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I have several matters to cover today. But before I start, please know that my Substack has become a target for local censoring, both on Facebook, but also on such sites as Nextdoor. I have confirmed something I certainly expected, and that is that the “Club” about which I have written and discussed much in the past several months, maintains close ties with a cast of online social media actors, who for the time I will refrain from naming, some who have found their ways into moderator positions on various Facebook pages and groups. One good example is a well-known Forsyth County Facebook page with over 54,000 subscribers. If I post on that page, including a link to an article with local implications, which is what that page is for, and the Club does not want you to read it, one of their operatives, and I know who she is, will either refuse to approve it, or even remove it should another moderator allow it to be posted. This person is not moderating. She is censoring for the Club. What I describe is an intolerable situation for me, and it should be for you. The Club should know that when they remove my posts, and in so doing remove the published links to my articles, that only stokes a fire to increase my efforts to keep information about the inner workings of Forsyth County politics flowing to as many in the community as possible.
Thus, if you, a member of the public, do not want to take the chance of missing the information I publish, or my analysis, I urge you to subscribe directly to my Substack. If you do, you will receive notifications and a link to each article as it is published. There is no cost and never will be. Freely I receive, and freely I give the truth, and my analysis, to anyone interested. You can subscribe by clicking the link in green below.
On Election Day I published an article in which I referenced a recent stream of individuals contacting me expressing fear of certain Forsyth County elected officials, and fear as well of their snarky, bullying and disrespectful online social media support team members. You can find that article HERE.
In that article I expressed certain outrage that a member of the Forsyth County Board of Education could operate a private political organization on the side, and possess the latitude to use the property of a public school under his umbrella of elected responsibilities for his organization to showcase two candidates of his choosing for the purpose of electing them to the same board on which he presently serves. Together, as a result of last week’s elections, in a few weeks those two now-elected individuals, along with this same sitting board member practically acting as their campaign director, will comprise a majority of the Forsyth County Board of Education, the two candidates elected last week unavoidably beholden, at least to some degree, to the sponsoring member who aided in their election in the manner I describe.
So, what does the law say about that? According to the Official Code of Georgia 20-2-49, the role of an elected board of education member is different than most other elected offices, offices in which the primary purpose is a political one, that of representing constituent viewpoints. The role of a board of education member is different because the minds of children are at stake as school board members undertake the work of their elected offices. In this way, Georgia law recognizes that nurturing the minds of children should not be a heavily-partisan, predominantly political issue.
Thus, according to OCGA 20-2-49, “School board members hold special roles as trustees of public funds, including local, state, and federal funds…Local board of education members should abide by a code of conduct and conflict of interest policy modeled for their unique roles and responsibilities.” Yet, despite the law’s cautious instruction regarding personal conduct and conflicts of interests, this particular “trustee of public funds” saw no conflict in using school facilities paid for with the same public funds he is entrusted to administer, in order to further his own political agenda, an agenda which includes the election of two candidates of his personal choosing, candidates who once elected, together with him would comprise a board majority and thereby control every decision and policy to be made by the Forsyth County Board of Education once they assume office. So, here, conceivably, we have a member of the board of education using a private political entity of his own creation, to aid in packing the Forsyth County Board of Education with individuals carrying votes he has certain power to control, and using public facilities owned by the taxpayers to carry out that purpose. I view that kind of political activity as a conflict of interests and intolerable in a free society. What I describe is how “the Club” in Forsyth County operates, just so you know who you are dealing with.
I have an idea. Should individuals desire to run for public office, why not do so on their own merits and qualifications, and ideas, thus maintaining independence in the election process, and not become beholden to various other office holders acting as their campaign managers should they win? Just a suggestion…
I have written extensively concerning this veritable ensemble of local Forsyth County politicians, and their online social media support teams, who have been working steadily, albeit as subtly as they might, to wrest political control of Forsyth County from all who are not among their ranks. This is the same bunch working to censor my work and deprive you of accessing it. For simplicity sake, as above, I refer to this collaborative band of political actors as “the Club.” I cannot adequately express the dangers to any society, large or small, of allowing a group such as I describe to create a monopoly of control over the political power associated with a local society’s available elected offices.
