Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Look for answers


The poster in the thread above said it best. All that changes is the names and faces but the games are the same. Egos and power. We try each election cycle to show the government that the people have the power but they don?’t get the message. Yes, some things are getting better thanks to a very few elected officials in the area. Can you imagine the progress that could be made if we had a few more of them? Can you imagine just once if the city manager wasn?’t political? Can you imagine a city where the mayor didn?’t run amok? Perhaps just one more election cycle and we can get our act together. Maybe we can leave politics out the next time.

Stay tuned for the story to unfold. How long did it take and how much evidence had to be processed to expose New Rome? We all knew all along what was going on there but it still took a long time to get and examine the evidence before the press could do their thing.

The goal here is not to divide but to unite. Unite under an ethical, moral, honest and apolitical government. No more secret meetings with quorums of committees held behind closed doors. No more lies by the manager and her mayor.

You want proof and aren?’t willing to wait for the press? Ask the manager about invitations to gambling junkets made by former city officials. Ask the manager about Blackwell campaign fundraisers in Lancaster and who she pressured to attend. Look at this website and enter in the names of city contractors and elected officials and staff to see who gives to whom.

http://serform.sos.state.oh.us/pls/porthope/DEV.SAP_RPT_CAND_CONT.show_parms

Look at the dates of the contributions and match them up with other events near those dates. See if any of the contributors were doing business with the city at the time of their contributions. All the evidence is available. You just have to be willing to fully utilize Google to get them. Bob Harding is gone folks. It is now up to us to take all our questions and look for answers. He found answers with much less internet power than we have now. We can find answers too.

You?’re right about some people throwing out baseless accusations just for fun. But there is such a pipeline of information coming out of a certain Lockville Road address that all you have to do is listen once in a while.

People should never fear the government. The government should fear the people.

Bonehead


By Bonehead

Further Thoughts

Not sure if you're one of the boneheads I had in mind, Bonehead, but I've heard nothing to convince me that there's anything bad brewing at City Hall right now. I'm more concerned with what's brewing right here on this web site.

We suffered some musical chairs stuff last November when five good candidates ran for four council seats. Also, NW Republicans seem divided on how much, if at all, their club should be driven by county, state and national politics.

I have trouble with that one myself. Frankly, if national Republican politics means supporting all the Bush/Cheney crap (or if state Republican politics means supporting Blackwell or Taft), we should all steer clear. But that's just my opinion.

Our Mayor has suffered some family and resulting emotional problems lately, but he has not run amok. He's the one that brung us, and he's not lost my trust.

I also don't like your take on how governments and voters should relate. The glue here should be, not fear, but mutual trust. Indeed, at least locally, the government should actually be the voters, with all of us taking turns at public service. If it's not -- if power goes to someone's head or pocket, or if someone just sits dead on their seat -- we need to step in and take charge. But we can do that. We've done it before.

By Dusty

Shed some light on the subject

Trust in our elected officials is very hard to maintain over long periods of time. I am probably older than most of you but I do remember the Nixon years especially when they were trying to impeach him in 1972/1973. After the bungling of the War in Viet Nam by Johnson and the race riots of 1968 it was a relief to see Richard Nixon come in and take charge. He started the withdraw of troops from Nam and he opened relations with China which probably helped end the cold war.

With that said, I had so much belief in his ability to turn the country around that it was like losing a child to admit to myself that he was really a crook like he claimed he wasn't. What convinced me was the long articles in the Columbus Dispatch that were the transcripts of the White House tapes and his conversations with his aids. The more I read the more I became discussed with his language and his paranoia. He was NOT the man I had voted for in 1968.

In 1973 those of us that still trusted Richard Nixon were blaming the democrats and the press for his troubles. Most of us asked ourselves why would a successful President resort to a two bit break-in into the Democratic headquarters during or just before an election? There was no reason to do so what was he thinking? Then he tried to cover it all up.

So I guess the question must be is David Shaver the candidate and the person you voted for in 2003? I think much of his support came from citizens wanting to do away with the pay to play for contractors. However like Nixon he sends out an email to solicit donations for a political campaign with little or NO regard of the appearance of that act to the public and to those receiving the email. In addition he made it public by the fact that some of those messages went to the City email system. So those of you that received those solicitations your email address is now public record whether you wish it to be or not. I understand he was campaigning for a Judge and Judges CAN NOT be political because they have cannons of ethics to live by and yet he sent these solicitation emails to county Judges.

Does David Shaver think he is untouchable just because he is the Mayor of a small city in Ohio?

For those of you that read the Nixon Whitehouse tape transcripts you (well at least I did) pick up on a total mistrust of everyone around him and he took took stupid actions to thwart anything they may have been trying. I understand we don't have tapes in the Mayor's situation but there are emails I understand and they seem to show the very same behavior traits that I saw in Richard Nixon over a quarter of a century ago. With the exception of the campaign email I have not seen any of these emails. However some have been read to me over the phone. I have some real concerns about the mental health of our Mayor. I have concerns about his paranoia and how it is affecting the operation of the city.

It sound like his relationship with the city manager is far too personal.

I am not sure if the press is aware of these other email messages but I also know they read this web site. The sad fact here is in fairness to everyone I believe these public emails should be made public and allow the citizens to make their own judgment on the fitness of the Mayor to continue to serve not the unfounded remarks being posted here. It is time for the press to act and do their job.





By Old man time

The Judge Clambake

Old man time, I fear that I am even older than you. I can remember not only Dusty Springfield, but Dusty Rhodes, my true namesake. I once saw him play in the minors, during his twilight years, on a very dusty field, as a matter of fact.

I am not bothered by our Mayor's e-mailed invitations to his upcoming clambake for a judicial candidate. In fact, I see it as a graceful gesture, since he once wanted to run for the post himself.

He sent these out from his own computer on his own time. He has no obligation to report this to anyone. Only recipients of political contributions, not contributors, are subject to reporting requirements. Moreover, it is a lawyer's professional responsibility to support the election of qualified judges. That's why the American Bar Association, and state and local bar associations as well, take the endorsement of judicial candidates so seriously, and are taken so seriously. Lawyers are in the best position to evaluate a candidate's qualifications for such an office.

As to the rest, I have not seen any of the other e-mails to which you allude and, in any case, have not heard any specific allegation of wrongdoing stemming from any of them. All I see is a lot of ignorant name-calling, and I refuse to pay attention to stuff like that.

Moreover, there is a broken family lurking in the background of all of this. That's a tragedy for all concerned, and I think we should make some allowances for all concerned -- not just for the Mayor, but for every member of his family.

I haven't seen Dave in awhile, but believe that I know him well enough to know the kind of person he is. I find it hard to imagine that the puny power that belongs to the Mayor of Pickerington could go to anyone's head.

By Dusty