Jason Falls has been smack dab in the middle of about every dirty political trick, dirty political deal and taxpayer doublecross in recent Cleveland County recent history. Falls was in the middle of the county employee wage freeze while giving bonus’s to former County Manager David Dear. Falls was in the middle of holding off property tax re-evaluation to cheat taxpayers as property values plummeted. Falls sneaky dealings caused the firing of County Attorney Bob Yelton so Falls could bring in his cousin for the job. Sour grapes from Falls caused the County to foolishly abolish the office of Coroner because the Coroner’s wife put a post on Falls’ wife’s Facebook page about the taxpayer paid boondoggle Falls, the other commissioners and their spouses took to Washington, DC. Then there was the sale of the County owned Hospital for a pawnshop price and taxpayers received nothing in return. The Doran Property giveaway to political insiders who reportedly sold $1 million in scrap metal, milled flooring for an uptown brewery from the old mill timbers and then gave the property back to the county without fully paying property taxes. Falls made the motion for Commissioners to raise the fire tax rate by 75%. Then Falls took over the County Manager’s job with ZERO experience and stole $13 millions in equity in the LeGrand Center from the schools and community college for the Commissioners.
The list goes on and on folks, just how much do I need to make this point? The point being Jason Falls record clearly shows he gave tax dollars away to just about everybody who came through the door with their hands out. Falls was a poor money manager for Cleveland County as well as for himself.
And then there is the dark side to Jason Falls that the episode with foolishly abolishing the office of Coroner just shows the tip of the iceberg. The many students who lost educational opportunities because of the hard hearts and mean spirits of Jason Falls and Steve Thornburg. And the loss of support for a popular county program (separate from the Coroner issue) because a program supporter shared one of my articles on Facebook. I would love to share these details but I was asked not to. Some will know exactly what I am talking about here.
Word on the street is Falls is broke and looking for another tax dollar “tit” to suck on. Before Falls landed the County Manager’s gig for high pay Falls was reportedly angling for the Director’s job at the Fair. Lots of cash money floating through the Fair operations that Falls apparently wanted to get a piece of. But the job was already taken by someone who turned state’s evidence and helped put Meg Scott Phipps in prison. Phipps being the former Secretary of Agriculture who ran the State Fair and demanded bribes from vendors. (You have to wonder about the integrity of a person in financial trouble such as Falls being in charge of such a cash cow as the Cleveland County Fair. Falls did not get that job-perhaps for a better reason than the job was already taken.))
Reports now indicate Jason Falls is trying to get the Director’s job at the LeGrand Center. An $80,000+ job just vacated by the retirement of Commissioner Eddie Holbrook’s wife. Which seems to be more political incest on top of the original political incest. Just the kind of position that would fit in with Jason Falls’ record and MO. However. the LeGrand Center has always lost money and under a Jason Falls leadership (lack of) it would most likely continue to lose even more taxpayer dollars.
But, this is an Election year and the Three incumbent commissioners, Eddie Holbrook, Ronnie Whetstine and Doug Bridges are up for re-election-all three signed up Monday at the Board of Elections. Also, a new President at Cleveland Community College would most certainly NOT want to hire a political scandal and a proven poor money manager such as Jason Falls into his or her team right off the bat. Same with the CCC Board of Trustees, especially those running for public office.
All in all, former Commissioner Jason Falls has left enough of his mark on Cleveland County government. Falls short duty as County Manager and his otherwise un-necessary resignation from the Commissioner office and the CCC BoT indicate secret problems that nobody is talking about. An obvious “cloud” over his head that should warn us all that something is amiss. Also an indication that with Jason Falls presently out of office and out of favor, that is exactly where he should stay. Gone now and Gone forever from Cleveland County governmental service and employment. JMO
Editor’s Note: Jason Falls was in the middle of all this but couldn’t do all the monkey business all by himself. Remember, this is an election year and there are three incumbent commissioners already signed up to run. Make this a campaign issue for them.