NAHUNTA — “I’m not going anywhere. You’re gonna have to take me out in handcuffs. I know my constitutional rights.”
Brantley County resident Tanya Tomanek spoke those words to Brantley County Deputy Dewayne Whisenant when he stepped forward after Tomanek dropped and fbomb drawing the ire of commissioners at the Tuesday, July 7 Brantley County Commission work session during Public Participation.
The fifth of nine who would eventually speak, Tomanek was just over three minutes into her fiveminute alloted time when she blurted, “Our county is going f-ing bankrupt. No, we are going bankrupt, y’all. If we don’t start managing our business better, we are going to go bankrupt. We are in this situation because of us going ...”
That’s when Dep. Whisenant, who was joined by Brantley County Investigator Mark Stone in monitoring the meeting, stepped to the podium while reaching for his handcuffs.
“The Constitution supersedes any state, any state law and rule,” stated Tomanek. “Skipper (Harris, Chairman), I did not hear you say anything about taking me out of here. This is your meeting. You stand up and say something. It’s your job to run this meeting.
“It’s your job, and this will be a lawsuit. Another one just stacked up. You guys, you guys are running this county into the ground, and, like I said, it’s our fault.
“My God ... you’ve heard worse. I was asked once, and they (Whisenant) come up to me. I said no other curse word other than that. Play the tape back. In fact, it’s in our codifications about telling us we’re not allowed to swear.
“It’s fine. This is how they (commissioners) play the game. Well, they don’t like hearing. My daughter will get that (papers). Please don’t touch my face (to Whisenant). My daughter will get that. Please don’t touch my face. Congratulations. What the hell is wrong?” As Tomanek was being escorted out, some of the nearly 30 in attendance began yelling, “Shame ... shame” to commissioners, Whisenant and Stone with Harris banging the gavel for order.
The charge of Criminal Trespass was assessed to Tomanek, who was taken to the Brantley County Jail for booking. She was given a bond Friday, July 10 and released.
The Tuesday proceedings had a profound effect for the Thursday, July 9 regular meeting with law enforcement presence at the Commissioner’s office. There were nine deputies, including Sheriff Len Davis, present after posts on Facebook asked for protestors.
Prior to the disruption, Tomanek opened talking about the employee handbook, “also known as the codifications, the rules, how we run our county here, also our business. We are all equal owners in this business. We have to know what the rules are, and that goes to every one of us (in attendance).”
Tomanek said she and a “couple other people” were “going to learn the rules, and we are going to hold our employees to account.”
She questioned the sheet for the agenda stating it was not printed correctly with the first three lines only reading “Call Meeting to Order”, “Invocation & Pledge to Flag” and “Approve Agenda”.
“How many are there supposed to be?,” asked Tomanek of the lines of information. “Do we do the minutes? Do we do new business, old business? Have we done any of that? Not following the rules, Skipper, that’s your job ... that is your job.
“We hired and elected you to be our collective voice. It’s our fault for not knowing the rules, but no more. I expect results, not excuses” Below the first three lines listed “Public Participation” with the names of 11, nine of which spoke. At the end of the list was a line for “Public Participation: Agenda Items Only.”
No one took the opportunity to speak.
The “Agenda” followed with a list of 16 items. The 17th was “Adjournment”.
Tomanek questioned the relevance of the county having two newspapers with each having errors on dates and times of meetings confusing everyone in the community.
The meeting was then thrown into chaos with her outburst of the county “going f-ing bankrupt,” before order was restored with four more speakers.
