Watching the elected ones
I’ve already heard some blowback about this latest column from some saying it’s unfair, but it seems to me if you’re an elected officials, you ought to be willing to answer some tough questions from time to time. You also ought to be held to a higher standard, as you’re dealing with the public’s money.
In watching Mobile County Commissioner Mike Dean for the past several weeks, it seems obvious to me he’s been trying to dangle the potential for fixing people’s muddy and potholed private roads with public funds, even though he knows he can’t do it. He’s been recorded saying as much twice, and during an interview with a news reporter, admitted it’s something he says to people because he doesn’t want to tell them no.
As for School Board President Fleet Belle, the man has had many federal tax liens, on himself and his church, not to mention other judgments against him and his church. It’s hard to understand why someone who can’t manage his own checkbook should be in charge of a budget that’s nearly three-quarters of a billion buckaroos.
Tags: elected officials, elections, fleet belle, mike dean, private roads
June 8th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
The Mike Dean “say yes when you mean no” experience isn’t news to me. In the fall of 2006 he agreed to make a small donation to a project undertaken by a local nonprofit group. He said write him a letter. I wrote a letter, emailed, and called repeatedly but never heard from him again. No funds, no explanation.
In the real world, people who don’t do what they say they will do, and people who don’t return phone calls to customers are FIRED. But, that’s the real world rather than the unaccountable fantasy world of government.