Wednesday, June 6, 2001

Will we have to look (again) for the least bad of five candidates to elect to the Fayette County Commission? Everyone of them has so far made sure we don't know anything about what he knows or what he thinks about county government. When my neighbors ask me who I suggest they vote for, I have no answer; when I ask them the same thing, they have no answer. Look for a low turnout on June 19. The message, I suspect, will be citizen disgust.

The people best qualified to tell us what qualities we should look for in county commission candidates are the existing commissioners. What do they think? We don't know. They haven't told.

Are there any issues in this campaign? Let me bring up a few.

First and foremost, there might be that famous tax equity issue that Peachtree City Mayor Bob Lenox likes to bring up. Has any of the candidates studied the situation? Has any of them made a critical examination of the reasoning employed by the consulting firm of Governmental Solutions Limited (a peculiarly named Georgia corporation which appears to be a one-man operation in Atlanta)? Does he agree with it? Does any one of them have a word of wisdom or two to offer on the subject?

Observe that the tax equity issue is symptomatic of the broader issue of county/city relations, which could be more harmonious than now seems to be the case.

The answer that would best shut up those who argue they don't get their fair share of county taxes would be to consolidate all the city governments and the county government into one, as was done in the city/counties of Columbus/Muscogee, Athens/Clarke and Augusta/Richmond. Does any of the candidates favor that for Fayette County? Why not?

How about the local sales tax, or LOST? Is there any candidate who understands and acknowledges that citizens of the unincorporated area currently receive only 47.5 percent of what they pay in local option sales tax, and that they give the extra 52.5 percent to their fellow citizens who live in the cities of Fayette County? When a new percentage split between the county and the cities comes up for decision in 2002, what is each candidate prepared to do? Would any candidate agree to discontinue the 1-percent local sales tax after 2002?

How about saddling the county taxpayers with a SPLOST? We already have one commissioner who loves SPLOST. Does any of the candidates love it, too? (It doesn't matter what it's for. Any excuse is good enough to have a SPLOST when you love taxes.)

County governments not only collect money, which leads to tax issues, they also spend it. Not only are there day-to-day spending issues that arise, like whether to make a grant for a park or facility for one group of citizens or another, but there are long-term issues, like developing and extending water and sewer systems, developing new roads and parks, etc. There are also budgets to approve, and different people have different spending priorities. What are our candidates' priorities? When would they say No, and when would they say Yes? Since rumors now circulate that our four current commissioners have split into factions of two each, that fifth vote on the commission could be crucial.

We, in Fayette County, are blessed in two respects. (1) We do have an intelligent and educated population. (2) We have a newspaper, The Citizen, whose editor is possibly the most democratic in the whole country in allowing local citizens to bring up and discuss issues.

Our county commission candidates are at fault when they fail to avail themselves of the wonderful opportunity afforded them to communicate with the electorate. Instead, they treat us as dummies, preferring to litter the county landscape with countless yard signs whose main characteristics are that they are ugly, they are unhelpful, they waste their supporters' money, and they stay long after the election is over.

It's unfortunate that elections are seen as being won by one candidate or another, because the real winner should always be the people. We should make an effort to flush out the stealth candidates who try to sneak into public office without telling us anything. We don't have to examine candidates for 40 different positions this time, just five candidates for the one position. Let's put their feet to the fire and make them tell us, publicly and not privately so they cannot equivocate, what kind of commissioner they'd make.

Unless at least one candidate is willing to treat the public with respect, our staying home on June 19 ought to be interpreted as a mark of our contempt for a process that is a mere travesty of what a democratic government ought to be all about.

Claude Y. Paquin

Fayetteville

cypaquin@msn.com

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