Exhibit H - Affidavits of Calhoun County Judge, Attorney, and Clerk

    Exhibit "H" 

 



STATE OF ALABAMA 
AFFIDAVIT 
  

CALHOUN COUNTY 

Before me, the undersigned authority in and for the State 

of Alabama, personally appeared ARTHUR C. MURRAY who is known by me 

and who is the Probate Judge of the Calhoun County and who, after 

being duly sworn according to law, deposed and stated as follows: 

My name is Arthur C. Murray. 1 am a white citizen of 

Calhoun County, Alabama. I am the Probate Judge of Calhoun County. 

1 have been in politics for a number of years. 1 served 
two terms on the Oxford City Council and have been Probate Judge 
since 1975. 

In my judgment the government of Calhoun County could not 

function efficiently without a full-time executive. This is the 
role played now by the Chairman of the Commission. Commissioners 

are part-time officers. They cannot actually oversee and control 

county government operations. This duty falls to the Chairman and 

it is necessary that someone perform this duty. Without someone in 

charge, county government would be made up of five or six separate 

agencies with no one to give it coherent direction. 

1 have served in both city and county government. The 
position of Chairman is analogous to that of the Mayor in city 

government. The city council makes the city's policy, but it is 

the Mayor who is charged with enforcing them. Government on any 

level is ineffective without some executive authority in charge. 

3 Recall 7 5 

a lA LAN ApA 
Arthur C. Wurray / 
  

Sworn to and subscribed before me 

on this the «/ day of July, 1986. 

~ 

oI May 
Z 7JNotary Public 7    



  

. 

STATE OF ALABAMA § 

AFFIDAVIT OF DONALD W. STEWART 
  

CALHOUN COUNTY § 

Before me, the undersigned, a Notary Public in and for 

said County and State, personally appeared before me, DONALD W. 

STEWART, who, being by me first duly sworn, doth depose and say 

as follows: 

My name is Donald W. Stewart and I am a practicing 

attorney in Calhoun County, Alabama. I have been involved in 

the legal profession here in Calhoun County for the past 

twenty-one years. In addition to practicing law, I was elected 

to the Alabama House of Representatives from Calhoun County in 

1970 and to the Senate in 1974. While serving in both Houses, 

I represented all or a major portion of Calhoun County. In 

1978, I was elected to the United States Senate and served there 

for two years. Since returning to the State in 1981, I have 

continued my law practice in Calhoun County and have continued 

to be active in politics and a close observer of county government. 

I have followed the court proceeding presently pending 

in the U. 8. District Court with regard to the change in our form 

of county government with great interest. I have become familiar 

with all the parties and their positions through my conversations 

with members of the county commission, friends of the plaintiffs 

in that proceeding and, other officials, both in county government 

and out of county government. I am also familiar with the plan 

that is being proposed for the form of county government by the 

present Commissioners and their attorneys. In this plan, they 

 



are proposing that the associate commissioners be elected by 

  

district. I believe this is a fair proposition and believe it 

will best serve the Black community because it will assure them 

of at least one representative on the commission. 

Also, I am aware this proposed plan calls for a full 

time chairman of the commission to be elected by all the people 

in the county. I strongly favor this part of the proposal for 

a number of reasons. Calhoun County is one of the larger counties 

in the State and the county government works closely with all 

the municipalities located within the county, and state and local 

officials to provide needed government services such as road 

work and garbage pickup. Also, they work with the same people 

to provide necessary leadership to attract new industry and 

to promote and develop jobs in the county. 

Over the years I have observed the different chairmen 

and I have come to recognize there is a need for continuity in 

that position because county government has become more 

sophisticated and, a full time chairman is needed to provide the 

leadership which is necessary to develop a concensus on the 

commission as to the best method of attacking difficult problems 

that face county government. This task will become even more 

difficult when the effects of cut-backs in federal funds begin 

to impact county government. 

