Tea Party Split over Drones – Gilmer

When it was announced in the March regular called Gilmer Board of Commissioners meeting that the airport advisory board had approved the use of the airport to test drones it raised the eyebrows of some Tea Party members.Coming on the heels of US Attorney General Eric Holder saying that drones could legally be used on US citizens, the tea party has been very concerned about illegal search and seizure. What upset some members the most is that the Chairman and Vice Chair of the airport advisory is Paul Layman and Jack Smith. How could they vote to approve drone testing? They are active members of the Tea Party.

Early in March the airport advisory board was approached by Mike Kennedy, CEO of UNEQ Consulting, concerning the use of the Gilmer County airport to do drone instrument testing. The testing is for Georgia Tech Research Institute. Gilmer would be one of eight Georgia area sites.

On February 1st 2012 Congress passed HR 658 FFA Modernization and Reform Act. This would set up six US regional sites. They approved 63.4 billion dollars for this project. The testing and research is to integrate unmanned and manned aircraft into the same airspace. At this time there are no clear rules on the use of airspace for drones. According to the law the drones must be integrated into airspace by October 1st 2015.

Mr. Kennedy explained that the testing was for civilian use only with nothing being recorded. Stating they need Gilmer’s mountainous terrain and large body of water- Carters Lake. Kennedy claims they would not fly over densely populated areas. The county would receive $500 per day on days the airport was used. The testing could be three days every couple of months for a couple of years.

Jack Smith voted yes to drones in Gilmer County. When it was presented to the BOC Smith showed his full support for the drone testing at Gilmer County Airport. After the meeting the word started to make its way through the Tea Party regarding Smith’s support of drone testing.

First for those of you who don’t know Jack Smith here is a little background. Smith is known as a leader in the Tea Party movement serving as the communication and publicity director of the Gilmer County Tea Party. He serves on several Tea Party committees, Georgia legislation, Nullification, Constitution and County Commission. Smith also is known for sending daily emails concerning constitutional matters. Smith worked to defeat the TSPLOST. Smith has made several presentations concerning Agenda 21. He traveled to Wisconsin in the famous Scott Walker recall election and went door to door in support of Walker and against the unions.

That’s why Tea Party members could not believe Smith was in support of drones in Gilmer County. With a special called BOC meeting coming many members tried to appeal to Smith by email to change his mind and not support drones. FYN obtained an E-mail Smith copied to several of his fellow Tea Party members,

“First, I don’t think I made a mistake. I evaluated the information provided, questioned the presenters, and after considering the information I had available, I made my decision to support the project presented to us by the Georgia Tech representative and the consulting group. The assurances we received met my concerns, so I did lend my support to the project.”

Several Tea Party members showed up Friday morning to protest to the BOC regarding the use of drones in Gilmer County. The Tea Party lines were drawn with Joene DePlancke, Charlie Paris and Frank Oglesby in opposition and Paul Layman, Jack Smith and Jerry Tuso in support of the testing.

When the meeting started Smith maintained his position in favor of the testing but as he heard comments around the room you could start to see a change.

Commissioner Bell explained how Kennedy told him that 23 states were excluded from being selected because they had laws that prohibited drones to be used for warrantless searches. Bell wanted to know from Kennedy if they did not plan to do research for warrantless searches then why did it disqualify twenty three other states. This was the main reason for Bell’s no vote.

Frank Oglesby asked,

“Have you seen anything yet that the federal government has done that you’re truly impressed with?”

He went on to say,

“you see the people in this room, it happened in two days, give me a week and I’ll find you three hundred people to fill a room, just tell them no we don’t want them here.”

Charlie Paris stood after hearing several times that if they don’t do it here then they will do it somewhere. Let them do it somewhere else. It is time to stand up. If we don’t do it here that they will do it somewhere else was not a good reason to approve this. The majority of the citizens can’t make a 9 a.m. meeting. Paris said he was for sure that the majority of the citizens would be against this if they knew what was going on. Paris suggested a town hall meeting allowing the citizens a chance to hear what was going on.

Joene DePlancke, a real estate agent, said that most of her customers expressed when looking for property or a house how important privacy was to their decision. It was when DePlancke made reference to the six regions of interest of the FAA went along with the agenda 21 regions that a noticeable change came from Smith.

Smith had what could be described as a John Kerry moment. You know -He was for it before he was against it! Smith told commissioners that after hearing the concerns of fellow citizens that he wanted to be perfectly clear that he did not support anything that would violate anyone’s constitutional rights. He went on to tell the commissioners if they felt that this would in any way violate someone’s constitutional rights that they were obligated to vote no. Not twenty four hour before Smith had heard the same arguments to only say he had not made a mistake.
How will Smith address this at Tuesday’s Tea party meeting?

One could only respect the fact that Paul Layman never changed his statement of support. Layman was proud that the FAA chose Gilmer County for this testing.

“This is strictly a testing process.”

Layman made a gun reference to explain his decision on the testing,

“It’s not the gun that’s the problem it’s the people using them.”

He said the drones were a tool and if the tool was used properly they could have a positive effect. We need to do something about the people using the drones. That is where our problem is. Layman is an active member of the Tea Party.

The meeting ended with Tea Party BOC Committee member, Jerry Tuso, using his negotiation skills. Tuso is a vice president of PATCO union and a professional union negotiator. He said he had listened to the meeting and nothing gets accomplished with Mob rule. That was not a way to do the business of the county and that they could not hold a town hall meeting to make every decision. He went on to say that the majority were not always correct. Tuso was obviously in favor of the drone testing.

How will the Tea Party handle this disagreement on drone testing?

Vice President for Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) – Having been no other nominations for this Office, Mr. Jerry Tuso is hereby re-elected by acclamation for a new three-year term to commence on January 1, 2010.