Letters to Oconee Editor, Blogger End Up in Trash

Feeling Rejected

Meridee Williams, general manager of The Oconee Enterprise, and Johnathan McGinty, blogger and Athens Banner-Herald columnist, have this in common.

Both recently rejected my efforts to gain access to their readers.

In doing so, they underscored a key characteristic of journalism, in the old media world and in the new one.

The power of the journalists comes from their audiences.

And the journalists set the rules for access to those audiences.

On Aug. 24 Williams rejected a letter I had submitted to the Enterprise electronically on Aug. 22.

My letter criticized the editorial in the Aug. 20 edition of the paper. That editorial said the discussion by four members of the Board of Commissioners that led to a change in the reporting lines for key officials in the county was an "embarrassment" and that the passage of the ordinance changing the reporting lines by the board was "arrogant."

In my submitted letter, I referred readers to the Aug. 19 posting on this blog for a "detailed but straightforward report on the Aug. 4 Board of Commissioners meeting" at which the ordinance was passed.

Williams rejected the letter in her Aug. 24 email message to me saying "We do not provide free advertising for blogs."

Three weeks earlier, on Aug. 3, I sent an email message to McGinty, criticizing his column in the Banner-Herald on Aug. 2 and his posting on his blog, Beyond the Trestle, on Aug. 3.

In that Aug. 2 column, McGinty had said "I can only hope the Oconee County Commission shows ... good judgment by dropping its efforts to overhaul the structure of the local government in a puzzling attempt to improve communication."

On his Aug. 3 blog, McGinty wrote in response to criticism he was receiving about that column that "it's hardly fair to advance one argument up until the final minute and then, at the last second, revert to what it should have been all along and then blame me for being uninformed."

"It is fair to blame you for being uninformed," I wrote to McGinty. "You were. You were publicly. And it makes a difference. The Sunday Banner-Herald is quite a soapbox. I think you did the readers a disservice by not investing enough time to really understand the issue."

I told him to put my response on his blog.

McGinty did not put it on his blog. What he ran instead were two postings on Aug. 4. In one, he said "Judging by the five emails I've received from him in the past 24 hours, I'm obviously not on Lee Becker's good side regarding my views on Oconee County's proposed governmental restructuring."

He added that some of his critics--though he did not name me--said he was "uninformed."

An hour and a half later, McGinty posted again, adding a new comment from a reader he identified as "JW, an Oconee County resident, with an entertaining take."

"Now, I don't agree with you one bit on changing the Oconee County government," McGinty quoted the reader as saying, "but I will say this, if Lee Becker thinks you are ‘uninformed’ that probably means you're the smartest guy in the world, so congratulations!"

According to my outbox, I sent McGinty four messages from Aug. 1 to 3, and one of them was a message from another person that I forwarded.

Williams at the Enterprise, in rejecting my letter to the editor, said she would run it as an advertisement in the Aug. 27 edition of the paper–the edition I had hoped would contain my letter to the editor in the regular letters section.

In response to my request, she created a 2 column x 2.875 inch advertisement and sent it to me for my approval.

In the end, I decided it was not worth the $57.28 she said I would have had to pay to have my letter to the editor published in the paper.

McGinty stated his policy on comments in a posting he did on July 29.

He said he did not permit readers of his blog to provide comments because they take too much time to moderate. "I just don't have the time or patience," he said. People can send him email messages, he said, and he would "regularly" use them in his blog.

The Enterprise has an unaudited circulation of 4,000. McGinty told me during one of two brief personal conversations I’ve had with him that he gets about 150 visitors to his blog each day.

I would have had to pay $57.28 to have a chance to reach the 4,000 subscribers to the Enterprise, and I had no way to reach the 150 readers of McGinty’s blog unless he chose to allow it, which he did not. (McGinty recently started using Google ads, so that option does now exist.)

I have fewer visitors to this blog than McGinty has to his, and moderating the comments has not been a problem. I’ve had only a small number, and those I have received have been very civil.

Twice I’ve been criticized for mistakes I made. I thanked the critic–who was pretty direct–and corrected the errors.

