I showed up at the virtually unannounced Douglas County board of Commissioners meeting at 10 AM Wednesday (31 May), with a friend of mine, James bell. We were both prepared to give our opinions on the railroading of this SPLOST, and this meeting was specifically set up for the commission to vote a resolution to extend the existing SPLOST. There were only about five non-government citizens. imagine that, as well as it was publicized. When James got up to speak, they told him he was not allowed to speak. It's your government, but don't actually try to take part in the meetings. Actually they threatened to have him removed if he spoke, that is, after the county attorney (you know the guy on the stand that is not supposed to actually take part in the discussions) ruled him out of order. I'm sitting back watching this and thinking "where did we lose control of our government, and what are we gonna have to do to get it back.
This vote was to extend the existing one cent sales tax for another six years, to buy a new jail bigger than any county twice our size in the state, as far as I understand. They want about $87 million to build a new jail, when they are well below capacity in the one they have. They have no studies which would justify a new jail, and they've not been forthcoming with any info on the plans. I don't really know what's goiing on, but something other than what they're saying seems to be happening, and they ain't tellin'. Could be kickbacks to some powerful people in the county, like the county attorney, developers, contractors, or even commissioners. They've already proven they can't keep track of that much money– $147 million total in this SPLOST. We'll keep watching this to see what happening, but I can tell you a lot of people are really ticked off about the way the commission is acting on this SPLOST, and especially about them basically closing the meetings to any public input.
Mike
