Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

I hope all of you have been paying close attention to the papers. I hope you've been asking questions of your Council and Mayor. Things like what have you done for our community lately? How can one person in a community change things with one complaint, with all others in the community not being concidered? Why would our city concider giving away our tax dollars to the township, when the township has seen to it that our schools (central/north) have been separated? Which canidates have said repeatedly ''like Dublin''? What's so wrong with Pickerington being Pickerington? Which canidate can say they have try or have done what they told you they would do if elected to office? These are the questions. I have seen these agreements and they always have the township taking the cities money that we the tax payer provide. If Council wants to give away money make they give their own personal money. We do not need more taxes placed upon the residents of the City of Pickerington so the township can have their money to build Allen Road, so the Trustees can get the money for their land, and leave the area. If the trustees want that road built so they can make big money on their land, let them build the road! Council works for the citizens of Pickerington, not to climb the ladder of politics, not to line their pockets with our money. Look upon the happenings over the past 3 years, and ask yourself who wanted that agreement, and why would they agree to give away the cities tax money to the township and double our taxes? Why give away money, when you can not even afford to have enough Police officers to cover the City of Pickerington?

look beyond the smile

I also hope that the citizens of Pickerington pay close attention to who is running and what they bring to the table. As the rumors about David Shaver swirl around and as he slowly fades from the scene we see two more candidates willing to step up to be the figure head of the city.

There seems to be a general consensus that the current Mayor turned things around after 2003. However the Mayor of Pickerington has no real power. They have no vote and they only serve to cut ribbons and kiss the babies in the parades. As for the day to day operations of the city the City Manager has that responsibility. In fact during the current Mayor's periods of (lets say incapacity) the city manager spent a lot of her time nursing the Mayor who wouldn't come out of his house. Before the manager was hired in 2004 he basically terrorized the city employees and now complains that they leak information out about him like his trash blowing around the alley.

Fortunately Mr. Shaver has decided to not seek a second term. However his hand picked successor (Heidi Riggs) is running for his seat. Obviously she is a very attractive woman at 44 (I mean 42) and that is about it on her talents. During David Shaver's 4 years as Mayor he never attended any committee meetings where the real work of the council and the city was being conducted. He even appointed a representative to P & Z and that appointee (Brian Sauer) is also running. These three will now be the Shaver gang.

The minutes for all meetings in the city are posted on the City's web site. You are all welcome to visit the City's web site to verify what I just mentioned above regarding David Shaver, Heidi Riggs and Brian Sauer. All three have terrible attendance records.

Abuse of City employees is a common trait between Heidi Riggs and David Shaver. In the spring of 2006 the Pickerington police received a number of 9-1-1 calls coming from the Mayor's home at around midnight. By police procedure they must investigate. When the police arrived at his home he would not let them in and swore at them for being on his property. He repetitive used the ''F'' word in front of his daughters. Although the dash cam didn't get clear enough pictures of the incident to show on Channel 10 they did capture the rage the Mayor was in.


The common thread between the current Mayor and the candidate Heidi Riggs is that they view themselves as above everyone else once they are elevated to that throne. When Heidi's kids got in trouble she wanted to fire the police chief because he wouldn't drop the charges.

The only difference between these two is that Shaver's eyes will be bugged out when he stabs you in the back, Heidi will do it with a big smile on her face. (that is training from the beauty pageants).

very low

Your comments are very low, misconstrued and nasty. This type of tabloid mentality is what gives PATA such a bad name. Leave Shaver alone. It's amazing that anyone would be willing to run for political office given the twisted nasty rumors and torment that people like you subject them to. Please have a little bit of respect for those running for office and stick to facts and running platforms. Save the slimy tactics for your chats with buddies over your beers. They don't belong on a public forum. Your lies and twisted views reflect poorly on Pickerington.

Character is an issue

Leave the current mayor out of it? O.K. He fried himself. So stick to the issues with the candidates. Character is one of the issues and clearly Mr. O'Brien will outshine the other candidate in that department.