Sunday Reads – Aug. 29
It’s been an interesting news week on Coastal Georgia, certainly in Glynn County. Even if you don’t live in Glynn County or care about what goes on there, this week’s news should jar all of us to pay attention to not only those we hire to do the public’s business, but how they are chosen.
GLYNN COUNTY MANAGER HUNT TAKES ANOTHER TURN
This week, we learned that the Glynn County Commission is planning — again — to hire the elected county tax commissioner as the county manager. And, they allowed him to write his own contract for the job, which would pay him $225,000 a year and give him 160 days off a year — not including holidays. This came after they hired a search firm for $17,000 to find two candidates they spurned and after they hired another search firm for $30,000 to try again. They passed over that candidate, as well. After each effort, they went back to the well to tap Jeff Chapman, a former commissioner, state representative and state senator whose experience and training did not meet the posted job description. So the county taxpayers may have to pay for the two professional search firms, they’ll also have to pay $10,000 to Chapman’s lawyer for drafting the contract. (Correction: This newsletter version corrects an earlier one that had an incorrect number for the amount paid to Chapman’s lawyer.)
Chapman says he drafted the generous agreement based on approvals he understood from some commission members. However, several commission members say they weren’t in on any negotiation and they haven’t voted on any of it, begging several questions of transparency and Georgia Open Meetings Act rules. It will all play out on Sept. 2 when the commission meets again to finalize whatever deal they work out. Want to check out the agenda or go in-person? Here’s the link to get you started.
DATA GOES IN, BUT LITTLE COMES OUT
A few weeks ago we featured a story here by Andy Miller at Georgia Health News about the inconsistently reported and kept health data and how that problem hampers COVID-19 research and tracking. This week, Miller reports that data crucial to community awareness is now either missing or buried in Georgia’s Department of Public Health website. If you want to know vaccination and case stats for your mom’s long-term care center, it’s hard to find. If you live in a town with a state prison, you have no way to know if there’s a COVID case cluster there that could be spreading in your community as staff and visitors come and go. And in Glennville, where case numbers are high and vaccination rates are low, not even the mayor knew there was a high incidence of COVID in the state prison there threatening the town’s citizens.
FDA: WE ARE NOT LIVESTOCK
Internet rumors have spread misinformation about pet de-wormer treatments for COVID since the pandemic began, but people still aren’t getting the message. The misuse of the anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin, used popularly to de-worm pets and livestock, is fueling calls to the Georgia Poison Center. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration tweeted a warning to humans who may be relying on it for viral protection and has a whole page of information explaining why it’s bad for humans on its website. This isn’t the first problem the state poison experts have had to deal with. Earlier this year, they warned about putting hand sanitizer where children could drink it after recording a 60% rise in calls about alcohol poisoning.
COMMON CORE TO BE SCARCE IN GEORGIA
In other math news, the Georgia School Board this week dropped Common Core math for public schools. It instituted a new curriculum designed to provide more foundation learning for younger students.
Common Core was designed to be adopted by all 50 states. In Georgia, educators and officials hoped to set standards to keep Georgia’s workforce competitive. But the federal “tag” on it repelled citizens who hold tight to local control for school districts.
The state board plans to examine English and language arts standards next. The new math standards won’t go into effect for another year.
FOR YOUR SECOND CUP
Generally when we clean up something really messy, we look for the source of the problem. So when we see all the plastics polluting the ocean, we really need to look upstream at our rivers. Everything that comes down the river ends up in the ocean.
A German architect and her team have created a boat that can go up a river, pull out the plastics and separate the mess for recycling. It’s an inspiring look at what people can do when they have committed to find a solution to a very sad and dangerous problem.
Enjoy.
Glynn County manager contract: $225K with 160 days off a year
Renegotiating for job he turned down, Chapman wrote his own contract for consideration.
Jeff Chapman’s salary as Glynn County manager would be about $44,000 more than his predecessor was paid and more than double his salary as county tax commissioner, according to the terms of his proposed county contract.
Glynn commissioners paid for second search before renominating Chapman
Most recent hunt also found experienced candidate for county manager job who met qualifications.
A little more than a week before Glynn County commissioners unexpectedly voted to revive Jeff Chapman’s candidacy, the panel approved a $30,000 contract for a second search firm to find a candidate to be interim county manager.
Some COVID data disappears in Georgia despite latest surge
Numbers for cases on long-term care, prison campuses drops, hard to find as communities look to stem spread.
Two state government websites in Georgia recently stopped posting updates on COVID-19 cases in prisons and long-term care facilities, just as the dangerous delta variant was taking hold. Data has been disappearing recently in other states as well.
State poison center fields reports of anti-parasite drug misuse for COVID
CDC issues advisory on Ivermectin, used for de-worming animals, as dangerous for humans.
Prescriptions for ivermectin rose 24 times the weekly average prior to the pandemic, the CDC said. The animal anti-parasitic can interfere with human drugs and does not fight or prevent COVID.
Georgia school board sets new math standards, leaves Common Core
Move designed to help in early grades, satisfy conservative opposition to federal standard.
Georgia’s move to new math standards leaves the Common Core, designed to be shared by 50 states to enhance job training.
Cleaning up rivers saves oceans
Grand idea to pull plastic trash out of the ocean turned out to be best tackled at the sources.
In cooperation with the German boatmaker Berky, a biologist, journalist, and an architect designed and built specialized boats with a conveyor ramp that can skim up to 20 tons of trash per day from rivers and lakes.
Support non-partisan, solutions-based investigative journalism without bias, fear or favor on issues affecting Savannah and Coastal Georgia.
You must be logged in to post a comment.