Newspaper Page Text
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Sunday, August 26,2001
PAGE 16A
The Forsyth County News
Opinion
This is a page of opinions ours, yours and others.
Signed columns and cartoons are the opinions of the
writers and artists and may not reflect our views.
Don’t blame
the messenger
for bad press
Three members of
the county commis
sion met Thursday
with building consultants,
financial planners, attor
neys and other county
officials for an in-depth
look at proposals for a
new justice center, and to
discuss how best to win
public support for a bond
to finance such a project.
The county sheriff was
there. So was the chief
judge of the Superior
Court.
Commissioner Eddie
Taylor was not. Instead,
Taylor was sitting in his
office, just a few feet
away from where an issue
vital to the county was
being discussed, refusing
to take part in the meet
ing.
He chose not to attend,
he said, because a specific
reporter from this newspa
per was there. Presum
ably, that is also the rea
son Taylor missed about
five hours of the marathon
budget discussions with
county department heads
the previous day.
Normally the idiosyn
cracies of individual dis
trict commissioners do not
warrant space in this col
umn. But since Taylor’s
complaint deals with the
news, how it is covered,
and by whom, we felt our
readers had a right to
know the problem exists,
so that they can judge for
themselves the accuracy
and objectivity of our sto
ries.
Taylor has been at odds
with the newspaper for
months. He initially be
came outraged that we
saw fit to publish the fact
commissioners secretly
had voted to spend mil
lions of dollars on proper
ty for a new sewer plant
without having discussed
the purchase in a public
meeting.
Taylor thought our cov
erage was unfair. We
thought the issue was
important.
Later, Taylor became
upset with a story that
pointed out he had failed
to properly file financial
disclosure paperwork for
• his political campaign. He
blamed others for the mis
take, and again indicated
the coverage was unfair.
We thought it was impor
tant.
Last week, we pub
lished a story stating that
Taylor had accepted mon
ey for his campaign from
a consultant to the county,
which is prohibited in the
county ethics policy.
Though he has not shared
with anyone at this news
paper that he felt that
story was unfair, the tim
ing suggests it was this
story that prompted last
week’s promise not to
attend meetings covered
by the reporter who wrote
the story. Again, we
thought it was important.
For last week’s story,
we tried repeatedly to
obtain a comment from
Taylor. We wanted to give
him an opportunity to
explain what seem to be
obvious violations of the
ethics ordinance. He re
fused to return telephone
calls.
The commissioner has
in the past publicly de
nounced the newspaper
for having made mistakes
in its stories. We have. We
do. Reporters and editors
deal with thousands of
facts every year, and
sometimes they make mis
takes.
When that happens, we
make every effort to
acknowledge and correct
them. And they bother us
more than they do any
body.
To show the extremes
to which Taylor is willing
to go to try to discredit the
newspaper, he even threat
ened to seek a warrant for
“stalking” because the
reporter had the audacity
to sit in a public restaurant
where Taylor was con
ducting a fundraiser.
With that level of para
noia, you have to wonder
who was in attendance at
the fundraiser that he did
n’t want anyone to see. It
must have been a pretty
exclusive invitation list.
Taylor obviously feels
we have treated him poor
ly during his short tenure
as a member of the com
mission. We think he’s
trying to hoodwink the
public and ignore the real
issues by .discrediting the
messenger.
We stand by our sto
ries, and our reporters.
That the commissioner
would use a personal com
plaint about the newspa
per as an excuse not to do
his duty as an elected offi
cial stands as evidence of
the disdain with which he
holds his constituents,
others in county govern
ment, and the future of the
county.
As a district commis
sioner, Taylor apparently
feels he should be immune
to scrutiny by the public.
We disagree.
■ ——
1
JSv —
Sen. Miller tackles the black belt
Sen. Zell Miller is making
waves again. Two weeks ago, he
was defending fighting roosters
from FBI scrutiny. Then he was
helping compose a musical trib
ute to the pickup truck. Now
he’s decided to launch his own
war on poverty.
