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Mr Howell bellows, Skipper, call your little meeting to order.
Aye aye Thurston!
Thanks Skipper. Well, seeing as how I like to keep MY money, we should spend the city's to mail this. Isn't that right?
Now wait a doggone minute here, said the professor. What message are we going to mail in this bottle??
I say we put a little of bad 9 and you put a little of that good 9, mmmm?, tested Mr. Howell.
Oh that's wonderful Thurston, your so clever, echoed Lovey.
What do you think little buddy?, querried the Skipper.
Well, why don't we save some money and put it on the cities website?
That's not what I WANT roared Thurston.
I'm with Thurston, aped Lovey again.
Skipper, take a vote, demanded Howell! Under his breath, Howell mumbled to Lovey we have Mary Ann's vote anyway, don't worry. Ha ha!
As Skipper, I ask you all to vote, do you want to put it on the internet only and not mail it?!?
Thurston, NO!
Lovey, same as Thurston, please! No.
Professor, Yea!
Little Buddy, Yea.
Mary Ann, Yea.
Mary Ann... Mary Ann,... she can't do that to me muttered Howell!
Well this was a waste of time said the Skipper.
Wow, that Mary Ann is smart, exclaimed the Professor. She hooked up that radio and got it working all by herself!
The audience applauded the screening and left.
I'll never get the hole in the boat fixed, moped the Skipper. It takes on water even when it's on dry land.
By A 3 Hour Tour
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No charter mailing
No charter mailing for Pickerington residents
Amendment's pros, cons to be posted on Web site
Friday, May 4, 2007 3:33 AM
By Jim Woods
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Pickerington residents will be able to read the pros and cons of a proposed charter amendment on the city's Web site starting today.
But the council decided in a 4-3 vote last night not to send out a mailing with the same information.
Mayor David Shaver said that council's decision ''effectively wasted everyone's time.''
The council spent hours Tuesday night and at the special meeting last night wrangling over the wording of the information.
Councilman Brian Wisniewski made the proposal to put the information only on the Web site, www.pickerington.net. He said a number of people objected to the city spending money on a mailing.
But Councilwoman Heidi Riggs said the city spends money on other mailings, and that informing the public about the charter issue would be worth the cost, estimated to be about $1,500.
Siding with Wisniewski on the vote were council members Ted Hackworth, Michael Sabatino and Cristie Hammond.
Riggs and Councilmen Keith Smith and Jeff Fix opposed the resolution, favoring a mailing to the public along with the Web site posting.
Pickerington voters will be the final arbiters Tuesday on the proposed charter amendment, which reaffirms the city's right to annex land and to retain the power to create its own township, which could take tax dollars from Violet Township.
Wisniewski, Sabatino and Hackworth, with the backing of a citizens' group, placed the charter amendment on the ballot.
The three councilmen say the city was giving away too much to Violet Township during negotiations over a joint economic-development district. Though Violet Township rejected the city's offer, charter amendment supporters want to ensure that it won't happen again.
But the majority of council members said the charter amendment goes too far and would tie up the city's ability to negotiate.
Sabatino has charged that those opposing the amendment made false statements in a flier. Yesterday, he took one of his complaints to the Ohio Elections Commission.
Sabatino took issue with a statement in the flier that said: ''Here's why the majority of council members and other community leaders are urging you to Vote NO on 9.'' Sabatino said there is no clear council majority in opposition.
The Ohio Elections Commission sided with Fix, who said he wrote the flier, and dismissed the complaint.
At Tuesday's council meeting, Sabatino asked city Law Director Phil Hartmann to investigate whether a statement in the flier violated council's attorney-client privilege.
The statement that Sabatino objected to quoted the law director as saying, ''The city will have to pay the township reparations for the removal of the (township) property.''
After a private session, council members asked Hartmann to prepare a memo explaining how attorney-client privilege works and what the remedies are when the privilege is breached.
Fix said Sabatino tends to use the tactic of turning political issues into legal issues and making disagreements ''personal.''
jwoods@dispatch.com
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Annexation issue on ballot
Annexation issue on ballot in Pickerington
By TAMARIA L. KULEMEKA
The Eagle-Gazette Staff
tkulemeka@nncogannett.com
PICKERINGTON - Supporters and opponents of Issue 9 are urging Pickerington residents to get out and cast votes on the initiative in the primary election Tuesday.
Issue 9 would preserve the city's rights to conform its boundaries and annex land, if passed.
But opponents say the issue - if passed - would just end up costing the city a lot of money.
''This is a huge issue and the guys who wrote this amendment didn't do their homework,'' said Jeff Fix, who opposes the issue. ''They didn't figure out that it was going to cost us a lot of money if this passes.''
Fix, a Pickerington councilman, is heading up the citizens group - Citizens for Lower Taxes - opposing Issue 9.
Fix said the issue would prevent the city from participating in Joint Economic Development District agreements with other communities.
''By state law, any city that participates in a JEDD is not allowed to annex land in the JEDD for three years,'' Fix said. ''If this passes, Pickerington will not be able to make that commitment. ... If we can't participate in JEDDs, we'll lose out on millions of dollars of tax revenue over time.''
Mike Sabatino, who also serves on city council, is a member of Citizens Preserving Rights.
Sabatino said the city's municipal rights were given away when a majority of council passed a master economic development agreement earlier this year.
Under the agreement, Pickerington and Violet Township would work jointly in any future commercial development within the township boundaries and Pickerington Local School District boundaries.
The city would give up its right to annex land and conform its boundaries for at least 10 years. The city's right to conform its boundaries gives it authority to separate from Violet Township, if it would choose to.
The fate of the agreement still is up in the air. Sabatino said the Violet Township Trustees rejected it and council members - including Fix - who initially supported it are trying to rescind it.
Sabatino said the purpose of the charter amendment is to make sure the city never gives up its rights to conform its boundaries and annex land, no matter what.
Currently, city residents pay taxes to Pickerington and Violet Township. City residents would no longer pay taxes to Violet Township, if the city conformed its boundaries, forming a ''paper township.''
''Issue 9 does not mean we're going to conform our boundaries, but we retain our right to be able to do so,'' Sabatino said.
Anthony Barletta, who also supports the initiative and serves as treasurer on the Citizens Preserving Rights group, said the amendment does not limit Pickerington's availability to get into economic development agreements with other municipalities.
''If council decides to give up rights to get into agreements, this inevitably would make it something that the people would have to vote on,'' Barletta said. ''That's essentially the effect of the change.''
Brian Sower, who has knocked on doors for the opposing citizens group, said the community needs to expand its tax base so the burden isn't on the homeowner.
Sower believes passage of the charter amendment would hinder such progress. Sower said the city's past zoning laws resulted in, ''far more of the land being used for residential growth than commercial.''
''What is left is the city has very little land with which they can develop meaningful economic development,'' Sower said. ''The only option you're left with is to work with other surrounding communities and essentially gain income from land that you'd never ever be able to get income from otherwise.''
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Waste of time
I take it that Mayor McPsycho is the only person at City Hall that is allowed to waste peoples time. That would explain why he gets his panties all in a bunch over having to be in a meeting rather than at home watching Greys Anatomy.
By Dazed and Confused
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