County commissioner meeting as entertainment

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Apparently there’s some bad political blood among Mitchell County commissioners, which is making for some fun action.

This web site says the board chairman, Phil Byrd, allged that commissioner Jim Saylor didn’t have his RV park properly registered for tax purposes.

At a county board meeting in January, Chairman Byrd had a resident escorted out of the meeting because he said she was being disruptive.

In a recent editorial, the Mitchell News Journal says it’s time for the politicians to stop the bickering and get to work. The paper says it’s the Jim Saylor/Mike Hensley faction versus the Phil Byrd/Patrick Phillips/Lisa Sparks faction.

We elected our county officials to lead our government, not to become mired in petty squabbling. The time for candidates to beat each other up is during the election. The election is over. Our commission has been sworn in.

We have serious issues in Mitchell County. We need leadership. We need focus. We need for our commissioners to quit playing ‘king of the hill.’ It is fine for the commission to argue, debate, and disagree, just do it over something that will help the county move forward. Stick to the issues.

We don’t care that you don’t like each other. This is not a Valentine’s Day party. Be courteous and work on making our county better.