Hickman to serve as commission chairman
Published 3:58 pm Monday, August 12, 2013
When the Butler County Commission meets in September, it will have a new chairman for the first time in nearly a decade.
On Monday, Jesse McWilliams presided over his last meeting as chairman of the commission. He’s served in that capacity since 2004.
In September, Frank Hickman will take over as chairman.
The change comes as a result of a measure that was passed in November, which created a rotating chairmanship.
Under the measure, each commissioner will serve a term of nine months and two weeks as chairman and another nine months and two weeks as vice chairman.
The rotation began with District 2, which is represented by McWilliams, and will circle back around to District 1, which is represented by Joey Peavy. The commission elected to start in District 2 in order to have the two most experienced commissioners serve as the chairman for the first two terms of the rotation.
“I’d like to thank this group of commissioners and prior groups for allowing me to serve as chairman,” McWilliams said. “I’ve enjoyed it. Being chairman isn’t a hard job. It takes some time, but we have great people that work for the county that make it an easy job. I’m happy for Frank, and I know he’ll do a good job.”
Before the measure was passed setting the rotation in place, McWilliams had announced he would step down as chairman with the election of the new commission.
When he made the announcement in October, he said he felt that it was something that was necessary for the county to move forward and that it was time for a change.