Back before I retired from the Army. We had a saying “There is only one thief in the Army, everyone else is just trying to get their stuff back.” I can assure you this is not what is going on in Oconee County. I can tell you I absolutely, 100%, without a doubt, I cannot stand a thief. Stealing is one of those things that everyone knows is wrong, you are taught that from a very young age. So, you absolutely do not have to be told that as an adult, especially as a old man. But some people know what they want, and they will steamroll anyone in their path to get it. Such is the case with what is going on in the city of Westminster.

As some may know, Westminster held a special election here not that long ago. The reason for this is because three city councilmen got mad, took their ball, and went home. This serves as a prime example of why acting on emotion rather than logic is often a horrible idea. These three essentially abandoned the people of Westminster and started a chain of events that could ultimately be the downfall of the town. I will explain all of that if you’ll bear with me. They then double downed by acting like a bunch of spoiled children going after City Councilman Yousef Meflah’s restaurant, Yousef’s Kitchen. As I have said before whether Yousef was right or wrong going after a man’s livelihood because you didn’t get your way is still wrong. If you had a problem with the way the man was doing business, you should have said something when it happened, but I digress. One of the resignee’s even made the statement in the paper, “they got the drill sergeant version of me.” That is all well and good to stroke your ego with sir, but you forgot your 1st general order which you taught basic trainees. “I will guard everything within the limits of my post and quit my post only when properly relieved.”

How many hotels would people say are in Oconee County? I am not talking little rinky dink places. I am talking about nice hotels that you would let your kids travel to play recreational sports. While Seneca has built a few recently, Westminster has a big goose egg. Also, while Lucky Strike is a good place to get lunch. Your choices for dinner are Puerto and… Beef and Rib, I guess, maybe Yousef’s. Any pickle, my point is this Westminster does not have the amenities to be a big draw for rec sports. I understand that sports in Westminster is a big deal. One of my closest friends, his son was on the State Championship wrestling team this year. I had never paid attention to high school wrestling until this year. Folks, I’ve got to tell you, high school wrestling is the most underrated sport in the state of South Carolina. It goes 0-60, back to 30, up to 190, and back to 60 in a matter of minutes. It really is fun to watch once you understand it. But anyway, what Mayor Bryan Ramey has done is capitalized and taken advantage of the people’s love for rec sports. Then convinced everyone to jump in the back of an old farm truck, that is burning oil, and drive to Disney World and burn through a couple of months house payments. Not only that but to pay for this little extravagant expedition. He is also convinced MOST of his new City Council that we’ll just steal the neighbor’s car since we don’t have enough room in the farm truck. That is right folks, Westminster is growing under the direction of Bryan Ramey in his quest for his #buildhallstrec cause. People outside city limits are being brought into city limits to pay taxes against their will. This is stealing, just plain and simple. Taking something without permission is stealing. Mayor Ramey’s justification for all this, well they get water from the city. Of all the stupid excuses in the world, which is the lamest of them all. Meth heads stealing copper have better excuses.

I am telling everyone if that is all it takes for a municipality to legally take someone’s property, every person in the county is in trouble. It would be like Blue Ridge Co-op taking my property because I get power from them. Then telling me ”Well you could pay for solar panels.” This is “progress” folks, we have all heard the analogy that you can take one link out of a dog’s chain at a time. Eventually, the dog is stapled to the ground and never knew how it got there. If this is allowed to proceed it is just another link in the chain. It will also be a nail in the coffin towards bankrupting the city of Westminster. If Mayor Ramey’s blind promise of a grand rec department doesn’t draw sports tournaments from places like Easley and the Shaver Complex in Seneca. Every single citizen inside Westminster city limits will be left holding the bill on a bad investment. This includes the ones kidnapped by a greedy, power-hungry land grab. Who wanted no part of the nonsense in the first place. Fix your house before you put a pool in folks. Y’all have a nice day.

