SWGA Politics

Lee County Commission Doesn’t Like Public Scrutiny

In an effort to understand better how our county government works, I’ve been attending the County commission meetings for the last 4 months. What I’ve learned is that much of the bad press the commission gets is self inflicted. Case in point is the last commission meeting on Tuesday, May 12th.

Currently the commission has a policy in place at the meetings that 6 people may sign up before the meeting begins and that they may speak for 2 min each at the end of the meeting. The problem with this is that if the commission discusses an item that raises questions and you have not signed up to speak, you have no recourse at the meeting to ask a question. You will have to wait 2 weeks for the next meeting, sign up and ask after they voted on the item.

This week I signed up and asked that at the planning meeting only, that after the commissioners have completed their discussion on an item, they allow questions.

Commissioner Rick Muggridge had a rather rude reply, saying that these public meetings were for the commissioner’s work. To which I replied that I was only trying to be a better informed citizen. He replied that that his phone was always on and that people should call their commissioners instead.

I’m just wondering, after checking the directory on the Lee county web site, how do I get the phone numbers? They are not posted and not one commissioner offered theirs. Why not ask the question at the commissioner meeting, when you have all the people in one place that could answer it, all 5 commissioners, the county administrator, the county clerk and the county lawyer. I always thought the government was supposed to work for the voters, but in this case I guess not.

Lack of all the facts is the cause that the public gets upset with them. The commission broke its promise on more money for Grand Island by allocating $25K from the SPLOST fund for a new roof for the Club House. True statement but call them if you can find the phone number and get their take or is it spin on the matter.

-Mike Sabot