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Vote for positive change tomorrow
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Voters of Anderson County have a chance to make history tomorrow. Collectively, thousands of Anderson County voters will walk one by one into a booth and vote to settle the ruckus that has been the 2008 primary campaign season. Anderson County Council (the majority) and Administrator Joey Preston have produced clean financial audits for 12 straight years. The County's credit rating is at an all-time best. The library system and emergency services system are second to none. The Anderson Regional Airport is operating in the black for the first time ever. The County has successfully garnered millions of dollars in State and Federal grants for recreation, public safety, roads and bridges and mill site cleanup. Yet despite these positive developments, a band of negative candidates (including two incumbents) is running on a platform of fundamentally changing the management and operation of county government. Their basic unfounded premise is that the current County Council majority and Administration is corrupt and has something to hide. Their often absurd accusations are very personal and very hurtful, they are patently false, and they have tarnished the public perception of County government. Can County government be improved? Of course it can. But the proper way to improve the county is through civil and focused debate and adjustments in public policy. The character assassination and publicity stunts of two incumbents in the name of accountability and open government threaten to tear down much of the good in Anderson County in order to get at a few very fixable problems. As you enter the booth alone tomorrow to do your civic duty, ask yourself do I want to send a message that negativity works? Or do I want to vote for people who are builders and not destroyers? I hope you will join me GPB in voting for positive change. You don't have to destroy a city to build a new Jerusalem.
The voters of Anderson Counth do indeed have a chance to make history tomorrow. The current Council and administrator have for twelve years in a row have assembled the county's financial reports in a format that pleases the people who review such things. That's all a clean audit means. Not once in those twelve years has the audit included each and every account the county has, as is required by law. During those twelve years, county administrator Jeoy Preston has worked diligently and craftily to gather unto himself the reins of the county. His success in doing so can be seen in the consistent 5-2 block of votes he has assembled, secured with favors and funds that he arrogantly denies to those Council members who question his imperial status.
For the last eight years, the county administrator has used that control to deny the most basic information concerning the County's operations and finances to council members who question such issues as credit card use and how a budget grows by $25 million in a month, with no input from the Council.
The voters of Anderson County are not monolithic by any means, and Preston clearly has supporters. But many of those voters feel that their administrator's personal behavior is important as well, and that behavior has raised questions about his professional conduct as well. So yes, history may well be made today.
But at the end of a hard fought and sometimes nasty campaign season, may we all agree on this? Because of the struggles and sacrifices made by this nation, its citizens and its soldiers, we are free to walk into a polling place, verify our identity, and cast our votes without fear of reprisal or attack. For that we should all be grateful.
Vote today!
For the last eight years, the county administrator has used that control to deny the most basic information concerning the County's operations and finances to council members who question such issues as credit card use and how a budget grows by $25 million in a month, with no input from the Council.
The voters of Anderson County are not monolithic by any means, and Preston clearly has supporters. But many of those voters feel that their administrator's personal behavior is important as well, and that behavior has raised questions about his professional conduct as well. So yes, history may well be made today.
But at the end of a hard fought and sometimes nasty campaign season, may we all agree on this? Because of the struggles and sacrifices made by this nation, its citizens and its soldiers, we are free to walk into a polling place, verify our identity, and cast our votes without fear of reprisal or attack. For that we should all be grateful.
Vote today!
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