The data you are talking about ARE published. The Federal Government publishes this information each and every year.

I’ll tell you this one more time for the slow ones of the group. This is a FEDERAL program that the States and counties participate in it. Not the other way around.

If you want the information go to where it is.

Suppose you were doing the same good job you had always done and then somebody comes in, who is not your boss, and says you have to start doing it their way or else they're going to sue you. You refuse and then they start legal action to make you change, so you counter sue to protect your position.
I fail to understand why we should blame you for defending your position.
The same with Sheriff Johnson. The county commission is trying to take control of ALL aspects of county government instead of allowing the various Constitutional Officers to run their own departments. Remember, the Sheriff, the Tax Commissioner, the Probate Judge and the County Court Clerk are full time, elected officers. They have their own staff and their own budget, set by them. The county commissioners are part-time and are elected to oversee the county administration offices. They should have no business trying to take over the other Constitutionally elected officials areas of responsibility.
Please think twice before you put the blame on Sheriff Johnson in protecting his domain.

JHR,
Either you can't read, or you don't understand plain English!

Your statement, "However, just to look honest and to keep the public informed, a written record of these confiscations should be published openly by the sheriff" is ignorant at best!

EVERY YEAR, the Sheriff must submit to an audit of the Drug Funds to the Federal Government. ALSO, for the past several years he has been audited by the County Finance Department.

All these records are PUBLIC. So, before you speak and imply that someone is dis-honest, you should read the information available to you! The only crime here is that Greg Dunn and Linda Wells have attempted to discredit one of the most honest men ever to serve Fayette County.

So, please be careful who you "link" with Dunn & Wells! They give this county a BAD NAME!

It has been reported over and over again that the Sheriff does keep a public record of the drug expenditures which has been audited each year by the county. Many of the expenditures have been reported in the press. The account was audited 4 times this year alone. You can't get more open than that.

There seems to be some raw meat out there for the Fayette MOB to attack. They are circling (setting each other up) for the kill.

I believe one of the MOB has already banned one blogger see comment "BOST - Stay away"

Peter - sorry that I have never met you, obviously you have thick skin, I have read several of your comments over the past weeks where you have hit a nerve with the Fayette MOB.

Fayette MOB (bullies) you are not the owners of this website - It's an open forum if you like it or not.

Again, I really don't care who you are voting for - there is no need to explain your choice in every blog - the rest of us (silent or been intimidated by the MOB once to often) Do Not Care.

It's probably about time for the MOB to re-sentence / ban my login to My Space. Oh well - love and kisses

Peter writes nothing but novels.

John;

I’d like to address a couple of issues I have with your article.

First, as we discussed, I wish one of you news people would point out WHO SUED WHO.

This group of Commissioners, including the deceased A.G. VanLandingham, have sued someone 3 times. That’s three!

Once was the sewer in Tyrone, and after the expenses that the sewer users are paying and the increased development on 74 and the increased density in subdivisions, and other issues with this sewer, I think it shows that the County had the correct position even if a judge didn’t agree.

We sued Fayetteville over one of the Pavilion Annexations because of the way they annexed. The judge said he AGREED with us but he was going to let Fayetteville do it anyway!

Then we took the Sheriff to court because he refused to put a drunk driver in jail that had been arrested by a Marshall. In this case, Randall AGREED that we should sue him to resolve the issue!

In every other case, including the other “Sheriff cases”, they sued us (the people of Fayette County). This also includes when candidate Eric Maxwell sued the county to try to break our sign ordinance. You misidentified this in your article when you said; “Other litigation includes a case filed AGAINST Maxwell …” As you know, HE filed AGAINST Fayette County.

Why don’t you make that clear to the people? They should KNOW this so they can have a better understanding of the situation. But, if you don’t tell them, how can they know?

Second, you should make clear that Greg said in the forum that the $100,000 cost was for this PAST YEAR, not for the three years covered in your article when you put the cost at $225,000. Some of the people posting here have obviously misunderstood this.

Third, you might have also have let the people know that the total legal bill for the County includes extensive legal work for the permit for Lake McIntosh (our last water reservoir when it is completed), and for Lake Horton. As I said a few years ago, Fayette County has not had the (lack of) water problems other areas have had in droughts because this county has had the foresight to plan ahead and establish adequate water supplies. “This ain’t free”.

Most of the responses to your article, posted here, are too silly to comment on. As for a few;

To bad_ptc.: You are NOT as aware as you pretend to be about the Federal Drug Funds. If someone wants information about it, they should NOT go to you!

To Fayetteresident and Harvey: the “PUBLIC” records you refer to do NOT contain the type of audit (a Compliance Audit) that is needed to allow anyone to determine if the funds are being managed properly.

To southside: The Citizen has NOT “trapped Dunn” because he didn’t say what you say (see above for 1 year vs. 3 year note).

