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Hall County is rapidly being taken over by an unscrupulous, power-hungry, would-be autocrat and his two commission henchmen.
First came the firing of the four top county officials (without cause other than to replace them with people they can control) before Craig Lutz and Scott Gibbs had even taken office and without a vote by the entire commission, which is apparently illegal.
Next, Lutz, Gibbs and Ashley Bell voted to halt work on the Cool Springs park, where 67 percent of the grading has been completed. Hall County has already spent $875,713 on design and grading for the park. At a later meeting, commissioners voted to complete the grading and to consider the possiblity off constructing practice ballfields with no facilities.
Even those actions may not qualify for the county to prevent the land from reverting to Boys Town USA, and they still are required to construct an access road to the boat storage area for Marina Bay.
The three dictators also voted to move the proposed North Hall Library back to Clermont, though there seems to be no evidence of a commitment by the county to build it there. This further burdens the county with the cost of designing and constructing the facility from scratch, whereas the construction was already well under way at the Nopone location.
The controlling triumvirate on the commission appears to have little concern for Hall County or the interests of its residents, since its actions so far reflect only a desire to increase power and further their own interests. Their latest effort was to strip the chairman of his ability to deliberate, make and second motions, duties which were confirmed by the latest version of Roberts Rules of Order. This was to further accomplish their complete control of the commission and county affairs, and was later scrapped, with only Lutz differing.
If these costly whirlwind actions during the first month of their reign are allowed to continue for the four years of their terms, they will likely bankrupt the county.
If I were a county employee, I would be quaking in my boots and desperately job hunting. Commission Dictator Lutz and Jock Connell, interim county administrator, are considering outsourcing most county departments except public safety. No consideration is being made in these depressed times of the hundreds of lost jobs that would result from turning county departments over to private industry.
I realize there are areas in county government that need improving or changing but for one person, who apparently considers himself omniscient as well as omnipotent to suddenly burst upon the scene and attempt to start over from scratch is way too much to stomach.
Can nothing be done to squelch the march of this runaway ego and return the commission to legal status?
Jim Scharnagel
Gainesville