Murphy – Newly picked Cherokee County Board of Commissioners Chair Dan Eichenbaum laid down some changes for the board’s coming year Monday night, saying board members will no longer be permitted to “shoot from the hip” during meetings and changing when the board will meet, among other things.
One major change Eichenbaum initiated is changing to one from two regular board meetings each month. One formal business meeting will be held on the third Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. in the Cherokee County Courthouse downtown.
An informal “chairman’s forum” meeting will be held on the first Monday of each month, at 7 p.m. in a different county district each month.
Eichenbaum and the commissioner for that district will appear, along with county staff, to listen to concerns from the public and answer questions. No business will be conducted at these meetings.
The first meeting of that type will be 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 3, in District 4 – Alan Bryant’s district. The second meeting will be held Monday, March 3, in District 2 – Mark Stiles’ district. Locations will be announced.
The board accepted the referral from the Cherokee County Republican Party Executive Committee to appoint local businessman Mark Stiles as county commissioner for District 2, which includes Marble and Peachtree. He replaced Justin Hyde, who was elected to the seat but rejected it because of conflict of interest laws.
Once Stiles was sworn in, Eichenbaum moved to the next item on the agenda, “Direction of the Chairman on Conduct and Decorum of Commissioner Meetings, Meeting Schedule and Joint Education Committee.”
Eichenbaum said he will not permit board members to bring up issues to vote on that aren’t on the agenda unless the board votes unanimously to add them.
He will have staff describe agenda items before allowing board member discussion. He will enforce decorum at meetings and won’t allow discussion from the audience, except during public forums or if an individual or group has an item on the agenda. He also won’t allow side discussions to take place in the audience.
Eichenbaum also emphasized the importance of quality education in the community. He disbanded a Joint Education Committee that never met and instead will hold private meetings between two commissioners and two school board members, along with staff, to work out priorities to bring before their respective boards.
He said the goal is to improve the quality of education in Cherokee County so that college-bound graduates don’t need remedial classes and non-college-bound graduates have skills they need to enter the workforce.
Commissioner Ben Adams had his own agenda item titled “Vision,” during which he said the county board’s priorities should be public protection, education and recreation.
He called for the board to study data collected by each of the county’s departments to detect trends so the county can be more proactive. Adams said the board has been working on autopilot, not leadership, and effective leadership requires credibility and vision.
He called for the board to allow him and one other member – he picked Stiles – to work with department heads to deal with issues proactively.