The campaign for Caldwell County commissioner is all about Republicans this year; with no Democrats running, the real decision will be made in the May 8 primary.
First, I salute all candidates who offer themselves for such public service. It’s a thankless, all-consuming job and most sane people, frankly, wouldn’t have it. Ask Rob Bratcher, who’s been a commissioner more than three years and, understandably, wants out.
That said, there are two Republicans I cannot support for reelection—current chairman Ben Griffin, or King Ben I, as I’ve called him before, and his sidekick, Clay Bollinger. King Ben has personally ruled over board decisions since 2008, allowing only the matters he’s already approved behind the scenes on the public agenda.
Oddly, I guess, I would have voted to support Griffin and Bollinger in, probably, half of their decisions. But what they’ve done lately has been wrong and wrong-headed, in both substance and style. They’re running on a theme of “Promises Kept,” but their braggadocio exceeds their performance.
If you’re not sure if they’ve done a good job, all you need to do is just ask Griffin. He’ll go right into a prepared “Promises Kept” speech. Their slogan is even painted on his little car. Let’s linger on that for a minute.
First and foremost, they’ve not rolled back any part of the previous board’s 22-percent property tax increase—which was such a big deal in 2008. Promise kept? Whether it was specifically promised, it was understood by the voters voting for them that they thought property taxes are too high.
You don’t hear anything about that any more.
Some months ago, too, they sold a piece of county property that could have produced 1.2 million gallons per day of pristine drinking water. Anyone who knows me knows how interested I am in the county’s water quality issues. What’s more, they sold the property for a third of its $1.6 million original cost.
In this economic environment, can King Ben really justify throwing away a million dollars?
Then, they bought several used sheriffs’ cars and other vehicles from New Jersey with floorboards rusting out and transmissions falling apart. One came to Caldwell County on a rollback. To give them credit, they did eventually fix the problem. But at what cost of money, time and inconvenience? And possible danger to citizens?
On March 18, I myself made a call for sheriff’s service, and the deputy who arrived almost two hours later said there weren’t enough cars available for a shift change. There was a “standoff situation” that had to be handled, I’m sure, and lots of extra deputies and cars were called to help. But what if our call had been life-threatening?
We have some Sunday afternoon shooters in my neighborhood, and that day, it sounded like they were on my property. When we made the call, we were just trying to get a deputy to notify these idiots that they were shooting toward an occupied house. When you can't go outside because of shooters on your property, you either want to start shooting back—which I “almost” did—or you call 9-1-1.
King Ben also directed the board to purchase three second-hand ambulances from Indiana and Florida that, likewise, had transmission issues. Both Griffin and Bollinger not only stand by their decision to purchase used vehicles; they proudly say they’d do it again! They made that comment in a forum hosted by the Caldwell County GOP Women’s Club on March 29.
When King Ben tried to buy the county a 50-year-old building—even putting down earnest money before the vote—three commissioners finally showed some backbone and voted to overrule him and Bollinger. They suffered a tongue-lashing for it, too.
The cheapest way isn’t always the best way, and sacrificing quality to save money makes no sense at all. The King apparently never learned my grandmother’s lesson about “false economy.” She always laughed at the guy who bent over so quick to pick up a quarter that he tore the butt out of his $25 pants.
It’s almost as bad as some of the Obama Administration’s wasted spending fiascoes.
Griffin and Bollinger brag about how they’ve cut the Caldwell County budget by “a million dollars a month” with decisions like these—plus some money-handling practices that are fiscally sound, compared to the previous board. So why haven’t they cut our tax rate, too?
Dennis A. Benfield
Hudson
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