Just like July 4th, the fireworks intensified as the night wore on last Tuesday at the second of two routinely scheduled monthly Putnam County Commission meetings.
The stage was set early through public comments made to the commission by citizen Don Sadler, who complained about how and when appointed Jimmy Davis Park (JDP) Advisory Council Chairperson Janie Reid — also an elected Eatonton City Council member — was providing notice of upcoming meetings for the park committee.
Sadler complained that even when Reid gave notice, it was simply posted at the courthouse or given through Facebook posts, neither of which satisfied legal requirements, he claimed.
“There were no agendas, no summaries, no minutes available from these meetings,” Sadler added during a prescribed three-minute public comment opportunity. “If you review the record, you will see that what were multiple opportunities for the chairman, the county manager, and the county attorney to address my concerns, I was met with blank stares.”
Next, Sadler accused commission members, as well as County Manager Paul Van Haute and attorney Adam Nelson, of ignoring the issue. He said that even after being notified, Nelson attributed any errors to “personnel issues and duties being shuffled around.”
“That’s not what happened; y’all know exactly what happened,” Sadler stated. “Janie Reid didn’t want to do all of that, and y’all didn’t make her do it until (County Clerk) Lynn (Butterworth) told her she had to do it.”
More than 90 minutes later, after the four district commissioners, Chairman Bill Sharp, Van Haute, and Nelson emerged from a closed executive session that also included Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills, Sharp introduced the 12th and final item on the meeting agenda: “discussion and possible action on changing the chairperson to Jimmy Davis Park Partnership Advisory Council.”
First to speak from the audience was Karen Garrett, wife of District 2 Commissioner Richard Garrett and an acknowledged community activist.
Karen Garrett has helped bring attention to JDP over the past couple of years, as it now enters its renaissance after being neglected for many years by both city and county leadership. Regardless, she expressed great dissatisfaction with the leadership style she claimed Reid demonstrates at JDP meetings.
“What we have is an advisory council that is basically being manipulated or being sorted out in such a way that it’s not dealing with, it’s not accepting the community; it’s not enhancing the community,” Karen Garrett claimed.
“… It is about community, and if you don’t give the community the opportunity to speak, then there’s a problem. Somebody’s running it in a way that they should not be running it,” she continued. “And you do not use that opportunity to make people look stupid or to belittle them or to really have only your opinion being known. That’s not what it was established for.”
Citizen Annette Bullard next addressed the county commission, reading from a letter she said she’d previously emailed to each commissioner.
“I’m writing to express my concern regarding the conduct of City Councilman (sic) Janie Reid during a recent meeting, which I believe raised serious questions about her role as chairwoman of this advisory board of council,” Bullard read. “… I urge the commission to help Commissioner Garrett appoint another chairperson.”
Sadler also returned to the podium to essentially continue his campaign against Reid’s practices, claiming attorney Nelson said, “She did not do an agenda, she did not do minutes, and she did not do a summary, which are required by state law, I understand.”
Just one day after the June 24 county commission meeting, Reid sent a copy of the minutes recorded by JDP Partnership Advisory Council member Kilee Reid at a special JDP meeting on June 18 to discuss and act on proposed bylaws.
Reid freely admitted that previous JDP meetings had relatively sparse records, as Van Haute had informed her that with such a small advisory council and essentially no budget to work with, quarterly summaries of each meeting’s results would suffice to satisfy reporting requirements. However, when that practice came into question from Commissioner Garrett, who suggested she change some meeting minutes or he would have to change them himself, Reid said she asked the county commission if Nelson could provide her some guidance.
“Because he’s an attorney, so he’s going to get paid, which is why I asked the commission first if I could request his help,” Reid explained early this week. “He (Richard Garrett) sent the minutes back to me and said, ‘I’m going to give you until five o’clock this evening to change the minutes (to reflect his request to allow public comments) or I’ll change them myself.’ “That’s when I went to Adam, the attorney, and that’s when he told me, you need bylaws.”
At last Tuesday’s meeting, however, none of this back-and-forth was made clear, even after Commissioner Garrett spoke for more than seven minutes about his motivations to remove Reid from her position as head of the JDP Advisory Council.
Richard Garrett claimed Reid saw the purpose of the advisory council as “essentially a charge to come up with a long-term plan for the park, and that’s certainly a valuable piece of it.”
However, he added, he feels it should be more about rebuilding public trust in Jimmy Davis Park as a county facility … “and if we don’t make the meetings all about public input, if we don’t allow public comments in as free and open manner as possible, to me we’re contradicting at least my vision for this council.”
The evening ended with a tense stare-down between Sadler and Reid’s husband, Eatonton Mayor John Reid, who claimed he’d heard an expletive hurled at his wife by Sadler as he was leaving the meeting room.
Cooler heads prevailed, however, and all combatants retired to their respective corners, no doubt aware that the fireworks remain far from being extinguished.