Since Monday's vote by the Escambia County (Ala.) Commission to name Karean Reynolds as the new chairman replacing Raymond Wiggins, who has served as the chairman for the past four years, we've been asked the question about how the commission chairman is selected.
There was a time when the commission chairman ran for that spot in a county-wide election. There was also a time when each commissioner had to run county-wide for his respective seat.
Devon Wiggins was the last county-wide elected chairman of the county commission and he left office in 1988.
Soon after, a local bill was passed by the Alabama Legislature to elect five commissioners from within their own districts and those five would elect a chairman, which is voted on every year.
The bill passed said the commission would elect a 'full-time' chairman. Currently the chairman makes $49,872.36 per year and the other commissioners make $28,090.08.
The term 'full-time' is our concern with the current law. Most people who work full time on a job work at least 40 hours a week doing a job unless you work for a newspaper and that number jumps to 60 hours or more.
While Wiggins was chairman, he had another full-time job at Southern Pine; Chairman Larry White ran an insurance company as did Chairman David Stokes. Reynolds has a full time job with the Children's Policy Council and is also a part-time attorney.
How do they have time to serve as a full-time commission chairman when they have full-time jobs elsewhere? That's the $49,872.36 question.
Our question is do we really have a full-time commission chairman? We checked and in Monroe County the probate judge serves as the chairman and in Conecuh County they change chairmen every 292 days. Other counties do it different, with some revolving and others elected county-wide.
Maybe it's time we readdress the makeup of the county commission and go back to electing a chairman on a county-wide basis. There are pros and cons to that concept, but we bet most people would love to have a part-time job disguised as a full time job for about $50,000.
