Last night Commissioner Heiskell held her 4th “public meeting” of the year at the Rock Spring fire station.

Per usual, the meeting was lightly attended (likely due to many in the county never getting notification postcards) but one brave person in the crowd asked Heiskell the hard questions she needs to be asked. And of course got her usual hateful, defensive answers.

An account of the meeting from Matthew Hyde, a paramedic from Rock Spring:

“There were 4 people present not including Bebe and three firefighters on duty. Of the ones present, myself, a seemingly huge Bebe supporter, a concerned citizen, and a Bebe side kick (close county employee).”

[Bebe’s two supporters have been ID’d as a county employee and the spouse of an insurance agent who does a lot of business with the county.]

“The meeting started at 7p and the commissioner boasted bringing the county from the non credible debt owing county it was to what she has made it today. Her main defending points was the improved road and fire departments the county now has operating. I must give credit, the Walker County Emergency Services has come along way since Randy Camp became the fire chief.

“She then changed to more of a defensive tone as she started talking about the Mountain Cove Farm, raising taxes, the bank and Hutcheson.

“The commissioner defended the purchase of the bank by referring to employee heath in the current tax office and the EPA reports that the building is too hazardous to inhabit. Though she states the Environmental Health Services will remain in the old building because they are comfortable and don’t want to move. She plans on giving the old building to the City of Lafayette who will use it as storage.

“Bebe states the immaculate Stearns bank building was a steal by only paying $750,000 for the building which originally cost $3.5 million including property. The cost of the property and updates to building will be borrowed from Sterns Bank. This was done to sweeten the deal in the offer to buy. At one point she asked me what I would do if I was commissioner in the purchase of the bank. The total cost of the update and renovation to accommodate the incoming offices was not known.”

Bebe confirmed it: on top of spending $900,000 to BUY the bank building we don’t need, she’ll also be spending an unknown additional amount to upgrade and renovate the practically brand-new facility before the tag and tax office moves in. That’s more of YOUR tax dollars she’s burning through.

“If you have lived in Walker County at all in the last year you know the purchase of the Mountain Cove Farms was a must, at lest according to the commissioner. We have all heard her arguments for purchasing the property and how she claims it is paid off by the monies made from selling the water lines back to Walker County Water.”

Those water lines were built for the Water Authority using SPLOST funds. This is an accounting trick, a poor attempt at intra-departmental money laundering so slow thinkers can’t figure out they actually paid for her pet project. (Heiskell conceded those lines were purchased with tax revenues during one of last fall’s heated property tax increase meetings.)

“She further defended the farm and all the modifications by stating the operations of the farm is maintained by the usage. The only hiccup is the restaurant which she has tried to make profitable, but overall the farm pays of its self. She added there is plenty to do at this farm. Outside from a beautiful place to stay, there is a nearly completed disc golf course, archery range, and a soon coming gun range. By the way, she has tried to sell this property but she can’t seem to find a buyer.

“She asked me what I thought about the farm and I gave my personal opinion. I think it is a total waste of money for a venue that offers nothing to the county in which we have to drive too far. The supporter asked me how I think Riverbend got started? So apparently the farm has a little ways to go before Walker County has a Riverbed! One more little bit on the farm. She is not in favor of a housing development being there because they would have to build schools and infrastructure to support it and no one in the cove wants that.

“Lastly I had the chance to ask her about working with Jeff Mullis, Steve Tarvin, and John Deffenbaugh to give the people of Walker County a chance to vote on multi-commission board. Her response, after a long discussion with her supporter about how stupid it would be to pay five people a yearly salary as opposed to one person, was ‘I’m not going to work myself out of a job.’ Well thanks for the honesty. She’s more concerned with herself than what the county wants.

“When I was asked how would we pay the the new form of government, I stated we could model it after our neighboring counties Whitfield and Catoosa, as she often compares us to, in they pay a small amount and offer benefits for the duty of commissioner. The could not understand why a person would be a commissioner for only $5000 a year and benefits.