Last, there is a post that looks like it’s part of a “casey” post, but it sure doesn’t sound like one! To whoever wrote this: You get MY prize for “Most Accurate Post”! I too wish there was a place where issues could be discussed calmly and information could be passed around. BUT IT ISN’T HERE! Most of these folks can ONLY “circle and attack”. They are (mostly) ignorant of the facts and try to pretend that they are not. There are some decent folks on here but many want to use EVERY issue to drive their pet personal likes and dislikes.

Peter Pfeifer

Mr. Pfeifer posed a few questions. Here are some answers.

Question #1. "Who sued whom."
A. You're forgetting that the sheriff only sued the county over "the shed." The county COUNTERSUED (that is, became a plaintiff and thus filed a suit-within-a-suit. Which part of the suit is dragging out the longest? You tell me.
B. The county filed suit first: the "citation" on Mr. Maxwell. He responded in kind.

Question #2. "... Greg said in the forum that the $100K was for the PAST YEAR, not for the past three years covered in your article."
A. When interviewing Mr. Dunn Friday AFTER the forum, I particularly noted that his total of "more than a hundred thousand" was different from my compiled figure of $225K. He didn't tell me then that he said it was only for "one year." I also asked if he thought my figure was good in the ballpark sense, and he said he didn't know. If I was wrong, he had the opportunity to correct me there but didn't. I know if he mentioned "one year" I certainly would have heard it, but I'll be the first to admit I've been wrong before and I could be again. I don't have Comcast Cable, but it's definitely on tape and if someone can help me review this in the next day or two a correction will be made if I was wrong.

Question #3. "... the total legal bill for the County includes extensive legal work for the permit for Lake McIntosh (our last water reservoir when it is completed), and for Lake Horton."
A. The total does not include any bills for the special attorney Tommy Craig who I thought at least was handling the permitting process for Lake Mac. (I didn't think to ask for those). Or maybe it did, if the county is paying McNally, Fox and Grant, and the firm is then cutting a check to Mr. Craig.
B. ALSO, and this is VERY IMPORTANT: the Grand Total figures did not include the purchase of more than $400K in property at Lake Horton even though that check was cut to McNally, Fox and Grant. I couldn't reasonably call that a "legal fee." If I had been more thorough I would have researched how much the law firm got for closing fees on that transaction. Or maybe that was included in the hourly billings. Or maybe they didn't charge for that. I also tossed out another large check to McNally Fox and Grant that was for Right of Way acquisition on McElroy Road, just to let you know.
C. This review did not include the bills for the forensic accounting done for the sheriff-county lawsuit because the commission declined to release the invoices for this work despite my Open Records request. Talk about setting a legal precedent and asking for a lawsuit!!! But hey, that would just be another suit somebody else filed and it's not the county's fault? Remember, open records laws do not REQUIRE that the county hide ANY information. They just allow you to do it for certain things. It does not allow you to hide a simple bill.
D. This review was initiated specifically because of the sheriff-county litigation and I spent at least 12 hours reviewing the bills plus another 10 hours or so making sure my math was right. I'd invite you, Peter, to take the time to add up the Lake Mac and Lake Horton figures to give us an accurate accounting.
E. I am only one reporter with quite a plateful. This week, for example, I've got to sift through the campaign finance reports.
F. Unfortunately The Citizen did not hire a forensic auditor to take care of the tallying of the legal fees relating to the sheriff's-county suits.

I know the forensic accountants' report is part of the lawsuit, but for cryin' out loud you'll have to give it to the sheriff at some point in the coming weeks unless you all happen to work this out magically (and even then I'll still get it eventually).

Why not bite the bullet and show some accountability to the taxpayers?

Try looking at this WEB address and first, tell me who’s site it is and second, tell me what it says.

http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/afp/02fundreport/2005affr/index.html

Don’t worry, you too will be asked to leave when the time comes.

This is important. When I compare your ideas to Iran and North Korea, I’m not comparing RANDALL to anything!

This is only about Randall, to you. It’s NOT about Randall to me or to most others.

Randall is not immortal, as far as I know. He will be replaced someday. The Rules he, and we, should follow will be important to his successor.

Those who believe, as you do, in a PERSON, are headed for certain disaster. The only true constant source of leadership is God, and the only perfect human is Jesus. The (poor) substitute man has are rules; call them Constitution, regulations, etc., but they are supposed to apply to ALL people, in you system.

The great thing about George Washington was not that he called it quits after 8 years as President (some have mis-identified 8 years as some kind of magic number that Washington established). The GREAT thing is that he stepped down at all! He had a vast following of “faithful” and could have ruled for the rest of his life! His Greatness lay in the fact that he said, “NO”, He would NOT be King! The he, and the nation, should follow the rules laid down in the Constitution.

So, their “Greatness” aside, not Randall, not Ronald Reagan, not George Washington and not King David were/are perfect people not were/are perfect leaders. That’s one of the lessons that history and our Bible show us. And they show us that when people. Or the cats & dogs on this blog, try to make exceptions, we all get to regret it!

