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Now the ridiculousness becomes clearer on how the County Manager firing is nothing more than dirty/lamebrain politics as usual. Such a shame that one of our most loyal employees is being treated with such disdain.

To my knowledge no other county manager/administrator has worked harder at providing the Taxpayers honest and accountable service no matter how some jealous elected officials act. Number one Ms. O’Conner’s dogged determination on hard-slamming the door on wasteful and possible criminal misuse of Taxpayer funds and number two possibly her own healthy salary, which surpasses some county commissioners, has apparently acerbated this unwarranted attack.

Unfortunately in our contentious county history are numerous acts of lame duck politicians who seek to do in those who have some ability to survive them. This most recent firing certainly appears as such a historical event. I am embarrassed by it as should be all county Taxpayers.

How in this world can we now expect any prospective new employee to trust any aspect of Forsyth County Government? You all have to remember how several well qualified applicants for the County Manager’s job got a good look inside the outhouse door and ran away like scared rabbits from the LooneyToon shenanigans of Forsyth County.

What is the true cost of it all?

Only lived here two years ... however, I believe the chairman of the commission needs to be fired! Also, the other two commissioners that vote in there pack! We should see they people go Tango Uniform.

And Nero keeps fiddling while Rome burns.

Stop deflecting the argument from the real issue here.

Commissioners were given a budget for 2008 to approve that was $5 million in deficit. Charlie Laughinghouse and Jim Harrell are the two commissioners as members of the commission's finance committee that are supposed to go through the budget BEFORE being submitted to the entire board so that things like this don't happen.

Suddenly, there is some explanation to why these two are so adamant about changing the discussion to "no reserves have been transferred" from "the board was given an unbalanced budget to approve".

It is also convenient that Charlie Laughinghouse also continues to ignore the two previous letters of reprimand given to Ms. O'Connor merely because he didn't agree to them. One, because he wasn't the target of the lack of information, as he was the only person given the information in question before our meeting, and it suited his agenda to keep it to himself. Two, because he wasn't the target of the insubordination, because Ms. O'Connor denies him nothing that he requests, while the rest of us have to fight to get any information or consideration of agenda items.

It is NOT just because of a budget problem, Charlie, and you know it. Or at least you would if you could see reality instead of perception.

I would hardly call Rhonda O'Connor a SENIOR staff member. (Well maybe in Forsyth County).

Also, it has been predicted for quite some time that the economy is headed for a recession.

So, who is responsible for the budget deficit? Charlie Laughinghouse? Jim Harrell? or Rhonda O'Connor? All three?

Lynn,

Certainly, the budget being submitted to us $5 million in deficit can be placed on all three shoulders mentioned above. The fact that we continued to spend money when revenues continued to spiral downward is on the shoulders of Rhonda O'Connor.

In addition, the entire commission (including me) needs to take a hit for not demanding more specifics from our staff when we get the answers to our questions. When I ask the question "Where is the money for this coming from?", and get the answer "It's been budgeted", I should have asked the question, "But do we still have money in that budget?"

Well Dave, According to the FCN, Mr. Laughinghouse has said he may reinstate Rhonda O'Connor in January 2009 when he has the votes to do so, if she is fired by a majority of the commissioners now. I think that is a very bad idea for public trust. It has already been made public that she possibly mismanaged the county budget and kept some of the commissioners in the dark.

Tell us what you can Dave.

It's all on my website right now at www.davidrichard.info

And those are just the things we know about. I won't even get into the speculative ones.

If Charlie Laughinghouse thinks he can re-hire Rhonda O'Connor in January after ALL the things about her tenure come out, he just might be facing recall efforts from many sides come February.

Oh brother I can't wait to read that website. How many debacles are the taxpayers going to continue to put up with?

This recent debacle is only one from a laundry list of debacles...

county issued credit cards city/county disagreement and lawsuit the jail proposal lawsuit on the army corps of engineers

This latest one gets the 'Who are they Kidding Award". We sorely need checks and balances on the spending! We all have had to cut back, when will the government?

The amount of take home cars for county employees is ridiculous. Everyday I see county cars in private driveways. The fire department has a training guy that drives a brush truck all the way to his home in Lumpkin county. Cut the take home cars, especially out of county, this will save sums of money.

Would it be detrimental to the County to postpone County Manager discussions until the 2 New Board Members join the Commission?