I expect you have heard the axiom many times, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Achieving absolute power over all the various elected offices in Forsyth County is what this “Club” is attempting to do. Anyone not in their sphere of influence automatically becomes their political enemy. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy spoke of a comparable society of actors, pushing its own political purposes, operating under a shroud of secrecy similar as I describe, one “that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence,” utilizing infiltration and subversion, as well as intimidation to achieve its purposes.
We have already discussed how the Club uses its online social media support teams to intimidate. The fact is, I see many areas in common between those whom JFK described and those with whom we presently contend right here in Forsyth County.
Some might call this brand of local political control, “Chicago politics.” I would agree to a large extent. Here is how the Encyclopedia of Chicago describes Chicago Politics:
Chicago politics is a national cliché, evoking images of a one-party system, dominated by a boss-controlled…political machine whose crafty politicians dangle patronage before competing…groups in return for votes…Indeed, no political, ethnic, class, or gender group in the city or its suburbs has escaped the lure of patronage politics or the stain of corruption. When reform [parties or groups] captured control…they behaved exactly as had the ousted [other party of group]. [The new party or group] replaces all former [party or group] appointees with their own followers, a practice [each party or group] decries when done by [the other].
No analogy is perfect, but perhaps you see certain similarities, as I do, with the way Forsyth County politics are carried out. Just ask yourself who among those involved in Forsyth County politics operate private businesses? Who are their employees? Who are their employees’ family members? Whose family members either work, or have worked for which political players? Who among elected officials and the political class of Forsyth County run or work for companies possessing lucrative contracts with our county government for their company’s services? How did they receive those contracts? The answers to those questions help determine the level of “patronage” within our local political environment. Patronage is what Chicago politics thrives on. Patronage is also what Forsyth County politics increasingly thrives on.
Chicago politics only works in a local society with a decidedly one-party political system, a “political machine” if you will, the “Club” I call it, which is alive and well in Forsyth County, a county in which certain members of the Republican Party control the politics. Anyone who therefore desires to run, and expects to win an elected office in Forsyth County, at least at this time during our county’s political evolution, must become a Republican, which, truth be told, is merely the act of placing an “(R)” next to one’s name on a piece of paper, whether one’s political convictions are in accordance with traditional Republican beliefs or not. When individuals whose purposes are not aligned with traditional Republican beliefs join the Republican Party simply to win elections, that is called “infiltration,” another activity JFK warned about. And that is why, presently, there are so many Republicans-In-Name-Only, or some say, “RINO’s,” occupying political offices in Forsyth County. They INFILTRATE the Republican Party to become elected, say the right things to gather support, and in the end SUBVERT the design of the American political process, just as JFK described.
I recall a time in Forsyth County when the county commission, populated with true conservative Republicans, would never dream of spending large sums of taxpayer dollars on major governmental infrastructure projects without passing a county-wide referendum to gain public affirmation and a means of funding. That is what a truly conservative county commission would do. Passing a referendum is how a conservative county commission built the present administration building near the square in downtown Cumming. One would think, therefore, that passing a referendum would be an expected requirement, by established precedent, to carry out such a purpose. But that is not how your Forsyth County County Commission works these days.
These days, in the case of the mislocated admin building project, our triumvirate of RINO Republican infiltrators, specifically Alfred John, Laura Semanson, and Kerry Hill, rather than asking the taxpayers whether they agree with a proposed need of spending enormous tax dollars on a new administration complex on Freedom Parkway, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions, and more, over the life of the project, enlarging local government to unrecognizable levels in the process, simply used the funds available from the county overcharging property taxpayers for several years, resulting in substantial cash reserves, finally taking a sudden and quick vote during a January 2024 county commission meeting to decide to splurge that overabundance of tax proceeds as I describe. As Commissioner Semanson read her pre-prepared motion into the record, and the motion carried, this is what that sounded and looked like:
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That Commissioner Semanson’s motion to accept the contract to build the Freedom Parkway project was prepared in advance is evidence that the entire discussion was scripted, the outcome to build the project known before the meeting started.
True conservative Republicans would never conduct county business that way. But these three RINO members of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners operate under no guise of traditional Republican values as stewards of public funds. They are RINO infiltrators with political purposes which in many ways subvert the democratic process.
