At the Fayette County Board of Commissioners retreat this past month, I was totally amazed that Chairman Frady and Commissioner Robert Horgan are still fighting to start phase three the West Fayetteville Bypass. They want to waste every dime remaining of our tax dollars on the road no one wants and the road they can’t justify.
Then, there’s Commissioner Lee Hearn. With the upcoming election close by, Commissioner Hearn is getting a little wishy-washy on phase three of the road to nowhere. He’s now changed his mind and has decided to switch over from already building phase one and two west Fayetteville Bypass, to focus on the East Fayetteville Bypass.
He admitted at the retreat that the East Fayetteville Bypass will move a lot more traffic than phase three of the West Fayetteville Bypass. Truth be told, the East Fayetteville Bypass would have moved more traffic than phase one and phase two of the West Fayetteville Bypass as well.
Month after month I’ve attended commission meetings and have witnessed how Commissioner Hearn has never been able to defend the construction of the road that no one wanted, but remained solid on task of construction.
Later we learned his relatives own a large piece land near the West Fayetteville Bypass. This is when I started to consider challenging Commissioner Hearn in the upcoming July 31 election.
Commissioner Hearn is a former Fayette County government employee and he currently works for the city of McDonough in Henry County. He knows the rules and how the game is supposed to be played.
Yet, Commissioner Hearn routinely condoned no-bid contracts for products and services purchased by Fayette County. There is no excuse for this.
Commissioner Hearn also gave his consent to the Board of Commissioners for voting on things at meetings which never appeared on an agenda. The laws of Georgia mandate that a formal public notice has to be given regarding what is on the meeting agenda. They would even go so far as approving the meeting agenda at the start of each meeting and not add the hidden item that would quickly be introduced at the end of the meeting and voted on.
Why would votes be done at a meeting without public notice? It’s not right to hide information from voters, it’s against the law. Commissioner Hearn knows better.
Unfortunately, Commissioner Brown and Commissioner McCarty are outvoted many times by the other three who pay more attention to the special interest people than their constituents. If you cast a vote for me on July 31, the special interest people will have lost their majority.
Commissioner Hearn has forgotten who put him in office. If you give me the opportunity, I won’t forget the reason you put me in the office.
Thank you and I hope I can count on your support on July 31.
Randy C. Ognio
Candidate for commissioner Post3
