WS Chronicle

County commissioners plan to vote on consolidating the departments of Social Services and Public Health on June 21.

Commissioners will hold a public hearing on consolidation during their 2 p.m. meeting  before they vote on the matter. Consolidation is mainly about who runs the departments, which currently both have their own boards that can hire and fire their directors. Consolidation will create a combined Human Services board with a Human Services director that’ll be hired by the county manager with the advice and consent of the board. If approved, consolidation would go into effect in July.

As required by law, the county has already advertised the public hearing and will be reviewing the resolution for consolidation during the commissioners’ next briefing on June 7 at 2 p.m.

“These two items do get us to the point of whether or not we consolidate the governance structures of Public Health and Social Services,” said Assistant Manager Ronda Tatum during last week’s commissioner briefing.

County Manager Dudley Watts has previously said he doesn’t anticipate any staff changes due to consolidation and that the directors of both departments should stay in place with Tatum acting as the Human Services Director. Thus far, Everette Witherspoon is the only county commissioner who’s voiced opposition to consolidation.

Also during last week’s meetings, commissioners unanimously approved contracts for ABC Garbage, Rural Garbage Service and North Davidson Garbage Service to provide subscription curbside garbage and recycling pick up service starting Jan. 1 in unincorporated areas of the county currently being served by Waste Management. These are the last incorporated areas of the county that were lacking access to curbside recycling service.