Roy Exum: Integrity By Majority-Rule?

  • Sunday, September 13, 2015
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

In the great book “To Kill A Mockingbird,” our hero Atticus Finch was talking about conscience and integrity when author Harper Lee had him say, “They’re certainly entitled to think that, and they are entitled to full respect for their opinions …. But before I can live with other folks I have to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

Our Hamilton County Commission doesn’t think that way. In a 6-3 vote after the 2016 budget was introduced, the Hamilton County Commission willfully absconded with $900,000 from the “rainy day” fund to foster each commissioner’s pet projects.

The move was made with no discussion and no transparency, presenting the county’s governing body as a band of self-centered egotists. The quest for future votes via favoritism and associated wrong-doing was obvious in the community.

But Joe Graham who realizes there is no way possible to sustain the $900,000 discretionary spending by stealing from precious reserves, balked because of his convictions. He realizes the way the county government ought to work and how totally shameful it was when fellow commissioner Tim Boyd gave tax-payer money to fund ballerina outfits and tutus for some inane play.

Now Graham wants to give his pie-share of discretionary money back ($100,000) and those who we voted into office are reacting like they should instead appear before the county’s Sessions judges. The charges could range from deception, bullying and dereliction-of-duty, for starters. Sadly, a lack of integrity is not against the law, thus the cast soon to be led by Chester Bankston – his actions questionable at best – have turned the county’s leadership into a mockery.

Now Graham is told the band of “six gang members” on the commission may be planning to covertly “steal or hijack” the funds if he attempts to return the money at this Wednesday’s weekly meeting. It is clear that Bankston, Tim Boyd, Randy Fairbanks and Sabrena Smedley care little about doing what is good and right versus their personal agendas and have never heard the words of the late statesmen Teddy Kennedy who once vowed, “Integrity is the lifeblood of the democracy. Deceit is a poison it is veins.”

That’s the truth. Commissioner Marty Haynes has already announced his bid to replace Bill Bennett as the Hamilton County Assessor of Property but a review of his behavior couldn’t get him a majority vote at the County workhouse. What is this guy thinking? Not only will his needle no longer respond on the integrity gauge, the light in the dial has even gone out and now he intends to run for a higher office. Please!

Bankston, hardly a leader, has made new committee assignments for the 2016 commission and, somewhat hysterically, placed Boyd, who is regarded as the weakest on the commission, in charge of the all-important finance committee. At the same time he “punished” Graham, who stood for what he – and other good commissioners – knows what’s right, by placing him in charge of some zany Diversity and Equity Committee.

Does Bankston not realize such deplorable conduct paints him to be a bully of the first order, not to mention seriously stupid? I’m certain he laughs in the backroom about it but the citizens of Hamilton County most certainly do not, evidenced by several emails wondering if he can be impeached. The puzzler is Randy Fairbanks and how, after his upbringing, he’s seemingly sold his soul for a mess of porridge. What happens to good people, and Smedley should most assuredly review her campaign promises.

Greg Beck, also feeling the sting of Bankston’s child-like wrath after Beck’s vote forced Chester to vote for himself, Jim Fields, and Warren Mackey can only sit in amazement. They are aware that much more pressing and viable work needs to be done by the county commission than the contemptuous cronyism now fueling the taxpayers’ ire.

Frankly, we should have seen this coming. In late June Commissioner Boyd was so “over the top” that Mayor Jim Coppinger’s chief of staff, Mike Compton called him out over his outlandish comments, citing “about 15”errors Boyd had purported as true.

When Boyd confronted the no-nonsense Compton, the chief-of-staff cut him down like a deadwood-tree and seemed to become a modern-day oracle when he replied to Boyd, “Oh, you're full of s—-. Get the hell out of here," Compton said.

That sent Boyd whining, asking Sheriff Jim Hammond to intercede, much to the chagrin of Hamilton County judges and officials, and seemed to confirm the believe that if fools could fly the skies over the Hamilton County courthouse would resemble an airport.

I think it is imperative the citizens in each district should demand accountability, transparency, and a return to what is right by each of our county commissioners. They can gang up on Joe Graham but in the end it will be Graham who stands tallest and little people can never understand how that happens.

It’s like Cheryl Hughes once observed, "When people cheat in any arena, they diminish themselves. They threaten their own self-esteem and their relationship with others by undermining the trust they have in their ability to succeed and their ability to be true."

That works for me.

royexum@aol.com

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