INJUSTICE..............

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MAYOR HASE SPEAKS OUT
ON DOUBLE TAXATION:
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(Statement at 8/8/05 Council meeting):

The City Manager and I met with
Commissioners Rainer and Berry,
along with two employees of the Sheriff's
department on July 26th at the county
annex. (The sheriff was not present.)
Also present were Mayor Kenneth Smith,
his police chief, our police chief, the
county attorney and various other staff
members from each entity.

The meeting was rather adversarial.
Unfortunately we were unsuccessful in
convincing the commissioners that
there should not be a contract between
St Marys and the Sheriff regarding the
incarceration of St Marys' prisoners.
They basically stated that it was
irrelevant that the City of St Marys
has the smallest percentage of
prisoners in the county jail; and we
were emphatically informed that the
Sheriff is going to begin charging
St Marys whether we agree to it or
not. It was also irrelevant that the
City already provides approximately
40% of the revenues to the Sheriff's
budget.

Once it was established by both
commissioners that there would be
no discussion about whether or not
there would be a contract, we began
discussions about the proposed terms.
Several items were discussed. In short,
we objected very strongly against the
wording that the sheriff's office could
turn away our prisoners if the jail were
full. They agreed to delete this from the
contract language. They also agreed that
the $45 per day per prisoner charge
would not begin until the 11th day that
a prisoner is incarcerated, instead of
day one, which is what was proposed
in the last draft we received.

Other major concerns such as medical
expenses will be available for council's
review once the city receives the
amended draft, which will be coming
from the County Attorney any day now.
He will be forwarding it to the City
Attorney, who will forward it to us with
his comments. I anticipate that it will
be on the next agenda for discussion
since the county insists that this
arrangement begin as of September 1.

Finally, I feel compelled to make a
statement regarding the irresponsible
comments about our court made by
Commissioner Berry at the meeting
on July 26th, as well as by
Commissioner Herrin in his letters
to the editor recently:

The City of St Marys' municipal court
safeguards the constitutional rights of
its defendants, and does not deny the
right to counsel to any defendant
accused of a crime in our court. All
such rights are explained verbally and
in writing. The accused are required to
acknowledge this orally and in writing
before any plea is accepted by the
judge. Additionally, all sessions are
videotaped and are on file with the city.

It is my opinion that the City is fortunate
to have a judge that believes in justice
and is faithful to his oath of office for
the protection of our citizens, which is
what he was appointed to do.
Mayor Hase
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IT'S WHO YOU KNOW!!!!!!
Hiring practices in Camden
County, Georgia
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Dear Commissioner Feller,
I hope this finds you doing ok and
having a wonderful day. Even
though I do not live in your district
I have found by reading your news
articles that we think quite a bit
alike. I find myself often times
agreeing with your decisions. I
therefore thought you would give
my letter the most fore thought
and hopefully I would have a
better chance of some investigation
into a serious concern of mine and
hopefully even an answer to my
concern. The subject of this letter
Mr. Feller is the possible inequitable
practices of your human resources
department when it comes to hiring.

I have a situation that occurred and
I wanted to run it by you and see if
I have a legitimate concern.
In June our county government
placed an ad in the local paper for
two positions in our county fire
department that they were looking
to fill. It was also posted with the
Ga. Dept. of Labor website. I
researched the ad on the Dept
of Labor web site and applied via
the website for the position. I
met and exceeded the pre-requisites
set forth in the job announcement
according to the Ga. Dept of Labor
representative that was indicated
by the county fire department
announcement. They therefore
contacted me via email and advised
me so and then informed me that I
was then able to obtain a job
application from the county
government and proceed with the
application process. I then filled
out the appropriate paperwork and
delivered such to the Ga. Dept of
Labor office. A few weeks went by
and being concerned I asked the
county fire chief what the status
was of the proceedings to hire. He
informed me that the human
resources department was
handling the proceedings. I assumed
he meant they were going to mail
out notifications of when and where
the interviews would be held for
the open positions. Another week
or so went by and I received word
via word of mouth that the interviews
had taken place that day and the
points were being tallied and the
decision would be forth coming of
who was selected for the open position.
I have yet to receive an answer from
anyone why ALL the qualified
applicants were NOT interviewed.

