Over the past several months, I have been studying the issues related to the expansion of the Cullman County Commission. There were many issues that could significantly impact the citizens of Cullman County and questions that needed to be answered. Is the current system broken? Have any of our commissioners, present or past, been charged with corruption? What will it cost to initiate the expansion of the Commission? What legal issues will arise to fairly divide the county into districts? Can we control the growth of county government once the expansion occurs? Will this expansion increase services to the citizens of Cullman County? Will it be easier or harder for the citizens of Cullman County to quickly change the policy direction of the Commission? And finally, do the citizens of Cullman County really see this as a concern?

The current system does not appear to be broken. Through decades of multiple commissioners, Cullman County continues to grow and thrive. We are one of the top counties in Alabama and in the Southeast in regards to economic growth and expansion. The quality of life that we enjoy here in Cullman County is second to none. We have an excellent healthcare system anchored by Cullman Regional Medical Center. We enjoy some awesome recreational opportunities. Our crime rate remains at a very low level and we have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state. The Commission has influenced all of these items. The current system must be doing something right. Do they have enough money to do all the thing that they want to do and fix all the roads that need to be fixed? No. But the Commission, over the years, has done very well with the limited resources available.

Over many years, Cullman County has had a variety of commissioners: some were good and some not so good depending on your political view. However, to my knowledge, there has never been a legal charge of corruption or using the office for personal gain. We may have disagreed politically with their actions, but it is clear that the elected commissioners were simply doing what they thought was best for Cullman County. Even now, with the Commission missing one member due to illness, the process has not been abused.

I consulted Probate Judge Brown for input on the redistricting process. Having just completed the Alabama Legislative redistricting, Judge Brown provided a great deal of information and expertise on this issue. She quickly noted that the legislative districts of 2014 were already determined by the legislature before her office ever received the new district maps. That is not the case with the commission redistricting. A consultant would have to be hired to identify the districts even before the probate office could begin their process. Legislative redistricting only involved about 17,000 of the 80,811 citizens in Cullman County. Commission redistricting could involve well over 50,000 citizens of Cullman County, three times the number required for legislative redistricting. However, just to complete the relatively small AL legislative task using pre-drawn districts required the efforts of approximate 13 employees. The process took nine months to complete. The approximate time required by these employees for just redistricting, away from their normal duties, was a minimum of 20 hours per week. Judge Brown also noted that there were various additional costs related to the legislative redistricting including newspaper ads, printing of new maps, notifications sent by mail to each voter affected, etc.

There are also very critical laws that need to be followed. New district and precinct lines must be consistent with state and federal law and must have pre-clearance from the Justice Department. The new district/precinct lines must create fair districts that accurately reflect the will of the voters. ‘Accurately reflect the will of the voters’ is a very arbitrary standard. Once the legal lines are drawn and cleared, any citizen or outside organization can sue under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution. Presently there is an ongoing lawsuit in the AL legislative redistricting process and it is a very complex case that requires very specialized and expensive legal counsel. Understanding the demographics of Cullman County and remembering the legal actions initiated by outside groups with the Duck River Dam project, it is my opinion that an extended, expensive lawsuit is more likely than not. The county would be required to foot the bill to defend their redistricting plan brought forward by a citizen of Cullman County or any number of outside organizations.

As a member of the State Senate for the past 5 years, it has become very clear to me that government grows MORE government. We see it in the federal government. We see it in the state government and it will happen in county government. Even with the best of intentions involved in this proposal, county government WILL grow. I believe and always have believed that the best government is a limited government. From my frustrating experiences dealing with a growing, out of control state government, I see the expansion of the county commission as an unnecessary opportunity to grow county government. And once the expansion is put into place, the citizens will not be able to stop that growth. In the future, the commissioners’ salaries won’t be enough and the commissioners will vote themselves vehicles, telephones, office space renovations, staff, health benefits, etc. All of these will decrease the amount of money available for roads, public safety, parks, and other services. And when they need more money to provide for those basic services, instead of cutting back the county government, government will raise your taxes as the ‘conservative’ legislature just did this past session. I opposed those tax increases because I am convinced the government gets enough of your hard earned money.

Under the present system, the citizens of Cullman County can quickly change the political direction of the Commission. We saw this very clearly with the water issue a few years ago. The people of Cullman did not like the direction taken by the commission and the citizens changed that direction in one election. Changing that dynamic, by voting in districts, would limit the citizen’s ability to quickly change the political direction. A few individuals could be continuously re-elected in a district, establish control and give preference to certain areas of the county. At that point, those citizens in the underserved areas have no ability to change that situation. In the present system, all the citizens maintain control.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, I am not convinced that this issue really concerns the majority of people who live in Cullman County. The Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce did a poll on this issue. I am told by the Chamber President that they highly advertised that poll over several weeks in multiple venues. They received 157 responses. Out of a population of 80,811 that is less than 1 percent, closer to 0 percent responding. That is great for discussion purposes, but it is statistically invalid. I held a public forum at the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce solely dedicated to this topic and less than 50 people attended. The majority of those attending were people, past and present, associated with government, not concerned citizens.

In a county, like Cullman, that is successful and thriving, there needs to be a very compelling reason to change the county government structure. Positives must clearly far outweigh the negatives. In my opinion, there are no obvious or compelling benefits to the citizens of Cullman County and the negatives far outweigh the positives, so I will not support the expansion of the Cullman County Commission at this time. I have the utmost confidence in the citizens of Cullman County to continue to elect a county commission that best represents the county as a whole.

* Paul Bussman represents Cullman in the Alabama Senate.