Budget Issues Concern of Commission

Judged:

I am responding to the comments left by Mayor Roberson in regards to the police officers. Mr. Roberson, many if not all departments have officers that ride two to a car. This practice provides more available back up, reduces wear on a patrol vehicle, and saves gas. Most departments have more than one officer per shift. Someone that has never been in law enforcement would not understand all the aspects of proper patrol and staffing procedures as proven by your misguided statements. Lake County has 163 square miles of land and 30 square miles of water. The population of Lake County is approximately 7,436 according to the 2008 census. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office consists of 7 deputies including the Sheriff and Captain. These officers work court, transport , patrol, answer calls, and anything else that is required. The city of Tipotnville has 8 patrolman with approximately 1.4 square miles. The city of Ridgely has 5 patrolman with 0.71 square miles. Until you have worked in law enforcement you may want to do research and have proper facts before you make statements in a public forum. Mr. Roberson, if you were sent to a call for service and arrived on scene with numerous people fighting wouldn’t you want back up? In the amount of time it takes a dispatcher to call an off duty officer and advise him you are requesting backup and he then responds an officer could be killed or injured. THAT IS WHAT BOTHERS ME!

Guest

Might as well ride two to a car so they can have someone to talk to. Cause thats all there gonna do is ride and talk.

Broke and Bored

Judged:

It seems the county Mayor would spend more time trying to find jobs and industry to move into the county. As long as he has been in office Lake County has slowly lost everything. There is nothing. Our kids have nothing, we have nothing, and the county has nothing. The Mayor should worry about his own office and stop trying to run the other elected officals offices. Mr. Roberson we need jobs, we need industry, we need a change, and it will be coming in 2010.

PROF D

Judged:

Mr. Roberson I have a few questions and comments. I am retired now but I have worked for local, state, and federal law enforcement. I have trained many of the law enforcement officials now working in the West Tennessee area. With that said, I believe my following comments to be made as an INFORMED and qualified observer.

If someone was breaking down your door to rape and/or kill your wife, would you want only one officer to respond or would you want several officers to respond? Do you want one officer who is at the State line to respond or would you want one to respond from the Reelfoot lake area?

Mr. Roberson, I think the next time the city of RIDGELY has 100 people fighting in the Riley Road apartments; they should drop you off in the middle of it. Then we will see just how much ONE man can do before he calls for help or wants someone else in the car with him.

You are asking the Law Enforcement officers to make live and death decisions that you are NOT qualified or prepared to make. You are making comments that the county can't AFFORD to deal with. What you question and what you suggest put a major FINANCIAL LIABILITY on the county officials and tax payers of your community.

You make the comment the cities are available in emergencies. If I were the city officials, I would not authorize my officers to respond to COUNTY emergencies. This puts the city council members, police chief, and ultimately the city tax payers in undue liability against civil law suits. Why would the city tax payer/citizen want to risk the liability to cover for your stupidity?

Spend a few nights riding by yourself and answering the law enforcement calls. Oh, do it in an unreliable car that has 150,000 miles on it, with a radio that may not work, and in the car by yourself with no backup available. Mr. Roberson; I doubt you could survive a day, let alone a week. Do this while remembering your COUNTY MAYOR and ALDERMAN thank Lake County is not a dangerous place and one man should be able to handle it.

Your comments are uninformed, asinine, ignorant, and just plain ridiculous. I hope these comments will be the end of your poor pathetic political career.

VOTERS TAKE NOTICE, SAY NO to ROBERSON in 2010. Send a CLEAR message that you support your local law enforcement officials.

I Care

Oshawa, Canada

Judged:

Pof D is exactly correct. The statement that Lake County is not a dangerous place is absurd. Every place in the world is dangerous espicially for a law enforcement officer. So what that there are only 7500 or so people in the county, it only takes 1 stupid one to make you DEAD! Law enforcement should be the number 1 priority when it comes to budgeting funds. They (law enforcement) are out numbered and out financed. I am surprised that they can accomplish what little they do with what resources are provided them. Then you consider their paychecks are all they get... no insurance, no retirement except for what they contribute themselves. Come on people, it's time we give those people a break. There are not too many of us that would sign up for a job like that. This is why you see police officers and deputies come and go. Roberson can put out his stupid remarks because he has a lofty salary. He also has 2 secretaries working in his office. Yes 2 secretaries... if there is waste going on in county government how can he justify 2 secretaries. His office is not that busy or he wouldn't spend so much time worrying about how the landscaping looks in front of the courthouse. To all the law enforcement officers in the county and both cities, THANK YOU for what you do and being willing to serve a unthankful bunch of politicians taht you have to try and please or thewy will cut what little you have!!!

