Can you imagine the reaction from your spouse if they come came home one day and found out you simply gave away all their tools without ever discussing it with you? Can we all agree that would be a bad day on the home front? Well if that very similar event were to take place with county property how do you think the unknowing county board members would react?
SILENCE!
Jim Keller, County Board Chairman appears to have forgotten, assuming he ever knew, that he is not King or Dictator and doesn’t have the right to do what ever he wants with tax payer owned property.
Action by a board member takes support from the board in a form of a vote and/or resolution. We know they know what that means as they pass resolutions regularly but there seems to be a pattern about failing to do that properly for anything related to Emergency Services, especially on things related to Dee Burgin, Edgar County Deputy and past owner of the Edgar County Ambulance, of which record shows no payment has ever been made. More on that later, we promise!
Consider this part 1 of a several part story where the County Board ignores the need for a vote to take action or in the rare cases it takes a vote, fails to document the real action as intended.
Many may recall the Newport VX Gas facility that shut down a few years ago. During its operation several emergency service agencies were outfitted with equipment that was to be used in the event of an emergency caused by that facility. That equipment was purchased through funds provided by Grants.
So what happens to that equipment now that the plant is shut down? Keep in mind, that it’s tax payer owned equipment! In most cases it was signed over to the tax payer owned emergency response agencies to continue to serve the people.
However in the case of Dee Burgin, former owner of the private business Edgar County Special Services Ambulance, $12,700.00 worth of equipment was signed over to him free and clear just months prior to Mr. Burgin selling that ambulance.
County Board Chairman James Keller signed the document making that official on January 14th, 2009. For lack of ANY resolution or even a tweet about it in the minutes the action by all accounts was done in secret from the rest of the Board. Those I asked about it knew nothing!
This information was exposed during this weeks county board meeting and not a single board member asked a single question about my claim of Mr. Keller giving away tax payer owned property to a private business. It was like being in the twilight zone again as the very first question I asked was one of the most basic foundations of government business by boards of any type:
To all members of this board, can we agree on the fact that any action you take in this county requires consent of a quorum of the board and no one person can do things without the approval of the board?
Not a single word out of any of them on the most basic principles of government action. That silence makes you wonder what they are afraid of.
During Mr. Burgin’s phone call attempt to intimidate me (key word attempt) on our exposure of his wrongdoings did make the statement that if he ever did the right thing and came forward to expose the truth of matters in this county there would be a lot of powerful people brought down. In a nut shell, a full-time deputy of this county claimed to KNOW of illegal acts by high-profile members of this county and so far has done nothing! More on that later!
Maybe we are on to something here with Mr. Burgin as it appears anything related to him is simply overlooked, ignored and stonewalled. Everyone sits silent. So we must ask, Mr. Keller, what does Dee Burgin have over you that you feel the need to take action unilaterally and give away $12,700.00 worth of county owned property to a private business owned by Mr. Burgin? Action that was done with no authority and in secret from the board by all accounts?
As I stated at the county board meeting, the bigger the wall you put up the bigger the Dozer we will use to tear it down. We are not going away and we are going to continue to demand answers!
Its time for We the People to take our County back from the shenanigans and nepotism that is deeply rooted here.
Special thanks to the hundreds of leads the great people of Edgar County have provided on so many illegal matters. Rest assured we are processing them as fast as we can and as the facts are confirmed we will run each and every story!
Edgar County, You have a Voice with the Watchdogs!
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