All Four Oconee County Board of Commissioners Candidates Want to Keep Power Balance with Chairman

Regardless of which of the two candidates running for the chairmanship of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners wins on Tuesday, he is going to be confronted with four other commissioners who say that they want to share governance equally with the chairman.

All four of the candidates competing for the two posts on the Commission have said they do not see any need to make changes in the ordinance passed by the Commission in 2009 that redrew the organizational chart for the county to make key county employees report to the Commission rather than to the chairman of the Commission, as was true in the past.

While the issue of a strong versus weak Commission has not played a prominent role in the election campaign of these four candidates, it has been dominant in the contest between incumbent Melvin Davis and challenger Chuck Horton for the Board of Commissioners chairman post.

How far apart these two are was in evidence during the campaign in how they discussed communication between the chairman and the Board and was demonstrated on Tuesday night as the chairman and the Board disagreed over how to settle a minor salary issue in the county.

Many Oconee County voters have already cast their ballots.

Of the 23,514 eligible voters, 15.8 percent cast their ballots in early voting, which started on July 9 and ended on Friday.

In the comparable July 15, 2008, election, Oconee County had 19,190 registered voters, and 36.4 percent, turned out, according to the official results from the Georgia Secretary of State Office.

For details on the BOC race and early turnout, go to Oconee County Observations.