Still hoping for ethical government
December 27, 2012 12:00 AM | 924 views | 6 6 comments | 17 17 recommendations | email to a friend | print
DEAR EDITOR:

If ever there was absolute proof about the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners’ corruption and the corruption they have sponsored, enabled and facilitated, it is the long list of presentments from the second grand jury that is investigating their actions relating to their funneling of our money to cronies involved in the Bobo Affairs.

If anyone wants more proof of their epidemic corruption, they can simply read their initial responses to the scathing and incriminating conclusions from a jury made up of our citizens that currently are serving on this grand jury.

The commissioners all are struggling; wandering aimlessly to find a coherent position that they believe in some way will shield them from their unethical and substandard behavior.

Commissioners have been damned with a solid conviction of corruption. They need to accept it and act accordingly. I ask that the do something honorable to help us end this rampant corruption.

Perhaps, just perhaps, their corruption has been legal; but it is corruption nonetheless, no less bad than the illegal sort. A third grand jury will continue in their efforts to try to determine if any prosecutable corruption has occurred. But they are damned nonetheless.

My fellow citizens of this county will rid this county of its epidemic corruption; do not underestimate them. We will correct this mess the commissioners have helped to create.

We have begun our house-cleaning and they can see who is gone out with the trash. More will follow. Truth will prevail and Justice will come for the citizens of my county.

We have asked our state delegation to help us. Those in that delegation that refuse to help will eventually be cleaned out too.

They are on notice; they must take a stand on the corruption that is seriously damaging Cherokee County as detailed in the presentments in the second grand jury investigating these matters.

Other individuals that already have elected positions of power in our county and those citizens currently seeking them will also be asked for their firm positions about this corruption in Cherokee County.

To be clear, a non-position like “watchdog” is simply unacceptable. Understand that.

A Christmas wish come true would be for the citizens of my county to find a moral, ethical, and trustworthy Cherokee County government on the dawn of a Christmas morning in their near future.

We will make this happen. Officials can help us or continue to fight us. They can choose what is the honorable thing for them to do.

Best regards and a Merry Christmas to all of my fellow citizens.

Steve Marcinko

Holly Springs

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Comments
(6)
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Richard Payne
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January 08, 2013
To add to Mr. Johnson's comments regarding GA EPD guidelines, nothing comes up when you search the EPD website for any type of permitting associated with the Ball Ground highway RRDA site. If, as prescribed under the GA law that enabled RRDA's to be set up, there was an intent to "recover" (convert) mulch to some form of power, the site should carry the proper permits to do so. It does not, therefore its mulch did not and does not, even under the broadest possible definition, fall into the category of "solid waste". It was an $18 Million pig in a poke and commissioners can't permfume it enough to cover the smell of graft.
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Luther Johnson
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January 02, 2013
On its website (please check it out yourself), GA EPD provides downloadable copies of annual reports for its various departments. In the area of Solid Waste, which - per GA law - was the primary if not sole reason that Resource Recovery Development Authorities ever came into being, EPD's 2009 report includes a list of Solid Waste materials it successfully diverted from landfills. Among the 15 items on the list are electronic scrap, roofing shingles, antifreeze, and aerosol cans. NOT on the list are trees, stumps, bark, mulch, or any other essentially-organic substances. One does not have to be a chemist or a CPA to conclude that it was a substantial stretch of logic, law, and common sense for our BOC to have set up a RRDA for the purpose of financing the relocation of a brush-grinding business. What, pray tell, might prompt politicians to go to such lengths to appease a griping citizen or to assist a private business?
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Douglas Kelley
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January 06, 2013
I'll add this to Mr. Johnson's well-stated comments: If the purpose of a RRDA is to "recover" or divert solid waste from landfills, and mulch was clearly not sold waste, why did the Cherokee County court system ratify/certify the county going into debt through the 2007 RRDA bond?
Douglas Kelley
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December 31, 2012
When the Development Authority or the Office of Econ Development "courts" a prospective business with incentives such as property tax abatement, they do so on the basis of property tax base & job creation. Did BGR hire additional employees to staff the new site? I seem to recall reading that the new site was "at a higher level of automation" than the old one, which doesn't generally translate to employing more humans.
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Alan Ermtlu
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December 28, 2012
Thank you, Mr. Marcinko, for expressing an informed opinion concerning what should have been named the Ridiculously Rewarding Developer's Assistance program. I believe it takes 100 signatures to get the GA SOS to initiate a recall of local politicians. Since Ahrens haughtily vowed he will never resign, citizens need to stand up and show him the door.
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Truth be Known
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December 27, 2012
Simply Amazing, the present board is an honest hard working board that has placed cherokee county #1 in almost all catagories, just because they did not bow down to some loud mouth small group and individuals, they are corupt, I dont think so. But isnt it funny that some individuals own words are they now have someone that is "moldable" coming into office. Thank God we have Mr. Gunnin coming in to help balance out what I am sure is going to be an attack on cherokee county. If you care just watch who these radical groups back, that is until he learns the truth and has to make decisions against what his handlers what him to do. Coruption is not on the present board but runs deep in cherokee county, and in cherokee political groups.
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