Rowland and Ehmann Orchestrate
a Coup de Theatre

BOCC Meeting, November 18, 2015 – Responding to a fantasy attack of some kind against themselves Robert Rowland and Ed Ehmann called out the dimbulb pheasants to chase the perceived boogieman (Dore and Ross) out of the village. Confusion ensued…as so often happens during bogus witchhunts.

Excitement in our quiet rural county this morning......a roomful of county employees (more than the 59 maximum allowed in the BOCC room) relocated to the fairgrounds for a recent BOCC meeting. These employees attended the meeting while on the county payroll and with their bosses in attendance.

Why the big crowd, you might ask? What could possibly generate this much interest and energy?

Let's call it a "coup" - definition: an unexpected stroke, act or move; a clever action or accomplishment. Nothing was on the agenda to indicate that staff and department heads would storm the podium in support of County Manager Ed Ehmann and County Attorney Wade Gateley.....while at the same time calling for the resignations of Commissioners Dore and Ross. But storm they did!

Apparently these county employees, again spending half a day of taxpayers' money, felt it necessary to fawn over, compliment, and flatter Gateley and Ehmann. And their bosses, who were all present as these exaggerated praises droned on for most of the morning, beamed with delight. The loyal employees, most likely fearful of losing their jobs, did their bosses proud!

The question might be asked, "No dissatisfied employees in the county? Were they also given time off to come to the meeting and voice their complaints?" Guess not.....since there didn't appear to be any in attendance. And there was clearly no place for dissension in this crowd!

As a result of the continued calls for Dore's and Ross's resignations (with only a few calling for all 3 commissioners to resign), the meeting was obviously turning into a witch hunt. Collusion, scheming and plotting were the code words of the day. What other explanation can there be for more than 30 county workers coming to the podium, most of whom were reading from prepared speeches....speeches that were all remarkably similar in content? Did they also prepare their speeches on county time? Were they coached by their bosses?

Following the Gateley/Ehmann love fest, Commissioners Rowland, Dore and Ross started the finger-pointing (at each other). Arguments ensued and one would have thought we were witnessing a middle school verbal food fight. Embarrassing doesn't begin to cover it. Voices elevated; Gateley unprofessionally scolded Dore and Ross.....and this fightin' crowd was clearly in the Gateley/Ehmann corner. All sorts of cheering, fist pumps and stand-up-sit-down-fight-fight-fight going on!

Rowland, feeling empowered because he wasn't being targeted and spouting cutesy comments about "campfires and kum-ba-yahs" at a feverish pitch, claimed he had been left out of decisions made by the other two commissioners, particularly as it related to the possible placement of the county attorney on administrative leave. Such an irony: the 3 lawsuits EC is currently involved in are ALL a direct result of Rowland refusing to pay a $1000 personal fine, yet he refuses to accept any of the blame and is now Gateley's BFF.