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An Editorial Opinion of The Lowndes Signal

On Nov. 13, the Lowndes County Commission met for the first time since the Nov. 5 general election. After swearing in newly elected officials and hosting a community reception, commissioners got down to the business of laying out the rules by which future meetings would run before working through a short list of agenda items.

Known for its long and sometimes contentious sessions, the commission’s Tuesday’s meeting surpassed all expectations and concluded around 2 p.m. — a mere five hours after new members pledged to “faithfully and honestly discharge the duties of the office.” 

With a short agenda of five items to address, one might ask, “Why did county business take four hours (not including the swearing in and reception) to conduct?”

The answer is, unfortunately, not a surprise to citizens who regularly attend the meetings. After a call by newly-sworn Commissioner Fletcher Hayes, asking for commissioners to address one another with the respect due to their office, Commissioner Robert Harris fell back to his usual antics.

Stall tactics, aimed at delaying the group’s required organizational session until after regular business had been conducted, lasted almost the whole first hour of the meeting. A significant chunk of the time was spent, not on the nature of the rules that would govern county commission business, but on disagreeing about when the rules would be set.

When the group moved on to the agenda, Harris lobbed accusations of bias and avarice at Commissioner Dickson Farrior each time opinions differed and a vote failed to pass in Harris’s favor. For hours, the audience listened in awe as commissioners disagreed over one point after another, and nearly every debate resulted in personal attacks at a commissioners’ good character.

In the tri-county area which includes Butler, Lowndes and Crenshaw counties, no other municipal body conducts its business in such a manner. When political leanings and opinions contrast, councils and commissions host work sessions to iron out their differences rather than grandstanding and asserting their opinions in a public forum. 

Most similar groups hold meetings that barely last one hour, much less four hours. And while the chance to witness a heated exchange draws a standing-room-only crowd to the Charles Smith Annex Building each second and fourth Monday, meetings often seem more like an episode of “The Jerry Springer Show” than a county commission meeting.

The citizens of Lowndes County have the right to hold elected officials accountable for how they govern. We urge community members to express their concerns over the way business is conducted to commissioners and to hold them accountable for representing constituents in a manner befitting their office.

The world is watching. What message do we wish to convey?