All over the map
That was a pretty bizarre Monroe City Council meeting the other night. Popped in, got ill, popped out. But unless I missed a bunch, here's some of the odd stuff I saw:
A BIG DEBATE over whether taxes should be raised to pay for street maintenance. Apparently engineer Pat Lewis drew up a wish list of how much maintenance he'd like to see and the counciil took it to heart. So they decided to put on the ballot a question of whether voters would like a 1.1 mill tax increase for streets. The voters will say a big fat NO, given the great economy we have, and the city will have wasted $10,000 in potential pothole filling money by holding a useless election. Not all is wasted, though, they get a fat dose of deniability (the voters have spoken) instead of showing any iota of gutsy leadership.
What's overlooked in this whole thing is that well-meaniing Pat Lewiis IS AN ENGINEER, for cryin' out loud! Ask an engineer if he would design a new toothpick and he'll start with a tree -- just to maintain design integrity.
The council probably could have asked him to pare down his list to some key priorities and find some crunch money in the budget to do them as they can, as was hinted at by Mark Worrell (the next mayor).
ANOTHER BIG DEBATE was over whether poor Larry Fornwald's homebuyers in his Glen Ridge at the Country Club would be saddled with a streetlight assessment.
Larry says the deal was cut to have the city furnish the lights. Former city engineer Don Link -- no longer necessarily on the city's side -- weighed in with a letter saying yeah that was the deal.
But Councilperson Linda Compora says if you people give him this deal you're making city taxpayers carry the water for Fornwald and the poor people buying his luxury homes.
Rest of council says hey we've always done this so we can do it again (regardless of our severe budget crunch).
Councilwoman Dorothy Edwards says being black she doesn't take kindly to the term "you people," as if she hasn't changed colors multiple times over the years depending upon who's the mayor.
So Council votes not to have a special assessment district to pay for the lights. Larry gets his deal.
But to top it off, Pat Lewis says the street lighting for Fox Trails subdivision over near Frenchmans Bend specifically will be provided by the developer, so we won't run into this problem again.
Not until the Fox Trails developer finds a good lawyer, anyway. But you'll probably never hear about that when it happens.
Unless you hear it here first.
A BIG DEBATE over whether taxes should be raised to pay for street maintenance. Apparently engineer Pat Lewis drew up a wish list of how much maintenance he'd like to see and the counciil took it to heart. So they decided to put on the ballot a question of whether voters would like a 1.1 mill tax increase for streets. The voters will say a big fat NO, given the great economy we have, and the city will have wasted $10,000 in potential pothole filling money by holding a useless election. Not all is wasted, though, they get a fat dose of deniability (the voters have spoken) instead of showing any iota of gutsy leadership.
What's overlooked in this whole thing is that well-meaniing Pat Lewiis IS AN ENGINEER, for cryin' out loud! Ask an engineer if he would design a new toothpick and he'll start with a tree -- just to maintain design integrity.
The council probably could have asked him to pare down his list to some key priorities and find some crunch money in the budget to do them as they can, as was hinted at by Mark Worrell (the next mayor).
ANOTHER BIG DEBATE was over whether poor Larry Fornwald's homebuyers in his Glen Ridge at the Country Club would be saddled with a streetlight assessment.
Larry says the deal was cut to have the city furnish the lights. Former city engineer Don Link -- no longer necessarily on the city's side -- weighed in with a letter saying yeah that was the deal.
But Councilperson Linda Compora says if you people give him this deal you're making city taxpayers carry the water for Fornwald and the poor people buying his luxury homes.
Rest of council says hey we've always done this so we can do it again (regardless of our severe budget crunch).
Councilwoman Dorothy Edwards says being black she doesn't take kindly to the term "you people," as if she hasn't changed colors multiple times over the years depending upon who's the mayor.
So Council votes not to have a special assessment district to pay for the lights. Larry gets his deal.
But to top it off, Pat Lewis says the street lighting for Fox Trails subdivision over near Frenchmans Bend specifically will be provided by the developer, so we won't run into this problem again.
Not until the Fox Trails developer finds a good lawyer, anyway. But you'll probably never hear about that when it happens.
Unless you hear it here first.
posted by The Observer at 11/21/2006 11:46:00 AM
2 Comments:
I for one will vote yes on the millage increase if it goes only to fix our roads. If not they will not ever get done. My street is probably not high on the list, but it's not far from it.
I agree that many will vote no because of the economy, and I see their point as well. Money is tight right now, and soon could get worse. I think we need our roads kept up to keep up our property values though. I believe that the council didn't want a mandatory tax increase due to the economy. Sure wish the last Mayor didn't spend all of that money on parks. He should have spent it on streets. If my kids needed a splash of water, I could spray them with the hose for a lot less than $200,000. And, by the way, did you hear that the DDA is going to go ahead with standing up those tombstones at Kentucky park? Wasn't $350,000 enough to blow at that park? Hope they wise up.
You think Worrell will be the next Mayor? Could be. Least he knows about finances.
I think the decision for Fornwald was proper. If this was practice back then, and I believe before a new proposal from last year, then I think that the City should pay for the lights. It is only a fair business practice and should be honored. Guess Compora doesn't know much about the ethical thing to do when something is promised by the City engineer or city manager. Was the Fox Trails sub started after this new proposal back in November?? I think I heard. If so, there doesn't appear to be much legal weight to back up any suit.
Was Edwards mad because "you people" meant she was black, or was it because Compora thinks she has joined up with the Mayor's coalition just because her ridiculous motion was not seconded? Guess if you don't agree with Compora you have gone over to the other side. They say the grass is greener over there.
Wow! Now we even have councilmen writing letters to the evening slime. One against our last mayor and one certainly for him. Looks like Compora worships him. Maybee she should hear how he talks about her. Rumor has it that when Iacoangeli is done using her he has a candidate to fill that precinct seat.
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