Sunday Chuckle:

Quote by Commissioner Dave Richard; “And if you think the county commission is filled with bickering and infighting, then you have been reading the Forsyth County News too much, and been buying the opinion of people who have never attended a county commission meeting before announcing their intent to run for office.”

That's a fresh idea Cindy.

Are there any fiscal conservatives in the house? Mr. Richard, with all due respect, but if I am not mistaken wasn't it you that carried on about the lawsuit between city and county, and then voted for the lawsuit on the corps. How much money will that cost us?? Some of us elephants have good memories.

Excuse me, but we need to stop over-spending all the way around. When the folks in office stop fingerpointing and take full responsibility, then the people might listen.

David Richard May 18, 2008 11:52am [ 146 ]

"You and I did have discussions about fence heights and I told you what I thought of the Hansards, which is that I don't think they are very nice people. I cannot speak to what Angie Davis did or did not do. Since I never said that I had nothing to do with this issue, I obviously had discussions with Terry Williams, however, they were very short in nature. Now, is there anything else your deranged mind wants to conjure up for me? Once an 0-fer, always an 0-fer."

DM: Words from the bobbed tail that wags the rabid dog. Folks it's all about jealously, "Burnout" Dave doesn't have it and he's mad about it. Can you just imagine Dave's furor in knowing the Ms. O'Conner will get $150,000.00 as she walks out while he is left with a few paltry crumbs? As was with his recent boot from county employment that has got to sting something fierce!

'Burnout" David W. Richard continues in his attempt to lead you folks away for the real issue here as does a mama bird pretending to have a broken wing in her effort to draw attention away from her baby. Several times during the county’s attacks on the innocent Hansard family “Burnout” Dave snapped to me that the Hansard’s were building that “big” house at the lake and that they though they could do anything. In his voice were certainly grating overtones of jealously. Anyone hearing his attacks on the Hansard family would have come away with “Burnout” Dave’s seething jealously that the ‘haves’ were well separated from him.

Follow this present story while keeping in mind that “Burnout” Dave said prior that he depended on his county commissioner’s job for his livelihood while we all know that this job is only part time paying only a token salary. And this is a guy we’re supposed to trust with a commissioner’s job? Get outta here! Can you say moron?

This entire mess brings home exactly how screwed up things are. In his first post replying to this, Com. Richard tries to deflect the blame to the finance committee members, Jim and Charlie. Basically, he's doing the same thing there he did when he took point leading the charge to fire David Armstrong, who may well have been the best we could have hoped for in a county manager, saying "they told me so, and I believed them."

Then, later on, when he sees that isn't working, he does take a bit of the hit, but does it while trying his best to wiggle out from under this.

I have a couple of questions that I'm hoping they'll at least consider.

1-If they fire Rhonda, what chance to they have of getting someone better. At this point, this county has a reputation that seems to be fairly well known by other gov't administrators, most of whom wouldn't touch the job with a 10 foot pole. Public fights like this one certainly do not help that situation.

2-Where was our CFO in all of this? In the business world, a budget screw up would land in his lap. Or his he the one they're thinking of making county manager, so Rhonda takes the fall?

Finally, Comm. Richard, please don't pull that, "wait till I'm out of here, then they'll hear it all." Sounds way too much like another corruption fighter to me. If you've got it, fire her, then back it up with your proof. Otherwise, leave it alone until the new board comes in.

Wilson,

There was no CFO during the 2008 budget discussions.

Our deputy county manager is more than capable to assume the role of county manager full-time if the board wishes to make him the offer. He can then hire his own replacement.

And you have never, ever heard me say, "wait 'til I'm out of office", so don't try to pull that crap with me. Everything of FACT has been posted on my website. The rest of the story is yet to come out but it won't be the county having anything to do with it, because it isn't germain to the situation in firing her today.

TerryB,

The city/county SPLOST lawsuit would have taken 10 minutes in an Appeals court and would have been thrown out. Not a lot of legal fees for that one. The board completely disregarded the advice of the county attorney on that one. By the way, that little fiasco also keeps us from postponing the park and rec bond, as we are obligated under the agreement to pay the city $10 million for the aquatic center by Dec., 2008.

The Corps lawsuit will probably cost less than $30k, which is far less than one of the many consulting contracts we have authorized to augment the county manager's knowledge base.

