AJ v. Bo
Everyone once in a while, the democrats eat their young. And everyone, once in a while,e it is needed. Change, sometimes, is not a bad thing. It can be a good thing. And thus, we want to talk about one of the county commissioner races that seems to be on a small boil right now.
What are we talking about? AJ Turner and Bo Alfred are running for a county commissioner’s seat. Usually, in the Democratic Party, when you get office, you usually stay until you are tired or appointed to another bench. In this case, that is a big fat NADA.
We got a tip this last week as budgeting has begun being talked about, regarding how much each district receives in cash to run their place. Meaning administrative cash. Not road material, not fuel, not anything other than how much it costs to run the office.
Well, we got this tip and checked it out. According to Jefferson County Records Pct. 4, Bo Alfred’s office costs the taxpayers just over $487,000 to run the place. It is a mostly rural district. Then we looked at all of the other ones, and we found that it costs an average of $300,000 a year for each of the other districts. And that made us dig a little deeper, and sure enough, it is not because of anything other than an expansion of spending over the past 10 years. Salaries, improvements, electricity, and rut ro – fuel.
So we dug a little more, and we found that over the past five years, the cost (s) of fuel went up by over 27%. But the other districts kept the same.
Why?
When you win office as a county commissioner, you get a check every month for auto expenses. That is for your personal car and fuel. You are NOT ALLOWED to fuel your own truck or car from county stations. However, we have learned that Bo Alferd has been doing just that. He takes his money from we the taxpayers, then fills his truck up.
Yep, that pissed us off.
So we asked some sources very close to other commissioners and found out it is well known in the county that this is going on. Sadly, nobody reports it.
Now, how much do you ask? Well, it hits around 121,000 a year. Let’s do some quick math – oh, look – that number matches the overage against the other districts? Someone is using county fuel. We wonder who? Who is taking our fuel meant for roads, bridges, and drainage?
So we picked up the phone and spoke to some sources out there where you folks live. And we asked what you wanted, and of course, they wanted roads, bridges, and drainage as top priorities. Then we went back and looked at spending, and sure enough, Pct. 4 spends less per mile on roads, bridges, and drainage.
Is it us, or do you see a pattern here?
So we spoke to someone very close to Bo’s challenger over at AJ Turner’s place. And sure enough, we got AJ’s Goals. (catchy, huh)
According to the Turner camp, they want to bring the money home for Roads, Bridges, and Drainage. As well, if elected, they want to hit the ground running and have area meetings with their constituents. All in the first two weeks.
The political circle is this.
First, Bo has one more term in him. He is set in his ways, and we are going to PIR the fuel records for Pct. 4. If there is an anomaly, we will catch it.
Second, we like fresh new ideas. We like an elected official who gets out and beats the streets and sees what is needed. It is always good to keep in touch with those who hire you. Turner is from that younger gang with good ideas, but is more worried about providing services. He is a conservative democrat. Which means if the going got rough, he can pull from both parties.
In the end, we are smelling a change coming in Pct. 4. As we are not democrats, we are pretty good at picking races (90%).
We are learning that Turner might surprise a few people.
Just saying.
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