Because of all the things I have mentioned, I believe 

the job of chairman should not be held by a part time associate 

commissioner who serves only one district in the county. If this 

method of selection is used to determine who the chairman will be, 

 



I am afraid he would be unable to adequately work for the best 

  

ct
 

interests of everybody in the county because of his need tc 

address the needs of the people in his district so as to assure 

his reelection. Also, the fact that he would be part time would 

not allow him to give adequate attention to the job. 

I am in favor of a full time chairman because I believe 

it will give the Black community a greater opportunity to 

influence who that individual might be. I have recently observed 

the election of a new county chairman and because the Blacks 

make up a good portion of the vote in Calhoun County, each 

person who was running for chairman on a county-wide basis, 

had to meet with and seek the support of Black citizens through 

their leadership groups. The same process would continue under 

the new plan. If this were the case, the Blacks would be 

assured of one representative on the commission and the chairman 

who led county government would have to seek their support and, 

as a result, communicate with them about their needs, wants and 

For all the reasons contained in this affidavit, I 

wholeheartedly support the plan which is being submitted to the 

court by the attorneys for Calhoun County and encourage anyone 

involved in making the decision to accept it. 

Gn UO. 

DONALD W. STEWART J 
  

Sworn to and subscribed before me 

on this the 30th day of July, 1986. 

  

TARY PUBLIC 

 



  

STATE OF ALABAMA ** 
oc AFFIDAVIT 

CALHOUN COUNTY die 
  

Before me, the undersigned authority in and for the State 

of Alabama, personally appeared RICHARD FORREST DOBBINS who is 

known by me and who is the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Calhoun 

County, Alabama and who, after being duly sworn according to law, 

deposed and stated as follows: 

My name is Richard Forrest Dobbins. I am sixty years of 

age and I am presently serving as the Clerk of the Circuit Court of 

Calhoun County, Alabama. I have been actively involved in the 

public life of this County since December, 1949, when I was 

appointed to serve as Deputy Clerk of the Circuit Court. I was 

subsequently, during the general election of 1964, elected as 

Circuit Clerk for a six year term. Following that, I was elected 

for six year terms in 1970, 1976 and 1982. During this entire 

time, I have been a close observer and an active participant to the 

extent indicated above in the various elections that have taken 

place in this county. I am also fully familiar with the other 

elective offices of Calhoun County including the Calhoun County 

Commissioners. 

I am informed of the proposed re-arrangement so that the 

Calhoun County Commissioners would be elected from specific 

geographically identified districts and would be voted on by 

district. I am also informed that the plaintiffs in certain 

pending litigation are insisting that the Chairman of the Calhoun 

County Commission should be selected by the several district com- 

missioners from the duly elected district commissioners. Based on 

my knowledge and understanding of the county government in this 
- 

county, such a procedure would be a catastrophe. 

In a county of this size, there needs to be a chief execu- 

tive officer of the county who is elected by all of the voters in 

the county. This is necessary because the chairman of the county 

commission must be responsive to the entire citizenry of the 

county. There must be a full-time chairman who is paid an adequate 

salary and he must be available on a full-time basis to coordinate 

the other elected officials of the county and to see that the day 

to day operations of the courthouse are carried on in a proper and 

efficient manner. There are day to day decisions that have to be 

made and there needs to be an elected official in charge at all 

 



  

times. It is my opinion that if a chairman is elected from the 

duly elected district commissioners, his loyalty will still be to 
the people residing in the district he was elected from, but if the 
chairman is elected on an at-large basis, then he will be 

interested in the citizens of the entire county, and he will not be 
subject to any divided loyalty. 

As the current Circuit Clerk, I am one of the named defen- 
dants in the pending federal court litigation. This affidavit, 
however, is made as an interested citizen of Calhoun County and 
without any bias or influence in my thinking arising out of the 
pending litigation. 

Richard Forrest Dobbins 
  

Sworn to and subscribed before 

me on nis EO day of 

July, 1986. 

Dita Liane 

  

  

Notary Public