My job is to make sure Susan Hammer is in the news in a positive way. I don't get paid to have my name show up in the newspaper. With Robinson gone, longtime mayoral paper-shuffler Sean Morley will be serving as Hammer's chief of staff in her final year. Casting Stones County tax assessor Larry Stone may have lost the battle to keep auditors from looking at property assessments, but the adroit pol seems to be faring well in the spin war. From a news-spin standpoint, Stone's is pure genius.
News organizations like to emphasize how a story affects their readers.
The board narrowly voted to go ahead with the comprehensive management audit by a vote of 3-2. Supervisor Pete McHugh , who ran against Stone for assessor in 1994, cast the deciding vote. Board-hired auditor Roger Mialocq apparently was very anxious to get things started. According to Stone's hatchet man, David Ginsborg , Mialocq handed Stone a typed memo just as Stone exited the board chambers after the vote. Stone insists that he welcomes a management audit but objects to the auditor examining his property assessments, the accuracy of which was reviewed by the state earlier in the yeavr.