The Rural Perspective

Charles Carter Talks About His 16 Years on the ACC Commission

originally published December 13, 2006

Ben Emanuel

Charles Carter

After 16 years on the Athens-Clarke County Commission and in good health at 81, Charles Carter is retiring from politics this month. The departing representative of District 1 in the eastern part of the county is usually the quiet man among commissioners, but Flagpole tried to draw him out during a recent visit to his Winterville farm.

Flagpole

Have you been tempted to do anything other than farm?

Charles Carter

No, not really. I always enjoyed it. Altogether, we didn’t have but 130 acres here. And it really wasn’t enough to have much of a farm, so we started leasing land, and growing wheat and soybeans. And we always used this for our headquarters and had our grain bins and seed-cleaning operation and everything here on this place.

Flagpole

Well, this is one of the few farms remaining, I guess, in the county.

Charles Carter

Yes. There’s not many. There’s a few poultry operations in the county.

Flagpole

What got you interested in politics?

Charles Carter

Well, when the county was unified [with the city government], it was divided up by districts. I thought somebody out here - it would be a chance to get elected. Before that, [there weren’t] but two people, elected officers, that lived east of the Oconee River.

Flagpole

So you thought this area was under-represented.

Charles Carter

Right. A lot of people asked me to run and I finally did do it.

Flagpole

It must take a lot of time.

Charles Carter

It does… probably for the first 12 years, I spent at least 20 hours a week or more on commission work.

Flagpole

People complain about the length of the meetings, but I’ve been impressed with the deliberation that commissioners give to every issue in turn.

Charles Carter

For the first four years, we had a lot of long meetings, after midnight. But back then, I felt like we were really accomplishing something. We were having to bring all the ordinances from the old county and the old city and make new ordinances. And it took a lot of time. But the last four years, some of our long meetings I just feel like really weren’t necessary.

I mean, we went through it on a work session, agenda-setting, and then on the voting night, come up and some of the commissioners have to go back just like they’d never heard of anything before, and start from the beginning. And I think it’s partly because of television - they want to make a show on television…. ‘Cause they don’t act that way in a work session when it’s not before the camera, and a bunch of people there.

Flagpole

You have received the Alec Little Environmental Award for your work setting up the county recycling program. And yet, you have not gone along with some of the local environmentalists on some decisions like stream buffers…

Charles Carter

I have done as much as anybody in Clarke County to control the erosion on farmland that I’ve worked. And on this stream buffer, I think that 75 feet is extreme…. There is an expert over there that lived on [McNutt] creek, and they came up with a study. And they said more than a 50-foot buffer was not necessary. But still, a few days later, Clarke County put a 75-foot buffer in.

Flagpole

What do you think are the important issues coming up for the county?

Charles Carter

Well I think that land use is, still. I think that this one to 10 acres, that’s just not treating the landowners in the greenbelt fair. I mean it’s taking their land value away without giving them anything for it.

Flagpole

What do you think should be done?

Charles Carter

I think it could go back to where we had conservation subdivisions: one development per acre put into a conservation subdivision, and you had to leave out 50 percent of the land in greenspace.

Flagpole

Do you think one per five acres would be a compromise that might fly?

Charles Carter

It’d be a lot better than what we’ve got…. And another thing: [developers] want more density, and we keep giving it to them when they come up there. And as long as we do that, transferable development rights will never be worth anything… Even some in the greenbelt, like one right after it was passed… they granted them a subdivision out there [on Atlanta Highway] to put 700-and-something units in.

Flagpole

Do you think preserving the so-called greenbelt in general is a good idea?

Charles Carter

No. Not for Clarke County. Because all it’s doing is pushing the development over into Oglethorpe County, it’s still not stopping the development. And they’re still coming into Clarke County to work. Going to Oglethorpe County, Madison County and the city of Winterville.

Flagpole

Do you see any chance of effective regional planning, or regional jurisdictions?

Charles Carter

It’d be hard to ever do, but I don’t see any effort being made to try to do it anyway.

Flagpole

What have you learned in your time in politics, Charles?

Charles Carter

[Laughs] I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned that your best friends will fall out with you if you don’t vote like they want to on every issue.

