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Letter to the editor
Cost of election office fiasco continues to rise
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Forsyth County News

I read with amazement Mr. Goldston's letter implying that [Planning Board member] Brant Meadows could be active in the real estate business in Roswell, but not in Forsyth.

Mr. Goldston's statement that Brant Meadows has a business license in the city of Roswell, not Forsyth County, does not mean a thing.

If Brant Meadows has a real estate license that is required by the state of Georgia, he can operate as a buyer's agent, sell real estate, or do other real estate transactions in the whole state of Georgia, including Forsyth County.

If Mr. Goldston is really concerned with other conflicts of interest, such as Commissioner Brian Tarn or land barons, as he calls them, he should report
them to the feds, or audit them three times and see what turns up.

The Emory Lipscomb law firm comes before the planning commission a lot. I understand that Ethan Underwood, the current head of the Republican party, is affiliated with that firm.

Since Ethan Underwood controls who is on the election board from the Republican party, I frankly don’t expect to see Brant Meadows voting against them very often.

Also, most real estate agents know a lot of other agents, builders and developers. It would not be wise to have any real estate agent vote on the planning commission for that reason.

I personally attended a meeting of approximately 20 people. All, except a few, were on the county payroll. Nobody can tell you how much that cost.

Brant Meadows spent most of the meeting begging the county commissioners to remove Gary Smith from his position. Of course, they did not. I really believe that the total cost of this fiasco would be over $200,000 — not too refreshing to me and other tax payers.

And then there was the episode of Ms. Thomas and Brant Meadows voting to take Gary Smith's key to his office away, then informing Forsyth News in a blatant attempt to embarrass him. How refreshing.

I do think that Gary Smith is guilty—guilty of running the best election in the state; guilty of being in demand by this state for his expertise; guilty of being in demand by other counties and other states for his expertise.


Bill Dickerson
Cumming