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Opinion Downs Filing Complaint Was Right Decision

It takes courage to fight for what’s right.

In today’s edition of this paper, there is a front page story announcing that our publisher Darla Downs has filed a motion against Roosevelt County Attorney Frank Piocos.

The issue regards that Piocos wasn’t residing in Roosevelt County when he was elected to his office. State law requires county elected officials to be electors in the county that they serve.

Some people might say what’s the big deal? After all, Piocos has already served in the position as an appointed county attorney. Plus, no one else filed in the election for the position.

Not paying attention or caring that Piocos allegedly didn’t follow the law would be the easy way out. It wouldn’t be right, but it would be easy. The thing is that Darla Downs isn’t the type of person to take the easy way out. Despite having various different state agencies give her the runaround, she kept battling the good fight.

Even though finding an area attorney willing to help was difficult because of possible conflict of interest issues, she wouldn’t stop her journey for what’s right.

If the easy path was taken, this issue would have disappeared into the land of forgotten stories. Piocos would happily receive his $115,000 salary from Roosevelt County taxpayers and feel that his untruthful behavior worked. He could comfortably laugh all the way home to Valley County every night without any worries and apparently no conscience for his behavior.

Downs not taking the easy way out shouldn’t come of any surprise for us in Roosevelt County. We remember that she was willing to undertake a two-year court battle in order to keep providing quality newspapers in the county. She had simple and less complicated options at that time too, but she was faithful and dedicated to area residents during that situation as well.

If nothing else, Downs has made Piocos feel a little less comfortable and exposed his apparent lack of character. For a person who has such an important role in the county’s law system, his actions are at the very least troubling.

While Piocos’ misbehavior can be questioned, there’s little doubt that county residents have a great friend and leader in Darla Downs.

Although some battles feature new and numerous challenges, she cares enough to take them on in order to do the right thing for our county.

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