I was amazed when I read an interview with Commissioner Eric Maxwell. The title of the article was “Maxwell says policy of change will continue.”
What amazed me was that if you changed a few words, the article could have been from an interview with Barack Obama.
It was a glowing report about a big push for “change” and self-praise about his so-called accomplishments. And just like Barack Obama, he included distortions by leaving out much of the complete stories. He left out the downside of things he has done. The way the article reads, Mr. Maxwell sees himself as a super hero. Now again, doesn’t that sound even more like Barack Obama?
An Obama in the White House is enough. We sure don’t need Eric Maxwell Obama in Fayette County government with the same kind of stuff.
Now, let’s take a look at Mr. Maxwell’s letter published in the May 12, 2010 edition of The Citizen on page A8.
He starts off by accusing others of distorting the facts about transportation issues. Here again he sounds like Obama. He attacks the former Board of Commissioners just like Obama attacks George W. Bush.
First, he attacks Dunn, Wells and Pfeifer for letting the initial collection of SPLOST funds, as he says, “simply earning interest.”
Now isn’t that a novel idea: simply earning interest rather than spending every penny received as soon as it is received.
The fact is, the actual funds “received” from the SPLOST when Mr. Maxwell took office was only approximately 16 months of collections. The 1 percent SPLOST started April 1, 2005. There is approximately a four-month delay for the state to send the money to the county.
Therefore, the first check would not have been received by Fayette County until September 2005. Mr. Maxwell took office Jan. 1, 2007. The indication here is that Mr. Maxwell thinks you should spend the SPLOST money the moment it arrives on any project available rather than earn interest on funds received until there is enough money to pay for the priority projects.
Mr. Maxwell goes on to talk about him personally meeting with the engineering firm that had been hired to implement the SPLOST dollars. He stated he asked a specific question, “Given that the county would not be able to build both the East Fayetteville Bypass(EFB) and the West Fayetteville Bypass(WFB) as there was not enough money to complete both, which project was most important to Fayette County”?
I would like to point out to Mr. Maxwell that the question he asked had been answered on Oct. 28, 2003 at a meeting of the Association of Fayette County Government (AFCG). AFCG is made up of all the city governments and the county government. At this meeting, after a very lengthy discussion, a resolution was adopted unanimously that the East Fayetteville Bypass was the number one priority for the SPLOST passed in 2004.
The way Mr. Maxwell’s letter reads is that he is the one who made the decision to switch the number one priority from the East to the West Bypass. I really did not know Mr. Maxwell carried that much authority.
If all this is true, it answers a questions I have been asking for close to a year. I have been asking (through the Open Records Act) for documentation showing who made the decision, and when that decision was made to actually switch the West Fayetteville Bypass to the top of the list.
I have ask for meeting minutes, letters, memorandums, work orders or any other documentation reflecting the requested information. I have yet to receive the requested information. So now, according to Mr. Maxwell’s letter, it looks like he is the “guilty” decision maker. Come on now, what is the real truth?
Harold Bost
Fayetteville, Ga.
