I Get Involved Redux

In my last post I discussed my indecision about getting involved in local government issues. The truth of the matter is that I have already stuck my large but well-shaped nose into the fray. I couldn’t help myself. The devil made me do it.

Not too long ago I discovered that you can’t access the Fannin County code of ordinances on the internet. The county posts some of uncodified ordinances on its website but it does not post a complete code of ordinances.

This surprised me. It’s the 21st Century—the age of Dick Tracy watches, smart phones, NSA surveillance and ready online access to information. If you can get naked photos of Rosie O’Donnell on the internet, why shouldn’t you be able to view your county’s code of ordinances online? I was just kidding about the naked pictures of Rosie O’Donnell. That would be a crime against humanity. In fact, I think it’s forbidden by the Geneva Convention right after gas warfare and dum-dum bullets.

This is also supposed to be the age of open and transparent government. President Obama said so. I realize that’s hogwash, but at least most governments and politicians give lip service to the concept and then inundate you with so much information that you’re as confused and clueless as you would have been if they gave you no information at all.

Not Fannin County. Instead of giving you no information or too much information; it only gives you selected information. That way you’re only partly informed. I’d make a joke about bring half-assed here, but that’s too obvious.

Maybe it’s a Southern Appalachian “clinging to tradition” thing. Maybe the internet is too newfangled for the powers that be in Fannin County. It’s only been around for 25 years. Some folks around here are still upset over the outcome of the Civil War.

You get a sense that the county is not quite comfortable or familiar with the new technology. Fannin County has the only website I’ve ever seen that does not have a “Contact Us” tab. I know they all have computers and get emails, but the website does not give you email addresses for the commissioners or any other important county functionaries. All you get is a mailing address and phone numbers. Maybe they’ve been taking lessons from Hillary Clinton about not having any public emails. Having a website but not giving out email addresses is like receiving a text on your cell phone and being told to respond by Pony Express.

At any rate, I decided to be helpful so I wrote a letter to the county commissioners suggesting it would be a good idea to make the county code of ordinances available online. The letter went out on Friday. On Monday, I got a phone call from Bill Simonds, the chairman of the county commission. When he found out I was in town he asked me to drop in to see him in his office.

I was a little apprehensive. I was wearing cowboy boots, blue jeans, a rough leather jacket, and a cowboy hat. The thought occurred to me that I looked like Hopalong Cassidy, and I wasn’t sure how that would play here in Fannin County. Simonds didn’t bat an eye so I guess he didn’t think I was a nut job. Either that or he was too polite to say anything.

We talked for about a half an hour. He tried to convince me that the county’s ordinances are on the county website. I pointed out that not all the county’s ordinances were there and that they were not codified. He said he’d look into it.

At that point I didn’t know if a properly codified version of the county’s ordinances even existed. Then two things happened in rapid succession. First, a complete code of ordinances dated 2007 appeared in the public library. The librarian had obtained it after I made an earlier inquiry. She said she got it from the county clerk. Apparently Simonds didn’t know that such a codification existed because he never mentioned it to me.

Second, I came across a 2001 Georgia law that required counties to codify and publish a code of ordinances by January 1, 2002 and to update their codes every year thereafter.

I have no idea whether the county codified its ordinances before 2007. If the 2007 code was the first one, then the county missed the statutory date for codification by six years. That’s not even close enough for horseshoes or hand grenades. Maybe that’s an example of what it means to do things on Georgia time. Maybe it’s an example of the county just ignoring state law. But I really think it’s an example of the county being uninformed about state law which makes me wonder what the hell the county attorney was doing for all that time.

What is even more interesting is that the 2007 codification was done by Municipal Code Corporation (Municode). Part of Municode’s service is to post the codes it codifies online. That means that the county code was available on the internet at one time. Since I have not found any later versions of the code and the code is no longer available on the Municode website, it seems clear that the county has not published updated versions of the code as required by the statute. I don’t know what that is an example of—ignorance, sloth, defiance, ineptitude, negligence?

These revelations prompted a second letter to Simonds pointing out that the county was required by law to have an updated code of ordinances. Two days later Simonds invited me back to his office. By this time I was anticipating the summons, and I was dressed in relatively normal fashion. In retrospect I should have gone to see him dressed like an Indian. Then he would have thought I was channeling The Village People.

I left the meeting thinking that he was going to address my concerns. In hindsight I’m not sure he committed himself or the county to anything. My plan is to wait a few weeks and see if there has been any progress in updating the 2007 code of ordinances and getting the code published on the internet. If not, then I’m going to start raising the issue at commission meetings, notify the newspapers that the county is violating a state statute and do anything else that will make me a pain in the commission’s ass. That’s an example of the squeaky wheel theory of citizen participation in government.

So the bottom line is that I have already dipped my toe into the murky pool of local government. It’s probably a slippery slope I’m standing on, and I have to take care that I don’t fall in.