There is a gloomy, grumbling public relations campaign conducted by a few in the county, trying to sway public opinion on the district voting lawsuit.
I find it remarkable that the party who initiated an expensive lawsuit continually complains about cost of their actions. The NAACP plaintiffs should actually be protesting the legal fees from their attorneys which are almost double the county’s legal fees, and we are using one of the best law firms in the state.
It is my hope that the federal court will conduct an inquiry into the possibility of fee-gouging by the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
Peachtree City Council member Kim Learnard is now trying to leverage the lawsuit to gain a political advantage on the county government.
In her letter to the editor asking for the abandonment of the lawsuit right before the trial actually begins, Learnard says district voting proved its worth because “… experienced professionals who will serve Fayette citizens to the best of their ability” like Steve Brown were elected in that format.
However, Learnard’s remarks come off as disingenuous when you realize that both she and [county] Commissioner David Barlow did everything in their power to prevent me from being re-elected, thinking district voting would aid their effort.
Learnard’s relationship with Commissioner Barlow, including his disgusting rhetoric against African-Americans and his abusive digs at local Democrats, makes it almost impossible for her to claim any moral high ground related to the district voting lawsuit, so she grumbles about the cost of the litigation.
Many have complained to me that Learnard screeching about another local government’s spending is somewhat paradoxical. I choose not to go there for now.
As I said at our last Board of Commissioners meeting, I am most certain that not a single commissioner is thrilled about spending money on litigation. Conversely, let’s remember that the county did not initiate the lawsuit.
I really wish the plaintiffs had come to me as someone from a mixed race family, former NAACP member, a proven advocate of non-discrimination in our community and a new commissioner (at the time) and opened a dialog before they launched into a divisive and destructive, not to mention expensive, path of litigation.
There is much merit in the county’s defense of this ill-advised lawsuit. As with Council member Learnard’s letter, you will not see the liberal Democrats fighting in the media’s court of public opinion touting the quality of their legal arguments.
As an alternative, they say the county should give up on providing fair, non-gerrymandered representation that adheres to a constitutionally-based and Supreme Court-ratified position that would diminish the politics of racial polarization simply because it is too expensive to do so. Very sad, indeed.
A gentleman came forward at our last Board of Commissioners’ meeting and brought up the salient point that if the thousands of African-Americans in Fayette County who failed to show up at the polls had actually voted, they could have literally decided the outcome of every county-wide election, including the ones with African-American candidates.
But let me say I hope all our citizens of all races are not ignorant to the point where they vote on a candidate’s race rather than the candidate’s character and principles.
Let it be known three commissioners from the former Board of Commissioners offered the NAACP a district voting proposal and it was thrown back into the commissioners’ faces. The show of arrogance from the plaintiffs lead to their losing a previous settlement with the Board of Education.
At one point in the legal process, I made an overture, with the full authority from the Board of Commissioners in writing, asking to meet with the plaintiffs, no attorneys in the room, to see if a resolution could be advanced, and the NAACP plaintiffs flatly rejected the offer to meet.
I developed a solution that citizens on both the district voting side and at-large voting side agree is workable. At the last Board of Commissioners meeting with some of the NAACP plaintiffs present, I made an offer for both sides to come together to examine the proposal in an attempt to resolve the matter before it goes to trial. To date, I have received zero responses from the plaintiffs.
These are the facts that Council member Learnard and the NAACP plaintiffs do not want you to know. The lawsuit persists solely because they behave in an antagonistic manner that causes it to persist.
In all honesty, we have some undesirable characters on both sides of this issue. I am not excusing the hate-filled remarks from Commissioner Barlow; in fact, I publicly condemned them. I am also not defending the regrettable words and actions of certain members of the plaintiffs’ party.
I am hoping that we have enough people, both white and African-American, in the middle who have the insight to know we live in a magnificent county worth protecting. We need to join hands and protect what we have for the next generation and let the fringe haters on both ends just burn themselves out.
Steve Brown, commissioner
Fayette County Board of Commissioners
Peachtree City, Ga.
