COLUMN: Time to replace some local leaders

Enough of the shenanigans from local government and school system officials! It’s time for a return to ethics, reason, accountability and personal responsibility, which means it’s time for some spring cleaning.

Let’s start with Barrow County. The board of commissioners needs to formally request that Chairman Yearwood resign. While this man’s intentions may be good, his actions have been nothing short of disastrous for this county. We’ve lost 15-plus department heads under his leadership, and had fire trucks manned with only one person sent to our fires. We’ve had job posting, training, hiring and equipment maintenance delays. We’ve had more than our fair share of public antics and temper tantrums. And, we’re spending WAY too much taxpayer money on legal fees.

Currently $140,000 in county funds has been budgeted for the investigation and defense of race and gender discrimination claims and lawsuits filed against the county, the chairman and department director Lyn Clement.

Some $42,000 of that was spent on investigating if the chairman and Mr. Clement actually talked about lynching an African American department head, if the chairman joked about the human resource director’s weight and slapped her backside, and if “the N-word” was used by several county officials.

The findings of that 37-page report are as appalling as the actions investigated. While it was acknowledged that “a bad choice of words” had been made, “no racially derogatory intent or motive” was found. And, while there were witnesses to the other allegations, nothing they said was considered substantial enough to refute what Mr. Clement and the chairman said in their own defense.

I’m sorry, but this is just wrong. Why is this level of outdated backwoods behavior being tolerated, even for a minute?

In an effort to shore up the damage, the board of commissioners voted to restructure some of the county departments, demote Mr. Clement and send the chairman and Mr. Clement to anger management/cultural sensitivity classes at their own expense. Not good enough! It’s time to make personnel and management changes so that this kind of behavior ends for good. Mr. Yearwood and Mr. Clement need to go.

Human resources director Norma Jean Brown probably needs to be replaced, too. After all, where was she when all the staffing problems and EEOC claim generating behavior was going on? Isn’t hiring, firing, dealing with personnel issues and keeping the county from being sued part of her job? Instead of preventing legal problems, Ms. Brown is one of the complainants in a suit against the county. I’m sure Ms. Brown has done a lot of good things for the county, but sometimes a system becomes so poisoned the only way to get things back on track is with a thorough clean up.

While we’re at it, the City of Winder could use some ethics revitalization, as well. While business as usual seems to function pretty well at city hall, the pending sexual harassment suit against the city, finance director Ginn and city administrator Beck contains some very unsavory allegations. If there’s anything to this story of a failed romantic three-way, inappropriate sexual advances and a retaliatory job loss, more than just the “reprimand” that was given needs to occur. Rather than spending taxpayer money on legal fees for lawsuit foot dragging and posturing, maybe the city council could call for a prompt set of depositions and, based on what they reveal, a settlement. If there were breaches in ethics and professionalism, those involved need to be shown to the door.

Several of our school system officials have their share of ethical egg on the face, as well. What about that mess with the teacher (Ms. Payne) who is suing because she was (allegedly) encouraged to resign by principal McGee, in response to an anonymous e-mail superintendent Saunders received about a photo of her holding beer and wine on her (private) Facebook page. No hearing, no investigation into who sent the e-mail, just “Good bye!” To top things off, public relations coordinator Leighton made it sound like the tip wasn’t anonymous until it was proven that it was. Not good! It’s probably time for a settlement there, too.

Long story short, Barrow County, the City of Winder and the Barrow County School System are full of competent, professional, ethical people who work hard serving the public at their jobs each day. They do it without generating headlines or lawsuits, and most of them get paid a lot less than the folks involved in the tomfoolery I’ve been talking about. These people deserve top notch leadership and so do we.

It’s time to put an end to compromised ethics; for that to happen, changes have to be made; these changes are not going to happen on their own. Our boards and councils have to act, even if all they have the power to do is demand that the people in power do the right thing.

Lorin Sinn-Clark is a writer for the Barrow Journal. She can be reached at lorin@barrowjournal.com.