DEAR EDITOR:

I received a very curious email response from Cobb Commissioner Helen Goreham telling me that she will vote NO on the IMAGE ordinance for contactors.

I am very concerned about our leadership on the commission. Helen Goreham doesn’t seem to realize that the IMAGE ordinance is only aimed at protecting jobs for legal workers and has nothing to do with “American citizens” as she wrote to me. Goreham also apparently thinks that the ordinance would affect all businesses in Cobb County when in reality, only businesses that want to bid on county projects paid for by taxpayers would be required to pledge they have applied to become IMAGE certified and that certification isn’t required to bid or work.

In her email to me, Goreham makes it clear that she thinks Cobb County has finished the IMAGE certification process. That is not true. The federal IMAGE website shows the employers that are certified. Cobb has only applied. I watched the video of Tim Lee signing the IMAGE application in the Cobb BOC meeting last May. He boasted of the wisdom of using the IMAGE system to protect jobs. Goreham voted for IMAGE then. As of last month, she was all for having Cobb contractors take the same precautions. Lee promised in writing that he would pass this ordinance before he said he would vote NO.

Goreham refers to checking ID of workers on public works projects as “punitive” and “heavy-handed.” I wonder if she feels the same about checking ID when we vote next year.

She has great deal of trouble with the facts on the IMAGE ordinance. I think she should be required to stay out of the ordinance vote until she becomes aware of the reality of this important, job-saving change in Cobb law. I find Helen Goreham’s lack of accuracy and Tim Lee’s broken campaign promise very alarming. Flip-flopping to please the business lobby isn’t good or honest government. Do they really think we can’t see them? Or that we will forget?

Jan Barton

Marietta