“I had to leave at 10:30 pm. I don’t think the meeting lasted much past that other than discussion about paving Emerald Acres subdivision, which was a concern of another citizen. Bebe’s reply to that was there is no way to fix the sewer dips in the road other than concrete, then you can’t fix the sewer lines.

“At the end of the night, I heard the same rhetoric as we have the last 4 years. I was asked if I was The LaFayette Underground, if I lived in Walker County, and if I was registered to vote. Yes Bebe I do live in Walker County. I pay taxes and am tired of you wasting our money. Bebe’s right hand in the meeting even asked me to pack up and move to Catoosa County since I didn’t like anything about Walker. Im not wanting to run from the problem, Im just wanting a solution to the problem. The solution is voting Bebe out!”

[Links and emphasis added by LU.]

So this meeting, which lasted at least 3 1/2 hours even though it was only attended by seven people plus the Commissioner, was a repeat of every public meeting Heiskell has held in the last five years: Despite all evidence to the contrary, everything is going great. Heiskell’s money-losing special projects don’t really lose money and didn’t cost anything to begin with, anyone opposed to what the Commissioner does is part of LU, AND IF’N YOU DON’T LIKE IT YOU KIN LEAVE.

[For the record, Mr. Hyde had never been in contact with The Underground before this week when he announced on Facebook his plans to attend the meeting, and the questions he asked were all his own. LU provided information about the petition at his request ahead of the meeting but that’s all the LU support he was provided.]

Hyde expanded on Heiskell’s comments regarding the Sole Commissioner Vote Petition:

“She would not even give credit to any of the signatures on the list stating that all Lafayette Underground are fake people. She stated the elections board would need to verify the petition and that the reason Jeff won’t entertain the idea.”

Apparently everybody who goes to a meeting or asks a question is part of LU, but LU is all fake people and everyone who signed the Underground-sponsored petition asking for a chance to vote – to JUST VOTE – on a controversial issue doesn’t really exist. (That’s probably news to the 2,045 people who actually signed it: sorry folks, you’re not real to Bebe.)

Heiskell knows the petition signers aren’t fake, but that’s the only excuse she has to keep voters from having a say on sole commissioner. A vote could end that broken system of government, and as she said during the meeting she’ll be “out of a job” when that occurs. Heiskell’s friends and family members working fake positions she created for them could ALSO be out of their jobs without her unchallenged authority.

Senator Mullis knows the end of sole commissioner government would end HIS made up county job with the NWGAJDA as well – so he’s not going to listen to his constituents any more than Bebe is. It’s not a matter of verifying signatures, it’s a matter of Heiskell and Mullis justifying their own selfish refusal to listen to the county’s taxpayers because they fear the will of the people.

Just as she did in Tuesday night’s meeting, Heiskell again took the time to slam someone she regards as an enemy: Lookout Mountain business/property owner Jill Wyse.

“She’s been a thorn in the side of Bebe and the issues created about the Rock Creek Trail are mustered up by Jill. She made it clear that Jill is not even registered to vote in Walker, but failed to point out she pays taxes in the county on 65 acres of land. Bebe vows to complete the trail its the last thing she does.”

The “trail” here is Heiskell’s pet project to turn the old Durham Railroad bed on Lookout Mountain into a public walking trail, to benefit her political friends the Davenports. The trail has cost the county hundreds of thousands to build, plus environmental fines yet to be paid – and it’ll never fully open because portions of the trail run across private property. Including the property of Ms. Wyse – who has every right to complain about government encroachment on her rights even if she lives and votes in another community.

Every citizen of Walker has a right to question, complain, debate, or praise Heiskell and the rest of county government – even if Bebe doesn’t like it. Doing so is core to the survival of democratic representative government, a system Walker County barely still has.

The Commissioner’s next scheduled public meeting will be at 7 PM Monday at the Catlett fire station. Hope you can make it and exercise YOUR right to piss off the government by asking hard questions.