Summary of May 2016 Pickens County Council Meeting ...

Last night revealed again that the County Council doesn't understand  the conservative people of this county.  I will discuss this issue later on.  

First, let's talk about the Pickens County Comprehensive Plan which was described by me as being Socialist, Communist, and a part of an Agenda 21 initiative by the United Nations.  I asked the council to abandon this document because it was written in large part by the Upstate Forever group out of Greenville which believes like the Socialist Brad Wyche in his address to the Business in Action Conference on May 27, 2010.  He described his beliefs to include "Natural Capitalism" which Mr. Wyche described in detail as being socialistic.

Yet the County Council accepted the document for amendment to address the coal ash problem.  They did this at the recommendation of the County Attorney who blatantly said that the Comprehensive Plan was not an actionable document.  In other words it does not contain ordinances,etc.  But what he didn't say is that at other levels of this plan like the Appalachian  Council of Government's plan, the County Council would have to have their proposed projects approved by this socialist group in order to receive any of the tax money that we have paid; back for use.  I also reminded the Council that Johnnelle Raines had furnished them a booklet "Special Report: Agenda 21 and How to Stop It" prior to this meeting.  This booklet contains the top ten sustainability fallacies which are included in the Pickens County Comprehensive Plans.  It sets the stage for the implementation of Agenda 21.  Yet we still passed on this document and the County Council wonders why they get criticism from local conservative groups.

The Conservativesoftheupstate.com contains a conservative  approach to Agenda 21 and can be found on this web site in the 2010 Archives.  The Pickens County version can be found on the Pickens County Web Site.  

This was not the only criticism that the County Council complained about last night.  Their"county reserve account" has come under scrutiny of late.  I am going to try and explain once and again that not only the Conservatives of the Upstate, representatives of the people, the writers of the state Constitution, and statutory laws, nor the forefathers of our government do not allow slush funds because this is revenue that has been collected from the people and not refunded in accordance with law 12-43-285.  Anyone in government whether elected or not can cook the books.  Budgetary collectability, value of a mill set too low, reassessment appeals funneled into the appeals system as a delinquent account, and other ways can be used to deliberately over-collect.  I point to the 2008 audit report for which the county council was given an award, points to the "conservative approach" taken by the county in setting values that produce mills and revenue. (about $8,000,000 worth of conservatism) This is not because of the frugality of the County Council, but an over or under budgetary fudging.  The people are due to be refunded but are not.  Fuss at us all you want, this issue needs to be cleaned up and can simply be by going to the public when they vote in November and explain to them why the money needs to be used.  Don't try to hide the money in the recreation accounts of the various Council people.

In spite of all this evidence the County Council does a reasonably good job with our money.  They have not spent the over-collected funds on trivial items.  They do care for the most part about the people.  That is why they get a pass on some things.  Just last night they wisely turned down Tri County Tech's request for at least $6.5 million dollars because of lack of funds.  That was alright, but they should have turned it down because it is the State's responsibility to fund Tri County Tech and told them to never come back to them to break the Constitution's laws (Article 11 Section 3).  Never-the-less they showed courage in rejecting this bid for the county to fund the state's responsibilities.

Last, the County Council is a victim  of mismanagement  by the school board who also has over-collected millions ($45-$100) and in my opinion; illegally.  Because they use many of the same budgetary figures that the council does, their integrity is sometimes questioned unfairly.