COVINGTON, Ga — The annual rotation of a job leading Newton commission meetings in the chairman’s absence produced some unusual requests from the new vice chairperson and some sniping between commissioners at times last week.

During its first meeting of 2022 on Jan. 4, the Newton County Board of Commissioners reappointed Jackie Smith to her 25th year as county clerk and named District 4 Commissioner J.C. Henderson to the largely ceremonial position of vice chairman in his 27th year on the Board.

The vice chairman position rotates annually based on district number and presides at meetings if the chairman is unable to attend. Chairman Marcello Banes did not miss a meeting in 2021. 

Commissioners voted to appoint Henderson after he said he wanted special recognition intended to show “respect” for the position after his predecessor was “disrespected” last year.

He also wanted approval of a public hearing he would lead rather than the chairman before the budget process begins this year, and for 2021 vice chairperson Alana Sanders to receive a payment totaling 20% of her 2021 pay.

A majority of commissioners in January 2021 wanted a more experienced commissioner to have the job after the annual rotation of the job fell to District 3 during Sanders’ first meeting after her November 2020 election.

However, Sanders protested and said she had led meetings before for other organizations. She eventually won the position.

Henderson last week said the payment he proposed for Sanders was for her recent work on a committee determining how to distribute federal COVID relief funds in unincorporated Newton.

However, County Attorney Patrick Jaugstetter said state law requires any change to a commissioner’s compensation to include a public notice beforehand, and other requirements.

“I would recommend that the salary, the additional compensation be taken out of your motion,” he told Henderson. 

“We can certainly work toward achieving that but it would be improper for this board to approve additional compensation to any board member at a meeting like this.”

After dropping the requested payment for Sanders, Henderson said he wanted to lead a public meeting about the 2023 budget prior to commissioners hearing budget requests from department heads and constitutional officers in April.

District 1 Commissioner Stan Edwards said any board member could host such a meeting in individual districts. Commissioner Demond Mason of District 2 said he organized a budget meeting for his constituents in 2021.

State law also requires the Board of Commissioners to host two public hearings before the annual budget is set, typically in June before the July 1 start of the county’s budget year. 

But Henderson said the process “still doesn’t do the public any good because the minds are already made up” at that point.

He said he wanted to host a meeting “anywhere,” and said it was intended for residents countywide, rather than individual districts, to voice their opinions and would include constitutional officers who “in my opinion have been left out of the process.”

Constitutional officers are elected offices the Georgia Constitution mandates be filled in every county, such as the tax commissioner, sheriff and Probate Court judge.

Chairman Marcello Banes said he disagreed with a vice chairman organizing and chairing his own countywide open meeting.

Jaugstetter said he recommended Henderson’s requested meeting be considered when the Board approves a schedule of meetings related to the 2023 budget in coming weeks.

But Sanders defended the District 4 commissioner and said Henderson wanted meetings that would be broadcast live on the county’s social media outlets as opposed to individual district meetings that might be less visible.  

Henderson, who is Black and a Democrat, also took political jabs at Mason, who is also a Black Democrat, for siding with Republican members and not supporting Henderson’s public meeting proposal.

“It’s the same respect you’re giving to the chairman and you’re denying me that respect,” he said

“What the problem is, is that the majority of the board, which is Republican, they don’t want the citizens of Newton County to have any say-so in the budget,” Henderson said. 

“Republicans don’t always have to be my Caucasian brothers on the board. It can be us too, as well,” he said. 

Mason’s District 2 seat is up for election this year and he reportedly already has a Democratic challenger if he decides to seek re-election.

Henderson said he also wanted to be addressed as “vice chairman” during meetings and receive a nameplate with the words “vice chairman” placed at his seat on the commission dais as a show of respect to the holder of the position.

“I didn’t like the way it was did (in 2021) to my good friend, Commissioner Sanders,” he said.

Jaugstetter told commissioners the requirement they refer to Henderson as “vice chair” during meetings was not enforceable.

Mason said he did not hear any of his colleagues — which included Henderson — say they wanted him to be given additional income or a special name plate when he served as vice chairman in 2020.

“So, what I want to know is, why now all of a sudden in 2021 and 2022 we are changing things,” Mason said.

“I just want to make this clear: This has nothing to do with Republican ... nothing to do with Democrat,” Mason said.

“It has to do with a level of respect for the entire board, and it should not be where we are showing favoritism to certain commissioners when it’s their time to be vice chair and not give that same respect to other commissioners when they’re the vice chair,” Mason said.

Sanders said most commissioners, including Mason, did not want her to be vice chairperson in 2021.

“I was disrespected the entire year,” Sanders said.

She said commissioners should show respect to future vice chairpersons based on the district seat they occupy rather than the person holding the seat.

“That’s why he’s putting in place that every commissioner behind us is respected and you don’t show favoritism based on the person sitting in the seat, which you did,” she told Mason.

In other action at the same meeting, county commissioners also approved the Newton County Water & Sewerage Authority’s use of a county government easement off Alcovy Road for installation of a water line to serve the Stanton Springs area.

Use of the easement near the entrance to the Cornish Creek water treatment plant allows NCWSA to install a 24-inch water main line as part of a planned $5.75 million project to serve industries in Stanton Springs North and South, including the future site of electric vehicle maker Rivian, Facebook’s two data centers, Takeda Pharmaceuticals and a project called Morning Hornet.