To the editor:

I was absolutely appalled when I read Brown County Commissioner Jerry Pittman’s guest column,<a href="http://www.bcdemocrat.com/2021/04/27/guest_opinion_thoughts_on_the_proposed_septic_ordinance_update-3/"> “Thoughts on the proposed septic ordinance update,”</a> in last week’s Democrat. Initially, I thought I would let it go in one ear and out of the other, by considering the source. That is, until I received a call from a fellow Van Buren Township community member who was completely beside himself. After considerable time discussing the two separate issues of residential septic system ordinances and the Brown County Health Department’s approach to compliance with those county ordinances, I agreed to create this rebuttal.

First off, let us speak regarding the chain of command. The Brown County Commissioners are responsible for the appointment of all seven Brown County Board of Health members. Secondly, the Brown County Board of Health members are responsible for recruiting and appointing the Brown County health officer. Thirdly, the Brown County health officer is responsible for the oversight of the Brown County Health Department. Lastly, the nine Brown County Health department employees are responsible for a very broad range of community health related issues.

Sources have stated directly to me, that to the best of their knowledge, commissioner Pittman has never attended a Brown County Board of Health meeting. The 12 individuals who have graciously volunteered their time and energy by serving on the Brown County Septic Ordinance Committee have spent over 36 months and 300 hours researching, discussing and creating a collectively agreed-upon approach that will serve our county well into the future. In addition to him never attending a Brown County Board of Health meeting, my sources also informed me that over the last 36 months, commissioner Pittman has never attended any of the Brown County Septic Ordinance Committee meetings.

How then can commissioner Pittman, who is the custodian of the home rule powers of the county, make a well-informed decision of the proposed septic ordinance for Brown County when he has never ACTUALLY attended any board of health meetings, nor has he ever attended any Brown County Septic Ordinance Committee meetings? Aside from lack of attendance to the meetings, he has also never made any proactive attempts to become involved in the process over the course of the last three years.

For commissioner Pittman, who is probably unconsciously incompetent on this subject matter, to make anecdotal claims presented as truth, is doing so by leveraging his name and title as commissioner, and then to frame it in the context to personally attack an employee of the health department is conduct unbecoming of a commissioner! His responsibility is not to make decisions based on nepotism or to seek validation based on a popularity contest, but rather his decisions should be based on critical thought, objectivity, fair-mindedness, intellectual integrity and by operating from a mindset of what is the BEST for the county in the long term. My perception at this point is commissioner Pittman is operating on nepotism and tribal knowledge, and his tribe has a personal vendetta against the health department and he is on a mission of revenge. At this point, his lack of concern about the future of Brown County is evident by his behavior of hanging onto his title as commissioner to continue to supplement his Social Security income and medical benefits.

Commissioner Pittman should do the RIGHT and HONORABLE thing by submitting his resignation and allowing someone else who has the county’s best interest to take his place.
<p style="text-align: right"><strong>Jim Kemp, Van Buren Township</strong></p>