COVINGTON, Ga. — County Manager Lloyd Kerr narrowly held on to his job Tuesday night after Chairman Marcello Banes said he will veto commissioners' action not to renew Kerr's contract because of the financial "leadership" he has provided.

The Newton County Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 along party lines not to renew the $155,000 a year contract that ends Jan. 1, 2022. 

However, Banes said he was vetoing the action because of the financial "leadership" Kerr has shown since his hiring in 2016.

Commissioner Alana Sanders said Banes' veto action "showed that commissioners don't have a say-so in dealing with personnel in this county" based on the powers the county's enabling legislation gives the chairman.

"I'm not talking about Lloyd personally," she said. "As a person (he's) a wonderful person."

She said she had problems with the way Kerr does his job — referring to Kerr's action during a Monday night meeting to cite statistics showing evictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic were not as widespread as some have said despite some in the audience saying they needed financial assistance to pay back rent to avoid evictions.

"As a county manager, I have seen Lloyd actually talk to certain citizens, being insensitive. Last night, saying certain things that were insensitive to the community," she said. "I have seen some things that have not been done and you have to remind him." 

Kerr was promoted from planning director to interim county manager in January 2016 and named to the permanent position in August 2016. His contract was renewed in early 2019.

Banes said the county only had about $3 million in savings in 2017 when he first took office, while neighboring Walton County had about $24 million in reserves. 

The Association County Commissioners of Georgia recommends a county government have four to six months' worth of operating funds in its reserves, he said. 

Banes said Kerr had overseen a county government budget that increased its reserves in five years to the point the county has five months' worth of operating funds in savings. That equates to around $35 million, officials said. 

"That because of Mr. Kerr's leadership," Banes said. "This county is in better shape now than it's ever been in the history of this county." 

Sanders said she objected to the terms of Kerr's contract because they put the county at "financial risk." Among its requirements are payment of 75% of annual salary if the Board terminates the manager before the end of the contract.

"It does not help or protect our county," she said. "The taxpayers will pay more money out of their pockets."

The 3-2 vote total Tuesday night allowed Banes to veto the commissioners' non-renewal action, according to the 2016 legislation that established the current form of government. 

If more than three commissioners had voted not to renew the contract then Banes would not have been able to apply his veto.

The legislation also requires at least four commissioners to vote to override a chairman's veto but that appears unlikely because of Kerr's support from the two Republican members on the Board, Stan Edwards and Ronnie Cowan. The Board's three Democrats, Sanders, J.C. Henderson and Demond Mason voted against the contract renewal.

Banes said commissioners were free to convince members of the Georgia General Assembly to change the current form of government — allowing the chairman to issue vetoes and a county manager to run the day-to-day operations — if they did not agree with it.

Sanders said she disagreed with his power to override the will of a majority of the Board. 

"I will make sure that we have the enabling legislation changed to fit Newton County and fits this Board," she said.  

She said the fight to make changes in the form of government must be done to change "the veto powers ... to make sure that when you have three commissioners up here making decisions, that it sticks, that no one comes here and makes that change." 

She said she believed the chairman does not believe changes should be made despite it not representing the will of the majority.

"To me, 'no' does not mean 'no.' It means go beyond the power that's on this level and go above and change what needs to be changed."

Cowan told commissioners he was concerned about how the public was perceiving the continued disagreements among Board members on numerous issues. He urged commissioners to come to agreement in the future rather than continuing to publicly verbally spar.

"I hope that we're putting forth the right message to the public," he said.