Just after the election debacle in Dacusville and Pickens, I warned if you did not take action, nothing would change or improve. I gave you a list of actions to take to force change. You did none of that. Instead, you whined a lot and said it was everyone else’s fault.
This was a major failure — you had to redo an election. Yet nothing was changed, and you ended up paying for all of it.
When the council pays for something -- and you pay to run the election department and for the elections, you have an oversight responsibility to make sure the money was spent efficiently and spent right. That did not happen and nothing was changed.
Why? No one wanted to lean on anyone to force the changes to insure this doesn’t happen again. Sadly, the buddy system prevailed all the way up the line from the director, to the election board, to the delegation, up to the council.
Folks, this is what Pickens United means in practice. If your friends screw up, everyone just looks the other way.
Jail:
The $30 million jail is complete and ready for occupancy, but the staff hasn’t been hired to man it, so the new facility is sitting there empty.
Poor planning.
And it’s not a lack of money. The past 5 years the sheriff’s operations budget has risen from $9.8 to $14.6 million or about 10% a year. So there is plenty of money there to fund the growing needs of the department with the new jail.
And the problems you are having now, you should have addressed and solved months ago. You had 2 years to prepare for the opening of the jail.
And don’t tell us you have no responsibility. Again, the council paid for the jail and funds the sheriff’s department. You have oversight responsibility to make sure the money you allocate is spent efficiently, spent right and on time every step of the way. It was not.
Wes Hendricks:
Wes, you must turn it up a bit. Look at the election debacle, it was in your district. The Hagood Mill situation, again in your district. And now the jail, the most important project ever by the council, and it was also in your district.
Each councilman has an oversight responsibility for what goes on in his district when the council is paying for it. Wes (and Carl too) you cannot expect others to jump in and clean up an election travesty in your district, especially when you (not them) are paying for it all.
Wes, you can’t wait for State Rep Davey Hiott to step in and fix the Hagood Mill situation, when it is your district and the council funds the mill.
And Wes, you should have been asking tough questions on the jail opening months ago. You have the lead oversight role because the project is in your district and the council is paying for the project.
Wes you can get back into the game tonight by explaining why the jail is finished, but you can’t open it, what it will cost to fix and when the jail will be opened.