By Dean Poling

The Valdosta Daily Times

VALDOSTA — Efforts to increase the size of the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners are nothing new.

A committee researched increasing the number of commissioners in 1980.

A dozen years ago the matter came to a referendum, but residents voted against the increase.

Two years ago commissioners agreed the commission needed more representatives, but they could not unanimously agree on how to increase their numbers.

The referendum vote in November will either mark the next step in increasing the number of commissioners, or it will be the latest chapter in failed efforts of expansion.

Take Five

In 1980, John H. “Jack” May, the late Valdosta accountant, was part of a local committee researching the possibility of increasing the number of Lowndes County commissioners from three to five.

“I contacted 11 counties in Georgia that had five or more commissioners,” according to an Oct. 17, 1980, letter to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce’s governmental affairs committee. “Many that were contacted had enlarged from three or five members to the present number.”

Based on all of the contacts and research he and his committee conducted, May advised, in 1980, “five commissioners seem to be the preferable number.”

If approved by vote and the Department of Justice, an increased Lowndes County Board of Commissioners today will have five voting commissioners and a non-voting chairman.

When Jack may wrote his recommendation, the commission had only three commissioners. In the mid 1980s, during a statewide move to governmental districts, Lowndes County opted to switch from three commissioners to the current system of a four-member commission with three district commissioners and a non-voting chairman. May meant five commissioners total.

Also, at the time of May’s recommendation, Lowndes County had a population of 67,972 people, according to 1980 census data.