It’s time to unseat ‘King Thompson’

In reviewing the record of the Winder Mayor’s office, it’s clear that someone new should be given a chance at the seat.

If there was any doubt that a new direction in Winder’s leadership is needed, one only has to look at the recent fiasco over the city’s move to purge 40 percent of the city’s registered voters, a move that was rife with mishandling and errors.

Winder Mayor Chip Thompson is largely responsible for that snafu.

He sets the tone and the standard for what happens in city hall. The buck stops on his desk.

If the voting mess had been Thompson’s only leadership mistake, perhaps citizens would give it a pass.

But Thompson’s record as mayor is one of arrogant leadership and multiple misjudgments.

Here’s his record:

•In 2009, Thompson refused to follow state law in how the city adopted its budget. When a woman asked the mayor at a meeting why the city wasn’t following the law, Thompson accused her of playing “some little word search.” In addition, Thompson’s right-hand city manager at the time said to her, “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.” In other words, citizens shouldn’t dare question “King” Thompson.

•In 2010, Thompson held several illegal secret meetings. When this newspaper questioned that, the mayor shot back by saying the Journal was a “tabloid” for daring to question his authority. Thompson essentially set the city budget in secret and doesn’t believe citizens should have any say in the process. Illegal meetings don’t seem to bother him.

•Also in 2010, Thompson accused a council member of “overstepping your bounds” when a councilman wanted to know about the hiring process and salary range for a new city administrator. Thompson was upset that the city council wanted to have some say in the hiring process of the town’s administrator. Thompson later made that hiring decision without full city council input (one councilman did sit in on the meetings, but Thompson wouldn’t allow him to take resumes out of city hall); and he refused to release the top three candidate names 14 days in advance as required by state law. Even worse, after hiring someone, he refused for several days to tell his own city council whom he had hired.

•Thompson presented the Winder council a wastewater plan one night in 2010, and then lied to the council by saying he needed immediate action that night to meet a federal deadline. But there was no immediate deadline. What Thompson really wanted was for the council to rubber-stamp his plan before it had time to study the matter or ask questions.

•Thompson pressured the city council to quickly approve a 40-year, $4.9 million loan to build large new city facilities, again saying there was an immediate deadline and that the council had to act that night. But again, there was no deadline. The council eventually overturned that action and ordered the mayor to cancel the loan. But Thompson didn’t take action to follow the council’s directive until last month.

•Last year, Thompson gave the council a new engineering contract to approve for the city without the council even knowing a new contract was in the works. It was another example of how he tried to pressure the council into a quick action with incomplete information.

•Thompson presented a storm water tax for the council to vote on at one August 2010 meeting, again claiming there was a deadline and the issue couldn’t wait. Alas, the mayor was again lying to his council about a deadline. It was a bid by Thompson to pressure the council to act before it could look into the matter further. The mayor tried to ram through the new tax with no public hearings and no advance notice. After the Journal reported on the matter, a strong public backlash stopped it.

It is very clear from his record that Thompson views the mayor’s job as a petty dictatorship. He does not think the mayor should consult his city council before making major decisions and he abhors any kind of public input in city government. He strongly resents media coverage of the city government, actively holding secret meetings to avoid news coverage. Even worse, he has a track record of having misled his council multiple times about phantom deadlines that really didn’t exist.

Winder needs a change in its mayor’s seat. Chip Thompson is a nice man who comes across as an easy-going public official. But his actual record is very clear — he wants to run Winder without any input from his own city council or the public.

Based on his record as mayor, Chip Thompson is not a man who can be trusted. The ballot box is the place to send him a message about his record.

Mike Buffington is co-publisher of the Barrow Journal. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.