With big Escambia County commission meeting on Thursday, the word of the week will be “trust.” How do the commissioners rebuild public trust in county government after the revelations that its county administrator has had private business dealings with developers, planning board members, commissioners and county contractors.
I’m not sure George Touart or his friends and supporters get it. The public is tried of the good old boy business as usual. They have seen their county government balloon and their taxes skyrocket. Meanwhile George has done very well for himself – buying condos along the Gulf Coast, investing in land deals and leasing employees to one of the top disaster recovery companies in the country.
We Americans appreciate entrepreneurship – I’m just not sure we expect in our county administrators.