EDITORIAL: Winder a dictatorship?
At Tuesday night’s City of Winder council meeting, Mayor Chip Thompson and city administrator Bob Beck made it clear that they don’t intend to follow the state law regarding the town’s FY2010 budget.
Georgia law sets out a specific process before a town can adopt a budget. That process includes having the city council hold at least one public hearing at which citizens can ask questions about the budget. Notice of that hearing has to be given via a newspaper at least seven days in advance and the council then has to wait at least seven days after the hearing before it votes on the budget.
So far, Thompson and Beck have totally ignored that process. Instead, the city held a bogus hearing on May 26 with only two days notice and only a city employee attending. The mayor and city council were nowhere to be seen.
Tuesday night, a Winder citizen asked the mayor and council why they were not following the correct budget hearing process. The response from Thompson and Beck was pure arrogance.
Thompson told the citizen she was playing “some little word search.”
But it was Beck who insulted every citizen in Winder when he said the following:
“If you are looking for an opportunity to sit there and do a conversation or have input back and forth between citizens and the council and the mayor, that does not happen.”
That is perhaps the most arrogant statement to ever come from the lips of a local public official. If the Mayor and council don’t exist to hear from citizens, then what are they for?
Mr. Beck and Mr. Thompson appear to think that they operate a dictatorship city government, one in which citizens are not allowed to ask questions of their elected leaders.
What’s really amazing about this is that Winder, like most area towns, is struggling with a financial downturn. Just a couple months ago, the city had a massive layoff of employees in a bid to stem the financial bleeding.
Yet there has been no discussion about the city’s upcoming FY2010 budget by the city council. And if Mr. Beck and Mr. Thompson get their way, they will continue to attempt this blatant end-run of both the full council and Winder citizens.
Why?
A quick glance at the proposed budget handed out this week raises a lot of questions. Some numbers appear to have been pulled from thin air.
Perhaps Mr. Beck and Mr. Thompson don’t want to face questions from the city council and citizens about the budget because it’s a mess?
Whatever their reasons, Winder’s budget process is not determined by the whims of a misguided mayor and city administrator; that process is determined by a very specific state law.
Now it is up to the full Winder City Council to step in and make sure that process is followed correctly. Winder’s citizens deserve nothing less from their elected leaders.
So far, Thompson and Beck have totally ignored that process. Instead, the city held a bogus hearing on May 26 with only two days notice and only a city employee attending. The mayor and city council were nowhere to be seen.
Tuesday night, a Winder citizen asked the mayor and council why they were not following the correct budget hearing process. The response from Thompson and Beck was pure arrogance.
Thompson told the citizen she was playing “some little word search.”
But it was Beck who insulted every citizen in Winder when he said the following:
“If you are looking for an opportunity to sit there and do a conversation or have input back and forth between citizens and the council and the mayor, that does not happen.”
That is perhaps the most arrogant statement to ever come from the lips of a local public official. If the Mayor and council don’t exist to hear from citizens, then what are they for?
Mr. Beck and Mr. Thompson appear to think that they operate a dictatorship city government, one in which citizens are not allowed to ask questions of their elected leaders.
What’s really amazing about this is that Winder, like most area towns, is struggling with a financial downturn. Just a couple months ago, the city had a massive layoff of employees in a bid to stem the financial bleeding.
Yet there has been no discussion about the city’s upcoming FY2010 budget by the city council. And if Mr. Beck and Mr. Thompson get their way, they will continue to attempt this blatant end-run of both the full council and Winder citizens.
Why?
A quick glance at the proposed budget handed out this week raises a lot of questions. Some numbers appear to have been pulled from thin air.
Perhaps Mr. Beck and Mr. Thompson don’t want to face questions from the city council and citizens about the budget because it’s a mess?
Whatever their reasons, Winder’s budget process is not determined by the whims of a misguided mayor and city administrator; that process is determined by a very specific state law.
Now it is up to the full Winder City Council to step in and make sure that process is followed correctly. Winder’s citizens deserve nothing less from their elected leaders.
Second, are you honestly suggesting that the citizens (note the spelling) of Winder run the day to day operations of Barrow County? Or of the City of Winder? Tell me, Dana, who would have signatory authority with the bank to sign pay checks? Every Winder citizen? Just the ones who agree with you? Or would we not actually pay anyone because Winder's citizens would "run" the county and city?
Be honest with yourself and with your fellow citizens reading these comments: how quickly do you think the County would completely crumble if your plan of anarchy were actually implemented?