While they may have mumbled through the process, it was clear to observers; the Yadkin County Board of Commissioners lifted the county-wide hiring freeze Monday night to make way for the sheriff to hire another relative, bringing the number of those related to the sheriff living off the taxpayer’s dime to at least four.

The commissioners will defend their decision saying it was in the interest of public safety. While those are easy words to toss out, “in the interest of public safety” is a moving target to define. Its practical application can mean many things to many people.

That weak argument aside, the commissioners made it crystal clear Monday night there are two type’s of county hiring freezes, one for the sheriff’s office and one for everyone else.

That one small issue aside, the commissioners made a wise choice to not suspend the rules to allow a quick vote on whether or not to appropriate $50,000 to cover legal fees for commission members when facing potential litigation.

For us it is not a question of the money, actually $50,000 seems a bit conservative given the litigious times we live in, but the process.

For commissioners to offer resolutions that deal with the taxpayers’ money during the final portion of the meetings, which is their “comments” portion, and essentially “off the agenda,” that could allow all sorts of mischief to potentially occur with little or no warning.

Finally, the Yadkin County year ending 2009 audit findings are offered for study in today’s Ripple. It is plain there have been some problems, some minor, other less so, with the administration of the county’s books. The process to get to here, the published findings, was nearly three weeks in the works.

The folks over at the Yadkin County offices made the process easy and frankly, refreshing. When we had questions, they were answered. If they had concerns, we discussed them. It should always be that easy.

CC