BLUE RIDGE, GA — At the February 10th, 2015 commissioners meeting chairman Bill Simonds came one step closer to losing some power and having to share it with post commissioners Earl Johnson and Larry Joe Sosebee.One of the first agenda items of the night was handled by post 1 commissioner Johnson when he opened up with a comment that he would like to visit again the changing of the county legislation to allow the post 1 and post 2 commissioners to be a part of the decision-making when it comes to the hiring and firing of department heads.

Johnson stated that he was tired of being out of the loop and being caught off guard by things coming up at commissioners meetings and felt like changing the county legislation from the chairman solely being responsible for dealing with department heads to bringing issues to the whole board of commissioners would cut down on the lack of communication between the chairman and post commissioners.

Two weeks ago when EMS director Robert Graham stood to say that he needed to buy new defibrillators the board had to postpone the purchasing the defibrillators because Simonds hadn’t shared the need with the other commissioners therefore not enough research had been done by the board to be able approve the purchase since it was over the set spending limit of $15,000.

“It made us sick to our stomachs to have to put off the purchasing of the equipment that the EMS needed,”

Said Johnson.

Johnson then said that he believed that if the department heads were able to come to all of members of the board directly instead of just going to the chairman then maybe the purchasing of needed items wouldn’t of had to be postponed because of lack of communication amongst the board.

A few moments later Sosebee spoke up to say that he was in favor of passing the new piece of county legislation too.

“I’m tired of being on the tale end of things. If I’m going to be on the front end of things I want to be on the tail end of things, too. I want to see decisions all the way through,”

said Sosebee.

Sosebee then made a motion to pass the legislation and Johnson seconded it. When a vote was called for Johnson and Sosebee voted in favor of the passing of the legislation while Simonds gave his vote by keeping silent.

During the public commentary part of the meeting several citizens commended the commissioners on voting to pass this small part of legislation and stated they hoped more change would come in the days to come.

Also, during public commentary citizen Henry mallard called out the commission board for something completely different than the common things such as changing county legislation. Mallard was begging the board to protect kids, adults and animals in his neighborhood.

Mallard stated that a while back a new family moved into his neighborhood and brought 37 dogs with them. Since then three animals have been killed and two more have been mauled by the pack of dogs roaming the neighborhood. When Mallard contacted sheriff Dane Kirby about the situation Kirby said there was nothing he could do except to ask the owners to put the dogs away.

Not too many days later the dogs were out again reeking havoc in the neighborhood. When Mallard called Kirby again about the situation, Kirby said all he could do is ask the owners to put the dogs up again.

“A little girl was traumatized after watching this pack of dogs rip her own dog apart right in front of her…what happens when that pack of dogs turns on a little kid playing in the yard,”

asked Mallard.

Mallard then pleaded with the board to make Kirby do something more about the situation before things got even more out of hand.

Watch the full meeting below:

My First Project from Fetch on Vimeo.