Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Has the BULL in a China shop act of Jeff Fix revived old politicos and there may be a come back?

Yup

I've heard those footsteps, unmistabably, right here on this blog, for quite some time. I disagree, however, on who's the bull in this china shop. Seems to me the old guard made quite a mess. I, for one, have not forgotten that.

What did they mess up?

Exactly what did they mess up? Are you saying that the new group in power today is doing everything right? Are you saying the new group has impeccable ethics? Are you saying that the Township trustee have always been honest and have told the truth in getting city residents to follow them into this stupid agreement passed by their stooges? What is the difference of giving our tax dollars to the developers versus giving our tax dollars to the township residents?

What did they mess up?

If you don't know, it's not going to do much good trying to tell you. But let me give it a go:

For starters, they granted all sorts of concessions to developers, particularly along Diley Road, in order to induce them to annex their land to the city. In the process, they actually encouraged high density residential development. As a result, our schools and roads are swamped, and our taxes are far higher than they should be.

They TIF'ed just about all the land along US 256, violating the cardinal rule of local government that one should never TIF retail. They also tried to TIF the road to nowhere, which was supposed to be a ''Pickerington Bypass,'' as an apparent favor to a local developer.

They enacted just about everything they enacted as an ''emergency measure,'' squeezing all three readings into one meeting, to avoid referenda.


They appointed to fill a vacancy on council someone who had just been defeated for reelection.

The city manager acquired options on a piece of real estate just before the city council rezoned it for residential development. Then they had to do a fast shuffle with the law director to convince themselves that this was not an illegal conflict of interest.

They became ugly and belligerant in the face of even the slightest criticism. They stonewalled folks who attempted to obtain copies of public records. And I could go on, because these are just their most obvious misdeeds.

City voters would have to be suicidal to put any of this crew back in office.