County Commission | The Magazine August 2018 | Page 15

FROM THE COVER
q PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE: ANNUAL CONVENTION r
#67Celebrate90 is year’s biggest event
A
CCA’s Annual Convention
is always a special time of
year. It’s a time when all of county
government comes together to learn
and share the latest, most pertinent
knowledge impacting counties —
knowledge that will enhance county
operations and leadership in each
individual county and all 67 counties
— knowledge that, when applied
collectively, will enhance county
government’s critical impact on this
great state and all who call it home.
This year is extra special because
it is the 90th Anniversary of this
gathering. Participants will find not
just an outstanding convention but
also a celebration. In honor of this
milestone, the theme this year is
“Where county government has been,
where we are and where we’re going.”
The first annual meeting drew
commissioners from 52 counties to
Montgomery back in 1929, and they
left a transcript giving a snapshot
of county government at that
moment. They discussed the issues
of the day – road funding, local
legislation, rising expenses for local
law enforcement – and their limited
options to address them.
“If we didn’t have these common
problems to solve, you wouldn’t have
gathered here today,” said Harry
Culverhouse of Jefferson County to
his assembled colleagues.
His listeners agreed they were
more likely to succeed at solving these
problems if they worked together,
and they decided to establish this
Association. That step was just the
beginning, as Culverhouse put it:
“No organization and no work
and no great good has ever been
accomplished without work.”
At the time, state lawmakers only
met in Regular Session every two
years, and one of the new group’s
first actions was forming a Legislative
Committee because counties had
been getting beaten up in the
Alabama Legislature.
“You have seen laws passed
over which you had no control,
appropriating your revenue without
your having a voice in them,”
Culverhouse said. “I think in my
county, about 65 percent of the
revenues are appropriated by laws
passed before we have a voice in
saying where they should be spent.”
By the Association’s silver
anniversary, county leaders had
something to celebrate. “County
government has
been strengthened
in Alabama because
of the coordinated
effort of the county
commissioners’
group,” opined The
Birmingham News
in 1953. “There
is reason to hope
for still further
improvement.
“But there
are many
problems ahead
of the county
commissioners.
The question of
the best relations
between the
state and county
governments will
always be with us.”
Jumping ahead
to 2018, ACCA
is marking the
90th – or emerald – anniversary
of the annual convention. County
governments have risen to many new
challenges, and their Association
– the #OneVoice – is growing in
strength and influence.
The work to protect and enhance
county government is bolstered by
affiliate groups for administrators,
emergency managers, engineers,
revenue officers and 9-1-1 district
personnel. And member services
have expanded beyond legislative
advocacy to include insurance,
education programs, debt collection
and joint bidding, as well as
representing commission interests
with organizations of other elected
county officials. n
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