I do get feedback via email. On a few occasions, I’ve encouraged those who wrote to post those comments to the blog. Some have done so.

I have set the comments option on this blog in a way that allows me to decide whether to publish them. I’ve used all sent so far, but I would not use one that contained what I viewed as a personal attack on anyone other than me.

I do not allow access to my listserv, which contains 121 names as of tonight. I send an email message to people on that list when I post to the blog, and I protect those on the list from unwanted messages. I view the list as something I’ve assembled and maintained–that is, as my list.

This blog has no advertising. I don’t pay Google for hosting it. If Google were to change the policy, however, and required me to pay, I would have to consider accepting ads. Under that circumstance, I would be competing with the Enterprise and McGinty’s Beyond the Trestle blog.

This potential competition does provide some justification for the Enterprise's decision not to allow me to reference my blog in a letter to the editor and to McGinty for not allowing me to claim he didn’t do his homework.

I also sent a letter to the editor of the Banner-Herald that suggested readers could go to my blog for additional information about the upcoming vote on the reorganization ordinance. The paper published the letter on Aug. 3.

The editors left in the reference to my blog, and even created a link to it in the online edition.

Beneath the letter, the paper used this note:

"EDITOR’S NOTE: In the interest of steering readers to varied sources of information and commentary, information about accessing blogs will be published occasionally on the Banner-Herald’s editorial page. Publishing that information does not constitute the newspapers endorsement of the content of any referenced blogs."

The Banner-Herald also has a very liberal policy on feedback. To leave a comment, readers must register, but the comments are not moderated. The tenor of those comments is quite varied. (I commented on McGinty's Aug. 2 column.)

The Enterprise web site allows readers to submit comments to the relatively few articles posted there. The comments are reviewed before they are posted.

The Oconee Leader requires reader to register before commenting on the small number of articles it posts on its web site. It also moderates comments before they are published.

Brian Brodrick moderates comments on Voice of Moderation.


Wendell Dawson does not have a comment function on his Another Voice from Oconee County, but he recommends people contact him with feedback and provides his email address.

Kate McDaniel’s A Positive Vision for Oconee County does not have a comment function, but she provides her email address and asks people to send comments.

Dan Matthews moderates comments in his Oconee County, GA Politics.

Steve Holzman moderates the comments on his Small Town Politics–North High Shoals. He has recently announced that he will not publish anonymous comments.

So while the technology has made it easier for all of us to send messages, it has not really made it any easier for someone who wants to respond to what we say to be able to do so.

That remains under the control of the organization or person who has attracted the audience in the first place. Increasingly, as journalists operate independently of media organizations, the journalists control the audiences.

The late A.J. Liebling, journalist and media critic, is famous for his observation: "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one."

That is less true today than in the past.

What hasn’t changed is that the right of reply is guaranteed to no one.

Oconee Land Use Committee Hears Finance Options for Courthouse

Er, Make that Judicial/Administrative Facilities

County Finance Director Jeff Benko outlined to the Citizen Advisory Committee on Land Use and Transportation Planning tonight five ways the county could finance new judicial and administrative facilities.

Benko said he’d expect to recommend combining several of these to complete the project.

At the request of the Board of Commissioners, the Committee is looking into ways to expand and improve the facilities currently housed at the courthouse in Watkinsville.

Committee Chairman Abe Abouhamdan said at the end of the hour-long meeting at the Community Center at Oconee Veterans Park that he thought the committee was four to five months away from being able to report back to the board.

Benko said the county could pay as it built new facilities or, as is more often the case with such projects, borrow money to finance it and build it all at once.

He said financing could be through the sale of general obligation bonds or revenue bonds. The county also could finance the project through a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SLOST), through a lease agreement, or through grants.

Voters would have to approve a general obligation bond, as they did in 2003 to build the Veterans Park. The county can use any of its revenue sources to pay off general obligation bonds.

Revenue bonds are retired by revenues from the project. Since county court and administrative facilities are not revenue generating, this is an unlikely avenue for the project, Benko acknowledged.

