DeKalb County referendum: Reign in CEO powers
October 17, 2008 at 1:55 pm by Ken Edelstein in NewsIt’s ironic that a ballot question to limit the authority of the county CEO is being posed to voters just as the power-hungry Vernon Jones prepares to leave office. Still, it’s a sensible measure that can help prevent future friction between the county’s board of commissioners and its chief executive.
For the past five years, incoming CEO Burrell Ellis had been the commission’s presiding officer, but that was largely an empty title because Jones has presided at board meetings. The referendum would correct this backwards situation by authorizing the commission to, in essence, run its own meetings. Likewise, the measure would allow the commission to draw up its own meeting agenda, taking that power away from the CEO.
Again, and with all due respect to the late Manuel Maloof, the benign dictator for whom the rules were originally created, it has never made much sense for the CEO — who only votes in the case of a tie — to control the commission agenda.
What the referendum doesn’t do is strip the CEO of veto power, something that some of Jones’ critics had wanted. But veto power is an appropriate balance of power for a full-time chief executive charged with overseeing county operations on a day-to-day basis. The DeKalb referendum represents significant but thoughtful changes to the job of CEO and should be approved.
Here’s the wording of that amendment that will appear on the ballot: “Shall the act be approved which provides for the presiding officer to preside over meetings of the DeKalb County Commission and for the commission to establish its own agenda for such meetings?”
For more posts from CL’s 2008 Voters’ Guide click here. Come back next week to download our Voter’s Cheat Sheets.
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