It's the Huns! It's the Mongol Horde!!! Oh, wait. It's just WidenI77.org.

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The last post ended with a reference to how this whole HOT lanes situation is beginning to take on the trappings of a Shakespearean tragedy, but little did we know that the act would continue so soon. 

Davidson Mayor John Woods possesses a flair for the melodramatic, and once again he delivers.  The below gem surfaced during our investigation of who exactly requested last week's closed meetings with NCDOT and Spanish tolling firm, Cintra.

"Invade!"  Really???  Is that what people are doing when they show up to participate in their government?  One would think Atilla the Hun or Ghengis Khan was about to roll into town rather than a few fed up citizens.

In this email, Mayor Woods is referring to last Monday's visit to Davidson Town Hall by Mecklenburg BOCC Chair Trevor Fuller for a meeting that was open to the public.  As such, it was a highly stagemanaged affair where Commissioner Fuller dodged any and all HOT lanes questions by claiming ignorance on the subject.  NCDOT's Warren Cooksey was also on hand that night.  He did not participate but could have served as a good backup to Comm Fuller - just in case some "invaders" (aka citizens) got out of hand and asked some really hard questions of the top county official.

Fortunately, the invaders were well behaved.

Folks, Mayor Woods's email and last Monday's session with BOCC Chair Fuller are prime examples of the "Us vs. Them" mentality of too many of our top elected officials.  The "Us" being the establishment ruling class, and the "Them" being the rest of us.  If you disagree with certain elected officials, you are labeled as an invader.  If you ask hard questions, you will get subterfuge and stonewalling for the effort.  If you stand up for what you believe is right, you will be smeared.

This is what the public faces day in and day out from our halls of power.

To be fair, not all of our elected officials act this way.  Commissioner Rob Kidwell from Huntersville exposed the planned closed meetings last week on the HOT lanes.  Commissioner Dave Gilroy from Cornelius regularly asks hardball questions on important issues.  However, silence is acceptance from most.  We need many more elected officials to step up and call out this type of behaviour when it occurs.

For elected officials to treat citizens this way is plain and simple bullying, and it needs to stop.

MeckBOCC Chair Dodges HOT Lanes Questions in Davdison

Mecklenburg County Commission Chair, Trevor Fuller, rolled into Davidson last night, but instead of some excitement and hard questions around HOT Lanes from the packed house topics stayed focused around the pending sales tax increase and education.  (At least that was the case for the first 45 minutes up until this blogger had to head home.  If things took a different turn later, please let us know.)

That's not to say WidenI77.org supporters weren't there in force.  They were.  It's also not to say they didn't ask hard and informed questions.  They did.

What was a bit unexpected was how Commissioner Fuller responded, or more accurately - preempted the questions.  As Commissioner Fuller was giving his opening remarks he worked in that the counties have little to no responsibility for roads in North Carolina, and more specifically on the I77 HOT Lanes project he said that he "knows almost nothing about it."  He even went as far as to say it would be improper for a County Commissioner to comment much on roads because they were the responsibility of other elected bodies.

A wily response from a wily politician.

I guess the Iredell County Board didn't get the memo though.  Back in January 2013 when the debate over HOT Lanes really began to rage, they showed the courage to step into the fray rather than hide from it. 

From DavidsonNews.net January 2013...

Widen I-77 finds an ally: Iredell board says no to HOT lanes