Freedom of Speech, Rest in Peace!

What does it take to simply get fair and equal treatment from the County Executive and those who blindly follow after her. Apparently you must be among the select and not ask any difficult questions.
Today in the Budget Committee Meeting a remarkable lesson in obfuscation was displayed for those present. Not only were many false and misleading statements made in support of adopting a tax rate of $2.77 no one from the audience was allowed to challenge those statements or present documents disputing those statements. Even though I held my hand up to speak several minutes and a commissioner continued to direct the chairperson to recognize me to speak I was ignored.

Now following the Budget Committee Meeting the chairman announced a five minute recess, over the objection of some commissioners, with instructions that the Public Hearing on the budget would begin at the end of that recess.

As soon as the Public Hearing was called to order by the Budget Committee Chairman, the question was asked if there was anyone to speak and as I raised my hand, an immediate motion to adjourn was made. I stated that I had applied to speak and was told I didn't get the request in on time. The requirement was to request to speak five days prior to the meeting but no specifics as to what the request must include was published. I stated that each time I tried to find information about the request there was no one in the office that could tell me.

The ad that was required to be posted only stated that a written request was to be turned in five days prior to the meeting. No specifics were stated as to what the request was to include. That's why I tried to contact the County Executive to make sure my request was correct. The newspaper came out on Tuesday night but wasn't delivered until Wednesday afternoon thus the latest a request could have been made was Thursday. One and a half days notice is not reasonable. Without any other requests to speak why couldn't three minutes be given for rebuttal of the things that had been stated earlier, the answer is the very fact that a rebuttal was to be offered.
I have now submitted a written request to address the full commission on the 27th
of July. It will be interesting to see what procedures will be tried to prevent me speaking on that day.

The Budget and Public Meeting held today will be posted on the website http://pulaskionline.blogspot.com/

A Great New Website To Visit

If you are one of the many who want to know what's happening in the county but don't have access to the PES cable channel or unsatisfied with their irregular coverage there is great news for you. Now not only are county meetings being filmed and broadcast but also such things as the replacing of the Eagle on the Courthouse can be found at

http://pulaskionline.blogspot.com/

Make this site a regular part of your day. Watch for yourself what is happening in our county instead of having to rely of faulty word of mouth. See and hear for yourself.

Is It Time To Either Combine The EDC And The IDB Or Get A Less Extravagant Director?

More and more it is being revealed that the expense of both an Economic Development Commission and an Industrial Development Board is just too great. One suggested solution is to combine the two into one and cut the amount of money going into it.

A second suggestion is that the current director should be replaced with a less extravagant Director who works with a much smaller salary and given a bonus based on what jobs are brought into the county.

One thing I do know is that there's a need for a thorough discussion of the responsibilities, accomplishments and expenses for the EDC/IDB.

Here are some expenses from July 2010 through June 2011.

$9986.46 for Dan Speer Insurance.

On 5/23/2011 there were nine different charges for food totaling $303.76 along with two charges for a Holiday Inn at $1210.21.

Three checks totaling $36,494.07 for interest on building. No payments were listed toward the principle.

$2,133.00 was spent on meals and entertainment to Hillside Hospital

$1,032.00 was spent on dues for Hillcrest Country Club

While I understand that it takes money to get business moving into the county I certainly fail to understand the amount of taxpayer money being used for such high living in relation to the amount of gain being made by the county. Presently there is more than 310,348 square feet of empty manufacturing space in the county under the control of the EDC.

The county gave $66,650.00 to the EDC for Fiscal Year 2010-2011.

It is past time for something to change.

Who Makes $112.50 An Hour In Giles County?????

I'm sure that there aren't many in the County making $112.50 an hour but that's what Commissioners made this morning for their thirty-two minute Legislative Meeting. Now to be fair they certainly don't make that much on a regular schedule and some donate their salary as commissioners and others were not pleased with the fact the meeting this morning was held with another called meeting coming so close, 27 July at 9AM.

By all accounts there was nothing done this morning that could not have been easily put off until the called meeting on the 27th. At the very least the meeting this morning, instead of being adjourned, could have been recessed until the 27th, either way the expense of two full Legislative Meetings could have been avoided and nearly two thousand dollars saved or better used.

Some might be surprised that both Commissioners Holt and Campbell along with several other commissioners were in agreement with the idea of combing the two meetings and saving a sack of money. Commissioner Campbell even commented that he had "approached the powers that be with the very idea and was told a flat NO". While he didn't identify the "powers that be" it's very obvious that the person who has the power to set and change the meeting is the person who is the chairman Mrs Vanzant.

Since the shenanigans that were pulled to manipulate the tax rate seem to have worked and all the cuts to the budget are about to be restored, apparently there was no need to try and save money by combining these two meetings.
Oh, for those who will say there was no manipulation of the tax rate I would simply challenge them to do the math, these numbers are rounded off to the nearest thousand, if the new rate will bring in $52,000.00 per penny then seven pennies will bring in an extra $364,000 dollars just the amount of the previous cuts. My, my isn't that just amazing?
A public hearing will be held after the Budget Committee meeting this Thursday starting at 9AM in the Courthouse Annex.