The misuse of power, especially in the smaller communities, is more prevalent than one might think given the checks and balances that are normally in use to protect the people.
The authors are personally aware of one such case where a County Commissioner disapproved every application for a land-use asked for by an owner of a piece of property. Each potential buyer had his land-use application denied for the property and not long after the owner gave up the County Commissioner and his family bought the property for a much-lower price than its true value.
The ability to tax, approve and disapprove land-use applications and to apply Code Compliances readily lends itself to small governments' misuse of authority.
The following narrative is of two fictitious small towns whose municipal leaders banded together to use governmental powers to profit themselves.
Until someone came along who was capable of fighting such criminals and was willing to do so. Could he make a difference?
