May 6,
2009
SEARCH FOR A NEW COUNTY MANAGER TO BEGIN
What would you do if you owned a business and your CEO kept
giving you wrong information month after month?
Or how about your CEO not doing things he was asked to do, not once or
twice but time after time? Would you
fire him or would you let your business continue to go down?
The May 4th BOC meeting was another meeting where
the County Manager, Jasper County’s CEO, told the BOC that he hadn’t followed
through when it came to saving money on some copiers, had problems with the
postage meter he contracted for, and gave the BOC some questionable financial
information.
Each month Comm. Patrick tries to pry financial information
out of the County
Manager. She usually doesn’t make much progress. This meeting was a little different
though. The County Manager
grudgingly admitted that he hadn’t posted almost a million dollars in payrolls
and the cash balances weren’t anything more than looking up the daily balance
on the bank website. Comm. Patrick asked
the County Manager how those could be the correct
balances when the recent checks that were written hadn’t cleared the bank and
he hadn’t taken any of them into account.
The County
Manager just hung his
head and looked down at the floor. It
was obvious all the figures he had given the BOC were wrong and he knew
it! Comm. Cox finally asked if the bank
statements were even being reconciled, and the County Manager
said they were. Do the BOC members
really believe him?
Two commissioners seem to get it; when are the other 3 going
to get a clue? The county appears to be
going deeper in the hole and no one knows how far, especially the County Manager. Comm. Patrick has said at several meetings
that if they don’t do something the only choice will be to raise property taxes.
She has also asked several times when they are going to have a budget
work session and do something about all this.
Comm. Pennamon finally said they’d have a budget work session at 5PM
before the next meeting (May 18). Do you
think the County Manager will be there to “help”?
The BOC voted 3-2 with Cox making the motion, Patrick making
the 2nd, and Payne hesitating but finally voting yes, to start a
search for a new county manager. If this
BOC had a clue, and it seems two do, this search would have started 3 months
ago and by now there may have been someone as CEO that could answer questions,
follow through, and actually give correct expenditures and budgets to the
Commissioners. In all the meetings that
expenses, cost savings, and cuts have been mentioned, the County Manager
has never suggested one thing. Let’s all
hope the search is started now and the other 2 commissioners get a clue soon!
TWG
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Mission
Statement:
** To keep the taxpayers of Jasper County, Georgia
informed as to where and how their tax dollars are
being spent.
** To keep the taxpayers abreast of local policies
and laws being discussed and enacted.
** We advocate more open government, less government
spending, and lower property taxes.
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