And as you see above, the vote to build the new Freedom Parkway admin complex project passed by the slimmest margin possible, 3 to 2, all three “Yea” votes obviously predetermined and cast by those same Club members. ***Importantly, those three commissioners, Alfred John, Kerry Hill and Laura Semanson, voted to build the admin project, each knowing that state law prevents the county commission from holding a public meeting in that building, the property being situated outside of the county seat of Cumming.*** In the following sound clip from the January 18, 2024 meeting, Chairman John makes it clear that he knew well in advance, as early as “late 2021 or early 2022,” he says, of an issue of the county seat being outside of the city limits. He says the other commissioners knew as well. If you watch that video online, you will see two commissioners, Laura Semanson and Todd Levent shaking their heads as if to say the chairman is not correct in his statement. In the next several minutes, however, the veracity of the chairman’s statement became moot because each commissioner heard the remark by the chairman, expressing there was a legal problem, BEFORE THE VOTE. Even so, during the rest of the discussion prior to the vote, no one brought that issue up. Everyone ignored the fact that state law would not allow the commissioners to meet at the Freedom Parkway location. So, no one has an excuse for voting to build the admin project on Freedom Parkway, as each understood the problem when they voted, the contract accepted and the funds committed.
Thus, unless something unforeseeable radically changes, in deciding to build at the Freedom Parkway location the commission not only screwed itself, but also screwed the taxpayers who are footing the bill for a building in which the commission may never be able to meet in official capacity, an absurd place for this board of commissioners to find itself. It is safe to say, Forsyth County taxpayers operating under full knowledge of the facts, and the law, understood by each commissioner when they voted, would never have approved a referendum to build such a facility where it is now located.
Freedom Parkway Administration Complex is Located on that Anomalous Finger Extending District 1 Beyond Ga. 400 to the East. Why Such an Oddity on the Forsyth County District Map?
The prospect that the Forsyth County Commission may never be able to lawfully meet to conduct county business in the extravagant “Taj Mahal” admin complex presently under construction on Freedom Parkway, is real. This is no small matter, and as hard as it may seem to believe, no one is making this up. The three commissioners who approved it, especially Chairman Alfred John, are apparently experiencing a state of desperation to discover a way around that very real problem.
To add to their difficulties, by their actions and words, the three “Club” commissioners, John, Hill and Semanson, have alienated many they now find themselves dependent upon to aid their escape from the circumstances they themselves created by their vote. Obviously, no one caught in their situation would want the public see them sweat. Obviously as well, these three commissioners would not want you, or anyone else to know how isolated they have become, or to become knowledgeable of certain desperate measures now being taken to break out of the trap they, themselves, set and voted to walked into.
Recently, I reported in this article that our three majority-wielding commissioners, or at least their attorney Ken Jarrard, demonstrated just how desperate the situation has become when somehow, by the authority of some individual or individuals left unidentified, a strange, unsolicited and unsigned proposed resolution was received by City Attorney Kevin Tallant, representing the Mayor and City Council of Cumming. The proposal was sent by Tallant’s county counterpart Jarrard, for the city council and mayor to consider signing. That document prospectively resolved that the city would have no opposition to the county asking the Georgia General Assembly to sponsor legislation allowing “certain counties,” without naming Forsyth specifically, to locate their legislative office buildings outside of their county seats.
We now know that, along with this unsigned resolution the county offered the city a deal, weak though it was, a quid-pro-quo of sorts, in exchange for executing the document. That deal was to grant an easement to cross certain county-owned property for the city to relocate a water line necessary for the GA 20 widening project. Not only did the city not sign the proposed resolution, but in its place they executed their own resolution, expressing the exact opposite to that requested by Forsyth County.
