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Recently Submitted LTE

From: Kurt Wolfgang

Re: Recent letter to the editor “There are more important issues for county than Take-home vehicles”

Dear Ms. Breck:

Please consider this e-mail as a response to Mr. Bowles letter to the editor above.

Mr. Bowles is right about one thing: There are far more important issues in Charles County than the money that could be saved by taking the luxury SUVs away from the only two County Commissioners who are provided them free of charge by the County (all gas included). Some of those issues are fortitude, integrity, arrogance and empire-building.

I applaud Commissioners Kelly and Robinson for having the fortitude to bring up this uncomfortable issue. They did not do so for some petty reason, but for the most important reason in a representative democracy: because the people wanted them to do it. They did it for another important reason, as well: because they were fulfilling a promise made to the public during the election campaign.

In 2009, as the last (not the present) Board of Commissioners cut spending, instituted furloughs on county employees, severely restricted the number and use of county vehicles for others, they voted to provide themselves with luxury SUVs, and allowed themselves access to gasoline and services at county expense.  There was a wave of outrage throughout the citizens of the County. Anyone who knows how to add and subtract will conclude that the cost of the vehicles is somewhat small, given size of the County budget. It was never about the money, it was about the arrogance. The arrogance to spend money on themselves while cutting services, and hurting employees with furloughs. It was nest-feathering, or perhaps it should be called empire building, and it required a greatly inflated self-image and maybe some arrogance for those Commissioners to vote themselves what amounted to a major pay raise during these hard times.  So much so, that four of those five former Commissioners were defeated in 2010, and in my view, their luxury SUVs played an important role in their defeat.  It was an astounding lack of clear thinking about the symbolism, among other things, of treating
themselves as more important than the citizens,  and the employees. Leadership requires so much more than this.

Most of the new board, elected in 2010,  showed wisdom and restraint by refusing the luxury SUV. Commissioners Robinson and Rucci refused. President of the Commissioners Kelly, who is the only full-time Commissioner, even refused. But two of the Commissioners did not listen to the public’s message. Commissioner Collins, who voted for the SUVs in the first place in 2009, and Commissioner Davis, decided that they were important enough that they would take the free SUVs regardless of the public anger.

Doing the right thing is often difficult. It is divisive, because you have to take firm stands against those who refuse to see the right way. I applaud Commissioners Kelly and Robinson for taking on this tough issue, and I am very sorry that there were not 3 votes to right this wrong. A wrong that has little or nothing to do with the cost of these symbols, but a great deal to do with the health of our representative government in La Plata.

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