I was told only 4 people were
interviewed. It just so happens that
the fire chiefs best friend happened
to be one of the individuals
interviewed and of course the one
hired. The applicants that had as
much experience and qualifications
if not more than the applicant hired
were NOT even afforded the
opportunity of an interview. I find it
hard to believe that the decision by
the county human resource
department NOT to interview
ALL qualified applicants was a unfair
and unjust decision in accordance with
any hiring laws that there may be in
place.

I would like to know if a county
entity can just pick and choose
whom to interview and whom not
to interview in order to stack the
deck if you will so that the fire
chiefs best friend ends up as the
most qualified candidate being
interviewed and hired for the
position. This just doesn't sound
like a practice that should be legal
with any EEOC laws. If the posted
job announcement that was issued
by the county human resource
office indicated certain qualifications
be met prior to applying and those
resume/application then I feel that
ALL qualified applicants should
have been afforded the opportunity
of an interview in order to keep
everything fair and equal for all
concerned. I do not feel that neither
the fire chief nor the human resources
department had the right to screen
out qualified applicants resumes and
determine that only certain applicants
were worthy of an interview.

The county claims to be an EEOC
employer but obviously their not if
they're screening applications and
weeding out the ones that they do
not want competing against there
chosen applicant that they wanted
to hire in the first place. On top of
all that the human resource
department has not even had the
courtesy to notify those of us that
did not receive an interview that
we were not worthy of an interview
and at least advise us that our
applications were received and that
we did not even have a chance at
the position. This is just one of
many examples of the way our
county does business in it's
continuous unfair and unjust
ways.

Here is my concern. Why wasn't
EVERY qualified applicant that
was screened by the Dept of Labor
afforded the opportunity of an
interview in order to # 1 hire the
best qualified applicant for the
position and #2 to ensure that
Camden County was an EQUAL
OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER as
it was stated in the newspaper
ad, on the county website and
on the dept of labor website.

Where does it state that either
the fire chief or the human
resources department has the
authority to screen
applications/resumes for whom
they determine worthy of an
interview? Where does it state
that the human resources
department has the authority to
determine who is qualified for
an interview? I know that I am
not a human resources expert
nor do I have a degree in that
subject matter but I would
think that the labor laws would
state that if a applicant met the
prerequisites of the employers
ad that they should at least be
afforded the opportunity of an
interview just as some others
were afforded.

I was really hoping that after
more than 20 years of Camden
Fire Rescue working under a
dictatorship that the advent of
a new fire chief would breathe
of fresh air into the department.
However, I can see that even after
hiring a new fire chief that the
lineup has changed but the
ballgame remains the same.

My family has lived here for
more than 24 years and lots of
things have changed but then
again some things haven't and
never will change. I have been in
Fire/EMS all those 24 years here
in the county. Both as a volunteer
and as a paid professional. I also
served for 18 of those 24 years
with Camden Fire Rescue. I left in
1999 for another position and more
money. I was hoping to come back
to Camden Fire Rescue under the
same pretenses. A higher position
and more money hopefully bettering
my family and myself. But
unfortunately someone with the
county deemed that this process
would not be done fairly or in
accordance with equal opportunity
employment procedures I'm sure.
I would certainly appreciate as a
former county employee and most
certainly as a taxpayer for over
24 years that if you find anything in
your inquiries that you would be
kind enough to call me or write me
and let me know what the problem
was in the ability for the county to
be fair and equal. I'm not the only
one that this happened to sir there
are others that applied for this same
position that were treated the same
unfair way. I give the new Assistant
Chief nothing but best wishes
however I only wish that the rest of
us applicants that were if not more
qualified then at least as qualified
were able to fairly compete with ALL
qualified applicants.

Commissioner I would be more than
happy to talk with you or meet with
you anytime at your convenience
about this issue.

This has really left a sour taste in my
mouth about Camden County politics.

Thank you very much for your time
with this matter and your time you
spend as a commissioner.

Sandy Sez:
With regards to Mayor Hase comments
it is clear that the County is using its
power to punish the Judge thru the
City in an attempt to get him to toe
the mark. It's unfortunate that
personal feelings on the county's part
is punishing the taxpayers of the City.

With regard to the fireman, I would
hope the Human Resource Director
of the County would answer him in
a straight forward manner. He
deserves no less. We will be happy
to print such a response when
received.

If you have any thoughts contact
us at oilseal@tds.net.

Sandy Feller
County Commissioner
District 4

"Working for the future without forgetting the past"