GUEST COLUMN: Safdie owes us all a public apology

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May 7, 2009

By Brock Hill / Cumberland County mayor The Crossville Chronicle Thu May 07, 2009, 03:55 PM CDT

Last fall, in one of his last acts as a member of the Cumberland County Board of Education, Robert Safdie voted to postpone the scheduled opening date of our local school system.

The reason for the postponement, he and five other BOE members said, was a lack of funds. Safdie and his fellow BOE members were summarily sued by your county mayor for a violation of the state open meetings law. The Chancellor ruled that they had violated the open meetings or Sunshine Law and ordered schools open within the week. As of today, with about a month of school to go, the Cumberland County school system has not run out of money.

Characterizing Safdie’s action as a violation of the BOE ethics policy of putting the “children first,” dissenting BOE member Orville Hale resigned his seat in protest. Hale said he could no longer “morally or ethically” support a policy that was not being respected by its members. Safdie responded by calling Hale’s statements “venomous.”

Fresh from cutting his political baby teeth at the BOE, Safdie is making a similar mark on our community as a member of the Cumberland County Commission.

Last week, under the guise of a concerned public servant, Safdie provided a commentary to this newspaper regarding a proposed “hazardous waste dump” in Cumberland County. Using terms such as “toxic waste” and “done deal,” he wove a tale of corruption that would make Tammany Hall cringe.

Wisely placing Safdie’s article on the editorial page, the Chronicle absolved itself of any shared liability.

This week, the environmental committee of the Cumberland County Commission met to discuss the pros and cons of a proposal to legally close an open coal mine by converting it to a landfill.

This landfill, the commission was told, would be a legally permitted Subtitle D Landfill, similar to where your household garbage goes now. It would contain only one type of waste: fly ash. According to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation officials present, fly ash is neither considered a toxic waste nor a hazardous material.

The meeting, which was attended by many panicked local citizens who had been duped by Safdie, was intended to provide information to the commission regarding the proposal and to explain a process called the Jackson Law.

The Jackson Law requires the local governing authority to consider any proposal to construct a landfill project within its borders. Each project is considered one at a time, on its merits. The Jackson Law also provides for a legal process that includes a public comment period and public meeting.

The commission must consider several criteria in determining whether to grant permission for the landfill. The commission cannot arbitrarily deny the permit application, or they, like the BOE last fall, could find themselves visiting the Chancellor. In short, the Jackson Law process is very public and very legal: hardly a “done deal.”

So in response to the Safdie tomfoolery and nonsense: Not toxic. Not a hazardous waste dump. Not an automatic open door policy for dumps. Not a done deal. Not close to the truth.

Commissioner Safdie, you owe your fellow commissioners, the county mayor, and your constituents a public apology.

And one more thing, next time do more listening and less talking. At the courthouse, we deal with the facts.

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