As of last month, there are now two caucuses who are set to meet before each County Commission meeting.
The Republican caucus has been meeting almost every month for a few years now.
This month, the Democratic caucus had their first meeting.
Democratic members of the Madison County Commission attended the meeting along with a couple of independent commissioners and a few other members of the local Democratic Party.
“We may not have the majority on the Commission, but if we all have similar views on most issues – especially local issues – then it makes sense for us to at least try to organize ourselves around those views,” said Tony Black, who helped coordinate the meeting and was voted to serve the caucus as its chair.
Claudell Brown was voted as the vice-chair of the caucus.
The Republicans have a monthly caucus the week before each monthly meeting and usually a couple of days before the official agenda review meeting, which happens on the Thursday before the Commission meeting – which is usually on the third Monday of the month.
The Republicans, of which there are a majority on the Commission with 16, will go over the agenda among themselves, discuss any important issues or upcoming votes and how each of them feel they as a group should vote on each matter.
Typically, once the caucus reaches a consensus, they will vote together, but that’s not always the case. Two notable times when it wasn’t were in 2020 when the caucus voted to support one person to appoint to the Jackson-Madison County Schools Board, but they went with Carol Carter-Estes McCright in March of 2020. The other was in September when the Commission failed to appoint a school board member on the first try when the Republicans had voted for Marcia Moss the week before. She was eventually voted on in October.
Black said the Democratic caucus won’t be one where every member is expected to vote with the group if they don’t feel the same as the group on an issue, but he hopes it will provide an avenue for dialogue among the Commissioners in an open meeting.
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news
