Just over the border ...
This whole thing in Jackson County is ugly, and kudos to the Athens Banner-Herald for being all over it the past few days.
Long story short, there has been some friction between Crandell Jones, the county's city manager, and the new members of the Jackson County Commission. Last Friday, Jones compiled a memo in which he listed some possible charter violations committed by some of the members, as well as allegations of racial and sexual prejudice on the part of Jackson County Commissioner Tom Crow.
The memo comes out ... and Jackson County Commission Chairwomen Pat Bell asks Jones to resign (because that's effective problem-solving). Jones says no, and last night the commission votes 3-1 to get rid of him without any further explanation or without saying Jones's allegations are false.
Naturally this has racial implications going on, and I can't say that I'm not surprised. Out of all the places I had to cover athletics for at the Banner-Herald the only one where I personally heard derogatory racial language being used was in Jackson County. I don't think this is reflective of the entire county by any means, but I do think that it's troubling that such language was used so freely and casually.
Dexter Sims had the best quote in the whole story when he said - "I don't want to say it's race, but (Bell's) given us no choice but to say it's race. It's just a shame for the whole county."
Until the commission can produce verification that it wasn't based on something as banal as racial animosity, that's all folks will speculate.
Long story short, there has been some friction between Crandell Jones, the county's city manager, and the new members of the Jackson County Commission. Last Friday, Jones compiled a memo in which he listed some possible charter violations committed by some of the members, as well as allegations of racial and sexual prejudice on the part of Jackson County Commissioner Tom Crow.
The memo comes out ... and Jackson County Commission Chairwomen Pat Bell asks Jones to resign (because that's effective problem-solving). Jones says no, and last night the commission votes 3-1 to get rid of him without any further explanation or without saying Jones's allegations are false.
Naturally this has racial implications going on, and I can't say that I'm not surprised. Out of all the places I had to cover athletics for at the Banner-Herald the only one where I personally heard derogatory racial language being used was in Jackson County. I don't think this is reflective of the entire county by any means, but I do think that it's troubling that such language was used so freely and casually.
Dexter Sims had the best quote in the whole story when he said - "I don't want to say it's race, but (Bell's) given us no choice but to say it's race. It's just a shame for the whole county."
Until the commission can produce verification that it wasn't based on something as banal as racial animosity, that's all folks will speculate.
posted by Jmac at 6:54 AM
2 Comments:
For the sake of argument, if you had an employee making unfounded accusations against you, you would want to fire him. Of course, I really don't think we're getting the whole story here. For one thing, it would be really rare for someone to just make up accusations about someone using offensive slurs, so I have to give that memo from the county manager some credibility.
For political accountability, it would be ideal for the commissioners to give reasons for the firing, but since it is a personnel issue, technically, I wonder if they are restricted by law from discussing it.
I meant to add that I heard through the grapevine that Al Crace did find Jackson County to be very different when he worked for them.
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