- Constitutional Patriots Info Handout - Click to DownloadI am proud to call Wells County my home. I have always felt that my upbringing has given me a set of principles and values that I share with my neighbors. We in Wells County are “doers” not “talkers,” and we are "givers" not "takers." There is a quiet sense of pride and decency in all of this.
We look at Washington D.C. with frustration, disappointment, and perhaps apprehension as we watch our government stray so far from what it was created to be. All the while, we take some degree of comfort that at least here, we are keeping our priorities straight. But are we?
The minimum expectation of local government is that it do its required job: protection of public safety, maintenance of infrastructure, and responsible administration of the public's trust. In the case of Township Governments, they are to provide fire protection and poor relief . We expect our elected officials to do this job with diligence, competence, and integrity. Recent headlines splashed with stories of corruption, incompetence and misplaced priorities have begun to undermine this trust.
Jefferson Township has been one of these D.C.-like violators of our trust. We expect our Townships to protect our property, family, and homes from fire. This is a requirement, not an option. The Jefferson trustee continues to short-change obligatory funds from fire protection, paying far below its fair share (approximately 18% of the operational budget). The Trustee has withheld these vital funds all the while paying himself nearly three times that of other Wells County trustees. In addition he has paid his wife three times the amount of other Deputy Trustees in the County, and we the taxpayers are “renting” a portion of his home. One can forgive the just rewards of a hard working man, but to do all this for himself while siphoning away potential fire protection dollars is inexcusable. His personal financial gain is not worth the potential lives of a mother, father, child, or volunteer fire fighter saved by adequate funding.
When approached with potentially equitable solutions, this same trustee refused to even discuss the proposal. The volunteer fire fighters who are regularly shocked out of sleep to come to our aid, are rightly at their wits end. Their funding has been squandered, and their ability to protect the lives of their neighbors is under attack.
This is Wells County. We are “doers,” hard-working people who drop what they are doing to bag sand when the river is flooding even though our own homes remain safe. We are "givers," people who put out signs asking for prayer even though our own children are not at risk. This is in who we are, what we were brought up to believe, and what we aspire to protect. If local government doesn’t reflect who we are than it is time to say enough! We must expect Jefferson's trustee to do what is required of him by law. We must tell all our elected officials, that we won’t tolerate Washington-like priorities that place personal well-being above the good of our community.
Phillip Stoller