By the way, the county credit cards are being looked at, but thus far the vast majority of purchases are legitimate, and their use has saved us from hiring another finance person to process all the check requests that would have had to be made and has also given the county a rebate on the use that has paid for a firefighter's salary and benefits. Not everything is as cut and dried as the "media" and that lunatic Milum thinks they are.

And to Cindy and TerryB, yes it would be detrimental to wait, as the current minority would not do anything to correct the situation in January, and are furiously working to secure a third vote to keep her by not telling the whole story of her lack of competence, as evidenced by this article by Charlie Laughinghouse. If you want this problem fixed, Charlie and Jim are not the commissioners to lead that charge.

John,

The county recently passed a new take home policy for cars, and the lists are being compiled on who should and shouldn't have them. A lot of them will be turned in as a result of this action.

Incredible! $30,000 for the corps lawsuit?! Says who?! How do we, the taxpayers know that this will cost just $30,000? Besides $30,000 is $30,000 we don't have!

TerryB,

$30k to make sure that the Corps follows their rules and gives us first right of refusal on all current and future parks is a pittance.

Take a chill pill and worry about the big things that really matter, like the $10- $15 MILLION dollars Taubman is trying to squeeze out of us. Or maybe you should have worried more about the $8.2 MILLION dollars that we gave to the city that we didn't have for the Pilgrim Mill Rd. capitulation.

Or the $1.1 MILLION we gave to widen Mary Alice Park Rd when Great Wolf so far hasn't made any committment to Forsyth County.

Maybe you should be worried about the $50+k and benefits the commissioner's aide costs us. Or the 5 people in communications, or the extra inspectors in Planning, or the code enforcement officers we've added over the past 2 years.

Maybe you should be worried about all the tax dollars being spent in the DA's and Solictitor General's offices that end up NOT prosecuting in a timely manner all the people we have in our overcrowded jail, which causes us to have to build a new one due to overcrowding. Maybe if we spent a few bucks on visiting judges we'd get those old cases cleared up in no time.

Maybe you should be worried about the hundreds of thousands of dollars we've spent on consultants since bringing Rhonda on board to help her.

David, I have to ask a question I feel pretty important. How has our Board allowed this to go on? I read your posts above and your website and feel that you and the entire board knows that this has been going on. Why has nobody spoken up until now? It seems as though you could have known the Charlie and Jim were not making good decisions yet it was not until this year that it comes to light. Did Brian and Linda know about the behind the scenes manipulations? Do you think Charlie and Jim knew about the 5 mil and just kept it quiet? Meaning, do you think they tried to deceive the other members of the board?

I will say I appreciate you bringing all this to light but why so late in the game? It seems as though our county is suffering from a serious lack of leadership. Leadership that has now run us into the dirt.

The public is wondering, "What must Charlie be hiding or what has Rhonda got on Charlie for him to fight this hard"?

Finally, Wilson, you make good points. I agree with you that tthings are really screwed up in this county. I have my suspicions about where a lot of blame should be placed. Could it be that our board being led by those with no business experience and HOA mentality is at the root of the problem? In good times nobody really noticed the lack of leadership and lack of skill. They were the hero by talking about stalling growth and all. However, when things get tough we can now see many issues that bring up this missing element of leadership and experience.

I hope that the public will weigh in this next year and put pressure on the board to make logical selections as to CHair, Vice-Chair and Secretary. Otherwise we are in for more of the same. Charlie as Chairman, Jim H as Vice-Chairman and Jim B as Secretary.

Can we stand more of this?

Convenient that all of this comes out right AFTER the elections, isn't it?

Yep. It sure is.

18 months for a high profile case, then gets turned over to federal court. Something seriously seriously wrong.

The most comical thing is that it seems the only person in the community that had the ovarian fortitude to work up the jail numbers and do enormous amounts of work on the jail figures is Kim Pruitt.

It really is incredible when you look at everything that has gone on in this county.

Where has the leadership been? We are truly doomed if the people don't start paying attention.

Mr. Richard, there has been problems in many, many counties with district attorneys offices, public defender offices and even in sheriff's offices. I moved HERE because I thought if would be better. I ask, is there any hope for this county?

Thanks Mr. Richard, seeing take home fire trucks in lumpkin county is beyond wasteful.

Jerry,

I don't think that Charlie or Jim knew about the $5 million deficit budget. Maybe they should have picked up on it in their duties as finance committee members, but they didn't.

