Thomasson fires at Scheffel

The Inside Edge late yesterday received a reply from Robert Thomasson, the Elbert County Commissioner (Democrat) candidate whose complaints about Elbert County Attorney Mark Scheffel (Republican) we detailed in yesterday's story.

In response to our request from him for more information, Thomasson made some vaguely worded charges about "unexplained and perhaps unnecessary legal expenses" that Scheffel billed Elbert County for.

OK, no smoking gun, but certainly worth following up on, which we will do.

Perhaps the most serious charge made by Thomasson in his email missive to us is that Scheffel has allegedly violated the terms of 2004 settlement agreement which was supposed to govern open records requests for Elbert County.

"I was told by a local attorney," writes Thomasson "that he had prevailed [in] a contested open records case with the county in 2004.  As a part of the settlement, that attorney, Ric Morgan, drew up a set of guidelines for open records for Elbert County which Scheffel was supposed to implement.  To my knowledge and to Attorney Morgan's knowledge, it never was."

If indeed that agreement exists and has not been implemented it could cost Elbert County some coin.  On the other hand, Morgan apparently has some legal standing, so why doesn't he just ask the court to enforce the terms of the settlement agreement? That should be a fairly easy thing to do.

So thus far, Thomasson's charges against Scheffel while serious are nothing very specific in our opinion as Thomasson himself admits.

"So, have they answered any question to my satisfaction" asks Thomasson regarding the BOCC and Scheffel. "No.  Is there malfeasance involved?  Not that I can verify first hand, which is the standard by which I operate.  Does it have the appearance of wrong-doing? In so many ways, but that is not enough.  There is no active press in Elbert willing to challenge these wrongdoings.  I have been doing this citizen advocacy work for four years, but the D.A. will do nothing without the facts in hand."

Nor should they, Mr. Thomasson.

In that regard we've made a request with the Elbert County BOCC and Mark Scheffel's office for facts surrounding these allegations.

So, now we wait.