Our recent Board of Commissioners meeting was demoralizing. I fear we are taking three steps backward following the two best back-to-back years of the board in the modern era.
I can assure you that we have discovered there are some significant political differences between the three commissioners holding the reins and the remaining two of us trying to cope with the new leadership.
The audience at the Board of Commissioners meeting realized we were watching a full-court press to bury my resolution designed to ask the state legislature to behave in a logical manner that would not negatively impact the taxpayers concerning transportation funding bills.
If you do not agree with what is written in a resolution, you simply vote in opposition. Easy, right?
However, you have a problem as an elected official when you know your constituents are going to be supportive of the language in the resolution and you cannot give them a good reason why you oppose it. At that point, the best thing to do is attempt to bury it where no one can see it.
The stunt pulled was to call my Powerpoint presentation new supporting material, but it clearly only reviewed the elements of the resolution, the same resolution the other commissioners had in their possession for six days, along with ample background material, 26 pages in all.
Chairman Oddo, Commissioner Barlow and Commissioner Coston claimed they did not have time to read the 11 slides. The excuse was juvenile as the entire Powerpoint consisted of around 13 lines of text, hardly strenuous reading for an elementary school student.
For the record, material is added on the dais the day of commission meetings all the time.
Chairman Charles Oddo said on the video of the meeting that he has to approve my words before they can be sent to the news media. That is egotistical and erroneous (see the video at www.fayettecountyga.gov/administration/BOC/county_commission_meetings.htm).
The county administrator called me and said that Chairman Oddo had ordered staff not to allow me to give my time-sensitive presentation. I called the chairman and he verified that he made that decision even though he has no authority to do so. When I referenced the point at the meeting, both denied making such statements.
An apology is in order, but I will not hold my breath. I am tempted to put this on an agenda and replay the phone calls for the record.
Chairman Oddo’s behavior at the meeting was indignant and totally inappropriate. As the former chairman, I never even remotely treated Mr. Oddo so cruel. Throughout 2013 and 2014, elected officials and citizens had the ability to exercise free speech, totally uninhibited, and there were absolutely no attempts to dominate or censor anyone.
This is the new board order and it is meant to keep things that would benefit the local citizens from happening.
Fayette County is part of Association of County Commissioners of Georgia or ACCG. Commissioner David Barlow has been attending the ACCG legislative sessions. ACCG officially signed off on a version of the HB 170 transportation funding bill early in the session that would have financially crippled our cities as well as our Board of Education.
At the meeting, Commissioner Barlow said at ACCG’s instruction, he kept the issue under wraps. For the record, neither Commissioner Randy Ognio nor I will ever agree to or keep silent about a pending bill in the legislature that causes significant harm to our cities or our schools.
Commissioner Barlow wants to introduce some watered-down language from ACCG to lessen the influence of my resolution. His disrespect for the citizens is a great disappointment.
Steve Brown, commissioner
Fayette Board of Commissioners
Peachtree City, Ga.
