Editorial
Commission, voters
should tell Cearley ‘no!’
TRADITIONALLY, WE don’t make endorsements in local elections. But we’re making an exception to that policy in the current election to ask voters to defeat Neal Cearley.
Randall County Constable Neal Cearley needs to count his lucky stars and hang it up for the season.
Cearley, with the help of Canyon attorney Chuck Hester, sued Randall County Commissioners and "persuaded" them to give him a salary of $24,500 a year. That’s quite an increase from the $1 a year he had been paid for this long-dormant position.
Cearley has followed in the steps pioneered by Jim Kiper, who got elected to an inactive justice of the peace precinct and then proceeded to demand a salary from the Randall County Commission. When they didn’t cooperate with his financial demands, Kiper hired Hester to sue the county on his behalf.
And in case you don’t know the rest of the story, county commissioners paid Kiper $100,000 to~op the suit and resign from his inactive position.
Commissioners (Gene Parker, Craig Gualtiere and Skip Huskey voted for the settlement, Brian Barrett and Ted Wood opposed it) should not have settled the suit with Kiper and they shouldn’t bend to Cearley’s demainds either.
They set a ridiculous precedent for the likes of Cearley and others who may want to activate jobs that aren’t needed and charge the taxpayers an inordinate amount of money to get rid of them.
Though what they are doing may be legal, Kiper and Cearley are taking advantage of Randall County taxpayers because they can.
It’s a shame and we encourage commissioners to hold their position in this matter. We’d like to see them cut Cearley ‘s salary back to the $1 a year. Let Cearley and his attorney waste their time and resources pursuing this grab at taxpayer pocket books.
And come March 14, Randall voters will have an opportunity to send a message to Cearley. In the Constable Precinct 4 race, please vote for Jeff Lester or Tate Williams who are running against Cearley. Both Williams and Lester have said they will keep the office inactive if they are elected to the position.
By the same token, we ask Randall voters to support Werner Talley in the race for Precinct I Constable. He has vowed to keep the position inactive while his opponent, Barry Davis, says that he wants an active position and a salary to go with it.