Proxy.... A terrible thing to waste.

Walt, an interesting perspective of an individual's vote and how that translates to votes on the County Commission.  In essence, what people will elect at the polls this year is someone to cast their votes for them for the next four years.

I'd estimate that the BCC as a whole voted the same way I would have about 90 percent of the time, even higher if you want to count things like resolutions recognizing National Bacon Day. And 90 percent, in most people's book, is a passing grade - the kind of thing that gets referred to in the campaigns of incumbents. But, like FCAT, test scores don't prove a thing.

First of all, that 10 percent or so of the real votes on which the BCC and I disagreed always resulted in their misuse of my proxy costing me money, like necessitating the construction of a $50 million school, and/or adding more and more vehicles onto the failing roads I have to navigate regularly. It's not the high percentage of votes I disagree with, just it was on the votes on the important things.

Actually, Walt, George is retiring and I don't care if my new district Commissioner uses my proxy correctly 100 percent of the time (especially since I discovered I'm not right 100 percent of the time.)

If my new district rep doesn't have the cajones (or eggs, in Ms. Terry's case) to bring the right issues, the right questions, before the BCC and demand a vote, then they are not doing the job I'm hiring them to do on Election Day.

If they don't have the respect to actually listen to a citizen who appears before them to speak, and the courage to answer a citizen's question, they won't be fulfilling the employment contract made when they got my vote.

If they don't look for ways to solve what I consider problems, if they're so immersed in the same perspective as all the other politicians, if they don't think or speak outside the box because it might make them look silly and cost them their re-election, then my district rep - and anyone else sitting on the County Commission - will be stealing their paycheck.

You know, what's going to happen when enough schools start failing FCAT? Government's solution to achieve higher scores will be to make the test's questions easier. I don't want my elected representative happy to score well on an easy test. They should not only look forward to the difficult questions facing Clay County, but demand that those hard questions appear on the four-year test.

Michael S. Mann

michaelsmann@comcast.net

Fitzgerald - Thrasher - Bradley - Fitzgerald

Two never got a voter proxy at all and the other didn't win the D1 voters proxy.

Mike Heemer