On today’s episode of cod kick a crooked politician. I’d like to title this one, “Westminster, An Oconee Tragedy.” For years, Westminster has received a bad reputation as a rundown town, with high utility rates and nothing to show for it. Even receiving a sarcastic nickname at times calling it “Methminister.” While this is not fair to the good citizens of Westminster because the drug problem in Oconee County has been a major issue officials seem to want to stay away from. This destructive weed is continuously allowed to grow in our communities. While I fully support law enforcement, I think Oconee needs more deputies and better pay for them. What I tend to hear is raise the sheriff’s salary. Sounds to me like watering the blooms instead of the roots. My opinion is, if the sheriff wants a pay increase, then clean up the county first. But that’s a write up for another time.

Getting back to the subject of Westminster, I am not gonna down the city right now. But I am going to be brutally honest. Like I sometimes say, if you want it sugar coated go to Dunkin’ Donuts because I am not the one. Westminster has been robbed for quite a while. Not only has the people of Westminster been robbed but in turn the people of District 4 as a whole have been robbed as well. Now if you don’t know Oconee County is divided into five different districts. District 1 being the general area of Salem. District 2 is the general area of Walhalla. District 3 is the General area of Seneca. District 4 is the general area of Westminster, and District 5 is the southern part of the county or Fair Play general area. Now these areas are broken down depending on the population giving everyone in Oconee County an equal voice (well at least it’s supposed to). Districts 1 and 5 are the largest areas geographically because they are less densely populated. But they receive the least amount of money from the county budget. Number 3 on that list is District 4, Westminster, which I will come back to in a minute just bear with me. Number 2 is District 2 or Walhalla, and number 1 is obviously the crown jewel of the county Seneca. Here’s the funny part of that whole thing. District 3 covers the least amount of geographical area but continuously enjoys the lion’s share of the county budget.

Now why is that you ask, well this is where it gets good folks. You know I have no love lost for the Journal. But the Journal holds a lot of strong influence in Oconee County. They use this influence to strong arm their personal agenda on the county. I’ve come to realize why; they show no regard for public opinion of them. This is evidenced but their unprofessional remarks and replies. You see when I go in a gas station, I always look at the newspaper rack, especially in the evening. That stack of paper’s keeps getting higher and higher. But here’s what I’ve learned, the Journal makes more money off the taxpayers of Oconee County through its progressive majority on County Council. This comes from a multitude of fees and what not. Essentially, the Journal has found a way to tax the taxer. But what happens is they are taking money required to upkeep the county.

Now let me caveat on to this, the county budget was just released in the last county council meeting. The budget went from just over $49 million to a little over $60 million. But yet John Elliott, Mr. CPA himself, has said county taxes will not go up. Now I don’t claim to be a smart man, but this is impossible. I’ve often compared John Elliott to being Oconee’s very own Joe Biden. Due to him being the gaff machine that he is. Seems he tells the same lies as Creepy Uncle Joe as well. But again, this is not the topic of the day. Just an important detail to the tragedy.

Now if we divide $60 million by 5, we get $12 million per district. Remember each district is marked off to hold a roughly equal number of residents. That means Salem, Fair Play, and Westminster should all get just over $12 million of county funds. This is not the case though. Seneca gets the lion’s share to fund whatever it sees fit to blow money on. A big reason for this is because Mayor Dan Alexander stays leached onto the Journal’s owner Jerry Edward’s fourth point of contact. For all of you who’ve never been to the Army’s Airborne School, that’s his anal cushions. This is the same Mayor Dan which is constantly on Jazzy Jeff’s radio show live from the Julian Davis studio in Jeff’s house. Y’all can make your own assumptions to that association. So then why does Walhalla get the number 2 position? Let me answer that question. As I’ve mentioned many times before the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal is a man named Hal Welch. Hal is one of the Tell Willie faceless writers. Hal’s wife is Amy Welch, former candidate for Walhalla City Council, schoolteacher at the Hamilton Career Center, and head of a group called Partners for Progress (remember this group’s name). Partners for Progress is the group pushing for a bike trail in Walhalla while infrastructure crumbles into the ground. Partners for Progress’s main focus is Main Street in Walhalla and Main Street only. Their biggest opponents are Conservative City Councilmen David Underwood, Tyler Jordan, and Grant Keehn. This is a big reason why you always see the Journal play kick the conservatives with these 3 city councilmen.

