I went from living in a fairly liberal section to one that is severely conservative.
I wasn’t used to seeing a county commission board block so many initiatives and building requests from anyone who wasn’t an ultra-rich insider.
I visited a county commission meeting for a story assignment while I was still working at the local newspaper. It was supposed to be an uneventful meeting, and for the most part it was. But I’ll never forget when this woman presented her plea to build a storage facility she planned to erect near the highway. She kept getting blocked by the county commissioners, and apparently this was her sixth attempt at acquiescing to their demands just so she could get approval to begin building. She was crying, saying how she was running out of money had done everything they asked. With a chilly look on all of their faces, they rejected the women’s pleas for a sixth time. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, this woman was sobbing as she left the room with her hubby, and the commissioners were completely silent. When I heard they were in hot water for illegally blocking cannabis dispensaries from offering home delivery to medical marijuana patients, I was relieved. The governor is a liberal and had heard information from a whistleblower regarding the county’s attempts at preventing cannabis dispensaries from expanding into offering delivery services. After a back and forth fight, they eventually conceded. I was happy, both excited for the medical marijuana patients as well as relieved to see those monsters put in their site.