Letter to Editor:
We relocated to Adair County in 2020 from Jeffersontown, just outside Louisville. For the first two years we were busy with the move and a few health problems. Finally in 2023 my wife and I decided we should get involved with the local activities and learn as much as possible about the area, as we had in Jeffersontown.
I was curious, by nature, and professionally trained to be inquisitive, having worked for over 30 years as a Liability Personal Injury Insurance Adjuster, so we would ask questions as we visited the different restaurants and stores in the area.
My wife decided she would attend the fiscal court meetings to learn how the county was governed. I would watch them on the internet, and we would discuss the meetings at home. She attended several until she was insulted by Judge Bryant during a discussion on the tax issue. She has not attended another meeting.
In my opinion several of the meetings were not conducted in a professional business format and that caused them, at times, to get out of control. I began to take notes, as I talked to people in the area, and read the comments in the newspaper provided by the CJE.
After several months I sat down with my computer and began a letter to the editor on what I had found from other residents and compared them to what I had read. When I started to print my letter, I realized I had three pages. I thought this was a little too much, so I deleted it all.
I continued to read his articles and the more I read the more confused I became. So many of the meetings were centered around what he proposed, and not what may have been presented to the court. Some of the comments I noted were “some call me a bully, the magistrates are against me, they have secret meetings that do not include me, the county does not want to grow, I have been a business owner most of my adult life.” I could go on – random but that would take too much time.
Several of the meetings took on a personal tone and away from professional business as they should have. It appears that most of the people I talked with had the same answer as to why they do not attend a fiscal court meeting and express their views and opinions: Why should I waste my time; nothing is going to change.
One last item. It would be interesting to identify the one magistrate that the judge said he could always count on for his support. Does this mean this magistrate has never voted NO on any issue?
s/Dee Jones
Columbia
