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The financial health and well-being of this county and the city of Gainesville will get no better until new people step forward to run for the Hall County Board of Commissioners and the Gainesville City Council.
Clearly the BOC has little, if any, business sense. It has ruined the financial health of the county. The members must be removed, but that can only happen if new people step forward to run, people who know how to run a business, how to hold a tight rein when things are good and how to pinch a penny when things are not so good. We need people who aren't in it for self-gratification; we need people who will keep the entire county in mind with every decision they make.
I include the City Council in this because they have all been on the council for far too long, one having been there for 30-plus years. Yes, in a way, it creates a cohesion when council and commission members have been there for a while, but it also creates exactly what has happened here in the county: a group who think they know best and turn a deaf ear to anything else.
I am a strong proponent of term limits on every level of elected officials. Even the person who goes in with a humble spirit can hold off the sense of power that comes in elected office only for so long. If it is important that our president and governors are allowed to serve only two terms, then it is good for all elected officials.
So when the next election cycle comes around, we must look for new leaders who will work to bring Hall County back from the brink and bring new leadership into our midst. How about some of those young people who are or have been part of the chamber's leadership programs? I think it is time you begin to show the community what new leadership can bring.
S.L. Taylor
Gainesville