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Changes on county boards likely to have more impact
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Published: December 2, 2008
Many eyes are on the transition of power in Washington right now, and for good reasons.
It was a historic election that may (or may not) represent a sea change in the way the federal government operates. The nation remains at war. Nearly unprecedented economic uncertainty grips the country.
The chattering class -- and those with more than a passing interest in politics-- is focusing on a favorite transition parlor game: help the president-elect pick a cabinet. Hillary Clinton, secretary of state? What was Obama thinking? (Insert name here) would have been so much better.
Interesting? Yes. But the transitions that really have the power to affect your life directly started taking place yesterday in local halls of government as various county boards of commissioners swore in new members and said goodbye to old ones.
New construction projects, hiring freezes, incentives for potential new employers -- all of those things can be approved quickly, and in most cases require no more than four votes to pass.
"A county board really can have more direct effect on everyone," said Kim Clark Phillips, the outgoing chairwoman of the Yadkin Board of Commissioners, after passing her gavel yesterday.
Needs, not wants
Two sets of commissioners moving in different directions leaped headlong into their respective transitions yesterday.
In Forsyth County, newly elected commissioner Dave Plyler has been working behind the scenes and may have worked out a deal that will land him in the chairman's seat.
In all likelihood, that means a more business-friendly approach in using incentives as a means to lure companies and the jobs that come with them.
"The fact is our current board chairwoman has said over and over to companies that if our good schools and good roads aren't enough for you, we don't need you," Plyler said. "But the fact is you've got to live with (incentives)."
Across the mighty Yadkin River, the five-member Yadkin Board of Commissioners is also headed in a new direction after two "progressive" commissioners -- Phillips and Joel Cornelius, who realized that money had to be spent to bring the county into the 20th century -- were beaten in the April primary.
Phillips and Cornelius will never be mistaken for big tax-and-spenders. They're cost-conscious Republicans who had the good sense to realize -- before a Superior Court judge ordered it, by the way -- that Yadkin County needed a new jail. They also pushed for updated water and sewer systems, new schools, a reservoir and other unsexy infrastructure.
"You can't even say (infrastructure) was neglected. It just wasn't done," Phillips said. "It was avoided for years. Somehow we knew we needed things but wouldn't spend the money to do them."
‘Right attitude'
Between the two of them, Plyler and Phillips -- or any elected official in any city, county or town, for that matter -- know that for all the talk of transitions and new directions, change doesn't come easily.
Plyler likes to point out that much of what county government does, it's obligated to do by state and federal mandate. Schools, jails and social services are but three of those mandates.
"Anybody who ran on a promise to change everything right away really doesn't understand how county government works," he said. "You have to have the right attitude to build a consensus to accomplish anything."
Phillips knows that, perhaps better than most. Before she and other "progressives" were elected, Yadkin County didn't have middle schools and it had been dithering on building a reservoir for nearly 50 years. Ultimately, she and Cornelius wound up losing their seats largely because they did the right thing in opposing overtly sectarian prayer in public meetings.
"We stepped on a lot of toes … but it's the price you pay and it was worth it," she said. "I truly believe that we directly affected the quality of life for 38,000 people for the better. You have to build for the future."
After all, that's what transitions -- great and small -- are supposed to be about.
■ Scott Sexton can be reached at 727-7481 or at ssexton@wsjournal.com.
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