Skip Alston, about face!
That was quick.
Ten days ago, Jason Hardin wrote this about Skip Alston's election as chairman of the board of commissioners: Alston also said he wants more openness to the media, with more news conferences and a more open atmosphere.
I expressed hope that he'd be good to his word.
Last night, Gerald Witt reported on the commissioners' latest actions:
Alston also announced that he plans to hold closed meetings to scrutinize budgets in each of the county’s 26 departments, a move to circumvent the traditional role of the county manager preparing a budget for the board to alter and approve.
"We’re going to go by line item, and by March, we should have a proper budget," Alston said as he announced that the committees would consist of three commissioners and staff personnel.
Those committees, however, could violate the state's open meetings law.
"I don’t want the press to be able to put some actions out there before we have had a chance to hear about it," Alston said.
This occurred in the same meeting in which the county manager was apparently forced into retirement. But we're not talking about that because we're "moving forward and not looking back."
This isn't about being nice to the news media. It's about being open to the public -- on paper, at least, the commissioners' boss -- and open about how money is being spent.
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