May 5—ALBANY — As a long-time enthusiast, and former member, of the Dougherty County Commission, Harry James has studied the issues and decisions made by the board over the years.

Starting in around 2005, James started attending meetings and regularly paid his own way to attend conferences until his election for a single term in 2012.

Now the owner of contracting company James Unlimited is mounting a bid to get back into county government. He is one of two challengers, the other being the Rev. Lorenzo Heard, looking to unseat Commission Chairman Chris Cohilas, who is seeking a third term.

"In my running, from dealing and talking with people in the county, you've got a lot of parts that are going on that the current leadership is missing," James said. "They're not connecting the dots."

Explaining why he was running, James said his primary interest is making sure that economic opportunities extend throughout the county, including economically depressed areas.

"I think that my vision includes the whole county and not just certain sections of the county," he said. "You've got to support the whole county.

"You need more economic development in east and south Albany, as well."

While large employers are important, the county also needs small businesses that are a crucial piece of the tax base through the property taxes they, like residents, pay as well as the sales taxes they generate and people they employ, the candidate said.

As for the large employers, James said they are looking to locate in places that have a sufficient number of workers and that those potential employees are educated to meet the employers' needs.

One of the missing pieces, James said, is the lack of collaboration between the various governments and the educational institutions that can educate individuals so they can get jobs and remain in Dougherty County instead of leaving to seek work elsewhere.

"You need a better city-county relationship," he said. "You've got to work with the city. You've got to work with the school board. This is a component that is missing."

The local governments also should work with Albany State University and Albany Technical College to initiate programs to make sure residents are qualified for available jobs, he said.

"My opinion, I'll call it, you've got to stop the bleeding, then you can start the healing," James said.

Another big issue that concerns James is improving pay for county employees. When he took office in 2013, he said, employees had not had a pay raise in eight years, and a consultant hired to study county pay indicated it was about 15 years behind in the amount of compensation paid to workers.