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Elections board fails to pick third member
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The Rockdale County Board of Elections could not decide on a third member by Wednesday. They will now face Rockdale County Superior Court Judge Sidney Nation, who threatened to throw them off the board if they did not decide, on Friday morning.

If the board members are removed on Friday, it could jeopardize the March 6 Sunday alcohol sales ballot that the Board of Commissioners officially requested on Tuesday. The elections board has until Nov. 17 to call for the special election in order to place it on the March 6 ballot. Conyers has also indicated it would like to see the Sunday sales question for the city on the March 6 ballot.

After two hours of discussion Wednesday morning, an interview of a new applicant, and an hour recess for lunch, board members Garvin Haynes and Lynn Brown needed less than 15 minutes to conclude they could not come to an agreement.

Haynes started the meeting back up by putting a sheet of paper with his first two choices for a third member on the table, and he then requested Brown do the same.

However, Brown said there was only one choice, and that was all she was prepared to give.

"I don't feel like I have to put a second choice, I know who my first is," Brown said.

Haynes continued on insisting that Brown should name a second choice as well.

"Could you please try to accommodate something given that we are supposed to try to come up wit a choice that we both can agree on," Haynes said. "We could see if there's any faint possibility that we could actually agree on anybody."

The two went back and forth, whether or not to say one name or two for about seven minutes.

Brown named her first and only choice as Cary Bond, current interim third board member. Haynes continued to not name his first two choices until Brown named a second.

"Mr. Haynes you are not going to circumvent my choice," Brown said. "You're playing games sir. You're dragging things out trying to grandstand and wear everyone down."

Brown said she was voting for Bond because he was the best choice when you combined his background with his experience of being a sitting board member.

"I don't feel like I should have to circumvent the most qualified person simply because of Mr. Haynes' bias against them,"

After the session of Haynes refusing to give his first choice and Brown refusing to give her second, the board then went to a five minute recess.

After the break Haynes gave his first choice of Russell Moore.

Moore was Haynes' first pick and Bond was Brown's first pick back in 2010 when Bond was finally selected via a random draw of a poker chip from a brown paper bag.

Haynes continued to ask Brown for a second choice, and then gave his second choice for a new board member.

"Again I was willing to give you the opportunity for an additional candidate, which obviously you're not willing to give me," Haynes said. "My second choice would have been Mr. Fox, whose qualifications seem higher even than Mr. Moore but at least Mr. Moore had a voting record that is proven to be non-partisan."

Tom Fox submitted his application Wednesday morning, around 9 a.m., after he could not do so on the first day of the meeting, Tuesday.

As Brown held steadfast on her choice of Bond as the best candidate, the meeting was then adjourned without any choice being made.

Earlier that morning, Brown initially objected to interviewing Fox, saying she had been "blindsided." "You cannot keep changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game," she said to Haynes, in the first part of the morning.

Haynes said the interview period had not officially closed. "It's even more prudent to show the judge we've gone beyond the call of duty," he said.

After a five minute recess and after consulting her attorney, Brown agreed to interview Fox.

Fox is the current Director of Public Safety with the city of Social Circle, sits on the Water and Sewer Authority Board and has served as the City manager/Director of Police Services and Assistant Chief of Police for Porterdale.

During the interview, he described navigating Porterdale through a transition from a mayor-centric form of government to a city manager form of government. "I've been tried by fire, as far as dealing with difficult political positions," he said.

 

 


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