Special Fire Assessment

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Last night was a kick to the head, no doubt. And the most revealing thing about it was the fact that this Commission that kicked us all to the ground did so with empty noggins and gave the Stanton line to justify it all. Gee, we sympathize with you. "We all pay it too," said the Mayor. Ah, Mayor, I don't think that you do pay it but we would be happy to send you our bills so that you can be part of the team.

Even Commissioner McVoy, who did not show up until after public commentary, commented. It was all the same old company line even bringing up the library. Gosh, is there any originality to the argument when you want to screw the people? We have never said that government should never spend any money, Commissioner. The problem here is that YOU have forgotten whose money it is. Is there ever any possibility that your mind will not be fed with garbage and manipulated by the city manager to the point of being a zombie?

The vote, as you all know, ended up on a 3/2 with Maxwell and Waterman dissenting. Waterman dissented for all the WRONG reasons. She didn't think it was appropriate to tax it this year because of hard times and instead, wanted to deplete our reserves down to zero and push back two new positions to be hired at a later time in the budget cycle. She voted "no" which was a smart political move. The entire matter comes back to the public on October 4.

Now I ask you, if you, Mr/Ms Homeowner, have a fixed bill that you know will go up every year, do you rob your savings to the point of a zero balance to pay for it for just one year? Have you ever heard of anything like that unless, of course, you want to go bankrupt? Whatever happened to cutting the spending? Whatever happened to stopping the waste? Whatever happened to your old laptops? Whatever happened to eating hamburgers instead of steak? You get my drift. The reason this country and this city is in the shape it is in is not only that people have less money and their property values have fallen like a rock, but it is the government spending. Everyone "gets" that but government. It is easy to rob that cookie jar.

Last night when Commissioner Maxwell asked about the reserves, Staff said it was $5 million that was spent. A few weeks ago we heard the figure $12 million and then we heard $15 million. They had so much of our money that they have NO idea what they spent or where they spent it or even why. Even the amount of the missing millions has them totally confused and they act like it is hay, not real greenbacks. It is constantly shuffled here, there and everywhere but in the meantime, it is the public that gets the big shuffle. Where's our money?

Ron Exline was right. The city could find this money by stopping the spending and pulling it from another account. But folks, that is not the objective here. It is simply to steal your money and unfairly assess you so that the city can once again get a reserve account. The other objective, of course, is to open the can of worms for future assessments, the creative way around inefficiency. The very people who robbed all of our reserves, now want us to put the money back in the kitty.

All citizens spoke out against the tax, even a preacher, a woman in a wheel chair, and just average folks from the community talking about the hardships, etc. but the Commission had already closed their ears before they entered the chamber, singing "I only have Eyes for you," as they glanced at the city manager.

Instead of Joe Kroll leaving, perhaps it is a good time for everyone to pack their bags.