I am wondering if the fight in this will land on the Letters of Agreement for hiring the deputies and officers/employees of the fee office. As it is now, do the fee officers ( not the sheriff ) have to sign an agreement with the mayor on how many employees they will hire ( by title ) and what those positions will pay for the budget year?

Since CC got rid of the redundant Finance/Intergovernmental Committee meetings, the Work Session has gone very smoothly for the most part. This resolution was added to the agenda at the last minute, yet there were fee office people at the meeting so they knew about it. Yet they did not speak up when given time for public input! Only after the Resolution was approved to go on consent at the meeting, did Com. Brown ask someone from the fee offices to respond.

Why didn't they object when given the opportunity before the vote? And the argument I heard was that they were elected and therefore the voters expected them to operate "in the full capacity", whatever that means.

Commission is the governing body and all fees should go into general funds - not to pay for the clerk's re-election...

Several years ago DeKalb County's website had an excellent article on why the sheriff has been on the budget system ( vs fee system) since shortly after the Battle of Athens. While some may recall what happened in Athens had to do with voter suppression, one of the triggers was the shake down of returning GIs with bogus fees which were used to fund the sheriff's department payroll.

The very idea that the sheriff and his deputies would only be paid by fees they collect is a very scary thought indeed.

Where is Elrod? There was a very big Blount County connection to the Battle of Athens and I don't think anyone could explain it as well as Elrod could.

Mello,
I actually don't know much about the Battle of Athens or its Blount County connection.