Steve Mensing, Editor
♦ Last week my phone rang from people out in the county reporting former County Commission Chairman Jim Sides colorful van was parked in a sign painters yard with “2016?” and “Do You Miss Me Yet?” painted on it. A picture of Jim Sides joined the fresh signs.
I called Jim to find out if he was toying with the idea of running again and he informed me he was exploring the idea of two possible runs in 2016, but was yet uncommitted. I told him a lot of folks in the county and even Salisbury were hungry for him to toss his hat in the ring. They were growing tired of the new county commission chairman’s contempt for transparency in calling long closed-sessions at every meeting for alleged “economic development”. Voters want to know how basic decisions are made–they are disinterested in hiding conflict and giving the appearance of being “positive”. County taxpayers are alarmed by newcomer county commissioners’:
• Frequent lack of preparation for meetings.
• Often careless proposals for projects to waste county taxpayer money.
• Lack of rudimentary business and contractual acumen causing them to blunder away taxpayer money by not tabling a construction contract.
• Their lapdog obedience to Salisbury’s City Council (The very last people with whom you’d want to be connected) and the “5 families” who regularly manipulate economic development, building projects, and highway and infrastructure improvements to their own gain and short-sheet both the county, the schools, and the city’s ability to grow and prosper in the process. Working class people are moving elsewhere where economic conditions are better and cities are far safer.
• Where has all the so-called 1,000 hours of study of economic development led the county to date? The county’s current successes clearly got their start when Sides, Pierce, Caskey, and Mitchell moved the county forward. They were always prepared.
Jim come on back.
