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    County commissioners from across state meet in Old Capitol building

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June 26, 2009

County commissioners from across state meet in Old Capitol building

Daniel McDonald

The legislative chambers of the Old Capitol were abuzz with representatives from across the state when the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia held its Health and Human Services and Public Safety and Court Policy committee meetings in Baldwin County Wednesday.

Baldwin County Commission Chair James “Bubba” Williams said that he can’t think of a better place to hold a meeting of county commissioners from across the state than in the legislative chambers of the Old Capitol.

“This is a great program to try and gain consensus about the issues we want to take to the General Assembly in their next session,” he said.

Baldwin County Commissioner Emily Davis told The Union-Recorder that the ACCG committee meetings help county commissioners from across the state of Georgia come together to share information and discuss policy issues that will then be used to help inform policy makers on the state level through lobbying the General Assembly.

“You learn a lot when you work with other county commissioners,” she said.

Davis said that she learned about the Georgia Work Ready program, an initiative of the state Department of Labor that can provide workers with an assessment of their work skills in order to allow possible employers to more efficiently judge workers qualifications, from conversations she had had at other ACCG meetings.

“The ACCG does a wonderful job of keeping us informed about issues that are important to county commissioners,” Davis said.

Baldwin County Manager Joan Minton said commissioners form a consensus on issues that will then be used to develop a formal policy document for affecting change during the 2010 session of the state legislature.

Wednesday, the Health and Human Services and Public Safety committees took a look back at the Georgia General Assembly’s 2009 session to consider legislation that affects county governments. They also looked forward by discussing issues they would like to see on the General Assembly’s agenda next session.

Davis said that during the Health and Human Services committee meeting, commissioners focused on legislation that affects the health care government bodies are able to provide to their employees. Attention was also paid to different state agencies’ preparedness to tackle health risks such as the H1N1 pandemic.

Williams, who also chairs the Public Safety committee for the ACCG, told The Union-Recorder that commissioners heard from a representative of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the Deputy Director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations’ Crime Labs during the Public Safety and Court Policy committee meeting.

Williams said that next year’s public safety agenda platform will address issues such as finding ways to expedite the transfer of state prisoners from county law enforcement facilities to state prisons following conviction, increasing interagency cooperation in the case of crisis or natural disasters and working to cut down on the number of non-emergency calls made to 9-1-1 systems by developing and implementing a 3-1-1 non-emergency governmental services hotline. The committee also looked at ways of ensuring that the state and federal governments will keep the counties’ best interests in mind when planning any immigration enforcement activities.

“If there is going to be a large impetus on cracking down on illegal immigration, we want to be assured that there is equal thought put into planning deportation,” Williams said.

Overall, Williams said Wednesday’s meetings were well attended and commissioners from across the state imparted good ideas on how they can work together to support good legislation and destroy bad legislation.

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