Gold: Elected officials should sometimes think twice

It seems to me…being elected to public office requires those who are elected first to take a solemn oath to only do what is in the best interest of those they serve. Second they should take a second oath not to do anything stupid that will end up on the front page of their local newspaper.

In recent months and lately even weeks there have been several governing bodies or members of governing bodies who have acted in ways that would make any thinking person wonder “what were they thinking?” In some cases, it appears they couldn’t have been thinking at all when they did what they did. Take for example the Colonial Beach City Council. When the majority of the council forced the mayor to keep out of the city offices because he allegedly was interfering with their performance and micro-managing, that should send a message to the voters that something is very wrong in whose managing their town. This might justify a stampede to the next council meeting to demand reform.

Now, we learn that one of the council members allegedly pushed the police chief who was trying to solve a dispute between that council member and another one. If the police Chief felt it was necessary to break up the dispute between two of his bosses, it must have been a humdinger. In this case they certainly broke oath 2 and probably oath 1.

Then there is the Orange County Board of Supervisors who has struggled to make a decision on the building of a Walmart; a decision that should be based on existing rules, regulations and law. Their struggle has been turned into theater with folks from other counties and states telling them what they should or shouldn’t do. What has gotten lost in the obsession with Walmart is that the county has serious financial problems and has had to terminate a number of employees including some who have jobs critical to the sound operation of the county. Added to this is the recent firing of the county administrator for seemingly offering a solution to the Wal-Mart problem. Oaths 1 and 2 broken again.

Down in Westmoreland County the controversy over the sale of property to a counter-insurgency, anti-terrorist training company, or whatever they are, brought out folks who could teach the company in question a thing or two about dealing with insurgents. One recent public hearing found folks standing on chairs, shouting and obviously not just disagreeing but demonstrating in a disorderly way. If citizens have to act this way it indicates a serious lack of leadership on the part of elected officials. The question is, how did they let it reach this point if they had the best interest of the county as their guide? There go Oaths 1 and 2.

Here in Stafford, there have been plenty of examples on both the board and planning commission levels where if it wasn’t Oath 1 it was certainly 2. Have we forgotten the so-called public hearing on BPOL that went until 3 a.m.? The board has, on many occasions, lacked civility between itself and often is openly partisan.

Frankly, I think some of these counties are missing an opportunity to make some bucks for their revenue streams. Why not make the boards’, planning commissions’ and councils’ TV shows available only by pay-per-view. Once voters get a glimpse of what is going on with their tax dollars, they may never watch those network reality shows again.

To be fair, this doesn’t happen with all elected officials or bodies in our area. But when it does occur, we as voters should be more demanding of those elected folks. Why should they waste our tax dollars and valuable time by doing dumb or wasteful things?

Oh, by the way, did I mention Marion Barry? Well that’s another story.

Harvey Gold is a contributing writer at the Stafford County Sun. Reach him at info@staffordcountysun.com.