Thursday, October 20, 2016

Oconee County Commission Candidates Call For More Transparency In Dealing With SPLOST

Horton Open To Citizen Oversight

All three of the candidates seeking to fill Post II on the Oconee County Board of Commissioners are proponents of more transparency regarding how the Commission spends revenue from its Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

Only Chuck Horton, however, stated a willingness to have a citizen committee to provide oversight for decisions made by the Commission on the 1 percent sales tax. Other counties, including Athens-Clarke County, have such a citizen committee.

“Maybe we need to have a group of citizens...get a report: Where are we on these projects that you said we were going to do?” Horton said in a one-on-one interview on a wide range of issues confronting the county.

Candidate Marcus Wiedower rejected the idea of a citizen review committee, saying “The oversight is the Commission” in his interview.

Ben Bridges didn’t take a stand on the appropriateness of a citizen oversight committee, but he did say “We need to have more openness to how much money is being collected and where exactly is it going for anybody to see.”

Early voting is underway, and 2,295 voters already have cast their ballots for the Nov. 8 election, which includes the special election to fill the unexpired term for the Post II BOC Commission as well as other local, state and national elections.

Heavy Turnout

Turnout for early voting has been running strong all week.

Today (Thursday), 616 persons cast their ballots, according to Pay Hayes, director, Oconee County Board of Elections.

On Wednesday, 521 persons had voted.

The figures were 575 on Tuesday and 583 on Monday.

The 2,295 represents 8.2 percent of the 27,845 registered voters in the county.

Early voting continues until Nov. 4. Saturday voting will be on Oct. 29.

Responses Of Candidates

Bridges, Horton and Wiedower were responding to questions I asked them in interviews on Sept. 25, 25 and 27, respectively.

Complete videos of those interviews are available on an Election Channel I created on the Oconee County Observations Vimeo site. The Election Channel also contains complete videos of the two election forums held for the Nov. 8 election.

In the interview, Horton gave the most detailed response, criticizing the current Board of Commissioners for holding money collected in the 2004 SPLOST and for transferring funds from water and sewer projects to pay off the jail.

Bridges mistakenly referenced the Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales tax in his answer. That tax is controlled entirely by the Oconee County Board of Education, not the Oconee County Board of Commissioners.

The video of the answers of the candidates to the question on SPLOST is below, starting with the answer of Wiedower.

OCO: Three Candidates on SPLOST from Lee Becker on Vimeo.

5 comments:

Xardox said...

A Citizen Oversight Committee would run the risk of being populated by as corrupt a group of people as whatever system they were supposed to be over-seeing.
However, as same as with the voting process, a proper system of vetting and attention would be in place to set good citizens into such a committee.
There are good, capable and honest citizens well-endowed with the qualities such a committee should have.
I am FOR such a committee.

Anonymous said...

Candidate Marcus Wiedower rejected the idea of a citizen review committee, saying “The oversight is the Commission” in his interview.

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Marcus Wiedower, you just lost my vote! You sound like a Melvin Davis clone with that unfortunate quote.

There are many, many intelligent, knowledgeable Oconeeians that could and should assist with the oversight of tens of millions of SPLOST taxpayer dollars...
especially as this current commission has done an incredibly poor job at managing SPLOST, with too many funds still unspent, and "for transferring funds from water and sewer projects to pay off the jail".

Athens-Clarke County has a SPLOST citizen's oversight committee ...the same county with excess sewer capacity...Oconee's most important short-term and long-term need.


http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/1837/Oversight-Committee

SPLOST 2011 Citizens Oversight Committee
In October 2011 the Mayor and Commission appointed a new Citizens Oversight Committee to continue oversight of the SPLOST 2005 Projects that were not complete and the implementation of the SPLOST 2011 approved Projects. The role and responsibility of the Citizens Oversight Committee is to ensure that projects are planned and recommended within their prescribed budgets, are feasible, and fulfill the project intent as identified within the referendum.

The Citizens Oversight Committee routinely meets monthly on the fourth Monday of each month at City Hall. The meetings are scheduled for 6:00 p.m. but may be changed as needs dictate. Please check the calendar to confirm meeting locations and times.


Please read this again Mr. Wiedower:
"The role and responsibility of the Citizens Oversight Committee is to ensure that projects are planned and recommended within their prescribed budgets, are feasible, and fulfill the project intent as identified within the referendum."

Anonymous said...

I am FOR such a committee too. Why is part of the 2004 money still sitting around??? Because the need wasn't as great as they made it out to be, in order to get it passed??? Oconee County citizens have been left in the dark for too long, these past 20 or so years. I hope that will change when Melvin leaves.

Zippity said...

Yes, we definitely need a citizen oversight committee, like Athens-Clarke. The commissioners have used this fund in the past as they wanted (or just saved the money and not spent it), regardless of what the citizens thought they were voting for. I stopped voting for SPLOST as a result of this. But I would vote for it again if there were a citizen oversight committee. And yes, Mr. Wiedower has revealed his true self. Mr. Horton is the candidate that brings a different voice to the commission.

Anonymous said...

Sound comment.
But who do you think they will appoint to such a committee?
Developers and real estate individuals move to the front.
Hum......