Charlotte Williams: Making county government work;

              Charlotte Williams
Making county government work
The morning agenda is a full one, Charlotte Williams is already seated at the chairperson's podium as her 13 fellow members of the Genesee County, Michigan, Board of Commissioners file into the large auditorium. The commissioners, each representing a district of Genesee County government, occupy desks arranged in a sweeping U. The chairperson sits in the center on an elevated podium.
This room, in which municipal business will be transacted, is spacious, tastefully if functionally furnished, and is neither dim nor ancient nor smoke-filled. Behind the commissioners are seats for those who monitor the workings of government. But today's agenda, while full, is non-controversial, so the audience is sparse.
Working with the confidence of one who has chaired many such meetings, Charlotte Williams gets down to work, encouraging discussion on some matters, skillfully moving to discourage it on others. Ninety minutes later, it is all over. Decisions have been reached on funding of the CETA Title I program, on salaries for the personnel of a Headstart program, and on the retention of a $22,000 work measurement technician who has already saved the county $175,000.
Charlotte Williams, who is commissioner of the fourth district of Genesee County and chairperson of today's meeting, leans back in the padded speaker's chair, props her ornate eyeglasses atop a bouffant hairdo, and lights another filter tip cigarette.
In her mind, this regular Monday morning commissioner's meeting was a perfect example of county government at work: no parliamentary fireworks, no self-serving speeches introduced on the record for subsequent mailing to constituents, no jockeying for space in tomorrow's newspapers. It was, rather, a group of dedicated professionals entrusted with the responsibility of providing $75 million of government services to the 450,000 residents of Genesee County, Michigan
Flint, the largest city in the county, is a company town. It has three Chevrolet plants, a Buick plant, an AC Sparkplug plant, and three Fisher Body plants. When the economy is in full gear, the automotive industry hums, and so does Flint, But when the economy hits a downtick, car sales plummet and a large part of the adult population of Flint is laid off. When this happens, tax collections, on which municipal services are dependent, get choked off and Charlotte Williams' problems begin in earnest.
But on this bright summer morning, cars are being built in record numbers and Charlotte Williams has no crises to contend with. In addition to being a commissioner, she is chairperson of the county's personnel committee and a member of its finance committee. She is also chairperson of the county Board of Health, which is responsible for health services provided to Genesee County. She has been a commissioner since 1965, when the position was appointive. Since 1969, when the office became elective, Mrs. Williams has successfully run for five two-year terms.
"The only promise I make to my constituents," she says,
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