Forum Reaction: Real Issues Plaguing our Community, Part 1

While I was unable to attend the Chamber of Commerce’s sponsored candidate forum due to travel issues, I was hoping to catch a glimmer of hope in the recorded session, watching the candidates read their prepared speeches without offering any potential solutions to the problems, both perceived and real. For this installment of the Real Issues Plaguing Our Community, I want to focus on Shenandoah District Candidate for Board of Supervisors John Stanmeyer.

Being relatively fresh off the Board of the “re-constituted” EDA, I am astonished that Stanmeyer, or any other candidate for that matter, is campaigning under the guise of “ensuring that EDA-like fraud never happens again.” Well, I hate to tell Candidate Stanmeyer that he missed that ship years ago, and statements like this are no better than the typical campaign rhetoric of “wanting to improve County-Town relations” that candidates use as a crutch when they have no other platform or offer of solutions to the immediate issues.

If Stanmeyer is serious about his candidacy, I would like to know his solution to how he is going to address the $20-million-dollar deficit that both the county and town governments are morally obligated to because of the co-overseen fraudulent activity. There is no shortage of understanding that the EDA’s liabilities far outweigh the value of any assets it possesses. But how are you going to bridge the political divide, navigate the legal intricacies, and bring these issues to closure? There is a high probability that this deficit will land on the backs of the taxpayers, both town and county. How is this going to be reconciled? This is a real issue plaguing our community.

As you are an economist by education, I would love to understand your calculus on the matter.

Gregory A. Harold
Warren County

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