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Guest Contributor: Hank Sullivan
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Last week I published this article, hitting hard on several matters of local interest, not the least of which is the figurative “hole” three Forsyth County Commissioners, Alfred John, Laura Semanson and Kerry Hill, continue to dig for themselves, a hole so deep it could eventually become their political undoing.
You will recall from last week’s article, in January those three commissioners took it solely upon themselves to approve a $114 million contract to build a new county administration complex some are calling the Forsyth County “Taj Mahal.” They approved the contract to build the project by the slimmest of margins, 3 to 2, knowing that there were legal issues preventing the county commission from conducting official meetings at the chosen site, outside of the city limits of the county seat of Cumming.
To reinforce the fact that all commissioners understood the problem when they voted to accept the contract, spending $114 million to construct, and hundreds of millions over the life of the project, I offer the words of Commissioner Mills spoken during the January 18 meeting, offered prior to the vote being taken:
I think it is important to stress that the County Attorney Ken Jarrard is that party under contract with Forsyth County charged to ensure that the law is followed, and to call attention to impediments such as this “archaic law,” (Jarrard’s term) that affect the future purposes carried out at the Freedom Parkway location. And I cannot help but notice Mr. Jarrard’s dismissive comments about the law in question, characterizing the law as “archaic,” born of “horse and buggy days.” I say that because the Declaration of Independence was written during “horse and buggy days,” and arguably changed the world in very good ways. The fact is, counties in Georgia abide by this law because it is a necessary and proper safeguard, regardless how old it is.
According to County Manager McKee, “This information was stumbled upon after we purchased the land.” That it was stumbled upon, rather than researched and known by the county attorney, prior to spending tax dollars, simply demonstrates the culpability of Mr. Jarrard in all this, whose job it is to know the law and keep the county from making such horrible mistakes. Mr. Jarrard’s appraisal of the circumstances surrounding the then impending January 18 vote can be heard in the following video excerpt. Notice, Mr. Jarrard says he cannot disagree with anything Commissioner Mills just said:
Mr. Jarrard’s culpability, however, only relates to when the legal problems became known by all on the BOC. Those problems were certainly known the evening the three commissioners, John, Hill and Semanson, disregarded that information, against the better judgment of commissioners Mills and Levent, and voted to accept the contract nonetheless.
Frustrated and desperate for a solution, as a wrote previously, several weeks ago someone in apparent authority enlisted County Attorney Jarrard to send a resolution, proposing it to be signed by the Cumming City Council and Mayor, stating that the city would not oppose the state legislature changing the Georgia law requiring county commission meetings to be held within the limits of a county seat, in our case, the City of Cumming. That’s fine except that the city council and mayor DO oppose such a move. Thus, not only did the city not sign the resolution, but they countered, rewriting the document, resolving that the city strongly opposes moving county commission meetings outside of the city limits.
Because in his role as county attorney, Mr. Jarrard merely represents the board of commissioners (BOC), unless he had been properly instructed to propose that resolution in the name of the county commission, he would not be authorized to take on that task. And we know that the commissioners never officially acted to send that resolution to the city. We know that because that question was never posed during any public BOC meeting, discussed and voted upon. So, who was it who authorized the county attorney to write that resolution and propose it to the city?
That is what the two minority commissioners, Todd Levent and Cindy Mills, wanted to know when they placed item #22 below on the November 12 meeting agenda to discuss.
And if you read my last Substack, you also know that at that meeting, BOC Chairman Alfred John made a motion to postpone #22 until January, at which time Commissioner Cindy Mills will no longer be in office, replaced by incoming freshman commissioner, Mendy Moore. As it takes two commissioners to place an item on a meeting agenda, or three to postpone or remove one, should Commissioner-elect Moore vote with the three Club members, John, Hill and Semanson, in the process becoming a fourth “Club” member on the county commission, any agenda item proposed by the minority could be removed and one similar never be placed on an agenda again. That is why the Club must control all the seats on the BOC. If the Club controls the BOC, it controls the agenda moving forward, including zonings. The Club triumvirate, John, Hill and Semanson, are obviously stalling, wishing January to arrive sooner than the calendar allows, such that they will never have to publicly address any questions they do not want to answer.
All that is important because the three commissioners to whom I refer are in the proverbial “hot seat.” They really screwed up, voting to spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the life of the project to build a new admin complex in a location Georgia law prohibits the commission from holding official meetings. That is a big deal. The new admin complex features a state-of-the art commissioner’s meeting auditorium that, unless the law changes, can never be used for that purpose.
The plan has been for the existing admin building to be repurposed for the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Department, to use as the sheriff requires. Does the sheriff require a commissioner’s meeting room? Well, unless things change the sheriff will have one whether he needs it or not because, if this legal restriction is not resolved favorably for Chairman John and Commissioners Hill and Semanson, that part of the existing building would have to remain as-is such that the county commission can continue to meet there. Not only would that be a continuing embarrassment for the commission, but it would also be a constant inconvenience for those county employees required to attend commission meetings, repeatedly loading their vehicles with meeting-stuffs and traveling three miles to meet with the commissioners at the Sheriff’s Department. County taxpayers would be saddled with either paying mileage, or paying for a county van to regularly transport everyone that distance and back. So, this mistake, unless alleviated by some force of nature not apparent, could preclude the sheriff’s department from growing properly into the existing admin building and fully utilizing it as had been planned.
