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The County Line
- Legislative Wrap-Up Issue 2005
Self governance brings positive changes to state
A number of county officials sat on the edges of their seats as the roll was called on the Senate floor. Haven't asked, but one must suspect that they anticipated that the legislation would again be derailed. It has been - derailed that it is - for more than two decades.
Other county officials had sat in those same seats and watched the legislation be delayed, passed over or outright defeated. So their apprehension was understandable; even predictable.
But on this night, things ended differently. In fact, the passage of the legislation some insist on calling "limited home rule" was more like a pushing match between two old friends than a barroom brawl. And even though the bill held the floor of the House and then the Senate for several hours, the real delay had nothing to do with county government.
It's somehow poetic justice, I suppose, that Alabama's first step toward "home rule" for counties would be so agreed upon and so accepted by the legislative leadership that it would be used as a delaying tactic to prevent the consideration of something else.
But the legislation didn't move to the point that it could be passed in the 2005 session without an enormous amount of work and without a number of other groups being willing to look beyond their immediately-negative reaction to the words "home rule." The quietness of the bill's passage really speaks to a positive change in the political landscape of Alabama. Not a monumental change, mind you, but a positive change nonetheless.
The bill's passage means that as early as June of 2006 rural voters in Alabama will be given the opportunity to shift decision-making power to the local level. Admittedly, these powers do not extend to the ability to tax or to establish planning and zoning. But the powers are significant, especially considering Alabama's century-long practice of making all decisions in Montgomery.
Next year this time, rural residents will be talking about whether or not they want to authorize their county commissions to abate certain activities that are a nuisance to the general welfare of the county. These activities include noise, junkyards, unsanitary sewage, pollution, litter and other similar issues. Inside the state's largest cities, these government powers are taken for granted. But in rural Alabama, such discussions have been off limits since about the time assembly lines began to produce a curious invention called the automobile.
But that has now changed, even if in a compromised way.
As the Association's leaders of today sat on the edges of their chairs, one couldn't help but remember the faces and voices of earlier Association presidents. Leaders who spoke about, longed for, and worked toward this day, but who may not have really expected to see it arrive.
The words of Tuscaloosa County Probate Judge Hardy McCollum way back in 1989: "Right now the operation of county government is hamstrung because your County Commission depends on the Legislature to adopt bills to address local problems," he wrote in this magazine back in 1989. "Problems such as litter, solid waste and subdivision regulations cannot be dealt with effectively without enabling legislation."
Mobile County Commissioner Sam Jones when he stood before the Association's closing convention session in 1998: "We must look hard again at the issue of self-governance. I do not use the phrase "home rule" because I do not believe it adequately describes the issue as it relates to counties in Alabama….the facts are indisputable that our system of vesting the control of county government with a few state legislators simply is not efficient and it serves to work against the best interest of the citizens."
Roger Hayes of Winston County speaking on what he called the "broader issues" of "growth management and self-governance" by saying: "I will, with your help and support, pick up that baton and carry it on toward the finish line."
And Houston County's Mark Culver from just five years ago, "Our county commissions are struggling with rules from the year 1901, while the voters that evaluate our performance are living in the year 2000. Now, that explains a lot of things that happen around election time, doesn't it?"
Our friend Johnny Flowers, the Association's first president from rural Perry County, who declared, "One of the most important elements in reaching this goal is returning the power to make decisions to the local level."
And just last August at the Association's 76th Annual Convention, President Bruce Hamrick of Walker County spoke of what he hoped would happen this year:
"But now, we have an opportunity to pass legislation that would truly allow voters on the local level to have direct control of the activities on the local level. Our Association staff and leadership worked hard last year to bring together a coalition of groups that could pass this legislation. It is now, however, up to us to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve this goal, this year."
"Such an achievement would be the culmination of work for years. It would be the result of sacrifices made by many elected officials who are no longer in office and by those who are sitting in this room tonight."
And it would be the result of hard work by a new group of elected officials who weren't around when the effect began, but who were sitting on the edge of their seats when the long-awaited final vote was taken.
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