There is no way i will vote for Byrne. His nutty record and controversial ideas the first time around were enough. And those of you who fault Mr. Lee for supporting TSPLOST,remember Byrne was for the railway to nowhere between Cumberland and Town Center Malls and the train to Chattanooga.

As an observer of Byrne over the years here is the reasons I oppose him for Commissioner based on his last disasterous go round:

• He persuaded the Cobb Commission to shoehorn the Bedminster composting plant that featured questionable technology onto County Services Parkway. It wound up spewing noxious fumes into nearby neighborhoods.

After first pretending the odor problem didn’t exist, he turned on the plant’s operators, describing them as “stupid people doing stupid things.”

• Advocated a mega-billion dollar, high-speed “bullet” train between Atlanta and Chattanooga that would have done nothing to alleviate Cobb’s chronic traffic woes.

• Wanted Cobb voters to tax themselves to build a mall-to-mall rail line linking the two big malls in the I-75 corridor. That proposal would have done nothing to help traffic, either.

• Used county money to set up the county-controlled cable TV station on which he served up heapin’ helpings of Bill Byrne and his agenda.

• Helped persuade the board of commissioners to pass a resolution assailing “gay lifestyles,” a move that gave Cobb a worldwide black eye and cost it the chance to capitalize on the 1996 Olympic Games.

• Reneged on promises to Marietta voters to build a badly needed overpass on Tower Road and to widen Atlanta Road.

• Advocated allowing joint commercial-military use of the runway at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta. That would make air travel more convenient for those on Atlanta’s north side, but would do for Cobb’s home values what New York City’s LaGuardia Airport has done for home values in Queens.

• Failed to see a clear conflict of interest when he bought a Polk County horse farm on sweetheart terms from John Moore, one of Cobb’s most high-profile zoning lawyers. (Byrne and the commission had final say on county zoning matters.)

• Decided to swap a county parking lot across the street from the courthouse — and adjacent to Moore’s office — for a more distant, less useful lot owned by Moore.

• Employed secretive methods more suitable for a CIA director than for the head of a suburban government. At one point, the commission had spent more time meeting behind closed doors over a period of years than in open session.

No one wants commission meetings that are filled with rancor, but neither did they want meetings where all important business is worked out beforehand out of the public eye.

• Put the wife of his former campaign manager on the county payroll as an “interior decorator.” Most counties brag of how many police or firemen or teachers they have on the public payroll. Thanks to Byrne, Cobb was the only county in Georgia that had its own tax-funded interior decorator.

And it goes on and on.

Either Savage or Boyce would beat what we wound up with. What a mess! Neither Byrnes nor Lee need to be Chairman of the Board of commissioners. In fact, they don't even need to be in public office.

You may be right Joe. Mr. Savage's, doomed from the start campaign, may have siphoned votes away from both Boyce and Byrne.

I voted for Boyce.

None of the other three, for various reasons, gave me any confidence that they had the integrity and judgement to do a good job as Chairman.

Now, as you say, it is down to the "lesser of two evils" as it always seems to be in political contests.

I can tell you who I did NOT vote for when I voted early on Wednesday.

LEEBAMA

Like Lee or not, based on his political decisions, but there is not one evil inch in this good man's nature. And, for sure, he does not spout of evil, or threats of what he will do to those who disagree with him on the political front. Do no try to convince people who KNOW the man, otherwise!

Lee loves NEW Taxes!

He will raise Taxes again!

Don't worry, the voters of Cobb will never put Byrne in any responsible governmental posion again, I doubt he could get elected to dog cather given his previous record.

Larry Savage is probably the smartest and most informed of the candidates running for Chairman. He actually took the time to attend many commission meetings over the years, countless citizen oversight meetings and has really studied the facts. I believe that if Mr. Boyce had not come on the scene so late and so ill informed, that Mr. Savage would be in this run off. Boyce's should shrug and "really come on" statements have little value. Savage got to know the facts and based his opinions on the data. Thank you Mr. Savage for having run a good and honest campaign and for putting 100% into it. You deserve our thanks!