The 2004 SPLOST, set to retire this month, included $4.6 million for county facilities. Benko said about $4 million of that is available for the new court and administrative facilities.

The SPLOST approved in March does not have any money designated for county facilities, however, and the next new SPLOST won’t begin until 2015.

Benko said the county could ask the Association County Commissioners of Georgia to build and own new facilities. The County could lease these facilities for its use. The county has exactly this arrangement for the new jail.

Various grants are available to counties, Benko said, but he doubted the county would have much success in landing a grant for this type of project.

Benko would be the person who would advise the Board of Commissioners on financing.

“Given what I know today,” Benko said, “I’d compile various sources and combine various sources to complete this project.”



Strategic and Long-Range Planning Director Wayne Provost recommended to the Board on March 31 that it seek proposals from qualified planning firms to assist with a long-range planning study of county judicial and administrative needs.

The board decided that a request for proposals was premature and that the public should be involved in the planning process. It asked the Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee to initiate a public study on future facility needs and issue a recommendation.

Provost prodded the committed repeatedly tonight to recommend that the county get expert help.

"We’ll have to bring in a consultant,” he said at one of those times.

Board member Bob Isaac said it was important to him that the county continue to make use of the existing courthouse in at least some way.

Benko told the board that the court functions have to remain in Watkinsville, the county seat, but administrative facilities can be elsewhere in the county.

Provost emphasized at the August meeting of the Land Use and Transportation Committee that it should think separately about judicial and administrative facilities.

County Administrative Officer Alan Theriault is scheduled to attend the October meeting of the Land Use and Transportation Committee to outline the administrative needs of the county.

Design for Mars Hill Road Includes Sidewalks and Bike Lanes

Walk or Bike to Movie, Restaurant

When the Mars Hill Road widening project is completed sometime in the future, a bicyclist should be able to ride from downtown Watkinsville to the planned Epps Bridge Centre on Epps Bridge Parkway entirely within a bike lane.

And a determined walker or runner could cover the six plus miles entirely on sidewalks.

Both bike lanes and sidewalks are part of the design for the roadway prepared by Moreland Altobelli Associates Inc. of Norcross under a design contract with the county signed more than 10 years ago.

The county approved a change order to that contract at the Board of Commissioners meeting on Sept. 1, awarding up to $142,666 for changes that will need to be made in the design.

Moreland Altobelli will be asked to update the existing plans to reflect recent property splits and mergers, new developments, and design modifications to the Mars Hill Road intersection with Daniells Bridge Road.

The firm also will have to split the project into three segments, since the county has received money only for right of way acquisition from SR 316 to Hog Mountain Road. The state has not said when it will release money for right of way acquisition for the second phase from Hog Mountain road to US 441, or the third phase from US 441 to SR 15 in Watkinsville.

The BOC on Sept. 1 also voted to issue a request for proposals for right of way acquisition services for the first phase of the project.

None of the changes that Moreland Altobelli will be asked to make will alter the basic design of the road. The new Mars Hill Road will be four lanes wide and include turn lanes and acceleration and deceleration lanes.

It also includes sidewalks and bike lanes on both sides of the road.

Dan Wilson, assistant county engineer, told me on Friday that former Public Works Director Mike Leonas was determined that sidewalks and bike lanes be part of the project. Leonas left the public works department in the summer of 2007.

The Oconee Connector Extension, which will form a loop from SR 316 at the existing Oconee Connector back to Epps Bridge Parkway at Lowe’s, will include bike lanes and sidewalks as well.

Though the developers of the proposed Epps Bridge Centre did not incorporate bike lanes into the design, they can still do so. That shopping center is expected to include an entertainment complex consisting of restaurants and a 16-screen movie theater.

Epps Bridge Parkway east of where the connector loop will intersect with it also has sidewalks and bike lanes.

The Athens Banner-Herald reported on the BOC action on Mars Hill in its Sept. 4 edition, but it incorrectly said the board had accepted a proposal from Moreland Altobelli for design of the project. The board only approved a change order in the existing contract to add the modifications needed.

