Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Real Estate

IF a private citizen owned land for development, housing development, etc, or was speculating buying land for development, then maybe they have some interest in this. Think about it

Democracy

I am still a little unclear on who you think stands to gain or lose with this proposed charter amendment.

So lets make a analogy of the situation.

In 1999, 2000, and 2001 the former administrations would annex and rezone properties and they would pass the legislation for these annexations and rezoning by emergency. That meant the citizens could not circulate referendums on the annexations if they please to do so. The Citizens then circulated a charter amendment to make it harder to pass anything by emergency in Pickerington. It now takes 6 votes instead of the 5 votes it took in 2002 to pass anything as emergency. That was called issue 19. It passed with 86% of the vote. It was ridiculed by the Mayor at the time Randy Hughes. He claimed it would shut down the city government and allow a small minority to control the votes of council. After five years I think Mayor Hughes?’ warnings were unwarranted. Simply put the council at the time was abusing the trust of the citizens of Pickerington and the citizens put a stop to it.

What is before the voters on May 8th 2007 is a similar charter amendment to stop the abuse by council majority by restricting them from giving away the ability of any future council to annex and or conform the city?’s boundaries. People that own land now will still have the same rights as they have today and they don?’t have to worry about a irresponsible council forcing them to remain in the township if they own property contiguous to the city and they want the city?’s services.

Judging by the generosity of the current Council majority they plan to give away half your future income taxes in these annexed lands to the township for no services or investment in return. What the average citizen in Pickerington stand to gain is to keep some of his hard earned tax dollars in his own pocket not that of the township residents who are providing NOTHING in this development. They claim the land is theirs but it is really the current land owners that have the property rights not the Trustees. If we have one of those land owners on our borders that wants to annex into Pickerington and to get his property zoned residential he will be able to do so with this amendment. However another issue passed in 2002 was the two lots per acre ordinance and that land owner would need to come in at a lower density than the township zoning. He would also have to accept the design standards of the city both of which will cost him more to build residential in the city. He may want to annex into the city to simply get road access or utilities. Remember there have been NO NEW PLATS approved in the City since 2002.

What you and I as average citizens gain here is that we are assured once again that we have the final say in how our city is developed and ran. If this amendment passes then the council would need to convince the citizens of Pickerington if they wanted to give away these rights and the citizens would get to vote on it. That is democracy at its finest.

Councilman Fix claims he carried these petitions in 2002. It was a civic duty for Fix then and today he is sounding like the former Mayor Hughes and his boogie man theories.

By Petition Carrier

Emergency proof next year

I think many of you are missing the big picture here. Jeff Fix is in this for his ego and his political career. He is actively working to find candidates that will challenge and turn out Brian Wisniewski and Ted Hackworth. He has made those statements public numerous times over the last year. If Jeff Fix gets his 6 votes on the Pickerington City council and this proposed Charter amendment is not adopted by the voters then Pickerington taxpayers Jeff will pass the next development agreement by emergency and it will give away even more of your hard earn tax dollars.

If you doubt me look at what he is saying and posting here on this web site. He points out that former mayors are circulating the petitions. He says the councilmen didn?’t think this issue through and the councilmen didn?’t call the city Manager. It wasn?’t the councilmen?’s call on this one. It was a group of concerned citizens call and the manager was not available to them and Fix knows it. He knows it because he was harassing them right up to the weekend they finished collecting the signatures. They raised the money and they hired the attorney. I know it because I was there. He says the ?“charter amendment is redundant.?“ He still argues with citizen members of this committee that work so hard to circulate the petition and what galls him is they are average Joe Citizens and his only target is the councilmen past and present. Our Mr. Fix has a ton of political debt to repay to his handlers in the township and in the county. Sending a couple hundred thousand dollars of your taxes to the trustees and now probably Lancaster if the JEDDs go through.

If for any other reason I would suggest you stop Fix in his tracts before he gets an even larger majority on council and referendums and initiatives are a thing of the past. We need to amend our charter NOW!!If he gets his emergency proof council next year then hold on to your wallets.

Is this really your answer?

This is your answer to Lee Gray's interest? Let's review your choices of words...IF...speculating...maybe...some...think.
You have no idea what your talking about.
Here's someting not to think about. It's fact. Lee Gray grew up here. Lee Gray went to school here. Lee Gray's children will go to school here. Lee Gray bought a house here. Lee Gray has businesses here. Lee Gray loves Pickerington. This agreement is bad for Pickerington and that's why he's involved. Period.

I notice none of your words contained anything of substance. You were wise to be vague.

Tony, it's nice to see that you used to be one of ''their good guys''. That's how ''they'' think of you. It's nice to see a citizen that isn't part of the good guys or the bad guys, the old or the new, but one who will be a friend to the issues that effect the city that Lee Gray loves.

By You've got to be kidding!