Most of the public may not know it, but there are specific rules for the Henry County Board of Commissioners regarding how its members conduct themselves in and out of meetings.
To provide an on-the-record refresher, and to also inform citizens and county employees, board chair June Wood asked county attorney Patrick Jaugstetter to make a “presentation/review of Article VI of Henry County Code of Conduct (code of conduct for county commissioners),” as it was worded on the December 3 meeting agenda.
The first main section of the code addresses how commissioners are to behave during official meetings. Prohibited actions include speaking without first being recognized by the chair, interrupting someone else who has the floor, using profanity, and presenting one’s own person opinion as the position of the entire board.
Outside of meetings, commissioners are not allowed to direct department heads or county employees to do any specific tasks; they are to make any suggestions or directions to the county manager, who has direct authority over employees and their departments. Commissioners are also prohibited from stopping work in various departments such as transportation, building or planning and zoning.
Along with considerable detail in all of these areas, the code specifies potential penalties for violations, which range from censure to various levels of fines.
Another part of the code contains numerous provisions that address how commissioners are forbidden from using their office for personal gain, ranging from asking for free products and services due to their position to seeking to have family members hired in county positions. Also outlined are rules and guidelines regarding conflict of interest, which is to be disclosed before any vote is taken and for which commissioners are expected to recuse themselves from voting in certain situations.
The code gives employees as well as citizens the right to file formal complaints when they believe it has been violated, and there is a process for doing so. But there is also a provision to keep citizens from filing frivolous complaints due to their general dislike of a commissioner.
Commissioner Bruce Holmes, the senior member of the board, pointed out that this type of information is provided to commissioners as part of their state-mandated training soon after taking office, but he has never seen it discussed in a Henry County Board of Commissioners meeting during his nine years in office. He wondered whether there was some specific event that motivated this discussion.
Wood said that she asked Jaugstetter to present it but only to remind the board of what is contained in the code and also to let county employees and the public know these details. She said that she wanted to do it since the board’s retreat, and Jaugstetter added that a large number of agenda items at recent meetings kept him from doing so until now.
The county’s official website, co.henry.ga.us, has a link on its home page to the entire county code.
