Commissioner's 'misstatement' on public property warrants scrutiny

To the editor:

As reported in your recent recap of the Oct. 10 meeting of the Highland County Board of Commissioners, Commissioner Tom Horst stated that he “misspoke” at the Oct. 8 AAUW Candidates Forum in regard to the commissioners' policy on the use of the Highland County Courthouse lawn.

During the aforementioned forum, Mr. Horst alluded to a policy which "bans the use of grills, tables, and tents on the courthouse lawn."

However, when questioned in the most recent commissioners' meeting, it was revealed that no such policy exists – at least not in written form – nor has any such policy been voted upon by the commissioners.

To say that Commissioner Horst misspoke is an understatement, in my opinion. I would say that Gary Heaton misspoke when he asked for our vote as "county commissioner" instead of county treasurer at Monday’s forum.

Commissioner Horst went beyond misspeaking.

To misspeak is to make an unintentional statement, or to slip up slightly. However, what Commissioner Horst did Monday night was to intentionally overstate the limits on the public use of the courthouse lawn.

Commissioner Horst spoke with authority regarding this policy, leading the casual observer to believe, without question, that what he was saying was fact which could not be disputed.

I believe that a review of the tape from Monday evening’s event will reveal that Commissioner Horst also implicated the other commissioners in his “misstatement” by saying that “we” had put the policy in place.

He then went on Wednesday morning to state that the other two commissioners had "ceded their authority" over the matter to him. I suspect that one will be hard-pressed to find such a cession of authority in the records of the commissioners' actions.

For a candidate who is running on a slogan of “Leadership You Can Trust,” I am quite surprised at such a “misstatement” in a public forum, which was intended to give the voters of Highland County better insight into the candidates for local office.

One would think that Mr. Horst would not have used his leadership position as an incumbent commissioner to so drastically misrepresent the truth.

Leadership requires the gaining of trust of the people being led, but some of Commissioner Horst’s actions in office have indicated that he may not value the trust of the people of Highland County.

Commissioner Horst has shown that he is less than fully deserving of the trust of the citizens of Highland County, from his willingness to engage in questionable practices relating to the conduct of public meetings to his most recent willingness to blatantly misrepresent the truth regarding the use of publicly owned property.

I would suggest that the voters of Highland County consider who they can trust to be a leader in the commissioner’s office and who has proven to be careless with the public’s trust.

Sincerely,
Fred Boggess
New Vienna