Potter County Commissioners Court/Screenshot
By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief
What a disgrace our Potter County Commissioners Court is — with two very key exceptions.
In case you missed it, a few weeks ago, the Potter County Commissioners Court voted to donate land to an organization to provide housing to homeless veterans. That item passed unanimously and, apparently, with little to no input from residents of the area where the land is located. Once residents got word of what was about to happen in their community, they protested — and finally got the attention of the Commissioners Court.
During a meeting this week, Commissioner John Coffee, whose district actually includes the area to be affected by the land donation, urged members to vote to rescind the donation after pushback from members of the public. County Judge Nancy Tanner doubled down and refused to pull back and her sidekicks followed suit. Coffee’s push to rescind the donation failed before Coffee eventually convinced the recipients of the land donation to decline the donation. Then, after they declined the land donation, the Commissioners Court voted to accept their denial.
I have so many thoughts about this bunch of cowards and their political theater.
First, let’s give some credit to Coffee. He is the only commissioner serving right now in Potter County who has any guts at all and appears to be the only one who really listens to his constituents. He deserves a huge round of applause. Likewise, while I don’t agree with him on everything, Commissioner H.R. Kelly needs to be commended for listening to Coffee and hearing the concerns of the Potter County taxpayers affected by the donation, switching his vote to being against the donation.
John Coffee and H.R. Kelly — you guys actually looked like elected representatives on Monday. And you need to be recognized and thanked for that.
As for the rest of the Potter County Commissioners’ Court, all I can say is — holy cow. We truly do have a bunch of scoundrels and cowards running our government in Amarillo, don’t we?
The biggest scoundrel is obviously Judge Tanner, who apologized for not having enough communication with members of that community, while saying in the next breath that she was still going to vote for the land donation anyway. That’s like punching those taxpayers in the face, apologizing for punching them, then kicking them in the groin. She truly does not care about the taxpayers of this community and it shows.
Then, we have Commissioners Blair Schaffer and Warren Coble, who voted to stick with Tanner on the land donation, over the objection of community members. It’s not really a shock that these guys — especially Schaffer, who has established himself as something of a loyal Tanner follower — voted that way. After all, why rock the boat when it’s easier just to stay anonymous?
I do think it speaks volumes though that Tanner, Schaffer, and Coble all heard the very same citizen complaints that Coffee and Kelly did, and they did nothing. For these three elected officials, those citizens and their concerns didn’t matter. What mattered was sticking to the script and upholding their previous votes.
One of the biggest issues from the get-go with this project was the fact that there was just a total breakdown in communication and the only person who seemed to understand that was Coffee. Yes, Tanner admitted it during the meeting on Monday, but she didn’t remedy it when she voted to just keep her previous vote the same.
When you look at the current commissioners, we have several people currently serving who said that communication was among their top priorities. Schaffer, for instance, even called communication the issue that had gone most overlooked during his campaign just 5 months ago.
“I believe an issue that is overlooked is the voice of the Potter County citizens regarding their concerns,” Schaffer said in his Voter Guide profile. “Therefore, their concerns are not being heard nor addressed…I will take heed what my fellow neighbors’ concerns are and give them the utmost representation.”
I guess that just totally went out the window once he finally took office. Why deliver on your campaign promises when you can just pretend like they never existed? It’s a lot easier to govern that way — especially if have the political spine of a gummy bear.
Overall on this issue, Potter County seems to be represented by cowards, con artists, and two actual representatives — John Coffee and H.R. Kelly. Thank goodness that Commissioner Coffee understood his job and spoke up and that Commissioner Kelly took notice. Coffee seems to be the only true representative on the Potter County Commissioners’ Court right now and Kelly is probably a close second. We need more representatives like these guys — and fewer like Tanner, Schaffer, and Coble.