Study candidates
Editor, The Commercial:
Folks, it’s time to consider, when voting, the capabilities of the candidate and that person’s willingness to cooperate on issues to be dealt with.
There are too many would-be Emperors and Empresses among us already. Some in office, and other gadflies and has-beens refuse to allow the elected leadership to function unhindered.
Your Quorum Court has been, as depicted in this paper, an embarrassment — and likely cost your county far more by repelling potential investors than you’ll ever know. If you were an investor would you risk your resources in a county run by the bunch in charge the past couple years? How would they treat you when they so disrespect one another?
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The weakness of the Go Forward Pine Bluff project was lack of transparency and poor financial control issues from the beginning. Not a penny should have been spent without the signatures of at least three people who’d been specifically authorized for that.
“A little leaven pervades the whole lump” and you had certain folks just waiting for a nickel to be misspent so as to undermine the project. If you want control of donors’ money that must be stipulated in the legislation. It apparently was not. Some prominent people seemed offended that they were not able to dictate to Simmons Bank!
In other words, it was a case of poor planning and people with personal agendas. Thousands in legal advice could have saved you millions in badly handled taxes. Recognizing obstructionists and calling them out might have helped. When you fail in your planning — you have planned to fail.
Karl Hansen,
Hensley