Lawsuit filed against Wilcox County Commission…again

Impact Wilcox, a concerned group of citizens working for accountability in Wilcox County government held a rally in front of the Wilcox County Courthouse to detail the evidence of corruption against the Wilcox County Commission.
Impact Wilcox, a concerned group of citizens working for accountability in Wilcox County government held a rally in front of the Wilcox County Courthouse to detail the evidence of corruption against the Wilcox County Commission.

Last Thursday, all residents of Wilcox County along with members of the media were invited to gather at the courthouse square for a rally publicly detailing the evidence of alleged corruption against the Wilcox County Commission.

A lawsuit has been filed against the commission by attorney, Edward F. Tracy, with Southern Legal Group, P.C. on behalf of an organized group of concerned citizens, Impact Wilcox.

Impact Wilcox is working for accountability in Wilcox County government. The lawsuit comes after repeated attempts to obtain public records from the commission have been ignored, refused and denied.

The most current audit report issued by the Alabama Board of Public Examiners was for the year ending Sept. 30, 2012. It exposed a pattern of misuse of public funds and commissioners using their public offices for personal gain.

And this didn’t just start.

Unresolved prior findings prove the patterns are longstanding.

Findings like…transferring $153,700 from the Special Capital Fund to the Gasoline Tax Fund in order to cover payroll and hiring practices that include creating positions.

There are commissioners who are receiving water and garbage services without making payments, who haven’t made payments for years, and commissioners who use their county-issued vehicles for their personal vehicles.

Amanda Walker
Amanda Walker

Some of these same commissions are also using county-issued gas for personal use too.

Chairman Michael Saulsberry filled up 20 times in March 2011. He would had to have driven almost 18 hours a day, every day that month, to use that kind of gas. It would have been the equivalent of starting at 6 a.m. every morning and driving until almost midnight.

And yet onward he drives the Wilcox County Commission, as they purchase land without appraisals, some without any vote from the commission through a “discretionary fund.”

It is clear why the Wilcox County Commission is not willingly releasing their public records. The corruption is extreme. It is documented.

It is understandable why people are gathered at the courthouse square and lawsuits are being filed.

People are hopeful, yet somewhat doubtful, anything will correct the pattern of corruption. After the rally, person after person kept saying how they have seen proof year after year but nothing ever changes.

One problem is that the “voting them out” method does not work because the voting process in Wilcox County is also corrupt.

We have an excess of absentee ballots. So many that the absentee ballots will sometimes swing elections.

We have far too many dead people and felons who vote in Wilcox County. But that’s another column for another day.

Amanda Walker is a columnist with The West Alabama Watchman, AL.com, and the Wilcox Progressive Era. Follow her at https://www.facebook.com/AmandaWalker.Columnist.