President's Message - July/August 1999

Counties See Goals Realized, But Many Challenges Still Lie Ahead
"The future of Alabama depends upon an efficient county government in every county in our state."

Those words could be spoken with confidence tomorrow morning on the steps of every courthouse in our state. Certainly all county officials share that sentiment or we would not have sought election to the post of county commissioner. However, those particular words were spoken not by Sam Jones, but were recorded 50 years ago upon the election of Mobile County Board of Revenue Chairman A. B. Jefferies as the new president of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama.

Some of you may remember that last August we used those words as the cornerstone of our remarks when I joined Mr. Jefferies and became the next Mobile County commissioner elected president of our organization. As we reach the conclusion of my year as president, I am even more convinced that despite the projections, proclamations and promises of others, our state will never be great until all of its county governments are great.

There is no question that we've made progress on that journey toward greatness -- not just this year but during the last several years. However, that progress should not lull any of us into a position of rest, because we have not achieved our goal of seeing county government reach its potential.

I will admit that the successes of this year are many:
--Our legislative efforts were once again outstanding with the passage of five bills from our legislative program;
--We made much progress toward the enactment of the Report of the President's Council of 21, adopted during last year's convention;
--The first ever County Road and Bridge Summit was a resounding success, focusing attention on the deplorable condition of rural roads and bridges in our state;
--We were successful in the ratification of the constitutional amendment to limit the legislature's ability to pass unfunded mandates;
--We witnessed the continued growth and influence of our affiliate organizations, including our newest group the County Revenue Officers Association of Alabama;
--We began to see just a flicker of hope that Alabama's local elected officials may one day be able to work closely together rather than focusing all their time on conflicts over compensation; and
--We instituted an aggressive step into the 21st Century by getting on the Information Superhighway. Our new web site can be utilized by county officials and the general public to learn more about county government in Alabama.

But the work that is left on those issues and many others is enough to keep this Association and its members challenged well into the new century.

Last August we set three main goals for this year and I am very proud of the progress we made together. First, we asked all county officials to join in the statewide campaign to end unfunded mandates by adopting constitutional amendment #7. Many of you distributed flyers and erected those bright red "7-YES" signs that dotted the interstates and highways of our state. And the public responded with an overwhelming vote to ratify that constitutional amendment.

And your support of that effort continued during this legislative session as the Legislature embraced the amendment and followed the will of the people by rejecting mandate legislation. The hard work of this year has set the stage for years to come. I truly believe we are entering an era when the imposition of a mandate on the backs of local government will be very much the exception, rather than the rule.

Secondly, we looked toward the creation of a new program to fund road and bridge projects on the local level. As mentioned earlier, the County Road and Bridge Summit in February was a resounding success. Hundreds of people from throughout the state gathered in Montgomery and demonstrated to state leaders that the condition of our rural transportation system must be addressed.

Unfortunately, we cannot yet announce that a new funding program for rural roads has been established in Alabama. But we can say with pride that the public is now aware that more than 1,600 county bridges are closed to school bus traffic and that it is time for our state to do better. That, of course, was the first step toward the correction of the problem.

And, now, we feel confident that a new program will be implemented in the coming months and that our system of roads and bridges will finally get the attention they deserve.

And, thirdly, we longed for our state to move county government into the 21st century by seriously considering self-governance legislation, finding a solution to the problem of land-use regulation in our rural areas and looking at a better way to adopt local legislation in Montgomery. Again, those efforts did not reach their conclusion, but we have been successful in starting the process.

For example, the issue of land-use regulation came into focus this year with the introduction of legislation that would allow land owners to call for a referendum on the issue of granting the county commission planning and zoning authority. The bill, introduced by former county commissioner Mike Rogers of Anniston, has led to serious discussions among organizations that had been unwilling to consider land use regulation. Endorsed by both the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and the Alabama Home Builders Association, our legislation is expected to be the subject of serious negotiation during the coming months.

Even the traditional opponent of expanding county authority - ALFA - has invited an Association staff member to speak on the subject of land-use regulation during one of its conferences this summer. This as much as anything, is a signal that land-use legislation is coming to Alabama.

The issues of self-governance and reform of our local legislative process were recognized at the outset as long-term projects. They are, nonetheless, worthy projects that MUST be completed if we are to achieve the dream of 50 years ago - that all county governments will one day become efficient.

Now, as we move to the day when I will step to the side just a few feet and allow the next president to assume the position of leadership, I want to thank each of you for the hard work this year. We can all be proud of our accomplishments, but we have not yet reached the point that we can sit down and congratulate each other on reaching our goals.

Our work must continue and I look forward to being a part of that work.