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PTC Council ignores its own EMS report

I made a statement at a recent Fayette County Board of Commissioners meeting and I released that statement to the newspapers. Normally, I like to talk directly to people; a conversation can provide necessary give and take between people, and not conduct business through the newspaper. In this case, I did not do that [and] I'll tell you why.

I am a Peachtree City resident and taxpayer as well as a member of the Board of Commissioners. I live in Peachtree City, my phone number and address are in the phone book and I can also be contacted through the county offices.

I, perhaps foolishly, thought that an issue of this importance would have generated a letter, a phone call or an e-mail to me from any member of the Peachtree City Council.

It did not. No member of the council has ever bothered to make contact with me to explain the reasoning they used to reach the conclusion that a separate tax district was the best way to fix their EMS problems.

The council sent an official letter to the commission asking us to establish this tax district. No explanation was included with it, either.

At the commission's request, we did have staff-to-staff contact to attempt to discuss the issue after their letter arrived.

I suppose I should know better; I had hoped that they might rethink their position. They did not and it showed up on my agenda for the meeting of Jan. 27.

I realize that they are elected to the Peachtree City Council to guide and manage Peachtree City. They surely do not have to contact any specific citizen nor any county commissioner to explain themselves.

But, that's not the way I would do it. Is it how you would do it?

If you wanted someone to support your ideas, wouldn't you contact them to discuss it or explain it or otherwise attempt to convince them?

I'll also guess that you would not come to a commission meeting and sit in the front row and snicker and smirk like a juvenile while the commission members talked this over.

But that's the approach that [Mayor] Steve Brown decided to take.

Peachtree City obtained the services of a consultant and the consultant issued an Emergency Services Delivery Report in January 2004.

It is noted in the report that the council should make "policy decisions." This is true but they should explain why they make certain decisions as opposed to others.

If they think that the separate EMS Tax District is a better solution for Peachtree City taxpayers and citizens, instead of any of the other recommendations in the report, they should say why.

Why would they attempt to railroad through a change like this? Why would they not want to make a public explanation? Is there some reason that they know about that indicates that the report they commissioned was flawed? How was it flawed? What was wrong with it? They haven't said.

What makes this interesting from an observer's standpoint is that Steve Brown is constantly touting "regional cooperation and planning" to address various issues.

However, his actual approach has been to unilaterally make decisions that he expects everyone else to follow! Don't take my word for it; look up his many past statements.

Let's look at the report that you paid for, if you are a Peachtree City taxpayer like me. The recommendations are intended to improve services and control costs, both laudable goals.

For many of the problems that were found or where money is being wasted, the recommendations include exploring "automatic aid" and/or consolidation.

In other areas, where consolidation is not mentioned as a cure, it seems to me that these problems and waste would also be addressed and cured if consolidation were to take place.

The report says that these recommendations are specifically noted as addressing the "EMS tax equity concerns." But, the council appears not to have considered any of these!

Separation regardless of the effect on service to citizens or regardless of the cost to taxpayers seems to be the only solution they considered.

Peter Pfeifer

Fayette County Commission Post 3 Folks here uninsightful?

I saw several citizens of Fayettville on NBC Nightly News express their support for Bush and their pity for those who don't.

I'm one who doesn't support Bush; didn't vote for him either time.

Don't pity me. I see beyond his hypocrisy and see who he is. Pity your citizens' lack of insightfulness.

Gene Haugen

Cottage Grove, Ore. Making a case for changing to district voting

Why are so many of us disgusted with politics and politicians?

An important reason is that we don't know our representatives well enough, and they don't know us either.

And why is it that we don't know our representatives and they don't know us? It can be because we have too many of them, and they have too many constituents.

Thus the recent proposal that we consider having representation by district in Fayette County comes as a breath of fresh air, and here's how it would benefit us.

Right now, if I have a problem with any aspect of county government, I have five county commissioners to contact.

Anyone that I would contact would probably ask himself, Why is this citizen contacting me rather than any of the other four commissioners?

It's a fair question. The citizen wonders which of the five he's supposed to contact, or whether to contact all five.

Meanwhile, each commissioner has an incentive and opportunity to pass the buck, telling himself that my problem is not "his" concern as I am no more his constituent than I am a constituent of the other four commissioners.

One commissioner told me that when he became commissioner he was advised (by the other commissioners) not to engage in e-mail correspondence with the citizens, apparently because he might be overwhelmed.

If commissioners won't respond to e-mail on purpose, that makes them less responsive to the people.

We have about 60,000 voters in Fayette County. That exposes each commissioner to the concerns of 60,000 people.

With district representation, with five districts and one commissioner per district, each commissioner would be directly responsible to 12,000 voters.

Why do so many of us favor smaller classroom sizes in our schools? It's because it makes the teachers more effective, as they know the students better and have more time for each one.

District voting has similar advantages.

At election time, the more candidates we have to consider as voters the more confused we tend to get.

It's certainly more difficult to sort out 15 candidates running for five positions than it is to sort out three running for one position.

The candidates have a similar problem in trying to make themselves personally known to the voters. They have to resort to impersonal and costly ads with a limited message, and oftentimes feel moved to use gimmicks to get name recognition.

What we as voters need is to know our representatives, and to know them personally. They need to know us personally too, and to care about us.

District voting makes it easier for us to know the candidates and to choose our representative wisely, and after the election it helps the representative be more responsive because we know who it is we are supposed to talk to, and the representative knows our vote has more weight, and our individual influence is greater, when we are part of a group of 12,000 voters than when we are part of a group of 60,000.

This debate we're having about district representation in Fayette County is most welcome. As our population grows it is important to reexamine how we can improve the system so it can best serve the people, and I am glad to see someone turn on the heat toward making a positive change.

A change is needed.

Claude Y. Paquin

Fayette County, Ga. Look to Clayton County for district voting results

A person only has to look north and east to Clayton County to see what the result would be for Fayette County if we change from at-large voting for commission seats to district voting.

It is very apparent that people like Rep. Fludd and Sen. Seay who wish to change to district voting do not have the best interests of all Fayette County citizens in mind.

Their desire to change the current at-large voting process is obviously purely racial.

For example, Valencia Seay's statement, "It's the way to go. It was just 10 or 12 years ago that Clayton County made the switch to district voting, and that's how I was able to get elected."

It's the way to go? Why? Just so that a minority can get voted in and form a little fiefdom on the north side of the county? Whatever happened to electing a person into office based on their qualifications and ability to represent ALL Fayette residents?

We don't need people like Fludd and Seay, who don't even represent the majority of Fayette County citizens, to tell us that we need to change.

It is also rather disingenuous for Mr. Fludd to say that the reason for wanting to change to district voting has nothing to do with race. The people of Fayette County are too smart to believe otherwise.

Matthew Washburn

Fayetteville, Ga. Some historical perspective on voting here

As you so accurately point out, the issue of district voting is all about race and all about politics.

The recent letter from Mr. Jones is full of hate about slavery, etc. That rings hollow when it comes from a "poor downtrodden" airline pilot living in a $600,000 house.

His letter is full of half-truths and incorrect information. Does anyone own slaves in Fayette County today? That is a tired old argument. You can always use race when there is no real defense or reasoning.

Mr. Jones is dead wrong about the voting districts in Fayette County dating