Last year DeKalb County voters approved changes to allow the County Commission to run its own meetings and set its own agenda stripping the CEO of everything except a legislative veto.
Now a majority of Commissioners say they want to completely eliminate the CEO in favor of a professional county manager.
“We don’t need a CEO,” said Elaine Boyer of north DeKalb, the lone Republican on the commission. “We have seven elected officials who represent the county as a whole, and they could direct a county manager to get things done. It works fine everywhere.”
Lee May, a Democrat from south DeKalb, said he and his colleagues are still frustrated with “how the system is built.” The CEO still controls a lot of crucial information, and it’s not flowing to the commission, May said. “Many of us are just frustrated because we are not getting answers like we should.”