Unnecessary precedent
I meant to comment on this sooner, but booting Tom Leach off the Oconee County Planning Commission seems kinda silly to me.
There are no rules which stipulate that Leach must step down. It seems to be more of a localized precedent as Mike Maxey stepped back during his run for office a while back, but I don't see how one can't adequately represent his community on the planning commission while campagining. Presumeably Leach is running for office because of the experiences he's had and the issues he's dealt with while serving Bogart on the commission.
But the deal with Maxey was that he was permitted to return to the commission after taking a leave of absence from the commission and, as the article notes, Leach won't be able to because he was forcibly removed from his slot. This whole thing seems preposterous to me, and it smacks of some sort of political retribution.
There are no rules which stipulate that Leach must step down. It seems to be more of a localized precedent as Mike Maxey stepped back during his run for office a while back, but I don't see how one can't adequately represent his community on the planning commission while campagining. Presumeably Leach is running for office because of the experiences he's had and the issues he's dealt with while serving Bogart on the commission.
But the deal with Maxey was that he was permitted to return to the commission after taking a leave of absence from the commission and, as the article notes, Leach won't be able to because he was forcibly removed from his slot. This whole thing seems preposterous to me, and it smacks of some sort of political retribution.
posted by Jmac at 9:41 AM
3 Comments:
It might take some time to find, but essentially North High Shoals did the same thing not all that long ago with Dr. Donald Dawe when he and his wife - on the city council - were suing North High Shoals.
The Planning Commission is a weird political entity where each municipality gets one representative to serve at the pleasure of their city council/mayor and then the rest of the appointees tend to be exclusively from the realty/development/banking troika.
You will meet Violet our treasurer or at least should have received a donation check from her to Sherry. Let me know if she does not receive it. Not sure of the address we used, but Violet was going to get it from Sara Jane Love at the end of our last meeting.
I agree that the better precedent would be a leave of absence during the campaign.
That being said, I have a serious issue with this candidacy.
According to the ABH, "if elected, Leach would work to repeal the alcohol pouring ordinance, he said. 'I am a Christian man, I just want to give the voters a choice.'"
What I cannot get past is the suggestion that this candidate "just wants to give voters a choice," when his plan is to take the choice away from voters, and all other citizens, based upon personal beliefs of some voters and citizens regarding the service of alcohol. One would believe from his statement that the current ordinance mandates all citizens to go to restaurants that serve, and to consume an alcoholic beverage. It does not. It provides choice.
So ... what is it that Mr. Leach wishes to do?
A little more posted here:
Oconee Politics blogs about this as well.
Keep in mind that the planning commission bylaws were also adjusted several years ago to keep elected officials from the cities off as well. This means a city council person can't also serve on the PC, which sometimes makes a lot of sense. The rationale was that it was kind of a double jeopardy situation, where someone might vote on something twice.
I agree that a leave of absence is the obvious choice in this type of situation.
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