The illegal meeting that wasn't.

Well, the celebrated 11:00 AM "showdown at Shoney's never took place. Here's what happened. I just got this from someone who was there. It turns out that either yesterday late or early this morning, County Administrator Steve Howard convinced the 4 tax assessors that holding a meeting in violation of the Sunshine Law was really not a good idea - and an even worse idea to hold it at Shoney's. Now, as to whether or not Steve Howard had communicated this to the county commissioners well before eleven o'clock this morning I'll leave for you to decide. Even though the tax assessors were not coming and did not come, soon-to-be-up-for re-election Councilwoman Sears did show up, as did Sandy Feller. I was at school at the time. Sheriff Gregory, having been concerned about the possibility of a "disturbance" in Shoney's was also there, even though he knew that the assessors would not be there. I guess he decided that an abundance of caution was in order. I'm told there were about 9 or 10 citizens there. Among them were Tom Cyphers, Roger Rillo, of course, and Ed Clary. Now, the upshot of it is that the Board of Tax Assessors will now have their meeting tomorrow at the county annex, next to the Camden County Library, at - get this, "high noon." I'm sure that will be in the same room where the Camden County JDA Board is holding their meeting at 9:30. I'll be there for both. I would encourage as many as can to attend both. By the way, the field of candidates for the JDA Director job has grown from 32 when I last reported to 47. I'll do another post on that shortly. Update, 3/20. http://www.jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2009-03-20/story/assessors_talk_resignations_today