WHAT IF THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS FUNCTIONED LIKE THIS?
IMAGINE THIS:
An 8 person group of County Commissioners, managing over $10 million, functions in this way:
1) Members aren’t elected by the stakeholders. Members choose each other.
2) When members’ terms expire, there is no advertisement for open positions. They vote each other back on instead.
3) Recruitment to the Commission is based on fulfillment of the prevailing ideology, i.e. whether you support the mayor or not.
4) There are Committees but the public does not know who is on them or when they occur. What happens in the meetings is unknown because the Minutes are not open to the public. There are many closed meetings in addition.
5) The Members and their lawyer won’t allow the public to view documents that the public is entitled to by law.
6) Several of the Members have been on the Commission for 10 years or more. They have lost touch with the public that they serve. There are benefits to being on the Commission.
7) The public sees wrongdoing occurring and the Commissioners managed to force out their beloved Mayor.
8) When the taxpayers demand answers, the Commissioners try to divert the attention to being stronger and more financially stable.
9) The taxpayers speak up even louder because they know that a governing body with no oversight and no accountability will become tyrannical and abusive .
Yesterday, I detailed how 2 Board Members were brought on to the Board in violation of the Bylaws. Today, I am going to address one of the several mistruths that was pushed by Ray Maxwell at the September 4th Board Meeting.
Mr. Maxwell chided the group of parents for their lack of involvement until the current uproar! He stated,“Our Board members are selected by an open process that typically occurs in the Spring. We advertise in the Newsletter, on the webpage, and accept applications from anyone interested. This past year, we had 7 applications to fill 3 Board positions. Out of all the people in this room, all the people that are associated with Thomas Jefferson, we had 7 applicants.”
First of all, I reviewed every TJCA Newsletter dating back to early 2015. There was NO advertised recruitment for the Board until May 1, 2018. The May 1st Newsletter indicated that the application for Board Recruitment was due May 4th. That sure does give people a lot of time, doesn’t it! Wow! If he was referring to a webpage advertisement buried on the Board members page, need I explain further?
Second, I wouldn’t exactly call a self-serving Personnel Committee choosing it’s own members,without the regard of the stakeholders, an open process.
Instead of rotating off the Board when their term is up, each and every Member (except the 3 new Board Members and Ray Maxwell) have continued their term ad nauseum. Instead of INVITING OTHERS TO APPLY, they were comfortable with their power. They re-voted each other back on.
This Board has no accountability and is like many politicians in Washington. They will do anything to protect their position.
Stay tuned... It’s already gotten very ugly.