As I have stated several times, apparently in order for the county commission to meet and enact business at the Freedom Parkway location outside of the county seat, Georgia law must be changed. Not only that, but the local ordinance requiring the commission to meet at its present location in downtown Cumming must also be changed. Changing that local ordinance would also have to occur at the level of the Georgia General Assembly. That means that the Forsyth County delegation to the general assembly must sponsor a bill to accomplish that. Presently, to get through the Georgia House of Representatives, according to certain rules of the House pulling that off would take a unanimous vote among Forsyth County House members. And that is why commissioners John, Hill and Semanson needed the city to sign this resolution. Unless the City of Cumming agrees for the county commission to meet outside of town, it is more than doubtful that all Forsyth County Georgia House members would unanimously agree to sponsor bills to allow that to occur. Do you see how weak and fruitless was this attempt to beguile the City of Cumming to come to the aid of these three county commissioners? This desperate attempt to escape a trap of their own making, arrived at the city only a few weeks after those same three commissioners blindsided the city, failing to agree to the county’s own proposed SPLOST intergovernmental agreement, rejecting it at the very last minute, costing the city millions of dollars over the next six years. And now these same three commissioners apparently want a favor from the city. As they say, “Good luck with that.”
If you want to know the details of how it came about that these three commissioners, John, Hill and Semanson, blindsided the City of Cumming on SPLOST, you can read my Substack on that subject here.
Now, here is the part of all this that no one wants to explain. You see, during no county commission meeting leading up to Mr. Jarrard sending that proposed resolution did the commissioners either publicly discuss or vote on sending anything of that sort to the city. Obviously, holding that public discussion could invite criticism from the other two commissioners, Mills and Levent, who on January 18 justifiably voted AGAINST building the Freedom Parkway administration complex.
Furthermore, the act of proposing said resolution to the city was not part or parcel of any previously-approved policy of the board, nor was it in keeping with the administration of any county ordinance already enacted by the board and on the books. That means that County Attorney Ken Jarrard would have little or no reason, much less the requisite authority, to take it upon himself to write and send that resolution to the city. In other words, one would expect that before he would do something like that, someone in apparent authority from the county would have had to instruct the attorney to carry out that task. Obviously, the county attorney felt authorized enough to propose the deal in question, sweetened by the water easement consideration, or he would not have done it. He felt confident enough even though, at least arguably, he has no authority in and of his own to craft county policy or propose his own prospective agreements between the county and other governmental bodies, and portray them as as official acts by the county. The county attorney is not a principle in any such proposed agreement and therefore would likely not have the authority necessary to propose one such as you see above without instructions given him from someone he reasonably expects to possess that authority. That being the case, if the board of commissioners did not authorize the resolution Mr. Jarrard sent to the city, and there is no evidence that it did, then who did?
Perhaps the only individual in position to request and authorize the county attorney to craft the resolution in question, and propose the easement to sweeten the deal, would have been County Manager David McKee. Even so, without instructions to do so from the commissioners, the authority to carry out that task, voted and approved during an official public meeting, or without direct instruction from Commission Chairman Alfred John outside of a public meeting, it is doubtful anyone in Mr. McKee’s position would reason the authority necessary to do so on his or her own. So, who authorized County Attorney Jarrard to construct and convey this resolution to the city?
The answer to that question is very likely what Commissioners Cindy Mills and Todd Levent wanted to know when together they placed #22 below as an item of discussion on the November 12 Work Session agenda last week.
Neither of those commissioners had been asked during a public meeting to discuss or vote on such a resolution to propose to the City of Cumming, yet their names appeared on the signature page in places for them to sign. How could that legitimately happen without their knowledge? I, for one, do not believe it could. We may never hear the answer to that question from the mouths of those who truly know because in last week’s work session agenda item #22 was immediately postponed for discussion by Chairman John by a vote of, you guessed it, himself, Kerry Hill and Laura Semanson, with Mills voting no (Commissioner Levent had not yet arrived), that item ostensibly to be considered on January 14th once Commissioner Mills will no longer be on the board, replaced by the incoming freshman commissioner, Mendy Moore. Chairman John’s motion to postpone the #22 item of discussion proposed by commissioners Mills and Levent looked and sounded like the following:
And because it takes two commissioners to place an item on a meeting agenda, unless newly-elected Commissioner Moore suddenly “gets religion,” the odds are great that item #22 will be voted off the January 14 agenda, 4 to 1 this time, and forever disappear, the answer, therefore, never publicly flowing from the lips of anyone who truly knows…
Now, notice a pattern of conduct, or perhaps better said, misconduct, potentially emerging, a pattern in which, apparently, certain of the three Club members of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, or perhaps all three of them, use the employee occupying the county manager position to carry out certain activities the full board of commissioners has not officially, and publicly authorized. Recall a previous Substack of mine in which the three Club members controlling the commission, they being Alfred John, Kerry Hill and Laura Semanson, used County Manager David McKee as their convenient “scapegoat,” publicly blaming him for their own misbehavior in cancelling at the last minute a “Final” intergovernmental SPLOST agreement the county proposed to the City of Cumming, similarly transmitted to City Attorney Kevin Tallant by County Attorney Ken Jarrard.
