I have rarely been surprised by actions of elected officials, but of late, I have been dumbfounded by the actions of Democratic candidate for county commissioner Earl Fisher. Fisher has hostile feelings for any individual, who disagrees with him; he becomes instantly belligerent against any one with a difference of opinion. Fisher proved this once again when he butted his nose into a civil disagreement between Brad Witt and myself. Fisher's outburst began earlier in the meeting, only to escalate as the meeting proceeded. Fisher started his tirade off screaming at yours truly at a Democratic Central Committee meeting when Fisher made the comment that every ones vote counted in Columbia County, when I said Earl that is not completely true. Fisher ask me to give him an example.
I said, I don't think you really want me to, Fisher replied give me an example, so I said well lets see, how about the Commissioners not enforcing the Depletion Fee Ordinance? It was passed by the voters and should be enforced. Since it is not being enforced I would say that a persons vote does not count. I proceeded to explain that it does not matter if an elected official agrees with the ballot measure or not. It is their duty to carry out the voters vote. Of course Commissioner Rita Bernhard said it was poorly written, I responded with, "the County Commissioners had County Council write the ordinance in its entirety", and presented it to the voters, the voters accepted it, and now it should be carried out. I went on to say that if the county did not like the wording, simply re-write it, and present it back to the voters, and they could decide either way. Well Fisher went off on me and that exchange lasted a bit, all the time Fisher was gritting his teeth clenching his fists. I have to say that I defended my opinion with a good bit of enthusiasm.
Now, on to the heated exchange with Brad Witt, Earl Fisher and Witt's treasurer and who is also the Chairperson of the Columbia County Democratic Central Committee,
Witt, his treasurer and Earl Fisher, accused me of making false accusations against Witt and his political contributions as political coordinator, (Witt denied that he was a Political Coordinator), to Republican Tony Hyde who is running against their own party's candidate Pat Zimmerman. If they had read the article in its entirety instead of the first short paragraph they would have understood what I wrote. Usually when a person reads a story or information you read the entirety of the information to get the full meaning, I guess this was not the case with these people.
Instead they had their sights set on attacking me, by picking a sentence here and there omitting words, totally misrepresenting my thoughts expressed in my article.
Witt and I were involved in a difference of opinion when crazy Earl jumped in and started screaming at me, calling me a liar, demanding that I admit that I was a liar and apologize to Witt, I replied that I was not a liar, I had my facts, and I stood by my letter, and I would not apologize. Fisher lost complete control of his emotions, his uncontrollable outburst was certainly a hideous sight to witness. As the exchange between Brad and I went on, another CCDCC person said Brad you are a political coordinator, Fisher screamed at this individual you do not know what a political coordinator is, the person said, yes I do, I happen to be one at my union and you know that Earl, and so do you Brad. Earl then went off again, and said yeah, and we know what you say at those meetings.
Well it finally came out, the reason that Earl Fisher is so hateful towards me and my husband, who happens to be a Political Coordinator for a different union. It all goes back to the primary campaign between Joe Corsiglia and Earl Fisher. Earl is angry because my husband threw his support to Joe Corsiglia and was instrumental in convincing the Building Trades to support a real union man, Joe Corsiglia, a man who actually belonged to a union, and not a non-union man Earl Fisher.  Get over it Earl.  You did win the primary, even if you won it by launching a dirty rotten, lie filled campaign. If you win the general election Earl, I will question your opinions and decisions, when I find it necessary. Remember you would be working for all citizens in the county and that includes me.
Remember I may not agree with the outcome of an election but unlike you Earl, I will support my fellow voters vote, no matter how nasty the taste is in my mouth when I have to converse with you.
The only thing that I will warn the citizens about, is when they disagree with you on an issue, they need to be prepared for a verbal assault, from a man who has uncontrollable anger, cruel expressions on his face, a cantankerous confrontational persona, and clenched shaking fists.  In my opinion, Earl is more of a tyrant than a possible elected official.
I will continue to stand on my article concerning Brad Witt and hope that you will take a minute to go to the link provided in the letters section of the update to see for your selves the information that Brad Witt supplied admitting that he is a Political Coordinator.
When you do, I think the debate will be closed.