County Commissioner's Office

County Talk
By
Lamar Paris - Commissioner

The following questions are in response to an advertisement by Tony Dyer, one of my opponents in the upcoming primary election in July.  I am paying for this space.  I will not respond to all of his remarks as there are too many.  However, you should know that I do not mind opponents disagreeing with my way of governing, but I will respond when that involves them twisting the truth or making statements that are outright mistruths.

Q. Mr. Dyer said that he would be fiscally responsible with the people’s money, eliminate waste, decrease taxes, control government growth.  I thought this was what was happening already in the county?
A. It is exactly what we work toward on a daily basis.  We are doing all of these things including reducing taxes and the budget this past year.

Q. Mr. Dyer further stated that he would micro-manage and not mislead and deceive the public as our current commissioner does each week.
A. Part of good management is to have the ability to place the right people in key positions therefore, micro management is not necessary. This allows job performance to be accomplished more effectively and efficiently.  Occasionally, it may be necessary to micro manage,  but certainly not as a normal management practice. The elected officials
 (Probate Judge, Magistrate Judge, Clerk of Court, Sheriff,  Tax Commissioner and Corner) control and manage their own offices and I have no authority as to how that job is done except as to budget approval.  

As far as my departments go, the vast majority of our departments have excellent supervisors that already know what they are doing and do not need someone “riding heard” over them all the time.  If that were necessary, we would need different supervisors. I do not now nor would  I ever intentionally deceive the public.  

Q.  Mr. Dyer states that you said he does not have a clue about running county government. Is that true?
A.  Yes I think it is.  Before running for Commissioner, I attended county meetings for nearly a year  ahead of time.  I went to other counties and spoke to other commissioners to find out about the job.  I studied audits and financial information. I was on and chairman of the Recreation Board for twelve years where I worked closely with the commissioner’s office on a regular basis involving budget matters, so I was fairly educated about the job when taking office.  My opponent has never attended a county meeting that I am aware of since I have been in office.  However, even with all the preparation I made, no one could have ever convinced me of how involved and difficult this job is.

Could Mr. Dyer learn this job? I will leave that for others to decide, but based on his writings, he certainly does not seem to have that knowledge yet as you will see below.

Q. Mr. Dyer’s question to you this week is, according to his ad, “Why does he (the commissioner) find it necessary to deceive and mislead the citizens of Union County? 
A. The answer is very simple, I don’t.  To follow up on Mr. Dyer’s  misstatements in the second paragraph. I have never told anyone that our property taxes have not increased since 2001.  I have never told anyone that the county has no debt.  I have told plenty of people that our debt is very insignificant and much less than the majority  of counties.  I did not tell anyone that local government has not expanded. In fact, we have had to keep up with growth and that has included some very reasonable and sensible regulations and ordinances as well as increased government cost.  I have never told anyone that we had a surplus of $ 5,000,00 to $8,000,000.  What I did say was that our bank balance on certain dates had significant funds in them. Where is he getting his information from?

He was finally accurate in a statement when he said that I do not budget with a surplus and  operate expenses and revenue very close. I have always done that because I do not think the taxpayers should be paying their money to the county for the county to just put it in the bank and draw a little interest.  We keep a small surplus for emergencies and if it is anything larger than that, we can simply borrow the money.  However, in eight years, that has only been necessary one time when our tax receipts were delayed until after the first of the year. The only deception of the citizens that I see is coming from Mr. Dyer’s uninformed comments..

Q. Mr. Dyer stated that the county audit is so vague and inadequate that it is not worth the paper it is written on.  It does not account for all the revenue received to include the S.P.L.O.S.T. receipts.  Is this true?
A. Absolutely NOT !!!!!  This statement is why I question my opponents ability to learn the job.  Our county audit follows GASB34 (Government Accounting Standards Board)  guidelines.  These guidelines are set by the federal government and all 159 counties and over 350 cities in Georgia and all counties and cities all over the United States are mandated to follow these exact guidelines, by law.  While it does take some studying, the new standards are designed to make the report much easier to read and understand for the general public. To make a statement that the audit “is not worth the paper it is written on” is ridiculous.  If he or anyone else does not understand the audit, there are many people throughout Georgia that do understand it.  In addition, our audit is “audited” by the Georgia Dept of Audits and Accounting for accuracy. While Mr. Dyer said the audit does not include SPLOST funds, he again was in error as it certainly does include this information.

Con’t next week

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