My guess has been that Forsyth County Manager David McKee was the conduit through whom the order to send the above-referenced resolution arrived at the county attorney’s desk to be sent to the city. As we have discussed, the question we all need to know is whether McKee would have acted on his own, in which case that could be a firing offense, having not been authorized to do so by the commission.
Or was it Commission chairman Alfred John himself, who instructed McKee, either directly or indirectly, to carry out such a purpose, in which case the chairman would be acting out purposes not within his sole discretion and thereby subjecting himself to possible ethics charges, he being only one of five on the commission.
Obviously, Commissioner John does not want to have that public discussion, to uncover who is responsible for authorizing the resolution sent by Jarrard to the city, and neither do his two clubmates on the commission, Hill and Semanson. They are obviously working in concert to keep that information concealed. Obviously as well, these three just want all of this to go away, and are desperate for a solution. They know that if they can freeze the monority’s proposed agenda items until January, and sufficiently encourage newly-elected Commissioner Moore to side with the majority on the makeup of each meeting agenda into the future, they could conceivably never have to publicly embarrass themselves, or endure ethics charges, having admitted who among a list of possible characters repeatedly broke the rules.
Relief for the three majority commissioners has not been forthcoming. In fact, during last week’s meeting held November 19, Commissioners Mills and Levent re-upped their quest to determine who sent the unauthorized resolution to the City of Cumming. Together they sponsored agenda item #12 below, the purpose being to publicly discuss what process was used to create and send the referenced resolution, and who thus enacted a policy outside of any direction of the BOC.
But this agenda item also contained something new. It included a public discussion involving the “engagement of staff lobbying in behalf of BOC.”
Apparently of late, County Manager McKee has taken to the road, embarking to attend meetings of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG). His purpose has been to lobby on behalf of commissioners John, Hill and Semanson to gain that organization’s support for changing Georgia law to allow county commissions to meet outside of county seats. That initiative demonstrates, again, just how desperate these three commissioners have become.
ACCG is a nonprofit agency created among Georgia’s county governments. As you will see below, one of its purposes is to stay abreast of legal considerations affecting the work of Georgia’s county commissions, and provide guidance to ensure the state’s county commissions operate within the law.
On page 542 of the ACCG Handbook for Georgia County Commissioners, ACCG makes it clear that, under Georgia law, official county business can only take place within the limits of a county seat, and that only under emergency circumstances might that requirement be waived.
What you see here is yet another effort, born of desperation, to escape the reality of three county commissioners committing a major error of judgment, over time committing hundreds of millions of dollars toward the construction and ongoing operation of a county administration complex, one in which they, as commissioners, cannot lawfully carry out county business.
So, the new question to ask is, who empowered Mr. McKee to embark on these journeys to lobby ACCG? That is what commissioners Levent and Mills wanted to know last week. Did the county manager do that on his own, or did he receive a directive from one or more commissioners, John, Hill and/or Semanson? Traveling around the state costs county taxpayers money. Who authorized that travel and the purpose behind it?
As was the case with the first postponed agenda item two weeks ago, during last week’s meeting, Chairman John motioned, seconded by Semanson, that new agenda item #12, proposed by Commissioners Mills and Levent, be postponed until January 16th, at which time, as we know, commissioner Mills will no longer be on the board. Predictably, the motion to postpone carried by the same three votes, John, Hill and Semanson. Commissioner Levent arrived moments after the vote. Notice the three commissioners striving to appear as if nothing is out of the ordinary. Everything is fine folks, move along, move along.
A few minutes later, at the appropriate time Commissioner Mills used a rule afforded all commissioners and commented on the tactic of the chairman and his majority partners, now repeated a second time, during consecutive meetings, postponing a public discussion which could lead to not only his embarrassment, but also demonstrate someone repeatedly breaking commission rules, which if true could lead to ethics charges. Here is Commissioner Mills’ announcement:
Make no mistake, the three “Club” commissioners, John, Hill and Semanson, are in trouble. They are caught in a trap of their own making. The City of Cumming will not help them. ACCG cannot not help them. Ethics charges are looming. Quoting Commissioner Mills, “I can give you direct things that I see are being done improperly. It is up to us as board members, we can make a motion, and get a second, and add things to the agenda. And we are not able to discuss this because three members keep it from happening.”
All that I describe could have, and should have been avoided. Under the present regime, however, as Commissioner Mills indicated, the county majority does not get along with the city, and obviously did not want to submit to city jurisdiction. Regrettably, when they had the chance, they therefore selected a location outside of the county seat.
