The Lowndes County Commission should be ashamed of itself. 

Every member of the commission should be ashamed. 

The way Paige Dukes was hired to be county manager was just wrong. 

There is no other way to say it. 

It could easily be debated that no one knows county government better or cares about the county more than Paige Dukes. 

But that’s the point, viz.; since it could be so easily debated why not have the open, public debate? 

Why do this whole thing behind the scenes? 

Why not allow Dukes to have her moment, along with any other top two candidates, so she could share her knowledge of and passion for the county on a public stage? 

Why not have commissioners ask questions and voice support or reservations in public? 

It should have been publicly debated.

Period. 

The hiring of the top professional in county government should be done completely out in the open. The Association of County Commissioners of Georgia even strongly recommends an open, transparent hiring process. 

There should have been a public vetting and public deliberations.

Instead, county commissioners hid behind closed doors.

Their clandestine actions are a disservice to the people of Lowndes County and a disservice to Dukes. She should not have to begin her tenure under this cloud. 

Both those who voted to hire Dukes — Joyce Evans, Clay Griner and Scottie Orenstein — and those who voted against the hiring — Mark Wisenbaker and Demarcus Marshall — were wrong. 

Chairman Bill Slaughter should be ashamed for his part in this as well. 

There is a right way and a wrong way to do things and this was just wrong. Someone should have come clean and told the public what was going on when they saw this thing unfolding. We have been asking about the process for naming a new county manager ever since Joe Pritchard said he was retiring. 

County leadership has been evasive at best. 

In the last couple of months, we had even heard there have been conversations among these very county leaders outside of public meetings about it, and there might be a deal brokered to name Dukes without any search or public interviews of the top three candidates. 

Still, no one confirmed our suspicions. No one came forward. 

All the business county commission does is the people’s business. 

The public has every right and every need to know not just what decisions county leaders reach but how those decisions are made. 

In some ways, this seems to be a recurring theme in our community with the City of Valdosta previously naming an interim city manager and police chief only to name them to their permanent posts months later with little fanfare and no public search or interviews. 

As for Dukes, she has spent much of her career championing transparency and has even hosted training sessions by the Georgia First Amendment Foundation and encouraged county leaders to attend. As the county’s records custodian, she has complied with numerous open records requests and helped both the media and public navigate the public records process. 

That makes the way she was hired all the more confusing and disappointing. If Dukes is indeed the right woman for the job, there was absolutely no reason whatsoever to taint her hiring with this opaque, clandestine process. 

We hope that under her watch county commissioners and the chairman will stay out of the backroom, not sneak around and get votes prior to meetings and do the public’s business out in the open and above board.