Dorsey fires back in response to letter and article in the Hartwell Sun

During the chairman’s report at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Hart County Board of Commissioners, Chairman Joey Dorsey spent much of his time responding to both a letter to the editor and an article in the Hartwell Sun. Dorsey took exception to both, stating there was gross misinformation and

“I want to address a letter to the editor that was in the Hartwell Sun that I feel like was a personal attack against some commissioners. There was gross misinformation that was in there. We had a meeting on the 19^th of July and a statement was made in a letter to the editor that we were going to set the thermostat at the library to 85 degrees. That was never mentioned. This board talked about implementing energy control devices that we have in this building, doing this in other county buildings in an effort to save your taxpayer dollars. To be more efficient,” said Dorsey.

Dorsey then talked about statements about public comment.

“The other thing that bothered me was about public comment. This board is the only board in this community that allows public comment and allows the public to interface with your board members, your representatives either before a vote is taken or during the meeting. When we had that meeting, a lady raised her hand. She was allowed to speak. And we have, on our regular meeting agenda, item 14, we have public comment where you can come up and address the board about any matter you want. You don’t have to give us three days notice or whatever. We’ll try to get you an answer. We’re the only board that does that. You can come forward in this meeting tonight and speak during public comment,” said Dorsey.

Dorsey then addressed the reporter’s story in the Sun.

“There were numerous errors in the reporter’s story. Never once did we say anything about renegiating rates with Georgia Power. They would have laughed at us no more than we use from a utility standpoint. I just felt like, and feel strongly, the record needs to be clear. To say that we did allow public comment but it was a begrudging environment, I feel strongly that that’s not the case. We simply stated the facts and I can’t help the fact that people don’t like the answers we give them,” said Dorsey.

Dorsey concluded by talking about how commissioners decide on which things get funded and which do not.

“We can’t fund every request. We fund our needs first, and then we look at our wants. We will always take care of emergency services and the things we are required to by law. I want to state for the record again, this board did not cut the library funding. That was cut by the State of Georgia. The library also has $48,000 in reserves. If you look at their utility bills, and this is what that money was used for, their utility bills were $24,000. There is enough money in their fund balance that they could pay the utilities for a year,” said Dorsey.

The reporter who wrote the story for the Sun was not at Tuesday’s meeting. The meeting was being covered by Publisher Peggy Vickery.