Thoughts On Lee County Board of Commissioners Feb 23 2010 Meeting

First, I want to say thanks to Kevin Hogencamp of the Albany Journal. I’m not sure where in the paper he will place it, but he has told me that he will run my first ever actual newspaper report (rather than column, and complete with byline!) in tomorrow’s Albany Journal. This report concerns a five minute encounter near the end of the meeting between Commission Chairman Ed Duffy and Ralph Jackson – but I’ll get to that (complete with video) in a moment.

Overall, the meeting went fairly smoothly, though it got very bogged down in discussion of the proposed new probation service. Before the meeting, I had a chance to talk to Southwestern Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Rucker Smith, who is the primary agency head responsible for the proposed new service. He appeared to be very open before, during, and after the meeting, and I look forward to examining the issues of this service with him in the near future.

As I said this morning, I prefer private solutions to the probation situation, and Judge Smith and the program administrators repeatedly said that probation management services is a very lucrative business for private businessmen. With that said, I believe the time to turn down this request was several months ago, when this group first came to the Lee County Board of Commissioners asking them to be their fiscal agents for this Federal grant. At that time, the Commissioners agreed, and therefore I see this issue as largely settled. If the Commissioners have reservations about this program, they should remember this situation the next time a complex issue such as this comes before them, and they should take the needed time to thoroughly investigate a matter before voting it up or down. If that means a grant or two is missed or what have you, so be it.

The Board rejected proposed changes to EMT dining policies, meaning that Lee County EMTs can still sit down to eat at restaurants on duty. Commissioner Roland made snide remarks regarding reporting EMTs who were at the ATM, though the vote on this issue was unanimous. My question to Roland here is simple: What if the EMT needs cash for a tip? Do you feel EMTs should stiff the wait staff at the restaurants they eat at?

The Board also approved the horrible logo created by Langstaff Marketing with little comment at this meeting. (Commissioner Roland asked how much money it cost, and was told approximately $4,000.)

The Board rejected the proposal for the Rails to Trails program, despite what I wrote this morning. Once again, because it was something that would benefit the southern end of the County, Roland was the lead Commissioner in rejecting the proposal, though Commissioner Williams (Redbone District) seconded Roland’s motion and Commissioner Muggridge (Century District) was a VERY quick aye vote on the motion to reject. Lee County needs better recreation opportunities, gentlemen, and not just for people who can afford kayaks and canoes. The Rails to Trails program would benefit EVERY Lee County citizen who is mobile at all (even in a wheelchair), and yet you rejected it while approving the canoe/boat ramp project to benefit a very select group of citizens?

One note about Roland here. At every meeting, he makes comments objecting to various measures – yet 95% of the time, he winds up voting to SUPPORT the very measure he spoke AGAINST. Is it really too much to ask of him to be consistent here? If you’re going to speak against a measure, have the balls to vote against it and take whatever political heat comes your way. That really goes for any politician, but Roland is the one I’ve personally seen do this quite frequently.

I’m going to skip the Duffy/Jackson confrontation for a moment so that I can close with it.

At the end of the meeting, the same two gentlemen (I forget their names, sorry) who have been complaining to the Board about their dirt road during every meeting for at least the past three meetings (including tonight’s, and featuring a very long discussion as part of the regular agenda at one meeting) once again stepped forward to discuss their dirt road. I understand their concern, and I’m sure the Commissioners do as well. However, even Roland told them point blank at the last meeting that there simply was no money to pave that road, and that there wouldn’t be any time soon. You’ve made your point gentlemen, and I would have little problem with a yearly reminder or so. But do you seriously need to “strenuously object” at every meeting?

Now, to the most interesting part of the night: the Duffy/Jackson Confrontation

First, I provide the video so you can see for yourself exactly what happened:

Now, some background:

Ralph Jackson has spoken at many of the meetings of the Lee County Board of Commissioners that I’ve been to, most often criticizing the Board for their choice of selections for the Utility Authority. Apparently, they didn’t put one of his friends on and he got pissed. The dude has been a complete jackass every time I’ve seen him speak – and he was a jackass tonight, even though I agreed with the points he was making. Indeed, I’ve made many of the same points here on this site.

However, Duffy was also wrong. I’ve been told that Duffy knew what Jackson was planning to say, and that Duffy had already indicated that he would respond to Jackson tonight. Responding is fine, and even a bit of heat in the response is fine. But both men took it overboard. Duffy’s insistence in finding out who else knew about the actual price of the retreat smacks of government censorship and intimidation – things which are the exact opposite of my own discussions with Duffy so far. Indeed, Duffy has been very open and honest with me any time I have called. That said, I also tend to use a bit nicer approach than Jackson with most of the Commissioners. (And I still try to be mostly civil with Roland when actually discussing things with him.)

Still, Duffy’s arrogance regarding the price of the Callaway retreat was absolutely reprehensible. The only reason I didn’t ask about the price myself, Mr. Duffy, is because I object to the very fact that y’all went out there and the lack of public notice that you intended to. To me, the cost is irrelevant because you shouldn’t have been out there at all. ALL Lee County business should be discussed in a forum where Lee County citizens can reasonably attend. I could have accepted a retreat to Lake Blackshear, which is in the next county away. Not a big deal there, and the Albany governing authorities use it decently frequently. But going more than 100 miles away, with absolutely no media or cameras present? No, I agree with Jackson there – even if you weren’t trying to hide anything, it certainly gave that appearance. The fact that the bulk of your voting session later that month regarded issues discussed at Callaway, away from the citizens of Lee County, only reinforces that image.

I know the Commissioners disagree with me on Callaway being a “taxpayer funded vacation”, and I can see their side to an extent – they’ve never lied to me, so I have no reason to doubt them when they say they were meeting for upwards of 14 hours per day. But that is quite a bit of discussion that the citizens of Lee County were not privy to in any way, and that is absolutely antithetical to the principles of open government, which is one of the things I believe in most strongly.

I object to big government in any form, but if you’re going to force big government on me, I should at least be allowed to know exactly what that big government is doing.