Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

I apologize for not getting back to this forum sooner. I have been called out of town on a business trip for work.

I haven't seen anyone posting any findings yet. I hope that Pickerington won't stagnate or be unincorporated due to complacency.

Please folks, help us out here and look up some of the information I need help with. I have limited connectivity this week and can't do it all myself.

By Patriot

You're on your own

Sorry, Patriot. There's not a lot of support for your proposal. It looks like you'll have to do your own research.

Complacency can spell doom


Well Patriot, I think you might be right about a few things. Complacency and a frequent lack of attention have spelled regression for this city in the past. I think a lot of where we are at today has to do with resident complacency from 2003 to 2005. A lot of people put a lot of time, money and energy into getting the election results this city needed in 03 but then went home and shut the blinds at the very time resident support was needed the most. We put these people out there and assumed we wouldn?’t have to do anything else. We were wrong. We should have spent as much time supporting them after they got in office as we spent getting them there. Perhaps if we?’d paid attention some of the people running the city government there now would be there now. Our short attention span has resulted in the chaos we see at city hall today. We spent years hearing and reading about and becoming renowned for the bickering at city hall. Now we have changed the faces and names and crossed our fingers that all would be well and guess what? All the bickering is back and the media is having a field day with it.

In reading back through all the postings relating to creating a city township, I am beginning to believe it is a good idea. In my business, the trend over the last 10 years has been to contract out as much as we can. The bottom line is all that mattered and although we pay a contractor 150% of the salary of an employee who could do the same job, when we add in benefits, the contractor is cheaper. The problem with that, as we are finding out now in retrospect, is that we are voluntarily giving up our corporate knowledge. Contractors come and go and all they have to do is meet the deliverable in the contract. We can?’t specify that a certain employee of theirs has to remain with them and us through the length of the contract. Therefore corporate knowledge and history is committed to paper or electrons and we have to suffer through a learning curve each time a contractor hires a new employee. We are finding we would be better off having one of our employees do the work because their longevity with our company is most times longer than a contract employee. In other words, we are bringing the work back in-house.

Maybe we should charter a city township. This would certainly give us more direct control of our tax dollars. It appears that the only caveat for committing ourselves to this is to start a city fire department. What?’s the big deal with that? I am sure there are those in the city and township that will approach this from only the emotional standpoint rather than financial. We will hear endless stories about how beloved and cherished the fire department is to the community and no one can argue against it, nor should they. We can look forward to a future of the same level of service with many of the same people who serve now. If we indeed comprise 40% of the fire department, it is safe to assume that fully 40% of the current staff will come to work for the city fire department. Let?’s face it, there may be some resentment and grumbling but one, these people have obligations that will require them to have a job and two, our firefighters are consummate professionals. They make the choice to protect and serve. They train and drill to hone their skills. They will not throw this away because the emblem on their uniform changes.

more to come.

Complaceny

This will get down to a financial decision. Can we assure the residents of the city that they will not spend more money for the services provided to us by the township (once we can completely iterate all services provided and the associated costs) if we terminate our relationship with the township? If the data can be presented to support what I am surmising to be true, then I am behind it. Can someone tell me what the process is for creating a city township? Is this a ballot issue? And so on.

I have had a little time to search the internet as Patriot suggested. I wasn?’t looking at exactly the same things he of she is asking for assistance on but looking more for success stories of others that have formed a city township. There is reference material out there. Also, did you know that there are other cities right here in Central Ohio considering the same move in forming their own city township? Did you know that perhaps the same law firm representing this city represents others that I refer to, also? Interesting, isn?’t it?

In summary, I think it is time for this city to move forward. Right now we are in the middle of a very stormy sea with no rudder or engine. We are all standing on deck arguing who broke it and no one is looking at how to repair it. It is time to put the issue of economic agreements aside for the time being and act in our own interests. Obviously if we form a city township we will have the opportunity to reassess our form of government as the township will be forced to do. Perhaps under different forms of government, both the city and Violet Township will attract candidates who will look at cooperative opportunities on a more level playing field that we apparently have now.

I guess that?’s the bottom line, in order to be able to cooperate and be fair to both sides, both sides need to be equal partners. We can continue to bicker as we are now or we can sit down at the table as two independent neighboring townships and negotiate cooperation. Right now we seem to be at a tremendous disadvantage. Or perhaps we just have the wrong people running the show(s).