Going down in flames.

On the front cover of this edition you have likely read of the padding of numbers that has occurred with regard to jail staffing. To be correct it is not about jail personnel, more about a way to increase the size and funding of the Bradley County Sheriff's Department. As is usually the case in these situations, I would expect the corrections officers manning the facility to see little or no improvement in working conditions because of their boss' budget plundering. Bradley County Sheriff Dan Gilley, has been caught raiding the cookie jar again, only this time he has made a lot of people madder than a barn full of bucking mules. Remember County Executive Donna Hubbard, she was riding on a cloud for years and became so comfortable that she thought and acted as though she was invincible. Then one day, bam. down she went. Bet she still doesn't understand what happened and cannot fathom what really went wrong. That is the problem with arrogance, it clouds the judgment. Gilley has made some monumental mistakes in the past 4 or 5 years. He orchestrated the need for a new justice center by neglecting to maintain the old one, and caused panic among county commissioners with threatened de-certification and possible prosecution for neglection of duty, and then squeezed them until their veins popped time after time for more and more money. After all the years of empty promises he has failed to come through with a facility to be proud of despite the massive cost. In fact, he had the audacity to blame his ineptitude and mismanagement on the Bradley County Commission themselves for not funneling even greater recourses into this overpriced catastrophe. Gilley is doing what Hubbard did, playing the commission and then treating them like idiots. He has his people as members of the commission and on the finance committee so he is taking liberties by offending the rest. Not a wise move. Gilley lies, then he uses the power of office to prevent the truth from getting out. He is unapproachable and refuses to release legally available information to the public or the press. If the truth is leaked, he uses his influence with the Cleveland Daily Banner to do damage control by running pro-Gilley propaganda to make him look to be the good guy. Gilley is a smart politician and will probably survive this humiliating testimony to his management skills but he has lost his charisma and will ultimately go down in flames.
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Can you trust them?

They know that building a new Cleveland airport is unpopular with almost everybody who doesn't own or have access to a multi-million dollar jet. And they know that their arguments supporting the need are just smoke with no substance. Yet they are still trying to deceive the public into believing that no local tax dollars are being spent on the project. After quietly wasting an unknown amount of money on an environmental study of the now unavailable Finnell property in East Bradley County, the Cleveland City Council have agreed to fund an engineering study of Hardwick Field. But so as not to have to justify budgeting and to make it appear no local money is being used, they are using the Cleveland Bradley Chamber of Commerce (who else) to be the middle man. The scheme is for the Chamber to advance the necessary funds to the Cleveland Airport Authority providing that the City Council guarantees replacement if a federal grant is not obtained. A similar arrangement was made for the Finnell property that never was. This editor was hopeful that the newly formed Cleveland Airport Authority would operate above board and not try and repeat the shenanigans of the past. Even though Lynn DeVault, President of Jones Management, (a major beneficiary if a new airport is built), was selected chairperson, I still had hope. As time advances it seems my trust was misplaced. It should have been expected, because in Cleveland, all projects are attempted without public input because our leaders believe they can hoodwink the public and act alone. Were the public advised of this cozy arrangement with the Chamber of Commerce in advance? It is sad really, because if they had not tried to manipulate the process they may have received public support for a revamped Hardwick Field provided no local money was used. I guess years of bickering and fighting and wasted money is progress to them.
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