County Council Focuses on Texting Instead of Principles

At the most recent council meeting on Jan. 28, the new chair of the council, Kelly Waymon, felt that it was okay to accept the fact that contracts were signed by the Sheriff's department prior to being submitted to the council for approval.  This is totally against the charter and when Council member Bickowski brought that to light and tried to remove the bill from the agenda, Waymon called it "kicking the can down the road."  I do not feel that legislating according to the Charter is "kicking the can down the road."  In addition, the council member from the second district, Renee Reuter, brought to our attention that we are outsourcing work performed in the county to a Canadian company. When Ms. Reuter asked if Vickie Pratt's people could read French, she answered "no."  What amazes me is they did not have a clue what the contract said and asked the Canadian workers to explain the content.  I'm glad our government offices in the county trust the people at these companies so much that they will accept their word on the content of a contract for services that we as the taxpayers are funding.  I guess when it's not your money your spending, you'll believe anything.

George Engelbach, the new 4th District Councilman is more interested in where the water comes from than he is in being transparent.  He, as does our new county chair, prefers to hide their questions among the council members rather than let residents know what is going on in the government offices that we pay for.  Engelbach and Waymon both believe questions should be emailed to the council members prior to the meeting.  So much for transparency and principles.

Next, let's look at the fact that we are losing businesses in Jefferson County and members of our council believe it is better to send business out of the county because "that's what we've done all along."  This is bad for Jefferson County. We are sending business overseas when our own residents are suffering from  unemployment and cannot find jobs in our community, forcing them to either move from Jefferson County entirely or drive many miles for work.

Finally, our new council chair believes it is more important to focus on eliminating more of our First Amendment rights (if you'll remember Boyer already started this with 5-minute time limits to speak) through banning texting at ALL public meetings.  I have to ask why is this such a problem that it requires more of his focus than improvements in the county and adding jobs to the county?  Kelly Waymon, if you knew the meaning of principles, you would direct your attention to jobs moving out of Jefferson County and following the Charter rather than opening a can of worms that you will not win. 

Certain members of this council are more and more like RINOs (Republican in name only) than principled legislators.  They are ignoring the charter and they are setting themselves up as dictators - this looks very similar to how Obama treats the Consitution.