9, your candidate this time was a corrupt poltical hack who's going to get his day in court.

Hearing you talk about openess and transparency would be like listening to Hitler preach to other nations about human rights: it gags me.

When are people going to acknowledge that corruption and cost start and end with the fee offices?

I agree, Metulj, and the school system also enjoys a level of autonomy--with regard to the significant impact of their having line-item budget control over 63% of total county expenditures, anyway.

I think bringing on Cosby to do the finances is, given the glowing recs people have for him, a good idea...

I see it's possibly being a smart move politically, at least in some quarters, but I'm just not sure that's really needed or even advisable.

Aside from the fact that John Troyer is a CPA and Cosby isn't, and aside from the fact that Troyer has years with the finance department even before his promotion to head, the poor guy has done nothing but mop up ever since that promotion. I can see discontent with Werner, but Troyer? Why? I've never heard anyone suggest he is anything but a straight arrow.

And I thought that press release Cosby issued Monday was especially ill-informed. Calling on his political opponents to "join him" in anything was naive, of course, but I'm really referring to his apparent lack of instituional knowledge about how departments relate to one another in local government. For example, his assertion that "all take home cars and car allowances will be eliminated" on his would-have-been swearing-in date isn't even possible, the finance department told me. They said the mayor can't make that decision for the fee offices OR for the school system.

Then too, that press release urged the current administration to "reduce the use of the rainy day fund and reduce spending," when the mayor's chosen alternative to sap reserves is probably the most palatable one we have among our less-than-tasty options (I noted Mayshark thinks similarly).

Does Cosby realize that we haven't had a local tax increase in six years (relative to a historical pattern of increases every four years), that we haven't had a state tax increase in eight years (relative to a historical pattern of sales tax rate increases every seven years), and that imposing one now is virtually impossible (given an unemployment rate of 10-ish%)? I don't know what makes for "rainy days," if not the days we're in now.

So again, what's the complaint with Troyer?

Dems could have switched and voted for Cosby in the General. But that wouldn't have made a difference.

Assume 65-35 split for R-D in the county. Assume every Dem voted for Burchett in the primary. That still means Burchett got 86 - 32 = 44/65, or at least 65% of republicans (more realistically like 75%).

Of course, Cosby need only get more votes than Burchett, not 50%, since we don't have runoffs. If Cosby could claim 40% of Republican votes, it would be within reach with Dem crossover in the general. But were half of those Burchett votes from Republicans just anti-Hutch votes? Probably not.

(Sigh. She's everywhere I go. I'll just cut and paste some of our exchange from the KNS...)

I think you misunderstand my previous comments concerning Cosby, Shannon.

I have never questioned his motives; I have, however, questioned his judgement and, more recently, his ethics.

What I said with regard to the Ragsdale probe is that I felt he should have stepped aside once an independent audit conducted by the State Comptroller's Office began, and I still think that.

I said I found his offer of "help" to them, when the independence of the review was so important (and when he was not an active CPA and when other CPAs who are active saw no need to become involved in the Comptroller's Office's responsibilities) was inappropriate from a professional standpoint, and I still think that.

I also said that I questioned the recent decision of the Ethics Committee, under Cosby's leadership, that the Ragsdale administration had committed an ethical breach by virtue of their determination that he was guilty of "official oppression" against Richard Walls.

The DA's office confirmed my observation when they advised the Committee that the Ragsdale administration had a First Amendment right to level their allegations against Walls and, more to the point, that the administration's acts did not fulfill the legal definition of "official oppression."

I also pointed out to you that Cosby had a responsibility to recuse himself from deciding any ethics issue involving the mayor's office at all, if at the time of the hearing he had this accusatory website up...

(link...)

...and I asked you if you understand that when we go about defending Truth and Justice very much, we have a responsibility to be sure we do it consistently.

And yes, I have expressed my concern that Cosby is a poor writer, although it is not surprising to me that you personally do not recognize that.