More than half of the time during a relatively brief Fayette County Board of Commissioners meeting last week was taken up by more comments regarding the district voting issue.
The regular meeting was moved to Tuesday at 2 p.m. because of scheduling conflicts and only one item of new business was on the agenda aside from a proclamation. That was the extension of an existing agreement on the use of the county’s wireless tower, which was approved 4-1 with Commissioner Steve Brown voting against. Brown said he only wanted to see the agreement, which has been in place for many years, bid out to see if there were any better financial arrangements available in the marketplace.
The public comment portion of the meeting saw 15 speakers come to the podium with every one of them discussing district voting.
Donald Fowler started it off by holding a small American flag, which he said some in the county don’t seem to recognize anymore. Citing his service in 1962 while stationed in Key West where he “helped fight off a bully just a few miles away,” he said the NAACP is bullying the citizens of Fayette County now and he asked the commissioners not to give up without a fight.
Some of the speakers wanting the county to settle the lawsuit noted the cost and said it would be fiscally responsible to stop now. But with the trial set to start in mid-November, several speakers said the opposite – that it would be a huge waste of taxpayer money to quit at this point without seeing it through.
Ginga Smithfield said the board should not settle the lawsuit before having its day in court. She shared this statement from Judge Batten’s ruling: “The court agrees with county defendants that, contrary to many plaintiffs, these plaintiffs have not proffered evidence relating specifically to discrimination in Fayette County.”
She said there are many reasons why the lawsuit should not be settled before the trial, “but for the life of me, I can’t see that there is any better reason than Judge Batten’s own words.”
Derrick Jackson said he respects everyone’s patriotism and service but encourages the board to do what it says. “In other words, if you say you’re going to be fiscally responsible, be fiscally responsible.”
He said this is not about bullying or one side vs. another side, but just doing the right thing for all and moving Fayette County forward for all.
Terry Williamson cited the two recent elections under district voting that he said resulted in candidates overwhelmingly elected and not just by Democrats.
Linda Conley said she is in favor of at-large voting because district voting disenfranchises four-fifths of the county. “I expect to have a say in what goes on in my county in every election and if I can’t have a say, I can and I eventually will move,” she said.
Angela Bean, who lost in the recent election to Commissioner Charles Rousseau, said she was not sure why Fayette would want to emulate other counties, as Fayette has open government and public comment opportunities unlike most other counties, many of which are beset with corruption.
Bean said that at the beginning of her campaign local Democratic Party leader Leonard Presberg told her the majority of residents were in favor of district voting and settling the lawsuit. “I wondered where he got his data,” she noted. “As I campaigned I discovered that thousands of people were unaware of the issue.”
She said not a single person told her that they were in favor of dropping the lawsuit and going to district voting and that many people, including blacks, moved here from DeKalb and Fulton and other places because of what Fayette has.
“There are thousands of citizens who support the board having its day of court, hearing both sides of the argument and letting a judge decide,” she concluded. “It would waste hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money to drop the suit now.”
Former commissioner Harold Bost, who is still a county resident but also owns a vacation home in Florida, said that area is a great example of why district voting is a bad idea. A few of the commissioners there have gotten together and done things that were not good for the county as a whole, he said, and they have benefited from a county budget that has grown 152 percent.
People in Fayette County give up 80 percent of their voting rights when they can only vote for one instead of five, said Bost, who called District 5 “one of the darndest jobs of gerrymandering I’ve seen in my life.”
Rick Halbert said the ongoing litigation is getting to be an embarrassment for the county. “It’s not a patriotic thing or a black-white thing but a lawsuit thing and it needs to be settled,” he said. If it goes to court it will be a black eye for the county and too many good things are going on for that.”
Jane Trammell criticized the NAACP, which she said has turned into an organization that does not allow conservatives to be involved or treat them with respect. It is no longer an organization that works for all black people but instead it works for the Democratic Party, she added, and she resents the county having to defend itself like in this lawsuit.
Varner Holmes said the last election might have been fair if the district weren’t gerrymandered, and that she got phone calls telling her to vote but then found out her neighborhood couldn’t vote. She said the end is too close for the lawsuit not to play out, and once it is done she hopes the county can fight the gerrymandering and get a fair district.
Bonnie Williamson called the gerrymandering issue “just an excuse” and said district voting is about everyone having the change to get the representative they want. “We need to stop throwing away money” on the lawsuit, she said.
Before the commissioners began their comments, Chairman Charles Oddo reminded them to be careful in addressing pending litigation.
Brown began by saying he would continue to say what he thinks is right. He said what happened at a recent Board of Elections meeting was “disgraceful” and “the new definition of racism in Fayette County,” referring to an incident where a campaign worker carrying an American flag was accused of carrying a Confederate flag when there was video evidence to the contrary.
“I hope we don’t go to Al Sharptonism in this county because it looks like that’s where we are going,” said Brown. “The new definition of racism is ‘if you don’t agree with me, you are a racist.’ It’s shameful.”
Brown then read a prepared statement, most of which was included in his letter to the editor that appeared in the Oct. 7 edition of the Citizen. He reiterated his belief that Oddo has been having discussions with the lawsuit plaintiffs about a possible settlement without the consent of the commissioners.
He concluded by saying, “If there is a settlement plan out there, I’d like to see it because I haven’t.”
Commissioner Randy Ognio said he didn’t know of any details or “back room deals” regarding a settlement but he feels the county can’t keep going the way it is if everyone is dividing and not uniting. Rousseau also stressed the need for citizens and leaders to be “healers and not dividers,” saying he had received many emails about the district voting issue but would not comment directly or specifically “because we are still in discussion about what to do.”
Commissioner David Barlow recalled a candidate forum from a few years ago during his own campaign when the participants were asked where they stood on the issue. He repeated what he said then, which was the words of Jesus Christ commanding people to love God and each other.
“Until we learn to love each other, district or at-large voting won’t solve anything,” he said.
Oddo, who still has not commented directly on Brown’s allegations, continued to speak carefully in light of the pending litigation.
“This is a difficult subject for everybody in this room,” he said. “I have the deepest respect for the citizens of this county, for the rules of this organization and for my colleagues. At no time have I or will I ever do anything unethical or out of bounds. I’m not perfect but I’m working for the betterment of this county. I ask that we all have tolerance and understanding as we try to get to an end that will unify this county.”