He has asked the feds to set
aside a minuscule $250,000 to
determine whether a regional
commission should be estab
lished to help erase poverty in
the Southern Black Belt, an area
stretching from Virginia to
Texas. Miller says the new
agency would be similar to the
Appalachian Regional Com
mission, established nearly four
decades ago, to help mountain
folk get on their feet.
If Miller succeeds, history
undoubtedly would give him
credit for this new Appalachian
like initiative. Ironies abound as
memories come flooding back.
In 1964 President Lyndon
Johnson rolled into the Georgia
mountains ostensibly to gain
support for the Appalachian
Commission idea.
Mainly, he was in Georgia to
help 9th District Rep. Phil
Landrum, D-Jasper, stave off a
Democratic challenge from a
political upstart named Zell
Miller. Johnson had chosen
Landrum as his House floor
manager on the Appalachian
bill. And one would have
thought from Johnson’s speech
in Gainesville that neither the
mountains nor the nation could
survive without Landrum. The
audience must have heeded
LBJ’s words. Landrum defeated
Miller and went on to gain
Letters
Denial of business plan is
unAmerican act
I am a resident and home owner in Forsyth
County. Recently, I read about Mr. John
Adams’ attempt to build a car wash on a busy
intersection in the county and the county com
mission’s objections to it. I do not know Mr.
Adams and I am not involved in any way with
this case, except that I, too, am a property
owner in this county and an American citizen.
Denial of this type of development would rep
resent nothing less than legalized theft by our
local politicians.
Why does the commission object to Mr.
Adams’ plan? Certain commissioners believe
that the land could be better used for the com
munity of Forsyth County. And it is stated that
children are using the property in question as
a school bus stop. Neither of these are impor
tant enough to preempt an individual’s
inalienable right to the free use of his or her
property.
There is no better use for someone’s prop
erty than what the property owner himself or
herself intend for it. This intent, combined
with what consumers in the county will sup
port, should be the only determining factor for
the use of this property. Further, if the school
system wants to establish a safe bus stop on
this land, it should obtain permission from the
owner just like the county has to obtain an
easement to run sewer main on my property.
The arguments by this commission are spe
cious, arrogant and overbearing.
The U.S. Constitution can be no clearer
about your right to your property. Only in rare
cases can government take control of your
mELJ Bill
■Kd| Shipp
approval of federal aid for the
mountains.
The Appalachian Commiss
ion did wonders for parts of
north Georgia, providing funds
for economic development and
transportation. As governor,
Miller served on the commis
sion’s board of directors.
Scanning a list of Georgia
counties included in the high
country anti-poverty program
tells us how dramatically the
state has changed over the last
40 years.
Forsyth, Gwinnett, Chero
kee, Paulding and Pickens were
on that first list. They’re still
counted as part of Appalachia,
but now they are struggling to
control growth instead of sim
ply trying to survive poverty.
Whitfield and Gordon, once
noted for homemade chenille
bedspreads waving from
clotheslines along two-lane U.S.
41, have emerged as interna
tional leaders in the tufted car
pet industry.
Hall County is the bustling
gateway to the Georgia moun
tains. And who would have
thought that the once solidly
Southern Scot-Irish region
would now be populated by a
combination of Mexican work
ers and Northern retirees?
Whether similar strides
land, and even then, the U.S. Supreme Court
has clarified that the individual must be fairly
compensated for the loss of the property. To
regulate the value of property away from indi
viduals is no different than stealing the value
of the property outright.
I hope the free and educated citizens of
Forsyth County and individuals all over this
country deny the practice of over-regulating
private property. If not, this local commission
and other busybody bureaucrats everywhere
will continue to overreach into our private
lives. And if our right to property is so easily
eroded in this manner, life and liberty are sure
to follow.
David Archer
Cumming
Kieffer was involved
in drafting ethics code
I appreciate commissioner Kieffer’s efforts
in last Sunday’s, paper to give me full credit
for strengthening our county’s Code of Ethics
Ordinance. I wish that I could accept the
honor, but it was the decision of the full board.
