Out of touch and total disregard

The Jan. 5 issue of the Apalachicola and Carrabelle Times reported that Commissioner Noah Lockley intends to sue the county for their decision to keep the current voting district boundaries. In addition, he wants to redraw the boundaries back to where they were in the year 2003.

What’s wrong with this? It’s against the law, that’s what’s wrong with it. The law requires that each district has the same amount of voters within plus or minus 10 percent. It was determined at the 2010 census that the districts are out of balance more than 10 percent. Going back to 2003 levels would put us even worse out of balance. The Franklin County Board of County Commissioners were required by law to make a decision. They voted 4-1 to leave the boundaries where they are. I attended that meeting and was shocked to see Commissioner Lockley pack up and leave after the vote.

And that’s not all. In these difficult financial times for the county government, Commissioner Lockley wants to use taxpayer money to sue the county for doing what they are required to do by law. That’s what he said as he stormed out!

All of us should be embarrassed and outraged by these actions. Commissioner Lockley is completely out of touch and has a total disregard for the law and the taxpayers he is sworn to represent. And, this is not an isolated case either; in the past Commissioner Lockley went to the head of the line for the Vessels of Opportunity program, even though he was also collecting a paycheck from the county. How did that happen? We know many fishermen whose lives were dramatically affected by the BP Horizon oil spill that were not so “lucky” and didn’t have any other source of income and lavish benefits to boot.

To add insult to injury, Commissioner Lockley has repeatedly asked the county to pay him “overtime” money for dealing with the spill, even though he missed commission meetings (for which he was still paid) and other functions when he was out making money with the VOO program.

Franklin County voters deserve better representation than this. We deserve commissioners who represent us and not just their own self-interests.

Allan Feifer

President

Concerned Citizens of Franklin County