Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

You need to come to council meetings to know who to vote for, and who is full of themselfs. There is at least 20 people out there that say they could do that job better.

Anyone interested in a say in what the city does? I am sure that anyone with an average job could do a better job. Maybe a pizza man or even a trash man and or woman.

What are our expectations?

I think what we should all do is prepare ourselves better in the future for who and how we elect our representatives.

Clearly in the recent past we had those elected officials that were friendly with the builders and each would support ?“their?” man on council. This was done with either direct campaign donations or contracts and other business arrangements after the fact. The point is that we must consider who these future elected officials will ?“OWE?” once they are in office. I know I am guilty of calling ?“MY?” elected official and asking for favors and fully expecting him or her to deliver and my reasoning is the $25 that I had sent them during their campaign.

I believe this is a natural human tendency to demand performance based on ?“MY?” ideas and ?“MY?” support. I think if you look at past elections much of my theory will be confirmed. So the point here is to first look at and examine who gave to ?“YOUR?” candidate and what will be ?“YOUR?” expectations be for that candidate once in office. Despite ?“YOUR?” support and ?“YOUR?” money will the person elected still vote for and support what is in the best interest of the City and ?“ALL?” of the voters or will that person once in office favor blindly those that donated to his campaign? Will he or she be willing to logically and with facts explain to you why he or she voted the way they did? Will ?“YOUR?” candidate know any or all of the issues before the City and its residents? Will they take the time to learn the issues?

The next question we should all consider is who runs the city? Is it the Mayor and a majority of council (4 votes) or is it the City Manager? Clearly the Charter says the City Manager runs the city and it can be a case of malfeasance if Council members and the Mayor interfere with the operation. The Council controls the operations of the city through ordinances, resolutions and the approval of budgetary measures. The council is the holder of the purse strings not the Mayor or the Township Trustees. In the last year or so has this been the way our city has been run? Has certain political egos got in the way of this operation?

Finally the city has experienced a lot of reform in last few years. Have we reached the point where we elect those that build on the last few years or do we elect a group willing to tear it all down once more change the city?’s direction again? So my point and my question is what are the top three goals that the next set of elected officials in Pickerington should strive to obtain? For the sake of the argument name those goals with the highest priority as a one through the lowest being three.




By Disappointed voter