Enough is Enough

PK Pettus and Kathy Liston, self-appointed community representatives of the courthouse project, continue to attack and abuse anyone who disagrees with them.  It is unclear exactly who they represent, how many people they represent and most importantly how they determine the desires of those people.

NOTE: We will be happy to publish a list of citizens who have designated Pettus and Liston as their spokesmen or publish letters from those people if sent to us.

Pettus and Liston met with Chairman Haywood Hamlet (Liston’s representative) and Butch Shook (Pettus’s representative) two weeks ago.  Somehow they believed this meeting was binding on the rest of the board.

Judging from attendance at the board meetings over the past year the supporters of Pettus and Liston are a fluctuating group with a core of about six people.  Last month the board room was filled with “supporters,” but when asked why they attended several indicated they didn’t know but had received a robo-call purportedly from the Charlotte County Republican committee urging them to attend.

Others stated they attended as a favor to someone, while two stated they didn’t want to offend the person who requested they attend.

Why should six people or even 60 supersede the votes of 2,225 citizens.  In a representative democracy citizens vote for representatives. If the representatives do not satisfy the citizens they can be replaced.

Citizens should be involved in the process. They should speak at board meetings; they should contact their supervisors; they should make their wishes known.  They should never have to resort to a go-between to speak on their behalf.  More importantly, no one should act as a representative of anyone who has not agreed to that representation.

If someone claims to speak for a group there should be an actual group represented, not a random fluctuating assortment of supporters. “I speak for the people” is not really a mandate, it is arrogance.

In her email to Chairman Haywood Hamlet (see page C1) Liston states, “PK and I compromised tremendously on the new building for the greater good.”

Again Pettus and Liston believe for some reason a meeting with their representatives was binding to the entire board and that their input is required for the “greater good.”

As previously stated, Pettus, Liston et al are responsible for the current location of the courthouse, the third courtroom (possibly the third floor) and the elimination of the expert panel selected by the board and the increase in the cost by six million dollars.

Regarding the courthouse panel, Liston and Pettus objected to all of the members selected by the board as unqualified, untrustworthy, biased or unacceptable in spite of the fact that three of them had experience in working on buildings designed by Thomas Jefferson.

Then months later when one of them agreed that the current location was unacceptable, Pettus presented the letter as “from an expert.”

A drawing was presented at the July Board meeting which both Liston and Pettus praised as an example of compromise. Now they are claiming Walker and Clark are responsible for their (Pettus and Liston’s) lack of attention to the drawing.

At this point, apparently all Pettus, Liston et al want is a token win so they can claim success.