Criticizing for criticizing's sake

I think this is overreaching, no? In some ways, isn't this how government should work? Shouldn't it respond to the concerns and questions of the community it represents? I mean, surely the Athens-Clarke County Commission could have moved forward in a more tactful way on some of these issues, particularly the faulty trash franchising proposal, but to fault them for recognizing the public's concern over the proposal and making the appropriate amendments is foolish.

Furthermore, this passage was off-base ...

And all of this comes after some commissioners tried earlier this year to unilaterally strip federal grant funding from a couple of social service agencies that had been fixtures in the black community for years.

Well, to put it mildly, that was the problem. These organizations had become fixtures and, as the data has shown, they weren't fulfilling their obligations to provide the service and support needed to the African-American community. Again, it can be argued that the commission acted somewhat heavy-handed in making the change, but the change was absolutely necessary.

The funding was not dedicated for those social service agencies, but rather dedicated for benefitting the community. And it was very clear the community was not be served in an effective manner by either organization, thus the recommendation to remove funding from those agencies.

This editorial is a criticism of style, not of substance ... because the substance shows that the commission, however clumsy it might have acted, responded to the criticism and took the appropriate steps to make amends.