Remember Remember the 5th of November
Remember the Highest Office in the land is not the President, Governor, Chairman of the County Commission or Mayor. The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States identifies the Highest Ranking Officers as "We the People": you and I. That same Office-holder is rightfully the one who speaks and delivers the text of the Constitution. Two hundred plus years later, that Citizen speaker must find the courage to speak again.
The places where the People’s business is conducted (be they the State House, the City Counsel, or the County Commission) belong to the Highest Office in the Land, the Citizen. Such Assembly Halls were constructed with Citizens’ taxes to provide the Citizen an opportunity to voice his concerns to his government and to address grievances. But we are no longer permitted to speak in our own assembly halls or to be published in the Press. Try writing a letter to the editor to be published if you're not in lockstep with the leaders.
Using the color of authority, Bill English and Gary Long, et al, have “streamlined” County Commission meetings and Citizen Comments are no longer aired on the taxpayer funded video on the County website, nor included in the official minutes. So, if the Citizen pays for the Courthouse and elects the Probate Judge and County Commissioners, what authority does Bill English have to muzzle the voice of the Citizen, the highest Office holder in the land? He does not have legitimate authority but usurps the power of the Citizen, but none dare challenge his tyranny. We must reassert our rights as set forth in the Constitution.
When a Citizen requests to be on the County Commission Agenda and then identifies contradictions between the regulations and what the Commission has done, then asks the Commission to explain, why do we tolerate Bill English saying "the Commission does not answer questions"? This is a perversion of the role of public servant. As I recall, the only Media that objected to the Probate Judge's comment was Fred Woods of the Opelika Observer. May God rest his soul. What editor today will accommodate protest of our rulers? How can we declare that Emperor Fuller has no clothes?
Current Media are obvious "advertisers" promoting the official narrative of corrupt folks in power. They pay Media to bury the truth because if the truth were known, it would jeopardize their power to redistribute wealth from the taxpayers’ treasury to crony contractors. Note the fluff articles for EAMC, the Prices, Robert Ham, ad nauseum. Such folks could not retain power if the narrative the Press reports were true. Crooks can only stay in business if they conceal what they do. So, if a Constitutionally protected Press aids and abets tyranny and corruption, what purpose does it serve other than advertising and propaganda? If Media does not provide the truth, don't use it or support it.
Our elected officials have taken control of our "Assembly Hall", have limited the Citizen to three minutes of communication (OFF THE RECORD) and will not condescend to answer the questions of the taxpaying Citizen. This tyranny will continue if we do not reassert our authority over our public servants. Encourage the Press to stop "advertising" and get back to the business of informing the Public.
Alarmist, Conspiracist, soothsayer? Look at the facts and decide yourself. Seek the truth, read the “signs”.
There’s a reason for that uneasy feeling in the pits of our stomachs: our leaders are getting bolder and greedier. The handwriting is on the wall. They have been weighed and found lacking. They have sold our “loveliest villages” and are enacting regulations like the Master Plan and Zoning Laws which make it easier to convert our rural countryside into small parcels of land connected by the same inadequate highway system which is now accommodating four times the amount of traffic than a few years ago. With so much evidence of supply line failures, the day will soon come when we will wish we had a local farmer to supply our food. Instead, our leaders promote covering our farmlands with asphalt, concrete and housing to sell to strangers. Will we sell all our birthright? People and traffic will continue to come and the quality of life will continue to suffer. More people and more traffic only exacerbate our insufficient highway system. It seems the only road the Commission is paving is 146 repeatedly and the road to perdition.
Mere coincidence that Commissioners Robert Ham, Gary Long, and Doug Cannon are Developers. Mere coincidence that the County Commission has allowed Developers to export their highway infrastructure costs to the taxpayers of Lee County. Mere coincidence that Robert Ham was on the Lee County Planning Commission and was among the authors of the Master Plan over a decade ago. Stranger coincidence that Commissioner Ross Morris was on the Planning Commission before he was appointed to the County Commission by the Governor. Considering the traffic and fatal accidents on Moores Mill Road alone, how would you rate the performance of the Lee County Commission and its Planning Commission (past and present) in terms of its ability to plan ahead by improving road infrastructure capacity as population and traffic have increased?
