The past county coordinators have generally been forgetable. In fact, few people at today's CC meeting could remember that Col. Bob Moore and Walt Jett were the first coordinators. Dottie Kellison reminded the group of that. Norman Alderman then reminded them that the last one (he was called an Economic Development Coordinator) was Walt Helmick under whose leadership Howe's Leather burned to the ground and he was caught siphoned tons of poison into the Greenbrier River (See our video online)

So now we have another coordinator coming out of "retirement" to offer his services for two years for $1.00 per year. This time it is an "ex" FBI agent. We put quotes around the "ex" because he would answer if he was still "active." (We assume that the term "retire" should be taken with a grain of salt.)

He moved here recently from Virginia where he was involved with Hilliary Clinton and her campaign. He now lives at Hillsboro and has some "free" time for the simple minded hillbillies (Not that we agree with this concept but the CC just voted to hire him and never gave one single resident of Pocahontas County at chance to be hired. (It was essentially a job created for one man and one man only) No other men in the county were considered and certainly no women were considered.

Then to top it all off his office is to be located in one of the Commissioners back offices. Marty Saffer has been trying to move a public official into that office for quite some time. We raised a question about his original idea of providing an office for the other commissioner, David Fleming) Apparently, both thought better of the idea and abandoned it. But Marty is persistent and has found another way to back door county politics by offering this guy free office space in his law office.

This will give him an opportunity to work more "closely" with the coordinator. Unfortunately, it also has the effect of taking county business behind closed doors and into a private lawyer's office space. Now Fleming and Saffer can hundle together with their coordinator and lead him around like a dog on a lease.

I have to say that I appreciate David Flemming's foresight to contact the ethics commission about interviewing other people. Past commissions/administrations would not have even considered that.

I'm not sure that I like this coordinator idea though. Especially for someone that has lived here as little as the "EX Agent". People seem to come here from outside of the county and immediately believe that they know what the people need. While in reality, they are not yet in touch with the county's people.

We're a different breed of people in Pocahontas County. We are nothing like the city dwellers that people like the "EX Agent" are used to.

How about a thorough background check in this fellow? Anyone can type up a resume but has any of his experience or credentials been verified? This just seems really fishy to me. As stated above, we do not need an outsider to come in and tell us how to run the county. Will this person have access to budget, tax, or even personal information of county residents? Please look further into this. I cannot imagine someone "retiring" and then wanting to volunteer for a "full-time" position with no pay. Something is not quite right and the woman on the far right in the videos (don't know her name)seems to smell a rat as well. Oh...and can this fellow actually speak or is he only able to sit with a "whatever" look on his face?

You are exactly right. I used to work for the state and worked with community groups. Charleston could never figure out why what they tried to do didn't work, even after we explained that rural people in small communities, do not take kindly to outsiders, the Charlestonites went in with the idea that they were going to fix everything that was wrong, (in their eyes), and instead of asking the community people what they needed, they tried to tell them what they needed to do, and obviously, being the hillbillies that we are, the communities bucked on their ideas and nothing was accomplished. They did not want them to come back.

Now, on the other hand, if I went in as a local person that they knew, I could accomplish all kinds of things with the partership and cooperation of the group. When they targeted what they felt was important for them to work on, and they all agreed on a plan, things worked out and they accomplished what they felt they needed to do, and it was their idea.

sometimes outsiders(WHICH IS PROABLY 1/2 OF THE CO.) do have good ideas,as for his resume I would have thought the cc would have checked his references.as far as the cc I am afraid they are slidding back in time. for awhile we had some cc members that were working well together .now the only thing I hear are the cc complaining about each other and not really putting their best efforts forth for Pocahontas CO.this cannot help to bring new business to this county,which I beleive we truly need as we have alot of people in this county needing jobs

If this guy is employed by the county, even at a $1 per year, is he also being covered by county liability insurance for any of his actions.

Seems to me if Fleming felt it necessary to get an ethics opinion on this matter, he smells something also. Big case of CYA going down there!

My crap detector is bending the needle! I smell a zoner!

We already know that he supports abortion!

So, our brave Commisioners have budgeted some $15,000 of our money to give Commissar Martin Saffer a private henchman, oops, assistant, with extra private 'phone line, right in Marty's office. How handy! But not for us.

I can imagine trying to find out about some piece of County business, now. I'll go to a Commissioner. S/he will say, talk to our Koordinator. I trudge across the street, find Marty's office closed. Eventually I catch it open, and what-do-you-know, Herr Koordinator says, "I'm so sorry, I am not authorized to speak with you about that, you will have to contact your Clownissioner"

The job description calls for him to represent the Commission to all and sundry. Will he, do you suppose, represent differences of opinion on the Commission, or mostly the opinion of Kommissar Marty?

And leave Commissure Marty, out of it, for the moment. What a great opportunity for our hidden-under-the rock real rulers to make the deals with this unelected, invisible linchpin, who will prepare a pre-digested decision for our so-called Comicallissioners to rubber-stamp with their votes!

The three stooges now have a Wizard of Oz to pull their strings, blow their smoke, or cover their behinds and save their faces.

We have lost representative government in Pocahontas County. And $15 grand.

Shame!

I do not agree that 1/2 of the county consists of "outsiders" (not sure how to research this) and Pocahontas Co. has ALWAYS needed jobs. Why do you think so many young people finish high school and then leave? Economic survival. Unfortunately, the whole country needs jobs right now, not just our little oasis.

Yes, you would THINK that references were checked but I did not see any mention of this in the meeting and also did not see references with contact info. included on the resume.

In any case, I agree it may be time for other people to be on the commission (I can make a suggestion) and for us all to just get along.

Oh, and the school board could benefit from a few people calling it quits too...

Peace