A public hearing was held Thursday evening at 6:30 at the Newton County Historic Courthouse to discuss amending the county form of government. 

During the Jan. 20 BOC meeting, Commissioner John Douglas suggested the county consider whether both the county manager and chairman need to be full time employees, while Commissioners Lanier Sims and Nancy Schulz advocated broader public participation in that meeting.

Currently, Newton County is a chairman-commission form of government, and has a full-time county manager.

The county charter places the chairman in charge of day-to-day administration, but in 2011 the position of county manager was created.