The current four-member Banks County Commission will back to full membership later this week.
After a month of being one member short, Commissioner-elect Keith Gardiner will come aboard Thursday to fill the District 4 seat formerly occupied by new Chairman Charles Turk.
Turk was sworn in as full-time chairman Sept. 1, to replace former Chairman Jimmy Hooper, who resigned effective Aug. 31 for health reasons.
Hooper did not seek re-election for another term, so Turk already was elected as his successor, but took office four months early due to the resignation.
“In order to have a commission board of five versus four, we went ahead and brought the replacement in my district, Keith Gardiner, in for Oct. 1,” Turk said. “He’s going to be sworn in Oct. 1, so that way we’ll have a full slate in case we have something controversial. Then Jan. 1, Bo Garrison will replace David Duckett and will be sworn in along with me and Keith Gardiner again for the next four-year terms.”
Duckett holds the District 2 seat.
Commissioner Danny Maxwell was elected vice chairman and is serving in that capacity.
Turk said the county followed a protocol put in place more than 100 years ago to determine how to fill the seats.
“The order we went in was enacted in 1916 for the county succession in case somebody resigned or passed away, so we followed that succession order that was in our bylaws,” Turk said.
The August runoffs determined who will serve on the commission for the next four years since no commissioner faces a challenge from a Democrat or Independent in November, simplifying the replacement process, Turk said.