None of us knew about this until the most recent shortage in revenues caught our attention. When you hear in April that you have a revenue downfall of about $6 million, and that you are stopping all unneccesary spending and hiring, you think (based on what your county manager tells you) that your administration has got things under control. Then you hear in August that the revenue shortfall is now $14 million and you can only make up about $3 or $4 million of that in personnel savings by freezing new hires, you begin to ask the questions, "Why didn't we hear anything else betwen April and August? And why were we still given consulting contracts to approve and grant applications to approve which required county matching funds? And why did we spend money to expand the commissioners large conference room?"

In my case, the questions were asked where the funds were coming from, and the answers were always, "It's been budgeted."

I think you should put less emphasis on the lack of business experience and put more on a lack of management experience at the couty manager level. Business experience doesn't work well in government, because businessmen typically forget where their money comes from. They also have no concept of the limitations of government. I also think you need to put more emphasis on the lack of fiscal conservatives on the BOC. The only person calling for smaller government over the past 4 years has been me. No one coming on this board, or staying on it, has any credentials in fiscal conservatism. No one.

We needed a county manager that was open, not insular. We needed a county manager that could count past three for her support base. We needed a commissioner chairman that cared more about reality than perception. We got none of those things.

What is going to really piss you off "Burnout" Dave is that “BIG” raise Ronda will get when she is re-hired in January......lol You know that’s coming don’t you?

I want you to know that today I bought socks at that store you work at in the outlet mall. I left a message that I was sorely disappointed that you were not there because I wanted you to sell me the socks just to show you there is no hard feelings on my part. Did you get the message "Burnout" Dave? $3.79 for two pair, not a bad deal really.

How much more do you think Ronda will get “Burnout” Dave? But of course she naturally deserves hazard pay for having to put up with the likes of you. If I have one of my boys to come over and cut your grass can I get a better deal on the socks?

And, as I passed Tallant’s Junkyard this week I saw that they had a whole lot of used hubcaps over there to sell....just in case you're interested.

Dave (Milum)

Sorry, but I think those comments were uncalled for. I may disagree with Commissioner Richard, but his post preceding yours was nothing but good information.

There was no name calling in it, no ranting, just his take on things, which, in this case, were very informative.

You might be forgetting that I have been dealing with Mr. Richard for many months about his rotting jealously in the way he treats those whom he sees as drooling idiots, useless air-breathers, and the like.

One post of his does not alleviate the hundreds of posts where he uses his aliases, insults his constituents, and libels local Citizens. Mr. Richard is a bold-face liar when he tells you that he does not use aliases to attack our Citizens.

I have challenged him to a polygraph test to prove that point but as you can see Mr. Richard is the lying coward I claim he is.

Consider these prior imperfections of a man who has no compassion in government by his own hand and one who sees no need for penitence for the ills of his ways. I do not consider myself as a judge but only a documenter. Apparently so do all those Voters who booted him.

Fairness should be honestly exercised in the balance of history.

(yawn) Is that nut-job Milum posting nonsense again?

zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz

I have found Mr. Richard's posts very informative too. Some people don't know when to give up a urination match.

According to Mr. Richard, he does not believe that the Chairman knew about this budget deficit or the potential transfer of funds from reserves. While the County Manager certainly has not done her job, neither has our Chairman. I don't think that it is any coincidence that this information was withheld until after the elections, that is why we didn't hear about this from April until August. With only a 30 vote margin of victory to retain his chairmanship, this budget crisis would have potentially ruined Mr. Boff's "third vote" platform. A strong leader/chairman would have understood the budget, asked the correct questions, made sure that the high priced consultants provided all of the information necessary for the BOC to make informed decisions and held the County Manager accountable. None of those things occured, and the Chairman's solution to the current debacle is to hire back the person who is his very highly paid personal assistant. Let's focus on the real problems here - no leadership from the chairman, no accountability from the county manager and no sense of responsibility to the taxpayers who ultimately end up paying for the mistakes made by the Chairman and his County Manager.

The cost of the propsed jail is outrageous. In comparing the numbers between other jails that were built in the past 4 years we are pricing the jail so it will fail in November. Hall County built a 1000 + bed facility for 54 million. Why is this 480 bed facility going to cost us a large amount more for half of the number of beds. I agree the cosmetic structure is what is raising the price but why should the taxpayers need to put a Jail in the middle of town when there is property across from the Board of Education (22 acres) that we could put a more reasonable priced jail on? Mayor Gravitt has also had ideas for the jail to go in the existing spot. I have proved with Sheriff Paxton's 2007 certified budget numbers it is cheaper to house inmates out.( Reference the FCSO website-they posted my calculations to the letter and even grouped then the same way I did, so obviously the Sheriff does agree with me) So why does he want us to spend this large sum of money? What is in it for him? Citizens please VOTE NO to both bond refrendums in November. If you have any comments you are more that welcome to contact me at 678-858-3809.

