Let voters, not legislators, alter Snellville council

Snellville City Councilman Tod Warner acknowledges that he sits on a governmental body with opinionated members who can butt heads.

He readily admits that Snellville Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer’s personality can rub folks the wrong way, especially when he doesn’t kowtow to their way of thinking.

And yes, there are times when the fractious council has tie votes on matters. None of those things though, Warner said, warrants a change to the city charter that would strip away the mayor’s voting power.

Yet state Sen. Don Balfour (R-Snellville) has proposed “local legislation” to do that very thing.

A bill is working its way through the General Assembly that would limit the Snellville mayor’s voting power.

It would effectively end what Balfour calls “institutional gridlock” — or three-three split votes — at City Hall. The bill has passed the Senate and now sits in the House.

What has amazed Warner the past few months is how city council could be deemed an issue so critical that it requires the swift and immediate attention of a state legislator. He wonders these things because he had not heard from a single resident about a city charter change until Balfour brought it up at a Feb. 19 town-hall meeting.

“I don’t recall having any comment about restructuring Snellville government from anyone,” Warner told me.

“We have 12,030 registered voters, and at a town-hall meeting with less than 200 people in attendance, some of them supposedly raised their hands and said they wanted to take the vote away from the mayor.

“That is not the way to change the way a city is governed.”

Is Snellville truly Splitsville?

Well, Snellville Mayor Pro Tem Barbara Bender apparently did some research and found that tie council votes don’t necessarily rule at City Hall. She penned a letter that appeared recently in the Gwinnett Daily Post.

“The council voted approximately 155 times in 2008, not counting votes for adjournments of meetings,” she wrote. “Of those votes, 78 percent were unanimous and 5 percent were tie votes.” (Verbal exchange between the mayor and some council members is another matter altogether.)

But institutional gridlock? No way, say Warner and Bender. The real issue, they say, is poor communication.

City Manager Russell Treadway has proposed a new schedule for work sessions as well as a better procedure for putting items on the agenda. The changes should ensure discussion of issues as well as follow-ups before they come up for a vote. The hope is that the new process will prevent postponement of issues as well as tie votes.

“We have six individuals who have different ways of approaching government, and you have a lack of communication between the mayor and some members of the council,” he said.

“Every member of the Snellville council is guilty of not going overboard to communicate on issues. The mayor has a personality conflict with some individuals in the community, and some people are using that as a reason to change our government.”

Here’s a way to improve the council, keep the city charter intact and get the legislature out of city business. Come November, three Snellville council seats are up.

If the people truly desire change in city government, the contests ought to generate a field of candidates.

In return, registered voters should turn out en masse on election day so posts aren’t decided by slim margins. (Oberholtzer, mayor since 2003, was re-elected mayor in 2007 by 19 votes).

Change the council makeup and, it is hoped, you rectify a seemingly Snellville trademark — a decorum of petty drama and perceived ineptness.
Elect adults.