SWGA Politics

First, let me be upfront and say that this was the first Lee County Commission meeting I missed in the two months I’ve been attending them. I’ll be back for the next meeting on the 27th, but yesterday was my anniversary, and I spent the evening with my amazing wife. Yes, even to this political junkie, some things are more important than politics. So I’m basing this post on the Agenda Packet for the meeting and Carlton Fletcher’s reporting of it in today’s Herald.

First, I want to discuss the equipment proposals submitted by Public Works Director William Clark. These start on page 17 of the Agenda Packet, but in particular I want to call attention to the bids for the track excavator, front end loader, and motorgrader. In each of these cases, the bid selected for approval was not the cheapest bid submitted – or even the cheapest bid submitted that met the specs. The tabulation sheets were filled out differently for each piece of equipment, but if I read them correctly there were four bids that met specs for the track excavator and two each for the front end loader and the motorgrader. The bid selected for the track excavator was from Yancey Brothers of Albany and was the most expensive bid, with the highest “upfront residual” – which per a call I’ve already made to Lee County Public Works essentially means “down payment”. Because the quote requires more up front, the amount of lease – and the corresponding monthly payments – were obviously lower. But in the end, the citizens of Lee County are still expected to pay for the quote that was the HIGHEST available in direct contradiction to the entire purpose of competitive bidding, which is to get the LOWEST available quote. This process was repeated exactly with both the front end loader and the motorgrader, although with the motorgrader it was Flint Equipment of Albany that came in with the highest bid and was still selected for approval.

I have already sent an email to Director Clark, along with County Administrator Alan Ours and Commissioner Rick Muggridge hoping to find some explanation for this, and I genuinely hope there was some solid reason for asking the citizens of Lee County to pay more than was necessary for this equipment.

Moving on to the proposed boat ramp, I see that Commission Chairman Ed Duffy and I are in agreement on the issue, though for completely different reasons. Chairman Duffy wants to make sure people living along the Kinchafoonee are notified of the plans before they are approved, which is one thing I completely agree with. He is also concerned with potential crime as well as traffic and how property values in the area may fluctuate – a concern shared by one citizen that showed up at the public forum. Honestly, I’m not sure about property values. I tend to agree with Commissioner Muggridge that property values will increase, not decrease, but honestly that is not an area of my expertise, and I’m open to discussion on how the values would drop.

There were three people who spoke in support of the boat ramp, and one of them was Leesburg City Councilwoman Judy Powell, making a rare appearance at a County Commission meeting – at least in my experience in attending those meetings. (Yes, I know, highly ironic that the ONE meeting I miss, a City Councilperson actually shows up to.) Of the three in agreement, I want to mention a couple of things about two of them in particular:

Ms. Powell spoke of how such a ramp would increase creek accessibility and introduce citizens to water activities – yet there is a second site that would also work for this ramp, and would benefit the City of Leesburg as well by allowing this economic develoment that Commissioner Muggridge insists would follow this ramp to be in or near the City. Apparently, she didn’t discuss that – which is something I would have, had I been able to be there. (Briefly, the other point that I was going to make had I had the chance was that with the proposed design – seen on Page 10 of the Agenda Packet – volunteers could be used to build the majority of the park area, and materials could be donated ala a Kaboom! or Habitat for Humanity-type build. Even I would leave the road/ramp construction itself to the professionals, but one would think that using volunteer labor and donated materials would save the taxpayers a tremendous amount of money.)

The other supporter said some of perhaps the saddest words in this debate: “I think it’s a great idea, especially since we don’t have to pay for it” (emphasis mine). Make no mistake, we WILL pay for this ramp if it is built. We will either do it directly via local taxes or directly via State or Federal taxes. One primary way to reduce State and particularly Federal budgets is for local projects to be paid for by the local people via their local governments, and this is one situation where nothing will change until someone finally steps forward as the bigger person in the fight and accepts responsibility for their own local projects. Just as there is no reason for the citizens of Lee County to pay for a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 residents, there is no reason for the residents of that island in Alaska to pay for a boat ramp in Lee County, Ga.

No, if this ramp is to be built, it needs to be with local funds and with as much volunteer work and donated materials as possible. Jimmy Carter did a GREAT thing with Habitat when he required “sweat equity” of anyone who gets a Habitat home, and the same should apply here, less than 30 miles from his hometown. If the community truly wants this ramp, much as the Habitat homeowners truly want their new houses, they will pitch in and volunteer their time and money. If they don’t truly want this ramp, would they ever truly use it to begin with?

Or is this the case, as some suspect, of some people wanting the entire County to foot the bill for their own recreational pursuits?