TGrassley

I quess the Mayor is still trying to pull his foot out of his mouth. You can't make uninformed comments in a public setting and not recieve backlash. ICARE, I wasn't aware that the Mayor has 2 secretaries. I hope they don't sit in the same office. lol! He may need the help, I don't know. He has never been a police office so he doesn't know what they need either.

ashamed of ignorance

Judged:

First off, you people are absolutely ignorant! I back the mayor up. No, LC does not need 2 per patrol car to patrol only 163 square miles.(thanks to the donna tippit who made the first comment). Obion is twice almost three times the square miles larger than LC, and they do not allow but 1 officer per patrol car - FACT. Dyer does not either - FACT. My only assumption of why LC does, is because maybe the sheriff is hoping that if he gives another officer to each patrol car, they may partake in conversation instead of sleeping parked behind Yates. Anywho, to add, yes the mayor has 2 secretaries butone of them is part time and only works two days a week. And you should think the mayor for planting flowers and trying to make this shit hole we live in look a bit nice so we could try to make LC look a bit more respectable. Plus LC is in some need of more change also. If the sheriff makes it to 2010, say NO to Tippit!!

looking ahead

ashamed of ignorance are you aware that Dyer County usually has 5 deputies working per shift 7 days a week? LC may have more than one officer working per shift 2 or 3 times a week. Are you aware that Mayor Roberson requested that deputies ride together to save gas then got in front of the commission and complained about it. Everyone should be worried about the true problems this county is facing.

looking ahead

I forgot to add, If the Mayor has two secretaries who cares. That is his office and he can run it how he wants to. That is how all the elected officals offices should be. Run it your way as long as it is the right way. Mr. Roberson tries to run the judge, the court clerk, the sheriff, and anything anyone we LET HIM RUN. Lets all get off this fourm and meet at the next county commission meeting to voice our concerns.

LC RESIDENT

Judged:

ashamed of ignorance, Donna Tippit, as you refered to did not write the post your talking about. I see why you back the Mayor. You also make uninformed remarks in a public place without having knowledge about the topic you're commenting on. I appreciate your ignorance on this subject. Donna Tippit is in no way connected to me or my comments. I am an outsider with insider knowledge. I will however make her aware of the post so that she can read your awful comment made towards Sheriff Tippit. Our Sheriff is fighting a terrible battle with cancer. For you to make comments about his life and I quote, "If the sheriff makes it to 2010, say NO to Tippit!!" only shows your ignorance. This county should be standing behind and supporting Sheriff Tippit as he fights for his life. Anyone that fights this battle should be supported. Back to the subject. Did you know that many of the "riders" are reserve officers that work without pay? Usually when you see two officers in a car one of them is a reserve. If you know of an officer, " sleeping parked behind Yates" you should provide the Sheriff with this information so action can be taken. But your probally making uninformed comments again, I digress!

Old Timer

Judged:

What happened when the title of county commissioner was changed to county mayor? something about railroad funds???
anybody ever been charged with possession of stolen property?????

Dont ask me

Judged:

