Wednesday, July 31, 2002

In response to the Mike Wheat campaign's "attack meter," I introduced the "truth meter" to evaluate the various allegations Wheat has directed at Greg Dunn and the current county commissioners. Each allegation is scored based upon its degree of truthfulness. If true, it gets 1; if half true, one-half; and 0 if false.) Last week we looked at three charges and Mr. Wheat scored zero on the "truth meter" on all three.

So, here we go with two more Wheat campaign charges:

Charge No. 1: "Dunn may have put Fayette County in a position to lose over $12 million in road money..."

Fact: What Mr. Wheat failed to tell us is that he is referring to the county commission's unanimous vote to decline to pay the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) $1.4 million to access our own state/federal dollars to "accelerate some road projects" if the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) agrees.

Wheat also did not tell us that Greg invited the city mayors and representatives to participate in a GRTA briefing. All concerned concurred with the county commissioners' unanimous decision to reject GRTA's offer.

Further, he did not tell us that Fayette County would have to pay all costs for bus services after the initial three-year period whether or not people were using the buses.

It appears clear that what Wheat said and what the facts show are as different as night and day, but to be fair, the "truth meter" gives him one-half on this one.

Charge No. 2: The Wheat campaign states that Greg opposes impact fees.

Fact: The county commissioners have already adopted impact fees to pay for county fire services. The "truth" score on this one is zero.

Anyone wishing to verify these facts can check the records of the county commissioners' meeting.

In the two weeks we have used the "truth meter," the Wheat campaign has scored a zero on four of the five allegations and one-half on the fifth.

Next week we'll look at additional allegations. While the results so far must be discouraging to the Wheat campaign, my old grandmother use to say, "Even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while." So maybe next week will be better for the Wheat campaign.

Darrell McKinney

Fayetteville

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