COLUMN: Pat Bell: A ‘doer’ bows out

I say “reported” retirement because it’s difficult to believe she’ll be out of the public eye. As one wag observed at the ceremony held in her honor two weeks ago, the words “Pat Bell” and “retirement” are an oxymoron.

Bell has defied the odds so many times that it’s become a cliché. Often underestimated by her political foes, she has time and again risen to challenges that would have withered a person of weaker character.

Retire? Only if there’s a statute of limitations on gumption.

To say Pat Bell is energetic is like saying a hurricane is a little breezy. And where she focuses that energy, things happen.

That was evident in Jackson County way back in the 1970s when Pat organized her 4-H organization to do a massive cleanup at Hurricane Shoals Park. Today, such an effort would require five project managers, three consultants and a dozen environmental, archeological, botanical and financial studies. It would take a dozen years and several hundred thousand taxpayer dollars.

Not in Pat’s world. She got a bunch of teenage volunteers to do it for free.

That she became involved in politics after her years as county extension agent must have been like entering the Gates of Hell for Pat. One day she was getting things done, organizing projects and making big things happen. The next day, she was tossed into a sea of bureaucrats and politicians who …move… at ….a …. glacial … pace.

It was always a clash of cultures. Pat is a classic “doer.” Talking about doing bores her to tears. But that’s what most governments do; talk and talk and talk.

You could often see the frustration on her face at meetings. You knew that she’d like to slap some long-winded blowhard silly for wasting her time. Above Pat’s head you could see a cartoon bubble that said, “Quit talking about it honey and just go get it done!”

But saying that Pat has been a doer does not mean she just got caught up in the moment. She was also visionary in the sense that she was always thinking ahead with the question, “What comes next?”

That has been an innate sixth-sense for Pat. She didn’t need studies and reports to tell her what problems needed to be solved; she just knew.

For one example, the Bear Creek Reservoir fell into her lap. It wasn’t her idea, but she cast a key vote to commit Jackson County financially to the deal. She knew water would be increasingly important long before the current drought made that apparent. And as she exits office, the county is embroiled in legal action to protect its investment in Bear Creek Reservoir. A leader with less vision would have just closed their eyes and ignored the issue, gone along to get along. Not Pat.

The other big thing that most people would say about Pat’s years of public service is that she never did anything to help herself. In an era when some public officials attempt to use their position to profit personally, Pat has walked away from such temptations. That has been a credit to her and has on several occasions, restored the public trust in Jackson County leadership at a time when it had been tarnished by others.

I’ve been covering Jackson County politics for many years now and I’ve seen a lot of public officials come and go. Some have been pretty good. Some were stinkers.
But I can’t think of any public official in the last 20 years who has left so many fingerprints on so many critical issues in Jackson County as Pat Bell has done. And nobody comes close to her verve.

From the courthouse to the statehouse, from her thousands of hours in dozens of volunteer groups, to hundreds of young people whose lives she touched with her 4-H leadership, Pat Bell has directly or indirectly affected everyone who lives or works in Jackson County and beyond.

Wednesday is Pat Bell’s last day as chairman of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners. She has earned a real retirement.

But it’s difficult to imagine the local political landscape without Pat Bell marching around it, cajoling, prodding, pushing and getting the things done that need to be done — and kicking a few butts that need to be kicked.

I’d like to wish her well. But just in case she gets bored, I’ll keep a running list of rear-ends that her shoes might need to meet in the future.

Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson Herald. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.