Pickens County Commissioner Frank K. Martin (left) talks with Harold Hensley, owner of Hensley Service Center in Japer, Ga. Mr. Martin is one of the last single commissioner counties left in Georgia. The system remains, in part, because voters like it. RIC FELDASSOCIATED PRESS

Sole commissions less open

Web posted December 15, 1999

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By Chad Roedemeier
Associated Press Writer

JASPER, Ga. -- As the sole commissioner in Pickens County, Frank K. Martin doesn't need to hold a debate or build consensus before he makes a decision. He can pass any law he wants.

But Mr. Martin says he's no dictator, calling himself the county's ``chief complaint-taker.''

When something goes wrong, everyone in this rural northwest Georgia county knows who to call. Mr. Martin hears about hogs rooting around in a neighbor's garden, traffic noise on the bypass -- even requests to clear fog off the mountains.

``You are going to always have to answer to somebody,'' said Mr. Martin, a 46-year-old who rides a Harley and chews tobacco. ``The public is who you answer to.''

Mr. Martin is one of 10 sole commissioners left in Georgia -- the only state that allows counties to be run by one person. It's a form of government that lets counties work quickly and avoid partisan backbiting; but critics say it makes it difficult to relay the workings of government to the public.

Dan Pool, editor of the Pickens County Progress, said Mr. Martin holds regular meetings twice a month. There is no debate or exchange of ideas; Mr. Martin simply explains what he is going to do.

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``Even if he wants to be open, he's not going to have a discussion with himself,'' Mr. Pool said. ``It's only natural that he puts his decision in the best light.''

Sole-commissioner governments were created at the turn of the century to let a county's leading businessman run its government, according to Jacqueline Byers, director of research for the National Association of Counties.

There has been a gradual shift to multimember boards, but in the mid-1980s Georgia still had about 35 sole commissioners.

In some counties, voters decided the population had grown too big for one person to handle everything. In other cases, black residents used the Voting Rights Act to argue that the sole commissioner form of government keeps minorities from being elected.

The 10 counties in Georgia that still have a single commissioner are mostly rural and white. Eight counties are located in the north Georgia mountains; the other two are in middle Georgia.

``They are still around because the state Constitution allows it, and counties are creatures of the states they are in,'' said Ms. Byers.

The sole-commissioner system also persists because many voters like it.

Click on graphic to view a larger version. STAFF

In Chattooga County in northwest Georgia, residents voted 83 percent to 17 percent to keep the sole commissioner in 1992. Similar referendums in Pickens and Bartow counties also have preserved the single commissioner.

``With a board, you get about four or five people arguing, you just waste tax dollars and you don't get anything done,'' said Harold Hensley, who owns a service station in Jasper.

But public arguments are part of how democracy works, said Hollie Manheimer, executive director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation. ``You don't have that public give-and-take if there's only one person,'' she said.

It's easier for a sole commissioner to skirt those open meetings requirements, said Ms. Manheimer.

Mr. Martin says his administration is more open than counties with a five-person board.

``If you have a problem with your neighbor's dog barking, you don't have to wait until a commission meeting. You can walk in the door today and gripe if you want to,'' Mr. Martin said.

That's what makes the sole commissioner attractive, said Douglas C. Bachtel, a University of Georgia rural sociologist.

The sole-commissioner form of government is efficient and responsive to the public, he said. It also avoids the gridlock that occurs in some small counties when political fights turn personal.

``It can be a benevolent dictatorship,'' Mr. Bachtel said.