Bob Conley
Dear Editor,
I’m a lifelong citizen of Kosciusko County. Politics slammed into my life last year, when I believed it impacted my child and the mask mandates in the schools last year.
I felt the health officer Remington was using his position to pursue an agenda outside of his scope of power. I started a petition for our county to see if others felt the same and let their voices be heard also.
I read my speech to Bob Conley before I officially spoke at the commissioners’ meeting and he approved of the speech and shook my hand before and after that first meeting, thanking me for standing up for personal freedoms that Americans should be proud of.
This response I was thankful for no matter the turnout, in that my voice was heard. Somewhere between that first meeting and the second, he questioned the validity of the petition and made that concern vocal in his barbershop. I addressed that accusation as soon as I heard and showed the validity of the petition and concern that my personal integrity and the voice of 628 signatories, his constituents, were put in question and disregarded.
I since have filed FOIA requests and have found that Conley rarely uses his county email address to conduct official business and therefore no transparency on what would have changed his mind. I know that being a commissioner is important to him and it was an election year, so I can only speculate.
Political viewpoints aside, my husband still continued to get his hair cut from Conley. A couple of weeks ago at the last hair cut, Conley asked my husband to put his sign in our yard. In the same conversation, he asked about the family with contracts with the county and says he has the power to vote on those contracts that week. Unethically, he mentioned aloud in the barbershop the contract amount of a closed bid and made it clear he wasn’t sure how he was to vote. I also have contracts with the county. Was he also letting us be aware that he had power over that also?
I have been told the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. I was told that saying by seasoned politicians in both the Remington case and now this commissioner’s race. I was told that Conley is swayable and I could appeal to his ego and maybe get more done politically if he stayed on the commissioner’s seat. I’m a voter who sees right from wrong. A voter who wants what’s best for my county and my family.
I have hired and trusted them to do that for me. I don’t have to agree with all their decisions, but I need to trust that they have those core values at heart and will fight for them more than protecting their own personal agendas and using their power to sway voters to vote or put signs in their lawns or else.
As a constituent of Kosciusko County, I will be looking forward to a fresh check in the commissioner’s seat.
Jodi Cox
Warsaw