A week or so ago, Ms. Niles and her attorney, County Mayor Buddy Bradshaw and his attorney met with a mediation attorney in an attempt to reach an agreement to prevent further litigation by Ms. Niles. The agreement would have provided Ms. Niles a one year increase in her budgets of approximately $180,000.00 to $230,000.00 depending on new hires taking county insurance.

Mayor Bradshaw's attorney, Joe Ford, presented the proposed agreement to commissioners. After much discussion, commission chairman Steve Harrelson ask the commission if anyone wanted to make a motion to accept the agreement. Ultimately, no commissioner made a motion to accept the agreement.

It's all up to Ms. Niles at this point. She can either continue her legal action against the tax payers or she can take the message from the commissioners who represent those tax payers and end this ridiculous waste of tax dollars.

As I've reported before, if Ms. Niles does continue her law suit and if she does ultimately win in court, commission would have no option but to raise property taxes substantially to meet her demands.

I haven't had a single constituent tell me we should give her any additional funding, quiet the contrary. Hopefully, the tax payers will let Ms. Niles know how they feel about her actions. If she doesn't listen now, they'll have another chance in the 2018 election.