County manager fired Commissioners say Badger was paid too much, not bringing in jobs.

County manager fired

Commissioners say Badger was paid too much, not bringing in jobs.

By Frank Bradley

Sentinel writer

It will be an all new governmental team as Cherokee County conducts operations this year: three new commissioners and with the firing of David Badger, there are now vacancies for the positions of county manager, chief financial officer and tax administrator.

In a somewhat charged special called meeting on Thursday, commissioners Steve Jordan and David Wood voted to dismiss Badger while commissioner Lorraine Meltz dissented.

Both Wood and Jordan cited as their reasons for letting Badger go that he was being paid too much and that not enough was being done to bring jobs to Cherokee County. Both said they could hire someone for less. Badger, who has been county manager for six and a half years with the additional responsibility as the county’s economic development director was earning $91,000 a year, according to Jordan. He still had a year and half on his contract with the county which according to county attorney Scott Lindsey will have to be bought out at a cost of $166,800.

Jordan said, “People down here (at the courthouse) are making $80,000 to $90, 000 a year. That’s a lot of money to pay here in the courthouse. We’re trying to fix it where people can afford to live here. They voted me in to work for the people. That’s the reason I run. I wasn’t happy with what was going on. There’s too much cost. We’re down here to try and work with the people so they don’t have to be taxed to death.”

Wood also voiced concern about his property taxes saying, “Personally, my property taxes went up 1,000 percent.”

During the public hearing several people spoke up objecting to the firing of Badger.

One said, “I’m a concerned about the direction you are going. When you were sworn in a lady (auditor) was bragging that Cherokee County was in the top five in the state in managing its finances. That before you all took over, David Badger was doing one hell of a job.”

Another said, “The county didn’t lose jobs, the country lost jobs. What we need in this country is tax relief for entrepreneurs to create jobs.”

Near the end of the meeting Badger spoke briefly thanking Cherokee County for the opportunity to serve as county manager. “We’ve got treat employees,” he said. “I give the credit to them for all we’ve accomplished. It has been a dream opportunity for me to come back here and work where I was born and grew up.”

During the portion of the meeting relating to recruiting jobs, Mr. Kilpatrick of Andrews said he had retired back to the county two and a half years ago. He said he has been actively working on a volunteer basis looking for businesses to relocate to the county along with someone else in Andrews. He said they have been successful in pulling this off. That the first company had been scheduled to relocate to the county in July, but that now it looks like it will be even earlier in May. He said he had seven other private companies lined up, but they wanted to remain anonymous until they were ready to make the move.

Commissioner Meltz questioned him asking if these people are coming here do they not have to talk to somebody about things like business license, zoning, waste water permits and so forth?

Mr. Kilpatrick of Andrews said they don’t like to provide letters of intent when they are buying property, etc. He said hopefully he will have something coming on them in a month.

There was some discussion about the contract the county has with Wells & West regarding the renovation of the courthouse and the construction of a courthouse annex. After a briefing regarding cost and extent of the project, all of commissioners agreed to go ahead with the construction as planned.