Officials need to be accountable

To the editor:

I have never been afraid to ruffle a few feathers or rub the fur the wrong way when I saw inequities that needed to be addressed by our elected county officials and for years referred to the Southeast Missourian as Rust's Republican Rag for refusing to expose any of the goings-on that fellow Republican cronies were pulling in the county.

In light of articles the past couple of years, I have had to eat some of those words, seeing that the editorial staff at the Missourian has done an exceptional job of showing us how our county government has been operating. What is to keep commissioners Gerald Jones and Larry Bock from selling parkland to the next crony that comes along for a residential lot or cemetery expansion?

Thank you, Southeast Missourian, for finally exposing the kind of dealings that go on in our county. If the supposed moral religious right gets exposed enough, maybe it will clean up its act. It is time that all levels of all parties be accountable to the people they are charged with representing and work with.

If the park land sale is such a good deal, let everyone see it for what it is. If not, then the Cape Girardeau County Commission is doing a disservice by not opening it up to competitive bidding or letting the park board have its say. Now what about a rollback of the 911 tax that has carried a balance of millions of dollars for years?

DAVID SEABAUGH, Jackson