Not fair to blame most of the members of the current Planning Commission. Most are being manipulated by Bill English. He's present for every meeting. Remember the Planning Commission only has jurisdiction in Beat 13 and is primarily in existence so that it can be poised for that day when all beats are forced under the thumb of the Zoning commission. Then look for a wholesale restaffing of the Planning and Zoning Commissions and then real power can be usurped and real money be made. Commissioner Developers rejoice. The blame is to be placed squarely in the laps of the Probate Judge and the Lee County Commission, their Master Plan and their greed.
Consider what the Lee County Access Management Policy says about the safety of the travelling public. This policy is found on the County’s website in the Highway Dept section inside the Subdivision Regulations. It reads:
1. Lee County Commission, acting through its County Engineer and Highway Department, is charged with the responsibility to protect the traveling public in Lee County and maintain the public right-of-ways therein; The County Commission is also charged to protect the general welfare, health, and safety of its citizens and the traveling public using the public highways, roads, rights-of-ways and highway system within Lee County; and
2. It is the responsibility of the Lee County Commission to ensure proper design, construction, maintenance, and operation of its streets, roads, utilities, driveways, highways, bridges, points of access thereto, and other associated user activities connecting to, using, and/or occurring within these public rights-of-ways; and
3. The Lee County Commission has and does hereby find that in order to protect and provide for the general welfare and safety of the traveling public and to protect the public highway and road system within Lee County, it is necessary to provide criteria and conditions which must be met by any person, firm, corporation, or entity seeking to access or connect roads, streets, highways, or any part thereof to any Lee County public road, highway, highway system, to any part thereof: and to prohibit any access or connection to the Lee County highways, streets, roads or the highway system, which do not meet with and conform to proper engineering design and which do not have approval of the Lee County Engineer or his designee: The following guidelines are hereby set forth and adopted by the Lee County Commission to serve as the Lee County Access Management policy. This policy shall be administered and interpreted by the Lee County Engineer.
Note that the Lee County Access Management Policy unequivocally states that the County Commission, acting through its hireling, County Engineer Hardee, is responsible for protecting the travelling public. Note the words "proper design, construction, and maintenance of streets and roads" in paragraph 2. The Commission had enacted guidelines for the County Engineer to interpret and administer to protect the travelling public. The simple question is: in the last ten years, do you feel more safe or less safe when you travel from home to work, church or the marketplace? Do you see what I see, do you feel as I feel, do you seek as I seek?
The County Commission has not fulfilled its duty to protect the travelling public. The Commission has extra funding because of the gas tax, it has stopped paving dirt roads, it has set up a 20+ year rotation of repaving roads in spite of its increased revenue stream and increased Vehicles Per Day travelling the highway system. But what has it done? It has not properly planned or provided for the safety of the travelling public, but does subsidize a corrupt hospital that is repeatedly sued for fraud. Wouldn't it be better to spend the money it gives to EAMC on road maintenance and improvement? Instead, it neither maintains the roads, nor disciplines EAMC fraud.
As we've seen, the Lee County Access Management Policy specifically states that the County Commission is responsible for the safety of the travelling public, and paragraph 1 specifically states “through its County Engineer and Highway Department”. When the County Engineer fails to perform and the Commission does nothing to ensure performance, once again, it has failed to perform its duty. The buck stops with the County Commission. Again, the Lee County Access Management Policy establishes who is generally responsible per the regulations. In future posts, we will cite specific examples of the County Engineer's malfeasance. Neither the County Commission nor the County Engineer has performed the duty to protect the travelling public, yet no one is held accountable. EAMC's leadership has not been held accountable, Oline Price has not been held accountable. Anyone see a pattern? Free rides for our leaders despite their malfeasance because the taxpayer unknowingly picks up the tab. Barnaby Scrivener prefers not to. Do you see what I see, do you feel as I feel, do you seek as I seek?