Congratulations to Henry Williams, Bob Shutt and Blake White for their recent election or re-election to the Savannah City Commission and a well deserved thank you to Helen Hamilton and Joe Cromwell for their excellent service as City Commissioners.

Being a fellow who likes to keep himself informed, I have monitored the City elections for the quite a few years now and this past election is the most interesting one that I can remember since Brother Randy Isbell decided to run for re-election.

You might be asking yourself, well, Ted, you live in the county, what difference does it make to you, who is or is not elected to the Savannah City Commission? That’s simple. I live in that mythical 5 mile radius of Savannah and I have city water and gas. I have a dog in their hunt. By that I mean that these folks, the City Commission, have the final word when it comes to some of my fire protection and some of my utilities.

But even if that 5 mile thing wasn’t there, in addition to Savannah having the status of a city, it is also the County Seat or as some know it, the County Town and the center of County Government. Most of the Hardin County Government employees, work in Savannah.

After you get past that, it seems that I am having to remind some folks that the citizens of the City of Savannah are also fellow citizens of Hardin County. They pay county property taxes and all of the rest of the County’s fees and charges, just like us folks who don’t live inside the City limits. They also pay city taxes for a much higher level of services than the County can or will provide.

There I go again, digressing.

One of the most interesting statistics from this election is that 65% of the voters voted for Williams. This is the same Williams that some have said for years was unelectable because even though he may have more city commissions meeting time under his belt than most of the setting Commissioners have, he was just too confrontational and plain spoken for the ‘Ya Gotta Go Along, To Get Along’ creed, that local politics seem live by.

Maybe the voters are sending a message, to hell with that creed, they want plain speaking folks setting and carrying out policies. Is it the message of change? I pray so, and look forward to the County-wide election in less than a year. You can bet there will be more to follow on that subject, thank you very much.
Finally, I would like to thank the editorial staff at The Courier for their well throughout and well written editorial in last week’s Courier, "Voting is a civic responsibility." I can only hope that they will rerun it again next year, about this time would be nice.

If you take nothing else from this editorial opinion, please take the point that simply voting is not enough, an informed vote is what is required, and to do that, a good citizen must make an effort to learn everything he can about the candidates and their views on the issues.

On a sad note, there were only 657 voters out of some 3,985 registered voters who took the time to participate in the City elections. That is 16.49% turnout. Of course that is up from the elections in the recent past by about 1.5%, but that is still sad when you think about the tasks and functions of the City Commission. Apathy is alive and well in Savannah.

Respectfully submitted for your consideration.