The board first discussed amending the
Ethics Ordinance in May 2000, requiring
county commissioners to publicly disclose
whether an applicant before them had con
tributed to their election campaign before
casting a vote. Kieffer discussed setting the
minimum amount (of a contribution requiring
disclosure) at SIOO to remove even the
appearance of a conflict of interest. We
believed the state Ethics Ordinance did not
address everything that a growing area like
toward prosperity could be
achieved in the Black Belt is not
certain. The region is not as
clearly defined as the moun
tains. It is mostly rural, but
Fulton and DeKalb counties are
included in its definition.
The region’s population is
nearly 40 percent black and 57
percent white. It covers 212,227
square miles (roughly the size
of France) in 11 states. The
name “Black Belt” refers to the
color of the rich soil that char
acterizes much of the region,
which once included the most
productive cotton plantations in
the world.
The Black Belt runs through
the Mississippi Delta and across
the Coastal Plains and Low
Country of the rest of the South.
Unlike the pre-1930s App
alachian Region, the Black Belt
has not been previously over
looked in the numerous federal
assaults on poverty.
Billions of dollars in govern
ment aid have already poured
into the area from a variety of
federal programs. Not much has
worked.
For instance, the amount of
federal dollars assigned to
Hancock County in the heart of
the Georgia Black Belt over the
past 30 years would undoubted
ly shock every taxpayer. Yet,
that county remains mired in
poverty.
The mountains, at least
those in Georgia, were left
behind because they were iso
lated and remote. Bigger and
better highways opened the area
to development.
Such growth has not hap-
pened in the Black Belt. Federal
and state governments have
constructed long strands of
great highways through parts of
rural south Georgia to stimulate
economic development. Many
of those Black Belt roads are
barely used today.
Unlike in the mountains, the
adage “Build it and they will
come” does not always work in
the Black Belt.
In addition to asking for fea
sibility funds, Sen. Miller has
circulated to Southern congress
men and senators packets of
information on Black Belt
issues. UGA Professor Douglas
Bachtel, a noted demographer
and sociologist, is assisting
Miller.
As Miller must know, an all
out campaign to combat pover
ty, ignorance and disease in the
Black Belt will be far more
complex and politically perilous
than the assault on the problems
of the mountains.
An initiative of this scope
will require considerable sup
port from the White House,
which the mountains had in
19605. Whether President
George W. Bush is willing to
give so much attention today to
the Black Belt is not quite cer
tain.
Bill Shipp is editor of Bill
Shipp's Georgia, a weekly
newsletter about government
and business. He can be
reached at P.O. Box 440755,
Kennesaw, GA 30144 or by call
ing (770) 422-2543, email: >
bshipp@bellsouth.net, Web
address: http://www. billshipp. -
com.
Forsyth County would be facing.
A hearing was scheduled to publicly dis
cuss suggested changes. Kieffer had asked for
an amendment requiring that a commissioner ,
publicly disclose campaign contributions, the
full board agreed. The motion passed by a
unanimous vote.
Kieffer can certainly ask his colleagues on
the board to support reducing the ethics stan
dards. I believe it would be detrimental to our
county if he were allowed to weaken our
county’s Ethics Ordinance.
Bill Jenkins '
Former commission chairman !•
Cumming '
I
Senators objections
show selfish interests
We should not be surprised that •
Republican State Sen. Billy Ray is complain- ;
ing about the new house and senate district t
maps. He says “it was done to dilute the vote :
of the people and that’s not right.” His interest, >
of course, is not in what is “right” for the peo
ple, but in what is right for Billy Ray.
When his voter base is changed he is
afraid that he may have to run and campaign (
on the issues and will not be re-elected so he
wants a map that does not dilute his political
power base. He has no interest in what is
“right for the people.” It is time for a change .
in Mr. Ray’s district
Ted O. Brooke
Cumming j