At Least We Don’t Have Tony

Before I get started, let me make one thing clear. The men and women who serve in elected office generally do so because of completely unselfish motives. They say they want to ‘give back’ to the community and I happen to believe them.

Y’all should know by now that I don’t cull nobody. If I thought there was another motive I’d be on it like stink on a monkey.

Seriously, I’ve been there when I’ve seen some of our local elected officials struggle with decisions and agonize over doing exactly the right thing. For the most part, they hate to collect taxes just as much as you hate to pay them.

However, on occasion we’ll have an elected official that says or does something that is………well………hmmmm……..embarrassing. Last summer was a case in point.

Some folks decided they were going to open yet another landfill in the Gray Court area………this one right near Martin’s Lake. Local residents were upset and came to Laurens County Council to demand they do something.

Now, Laurens County has no zoning laws. Some of the members of Council were elected on the platform of ‘a man should be able to do whatever he wants with his own property’. We’ve just about made a religion out of opposition to zoning.

But, when neighbors are upset about a dump…………..turns out members of Council are more than willing to tell someone what they can do with their own property. They passed an ordinance that basically outlawed the new landfill and………get this…….. they made it retroactive !!

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out this wasn’t legal. I honestly thought they were bluffing but………..they weren’t. I expressed my opinion on air. I told them they would simply pay a large legal bill and accomplish nothing. They weren’t bluffing. They really DID pay that legal bill. They really DID accomplish nothing. Well……..nothing except putting taxpayer dollars into the pockets of lawyers on both sides.

Embarrassing really.

But………we don’t have Tony. I look at the insanity going on in Greenville County involving Councilman Tony Trout and it makes me think something I never thought I’d think.

I miss Ernie.