|
The wonderful thing about a democracy is that all citizens can participate. Whether you're a high-powered lawyer or business mogul, or just a small business owner or blue-collar worker, you have the right to run for elected office and help lead our nation or our county. But holding an elected office is a big job, and, just like any job, it requires not only hard work, but also a level of knowledge and understanding of what that job entails. In order for our democracy to work, it's important that each citizen running for public office takes the time and effort to gain an understanding of the job they are seeking and what it will take to make them successful.
In Columbia County this fall, Wanda Brooks and Tony Currin are both running for positions on the Board of Commissioners against incumbents who have been on the job for at least eight years. During September, Blue Mountain News conducted extensive interviews with all of the candidates, and we've come away from those interviews with the strong opinion that neither Brooks nor Currin has made the necessary effort to gain the knowledge and understanding they need to perform the jobs they are seeking.
We asked both Brooks and Currin if they have attended any meetings of the Columbia County Board of Commissioner in the past year. Brooks said no, and Currin said he had done so only to conduct personal business. The commissioners hold three meetings per month and they're open to the public. It's hard to understand how someone seeking to become a commissioner wouldn't be at least a little curious about what the commissioners do and attend meetings to find out.
Both Brooks and Currin listed the budget and economic development as important issues facing the county. We asked Brooks to give us a specific example of something in the current county budget that she feels ought to be changed. She said that she plans to implement a "zero-based" budgeting process that starts from square one and does not take into consideration any of the revenues or expenses from the current or previous years. We then asked if she had any specific suggestions for changes she'd like to see in the county's 2009 budget. She said: "As stated in the previous answer, I fully intend to implement a zero budget exercise." She went on for several more sentences to explain how zero-based budgeting works.
But our question was about the 2009 budget. Brooks obviously doesn't understand that the County's 2009 budget process is already underway. Even if she's elected, the 2009 budget will have been completed and adopted before she takes office. It'll be her responsibility to implement that budget, but she seems to have no interest in it.
We also asked Currin if there were any specific changes he'd like to see in the 2009 budget. His complete response was: "I would like to go through each of the budgets to see if any beneficial changes can be made."
The budget of Columbia County is a public document and is available for anyone to look at at any time. It appears that neither Brooks nor Currin feels that it might be helpful to go to that effort prior to running for office.
We asked Brooks if she could give a specific example of an economic development project that she would like to work on as Commissioner. "Economic Development is everyone's goal," she said, "but no one has evaluated why efforts have been less than successful." This is kind of an insult to the hundreds of people who have spent many thousands of hours working on economic development efforts in Columbia County – efforts that have mostly been very successful. Does she have any idea what the Dayton Chamber of Commerce or the Port of Columbia or the Dayton Development Task Force have been up to for the last couple of decades? Of course there's always room for improvement, but we think that statement is pretty unfair.
We asked Currin whether he felt the recently adopted zoning changes relating to wind projects were appropriate or not. "A plan needs to be in place before the design is implemented," he said. "[Wind] standards need to be discussed and the concerns of the people need to be heard and taken into account when they are set."
Currin apparently doesn't realize that a plan IS in place, and standards HAVE been discussed and concerns of many, many people HAVE already been heard and taken into account. In the past two years, Columbia County's Comprehensive Plan and zoning ordinances have been thoroughly reviewed and updated to address wind energy development.
We have no doubt that Wanda Brooks and Tony Currin have the best interest of Columbia County at heart as they seek the office of County Commissioner. But, in our view, not attending Commissioners' meetings and not making an effort to understand the County's budgeting process, much less economic development and planning efforts, is not the way to go about it. In our opinion, they should not get your vote.
BMN
Back to Top
A new billboard on Dayton's Main Street seems a bit out of date. With the adoption of the new update to Columbia County's zoning ordinances in August, "turbine-free zones" in the county now include A-2, AR-1 and AR-2. There are also 1½ mile turbine-free zones circling Dayton, Starbuck and Huntsville. And, of course, all areas within those cities are turbine-free zones. The only zone in which wind turbines are allowed in Columbia County is A-1.
The updated zoning ordinances also include a new ¼ mile set-back for wind turbines from the boundaries of wind projects and a set-back of 1½ times the maximum turbine height from all highways and paved county roads. Much time and thought by many public officials and citizens went into establishing these set-backs. No one can say that's not "responsible".
|
