Elbert County's new leaders are laying down the law with some interesting new guidelines on who is allowed to serve on county boards, committees, and commissions.
The three new Republican commissioners voted Wednesday morning that boards are to be "generally reflective of the overall citizenry of the county."
Next asked a Commissioner if that means they're only interested in people who look like - and think like - the majority in Elbert County.
"How people choose to read this is very much going to be viewed through their lens, their perspective," said Chris Richardson. "What we are trying to achieve is what is written in plain language. There is nothing nefarious about this. It is an attempt to be very clear in how we go about appointing people."
Richardson says they're actually aiming to get more people involved, rather than having the same people serve in multiple roles.
The commissioners dropped consideration of a ban on anyone who had ever been involved in a lawsuit with the county. Instead, rules would ban only people with current litigation against the county, like fighting an eminent domain case, or blowing the whistle on wrongdoing in county government.
Richardson was blunt, saying that citizens have a right to sue. They don't have a right to serve. He chalked up the opposition to a few negative people.