Ironic that this webpage sponsor is in the counseling business.....perhaps David and David seek professional assistance.

http://www.bjpcounseling.com/

Always someone around who wants to spoil all the fun....jeeeezzzzeeee....

Sweet Peaches it looks like you must think like some others. I found this post on another comment section. I thought you might enjoy it.

From My Reasons for Firing Rhonda O'Connor by Dave Richard.

Dr. ? Sep 5, 2008 9:08pm [ 4 ]

Does anyone know this person?

Narcissistic Personality Disorder Definition

An individual with narcissistic personality disorder exhibits extreme self-importance, inability to empathize with others and heightened sensitivity to criticism. Self-involvement and lack of empathy characterize this personality disorder.

People with narcissistic personality disorder are frequently perfectionists and need to be the center of attention, receiving affection and admiration, and controlling the situation. To get the attention he craves, he may try to create crises that return the focus to him. Like patients with antisocial personality disorder, this person places entitlement issues at the fore. He feels that the world owes him, regardless of whether he makes a contribution.

Narcissistic rage From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Narcissistic rage is a term coined by Heinz Kohut in 1972. This article on rage pertains to Kohut's use of the concept in Kohut's Self Psychology, a school of thought within the psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theory. Narcissistic rage is a reaction to narcissistic injury (when the narcissist feels degraded by another person). When the narcissist's grandiose sense of self worth is perceivably being attacked by another person, the narcissist's natural reaction is to rage and pull-down the self worth of others (to make the narcissist feel superior to others). It is an attempt by the narcissist to soothe their internal pain and hostility, while at the same time rebuilding their self worth. Narcissistic rage should not be confused with anger (although the two are similar), and is not necessarily caused by a situation that would typically provoke anger in an individual. Narcissistic rage also occurs when the narcissist is perceivably being prevented from accomplishing their grandiose fantasies.

Narcissistic rage is frequently short lasting, and passes when the narcissist rationalizes the shame that they felt.

History of narcissistic rage

Heinz Kohut was the first to coin the idea of narcissistic rage. His book “The Analysis of the Self” in 1972 introduced the psychoanalytic concept as pertaining to narcissistic rage. His explanation of narcissistic rage and depression stated, “depressions are interrupted by rages because things are not going their way, because responses are not forthcoming in the way they expected and needed”. He went further to say that narcissists may even search for conflict to find a way to alleviate pain or suffering.

Narcissistic injury – the cause of rage

According to Kohut, rages are a result of the shame at being faced with failure. Narcissistic rage is the uncontrollable and unexpected anger that occurs due to a narcissistic injury. Narcissistic injury is a threat to a narcissist’s self-esteem or worth. Rage comes in many forms, but all pertain to the same important thing, revenge.

Narcissistic rage

Narcissistic rages are based on fear and will endure even after the threat is gone. To the narcissist, the rage is directed towards the person that they feel has slighted them; to other people, the rage is incoherent and unjust. This rage impairs their cognition, therefore impairing their judgment. During the rage they are prone to shouting, fact distortion and making groundless accusations. It’s believed that narcissists have two layers of rage. The first layer of rage can be thought of as a constant anger (towards someone else), and the second layer being a self-aimed wrath. Two specific identified forms of narcissistic rage are explosive and passive-aggressive. The explosive form being an obvious anger, for example, damaging property (or people) and being verbally abusive. The passive-aggressive sort might be sulking or giving their target the silent treatment. They can become enraged to the point of being homicidal especially if he/she has the need to seek revenge. Narcissistic rage is usually short lasting, but can provoke problems towards those that the anger is targeted towards.

Perfectionism

Narcissism can be a considered a form of perfectionism. Narcissists often are perfectionists and require being the center of attention and create situations where they will receive attention. This attempt at being perfect is cohesive with the grandiose self-image that the narcissist has of their self. If a perceived state of perfection isn’t reached it can lead to guilt, shame or anxiety because he/she believes that they will lose the love and admiration from other people if they aren’t perfect.