Citizens of Adair County,
I would like to thank the community voice for allowing us to respond to the most recent criticism the CJE, Larry Russell Bryant, is commenting about the fiscal court.
I have not seen the original letter to the editor, but only his responses to the letter. Larry has accused this court of plotting against him since basically taking office. He has repeated that time and time again. No one on this court, as far as I know, has plotted against him. Why would we want to?
Most of the issues are passed without incident unless you do not vote how he likes. For some reason, he just can’t get the votes to get what he wants passed. That is no one’s fault but his own.
He has accused us of planting people in the audience against him. I urge anyone to watch the court videos and see for yourself. Another untruth that he wants people to believe.
As far as the financial shape of the county, it is no secret that we have a tight budget. Most families in the county have the same issue. The judge has added extra holidays to 12 days already paid by the court.
Last May, he shut the annex down for an additional day outside the normal holiday scheduled one. This shutdown still required us to pay just like a scheduled holiday at a cost of approximately $10,000.
The judge has recently been wanting to purchase property for a park. The judge stated that he had donors that wanted to give, but, when pressed to go into executive session to discuss it further, he refused to do so… why?
I have no idea what kind of business Larry has run or how successful they were, but I can’t see most businesses doing this and succeeding. In one of his responses, he made the statement that Magistrate Denton overrode the court’s decision regarding his office staff going to the judges conference. I don’t remember the court ever voting on that, and, if they did, there is no way Magistrate Denton overrode that.
The judge stated he never planned on running for a second term. While I think in this situation, it is a good thing, it normally concerns me when I hear that. Is Larry going to create such a mess in his term that someone else is going to have to fix?
Someone that states they are only going to serve one term has nothing to lose, but the community would be left to pick up the pieces because he will not have to answer to the voters. That is scary in my opinion.
He stated that we had hatred toward him because he dares to challenge our political comfort zone. I may be wrong, but my political comfort zone is what my district wants and elected me to do and be their voice.
He also stated that 4 magistrates control the county. The fiscal court has 8 votes including the judge. It seems to me that Larry just can’t get the support for his ideas.
I do agree with him that 4 people are running the county, but my difference is that, out of the 4, only 1 has been elected. The others are just stirring and plotting.
I do want to give sincere thanks to Sharon Burton and the Community Voice for reaching out and allowing us to give our responses.
The Community Voice has always told it like it was and is not intimidated to get both sides of the story.
One thing that CJE Bryant has done consistently is his weekly criticism of the magistrates.
He did go on record at a City Council meeting that he would embarrass the magistrates to the point of not wanting to run for anything else. I do not see what he is accomplishing by doing this except division and embarrassment of the county across the state.
I am currently on my fourth term as magistrate, and, although it may never happen again, I was trusted enough by my constituents to elect me 4 times. Most magistrates currently serving are in multiple terms.
I would like you to ask you, Larry, if you think all the voters have got it wrong that many times?
You are in your first term and should reevaluate what YOU are doing. Every term I have run, I have always stated I will not be a rubber stamp vote, and I will be fiscally responsible.
Larry Russell Bryant I can assure you that you will not change me on that. To my understanding, this is just a repeat as to how you acted while serving on the Water District Board.
I personally feel that Adair County deserves better than you are giving them. The childish, bullying, and unprofessionalism behavior that I feel you have demonstrated is absolutely uncalled for and most certainly unprovoked.
While you, as an elected official, might feel untouchable, I have had numerous people ask me what can be done to remove you from office.
You did state we have 2 ½ years left, and said that some magistrates would be fired at a normal job. I think the same applies to you. Since you can’t be fired until your next election cycle, I would like to take this time and publicly ask for your resignation as Adair County Judge Executive.
Sincerely,
Daryl Flatt, Magistrate District 2
