We're Talking Candy

County commissioners last week got in something of a lather about candy – it has to be something – and further demonstrated to what extent entitlement rules in the offices at the county courthouse and its annex.

The issue was an invoice in the neighborhood of more than $800 that had been signed off by Commissioner Billy Traylor and was for candy for the annual Wewahitchka and Port St. Joe Christmas parades.

After some pointed debate, Traylor wondered what the big deal could be, after all commissioners were “talking about candy, here.”

Not really.

What commissioners should have been talking about is one of them having the sense of ownership of the public dollars over which they lord. This was taxpayer money, whether Dead Lake Park fees or not, used to provide candy for parades.

This is a spending priority? In a time when one in 10 employable workers in the county is out of a job? When so many are struggling to pay the bills, including an out-sized property tax bill commissioners’ constructed over 10 years of wasteful and often untraceable spending? When so many would trade their circumstances for the salaries and benefits commissioners enjoy?

Mr. Traylor and Commissioner Carmen McLemore should be applauded for being fixtures at the Wewahitchka parade, their fellow commissioners and other elected officials could take a cue.

But in this year, at this time, given this economy, if any commissioner believes candy a priority for a community parade; let them dip into their pockets for the tab, not the public’s.