Fayette commissioners are 鈥榳inkin, blinkin and nod鈥� politicians
聽As kids growing up most of us watched the ‘Three Stooges’ and laughed at their comedic slapstick routines. When you look at the levels of local government in Southwestern Pennsylvania, the one that resembles our version of a ‘sitcom’ would be the offices of Fayette County commissioner.
This past year and old/new combination of individuals were elected to four-year terms of office. These three individuals supervise the operation of the various offices that make up our county government. The control of the county government once again is in the control of the Republican Party having the majority vote of these positions.
One would automatically assume that the two Republican commissioners would always vote in unison on all matters brought before them. The Democratic minority commissioner would be the one to just ‘nod’ when the tally of the three votes were recorded on matters of business for the county. But wait a minute! When one sees the pictures of different gatherings you may be surprised to see one majority commissioner along with the minority commissioner. They ‘blink’ and ‘wink’ at you and business goes on as usual. I believe, these two individuals knew before the election of November of 2019 that they were going to raise county property taxes an average of 22% on current property owners!
The excuse used to justify this exorbitant tax increase was the new county prison they were forced to build because of constant lawsuits by inmates citing deplorable conditions at the current facility. They also had the audacity to put the blame for these conditions on prior county commissioners that served prior to 2016! These two individuals have been playing a game of ‘pass the buck’ and blame someone else for these issues.
If you are the newly elected first-time commissioner, you have to ‘nod’ and go along with your political counterpart or become a ‘cast out’ for important county decisions of the future of our area. You face the risk of not getting re-elected in 2024 if you are not a ‘team player’. You now must wonder if the old politicians are going to conduct ‘business as usual’ for the future. Thus, it would appear a majority commissioner becomes one of the minority members!
I believe we need to have our state legislature (guess what political party controls new legislation) propose and pass the appropriate laws to enact ‘term limits’ for all public offices in Pennsylvania. If the Pennsylvania governor is limited to a maximum of eight years in office, then all county ‘row offices’, county commissioners, school board members, and other such positions of local government must also be including the state legislature. ‘Politics’ and political jobs were not designed to be career job opportunities for any person or political party. It’s time for all the voters to cast out the ‘winkin, blinkin and nod’ politicians we are subjected to year in and year out. If this does not happen, do not expect things to change any time soon in Fayette County or across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania!
Terry J. Boors is a resident of Connellsville