I grew up in this county as the son of a sharecropper. I remember when the boss man came around and told all the workers how to vote. I can remember when the boss man sat in his air conditioned car or truck at the end of the long rows of cotton, beans, or corn and watched with his binoculars as we chopped from 6am to 6pm. The salary was 3.5 to 5 dollars a day. Black and white, we all worked together. Only boss man noticed the color. As years went by I saw the leaders of this county prevent factories and better paying jobs from coming into this area. They didn’t want to lose their poorly paid farm labor. Now most of the boss men are gone and some of their heirs are the county officials. They still have their ancestor’s mentality. Those who aren’t heirs have forgotten where they came from. As late as a few elections ago, I could still see corruption. Things have changed for the better. The strong arm tactics are gone, but ignorance still prevails. We as taxpayers are too busy with our private lives to notice how the Officials are spending our tax dollars. We vote for those who have a name or those who we think may grant us a favor. We fail to look down the road to see who might best serve all the citizens of this county. It’s time we began to ask questions.
WHY do the school system, the county highway department, and the Lake county primary care have county paid insurance and county paid retirement when the other Offices don’t????
WHY are the budgets controlled by the county mayor and the departments not allowed to present realistic and proper budgets to the board for approval?????
WHY is money hidden in CDs in banks outside the county???? How much is there???
WHY are the county mayor and his secretary receiving paychecks from boards and commissions when qualified and needy citizens of this county could?(Railroad, 911, levee, EMA, Litter Grant, ECT)
WHY does the county mayor have himself appointed as chairman on the county board???(Maybe the check?)
WHY does this county not apply for grants like other counties?? Maybe we do and just don’t know where the money goes??
WHY do the board members we voted for not ask these questions???
Maybe there’s nothing to these questions, but they’ve been asked before and no one will answer them!!! WHY
One department had to sue to get support. Will the others have to follow suit???
WHY are we constantly told that the county is broke, when we hide CDs and spend MILLIONS on a river port? How can we believe the port will prosper when all the ports up and down the river aren’t??? We are spending money on taking property for the port and an industrial park when there is no future in sight for either. Is there something else we don’t SEE???
WHY don’t the people who work for the county speak out??? Maybe they can’t, if they want to support their families!!! Problem is, we won’t know if we don’t ask. WE CAN STAY IGNORANT OR WE CAN START ASKING QUESTIONS!!!!

LC RESIDENT

Jackson, TN

Amen ,Amen, Amen,and Amen. Someone finally saw the light. This is what i'm talking about. These are the type of questions that should be answered by our board and the Mayor. It is time for the citizens of Lake County and the board members to stand up to Mayor Roberson and seek the answers to questions. He can't hide everything! Don't ask me, it is time to start to start a movement to better Lake County. We have been in a stand still for almost 12 years. Obama has proven that we all need CHANGE. 2010 will be here soon!!!!!!!!!!

LAKE COUNTY VOTER

With the word getting out and the voters asking questions I bet our county government is busy as a cat covering up $h!t

SPowell

Jackson, TN

He can't cover up all that mess. If the stink keeps stirring the eyes will be looking. And it will be alot of eyes.

Guest

SPowell wrote:

He can't cover up all that mess. If the stink keeps stirring the eyes will be looking. And it will be alot of eyes.

yes puppet master yes.send your good ole boys to battle if you cant win an election or get someone else elected negative comments will make you feel better.

SPowell

Jackson, TN

The truth must really hurt Guest. Things have been hidden for too long. The light is shinning on the big house. Auditors, investigators, voters, everyone will be wanting answers. You can't have it both ways. Telling everyone what they want to hear doesn't always work. Sometimes comments blow up in your face. The Mayor must have 3rd degree burns after all his blow ups. I like our Mayor but his jon performance sucks. We have nothng here in LC. You would think after all his repeat elections he would put an effort into seeking jobs and industry.

Guest

SPowell wrote:

The truth must really hurt Guest. Things have been hidden for too long. The light is shinning on the big house. Auditors, investigators, voters, everyone will be wanting answers. You can't have it both ways. Telling everyone what they want to hear doesn't always work. Sometimes comments blow up in your face. The Mayor must have 3rd degree burns after all his blow ups. I like our Mayor but his jon performance sucks. We have nothng here in LC. You would think after all his repeat elections he would put an effort into seeking jobs and industry.

ok no more smart ass answers from me but here is my point and question. Lets elect someone new who do you vote for ? Someone on the county comm or the court house or one of the mayors? See its the same old people their all part of the same broke system. Can we elect someone new, no matter what their last name is or how long they have lived here? Thats are only hope.

New Blood

Judged:

Guest, It sounds as if you have given up on Lake Co. I'm sure we will not have much to choose from in the next election, but if we hold their feet to the fire we will have a better leadership. No One cares enough to watch over our leaders. They are only as good as we are. When everything is out in the open, proper decisions will be made. Lets let them know that we are there to support them as long as they are there to serve our best intrest. If we dont watch, they will serve their intrest, not ours. Old dogs will change, if their shock collar works. Its time we started using it.

Guest