OneMann's blog

At the end of Monday night's meeting of the Clay County Charter Review Commission, Chairman Ann Wiggins told the other Commission members that they need to eliminate the superfluous conversations.

She's right, of course. Discussions about possibly changing the country's Home Rule Charter are usually derailed as one CRC member or another wanders off course with what the chairman politely called superfluous. She could have said useless, counter-productive, time-wasting or inappropriate.

For instance, this week's meeting was the longest yet, in part because of one CRC member's lengthy, theatrically-presented and totally unnecessary story of personal loss.

The freakin' world stopped for 13 minutes, 32 seconds yesterday.

I know it was 13 minutes, 32 seconds because of the incredible overkill of analysis that filled news programs following Tiger's statement.

The "news" timed the statement and counted Tiger's words.  Hired body language experts to tell me he didn't furrow his eyebrows at the proper time.  Guessed how many more days he'd be in therapy.  Debated if the loss of one of the television cameras midway through the statement affected Tiger's ability to appear sincere.  Questioned if it was an adequate step toward reconciling his marriage, resurrecting his golf career and re-establishing himself as a world-wide marketing image.

A local newscast began its broadcast with a teaser about a team of reporters covering different angles, like the reaction of women, of golfers and of guys at a sports bar.  When did people's reactions become news?

Hours and hours of coverage on every major American network and most local stations wasn't enough.  People stopped what they were doing and watched all over the world, because it was run live via satellite.

Why did the world stop?  To watch a man talk about getting caught screwing around on his wife, as if that is any of our business, much less news.

Kudos to the Clay County Charter Review Commission for its first substantive steps in its mission to examine the county's basic governing document, as it tackled a fairly controversial subject Thursday night - citizens' right to change their own government.

For the first time, the smaller (only 10 of its 15 members bothered to show up for the meeting) CRC debated a real Charter question, listened to citizens respond and then made a decision.

So, what'd they decide? Well, again, the CRC decided to do nothing. And, again, that was the right decision to make.

Of all the local Constitutional Officers asked for their opinions about the Home Rule Charter, only Supervisor of Elections Chris Chambless had suggestions to improve it. The suggestions were, as he said, drawn from other county charters, ministerial in nature and meant to clarify the citizen initiative process, where citizens can propose Charter Amendments for voters to decide.

Clay County's Charter Review Commission will meet again on the 18th, and it's time for folks to start paying attention.

After months of meetings in which the Charter Review Commission did little more than offer a comic example of local government in its worst stereotype, the CRC will finally do what it's supposed to do - review the Home Rule Charter to see if it should be changed. And anytime someone starts talking about changing the county's governing document, folks should keep an eye on them.

The upcoming Thursday night meeting, assuming the CRC actually does what's planned and doesn't resort to the time-wasting dysfunctional behavior of the previous meetings, will feature a couple of things that should interest Clay County citizens.

Kudos to the Clay County Charter Review Commission for its constant and vigilant effort to make its examination of the county's governing document as open, accessible and welcoming to public input as possible.

The problem is the CRC hasn't given even the slightest indication that it's going to do anything that warrants the public's attention, much less input and participation. After four full meetings, the most important decision that's been made is to not ask for a county employee to staff the telephone during CRC meetings so citizens could call to make a comment instead of attending the meeting.

Budget talks are ongoing at the Board of County Commissioners. Times are tough and may get tougher, so the BCC should start thinking about ways to cut. Here's one.

We've all got this ideal image of the fire department. We're standing on the front lawn, watching flames flicker through our windows, when suddenly the big truck pulls up and brave souls jump off and defeat the blaze to save our homes. Fulfilling images like that, now that's what we like to think our tax dollars accomplish.

But, much like overfunding a Sheriff's Office in an ever-futile attempt to prevent crime, local taxpayers need to put aside unrealistic expectations for its fire department so we can stop paying for them.

It's budget time for the Board of County Commissioners, and I'll toss a few thoughts out for consideration. They're the kind of thoughts that should be discussed, but likely won't, during budget talks.

Government's efforts to fight crime have become almost sacrosanct among citizens, who rarely if ever question when tax dollars are spent on those efforts. But because these are extraordinary times requiring government to step outside the political security of business as usual, it's time to eliminate its sacred cow status and take a hard look at the Clay County Sheriff's Office and its budget.

One of my biggest gripes about the Board of County Commissioners is how they approach the concept of appointed governmental boards, commissions or committees. Not just the present Board, but every County Commission, and there are many ways improvements could be made. One quick and easy improvement - the BCC can act like the volunteer citizen appointees and their various groups are worthwhile.

Those various citizen advisory groups are rarely treated as more than an annoyance by County Commissioners, and it really showed again last week when a vacancy was filled on the Board of Adjustments. According to the county's website, the Board of Adjustments "acts on variances to the Zoning Code" at monthly meetings.

I hate the way politicians talk around things. Happened again Tuesday when the Board of County Commissioners discussed both emergency maintenance and establishing municipal services taxing units for regular county maintenance of private roads.

Not one of the Commissioners, four of them since Travis Cummings sat out this meeting, offered the blunt, "this could get me unelected" truth. Government, even if it is reimbursed through emergency fees or regular special tax assessments, should not be in the business of maintaining or improving private property. Period.

Harsh, I know, and certainly not what the many citizens living on private roads who attended Tuesday's meeting would want to hear. But that's the bottom line. It's a private road. The owners need to keep it maintained at whatever quality they desire because it's their property.

At Tuesday's meeting of the Clay County Board of County Commissioners, our elected officials were asked to endorse the concept of Foreign Trade Zone services areas.

I can't figure out why the Board would vote its endorsement, and unanimously at that, of something that will only result in more revenue for Uncle Sam to waste.  And it won't be coming from foreigners, either. Uncle Sam's dipping his hand into our pockets again.

The Foreign Trade Zone service areas are just a tax adjustment, and we all no there's only one direction government knows how to adjust taxes. Now, when foreign parts are shipped to the United States, there's usually a 10 percent duty - or tax - paid upon entry. In the proposed Foreign Trade Zones (FTZs) service areas, that won't be the case any longer. Uncle Sam decided to adjust that duty and collect its pound of financial flesh as 2.5 percent on the locally-manufactured good when sold.