Pfred, I appreciate the frustration our current situation provokes and I agree with Spanky on his points.  When I first read your post I thought - your are correct on every point.  But we need to do more than that.  We need to agree with the premise ''we are a nation of law''.  We can take care of ourselves, but we cannot ...

I do not know what all the duties of a commissioner are, so I do not know if we can keep five of them productive on a regular basis.  I am concerned that representative government is failing us and I am not convinced reducing the number would improve that condition.  I think we need to elect them county-wide while retainig the districts ...

Spanky, if you get a chance, please refer me back to where I made the quotes in the box.  I need to go back and see what I was thinking at the time. As to paying average taxes, maybe we do and just don't know it.  Have you looked at the burden we have put on property lately.  With the bonded debt we are collecting over $20 a ...

I had the opportunity to negotiate with the attorny that represents the police union over the contract in one of the smaller cities.  His position was very simple and straight forward.  He looked at the city budget, added up all the reserves and demanded that much for the union.  This included the cash carryover, which is necessary ...

The $110,000 does not include any tires, training or shared administrative costs.  That is what it costs to hire an officer.  And that cost is comparable in all the sectors.  This is the reality we need to recognize. And again, it is what do I get for the money.  When we pay $20 million to operate a jail, do I get a jail ...

Halo, my math is not wrong.  You are talking Apples and I am talking Oranges.  You are correct, the officer does not get the full cost in his/her paycheck.  I am right when I measure the full cost to the taxpayer for one officer.  My numbers come from the budget for personnel divided by the number of personnel supported by ...

I appeciate the dialogue.  Everyone has a valid point of view.  Perhaps not everyone understands the magnitude of the problem.  Just to reach a jail bed level of 1100 will cost 60 million dollars.  These costs will rise at 5 to 7 percent a year.  Today we pay $110,000 a year for a sheriff deputy or a corrections ...

I expect reality will set in before too long and we will lurch along the middle of the road.  I survived the inexperience of Carter, I can susvive anything.

At a recent Board of County Commissioners meeting (probably on 10/22) Steve Schriver, a hired consultant, deliverd a report that was critical of the BCC.  He had interviewed the BCC and many agency heads to obtain the questions he used in his survey and then interviewed 19 neighborhood organization leaders.  The report came back with a ...

The bad news.  We only get to use a little less than half the Secure Rural Schools money for public safety.  The larger half must go to the road fund.  Now we need to find a partner we can trade roads for jail beds with to alter that outcome.  One more self imposed obstacle to overcome.  We can clearly see who the ...