The trucks are gone now. But we had to spend a lot of time (2+ years) getting the county to do the right thing. Do you want to know why? Because Mr. Touart and the current administrator, McLaughlin, were helping them at every turn! Showing them how they could avoid taking out a Borrow Pit (clay pit) permit like most contractors would have had to do. Talk to a contractor you trust and ask them if THEY would have gotten that treatment. The ones we have talked to just laugh and shake their heads.

The lot that Roads Inc. bought was not zoned for a Borrow Pit. They would have had to appealed at a Board of Adjustment hearing, with public input, to get special permission. With the limited access to their property they probably knew that they wouldn’t get approved. So they went with the Catfish Pond story. Mr. Touart had his hand in this from the beginning telling the neighbors that they needed no permits (while secretly having a ’stormwater permit’ issued after the complaints were lodged.) Believe me, I have heard it from the staff that they knew who was keeping this from being stopped…Candidate Touart. Ask his former county attorney what the problem was.

I do not oppose legal development and I am not just a NIMBY poster. I have binders full of information. I just don’t want people to **forget** that however many times Mr. Touart wants to spin his past “public perception” woes, there were MANY other problems besides the several ethics complaints that were dismissed for lack of evidence. The ethics investigations seem to be joke around here anyway.

I received a rude awakening when I familiarized myself with our county government and I determined that I would at least stand up and speak about the things that I know personally. Mr. Touart needs to stay retired. And the Code Enforcement department that he and Mr. McLaughlin have cultivated needs to be cleaned up and reorganized. I also am not a fan of the current administrator, as you can tell. Your mileage may vary.

You would think that we, the people of Escambia County, were stupid or something. It is just a public “perception” problem. It’s all our fault for misunderstanding. He thinks he did nothing wrong.

Wait until the candidate forums, when Touart can not control the interview.

No second helpings of THAT, please!!

(Just ’cause you didn’t get criminally charged with stuff, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, by the way. The Ethics board must really like you …)