Saturday
Dec132008
« The Buzz referenced in 11Alive story on retreat »
Saturday, December 13, 2008 at 11:25AM
Thursday night, the Gwinnett County Commission held a public meeting to discuss the results of their budget retreat at Brasstown Valley Resort in the north Georgia mountains. I had received calls that day from two 11Alive News reporters, Jerry Carnes and Jon Shirek, who were reporting on the retreat. In Mr. Shirek's voicemail to me, he informed me he was at GJAC to cover the meeting and wanted to know if I could stop by and speak with him if I was attending. I returned his call and let him know that I had some work commitments and was not going to be able to make the meeting. I did not think much else about it, but, as I was driving home later that night, I saw an 11Alive news van leaving the courthouse area. Due to the time (after 11P), I assumed they had done a live shot for the evening news, so after getting home I set my DVR to record the overnight rebroadcast so I could see the report. I forgot about the recording until early this morning when I pulled up the Thursday night's news and fast-forwarded to the piece on the commission's retreat. Needless to say, I was stunned when I saw the Gwinnett Buzz on the news and heard Mr. Shirek quote a part of my Tuesday post on the topic. I could not help but chuckle at the characterization of myself as a "citizen watchdog."
Because I could not be at GJAC Thursday night, I wanted to take a moment and provide a bit of context that I would communicated to Mr. Shirek had I met with him. I want to emphasize that I recognize that $15,000 as a quantity of money is a fraction of a drop in the Gwinnett budget bucket. My dismay over the commissioners' retreat is not based on the actual amount of money that was spent, but the incredibly poor leadership the retreat demonstrates on the part of our county leaders. In fact, the cost of the retreat works out to be about two cents per Gwinnett resident.
I know this is a regular off-site meeting that the commissioners hold. In previous years when there was not a very tight budget situation, I have not been too worked up over it. However, when elected officials are talking about a broad variety of service cuts, some of which are legitimate functions of our county government, as well as raising the possibility of a tax increase, those officials should lead by example and not send the mixed message that the taxpayers should bear the burden of the budget crunch but the officials don't have to do likewise. This is similar to public outrage at corporate CEOs taking multi-million dollar bonuses while laying off staff. I actually see the government case to be worse than the corporate case. Corporations, by and large, receive revenue from their customers because those customers choose to do business with the corporation. Government receives its revenue by force of law (never mind that some liberals refer to our taxes as patriotic "contributions"). This places a higher responsibility for stewardship of those funds on the government.
Here is the 11Alive story for those of you that missed it.
Because I could not be at GJAC Thursday night, I wanted to take a moment and provide a bit of context that I would communicated to Mr. Shirek had I met with him. I want to emphasize that I recognize that $15,000 as a quantity of money is a fraction of a drop in the Gwinnett budget bucket. My dismay over the commissioners' retreat is not based on the actual amount of money that was spent, but the incredibly poor leadership the retreat demonstrates on the part of our county leaders. In fact, the cost of the retreat works out to be about two cents per Gwinnett resident.
I know this is a regular off-site meeting that the commissioners hold. In previous years when there was not a very tight budget situation, I have not been too worked up over it. However, when elected officials are talking about a broad variety of service cuts, some of which are legitimate functions of our county government, as well as raising the possibility of a tax increase, those officials should lead by example and not send the mixed message that the taxpayers should bear the burden of the budget crunch but the officials don't have to do likewise. This is similar to public outrage at corporate CEOs taking multi-million dollar bonuses while laying off staff. I actually see the government case to be worse than the corporate case. Corporations, by and large, receive revenue from their customers because those customers choose to do business with the corporation. Government receives its revenue by force of law (never mind that some liberals refer to our taxes as patriotic "contributions"). This places a higher responsibility for stewardship of those funds on the government.Here is the 11Alive story for those of you that missed it.
Reader Comments (1)
Having never been to a meeting at the GJAC before Thursday night I was expecting something a little different....like more concerned citizens in attendance. There were maybe a hand full of actual interested citizens. The rest appeared to be connected to the county government in some capacity or maybe just observers.
Needless to say I was disappointed and somewhat bored. I think maybe they purposely keep these meetings boring and short so that by the time you wake up from the induced Commision Coma, the meeting is over.