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Why Monticello News is so excited about
sunshine week
The Monticello
News has reported for the last two weeks that this week is “Sunshine
Week” celebrating the Open Records and Open Meeting Laws. The
TWG is especially proud of those 2 laws and has used them to open up
the government in Jasper County. It was the TWG that reported
the information on the City Grants that were used to fix up
the ex-City
Manager’s rental houses—not the Monticello News. It was the TWG
that got Channel 11 and Jennifer Leslie to do a story on the
problems citizens had trying to obtain open records and the numerous
agenda additions at each BOC meeting. The Monticello News never
mentioned Channel 11 even attended the meeting or was in town. It
was the TWG that got Kathryn Allen of the Attorney General’s office
to speak with our old BOC in a work session about the importance of
open meetings—this was after the secret meetings with Newton County
concerning the Bear Creek Reservoir. It was the TWG that did the
research on the Bear Creek Reservoir contract and reported what was
going on about it; in fact we had to pay for a full page ad in the
Monticello News to make sure the citizens of this county knew what
was about to happen.
Now our question
is, why didn’t the Monticello News report anything about the WSB
Whistleblower segment? Will the Monticello News do some
research on the Grant Money that the City has obtained for
Funderburg Park? What was the money spent on? Will the News
pressure the City to give that information? Everybody knows
something has been wrong all along because after 6 years there is
still no park and obviously no grant money left! But nothing has
ever been questioned about it in the Monticello News. There is now
another, new $225,000 grant that the city has obtained to do all the
things the other grants were suppose to pay for—walking trails,
playground equipment, and a ball field. Will the Monticello News
keep an eye on this and report what is happening, how the money is
being spent, who is getting paid, and what they are getting paid
for? We can celebrate Sunshine Week with an article once a year, or
we can use it all year long to obtain “the inside story” on what is
going on in our City and County government.
It would be great
if the Monticello News reported all stories with the depth and zeal
that the recent “County
Commissioner’s expense reimbursement” story was reported. The TWG
has also looked at those records, and Commissioner Bernard requested
around $250 of which $112 was reimbursable for out of County
travel. He has told us he will have the $250 check voided and
resubmit an expense request for $112. Commissioner Yarbrough has
received his 2 checks, one for $143 and one for $246. He needs to
reimburse the county for the $246. We are talking about less that
$500 in expenses here; yet this was headline news—all the way across
the top of the front page! Why hasn’t this kind of attention
been given to Millions of Dollars in Grant money? Why hasn’t it
been reported that two commissioners and the County finance officer
haven’t paid their property taxes (as of 3/10/05)? These are the
people that spend OUR money but yet don’t pay their own bills on
time.
It seems that
reports are either “in depth” or completely ignored depending on who
it is rather than what should be reported to “let the Sunshine in.”
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