The Oconee Enterprise did not mention the change order and made only passing reference to the request for proposals for right of way acquisition in its story in the Sept. 3 edition about the most recent BOC meeting.

At the Aug. 25 agenda setting meeting of the board, Emil Beshara, current public works director, outlined the board action being requested and also invited citizens to drop by the Public Works office to review the designs.

I visited the office on Friday and reviewed the Moreland Altobelli documents with Wilson.

Wilson indicated that the roadway will be built to state standards, though the section from Hog Moutain Road to SR 316 will remain a county, rather than state, roadway.

He indicated that the bike lanes will be adjacent to the regular auto lanes, rather than separated from them, meaning bikers will be competing with fast-moving automobile traffic.

The median will be grass in places and raised concrete in others, he said.

The right of way work for the three mile of roadway covered by phase one is expected to begin in five months and take about two years.

The Mars Hill widening is designed to ease traffic flow but also to open up more land for commercial development.

So far, the state has not found the $19 million for actual construction of the first phase of the road.

Oconee County Citizen Committee to Discuss Courthouse

Judicial Slash Administrative

Tucked between two meetings next week that have attracted quite a bit of attention–by U.S. Rep. Paul Broun and by the Oconee County Board of Education–is a meeting of the Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee that could shed light on the county’s future plans for the Watkinsville courthouse.

County Finance Director Jeff Benko is scheduled to appear before the citizen advisory committee to discuss how any changes in county administrative and court facilities can be financed.

The meeting will start at 7 p.m. in the Community Center at Oconee Veterans Park on Hog Mountain Road.

Wayne Provost, director of strategic and long range planning for the county, asked the committee at its Aug. 11 meeting to change the way it discussed the facility under consideration.

“The nomenclature we use for this is courthouse planning,” he said. “I’d like to suggest we start referring to this as judicial slash administrative facilities, because it not necessarily just the court functions that we’re talking about. Right now there is a great deal of administrative stuff in the courthouse.”

Provost indicated the judicial and administrative requirements need to be considered separately.

On June 9, the committee heard from Superior Court Judge Steve Jones, Probate Court Judge David Anglin, Superior Court Clerk Angela Watson, Sheriff Scott Berry, and Tax Commissioner Harriette Browning about their needs for the courthouse.

According to the minutes of the meeting, the discussion focused on new space demands as judicial activities increase, on security requirements associated with the functioning of the courts, and on parking.

The county is sitting on $4.25 million in unspent funds from the 2004 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) that are earmarked for "county facilities." The tax should end in November of this year.

No money for a courthouse–or judicial/administrative facilities--was allocated in the SPLOST approved in March of this year. That tax that will take effect as soon as the current SPLOST ends. That new tax–also one cent on the dollar–will run for six years.

No one has an estimate on how much money the county will need for new facilities, since no one has much of an idea what those facilities might be.

At present, “space is at a premium,” Administrative Officer Alan Theriault told the committee, and he said professional assistance is needed to help project future needs and determine how much adaptation the current courthouse can handle.

Theriault will speak to the Land Use and Transportation Committee at its Oct. 13 meeting more specifically on space needs of the administrative offices of the county.

The BOC referred the issue of the courthouse to the Land Use and Transportation Committee on March 31. The Board asked that the committee initiate a public study on future facility needs and issue a recommendation.

It is a safe bet that each of the other two meetings scheduled in the county next week will outdraw the Tuesday night meeting of the Land Use and Transportation Committee.

Earlier in the day, U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Athens, will host a health care town hall meeting at 10 a.m. in the Oconee County Civic Center, 2661 Hog Mountain Road. The meeting starts at 10 a.m., according to the congressman’s web site, but the site does not indicate how long the meeting will last.

At noon on Friday, the Oconee County Board of Education has scheduled an administrative hearing at the Central Office Meeting Room of the administrative building, 34 School Street in Watkinsville.

Superintendent John Jackson has recommended that the Board fire North Oconee High School Principal John Osborne after Osborne spoke out about disparities between the sports facilities of the county’s two high schools.

The Board is scheduled to go into executive session to make its decision.

