So much fun....

Actually, it was fun to force the conversation in the four meetings on capital improvement budgeting into real, honest-to-goodness policy wonk discussions.....

Like everybody else, I think we're in for some rough times. Our needs as a community keep growing and the amount of $$$$ available is shrinking.

I have a constituent who is 83 years old and is (obviously) on a fixed income. She has been calling me two or three times a week to complain about all the "spending, spending, spending" going on in City Government. I have patiently explained to her that I am doing my best to keep the costs down but at the same time I have to spend money to keep her safe (new fire department) , to protect her car on the road (new street construction and maintenance) (oh yeah, she STILL DRIVES!) and to build new access roads for an industry that has decided to locate in our town which will, eventually, bring new taxes into the city to reduce EVERYBODY'S tax rate.

There is truth to the rumor that the more detail you have to provide the more likely you are to lose the argument. My sweet, little old lady constituent doesn't understand most of this but I'll try again and again and again to help her understand.

It's a nasty little balancing act. And, in the end, I think most of the taxpayers are going to end up like the guy at the left. Public safety comes first, then comes infrastructure and then "economic development". Staff and bureaucracy are last....DEAD LAST....in my scheme of things. I blame most of it on the fact that our priorities have been completely screwed up for about 10 years. We've spent money on "pie-in-the-sky" projects and we've let the bureaucracy in the "palace" grow beyond control. Now we have to pay the piper (if you will).

My opponent apparently has another blog post up blasting me to high heaven....too bad. If he had a life (or a real job) he wouldn't have time to do that kind of thing.

Pre-caffine morning thought

My watch has this imprinted on it:

"WATERPROOF TO 160 FT"

So I wonder.....If I suddenly find myself under 160 feet of water, will my first concern be whether my watch will still work?

I think I definitely need some coffee.....desperately!

Saturday night thread....

I ran into a lot of people while I was "out and about" this afternoon. One of them was a constituent who introduced himself to my wife by saying, "I'm the guy who's going to replace your husband on the City Council next year." I think I'll run again just to annoy this asshole....

I remember something from my religious past ...something from the 23rd Psalm, I think...something about "He preparest (ed note: "preparest"?) a table for me in the presence of my enemies." Well, that's exactly what happened yesterday afternoon.

I arranged to meet a good friend at our favorite coffee shop at an appointed time and when I walked in, my two biggest political enemies were sitting right in the middle of the place. We had a pleasant conversation that I no doubt will be skewed into some horrible shortcoming on my part on this guys blog site again but I fully intend to provide another reasonable, rational, calm response just like the last one (see previous post).

Council meeting Tuesday night....Mayor will be absent...Council President will Chair meeting...could be heaven...could be hell...


BTW....that Alderman I wrote about? The one with the three DWIs and two "Driving After Revocations"?....he lost in a three way primary on Tuesday night....he got 24 votes (you need 20 signatures to qualify for the ballot)...the next guy got 26 and the next got 113.....low turnout for sure but there doesn't seem to be much question about who the voters want.
Time for a second glass of wine...sit by the fireplace and zone out....

g'night.

A calm, rational response

I am reliably informed that one of my political opponents has written two lengthy criticisms of one of my proposals. Both dissertations (lol) are filled with inaccuracies and petty cheap shots at me personally.

I won't link to the site but I will give a calm, rational response here.

Let me begin:

Hey DUMBASS!














That is all.

Fun and furious

Last night was frustrating to say the least.

It's awful to fight a battle when you know you're going to get pummeled by a 4-1 vote, but you say your truth and you go on from there. I got some blows in but I wonder if anybody out there was actually listening. If they were, then they got an inside peek at just how corrupt this regime really is....

There, I said the word:

Corrupt.

In all my years of public service I have only seen one or possibly two instances of real, honest-to-god Adam Clayton Powell type of corruption (I saw HIM too!) and I've been telling myself that what I'm witnessing here isn't corruption, it's just STU-PID-I-TEEEEE!

But after last night, I'm not so sure anymore.

If there was any saving grace to the evening, it was that I got to give an INSPIRATIONAL speech to a civic group...It was successful and I got "rave" reviews.

chicken one day and feathers the next...that's the way it goes.

ahem........

A brief message for my "distinguished colleagues" on the "dark side":







That is all........

Meeting hangover!

The 3 + hour ordeal of last Tuesday night still isn't over There is fallout all over the place and some of it isn't good.

I think the opposition ambushed us, beat us up and stole our lunch money.

And I think I have some of our "allies" to thank for that little (Little?....hell ...it was MAJOR!) fiasco.

Somebody once told me that one of the problems with liberals is that they firmly believe that if they just sit down with their adversaries and reason with them, then, naturally, the adversary will "see the light" and come around to your side, or, at worst, compromise with you in a reasonable and rational manner.

WRONG!

Sometimes your enemies will meet with you only to find out "where you're coming from" and use that to mount their attack.

And that's exactly what happened before the last meeting. One of my "allies" (I'm really taking liberties with that term here) sat down with an opposition leader and calmly, rationally and forcefully laid out our side of the agenda and told him also who had been 'BRIEFED" on the agenda......

The result?

Well, now I know how General Custer felt.....


If there's any good point about what went down of Tuesday night, then it is only that it drew a different line in the sand as far as the public is concerned. It might be that a good portion of the public is happy only that a decision has been reached and that 2/3 of the issues to squabble about have been put to rest. That's okay....I don't like the decisions but I can live with them.

I didn't want this issue to be divisive in the community but there are people here with an agenda who demand that they get "their way"....to some extent they have and it isn't a tragedy for the community (at least not yet) so I won't throw myself in front of the bulldozers to stop it....(like I should be doing on the $35MM power plant that won't serve us...)

Next battle please.....