Just two weeks from now, our county commissioners will be sitting by the fire in a cottage on the property of Barnsley Gardens to strategize for the coming year. Next month, the Woodstock City Council will head to Towns County for its annual retreat.
Barnsley Gardens is a lovely place. I was there last year when my cousin got married.
The gravel paths are lined with beautiful trees and flowers.
There is plenty to do and much to see. There even are ghost stories that go along with the property, especially near the ruins where it is rumored that the ghost of Godfrey Barnsley’s wife, Julia Scarborough, returned. Her ghost, stories tell, has been seen near the fountain at the ruins, the former spot of the Barnsley mansion before it was destroyed by Union soldiers during the Civil War.
I’ve never been to Hiawassee in Towns County, but I hear it’s wonderful. My neighbor used to live up there, and he always tells stories about the beautiful scenery and all the different fruit-bearing trees he had.
Now, Barnsley Gardens is a wonderful place to visit for a getaway or even a longer vacation, and I’m sure Hiawassee, nestled in the North Georgia mountains, is just as beautiful, but neither is a place for our elected officials to hold their yearly strategizing sessions at the taxpayers’ expense.
It costs the county almost $2,000 for two days and is more than an hour away. It costs the city of Woodstock $4,000 to $5,000 every year, including accommodations and mileage reimbursements, to travel a couple of hours north for their planning sessions.
While spending a few thousand dollars on lodging and food may seem frivolous to some, it’s a penny in the hat in the grand scheme of the overall budgets for the county and Woodstock.
The distance and the accessibility are more disconcerting.
The county has preached open government, and, as watchdogs of our local governments, we haven’t really had much trouble getting the information we need from county officials. They answer our questions and provide documents when we request them.
The county even has established a Web site for transparency, revealing documents related to budgeting, transportation projects and open records.
The commissioners also are very good about open meetings. Proper notice is given; they hold them in a space large enough to accommodate people who want to come; their agendas are properly published in advance of the meetings; and the twice monthly meetings and work sessions are video recorded and published on the county Web site.
Woodstock also is pretty good about providing needed information and does well at giving ample notice under the law for its regular meetings.
But the yearly retreats, or strategizing sessions, are too far away, not accessible enough for the average county resident and too expensive.
Adairsville, where Barnsley Gardens is located, is just over an hour away. Hiawassee is more than two hours away.
The county’s planning session is held on workdays during work hours, on property with a guard house at the entrance, and in a building that wouldn’t hold 20 extra people, should members of the public choose to attend.
Woodstock holds its retreats in a hotel meeting room and on a Friday through Sunday, so, if Woodstock residents wanted to trek to Towns County, there would be room to accommodate visitors.
While it may not be intentional, it seems like county officials have set themselves up for a nice, private meeting, because even for the Ledger-News, it’s a little hard on the pocketbook to drive back and forth to Adairsville for two days … and staying on the property is out of the question, at $300-$600 a night, that is.
For years, county officials have been meeting at out-of-the-way places. This is the third year they’ve met at Barnsley Gardens. And before that, they met at Black Bear Resort in White County.
Woodstock previously held its retreats at the old City Hall and the community center. Officials also have driven to a steakhouse just inside the Cobb County line for an annual planning session. But last year, they started going to Hiawassee because council members were losing focus and leaving the retreat for other obligations. Taking them out of the county, I’m told, makes it more difficult for them to get up and leave.
But, when you are elected to office, you are charged with handling the county or city business. If you can’t mark off a couple of days, well in advance, to plan for the coming year, then you probably should not have taken on the responsibility to represent the people.
Other cities have seen the writing on the wall, and have opted to keep retreats in house. The last retreat Holly Springs had in 2010 was held at City Hall, to save money. They used to go to Hiawassee.
Canton’s retreats in 2009 and 2010 were held nearby — at the Laurel Canyon golf club restaurant, prior to it shutting down and later re-opening, and city hall, respectively.
There is no doubt in my mind that a planning session is a great way for elected officials to brainstorm and come up with new ideas about what should be done in the next year, five or 10 years.
They can focus on the business and help take us in the right direction, but it’s not necessary to hold it at one of Georgia’s most prestigious resorts or up in the North Georgia mountains.
The county has what they have called a “state-of-the-art” facility in the Northside Hospital-Cherokee Conference Center, and surely there is a room perfect for their needs.
The city of Woodstock has several facilities that it’s spent over $10 million on in the last few years: they have the city hall annex, the Chambers at City Center and the community center.
None of the elected officials need five-star restaurant or catered food to eat … they can bring a sack lunch like most of the rest of us do when we go to work.
Most everyone else in the county has to plan for the coming year, but we don’t gather at a high-end resort; we pull out the budget, our calculator and calendar and sit at the kitchen table.
