It’s interesting that the OE’s Opinion, May 12, 2022, Police hiring raises code questions, stated, “Now, when the city goes after a private citizen for a code violation, that code is the foundation of the city’s justifications and legal defense.”
Within Watkinsville 3.3 square mile, 2,900 residents, how embedded is the corruption of code violations or just plain corruption. Looking over the past several years shows its extent.
1. When Bob Smith, a conservative and Republican, became mayor, the position was stripped of its power by the Council. Brodrick Pro Tem and Council had created a City Manager position and gave that position the powers of the mayor. After the Council treated Mayor Smith like a red-headed stepchild, Smith resigned. When Brodrick assumed the mayor’s position, the Council returned those powers back to the mayor.
2. Councilman Brodrick, an Oconee State Bank board member, created a City Manager and hired Athens liberal Dickerson. Upon assuming her position, Dickerson without authorization transferred all City funds from three Oconee Banks to Oconee State Bank. Dickerson then created a panel of three non-Watkinsville residents to determine which bank would receive all the funds. After their decision, she then submitted their findings, Oconee State Bank naturally, to the Council for approval even though the funds had already been moved.
3. For 18-years Councilmember Brodrick not once tried to improve or update Watkinsville’s small Harris Shoals Park, which made it unsafe for families and their children. When a special interest organization offered $1 million to take over portion of the park, Brodrick bowed to the money and gave a chunk of the small park away. To this day the publics' park hasn’t been repaired or updated.
4. The City’s Chestnut Street is between the Oconee State Bank and their new eye sore corporate headquarters. Board member Brodrick’s bank submitted construction plans for Chestnut Street at the same time Brodrick, acting as Councilman Pro Tem, held a meeting on abandoning and selling Chestnut Street to the bank, and ran the proposal in the OE as required by law. A month later, his City Manager noted a letter was received to withdraw the request. The bank not owning Chestnut Street constructed their parking spaces on it. Then the bank made it as a one-way street.
5. Georgia law requires SPLOST funds to be kept in a separate account from other funds of the city. In 2020, for no known reason, the city recorded the SPLOST revenues in the General Fund thus violating Georgia law. The new City Manager position, which Brodrick handpicked without Due Process, is in charge of those books. That means the Council could spend the SPLOST funds like their general funds. This is similar to what Congress does with our Social Security Funds. The Council could now write checks on it and put IOUs in the SPLOST fund accounts.
I could go on and on about how the Mayor and Council made hugh cost overruns, or how they needlessly spend our tax dollars. For example, an unnecessary or unwanted $92,000 City Manager position for such a small town, or an unnecessary or unwanted $69,000 sidewalk bridge.
There is only one-way time to get rid of the corruption before it overflows into the county government. This could be done by the citizens of Oconee County demanding Watkinsville be unincorporated. Please help eliminate the $1,400 City tax I pay toward a corrupt City government. SHUT IT DOWN!
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