March 6, 2019 Page 5A
iR epOrter
ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
by Don Daniel
a GomerPyle
expression "surprise,
surprise, surprise" is
appropriate to start
off this column. As has been
reported, Georgia Power, a.k.a.
Plant Scherer, just paid their tax
bill and the goose that laid the
golden egg in the amount of $3
million plus. The ink probably
did not dry on the check before
our county commissioners
and county manager went on a
spending spree.
We taxpayers are now leasing,
not purchasing, 31 new vehicles
with a taxpayer check in the
amount---get ready---S808,840.
That takes a pretty
good chunk out
of the check from
Georgia Power.
Just to remind
you, as reported
a couple of weeks
ago, $224,428
went to purchase
two tractors with
batwing cutters.
And to top that off,
the commissioners
gave themselves
a 46 percent raise
and purchased a
truck for towing,
$62,980 and rewarding the
county manager with a raise
and a vehicle. I assume he got
a county gas credit card or asks
for gas reimbursement on his
expense account traveling over
the county.
Obviously in an attempt to
keep the county coffer from
draining below empty, if you
owe a past-due water bill, get
ready for a collection agency
to be calling. According to a
report by the county manager,
"there is $254,700 in accounts
receivables relating to water of
which $148,000 or 58 percent
are associated with inactive
accounts. Utility Partners (who
we pay to bill and collect water
bills) recommends turning over
these inactive and delinquent
paid $285 for each of the three
DDA members. Add that figure
to expense reports and just over
$10,000 taxpayer money went
to the city of Atlanta.
WHAT IS the top motel in
Forsyth? According to the 2018
Monthly Hotel/Motel Tax Pay-
ment Report for December, the
No. I motel was Holiday Inn
Express, collecting $7,580.23
in taxes. Coming in at No. 2 is
LaQuinta Inn and Suites with
$6,223.64 and Hampton Inn
third with $5,142.34. Rounding
out the top five were Days Inn,
$4,908.98 and Red Roof Inn,
$3,213.70.
The 14 hotels
in Forsyth col-
lected a total of
$40,850.64. Of
that total, Forsyth
received 60 percent
or $24,519.30 with
the local conven-
tion and visitors
bureau getting
$16,340.26 to pro-
mote the city as a
tourist attraction.
ACCORDING
TO our former
sheriff and now U.S. Marshal,
the Latin phrase over the main
entrance at the Justice center,
"fiat justitia caelum", translates
into "Justice be done though
the heaven fall". Phyllis Hanes,
Barbara Geek, Nancy Calhoun,
Dena Wheeler, and Sandi Wil-
liams all came up with the right
answer, but Susan Parker was
the first. Susan not only gets the
goodie certificate but also the
$25 cash.
Sticking with Latin, translate
the phrase "E pluribus unum".
First correct answer after 12
noon on Thursday gets the
certificate for Whistle Stop fried
greeia tomato appetizers, dessert
at The Sweet Tea in Boling-
broke, dozen Dunkin Donuts,
Dairy Queen Blizzard, slice of
accounts to a collection agency", pizza at lon 's, slice of Shoney's
In last week's column I
reported our county attorney's
opinion on the Open Records
Request needed to get access
to the check register where our
finance director Lorri Robin-
son has paid the bills--written
the checks. Well, the county
attorney politely replied that
the county "is in the process
of developing a web page" that
would give everyone access to
how the county pays bills.
Well, lo and behold, you/
we can now access the check
register by going on the county
website, going tothe finance
department page, dick on min-
ute tab and, voila!, there is the
check register with a compre-
hensive look at who we pay but
in some instances not what we
are paying for.
AGAIN, HAVING to file an
open records request with For-
syth's city manager, I received
the expense reports for the
mayor, all council members,
city manager and three mem-
bers of the Forsyth Downtown
DevelopmentAuthority at-
tending the Georgia Municipal
Authority's Mayor's Day Con-
ference in Atlanta at the Down-
town Hilton and smooshing
with our legislative delegation
and getting their picture taken
with them and the governor.
Well, Council member John
Howard had the biggest ex-
penses: Councilman Howard's
room was $446.36, compared to
others $304, parking $20, meals
$95.25 and mileage to and from
Forsyth, $71.92 as was all the
others for a total of $633.53.
Understand he did reimburse
the city $147.
Total Forsyth taxpayer funds
spent on the three-day bed,
parking, meals and mileage
came to $5,054.66 which does
not include the cost of the train-
ing sessions which was $4,800
for eight inducting the mayor,
council and staffpayable to the
Georgia Municipal Association
for "training" GMA also got
Strawberry pie, Forsyth Main
Street t-shirt, and sandwich,
chip and drink at The Pickled
Okra.
OBVIOUSLY THE local log-
gers who got caught mudding
were intentionally attempting
to skirt the law when they did
not obey what they should have
known. I just don't understand.
I HEARD a local politician
bragging about how transparent
he thought local government
is. "We are transparent. All
you have to do is file an open
records request and I will make
the determination if the request
is legitimate".
I WAS going to call or email
members of our House legisla-
tive delegation inquiring their
comments about Speaker of the
Georgia .House David Ralston.
