President's Message - March/April 2001

Commissioners Eager to Tackle "Home Rule"

It can not be said that Alabama's county government in the 21st century will not accept responsibility when it presents itself.

We just need to get some more opportunities.

In the mid-1990's the Alabama Legislature created the Home Builders Licensure Board, a state agency organized to regulate and ensure professionalism in the state's home building industry. The legislation also included authorization for counties to establish a building inspection program and to abate buildings that presented a nuisance to the public.

As one might imagine, such legislation did not move through the process without controversy. In the end, the Alabama Legislature was willing to create this agency but would only make it applicable to those counties of 30,000 population and above. The other counties, the argument went, were so rural that the residents simply did not want to be bothered with such regulation.

But rather than completely exclude these smaller counties, the legislation was amended to allow the county commission in those counties of less than 30,000 population to elect -- by resolution -- to make the county subject to the provisions of the legislation. In other words, the legislature granted a little bit of "home rule" to those smaller counties by placing the decision in the local hands.

Although we won't know for sure, there were probably many legislators who doubted the commissioners' willingness to make such a decision. It's OK to give the commissioners this home rule, the conversation probably went, because they will never use it, anyway.

Well, were they ever wrong! For the first few years of its existence, the licensure board spent its time getting organized. And then at the Association's annual convention in 1999, the board's director and legal counsel made an appearance and began asking commissioners in those rural counties to utilize their home rule by making builders in their county subject to the new regulations.

And the response has been fantastic. Now, I'm not trying to promote the licensure of home builders, we'll save that for some other publication and some other author. The thing I'm touting is the willingness of county officials to exercise authority when given the chance.

As of the end of April, a total of 21 of the 31 counties with less than 30,000 population had elected to come under the authority of this agency. That's something of which we can all be proud.

This election was not carried out in a vacuum, either. In most counties, the commission held a public hearing, sought comment from local builders and consumers and then debated the issue before taking action. The pubic was, then, afforded a great deal of access to this decision-making process.

With the growing public outcry for constitutional reform in our state, one of the focal points is how much power should be granted to Alabama's county governments. Some think counties should continue to be hamstrung with limited authority. Others believe local decisions are best made on the local level and therefore counties should have a large degree of home rule.

Obviously, as an elected county commission chairman, I believe that our local problems can be best served when addressed by local officials. The public has a much better opportunity to influence its local county commissioners than it does to influence 140 state legislators meeting on Union Street in Montgomery.

Of course, many do not want counties to have additional authority. It is much easier for those groups who oppose change to influence a small group of legislators than it is to expand their lobbying to the local level.

But those who have opposed home rule for years have lost one of their biggest arguments. They can no longer say that counties would not exercise such authority if it were granted. Because if our experience with this little bit of home rule is an indicator, county commissioners are not only willing -- but are perhaps eager -- to shift decision-making to the local level.