Oconee BOC To Take Action on Mars Hill Widening

Spend And Wait

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners tomorrow night plans to move forward on land acquisition for the widening of Mars Hill road.

The board will do this by acting on two items on its consent agenda at its regular 7 p.m. meeting at the courthouse in Watkinsville.

The first is to approve a proposal by Moreland Altobelli Associates of Norcross for design services related to the project. The second is to authorize a request for proposals for right-of-way acquisition services.

The board put the items on the consent agenda at its meeting on Aug. 25. Items on the consent agenda are passed without discussion, unless a member of the board objects.

The state’s decision to move forward on the Mars Hill project after delaying it in October of last year was reported by Athens Banner-Herald on Aug. 14.

The discussion at the BOC meeting on Aug. 25 indicated that some risk will be associated with the decision to go forward with the project.

While the state has indicated it has $9.8 to cover the costs of the right away, Oconee County will have to front that money and take payment whenever the state decides to reimburse the county.

In addition, the state will cover the cost of the right of way purchases, but not all of the other expenses associated with the acquisition.

Oconee County will be responsible for all preliminary engineering costs, 20 percent of utility relocation costs, all appraisal, consultant and attorney fees and any in-house staff expenses.

The county at the end of the fiscal year ending on June 30 was projecting a budget surplus of about $11 million, or just about $1 million more than would be required for the right of way acquisition.

The county earns money on that surplus that it plows back into the county budget.

Once the county spends the money on the right of way purchases, it loses interest revenue on that money. The longer the state takes to reimburse, the more money the county loses.

The county also fronted right of way acquisition costs for the Oconee Connector Extension , which will create a loop from SR 316 at the current connector intersection with SR 316 back to Epps Bridge Parkway at Lowe’s. The roadway is designed to open up land for commercial development.

The county paid out $5.9 million for right of way for the road, beginning in October of 2007, and continuing through May of 2008. The county received the first reimbursement from the state on Nov. 14, of 2008, and the last on May 20 of 2009, according to records of the transactions I received in response to an open records request I filed in July.

Finance Director Jeff Benko cited the loss of interest revenue–which he estimated at about half a million dollars at the April 21 BOC meeting–as one factor in the county being about $1.2 million behind in projected revenue as the fiscal year closed out.

So the county has to be careful about how quickly it purchases the land and hopeful the state will be quick to reimburse.

Benko (clip above) stated those concerns at the meeting on Aug. 25. During the time of right of way acquisition, "cash will be a concern of mine," he said.

He said he will seek to "use that money consecutively and have enough in the event a payment from the state of Georgia doesn’t happen, gets extended and takes a little bit longer."

The request for proposals won’t have any effect on this payment schedule. The county is merely seeking bids for someone to handle the acquisition work.

As Chairman Melvin Davis said at the meeting on Aug. 25, the state reimburses on its own schedule.

Originally, the widening of Mars Hill was to run from SR 316 to SR 15 in Watkinsville, but the plan now is to first widen the road from SR 316 to Hog Mountain Road at Butler’s Crossing. The next phase would be from Hog Mountain Road to US 441. The final phase would extend the widening to SR 15.

The board tomorrow will be authorizing right of way purchase only for that first phase, which is about three miles in length.

Because the original plans were for the full project, the county will be asking Moreland Altobelli to review plans and identify the properties that will need to be purchased only in this first phase.

If the board approves the consent agenda it will approve a change order in an existing contract with Moreland Altobelli Associates that will cover the expenses associated with these revisions.

The new costs are not to exceed $142,666.

The right of way work is expected to begin in five months and take about two years.

The Mars Hill widening is designed to ease traffic flow but also to open up more land for commercial development.

So far, the state has not found the $19 million for actual construction of the road.

Oconee County BOC Chairman Davis Addresses Interbasin Transfer Issue

One Out of Three

The Oconee Enterprise in today’s edition quotes me as saying three things at the meeting on Tuesday night.

I did say one of them.

Here’s what the paper’s story on the Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday night reported:

"Visitor Lee Becker emphasized the importance of securing water if the rapid build-out of Hard Labor Creek Reservoir proceeds."

