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Thursday, December 20, 2007
It’s good to be governor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Was it the need for new blood or Gov. Sonny Perdue enjoying a bit of blood sport?
Either way, developer Wade Shealy Jr. has been tossed from the Georgia Land Conservation Council, an organization that distributes state grants and loans to preserve forests, farms and other undeveloped land, according to our colleague Stacy Shelton.
“I guess I’m not enough of a ‘yes’ man for him,” Shealy said of Perdue.
Shealy’s offense last month was to question whether the council he helped found had become a rubber stamp for the governor. Why else, he asked, would the board hold a special meeting to quickly approve a $30 million land purchase by the state that Perdue had already decided to announce a few hours later?
“If this is a meaningful council and our endorsement does make a difference, it looks like we’d have more input,” Shealy said at the meeting. “I’ve got other stuff I need to be doing.”
Of course, it didn’t help that Shealy had just sued the Jekyll Island Authority for hiring someone other than Shealy’s firm to handle the $352 million development of that land Perdue was buying.
“The governor is acting in good faith,” Mike Beatty, the commissioner of Community Affairs and a Perdue appointee to the council, told Shealy.
If Shealy’s so over-scheduled, Beatty said, maybe the governor could help.
Five days later, Shealy, a citizen member of the council with no fixed term, got a pleasantly worded letter from Perdue. It said Shealy’s term now has an expiration date: Dec. 31.
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