Robertson County Planning Meeting

Just my opinion on this....

Last night I drove to Springfield for the planning commission meeting. This meeting is held in the court house. Let me first say, as a medium sized woman, I cannot stand being anywhere where I am not allowed at least a pocket knife. These meetings are held in the actual court room where you have to go through the metal detector to get in. Come on now Nikki, there is a sheriff’s deputy in the room the entire time, you should feel safe. Let me start by saying that the deputy that stood guard over this room was straight out of something you would see on X where the cop’s on there for roughing up an unarmed disabled man. This young man did not smile at any of us. He didn’t greet us as citizens. He stood close to the board against the wall and rolled his fingers as if he were itching to get in a fight. He treated the room as if we were hostile before anyone even spoke. Was this room filled with military aged fighting men? Nope. There were two older guys that spoke about building a couple of houses for a citizen rezoning a couple of acres. An older woman whose property was the subject of the rezone. A couple of middle aged men, me, and a woman that might have been 110 pounds soaking wet. Oh, and a three professionals, but I’ll get to those later. This is the first place this meeting went off the rails. That’s his job you say. I’ve been to every meeting in the city of White House for a few years now. Never has one of our officers ever treated citizens the way this young man treated the people in that room. He was working the jail, and we were the prisoners. I didn’t get his name or his badge because as soon as the meeting was over, even as I was trying to speak to members of the board, he was turning off lights and barking for people to leave.

The first thing I learned is that you are not allowed to speak to an item unless it is on the agenda. Been down this road before. So I signed up anyway over the solar issue.

Let me give you some background on the solar issue. There are companies that build solar farms on leased farm land. There is a company that was looking to put one in Robertson County near Jessica Mormando’s home. She has been to the planning commission and the county commission looking to get rules and or regulations in place before one of these farms comes to RobCo. The county commission at one point voted to put a moratorium on these solar farms until they had the proper zoning and regulations in place. The county attorney told them they could not do that, solar farm regulation has been sitting in limbo. That’s my understanding of the events as have been relayed to me. Mormando asked to be on the agenda to bring the issue to the forefront. She was given five minutes to speak, and Hunter Mantooth the chief deputy planner, and Bill Jones, the chairman were visibly irritated by Mormando. Obviously she has spoken before and even said as much herself. After she had her time and answered questions from the board, I spoke. I too agreed that we did not have the proper fire departments in Cedar Hill and Adams to deal with a solar farm, and added that we have EMS issues all over the county that are going to come to a head. Two women I know have told me that their homeowners insurance has gone up because of the ISO rating changing. I let them know that we are in trouble on the White House side of the county. The chairman then told me that his board has nothing to do with the city of White House. I assured him that I knew that, I had been to every city and planning meeting in White House and I know the county isn’t responsible. I wanted them to know that we don’t need any more subdivisions where we are. I received the same looks from Mantooth and the chairman. Then, miraculously there were two different solar companies there to speak to how wonderful solar farms are. Tell me how that happened? A citizen is looking for regulation and not one, but two different companies just happen to be at this meeting touting the benefits of solar farms. Really?? After they spoke, Mormando had more questions. She was told her time was up. It was only 7:30. Then one of the board members spoke up and asked why this couldn’t be a conversation. At this point, the chairman allowed Mormando to ask a few more things. However, after the solar reps spoke again, the chairman pointed his finger at Mormando and said gruffly, you have had your turn. That was that. Sometime in the middle of the conversation about solar, one of the board members brought up the fact that we are losing farm land and people should be worried because then how will we feed the citizens. At that point I clapped. That was the wrong thing to do in that room. Mall cop about jumped off the wall, pointed at me, and glared while mouthing no. The chairman also pointed at me and hit his gavel.

Here’s my take away. They do NOT want to hear from you. (with a few exceptions) We aren’t on different sides, we should all be on the same side. These are people that live in Robertson County just like we do. You give them a gavel and a pen, and they think they are the soup Nazi deciding who does and does not get soup today.

RobCo, we have a problem. We have county commissioners that are listening to their people. Most of their people are saying “Grow Responsibly!” We have a county mayor that doesn’t seem to hear the people. We have a temporary chief deputy planner that has zero experience and I’m wondering how she got her job.

Mantooth's Linkedin

Compare that to the ACTUAL planner in the City of White House, a city that is smaller than the county.

Ceagus Clark Linkedin

RobCo is passed the point of doing county business by hiring from the court house and discussing things over coffee at the local cafe. That may have worked back in the day, but at this point the wolves are at the door, and many of them have staked their territory. Lennar, DR Horton, Ryan, Drees, Pulte, and others already built in White House. These companies employ professional snake oil salesmen to come in to counties and cities and tell all of the wonderful things that their product brings. Believe me, I’ve sat in these meetings with them. Watch this clip….

It sounds great when they present their pretty projects. They threaten to sue counties and cities when you ask questions or bring up issues. We need professionals that understand the complexities of planning and zoning, and strong representatives that will stand for responsible growth and management. RobCo needs an actual planner. After that, RobCo needs to hear from the citizens. Open up that public comment even when it’s not an agenda item. You are elected to serve all of the people, and that means hearing from the people. We are all on the same side. This is our county, all of us. Stop treating us like the enemy.