At the March 1 commissioner’s meeting in this continuing soap opera that we call Jackson County government, I was personally attacked and challenged to “report back on which project” I’d “like to see done away with.” In as much as I am not accountable to the county manager; fortunately in our system of government he (and all office holders) are accountable to me; I still wonder what fiscally irresponsible person or persons, in these financially troubled times would go wild like spring breakers on the citizen’s credit card and push the county’s indebtedness to within two percent of the maximum allowed by state statutes?
I’ve talked with Dottie Brunette, our county librarian, and she knows that I support a new and expanded library for our county. What I don’t support is the overspending by millions of dollars on the library and the cost over-runs because no one in county government is willing to hold the builders accountable to their original agreement.
County Manager Kenneth Westmoreland overlooked several very important items in his response to me. What about:
Hiring county employees when there was a stated hiring freeze. Why even bother to say you are going to “freeze” hiring and then turn right around and hire people. That’s duplicitous and probably illegal.
Or:
The “fat cat” upper-most county employee salary raises seemingly timed for when county tax revenues are shrinking; then adding insult to injury, justifying these exorbitant raises by paying an outside consulting firm $25,000.00 to gather and collate information that is already paid for with your and my money and available from Raleigh.
Or:
The sheriff’s drug money scandal which, by the way, was and is public money and was not “given as a gift” by the federal government as the manager stated. N.C. G.S. 159-25 requires two signatures on all checks written on public monies. This wasn’t done for how many years? The county finance officer, county manager, and chairman of the county commissioners are all culpable and accountable to this law. They ignored it until a local media outlet brought it to the attention of the state treasurer and the local government commission. Attorney General Roy Cooper should be very interested in prosecuting all guilty parties.
The four year county property tax assessment cycle started in 2002, not 1998 as the manager claimed. His claim that homeowners would be in for “sticker shock” is not genuine and therefore fallacious. Those assessments are no loner realistic or valid. They are being used a weapon against the citizens of Jackson County to enlarge county government and attempt to increase direct control over all of our lives. Ultimately, the only way that the county can get that money from us is by threat of force.
Our county’s finances are not a shell game, although the manager seems to treat them like he treated Spartanburg county and Greer’s finances when he was ‘working’ for the citizens there. They are mine and every other citizen’s money. Any county office holder who is not willing to accept this fact and to fulfill the standards of accountable, open, and honest government to we the citizens can email me their resignation immediately
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
See What Attracted Me!
Giant bulldozers cut across contour lines;
Up and down hillsides, slicing through the forest mat;
Grinding and crushing the bones of the mountains.
“See what attracted me!”
Cutting back hillsides, leveling out home sites;
Raw red earth spilling into streams;
Lifeblood of the land spurts away.
“See what attracted me!”
The sound of hammers echo off the mountainsides;
Power saws rip down trees for ‘million dollar’ views;
Construction trash and empty liquor bottles despoil the land.
“See what attracted me!”
Trout streams buried in plastic pipes;
Non-native grasses kept artificially alive;
Fertilizer run-off of golf courses poisons the drinking water.
“See what attracted me!”
The landslides slip and slide
Way down the mountain sides,
Just like groupie panties in the locker room.
“See what attracted me!”
Later, when all is destroyed
Having created this artificial ‘paradise;’
Only then do the people cry and scream:
“See what attracted me!”
February 22, 2010
Up and down hillsides, slicing through the forest mat;
Grinding and crushing the bones of the mountains.
“See what attracted me!”
Cutting back hillsides, leveling out home sites;
Raw red earth spilling into streams;
Lifeblood of the land spurts away.
“See what attracted me!”
The sound of hammers echo off the mountainsides;
Power saws rip down trees for ‘million dollar’ views;
Construction trash and empty liquor bottles despoil the land.
“See what attracted me!”
Trout streams buried in plastic pipes;
Non-native grasses kept artificially alive;
Fertilizer run-off of golf courses poisons the drinking water.
“See what attracted me!”
The landslides slip and slide
Way down the mountain sides,
Just like groupie panties in the locker room.
“See what attracted me!”
Later, when all is destroyed
Having created this artificial ‘paradise;’
Only then do the people cry and scream:
“See what attracted me!”
February 22, 2010
The People Laugh
Wow, hasn’t this last year been a wild ride? Jackson County has had more sewage spills polluting the Tuckaseigee River engineered by TWSA’s incompetence and ineptitude; our county commissioners have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Jackson Paper despite them attempting to abscond to Georgia; the pay raise scandal of the uppermost county employee “fat-cats” has angered thousands; and the never-ending EDC/JDC debacle continues to fester as the attorney general’s interest grows.
Recently, the Smoky Mountain News hung the “Albatross Award” around the county commissioner’s necks for not having satisfactorily resolved quite a few important issues. Commissioners, you’ve had four years to remove a lot of these “albatrosses.” Why haven’t you done so? Is it because that you believe that the citizens of Jackson County will just forget about these issues? Or, do you only care about power and control and your eventual re-election that the good old boy patronage system almost guarantees?
Recently, questions have been raised about contradictions between what Gabler-Mollis has said, what you Mr. Chairman (and at least one other commissioner) have said, what the county manager and the county finance director are saying; and, what JAG has learned. Somebody is lying. The time to come clean about the down and dirty double dealings regarding the Jackson County Economic Commission and the Jackson Development Corporation is before Roy Cooper starts subpoenaing people. Hurry now, special immunity deals with the North Carolina Attorney General ending soon!
Carl Sandburg wrote about the people laughing at “lying politicians, lying labor skates, lying racketeers of business, lying newspapers, lying ads.” The people laugh “until a day when the laughter changes key and tone and has something it didn’t have.” The laughter of the people “foretokening of revolt carries fear to those who wonder how far it will go and where to block it.”
Commissioners, the laughter of the people changed tone long ago. The lack of honest, open government in Jackson County is appalling. Those are our seats you’re sitting in. Resolve these issues before the May primary or else don’t bother us with another sad joke on election day in November.
Recently, the Smoky Mountain News hung the “Albatross Award” around the county commissioner’s necks for not having satisfactorily resolved quite a few important issues. Commissioners, you’ve had four years to remove a lot of these “albatrosses.” Why haven’t you done so? Is it because that you believe that the citizens of Jackson County will just forget about these issues? Or, do you only care about power and control and your eventual re-election that the good old boy patronage system almost guarantees?
Recently, questions have been raised about contradictions between what Gabler-Mollis has said, what you Mr. Chairman (and at least one other commissioner) have said, what the county manager and the county finance director are saying; and, what JAG has learned. Somebody is lying. The time to come clean about the down and dirty double dealings regarding the Jackson County Economic Commission and the Jackson Development Corporation is before Roy Cooper starts subpoenaing people. Hurry now, special immunity deals with the North Carolina Attorney General ending soon!
Carl Sandburg wrote about the people laughing at “lying politicians, lying labor skates, lying racketeers of business, lying newspapers, lying ads.” The people laugh “until a day when the laughter changes key and tone and has something it didn’t have.” The laughter of the people “foretokening of revolt carries fear to those who wonder how far it will go and where to block it.”
Commissioners, the laughter of the people changed tone long ago. The lack of honest, open government in Jackson County is appalling. Those are our seats you’re sitting in. Resolve these issues before the May primary or else don’t bother us with another sad joke on election day in November.
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