Bitter Sweets

As he assumed the chairmanship of the Board of County Commissioners two weeks ago, Commissioner Carmen McLemore declared he was not going to preside over another year of raising taxes.

As opposed to, say, the years over which he has helped expand property taxes, extend and compound the county’s long-term debt.

But if taken at his word – a dangerous trick with this commission – and there is to be real tax relief this year – and hasn’t that mantra been a familiar one in recent years – commissioners will have to address some fundamental shortcomings.

The purchase of Christmas candy for the two municipal parades last year provides not so much a singular example of attitude and entitlement, but a larger lesson on overriding themes when it comes to these commissioners.

And let there be no mistake, this is on all five commissioners, whether spendthrifts with the public dime or enablers.

Vision

There isn’t any, or at least beyond the next hill or sunset of that day.

A lack of long-term vision is what has gotten the county in its current state, a belief that commissioners apparently gleaned from Wall Street bankers that housing prices would just keep going up and taxing levels could never be too taxing because housing prices would provide a sense of cover.

In the process of raising taxes by more than 150 percent over a five-year span, commissioners essentially locked homeowners into debt that is intractable in this deflated market without significant tax cutting and reductions in spending.

The candy purchase simply underscores the point.

Last time we checked, Christmas tended to fall around the same time each year, Dec. 25. The parades are both held in – shocker – December.

So not being able to foresee prior to Dec. 1 the desire to purchase candy for Christmas parades, and therefore put it to a vote of the full board, indicates either a lack of vision or the cynical calculation that vision, a little foresight in governance, doesn’t matter.

Governance by Whim

Through the years commissioners have twisted like Gumby the concept of local preference in contracts, be it for equipment or construction projects.

And isn’t it somewhat strange that the advertisements that continue to end up in a Bay County newspaper happen to be out of the Building Department and, by chance surely, generally deal with the rules and regulations that have enmeshed the county in a five-year lawsuit – at taxpayer dime – due to lack of enforcement.

And the county was nearly sued on another occasion for the somersaults turned in order to push business to a favored friend under the guise of local preference.

But the purchase of the Christmas candy begs for a grand jury investigation – into the candy shortage in Gulf County.

Apparently, since the candy was purchased in Bay County, Rich’s IGA, the Dixie Dandy, Duren’s Piggly Wiggly, were plum out of candy. At Christmas time no less.

Convene the grand jury – and try to wash off the smell of hypocrisy.

Entitlement

A central reason the county’s budget is in the state it is in goes beyond the county being operated as if comprised of five fiefdoms, lorded over by commissioners who believe their position entitles them to perks and leeway on decisions not enjoyed by any other five people in the county.

The fact that a commissioner would send, apparently on two separate occasions, a county employee on county – public – time to the store to purchase the candy – candy – provides a sense of how commissioners view their status in the county.

An employee on the county dime is there for the whims and desires of commissioners, not the public they swear an oath to serve. County employees are not employees of the county; they are employees of five men with often clashing agendas.

That is a recipe for fiscal irresponsibility. Not to mention the argument that since it was Dead Lakes Park funds, it is alright. All that means is that when upkeep at Dead Lakes Park is needed, taxpayers will pick up the tab.

And while we are at it, when will commissioners, who see office as a right not a privilege, stop the self-congratulations and the handing to each other taxpayer-paid plaques for accomplishment that are a complete mystery to most taxpayers?

Bullying

The year got off to another charming start when commissioners elected a new chairman and re-arranged seats on their slow motion shipwreck.

Mr. McLemore placed Commissioner Bill Williams in an adjacent seat to “keep an eye” on him. The sort of thing a teacher says to a third-grader.

And the mentality that would insist that going outside board procedures – these five vote on $100 expenditures from their re-election slush funds, they wouldn’t have voted on $900 for candy? – is okay.

By cowing dissent, shouting it down and intimidating it, certain commissioners can maintain the status quo.

Was the purchase of candy the most alarming thing to be found in the consent agenda of the board book in the past six months? The past year? Not even close.

But it makes good theater in a commission room that often has the sounds and feel of a mixed martial arts cage match.

The ability to professionally and with purpose debate the present and future of the county seems to escape this board.

On one side of the coin is to play along, on the other is the steel cage. There is no in between.

If Mr. McLemore is to achieve his stated goal of bringing down taxes in the coming months, there are curative measures to take.

Measures that will only be possible when commissioners understand that the purchase of Christmas candy is not so much a sign of an illness as a symptom of a broader malady.