Not your personal likes and dislikes, nor your arbitrary decisions, nor mine are “how things should be done”. That’s how Jackie Barrett, Bill Campbell, ken Lay, Adolph Hitler and Saddam can flourish. They, and their supporters, think that the Rules don’t apply to them and that things they are trying to achieve are more important than some silly Rules.

Are you one of them?

The only way Dunn can achieve total greatness is to step down.

Who is Peter talking to in this blog?

I wonder if you've pondered July 19th while you spin your spin.

Let's not have another incident. Just be calm and support Greg quietly. By pushing him so hard, you look desperate to retain your rubber stamp role. If you lose that, you may have to make decisions on your own instead of the "talking points" memo you get every day (actually night) from the Dunn dude.

Chill out, the voters will decide.
meow

I find your faith in “federal regulations” and federal bureaucrats quite touching. The rest of us live in a different world however. It is a fallen world, some people are bad some people who are good, some make mistakes.

In our system, we have what is called “Checks & Balances”. When Checks and Balances are in place and allowed to work, one person or group checks on another. If they’ve made an error, then it can be pointed out and corrected. If they’re doing something they should not, then there is somebody to “blow the whistle”.

What you, and others, want is a system where one person or group decides what they are going to do and what they aren’t going to do. If that sounds like North Korea or Iran, it should because that is how they operate.

What you guys keep insisting on is that our Sheriff, or those he approves of, should do what they want, when they want and how they want. It’s been done that way in our country, in some places, before. But, it cannot and will not work forever.

Aren’t you ever going to learn that? Aren’t you ever going to learn that if someone in our government insists that things be done the right way that it doesn’t mean they: “want control”, are “out to get” anyone, or have some other evil purpose. Sometimes, they just want what’s right. I’m truly sorry that some of you are simply unable to understand that or accept that.

Peter Pfeifer

Peter, you didn't just do that? It's late and maybe you should go to bed. Make yourself a note reminding yourself of what you said tonight. You compared Randall Johnson to the short dude in North Korea who is shooting missiles at Japan and the Iranian leader building his own nuclear program in the middle east. Is this accusation still based on accounting books you have audited four times and found nothing? Peter get a grip. There's more that should be said to you for that posting, but common sense tells me to wait until tommorow.

Isn’t there an HGTV show that talks about not sending emails and/or posting while drinking?

http://shopping.discovery.com/product-60257.html

What you guys keep insisting on is that our Sheriff, or those he approves of, should do what they want, when they want and how they want. It’s been done that way in our country, in some places, before. But, it cannot and will not work forever.

I believe they are trying to tell you that you and your cronies will not be allowed to reach out and override the decision-making powers we gave to Randall Johnson when we elected him. It is not your job and it is not expected of you.

And I was going to let this go, but I've changed my mind now. Pursuant to your earlier post in which you cry like a little girl because the people here are so mean, let me just say the same thing was going on when I first found this board. Except then it was your people doing it. I'm referring to The Natural and her obvious sockpuppets. Folks around here say it's Janet and maybe they're right. The thing that's indisputable is that The Natural was someone with inside information available to the county commission and she was not afraid to post it if she thought she could hurt someone. Anyone who tried to defend the people she attacked was told they were too stupid to breathe. Randall Johnson, Bruce Jordan and I forget who else were constantly being accused of being common criminals/lawbreakers.

I saw more than one person leave this board because the unrelenting and harsh accusations were just bad for their peace of mind. You were here at that time. I don't recall you screaming foul then.

And since I just remembered I have Eric Maxwell's campaign sign as my icon, I'll just post this disclaimer.

The opinions expressed in the above post are those of the poster and are not necessarily endorsed by anyone else at all.

Peter, I thought you were an O.K. guy until I read this comment! Now I know you are truly "BRAIN-WASHED"!!
The Sheriff doesn't do what he wants! HE FOLLOWS THE LAW!!!
Unlike your Boss, the Dunnmeister, he is honest and held accountble for his actions... What about Dunn? Who is holding him accountable for his actions? He can't even manage his own Board... (I bet YOU know who "Leaked" the info to Kevin Duffy)
Dunn is hard-working, no doubt, but he works hard at the WRONG things. The Sheriff isn't the enemy!

“What you, and others, want is a system where one person or group decides what they are going to do and what they aren’t going to do. If that sounds like North Korea or Iran, it should because that is how they operate.”

No Peter that sounds like the current Fayette County Council

“What you guys keep insisting on is that our Sheriff, or those he approves of, should do what they want, when they want and how they want. It’s been done that way in our country, in some places, before. But, it cannot and will not work forever.”

Yes, Peter, We the citizens of Fayette County should be the ones to tell the Sheriff what should and shouldn’t be done as long as it's within the law. Anything else and we work with our elected representatives to change the law.

As far as the majority is concerned, the Sheriff has acted within the law. The Department of Justice thinks so and so does the judge that ruled in the Sheriff’s favor.

What part of that don’t you get?