Being a commissioner in Forsyth County has been looked upon in the past as a part time job. With the overwhelming growth the county has had over the past several years, and the major issues our county faces on a daily basis, this position now requires more hours to get the job done.

A commissioner is on call 24/7. At a minimum, they are attending called sessions, scheduled sessions, meetings with staff, meetings with their constituents, meetings with land owners and developers and they also have numerous events that require their presence. They might have some weeks that they can get by serving only 25 hours or so. This allows maybe enough time to just barely squeak by doing the absolute minimum. The commissioner position can easily require in excess of 40 hours a week for a commissioner to do the job the way the voters want and expect them to, responsibly.

In Forsyth County, the voters have the fortune that with so many people residing here, they are being presented with candidates that not only have the necessary qualifications to serve as a commissioner, but they are also able to dedicate themselves to this position on a full time basis. Forsyth County residents have benefited from having two highly qualified commissioners that, being retired, are able to serve on a full time basis. Retirement is not a requirement to be a County Commissioner, but being retired does alleviate the possibility that, as has happened in the past, a commissioner has run for office, been elected, discovered it required too much of their time and have had to hire an aide to help them with their work. Just a few years ago, voters elected two commissioners who, after running for office and saying that the commission was going to be their priority, hired aides to assist them because the commission conflicted with their job. In effect these hired aides became the de facto commissioners by virtue of the fact they were attending the meetings and became the face for that district to the constituents. I think this was a slap in the face to the people that voted for those representatives. The people voted for those parties to serve as the commissioners and do the commission work. The voters did not vote for the aides to be their commissioners.

Aides cost the taxpayers about $65,000 per year in salary and benefits. This $65,000 does not include the $35,000 the Commissioner is also being paid. Perhaps the position of County Commissioner should be changed from a part time position to a full time position. The voters in Forsyth County are fortunate that they can choose to vote for retired candidates that have not only the time to serve responsibly, but have already been serving the people of Forsyth on committees to work to solve our county's pressing issues. I do think that with the growth in population, traffic issues and our water problems, the responsibilities of the position of County Commissioner has grown and is no longer a part time job. It is now a full time mission.