Opinion, Out and About

Out and About

November 15, 2018 | Sandi Kemp

Next week you will be receiving your papers on Wednesday because next Thursday is Thanksgiving. We hope you have a special time planned with friends and family. This is the time of year where we are forced to slow down in our everyday lives – and speed up and pay attention to the part of our lives that matter the most. It would be awesome if we all had time to always pay attention to what matters the most – and that is our relationships with others and our God. However, that isn’t always the case at least in my life. I’m just thankful that I have very patient and gracious people in my life that know that I mean well, and my intentions are good. And, they are busy too with everything I delegate so it all works out. I hope. I do not want to take them for granted. Please pause this holiday season and thank those that mean the most to you.

When you were a child and you knew you were doing something wrong – or thought it could be wrong…what did you do? You went around the side of the house, the back of the house, you locked the door, you snuck out the window or you hid in the darkness of a car. As an adult and you knew you were doing something wrong – someone might get a private server, a second cell phone, a different email address, and walk outside to take calls and delete text messages and emails. In any of those cases do they sit down at the dinner table and just announce what they are saying or doing that they know is wrong?

Such is the case with our water department. If they really thought that hiring former county commissioner Rob Williamson was an awesome idea, they would have put out a press release, possibly announced the job opening to their employees to start with, and perhaps share the job description with a head-hunting firm or job board so that the water department would hire the best possible candidate for the position. That didn’t happen – because they knew that it was wrong. On top of that they conspired to keep it a secret from you – the rate payer – until after the candidate packet deadline had passed so that people who were concerned about their nefarious deeds couldn’t do anything about it – for about four years…unless something else drastic happened. We just had a million-dollar mistake happen at the hands of water company employees that have 30-years of experience. Just think how many mistakes can happen with a general manager with no experience. Our water company is membership owned and only exists because of a charter by Santa Rosa County. It is time for Santa Rosa County to take measures to help our water department stop hitting themselves in the face. This board, and president Will Goulet, especially, is an embarrassment to himself and our county. You can’t even say that he has our best interests at heart – because he does not.

Quote: “Even if we aren’t under the Sunshine law, we need to act as if we are.” – Will Goulet, President, Holley Navarre Water System upon his election to the board January 2018

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