The Board of Commissioners appointed Atlanta's former chief of staff Greg Pridgeon to the chief of staff post in the county in a 2-1 vote this morning, with Commissioner JaNice Van Ness voting against the appointment.

VanNess said she had been hoping to vote unanimously on this issue but had rethought the matter. The process that had been used for finding a HR manager, which involved hiring a consultant, had not been used for finding the chief of staff, she pointed out.

"I thought it was a great process we had found and was hoping we could use it," she said.

"While I think Mr Pridgeon has very good credentials, I think the fact the process was circumvented makes me wonder about the process in general in Rockdale County. If his credentials were so good, if we had followed the process he would have still risen to the top."

The other board members did not comment on the vote.

The chief of staff serves as a liason between the three commissioners, who cannot discuss county matters except in a public meeting or work session and certain topics in an executive session, and department heads. The COS also reaches out to other agencies on the local, state and federal level.

The board also voted on changing the title of a positiion from "Development Review Analyst, Planning and Zoning" to "Development and Business Relations Manager."