Elections can bring false hope
Carter family members taking part in the dedication of the Lucile Miller Carter Wellness Clinic at Atlantic Corporation’s Tabor City facilities Thursday included (from left) Velda Hughes, Wes Carter, Rusty Carter, and Linda Metzger. (Deuce Niven photo)
Carter family members taking part in the dedication of the Lucile Miller Carter Wellness Clinic at Atlantic Corporation’s Tabor City facilities Thursday included (from left) Velda Hughes, Wes Carter, Rusty Carter, and Linda Metzger. (Deuce Niven photo)
Heading into an election, there?s the grand misconception that the people not doing a quality job, the so-called weak links, will be voted out of office.
And, as this fairy tale goes, after the weak links are ousted, highly knowledgeable candidates with finely tuned decision making skills will waltz into their seats and turn around county government.
Yeah, right.
Today is the first official day on the job for five new Warren County Commissioners after being voted into office Aug. 3. They join a county commission best known for spinning its wheels and spending a great deal of time accomplishing nothing.
I find it curious that as bad a shape as Warren County is in economically that so many county commissioners were able to keep their jobs. Only three were voted out of office. Three more decided not to run again and left voluntarily. And in case you?re wondering why only five, not six, took office today, that?s because one decided not to accept the seat leaving it open until the election in November.
What?s puzzling is how quickly voters showed County Executive Kenneth Rogers the door after his first term. There was an obvious displeasure in Rogers? performance and in the high volume of manufacturing jobs that left during his watch.
But with only three county commissioners voted out, there obviously wasn?t that same level of dissatisfaction with the county commission. The kicker is the county executive is pretty much a figurehead when it comes to county government. He or she doesn?t even have a vote in deciding county policy, and most importantly, the county tax rate.
I?m not going to sit here and argue that Rogers should have kept his job. But if he?s going to be voted out in fairly convincing fashion, it seems a large portion of voters were asleep at the wheel when it came to casting their ballots for the county commission.
I think more, many more, county commissioners should have been shown the door, mainly because of the large block of commissioners who insist on doing things the way they?ve always been done. This stubborn philosophy can be a good omen or a bad one.
If Warren County had been enjoying steady economic growth with an influx of high-paying jobs, I?d say we should keep doing what we?re doing. If it ain?t broke, don?t fix it.
Unfortunately, we all know that?s not the case. Warren County?s job situation needs more than a tune-up. It needs an complete engine overhaul.
According to the latest figures provided by the state, Warren County?s unemployment rate is 10.8 percent, well above the Tennessee average of 5.9 percent.
On top of that, Warren County continues to lose out to other counties when it comes to recruiting new jobs. Over the summer, we were one of the finalists to land an Oreck manufacturing facility, but the vacuum cleaner company announced about a month ago it would locate in Cookeville instead. Oreck has obtained a 310,000-square-foot facility and has said it will bring at least 100 jobs to Putnam County.
Our good-ole-boy, business-as-usual county commission has failed to bring a major industry to this county for over 15 years. You?d think after striking out so many times, commissioners would adjust their swing.
Since they?ve refused to do this, I expected voters to make that adjustment for them and vote them out of office. But what a fallacy it is to think unproductive officials will be voted out come election time.
James Clark is editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].