After showing a strong backbone in the called meeting, last week, the Legislative Body of Giles put back into the budget the more than $66,000 cut because of the lavish personal benefits being given Mr Speer.
Today after a powerful speech by Commissioner Pollard against funding the entire $66,000 and intense questioning by Commissioner Howell the vote was taken and with two commissioners absent everyone but Commissioner Howell voted to give the full amount to the Industrial development Board.
There was an unusual amount of threats about lost grants and businesses if the money was not restored and the entire budget funded. The interesting thing that came out today is that no Commissioner admitted having actually seen the budget Mr Speer made. It is my understanding that a budget must be presented and approved by the Legislative Body, today the Legislative Body was basically ordered to fund Mr Speer's bloated budget. Now the question is if he had asked for $80,000 in his phantom budget according to those who spoke for it, it had to be approved..... what utter nonsense. If a reasonable budget had been presented that called for $40,000 it could have been fully funded and not actually considered a cut that would jeopardize any grants, but then the Country Club might have been cut out and that is important, as one speaker stated the Country Club is in financial trouble and needs to be supported. Well, let the members deal with that problem without tax money. Later that same speaker stated that they hadn't even used the Country Club for years..... well then, if it isn't used why did they pay over a thousand dollars last year for a membership with tax money while many of those taxpayers are struggling to pay those taxes and electric bills? Yes, many promises were made to take a “closer look” at that budget “next year” but the truth of the matter is it could have been changed today in less than an hour. My concern is that this is as empty a promise, as those past promises, to provide copies of their budget to the Legislative Body.
We also found out that the $1,000.00 given to the “Songwrites Night” and credited to Mr Speer personally was a mistake on Martin Methodist College part, but if that is true, why did Mr Speer sit in the special section for those who donated a thousand dollars and said nothing when he was given special recognition as a donor? No, I fear, based on past broken promises, all the right promises were made but they are as empty as a bucket with no bottom and no sides, only a handle.
I fully support every effort to get jobs here, to build the infrastructure that would bring those jobs, but a membership in a Country Club that no one supposedly uses; excessive amounts for health insurance for someone who isn’t even an employee of the county, city or PES, where the majority of the funding comes from; having HD TV and more phones than employees, (does anyone other than Mr Speer have a cellphone that cost over $150.00 a month?) ; and feeding some wealthy members each month. Today it was stated that the meals only cost about six or seven dollars, well even that is more than many can spend on meals over three days. The problem is if the meals are only six or seven dollars each why are they paying $170.00 a month for those meals, which if $7.00 each would feed over twenty –four people, more than double the number on the Board. Now, one other thing about the meals, Mrs Vanzant no longer eats free there and I certainly commend her for that decision.
