Some City of Oak Hill Residents Unwitting Participants in Kraus' Unsophisticated Con Game

In a very cordial meeting at the Woodmont Hills Church of Christ, a very vocal minority of around 200 City of Oak Hill residents and stakeholders were in attendance to hear and discuss issues within the City of Oak Hill.

Mayor Alsup delivered an outstanding presentation and was warmly received by most in attendance. Due to pending possible litigation Alsup was unable to fully discuss the "Kraus Controversy". However he did touch on all other topics.

Just as we expected the Mayor's Forum turned into the "Kraus Meeting".

A few of the people in attendance laid blame on Mayor Alsup for getting rid of Kraus. They simply would not accept the fact Kraus is retired and dishonest. What was missing from their misguided views of the “Kraus Controversy” is Kraus’ failure to accept any degree of responsibility for the situation he now finds himself in.

This is our opinion of this situation:

Some of the citizens of the City of Oak Hill are unwitting participants of Kraus' unsophisticated con game. You see when Kraus was hired in 2003 he failed to disclose to the City of Oak Hill commissioners that he had a felony conviction. Therefore, unbeknownst to the City of Oak Hill Commissioners Kraus held the upper hand. Just think of it as a poker game.

When the citizens of the City Oak Hill would had issues, questions, or needed special attention Kraus would always appear to have gone out of his way to address with their specific situation. Kraus' so called "responsive to my situation" was all part of his unsophisticated con game. Kraus knew that there was a possibility that he would eventually get found out. Therefore it was in Kraus' interest to always appear to be interested in individual issues even when he may not have been.

Kraus developed a simple piece of strategy. He very correctly calculated that in order to keep his job, should the truth come to light, he would need the citizens of the City of Oak Hill to either persuade or pressure the City of Oak Hill Commissioners. Therefore, it was critical for him to gain the complete confidence of “Oak Hill John and Jane”.

In the fall of 2007 Kraus' day of reckoning came. It was finally discovered that he had a felony conviction in California. The City of Oak Hill Commissioners were thoroughly embarrassed to say the least. Kraus deployed his predetermined strategy. It worked. The City of Oak Hill Commissioners clearly saw the political hell storm on the horizon, so they allowed Kraus to keep his job not on principle or sound judgment, but sadly because of flawed decisions based on the foundation of the “good ole boy” southern style politics.

Kraus had survived the shit storm. He had successfully worked his strategy. Now, in his mind all he had to do was show up at the City of Oak Hill office, plot, plan and keep collecting his paychecks.

But in June of 2008 Kraus once again, found himself a victim of his own arrogance and sheer stupidity. According the certain people with formal legal training, Kraus had broken another law. He donated $200 or so and caused to be mailed some post cards advertising the re-election campaign of then Commissioner Tommy Jacobs.

For the sake of argument let’s assume that assisting Jacobs in his re-election campaign was legal. Then it certainly was a stupid and a politically unwise thing for Kraus to get himself involved in. With all of his so called “knowledge and experience” he certainly knew his action could be construed as being unethical at the least. But his arrogance, constant need to manipulate and unfairly influence the choice of others took over.

When Kraus was confronted with the "Jacobs" information he chose to retire on writing to avoid further embarrassment. A few days later Kraus rescinded his retirement and opted to redeploy the same strategy that he used in November of 2007. This time there was a new twist. He mailed out letters to nearly all the residents of the City of Oak Hill full of false information in last ditch effort to force the Commissioners to meet his demands. This time his strategy failed. Now City of Oak Hill Commissioners chose to stand on principle and sound judgment.

So we now find ourselves at the crossroads of controversy and confusion. Our advice to the City of Oak Hill Commissioners is this: Don’t give Kraus another dime. The City of Oak Hill does not need to set the expensive precedent of providing golden parachutes to retiring City Managers.