The editorials regarding our Douglas County commissioners in The Record-Courier opinion page of Jan. 16 has just put my outrage meter into the red zone.
It seems that we had, and I underscore had, a pretty fair and responsible county commissioner, namely Dave Brady, serving on the board in a way that reflected the opinions and views of the people who put him in that office. That's us folks. The ones who voted. Now it seems that when the time came to review the performance of our county manager, Dave Brady presented his honest view and recommended that Dan Holler be fired. At a subsequent meeting, Dave was ousted as vice-chairman in a 3-2 vote with the cabal of Kelly Kite, Nancy McDermid, and Jim Baushke supporting that ouster.
Now I'm more mad as h... and I'm not going to take it any more because in the same issue of the Courier comes the news that the chairman of the Douglas County Board of Commissioners, Doug Johnson, has resigned his chair with the following explanation.
"Of the many responsibilities for chairman, treating everyone with respect and being non-judgmental of others opinions is of the utmost importance. If the same is not reciprocated, you lose your ability to lead in a fair and productive way."
Doug does say parenthetically, he wants to give more attention to his reelection campaign.
Now I'm really mad as h... and I'm not going to take it any more. And why is that, besides two responsible and fair commissioners leaving those posts? If you've been living in Douglas County for any period of time and keep tabs on the happenings in the political arena, you must have seen the large scale, uncontrolled growth in the county. You must have seen the shopping mall and casino boondoggles in the northern end of the county. Come on, $27 million spent by the county in the hopes that the development will generate sufficient tax revenue to pay back the $27 million in what, 10 years, maybe more? And just how many casinos can Douglas County and vicinity support?
And let's not talk about the administration of the Douglas County Master Plan. That's the document that is supposed to guide us through five years of progress and development. So why is it that the cabal in the county commissioners refers to it as only a guideline?
Now I'm really, really mad as h... and I'm not going to take it any more. Why? Because the voice of the people is being ignored openly at the county commissioners meetings. Do you get the feeling that even though these are open meetings, that the cabal has already made their majority decision on any given subject and that what the voters have to say at the meetings is only static?
So if your are "mad as Hell and don't want to take it any more," what can you do? You can exercise your right of franchise, but you must do it in a way that assures the person you want as a commissioner supports you point of view. Simply casting a ballot isn't good enough citizenship.
Find out who matches your views on the issues facing Douglas County. What's their view on development of casinos, shopping malls, residences, and businesses? Do they have vested interests? There are three county commissioner seats up for grabs in this next election. If you are mad as hell and not going to take it any more and want to figuratively run the rascals out of town on a rail, vote, but vote intelligently.
n Walter Nowosad is an Indian Hills resident.