Now that I’ve built the case, we get to the meat and taters of our tragedy. Yesterday, Julian Davis, the county councilman for District 4, and his merry band of misfit tools held a big shin dig for the grand opening of Julian’s new Allstate Insurance office. This new office is located in West… nope, I’m wrong, it’s located in District 3 (Seneca). Which just so happens to be where Julian sends all of Westminster, Fair Play, and Salem’s money. Oh, it looked to be a beautiful gathering. They had a big giant petting zoo slam full of RINOs. Keri Unsworth was there, Ms. Unsworth led the campaign to try and overthrow Chairman David McMahan. Very much like the Democrats in Washington tried to do to President Trump. She essentially resigned from her post after being exposed for her support of Oconee County Democratic Party chair Jody Gaulin. Even lying, little donut boy Josh Roberts was in attendance. Josh was the paper’s candidate who ran in the Republican Primary against Matthew Durham for District 2. He’s also a member of the Partners for Progress in Walhalla. Son of a gun if his wife wasn’t Amy Welch’s campaign manager for Walhalla City Council. My, what a wicked web we weave. But going back to Julian, you would think he’d want to support the people in District 4. Sadly, this is not the case. Due to Julian’s close relationship with the Welch’s. Julian, while his political office is to represent the people of district 4, only serves to support Jerry Edwards and the Welch’s desire to rule Oconee County and line their own pockets using your tax dollars. This has spurned a chain of events detrimental to all who live in Oconee County. This is evidenced by what is going on in Westminster as we speak.
A starved city forced to survive off the breadcrumbs that fall off the table. Then criticized in Jerry Edwards’s Rag paper for its desire to grow. I’m gonna be honest with folks. After my last write up on Westminster, Mayor Ramey contacted me about my views and his concern of being a punching bag by everyone in the county. I told him that the annexation was wrong and told him if he’d stop the annexation I’d shut up. Now I’m not gonna give you my opinion on Mayor Ramey’s justification for the annexation. Even though you could probably assume my thoughts on it. I’m going to give it without opinion and y’all judge it how you want to.
Annexation is a conservative option because welfare is not a conservative trait. The people who move just outside the city, move there because they want the convenience of the city without paying the taxes for those conveniences. This is much like welfare wanting something without paying into it.
*The above is not my opinion, it’s what I was told
This is the direct effect of citizens not being made a priority of elected officials. Julian Davis’s friends before constituents mentality is what those who are about to loose their property rights can first point their finger at. Just out of curiosity, what happens once Westminster completely implodes on itself? When is Seneca gonna be big enough? Where is the line in the sand where cities say this is as far as we are gonna grow? The truth is there is no answers to these questions. Nor do they ever intend to be answered. Humankind is plagued with a fallible quality called Greed. I have often said in my observance of people the more they get the more they want. This stands true in Oconee County. Our county government has become so greedy for money that it has morphed into gluttony. This is historically one of the seven deadly sins; will it be what eventually kills Oconee County?
Westminster has so much potential. For whatever reason, the people of Westminster think the solution to their problem is the rec department. While I agree Westminster needs a new rec department, I say build to the need not to the want. But hey who am I? It’s my belief you kick Julian’s sorry butt to the curb. Find someone else that actually cares about Westminster and get the money to clean the town up. Use it wisely, make Westminster a town that people want to move to due to its small-town feel. You have to feed and care for a garden to get it to grow. That is the same with growing a town the correct way. Instead of build it and they will come, how about care for it and they will come.
Any pickle, I know this has been a long one. Anyone who has got to this point I really do appreciate you sticking with me. I need to add something I failed to fit in. The grand opening of Julian’s new office was just a political stunt to campaign for Jazzy Jeff. Just more of Julian caring more about Seneca than his own district and Westminster. Everyone have a wonderful day.