…….I think everyone fears a return to the “Good Old Boys” way of Government. The Open Meeting Law included in the Ethics Act, passed in the mid-nineties, was thought to be a major step in preventing deals being done in executive sessions without the watchful eye of the media.
……. The Legislature now wants to set its own rules (and I’m hear to tell you that’s where 90% of the Good Old Boys” reside and I’m including their female counterparts as well.)
…….We’ve also made it more expensive to request documents under the FOIA (freedom of Information act). Not only has the cost of copying documents increased, governmental agencies are permitted to charge for the labor in gathering and copying those documents. Cost has a chilling effect on a small publication and makes one hesitate and think “Will I find what I’m looking for or am I just throwing money away?”
……..I’m a Good Old Boys, second-generation expert and I’m here to tell you that the Ethics Act barely put a dent in the back room deals. You just can’t keep a good old boy down. How do I know?
…….Well, when LIFE Magazine came out with an extensive article entitled “GOOD OLD BOY JUSTICE ” in the July 7, 1972 edition, the county was all a dither.
…….The article was kind of an expose about a small town Justice of the Peace with far reaching power and a way of metering out justice that was foreign to his big city counterparts. In addition to being a Justice of the Peace, the subject of the article was City Judge and County Coroner. He was Red Cross Chairman and one of three guys in charge of moving people out in the event of floods in the “small river hugging town.” He owned several small businesses including an insurance agency and a finance company. He was according to the author, Donald Dale Jackson, the epitome of the “good old boy”
……The Good Old Boy being held up as an example was John D. Herron and he was not only my Dad, he was my hero and that small town wasn’t Mayberry, it was New Cumberland.
……..”Herron had the touch and feel of a successful small town politician; his warmth is carefully rationed, but his geniality is spent freely” wrote Jackson. “He has a quick and handsome smile and a reassuring manner; he knows everyone; he belongs to everything. There is a lot of the good-old-boy about Herron, and also a faint hint of some long ago riverboat. He is a man who knows the ropes, a country slicker.”
……My sister was appalled at how it portrayed my Dad. She idolized him, but put him on a pedestal. I wasn’t upset. It was an apt description as I saw it. As the curious baby sister I had tagged along as he went about his daily duties, even when it involved coroners’ cases I listened to trials sitting on the covered steps in the courtroom and I listened to the daily chatter when Court wasn’t in session. When I was 12, Dad would get me excused from school so I could go to Charleston during the legislative session as he, as President of the minor Judiciary, lobbied to preserve the very system the article condemned.
….. Dad knew the threat of extinction was coming for the Justice of the Peace system, so he contacted all the JP’s and constables in all 55 counties and he convinced them to form an association. He got them to elect him president and collect dues. Those dues funded his lobbying efforts in the legislature. The time I was able to spend at the Statehouse beginning when I was 12-years-old spawned a love of the process and an ability to spot the deals that ended up getting legislation passed that caused me to go back as a delegate.
……….. Maybe because to me calling a public official a good old boy was not necessarily an insult. I saw many things accomplished by “horse trading” like the sheriff’s succession bill for a new osteopathic medical school. It’s essential that lawmaking is transparent, but let’s not fail to factor in the human nature of the politician is to make a deal. To think that officials do not talk about the problems they face and form opinions about how they’re going to vote only in a public meeting is just……naïve.
………The politics in Hancock County and West Virginia were a little bit Andy Griffith and Barney Fife. Don’t forget that when John D. was Justice of the Peace, his son-in-law Bill Webster was his constable. And when he was City Judge, Bill Webster was Chief of Police. And, my sister Marsha was Dad’s secretary so while one picked you up for speeding, my Dad fined you and you paid Marsha on the way out. And, if you didn’t have the money to pay your fine, well, there was a Finance Company down the street that could help you out. (Dad and Edwin Flowers owned that,,too).
…….So think twice when you describe a politician as a “good-old-boy” because while their ways of getting things accomplished was somewhat unorthodox, they accomplished their goals more often than not.”
I think we’ve come a long way. ……..The one thing we often miss when we think of a “good old boy” making a deal is that the core component to make a deal is trust. If a politician gives you his/her word. That person must never break that trust or your ability to make a deal is dead. Or, as a very wise “Good Old Boy” advised me, “All you’ve got is your word. If you break your word you might as well pack it in and head for home. Nobody will ever trust you again.”