Flagpole

Is that inevitable in politics, do you think?

Charles Carter

I guess so, I don’t know. But you know, when they were trying to build the civic center, there was a group, said they had 3000 petitions, wanted to stop building the civic center. Because you wouldn’t go along with that, there’s some people that fell out with me, and I mean they still criticize me about it… but some of these people really didn’t understand what’s going on, and still don’t. They got out and said it’s going to cost us a million, two million dollars a year to keep the civic center up, out of the general fund. But that didn’t happen.

Flagpole

Why do you think they were so adamant?

Charles Carter

There were people going around saying that Athens is a university town, it’s not a convention city.

Flagpole

Do you think people in general just don’t want to see change?

Charles Carter

No, I don’t think people in general, but there’s some that don’t. Most people are real nice.

Flagpole

What kind of advice would you give your successor?

Charles Carter

I’ll tell him when he gets a complaint, to talk to the people. Most people, if you’ll talk to them, they’ll understand a little better about it. Some people won’t listen, but most people will.

Flagpole

Do you think economic development is being handled well enough here?

Charles Carter

No.

Flagpole

Could you be specific?

Charles Carter

This is not the county’s fault, it’s not any county’s fault. Most businesses that come want to stay close to I-85 or an interstate, and we don’t have that here. That’s one thing that hurts us…. But I think we’ve got to go out and look for these people to come - have somebody, the Chamber of Commerce or something, that can do it, can go out and look. Hunt business, when they hear about it.

Flagpole

You think we need a new team?

Charles Carter

Well, I don’t think the team we’ve got now is doing it. I mean, it’s gone from the Mayor on down. The Mayor and the Chamber of Commerce and all, and they’ve got to work together.

Flagpole

You guys make a lot of decisions on a lot of things. How do you decide?

Charles Carter

Well, you really try to think what is right for the most people, and what is the right thing to do.

Flagpole

Any regrets?

Charles Carter

Some things that came up that I wasn’t in favor of, I didn’t stand against strong enough. Like the greenbelt, to get a more reasonable thing done, but I couldn’t get any cooperation. I got some promises, but when the voting night came, it wasn’t there.

Flagpole

How can citizens affect the political process?

Charles Carter

I think by letting the commissioners know their feelings and what they want. On some issues, it’s just hard to get anybody to go up there and do it.

I don’t know what you remember on the stormwater utility fee…. At first they wouldn’t even consider to give any kind of kind of help or exemption [for rural landowners whose rainwater runoff doesn’t flow into county sewers]. And I was going to try to get something done about it. Seven farmers - the people that owned the land on this thing - told me they would be up there that night. And one showed up. I mean, that’s the kind of support you get on stuff like that, really. It’s disgusting, ain’t it? And they did listen, then, after that, they listened to what they were talking about, and gave some exemption.

Flagpole

Do you think county taxes are too high?

Charles Carter

Well, you’ve got to have money to operate. Most every individual thinks their tax is too high.

Flagpole

So you don’t think the money is squandered?

Charles Carter

No, I don’t think it’s squandered, but I think there’s some waste some places. But I don’t know how you’ll ever get it all out. I mean, long as people want more services and more of everything, I don’t see any way you can cut it. I mean, you can resurface a road - supposed to last 12 years or more - in five years; if it gets looking a little older, people on that road want it resurfaced again, without realizing what it costs.

Flagpole

Do you see conflicts between the interests of the rural areas and the interests of the city folks?

Charles Carter

Well, there’s a lot of commissioners that think Cedar Creek is a rural area of Clarke County. I mean, they don’t realize there’s any rural in Clarke County at all…. There’s a lot of things, like parking on unimproved surfaces: at one time they were going to include the whole county in that. And to me, it’s plumb foolish in the AR [agricultural-rural zoning] district. They finally did take it out of the AR district. I’ve helped on some things like that, I think.

Flagpole

What are you going to do when you get off the Commission? Be bored?

Charles Carter

No, I’ve got plenty of piddling to do. I enjoy restoring old engines and tractors. I was doing some of that before, and I hope to get back to doing some of that…. I restored one [for the Shields-Ethridge Heritage Farm], and got it running good.

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