CAIRO, Ga. — Plans to form a citizen financial oversight committee were presented to the Grady County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday evening.

The Collaborative Commissioner/Citizen Budget Oversight Committee is intended to provide transparency to the financial activity of the county.

No decision on the proposal was made by the commissioners Tuesday evening. County Administrator Buddy Johnson recommended the CCCBOC not be officially organized until after the vacant District 5 commission seat is filled in a special election in March.

Johnson said the plans presented to the commissioners, which are not finalized, are a framework that will be used to establish the committee.

“This is kind of a nice cookie cutter option here that we can use to get us into the game,” Johnson said at the meeting.

As an advisement committee, the CCCBOC will not hold any authority, but will have access to review spending items the county commission considers and provide recommendations.

Johnson said the committee will serve at the sole discretion of the commission chair.

A letter submitted by Johnson to county chair LaFaye Copeland said the committee will serve at the pleasure of the the chair of the board of commissioners and can be dissolved or altered at any time if the chair “deems that the purpose or spirit of the CCCBOC is not being fulfilled in a manner that is consistent with the betterment or progression of the Grady County Citizens or entities thereof.”

The committee will consist of five citizens and two members of the board of commissioners.

One of the two commissioners will chair the CCCBOC alongside a citizen co-chair based on a nomination and majority vote of the committee.

Citizen members of the committee will be nominated by each commissioner to Copeland.

Copeland will then select the two members from the commission who will serve on the committee and form the group.

The chair said she believed the citizen members of the council should come from the districts the commissioners represent, something which was not technically specified in the framework presented Tuesday.

“I think one from each district would be good,” Copeland told the other commissioners. “You would have a representative from your district to come back and talk (with).”

Membership on the CCCBOC is to be renewed or replaced annually.

The county finance director will serve as the group’s executive officer and be responsible for responding to information inquiries made by the committee.

Sensitive documents and materials not considered open records will be redacted before presented to the committee and the group will not have access to any commission closed sessions.

Cairo resident Linda Aycock asked the commissioners to form the committee at their first regularly scheduled meeting of the year Jan. 8.

Aycock, the foreman of a September grand jury convened to review allegations of misappropriations of taxpayer funds, attended the Jan. 8 meeting at the request of South Georgia District Attorney Joe Mulholland.

The grand jury investigation was unrelated to the allegations surrounding former county clerk Carrie Croy, who was accused in October of manipulating the payroll to increase the value of her personal paychecks.

Members of the grand jury ultimately did not find any criminal wrongdoing in their investigations but convened with Mulholland to discuss possible courses of action to prevent financial complacency, eventually concluding the county needed an additional body to provide oversight.

Commissioners were receptive to the idea and Johnson informed Aycock that a framework of how to implement the committee would be in place for the board to review by Jan. 22.

Aycock, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, asked the commissioners how they would select the citizen representatives.

“I guess in a way I’ve kind of adopted this as my baby,” Aycock said. “I’m concerned and I want to see it done properly. I don’t want to see the citizens left out without a word.”

Commissioner Ray Prince responded by saying the most qualified candidates would serve for each district. Copeland added that she believed each commissioner should have the flexibility to decide how to choose their district’s citizen representative.

One concept broached at the meeting was to set up guidelines for what is expected of potential citizen representatives, which Copeland said she was in favor of.

Johnson told Aycock there should not be any concerns of citizens being left out of county business.

“The citizens will definitely have a word,” Johnson said. “They always have a word. That’s why we’re creating this.”