Can Mayor O also be Snellville City Manager? GA Atty General Says No

"A power struggle in Snellville gained new momentum this month with the Georgia Attorney General ruling that the mayor can not legally fill the vacant city manager's position."

Attorney General Thurbert Baker sent his opinion that -

"The mayor is not authorized to both act in his capacity as the elected executive leader of the city and also as the city manager because such dual service is inherently incompatible and inappropriate."

Mayor Oberholtzer's comments were:

"Just because the attorney general gives an opinion, that's not a binding opinion," the mayor said. "Is he going to have me arrested or sue me? He can't."

Full AJC Story Here

Well, what do you think? On one hand, I'm concerned about the Mayor's full-speed-ahead, my way or the highway approach...but then again, we are saving tons of money not having to pay a City Manager!

My opinion is that Mayor Oberholtzer may be able to serve in the capacity well, making suggestions and recommendations as he says in the article....but it sets a bad precedent, because in the future, Snellville might not have a Mayor who is able to ethically serve well in that position and could take advantage of the dual role.

Snellville's Election Campaign as Viewed by a Loganville Resident

Looking for Snellville Election Results 2007? CLICK HERE

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Excerpt of article by Sharon Swanepoel of the Walton Tribune:

"......we [in Loganville GA] haven’t seen the usual personal attacks but it’s certainly a welcome change. Maybe it will allow the different factions time to heal and that can only benefit the city.

However, the same can’t be said for Snellville. Wow — I think they’ve even got some of the previous Loganville elections beat this time around. The mayoral race between incumbent Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer and challenger former councilman Bruce Garraway is a doozie. You would think politicians would learn the citizenry doesn’t really care about their personal differences and gets pretty tired of hearing about them. How about just focusing on what’s good for the city?

I saw a recent flyer that Garraway sent out with a picture of Oberholtzer holding a “drink” with a caption that read something like “have you had enough?” For all we know the “drink” could have been a coke but the inference was pretty obvious (why does that ring a bell?). How about just sending out a flyer telling citizens what you the candidate are offering them and not a personal attack on your opponent — now there’s a novel concept.

Garraway has also had to duck a couple of darts from another former Snellville councilman who in all probability would like to see the current mayor stay in office. Garraway has had to defend his alleged preferential use of the city’s police force by calling them to unlock a car when he and another Snellville councilman had locked the keys in it while having a meal together. Apparently this was viewed as an abuse of power because they were outside the city limits and it was a service that wouldn’t have been offered another resident had they asked for it from outside the city limits. The result is the service has now been taken away from all Snellville residents. Was it petty for the resident to complain — probably? Would it have come to light had it not been an election year — probably not? However, those rules are set up to make sure nobody in power abuses them at all. Weren’t there some Atlanta politicians taken down a while back for using city employees to work on their rental properties?

If you are looking to run for public office, you had better be very careful about anything that is viewed as improper because it is certainly going to come back and bite you in today’s election process — from the presidential elections down."

---see entire October 26, 2007 article here: LINK

Why would ya wanna be Mayor, anyway?

• Why would you want to put yourself and your family through all the stress and pressure?
  

• How much does it pay to be on the Snellville City Council?

• How much does it pay to be Mayor of Snellville?
  

• What are the benefits that make it worth doing?
  

• Why would you want to be Mayor of Snellville?
  

The answers to these questions are coming soon so stay 'tuned.'