The state is making headway on legislation to bolster mental health efforts and to ease the burden on law enforcement, but a lot of work remains to be done, Liberty County Chamber of Commerce members learned Tuesday morning.
Speaking at the Chamber’s Eggs and Issues breakfast, state Rep. Al Williams (D-Midway), said several pieces of legislation that will bolster mental health across the state are in the works. The late David Ralston, who led the state House and was a champion of mental health. Politics got in the way of further mental health reform this past session, Williams said. He also noted that law enforcement is often put in the role of mental health provider when responding to a call.
“It has just overwhelmed law enforcement,” he said.
Williams said lawmakers are looking at funding for a mental health professional to respond to calls alongside law enforcement on those with mental health issues. He added the state’s mental health care has been under scrutiny for 10 years “for how awful our mental health system is.”
Lawmakers also are trying to find money to get local law enforcement officers at a better level of pay. He recalled a committee meeting he was part of in Macon County, where the jail officers were making just $13,500 a year. Some sheriff’s deputies, and small town police officers, not only are paid well below average, they also have to purchase such items as their own bullets.
“I thought only Barney Fife did that,” Williams cracked, referring to the fictitious deputy of TV fame. “It is disgraceful that some of our personnel in small departments, the pay it is pitiful.”
Williams also dismissed opposition to defund the police movements elsewhere, saying that there isn’t any steam behind a defund the police initiative in Georgia.
“It hasn’t and will not happen,” he said. “But it is a good talking point. Everybody wants to say something that will get them their 15 minutes of fame.”
Williams added efforts to stop critical race theory from being taught in Georgia schools aren’t necessary because it is not being taught.
“Critical race theory has never been taught in any school in Georgia,” he said. “Critical race theory has never been taught anywhere in Georgia, except for a few students who went to law school. Everybody panics. But nobody can say this has happened with my child. It has never been taught in Liberty County schools. It has never been on the curriculum to be taught in Liberty County schools. And we get legislation that is a fix looking for a problem. That’s one of those things that has not happened, never will happen.”
Williams, first sworn into office in 2003, is one of the longest-tenured members of the state House of Representatives. And the tenor of politics has changed in those two decades, he acknowledged, and not for the better.
“After more than 20 years in the Legislature, these are probably the most difficult times to serve,” he said. “It’s nothing like the old days. There are still a lot of good people but we have our moments now. There are things that are said that unfortunately, in a time when we need to be coming together, we are talking about our divisions.
“One of the greatest inventions by man was that little cell phone. One of the worst things man ever did was that little cell phone.”
The legislative process, Williams lamented, “is crazy now.”
“Decorum has gone crazy in this country,” he said. “You have people who have let their politics develop a hatred, so you have people hating each other. I don’t go to bed mad at anybody and I don’t wake up in the morning looking for someone to say something bad about. I try not to let anger consume me.”
One of the things Williams said he fought hard to stop was the further erosion of the certificate of need. The certificates of need, established in 1979, are crucial for rural hospitals to survive, he said.
“Rich hospitals come in and set up a little unit and cherry pick the ones who can pay,” he said, “and the county gets to pay for everyone else who can’t pay.”
While Williams said he supported the slogan that Georgia is the best state in the country to do business, he said he wants to see it become the best state in which to live. He decried, however, the state’s alarming maternal mortality rate, especially among Blacks.
“But you can’t do it with the kind of you have the disparities we have when mothers are dying because of the lack of care,” he said.
Williams, who also sits on the Liberty County Development Authority, is optimistic about the county’s future. The LCDA has had two announcements of incoming industries within the last month for 250 jobs. Williams said the LCDA has met with three prospects recently and has upwards of 20 in the pipeline.
“You go through a period where it looks like nothing is happening, and then boom,” he said. “Liberty County has so much to be proud of.”