Changes needed in city government

DailySentinel.Com
EDITORIAL

The truth finally came out. At the City Council meeting on Nov. 14th, just one week after the $43.9 million bond election, Public Works Director Steve Bartlett dropped a bomb on the Council that we have $117 million in immediate utility needs but then admitted, “not that we can necessarily do all that.”

Of course not, especially, if we blow $43.9 million before addressing the highest priority need.

It’s obvious that certain City Staff, working with the good-ole-boys, deliberately withheld this information, until after the bond election, so their wants could be pushed ahead of our community’s highest priority need.

Clean drinking water and toilets that flush far outweigh new fire stations or any other items in the bond election. There are water mains failing all over town and sewer mains dumping raw sewage into our creeks on a regular basis. During snowmaggedon, half the City lost water pressure. The sewer treatment plant is obsolete and too expensive to maintain.

These are the steps that must be taken.

First, the City Council should postpone issuing any bonds, until the utility needs are addressed, first. Once we address the highest priority need, first, then we can determine how much money is left over for lower priority needs, not the other way around.

Next, the Capital Needs Advisory Committee should be scrapped. The highest priority need is what it should’ve been working on first. It was created by the previous City Council and was their second attempt, after the certificates of obligation failed, to push lower priority wants ahead of the highest priority need. Several of us have resigned from committee because that process has no credibility.

Finally, we should sever the connection between the good-ole-boys and city staff. NEDCO is beholden to the good-ole-boys and must be separated from our city government, like it used to be, because it negatively impacts the other departments.

What has happened here is a total disgrace; however, by taking these steps, we can recover and keep moving in the right direction. Contact the mayor and city council members and demand they take these steps immediately.

Philip Blackburn