I really don’t know what it means. To make sure I hadn’t said it, I listened to the video and audio recording I made of the meeting. Nothing I said was even close.

Hard Labor Creek is proceeding and is designed to address the water needs of Oconee and Walton counties. Oconee and Walton counties are discussing with the state the possibility of obtaining state funding to speed up the project as a way to help Atlanta with its urgent water needs.

The Enterprise story continued:

"Becker emphasized his concern that the county could lose its own access to water if Atlanta was given too much authority."

I never said that either, but, in this case, I know what the sentence means.

The story then said:

"And in a related issue, he was concerned that water removed to satisfy Atlanta’s needs might reduce the amount of water downstream in the Apalachee."

This is pretty close. I said the county should be looking for ways to make sure that water that was transferred out of the basin–as any water sold to Atlanta will be–comes back into the basin after use. In fact, this was the sole issue I raised about the discussions.

The paper said that Commission Chairman Melvin Davis and commissioners Chuck Horton and Jim Luke emphasized "that those issues had already been discussed."

Davis was particularly clear in saying that in discussions so far about the possibility of moving water from the Hard Labor Creek Reservoir to Atlanta "Interbasin transfer was discussed, putting water back in the Apalachee."

That was new, but the paper didn’t seem to realize that.

The experience only confirms what many people who attend BOC meetings know. It is better to be ignored by the Enterprise than quoted in it.

By the way, though I was labeled a visitor, I do live in Oconee County and identified myself as a resident before I spoke.

My name and address also are on the subscription list for the Enterprise.

NOTE: Here is how my comments were recorded by County Clerk Gina Lindsey in the officially approved minutes for the meeting on 8/28/09.

Citizen Remarks: Lee Becker expressed his appreciation for Oconee and Walton Counties’ discussions with representatives of the Governor’s Office on obtaining State and Federal funds for the Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir Project. Mr. Becker asked the Commissioners to keep in mind the issue of inter-basin transfer of waters and how water will be returned to the Oconee River Basin.

Oconee BOC Agenda Has New Opportunities For Speaking

Citizens Get Uprade

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners meeting will have a different feel tomorrow night, courtesy of the just-passed ordinance resetting the county’s organizational structure.

At the top of the agenda will be "Statements and Remarks from Commissioners," an item completely new to Oconee BOC meeting agendas.

Following this will be an opportunity for citizens to make statements. This is usually the final item on the agenda–just ahead of adjournment to executive session or of the meeting entirely.

Tomorrow night’s meeting is an agenda-setting session, when the board will agree on the agenda for its regular session on Sept. 1. Citizens will now have a chance to suggest items for that agenda before the agenda actually is set, rather than after it is set, as in the past.

The ordinance passed at the Aug. 4 meeting reorganizing the way the board interacts with key county administrators and BOC Chairman Melvin Davis included a new Rules of Order. One of those rules stated that "There shall be an agenda item on each agenda providing Commissioners the opportunity to speak at the beginning of the meeting."


The Rules of Order also stated that each agenda shall contain an item allowing the public to comment, but that has been procedure in the past.

The Rules do not state where this opportunities to speak shall be on the agenda, but citizens complained during the public hearings on the ordinance that they had been forced to wait until the end of the meeting, when commissioners are tired and ready to end the session.

County Clerk Gina Lindsey distributed the agenda for tomorrow night’s meeting on Friday, and I sent her an email message over the weekend asking her at whose initiative the changes had been made.

"The order of items on the BOC agenda have been changed according to the Rules of Order adopted by the Board," she wrote me in an email message today.

The actual first item on the agenda tomorrow night is the agenda itself.

After the comments from the Commissioners and from the citizens, the board will be asked to approve the 2009 tax millage levy for Oconee County Schools and then the levy for the county government itself.

The board also will discuss a jail reimbursement fee agreement with Fulton County–Oconee County has excess capacity at its new jail–and get an update on the proposed widening of Mars Hill Road.

The board will discuss proposals for right of way purchases for the road. Money for construction has not yet been made available by the state.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the courthouse in Watkinsville.