Georgia County Government - May/June 2008 - (Page 14)

TANKERSLEY continued from page 13 The first woman to serve as a Bulloch County commissioner, Tankersley was elected to office in 2001 and named vice chairman of the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners in 2006. Within ACCG, she is a past vice chair and chair of the association’s Economic Development and Transportation Committee, has served on the Emory Greene Award Committee and on other special committees within the association, most recently testifying before the State Transportation Study Commission, representing ACCG, in 2007. She also served ACCG in 2004 as an appointee to the Joint Work Group for Economic Development of the Georgia Municipal Association, Georgia Economic Development Association and ACCG to study the issues affecting local government/local development authority relationships and boost cooperative measures to further local economic development. Tankersley has also established leadership roles on several state government boards. She was an appointee to the Department of Community Affairs’ (DCA) Region 12 Advisory Council, and in 2005 was named by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to serve on the Savannah and Ogeechee Basin Advisory Committee to provide regional input on drafting water management policies. She has been active in many environmental and conservation groups. Tankersley was appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue in 2004 to the State Local Transportation Strategies Task Force, and cochaired the governor’s re-election campaign in Bulloch County in 2006 and also served on his 2006 Inaugural Committee. In February 2006, Governor Perdue appointed the Bulloch County official to the Board of the Georgia County Leadership Academy. Tankersley was recently honored by being invited by Supreme Court Justice Leah Ward Sears to attend the first “Rule of Law Conference” held in Georgia on April 24. Within her home county, Tankersley is a member of the Statesboro Bulloch County Chamber of Commerce, for which she served on the Board of Directors for three years and chaired its Community Improvement Committee. She is also a charter member of the Republican Women of Bulloch County. She is a Kiwanis Club member, which elected her to serve on the Board of the Kiwanis Club in 2007, and chair of the club’s Blood Mobile Committee and a member of its Program Committee. Having been appointed in 2005 to serve on the Bulloch County Public School Foundation Board to promote fundraising for public schools, Tankersley remains a member of the Board of Education’s Public School Foundation Committee and 2008 chair of its fundraising committee. Tankersley is an annual volunteer for “A Day For Southern,” in Bulloch County, a volunteer for Ogeechee Tech’s annual fundraising efforts and a member of the county’s “Friends of the Library” volunteer program. Tankersley is a graduate of the Certified Commissioners’ Training Program and the ACCG Academy for Leadership, as well as the Certified Commissioners’ Advanced Training Program (CCAP). Tankersley is also a graduate of the Georgia Academy for Economic Development, and special training programs for zoning administrators. 2008 ANNUAL MEETING Union County Commissioner Lamar Paris Steps in as 2008-09 Second Vice President U Union County Commissioner Lamar P i was nam La ma r Pa ri s wa s na m 2008-09 second vice president of a mar Paris a named a Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) at the Annual Meeting Awards Breakfast, April 29. The Union County official was appointed to the board of the association in 2004. With the appointment as second vice president this year, Paris is in line to assume the ACCG presidency in 2010. Paris moved up from third vice president of ACCG, as he and other officers of the group took their oaths from Municipal Court Judge C. Crandall Bray, former Clayton County Commission chairman. “Commissioner Paris has been a valuable member of the Board of Managers as we have faced some of the steepest budget, growth and environmental challenges counties have ever had to contend with,” said ACCG 2007-08 President Tom McMichael of Houston County. “In his own county, Lamar’s leadership has helped Union County deal with a 4 percent annual growth rate in a formerly rural county with few regulatory mechanisms in place to cope with such growth.” As one of 11 rural counties in the nation chosen in 2005 to receive a $1.5 million SAMSA grant to combat methamphetamine addiction, Union County established the New Hope Treatment Center, and has now, in its fifth year, successfully treated more than 2,000 individuals for methamphetamine 14 GEORGIA COUNTY GOVERNMENT abuse. Paris has been lauded for setting a national example for other jurisdictions struggling to combat the effects of methamphetamine addiction on county services. Paris chairs the Joint Development Authority with Union, Towns and Fannin counties, serves on the Boards of the County Board of Health, the Chamber of Commerce, North Georgia Resource Management Authority and the Georgia Mountains Regional Development Council. Under Paris’s leadership, Union County has formed citizen committees to develop important new ordinances leading to comprehensive regulations for animal control, billboards, cell towers, junk cars, tattoo parlors, adult establishments and to enhance subdivision and county road requirements. His county has logged other progress during his term of office. In addition to his service on the ACCG Board of Managers and on the Natural Resource and Environment Policy Committee, Paris has also served on the board of ACCG’s retirement pension fund, GEBCORP, as a member of the Georgia Industrial Loan Association state board, as vice president of the Byron Herbert Reece Society board, and as a member of the Georgia EPD Watershed Buffer Committee. The commissioner continues as a supporter of the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity and several other local charities.

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Georgia County Government - May 2008

Georgia County Government - May 2008 Contents President’s Message County Matters ACCG 2008 Annual Meeting: Highlights County Focus: Clayton County Negotiating a Professional Service Firm Contract: Part 3 Counties Get Involved in Efforts to End Sexual Abuse of Children Smart Growth Scorecard Gives Communities a Way to Grade New Developments Wireless Technologies Critical for First Responders Research Corner: The ACCG Policy Process RDCs Assist the USS Georgia Flag Project Extension News: Animals Take Spotlight in Disaster Planning Georgia’s Grand Old Courthouses: Grady County NACo News: Green Initiative Launches Searchable Database Insurance News: ACCG Announces New Inmate Medical Savings Program County Parade Index of Advertisers

Georgia County Government - May 2008

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