At a special-called meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 4^th, the Board of Commissioners announced the resignation of John Scalera, Director of Fannin County’s Recreation Department.  The move comes as no surprise as the Commissioners have disagreed with Scalera’s management of the Rec Department in numerous meetings.  Their criticisms of Scalera’s management of the department have ranged from maintenance machines that were torn up or placed in dangerous locations, complaints about sports programs from involved families and delays in reconciling revenue accounts.  There is no word yet on how Scalera’s departure will affect Rec Departments’ programs. (For more details read “Rocky Times for Road and Rec Departments“).

Scalera’s departure comes at the same time Fannin Commissioners are asking people to vote to give the Recreation Department $2,100,000 through the 2016 SPLOST referendum.  The $2,100,000 represents 7% of the expected $30,000,000 that will be raised through SPLOST proceeds from 2017 to 2023.  The Commissioners have not yet said  what the Rec Department will spend $2,100,000 on despite numerous Open Records requests. (see related article “Commissioners Avoid Required Transparency in Setting SPLOST“).

The Commissioners have lifted the hiring freeze for county jobs while they are looking for a new director.  The temporary hiring freeze is because the Board of Commissioners is rewriting the county government’s personnel policy.  Post-Commissioner Larry Joe Sosebee has told FetchYourNews that the county’s policy must be rewritten because it doesn’t cover the problems that social media and internet use could cost the county.  Sosebee is worried that they county is open to liability suits if employees post improper material on social media or visit improper websites while doing their work as county employees.  Sosebee also said that the policy has not been rewritten since the 1990’s and the county needs to bring the policy in line with workplace behavior and regulations in the 2010’s.

At Commissioners meetings in August and September, Post-Commissioners Sosebee and Johnson have said there will be no more family or friends’  hires for county employees.  They believe that this takes away voters’ trust in transparent government and allows too much power to be concentrated around various employees.  The Post-Commissioners gave very strong and very clear statements about family and friends’ hires when they overrode Commission Chair Bill Simonds and County Clerk Rita Davis-Kirby’s decision to hire the wife of a Sheriff’s Office employee to be the Davis-Kirby’s Assistant County Clerk.  The positon came open when the former assistant resign.  Davis-Kirby is the wife of Fannin County Sheriff Dane Kirby.  (See related article “Fannin BOC: Property Taxes, “Flesh Eater” and Family Hires“)

FetchYourNews has contacted the Commissioners to ask how and where they will advertise for a new Rec Department Director.  How open positions are advertised are part of Johnson and Sosebee’s efforts to change the tradition of family and friends’ hires.  FetchYourNews will be able to announce this after the Tuesday, Oct. 11^th Board of Commissioners meeting.