Incumbent Athens County Commissioner Charlie Adkins won 64% of the unofficial vote tally on Nov. 5, handily defeating challenger Jon Rose. Not satisfied with his victory, however, Adkins held a post-election press conference Tuesday morning to lash out at the news media for its pre-election coverage.
In his Tuesday morning press conference, Adkins pushed back against statements that Rose made at his own Oct. 24 press conference about what he termed the commissioners’ “mismanagement” of Athens County Emergency Medical Services.
“I hope the media does a better job of looking into these issues,” he said.
I guess Adkins missed the part of our story where we checked Rose’s claims about ACEMS paying for 911 services, obtaining a bank loan to buy ambulances, paying the county for maintenance, and low wages and high turnover.
Perhaps if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have denied that there was a bank loan (when in fact there was). Or attempted to deflect from paying EMTs an average of $15.27 per hour by grossly misrepresenting the 2023 pay for former union president Rick Trask.
Adkins’ press conference handouts included a photograph of what he said was his signature on a Rose nominating petition. Adkins said Rose wasn’t present at the time, in violation of state campaign regulations, but said he couldn’t recall if he’d mentioned that fact to county Democratic officials. He denied, however, that he’d had any part in those officials’ questioning of other signatories.
No one filed a protest against Rose’s petitions. But Adkins said he could have. He took a picture of the petition he signed, he said, “to show that if I had any intention to knock him off the ballot, I had the evidence.”
“But I didn’t want that press,” he said. “I just didn’t want my name drug into that.”
Too late, Charlie. You dragged your own name into it.
The time to rebut Rose’s claims or complain about his petitions and campaign signs (seriously?!) was two weeks ago. Waiting until after the election to speak out looks self-serving and petty, especially considering Adkins’ large margin of victory: The only thing worse than a sore loser is a sore winner.
On election night, an Athens County Independent intern approached Adkins at The Pigskin for comment on his victory. Adkins responded with a verbal tirade. So I’m guessing that when he says “news media,” he means us. And when he says “unfair coverage,” he means “insufficiently deferential to authority.”
The truth is, it’s been a long time since public officials in Athens County had any real scrutiny from the press. The Messenger and the Athens News have been defanged, and WOUB’s attention is stretched across dozens of counties.
In just two years, the Independent has brought accountability journalism back to Athens County. It hasn’t made us popular in some halls of government, but we’re not here to win Mx. Congeniality. We’re here to serve the public, not public officials.
Speaking truth to power costs money. Our story on Adkins’ press conference involved requesting and reviewing dozens of pages of public documents and multiple phone calls to various sources — to say nothing of the time in writing, editing, fact-checking and proofreading. And we do this for every story, week in and week out.
So if you haven’t yet become a member with a recurring donation, I hope you’ll consider signing up. Donations made before Jan. 1 are matched dollar-for-dollar, up to $1,000 each — including the full annual value of a monthly donation.
With your support, we can continue to annoy public officials for years to come.
