Dear Editor,
The Santa Rosa Board of County Commissioners see themselves as the legal body on the subject of the courthouse, which they are, but relieve themselves of any legal responsibility when confronted with what happened to the property for the future courthouse located in the industrial park with the Sheriff's Office and County jail. The BOCC blame an earlier commission for the action that sold that property to install a state prison but the morale questions remain. What happened to the money for this sale? Why weren’t funds used for new courthouse property?
Taxpayers bought the property over 20 years ago for a courthouse. Now the current commission is trying to relieve themselves of the morality of what occurred. The true reason the county is facing this courthouse issue is a past commission action. The true reason the county commissioners is having such a problem with the location is its own low standard of morality to address the taxpayers with why the taxpayer is having to again spend money for courthouse property of which they had already bought once before. Also the three wasted open lots caused by poor foresight during the planning stage of the same industrial park which created another loss to the taxpayers. Until the current commission wants to raise its standard of morality, explain how it will morally correct this problem, this issue will not be settled. Don't expect the taxpayers to correct a problem the commission created by paying twice for courthouse property. The current commission has lost the taxpayer's trust on this issue. Without morals and law you have waste, fraud and corruption.
Steven King
Milton
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Commissioners need to check their reason for courthouse actions