Do you see the pattern? In directing the county attorney to write and send the most recent resolution, these three commissioners, John, Hill and Semanson, or perhaps Chairman John by himself, are (is) apparently using Mr. McKee as a scapegoat once again, that conclusion finding basis in a likely valid assumption that, short of the authority being delivered by Chairman John, it could only have been Mr. McKee who instructed County Attorney Jarrard to draw up and transmit the latest proposed resolution and easement “side deal” to the City. Again, it seems farfetched to imagine the county attorney doing that on his own, possessing no authority in and of his contracted position merely representing the commissioners to do so.
Would McKee have gone rogue and acted on his own to instruct Jarrard to propose the resolution in question? That is possible, but I doubt it. Other than those three commissioners finding their county manager a convenient and consistent target to blame for their own mistakes and dereliction of duties, County Manager McKee is not the person on the hot seat here. Although McKee obviously favored the project during the meeting prior to the January 18 vote, McKee is not the one who ultimately decided to spend hundreds of millions of tax dollars over the life of the new administration complex, or more, to include a county commission meeting auditorium that apparently cannot be lawfully used for the purpose of holding county commission meetings.
No, those on the hot seat and increasingly desperate for a solution are the three Commissioners Alfred John, Kerry Hill and Laura Semanson. As you saw and heard above, Commissioners Mills and Levent each voted AGAINST the Freedom Parkway project. The three Club members controlling the majority are the ones solely responsible for the pickle in which they find themselves. Thus, they are the only ones who might benefit from the City of Cumming somehow agreeing on such a “hail Mary”resolution with the hope of using it to entice the Forsyth County General Assembly delegation to introduce legislation to change both the state law and county ordinance. In fact, a county manager could create a precipitous downside for himself, including it becoming a firing offense, by making such a proposal strictly on his own authority, without instruction from the Board of Commissioners, or at least from presiding Commission Chairman Alfred John. I am not saying it is not possible, but making that decision without being ordered or instructed, at least by the commissioner chairman, would potentially not be good for a county manager’s career path, if you know what I mean.
My assumption, therefore, is that Chairman John, in the very least, either directly or indirectly, played a deciding role in the decision to craft the resolution, weak and desperate as that proposal was, and ask the city to sign it.
That the resolution in question was so feeble in its purpose demonstrates just how desperate Commissioners John, Hill and Semanson have become. They voted to approve this massive project each of them knowing the county commission could not lawfully enact business there. And according to Commissioner John himself, each knew that fact for a year or more leading up to the vote last January.
Why would these three commissioners do all that I share with you knowing the facts and the law? That is a REALLY GOOD QUESTION. I mean, it is not as if the county did not have alternate sites, situated within the county seat of Cumming, to locate a new administration building or complex of buildings. While the answer to my question is not yet clear, even to me, it appears the motivation to build the complex on the Freedom Parkway corridor could be connected in some way, or ways, to the pursuit of private investment gain by one or more interested parties connected one way or another to certain present-day or former Forsyth County decision-makers. Why, after all, does the admin project situate on a parcel of land in commissioner district #1, on a “thumb” of sorts on the East side of GA 400, when that is the only piece of District #1 anywhere on that side of 400?
Whatever the real answer, just know the list of possibilities is not endless. And, frankly, there is always the possibility, one that I do not discount, that the three commissioners who made the decision to build on Freedom Parkway, without first clearing the legal hurdles required for that location, were just not smart. I’m being nice.
Regardless of the final truth we may or may not ever uncover, one thing is certain. Three members of the Forsyth County Commission are in deep do-do over the fact that they decided to build this colossal monument to themselves, at enormous expense to county taxpayers, which they may never be able to use for its fully-intended purposes.
See all of Hank Sullivan's writings and analysis on his Hank's Substack account available HERE.