Ralston, an attorney, has been
under fire for delaying his
clients' trials on the basis his
legislative duties were a prior-
ity. That is'allowed because of.
the law he pushed excusing at-
torneys who are legislators from
expeditious trials.
I didn't call or email since Will
said he texted our delegation
but didn't get a response. As I
asked Will, "fou are not sur-
prised at not getting a response
are you?" We both concurred
that we know who butters our
delegations' bread when they
are under the Gold Dome for
40 days.
CONTACT Don Daniel at
tuUaybear@bellsouth.net to
answer The Question or make
a printable comment. Don't
forget to listen to The Reporter
On The Radio on Majic 100 on
Sunday mornings at 7. Watch
the show on Forsyth Cablevi-
sion.
Donald Daniel is the founder
and former publisher of The
Monroe County Reporter.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
To the Editor:
Forsyth Woman's Club would like to
th ak our community for another won-
derful Father-Daughter Dance, held at
Hubbard Elementary School on Saturday,
Jan. 26. The event would not have been so success-
ful without the support of many people and local
businesses. We would like to say a special "Thank
You" to:
Hubbard Elementary/Mr. lay Johnston, principal;
United Bank; Southern Smiles; Middle Georgia
Realty/Mrs. Connie Ham; Mr. Tommy Johnston
and State Farm; Gator the DJ; Mr. Will Davis & The
Monroe County Reporter; Lt. Willie Brown; Ms.
Georgia Tarpley; Thanh Nguyen; MPHS Beta Club
volunteers; MPHS Key .Club volunteers; Reflections
Photography Studio/Ms. Jan Hatten.We would espe-
cially like tO thank all the fathers (or father figures)
and daughters and everyone who attended. We ap-
preciate your support of this event.
The Forsyth Woman's Club is a service organiza-
tion whose goal is to work together to improve
our community. The money raised through, our
fundraising efforts goes back to the community in
the form of scholarships for local senior girls and
contributions to local organizations that serve this
community and our country. Scholarship applica-
tions for the 2019 scholarship(s) will be available
soon. Applicants should be senior girls who reside
in Monroe County. Thank you again, Forsyth/Mon-
roe County,
Dance!
for another wonderful Father-Daughter
Cathy Bankston
Monroe County
COUNTY GOVERNMENT UPDATE by Eddie Rowland
n Feb. 27-28, commis-
sion chairman Greg
r and I visited
the state capitol with
many other county commission-
ers from around the state. We are
members of the Association of
County Commissioners of Geor-
gia (ACCG) which, among other
things, is our legislative advocate.
During this legislative session,
there were several significant
policy issues and talking points
brought up that need our call to
action. I have listed these issues
below and my personal opinion
on them which coincide with the
stance that ACCG has taken:
1. HB 23 - Authorization for
EMC's to provide broadband
service, qtfis will allow EMCs to
service an area if existing internet
providers are unable or unwilling
to do so. I support this as an effort
to expand rural broadband in all
areas of the county.
2. HB-182 - Sales tax from out
of state vendors, HB 276 - mod-
ernization of the tax collection
system, HB 448 - Hotel/Motel
tax. These allow improved col-
lections and the right to collect
sales tax and hotel/motel tax from
out of state and on line sellers of
more than $100,000 in Georgia
annually. I support this as a way
to level the playing field for the
businesses that actually reside and
do business here vs.-those who
only do such business on line and
outside our state.
3. HB 302 and SB 172- Lo-
cal design standards preempted.
This allows the state to regulate
house design standards. While
I am interested in making sure
homes built meet some minimum
standards, I feel that we can make
those decisions better on a local
level rather than a state level. I'm
sure there are good arguments
for both but at this time, I oppose
this bill.
4. HB 316 - Voting machine
replacements and elections bill
of 2019. Our current voting
equipment is antiquated. We are
Monroe County commissioner Eddie Rowland,
Gov. Brian Kemp last week in Atlanta.
interested in safe, secure, aJad ac-
cessible elections: These replace-
ments will be paid for by the state
and will be a voting machine that
is both.touchscreen and delivers
a paper ballot at the same time.
Our elections officials say this is a
good deal and I am in favor of it.
5. HB 465 - Mandates on public
water systems. This bill creates
new requirements for public and
private water systems such as
notification requirements re-
garding termination of service,
specifics on customer service
standards, how and when billing
should occur, and prohibits local
authority to issue property liens
due to non-payment. I oppose
this bill because it dictates to the
county how we can collect water
bills. Local governments need
to determine how public water
right, shakes hands with
systems are run. After all, if the
water system comes up short each
year, it is the local citizens who
have to pay for the shortfall, e;een .
those on wells.
These are the bills that I felt
most impacted our county. I
gave you a very short version of
the bills with my opinion. Please
research them and come to your
own conclusions. And most im-
portantly, let your representatives
know what you do and do not
support. We owe it to ourselves
and our children and grandchil-
dren to help guide policy in the
direction that makes our county
and state great.
Eddie Rowland represents
District 2 on the Monroe County
Commission.
SERVING YOU
Robert Dickey
R- District 140
404-463-2246
DahWashburn
R- District 141
404-656-01 52
John Kennedy
R- District 18
404:656-0045
Susan Holmes
R- District 129
404-656-5132