Janet Barek is setting her tone

She’s going to drive them batty.

I can see it already. We’re just a few meetings into Commissioner Janet Barek’s term, and her colleagues are exasperated.

During Tuesday’s board meeting, when Janet stated her numerous objections to the county buying Pirates Cove, other commissioners suggested she hasn’t grasped this job quite yet.

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They told her to think outside her own district. They said she should speak to a wide range of citizens before reaching an opinion. Commissioner Diana Finegan, in particular, wanted to school Janet on the dos and don’ts.

“It’s not appropriate to pitch another idea on the fly without any research,” says the commissioner who brought us a border resolution that hadn’t been vetted.

Look. I’m not trying to tell commissioners how to conduct their business (ha!) but getting Janet Barek to conform is a losing proposition.

Plus, it’s not their place. Let’s talk about it.

We all awoke the day after the primary awash in big victories for sheriff and superintendent of schools. Almost lost in all that was Janet Barek’s shocking win over Ruthie Davis Schlabach.

Janet’s platform was so simple that I can’t describe it. She was more than just an anti-this, anti-that candidate. Janet projected herself as a citizen expert, having attended board meetings for many years and speaking opinions on numerous matters.

Quite often, commissioners told citizen Janet she was wrong. Incorrect. Her facts were either misleading or spoken out of context. It’s safe to say commissioners didn’t think too highly of citizen Janet’s opinions.

Now she’s one of them. Why voters went that route is immaterial. The impact is immediate.

Several people last week sent me links to the Chronicle story about Hurricane Helene flood victims receiving letters from the county informing them FEMA guidelines required they rebuild their homes to federal standards.

The newspaper asked commissioners their thoughts, and Janet had many. One made the headlines — “That’s their problem.” 

Some folks were outraged that a commissioner would be so insensitive. To those people, I say welcome to Commissioner Barek. She’s a 75-year-old great-grandma who has little care or interest in what people think about her.

Janet is blunt. Get used to it. Her “that’s their problem” remark may be caustic, but many folks east of U.S. 19 feel the same way.

Commissioners got on her case Tuesday when she said everyone she’s spoken with opposes the Pirates Cove plan. Are her colleagues so arrogant to believe that Commissioner Barek hasn’t done the same homework for Pirates Cove that they did? Are they suggesting their networking with constituents is better than hers?

I’m reminded of the late great Commissioner Dennis Damato, who taught me a lesson about constituency that I’ll never forget. When then-Commissioner Scott Adams was creating havoc and his colleagues called for his head, Damato declined to join the fray.

His reasoning: Adams’ constituents wanted him to conduct himself in a certain way, and that’s exactly what he was doing. Damato said it wasn’t his job to tell another commissioner how to behave.

This group should consider that advice. Citizen Janet barked at commissioners every two weeks for eight years, and now they want to tell Commissioner Barek how to do the job? Think again.

She is already making people nuts with questions that go down a rabbit hole and seem to have no logic. I haven’t checked her emails yet, so I don’t know what kind of interaction she’s having with staff and the public.

Janet’s going to end up on the wrong end of a lot of 4-1 and 3-2 votes. I heard Commissioner Jeff Kinnard, sitting to her left, say more than once: “Commissioner Barek, I couldn’t disagree with you more.” Finding two other votes on contentious issues for her will be a challenge.

That may change over time, but you’re not going to see this commissioner forging new paths.

That’s it for today. Have a wonderful Thursday, friends.

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