DEAR EDITOR:

Like most mainstream Cobb voters, I support the IMAGE program for contractors. I am shocked, disappointed and more than a little concerned to learn that my west Cobb commissioner, Helen Goreham, has apparently backed up on her commitment to help prevent ID theft of taxpayer jobs. Why would we not use all tools available to us? I will be doing a lot more investigating on this and talking to my neighbors, but if I were a commissioner, this would be an easy-to-support no-brainer. At our house, we say “yes” to IMAGE for contractors!

Who is Helen listening to? Requiring contractors who do business with the county to show they have not hired any illegals costs the taxpayer nothing, but even if it did, how can we put a price on obeying the law, protecting jobs and attacking identity theft?

The federal IMAGE program involves spot-checking employers’ hiring records for use of stolen Social Security numbers and other ID. It exposes illegal workers that used the phony IDs to get a job. Most of us are still in shock over the discoveries of illegal workers helping build the new Cobb Courthouse. We wonder, has Commissioner Goreham forgotten that embarrassing chain of events?

Being that the county application to become IMAGE-certified was approved by a unanimous bipartisan vote last year, I am having a great deal of difficulty understanding Helen’s reasoning for not now taking a firm and vocal public position to support the common sense requirement that all workers on county contracts be legal.

Registering for E-Verify takes only a few minutes to complete on-line. It only verifies new hires. The IMAGE audit is the sure way to clean out all illegal workers and get our tax-funded jobs into the homes of our unemployed and working poor.

We will be watching.

Keli Gambrill

Marietta