TODD FONTENOT, A TRUE DEMOCRAT

County Judge Craig McNair voted to break a 2-2 tie in favor of the emergency shelter project that would buy additional land and use $2 million worth of federal grant money to construct it. The vote was along party lines with Democrat Precinct 1 Commissioner Todd Fontenot and Democrat Precinct 3 Commissioner Melvin Hunt voting “no” and Republican County Judge Craig McNair joining Republican Commissioner Charlotte Warner and Republican Commissioner Norman Brown voting “yes”.

Commissioner Fontenot continues to openly resist any strategies proposed by Republicans to save the county money. Fontenot was part of the commissioner’s court, along with Melvin Hunt, who plunged nearly $2 million in the old Wal-Mart building without having a strategy to develop the property. Now Fontenot wants to throw good money away to try and fix the poorly thought out investment him and former Commissioner Lee Groce and former County Judge Phil Fitzgerald sunk taxpayers’ money into. In the absence of Fitzgerald, Fontenot has no rational defense of keeping this property. He seems to be in a rut of just voting to spend, spend, and spend. At least Fitzgerald was thought by many to be out beating the bush to find a good deal.

Fontenot said, “We have existing property and buildings and the end result of all of this is less facility because of less money.”

Fontenot continues to display this same attitude in all of his decisions. His attitude about taking a huge building on prime property off of the tax rolls and having no concrete plans of how to use most of it is an example of his lack of business sense and a disregard for taxpayer money.

This attitude is not surprising from Fontenot however. He has expensive elitist taste and a deceptive method of passing the cost of his taste onto the taxpayers. If he runs for re-election he will brag about not raising taxes, but Fontenot has repeatedly dug into taxpayer pockets by creating bonds or debt in all of the county taxpayers’ names – that may be worse than raising taxes because it postpones the bills like a credit card for future taxpayers.

Fontenot displays his arrogance on a daily basis in many overt ways besides his “buy the biggest and the best” attitude. In the midst of the budget crunch he helped because he lobbied hard for a new precinct barn in the expanded area he was warned was too far from the existing barn. He continues to put a hold on one of the coveted parking places near the courthouse steps with the only reserved parking place for a commissioner in the history of Liberty County. He was indignant about one of his political lieutenants being part of the budget cuts despite reports she does very little work and public revelation that she is an important part of his political machine.

So who can possibly be surprised that Fontenot wants to keep the huge Wal-Mart building rather than sell it and then claim he is saving money by not purchasing a much smaller less expensive building with the federal grant.

Local Liberty County Democrats like to act like they have nothing in common with the tax and spend Democrats in Washington D.C., but their actions speak louder than their campaign lies.