County commissioners state their priorities

By Carrie A. Mizell

While the issue of funded and unfunded state mandates may be the top priority of Gilchrist County Commissioners, it doesn’t appear to be the primary priority of county leaders throughout the state.
Thirty county commissioners selected from throughout the state to attend a forum in Gainesville last week listed their highest priorities as: 1. Educate voters. 2. Identify needed services. 3. Sheriff, Jails and Public Safety. 4. Funded/Unfunded mandates. 5. State pre-emption of government authority.
County Commissioners Randy Durden and D. Ray Harrison, Jr., who attended the Advanced County Commissioner Program, both selected funded and unfunded mandates as their top priorities.
One of the objectives of the two-day forum hosted by the Florida Association of Counties was to comprehend the real nature and serious implications of the challenges facing state and local governments’ future. County Commissioner Randy Durden said on Tuesday that after attending the forum he feels that the Gilchrist County Commission needs to work harder to educate local voters on what the county has to pay for and what they don’t have to pay for.
“I think it all comes down to we can’t keep running the local government like we have in the past,” Durden said.
In a county as small as Gilchrist County, Durden said that funding all the unfunded state mandates is next to impossible; therefore, the county will reach the point where officials say they can only provide services that have to be provided to residents and let go of what they can’t afford.
“A lot will depend on the election results this week,” Durden continued.
Durden said he hopes workshops can be initiated between the county commissioners, local business professionals and area farmers and dairymen to discuss key issues facing the county’s future.
“On the first day of the forum we did a Desert Survival Situation project, where we had to work together to choose out of 16 items what was the most important,” Durden said. “From that we learned that we have to work together as a board; we have to work with the state and local citizens to make things happen.”