential candidates for the chairman’s office to get their ducks in a row to run for office.
- And hopefully, governmental operations will continue to function smoothly, and the citizens see little change in what we consider relatively efficient county operations.
While Gwinnett in general has seen good government since the major growth began in 1950, it has not always been so. Perhaps the most serious breach of faith in government came when Charles Bannister was county chairman. Happily, he was convinced to resign, and Mrs. Nash ran for and won the balance of his unexpired term, plus won two terms on her own. Bannister no longer lives in Gwinnett, now residing in Walton County.
Nash
Charlotte Nash was in a perfect position to replace Bannister, having served as chief financial officer of the county, as well as county administrator during Wayne Hill’s time as chairman. She will have served nearly 10 years as the chair of the commission. She has done it with distinction, aplomb and hard-nosed common sense.
Now perhaps the most significant need for Gwinnett is a new plan that attacks the transportation problems of the county. Since Gwinnett did not approve the recent ill-timed transportation vote, what is most important now is for the county to work with other area entities to formulate a new transportation plan that the citizens will address in the 2020 General Election.
The person best suited to draw up this plan is Mrs. Nash. We look for a plan that will have ramifications that are easily understood, and will be good enough that the citizens will adopt it in the 2020 election. Her steering of this plan for the long-term good of the county can be a crowning jewel in her years of service to the county.
ONE OTHER ELEMENT that requires change for Gwinnett concerns how much we pay its leaders, most notably the salary of the commission chairman. It is now a paltry $58,362, and should be much higher. Remember, this is a full-time position. A similar job, that of CEO of DeKalb County, has a salary of $166,209.
Meanwhile, Gwinnett District Commissioners are paid $45,900. Their positions are not full time jobs; only the Gwinnett chairman’s position is considered full time.
This is a job for the new Democratic Party-led Gwinnett legislative delegation. They should get together and devise this change to raise the chairman’s salary. One suggestion has been to raise it to the level of the Superior Court judges in Gwinnett, who receive a state pay of $126,265, plus a Gwinnett supplement of $52,670. By tying the chairman’s salary to the Gwinnett Superior Court Judge’s pay, this arrangement could float when the judicial pay was increased, and make the chairman’s compensation more reasonable. Perhaps Chairman Nash can convince the delegation to take this step toward a more realistic salary for the chairman for future office-holders.
THURSDAY, MAY 16, was the 242nd anniversary of the duel between Button Gwinnett and Lachlan McIntosh, fought in Savannah on May 16, 1777. Both men felt they had been wronged, and were serious about dueling, to regain their honor. Both were gentlemen, shooting each other in the leg. McIntosh recovered, but Gwinnett got gangrene in his leg and died three days later. Gwinnett County is one of the few places named for Gwinnett, one of the three signers of the Declaration of Independence from Georgia.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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