Commissioner Kevin Stufflebean is perhaps most famous, (on this blog anyway), for his ability to confuse things. During the road department layoffs he presented to the public information suggesting the department had been operating in the red for eight years. When this was exposed as false, he blamed the press for, well, quoting from his own press release.
Keeping track of Stufflebean is a little like watching someone spinning three cups around and trying to keep track of which one holds the pea. His latest innovation, the local improvement districts, has been a dizzying display of spinning cups and it just seems to get worse all the time.
A letter to the editor this week explains the perspective of a Stage Road LID resident and the confusion that arises from Stufflebean’s projects.
As a resident of Stage Road, I was glad to read that Kevin Stufflebean and John Rowe learned their lesson with the Wallace Road project. What they did not learn, however, was how to get their facts straight….
As far as the driveway paving, Stage Road residents did not make this request; therefore no legal obligation existed to respond. Stufflebean offered that option to us at the first meeting when the county had 22 extra on its road crew. The offer was withdrawn after the Wallace Road fiasco.
At the first meeting, we were told the county had all the equipment and manpower to do the work. This was reiterated at the next meeting, after the county laid off most of the road crew.
We were assured that the county still had the manpower, knowledge and equipment to do the work. It was not until after the feasibility study was done that we were told it was more ‘cost effective” to put the project out to bid because ‘contractors were hungry.”
It doesn’t help that the paper doesn’t pin Stufflebean down on these claims and commit to one story or the other. What is with Nikki Whitty that she has followed Stufflebean’s lead so many times considering how often people have stood before the commission to point out inconsistencies in his statements. What is she thinking, or does she?
