JDA: What a waste!

Well, I must confess that I usually skip Alan NeSmith's pieces in the T&G. However, this morning, as I was giving yesterday's edition one last once-over before trashing it, I noticed that he was ragging on the much deserving JDA. http://www.tribune-georgian.com/articles/2008/05/30/opinion/3opinion5.30.txt Those of you who have read my rants on the JDA in other forums and, if memory serves me, in a letter to the T&G, will certainly recognize many of Alan's points. I just got back from checking the 08/09 budget on the county website. The JDA was sheduled to get $276,900, or 1% of the entire county budget. As Alan points out, what we get for that 1% every year is absolutely nothing. Alan is willing to give Bob Noble credit ofr Express Scripts. I'm not. As y'all have heard me opine before, I'm convinced that the in-house Walmart real estate division in Bentonville, Arkansas sought out and hooked Express Scripts so as to get off of the remaining balance of a ten-year lease on the old Walmart building. I've offered to apologize if Mr. Noble can present documentation (i.e., solicitation correspondence) that he actually recruited Express Sripts, rather than just taking credit for it after the fact. That offer still stands. So, if I'm correct, the net increase in payroll in the county directly attributable to Mr. Noble's "efforts" during his tenure in his present sinecure is absolutely ZERO! His job is essentially one of selling the county to businesses looking to start up or relocate. In the private sector, there are sales jobs that pay a modest salary plus commissions or straight commissions with no salary. Either way, you don't keep your job long if you don't meet or make acceptable progress towards sales goals. That may seem a tough row to hoe, but look what happens when you put a salesman on a lucratrive salary with an expense account and let him know that you really don't care if he never sells a damned thing. I ask you: have I not just accurately described just exactly what the Camden County Board of Commissioners has done with both Mr. Noble and Mr. Weissanse (sp?) before him? Folks, isn't it about time that we put the commisssioners on notice that the status quo is just not going to cut it any more? Here's the link to e-mail addresses for all county commissioners. http://www.co.camden.ga.us/index.asp?nid=80 Seems to me that all candidates for the county commission should be hammered on this with questions from the audience in upcoming candidates' fora. Letters-to-the editor can't hurt, either. Why are we not in aggressively in the hunt for a cellulosic ethanol plant? Ditto for a distribution center to break down, sort, and ship out containerized cargo from the port of Jacksonville. Surely, there is SOMETHING that can be cleanly manufactured in Camden County and exported through the Port of Jacksonville, which now (or soon will) offers regular container liner service to every part of the world. What else can y'all think of? We just graduated over 500 kids from CCHS. Can the county offer family-sustaining jobs to even 5% of them at this time - or even after college? I doubt it. That's unacceptable.