I received an email this morning about Joni Truex filing for the commissioner caucus Wednesday. This causes me great concern for several reasons.
First and foremost is the fact that she is newly elected to the County Council, 10 months.
When she ran for the council seat at-large she promised the voters to give this position her utmost attention and commitment. I find this troubling because after 10 months on the council, she is now thinking about abandoning her responsibilities and commitment to move onto the position she really wanted. If in fact the position of commissioner is what she had in mind, why did she not wait until the end of Ron's term and run in the general election? He made it well known that he would not seek another term.
Second, the honorable thing to do is to resign her position on the council immediately so the county could now go through another caucus to fill her position as soon as possible in order to get on with business. I was amazed to find out this morning that she has not resigned and is not required to by state law when I visited with Mike Ragan on the phone. I was inquiring about her position on the council and informing him I was interested in putting my name in the hat for it. So it appears to me she is hoping to get the position of commissioner but wanting to keep a backup position if that blows up in her face. Where is the honor and commitment to the council seat?
Third, in her announcement she lists a whole lot of education and qualifications within a lot of areas. As a county commissioner, she will be partly responsible for a large business. What real life experiences can she credit herself with? Has she ever hired her own employees, developed working budgets, met all kinds of government regulations, developed her own payroll? Does she have experience in engineering and infrastructure, bidding of jobs and county zoning requirements? What is her average tenure at the last several jobs or positions held? Does she possess the ability to recognize a good team of department heads and to give them the freedom to do their job?
If you believe as I do that honor, commitment and personal experience are important to public service, force her to serve out her term on the council, then let her appeal to all the middle district voters in three years. Contact your precinct committee men and women now. Inform them of your views.