Regarding the astronomical cost of the project, that question should have gone before the voters. Here is why I say that. Below you will find a story printed in the Forsyth County News in May of 1996. It regards the dedication of the present Forsyth County Administration Building in downtown Cumming, built at that time with a price tag of $4.5 million, “paid entirely by local sales tax money” approved in a public referendum by Forsyth County voters.
Notice the difference in how the construction of an administration building was handled in 1995, as opposed in 2024. In 1995, Forsyth commissioners responsibly presented a case for a new county administration building to the voters. As I recall, it took more than once before the voters approved a referendum to add a penny sales tax, the proceeds dedicated to building a $4.5 million project. That’s OK. That is the democratic process. And that is how conservative government operates. On the other hand, in 2024, the county commission reserved that decision solely for itself, having overcharged property taxpayers for several years while it stored the funds necessary to build an outrageous facility, complete with an employee gymnasium or exercise facility, and rooftop, open-air porticoes for commissioner enjoyment.
If you were here in the early 1990’s, you will recall, Forsyth County Government was necessarily small. It was small for two reasons. First, there were no facilities available within which to grow county government. Second, the tax base enabling government growth was a fraction of what it is today. Prior to 1996, when I would have business with county government, perhaps to apply for and receive a building permit, I could accomplish that business in a minimal amount of time, normally in a matter of a few minutes, dealing with people behind the counter whose job it was truly to SERVE THE PUBLIC.
Soon after the present admin building opened, the personality of Forsyth County Government, certainly from my perspective, changed. That is because the admin building provided space to GROW GOVERNMENT. With growth, county government increasingly became a vehicle designed to CONTROL the public, rather than SERVE the public. What I describe is naturally what occurs when people, charged by the Declaration of Independence to govern themselves, increasingly delegate power to a growing governing entity. Nature, even human nature, abhors a vacuum. Power not retained by the people will be assumed by their government. As a result, to obtain the same building permit that used to take minutes, that task may take weeks, or even months to complete. That is just one example.
Similar to the circumstances in 1996, the Freedom Parkway complex is designed with one overall purpose, to GROW GOVERNMENT. That means even more government control over the lives and aspirations of county citizens. According to County Manager McKee below, this new facility will allow government to grow by a similar path as the existing building, providing space for Forsyth County Government to double its number of employees immediately upon opening its doors.
Once again, nature abhors a vacuum. Build it and they will come. All of those new employees will need something to do. The more time on a bureaucrats’ hands, the more red tape they naturally introduce into the system. Anyone who deals with Forsyth County will tell you, Forsyth County Government is nothing if not already riddled with red tape.
Building a complex of buildings knowing that a major purpose of the project is unlawful defines the term, “boondoggle.” If you ask Siri what a boondoggle is, Siri will provide the perfect answer, “A project that is considered a waste of both time and money, yet is often continued due to extraneous policy or political motivations.”
BINGO. Very good, Siri.
Perhaps, rather than simply growing government, it is time, before the building is further toward completion, to consider repurposing substantial of its portions to serve the Forsyth County and surrounding area as originally planned.
You may recall an earlier Substack of mine, in which I reminded the community of at least one valid purpose of the Freedom Parkway site, which the three majority members of the county commission, and a fourth, Commissioner Mills, originally signed onto. In the words of County Commission Chairman Alfred John, speaking at the State of the County dinner that year, that purpose was to build a “cutting edge, 57,000 square foot public health facility…treating both physical and mental health,” to “include a 15 bed mental health crisis center, and an additional thirty beds for longer term mental health treatment…the first of its kind in Georgia.” Commissioner John continued expressing pride in his leadership on the matter, saying, “We are proud to be leading the way on a critical issue for our community, which has been overlooked for far too long.”
During that event, Chairman John obviously went off half-cocked, publicly pronouncing support for a facility he, accompanied by commissioners Hill and Semanson, would walk away from and ultimately cancel last January.
Perhaps it is time to revisit the idea of a mental health crisis center. Perhaps it is time to revisit the design of the new employee “wellness center,” providing a gymnasium for employees to exercise during their 15 minute breaks, and repurpose that building to help save Forsyth County lives, designing that building to deal with a very real epidemic of young people, veterans and others, for whom life has become so unlivable that they find themselves on the verge of taking their own.
The decision to use taxpayer dollars, without a referendum authorizing it, on a project so poorly researched, is mystifying. But that is government for you, another reason not to allow it to grow. I do not know how a project such as this one, given the public warnings of Commissioners Mills, Levent and the public at-large, could ever have gotten this far. But it has. Three commissioners entrusted to run Forsyth County have failed miserably in that task. And two of the three, Alfred John and Laura Semanson, were just reelected! Go figure.
As more occurs on this subject, and I predict that will happen soon, I will report on it. Thus, if you have not yet subscribed, now is the time. Simply click the green button below. You will never be charged. All the effort it takes to research and convey this information, I cheerfully donate as a public service to my community. If you believe this article is important, please share it with your friends and online acquaintances.
