hanksullivan.substack.com By Hank Sullivan
Nextdoor Censors Are Hard at Work Hiding the Truth from Local Readers
You should know, there are interests in and around Forsyth County who do not want you to read my articles. Recently, another Substack article of mine, one entitled, âCommission Chairman Desperate to Avoid Answering Questions,â was censored, removed from view by Nextdoor. The reason the Nextdoor censors gave me was to allege that I engaged in âpersonal fundraising.â First of all, if you look at the Nextdoor guidelines, personal fundraising is not prohibited. And if you are a subscriber to my Substack, you also know that everything I publish is free-of-charge. I do not write these articles to raise funds. I write these articles to raise awareness, for readers to better understand the political environment in which they live, whether my subject might be state, federal, or local politics, or even geopolitics. The following is the first paragraph of the censored article. In it, I deal directly with the fact that my articles are free to anyone who is interested and are not a means of fundraising.
Because what you see is the very first paragraph of the article, and because that paragraph directly counters the grounds on which Nextdoor removed it, there is no excuse for any so-called âmoderatorâ to hide it from view for the reason given. And the same goes for this article. The post in which the link above appears does not violate the published Nextdoor standards, and the nameless, faceless Nextdoor censors know it. Whether they will unhide the article, I do not know. Whether they will hide this article, I do not know either, which is why I tell you again, that subscribing to my Substack is always FREE-OF-CHARGE, and if you do not want to take the chance of missing the information I publish, your only real solution is to subscribe. I make no money at this. You can subscribe by clicking on the green box below and you can unsubscribe any time.
The âEasement-for-Resolutionâ Quid Pro Quo Your County Government Wants to Hide
I write this article from the standpoint of a county taxpayer of 38 years. I have seen many changes in Forsyth County from my perch two miles from downtown Cumming. I was pleased when we finally got a Blockbuster store. I was pleased when Ingles moved in a mile away. We no longer had to drive to Alpharetta to go grocery shopping.
Obviously, many things have changed in 38 years, and I understand progress is inevitable. But one matter that has changed about which I cannot console myself is the extent that local government now inhabits daily life in Forsyth County. And that would not be so bad except that those who occupy our elected offices have largely forgotten what public service is. In recent times, these individuals have taken to banding together, creating an informal, however highly politically-charged âClub.â The Clubâs purpose is to occupy every elected office in the county, and thereby control every possible decision concerning the future of Forsyth County. Regardless what party designation these Club politicians might ever claim, the bottom line is that, by banding together they can control the future of Forsyth County, possibly in illicit ways, ways that promote their own self-interests, for example. These Club members promote each otherâs races. They hand each other political contributions. They use the same political advisors and campaign consultants. Once elected, they largely abandon the very purpose of elected office, which is to represent the people who elect them. And the results are governmental decisions, based in considerations that defy the public interest. The one about which I write today, is one of those decisions.
Thus, what you are about to read may seem confusing. But it is only confusing because I am reporting about confused people doing confusing things. What is hard to swallow is the fact that these confused people are doing all those confusing things while running our county government. So, if you become confused reading about these people, relax, itâs not you. Itâs them. You havenât lost your mind. If anyone has lost their sanity, it is those about whom I write and who happen to be in charge of your county, and, importantly, your county tax dollars.
The story you are about to read is true. As things sit, your Forsyth County Government is being run by some desperate people who made a huge mistake with taxpayer money. And now they are trying to figure a way out of a mess of their own making, and its not going to be easy.
Iâm not saying anything they have done is necessarily illegal, well not saying that YET. But what they have done is mind-boggling, and a certain group of them has been either trying to conceal the problem, or cover up the problem for almost two years.
A Review from Last Time
The purpose of that resolution stemmed from the fact that last January, three county commissioners, Alfred John, Kerry Hill and Laura Semanson, did a very confusing thing. In a 3-2 vote, those three commissioners decided to spend what would become $114 million of your tax dollars, contracting to build a new administration complex. All told, apparently the cost of the new facility is now $134 million. Thatâs not so confusing. The confusing part is that the building now well under construction is located outside of the county seat of Cumming, and each of those three commissioners knew when they voted that Georgia law prohibits the county commission from officially acting in that location. Why would those commissioners do that? Well, that is a $134 million question. As I write, I will attribute that decision largely to a state of personal confusion existing in the minds of the three by whose votes the decision was made. But I also recognize that at some point, the confusion I attribute as the reason for their unexplainable votes could easily give way to intrigue, meaning we could discover some ulterior purpose, either theirs or someone elseâs. In other words, one can only be so stupid before one becomes purposely stupid. But the jury is still out on all that.
What the New Admin Project Cost You
To give you an idea of the magnitude of the cost of the new admin complex, the project underway on Freedom Parkway, including $5.4 million for the land cost, and various costs associated with the concept and plan development, is costing an average family of four in Forsyth County almost $2000. That out-of-pocket expense is being paid from property tax receipts. I do not know how many property owners there are in Forsyth County, but it is far fewer than the number of residents, making that average cost actually much higher among those required to pay it. Renters, however, absorbed that cost plus a landlord markup, so no one is really exempt. And that is just the cost for constructing the buildings. There are furnishings, computer systems, an entire gamut of costs totaling up to many millions, not to mention staff hirings to fill all the new seats. So, $2000 per household is just an approximate starting point…
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE… (hanksullivan.substack.com)
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