Well said Tom.

Greasemonkey,

I don't know who you're talking about needing to be out of office. But if you think they do why don't you get up and run.

I think our elected officials are doing a superb job; while some are better than others, they all run their offices well and serve the citizens of this county.

Hmmm.

And just who do you think you're going to beat out?

And you cannot say that all our public officials are mediocre at best. I can think of at least two that do wonderfully.

And, no worries, i'm just a banana hog.

That is a much easier argument to justify, and I will give it to you.

I just know that earlier this week I was having a lien dispute, and I was helped to 100% satifaction.

becareful of who you vote for. This is from bedfordtn.com. I don't know who wrote it...but it sure is interesting....If it's true...and it shouldn't be too hard to confirm...my vote goes to anyone else.

Nepotism -- Bedford County's Inbred Society -- Keeping it in the Trustee family -- Part 1 of 6

Written by The Eyes

Friday, 01 August 2008 09:39

It took me awhile to decide on how I should approach this as delicately as possible and felt the need to just lay it all out. The purpose isn't to condemn or judge the participants but to show how the current system does not allow for the employees to do their best to serve Bedford County. When you have individuals in positions of authority that hire people that are closely related to them, problems will happen on a larger scale that hinder growth and accountability.

As a citizen, I have nothing to lose by releasing this information and hope it will hold elected officials and their appointed family members accountable. In the first part of this series on Nepotism, we will be taking a look at the Bedford County Trustee's Office. Let's start with salaries...

Peggy Bush aka The Denmother - $63,954

Cindy Ray aka The Wanderer - $44,275 plus 2,000 longevity pay*

Tammy Bynum - $24,359 plus $1,200 longevity pay*

Debbie Johnson - $28,399 plus $1950 longevity pay*

Charlene Russell - #24,385 plus $1,200 longevity pay*

Amanda Ray - PT - $12/hr

Abby Cannon- PT - $12/hr

This is just the tip of the iceberg, the amounts paid to part time employees are far more than any other local law office. The lawyers don't even pay their legal secretaries those kind of wages, Yes they should, but they just don't have the income yet. So next their relationships with each other...

Cindy Ray is Peggy's Daughter

Amanda Ray is Cindy's Daughter

Abby Cannon is Cindy's son's girlfriend - Not yet nepotism, but damn close enough in my opinion

Charlene Russell is cousin of Peggy Bush

Surprising, I couldn't find any information on the remaining two that could show any relation.

Here are some interesting tidbits of information that I found when going through records:

Several of the trustee employees are trying to get an extra $2500 per year for obtaining a CTAS certificate. This was never approved by the Finance committee but was snuck in under the radar until caught. It should have never taken effect.

There has never been a public job posting of any of these positions. Fair eh?

Peggy Bush has been questioned about overtime hours when she is a salary employee.

As I thought about this story and how is might affect some of the lives of the employees, I need to think about the other residents of the county and know in my conscience this needs to be said. While I am positive there are good employees (Charlene, Debbie and Tammy) in the Trustee's office that work hard and really care about their performance; I feel the others rest on their families' laurels, plus I rarely see them in the office.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*paid year year, goes up 150 dollars for each year, Denmother doesn't get this due to her status as an elected official.

Monkey Killer - My concern is exactly your statement. This IS just one office, how much more of this is going on in other offices?

I don't doubt that. I've heard of several good, hard-working officials here (the only one that comes to mind is the County Mayor). All I'm saying, and I'm sure I'm not the only one, is that if there is this sort of nepotism in the one office then there is bound to be more of it going around. I'm not just talking about the elected positions, but I would be willing to bet that this goes on in the offices of higher up appointed positions as well. If betting were legal here, that is.

Did I read that 3,000 people voted???

Even though many were uncontested a few were, and for the 20,000+ who failed to show up at the polls, we shouldn't hear any complaints about how efficiently/inefficiently this county conducts business.