Editor,

While driving north to Oak Harbor I almost had whiplash. Georgia Gardner for hospital board.

That name rings a very bad bell.

A few years ago I went into a county board of equalization hearing where she was chairwoman. I owned a non-perk lot in Holmes Harbor Estates that cost me $300 and whose only purpose was to gain access to a boat ramp. One day the county re-evaluated it to about $75,000.

Investigating, I discovered that the county, while moving, had lost the paperwork certifying its non perk, and so required me to perk it again which would cost over $1,000 or pay a tax on an additional $70,000.

County officials admitted it was their error and apologized, but said their hands were tied. Their new evaluation was over ten times what any non-perk lot had sold for in the subdivision within the last 10 years.

Long story short, at the hearing, I was only one of about a dozen citizens questioning this action. But it was like talking to a brick wall. Two members of the board actually raised their hands and began to take our side, but Chairwoman Gardner rudely cut them off and bullied them into silence.

In a lifetime of attending public meetings, I’ve never seen a worse chairperson.

I refused to pay their ridiculous assessment and they took my land.

Now, I figure government incompetence is routine, but I can’t stomach the idea that people who abuse power should be given more of it. I wouldn’t vote for Georgia Gardner for rat catcher.

THOM GUNN

Greenbank